MAY 5, 2009 TUESDAY

This morning we got ourselves ready and went to our district meeting. Diana was responsible for the “get to know you” game because we have a couple of new faces in our district, Elder Nilsson who replaced Elder Evans and Sister Stoddard who replaced Sister Walker who went home. The game she had us play was two truths and a lie. Each of us told two truths about ourselves and one lie and the others had to guess which was which. We learned some interesting things about each other and it was fun as well. Elder Norris remembered that May 5 is traditionally Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday. To celebrate that (we don’t know why because non of us have Mexican heritage) he made cheesy nacho chips to munch on while the meeting was going on and, later on, he brought out a pinate (sp) made out of grocery bags with candy placed inside it. Elder Nilsson tried to hit it with a stick with a bag over his head, almost missed, but hit the corner not doing any damage. The next one, Elder Harris, hit it with the stick without being blindfolded and broke the sack wide open. Candy went everywhere. Elders and Sisters, being very polite, didn’t make a grab for the candy until they were asked by Elder Norris. He said someone has to take the candy even if only to give it to the little kids at church on Sunday.

Sister Stoddard gave a spiritual thought about there always being a way to accomplish your goals even if it seems there is not. To illustrate this she gave each of us a piece of 8"x11" paper and a


pair of scissors and asked us to cut a whole in it that would allow our whole body to pass through it without tearing the paper apart. None of us were able to do it so she had to show us. It is possible and the point is, we need to rely on others as well as the Lord for help; we can’t always do it alone. Elder Jensen gave a talk on the Light of Christ and how everyone has it when they are born into the world. He put flour on one side of a plate, the white representing good (Christ); he put chocolate powder on the other side of the plate representing bad (Satan). Everyone knows the difference between good and bad because of the Light of Christ. The problem comes when the chocolate mixes with the flour where the two meet and the line between good and bad becomes fuzzy. That’s where it’s more difficult to make the right choices. He gave some scriptures to teach this principle: Moroni 7:16-17, D&C 50:24-25, Alma 5:40-41. After that Elder Nilsson spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost using the following scriptures: I Cor. 12:3, John 14:26, I Nephi 4:6, and 10:17-19 to illustrate who he is and what he does. He paraphrased what Elder Bednar said about the Gift of the Holy Ghost in that receiving the Gift after baptism doesn’t mean that the Holy Ghost all of a sudden comes, but rather it provides the way to seek his companionship and help through work and righteous living. You need to go after it.

Following district meeting we came home, had lunch, went over our member list and decided to see if we could visit Peter Luetscher in Wangen. When we got to Stettbach, we noticed Charlotte getting on the last car as we were getting off the front one. We walked back and Diana knocked on the window and, when she recognized us, she quickly got off again. She had been shopping and when we told her what we were doing, she said she had nothing better to do so she came along with us to Peter’s house. Diana practiced the words she was memorizing on the list she carries with her as she talked to Charlotte. We got off on our tram stop and walked to Peter’s home. As we got close Charlotte said she’d just wait on the sidewalk for us, that she didn’t want to come to the door. Diana didn’t let her get away with that and grabbed her arm and escorted her to the door. It was unfortunate Peter wasn’t home because it would have been fun to have Charlotte with us as we met with someone. But it wasn’t to be this time. We turned around and came back to Schwamendingen, got off and visited a store to buy some punch that Elder Pine likes. We walked from the store home.

In a short time we took off and walked to the Church for Institute. The attendance had dropped off a little the last few weeks, but tonight there were more the usual numbers which is around 60 or so. The lesson in the class we attended this time was on Ephesians 5:21-25 and 6:11-18. After class was the usual refreshments, this time two different kinds of salads. One had cabbage and oranges and the other had apples, bananas, oranges and corn. The last one was better than the first, but both were different, but good. The Outreach couple, Diethelms, will be on vacation in Italy for a month so we volunteered to fill in for them while they’re gone. We’ll be helping the Wichtermanns on Tuesday evenings prepare the food and setting up the building for Institute. We got some on the job training by washing and drying the dishes after and cleaning up a little. They appreciated the help. We made it home by 10:00 and by the time this journal entry was written and the other things done, it’s now midnight. Elder Norris called for our goals for this transfer period, the next six weeks. It’s late, but we’ll write our goals in the next journal entry.