Our trip to the Baar caves; the floor of the cave.










APRIL 10, 2009 FRIDAY

Today is Karfreitag (Good Friday) which is a holiday celebrating Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. All the stores, banks etc. were closed. Tomorrow is Karsamstags (couldn’t find the English translation), but the stores are open. Sunday of course is Ostersonntag (Easter Sunday) which celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Monday is Ostermontag that marks the first of fifty days until the day of Pentacost. Over the years the fifty day celebration got shorter and shorter until only the Monday after Easter is celebrated. Stores are also closed on this day.

This morning was wash day and we didn’t realize the Swiss law is such that you can’t do any work on religious and other holidays. We weren’t allowed to use the washer today so we signed up for an empty spot tomorrow morning. Elder Ehlen made an appointment to come this morning at 8:00 to use the internet to register for his classes at BYU for the fall semester. As usual they hadn’t eaten breakfast so we fixed them cheese/onion/ham omlets and hashbrowns. Later on we cooked them chocolate-cake-in-a-mug. The missionaries thank Sherman for the recipe because they love them. It took Elder Ehlen until noon to get all his classes and his schedule worked out. Since they were here, we had Elders Ehlen and Roberts install the external hard drive we brought with us so the computer backs everything up automatically every day instead of having to do it manually. It would be horrible to lose all of our information if something went kaput with our computer.

We had intended to try and visit four members who we haven’t been able to contact yet. As we were traveling to Stettbach Elder Pine called and wanted to use our computer to print off something out of the Preach My Gospel for a lesson with Solange at 3:30. We told him we’d meet him at 3:00, but right then we were on our way to visit some members. However, we discovered the bus we usually take to Bassersdorf doesn’t run on holidays so we had to change our plans and go to Volketswil. We had enough time to get there, find the member’s home and get back home by 3:00. Even on a holiday, we didn’t find the member home so we left a note with an invitation to come to Church Sunday.

Elders Pine and Harris arrived, did their thing on the computer and then went on their way to meet Solange. It was too late to try to visit anyone else so we worked on our report to give to Pres. Matern at our regular six week interview with him. Elder Evans and Jensen called and asked us if we were available to team teach Rolf in a little while. We appreciated them asking, but our interview with Pres. Matern prevented us from going with them. We really would have liked to have gone. We went to our interview at 6:00 and had a very good talk with Pres. Matern. He’s always so kind and gentle with us, making sure were OK and not over-working. I mentioned to him the other day I needed to renew my temple recommend and we were suppose to do it at this meeting. As I was writing this journal entry I just remembered we both forgot so I’ll write him an email and see if we can’t get it done by the end of the month. That’s what happens when old age sets in.

While we were waiting for our interview, Naeide texted us wanting to know if we could visit her tonight. We texted back and told her we would be home at 8:00 and made an appointment for her to come visit us then. After our interview we took some plastic Easter eggs over to Charlotte for her to hide for Sunday. Half had a number on them and half a letter. Each person will be allowed to find and keep one of each which will correspond with a specific prize. Charlotte also said she’d like to take us somewhere for our Monday P-day so we may go to the Zoo. Whoopee. We went home and I continued working on the translation of the “Bird Cage,” which is a story about the Atonement which we are going to present in our lesson at FHE Monday evening. While I worked on that, Diana worked at cooking some soup for when Naeide came to visit. She arrived at the appointed time. She just needs someone to talk to every so often to help her through the tough times she’s experiencing with her son, schooling and the everyday grind of being alone. At 10:00 we walked her home and now it’s late again. We thought we’d have a nice evening and get everything done at a reasonable hour, but it seems as if something comes up every night. But we are blessed to be in a position to help, support and comfort. It is now 11:30 and it’s past time to go to bed. Many emails are left unanswered yet. Sorry.