l & M: They love cows over here, all colors. R: Diana with Suwang.










JANUARY 25, 2009 SUNDAY

We got up bushy tailed and bright eyed and were the second companionship to ward correlation. The others followed about ten minutes late, except Elders P&M didn’t come at all because Elder Pine was still experiencing intense pain from his teeth. President and Sister Matern were there as well as all the members of the council. It was a productive meeting and the missionary work is moving along. We found out Elder Bednar from the Council of the Twelve Apostles will be coming to our mission on February 12. All the missionaries in the whole Swiss Mission will be coming to our stake house down the street for the day long meeting. In the evening the general membership of the saints here in the mission will be invited. When this was announced in Sacrament Meeting there was a stir of excitement. This will be a major happening as it should be wherever an Apostle of the Lord goes.

Our dinner guests canceled so we decided to ask the little Thai sister, Suwang Stefaniak, to come home with us after church and share lunch with us. She lives alone and was thrilled for the invitation. We walked home and decided we’d hurray and make spaghetti, corn, salad and rice pudding for dessert. Elders Pine and Middleton were also invited. As we were getting ready to cook, Elder Ehlen called and suggested we invite Naiede to lunch because her power went out and she couldn’t cook. We said sure, and why don’t you and Elder Evans come too. We just added more spaghetti to the pot and made a little more sauce. Last night as we put out the hamburger to thaw and we asked ourselves should we put out one or two packages. We thought one would do, but for some reason, we put out two. And that is one of the tender mercies of the Lord for today. The Lord knew we would need two instead of one for the crowd we had coming today. We got it all cooked up and on the table just as the others arrived, a total of eight people. It was all very good and I even shared some of my Litchi flavored aloe vera I’d bought at the little Thai store down the road.

Elder E&E gave the spiritual thought after the meal which was centered on the temptations Lucifer put before Christ right after his forty day fast. Christ countered each temptation by using a scripture. WE need to do the same when temptations face us which means we need to dig into them and be conversant with them. It’s interesting to note that Lucifer used a scripture in tempting Christ (Matt. 4) to throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple. Satan knows the scriptures too, but distorts their meaning so we need to also be aware that others may use the scriptures to tempt or deceive. After the mini lesson came the challenge for each of us to think of some weakness, challenge etc. that we face and search the scriptures to find a way to overcome or help us with the problem.

After that, we visited for a couple of hours. The missionaries are always discussing points of doctrine and looking things up in the scriptures. The computer helped because we could get on lds.org and look some things up. Sister Suwang cornered Diana and talked her ear off never stopping. She told Diana she’s glad she got to know us and that we’ll be here for awhile and that we’re good examples for her, being on a mission. That was a tender mercy for Diana to know that Suwang appreciated her. Naiede left first and then Elders E&E left for an appointment. Sister Suwang left next, but she had a hard time dragging herself to the door because she didn’t want to leave. By then it was ten minutes to five and we had a fireside to go to at five so the rest of us left to get there on time. Brother Wichtermann’s son, David, came home from his mission Thursday night and he and another returned sister missionary were reporting on their missions to Russia. They did it in Russian so we mostly just got to look at the photo slide show. It was all very interesting and it looked like they had a great mission. After the fireside we partook of the refreshments and then came home. We’re spending the rest of the evening preparing our talks for district meeting Tuesday and writing this report. It’s been a long, but rewarding and interesting day. We hope we did some good today.

Dennis, we can't seem to post on your blog.