sorry, no pics today. Maybe tomorrow we'll have some new ones, but I'm sure we'll have some for Monday.

FEBRUARY 21, 2009 SATURDAY

Today we were going to go out in the sticks to visit a member who seldom gets to Church because she doesn’t have enough to buy transportation to the Church and back home. Her daughter lives with someone closer and she is to every activity and church meeting. She also has a young son about 4 years old. We had to postpone the visit because the AP’s and DL’s wanted to go over the ward list and do some planning on who would be good to visit. Elders Pine and Harris came a little early and brought some Ramen noodles to cook for lunch. Diana whipped up some hot chocolate for them too. When everyone was here, we discussed how best to serve the needs of the members. It’s impressive how thoughtful the missionaries are in how they approach their responsibilities and in how they would like to bless the lives of the people they serve.

Before the missionaries got here we decided we had time to go to the Asian store to buy some more rootbeer. Saturday they give you 15% off and, if we already get 18% off a case price, maybe we would end up with 33% discount. We were disappointed because the discounts were not cumulative. But still it was less than a third the price of anywhere else we have found. Mostly we buy the rootbeer for the missionaries, but occasionally we’ll sip one down ourselves. We also found a powder mix that whips up into a mousse (strawberry or chocolate) when you add milk that was very tasty. We bought a year and a half supply because it makes an easy and quick dessert when you add fruit to it.

We found out Elders Ehlen, Hoffmann, Evans and Jensen had a dinner appointment with Naeide at 7:00 tonight so after they left, we texted Elder Ehlen if he and his companion would like to come with us to visit Suwang before their appointment with Naeide. They texted back that they would meet us there. Suwang looked somewhat better today than she did yesterday which was encouraging. Her meal had been brought in for her, plain rice and tomato soup, and her son, Donick, was just about to try to feed her. He mentioned that Suwang may not want to eat anything, but Diana wasn’t having any of that. She took over and started feeding her and Suwang was obedient and ate. Before long she was asking for more and faster if Diana got too pre-occupied with rubbing her hands and arms. She seemed to gain strength as we watched and she was more responsive today than she has been. Her poor hands and arms were so swollen Diana tried to massage them to get the circulation going. The tender mercy of the Lord today is that he is blessing Suwang to get better.

While Diana was busy tending to the needs of Suwang, the rest of us were tending to the spiritual needs of Donick. He’s a young man of 26 years, was in college studying food science, but he dropped out and currently is not working or going to school. We chit-chatted for awhile getting acquainted and then I went for the jugular as he gave me the opening. He asked if we were from the Schwamendingen Ward or the Altstetten Ward. We answered and then I asked him if he was active. He said he used to be, but some bad things happened and he dropped out. Upon further discussion he said he was active when he was younger and had fond memories of when he was in the scouts etc. I responded that even though some bad things happened, he could make new memories and move forward. I invited him to come to Institute on Tuesday nights, soccer on Thursday evenings and Uni-hockey on Friday nights. I invited him to get involved with the youth and come on their activities they have every month. Elder Ehlen explained Monday nights the YSA’s have a family home evening and often go bowling or do other things together and he was welcome anytime. He seemed to not be offended by the direct approach and may even be persuaded to get involved. We’ll see as time goes on. When we left Elder Ehlen said he liked the way I took the direct approach, but I thought it was the natural thing to do.

Every time the missionaries come over for whatever, when they leave, they always leave something behind. It never fails. This time it was a sack with some coth and a jigsaw puzzle in it. As Elders Ehlen and Hoffmann left to go to Naeide’s, we asked him to let Elder Evans know where he left his sack. We came home, made some soup and with the left-overs from last night had another satisfying meal. We’re going to bed early tonight so we can get up and be at the Church by 6:45 to travel to Freiburg.

I forgot to write in yesterday's edition that I went to the ward and picked up my beloved scriptures. I would like to know where they have been. Too bad they can't tell me.