Sorry, no pics today. We have to be up early and it's already 11:15 pm. Where did the day go?

APRIL 23, 2009 THURSDAY

Since we’ve been on the run every day all day this week, we had to pause and do the wash this morning. Even then we had to rush to get over to Suwang’s home by 11:00. Before we left we called Elder Ehlen to give him an update on what was happening hoping he would offer to come over and help. Being the good missionary he is, he and his companion offered to come and help. Before we arrived we agreed Diana would work with Suwang in sorting good clothes from bad that had been stuffed in about fifteen garbage bags and in the closets and drawers. I on the other hand would start in the bedroom organizing books, etc and etc and then work out from there. We kind of expected Suwang to give a bit of a fight getting rid of her things, but she was as good as gold. Diana works well with others and she had prepared Suwang over the weeks of visits in the hospital. She just asked Suwang to sort the good from the bad and she did.

Shortly after we got started, Elders Ehlen and Roberts came and kind of pitched in, doing what we asked them to. It was a learning experience for them on how to dig into a mess and get it cleaned up. The worst part of the whole thing was the cat hair that was all over everything. The vacuum took care of a lot of it, but we both forgot to vacuum ourselves before we left. We both had hair all over our pants etc. Halina, her daughter, came about a half hour before we were through and helped with some of the final decisions. She was sure glad we were there to help; there was no way she would have been able to get everything done by the time the people were supposed to come look at the apartment. Before we left we invited Halina to come to Church and assured her she was always welcome. We finished about twenty minutes before we planned to leave anyway because I had a temple recommend interview scheduled with Pres. Matern at 4:00.

We traveled home, cleaned up and showered, then went on our way to the mission home and the interview. It takes about forty-five minutes by tram and dolderbahn to get there. No one but Pres. and Sister Matern were there when we arrived so it was very peaceful and quiet. Diana went upstairs with Sister Matern while I had my interview. I was able to answer all the questions satisfactorily so I’m good to go for another two years. Elder Ehlen had called a couple of times to get the “Bird Cage” story we used as a spiritual thought awhile ago and he called again now that we were in the mission home. Diana read him the story over the phone while Elder Ehlen wrote it down. She was just finishing as Pres. Matern and I came up the stairs. After she was through we had a nice chat with them for about a half hour. Sister Matern asked Diana to help her with some of the food preparation for when the new missionaries come in next Thursday. She is excited to take part in welcoming them to Switzerland. Finally it came time to go home so we bid them adieu and left. Instead of going straight home we continued on to Schwamendingen and made a few purchases at Migros and COOP. And then we went home.

We would have liked a rest, but commitments come first. We had to deliver birthday present to Pres. Bolt and Erika Weibel. We decided to go to Erika’s first because it was farther away and we wanted to get back before it got too dark. We got there and had a nice visit, one that lasted a bit too long. We finally made our departure and tried to hurray back for Pres. Bolt. We didn’t make it in time. One of the side effects of his stroke from a couple of years ago is that he gets tired easily. As a result he goes to bed early. When we got back, it was still one minute to 9:00 so we tried to call him, but he didn’t answer. We feel bad we didn’t get to him on his birthday, but we’ll go see him tomorrow. This time we went home for good, at least for this day. However, we had one more thing on the agenda; Elders Pine and Harris wanted to use our computer for a few minutes to download some photos of Solange’s baptism because they were making some sort of remembrance book for her and it needed to be done tonight. They arrived at 9:00 and stayed for about fifteen minutes, their job already completed. Now we can relax, write the journal entry and get ready for tomorrow. While we were doing that, Roxsan skype’d us so she could ask us a couple of rental questions, but also to talk to us. She missed calling us the last three Sundays so we had a good chat. Little Nathan waved at us this time in response to our waves to him. He has the cutest laugh and giggles all the time. Mayleah told us she has already learned to ride a two-wheeled bike and not even in Kindergarten yet. See you on the flip side.