E. Dockstader, Fabian, Bishop Schwendener; All of the men in the next photo were the ones standing in the circle for the ordination, E. Richeson, E. Dockstader, Pres. Bolt, Fabian Streit (the one ordained), Joerg Moeller, Bishop Schwendener, E. Nilsson, E. Larson. Lunch at our home, Robert, Diana, Joerg, Irene, E. Nilsson, Cynthia, E. Irick, Kim.

NOVEMBER 8, 2009 SUNDAY

No correlation meeting this morning, but it didn’t help us to sleep in. Today after stake conference Fabian was going to receive the MP and be ordained to the office of Elder and we wanted to invite him to a farewell lunch. That didn’t happen because he had scheduled an open house at his home this afternoon, so we had his last night. However, not as many came as we had prepared food for and we had a complete casserole left over. We had already invited Irene & Joerg for today before Fabian said he couldn’t come, and so we were committed. We planned on fixing spaghetti, but we used the extra casserole instead which made it rather nice. This morning we added a few more potatoes and ham, but it was essentially already made. We extended the fruit salad with some more bananas and cottage cheese, added the left over green salad to some new, and we had a complete apple torte to boot. Now all we needed was to decide who else to invite which usually isn’t a problem.

We went to conference which started at 10:00 and the chapel, the overflow and part of the gym was filled as well as some of the other rooms where English, French and Portuguese translations were available. The Zurich Stake is getting large enough to where they are beginning to think about splitting the stake, and for this conference, for the first time they set it up where half the stake assembled in Freiburg, Germany, and the meeting was broadcast there by satellite. Even at that the parking lot was full. Members coming to our stake center live within an hour’s drive so it isn’t too much of an inconvenience. In the past those coming from Germany had to drive up to six hours one way to get here. If they came for the Saturday evening session, they had to find overnight accommodations.

The theme of the conference was, “Courage to live an extra ordinary life.” The first speaker was Pres. Schwendener who spoke about Abinadi preaching to King Noah and his priests. Abinadi never knew his words reached one person, Alma, before he was burned to death. It’s the same with us today as we do missionary work. Most of the time we don’t know who is affected or when a conversion will take place. We give out many Books of Mormon, brochures and talk to a lot of people, never knowing the results. We’ve mentioned before that it would be interesting to be able to track a BM to see what happens to it and what affect it has on people. However, the point of his talk was that Alma had the courage to live an extra ordinary life in the service of God. We can use his example in our own lives. Do we listen to the prophets in our day as they talk in conferences and other meetings? Pres. Schwendener said he counted 54 different subjects the Brethren counseled us about during the last General Conference. How many have we identified?

Bodo Ruckauer talked about Nephi and the courage he had to live an extra ordinary life and the many lessons we can learn from his example. Pres. & Sister Matern spoke about the life of Joseph Smith and the courage it took to magnify his calling after he received the vision in the Sacred Grove. Pres. Bolt was the last speaker and he chose to speak about the courage Daniel had to live an extra ordinary life. Threatened with being put in the lions’ den if he prayed to God, he did anyway. As a result he was put in the den, but the Lord protected him. He used this example to encourage parents to teach their children to pray and trust Heavenly Father to protect them. There were a lot of great lessons taught and our responsibility now is to see how they apply in our lives and then do it.

Before the meeting started, we saw the Humphries and invited them to come to lunch. Diana told them we were invited to Fabian’s ordination at 1:00 and so lunch would we a little later. She gave them our apartment keys so they could go in and make themselves comfortable until we got there. Cynthia & Kim both work in the Chiropractic field, she in research and he as a university professor as well as a practicing chiropractor.

At 1:00 the invited people for Fabian’s ordination assembled in the high council room which filled it to overflowing. After a short talk by Bishop Schwendener, Joerg Moeller ordained Fabian and gave him a blessing. We took a few photos and then hurried home to see the Humphries and to get everything ready. Irene & Joerg and Elders Nilsson & Irick followed a little later.

Lunch/dinner was a great success and it was nice that the Humphries and the Moeller-Russo’s got better acquainted. We as members need to do a better job of getting to know one another on a more personal level. It’s all well and good to see and greet one another, spend time in classes etc. during Church, but even then, some people feel not included because they just don’t get to know people on a deeper level. We all need to feel that love and support from each other. Maybe that would eliminate some people just drifting off into the sunset. When the meal was over, the missionaries had another appointment and so they left. The rest of us sat around the table and had a friendly conversation for a couple of hours. It is custom here to not be in such a rush to go home after an event.

This whole day has been a tender mercy of the Lord to us which is just another way of saying the Lord has richly blessed us today. Good counsel from our leaders, feeling the Spirit as we mingled with the saints, attending Fabian’s ordination, and the little social at our house after, are just a few. And BYU winning 52-0 didn’t hurt either.