Me standing at the top of an alley; St. Peter's Kirche, Zurich,

DECEMBER 1, 2008 MONDAY

Of course it was raining because it was our P-day, but it didn’t stop us from going out a little. We thought we’d go visit St. Peter’s Church which is the oldest church in Switzerland. It’s right in the same area as the Frau Munster that we visited a couple of weeks ago. Before we did, we looked for and found another address of a less-active member, but she must have moved. After that we got on the tram to get closer to St. Peter’s Kirche. We got off by the Limmat River and walked along its’ bank on a sidewalk, the river on one side and shops on the other. We found the church and took a photo of the outside, but when we went in and tried to take some photos, our camera died. Imagine that! Once in awhile it’s necessary to charge batteries; we’ll have to remember that in the future. We’ll have to take photos of the inside some other time, although it is really rather unremarkable, big, cavernous and cold. It did have some nice woodwork for the pulpit and a beautiful pipe organ. Our children mentioned the bells in the churches that ring every hour. Sometime when our camera is working we’ll take a video clip (with sound) at noon and put the bells on our blog. After that we walked along some of the narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with quaint shops. It seemed like most of them were jewelry shops with way expensive albeit beautiful jewelry. We had planned to go to the zoo, but with the rain and no camera, we decided to go home and prepare for Family Home Evening with the Bolt’s and our little group.

While on the way home, we decided to try and find that chocolate outlet store the Aeberli’s told us about. We didn’t have the address with us, but we thought we could find it from memory. Eventually we did find the street after walking uphill in the rain for about 45 minutes, and after asking several people along the way how to get to Zielackerstrasse. The trouble was there was no outlet store, only fields, a big sports complex and some apartments. We turned around and an older couple was walking by and when we asked them if they knew where it was, they said there wasn’t one up here ,but told us where they thought there was one. It was some distance away back down at the bottom of the hill. We continued on back the way we had come and saw two other old men who told us a different way. When we got to the store where the two old men told us to go, the store clerk told us another way. He said it would take another fifteen minutes or so to get there. We followed his directions, but when we got to the church he told us we had to walk past, we decided we were too tired, Diana’s shoes were soaked and her feet cold and tired and I had to go to you know where. By this time we’d been walking for over an hour and forty five minutes. The final straw was when we saw a bus and that did it. We did stop in a COOP store to warm up enough to give it another try, but that didn’t work either. We made our way back to where we could catch the bus to get to our tram to go home. So back home we went. When we got home we checked the map the Aeberli’s gave us that had the store marked on it. Plain as day it showed we were in the wrong area; I guess when I transferred the location to a Google map, I put it in the wrong place. Sorry Diana.

While waiting for FHE I did a little more translating on Fabian’s book. If we do two pages a day, it won’t be such a task and we should get it done before he goes on his vacation to the USA (Chicago). Diana helps me wordsmith this so it sounds more interesting. Fabian is such a great guy and would do anything for anybody. He’s always cheerful and happy and likes to be around people. Even though it is difficult and takes a little time, it’s good for language training. We also made some coconut almond chew. We don’t have a candy thermometer so we weren’t quite sure how it was going to turn out. You can’t water test this batch because the mix is pretty soft when you have to add the coconut. It did end up a little soft, but Diana rolled it in powdered sugar and it was just great. We also used butter instead of vegetable oil and that made it all the better.

FHE is always a fun time because we meet with such great people. We have developed a great love for each other and a bond that will last forever. The lesson was a children’s Christmas story read by Sarah. The story was of a small donkey that saw the angels appear to the wisemen and the star in the heavens and wanted to go see the baby Jesus in the stable. It told of his journey through thick and thin, harassment by the other animals etc etc. He finally made it to the crib and the Christ child smiled at him which assured him even the lowliest of the low is recognized by Christ. It was a great story. After that came the game which was as follows. The person that was “it” had a rolled up piece of newspaper and called out a category such as a color. Everyone in his turn had to say a color or be hit by the rolled up paper until he thought of a color to say. No one could give the same answer. As soon as someone repeated an answer, he became “it.” The category changed every time “it” changed. It was a lot of fun and everybody had a blast. We also took over some peanut brittle we had made and everyone raved about it. Peanut brittle is not something the Swiss have over here. Suke was especially fond of it and we thought she was going to founder she ate so much. Desert was a half a pear on a saucer with chocolate pudding over the top of it. Very delicious. We also found out that Naeide baptism had been postponed a week so three of our FHE group (Pres. & Sis. Bolt and Eilene Russo) could attend. She also wanted a little more time to send invitations to some others. The good thing is she is committed and Marcel is supportive and actually investigating himself now. We thought we were going to have enough peanut brittle left over for the missionaries tomorrow at district meeting, but Naeide wanted to take some home to Marcel. Even then there might have been enough, except Pres. Bolt loaded up a bag for her. This was all ok by us and it was fun to watch them enjoy it. We may take some of the coconut chew with us tomorrow instead. We do have enough to eat in the van with the AP’s and DL’s on our way to Luzern tomorrow. Elders Pine and Middleton (from England) don’t know what peanut brittle is either. After tomorrow they will.

Just another side note. We’ve been invited the celebrate Christmas Eve with the member family Schmid and Christmas a little late with the Mueller-Russo’s on the 26th. Members are so good to us.