MAY 3, 2009 SUNDAY

Today was stake conference at 10:00 so we got ready and went a little early. The Stake President wanted everyone in their seats at 9:50 because there was some sort of official business needed to be done before the actual conference began. So we were there in our seats and the business was done, but we and the other missionaries we talked to didn’t understand what it was all about. Tomorrow I’ll be working with two Swiss members and I’ll have them explain to me what it was all about. Whatever it was only involved the Swiss members and excluded members from other countries. Members were instructed they could sustain the action, dissent or abstain, but they all had to do one of the three. There were no dissenting or abstaining votes that we could see. We talked to Elder Ehlen who attends the St. Gallen Stake and they did the same thing there, but he said there were a few dissenting and abstaining votes.

At 10:00 the meeting began with a song and a prayer and the sustaining of the Church leaders and officers like normal. The Young Single Adults formed the choir and they sang beautifully, a lot better than when they were practicing at Institute for the last month or so. There were several YSA’s that spoke on different subjects and then Pres. Bolt introduced a young boy who was the next speaker. He said this is the first time such a young boy (8 or 9) had been asked to speak to adults in stake conference that he could remember. The boy gave a good talk and didn’t seem to be scared at all. Pres. Bolt’s talk as well as some of the others focused on member missionary work. The new Swiss Temple President and his wife spoke. They are both Italian and needed translators. They gave a little background of themselves and the blessings of the temple. After the meeting was over we visited with members and missionaries for awhile and then started to walk home. We were walking past a couple and said hi to them and they returned the greeting in English so we stopped to talk to them for quite awhile. They were a couple from Las Vegas visiting a former missionary companion of the husband who is Swiss. During the fifteen minutes or so that we talked to them it seemed almost as if we had known them for a long time. They finally had to leave and we continued on home.

We cooked lunch and then we decided to go find an inactive member who has a birthday tomorrow. We wanted to do it today because we may not have time tomorrow with what we have planned. We took the tram to Stettbach and then a bus along Greifen Lake and then on to Pfaffhausen. It was a sunny afternoon and there were a lot of people out as well as boats on the lake. We got off at Pfaffhausen and walked to where Jean-Pierre Isenschmid lived. We discovered he had moved and talked to one of the neighbors and confirmed it. There wasn’t anything else to do but return home. Once we got home we called the number we had for him and a lady answered. She said they had indeed moved and gave me the new address. Just as she was about to hang up, Bro. Isenschmid arrived home and we were able to talk to him. When I introduced us as missionaries he immediately said he’d told others he was not a member and he didn’t care to talk to us any more. We explained we were only calling to wish him a happy birthday. He thanked us and then ended the conversation. After that we called Sis. Gianatti for an appointment, but she said she was busy this week and to try her next week. We also tried to call Sis. Bosshard, but got no answer. A couple of weeks ago when we met with the bishopric, we told the bishop we were keeping notes on our contacts with members so we could remember what we’d done with each one. He asked us for a copy. I worked the rest of the evening updating the member list so we can print him off a copy to give him next Sunday. Diana kept busy inventing another memory game for family home evening and reading. She wrote down a lot of common sayings on a piece of paper and the game would be to fill in the missing word. For example: a __________ for your thoughts. The only trouble is she lost the piece of paper so she’s had to think them all up again. The other problem is, we don’t know if the Swiss have the same sayings. It’ll be fun to find out.