Photos inside Einsiedeln from last winter; it was a cold wintering day when we were here last.

OCTOBER 12, 2009 MONDAY

For P-day today we had arranged last week to take a boat ride up the Rhein River from Schaffhausen to Konstanz. The weather didn’t cooperate so everyone decided to go to Einsiedeln, one of the largest monastery/cathedrals in Switzerland. We had already been there last winter, but decided to go again, this time without snow on the ground. Before we left, we went over to the Wichtermann’s and wished Stefan a happy birthday and gave him a soft volleyball. Pascal wasn’t home, but we left his gift with his mother. We had a nice visit with them and praised Esther for her talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. We went back home and cut both Elders Harris’ and Nilsson’s hair. When one was getting his haircut, the other was doing his emails. They left to do something else and we got the sandwiches and cookies and went to the Zurich Bahnhof where we met Charlotte and Elders Harris & Nilsson and Richeson & Dockstader. We got on the train and it only took about an hour plus one transfer to another train at Waedenswil to get to Einsiedeln. I didn’t want to carry the sandwiches and cookies around all day long and we knew the missionaries probably had skipped breakfast, so we passed them around and the missionaries made short work of them. On the train from Zurich to Waedenswil we struck up a conversation with a young lady and taught her about prophets, Joesph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We had a pretty good discussion for about 20 minutes and she accepted a BM as well as the pamphlet on Joseph Smith and a couple others that we put inside the cover. Diana also called Liz Bouso and set up a date for her to come to our home for dinner on Thursday evening at 5:00. We don’t know if her preacher friend is coming, too, but we expect to teach a lesson while they are here.

It rained most of the time we were in Einsiedeln and it was pretty cold too. Some parts of Switzerland got over 30 centimeters of snow overnight. We got off at the train station and had to walk about ten minutes to get to the cathedral. While we were in the cathedral we weren’t allowed to take photos and this time we obeyed the signs. We have photos from last time so we didn’t want to disappoint Charlotte who is a stickler for rules. We stopped at a couple of souvenir shops and this time we bought a few things. We’re careful not to buy too many because there is only so much space in suitcases to bring things home when we’re released. Just before we started to walk back to the train station, we met about another dozen missionaries from other districts who had the same idea for a P-day activity. Greetings were exchanged and some came with us but most stayed there. The ones who came with us went their own way at Waedenswil when we changed trains again to get to Zurich.

After we got back to Schwamendingen, we withdrew some money from our favorite ATM and then visited Migros to buy pizza and ice cream for the district meeting lunch tomorrow. Before we got home we took them to the Church and put them in the fridge/freezer for tomorrow. We got home, rested up for a few minutes and then went to FHE at Pres. & Sister Bolt’s home. This time we read and discussed Ephesians chapter 3. This was Elder Harris’ last time with us before he transfers on Thursday to Winterthur. Part of the program was everyone telling him what impressed them the most about him. For most it was an emotional time because it’s hard to say goodbye to friends and maybe not see them again. He’s been in this ward since February and, as Elder Richeson said, he hold the mission record for being a Zone Leader in the same zone, 8 transfers or approximately eight months.

The tender mercy of the Lord today is when we look for opportunities to teach the gospel, He puts people in our way. We just have to put forth the effort to recognize them. One such is our contact with Liz and our opportunity to make friends with her and teach her; the other was meeting the young lady on the train and, although our time was brief, being able to teach her and give her a Book of Mormon. Hopefully she’ll call the phone number stamped in the book and we’ll have opportunity to teach her. Once a BM leaves our hand, it would be interesting to track it to see what happens to it.