Thun Castle; Robert standing in front of the Thun castle; room where prisoners were chained to the wall.

AUGUST 17, 2009 MONDAY

What to do today for P-day. The missionaries in our district first wanted to go to the Pilatus mountain, but decided it would cost too much. Then they decided to go to Luzern and go on a boat ride on Vierwaldstaettersee. The sisters in Luzern told the others they absolutely wanted to up on Pilatus. Each time they decided where they wanted to go, Charlotte or one of the others called us to let us know so we could meet them at the Zurich Bahnhof at the right time. About 9:00 last night Elder Carrier called to get our weekly report and, while doing that, told us the final decision was to go to Luzern for a boat ride. Just to make sure Charlotte knew what the plans were, we called her to let her know the final decision. She already knew the plans, but we told her we had been on the boat ride there a couple of times and didn’t care to go there again. She said she understood and we hung up. Diana and I decided we wanted to go to Thun and visit the castle there. Shortly after Charlotte called us back and asked us if it was alright if she came with us because she didn’t want to go on the boat ride either. We told her it was okay by us and she suggested we go to see the castle in Thun and then ride the paddle wheel boat from Thun to Interlaken. We’d already decided to do that because we hadn’t been there yet and so it worked out really well.

This morning we were up and to the bahnhof where we met Charlotte a little before 9:00. We got on our train and we were off on our next great adventure. Thun is a quaint not so little town with the castle towering above it on a high hill in the center of town. It would be a great place for a temple because you can see it from everywhere. We walked from the Thun bahnhof up the cobblestone street toward the castle and found the beginning of a thousand stairs leading up to it. We took it slow so as not to get overheated or induce a heart attack. Finally we made it to the level where the castle stood and paid our 6sfr. each to enter it. Another couple of flights of stairs later we entered the middle floor. There were another two floors above and three floors down. The castle had been turned into a museum and each floor had displays and each floor was different. One had old clocks, another old carpets and tapestries, another body armor and some weapons, another pottery making equipment, and yet another, old baby buggies and other wagons and such on runners for in the winter. The castle was nothing like I remembered it from 45 years ago so I was kind of disappointed, but Diana and Charlotte enjoyed it.

We left the castle just before noon and walked a little ways to look at a Catholic church. There was a bench in a shady spot so we decided to sit there while we ate our lunches we brought with us. While we were there the church bells started ringing and didn’t quit for 15 minutes. When we finished our lunches, we tried to go into the church, but it was locked. We turned around and made our way back to where you would get on the boat. We arrived just a few minutes too late because the bot had already left the dock. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided to get on the bus and, since it goes faster that the boat, ride it to where we could get off and onto the boat. This tactic worked fine, but we still had to run a little to get to the boat before the gangplank was pulled in. The ride was great as we passed beautiful scenery and enjoyed the cool breeze.

At the end of Thun Lake the boat traveled down a canal that was man made until we reached West Interlaken. We got off there and got on the train to return home. We only had to change trains once and that was in Bern. Soon we were back in Zurich where we got on our Tram #7 and rode home. We met Elders Harris and Nilsson in Zurich who were coming back from their trip in Luzern. The missionaries and Charlotte got off at our normal stop, but we continued on to Schwamendingen to buy some bread and a few things. We got back home in time to rest a bit and look at a book our children had made for us that we got in the mail today. It is a professionally made book with a short history about us and many wonderful letters, comments and photographs of our children and their families. We were so overwhelmed with how thoughtful and great our children, their husbands and wife and our grandchildren are. This book will be one of our most treasured possessions and will be a blessing for generations to come. We thank them from the bottom of our heart. We think Rebecca is the one who spearheaded this project, but all took part in creating it.

We finally had to put the book down and go to our home evening at the Bolts. We always have a great time at the home evenings and this time we got to get better acquainted with Renee, Fabian’s fiancé. Elders Harris & Nilsson and Pine & Richeson were also there as well as Charlotte, Kathi & Hitsch Bolt, Brigitte Roffler and Diana and I. Pres. Bolt gave the spiritual thought and centered his comments on being followers of Christ. We had the game this time and Diana brought her self made concentration game. It was a lot of fun to play, but when all the matches had been made, Diana explained we had just finished half of the game. The other half consisted of giving an impromptu thought connecting the pictures on their matches with a principle from anything about the gospel.

Soon the evening came to an end and we had to go home. Fortunately the rain had stopped and it was somewhat cooler which was nice. We walked home, and you know the rest of the story: write the blog, download today’s photos, read the blogs we follow (Doyles and Krofts), check our emails and then go to bed.

The tender mercy for today was that the Bolts had invited Brigitte Roffler to come and participate with us in our home evening. We discussed her situation with the missionary correlation council the last couple of Sunday mornings. Brigitte lives in a group home and is depressed about her circumstances and was feeling neglected by the members. It was good to see Pres. Bolt take an interest in her. Brigitte did a wonderful job on giving a spiritual thought on the match she had made with the concentration game. Pres. Bolt also asked her to give the closing prayer which she was excited to do.


Eric's restaurant that has "ambiance" in Garfiun by Klosters; Hitsch Jr. and his open air studio in Klosters; Diana working on Hitsch's log shed in Klosters.