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.