Fountain in Konstanz. I almost stepped on it. Robert & Diana in Konstanz.

MAY 20, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Today was kind of a different day than we’re used to. We got up and did the usual including the wash because it was Wednesday. We worked on our lesson for tomorrow’s meeting with Angela Okoro and her husband and then let our fingers do the walking. We called Sister Bosshard to see how her checkup at the hospital went. She said they found a few polyps and snipped them out, but other than that she was in good shape for the shape she is in. Next we called Margarita Maurer to see how her checkup on her knee went. She said she was going into the hospital tomorrow for an operation on it, but she would only have to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. We thought she went in on Monday for the operation so we called her daughter, Denise, first to get an update and find out what hospital she was in. She didn’t answer, so on impulse we called Margarita’s number and found her home which surprised us. We just hung up from talking to her when Denise returned our called. She said her mother was going in for her operation on Monday which is a different story than what Margarita told us. Denise said she would get the correct information and then let us know. Next we called Cinthya Frioud, who is suffering from a difficult pregnancy, to see how she was doing. She’s had three miscarriages and this one will be her first child, if she carries to term. She said she’s doing okay for being seven months along and we made an appointment to visit her next Wednesday, a week from today. Next, we called Silvana Gianatti to see if we could arrange an appointment. We did and it’s set for next Wednesday, a week from today. Next, we called Hildegunde Schroeder, who is less-active, to see if we could help her with the music activity next Sunday afternoon. Even though she is less-active, she helps George get it organized and arranges the refreshments for after. She asked us to bring some fresh fruit, so that’s what we’ll do.

We took a break for lunch and I walked in to Schwamendingen to get some money out of the ATM. We’ve been waiting to see if the exchange rate would go up, but it looks like it’s going to stay down for awhile. We decided not to wait any longer. While I was there, I bought some pie dough to make a fruit pie and bought two gallons of punch at the Greek store and then walked back home.

We studied German some more by reading the BoM and going over vocabulary lists. Learning German is a never-ending battle and sometimes it seems we don’t make much progress especially when we’re reading the Isaiah chapters. But we keep trying. We worked a little at building a scaffold on our balcony to tie our plants to so they grow up and not down. We don’t have much room out there so if we can keep them vertical, it’ll work out okay. We have a couple of plants on the clothes dry rack and that’ll help. We have many little green tomatoes on the plants and can’t wait until they are red. Elder Norris called today for us to look up an address for him. He was happy we were home. We also received a call from Elder Ehlen who asked us if we could help a family move from his ward in Altstetten into our ward. Gabriella Rodriguez is less-active and her husband, Roger, is not a member. Elder Ehlen would like us to take over teaching them when they get moved and, if we help them move, it’ll help us to get to know them and also build a relationship with them. The only problem we have is, they are moving next Wednesday, the exact day we just previously had booked two appointments. We’ll help out for a few hours, if we can.

This evening we were back on the phone again making contact, or trying to, with other members we haven’t been able to contact personally, even visiting some as many as six or eight times. Thomas Otth wasn’t home, but we left a message. We got no answer at Patricia Hungerbuehlers. We left a message for Rene’ Hartmann. Annika Schmutz hasn’t answered our many calls since we first contacted her two weeks ago. Genaro Chamorro answered, but told us he had no interest in a visit from us or in talking any longer to us, so we said goodbye and hung up. We always wonder how they’ve come to a point in their lives where they don’t want anything more to do with the Church. It makes us sad to see them turn away from Christ’s true Church which has the keys of salvation and eternal life. Our last call was to Charles Aboussou whose home we’ve been to probably 10 or 15 times, never finding him home. He said he works different hours and it’s difficult for him to make an appointment, but we could try and catch him Saturday. We’ll try.

Elders Norris and Carrier came by to pick up a talk on the Word of Wisdom by Elder Packer that I downloaded (in German) for him off the internet. They visited for about a half hour during which time Diana taught them about the Abrahamic Covenant. After they left Elder Ehlen called to ask a question about how a bishop could go about cleaning up his membership records by canceling memberships of those who say they don’t want any more contact with the Church, but haven’t actually requested in writing the canceling of their memberships. We told him we’d research it and get back to him.

Roxsan skyped us mostly to tell us that someone wanted to buy our property in Draper for a church, not ours. They offered us $150,000 for it, but feel that is not close to market value. We declined the offer and we’ll see if they bump it up any. We’re not anxious to sell anyway. And while we talked of other things, Diana noticed little Nathan walking past holding onto a push toy. This is the first time we’ve seen him walking and it was a big surprise. We do miss the Grandkids, but being able to see them once in a while makes it bearable. Roxsan said Monica & Chris are anxious to move out of our house before we get home and Diana is wondering who will move in when they move out. Roxsan said she wouldn’t move into the top with us living in the basement, but that she’d trade her home for ours. No deal. Rebecca said she’d really like to live in Sandy and Diana mentioned that maybe Rebecca & Jared would like to move in the upstairs and rent their West Jordan home.

Our last comment for tonight is that we baked a peach pie and it turned out great.