We don't have any new photos so if you've seen these before, we're sorry. Aarua Bahnhof Ausstellung.

DECEMBER 30, 2008 TUESDAY

Today was another prep day, trying to get our member list and notes all organized and documented so we have a clean list and a history of which members we’ve visited, what happened, birthdays etc. etc. We still aren’t finished, but we are getting closer. We also took the time to put away Christmas stuff, clean up all the odds and ends, do laundry and take care of the things that we have let slide. We were given assignments for tomorrow’s district meeting, so we’ve been working on that also.

One thing I forgot to write yesterday was that Naeide was invited to go to a members home on New Years eve to celebrate. She didn’t want to go because she doesn’t feel comfortable in a crowd of people she doesn’t know. She said she also had to make sure the missionaries had a place to go so she had to stay home for them. We feel it’s important for her to make new friends in the ward so Diana persuaded her to accept the invitation and just wouldn’t listen to all her excuses and promised Naeide we would take care of the missionaries for her. That seemed to be the final thing that helped her make the decision to go. We’ll see if she follows through. We hope so.

We find these cows occasionally, I'm starting a file on different colors. Elder Evans with a magnetic nose.

DECEMBER 29, 2008 MONDAY

Yay for P-day. We slept in until 8:00 trying to catch up on sleep the late nights have caused us to miss. I ran out of candied ginger I bought from the little Thai store a couple of weeks ago so we decided to go back there and get some more. However, when we were getting ready to go, I couldn’t find my overcoat. Our apartment only has three rooms and a quick check was fruitless. I called Naeide to see if I had left it there last night, but she didn’t answer the phone. We wracked our brains trying to figure out where else I could have left it when she called. After asking her, she said it was indeed there and we could pick it up around 1:00. At the store we not only bought the ginger, we bought frozen fish filets, diced papaya, tapioca starch for thickening, two kinds of dried sweet potatoes (chips and strings), almond pudding mix, almond popcorn and a small bottle of what we think is corn syrup (a lot lot cheaper than the last we bought). We haven’t opened it yet to see, but we will soon.

We stopped at Naeide’s on the way to the church to play games with the missionaries. We thought we could just make a quick visit for the coat, but with Naeide, quick isn’t in her vocabulary. After talking with her for an hour, we had a prayer with her to close our fast for her son. She was grateful for the prayer because, even though she understands the principle of the fast and asked us to fast with her for Marcello, she didn’t exactly know how to close a fast and what you should ask for. Then we left for the church. However, while we were there, she told us an interesting story. Her story goes like this. Eighteen years ago while giving birth to Marcello, she experienced difficulties during the birth. In the middle of it all she felt warm hands placed on her head which gave her a lot of comfort. She also saw the face of a man as if in a dream or something. She asked the doctor, whose hands were on her head and he replied no one was there, but that it must be her father or somebody in spirit to comfort her. Today, while she was in her kitchen, for some reason or other, she recalled the incident and also the face she had seen and realized it was my face she had seen back then even though I was home in Utah. Now she believes the Lord has sent me here all the way from Utah to help her get baptized and help her through the next two years. She and Diana have also made a connection like they’ve known each other their whole lives and have really become “kindred spirits” as Anne of Green Gables would say.

We played pinochle with the missionaries all afternoon, with a little basketball in between, until we had to leave for our appointment with the Ryser family. Elder Larsson came home with us to use our computer to check on his college matriculation because he leaves for home in Sweden in a month and has been trying to get his schooling lined up. At the Ryser’s we had a good time and the meal was great as is always the case. After the meal we organized a spiritual thought which we always do when we visit members for dinner. This time all the members of the family and the missionaries were given a random gospel principle to teach. The person who started turned to the next one in the circle and asked him a question on his topic as if he were a stranger. The person would answer like a stranger would and the person would then teach the gospel principle and then bear his testimony. The person who had acted the part of the stranger would then take his turn to teach his gospel principle, but first would bear testimony about the principle he had been taught. He then asked a question of the next person in line to begin his teaching. Each person had to teach his topic in two minutes. It was pretty fun and inspirational too. When everyone had completed his turn, the missionary taught the final principle, which was that everyone can teach the gospel to their friends and bear testimony of the truth.

We left the Ryser’s and walked to our bus stop. We were standing at it when the bus stopped across the street going the other way. We were unfamiliar with this particular stop and didn’t know the bus would only go another stop and turn around to come back to our stop. The driver was kind enough to yell at us to come get in so we would not have to wait in the cold for him to go around. When we got to Bahnhof Oerlikon where we had to get off, I walked up to the front and thanked him for being so thoughtful. To thank him I gave him a Book of Mormon and a Toblerone chocolate bar. At first he thought I had found them on the bus and was giving them to him as lost items. I told him no, it was a gift to thank him for be nice. He seemed happy enough and I got off the bus and we went home.

DECEMBER 28, 2008 SUNDAY

Sunday is always a special day in that we get to go to our church meetings. It began, as usual, with missionary correlation. We always get to report on what we did during the week and correlate with the ward missionaries on what we’d like help with or ways we can help them. After that came the block of meetings. Something was wrong with the heating system in the chapel and so Gospel Doctrine was held in the Relief Society room and Sacrament Meeting in the cultural hall. After the meetings members like to hang around and visit for a long time. Today was no exception, but it was also bitter cold and so maybe people just didn’t want to go outside to go home. The Ryser family invited us to dinner tomorrow evening and so we’ll have to miss our FHE. We’d already put the Ryser’s off before and we didn’t think we should do it again because we don’t want to offend anyone. About half of the FHE group wasn’t going to be there anyway so we thought it would be a good time to do it. Sister Wachter was also at church today and it was good to see her. We took the opportunity to invite her and her family to dinner Friday night, our first victim for our new program. Sister Wachter’s husband was outside in his car waiting to take Sister Wachter home, so we invited him personally to dinner also. We’ll see if they come.

We got home and just kind of settling in when the phone rang. Elder Pine said two missionaries weren’t able to come to a lunch appointment with the other ten missionaries and would we like to come in their place. Who could pass up an invitation like that. We put our coats back on and walked back to church to ride with the elders to the member’s home in Dielsdorf. The members are so nice to the missionaries it’s unbelievable. Imagine inviting twelve missionaries to dinner. It was super delicious and there is always plenty. After lunch, we came home and again dressed down to do some studying and computer report work. Just as we started working the phone rang again. This time it was a member wanting us to come over to talk about a problem she was having. We got dressed again and walked over. She’s been having problems with 18 year old her son, a non-member, who has been disrespectful and abusive as well as demanding and irresponsible. He is going with an older woman with a child and announced he wants to marry her. The mom, of course, is against this marriage and also wanted counseling on what to do to help him understand it wasn’t a good idea. As we got into this, Elders Ehlen and Evans arrived because she had called them too. They stayed for awhile and then left. The member then got into some of her own past history which was causing her depression problems. By the time we left at 10:00 p.m. she was feeling a little better. We were reading the blog of friends, Elder and Sister Doyle, who are on a mission in the Geneva Mission, who said they never seem to get to bed before midnight. We’ve been experiencing the exact same thing. It must be catching.

When we left for the member’s home, I had forgotten our cell phone. Elder Pine always calls on Sunday evening to get our stats for the week and also to give us assignments for the next district meeting. He had called seven times so I returned his calls and apologized for having been so forgetful. After the business stuff was taken care of he said the district was putting together a game day for tomorrow’s P-day during which they want to play card games and board games. Diana loves games and, since it’s her day to decide what we do, I know where we’ll be.

There are three extra good things that happened today. First, Elder Pine reported that their investigator, who we sang Christmas songs to, has set a baptismal date for February 3rd. Second, Sister Wachter, who we also tried to sing to, but left a gift instead because they weren’t home, came to church. Third, Naeide, a two week convert, recognized a person on the ward newsletter birthday list who she knew from Brazil. She called her and found out why she had left the church and asked us to arrange for someone to go by and visit her. Since she only speaks Portuguese, we’ll bring this up in correlation meeting next Sunday. The Lord knows his children and his tender mercies are extended to all.

I forgot to download our journal entry onto the last blog entry before I posted it, so here it is.


DECEMBER 27, 2008 SATURDAY

We had two things to do today; first was to cook lunch for the zone leaders during their zone council meeting today and, second, was to go to a dinner appointment at Juerg & Ilene Mueller-Russo, Ilene’s sister visiting from Washington D.C. , their mother and Elders Ehlend and Evans. In between we studied German, read our Priesthood/RS lesson and went into Zentrum Glatt to buy gifts for the gift exchange tonight. Diana bought a roll of Zueri-Sacke, garbage sacks that you must legally put your garbage in so you can put it in the dumpster. I went for a bottle of raspberry vinegar salad dressing and a bottle of amaretto syrup flavoring. Everybody loved our presents, and especially the garbage sacks. They all loved the macadamia/white chocolate cookies we made too. The dinner was mushroom soup followed by make yourself tacos and/or taco salad, just like we do at home. Very yummy. Dessert was a half of pear covered with chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream and a dab of whipped cream.

We got to the church at 10:30, put up the tables & chairs, set the tables and then waited until just the right time to put the pizzas in the oven to cook. They had six huge pizzas for twelve missionaries, but the oven would only hold two. We managed to work things around so four could cook at once. The other two went in after the missionaries had come out for lunch and we had taken the first four out to serve. By the time they polished off the first four, the last two were done. They only left three pieces which we brought home for later. Of course everything turned out just right. Afterwards we cleaned up while the missionaries went back into session.

While talking to Elder Gunther, we gave him a bag of hot chocolate drink mix that we had saved for him from the Luzern Bahnhof Display a couple of weeks ago. He asked us if we had seen any hand warmers because he was missing some. We told him we hadn’t. Later while we were shopping for gifts, we saw some hand warmers that are reusable so we bought him one. Next time we see him we’ll give it to him. Not very exciting today, but it’s always good to serve.

Zone council members; Made up 12 days of Christmas song at our last District Meeting.

marzipan stollen w/ice cream and raspberries; Felix and Lily Locher


DECEMBER 26, 2008 FRIDAY

Day after Christmas was a time to do a little clean up. It was also wash day and, since we missed the last one because of our temple trip, it was absolutely necessary to get it done. We have also accumulated a lot of notes, information and corrections for the ward membership list that we felt it time to organize everything. Contacting work is not very fruitful right now because of the holidays so we worked on these things at home. We don’t know where the people go. For example, the gifts we left hanging on the door knobs in our apartment building, except for one, are still hanging there today. We were busily engaged when the phone rang about 10:00. Brother Locher called to see if we wanted to come for lunch and that he would be glad to pick us up. We were wanting to get back to visit them anyway because we promised them a Nauvoo temple sunstone some time ago. This was an opportune time to give it to them. The other four missionaries were also there when we arrived. Sister Locher is such a good cook and it was no exception today. After the meal we sat around and talked and then we each gave a spiritual thought and that made it especially nice. For our part we paraphrased the poem, “A Christmas Guest” and read the scripture Matthew 25:32-42 to go along with it. I was so wrapped up in the story and trying to get the German right that I continued with the reading of the scripture when I should have had Diana read it. I felt bad about that and will try to not do that again.

After lunch we rode back to Stettbach with the missionaries and got out because we wanted to do a little after Christmas looking around, but we found out all the stores were closed. So we just rode the tram on home. We made cookies for tomorrow’s dinner with the Mueller-Russo’s, worked on the member list and studied. All good stuff. Tomorrow is the Zone Council at the stake center (our ward building) and we have been asked to cook their pizzas for their lunch break. Exciting stuff, but we serve wherever we are called and whatever we’re asked to do. It’s always fun to associate with the missionaries and Pres. & Sister Matern.

We have been thinking of what else we can do to strengthen the ward and have more interaction with the members. We also need more opportunity to talk German with people because we only get to speak it on Sundays during church and when we meet people on their doors, just not enough to get fluent in the language. We’ve decided we need to invite members, active and less active, as well as investigators if we can find any, to lunch or dinner at our home. Our goal is to do this once week and see how it works out. Well, that’s it for today.

L: Middleton, Pine, Rolf, Evans, Naeide, Robert, Marcello, Paulina, Alex, Ehlend, Diana taking photo. M: Nate Evans, Me, Paulina, Peter Ehlend. R: Naeide's cake.

DECEMBER 25, 2008 THURSDAY CHRISTMAS DAY

This morning we were up early to get ready for our Christmas breakfast. I ran down to the church first of all and borrowed a couple of frying pans, a grater and a pitcher while Diana was making brownies; everyone loves her brownies. When I got back, I made Birchermuesli, a genuine Swiss breakfast food, made with oats, nuts, yogurt, raisins, any fruit you like (cut up) fresh or otherwise and milk. You don’t cook it, but let it soak until the oats are tender. Add enough milk so it’s like a pudding (not real thick). Diana cooked potatoes and I grated them for hash browns and fried bacon to put in them. Diana put out nuts, cookies, oranges, tangerines and apples. Diana set the table so it looked really nice, put out orange juice, orange drink and we were all set. Elders Ehlend and Evans came with the bread and we started cooking the hash browns and French toast. When we were done with the French toast, we used the rest of the eggs for scrambled eggs. The other guests arrived and we served them until they yelled uncle. The only one who didn’t show up was Suki, but Naeide’s son, Marcello, came with Naeide so that made eleven total in our tiny apartment. It was cozy, but fun. Diana had presents for them all after the breakfast was over which none of them expected. Diana is just so thoughtful, she wants to make it nice for everyone. Naeide baked a cake and brought it. The picture will be posted on our blog. Alex, the person from Ethiopia, had a little trouble finding our address, but he finally made. He brought us a box of chocolates and kept saying how happy he was to be able to celebrate Christmas with someone because his family is back home and he’s here alone. Rolf’s parents are dead; he has a brother and sister, but isn’t on speaking terms with them. Paulina is here from Mexico, has an uncle here who doesn’t like the Church, so she rode here with the missionaries. The party got over about 1:00 when most of them went home. Paulina, Elders Ehlend and Evans and Diana and I played “Oh Heaven” for a couple of more hours and then they left. We had a great time with all of them. After they left, we took gifts to all of our neighbors in our building which totaled twelve. Out of all of them, only one was home. For those that weren’t home, we hung their gift on their door knob or put it in their mailbox at the bottom of the stairs. We gave each two of the hot mitts, one filled with chocolate, nuts etc. and the other with a church DVD or CD plus a pass-along card for a BM.

We had set up a time to call our kids at home (8:00 p.m.), but somehow we couldn’t get through. It was very frustrating and we tried for over an hour. Maybe we just don’t know how to do it although we called the missionaries and they went through it with us again step by step. No dice. Today we had Elder Pine put SKYPE on our computer to be able to communicate by voice and web-camera, but our children don’t have it set up on their computers yet. So, for now, email will have to do. Elder Pine left his camera here so we expect that he’ll come back for it eventually. Christmas is over for one more year although the celebrating will go on a little longer. Actually the celebration of Christ’s birth and life should go on continually without ceasing. But we have one more dinner appointment on Saturday night where we bring a gift for an exchange.

Last night Diana and I watched Mr. Krueger’s Christmas and it was nice to get a little quiet time to think about the real meaning of Christmas.

DECEMBER 24, 2008 WEDNESDAY — CHRISTMAS EVE

Today is December 24th, Christmas Eve. Since we’ve been caroling a lot, and we have had snow, it really does feel like Christmas, although not one like we usually have with all our family around. This evening we spent with the Schmid family and had a delicious dinner after which we sang songs and the Schmid kids got to open one present each. We finally left around 10:00 p.m. and listened to a tape of the prophets and general authorities bearing testimony of Christ in the van on the way home.

This morning we had our district meeting, I cut the hair of two missionaries and we went shopping for food for the Christmas breakfast tomorrow. Before we went to the mission home to be picked up by the AP’s to go to Schmid’s, we took a gift over to Pres. and Sis. Bolt. As we were going up the dolder bahn to the mission home the AP’s called and said they would be a little late. So, when we got to the mission home, we waited outside because we didn’t want to disturb Pres. & Sis. Matern and their family, but just before the AP’s got there, we knocked on their door and gave them a sunstone and a couple of hot pads (mittens) for their Christmas gift. Then we were on our way to the Schmid’s.

We did have one missionary contacting experience today though. When I went to the post office to get our packages from home, I saw that the outdoor market was going full blast at Oerlikon Bahnhof. Remember the person who I gave the Book of Mormon to who had a booth selling vinegar and olive oil? I walked through the market on my way back and found him. He immediately recognized me and we talked for awhile. I needed some gifts so I bought some of his fruit flavored vinegar dressings and he gave me a couple of extra as Christmas gifts. He’s a really nice guy. This is his busy season so he hasn’t had time to do much other than move his booth around from city to city. After the New Year we hope to get together and be able to teach him. The packages from home were way good. We thought it very special to get the cards and notes from the kids and we used them to decorate our apartment. We’ll show them off to our guests tomorrow morning. The vitamin C was good because we can use them to help Suki and Rolf with his quit smoking program. It’s almost impossible to get this kind of vitamin C over here. Thanks Monica, you’re a dear. Thanks a lot. We also received a gift from our neighbors, the Glassburn’s who are the nicest and best people you’ll ever meet.

Sorry, no photos today.

The reason there are only a few plates is that Fabian dished them up one at a time so things would be hot. Temple in Bern on during the summer.

DECEMBER 23, 2008 TUESDAY

Today should have been our district meeting but, since we, the AP’s and one other missionary in our district were assigned to go to the temple today, it was postponed until tomorrow. We were up at the crack of dawn, or I should have said, way before the sun should have been up, to get ready to go. We had to be at the Stettbach Bahnhof at 7:30 to be picked up by the AP’s who were driving to Zollikofen (by Bern) where the temple is. We were there in time and they picked us up and we were on our way. They already had three other missionaries in the car who came in from Stuttgard, Germany, last night. The drive should have been a pretty one, but it was foggy the whole way down. It was good to get back to the temple because we hadn’t been since we came here. We were privileged to attend a sealing session in the morning and an endowment session is the afternoon with a lunch break in between. The afternoon session was in German, but there were headphones with English translation if you needed them. My German is good enough now that I understood everything in the German language. As soon as the session was over we had to hurray back to the car because the missionaries from Stuttgard had to get back to Singen, Germany, by a certain time to catch their train. Diana and I were in for a big surprise on the way home.

We thought we were going to just go back to Zurich and the Stuttgard missionaries would catch a train from there. What we didn’t know, and the AP’s didn’t warn us, is that from Zurich their train tickets would have been $120 each, but from Singen, Germany, it was about $30 for all of them. However, when you cross the Swiss border, you need your passport to come back in. We didn’t bring ours. So, when we were coming back into Switzerland from Singen, they told us to get our passports ready. When they found out we didn’t have ours, they said, “no problem,” we know a back way around the check point. The only trouble was, the polizei also knew the back way and chased us down. They had their passports (lucky thing), and we did have our GA’s which is a Swiss photo transportation pass that requires a passport to get one. The police told us that was better than nothing. They warned us good and finally let us go after about fifteen minutes. Fun experience.

The way back was a little better because the fog had lifted somewhat and we could see the mountains and a couple of castles and things on the way back, at least until it got dark. After we got back Diana was able to catch up a little on her emails while I got the Christmas decorations out of the basement and did a little decorating. Anybody that knows me, knows how I decorate. I gob things around so there’s at least some color, but a decorator I’m not. Since we are having a Christmas get-together here on Christmas morning for those who otherwise would be alone, I thought we’d ought to dress it up a little. We feel like we’ve been having too much fun and want to get back to some hard core missionary work, but during the holidays it’s hard because people are so busy. I guess it’ll have to wait until after Christmas.

FHE Group: Ehlend, Pres. & Sis. Bolt, Bolt's youngest son, Rolf, Robert, Diana's hand,; traditional Christmas cake;


video clip of USA English, British English and Swiss German all saying the same thing



DECEMBER 22, 2008 MONDAY

Today was P-day so we had planned to go find the Salvation Army place where they take used stuff like the Deseret Industries at home. I went there last Monday with Bro. Klaumunszner and I wanted to take Diana there today to look around. Before we could get out of the house, Elder Middleton called and asked if he and Elder Pine could come over this morning and do their weekly emails. I had to hurry and do the finishing touches on Fabian’s book and I got it done just as they got here. When they left, we took off to find the S.A. building. We took one bus and realized it was the wrong one, so we got off and took another bus going back the other way. We didn’t have much trouble finding it. We spent an hour or two looking at stuff, but all we found to buy was a small map of Zurich and the surrounding area. When I tried to pay for it at the counter, the lady took a look and said I could just have it as a Christmas present. So that was nice. We walked and rode the bus back to Stettbach and waited for our Tram #7, but it never came. We waited and waited and couldn’t believe it never came. The Swiss are proud of their system that works to the minute like clockwork. After waiting for awhile Diana suggested we walk until the tram catches up to us. It still didn’t come so we ended up walking clear to Schwamendingerplatz, about a forty-five minute walk. Just as we got there the trams started running again. After buying a few groceries at Migros (it seems like we are always buying groceries) we went on home, got ready and went to the Monday night family home evening at Pres. Bolt’s. Fabian had prepared a delicious formal three course dinner for the whole group. This was his gift to all of us who have been his friends through his conversion process. We presented him with a flash drive with his book translation on it and a photo of a girl in the ward that he has the hots for. After that we sang Christmas carols, had desert while Ilene gave the lesson. Finally gifts were passed out by those who had brought them, and then we went home.

DECEMBER 21, 2008 SUNDAY


Just an interesting armour display in Aarau.



Today at church they only had Sacrament Meeting, but it lasted two hours. We thought because the other meetings were canceled that our correlation meeting would be canceled too. It wasn’t so we went an hour early at 9:00. We found out the lady who had been kicked out by her husband last night had dropped something on her foot, so her boss let her stay at her work place overnight. Today Elder Pine arranged a place for her to stay until her brother comes from Norway to take her home with him. It was a good meeting otherwise. The Sacrament meeting was too. Naeide was confirmed a member of the Church today which made us very happy. Naeide sang the song she wrote the words to and Pres. Matern, Pres. Bolt and the bishopric had smiles on their faces because it was a little different kind of song than usual. At one point Pres. Matern put his hand over his eyes and shook his head. When it was Pres. Bolt’s turn to talk, he commented that he didn’t think there were any new Sacrament meeting hymns, but found out he was wrong. I think the members got kind of a kick out of it too. Probably something that won’t happen again soon though.

What started out as a little get-together on Christmas morning with the AP’s and Naeide has developed into quite something. Rolf got added, then Suki, then Paulina, Alex Maina (a person from Ethiopia who is alone) for a total of 11 people. We may not be done yet. This is probably too many for our small apartment so we’ll probably go to the church. After church we came home and I kept on with the translating until 4:30. We rushed back to the church, met the AP’s and DL’s and went caroling again. A lot of the people weren’t home, but some were and we had a great time. The parking spots here in Switzerland are hard to find, so we normally park a long ways to do our caroling. We went to the Dora Wachter, Carolyn Maurer, Angela Campbell, Walter Buhlman who all were not home so we left a gift in their mailbox. We found sister Roffler and her son and daughter home and sang to them. We also sang to Jenny, an investigator of Elders P&M.

We also found out tonight we were almost transferred to Schaffhausen which is up near Germany. Brother Horlacher who serves there with his wife in the Outreach Program had skin cancer on his head about a year ago and the graft hasn’t been healing. He went in to get it checked and they found problems with his blood so he has to have dialysis three times a week for four hours at a time. They thought they were going to have to go home, but they say the doctors over here are better for this type of thing so they are leaving them here for the time being. So it seems we are safe for the time being although we’ll be glad to serve wherever they need us. It is just so much fun here being able to work with the young missionaries all the time.

Clock tower in Aarau; Display and some of the missionaries/members and passers-by

DECEMBER 20, 2008 SATURDAY

This morning I translated Fabian’s book and got almost to the end of chapter 17. Once I’m finished with it, it’s only a short chapter 18 and then the glossary and I’m done. I don’t know whether I explained before that I had permission before I began this project. Even Pres. Matern has proofed the book (in German of course) before it came to me. It’s been good for me because I’ve been able to get into the German language more than I would have without doing this. I’ve been pushing trying to get this done by next Monday FHE because Fabian will be leaving a day later for his vacation to the USA and I’d like to give it to him before he goes. Elder Pine called us for advice for a problem he’s having with an investigator. Her husband kicked her out of the house last night and she didn’t know who else to call for help but the missionaries. Not knowing anything about the Swiss system for helping battered women, we referred him to Bishop Schwendener. The bishop said he’d check it out and get back to them. Meanwhile the investigator started a new job today, but when she gets off work at 9:00 tonight, she has no place to stay.

Shortly after noon Elders Pine and Middleton came over and then it was time to go meet Elders Ehlend and Evans to carpool to Aarau for the contacting display at the Bahnhof. Once we were there and set up, a group of us sang Christmas hymns while others gave out hot herb tea and others gave out cookies while doing the contacting. Altogether there were about thirty missionaries as well as ten or fifteen members. It was quite a crowd and the group singing sounded like a whole ward choir. We thought it was pretty impressive. Many people stopped to listen and were contacted. Diana and I mostly sang, but we did our share of contacting as well. All this time it was lightly raining which we find is more the case than not. We’re getting used to it as well as cold hands and cold feet. At about 4:30 we packed up and left for home because the AP’s had a appointment at 5:30 and we also had plans to go caroling tonight as well.

The AP’s dropped us and Elders Pine and Middleton off at our place while they went to their appointment. While we waited, Diana cooked some of her delicious potato soup and we heated up the casserole from last night to feed the DL’s. When the AP’s came back, we fed them too before we left to do our caroling. We had a lot of fun and we hope we did some good while we were at it. We think Brother Burri (totally inactive) was just glad to get rid of us. One sister wasn’t home so we rang another door and sang to them. Their little kids were thrilled to hear us sing. The last house we went to was Naeide’s. We went there because she was too tired to come sing with us this time. She invited us in for a minute which turned into twenty. While we were there she sang the song to us that she’s going to sing in Sacrament meeting tomorrow. After that we came home and Elder Pine/comp went to check on their investigator. The bishop referred them to a shelter, but the shelter had no room. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow how they handled this situation.

Horse butcher shop; mom's shoes; Elders Middleton, Eschweiler, Pine, Larsson at raclette dinner

DECEMBER 18, 2008 THURSDAY

Today the roads were very snowy, wet and slushy so it was difficult to get around. This morning we did our studying and etc. Elders Pine and Middleton called about 10:00 and asked if they could use our apartment as a port in the storm so to speak because their appointment wasn’t home and they had another in the area in a little while. Since we hadn’t planned on going out until shortly after noon, we had them come over. When they are here, they teach Diana German and I learn a little more about the computer. All the missionaries are whizzes at the computer.

This afternoon we finally found a less-active member for whom we’ve been looking for a long time. We happened to be on our way to try and meet with Johannes, the person we’d given a BM to at the rest home, when we noticed the house numbers on the street we were on were close to the house number of the less-active. We detoured and found the house, but when we rang the doorbell, he wasn’t home. We left him a Christmas card and an invitation to Sacrament meeting Sunday. Google Map had us looking on the wrong end of a very long street, right in the middle of Schwamendingerplatz. After that we went on our way to find Johannes. We went into the rest home and, when we inquired after Johannes, they told us he was on vacation until January 5th. We’ll put him in our planner to return, but hope he finds his way to the ward house. He’s the one a member told us he’d asked him what the address to the church was. So we’ll hope and pray. As always, I spent time translating and have just finished chapter 14 of 19 chapters. The end is in sight.

DECEMBER 19, 2008 FRIDAY

Today we had an appointment at 10:00 with Sister Wachter, but at about 8:00 we received a call from her canceling. Not because she wanted to, but her son had another seizure and she was calling from the hospital. We offered our help with anything she needed, but there wasn’t much we could do. We’ll try and visit her sometime next week to see how things are going. So, we were trying to decide who else would be good to visit and Diana came up with the idea to look in the December “Unter Uns” (translated to “Among Us”), the ward newsletter birthday list. We had noticed when this issue came out a few weeks ago there were some names of less-active members on it. Two of them had birthdays today so we decided to kill two birds with one stone, take them a birthday card and also a Christmas card and gift with an invitation to church on Sunday. It was still plenty cold outside and we were also having “tauwetter” which translated means “dew weather.” This is where the heavens just kind of weep, keeping things, including us, a little wetter than damp. The roads were still slushy as well. We got on our usual tram #7 to Stettbach then took the S-9 train to Volketswil. From there it was by foot to find the home of Brother & Sister Koch. They weren’t home so we left a Christmas card and gift in their mailbox and left. That is when Diana happened to look at her feet and discovered she’d put unmatched shoes on; one was blue and one was brown. She was somewhat embarrassed and self-conscious, but she just made the comment that no one knew who she was anyway so it didn’t matter. On the way back to the bahnhof we passed close to an address we couldn’t find the last time we were there so we decided to try again. This time we had Tom Tom with us and he guided us to the right spot. We still had a little trouble finding the right building, but we finally did. Of course, as is always the case, the apartment was at the very top of five stories. We made it to the top and were rewarded by someone actually answering the door. However, Brother Odermatt’s wife answered the door and he wasn’t home. We introduced ourselves, let her know we wanted to come back and meet him, invited her to Church on Sunday and left the gift.

We made our way back to the Schwerzenbach bahnhof, got on the S-9 train and went back the other way. Diana had to stop at our tram stop for me to run up and trade her odd shoe. We then continued on our way to find the last one we had planned to visit today. We found him at home! He was surprised to have someone show up on his door step to wish him a happy birthday and bring him a gift. He said he couldn’t invite us in because his place was a mess. He wasn’t married and didn’t have any kids. He was polite, but said he had decided the church wasn’t for him. He was baptized in 1998 and wasn’t active for very long. He said he was pretty excited at first, but soon after began to question some of the beliefs. It seemed to come down to the Word of Wisdom. He couldn’t understand why we were the only church to restrict these things. We talked on the doorstep a good long while about the church and his feelings. He said he should have written a letter to formally cancel his membership, but then hadn’t done it. We asked him if we could come and teach him again so he could better understand and regain his testimony. He said he would be gone to Africa for awhile. When we asked him if he still had his BM, he replied he did and we invited him to start reading it again and ponder and pray for an answer about what he should do. We also left him a pamphlet of the “Restoration.” He was ok with us coming back in a couple of months (when he returned from Africa) to talk with him again. We also invited him to come to church on Sunday for the special Christmas Sacrament meeting.

Diana had invited Naeide over for dinner tonight and they would teach each other (Diana German, Naeide English) while she was here. We were a little late getting home so it was hectic for both of us trying to cook things in our little kitchen. We always have to turn sideways to get by each other it’s so narrow. But, we got it all done just as Naeide arrived and we spent a pleasant evening together. Naeide brought Diana a dozen white roses which was very thoughtful, but unnecessary. We had printed up a baptism photo of her and Elders Ehlend and Evans and gave it to her. She was thrilled to get a photo of the event. At the conclusion of the evening we walked Naeide home. On the way there we met Charlotta, one of our non-member FHE group, and invited her to church on Sunday to hear Naeide sing. She abhors any kind of church because of early experiences with the Catholic Church and so we don’t know if she’ll come or not. She said maybe she will and maybe she won’t. After we saw Naeide home we returned to ours and that’s it for today.

DECEMBER 18, 2008 THURSDAY

Today the roads were very snowy, wet and slushy so it was difficult to get around. This morning we did our studying and etc. Elders Pine and Middleton called about 10:00 and asked if they could use our apartment as a port in the storm so to speak because their appointment wasn’t home and they had another in the area in a little while. Since we hadn’t planned on going out until shortly after noon, we had them come over. When they are here, they teach Diana German and I learn a little more about the computer. All the missionaries are whizzes at the computer.

This afternoon we finally found a less-active member we’ve been looking for for a long time. We happened to be on our way to try and meet with Johannes, the person we’d given a BM to at the rest home, when we noticed the house numbers on the street we were on were close to the house number of the less-active. We detoured and found the house, but when we rang the doorbell, he wasn’t home. We left him a Christmas card and an invitation to Sacrament meeting Sunday. Google Map had us looking on the wrong end of a very long street, right in the middle of Schwamendingerplatz. After that we went on our way to find Johannes. We went into the rest home and, when we inquired after Johannes, they told us he was on vacation until January 5th. We’ll put him in our planner to return, but hope he finds his way to the ward house. He’s the one a member told us he’d asked him what the address to the church was. So we’ll hope and pray. As always, I spent time translating and have just finished chapter 14 of 19 chapters. The end is in sight.

heart shaped potato we bought and I ate; Elder Middleton's dance.

We'll post my real blog later. We just you might enjoy these.

DECEMBER 17, 2008 WEDNESDAY

Today we woke up to a real snow storm and it’s still snowing tonight. We got about eight inches of snow all together. This evening we were going caroling to less-active members and investigators so we were hoping it would quit before tonight. No such luck. To make matters worse, the AP’s called around noon and told us they wouldn’t be able to come at 6:00 because they were busy with new missionaries who arrived today. So instead of driving to each address, we would have to take the tram and then walk through the slush and snow. They also were supposed to make the Christmas cards with the photo of us six on it and then bring them when they came. Since they wouldn’t be here at 6:00 we had to go pick them up. They did meet us in between so the trip didn’t take us as long.

Mom spent the day putting together our Christmas gifts, but she ran out of stuff so we had to make a trip to the store to get more. While she was putting the gifts together, I translated some more of Fabian’s book. I’ll be glad when it’s done. Diana also decided to pre-cook some potatoes and get some other things to feed the missionaries after we got done caroling.

Elders P&M and Naeide met at our apartment at 6:00 and we started out on our wet but happy excursion into the snow/slush/cold. We rode tram 7 to Mattenhof, got off and walked to the first home. Nobody there. I remembered later that they were on vacation to Thailand until January 5. So off we went to the next one which was only a few blocks away. The Kummers were home and we were welcomed with open arms. That didn’t help our singing any and we were pretty awful. The light was bad and we couldn’t read the words in our little hymn books, but the feelings were warm and you can’t help but feel good when you sing of Christ’s birth. The next home was some distance away (about 15-20 minutes), but it didn’t take long to get there. The slush was hard on the shoes and the feet, especially Diana’s and Naeide’s, but we arrived in good spirits ready for another round of singing. The Lord was smiling on us this time because first, we got to go inside of a building, and second, both the mother and daughter were at the same apartment although the mother has her own in a building down the street. They invited us in and we had a good time singing with them. By then Elders E&E were done at the mission home so we waited for them to pick us up. While we waited, we had a snowball fight, Diana instigating and right in the middle of it. The Elders finally arrived and we inflicted our singing on two of Elders P&M’s investigators and one of Elders E&E. While walking back to the van, Naeide said she had ice cream toes (meaning very cold toes). After that we came home. We found out the DL’s were fasting and we didn’t want to invite the others and exclude them so we just had them drop us off at home. When we got home, we ate it and it was delicious. It was a lot of fun tonight as we went around bringing the gift of joy (Christ) into their and our lives.

We received a nice little package of goodies and a Christmas card from the Priest Quorum in our ward. It is nice to know we are remembered and that effort was made in our behalf to be included in celebrating Christmas.

We get to go to the temple on Dec. 23.




DECEMBER 16, 2008 TUESDAY

Today began early because it was wash day. You gotta be quick and not waste a minute to get two loads done before district meeting at 9:30. You can’t start washing until 7:00 and each load takes about an hour. Diana was still organizing and wrapping gifts and I was reviewing the spiritual thought (more like a 10 minute talk) I was assigned to give. (Diana said she timed it at 20 minutes.) We got it all done and made it to our 9:30 pre-meeting get together with the AP’s and DL’s to work out our caroling strategy. After that came the district meeting. For my part, instead of reading Luke 2 we read and discussed the BM scriptures foretelling the birth of Christ and in 3rd Nephi describing the events of his birth. We talked of the gifts that Christ has given to us and then I asked us all to considered in this next year what gifts we would like to give Him. We should write these in our journal or somewhere and review them during the year. We had also all brought exchange gifts and Diana was in charge of how to distribute them. Of course she used the one we always use at Christmas with the Bingo cards only without the bingo cards. It all worked out very well and it was fun to see the strategies some companionships used to ensure they got the gifts they wanted. On the third time a gifts was taken, it was dead.

After the meeting I cut the hair of Elders Larsson, Eschweiler and Middleton. Then came the raclette adventure. Elders Larsson, Pine, Eschweiler and Middleton came over to our small apartment and had a raclette dinner. We had an appointment to go to Sister (we can officially call her sister now that she’s baptized which she loves to hear) Naeide’s with Elders Evans and Ehlend at 3:30 so we had to kind of shoo two of the Elders out. Elders Pine and Middleton stayed while we went because they were going to English class ans Institute later tonight and didn’t have time to go anywhere else. We had a great meeting with Naeide during which she brought out a bottle of Vodka that she had found in her house. Her son had brought it in and she didn’t like it. Diana suggested we take it with us and, if Marcello had a problem with that, to call me. So after she dumped the contents down the toilet, we ended up taking the bottle with us and I hope he doesn’t call me.

After that meeting we went to English class and Sister Wachter was there. She hadn’t come for a couple of months now and we hadn’t been able to get back to see her at her home. We called once and talked to her husband, and we went by and left a goody at their door because they weren’t home, but hadn’t talked to her. It was good to see her again. We were able to renew our friendship and we made an appointment to go see her next Friday at 10:00. After that we came home just to get away from the hubbub and get a few minutes quiet time.

Here is a neat little success story on how the Lord works miracles through people who are willing to listen and work. Elders Pine and Middleton contacted and are working with a young lady whose mother language is unique (can’t remember the language) so they are having a hard time communicating. Naeide invited her non-member friend to her baptism last Sunday and her friend met the girl Elders P & M are teaching. They discovered they have the same mother language and became friends. Naeide’s friend had agreed to meet with Elder P&M’s investigator when they teach her to translate for them and also come to church next Sunday to translate the sacrament meeting for her. So, we have a non-member helping missionaries teach an investigator and coming to church with her to translate. But, the story doesn’t end there. Elders Larsson and Eschweiler had contacted Naeide’s friend last week and she yelled at the to go away and don’t bother her. Since she came to Naeide’s baptism, the Elders thought they would try again. Tonight they went to her home and she immediately invited them in and told them since Naeide’s baptism, she has a desire to learn everything she can about the church and when can they teach her. They made an appointment with her every night this week. She also wants Naeide to come with the Elders to help teach her. So, to sum it up, we have an investigator who is being taught by a non-member who is being taught by a less-than-a-week baptized member. Kind of a neat story. In addition, Naeide will be singing in Sacrament meeting next Sunday.

A couple of buildings in Luzern.


DECEMBER 15, 2008 MONDAY

Monday is always P-Day, but today was a little different. We needed to buy gifts for the missionaries (mostly socks) and things to stuff our hot pad mittens for gifts to give the less-active members we’re going to carol Wednesday evening and Saturday. We didn’t find the socks we were looking for; they were all out and wouldn’t have any for Christmas. We already had enough for the AP’s and DL’s, the ones we mostly work with in our ward, so we decided to give the others the same thing we’ll be giving to the members we go caroling to, hot pads filled with a bag of peanuts, chocolates etc. We also had to take back a USB extender and get one that had a power supply with it. The one I bought before was passive and didn’t have enough power to run the external hard drive. On the way back we stopped to get some groceries and bags of peanuts. Elder Larsson had called and invited him and the DL’s to come to our apartment after District Meeting tomorrow to have some Raclette with them. Their ward had an activity and gave the left over raclette cheese to them which is very expensive. This dish is a traditional dish and you must have a raclette apparatus to heat the cheese for each individual and then scrape it off the little metal tray onto whatever you want to eat, such as boiled potatoes, dill pickles, bread, apples, carrots or whatever. We were asked to get the food you eat with the cheese so we bought that too.

Pres. Matern asked us to come over today to help move some junk/surplus stuff out of the mission home. We arrived there at 1:00 and helped sort through collected stuff and took what they wanted to get rid of out to the van. There were also some old portable office partitions to get rid of. Finally two serviceable recliners were the last to be put into the van. While Brother Klaumuenzner and I took the stuff to the collection station, Diana sorted through and cleaned a lot of kitchen utensils, dishes and other stuff in a kitchen in the basement that had collected a lot of surplus stuff. It was a real mess, kind of like no one wanted to take the time to put things away and everything was just thrown in there. It all looked neat and clean when we returned. Brother K and I took the recliners to a DI type facility that takes stuff in, resells it and gives the money to a charity. We found out, however, they only accepted new or very good items. They wouldn’t take ours so it went with the other stuff to the incinerator to be burned. While we were there, we went inside to look around. It was like a gigantic DI, but with a lot better stuff. Things were very inexpensive for quality stuff, but when brother K asked me if I wanted to buy anything, I reminded him if I did, how would I take it home? He said, ya, right.

We went back to the mission home and Diana was almost through with her task. When she finished, we packed up the things they said we could have (some canned soup mix, canned apple slices, some utensils, a couple of mission logo T-shirts) and went home. We arrived home just in time to get ready and go to the FHE. It was another special night with special people. Pres. Bolt gave the lesson and Sarah the game. This time she had written names on post-it slips of those in the room and well known church names. She posted the slips on each forehead without them knowing what name it had on it. When it was your turn, you could ask a question. If the answer was yes, you got to ask another question until you either could guess the name on your forehead or the answer was no. Then the turn went to the next person and so on. The evening came to an end and we had to go home.

L: words to the FHE song: "In the mountains in Austria, a Yodeler sings; comes a (insert words, 1st is grizzly bear) under the bridge and the yodeler runs. then the chorus.

The photo is a repeat of our display in Luzern because I need to add a couple of things. Mom was asleep when I posted the blog on the 13th so she didn't hear what I wrote. I read it to her this morning and she told me I had left out what she accomplished. All I did was sing with the group for two hours and I was mostly looking at the words in the song book so I saw what others were doing, but not enough to actually see what they were accomplishing. Anyway, Mom said she'd had the best day of missionary work since being over here. She was able to place a lot of BM's and at least 30 DVD's and CD's, more than any of the others. She approached everyone that came within range. The other missionaries were absolutely amazed at how successful she was and that she was out there giving them an example. Since she isn't able to speak a lot of German yet, others would watch and when someone stopped to talk, Elder Pine or someone would help her out. Elder Pine got one really good contact that way. A great experience.

The video(Ihope) is the one for FHE that didn't post the last time I tried. Elder Pine and Middleton came over last night to put it in a format that would upload. There were several videos I took at the same time, so I hope I got the right one. If I didn't, Ill try again.

Also, you need to watch the video clip on Youtube (Avonne sent it to me) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqaesQ2EE8w

L: Elder Larson, Elder Ehlend & Naeide; M: Ehlend, Naeide, Evans; R: WML Daehler, Me, Naeide, Diana, Norma Bachmann.


DECEMBER 14, 2008 SUNDAY

Sunday morning and off we went to correlation and then to church. In correlation we presented a list of less-active members we’d like to go caroling to and give them a gift. The ward mission leader wants us to get the ward missionaries involved, but when I asked them to come singing with us on Wednesday afternoon and/or Saturday, they all had other things to do. Maybe we can get one of them to come with us, we’ll have to see. Otherwise it will be we six missionaries. Naeide for sure is coming with us which is a good thing.

Last night when we got back to the ward house to clean the pots we used for hot chocolate at Bahnhof Luzern, we saw some left-over food from the wedding in the fridge. We thought it was food Sister Ryser said the missionaries could have so they split up the cake and brownies and we took some pudding. Come to find out in church they were going to use it for the refreshments after Naeide’s baptism today. There would be an hour in between the time Sacrament meeting would be over and the baptism, so as soon as we could, we hot-footed it home. Diana made brownies and I made pudding. We made it back just in time for the baptismal service to begin, but missed getting our photos taken with Naeide and the Elders. To our relief the Relief Society sister had already made other refreshments and the ones in the fridge were just going to be additional. As it turned out they needed our brownies and pudding because it was all eaten up in the end.

Today was the big day for Naeide, her baptism day. She has been through a lot; the adversary has tested her to the limits, but she has worked through every one with faith and determination. Her son, Marcello, even borrowed a suit from one of the Elders so he could come to the baptism too. It was important for Naeide to have her son there and actually supporting her for her baptism.
Naeide’s baptismal service was really nice. The talks were great and Naeide sang two songs also. A lot of ward members were there to support her and they have really accepted her into their midst. There were a lot of friends and investigators there also. Elder Ehlend baptized her, Elder Evans and I were the witnesses and Diana said the closing prayer in German. Diana sweats a lot, but she always does a good job no matter what it is. The members here have refreshments after every meeting (except the normal block) and activity. Today was no exception. The just like to socialize, not just for a few minutes, but longer.

Tonight is also the First Presidency Christmas Fireside at 7:00 p.m. so we’ll go back for that. I’m sure it’s going to be a very special fireside as they always are, but I’m not going to write anything else today unless something extra ordinary happens.

L: Words to the FHE song; M: Luzern Display; R: Middleton, Pine, Walker, Wellborn, Gunther, Harris, Robert, Diana.

DECEMBER13, 2008 SATURDAY

Even though today is Saturday, we want to add some things to yesterday’s entry because we left out one of the most important things that happened. As we were serving food at the wedding, Markus, a member of the Elders Quorum presidency came through the line. When he saw us, he asked us if we had left a BM with someone in a rest home in Oerlikon. After we thought a minute we remembered we’d been over there looking for a member and, when we couldn’t find her, we asked a worker who happened by if he knew where she had gone. He had us come into his office and, while he worked on his computer, he asked us why we were here etc etc. Of course we took this opportunity to tell him and also asked him if he wanted a BM to read. He said he was very interested and accepted one. All we remembered was his name, Johannes; we couldn’t remember his last name. Markus told us he’d met a Johannes (he didn’t know his last name either) who said he’d received a BM from a missionary couple and wanted to know the address of the church. We had already stamped our name inside the cover of the BM, but he must of forgotten it was there. Markus gave him the address and told us to watch for him Sunday, that he might come to church. We didn’t have time to go into more detail on where or how Markus met him, but we’ll ask him tomorrow in correlation meeting. This was an inspiring bit of news for us because we never know if what we’re doing will ever bear fruit. We’re hoping this is one seed we’ve sown that will grow and develop. Even if he doesn’t come, we at least know he’s thinking about it.

We need to also write some interesting things about the wedding. Most of it is similar to what we do at home like send out invitations, guests bring presents, decorate the cultural hall and etc. The thing that was a little bit different was the bride’s parents provided/arranged for a full meal to be served to over two hundred guests. They bought the ham, drinks, plates, cups utensils etc. and friends an relatives brought salads of all different kinds (green, bean, pasta, potato etc. but no fruit salads), breads etc. There was also all kinds of desserts, cakes, brownies (Diana’s), puddings, etc. All of it was buffet style. First, drinks (three kinds of grape juice and orange juice) in little cups were set out for people to take. There were also stand up tables with chips on them for people to gather around as well as tables to sit down to. After about an hour of socializing came the main meal. I was blessed with the job of cutting the large very hot ham roasts after which it and everything else was set out on serve yourself tables. About an hour and a half later came the desserts. Of course people kept sneaking desserts earlier than the actual serving time. The desserts remained on the table until most of them were consumed although there were some left over. About 11:00 p.m. the wedding cake was brought in and the usual silly stuff happens surrounding the cake cutting. After that the couple started dancing while holding an umbrella over their heads while people threw confetti strings over it. Then everyone started dancing. While all of this was going on, we kept the tables stocked and washed dishes and cleaned in the kitchen until just before 1:00 a.m. We finally called it a day and when we left, about half the people were still there dancing. Diana did see the bride throw the flowers just as we were leaving.

Now for today! This whole day was taken up by riding to, preparing for, working at and coming home from the display/contacting activity at the Luzern Bahnhof. Sixteen missionaries participated in this activity. Eight of us from the Zurich area met and rode down together in a van. We met the other missionaries at the Luzern ward house. Elder Pine conducted a pre-activity preparation meeting at which we ate our lunches together. We are just so impressed with the dedication, commitment and the spirituality of these missionaries. After we were physically and spiritually prepared, we drove to the bahnhof, set up the display and went to work. Eight of us sang Christmas hymns while the rest worked the ones who stopped, or were willing to stop when approached. The missionaries who did the contacting work had hot chocolate to offer as well as Christmas wrapped church DVD’s and BM’s to give out. It is amazing how many people will not accept anything (even wrapped DVD’s they don’t know the title of) and just walk on by. This day was extremely cold (we almost froze to death) so the hot chocolate did tempt some to stop and then we could at least talk to them. Some good things happened including some longer discussions and some appointments for later. One of the coolest was right at the last as we were packing up to go. Some small kids came by with a couple of adults and one of the missionaries gave a little boy his Santa hat. Soon there were about twenty of the little people who came out of nowhere holding out their hands for hats. We didn’t have enough for all of them, but some got the last of our DVD’s and CD’s. We told them we’d be here the next Saturday and to come back. As each of these BM’s, tracts and media items leave our hands for others, you never know whose hearts they’ll touch, when or what fruits they’ll harvest.

It was already getting dark when we were all packed up, but we found time to stop in and pick up a Kebap for dinner, then back to the church to eat them and to relate success stories that occurred during the activity. After that we dropped the Luzern missionaries off at an address to do some caroling and we went home. We had to stop at the church to clean up the pots we’d used and then we came home. Another day in the life of these missionaries.

The words to the song in the video clip appears in one of the photos I've put in this post (I hope).

I took this photo to show you the goodies on the tables. I'll post a couple of clips tomorrow.

DECEMBER 13, 2008 FRIDAY

We had to be at the church at 8:00 this morning to catch our ride with the AP’s to Dielsdorf for zone conference. Today was also wash day so I got up at 6:00 in order to get that done in time. Of course we didn’t have time to dry them so that’s what were doing now at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. I know we’re technically breaking the rules although senior missionaries are not held to the same rules at the younger ones. More on this later. Before we could leave to walk to the church the DL’s called and wanted to do one more thing with the computer before we left. Needless to say, this made us a few minutes late for our pick up. All’s well that ends well and we were on our way. First we had to go to the mission home and pick up some sisters and the Christmas packages for the missionaries to be given them after the conference. Everything went ok except when we got there and tried to set up my computer to play the video, there wasn’t a projector in the building. The Elders, always resourceful, were able to burn a disc and play it on the TV with the disk player.

We had a great conference with a lot of inspirational training segments given by various missionaries and talks by Pres. and Sister Matern. Lunch was great and/or delicious consisting of a green salad, either fried or BBQ chicken and/or ham, peas and carrots and/or corn, mashed potatoes and gravy and/or potato salad, and carrot cake and/or some sort of cheesecake for dessert. In addition to that they had the traditional pile of tangerines/chocolates/peanuts/cookies at each missionary’s spot. What seemed funny to us is that most missionaries didn’t eat much out of their pile of Christmas goodies, so I cleaned up the tables, scooped them all into a box and brought them home. I couldn’t bear the thought of all that good stuff going to waste.

During lunch the video was shown which had most of the missionaries captured in their favorite photos. Some were funny, some serious, but all were good. After that came some more training and then the serious stuff was over. The talent show came next and most were funny skits of one kind or another, a couple were videos of which one we posted on the blog yesterday. The white elephant exchange came next. I received a note and a couple of toy jets and a deck of cards with jets on the back which all played on the “don’t get trunky yet because it’ll be a long time before you fly home. Diana got a children’s storybook written in German which she really loved. Then came the quick ride home because we had to get back to the church to help with Monika’s wedding.

Even though there were some complications, we were able to get there in plenty of time before the guests started arriving. It was a busy night, but we had the AP’s, DL’s and Suki helping in the kitchen. I got the best job which was slicing the piping hot ham. The only problem with the wedding is that it lasted way past our bedtime. We finally left at 1:00 a.m. because we still have to get up fairly early to get to Luzern. As we said at the beginning of this entry, here I sit waiting for the clothes to dry. I think it’s about time to take them out even thought they aren’t quite dry yet.

Elders Elend and Evans; Elder Grassli, Sister & Pres. Matern

DECEMBER 11, 2008 THURSDAY

It was supposed to snow all day today and it did. It isn’t the kind of snow we get at home, just kind of a light falling snow. Today was kind of a funny day for us, in that we didn’t get out looking up member addresses. We volunteered to help with Monika Ryser’s wedding tomorrow evening and we’re bringing brownies too. So Diana spent all day baking brownies while I translated more chapters of Fabian’s book. In between Diana continued to do her studying and memorizing. Diana was asked to give the closing prayer at Naeide’s baptism Sunday, so she’s particularly hard at work memorizing. The Lord has just got to be pleased with her effort to learn the language. I have completed thirteen chapters of Fabian’s book and I’ll sure be glad when I have it done. It’s an interesting story of his conversion and I know it’s important to him to get not only the words right, but to try and get his feelings captured too. I try really hard to listen to the Spirit as I do this service for Fabian. In between batches of brownies we had to go into Schwamendingen to buy some more ingredients.

About 2:30 Elders Pine and Middleton brought over some church videos and DVD’s to wrap for our Luzern exposition on Saturday. He also brought a case of BM’s, but we decided not to wrap these because we felt a message has to be given as well as the book. Before they left we fed them dinner because it seems they are always hungry. I asked them if they had an oven to cook in and Elder Middleton replied they don’t. I asked him if they could cook where they stay and he said they usually eat out. I responded I hadn’t seen anyplace to eat out where the food wasn’t really expensive so they must go without eating a lot. He looked kind of sheepish so I think that’s the case more than not. Everything we offer them they eat right up. Later on Elders Elend and Evans dropped in to add their photos to the zone conference slide show and we fed them too before they left. They left at about 10:00 and now we have our computer back. By the way, Diana’s brownies turned out great, delicious.

Video clip of Elder Pine's dance for the talent part of Zone Conference.