Church in Bern, Bear statue in Bern, photo at Brienzersee.











APRIL 4, 2009 SATURDAY

It got too late last night to write the journal entry and so we did it this morning. We didn’t mean to worry anyone; we just ran out of gas. After that was done and posted we went shopping for things we’ll need for tomorrow’s lunch in between the Priesthood session and the 2:00 session. It seems as if the numbers have swelled to probably 13 or so people that we’ll host for lunch. That means it’ll be standing room only. We also wanted to buy a shelf and globe for our bathroom to replace the ones that committed suicide last Tuesday in our bathroom. It’s amazing how long it takes to go to the store to buy a few things. Of course it took two trips because we can only carry so much. Not all that we bought was for tomorrow because we wanted to stock up on some other things (spaghetti sauce and red beans) which were bulky and heavy. The hardware stores over here are not like the Home Depot and Lowes that we have there. You would think they would carry replacement globes, but they don’t; you have to special order them. The glass shelves were also the wrong size so we bought a wood one instead. We’ll have to do some work on it to make it work, but work it will.

As we got home the second time Elder Pine called us to see if he and his companion could come over a do some planning before conference at 6:00. They were calling from just around the corner and when we said they could, they almost beat us to the door. As a matter of habit Diana fixed them some ham and cheese sandwiches just to make sure they wouldn’t go hungry. While they were doing their planning, we were making a cake for strawberry shortcake tomorrow and doing other stuff to prepare. At 5:30 they left for conference, but shortly after, they called and asked if the sandwich they hadn’t eaten and left on the table was still uneaten. He asked us to bring it and a few cookies he had left to conference with us when we came. It seemed that Rachel, one of our FHE group, was hungry. The cake finally got done and we left for conference ourselves.

We were excited to see that Cornelia came and we made sure she got a good welcome. She met Charlotte last night at the dinner and was sitting by her when we got there. We left her in Charlotte’s care in the chapel where it was broadcast in German, while we went to the cultural hall to hear it in English. I thought it was rather interesting to see Brother Rothmund sitting in the English side because he’s Swiss. When I mentioned it, he responded he’d rather hear conference in English because the language is more expressive than German and he feels the emotions more. The conference talks were way good, especially for Cornelia and other investigators that were there, at least from our point of view. After the conference was over, we introduced Cornelia to Bishop Schwendener who had a good ten minute conversation with her. Hopefully, with the many members she is now acquainted with, she’ll feel more comfortable in continuing coming to Church. Tomorrow we’ll be able to introduce her to Sister Ryser, the RS President of our ward. We finished off the night by getting everything set up for tomorrow so we won’t have to do too much tomorrow.