The first photo is a honey wagon (hauls liquid manure to spray on their fields. The second is an old photo of Dale Abersold who was a companion of mine in 1964. The photo of the person with the bike is me in 1963 with Zuerich in the background.

JUNE 17, 2009 WEDNESDAY

This morning we noticed Elder Jensen’s day planner sitting on our desk. He must of left it here last night when they were using the computer to produce their article for the Gipfelsturmer, the mission newsletter that comes out every transfer (six weeks). He called us this morning and asked us if it were here and could he come over and get it. They arrived about 11:00 and wanted to finish their project on the computer while they were here. They were still at it when we left for our appointment. We have a spare set of keys they use to lock up when they leave and they just drop it in our locked mailbox at the bottom of our stairs when they go. We were a minute late for our tram and so had to wait for the next one which threw us late for our bus connection at Stettbach. We ended up at Bahnhof Bad waiting for the bus to leave so we called Sister Gianatti to let her know we were going to be bout 15 minutes late. She seemed anxious we get there because the others were already there and she must of not wanted them to wait on us so she sent Heinz in his car to get us. That was nice of them, but we think we could have gotten there just as fast on the bus.

Sister Silvana Gianatti is 63 years old, but seems in her seventies. We’ve been trying to get her to come to Church, but she’s resisted until now. The others who were there were Heinz & Lily Locher and Helena Roffler. It was Heinz’s birthday today which made him 72 years old. Helen is his sister and she’s 74. Silvana had quite an interesting lunch prepared. She had the first plate all dished up when we got there. It consisted of several kinds of thin sliced bacon, ham, and other kinds of cured meats although they looked raw and felt raw as you chewed them. They were somewhat salty too. I didn’t mind it, but Diana had a hard time with it. I tried to help her out by taking one off her plate, but Silvana got after me and told me if I wanted more, she had some extra she’d let me have. I didn’t want any more and I didn’t want to upset Silvana, so Diana was on her own. It took her awhile, but she finished it all. There were melon slices there which helped a lot, and they were really good. The interesting thing is, these types of meats are very expensive so we’re sure she went all out for us which we really appreciated. After the first course was finished, she served us a type of a spinach quiche that was good, but a couple of problems kept it from being excellent. First it was too salty which she admitted herself. Second, it was burned on the bottom, around the sides and on the top. Once you got into the middle, it was pretty good. She insisted on a second helping and when I got through with that, I thought I was done. But she had one more piece left and how can one say no? I wished I would have because it was almost like charcoal, nice and crunchy. For dessert she served a small dish of ice cream with a fresh cooked hot berry topping and a piece of lemon cake. Now that was the best part of the whole meal. The Swiss don’t like to rush their meals which is a nice custom. It gives everyone time to talk and visit with one another. It was Heinz’s birthday today so we gave him our usual gift, a box of chocolate covered cookies, and a card. We also gave our host, Silvana, a mosquito candle for her balcony.

After we got through with the meal we cleared the table and then lead a discussion on parts of the first lesson, which continued on from the last time we met with her. It was nice having the Lochers and Helena there to help when we got a little stuck with the language. Diana wasn’t bashful about participating either and made some good points which added to the discussion. Silvana kept coming back to saying she couldn’t understand why there were so many Churches and how can one know which one is right. Diana used a plate which represented Christ’s church and gospel which was supported by the 12 apostles (the foundation as described in Ephesians 2:20. When you take away the 12 apostles supporting the plate, it falls and breaks into many pieces. Each piece represents perhaps one or two truths or pieces of the gospel or Church. A minister or priest takes one of the pieces and with this one truth, establishes a church. And so on it goes until there are many churches, but each has only a piece of the gospel, not one has the complete gospel. That’s why a restoration of all things was necessary. We related the parable to her about planting a seed. When you plant a seed you have to have a desire so see it grow. You have to have faith, but you also have to nurture it and give it space to grow. If you neglect it, it’ll die. It’s the same with finding out what’s true. First you have to have a desire to know, then exercise faith to the extent you do something to discover the truth such as read the Book of Mormon, ponder what you read and then pray for an answer. The Lord has promised if you’re sincere, he’ll testify of the truth to you through the power of the Holy Ghost. Moroni 10:4-6 We committed her to reading the BM the last time we were here, but she had other things disrupt her life such as her sister’s husband died. Now that’s all past we committed her to read 15 minutes a day and to start with 3 Nephi chapters 11 through 26 where Christ visits the Nephites, organized his Church by calling 12 apostles, giving them authority to baptize and administer the sacrament. The last thing we did was to invite her to Church again. The meal and the lesson took three hours and poor Lily Locher dozed off at the last. As we were leaving Silvana gave us a jar of Holunder berry jam and Citroenenmelisse (with orange and lemon) syrup you dilute with water to drink. Her daughter manufactures these items. We thanked her for the meal and the gifts. She requested we bring back the bottles the syrup and the jam were in because they were decorative and they can be used over again. We took that as a sign we at least get to visit her one more time, although I’m sure we could and will anyway.

This evening we made a few calls to people to try and set up some more appointments. We got in touch with Tony Dkere again and made an appointment for Friday afternoon at 5:00. This is the third appointment we’ve made and we’ve yet to meet him. He seemed especially nice on the phone this time, so we hope he’ll be there. Herr Keller was a different story. We met him at the last street contacting activity at Bahnhof Oerlikon and after a short discussion, gave him a BM and the Joseph Smith pamphlet. We exchanged names and phone numbers at that time and he said he’d think about whether we could meet with him or not. When I talked to him tonight he said he’d done a little research and decided not to meet with us. It sounded like he got a hold of some anti-Mormon stuff and would rather believe the untruths than be taught the true gospel.

Our daughter Roxsan skyped us and had questions about some applicants she had received for one of our houses in Sandy that is empty. She also told us that Norma Lord, Diana’s dear friend in White City, experienced kidney failure last week and was in the hospital undergoing dialysis. She’s out of the hospital and home now and we understand she’s no longer required to undergo dialysis any more, but still needs to be on oxygen. We pray for her that she’ll recover. Monica, another daughter, talked to us for a little while and Remington, her son, informed us he had his Eagle project all worked out and approved. Great news that. Life is full of good news and not so good news and we have to be content with that.