Elders Vincent, Nilsson, Richeson & Harris; Margarita Mauer, Ashley & Denise; Elders Richeson, Carrier, Pine, Harris & Nilsson. Yesterday's dinner guests.

AUGUST 23, 2009 SUNDAY

Today was ward conference, but we still started out with our missionary correlation meeting. It should start at 8:00, but our ward mission leader gets there about 15 minutes late every Sunday. It seems we still have enough time to cover all we need to, but shouldn’t a meeting start on time? Pres. & Sister Matern attended because today they had to be here anyway for ward conference. This week we had quite a successful week for contacting people and we even got to teach a couple of times. We requested specifically for home teachers to be assigned to Walter Burri. He needs someone to visit him regularly and make sure his needs are taken care of. We would also like more members to rally around Margarita Maurer to keep encouraging her to come to Church.
For priesthood meeting the Elders and the High Priests met together and were taught by Pres. Schwendener from the stake presidency. He focused on Jesus Christ using 3 Nephi 27:27 and that we need to know Christ to become like Him. Brother Locher taught the Gospel Doctrine class which was on temples, family history and temple ordinances including eternal marriage. The talks in Sacrament Meeting were also focused on Christ. Pres. Schwendener bore a strong spiritual testimony on the divinity of Christ and everyone in the congregation felt the Spirit bear witness to their hearts that he is our Savior and Redeemer and that He loved us so much He gave His life for us and made it possible through the Atonement to return to Heavenly Father if we repent and do our best to keep His commandments. We wished Gabriella and Cornelia would have been there. We heard Cornelia was having problems with her ankle she broke some time ago. We’ll have to check on her and see if we can do anything for her.

Diana was sitting on a bench before Sacrament Meeting started while I was in the foyer watching for Walter Burri who said he might come today. Priscilla came at sat by her and, when Walter didn’t show up, I came and stepped over both of them and sat on the other side of Diana. Just before the meeting started, Neide came and asked if I would slide over so she could sit by Diana. Soon after Christiana Sigrist came and wanted to sit by Diana too, but Neide wouldn’t slide over so I slid one more spot over and she sat on the other side of Neide. People are just attracted to Diana and want to be around her. Everybody hugs her (women) because they know and feel her great love for them. Little Nikolas was with his mother, Christiana, and he likes to sit by me. He’s kind of a fidgety five year old and can’t sit still for hardly a minute. He flips my tie, digs in my briefcase for the candy I bring him and the other kids, checks out my pockets, pinches my cheek and so on. I love this little guy.

When services were over, we hurried home to get the dinner ready for our guests coming soon after. Diana got the chicken pillows into the oven, potatoes on to cook, the final touches on the salad done and the corn on to heat. I got the gravy made for the potatoes and made the fruit salad. Everything was ready when our guests arrived, but the four missionaries called and said they had been invited to go other places and excused themselves. Those who came were Irene & Joerg, Rolf & Christa Aeberli and her handicapped brother. We had a great time and they all raved about the chicken pillows; they had never seen them before and they were really impressed how good they tasted. The chicken pillows are one of Diana’s favorite meals. They don’t usually do mashed potatoes over here, preferring to leave them whole, and they don’t normally have gravy to put on them. They thought they were especially tasty too. They also aren’t used to anything sweet during a meal like the fruit salad we made. It seemed a little hard for Christa to accept that idea, but everyone else adapted. She kept asking if it was supposed to be the dessert. The real dessert was brownies and banana bread with ice cream. Poor Joerg couldn’t stop eating and ultimately said Irene would have to roll him home.

After the meal the Aeberli’s told their conversion story. To make a long story short, Christa and Rolf were looking for the true church when they were contacted by two missionaries and over six months they taught them all the lessons. They weren’t really convinced the Church was true and, when the two missionaries were transferred, they were going to tell the sister missionaries, who took their place, they didn’t want any more visits. The trouble was, the sister missionaries didn’t come to visit them. One, who was fairly heavy, had a bike accident and so they were switched with the former missionaries so she could ride public transportation in the city rather than bikes in the country. When the two elders who had taught them for six months showed up on their doorstep again, they didn’t have the heart to tell them they didn’t want any more visits. Christa decided she couldn’t go on like this, so she decided to seriously ask God, if what they had been taught, was true. She said she prayed all night long in between catnaps and each time a thought came into her mind that it was true. She wasn’t sure if the thoughts she had were really answers to her prayers or if she was just imagining things. When morning came and she had to get up and go to work, in her last prayer she told God if he would give her a sign within two weeks, she would get baptized. She promised that if she read or saw the name of the church anywhere within the two weeks time, she would acknowledge that as the answer to her prayer. She thought she was safe because thirty years ago it wasn’t common to see the name and she had never seen the name of the Church anywhere before. However, when she got to work, she had to look up the address of a company she had to send a letter to. She looked in the telephone book to get the address and was shocked to see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints right under the address of the one she was looking for. Only one hour after she had prayed and made the promise to Heavenly Father, she had her answer (sign); it didn’t take the two weeks! She went home that evening and told Rolf what happened and said she had made the agreement and she could not break it. He told her if she were sure, he would be baptized too. They were baptized, never regretted it and are such strong members to this day, thirty years later.

After they left, we cleaned up, wrote a few emails and this journal entry. Charlotte called and we made arrangement to travel to St. Gallen on our P-day tomorrow. How does it get to be Monday again when it seems last Monday was just yesterday? The rest of the missionaries are going to play soccer so we three will be traveling alone again.

The tender mercy today is the testimony borne by Christa, that the Lord truly does answer prayers. Since then, after she read the Book of Mormon, she worried that she asked for a sign, but her request for an answer was from the heart and not a challenge to prove God existed. Another tender mercy is the witness borne to us time and again in Church today, through the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.