Hitsch Charlotte holding one of Hitsch Jr. boys and Diana with John on the stilts she made for him; part of the Thun castle; Hitsch Jr., Hitsch and Robert.

AUGUST 18, 2009 TUESDAY

Diana was assigned to provide the treats for district meeting today and anyone who knows Diana, knows she doesn’t skimp. She always goes the extra mile. She made rice crispie treats last night and this morning she whipped up a bunch of brownies. She worries about the missionaries eating healthy too, so she made each of them a ham/cheese sandwich to go along with the sweets. It was a push to get everything ready and us too and be on time for our meeting, but we just made it. Before the meeting started Diana divided out each missionary’s portion and put it on plates and then Elder Carrier called the meeting to order and it got started. As soon as the prayer was said the first thing the missionaries did was eat their sandwiches. It makes us wonder if they have breakfast before they leave their apartments. Soon after, their rice crispie treats and brownies started to disappear.

The district meetings are always great and it’s wonderful to see the maturity and dedication the missionaries have as well as their spirituality. Elder Richeson spoke to the subject of why each of us came on our missions, out of duty or love of Christ. He is an assistant to the president and so he gets to work with a lot of missionaries. He notices those who are excited to get out and work and those who seem to be just marking time. He asked us all to evaluate why we are here and counseled us that people notice and feel our love and enthusiasm and respond to it. Elder Carrier, our DL, gave a talk on faith and all the elements that go into having faith. Elder Pine was asked to give a success story. When he and Elder Middleton were companions one night they prayed extra hard to find someone to teach. That night Elder Pine had a dream and was given a specific name to go find. In the morning they used a member’s computer to google the name and found only one person with that name and it happened to be in their area. They couldn’t wait to knock on this man’s door and, when they did, he told them he wasn’t interested and shut the door. Elder Pine said he couldn’t understand why the Lord would give him that specific name and then be rejected by him. Sadly they were on their way back home when they ran into an old investigator who they had lost contact with. She told them she wanted them to come teach her again and so they exchanged phone numbers and made an appointment. In the middle of the night on the same day the lady called Elder Pine and Middleton asking for help because her husband had beat her up, kicked her out of the house and she had no where to go. It was in the middle of winter and she was freezing because he threw her out without anything. The elders got dressed and found her in a phone booth and took her to the Church for the night. Long story short, they helped her contact her sister in Norway who came and got the lady and took her back to Norway with her. The moral to this story is that the Lord is involved in people’s live and uses various means and methods to bless lives. If Elders Pine and Middleton hadn’t of been in the area of the man he dreamed about, they wouldn’t of met the lady and wouldn’t of been in a position to help her. The Lord really does know his children and how to help them and bless their lives.

The game we played today was Family Feud. In preparation for this Sister Hewitt thought up questions and called a lot of other missionaries to get the top answers for her opinion poll. The questions had to do with various aspects of missionary life. It was a fun game. Elder Vincent gave his favorite quote. Sister Stoddart did some role plays on how we communicate with the Lord through our prayers, sometimes perfunctorily, sometimes one sided, and the best way is a two sided conversation between a father and child, a child who listens as well as talks. I was asked to select the closing song and give the closing prayer. The song was “I Have Work Enough To Do.”

After the meeting we went home and soon after Elders Roberts & Frandsen arrived for their haircuts. While I cut their hair, Diana fed them everything that we have loose around the house. This time she divided and extra ham/cheese sandwich between them and gave them left over brownies and rice crispie treats. She would have made them more sandwiches, but she used all the bread we had for the district meeting. Apple juice and orange juice helped them wash it all down. It is rewarding to be of service to the missionaries and help keep them healthy, well groomed and looking sharp. Both of these Elders go home a months after we do.

We were able to make contact with two people we’ve been trying to contact since we arrived last October. Peter Luetscher, who lives in Wangen, told us he had been excommunicated and didn’t want to have anything more to do with the Church. He said his life had gone a different direction and didn’t want to meet with us. Carolyn Maurer was really nice, but she wasn’t ready to come back into activity in the Church. She had some problems early in her life and hasn’t been able to get past it. She said she had good feelings for the Church and the members here, but just wasn’t ready yet. We talked for awhile and told her we’d really like to meet her and that we’d be here for another year and that we would check back with her in about six months or so just to see if things had changed in her life. We parted on friendly terms.

Elder Nilsson called us tonight and had an uplifting story to tell us. He and Elder Harris are zone leaders and were just returning from visiting a district meeting in another district and had missed the train they wanted to get on. They took the next train and were riding along when a lady from behind said, “missionary boys, huh?” They turned around and talked with the lady and found out it was Nelly Rathgeb, a member we’ve been trying to contact since October. We talked to her for the first time last week on the phone, but she said she was too busy to meet with us. She told the Elders she was sorry she didn’t have time to meet with us and for all the times we left notes at her home and she hadn’t respond back, but she appreciated us being persistent. She said if we cared to come to Buehlach, we could meet with her there. They asked her if they could help her out with anything at her kindergarten. She replied she would welcome the help and so we’ll call her and see if she is serious. It would be a great opportunity for us and for her. And that is the tender mercy of the Lord for today. Did Elders Harris & Nilsson just happen to miss their train or was it because the Lord arranged for them to miss it so they would come into contact with Nelly.


We’ve been trying to figure out a way to visit with Margarita Maurer again and have called her several times, but with no success with setting up an appointment. She likes Elder Pine who is going home on September 5, so we decided to invite Elder Pine for a last dinner before he leaves. We also invite Denise Maurer who is the daughter of Margarita and asked her to bring her mother with her. We’re hoping she comes. We set it up for next Saturday at 6:00 pm. We tried to call others to set up some appointments to visit, but no one else was home.