Diana , Hitsch & Kathi Bolt on a walk above Klosters.


These two video clips are included at the request of some friends who requested to know the difference between German and Swiss German. Good luck!

OCTOBER 31, 2009 SATURDAY

Today was Bishop Alvin Schwendener’s birthday and we wanted to especially give him a little attention because sometimes bishops tend to get overlooked. Everyone expects them to be the ones to help everyone else to solve their problems, but sometimes they need a little TLC too. We put a card, a box of cookies and a Nauvoo Temple sunstone in a gift bag and traveled to his apartment in Duebendorf. We thought we got there early enough to catch him before they went anywhere, but we were too late. Nobody home. We did the usual and put it in his mailbox.
The Niedhards gave us a referral last Sunday for us to contact and, since the person lived in Duebendorf and we wanted to try and make contact before tomorrow, we went to the address and rang the doorbell. Herr & Frau Zingg were home, but they weren’t really interested in hearing about the Church. They said they knew Martin Neidhard, but hadn’t seen him for many years and were a little perplexed he’d sent us to them. We chatted for a few minutes and, when the told us again they had no interest, we said a friendly goodbye and left. On our way home we stopped at our favorite Migros and COOP to buy necessary supplies such as milk and bread. Diana wanted to find some cough drops or hard candy to suck on for her cough, bit in Migros she couldn’t find the kind she wanted and the ones we did find were too expensive. We did see Hildegunde Schroeder and talked with her a minute and she said she’d see us tomorrow at Church. We’re glad we saw her to give her a little support. We went to COOP for some bananas and chicken and ended up buying a big frozen pizza too. We’ll put it in the freezer for when we need a quick lunch or something for the missionaries.

We spent a couple of hours working on a lesson for Valerie Otte and Friede and, when it came time, we went to Valerie’s apartment. She let us in and told us that Frieda was ill and wasn’t able to meet with us tonight. We were disappointed because, first of all, we enjoyed Frieda’s enthusiasm and sincerity last time and, second, she was going to be the focus of the lesson. She hasn’t been baptized and Valerie wanted us to convince her she needs to be baptized before she dies. To Valerie it doesn’t matter who baptizes her or into what Church, just that she’s baptized. Our plan was to teach Friede about baptism with Valerie’s support, but in the process, teach Valerie too. We didn’t get that opportunity.

Valerie had a nice dinner waiting for us consisting of large meatballs, boiled potatoes with gravy and peas and carrots. During the dinner we tried to talk about the gospel, but she’s kind of a religious zealot and we couldn’t keep one train of thought going. She feels God is in her life and helps her out everyday and doesn’t feel like she needs anything else. She bought us a book to read entitled, “Revelation, Satan’s Last Victory.” It’ll go into the garbage with the rest of them. In return we gave her two pamphlets, “The Plan of Salvation” and “The Gospel of Jesus Christ.” We hope she reads these and maybe she’ll better understand the real truth. When we left, we told her we’d call her in a couple of weeks to see if Frieda is well and, if she is, make an appointment for them to come to our place for dinner this time.

We had time to make a quick pit stop at home and then walked over to Charlotte’s who had invited us and the other four missionaries and Bodo for dinner. Yup, eat at 4:00 and eat at 6:00. Both were good, but too much all at once. While we were at Charlotte’s, she recited her conversion story to Bodo and Elders Nilsson, Irick, Richeson and Dockstader because they hadn’t heard it before. It’s an inspirational story and too long to write here, but we encouraged her to write it down so others could gain inspiration from it. We’ve asked her to do it before, but she hasn’t and this time she was just as evasive. However, there’s a little flicker of hope this time because Bodo lives in the same building and he might keep nudging her.

While we were in COOP getting the other stuff, Diana found some bags of Werther’s hard candy that were on sale at half price so she bought all they had. It seems like a little thing, but the Lord watches over us and helps us with the things we need.

Found another cow statue in old town Zurich; Elder Norton; President Matern.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 FRIDAY

Today was interview with Pres. Matern day so all of the missionaries in our zone were scheduled to come to the stake center throughout the day. We’ve noticed that missionaries cut their own or each other’s hair to save money (haircuts cost minimum $35.00 on up) and sometimes it ends up not being the best. We offered to set up a hair cutting station in the gym and any missionary who wanted one, could get one before or after their interview. Elder Nilsson called around yesterday to see if any wanted one, and he told me a few said they did. He said the first one would be at the church at 10:00 so that is when I got there. I gave several haircuts between 10:00 and our interview appointment at 12:15. Diana arrived for our interview, but Pres. Matern wanted his hair cut before our interview so she had to wait for a little bit. Our interviews are always laid back and friendly, but we went over the names of less-actives we’re working with and how they are progressing. We talked a bit about our investigators, Valerie Otte, Frieda and Liz Bouso. He also wanted to know our opinion about how well the ward is supporting the missionary work. He always asks about our health and if we need anything. After our interview I continued to cut hair all afternoon until about 5:00. These are the Elders whose hair I cut today: Ivie, Rowley, Knight, Irick, Norton, Lind, Linford, West, Hodges, President Matern, and several who’s names I can’t remember. All in all, it was a busy day and, if I had been charging the going rate, it would have been a profitable one as well. I should have had one more haircut, but Elder Zenger must not have trusted me. He said he’d just cut his own hair and he was satisfied with how it looked. I told him it was a bit scruffy (I was being kind), but he didn’t seem to mind. You might notice Elder Norton's name among those I cut today. I cut his hair yesterday and thought I had cut it so short he wouldn't ask to have it cut shorter. Evidently he loves me to cut his hair because he had me cut it even shorter today. He said yesterday he thought it was short enough, but overnight he changed his mind.

We received a phone call from Sister Ryser who said she had talked with Elisabeth Kalt’s guardian. He said that Elisabeth’s sisters told him she was still Catholic and paid taxes to that church and they didn’t want us teaching her anything. He said we could visit as long as we left religion out of it. Elisabeth is mentally handicapped and we really weren’t sure how much she understood anyway, although it’s sad we can’t continue to teach her.

Elders Richeson, Nilsson, Vincent, Docstader, Irick (hand over heart), & Knight; Elders Nilsson, Irick, Dockstader, Richeson, Vincent, Knight, sister Price & Diana with Sister Robinson throwing popcorn as we played the answer game; sisters Price & Robinson.

OCTOBER 29, 2009 THURSDAY

Before we left for our district meeting we did several things. Diana popped popcorn for the game we were responsible for and I did some research on the computer for Elders Nilsson and Irick. We also got a call from Elder Norton asking us if we they could come over today to get a haircut rather than tomorrow. They forgot they had to change their wash day for some reason and so couldn’t come tomorrow.

The research consisted of answering the question, “If the First Presidency and all the apostles died simultaneously, would the keys of the priesthood be lost or do they still reside in any other body of the Priesthood?” The game we played today involved throwing a nerf ball around that had things written on it that needed to be done by the person who caught it. Whatever the right thumb was on, the one who caught it had to do or say it before the person with the bowl of popcorn could get to them. If he couldn’t think of anything, the one with the popcorn started stuffing it in their mouth until they could complete the task which made it all the harder as his mouth got fuller. It was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of cleaning after it was over. The rest of the meeting consisted of a section on German, a success story, a spotlight on Elder Irick, and a section of being better teachers. Each meeting opens and closes with a prayer. Since this was the last time we’ll see Sister Price before she goes home to Roosevelt, Utah, Saturday, we took several photos just so we would remember her.

After the meeting we went home and got ready for Elders Norton & Schulte to arrive for their haircuts. They we a little late, but we kind of expect that because they as are we are always dependent on the public transportation. Both of these Elders have pretty decent hair to cut without any weird cowlicks and such. The last two times I cut Elder Norton’s hair he made sure I knew he didn’t want it cut too short, but then both times, asked me to cut it shorter. I essentially had to give him two haircuts both times instead on just one. This time I didn’t ask him how he wanted it cut, but just went ahead and did it. I made sure it was short enough that he wouldn’t ask me again to cut it shorter. He seemed pleased with it just the same. Elder Schulte is from Taylorsville, Utah, and has been in the field eight months.

Simone Enderle, our neighbor, was still in the hospital so we decided to go pay her a visit. She looked pretty good, but she told us it wasn’t only just weakness and being run down, but she was having stomach pains and had no appetite. She is a small woman and has lost weight which she cannot afford to do. She also had some anomalies in her blood they were trying to diagnose. They haven’t been able to determine what’s wrong with her yet. She said they were going to do an endoscopy and she expressed some angst about it. Since I had been through the procedure, I explained what was going to happen and, if all went as it should, it was a simple and relatively painless procedure done under sedation. That allayed some of her fear. We had a fairly long friendly visit and she expressed gratitude that we came. She told us she had reached the time in her life that she probably needed to move into an assisted-living facility so she would have help if an emergency happened. She is in her nineties, but has seemed pretty spry.

Diana called the Neidhart’s to make final arrangements to help her neighbor move. Ewa wasn’t home, but she returned the call later. Diana told her that we had arranged to have the missionaries and the mission van help on Tuesday for a couple hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon and that it would go smoothly if the neighbor had all her things boxed up and ready to go. We tried to call Liz once more, but she didn’t answer her phone again.

Senior missionaries have been her neighbors for a long time and since we’ve been here, she’s noticed we have a lot of fine looking young men visiting us. The well-dressed, well-mannered missionaries have made an impression on her as well as past senior missionaries. This gave us an opportunity to talk about the Church and it’s missionary program.

E. Larson & E. Dockstader carrying table for Cornelia's shop.


Electrical cord coming out of the outlet; E. Richeson, Cornelia, E. Larson; junk put on the stage in the Stake Center.

OCTOBER 28, 2009 WEDNESDAY

It seemed wash day came around earlier this time and, in a sense, it did, because last week we had to move it to Friday instead of doing it on Wednesday. We didn’t have as much to wash, but it still takes about the same amount of time. But in between loads, we got in some good time doing other things such as getting ready for the day, breakfast, reading scriptures, planning and working on lessons. We knew that today the building’s electrical and heating systems were going to be inspected, but didn’t expect it to be so early. I was in the shower when they rung our doorbell so Diana didn’t answer it until I was finished and dressed. We hurried around unplugging our extension cords so they wouldn’t think we were overloading the system in any way. Our apartment has so few outlets, it’s necessary to use plug strips to accommodate everything we need to plug in. The living room outlet has a cable wired into it through a hole in the wall beneath the outlet cover that we thought sure would be a violation of some sort. The heating guy came in first and everything checked out okay. Next came the electrician and he just hooked a ground wire to a pipe in the bathroom and checked each outlet for the proper current. No muss no fuss. He did make note of the one in the living room and said a repair person would come in a month or two and fix it. I asked if that meant he would take it out so we would lose the use of that outlet, but he said it would only be to attach the wire to the wall so it wouldn’t be a tripping hazard. Right now it’s kind of loose. Everything else checked out just fine. Great.

We continued on with our washing, drying and planning for the day. We worked on how we wanted to do the home evening lesson next Monday on Ephesians 6 and decided to focus on service and the armor of God. We needed some material to make the armor out of and we thought of all the junk on the stage at the Church we put there yesterday. After the wash was done I went to the Church and found some stuff that we’ll try to use. Among the stuff was a basinet mattress for a breastplate, a hard cap that horse riders wear, a tube for a sword, a skirt we can cut off for girting the loins, corrugated cardboard for covering the feet and a scarf that we don’t know what to do with. We already had a piece of flexible plexiglas we can make into a shield and bean bags and foam balls for fiery darts. We ought to have fun with this one.

Sister Neidhart called and said she had a widow friend who needed some help moving from her current apartment to one not too far away. When she asked if we could help her move and then clean the empty apartment, we replied we would be glad to help. She also wanted to know if we could recruit the missionaries to help move stuff with the mission van. On that we told her we couldn’t promise, but we would try to arrange that too. We called Elders Dockstader and Richeson, the AP’s, but they didn’t answer and haven’t called back yet. We’ll call them later tonight after they should be in their apartments for the night. We try and avoid calling during prime teaching time so we won’t disrupt any meetings or teaching situations.

As part of our planning we went through our member list to determine who we should visit, call, or invite during the next week and a half before stake conference. We made our list and then Diana tried calling Liz Bouso and Angela Campbell, but got no answer from either of them. President Matern also called and told us our interview time on Friday had changed to 12:15 and asked us if that would be okay. After checking our appointment book, we told him it would be fine. And then he asked the kicker question, could he still get a haircut? Of course he could. The reason our time was changed is because Sister Price will be going home on Saturday because of health problems, but why that affected our interview time, we don’t know.

This afternoon we went into Schwamendingen to wish happy birthday to Marlis Fuhrer who was recently released from the Relief Society Presidency. Edi Fuhrer is her husband. She had some of their daughters and a lot of their grandkids there. They are such wonderful members and really try to serve others and especially go out of their way to fellowship and support Cornelia Schaer and Gabrielle Rodriguez and their family. We had a good visit and then excused ourselves so they could carry on with their own family. On our way home we stopped and picked up a few things from Denners and Migros, but skipped COOP this time.

When we got home, Diana cooked some delicious steinpilz suppe (mushroom soup) but added some diced potatoes and dry pack cannery soup mix. We have no idea how the gallon cans of dry pack cannery food got over here in Switzerland, but it appears to have been here a long time. However, the soup mix adds to the flavor of the soup and even though it’s old, it’s tasty. After, I took the fondue pots over to Irene and Joerg to see if they could use what we had for their fondue dinner next Sunday. We had just what they needed so I left that there and came back home.

About 9:00 Elder Nilsson called with good news. They had finally got in touch with Liz who apologized for not coming to Church last Sunday. She said when she makes a promise, she is very good about keeping it, but this time she had a medical emergency that prevented her from coming. Her one year old daughter tripped and went face first into a cabinet door in their bathroom and she ended up taking her to the hospital. As it turned out, there was nothing serious the matter other than a big bump and bruises. She said she would definitely come this Sunday. She thanked them for thinking about her and she said she enjoyed talking with the younger missionaries as well as the “older” ones and that she was looking forward to meeting with us again. We also asked Elders Nilsson and Irick if they would help Sister Neidhard’s friend move next Tuesday and they said they could. We called Elders Dockstader and Richeson to see if they could help too, and they said they could help for a couple hours in the morning as well as a couple hours in the afternoon. In between they had a teaching appointment and a meeting with Pres. Matern. Shortly after we hung up, our DL, Elder Knight, called to make his mid-week “are you alive” call.

The tender mercy for today is that Elders Nilsson & Irick were able to talk to Liz and that she’s still committed to coming to Church Sunday and excited to meet with the missionaries and us again.

OCTOBER 27, 2009 TUESDAY

Normally we have our district meetings on Tuesdays, but they have been changed to Thursdays so that the AP’s and ZL’s are able to come. They are often gone visiting other districts on Tuesdays and, when they are gone, there is only six of us instead of ten. This morning was special because we had made arrangements to help Cornelia move some furniture. The AP’s picked us up at 8:oo then we went to her apartment and picked her up then back to the church to take the rear seat to have more room in the van. All went well; we went to where Cornelia’s friend lived, carried the furniture out to the van and was off to Cornelia’s shop. Her business was not too far away from our home and the church. It is only about six or seven miles away. We found a good parking spot on the sidewalk and proceeded to carry in the desk and all the drawers. We thought that we would be picking up some large furniture of some sort but, as it was, we think it would have fit just fine in her car. Oh well, done is done and we were happy to help her. After we moved the furniture and the work was done, she really wanted to give us a treat, so she took us to the nearby restaurant for some hot chocolate and butter gipfelis (croissants). We tried to race her to the register to pay but she wouldn’t have it. She insisted on paying for it. Even though we all ordered the minimum, the bill must have been around 30 to 40 dollars. This was extremely bad timing as she had just been robbed this last week. The thieves broke into her home and stole over 2,000 dollars in cash along with jewelry and a few other items. However they did not find all of her stashes. The police came to investigate and in the process informed her that her neighbor had been broken into at the same time. She and her neighbor will both be getting new doors and keys.

Our birthday for the day was Marcel Baldegger. We visited him about a year ago and he told us then he wasn’t interested in the church, that he was only baptized to make his mother happy. Well, it didn’t go any better this time and, if fact, he rudely told us he didn’t want to be bothered and shut the door in our faces. We left the cookies in the mail box with a note anyway inviting him to Stake conference. We didn’t let it bother us so we went along our merry way to Brother Thomas Otth, who lives just across the street. We have been trying to contact this member ever since we arrived over a year ago. He’s never home, never answers his phone, never returns the calls (we leave voice mails) and never responds to notes and invitations we leave in his mail box. However, we just keep leaving greetings and invitations with our phone numbers on them in hopes that one of these times, he will break down, have a change of heart, and call us back. We returned home and Robert worked on the computer to get skype back up and working. We don’t know what went wrong, but after some time he was able to get it functioning again. These computers are good to walk you through and give you step by step instructions. He had to change the password because none of the ones he tried to use were correct. We try to use simple ones because it seems it’s harder to remember things the older we get. We’ve only been away from home a little over a year and we found it difficult to remember our own kids’ phone numbers. The other day we were trying to remember ward member’s names and it is so frustrating not to be able to think of them without a lot of effort. Isn’t getting old great! They say, if you don’t use it, you lose it. So true!

We had an appointment to be at the church by 2:30 to help move some stuff around. Pres. Bolt, Joerg Moeller, Elders Dockstader & Richeson were cleaning out the room above stage as well as the storage and classrooms in the basement when we arrived. Over the years many things used for plays, decorations and other things accumulated to the point of overflowing. Pres. Bolt wanted to bring the building into compliance with the current laws regarding fire codes and Church policy. Materials need to be made of fire retardant materials, otherwise it’s violating codes. Everything that had not been used for a few years as well as anything that could be considered dangerous was moved to the stage in a big pile that mostly covered it. Pres. Bolt mentioned he was going to leave it up to Bishop Schwendener to dispose of it all. It was mentioned members may be invited to come and pick up anything they might want or anything that might belong to them. There were large buckets of old paint as well as large boxes used to decorate with. There were a lot of electrical cords and wiring as well as decorations we’ve seen them use for dances and Valentine’s day. Some members may not be happy with Pres. Bolt’s decision to clean things up.

Elder Richeson asked Diana if she had any brownies left over so Diana knew they were coming over after the work was done. About 5:00 as we were just about done, I called her to let her know the two missionaries and Fabian were going to go to COOP and buy some food for dinner and then come over to cook and eat it. She already had made soup and fried some hamburgers and said to just come on home and forget about going to COOP. By the time we got home, she had everything ready including hot chocolate. We enjoyed the meal and the conversation. While we were eating, Roxsan skyped us and before the elders left, they came in and got introduced to her. Roxsan was embarrassed because she didn’t have her makeup on, but on skype, who could tell. She’s beautiful as always. Then the two elders left, but Fabian stayed until time for Institute at 7:30 and then he and I walked to the Church. The lesson today was on 2 Nephi 31 taught by Brother Psoda. He is an excellent teacher and made the lesson informative, interesting and above all, applicable to the students.

The daughter of our neighbor, Frau Enderle, called us to let us know she was in the hospital, nothing really serious other than being weak and worn out. She said she'd be in the hospital a couple of days and, when we asked if it would be okay to visit, her daughter seemed a little surprised, but said it probably would be okay.

The tender mercy for today is that Neide called us and said she finally got confirmation she passed her test and now she has a license to practice as a Kosmetikerin (cosmetics) doing facials, facial massages, eyebrows, makeup and etc. She is so happy that finally she can move forward and either find employment or start her own business.

All of these photos were taken in the old town Zurich. Robert by a fountain; another cow statue and the Prediger Kirche.

OCTOBER 26, 2009 MONDAY

The first thing we wanted to do this morning was to go get the medicine for our sick neighbor. Before we were ready to go out, Diana heard her door open and shut as she left as we were saying our morning prayer. We don’t know if we puttered around too long and she couldn’t wait, or if things got so bad for her, she had to go to the doctor or if she recovered overnight. I tried to catch her and even went into Schwamendingen and checked the three drug stores trying to find her, but couldn’t. We didn’t know whether to buy the medicine for her or not, so we left a note on her door telling her we were out and about and, if she still wanted it, we’d buy it and bring it to her. As we were in and out of our apartment during the day and evening, we saw the note was still on her door and was still there when we got back from home evening at 9:00. There were also no lights on in her apartment this evening. We’ll check on her tomorrow.

We didn’t have much on our agenda for P-day today other than a hair cutting appointment at 3:00 and then home evening at 7:00. Elder Nilsson called this morning to ask us what we we’re doing and if it would be possible to come over in the afternoon to just hang out. Since we were going to be here cutting hair anyway, we told him we’d be happy to have them come visit. We were surprised to get a phone call from President Matern too. He asked if we had been told when our next interview with him was going to be. I told him no we hadn’t to which he replied, “Das ist schlecht.” (That’s bad!) Evidently the ZL’s hadn’t made all the calls to missionaries yet about the change resulting from the zone conference being moved up because an area Seventy was coming to talk to us. Three zones will be coming together on November 4th. He told us our interview was going to be next Friday and could he get a haircut after. Of course, I told him it would be my pleasure.

We decided today we would just go into Zurich and walk through the old town to see what we could find. We were there last winter, but hadn’t seen much at that time. It was fun walking through the narrow cobblestoned streets looking at the small shops, but nothing really caught our eye. We went into one church, the Prediger Kirche (Preacher Church), and saw that it was rather plain, but nice, inside which was refreshing for a change. It was still spacious inside like the other cathedrals and churches, but didn’t have all the statues, crucifixes and other stuff most of the churches have. We got tired of wandering and decided to get on a bus we’d never been on before and ride it to the end and back. This time we went through a rather seedy part of town to one stop past the Alstetten Bahnhof and then back again to Central Station where we changed to our normal tram #7. While on the bus, Diana called Priscilla to wish her well on her trip home to see her mother because it would be three weeks before we would see her again. We rode the tram past our stop into Schwamendingen because we’d used up all our milk and needed to buy some more. We also bought a 22# bag of potatoes because it cost 5.50 sfr. for the whole bag and if bought by the pound, it would have cost at least 22.00 sfr. Go figure! We bought some cookies for the missionaries to snack on and some cream to make carmel with that Diana’s been dying to make.

We got home a little before Elders Harris and Baird arrived which gave us time to put the groceries away and to set up the barbering tools. Diana, always wanting to make sure the Elders are well fed, decided to use up some bread and maple syrup by making French toast and hot chocolate for them. That was a real treat for me as well as for the missionaries. Elder Harris was the first to get his hair cut and this time decided to go back to the short style rather than keep it with a part. That was fine with me because it’s easier to cut it that way. Elder Baird, his new companion in Winterthur who’s only been here two weeks, was next. He is from Spokane, Washington. His hair wasn’t so bad to cut, but every head of hair, no matter whose, has it’s problems and challenges to deal with. While I was cutting the hair, Diana broke out the cookies, banana bread, brownies and made some more hot chocolate to go with it. By the time I finished with him, all the other missionaries had arrived, Elders Carrier & Hodges from Basel, our zone leaders Elders Nilsson & Irick, and our AP’s Elders Richeson & Dockstader. It’s great having the missionaries around and being able to serve and support them in various ways. They are such good and dedicated young men.

All but Elders Nilsson and Irick left about 5:00, but these two wanted to use the computer to find something inspirational that would help them with their talks they give each district as they visit them in their district meetings. They also really wanted to listen to Elder Holland’s conference talk in English because they had only heard it in German. Even though they speak good German, you get so much more out of it listening in your native tongue. They left about 6:00 after which we got ready for home evening. We made arrangements with Tony Dkere to meet him at the Church at 6:55 so he could park his car there and then walk to the Moeller-Russo’s for home evening. We got to the Church on time and waited for him, but he didn’t come. Irene Russo came up the street from the bus stop on her way home and saw us there. She crossed the street to us and Diana went with her to her home while I waited a little longer to se if Tony would show up. Finally, I called him on the telephone and he answered. To my question he replied that he had gotten home late and wouldn’t be coming tonight. That was not what we wanted to hear, but he said he would see us in Church next Sunday.

In FHE our lesson was on Ephesians 4 and Pres. Bolt was the presenter this time. He always has insights to the scriptures that make us think and he enjoys seeing our wheels turn. Not everyone agrees with his interpretations, but it gives rise to lively discussions. We always have fun at these meetings and it’s good to rub shoulders with them all. Fabian is close to getting his USA visa and, if all goes well, he’ll be flying to Chicago to establish his home there. He will have the Melchizedek Priesthood conferred on him and be ordained and Elder on November 8 and then travel to Chicago on the 9th. He plans on marrying his sweetheart sometime in February.

After coming home and while writing our journal, our district leader, Elder Knight called to give us our assignment for district meeting on Thursday. Our assignment is to come up with some sort of activity or game to be used to get the blood flowing again in the middle of the meeting. This won’t be too hard to do.

The tender mercy of the Lord today is that we were assigned to give the lesson in home evening next Monday. We say this because those who give the lessons are the ones who get the most out of them. Fabian also asked me to be in the circle when he receives the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Me cutting E. Richeson's hair; Sunday lunch with E. Irick, Diana, Tony Dkere, E. Richeson, Agnes, E. Nilsson, Madeline and you can't see E. Dockstader and Fabian; I was at Migros Saturday and they gave away a rose and a heart shaped chocolate. I brought them home and put the rose in an empty catsup bottle with the chocolate in the open cap and gave it to Diana. When the missionaries saw it today, they thought it was funny and E. Richeson said it was so "redneck." Diana thought it was sweet and gave me a hug.


The video clip is in or apartment during our after conference fellowshipping lunch. I also took a tour of our apartment again.

OCTOBER 25, 2009 SUNDAY

We didn’t stay up last night to listen to BYU play TCU but, I woke up and checked the score just at the end of the 3rd quarter and the beginning of the 4th quarter. The score was 7 to 31 TCU and BYU just turned the ball over, so I went back to bed. We were up again by 6:30 to put the casseroles together and get them ready to put in the oven midway through conference. It took longer than we’d hoped and we had to rush to get to our correlation meeting. We are almost always the first ones there and then have to wait for the others to come, but this time we arrived at the same time as they did, fifteen minutes late. We had a good meeting and reported that Tony Dkere and Liz Bouso were coming to Church today and that arrangements had been made to pick up Werner Buehlmann. We also reported we had a meeting set up with Valerie Otte and Friede for next Saturday, and mentioned we’d called Hildegunde Schroeder and Marc Kummer to invite them and had visited Verena Bosshard.

Following the meeting we went into Sacrament Meeting which was held before the session of conference was broadcast. We were thrilled to see Tony Dkere being greeted at the front door by Bishop Schwendener. We were in time to greet him and introduce him to the bishop and to introduce him to other members who were in the foyer. It was heartwarming to see members approach him to be introduced and then to make him feel welcome. We tried to greet as many members and investigators as we could and then we sat with Tony. Just as the meeting began, Madeline, a lady who we mentioned last Sunday, came and sat down by Diana. Good faithful Brother & Sister Locher picked up and brought Werner Buehlmann and we could tell Werner was happy to be in Church today. Werner told Diana he had a flower for her, but that Bro. Locher had forgotten to bring it. Bro. Locher apologized for forgetting it. The meeting was only long enough to conduct ward business, administer the sacrament and a testimony from Bishop Schwendener. When it was over, all the people who wanted to listen to the English broadcast went into the Primary room. German speaking people stayed in the chapel. We were disappointed that Liz Bouso didn’t come today. We thought sure she’d come because she told both us and the missionaries she would, but maybe the rain persuaded her not to. But Hildegunde came and we made sure we said hello to her. She just needs periodic encouragement to get the strength to come, but once she’s here, she really enjoys it.

Part way through conference I ran home in the misty rain and put the casseroles in the oven and, by the time I was ready to go back, it was raining hard. I went back up to our apartment and got me an umbrella and two others in case the people coming home with us after Church didn’t have one. The talks were wonderful for us as well as our investigators and Tony. Elder Holland’s testimony of the Book of Mormon was particularly powerful. We had just given Tony a copy of the BM last Friday and he had it with him today. We weren’t in the German side so we didn’t see if Cornelia or Neide were there, nor Gabriella. Charlotta wasn’t either, but we knew she was home fighting the flu. We didn’t see Marc Kummer either. After the conference was over and before we left, Tony talked with Chika, a black member, and exchanged phone numbers. That’s one more connection to the Church for Tony.

We didn’t really know who would be coming for lunch, but we made enough for an army. The four missionaries came as well as Agnes, Madeline, Tony and Fabian. We also invited Bishop Schwendener & his wife, Danielle, but he said he had interviews and would come if things worked out. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it. We also invited Suki, who said she was too tired to come, and George, who declined because he doesn’t eat eggs, meat and other things that were on our menu. We had a good time together and besides just good conversation, we mixed in a little from the conference talks as well. These informal gatherings are a good way for people to get to know one another. We found out that Madeline is from Cameroon and Agnes and Tony are from Nairobi. We took this opportunity to invite Tony to come to home evening at the Bolts tomorrow night and he said he would come. He asked us if it would be okay to bring a friend, if he wanted to come. And this is how the gospel is spread, from one person to another.

We had so much casserole left over we sent enough home with the missionaries for them to have another meal. We still have one more complete casserole that didn’t get cooked because there was no more room in the oven. We put it in a container and froze it to use another time. We also have enough for us to make one more meal. Holy cow!! It seems our food kept multiplying, just like the fishes and the loaves of bread. For dessert we served them brownies, banana bread and vanilla ice cream. We even put some on a plate along with some salad and took it to our 92 year old neighbor, but when she finally came to the door, she said she was sick and didn’t want anything to eat. We asked her if there was anything we could do for her. She said she couldn’t go out and would we go to the apoteke (drug store) and get her some medicine tomorrow. She showed us what it was and we’ll try and get it for her tomorrow.

Priscilla called while everyone was still here to tell us that she had decided to go to see her mother in the Philippines and had arranged a flight for tomorrow afternoon. That is good news because it’s just been tearing her apart to be here, when she knew her mother was dying. She’ll be gone for three weeks and we hope she comes back happier than when she leaves. The four missionaries decided to go to her home this afternoon and wish her well and send her off with a song, ‘Till We Meet Again. After they left we cleaned up and then reviewed the day’s experiences. The Spirit was strong in the meetings and we’re sure those present felt His love for them and, we can’t help but feel, that it will help them in their lives to make a decision to be baptized and/or remain active.

Normally we pick out just one or two things where we felt or recognized the tender mercy of the Lord in our’s or other’s lives, but today we feel that the whole day was a tender mercy. As we read through this journal entry, we see the hand of the Lord in the lives of so many people and we are just blessed to be a part of it. We truly felt the Spirit all day long as we saw people greeting and talking to one another, listened to the talks, the many acts of kindness one towards another, people having the courage to come to Church and so many others that it would be hard to mention them all. The Lord really does love His children. These are the experiences that makes serving a mission all that much more special.

Walking above Klosters; Diana hiding; Robert by lake in St. Moritz.

OCTOBER 24, 2009 SATURDAY

After our usual morning prep time we got to busy and put together a breakfast casserole for Elders Richeson and Dockstader. We got a call from Elder Nilsson asking if he could get his hair cut today too and, because we planned on making enough for us all anyway, we invited them for lunch too. But before we could start making lunch, I had to make a quick trip into Schwamendingen to buy some ingredients we’d need, such as eggs, cervelats, peppers, strawberries and bread. When I got off the tram, I saw there was a flea market being set up so I made a mental note to bring Diana back this afternoon to walk through it. We don’t buy much, but they’re fun to walk through.

This was a first time attempt for this menu item, but we went ahead as if we knew what we were doing. We had some previously boiled potatoes and we put these through the shredder. We didn’t have quite enough so we boiled the rest of what we had and that made it just right. We lightly beat eight eggs and then added 2 ½ cups of milk, a little salt and pepper. We diced up and sauteed some onions, diced a green pepper, added some mushrooms, three shredded cervelats (bratwursts) and the final ingredient was some shredded raclette cheese we had been saving in the freezer for months, just for this occasion. We layered the potatoes, cheese and cervelats, and then poured the rest over the top and mixed it a little. Into the oven it went for an hour and, while that was cooking, we finished making the fresh strawberry pie. By the time the casserole was done, Elders Nilsson & Irick had arrived. Soon the other two arrived and after a blessing on the food, we dived in. We always hold our breath until we see how it looks and tastes, but this time it was absolutely delicious. I thought we had made oodles, but every last scrap got eaten. While we were eating, we planned between us who we should invite for lunch tomorrow after conference. Our goal is to invite people who need friendshipping, like Tony Dkere, as well as investigators. We identified some people and who were going to make the invitations.

After lunch while Diana served the strawberry pie and did the dishes, I cut both Elder Nilsson’s and Elder Richeson’s hair. After that was done the missionaries left and Diana cut my hair. Then we got ready and went in to town to walk through the flea market. We also had to pick up a few more items for our lunch tomorrow. We plan on having chicken noodle casseroles, something we can make before going to Church, and then I can slip out, run home and put them in the oven without missing too much of the conference. That way everything will be done by the time we get home. We’ve listened to the session we’ll be watching tomorrow several times on the computer already anyway. There were a lot of interesting things at the flea market, but none we would be able to take home with us. I did buy a tiny green frog for our fireplace wall at home and Diana bought a small pewter vase. We went one more time to Migros for a couple final items and then went home.

Diana made brownies this morning while I was in town and I made banana bread this afternoon; these we’ll serve for dessert tomorrow, but we’ll add a little ice cream as well. The rest of the afternoon we spent cutting up and sauteeing onions, cooking the chicken pieces, making the salad and doing everything else we could think of to get things ready for in the morning. I also tried to find ESPN Live Game Day on the computer, something I could watch about BYU vs TCU, but I couldn’t find anything interesting. I’m thinking about staying up tonight to listen to it live on BYU radio, but my spirit may be more willing than my body.

We called a few people to invited them to come to conference and also to remind them to move their clocks back an hour because daylight saving changes tomorrow, one week ahead of USA. We put together our correlation report for in the morning and then wrote our journal entry.

Church in Davos; Diana under Malojapass sign; Robert in St. Moritz.

OCTOBER 23, 2009 FRIDAY

Today began with wash day, first load in at 7:00 and the last load in at 10:00. By the time everything was dry it was a little past noon. In between loads we listened to the Sunday afternoon session of conference even though we’ll see it again on Sunday at Church. We marked a Book of Mormon for our appointment with Tony later on today and while we were doing that, the phone rang. Our absent Sister Otte finally returned a call and we set up an appointment with her and Frieda for Saturday, October 1st. Diana called Angela Campbell to invite her to conference Sunday, but she wasn’t home. She hasn’t been to Church for a couple of months now, and we’re concerned about her. Diana left a message on her answer machine. We wanted to call Liz Bouso again, but before we did, we checked with Elders Nilsson to see if they had made an appointment with her. They hadn’t and were just planning on going by tonight to see if they could catch her home. Yesterday we sent an email to Bishop Schwendener to advise him Werner Buehlmann wanted to come to Church Sunday, if someone could come pick him up from the rest home. Today we received an email that he had asked Brother Locher to either pick him up or arrange someone else to do it. That was good news.

Finally it came time to leave for our appointment with Tony so we couldn’t avoid going out in the rain any more. Cold and rainy all day. We arrived at his apartment a little early so, while we waited, we tried to call Liz, but got no answer. A little before 4:00 we rang Tony’s doorbell hoping he would be home. He was! We had a good discussion and gave him the marked English copy of the BM and at the end, we invited him to come to conference Sunday. This time he said he would for sure come so we’ll look for him Sunday morning. We also invited him to come over for lunch after and he seemed to like that idea. As we were leaving he said he had a question for me and when Diana turned around to stay, he politely informed Diana that it was man talk and so Diana went out into the hall. He said he was supposed to get a payment from Worker’s Comp. in relation to the accident he’d had which prevents him from working, but instead, he’d received a couple of letters indicating they would be late or something. He asked if I could lend him a little money to tide him over. After looking at the letters, I gave him a few franken to help him out. I probably should have referred him to the bishop, but we’ll introduce him to Bishop Schwendener on Sunday.

Next, we walked over to see if Priscilla would let us in. We rang her bell a couple of times and it appeared she may not let us in, but, finally, the door cracked open (her apartment is on the bottom floor) and, when she saw it was us, she popped the entrance door and we went in. She had been busy at work ironing all those shirts, but for some reason, this time she had 400 shirts to iron. She’s been ill and worried about her mother so maybe she just got behind. We stayed for about an hour and she had a good cry on Diana’s shoulder while we tried to help her work through her problems. Her family wants her to go home to the Philippines to see her mother before she dies, but she doesn’t get vacation time so, if she doesn’t work, she doesn’t get paid, and her family needs the money she sends them to pay the hospital and doctor bills. She’s in a catch 22 and it’s tearing her apart. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how wonderful it is to know that, after this life, we can be together as families in the hereafter if we but keep the commandments and endure to the end. We gently invited her to come back to Church because that’s where she needs to be to receive the spiritual strength to carry on, and where she can get support from the other members to help her through this tough time. Of course we closed our meeting with both Tony and Priscilla with prayer asking the Lord to bless them and strengthen them.

From Priscilla’s we walked to the ALDI grocery store and bought a few things for tomorrow. Earlier in the day Elder Richeson called to see if we had time to cut his and Elder Dockstader’s hair at 11:30 so we invited them to come for lunch as well. He jumped at the offer. After that we came on home. We bought some chesnuts while in Davos a few days ago so tonight we put them in the oven and roasted them. We left them in a plastic bag and they had already started to sprout and get mildewy, but Diana washed them off and they roasted just fine. We also made a cake for tomorrow’s lunch.

The tender mercy for today is that on the way to the bus stop from ALDI’s we ran into Salim, a man from Kosovo we haven’t seen for probably eight months. He used to come to Institute for awhile and claimed to be a member, but was very evasive about where he lived. He said he was doing okay and we invited him to come back to Church.

Hitsch going to smooch Kathi; lake in St. Moritz; mountains near Klosters.

OCTOBER 22, 2009 THURSDAY

Back in our missionary mode we got up, got ready, did our studying and planning. Diana iced and decorated a banana bread loaf for a birthday cake for Verena Bosshard, our member who lives in a rest home. It was a little difficult getting it there in one piece traveling on trams and buses, but it was in reasonable shape when we got there. This time we didn’t call ahead because we wanted it to be a surprise. And it was. She had a couple other visitors when we arrived, but we stayed for about 15 minutes and then we excused ourselves. She was genuinely happy to see us and we her. On our way back home at the Bahnhof Bad bus stop where we always have to change buses, we met a lady from Australia who was waiting to catch the same bus we needed to catch. She had just moved here a few weeks ago with her husband and 3 month old baby. She had been to IKEA shopping and just had her handbag stolen from off the baby carriage that had all their passports in it as well as money, credit cards etc. We offered to help her look for the purse as she was hoping the thieves only wanted her money and may have thrown her purse away somewhere. She said she was okay and turned down our help several times, but when we parted company, Diana gave her a brochure with our phone number on it and asked her to call us.

We traveled on back to Schwamendingen, got off the tram and went into Denners to buy a bag of cookies for our next birthday boy, Stiven Moya, Dora Wachter’s son. While we were there, we bought a packaged frajita dinner and I put it in my backpack and forgot it. We also stopped in the little junk store Diana likes and this time found some shower curtains on sale. Diana bought one and a couple other things and then we walked to the #7 tram stop, got on and went to deliver Stiven’s present. That done, we were on our way back to the tram stop and decided to go into the Denner store there to get some more packages of cookies for presents. We didn’t want to buy them at the first store and then have to carry them around with us, but now we were going home. We went into the store, found what we wanted and then went to the checkout line. I got into my backpack to get a grocery bag out, but the checker must of thought I put something in it instead. She ran our items through the scanner and then she asked to look in my backpack. I then realized I had the frajita box in my backpack and, although I had the receipt from the other store, I knew it would be a hassle if she saw it. Having had 29 years experience and training at the Utah State Prison on how to get things through a search without them finding it, it was no problem getting by this checker without the frajita box being detected even though it was quite large. Nevertheless, I breathed a sigh of relief when we were out of the store. We went across the street to the bus stop, got on and traveled home.

While we were waiting to go to wish Markus Weidmann a happy birthday, we made a few phone calls. We have a list of people we call every so often just to check and see if they are home. It’s kind of like fishing. You keep casting, hoping to get a bite and, even though you get disappointed so many times, occasionally you get a strike. Today we got that strike. We have been calling Tony Dkere for a long time without success, but today he answered. We told him we’ve missed him and still have his English Book of Mormon he asked us to bring him. We made an appointment to visit him tomorrow at 4:00. We’ve made appointments before which he hasn’t kept except for once, but we’re sure he’ll be there tomorrow. Diana called Priscilla this afternoon too, and this time she answered. Another strike. Priscilla has been going through some trials and hasn’t wanted visitors nor has she been answering her phone. Today she did and Diana was able to give her some encouragement and let her know we love and miss her. She also told her we plan on coming by to visit her so we’ll try and do that tomorrow after we visit Tony. We also tried to call Sister Sunke, but she won’t be in the mission home until Monday. We also tried to call Valerie Otte and Elizabeth Bouso, but the hook came back enpty on both casts.

At 6:30 we went over to the Weidmann’s and wished Markus happy birthday. His family was in the middle of celebrating so we just left his gift and card, wished him happy birthday and left. We stopped at Charlotte’s to talk to her about Liz Bouso and Tito. She was home, but sick with a cold, sore throat and a fever so we just talked to her a minute and then went back home. We didn’t want to tempt fate, so retreat was the better part of valor. We went home and cooked the frajita dinner for supper and now all the evidence is gone. It was pretty tasty after we jazzed it up a bit.

We had just about gotten rid of all the emails, writing responses to some, when Fabian Streit skyped us. He was bored having to stay home to rehab his knee after the surgery and called us just to break the monotony. We guess this is part of our mission too and can be put into the category of supporting the ward members. And that about wraps it up for today.

The tender mercies for today are finally getting in contact with Tody Dkere and setting up an appointment with him, Diana being able to talk with Priscilla and give her encouragement, and helping break the monotony for Fabian who has to sit on a machine six hours a day while it works his knee back and forth. How monotonous would that be?

The shed we built in Klosters; Sunrise in Klosters; Robert & Diana in Klosters.

OCTOBER 19, 2009 MONDAY

Monday morning we got up, got all our things packed and then walked over to the Bolt’s to travel to Klosters to stay for a few days. We really didn’t know what to expect other than we were going to Kloster to spend a few days with the Pres. Hitsch Bolt and his wife Kathi. Hans, their 25 year old son, also came along. It was a pretty snug fit for all five of us including our food and baggage. It took a couple of hours to drive there, but we enjoyed the scenery and the company on the way. Their home is the very last one at the top of the street and the last station for the bus. Winter had come to this little dorf since we were here a few months ago. On the shed we had built was 33 cm of snow and it was pretty cold to boot.

After getting settled in Diana and I walked down the street towards the town of Klosters a couple miles away because the bus only ran once an hour. About halfway to town we saw the bus coming up and so we decided to get on it and ride back up because it was warm and we were tired of walking. When it got back up to the top we just stayed on it and rode it back down to town. We checked in the train station to see what we could find to do and then we walked around town for a bit. Nothing much was going on so we rode the bus back up to where we were staying. We goofed around a bit and then had dinner. When that was done and the dishes cleaned up, it was time for home evening. We discussed Chapter 5 in Ephesians and that was about it for the day. Hitsch always goes to bed by 9:00; Hans was in the living room watching TV so, believe it or not, we were in bed by 9:00 too. Before we went to bed Hitsch and Hans gave us ideas on what we could do the next day. They said the best place to go would be St. Moritz, another well known resort town, mostly with a reputation for skiing. We decided that’s where we would go tomorrow.

OCTOBER 20, 2009 TUESDAY

This morning we were up and breakfast was over by 8:45. By the time the dishes and cleanup was done we barely had time to get to the bus stop before it took off. We got on the train in Klosters and traveled to St. Moritz, changing trains twice before we got there. The first part of the trip was in a tunnel that took us through a mountain to Sarglaians where we made the first transfer. From there we were above ground and traveled through the snowy valley between snow covered mountains. The train stopped at seven or eight little towns along the way and all of them reminded us of typical Swiss countryside. When we arrived at St. Moritz, it kind of took us by surprise. We anticipated a touristy hustle bustle type of town, but there wasn’t much around the train station to see. We asked the ticket person in the bahnhof what there was to see and she suggested we take the bus up the valley to Malojapass. We remembered Hitsch telling us the same thing, but we couldn’t find a bus that would take us there. We took the local bus to the end of the line and halfway back again and decided to get off and walk along the lake. We eventually came to a bus stop and discovered this bus would take us to Malojapass. We hopped on and it took us along several lakes and through some small communities. When we got to the end of the line, we discovered the bus wouldn’t return for 30 minutes, so we got out and walked around a bit. There wasn’t much to see other than scenery; no little shops or any kind of stores so we were kind of glad to get back on the bus and go back. We arrived just in time to get on the train, but this time we wanted to go to Davos on our way back home. Davos is another well-known ski resort and going this way would take us back to Klosters a different way. When we got to Bevers where we needed to change trains, we got on the wrong one. Instead of going a new way, we went back the same way we came this morning, returning all the way to Klosters. At Klosters we got on a train, this time the right one, and went to Davos, a ride of 25 minutes. Davos had a lot more going on than St. Moritz did. The first thing we did was visit a COOP to buy some croissants, cheese, apple juice an a couple of other things to snack on. Then we visited a souvenir shop just to check things out. If you want to buy souvenirs, don’t go to Davos. This is the most expensive place for tourists we’ve seen. We could only spend an hour or so and then we were on our way back to Klosters.

We arrived back at our vacation home about 6:00, but no one was home. We saw Hitsch down the street as the bus passed him on our way home; Kathi and Hans were still at her daughter’s home in Landquart. However, Diana got to work and cooked dinner hoping they would soon be home. Soon Hitsch and Kathi came, but Hans took a train back to Zurich from Landquart. Dinner was soon over and as is their custom, they went to bed at 9:00 again. And that was the end of this day.

OCTOBER 21, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Our plan this morning was to get up, have breakfast and then take a morning walk around this part of Klosters while Hitsch showed us around telling us of his growing up experiences. He showed us the home he grew up in, his grandparent’s home, where his two sisters live and places from his childhood. We walked along a small narrow road that took us up the mountain all the while telling us of childhood experiences. We came to a place overlooking the main town of Klosters and then we turned around and came back. It was fairly cold and frosty when we started out, but the sun came out and warmed things up. The road was a lot muddier on our return trip from the thawing ice and the melting snow. When we got back, rather than wait for time for lunch, we decided to pack up and go home. We were ready to go home and get back to work; all of this idleness made us nervous. Rather than go directly home, the Bolts stopped at a slaughterhouse and then at their daughter’s home in Landquart before we went on home. On the way we got a call from Sister Sunke asking us if, when we went to renew our visas, did we do both of ours together. When we said yes, she said she had received my extension, but not Diana’s. She wanted to be sure we had done hers as well as mine at the same time. She said she would call to try and find out what had happened to Diana’s.

Just as we were coming in to Schwamendingen, we got a call from Elders Nilsson and Irick asking if we were home yet and, if we were, could they come over and finish their zone reports for their meeting with Pres. Bolt and Pres. Matern at 5:30 tonight. We got home and got mostly unpacked before they arrived. They worked steadily on their reports and finished just in time for their meeting. We changed and went to see if one of our inactives, Christopher Ernst, was home so we could wish him happy birthday. We were disappointed he wasn’t home, but we left his gift/card along with a conference issue of the Liahona and an invitation to come to Church Sunday to see the last session of conference delayed broadcast for Sacrament meeting. We came back home and spent the rest of the evening catching up our journal entries and looking through all our 33 emails in our inbox. We were interrupted for an hour while the Elders came back to make corrections/additions to their report after their meeting with the two Presidents. We are glad to be home and we’ll be ready to get to work tomorrow.

OCTOBER 18, 2009 SUNDAY

By 8:00 we were already at the Church for our missionary correlation council. Our WML was there by 8:15 and today George Wimalasuriya was there. His work situation changed so from now on he’ll be coming again. Elder Nilsson presented our plan to organize a Christmas fireside which would combine teaching the first discussion with musical numbers in between. The purpose of the fireside would be for members to invite neighbors, less actives and friends and missionaries to invite investigators. It would give members a chance to display their talents and the Young Single Adults, many who are returned missionaries, the opportunity to teach about Heavenly Father, his love for us, prophets, Christ, the apostasy and restoration including Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It’s been my experience that the one who presents an idea is the one who ends up with the work. So it was that Elder Nilsson received the assignment to put together a sample program for further discussion and approval.

By the time that subject was completed, the other members of the council had arrived and we went through each of our investigator progress reports. For our part we discussed our meetings with Sister Gianatti, Walter Burri and Liz Bouso. We gave updates on what was happening with Elisabeth Kalt (contacting her guardian), Cornelia Schaer (moving her furniture), Werner Buehlmann (birthday today), Charles Aboussou (invited to Church), Marc Kummer (invited to Church) and Verena Bosshard (birthday Thursday). Both sets of Elders gave their reports. They’ve been working really hard and expected quite a few investigators to come to Church today. We inform the council who we think are coming and ask them to give them a hearty welcome. However, the Swiss are a closed people and it’s hard for them to open up and express friendship to new people although they try. It’s really the members from Latin descent who welcome new investigators with open arms.

Following this meeting we went to RS and Priesthood. Cornelia came to all three meeting today which was good to see. In Priesthood we discussed Chapter 44 in the Joseph Smith Manual. Relief Society covered Chapter 43. In Sunday School Edi Fuhrer gave the lesson on spiritual and temporal preparedness. He is an amazing teacher and makes the lessons so interesting. He speaks slowly and clearly and doesn’t ry to overwhelm anybody with big complicated words or sentence structure. We wish he would teach every Sunday.

In Sacrament Meeting there were at least five investigators as well as our families we’re working with. We were saddened to see that Priscilla didn’t come for the second week in a row. We later found out through Elders Nilsson & Irick that she’s having depression problems and well as health and family problems. Satan’s working overtime to win her back. We thought maybe Liz would come, but she didn’t. She said she would for sure come next week for conference.

The first speaker was Melanie Lechmann who spoke on the commandment, love one another. Peter Martin spoke on John 14:15, if you love me, keep my commandments. Elder Nilsson sang the interlude song and then Erik Hanson, our High Councilor, bore testimony of the Atonement and resurrection of Christ and related his experience as he visited a Catholic funeral of a friend. He also told the conversion story he read in the last issue of the Liahona. His last point was that when we pray for something, we need to be ready to act on the answer we get. The Lord knows who we are and what we need.

Following Sacrament Meeting we went home and fixed Elders Nilsson & Irick and Agnes some lunch and got things ready to go visit Bro. Buehlmann. We wrapped a bag cookies and a bag of chocolates, iced the banana bread loaf and took off. We thought Agnes was coming with us, but she left and went home. We had a good visit with Werner although it’s hard to follow what he says because he is in and out of reality due to his brain injury years ago. His son and his wife were there also and we got to talk to them a little. We lit the candles on the cake, but he wouldn’t blow them out; he wanted to watch them burn. We really wanted a piece of banana bread, but when we asked him if he wanted a piece, he said he would rather save it for later. We stayed about 45 minutes, but then felt we should go so his son & wife could visit them in private. On the way home we stopped at the Weiss’s to wish Michael happy birthday. Unfortunately he was in England for a couple of weeks to study English as a requirement for part of his school work. We had a nice visit with Anita, his mother. After that we came on home and Diana got ready for our trip to Klosters tomorrow with Pres. Bolt and Kathi while I baked two loaves of banana bread, one of which we’ll take with us.

We got a call from Rebecca and got caught up on all what’s been going on with her, Jared and Mack. It was fun to talk to them and to see how active Mack is. Elder Knight, our new district leader, called and got our weekly statistical report and gave me my district meeting assignment. He was nice to Diana and didn’t give her an assignment this week.

The tender mercy for today was that we were able to visit Werner who seemed to really enjoy our visit.

Elder Knight talking to a Jehovah Witness couple. Diana and Elder Irick talking to the man who took a BM for his wife. Elders Irick & Knight talking to a passer-by.

OCTOBER 17, 2009 SATURDAY

We caught our S-5 train in Bahnhof Oerlikon this morning at 9:14 and traveled to Niederhasli, a trip of about 20 minutes. We had never been to Niederhasli before and this time we came alone, only having verbal directions to follow to the site of our intended Ausstellung (display and street contacting area). It was a seven minute walk to the market square by the Mirgos, but there were no missionaries in sight when we got there. We were about a half hour early because the train ran only once an hour; we had the choice of being a half hour early or being a half hour late. We chose to be early so, because it was drizzling and cold, we went into a little stip mall to stay warm and dry until 10:00, hoping we had found the right place to meet the missionaries. About 9:55 we went back out and saw Elders Knight & Irick and Brother & Sister Ryser putting up the display. Stiven Ryser is the brother of Daniel Ryser who lives in our ward. While Daniel & Esther have five children, Stiven & his wife have nine, which is way unusual for the normal Swiss family of one or two children. He is current 46 years old and married at 26 years of age which means a child about every two years. His youngest is only five months old.

The Ausstellung was made out of metal and so was waterproof, but we couldn’t put our material and books on the table because of the rain. Stiven left, but soon returned with a canopy that we quickly put together to shelter everything and us as well. To be legal one needs to register with the city and have written permission and Elder Knight was supposed to have brought our permit. He left it in his apartment in Dielsdorf, but we went ahead anyway, hoping no one would come to check us. Our permit had specific instructions and boundaries within which we are required to stay and how we are allowed to contact people. For example, we weren’t allowed to come within so many feet of business entrances to contact people. Diana’s not bashful at all and makes the most of contacting anyone coming into the proscribed area. She gave away many brochures and pass-along cards and even was able to place two Books of Mormon. I chose a spot under a tree across the street where I was mostly protected from the rain and could talk to people walking to and from the parking lot. Sometimes we would work together when there were enough missionaries and members over by the display to take care of the people walking by. Strategically, we were in the best spot across from the display because people would try to avoid the display, but they would then walk past us. Most people were friendly and took whatever we were offering except for the BM’s. People don’t want to take anything as big as a book because it may seem too much of a commitment or something.

We dressed for the cold, but it was difficult to keep hands and feet warm for four hours. It wasn’t too bad for the first two hours, but eventually we had to duck into the strip mall to get warm. There was a bench outside a barber/beauty salon that was soft and convenient to sit on and, while we got warm, I was able to see the beauticians cut men’s hair. I was interested in how they did it and the styles they cut. I can honestly say that I could have done a better job than any I saw them do. I wouldn’t have been happy if it had been me getting the haircuts they got. The customers seemed to be pleased, however, so who am I to criticize?

Besides the cold, halfway through, another crises emerged. No where was a restroom to be found! Now what? Knowing restaurants are very displeased with people coming in to use restrooms without buying anything, when things become critical, drastic measures have to be taken. I entered a nearby restaurant and, upon spying the restroom sign, looking neither right nor left, made a beeline there. How do you spell “R-E-L-I-E-F?” It was worth the dirty look I got on the way out.

Elders Nilsson & Vencent didn’t arrive until about 12:30 because the went to a Seventh Day Adventist church meeting in exchange for them coming to our meetings next week. Both said the doctrines taught were similar to ours except for a few exceptions. They talked to one member who said they knew their Church wasn’t true and perfect, but it was the best they had. When they meet with them again, they’ll use that as a starting point to teach them about the restoration of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

All good things have to come to an end. During our scheduled time, a few other members came including Elder Koch, the stake patriarch, and two young women brought hot tea and a sack of hard, chewy cookies that tasted somewhat like ginger bread. At one point we went into Migros and bought some gipfels (croissants) for the hungry missionaries. They always seem to be hungry. Elders Nilsson & Irick and we left in time to catch the 1:33 train back to Bahnhof Oerlikon and from there we took a bus back to Schwamendingen. We did a little shopping for our trip to Klosters on Monday and then we went home. We didn’t have enough time before dark to really do any more contacting so we stayed in and got thoroughly warm again. Diana made some rice crispie treats for Monday and I iced the cake for Werner Buhlmann’s birthday tomorrow. We’re going to surprise him in the rest home with a birthday party after Church. We also made a few phone calls to invite our less-actives to Church tomorrow. Diana wrote an email letter to Genielle Orgill in response to the one she wrote us.

Before we left, Diana recruited Elder Nilsson to go with her into the bakery near our Ausstellung to tell them what we had been doing all day. She thought that if she did that, next time missionaries came here, if they wanted to know more, they could come out and ask. They went into the bakery and did just that, giving them some brochures and making friends with them.

The tender mercy for today is that Diana was able to place the two BM’s and that a husband cared for his wife enough to take one for her to read. We also felt the Ausstellung was a success because we talked to a lot of people and gave out a lot of material about the Church.

Einsiedeln Cathedral; Robert on carriage at Einsiedeln; Triana Bouso.

OCTOBER 16, 2009 FRIDAY

Since we were up so late last night, we didn’t exactly get up and going very early this morning. We were showered and shaved, but not quite dressed when someone rang our doorbell at 10:00. We quickly threw on our clothes and then opened the door. Elders Dockstader and Richeson were standing there with grins on their faces so we let them in. They just seemed to want a port in the storm today because it was really cold outside. We talked about investigators and members and how we could help them. Diana brewed them some hot chocolate and that seemed to warm them up. It came time for us to get ready for Brother Locher to come pick us up to go visit Walter Burri and so they had to leave. In retrospect, we probably should have fixed them some lunch over their objections that they weren’t hungry.

Brother Locher was late and just when we were dialing his phone number, he came driving up. We got in his car and he drove us over to Dietlikon, but it took us ten minutes driving around and not finding a free parking spot, so we parked in a pay lot. The lot wasn’t all that close so we had to walk quite a ways. We were just hoping Walter would be home because, when we made the appointment, he said he wouldn’t promise to be home but, if he was, we could visit. However, when we rang his bell, he answered the door and let us in. Brother Locher and he were neighbors some 20 years ago. Then Bro. Locher moved, Walter’s wife died, Walter quit coming to Church and they lost contact. The two renewed friendship and they chatted away in Swiss German as if they were the only ones in the room. We think they totally forgot we were there until almost time to go an hour and a half later. I could understand most of what they were talking about and translated for Diana. Walter told Heinz everything he had told to us about needing his beer and coffee, not really needing to come to Church because he had a relationship with God on his own, that he was okay being alone and so on and so forth. Heinz asked him if he would come if he came to pick him up. He said that he would think about it, but not promise. At least now the High Priest Group Leader, Heinz Locher, has met Walter and can work with him further by assigning home teachers to him.

We got home about 4:00 just in time to receive a phone call from Elders Irick and Nilsson. They asked if we had any left over food from last night that needed cleaning up. We assured them we did and that we would be glad to share, if they wanted to come over. They said they would be here between 6:00 and 6:30, but they didn’t arrive until almost 7:00. Being respectful missionaries, they called and let us know they’d be a little late. We warmed up the leftovers, pork roast, potatoes, carrots etc. and for dessert, we made a hot topping out of a mixture of berries and put it over ice cream and cake. It was all just as good tonight as it was last night, and maybe even better. After dinner we talked of investigators, especially Liz, and how to teach them. Elder Nilsson has a cold and cough and needed to not be out in the cold tonight. Before they left, we sang several songs out of the hymn book together. We used that as our prayer, for a song is as a prayer unto God and it was a nice way to end our visit. While we were talking, they told us that when they are knocking on doors, if people won’t let them in, they offer to sing a song out of the hymn book to them. Sometimes they will and sometimes after the song, they are let in. It seems to give the people time to look at their name tags and feel the spirit to soften their hearts.

We forgot to mention Diana received her absentee voting ballot the day before yesterday and it got mailed yesterday. Today I received mine via the AP’s because it was delivered to the mission home. I’ll fill it out and mail it tomorrow. The vote was for mayor and council persons for Sandy City.

The tender mercy for today was the reuniting of old friends, Walter and Heinz. We hope it will help Walter come back into activity in the Church.