AUGUST 28, 2009 FRIDAY

Last Wednesday when we took the fan over to Priscilla we noticed her light fixture wasn’t working in her ironing room. She was using a small lamp when it got too dark for her to see. On the way home we bought a single bulb fluorescent light fixture for 13sfr. Today we took it over and replaced the fixture. We wanted to check it out first to see if it was really the fixture or the switch that was a problem. I connected an extension cord to the fixture and plugged it into a wall plug, but that didn’t work. I tried other things to see if the fixture was actually getting electricity, but just couldn’t tell. I didn’t have a circuit tester so I went to the surefire method; I touched both wires with my fingers. Nothing. I asked Diana to flip the switch because we didn’t know if it was on or off. I touched the wires again and, yeoow, yup, there was electricity. I learned this method from my electrician brother, Eric, who favors this method just to make certain sure. No I didn’t have a heart attack and fall of the plastic cartons I was standing on and no I didn’t lose any fingers either. Once I knew the old light fixture was the problem, I went ahead and changed it out. Priscilla was happy when the light came on. By the time we were finished, we were soaked with sweat because that room is so hot with all the ironing going on. The fan we gave her Wednesday was making a little bit of a difference.

We came back home and I changed into my preaching clothes and we left to go to our appointment with Tony Dkere. This is the fifth appointment we’ve had with him, but every other time he’s stood us up. We wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t of been there again today. When we got there, we rang his doorbell and got no answer. We rang it again a couple of times and still no answer. A resident of the building came and asked us if we wanted to come in inside. Of course we said yes and went in. It is very unusual for the Swiss to let someone into their building because they are very suspicious of strangers. Once in we went up and down the stairs and into the hallways looking for Tony’s apartment. Diana was by the front door when a man opened it and saw her. Diana said, “hi, are you Tony?” and he was a little startled, but answered that he was. It was Tony in the flesh. He was late getting home, but the time we took looking for his apartment kept us there until he got home.

Tony invited us in and we had a good hour long visit with him. He is 46 years old, is from Nairobi and has been in Switzerland 13 years. When he came here, he said the Swiss told him he had to get married to be able to stay. He said he had a difficult time finding someone, but eventually did. The marriage didn’t last long, but he has a son who’s nine years old that he sees occasionally. His mother died about a month ago, but he has one brother in Germany and the other 10 brothers and sisters still live in Nairobi. He is tired of being here all alone, but can’t afford to go back home where he would have to live in poor circumstances. He used to work construction, but had a bad on-the-job accident and so can’t work at that job anymore. We’re not sure if he has another job now or not. He said he had a car because he doesn’t like to ride in trams or buses. He says the Swiss are too sad and solemn and just read their newspapers. He also has the opinion that the Swiss worship money above everything else. He made a few jokes about them regarding their money so he has a sense of humor.

We talked about the Church and invited him to come back. He said he would like to do that so we’ll be waiting for him next Sunday. He was baptized a long time ago, but couldn’t remember exactly when. It’s been a long time since he’s been to Church. He says he’s been too busy and time goes by too fast. He didn’t have a Book of Mormon where he could find it, so we told him we’d bring one to Church for him Sunday. He said he would be delighted for us to come by again to visit him.

We stopped in LIDL in Sternen Oelikon on the way home and bought some groceries. We’ve kind of used up our supplies with the last few dinners and the missionaries dropping by. It doesn’t take much to feel like we’re pack horses carry the food home. I stuffed my backpack with the canned peaches, pears and fruit cocktail as well as the bananas on top. In addition we carried three more sacks between us. It’s not a simple task to carry these on a bus and then switch to a tram, but eventually we got home with everything. When we taught Valerie Otte the other day, she gave us a rather large zucchini out of her garden that’s been sitting in our kitchen. We also had two that Sister Sigrist gave a week or so ago. Diana made a delicious zucchini goulash, fried hamburgers and fried leftover mashed potatoes for dinner. Usually we don’t do much for dinner, but when Diana got started, she did it up right.

After dinner we filled out our report and was working on our journal when we got a call from Elder Carrier with our district meeting assignment. He wants us to make lunch for them again, but this time they want to chip in some money to buy the groceries. This is the Omega meeting, the special one just before transfers. We are losing two missionaries from our district who are going home, Elder Jacob Pine and Sister Emily Hewitt. In their place we’ll be getting Elder Jeffrey Clynn Dockstader II from Biel and Sister Amanda Kaye Price from Bern. Everyone else is staying put. For that we are grateful because we do get attached to these missionaries.

The tender mercy for today was that the resident of the apartment building where Tody Dkere lives let us into the building. If he had not, we may have left before Tony got home and we would have missed him again. And Tony is now off our list of haven’t-been-able-to-contact-since-we’ve-been-here list, which makes us happy.