MARCH 5, 2009 THURSDAY

Last night we stayed up late, longer than we should have, listening to a talk from Elder Boyd K. Packer on the Tree of Life he gave in a BYU devotional some time ago. Because of that, we got up a little late. We didn’t call or visit Naeide last week because we didn’t want to disturb her studying for her next test coming up. She asked us Monday at FHE if she had done anything to upset us. So Diana called Naeide this morning to let her know we still love and support her and after her test, we’d visit her again.

We were eating a late breakfast after which we planned on going out when we received a call from Elder Pine explaining they were in the area and needed a place to eat their lunch. They were going to buy something from the store and come here to prepare and eat it. At first we planned on leaving our keys where they could find them so we could go do our finding. Then, since we had been grocery shopping for a long time and needed to, we decided to run to town and do that before they got here. Since we were going to be here anyway, we told them we’d have lunch for them when they got here. We didn’t want to wait the extra time it would take for them to go buy something. We ran into town, did our shopping, came back and had their lunch waiting for them when they got here. We gave them our spare set of keys so they could lock up when they were done and we left.

It was a rainy cold day, but we were dressed warm and had our umbrella. We rode to Dietlikon then walked to a less-active member’s home we’d been to a number of times before and hadn’t found home. This time we discovered she didn’t live there anymore. We walked back to the bus stop and had to wait 15 minutes for it. We rode to the next stop, Bruettisellen Zentrum, got off and walked to our appointment with Silvia. She is a sweet older member who hasn’t been to Church in a few years. She loves to knit and she showed us several pairs of socks and gloves she had just finished for her grandchildren. During our visit we discovered she was widowed many years ago, but had been sealed to her husband in the temple. She didn’t know why she stopped going to Church, it just happened. We invited her to come back, but she said she is deathly afraid of being asked to say a prayer, read out loud in class or give a talk. We told her she didn’t have to do these things if she didn’t want to. She replied that it wouldn’t be right to come to Church and not be willing to do them. We invited her to think about it and to at least come to General Conference because she wouldn’t be asked to do any of those things there. At Christmas time we went there to sing Christmas carols, but she wasn’t home so we left a gift hanging on her door knob. All this time she wondered who had done that, but now she knows. We also left a video, The Testaments, but she doesn’t have a video player to watch it. We made arrangements to come back after Easter with our laptop and play it for her. Our visit lasted for a couple of hours, but it didn’t seem near that long. We told her we felt a sweet spirit in her home and knew the Lord loved her.

We left there intending to go visit Suwang, but it was late by this time and we needed to finish our grocery shopping. We stopped in Schwamendingen and went into Migros. As is normal we left our umbrella inside the main doors in the umbrella rack where many others had been left. We’ve never had a problem before, but this time when we came back out, ours was gone. Somebody must have needed it more than we did or they mistook ours for theirs. Ours was green and white, but there was a blue and white one still in the rack. We tried to call Suwang on her cell phone, but couldn’t reach her. We’ll make sure we visit her tomorrow.

The mission has a “Mission Council” once a month where the mission president, assistants to the presidents, zone leaders, stake president and other stake leaders and any touring general authorities meet to plan and discuss the progress of the mission. Elder Pine mentioned two things that were of interest to us. First, the number of missionaries assigned to Germany was going to be reduced by about half and other missions in Europe were going to be reduced in order to assign them to other areas of the world. Specifics weren’t given. Second, there is a small branch by the German border that has eight active members, but the branch membership is 87. Pres. Matern told Pres. Bolt the branch needed a missionary couple like the Larsons to go up there to find and activate those not coming to Church. We don’t know about the activation part, but we do know how to find. Well, on that note, we’ll close this entry.