building on cement posts; street in Zermatt; Sechseluetti.










APRIL 20, 2009 MONDAY

Today we were up before bright and early and met Charlotte in front of her home at 6:25. We continued on to the Oerlikon Bahnhof and took a train to the Zurich Bahnhof and met Elders Ehlen and Roberts. Once we were all together we boarded a train to travel to Zermatt where we hoped the weather would be good enough to see the Matterhorn, the most famous icon of Switzerland. The train ride took us through Thun, Spiez and Bern to Visp where we had to change trains. We boarded the Zermatt-Gotthard Express to climb up the picturesque valley to Zermatt. There are many wonderful little towns beginning in the bottom of the valley and spreading up the green steep mountainsides into the trees and beyond. It makes one wonder how people get to the homes without killing themselves. Zermatt is a beautiful Swiss resort town where a lot of skiers come and today was no exception. We were hoping for good weather, but it was raining and foggy when we arrived. We were still hopeful it would stop raining and the sun would come out before we had to leave. We enjoyed walking through the town, looking in various souvenir shops and gasping at the outrageous prices. We found another one of those cow statues and took a photo of it just as the shop was closing for the two hour lunch break. It seems unreasonable in a resort town of this kind that all of the shops and stores close for a two hour noon break, but they certainly do. There were many old original wooden buildings built on stone pillars so they stand three or four feet above the ground. Between the top of the pillars and the bottom of the house they put a flat round stone, a circumference about twice that of the top of the pillar so the edges of the stone extend beyond the pillars. We can’t figure out the necessity of this type of construction. We were disappointed in that it did stop raining, but the fog never lifted. The cost of the gondola ride to the bottom of the Matterhorn was 42.50sfr. each so we decided not to go up unless we could see. That wasn’t possible so we turned around and slowly made our way back to Zurich. If things worked out right, we’d be back in Zurich to see the Sechseluetti celebration. While on the train, we got a call from Elder Jensen telling us the Bolts and the Moeller-Russos weren’t going to be there tonight and we could cancel unless Charlotte wanted it at her place tonight. Charlotte wouldn’t hear of canceling so she immediately and emphatically said we’d have it at her home. We all agreed. We had the intention of going into Zurich to actually see the last of the parade and the burning of the snowman, but Charlotte said we wouldn’t even get close because of the number of people that would be there. If we wanted a good seat, we should have been there in the morning. She talked us into coming over to her home and watching it on TV. She said we’d be able to see it much better than actually being there. So that is what we decided to do. On the train home we got to talking about the things we have done on our Monday P-days and Charlotte, Diana or I couldn’t remember what we did last Monday. After thinking about it for about 15 minutes, Diana was the one who remembered; we went to the zoo.

Today is the Sechseluetti which is a holiday for the Swiss which means the stores were supposed to be closed at least from noon on. We needed some bread to make lunches for the service project tomorrow so we visited the Migros at the bahnhof. The bahnhof stores are open 24 hours a day 365 days a year no matter what. We bought the bread and continued towards home on the bus. When we got to Schwamendingen we saw that the Migros there was open. We decided we needed some eggs too, so we went there while Charlotte continued on home to get ready for the FHE. We bought our items and then went home.

We had about an hour before we needed to go to Charlotte’s so we checked emails, boiled eggs and got some things ready for tomorrow. We arrived at Charlotte’s and watch the last of the parade and then came the lighting of the wooden pier with the snowman on top. At twelve minutes the snowman was burned up, all the legs, arms and body was gone, but the head was stubborn and wouldn’t blow up. At thirteen minutes and 26 seconds it finally blew up and everyone cheered. The time it took this year was short so they predict a warm and long summer. We’ll be here to see if their predictions come true.

Soon after, Elders Evans, Jensen, Pine and Harris showed up as well as Rachel. In spite of the fewer numbers we had a great family home evening. Elders Pine and Harris gave the spiritual thought using the pepper on the water visual aid we described in our Sunday journal entry. Charlotte didn’t believe the pepper would stick to her finger so she tried it; the pepper stuck. I decided I would show them a different method of how to repel the pepper without using the soap on the finger. While no one was looking, I stuck my little finger into my ear and twisted it around good so the ear wax that is in everyone’s ears, including mine, got onto my finger. I learned in survival training that you can repel the scum on top of water by sticking your finger in your ear and then putting it in the water. It worked like a charm and surprised everyone. I just told them I had the Spirit with me too. I finally relented and told them the secret although many would rather have not known. Diana wanted to try saliva on the finger, but didn’t get a chance so we’ll try it tomorrow at home. Look for an update. We didn’t play a game this time, but Charlotte had some dessert for us, apple torte and a hazel nut cake roll. Both were very good. We made final arrangements for tomorrow’s service project and then left and went home.