Brown Swiss cows with bells; Elders Larson, Nilsson, Harris & Charlotte; Elder Nilsson Charlotte, Diana, eating lunch at Braunwald.

MAY 25, 2009 MONDAY

We were up and on our way to the Bahnhof to meet up with Elders Harris & Nilsson and Charlotte for our P-day activity. We walked to our underground tram stop and were waiting for our tram when Elder Harris called and asked us where we were. We told him we were waiting for our tram and it would be here in one minute. He said they were only a minute away and wanted to ride together to the train station. They made it just in time and we all boarded and were off to meet Charlotte at the meeting point at the Zurich Bahnhof. We didn’t know exactly where we were going, but Charlotte had it all planned out, something about taking a ride over the Swiss Alps. We ended up going through Lindthal, Altdorf, Glaurus and ended up at Braunwald. We traveled through some marvelous breathtaking country with small towns nestled up against the forest as they rose up into snow-capped mountains. The vallley floors were continuous green meadows with a lot of Brown Swiss cows grazing in them. When we were close enough, we could hear the cow bells chiming that were hung around every cow’s neck. We made two video clips of them, one of which we posted with this journal entry.

We wanted to continue on past Braunwald to go over the mountain pass, but that section of the tracks don’t open until June 27 because of the deep snow that piled up during the winter. However, at Braunwald we were able to take a cog wheel train up the steep mountain to a little resort town. Again we were a little early because the lifts to go higher we not running today either. As we got off the train we were met with another breathtaking view of the valley below framed by the Alps in the background that were draped by glaciers and deep deep snow. We took some photos and were going to walk up the steep roads to looks around when we saw two horses with a carriage hooked to it. Charlotte wanted to take a ride in it and so we looked around for the driver and he came running from a building a little ways away. He made us wait until he got his proper Swiss shirt on, blankets arranged on the leather seats to sit on and then we got in. He took us on a half hour ride through the pretty countryside for which he charged us 40.00sfr. We thought that was a little steep, but we paid half and Charlotte paid the other half. He should have paid us because he made us smell his old cigar the whole way. We arrived back at the starting point, got out and walked down a road for a ways to a bench that was in the shade. We wanted shade because it was really hot today although we didn’t know the exact temperature. Switzerland is going through the hottest heat wave they’ve experienced here since the 1930's. We were glad we were in the mountains, although we weren’t very high and it was still hot, but not as hot as lower down. We took our time with lunch which consisted of tuna fish and ham/cheese sandwiches we had brought as well as bread, cheese and different kinds of meat cheeses.

Following lunch we went back to the cog wheel train and traveled back down to the bottom. We waited around for our train for a half an hour then rode back through the same kind of scenery to Rapperswil. We came here a few months ago in the middle of the winter, and it looked much the same as it did today except people were dressed a little more skimpy. We planned on riding a tourist boat back to Zurich, but we had a little time to wait for our ship to come. We walked though part of the old town then walked back to the dock, but we were still too early. We spent some time feeding the ducks, geese and gulls the warm leftover sandwiches we still had with us. They didn’t look to good to us, but the birds fought over every scrap, bread, cheese, ham and all, so they must have been good. The boat finally came and we had a leisurely two hour ride back to Zurich. We then got on a crowed tram, melting in the heat, and went home. The heat doesn’t bother me especially, but Diana suffers when it gets too hot.

A few minutes before we were going to leave for our family home evening Elders Nilsson and Harris arrived to do some more work on our computer for the zone conference coming up. We also got a call from Elder Pine who, with pleading in his voice, told us he and Elder Jensen were still in Luzern and would we do their assignment in family home evening tonight. Their assignment was to organize the game. They must think it’s easy coming up with a game with only a few minutes’ notice, but we told them we would. We couldn’t pawn it off on Elders Harris and Nilsson because they were going to do their emails instead of going to FHE. It was a little odd at FHE because we didn’t have any of the four missionaries there. But we had a good time none the less. Irene gave the lesson on the five senses and how we can use them to develop a better relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ. The game we played was “Helium Stick” which we had played at district meeting one time, but not at FHE. This is the game where the players line up in two rows facing each other, but no exactly opposite. Each holds out both of their pointer fingers so they line up in a row. Then a paper stick made out of rolled up paper is placed on top of their fingers and all the players have to keep their fingers in contact with the “stick.” The object of the game is to lower it to the ground, all the while every player maintains contact with it. It’s almost impossible to do unless every single person cooperates. Mostly the stick rises instead of lowers. They all had fun and had to cheat to get it to the ground, but it took them a good 15 minutes anyway. We’ve come to love the members of our group and miss the ones who are absent.