Margarita, Ashley, Denise, Diana, Me, Elder Pine, Elder Harris.

Diana feeding the sparrows in Bern; fountain, clock tower and goodie shop in Bern. The figures next to the red dial go around when the clock strikes on the hour.



MARCH 31, 2009
TUESDAY

Naeide asked Diana to be her model for a facial this morning during a private lesson she had with her instructor to get prepared for her practical test. Diana wasn’t too thrilled, but if it’s to further the work, she accepts the challenge and does it. It was supposed to be from 10:00 to 1:00, but ended up being until 3:00. We walked to Naeide’s apartment to get her and then walked together to the school. Men aren’t allowed in so I left them there and jogged home. Diana had to stay in the chair for all that time which was uncomfortable for her laying on her back the whole time. While she was there, I was home doing laundry. I did take a break and jog over to COOP to buy some anti-static sheets for the dryer, and while I was there, I bought a cake mix and some pork stew meat. As I was beginning to do my studying/reading, I heard a big crash in the bathroom and broken glass came flying out the bathroom door. I went to see what had happened and discovered the base part of the light fixture globe that screws into the base had separated from the rest of the globe and fallen down onto the glass shelf above the sink breaking it as well. It took me about an hour to pick up the glass and vacuum the little shards and pieces out of the carpet and rugs. I had to fish some out of the drain too. Now the problem is where to find a replacement globe and glass shelf. If we can’t find replacements, we’ll have to buy new and hope I have enough tools to get the job done. When all that was done, I went back to my reading/studying.

Diana and Naeide finally made it back at about 3:00. Diana quickly made some ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. When we visit with Naeide, it’s always an opportunity to talk a little more about the gospel. She had a concern about an activity she had been invited to by Norma, a member of our ward. She thought it was just a party with other single members to get her married off to someone. She is content right now to be alone unless she happens to meet someone she likes and didn’t want to be part of a match-making effort. We explained to her that Norma was the Single Adult Representative of the ward and she has the responsibility to organize social activities for this group. Once she understood, she was OK with the invitation. It’s always interesting to see new members integrate into the Church and get used to all the different things we do.

By the time Naeide left we didn’t have much time to get ready and leave for the appointment we had with Sister Margarita Maurer to give her a blessing. We were supposed to meet Elders Pine and Harris in the Oerlikon Bahnhof at 5:20 which would be give us a safety of eight minutes before our train left at 5:28. We told them to meet us there early because they always push the envelope arriving just in the nick of time. Today was no different. We tried to call them a minute before the train was supposed to arrive, but got no answer. Just as the train pulled in at 5:28 we got a call from them. They asked if the train was there, and then asked us to hold it for them because they were coming as fast as they could. Holding a train is iffy at best, but I kept my finger on the button holding the door open and, just about when I was going to have to let go, we saw them down the line and getting into the train. I let go and away we went. They said they had street contacted a Jehovah Witness on the street and didn’t realize the time had slipped away.
We arrived at Kloten and walked to Sister Maurer’s apartment. She invited us in and we talked while waiting for Denise and Ashley, her daughter and granddaughter, to arrive. They got caught in traffic and were delayed at least an hour. It was interesting and we had fun talking to Margarita until they arrived. Diana has a way of connecting with people and has a wonderful influence on them. When the time came to give Margarita a blessing, Denise wanted one too because her work was paying for additional schooling and she had to pass a test in two weeks or she would have to pay for part of the tuition fee herself. Elder Pine did the anointing and I was asked to seal it and give her a blessing. We all felt the Spirit, especially Margarita. She is a sweet sister who has had a lot of problems in her life, but still has faith in God and has kept her sense of humor. We hope she will start coming to Church when she is able to walk again. Elder Harris gave Denise a blessing. After, we had a discussion processing the experience and then Denise drove us back across Zurich to our home. Elders Pine and Harris came with us so we could feed them some left over casserole and Diana made them cake-in-a-mug with ice cream. They’ve tried several times at home to make it, but can’t seem to figure it out.

We discovered Roxsan had tried to SKYPE us about some tax questions and we were just getting ready to call her when she called us. We answered her questions and talked to her for awhile. She had to leave for a minute so Mayleah talked to us for awhile. She is so cute and smart. Roxsan came back and we were able to visit with Nathan a little while too. As all good things do, they must come to and end. After we hung up came writing this journal entry and making sure we had the right train connections for tomorrow’s trip to the temple. We may see Elder and Sister Doyle there because they are going through the 3:00 session as are we. We also wrote Suwang a text message apologizing for not being able to visit her today. We just had too many things to do. Now it’s bedtime.

The first two photos are in Bern; Diana in the candle shop in Interlaken.


MARCH 30, 2009 MONDAY

This morning we met Charlotte at her apartment and we were on our way for another great P-day. It was our turn to bring a lunch so Diana made egg salad and ham and cheese sandwiches. We also brought bananas, peanuts and a few candy bars. This time we took the train from Zurich to Bern. We got out there and spent time walking through the old town looking at the many fountains, cobbled streets and buildings. We climbed the tower of a church and got a magnificent view over the city. We walked to the capitol building, but didn’t have time to go inside. We took a lot of photos and some we’ll post on our blog. All of the sidewalks are covered which makes it quaint and nice if it were raining. There are many shops in the old town, and it seems it’s possible to buy anything there. Along the edge of the covered walkways are slanted doors that when opened, seems as if you are going down steps into a cellar. In reality there are shops under the ground level stores; we didn’t go down to see them, but next time we’re there, we’ll have to check them out. Our time ran out so we hurried back to the train station and caught our train to Interlaken. We went through Thun, along Thunersee, through Spiez to Interlaken. This is a smaller town nestled up against the mountains at the end of the lake. It is a post card picture of what you’d dream Switzerland is like. We didn’t have much time to spend here and Charlotte wanted us to see the candle shop with every imaginable kind of candle in it, from very small to very large. We’ll have to go back and spend some time there to actually explore the wonders of that city.

From there we got on a train, that took us over the Brunigg Pass to Luzern. We traveled along the Brienzersee through Brienz, Sarans and many other little villages and towns until we came to Luzern. It would be nice to have the time to stop for awhile to walk through the old town streets and experience Switzerland as it should be. We continued on until our train arrived in Luzern where we jumped out and hurried to our next train. We made it with a minute to spare. We arrived back in Zurich at 5:00. We went to the new grocery store, Lidl, bought a few things and went home to get ready for FHE. One of the big benefits of traveling with Charlotte is that we carry on our conversations in German. She corrects us and help us with new words and expressions. Diana is able to communicate with her pretty well. She is also learning English so it’s a mutually beneficial activity. Since she’s a newly baptized member, we can also talk about Gospel doctrines and principles. Her husband died in 2003 and we were able to talk about the temple and an the sealing power of the Priesthood.

FHE was great as usual, but Hitch and Kathy Bolt were missing because they had gone to the temple today. Suke said she’d for sure be here tonight, but she called again to say she wouldn’t be coming. We are going to ask Cornelia to come next time we see her. The lesson was on our relationship with our Father in Heaven and how the Gift of the Holy Ghost is beneficial in our lives. Some related experiences where the Spirit helped them with an answer to a problem or had received inspiration or comfort.

Following the lesson the game we played was one where you sit in a circle and all stay in rhythm. You start by clapping your hands on your knees (thighs), clap your hands together and then snap the fingers of one hand and then the other. Everyone keeps repeating this action keeping in rhythm with each other. One person is designated as the “Boss” and another is designated as the “janitor.” The others in the circle receive a number starting with “1.” The Boss starts the round by starting the rhythmic clapping and snapping fingers. When he’s ready, as he snaps the fingers of his first hand, he says his own designated name “Boss.” When he snaps the fingers of the second hand, he calls the number of a person or the designated name of the “Janitor.” Whoever’s number or designated name he calls must say his own name/number as he snaps the fingers of his first hand, and then calls the name or number of some one else as he snaps the fingers of his second hand. The game continues in this pattern until someone either gets out of rhythm or doesn’t say his designated name/number and/or call someone else’s name/number. It’s kind of like tossing a hot potato. The person throwing the hot potato tells who he’s throwing it at; the one receiving the hot potato snaps his fingers to acknowledge he’s received it and tosses it to the next person by calling his name/number. It’s really quite fun if you can figure it out. Diana was pretty good at this and won the second of the two rounds we played.

After the game we had dessert which was banana splits. Everything was delicious and Juerg made such a fuss over the carmel and chocolate that we left all of what wasn’t eaten at their home. Then we came home. Elder Pine and Harris came with us to pick up their sandwiches they left here last night. We gave them a key so they could use our apartment/computer today, but they were able to use someone else’s computer instead of ours. They forgot to bring our key back so we’ll have to get it from them tomorrow.

Someone getting ready for Easter. George Wimalasuriya on the piano. Naeide singing.

MARCH 29, 2009 SUNDAY

Today started out way nice and it only got better as the day progressed. We started with the missionary correlation meeting, followed by the Priesthood/ Relief Society which was a combined meeting today taught by the bishopric. The focus of their message was on preparing for Sacrament Meeting, the importance of taking the Sacrament and reverence in the chapel after the meeting is over. Preparation for the meeting begins on Saturday so that Sunday morning isn’t the rush rush, hassle it can be, if we let it. Instead of coming to Church late and all frazzled, we can come with an attitude of worship. Bishop Schwendener talked about the purpose and meaning of the Sacrament, the need for self-evaluation, remembering our covenants and concentration on the prayers focusing on Christ and our covenants with Him. The last person teaching always gets cut short because the other two take more time than they are allowed. Brother Rothmund’s message was on reverence, that we should leave our talking outside in the foyer and when in the chapel we should be quiet, listen to the prelude music and prepare spiritually for the service. The bishopric also put forth the request for members to be reverent after the service is over while still in the chapel. Postlude music will play to assist and remind members to be reverent.

Since today was Fast Sunday, we didn’t invite anyone to come over for lunch. We came home expecting a nice restful afternoon, but soon that went out the window. Elder Pine called and told us the sad story that they had forgotten to go shopping again and had no food in their apartment. They had been fasting and couldn’t possibly keep from starving, if they had to wait until tomorrow to go buy some food. Their story was so sad Diana started to cry and begged them to come over for dinner later tonight when they had completed their fast. We only had twenty minutes to put something together before we had to go to the Church to support George and the musik/talent activity at 3:30. It’s important for us to do that because non-members and less-active members usually attend. We put on potatoes to boil, sauteed some onions and cut up some ham slices to be ready to make a casserole when we got home from the activity. When all was cooked, we left for Church.

The music was fantastic. George is one of those people who has musical ability oozing out of every pore. He can play requests never seeing a piece of music. There were others who sang and even our Naeide sang a song in Portuguese. We stayed as long as we could and then had to take a birthday present to Natasche, one of our members. We had to do this the day before her birthday because we’ll be busy all day tomorrow.

After we got home we finished the casserole and got it into the oven. Then came the shredded beets and salad. We finished it off with a strawberry/fruit mousse salad for dessert. While we were waiting for the Elders to come we called Cornelia, our less-active contact, to let her know that Joerg volunteered to help her with decorating her shop. In the process we set up the times she would be attending sessions of General Conference with us next Sunday. Instead of just one session, she said she would come to the Saturday evening session and then come to lunch at 1:00 on Sunday after which we will attend the 2:00 session. Maybe by then we can talk her into coming to the Spoken Word at 5:30 and then the 6:00 session on Sunday. That may be too much for her all at once, but we are just so excited she’s made the decision to come.

We were expecting Naeide to come for dinner with the Elders, but she declined this time. The meal was way good, but the surprising thing is that the Elders brought a big plastic bag with a tinfoil wrapped plate of sandwiches and one with vegetables. Someone probably gave them these after they made arrangements to come to our place for dinner. They even offered us some to take on our trip tomorrow. Before they left they asked us for a roll of toilet paper because they were out of that too. They obviously missed the segment on Sesame Street about “what happens next.”

These photos are from our panorama express train. Charlotte si ibn the photo far left.


MARCH 28, 2009 SATURDAY

On my morning walk I tried to find the water wheel again to take a better photo of it, but I couldn’t find it. Some day I’ll run into it again. We spent some of this morning in getting things ready for the dessert we are responsible for on Monday evening. We intend to serve banana splits so we made the chocolate and carmel toppings. We also went shopping for strawberries, ice cream and bananas and we already have some nuts, pineapple and marshmallow. It ought to be yummy and it is an American dessert as well. We also bought some things for our Monday lunch to eat on our excursion. Elders Pine and Harris came over so we had them try out the carmel and chocolate. They gave their stamp of approval.

The weather was pretty good this morning although it was still cold, but not bone-chilling freezing. When we went out this afternoon, it was raining pretty steady. We’ve been trying to contact C. Abbousou for some time and have never found him home yet. You’d think one of these Saturdays we’d find him home. We left an invitation to General Conference on his door. Next we went to a lady we’ve also been trying to contact for some time. This time she was home and we were able to meet her. She seemed like a very nice lady, but we were unable to get her to let us in to talk to her. At first she said she was too tired, but we kept talking to her anyway. We wanted to make an appointment to come back when she was less tired, but that didn’t work either. Finally she said she wasn’t a member, had left the Catholic church and wasn’t interested in belonging to any church again. She said her bible was enough for her and didn’t want a Book of Mormon. I think there’s something in the BM about people who say they already have a bible and don’t need anything else. She did acknowledge she had gotten our messages we left in her mailbox each time we came by. On the way back to Schwamendingen we met Elders Evans and Jensen in the tram. Occasionally we meet each other here and there traveling between appointments or something. It’s always good to see the missionaries out working.

Fabian Streit invited us over to the Mueller-Russos tonight for another go away dinner. This time he is going on a military assignment to Kosovo for six months and hopes to extend for another six months. He is a fabulous cook. He cooked a wonderful meal of salmon over carrots, onions and something else very good, green asparagus & white asparagus with a hollandaise sauce, and a yummy salad although he could have left out the very spicy nuts. For dessert he served a chocolate mousse over fruit. After the meal we had a mini FHE because this was the last chance he could be with the FHE group. Juerg talked about what Pres. McKay said we’d have to report on at the judgement bar. We would be asked to report on our relationship with our husband/wife, our relationship with all of our children, how we used our talents, how we magnified our callings and how we lived in our communities etc. Fabian wrote each of us a letter to express some of his feelings about each one present because he didn’t want to do it in front of people. He said it was better to do it when he had time to think and wouldn’t be as apt to forget something. Ours was a very touching letter and we appreciate him taking the time to write us some of his thoughts and impressions.

We were purposefully the last ones to get our shoes on hoping everyone would leave so we could talk to Juerg alone about Cornelia. She’s the inactive member who needs help in setting up her shop for foot massages etc. Juerg is the Stake President’s Secretary and is an interior decorator. He said he would be glad to help her out so we just need to get them together. We’ll try and make an appointment with her tomorrow to see how we can make that happen.

Tonight we switch our clocks ahead to keep up with daylight savings. I think we are behind the USA by a couple of weeks. Well, time for bed.

L: Elder & sister Larson on our trip to Brig; M: looking from the balcony of Suwang's hospital room in Wald; R: waterwheel I found in the woods while hiking.


MARCH 27, 2009 FRIDAY

When I was out hiking in the woods this morning I found an old waterwheel that looked old and interesting. It was in bad need of repair, but I doubt anyone has an interest in restoring it. There was a light rain falling, but not enough to get me very wet or discourage me from the hike. When I got back we did a load of wash and got ready to go out to visit our birthday boy, Henry Otth. When we got there, he wasn’t home so we left his cookies and card in his mailbox and came back to Schwamendingen to buy some groceries. We hadn’t been shopping for a week or so and needed some supplies for at least two events. The first is we have the assignment for dessert for FHE and, the second, it is our turn to provide the lunch for Mondays’ excursion with Charlotte. We think she will take us to Interlaken, Thun and Bern this time.

It is common to receive phone calls from the missionaries to help them with their work. Elder Ehlen called about noon to have us look up train schedules and connections to get to an address. Later on while we were on our way to visit Suwang, Elder Pine called to see if we had any suggestions on who they could visit tonight because they had a free hour between appointments. Still later Elder Flitton from the Stuttgard Zone called, but that was a wrong number. His first words after I answered was, “oh crap! I called the wrong number again,” and then he said hello. He called once last week and hadn’t changed the number on his speed dial, so he made the same mistake again.

We left to go see Suwang who had transferred to the rehab hospital in Wald. We misjudged the time and missed our train in the Stettbach bahnhof by a minute. This mistake caused us connection problems all the way to Wald. The first leg of our trip was from home to Stettbach on our tram #7. The second leg was from Stettbach to Winterthur. The third leg was from Winterthur to Wald. The fourth and final leg was by bus #885 from Wald to the hospital; total travel time was almost two hours. We visited for an hour and then we had to go to catch our bus which only ran once an hour. Total time for the trip was about 6 hours counting waiting time for connecting trains, trams or buses. Suwang is happy with her new digs, and who wouldn’t be. She has a picture window in her room and a balcony from which you can look over the picturesque valley with a lake in the bottom and snow-capped mountains in the background. She is rooming with a lady and she is happy she doesn’t have to be alone like in the last hospital. She has a rigorous rehab schedule and she says they run it like in the military, do it or die. While we were there, we got a call from Elder Pine giving us our assignments for zone conference. Diana is assigned to give D&C Section 4 from memory and then lead everyone in repeating it. I have the same only with a paragraph out of the Preach My Gospel that is the mission moto.

Elders Jensen, Evans, Larson and Charlotte in the train; R: the train we were riding in.

MARCH 26, 2009 THURSDAY


Today first things we dropped a conference schedule off into Cornelia’s mailbox because she wasn’t hom. We’re hoping she calls to tell us which (hopefully all) session she wants to attend with us and to set a time for lunch or dinner as the case may be. We also made a trip out to Benglen to invite Heather to come to general conference. She wasn’t home either so we left a note and a schedule of the meeting times. We came back into Zurich and found the shop that Cornelia is setting up her foot massage/pedicure business in. We wanted to take a photo of it to show at correlation meeting Sunday. We thought there would be a window, but there wasn’t so we couldn’t take a photo. We also made a visit to Maria hoping she would be home, but she wasn’t, so we left a conference invitation with her also. We came home for a few minutes and then went to Charlotte’s for dinner. Elders Pine & Harris and Evans & Jensen were invited also, but Elders Evans & Jensen were about a half hour late because they had to make a quick trip to Singen.

Charlotte had prepared a wonderful dinner of Raclette, cheese you individually melt and put over potatoes, meats, pickles, pineapple, mangos, and anything else you think would be good. She is fun to be around and still insists on being our escort to all of Switzerland. Because of Charlotte’s insistence, Elder Evans asked Pres. Matern if Diana and I are allowed to go to Lugano, Tessin or Geneva and the answer was “no.” He said we need to stay within the boundaries of our mission which is the German speaking parts of Switzerland. Charlotte was disappointed about that, but we are just fine with it because we know we are on a mission and don’t want to just become Charlotte’s travel companion. After the dinner was over the Elders left and we stayed and talked with her for an hour or so. She wanted to take us on some shorter trips after Church on Sundays, but we explained to her that wouldn’t be an appropriate activity on Sundays. We had a teaching moment and taught her that Sundays were holy and we should worship on this day and talked of ways in which we could keep the Sabbath day holy. It’s easy to forget that newly baptized members haven’t been taught and/or haven’t internalized all of what they may have been taught. We need to be patient and teach and support. We decided we’d go to Interlaken this next Monday and maybe stop in Bern also. She’ll do all the planning, lining up train schedules etc. and tell us when we need to leave on Monday. This time we’ll bring the lunch.

We came home and I started to write the blog and discovered Roxsan had tried to SKYPE us because she had some questions about our rentals. We returned the call and made decisions on the questions she had. The renters in Leilani wanted to put in a bathroom in the basement so we worked through that. We also talked about the renters in Schoor Drive and Toni Drive. It was good to talk over her experiences with the candy shop and also to see the grandkids playing around.

All of these photos were taken in Brig.

MARCH 25, 2009 WEDNESDAY

We were up early to get our clothes in the washer so we could get them all done before we went to our appointment at 9:00. We did get the whites done and half of them in the dryer before we left. It takes so long for them to dry that we were back to take them out at the right time. Then we put the shirts in so we could be there when they finished drying, to take them out so they wouldn’t wrinkle so bad.

We met Cornelia at 9:00 and had a long visit with her and got to know her a little. She is a single sister, never married and has no children. She does have two cats and when we left, we had most of their hair on our clothes. She has very little family support and says she doesn’t have any close friends. She worked as a dental technician making dental crowns etc. for dentists. She was self employed working with a dentist when the dentist died in an accident. His widow had three small children and needed money so she sold all the dental equipment along with all of Cornelia’s personal equipment. She could have gone to court to get her property back, but she decided not to because she felt sorry for the widow. It would have cost more than she had to fight for it anyway. Since then she has completed schooling and has a license as a pedicurist as well as manicurist. She is presently trying to open a practice for foot care, foot massages and pedicurist. She needs help in decorating her office because she says she has no clue how to do it. She hasn’t been to Church in a long time and seems afraid to come when she may be asked to do something. She has agreed to come to conference in two weeks and to dinner at our home on the same day. We hope to introduce her to Bishop Schwendener and other members. She needs friends in the Church and help with setting up her business. We also said we would mention her to Daniela Martin who is also a dental technician, but currently isn’t working because of an injured knee. There may be a possibility Cornelia could do the work Daniels isn’t able to do right now. She is currently living off savings she had put away for retirement, but that is almost gone. She was overcome by emotion a few times when we expressed our desire to try and find help for her and it seemed she just needs someone to empathize with her. We gave her a mini lesson on President Hinckley’s statement that every member needs friends, a calling and nurturing by the good word of God and that she could find all three in the Church. We’ll see if we can teach and love her back into activity.

Last night we invited Naeide and Elders Evans & Jensen for lunch today because we felt Naeide needs some extra support right now in dealing with her problems. We had a little time before noon so we traveled to the mission home to take a letter to Sister Sunke that we received from Zurich City regarding proof of our medical insurance. We thought this had been taken care of a long time ago, but it has surfaced again. Sister Sunke is expert in dealing with the government on this issue so we’ll see what happens and what we need to do to resolve the problem. As we got to the mission home it was snowing and the mail carrier was standing at the mission mail box. When he saw me, he must of thought I was Pres. Matern so he asked me to sign for three envelopes that otherwise he would have had to take back with him. I signed for them like as if I knew what I was doing, and took them into the mission home office. No one was around so we left the three letters and our letter on Sister Sunke’s desk along with a note and then left.

We made it back in time to have lunch almost ready by the time everyone arrived. We had a good time as we ate the meal of Mexican beans over rice with chocolate-cake-in-a-mug with ice cream for dessert. Naeide brought some fresh baked warm yummy bread with her and throw in a few chips and it was all good. After, the Elders left and Naeide used our computer to take care of her emails. When she left, we cleaned up a bit and then traveled to the hospital to visit Suwang. She will be transferred to the rehab clinic tomorrow which is more than an hour away on train. We’ll see if we can still visit her there, but we probably won’t be able to do it as often. Suwang broke down and told us she is afraid to go back to her apartment once she is strong enough to leave the clinic. She told us she lives in an attic apartment and some men had come over the roof and broken into her apartment through her window several times and destroyed her TV and other things. She had called the police, but they told her she should move. She heard Pres. Bolt has an apartment coming open in his building and asked us to talk to him and see if he would rent to her. She also asked us to talk to Bishop Schwendener to see if he could help her out. And that kind of tells the highlights of today.

Chur-Brig trip


MARCH 24, 2009 TUESDAY

Tuesday morning is our usual day for district meeting and today was no different. I had the assignment to talk on being nourished by the good word of God so I went to the Church early to set up an object lesson. I put coins of various denominations around in the rooms we’d be using, some in obvious places and some not so obvious. However, before it started at 10:00, both Elders Evans and Jensen asked me if I’d given them haircuts. They were here at 9:15 and we finished up just in time to get to our meeting at 10:15. I didn’t tell Diana about my object lesson because I wanted it to be a surprise for her too. What I wanted to happen was for the missionaries to find the coins or not find them as the case may be. Diana went into the room first to set hymn books around the table because she had the opening song and the prayer. While doing this, she noticed a coin. She then noticed another and before long she had picked them all up except the few I had put out in the foyer. The object lesson got the point across even if not in the exact way I had envisioned it. The lesson was that we all need nourishing, but the ones we look most for are the ones with the obvious needs. The ones that are not so obvious are the active members, the bishop and others who look on the outside like they need no help and we take for granted they don’t because we expect them to do the nourishing. Pres. Hinckley said EVERY member needs nourishing so we need to broaden our thinking and include everyone as we help, support and teach one another.

After district meeting I cut Elder Harris’s hair and while I was doing that, Diana cooked lunch which was Mexican beans over rice. This was the first time she’s made that over here and it was delicious. By this time it was close to 3:00 and we still had two birthday members and Suwang to visit. Sister Beatrice Rothmund, the wife of the 1st counselor in the bishopric, was the first we visited and we caught her right when she was making her own birthday cake. We had a nice visit and then left to visit Suwang in the hospital. It had turned bitter cold again, snowing during the night, and by the time we got to the hospital it had just started to rain again. Before we left a pretty good snow storm had blown in and out again. Suwang told us she had been told she was being transferred to the rehab hospital on Thursday morning. We’ll see how that goes.

We made it back home and we’re just getting ready to leave for institute when we received a call from Naeide who wanted us to come to visit her tonight. She said she had some things she wanted to talk to us about. We decided we would go support her tonight rather than go to Institute, but on the way we stopped at Ilene Russo’s and gave her the birthday present we give all the members. We gave her an extra something because she is part of our FHE group. She said she and Juerg were just going to cut her chocolate cake and offered us a piece. It was hard to do , but we turned it down because we needed to go visit Naeide. Today she had informed her son he was no longer welcome in her home and needed to give her his key. We won’t go into details, but she just needed someone to listen to her and give her moral support. We assured her we were always ready to come to her aide and support. Elders Evans and Jensen came half way through the visit and at 9:00 they had to leave and we found it a convenient time to leave too. We invited her and the missionaries over for lunch tomorrow so we can continue the support until things are a little more stable for her.

The last thing we did for the evening was to call the Elders serving in St. Gallen to refer the name of the gent we talked to on the train yesterday. They were very appreciative for the referral and remembered to give us an update on the referral we gave them last December. If you remember, while we were working the display/contacting activity at the Oerlikon Bahnhof, we met a man by the name of Fischer who had a booth and was selling pasta and vinegar salad dressing. We made friends with him over several weekends and in the process gave him a Book of Mormon. He lives in St. Gallen so we weren’t able to teach him so we referred him to the Elders working there. They have taught him up to and including lesson #3 and have committed him to baptism. They said he has work to do, but is making progress and they hope to baptize him. They said they’ll keep us posted. We are excited to hear that a seed we’ve planted is growing. It makes it all worth while because we know the Church is true and that baptism is the gate that leads to Eternal Life.

Our photos mostly were taken through the train windows so you can see relections. Sorry.


MARCH 23, 2009 MONDAY

We started our day bright and early by meeting Charlotte at 8:00, traveling to Zurich Bahnhof via Oerlikon, meeting up with Elders Evans and Jensen and getting on our train for the excursion Charlotte had planned for us today. We traveled by train from Zurich through Luzern, Sargans, Landquart to Chur. At Chur we switched to the Panorama train and continued on through the most scenic stretches of Switzerland, up over the Alps and down to Brig. We would have liked to have continued on to Zermatt and the Matterhorn, but we had to be back in Zurich for the Family Home Evening tonight. We had to get out of the panorama train at Brig to catch the bullet train back to Zurich, but we had a layover of about a half hour so we walked up Bahnhof street looking at the picturesque shops and buildings with the mountains as background. Unfortunately our camera battery was used up and we only got one photo there. We asked Elder Jensen to take some photos, and we hope we’ll be able to transfer them to our computer tomorrow. We got so engrossed in sightseeing that we forgot the time and missed our train. The next train came in an hour so that gave us time to look around some more while Elders E&J found an internet café and did their emails. We were back at the bahnhof when our train came in so we climbed on for the trip back to Zurich via Bern and Thun.

This train was a little crowded so I sat by and elderly gent while Diana and Charlotte sat across from us. Across the aisle Elders Evans and Jensen sat across from a middle aged woman. They started a conversation about the Church with her and taught her the first discussion before she had to get off. I did the same with the gent sitting by me. He accepted a Book of Mormon along with several brochures and gave me his name and address so missionaries in St. Gallen could come by and teach him more. It was a nice way to end our P-day. We arrived home at a little after 6:00, just in time to get things taken care of and get to FHE by 7:00.

While we were gone today, Elders Pine and Harris used our kitchen to bake a genuine English pie, and also to use our computer for their emails. They had done that and left, but arrived back just as we came back from our trip to pick up the pie they had left in our apartment. We walked to the FHE together. Sorry this entry is so short and doesn’t begin to tell the beauty of the scenery, the teaching of the two people and the events at the FHE. It is Ilene’s birthday tomorrow so we celebrated it tonight. We’re so tired we’re falling asleep so goooooozzzzzzzzzz.

L: Vierwaldstaetter See; M: Elders Harris & Pine w/backpacks; The white train was the snellzug (fast train) back to Zurich from Buelach.


MARCH 22, 2009 SUNDAY

Today was a very nice spiritual lazy Sunday. In correlation meeting Elders Pine and Harris announced to the group that a baptismal date has been set for Solange Baptiste and maybe for Patricia Rames as well for April 12. Diana and I also reported we had met two less-active members that hadn’t been contacted for a long long time and had an appointment with one for next Wednesday. After that meeting Diana went to Relief Society and I went to priesthood meeting. Brother Martin had the lesson for today which was the conference address from Elder Uchtdorf entitled “Die unendliche Macht der Hoffnung” or “The Infinite Power of Hope.” He asked me to perform the object lesson on faith and hope using the tea bag we set on fire. None had seen it before except Peter Martin and it worked like a charm. We described it in the last few journal entries so we won’t go into more detail here. But it really added to the lesson in a dramatic fashion.

Charlotte was confirmed a member of the Church in Sacrament Meeting by Elder Jensen and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Charlotte asked me to stand in as well as Elder Evans and the bishopric. After that she was sustained as the newest member of the ward and then she bore her testimony. It was a great experience. Nikolas and Sister Sigrist sat by us today and that was special for us. Since we visited them three and a half weeks ago, they have been coming to Church every Sunday. Nikolas is the one we gave a BM to and put a video clip of him on our blog. After Sacrament Meeting we came home and then made our way down to the hospital to visit Suwang. She is in a room by herself and she says it’s very boring. Now that she can get around a little with her walker, she says she goes out and walks up and down the hall as much as she can and then sits in the visiting area just so she can see people once in awhile. When we come, she talks a mile a minute and sometimes so fast, it’s hard to understand her. She has given us some good tips on what food not to buy at certain stores and which to buy at others. She told us today that she’s paying 1800sfr. rent for her apartment which is smaller than ours and is looking for a cheaper one. We only pay 950sfr. plus utilities, phone and internet for a total of around 1150 a month. It is very hard to find affordable rent here in Zurich.

For the rest of the evening we are reading and I’m preparing my assignment for district meeting on Tuesday. My assignment is to give a ten minute talk on “Being Nutured by the Good Word of God.” Anybody got a good object lesson I could use? Later on Sundays our children normally call us on SKYPE and we’re looking forward to that. They said they had some friends of ours who wanted to talk to us tonight too, so that’ll be exciting for us.

We got SKYPE’d at 8:00 pm and had the privilege of talking to Bill and Kathy Holmberg who are dear friends from our home ward. It was fun catching up on all the news, but sad to hear about some of the health problems happening to some of our neighbors. They told us about the Draper Temple open house and the dedication, one session of which they will attend today. After we said goodbye to them we talked to Monica, Remi, Jade and Rees; we only got a peek at Robby. Brad stopped for a minute and told us our ward choir sang at the dedication and it was awesome. Our final phone call was from Elder Norris wanting our stats for this week. And so another great Sunday comes to a close.

Elders Larson, Harris and Pine in a train with no room to sit down. sister Larson getting on our Tram #7 at the Zurich Bahnhof.

MARCH 21, 2009 SATURDAY

We got a call from Elder Jensen last night about 10:00 pm and told us that a member was having a problem with her son, that he’d threatened her and she was afraid he was going to hurt her. Since we are closer, he called us to see if we could go over there quickly and see what was going on. We hurriedly got our shoes and coats on and walked there in five minutes. She was waiting for us crying her eyes out, but her 19 year old son had left. She said when he heard we were on our way, he quickly left, that he didn’t wanted to deal with an old prison guard and ex-police officer. She was having problems with him when we arrived last fall, but he has been pretty good for the last couple of months. She is on state assistance and has a stipend for her schooling and he keeps coercing money from her. He has his own state assistance and schooling stipend, but he spends his and wants hers too. He broke her TV, she has quit paying for internet and phone service because he runs up bills and does other stuff that costs her money, so she suffers without these things because of him. She really needs the computer/internet to help her do research and write reports for her schooling, but she has to do everything the hard way like writing reports in long hand. Tonight what set him off is he wanted to use her cell phone which is a pre-paid one. She only had 3.61sfr (about $3.00) left on it and she needed that to contact her model for school tomorrow. He wanted to use the cell, but she wouldn’t let him and he got mad. We spent two hours with her to get her calmed down and help her work through this problem. We think she’s decided to kick him out and change the locks on Monday and let him work things out somewhere else. We didn’t make this decision for her, but helped her see things clearly so she could decide what was best for her. We are there to help support her whatever she decides to do. It’s a lot more complicated that this and there is history that goes back in time, but this is just an overview of the most recent problems she’s had with him. She kept bringing up a case that happened in the recent past (before we got here) where a son killed his parents right here in Schwamendingen over some little thing and it makes her afraid for herself.

I tried to use my cell phone to call Elders Pine and Harris to tell them we would meet them at the bahnhof, but the darn thing wouldn’t work. I thought it was funny that we were getting calls on our home phone last night instead of our cell phone. We had made plans last night to meet them there for the 9:44 train anyway so we left to go there. We met them at the Oerlikon Bahnhof, caught the train, and arrived in Buehlach at 10:00. On the way he fixed my cell phone so now it works again. The ausstellung location was a little disappointing because there were few people around to contact. It was in the open area in front of a Migros market and there were people going in and coming out, but not enough for all of us missionaries. The missionaries paired up and dispersed in various directions to do mostly street contacting, while at least two missionaries stayed with the display and worked from there. Diana and I chose to station ourselves at the top of some stairs where people would come up from the parking lots below. We gave out nearly a hundred pass along cards and one DVD in the two hours we were there. Many people would just duck their heads and walk by while others would at least take a card. Only a few were willing to stop and talk. After a couple of hours we took a break and walked into Migros to thaw out. It seems whenever we do an Austellung, it’s the coldest worst day and today was no exception. We were thankful that it didn’t snow or rain, however.

Shortly after noon we came back to where the display was set up and the missionaries were taking it down. We thought they may have given up for the day because of it being so cold and the poor location. When we asked, they said the manager of Migros had come out and told them to move it to the other side of the building because it was in the wrong location. We did as requested, but the other side of the building didn’t have a place to set it up effectively. It’s required to get a permit from the city in order to do an activity like this, and they list a specific location on the permit. We looked at where the permit location actually was and it would have been impossible to set it up there, so our District Leader decided to call it a day. We caught the train back to Zurich with Elders Pine and Harris, then went our separate ways. We rode the tram into Schwamendingen, bought a few things at Migros and then came home.

During the day we got a call from both Charlotte and Elder Ehlen. Elder Ehlen wanted to know if he and his companion, Elder Roberts, could get a haircut today. We made arrangements to call him when we were done and back home to see if their schedule would work out. Charlotte called to see if we could come by sometime today to work out our P-day plans for an excursion. We told her also that we’d call her when we were on our way back home and set up a time to come over. We followed through on that and went to her home at 3:00. It was a little difficult to work everything out so we and Elders Evans and Jensen could be obedient to the mission rules. It took an hour and several phone calls, but everything is worked out. Charlotte will make all the necessary arrangements and reservations; she even bought stuff for our lunches during the trip.

Elders Ehlen and Roberts arrived a little after 4:00 and Diana couldn’t resist making them a snack of her famous Steinpilz/Rice soup and her new found cake-in-a-mug with ice cream. While she did that, I cut hair in our very small bathroom, just room enough for one chair and me to stand. Elder Pine called as I was cutting hair and asked if he could come over and use the computer to look up an English dessert recipe because they have the dessert assignment for Monday night’s FHE. It was pretty busy in our little apartment for a couple of hours, and then they all left. Now comes our report for tomorrow’s correlation meeting and journal entry for today. Our friends, Elder & Sister Doyle serving in the Geneva Switzerland Mission, requested photos of the various types of transportation we use as well as the buildings and shops that we pass in our normal missionary work. Today’s photos on our blog will feature public transportation. As we write we say tram, bus, train and feet. We were going to take photos of our feet walking, but we forgot.

All these are from Arth-Goldau and the Rigi trip.


MARCH 20, 2009 FRIDAY

When I went out on my walk in the forest this morning it was overcast and chilly, but an hour later it was freezing and snowing. I got a good workout, but I was ready to go in where it was warm by the time I got home. Later on I mentioned to Diana we hadn’t heard from Elders Pine and Harris for a couple of days to which she said to just wait because they’ll call this morning and want to use our computer. Sure enough, a few minutes later they called wanting to use the computer to print off some stuff for the zone conference coming up. They came over about lunch time so we fixed a quick lunch for them. Sherman sent us a recipe for a cake in a mug baked in a microwave. We tried out this recipe and it worked pretty good and they loved it with a little vanilla ice cream on the side. They also told us they had cleared Solange and Patricia, two of their investigators, for baptism and had set April 12th Easter as their baptism date. We are excited to see that happen. If all goes well, that’ll be four baptisms in our ward since we’ve been here. There was some question whether they could be baptized because they don’t have current visas to be in Switzerland. However, Pres. Matern asked Elder Kopiscke and he approved the baptisms.

Later this afternoon we visited Suwang and then went out to Ebmattingen to see if we could catch Nelly Rathgeb at home. We have tried to visit her several times, but not found her home. Elders Evans and Jensen caught her home a couple of weeks ago and have taught her and her husband twice already. They discovered she works out of town during the week and comes home on Friday evening for the weekend. Today was her birthday and we waited until the evening, but she was still not home. We did the usual and put her birthday present and card in the mailbox and we’ll try again, maybe on a Saturday or Sunday. We tried to visit the Friouds while we were out there, but they weren’t home either although she told us she’s always home because she has to be careful with this pregnancy.

We road back into Stettbach to visit another of our birthday less active members, and this time we actually found him at home. We introduced ourselves and asked if he were a member of the Church. He said he was, but hasn’t attended for a long time because he had some problems and just hasn’t gone back. We asked him if we could talk to him about what happened and he said yes, but not now because he was celebrating his birthday. We told him we knew it was his birthday and gave him his gift and card. He said it was just a coincidence we caught him at this apartment because he doesn’t live there, his ex-wife does. He just happened to be there to celebrate his birthday. We tried to make an appointment, but he said he doesn’t have time right now and asked for our card and phone number which we gave him. We hope he will call us sometime in the future.

We walked to another member’s home who lived in the area, but he wasn’t home either and so we walked to the tram stop and came home. After Elders Pine and Harris left today we discovered Elder Pine had left his day planner again. Just as we came in our door, he called to ask if they could come over and pick it up which they did. Diana nuked a couple more chocolate cakes for them and this time they turned out even better. They ate them up and left for home about 9:00. And that seems to be it for today. Tomorrow we’ll travel to Buehlach to be part of the display/contacting activity at the bahnhof (train station) there. Oops, just got an emergency call for help from a member. We’ll report on it tomorrow.

Vierwaldstaedtersee, Suwang in the hospital gown.


MARCH 19, 2009 THURSDAY

This morning we went in and picked up the package Monica sent us, but first, since we were in town already, we stopped at LIDL, a new discount grocery store from Germany that is opening a chain here in Switzerland. The stores over here are much different than the ones we are used to at home. They are mostly pretty small, the aisles are very narrow and there are a lot of people with shopping carts which makes it almost impossible to maneuver around. Since this was opening day, it was probably more crowded than it would normally be, but we bought some bananas and a few things and left. It took us about a half hour to get through the line, but we couldn’t see any other way out or we would of put our few things back and left. The prices didn’t seem any different than Migros or COOP or Denners. When we got out, we walked to the POST, picked up the package and then walked to the AsianWay and bought a few new food items to try.

We got home and opened the package from Monica and her kids. The best thing in it was the letters from her, Jade and Robby. Thanks, Monica and kids.

We decided to try going out later in the day to see if we could find the last of our wayward members who we haven’t been able to contact yet. The first was Sister Bader who has been intentionally eluding us. We know she’s been home before, but just hasn’t answered the door. Her birthday was today so we thought we would try again. Nobody answered the door so we left the gift in her mailbox. We walked back to Sister Duelle, but she wasn’t home either. We’ll just have to try still later than 6:00.

We still had to visit Suwang, but since we were in Bassersdorf, we went a different way back into Zurich. We took bus #765 to the airport and switched to Tram #10 which took us right to the hospital. It’s fun to see her face light up when we open her door and she sees who it is coming to visit. She seems almost back to normal except for strength and stamina. She has been reading her BM in Mandarin and she told us she is learning so much. She said this new translation makes the book come alive as if she were right there living it along with Nephi. She learned that Nephi was taught by his father and realized she had that the responsibility to teach her own children and she had not taught them very much. She was offended and left the church when her children were fairly small and didn’t decide to return until ten years later, sometime not very much before we came here last October. She said she is committed to correcting that mistake, but knows that it’ll be difficult now that Danek and Halina are adults. She has thought this through and has a plan. She knows she can’t force feed them and have it do any good, so she’s going to mention she read something interesting in the BM and tell them about it. Then she’s going to ask them what they think about it. Step by step and little by little she’ll teach them the gospel. We also talked about forgiveness and following Christ’s example of loving others even if they have offended us and treated us badly. She said she has learned that lesson too and won’t let others keep her from the blessings of activity in the Church. She said she finally realized that they were still enjoying the blessings of activity in the Church, and she was not, that she was only hurting herself by leaving the Church. We also made the point that no one is perfect and we’re all striving to do our best. We all make mistakes and we need to be more understanding of other people.

Just before we left Suwang thanked us for being such good examples to her. We mention this not to brag, but to illustrate how important it is to greet people and talk to everyone, especially those who sit alone or are new. We didn’t know at the time that she was just coming back into activity after a hard ten year struggle. She just looked alone and a little odd with her lunch and a jug of milk in Sacrament Meeting. We first met Suwang in Sacrament Meeting shortly after we arrived last year. She was sitting alone, dressed in a blouse and worn pants, and she looked like she had her lunch and a liter of milk. We slid over and talked to her before the meeting started. After it was over she was like a wound up toy, talking a mile a minute and bouncing around us. She was surprised that strangers would be nice to her without wanting anything in return. A few weeks later we invited her to our home for lunch after services on a Sunday and she really appreciated that. Then she got sick and we’ve been with her almost every day and will continue until she’s back to health. We know not everyone can spend the time that we’ve been able to because we are on a mission. However, we all need to be more observant and reach a hand out to everyone; we don’t really know who needs the extra encouragement and friendship in a particular moment and we could make the difference in a life without even knowing it.

L: Elders Harris, Larson and Pine; M: Elder Larson; L: Diana, Elders Harris and Pine.


18 MARCH 2009 WEDNESDAY

This morning was wash day so I got up early, put the wash in the washer at 7:00 and then took off on my morning walk/hike. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the woods south of our apartment. I hiked up until I got near the top and went east and came down of the other side of Zurich University and back through the campus. My goal was to take a photo of the blue cow to put with my photo collection of cow statues. That done I walked down until I could catch the tram at Milchbuch and ride back to Schoerlistrasse in time to take the batch out of the washer. This whole excursion took a little over an hour to accomplish and it’s a nice little hike. While I did this, Diana showered and worked around our apartment as well as did her morning reading. We did another batch of washing while the first batch was drying. We did our ironing also before our lunch appointment with Naeide.

Naeide invited us to lunch yesterday and threatened she would never come to our place again unless we came to hers. So what could we do but go? She invited Elders Ehlen & Hoffmann also and it was kind of a going away party for Elder Hoffmann who is being transferred tomorrow. It’s always pleasant to visit with Naeide and it’s fun to hear her talk mixing three different languages, German, Portuguese and English, into a language all her own. She prepared a Brazilian meal of beans over rice, a vegetable salad, roasted chicken. First the rice goes on the plate, then the beans, then the vegetables and finally the chicken. It was all really good. For dessert she made a Brazilian pastry something like little eclairs with a chocolate sauce poured over them. Wonderfully delicious.

When you go to Naeide’s, you automatically plan to stay for several hours. It’s impossible to get away any sooner without hurting her feelings. The last hour was taken up by discussing Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life. She’s only been a member a few months, but has made tremendous progress. She’s also the best member missionary we have. She has invited Darletta Mettler’s daughter, Sharlenn, to come to conference. Her latest effort involves an Italian man who sometimes comes to our FHE. He speaks very little German, but enough to get by. He came last Monday and he told us he’s going back to Italy the end of May to live. Naeide took the opportunity to ask him if she could teach him about the Church in Italian. He told her he would be glad to have her teach him. Naeide said she’s going to have to work fast to get him baptized before he leaves, but she wants him to have an automatic ward family for when he gets to Italy so he doesn’t have to be alone.

After we left Naeide’s we went home for a second and then Elders Ehlen and Hoffmann came with us to visit Suwang in the hospital. Suwang belongs to the Altstetten Ward and Elders E&H are assigned to that ward. Suwang was glad to see us all and Halina was there as well. We had a nice visit for an hour or so and then the Elders had to go. We stayed a while longer and then left also so we could try and make one contact today. We traveled into Schwamendingen on the tram and then walked to Kornelia’s home. We talked to her over the speaker last week and she told us to try and catch her this week. We rang the doorbell and, wonder of wonders, she clicked us in. We thought she would do the same thing she did a couple of months ago and just not answer her doorbell. We climbed five flights of stairs to get to her apartment and, when she saw us, we weren’t who she expected. After her surprise wore off she explained she was expecting visitors and thought we were them. She was good enough to make an actual appointment with us for next Wednesday. We told her we were really pleased to have finally met her and she seemed like a right nice lady.

Since we were already in Schwamendingen, we went to the little store to stock up on some more of those little 5-for-a-franc airplanes we use for bouquets etc. We also bought some heavy glasses to use for vases that were only fifty cents apiece. Sherman sent us an email with an article describing how bad caffeine was for us which included caffeine in chocolate. Right after that he sent us another email on how to cook a chocolate cake in a mug in three minutes. We don’t know what he was trying to tell us, but we decided we’ll try the recipe. We’ll use the heavy ceramic glasses for the three minute cakes too.

We were really tired from the long day yesterday and getting up early this morning so we called it a day. We are going to do a display at the Buelach Bahnhof Saturday so we need to practice approaching people and getting them to stop long enough to hear our message. One more thing, we got a notice in the mail to pick up a package from home tomorrow. We are excited to see what that is. See the deer running in the clip below. Look for the white tail.

All of these are from our Mt. Rigi trip. MARCH 17, 2009 TUESDAY

It seems like every other day is district meeting, but we know they are a week apart, the time just flies by. We got our assignment for district meeting on Sunday night late, yesterday we were busy all day and into the late evening, and today our meeting started at 10:15. It didn’t give us much time to prepare and Diana claims to need at least a week to get her part prepared. Even though she would like to have that much time, she has found that she is able to get it done much quicker when we rely on the spirit to help us. Our part in the meeting was only supposed to have taken no more than ten minutes, but she timed us at twenty-five minutes. I swear she took the majority of the time, but she claims I did. Anyway, it all went well. This is the last district meeting with all of the missionaries who have been a part of our district for the last six weeks. Two are being transferred, Elder Eschweiler and Sister Wellborn. Elder Evans and Elder Pine are the only two left of the original members of our district when we arrived last October.

After the meeting we went to the hospital to visit Suwang. We hadn’t seen her for a couple of days and she couldn’t wait to show us how she’d progressed. We opened her door and when she saw us, she quickly sat up on the edge of the bed, got her walker, stood up and walked across the room, turned around, lifted the walker off the ground and walked back to the bed. She was so proud of herself, and we were too, that she almost burst. We were so happy for her. She should have been transferred to the rehab hospital, but there aren’t any rooms available right now, so she’ll stay put until next Monday when they’ll re-evaluate. We stayed as long as we could, but we still had two birthday members to visit so we took our leave and left. Neither member was home, but we left the gifts/cards for them. We made it back in time to go to the English class/Institute at 6:30.

Charlotte was there this time and she’s determined to learn English because she wants to go to the USA to visit. She wanted to come with us to Rigi yesterday, but couldn’t. She asked us when we were going to get together to go on another excursion. We told her we only have Mondays free for P-days, but she didn’t want to wait that long. She finally relented and asked if we could do something next Monday. We told her we could so she is going to plan it for us and Elders Evans and Jensen are going with us too. She says she has been all over Switzerland and knows all the good spots so it’ll be exciting to see where she takes us. We went to our New Testament class and stayed for the Imbiss after it was over. The YSA’s eat and talk for a long time, but we left at 10:00 because we were tired and still had to do the journal etc. We appreciate the emails and will answer them as soon as we have a minute when the missionaries aren’t on the computer. It’s great to be alive and know the CHURCH IS TRUE!

L: Zugersee from Rigi; M: Elders Pne, Harris Larson; R: Eler Harris, Me and Diana.

MARCH 16, 2009 MONDAY

This morning Elders Pine and Harris were here bright and early to do their emails. We wanted to catch the train to Arth-Goldau at 9:30, but the Elders took longer than expected to get the emails done. Diana fixed them a breakfast of fried potatoes and ham as well so we got a late start. At Arth-Goldau we took the blue Rigi-bahn up the mountain to almost the very top of Mt. Rigi. The last 400-500 yards was a very steep climb on foot, but it was well worth the effort. When you think of Switzerland, this is what you dream of. On the very top there were two telescopes, one looking the 180 degrees opposite of the other so both together covered the whole 360 degrees. They were mounted on a ball which had a pointer and dots indicating the names of the different peaks on the skyline. When you lined the dot with the pointer, you could read the name of the mountain or peak. Looking down you could see the Vierwaldstaedtersee, the Zugersee and various cities along the shores. We didn’t get to stay on top as long as we would have liked because we got the late start.

We took the red train down the other side of the mountain to a small town where we got on a ship to ride back to Luzern. The scenery was beautiful on the way down and we took many photographs to post on our blog. Riding the ferry was like riding through a picture postcard, smooth glassy lake, high snow-capped mountains with green foothills and picturesque villages and towns along the shoreline. The ride only took 45 minutes so it was soon over. We had to wait a few minutes for our train so we visited a bakery and bought a few yummy muffins, Berliners and pastries to tide us over until FHE tonight. WE got back to Zurich and took the tram to Schwamendingen to buy a few groceries before we went home.

Charlotte was going to go with us on this trip, but she remembered she had committed to cook lasagne for FHE tonight so she stayed home to do it. She cooked a wonderful meal which we all enjoyed. The lesson was out of the Joseph Smith Manual chapter 30. After the lesson came the game. The fourteen of us were divided up into pairs and given a slip of paper to write down a short description of a story or event out of the Bible or the Book of Mormon. The slips were folded and turned in, shuffled and each pair were given one back. Each pair had to act out the story or event while the others tried to guess what it was. Diana and I had the story about Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac. Pres. Bolt showed Diana where there was a real knife she could use to sacrifice me with. Fortunately, she used it in the charade, but didn’t actually use it on me. We think we’re getting too old and tired for these early mornings and late nights.