Diana, Elder Nilsson, Fabian, Elder Harris and Charlotte; Diana & Robert waiting in front of the Church for someone to walk by; Robert in the tunnels under Minot Schloss in Schaffhausen.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Wash day again already. How does that happen so quick? Elders Harris and Ross (Elder Nilsson was on an exchange) were coming at 8:00 so we had to be up, showered and dressed before then. We had the first load of wash in by 7:00 and were ready for them when they got here at 8:00. We got them situated and then took off to do some grocery shopping at LIDL in Oerlikon. We bought groceries for tonight’s dinner since we invited Fabian and Elders Harris & Nilsson to come. We had room for one more so Diana called Charlotte and invited her too. As we approached our building, Elders Harris and Ross were just leaving. When we met, Elder Harris told us they hadn’t quite finished their report, but they had to leave for an appointment and could they come back later in the day to finish. We let them keep our spare set of keys and, if we weren’t home when they came back, they would be able to get in.

After we got home we finished the wash and, at the same time, baked an apple crisp for dessert this evening, sliced tomatoes and mozzarella and made the lime jello with pineapple salad. After that it was time to meet Fabian at the Church for our contacting activity. We did the same thing twice last week except today we set a goal to do it for two hours instead of one. We actually exceeded that goal and stayed a half hour longer. Fabian was a big help because he’s Swiss and speaks Swiss German. Diana and he worked together really well. Sometimes we would stop them and then Fabian would come and help us out. Sometimes he was off doing his thing and we were on our own, but we managed just fine. Most people were friendly and stopped to let us talk to them. Most took an invitation to conference and quite a few took other brochures as well. At 4:00 Pres. Matern, Pres. Bolt and Elders Harris & Nilsson had a meeting to talk about the investigators and members being taught so coordination between the Stake and Mission could be maintained. Joerg Moeller, the stake secretary, was the first to show up followed by Pres. Matern, then Elders Nillson & Harris and lastly, Pres. Bolt. Soon after we packed it up and went home.

When we got home, we started preparing dinner and shortly after Fabian arrived. Then Charlotte came and, while she waited for us to get dinner ready, she used our computer to do her emails because her computer is on the fritz right now. We had dinner cooked and still on the stove to keep things hot while waiting for the elders to show up. Their meeting went extra long with the two Presidents, but they finally arrived at six. For dinner we had the same spinach tortellini/chicken main dish we fixed for ourselves the other night, brussel sprouts, tomato and mozzarella slices with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled over them sprinkled with basil, jello pineapple salad, and the apple crisp and ice cream for dessert. After dinner we discussed different ideas from the Swiss point of view (Fabian & Charlotte) on best ways to contact people. They felt the worst way was knocking on doors. We also spent a lot of time talking about the gospel as well as answering questions Charlotte brought up. One question she had was related to how one explains to people how we “KNOW” the Church is true and that we have a prophet today. Everybody left at 8:30 and while Diana finished cleaning up, I prepared my presentation for tomorrow’s district meeting.

The tender mercy for me today was watching Diana boldly stop people as they walked by. Diana’s tender mercy was that Fabian was there to come and help her out and, when he didn’t, I did.

Two photos of Rheinfalls and one of the border police checking two passengers on the train.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 TUESDAY

This morning we decided we’d waited long enough to renew our yearly transportation passes. Our old ones expire on October 2, 2009, just four days from now. We filled out the forms that were mailed to us, drew the rest of the money from our ATM, and tried to go to where we registered to get our verification of our address form officially stamped. Rather than close at the normal 12:00 hour for their noon break, the office closed at 11:30, a half hour early. Now what to do? We decided to go to the transportation office in Glatt Zentrum anyway and see if we really needed the address verification or not. As it turned out, we didn’t; everything went smooth a silk. Maybe it was because we had to fork over $4350.00 and, when they’re getting that much money, who’s worried about the small things. At least that’s one thing less we have to worry about unless we don’t get the cards in the mail before October 13; that’s when our temporary passes expire. Once that was done, we didn’t have too much time to waste so we quickly stopped into Migros on the way home to get a few things for tomorrow and then continued on to home.

I had an appointment with Brother Klaumunzner in the mission home at 2:00 to prepare everything to get a Swiss driver’s license. In Switzerland we are allowed to use our USA license for a year and then we have to get one of their’s. Diana wasn’t excited about going with me just to sit while I got my eyes tested, answered medical questions and filled out the application, so she stayed home. I went to the mission home, took care of all that needed to be done and then took the trams to the Driver’s License Bureau. It was almost exactly like ours at home except we didn’t take numbers; we just stood in line. After a long wait I finally got to a window and presented my papers and expressed my desire to get a Swiss license. No soap!!! Bureaucrats are the same everywhere. She insisted I needed my original registration document (visa) and I only had a zerox copy. When we went in to renew our registration, they kept our original visa, stapled it to our application and gave us a copy. I asked them if that was good enough for everything we may have to use it for and they said yes. Liar, liar, pants are on fire! We had to supply more documents for the visa renewal and so we don’t have an original one yet, and we don’t know if what we gave them they accepted, or if they’ll want more. The people at the government office windows just take the applications/documents and then tell us we’ll get something in the mail in two to four weeks. Our first year is up on October 1st so we won’t know if they’ll extend the deadline because of them taking our original visa or not.

We started out this morning at 11:15 and I got back in the afternoon at about 5:00. We still had to get out to Volketswil to take Patricia Hungerbuehler’s birthday card/ gift to her as well as invite her, Marija Friederich, Andreas Odermatt and Rene’ Hartmann to conference Sunday and be back for Institute at 7:45. We got things together, hopped the tram/train and traveled to Stettbach, but missed our train by two minutes. We waited the half hour and caught the next train to Schwerzenbach, the train station at Volketswil. We took the bus to Zentrum, got off and walked to Patricia’s apartment. She wasn’t home and, when we wanted to put her gift/card/invitation in her mailbox, it was jammed full. She must be on vacation or something. Working at it, we finally got everything in and shut the door. Next, we walked to Marija’s and rang her bell. She and her dog came to the door and, when the big dog wanted to get out and wouldn’t quit barking and jumping, she grabbed it and threw it back into the apartment and quickly shut the door. We talked for some minutes, but she told us in no uncertain terms she wasn’t coming to conference and she didn’t care to talk about the Church any more. She kept the invitation though, and we went on our way. We’ll have to pray and feel really inspired if we come back very soon. We caught the bus to Rene’s, but he wasn’t home so we left the invitation anyway. When we got to where Andreas lived, it appeared he had moved. We’ll have to try and track him down. Many months ago Andreas told us he wasn’t interested in the Church any more, but we wanted to invite him to conference anyway. After that we came home, but didn’t stay but a few minutes.

We arrived at Institute a few minutes late, but in time to sing the last verse of the opening hymn. That, in itself, was a small miracle. The lesson this time was on different ways we communicate with Heavenly Father, and Him with us, prophets, seers and being prepared. Following the lesson was the usual social in the cultural hall. Two different kinds of Swiss style potato salad, wieners, bread and pudding cups we on the menu tonight. It’s a good thing they have these socials after, because we didn’t have time to have dinner before coming.

Suwang likes to seek us out to talk with us as she never gets tired of talking. She told us about money problems with her ex-husband as well as a hundred other things. We talked to a new young woman, Terrah Austin, who is here from California to be a nanny and go to the university for a year. Since we go the same direction when leaving the Church, Suwang walked with us into the foyer. She talked some more about the money problems she was having and she asked us to pray for her about it. We three went into the chapel and had a short prayer asking the Lord to bless her, her son, Danek, and daughter, Halina. And then we walked home.

We thought everything was done for the day except to finish writing this entry, but at 10:30 we received a call from Elder Harris. He and Elder Nilsson have a meeting with Pres. Matern and Pres. Bolt again tomorrow afternoon and they need our computer to write their report. He asked if they could be here at 8:00 in the morning to do it. What else could we say, but yes? That’s a bit early, but we’ll manage.

The tender mercy for today is that the Lord is always ready to listen to our prayers if we have enough faith to pray. Elder Dockstader, who was really ill at home evening last night, was feeling better today.

Minot Schloss in Schaffhausen; Rheinfalls near Schaffhausen; Rheinfalls in the background.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009 MONDAY

Well, we managed to save one piece of pie for each of us and the rest went to Charlotte and Elders Nilsson and Harris. Details come later in the blog.

We hadn’t decided by last night what we wanted to do today on P-day except we had an appointment with Ruth Diethelm to come by this afternoon to wish her husband, Bruno happy birthday. We also had our normal home evening with our usual group, this time at the Bolt home. We had talked about going to the Gotthard Pass, but decided against that because it was too far away and we had the early appointment with the Diethelms. We decided, eventually, to go to the Rhein Falls near Schaffhausen. That was a good choice because it was only an hour away by train and fairly easy to get to. We met Charlotte at 9:00 and traveled to Schaffhausen, found our bus, and then traveled to where we needed to get off to walk down to the Falls. It was fairly steep going, but all downhill, so we arrived in good shape. As we got close to the Rhein River, we had to follow a walkway clear around to where we could buy a ticket to ride the boat. We bought tickets to go to a big rock close to the falls where we got out and climbed some very steep narrow stairs to the top where we could look over the falls. There were at least four or five times as many people wanting to stand in the very limited space on top than there was room. Many had to wait on the stairs for others to leave so they could go up. The only trouble was, there was hardly room for those on top to go back down the stairs with the others waiting on them to go up. Whoever thought this system up must of been one of Obama’s czars, because it didn’t work very well. When compared to the Niagra Falls, the Rhein Falls we mere baby falls, but these are the biggest river falls in all of Europe, we’re told, so the Swiss are very proud of them.

We were lucky to be some of the first ones up. We ooo’d and aaah’d and took our photos, caught our breath and then, with difficulty, made our way back down to the landing. We waited in the mist from the falls until the boat came back to get us. We got on and it ferried us back to the original starting point and then took us across to the other side so we could climb to the castle which sat on the cliff overlooking the Rhein Falls. Diana and Charlotte didn’t want to climb all the way up to the Castle, so I quickly climbed the thousand steps to discover the castle was closed for the rest of the year to get renovated. Just great! I found a little kiosk, however, and bought each of us a chocolate gipfeli (chocolate filled croissant) and went back down. In the meantime, Diana and Charlotte had climbed halfway up where the train station was and were waiting there for me. I was behind some older slower people coming back down and couldn’t get around them and ended up being about thirty seconds late to catch the train. We had to wait another half hour for the next train to come so we could get back to the Schaffhausen Bahnhof.

Once we were in Schaffhausen, as we were getting on our bus to go to the Minot Schloss (Castle), Elders West & Knight, who work in Schaffhausen, surprised us when they said hello. We talked to them a few minutes, told them where we were going, and then climbed on the bus. The bus wasn’t scheduled to leave for a few minutes, but just when it was ready to take off, Elder Knight, out of breath, jumped on the bus and told us we were on the right bus, #4 , but going opposite of where we wanted to go. We should have got on the #4 bus across the street so we hurried and got off. These Elders are great to look out after us old folks! We thanked him, went across and got on the bus going the right direction. We rode to the castle, got off and went through it. It was interesting and we took a lot of photos. The castle overlooks the town and Rhein River and we took a lot of photos that will remind us how beautiful and picturesque these quaint old towns are. After that we walked down the long stairway to the river to find out if we had time to take a boat ride down the Rhein. No such luck. There wasn’t enough time so we slowly walked back to the bahnhof through the old town. Before we did, we found out the boat goes clear to Konstanz, a six hour ride, and we decided we want to do this and scheduled it for P-day in two weeks. We took our time looking into the various shops and stores along the way to the bahnhof..

On the way back to Zurich we found out Charlotte had never been to the Schoggihuesli, an outlet shop where they sell chocolate. Diana insisted on showing Charlotte where it was, so we took a bus from Oerlikon, switched to another bus at Zentrum Glatt and ended up at Schoggihuesli. We ended up buying some different kinds of chocolate things for gifts and then went on our way towards home. We had an appointment with the Diethelms and we were running too late to go all the way home and back so we left Charlotte on the tram and got off at Diethelms stop. It took us a few minutes to walk to their home, but we were right on time. When Bruno opened the door, we sang happy birthday to his surprised face. They invited us in and Ruth had prepared a light supper for us. We talked about this and that, but mostly we talked of older less-active people we visit. This was very helpful because, Bruno being a former bishop, was able to give us some background information that may be of help when we visit these people again.

The time went quickly, but we had to leave to get to our family home evening. We ended up being fifteen minutes late although we tried to be on time. During the day we mentioned to Charlotte about our pumpkin pie. They don’t have pumpkin pies here so we wanted her to try it. We cut a piece and took it to FHE with us to give to her. We had a great lesson on Chapter one of Ephesians given us by Fabian. After the meeting was over, we just couldn’t not offer a piece of pie to Elders Harris & Nilsson, so they came home with us. They were duly impressed. They could only stay long enough to eat the pie and then they had to leave because of curfew.

Besides writing this entry, Roxsan called us on skype and it was good to talk to her for a bit. We got to see Nathan too, which is always a thrill.

Bruno told us a couple of stories that we need to write down, but not tonight. One about enduring to the end and one why men usually die sooner than their wives.

Guess whose feet; Robert by Luzern Ward building; pumpkin pie looks better in real life and tastes much better than it looks.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2009 SUNDAY

This morning we attended our missionary correlation council meeting and waited in vain for our ward mission leader to show up to conduct it. He is usually reliable although late almost every Sunday, but sometimes he kind of goes AWOL. Just as we got started, the other members of the council representing the various organizations came and we had a productive meeting. For our part we keep reminding them to assign home teachers to Werner Buehlmann and Walter Burri who desperately need them. Home teachers could arrange to bring Werner to Church, if he had some. We feel if someone would visit Walter, he would probably start coming to Church again. Rather than the council taking on this responsibility to discuss it in Ward Council, it was put back on us to talk to the High Priest Group leader about getting home teachers assigned. It was not exactly the way it should have gone, but we’ll follow through. Next, we followed Pres. Matern’s directions and asked if the Young Men or Young Women could accept a service opportunity and visit Elisabeth Kalt in the care center regularly so she will have a little interaction with the members. They could read to her or push her around in her wheel chair through the gardens etc. There are many other things they could think up to do with her. David Wichtermann asked if we would go with them the first time and we said we would be glad to. We also reported on who we made contact with throughout the week to invite to conference next Sunday which included Hildegunde Schroeder and Charles Aboussou. We didn’t report on all the others we went to who weren’t home, but still left a conference invitation in their mailbox.

After the meeting we split up and each went to our own meeting, I, to Priesthood and Diana to Relief Society. Today was “Teachings For Our Times” and the lesson was a talk given by Pres. Monson in last General Conference, Be Your Best Self. That may not be the exact title because I’m translating from German, but it should be close. Then came Sunday School and we love it when brother Fuhrer is our instructor. He speaks plainly and he is always prepared and has a very good presentation. He started the lesson by performing a demonstration. He had previously set up two water-tight boxes and inside one he had a pile of sand with a miniature temple on top of it. In the other box he had a block of granite with another miniature temple on it. He asked what would happen to the temple if a rainstorm came. After a few comments, he poured water on the temple on sand and, of course, it fell over. The other one did not. He then related the experience of the Salt Lake temple when first the foundation was made of sandstone. We all know the story that it had to be replaced because the sandstone was already falling apart. Many years labor was lost when they had to start over. He used this example to illustrate the foundations we are building for ourselves spiritually. Are we building on sand or granite?

We had quite a few visitors in sacrament meeting today; the Chandlers from St. George and two sisters from Australia. There were two more sitting by Elder Nilsson, but we didn’t get a chance to talk to them before they left. We always look to see who from our less actives, or former less-actives, who are at Church. Today we were thrilled to see Hildegunde again after being absent a couple of weeks. The Rodrigues family was here again as well as Margarita Maurer. We were disappointed that Marc Kummer didn’t come, but Agnes, Elders Nilsson & Harris’ investigator came. All of our recently baptized members, Neide, Charlotte and Priscilla, were there except Cornelia was not. She already told us some days ago she had to work today and wouldn’t be coming. That was too bad because the talks were inspirational and the Spirit was strong. The Melchizedek Priesthood sang the song in between the speakers. There we somewhere around forty of us and we were quite the chorus. I wish this ward had a choir, but everyone is so spread out, it would be hard to get people to come.

After sacrament meeting we stayed and visited until there were almost no one left to visit with. Then we went home and had lunch. Diana had fried potatoes with cut up cervalats and I had heated up leftovers of tortellini chicken from yesterday. Just as we were trying to decide if we wanted to eat what was left over again, two Elders, Nilsson & Harris buzzed our door. We let them in and then they decided to let us know why they were. “We’re hungry,” said Elder Harris. Good, we thought, because now they can eat the left overs. We cooked a couple of hamburgers and added some potato salad and a few other things to supplement. We always have ice cream and heated up the carmel topping for them for dessert. These two Elders have a soft spot in our hearts because they are so good and they are the hardest working Elders we know. It’s going to be a sad day when either of them get transferred. We went over our people-to-contact-for-conference list again and divided up the names so we’ll be sure to get them all contacted.

We bought a small pumpkin a few days ago to try and make a pumpkin pie out of it. We had some time to try it today, so we cut it open, took the seeds out and then baked it in the oven. When it was done, we let it cool for awhile and then put the meat through a strainer to make it like pumpkin out of a can. We don’t have a blender so that’s all we could think of to make it the right consistency. The result was very juicy, so we poured the mashed pumpkin into a cloth and squeezed out most of the water. It turned out just the right consistency. It was surprising the pumpkin yielded only 11/2 cups of mashed pumpkin, not as much as we’d of liked. We got a recipe from the internet and went to work. We thawed out some crust dough we had in the freezer from some time ago and used it. Much easier than trying to make the crust from scratch. We mixed up all the ingredients and, luckily, we had a small bottle of pumpkin pie spice the last couple left for us. Into the crust it went and into the oven. As the pie began to bake, this wonderful aroma started wafting though our apartment. It’s funny what you miss from home when you can’t get it here. We had to make our own pumpkin because you just can’t buy it here. Anyway, an hour later out came this beautiful pie and we could hardly wait until it was cool enough to eat. Finally, the time came and oh was it delicious. Every bit as good as we remembered Costco pumpkin pie being. Now the question is, can we save any for the missionaries or will it all be gone before tomorrow?

Sorry, no photos today. We're just too tired.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 SATURDAY

This evening we were invited with Elders Nilsson & Harris and Richeson & Dockstader and Anthony & Rachel Mascaro to Suki’s for dinner this evening. She said not to bring anything or we’d have to take it back home but, in spite of her threat, we baked a loaf of banana bread to take to her. After that we spent all afternoon in Dietlikon and Bruettisellen inviting people to come to conference. We tried calling all of them on the phone before we left our apartment, but was only able to talk to Charles Aboussou. We have been trying to get in touch with him for months and finally found him home, but he had his daughter with him today and said he wouldn’t be home. We told him we’d drop an invitation with the conference schedule in it into his mailbox. He said he’d come to conference.

When we went to Walter Burri’s apartment and rang his doorbell, he answered which was a surprise to us. He hadn’t answered his phone, but we were hoping by the time we got there, he might be home, and he was. He invited us in and we had a nice forty-five minute visit. We encouraged him again to come to Church and again he said he’d think about it, but wouldn’t promise. He talked about being sealed to his wife again and said he hoped he would see her after this life. We bore testimony that indeed what we know and teach about what happens after death is true, without doubt. We also talked about living the commandments and enduring to the end to be able to enjoy the blessings our Father in Heaven has promised us. Last time we were there we discussed people he would still know in our ward and we told him, the next time we came, we would try and bring Heinz & Lily Locher with us. He asked us where they were. We told him we weren’t sure he’d be home so we didn’t bring them with us this time. We’ll talk to Heinz tomorrow in Church to see if we can get him to go visit Walter. Before we left we asked him if we could have a prayer and, when he said yes, we asked him to say it. He hesitated and said he wasn’t an expert in these things. We countered that it doesn’t take an expert to talk to our Father in Heaven. At that his eyes twinkled and he said a wonderfully humble prayer. This is one more big step for Walter as he responds to the feelings and promptings of the Spirit.

We finished by taking invitations to Josefina Bader, Silvana Gianatti, Berena Hasler and Vrena Zanconato, who were all not home, and then came home. We stopped on the way a bought some more bananas at COOP. We had about an hour to wait at home before we had to leave to get to Suki’s in Kloten by 6:00. We met Elders Harris and Nilsson in Schwamendingen and rode to Oerlikon on the bus, where we switched to a train to get to Kloten. Elders Richeson and Dockstader rode the same train, but we didn’t meet them until we got off. It took about five minutes to walk to Suki’s where we met her and the Mascaros who were already there. Suki had a wonderfully delicious meal prepared for us. This is the second time we’ve eaten there and both times she doesn’t sit with us to eat, but buzzes back and forth from the kitchen, serving food and taking dirty dishes back. No matter how much we begged and pleaded, she just wouldn’t sit with us until after the meal was over and the dishes cleaned up. Diana insisted on going into the kitchen and helping her was the dishes and that’s just the way Diana is although Suki tried to not let her.

Elders Richeson and Dockstader gave the spiritual thought; we gave her a couple of printed inspirational stories including the Ten Virgins along with a picture of the painting. After that we all took off and went home. We got a call from Elder Carrier asking us to make a list of all the service projects we’ve been involved with for President Matern to use with his meeting with the Swiss government concerning the number of visas (missionaries) who will be allowed into the country at any one given time. This is to show wha missionaries do to help Swiss citizens without receiving any pay.

The tender mercy of the Lord today was the inspirational prayer Walter Burri offered at the conclusion of our visit. He has resisted in our past visits, but today he had the courage to do it.

Photo while on the boat; Robert sitting on the fountain; another interesting fountain in Zug.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009 FRIDAY

We’re running out of inactive members to try and visit, so it’s getting harder and harder to find people to talk to. We invited Elders Harris & Nilsson for dinner tonight at 5:00 after they called to see if we had an English BM they could have, and then proceeded to call others to join us. We felt this would be a good opportunity to invite people who would benefit from visiting with us and the missionaries and, along with the meal, enjoy some fellowship and spiritual food too. Cornelia Schaer was busy; Neide wouldn’t get home until late; Hildegunde Schroeder was busy; Rolf Hediger wasn’t home; and Martin & Ewa Neidhart didn’t answer. As a last resort we called Charlotte, but when we did, she acted confused. She said the Elders had a dinner appointment with her at 3:00 and it didn’t make sense for them to have another dinner appointment at 5:00. We called them to see what was up and they told us, they had a teaching appointment with Charlotte and didn’t realize she would have something there for them to eat. We canceled our appointment with them and then called Charlotte and explained the mix up and to expect the Elders at 3:00. So there went our plans for the evening.

We were already on our way to visit some people to invite them to conference when we called Charlotte. We got that straightened out as we traveled. We hoped Tony Dkere and Angela Campbell would be home, but neither were. Caroline LaJocona had already told us she wasn’t interested, but we took her an invitation and put it in her mailbox anyway. We pray she will change her mind and come anyway. On our way home we stopped at Migros and bought some milk, fruit and a frozen pizza for later.

When we got home, Diana was pooped from walking so she rested while I heated up a frozen spinach tortellini/chicken/carrots/broccoli dinner and cooked a dessert called Kaiser-Schmarrn, which is like a thick very moist sweet pancake cut up in pieces and sprinkled with powder sugar. It’s one of the better suppers we’ve had in awhile.

Elder Harris called us to see if we had an English BM they could have for an investigator they had a meeting with this afternoon. We did and they came and got it at 5:30. Right after they left, we went to the Church again to meet passers-by and invite them to conference on October 3 and 4. There was a lot less foot traffic than there was yesterday, but we managed to pass out a good number of flyers, but only one BM. We’ve never carried around a French Book of Mormon before, but today we did. Towards the end of our “Hour of Power” I saw Diana stop a lady and talk to her. I was on the way out of the Chapel after having taken the chair back in because we were getting ready to leave. I hurried to where they were talking and heard the lady speaking in French to Diana. In German I told her to wait and hurried to get the French BM to give her. She and Diana followed and, after we found the right book, we gave it to her and she accepted it. We feel we were inspired to bring it with us specifically to be able to give it to this lady. And that is the tender mercy of the Lord today. As it was getting dark, we met Elders Carrier & Vincent coming to the Church for sport abend and shortly afterwards, Agnes came for an appointment with Elders Harris & Nilsson. After that,we made our way home and that ends our story for today.

At the last zone conference all missionaries were challenged to, as a minimum, complete at least one “Hour of Power”a day which means contacting everyone they see in that one hour. Senoir couples aren’t held to this standard, but we want to as much as we can. And for the last two days, we’ve succeeded.

Robert on the boat on Zug Lake; Tower in Zug old town; a unique business sign.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 THURSDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROXSAN!!!!!!

This morning was pretty foggy, but as the day progressed, it got sunnier and warmer and by afternoon, it was clear skies and a bit too warm. We’ve been working on the lesson about baptism for Friede and Valerie Otte for the next time we meet with them. There is so much to read and keep up on that two hours a day just doesn’t cut it. The things we should be studying besides the language are the Preach My Gospel lessons (as well as the whole book), the lesson for Priesthood/RS out of the Joseph Smith Manual, the Institute lesson out of the BM Manual, assignments for district meeting and personal scripture study. On top of this we should be memorizing scriptures that go along with the lessons and reading all of the pamphlets and proselyting material so we are familiar with what we give out. There are other things too, but you get the idea.

Before we left this morning, we were tracted out by two women who represented the Jehovah Witness Church. We had a long discussion while standing at the door, but the main topic was about who (in their case, what) the Holy Ghost is. Briefly stated we taught them the Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, a personage of Spirit, and is one in unity and purpose with God the Father and Jesus Christ. He testifies of the Father and Christ, bears witness of the truth, sanctifies those who repent and are baptized and is called the Holy Spirit of Promise. The power of the Holy Ghost can come upon a person before baptism and testify the truth of the gospel, but the Gift of the Holy Ghost can only be conferred upon a person by someone who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood and by the laying on of hands after he has been baptized by someone with authority into the Church of Jesus Christ. The concept of the Jehovah Witness is that the Holy Ghost is not a person, but the power of the Father and Christ and nothing more. They were very nice and friendly and they gave us a pamphlet describing their concept of the Holy Ghost. We, in turn, gave them the Plan of Salvation, and The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith pamphlets. When we mentioned the BM, they said they only believed in the bible. We explained the bible taught about the BM, but they didn’t believe us, so we gave them the pamphlet on a comparison between the BM and the Bible. One of them said she already had a BM and we counseled her she should read it, not just have one.

We were out before noon this morning to go to two members to give them invitations to General Conference. Bus and tram connections the way they are, it took us about four hours to accomplish this task. We just missed the last bus to get to one person’s house so we ended up walking quite a ways, but then we were able to hop on the bus. We got off at our stop and by the time we got to the members house, dropped off the invitation and got back to the bus stop, it had already returned and was gone again. Instead of waiting the half hour for the next bus, we walked all the way back to where we could catch bus 759 to continue on to the other person’s home. That accomplished, we went back home, organized some proselyting materials, had late lunch or early dinner as the case may be, and then went to the church to set up on the front lawn to do some contacting. We got a small table and some chairs from the Church to set our stuff on and then waited for people to walk by. Diana brought a volleyball to play with to break up the in-between-talking-to-people time and to get a little exercise. Diana placed three or four Books of Mormon, one to a taxi driver who stopped to see if we were giving the volleyball away, one to a Spanish couple and one to two young girls. We also gave out other pamphlets and a lot of invitations to General Conference. Most of the ones we talked to lived close around the Church. Most people walking by were friendly, but some just walked on by or crossed the road to avoid us. We’ll probably do some more contacting by the Church again because this is a good opportunity to invite people to come see what we’re all about. We also invite our children and anyone else who reads our blog to tune in to the broadcasts of General Conference on October 3 and 4. We also invite all the priesthood holders to attend the Priesthood Session on October 3 at 6:00 pm in their local stake center. The signs of the times are coming fast and furious and we need all the counsel we can get from our Prophet and General Authorities.

Later this evening we went back into Schwamendingen to see if we could catch another two people home, but no such luck. We left conference invitations with them also. We tried to follow up with phone calls, but no one ever answered.

The tender mercy for today is that the Lord has revealed the true nature of the Godhead and we’re privileged to understand the role of the Holy Spirit. In addition, Diana was inspired to bring her volleyball to the Church which was the means of stopping the taxi driver so we could talk to him and give him a BM. It also drew the attention of others and gave us opportunity to talk to them.

Did I put this one on already? Photo of me reflected from the window; the real subject of the photo was the stack of rocks. There were a few swans on Zug Lake.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 WEDNESDAY

President Matern told us a long time ago that we didn’t have to get up early, if we didn’t want to and then, only do as much during the day as we felt we could. No pressure. However, it seems that every morning we have to be up early for something or other, district meeting, zone conference, correlation meeting and today, wash day. Our time in the wash room started at 7:00 and ended at noon. In order to get everything done, we had to start on time. First a load of whites (shirts, garments), then a load of darks (socks, pants, dark dresses etc.), followed by another load of whites (towels, wash cloths), and then another load of whites which included sheets, pillow cases and one pillow. I washed the other pillow by hand in the wash tub. Every load takes about an hour in the washer and then at least an hour in the dryer. Very time consuming but, at least we have the convenience of machines to do it for us. The washing machine was faster than the dryer so while one load was drying, we had clothes, sheets and towels hung all over so they would air dry as much as they would before they were thrown in the dryer. It saves time, energy and money that way.

We kept busy doing other things in between loads. I took one bedroom curtain down and Diana washed it in the tub. She wanted to be careful with it because she didn’t know how long they had been up and how much sun damage has occurred. She didn’t want them falling apart in the washer.

We decided we wanted to take an invitation for General Conference on October 3-4 to all our less-active members to let them know about it and maybe they’ll think about it and decide to come. We wrote the invitation then I went to the church and made copies of both the invitation and the conference schedule. Back home we cut them apart and stapled the invitation to the schedule.

Elders Harris and Nilsson called and made an appointment to come over about 3:00 to write a report for the Ward Mission Leader that he needed to take with him to ward council tonight. We had time to go out and make a few contacts before they were due to come, so that’s what we did.
We rode into Schamendingen, but just missed our connection, so, rather than wait the seven minutes for the next tram, we walked back towards home to put an invitation in Br. Bannwart’s mailbox. Next, we took the street underpass to get back on the other side of Ueberlandstrasse to go put an invitation in Fr. Kerinnes’ mailbox, but it was inside the locked doors so we couldn’t. The doors are usually open in the mornings for the mailman, so we’ll try in the morning. About then Elder Harris called and said their appointment fell through and could they come now instead of 3:00. We were only about 10 minutes from home so we agreed and went back home.

It’s fun to meet with these two missionaries (zone leaders) because they always bring us up to speed on what’s been happening around the zone. We exchanged experiences and then told them what we had planned to do as far as handing out invitations. They had a couple of other ideas too, but asked if they could help us. Of course they could. We divided up the names, giving them the ones who had already told us they didn’t want any contact with the Church. We gave them a short history on each one so they wouldn’t have any surprises. After they got their work done, they left to go about their missionary work. Before we went back out, we made a few phone calls; one was to Fabian who said yesterday he wanted to do missionary work with us just to keep busy while his knee was recuperating. He declined the invitation saying he had too many appointments this week. We tentatively set next Wednesday when he should be in a better position to help us.

After they left, we had an early supper and then continued with the contacting/invitation giving.
First we went to Gerde Schroeder, but she told us over the speaker she already had a visitor and now wasn’t a good time. We were happy that she at least talked to us this time. We left her invitation in her mailbox. Next, we tried her mother who lives just down the street. Hildegunde has missed two Sundays in a row and we really wanted to talk with her. However, she wasn’t home so we left an invitation in her mailbox too. Then we took the tram the other way clear into Zurich to see if we could finally contact and meet Tensu Tesfamariam, who we have never found home after many tries. We were kind of unfamiliar with this area, but walked right to his apartment. His mailbox was inside the locked door too, so we left the invitation stuck to the door and hope he or someone else sees it and gives it to him. We had to walk back up the steep hill to get to Fr. Pastore’s apartment, but she wasn’t home either. We were late enough that everyone should have been home, We left the invitation in her mailbox. And, since it was 8:00 and way past dark, we went home.

We finished drying the wash and then cooked some milk rice. We bought the makins’ in Germany and it was pretty simple and good. The rest of the time we spent making the bed (after the sheets were completely dry), reading the scriptures and studying German. Elder Carrier called to make sure we were okay and didn’t want for anything. And now this journal entry is done.

There is a lot of outdoor dining in every city and town, this one is in Zug; diana, Charlotte and Me by Zugersee (Zug Lake).

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 TUESDAY

This morning we had our district meeting in Luzern so we were up and on the tram by 8:15 so we could catch the train in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof at 9:04. The AP’s, Elders Richeson and Dockstader missed the train so when we got to Luzern,Elders Carrier and Vincent had time to go COOP to buy their breakfast and we had time to visit a little store to see if it had any souvenirs we wanted to buy. We found a couple and then we met up again, walked to our bus stop and took #6 to the end of the line where the Church is. It requires a five minute walk to the Church and, when we got there, the sisters weren’t there yet either. Rather than just sit on the Church steps and wait for the late ones, Elder Vincent and I went on a scouting trip to see if we could find a way to the shore of Vierwaldstaedter Lake which is just a short distance away. We’ve tried to find a way before, but never have had the time to really search. The problem has always been the private property between the road and the lake. It didn’t take us long to find the right way, but the view wasn’t so great because of the thick haze and no sun. Hopefully, next time it’ll be a clear day.

Everyone finally arrived and we had our meeting. We were able to give our spiritual thought focused on the sun as the energy source for the physical world and the Son of God being the source of all truth and light . Last week Elder Carrier passed out a questionnaire for all of us to fill out. His intent was to be able to spotlight one of us each district meeting; today he spotlighted Sister Stoddart since she’ll be the first one for sure leaving because she’s going home in three weeks. Sister Price demonstrated how to give a commitment to an investigator after which we evaluated the pros and cons. Elder Dockstader organized the game which was after the order of Jeopardy, only using mostly scripture questions or church history or Swiss Mission questions. After the meeting, only four of us went to the kebap place for our traditional after meeting kebap. The AP’s had to leave early and the sisters had an appointment and couldn’t stay.

When we got home, we made up our study time which we missed this morning. I read the lesson for Institute tonight while Diana worked on preparing a lesson on baptism for Valerie Otte and Friede for the next time we meet with them. I have to admit that I took a couple hour nap; I just couldn’t keep my eyes open.

At 7:30 we went to Institute and it’s always great to meet with the youth and some older members who come such as Suwang, the Diethelms, Wichtermanns and the Institute teachers. We found out from Suwang that she found the purse she had lost and was grateful that her prayers were answered. We assured her that her prayers were more important than ours or her bishop’s and that the Lord is always listening and prepared to bless us. After Institute we walked both Suwang and Fabian to the Schoerlistrasse tram stop which is just outside our apartment building and then we went home. Roxsan skyped us later on and it’s always good to see and talk with our children and keep up to speed on what’s happening in their lives.

The tender mercy for today is that the Lord answered Suwang’s prayer in that she was able to find her purse with everything still in it.

A schloss near Buona on Zug Lake; a fountain in Zug; Robert & Diana on the boat on Lake Zug.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 MONDAY

The Immigration Office was open this morning at 8:00 and we wanted to be there right when it opened so we could be first in line. We needed to be back for our interview appointment with Pres. & Sister Matern at 10:30. We didn’t quite make 8:00, but we were there by 8:30. As we approached the office, we noticed the main doors had plywood where the glass should have been and the other windows along the whole front of the building had holes smashed in them, probably by someone who got angry with immigrations. We understand their frustration, but stop short of condoning that kind of protest. We went in and there were only a few people waiting so it didn’t take us too long. We expected the person at the window to inspect the document we gave them and then tell us if it was all they needed or if there was something else required. All the person did was take it, stamp it and tell us we should have a response in two to four weeks. Well, now what? I guess we wait until we get a response in the mail, one way or the other.

We got home a little after 9:00 and were still tidying up a few things anticipating the visit from the Materns when we got a phone call from him. He said the Elders he should be visiting at 9:30 were tied up in traffic and instead of just waiting for them to get to their apartment, he asked if he could come to us at 9:30 instead of our 10:30 time. Of course, we said yes and they arrived a few minutes later. We had a nice 30 minute visit, not really and interview, and just discussed how things were going and if we had everything we needed. We talked a little about the people we’ve been working with and he took notes as we did this. He was especially interested in Elisabeth Kalt’s circumstances and suggested we discuss in correlation meeting Sunday morning the possibility of having the Young Men and/or Young Women do service for her such as go read to her once a week or push her around the gardens etc. just so she gets some interaction with other people.

Not too long after, Elders Roberts and Norton arrived for their haircuts. We tried to call them to tell them to come earlier than the appointment we’d made for 11:00, but they didn’t answer their phone. We were done with our visit sooner than we expected and it would have given me more time to cut their hair and for them to get back to their apartment for their interview with Pres. Matern. However, I whipped through them quickly and, when they left, they still had 45 minutes to get home.

Since today was P-day, we didn’t have anything else scheduled for the rest of the day, so we started to think about what we wanted to do this afternoon. We called Elders Nilsson & Harris and Charlotte; first we decided we wanted to have a grilling party in the forrest with a campfire and everything. That fell through because the Elders decided they would rather play basketball and then do emails and other stuff so we were back to square one. Then Charlotte suggested we go to Zug and take a boat ride on Zug Lake. It turned out to be a scenic and wonderful boat ride that lasted a couple of hours. We had a little time before our boat took of so we walked through part of the old town. As we were getting on the boat a man speaking English was asking the deck hand how long it would take the boat to make a round trip. The deck hand couldn’t speak English so I stopped and translated for him. The man decided to get on and take the ride and so went to the ticket counter to pay for the ride. The ticket guy couldn’t speak English either so I helped him get a ticket. He then went to the back of the boat and Charlotte and we went up on the second deck where we had a better view where it was a little more protected. After a little while I went down and sat with Sean (can’t remember his last name). He was here from Boston with his girl friend who had business in Switzerland. While she worked, he played. We had a good conversation and when I left him, I gave him a Joseph Smith pamphlet because that’s all I had in English. He said he would read it. We only went halfway on the boat ride because we didn’t have enough time to make the whole round trip. We got off at Walchwil and caught a train to the Zug Bahnhof where we got on a train for home. When we got to Oerlikon, we stopped in at ALDI and bought mostly fruit (apples, plums, a fresh pineapple and bananas) and then came home.

We didn’t have long to freshen up and change before we had to leave to go to home evening at the Moeller-Russos at 7:00. Those who were there tonight were Hitsch & Kathi Bolt, Irene Russo, Charlotte, Suki, Elders Nilsson & Harris, Bodo Ruckauer, Neide, Marc Kummer and us. We met Marc a week and a half ago for his birthday and somehow he got in contact with Hitsch and Hitsch invited him to our home evening. It was good to see him there as well as Suki and Neide. Suki presented the lesson tonight which was on the importance of prayer and she did it in German. Before the lesson, however, we all introduced ourselves for the benefit of Bodo and Marc. Suki said she had been living in Switzerland 13 years and just hasn’t been confident enough to speak much German. But ever since she heard Diana pray in Relief Society a couple of weeks ago, she has decided she needs to speak German too. Tonight she gave tne lesson in German and did a wonderful job.

After the lesson Bodo described the game we played since he was in charge of the game. He divided us up into two groups and then had each group write down six questions, two easy, two medium and two hard. Both groups alternately asked each other a question receiving points when the answers were right. The questions could require verbal answers only, pantomime by a member of the answering group to elicit the answer, a drawing (without saying any words) by a member of the answering group to help get an answer, etc. It was all pretty fun, but some of the questions were not answerable other than to say, “We don’t know.” One such questions was, “When will the Holy Ghost receive a body?)

Following the game, we had a prayer with a blessing on the refreshments. Everyone mingled for a bit while eating the goodies and then people started leaving. When Marc introduced himself earlier, he said he’d been inactive for 25 years and would like to become active again, if he could. As he left, we asked him if we could see him again. He thought we meant in the Church on Sunday, and he responded that he had promised us a couple of weeks ago that he would come. Fabian needed to go to our Schoerlistrasse tram stop to go home so he walked us most of the way home. He has a three month recovery period with his knee operation and expressed the concern that being home alone with really nothing to do was dangerous for him. He asked us to include him in anything he can help us with that would be appropriate for him in order to help him keep busy.

We are so grateful that the Spirit is working with Marc to soften his heart and return to activity. And that is the tender mercy of the Lord for today.

Siene Mascaro; Emeri & Siene Mascaro; Anthony & Rachel Mascaro.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 SUNDAY

This morning it was raining as we walked to the Church with our big umbrella protecting us. In our correlation meeting we made sure we had arrangements made for someone to go pick up Werner Buehlmann for Sacrament Meeting. In addition we reported on our meeting with Valerie Otte and Friede and Sister Kalt. Following correlation meeting we split up for Priesthood meeting and Relief Society. Suki is the new class president; she must like to hear Diana pray because she asked her to open the meeting with prayer again today. After classes we met in the primary room for the gospel doctrine class because the primary kids were in the chapel getting ready for the sacrament meeting. Today was the day for the primary to present the program. The lesson was on the pioneers and was just focusing on the Willie and Martin handcart companies when Markus Brechbuehl came and got me. I was so engrossed in the lesson that I forgot the time and was late in meeting him to go get Werner from the care center. We drove there and expected Werner to be waiting for us, but he wasn’t. I hurried into the center and up to his room hoping he would be there and that I wouldn’t have to search for him. Yep, he was there and it took him but a minute to get his jacket on and then we left. We got back in time to get seated in the chapel before the meeting started. Werner hadn’t been to Church for a long long time and he seemed to really enjoy it. He sang the hymns and was very attentive throughout the whole service. After the sacrament, Brother Markus Weidmann blessed his new baby, Maleah. The Primary did a wonderful job in presenting the program and we could just feel the Spirit very strongly. He commented he especially liked the way the children did the program. Pres. Bolt was present and, after the meeting, came and talked with him for a few minutes which made him feel appreciated. Irene talked with him for a while also. Unfortunately, Markus and his wife had to leave right away to go to Luzern so Werner wasn’t able to stay for the social in the gym afterwards. I wasn’t able to go with them back to the care center because the Breckbuehls weren’t coming back this way. We told Werner we’d come and visit him again soon. It made us feel good to be able to help Werner become connected to the Church again.

Anthony and Rachel Mascaro invited us and Elders Nilsson & Harris for lunch this afternoon and, after the social in the gym, we rode with them in their car to their home in Volketswil. We helped them prepare the lunch which consisted of sea shell macaroni with ground pork and broccoli mixed in it, and small slices of toasted bread rubbed with garlic with a mixture of cut up tomatoes, basil and olive oil on top. It wasn’t exotic, but it was good and the company was better. They have two little girls, Emeri and Siene and she is due for a third child in the middle of November. They have lived in Switzerland for three or four years. He is in the Elders Quorum presidency and she is a counselor in the Primary and has responsibility for the music.

Elders Roberts and Norton called to see if they could arrange haircuts for tomorrow. We told them they could come about 11:00, right after we get through with our interview with Pres. Matern. This round of interviews occur in each missionary apartment so Sister Matern can inspect their apartments to make sure they keep them clean. Elders R & N have their interview at 1:30 so we’ll have to be quick with their haircuts so they can make it back to their apartment before the Materns get there. We don’t have anything scheduled in the afternoon yet for P-day, but we’re sure Charlotte will have something planned for us. Before our interview in the morning, we want to go to the immigration office and get our legal work done so we don’t have to worry about it any more. Elder Carrier called for our weekly statistical report before it got to late.

We felt the tender mercy of the Lord focused on Werner as he sat with us to worship Him, sing songs of praise, partake of the sacrament and listen to the children talk of forever families.

Peter Martin's birthday; Rosa at her birthday party; Diana almond staengli (cookies).

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 SATURDAY

This morning was Stake Priesthood meeting so I got up early to be at the Church by 8:00. Pres. Bolt was the first speaker who used 1 Samuel Chapter 2 as the basis for his talk. He spoke mostly about how we all should treat our wives, that we should be partners in marriage and neither one should be a slave to the other. He focused on how we should be an example to the people and not do anything that would discredit the Lord’s Church. He grew up in the mountains herding cows in the summer, that related they would put a bell on each one so they would know where it was. He used this example to teach us that, figuratively speaking, each of us have a bell on us and people look to us to lead them in the right way. He spoke of chastity, honesty, virtue and only having one wife and counseled everyone to follow the Lord’s teachings. He counseled fathers to pay attention to the family and that time slips away so fast that one has to make an effort, it just doesn’t happen. As an example, he used watching TV or playing video games. Husbands come home from a hard day at work and want to just relax. On goes the TV or the computer with the intention of just doing it for a little while. Before one realizes, the evening is gone and it’s time for bed and there has been no interaction with the family. The opportunity has been lost for teaching, building relationships etc. while really not doing anything productive at all, just wasting time. He went on to teach the Plan of Salvation in that in this world we have our freedom to choose; we can either following the Lord’s plan or we can follow Satan’s plan. Each day we have thousands of choices; which do we choose? Who do we serve?

High Councilor Koch spoke next to the same theme and added that this life is serious business when it comes to preparing for the eternities. Sometimes we forget the real purpose we are here on the earth which is to work out our salvation. Do we take this life seriously, doing everything we can to work toward the goal of Eternal Life together with our wife and family.

Pres. Ruckauer, 1st Counselor in the stake presidency, focused his talk on freedom of choice, that this life is full of decisions to make every day. Satan doesn’t just show us the wicked things, but uses more subtle tactics such as half truths, lies, disappointment, doubt, dishonesty, just one won’t matter, just this one time will be okay, etc. He used the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. For example, Satan told Eve if she partook of the fruit of the tree that she would become like God, knowing good and evil. This was the truth. But then he also added that she wouldn’t die, which was a lie. He covers a lie with the truth. In Moses 4:4 it states that Satan is the father of all lies. When we respond to his temptations, we essential are in prison and slaves. However, Pres. Ruckauer used James 4: 7 to teach us that the devil will flee from us if we choose the right and, James 4:8 that God will come closer to us when we come closer to Him.

Pres. Bolt closed the meeting with the remark that the Lord will bless us after the trial of our faith.

After priesthood meeting I came home and soon after Elders Nilsson and Harris came to see if they could do their morning studying here rather than waste time going home. They had a teaching appointment at the Church and then right after, we all had an eating appointment together at Charlotte’s at 12:30. We left them there while we traveled to Duebendorf to talk to Werner Buehlmann to make sure he still wanted to come to Church tomorrow and if he would be ready at 10:30 when we would need to pick him up. We thought we would have just enough time to do that before the dinner appointment and, we would have had, if the bus would have been on schedule. We were able to talk with Werner and confirm everything and then we went back out to our bus stop. We waited the twenty minutes for the scheduled pick up, but the bus didn’t come for another 15 minutes. Grrrr. The Swiss like everyone to be punctual, but this wasn’t our fault. We called Charlotte and told her our problem and she graciously accepted our excuse. We ended up being 15 minutes late.

Charlotte had sauerkraut, ham, bread and boiled potatoes for the main course. She knew Diana didn’t like sauerkraut so she prepared cooked string beans for her. It was all very tasty and filling. For dessert she served us vanilla ice cream with some homemade chocolate topping over it. After the meal and just before we had to go, Elders Nilsson and Harris gave the spiritual thought. They gave everyone ten small pieces of paper. On the first piece of paper each person had to write a simple sentence about anything they wanted and then pass the whole stack of ten pieces of paper to the next person with the one with the sentence on it still on top. Each person had to look at the sentence on their respective stack and then put it on the bottom and draw a picture on the top piece illustrating the sentence. Then everyone passed their stack to the next person and then each looked at the drawing, put it on the bottom and then wrote a sentence to describe the picture. This rotation kept going until all ten pieces of paper were used up. The point of the exercise was to see how the meaning of the sentence changed when handed around from the first sentence to the one on the tenth page. There were five of us playing and out of the five, only one was kind of close to the original sentence. This exercise illustrates how doctrines get changed without prophets to lead and guide us. Prophets and Apostles keep the teachings and doctrines pure. There are many scriptures one can use with this exercise including Amos 3:7.

We had to hurry to our next appointment with Valerie Otte at 4:00. She had dinner waiting for us and, not to our surprise, she had a companion with her who she asked to come to help her convert us. She welcomed us with the traditional smile and three cheek kiss and introduced us to Frieda, an delightful lady of 85 years old. She had us sit down and both of them served us, first baked salmon, white rice, what looked at first glance to be sauteed mushrooms and onion, two different sauces for the salmon, fried scolloped potatoes, bread and something to drink. It was all delicious except Diana had to ask what kind of mushrooms they were. She said they weren’t mushroom, they were fish livers. Diana was a good girl and didn’t gag, but ate all she had on her plate. She didn’t take any more, however. I like liver, but I had never heard of fish liver before and they were a bit strong for my taste. Valerie insisted on everything being eaten that she prepared, so I was obligated to take another big helping as well as another plateful of potatoes and two more bowls of salad. For dessert she brought out plums and very small mini bananas. Fruit was just what we needed after a big meal. Once the meal was out of the way, Valerie cleared the table and got down to business. She had some more anti-Mormon pamphlets and while waving them at us, said that we were being led astray and what we believed was wrong. All we needed was more anti stuff.

Frieda was a spry 85 year old with a very active mind who liked to talk a mile a minute. We learned that she had prepared very diligently for our meeting and researched scriptures and prepared arguments, but when it came right down to it, she couldn’t ever find the scriptures she was looking for. Finally, after letting her look for some minutes for a certain scripture, we found it for her so we could move on. We were there for three hours total and it’s impossible to write down everything that was discussed, so we’ll just highlight a couple of things.

Frieda claimed the Mormons have a different bible than hers and the other churches and we told her our was the same as hers; she wouldn’t believe us. We had her look up a scripture in her bible, Valerie found the same scripture in hers and we read the same scripture out loud from ours. Frieda keep saying, “Yes, that is exactly the same as mine” like she just couldn’t believe it. She finally accepted we have the same bible as she did.

Of course they don’t believe in the Book of Mormon and Valerie has refused to read in it prior to today. Diana finally got Valerie to read some verses out of it and Diana kept asking her what she couldn’t believe or what was wrong. Valerie and Frieda agreed that what they read, they believe too. Diana asked them why they believe the negative things people write about the Mormons when she can find out for themselves. They have the BM and all they has to do is read it and apply Moroni’s promise in Moroni 10:4-5.

Frieda isn’t baptized and believes it’s not necessary for anyone who lives after Christ was crucified. Valerie believes it’s absolutely necessary, but that it doesn’t matter how it’s done, just that one is baptized. Diana and Frieda got into a lively discussion on their side of the table and, while that was going on, Valerie asked me to help Frieda understand that it is necessary for everyone to be baptized even if they lived after Christ. She told me that Frieda is old and she doesn’t have much time left to get it done, otherwise she’s going to hell. I assured Valerie that next time we meet, we’ll talk about baptism and, in the process, we’ll teach her too, she just doesn’t realize it yet. But now we have an ally and maybe we will be able to get some real teaching done next time. In the end when we were in the process of leaving, Frieda confessed to being very nervous about confronting us, but now feels that we really do believe in Christ. We agreed to all meet together sometime after next week so we’ll call Valerie and invite them to come to our home for the next meeting.

We kept trying to get away from there to get to our next activity which was the birthday party for Peter & Daniela Martin, Rosa and George Wimalasuriya, but Frieda just wouldn’t give up. We were fifteen minutes late already when we finally had a prayer and got out of the door, but we got to the Church okay. Thank goodness things usually start late because we didn’t miss anything. George ended up not being there, but the other three were. Altogether, there were about 50-60 people there and it seemed everyone had a fun time. We sat across from Hitsch & Kathi Bolt and they were impressed with the Almond Staengli Diana made and brought using Kathi’s recipe. Diana found out from Neide that one of the investigators the missionaries were teaching was gay and was actually married to another man. We found out later the missionaries had already discovered this was the case because they suspected something and they asked him directly about it. There were members as well as non-members there and we talked to a couple from Germany about the Church and answered their questions about the priesthood. Diana was having such a good time talking with all the members that I had to literally drag her away as it approached 10:00 pm.

The tender mercy for today is that the Lord answered Diana’s prayer that Frieda would get confused and not be able to find all her scriptures to argue against us and, in the end, realized we all want to follow Christ.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 FRIDAY

We woke up this morning to the same overcast skies, but as the day progressed it cleared up so we could see the sun. We’re back to shirt sleeve temperatures again. We did our usual morning things and then read in the scriptures preparing a lesson for Valerie Otte tomorrow. Diana called Sister Hutcheson in Ebnat Kappel to see how they were doing since we last saw them a few months ago. They had a long talk discussing various things each were doing as far as missionary work goes, exchanging information to get new ideas in how best to spend our time. They also discussed maybe getting together on a P-day so we could do something together. About noon I went in to Schwamendingen to visit the ATM again. Our annual transportation passes are due to be renewed before October 2nd and, just like our friends in Argentina, we can only take so much out at a time. We need $4200.00 to renew the passes. While I was in Schwamendingen, I walked down to the little textile store to see when they would be open. From 12:00 to 2:00 most of the stores are closed for their noon nap (siesta in Mexico). We needed to buy some tablecloths for the birthday party being held tomorrow night in honor of Daniela & Peter Martin, Rosa and George Wimalasuriya. On Fridays the store is open from 2:00 until 6:30.

We received a letter from Zurich City yesterday ordering us to provide an official statement from the Church stating why we are here, how long we are going to stay and how we will support ourselves. When we went to the government office a couple of weeks ago, the clerk told us just to write that information on the back of the renewal form and it would be okay. Evidently it wasn’t. They gave us two weeks to respond or we get sent back home. We emailed Sister Sunke in the mission home about the problem, but she won’t be in the office until Monday. Looking through our files, we found the document they need because we saved it from when we registered upon arrival last year. This is just a renewal of our visas so we thought they would still have everything on file. We’re sure they do, but they like to put us through our paces. We’ll take it down to their office Monday morning, but they may reject it because it has last years date on it. We’ll see.

We met Sister Ryser at 1:30 in the Church parking lot because she was coming with us to visit Elisabeth Kalt, a member who lives in a rest home. She is only 50 years old, but she is unable to care for herself. The Swiss do a good job caring for the elderly and handicapped. We got on the tram, then switched to a bus and then switch to another bus before we got to where we thought we should be. It turned out I made an error in plotting our trip on Google Maps. I plugged in Limmatstrasse 371 instead of Limmattalstrasse 371. The only thing we could do was to go into a store and ask directions. The clerk referred us to a location where they sold tram tickets and from this guy we got good directions. A fifteen minute ride on tram #13 solved the problem.

We arrived at the rest home and found Elisabeth sitting at the same table where she was the last time we visited. She was glad to see us although she can’t say too much. It was good that Sister Ryser came so she could get to know Elisabeth. Sister Ryser is the Relief Society President and had never met Elisabeth before. We brought a little package of marzipan shaped like vegetables and fruit. When we put the package on the table for her, she smiled and quickly picked it up and stashed it in the pocket of her wheel chair. We also gave her the bible we promised her and a Liahona as well. It appears Elisabeth can understand and think okay, but she is unable to say a lot. She says her life is boring because there is nothing to do. To keep busy she works crossword puzzles and reads. Her birthday is October 4 and we asked her if we could come celebrate it with her. Her face lit up when we offered to do that and, when we asked her what she wanted for a present, she said she wanted a cake. When asked what kind, she said “Schwarzwald Torte” which is a specialty chocolate cake. When we left, we each shook her hand and as we did that, she kissed each of our hands. What a sweet lady.

We made it back without any problems, but when Sister Ryser got off at Schoerlistrasse, we rode on into Schwamendingen to visit the store to buy the tablecloths. While we were there, we bought a pair of shoes for Diana and some more candle sets for birthday presents. Then we went back home. Supper was roesti with ham and minestroni soup. This was a poor substitute for the dinner we thought we were going to get at Charlotte’s tonight. She invited us several days ago, but she had to go to Klosters and, not being able to be in two places at once, changed it to tomorrow at 12:30. We also got a call from Elder Carrier giving us our assignment for next week’s district meeting. We need to give a spiritual thought using an object lesson in the teach to find format found in the Preach My Gospel book.

We called the WML, Brother Daehler to see if he had made arrangements to have someone pick up Werner Buehlmann for Church Sunday. He hadn’t done it as yet, but would arrange it Sunday morning in our correlation meeting. Worst case scenario, he would go himself if I would go with him. Now, we need to make sure Werner remembers and still wants to come.

Elders Zenger & Vincent playing chess in the back seat of the van on the way home from Freiburg. Another one of those Zurich cow statues.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 THURSDAY

Zone Conference today was in Freiburg, Germany, so it required that we be up, dressed, and at the Stettbach Bahnhof by 7:30 to catch a ride with the missionaries in the mission van. When we got on the tram at our stop, Elders Harris and Nilsson were already on it so we all rode together. Gerd Weiss, a member, got on at Heerenwiesen and we talked with him the rest of the way to Stettbach. He was on his way to work. The van was waiting there when we arrived so we all got in and away we went. Elder Richeson drove and the others in the van besides ourselves were Elders Carrier, Vincent, Harris, Nilsson, and Dockstader. It was a long drive (2 hours) on a foggy dreary morning, but the company was great.

What can we say about zone conferences? The first part is the introduction of the new missionaries in our zone, followed by a statistical analysis of our goals/achievement regarding baptisms, baptism dates, lessons given and lesson given with a member present. President Matern taught us for an hour interspersed with video clips from a Preach My Gospel video on how to plan and work with the Ward Mission Leader and the missionary correlation council. He is always an inspirational teacher and teaches doctrine out of the scriptures. Part of his talk was taking a scripture from the bible and then using a scripture from the Book of Mormon to clarify them to illustrate how important the BM is and how we can us it to teach. For example, Romans 3:28 talks only about faith being necessary to be saved; James 2:14 talks about faith being dead without works to go along with it. This seems to be a contradiction unless you take them both together. It’s more completely explained in 2 Nephi 25:23 in that we are saved by grace after all we can do.

Following Pres. Matern, came the three separate workshops. All three of them were concurrent and all the missionaries were supposed to be divided up into three equal groups and then rotate from one to the other. We were in charge of the one on the BM using chapter 5 of the Preach My Gospel. In each of our session Diana began by giving them one minute to write down at least ten stories out of the BM, had them draw a question out of a jar and use one of their stories to teach the principle while answering the question. She also asked them give a scripture cite to help answer the question. Some of them were a little stumped and Diana skillfully helped them be successful in completing the task. Diana’s attitude was that every answer was a good one and, in reality, they were, although she helped some be become better. She did a great job and used up most of the time allotted to us for each session which made me happy. I came in on the end and summarized what we wanted to accomplish with this exercise. As missionaries we need to be conversant with stories in the BM to help people understand how to use the book to find solutions to their particular situations or concerns and to help bring the book alive so they will read it. It doesn’t do any good to place a book and then not have the person ever read it. I also introduced a marking guide in which certain scriptures are underlined throughout the BM so a person can quickly read these to understand what the book is about and, hopefully, feel the Spirit bear testimony and get interested in reading it front to back.

Our first group had nine in it which is one more than what we expected. And all spoke English so all went well. The second group came in and there were 13 in this one, one of which spoke only German. This changed everything because now we had to do everything in German instead of English. Diana didn’t miss a beat and, although her German wasn’t perfect, she conducted the workshop just fine. My German isn’t exactly perfect either, but we made it through okay. There were only six in the last group including President and Sister Matern so this one was in German too. By the time this 3rd group came, we were feeling a little more comfortable in presenting the workshop. All in all we felt it was a productive exercise for the missionaries.

After the sessions were over, Elder Rowley told me he didn’t have time right at the moment, but that he really wanted to ask me a question before we all went our separate ways. Later on, he asked how well Diana spoke German before her mission. I replied she spoke not a word. He was surprised and commented that she was really speaking well for only being here less than a year and wished some missionaries could do as well. He then asked me how I was able to keep up my German from when I served as a missionary forty-five years ago because he wanted some hints on how to do it when he went home. I told him I didn’t, but I wished I would have. He complimented me on my German proficiency too. It was nice of him to take the time to show care and concern and to support a senior missionary couple.

After the conference was over, we had a few minutes while the AP’s and ZL’s meet with Pres. Matern for a debrief, so we walked around the corner from the Church to a grocery store and bought a few items to take home. We like to take advantage of the prices in Germany whenever we can. Soon after, we made the long drive home through the overcast, foggy landscape. We arrived home safely and it’s good to be back safe and sound. On the way home Diana heard the missionaries talking of interviews next Monday and so we asked them, “What interviews?” We found out that Monday Pres. Matern would be interviewing missionaries in our district and we were scheduled for 10:30. That’s good to know! Evidently that page was inadvertently left out of our packet that we get every zone conference.

For dinner we finished off our leftovers from a few days ago and then got to busy on writing our journal. Roxsan skyped us and brought us up to date on the family and our rental properties and the things going on at home. We really appreciate her taking care of our problems while we are way.

A tender mercy we witnessed yesterday concerned Norma Bachmann, who went to the aid of someone she didn’t know who was in trouble. Norma herself is a single mom who is struggling to make ends meet, but she still shared what she had. She somehow met a man who played the harp and, since she has always wanted to learn how to play one (she owns one already), she invited him to come over. That’s how they got acquainted. This man was at the airport the other day and ran into a woman who had missed her flight to Paraguay and couldn’t get another replacement flight for a week. She had no money to pay the difference for another ticket, no money for food or to pay for a place to stay and so she was living in the airport. This man called Norma and asked her if this woman could stay at her place. She said yes and the woman came over and stayed a night. This woman had two small sons in Paraguay and was really wanting to get home. Norma felt sorry for her and went with her to the airport and bought her a ticket with her own money so this woman could go home to her family. She really practiced “love your neighbor as yourself.”