Frozen fountain in from of Zurich Bahnhof; the other two are from Museum.

JANUARY 9, 2009 FRIDAY

This morning in German study we focused again on two or three more modal verbs and how to conjugate them. We also went over the modal verbs we studied yesterday. Sentence structure, word order and vocabulary are always important elements to study and practice. Along with that is scripture memorization. Every morning we’re supposed to have one hour of personal study, one hour of companion study and one hour of German study. That basically takes up the whole morning.

About 11:30 Elder P & M called and wanted to come over and teach us how to use the missionary planner we get every six weeks to plan our days and weeks, set goals and account for our time. At 12:30 they arrived and, of course we fed them lunch. This time it was baked fish/lemon sauce with a rice pilaf on the side. For dessert we had ramoutan (a fruit thingy) in vanilla pudding. It was all very good. After that we got to work. The workshop lasted until about 5:00 because Diana and I had to go to the grocery store to buy a few things for the dinner we had invited George and Elder E & E to. George is a man from India, but has been in Switzerland for the last 30 years. He was grateful somebody invited him to dinner because he says he always has to eat alone. We don’t exactly know where his family is, but we do know he has one daughter living close to him. He can speak nine different languages and reads two more. The Elders were glad to have a hot meal waiting because they just drove back from the zone conference in Stuttgard, Germany. Elders P&M left just before the rest got here because they had pre-arranged to work with two ward young men. We invited them to come back after they were done and have left-overs.

Tonight we began with mushroom soup, bread and salad. Next came raclette cheese with potatoes, apples, mushrooms, dill pickles, pineapple, carrots and peas followed by ice cream and peaches. It was just what everyone needed coming in from the bitter cold. Elders P&M came back just in time to clean up the left-overs.

Elders E&E related an experience they had recently with Naeide. Naeide had a pain in her calf muscle and it kept getting worse and worse. She went to the doctor, but they couldn’t find anything wrong. It kept getting worse until the pain had encompassed her whole leg clear up into the thigh and had become unbearable. She finally called the Elders and asked for a blessing. They went over and gave her the blessing and then left. Ten minutes later they received a call from Naeide who told them her pain was gone. Miracles still happen today as in times of old, don’t they. During the meal Naeide called Diana just to see how she was doing and to tell her about the blessing she had gotten. Elders E&E also told us about the meeting they had with Charlotta, our friend from the FHE group. The only way to describe it is to say she is “golden.” She has become one of our close friends over here and it’s good to see her accepting the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.