Fasnacht pigs; mailboxes, doorbells, speaker above the doorbells and entrance to the apartment building. B: Those sticks along the street are trees. I'll try to remember to take a photo in the spring when they leaf out.










JANUARY 23, 2009 FRIDAY

The sun and clear skies lasted only for one day, yesterday; we awoke to overcast and rainy. Throughout the day it got blustery and later rain mixed with snow. It was the worst when we were visiting the Kummers. We first went back to try and meet Kofi whose mother or wife asked us to come back this morning. Kofi was home so we were able to meet him. He said he had visitors right then, so we made an appointment to come back tomorrow at 1:00. And that is the tender mercy of the Lord today, that we will be able to talk to him tomorrow. I took a photo of the entrance to his apartment building with the doorbells and speaker so those of you who read our blog can visualize how hard it is to actually be able to talk to someone face to face. Whoever you want to visit has to electrically click the door open for you so you can get to the apartment door where they live. This time, however, the door was unlocked so we went on in and rang the bell at his apartment door.

After we got done with Kofi we hopped the bus, went back to Schwamendingen, transferred to Tram #9 and rode it to the end down in the middle of Zurich City. We walked a block or two and rang the bell of a member. We’d been there before and it was the same result, no one home. We called her phone #, no answer so we left a message and call-back number. While we were there, Elder Pine called to ask when we would be home because they needed our computer to look something up on LDS.org for a lesson they would be giving later on this evening. We told them we’d be home about 4:30. We hopped the tram and rode back to Schwamendingen. We had a few minutes to kill so we went to the ethnic grocery store and bought a cucumber for a salad for Sunday. They are cheaper there than in any of the other stores and all the other stores are within a 5 minute walk of each other. We saw a big loaf of bread we wanted to buy, but we couldn’t figure out how to carry it and still visit the Kummers, so we decided to stop there again on our way back home. We had to stop at Schwamendingen to change trams anyway. I did buy some dates because they are very cheap here and I love dates.

We hopped Tram #7 and rode it to Mattenhof, one stop before Stettbach, to go visit the Kummers. She is the homebound sister we visit once a month. She and her husband are appreciative of the visit and it’s fun giving them a lesson. The lesson was from Pres. Eyring and our responsibility to warn our neighbors and invite them to hear the message of the restoration of the gospel. At the end of the lesson we challenged them to ponder and pray for inspiration on who we missionaries could visit to share the gospel with. The said they had already talked to all of their neighbors, but maybe it was time to try again. Just as we were about to leave the storm really kicked into gear so they advised us to stay a few minutes longer to see if the weather would improve. After about five minutes the rain/snow quit and we went on our way. The wind kept on howling and Diana had to do all she could to keep her skirt down. The umbrella almost turned inside out so I quickly closed it up before it was ruined.

We stopped and bought the bread and got home right on the dot, 4:30. Elders P&M came a short time later. While they were working on their lesson, I ironed my shirts (and Elder Pine’s that Diana sewed a button on) while Diana heated up some chicken noodle soup. This is the soup we made a week ago and forgot that we put it out on the balcony (our extra fridge/freezer.) It’s been so cold we just stick things on the balcony because it’s usually colder than inside our fridge. We had some for lunch and we’re still alive so we thought it would be good for the missionaries too. She also made some rice pudding that was very yummy. The only problem was, the meeting they were going to also included dinner, so they passed on what Diana had prepared. We ended up eating soup for a second time today, which finished it off. It was actually better today that it was when we first made it.