Our almost finished shed with Hitsch Jr. on the roof; the third photo is the Oberhofen Castle that we'll have to visit sometime. Middle photo is picturesque buildings that we'll have to investigate.

AUGUST 20, 2009 THURSDAY

We got a call early this morning from Suwang Stefaniak who told us someone is breaking into her apartment again and stealing her new clothes and cut up her mattress and bedding. This is the same problem she complained about where she lived before moving into her current apartment. We brought this up in our correlation meeting many months ago and the response we got back is that she complained of this many times before and it’s an old story. Be that as it may, she had already made arrangements with the missionaries in Altstetten as well as the bishop in that ward to store her clothes with them so the thieves wouldn’t be able to steal any more. She said she needed us to help carry her clothes to the missionaries’ apartment and she would call us back when she had a certain time to come. She never called us back so we just went about our business. About 7:30 this evening we got a call from Elder Roberts asking us if we were going to help her. He expected us to have the clothes over there this evening. We told him Suwang never called us back and we had to wait until she did before we knew what and when she wanted us to do. Maybe Suwang will call us in the morning. The Elders really didn’t want to store the clothes in their apartment, even if for only a few days, but they didn’t know how to say no.

It’s too hot to go out in the daytime so we find things to do while waiting for it to cool off in the late afternoon and evening. In addition to our normal routine we made banana bread so we wouldn’t have to throw the overripe bananas away. It sure makes our apartment smell good. Since we have two dinners to prepare for, I went shopping for a few things we will need. About 5:00 in the afternoon we decided to go out visiting even if it hadn’t cooled off that much. We thought people would be home from work by then too.

The first one we went to, Gerde Schroeder, wasn’t home or didn’t answer the door. Next we went to see if Ali Peyghambari’s ex-wife was home to see if we could get his phone number or address from her. She was home, but said she didn’t have contact with him anymore and didn’t have his number or address. She’s probably not telling the truth because we know he has a daughter that he visits. Next we tried to visit Dominic Bockarie, but he wasn’t home. We continued to the apartment of Maria Cancela Rey and she wasn’t home either. However, as we started to do down the stairs of the building, we met a lady coming up. We asked her if she was Maria to which she answered yes she was. We said we were the missionaries who’d been trying to contact her for the last 11 months and had left many notes in her mailbox. She took a close look at Diana’s name tag and said, “Oh yes, you’re the Larsons.” We chatted for a bit and then asked if we could come in and talk with her. She said she couldn’t let us in right now because her apartment was a mess. She explained she had got drunk the other night and had wrecked the place. She said she’d have it all fixed up in a couple of weeks and we could come back then. We made an appointment for two weeks from tonight. It took us eleven months to get this far, so we’ll see what two weeks brings. Next we went by Susan Serfoesoe to see how she was doing. She was right in the middle of cooking dinner so we let her know we were thinking of her and then left with the promise we’d come back and visit another time. And that ended our visiting for tonight.

Rather than ride the tram we walked back into Schwamendingen. Since we had time, we dropped into COOP and picked up the final things we’d need for the two dinner, at least we hope that’s all we’ll need. Once that was done, we went back home, and you know the rest of the story. Even though we went out in the evening, we were drenched in sweat by the time we got back home. We know winter is coming, but it’s hard to enjoy this hot weather especially when it’s so humid to boot.

Our tender mercy for today was that we were finally able to catch Maria and talk to her. She is the fourth one we’ve been able to contact from our “haven’t been able to contact since we’ve been here” list. Persistence is paying off.