APRIL 30, 2009 THURSDAY

Sister Matern asked Diana if she would bring dessert (brownies) and help her this afternoon with the meal she needed to prepare for the missionaries going home on Friday morning. Some of the missionaries had family who had come over to travel a bit and then go home with them so it made for a rather large group. On the same day Sister Matern had to prepare lunch for the new missionaries arriving as well as their seasoned companions who travel to the mission home to pick up them up and travel back to their assigned areas of labor. It is traditional for them to send the new missionaries off after a noon meal and also send those going home with a final meal. Even though Diana was only responsible for the dessert, as is her nature, she wanted to do more than she was asked to do. She made the brownies and icing yesterday so those would be ready for today. She planned to do the shopping this morning for vegetables and all she needed for a salad (green and fruit). At about 10:00 she decided to call Sister Matern and find out what time we should arrive to help her and let her know what we had prepared. Sister Matern told her she wanted her to be there as quickly as possible to help with the noon meal for the new missionaries. What a surprise and it threw us into a flurry of activity! What to do and how to get there in time? It takes 45 minutes by tram and dolder bahn. In all of the confusion Diana thought maybe she had misunderstood what she was responsible for and in reality may have been responsible for the whole meal. She quickly started gathering together ingredients to make the beans over rice main dish, but we still didn’t have stuff to make a salad. As she started to do all of this Brother Klaumunstner called and said he’d come pick us up in a car and would be there in a half hour. This eliminated the transportation problem and gave us time to quickly run into Migros to buy stuff for the green salad as well as the fruit salad. We got back to our apartment in time to organize things for carrying and then he arrived and we left. On the way there we mentioned we didn’t know exactly what we were responsible for so Bro. Klaumunstner graciously called Sis. Matern and asked her for us. What a relief! She said Diana only needed to be there to help her and that she had everything there she needed. She also said she had mistakenly told Diana she wanted her for the evening meal when she really was thinking the noon meal. She apologized again and again for the miscommunication.

The traffic was bad because of a big problem near the bahnhof which diverted both car and tram traffic. It took us a half hour to get to the mission home when it should have taken only ten minutes by car. However, Diana got right to work and helped Sister Matern put the meal together and everything turned out wonderfully. Diana put me to work icing the brownies, and then whipping up the cream mixture for the fruit salad for dinner, which is about all there was for me to do until afterwards and then doing the cleanup before the afternoon shift kicked in.

We knew some of the missionaries who came in from the field to pick up their “Goldens” (that’s what they call the new missionaries) and it was good to renew friendships and get an update on what they had been doing since we last saw them. Among those was Elder Middleton who was a companion to Elder Pine and served in the Schwamendingen Ward until six weeks ago when he was transferred to Germany. This will be his first assignment as the senior missionary although they don’t use that term in this mission. It’s great to see he has progressed to this point so fast in his mission. It’s fun to be on the sidelines and see all of the activity that takes place as the new missionaries prepare to go into the field. Pres. & Sister Matern have their pictures taken with each Golden, and then the new companionships have their photos taken as well. The new companionships spend a lot of time getting to know one another and assisting the Goldens in feeling comfortable in this new land.

Then came lunch and there was a buzz of activity as everyone served themselves. Sister Matern came and got us after all the missionaries had gotten their food and told us to come quick before they came back for seconds. After the meal was over Diana helped clean up washed the dishes while I dried them. Once everything was done we relaxed for a bit and then asked Sister Matern if she needed our help for the evening meal. She responded she had everything under control, and just wanted to know how to fix the fruit salad for the evening meal. We told her that all she had to do was cut up the bananas and dump the strawberries that were cut up into the chocolate mixture and it was finished. Our work was done so we returned home. Before we left though, we made a visit to Sister Klaumunstner and gave her 4400sfr. for rent and utilities. She was surprised to receive so much and wondered why we were giving so much money to her. We told her we wanted to pay ahead to the point where we would have our last year’s rent paid in advance so we wouldn’t have to worry about it any more. She was a little concerned about having that much money in her little cash box in her office, but in the end said it was alright to do it that way. Brother Doyle, serving in the financial capacity in the Geneva Swiss Mission, may give us some insight if this causes any problems for them.

We came home and rested for a bit and then went out to visit two members who have birthdays today. The first one was Rolf Aeberli who lives in Wallisellen. To get to his home we get off at the same stop as the Schoggi Huessli where we bought chocolate last Christmas. Fortunately it was closed, but it smelled of chocolate as we walked by. When we got there, we rang the bell and he answered. His wife was there as well. They accepted the gift and were surprised to get the visit, but they were on their way out to go pick up his brother from somewhere and didn’t have time to invite us in to visit. They apologized profusely and we tried to assure them it was no big deal, that we were just happy to wish him a happy birthday. We walked back to the bus stop and traveled back to Schwamendingen. We had a little trouble finding the Neidhart’s home. Streets and addresses are not laid out like they are at home and sometimes it’s an adventure finding the addresses. We had forgotten to bring Tom Tom along so we were on our own. After one false start we found it. It was Ewa Neidhart’s birthday, the mother of our friend Jona, the one going on a mission. Martin, Ewa and Jona are a wonderful family who have had missionary work as one of their family goals forever. They are particularly fond of the Book of Mormon and want to give this book to everyone they can. Tonight Jona had some sort of class with a group of young non-member friends, and since it’s his last meeting with them before he goes on his mission, he took all of them a Book of Mormon. We visited with them from about 8:00 and couldn’t get away until after 10:00. They loved the story Diana told about one of her great great Grandparents and their conversion. In England during a street meeting the missionaries were holding, her grandfather stopped to listen and liked what he heard. He bought a BM and took it home. His wife thought the book was from the devil and refused to let him bring it in the house. He kept the book in the barn and read it out there. One night it was raining/snowing and he must have forgotten his BM was in his coat pocket. He came in and hung his coat up. Grandma saw the water on the floor dripping from the coat and, as she was wiping it up, felt something hard in a pocket. Curious, she looked to see what it was and it was the dreaded Book of Mormon. She was so angry she decided to throw it into the fire and at least get some use out of it. But, as she tried to throw it in, something held her arm so she couldn’t move it. Try as she might, she wasn’t able to throw it in the fire. She then decided to read the book and ended up believing and being converted and both were baptized into the Church. Diana has another story from a great grandfather, but it was late and she didn’t have her grandfather’s written testimony with her so she promised to bring it with her the next time we come. We also gave the spiritual thought on faith and enduring to the end using the tea bag as an illustration. They thought that was a great way to remember those concepts. After that we had a prayer and left. Once we got home, that ended our day.