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.