Swiss Temple; Elder & Sister Doyle and Elder & Sister Larson; a peanut Santa Claus we found hanging in a tree.


APRIL 1, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Up early again to get to the Zurich Bahnhof to catch our train to the Swiss Temple in Zollikofen by Bern. The problem was we almost left a minute too late again. When you have to leave home at a certain time, the time drags on until the last few minutes and then, all of a sudden, you’re late. That’s what happened to us. We hopped onto Tram #7, wishing it to go faster, but they never can. Instead of getting off at the Bahnhof stop, we got off one stop earlier and walk/ran the last little way because we thought it would be faster, and it was. We hurried along looking all the time and our watch seeing the minutes go by. We were huffing and puffing as be got to the end of the platform and all of the passengers had gotten on already. I ran on ahead to a entry door and held my finger on the button so the train couldn’t leave. There’s a railroad employee who stands along the train and signals the conductor when he can pull out. He looked at me and told me to get in, but I waited until Diana got there which made him a little upset. We swear we are going to leave earlier so we don’t have to run all the time. But we were on and traveled to Biel, changed trains and went on to Zollikofen. It’s a short five minute walk to the temple from where we got out of the train.

The first people we saw after we checked in was the Neidhart family from our ward. Jona Neidhart was there to receive his endowment before he leaves on his mission in June. He announced a couple of Sundays ago this was going to happen, but at the time didn’t have a specific time or date. He intended to tell us, but he got too busy. It was just happenstance that we hit the right session to go through with him and his parents. He is convinced it was the Lord who arranged everything so we could be there at the right time. We went through three sessions, the first in German, second in Italian and the third in French. They have translator ear phones and you can pick the language you want to hear. The first session Pres. Bolt and his wife had the couple assignment; the second session we did; and the third session Elder and Sister Doyle did.
Between the 1st and 2nd sessions we went into the cafeteria and ate our homemade lunches. They have a small vending machine, but no food is cooked there unless you want to use the small microwave that is available. It was great being able to meet the Doyles and go through the 3:00 session with them. We were able to visit a bit, talk about our mission experiences and take a photo together. The Doyles were at the temple because they were asked to transport some missionaries to the temple so they could have that experience because they are being released from their missions and are going home. What a day! To get home we took a train from Zollikofen to Bern and from Bern direct to Zurich. Tram #7 got us home at 8:00 pm.

We always look in the mailbox every time we go past it just in case. This time there was a surprise inside, two packages from Roxsan. The large mailer envelope smelled to high heaven (a good smell), but we immediately knew what was inside. Dryer sheets !!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!! No more static cling!!!!!!! The other box had licorice, a bread pudding mix, lots of jello, inspirational stories, a picture of the ten virgins and some letters from Rees, Dray and Mayleah. This just caps off the day as one of the best.

Since it’s April Fool’s Day, Diana had me call our zone leaders, Elders Pine and Harris, and tell them Pres. Matern had told us to call them and say the zone conference had been canceled for tomorrow. They didn’t buy that story at all for two reasons. First, they were going to play the same trick on us, but we beat them to it. Second, they were with Pres. Matern today so they knew it was a ruse.