Me at Uetliberg in Zurich; Elders Vincent, Irick, Richeson, Dockstader, Knight, Sisters ?, Robinson, Wellborn, Larson and E. Larson standing. Daniel Wichtermann on his 19th birthday with his girlfriend.



NOVEMBER 19, 2009 THURSDAY

This morning we got up and got ready for district meeting. We put all of the pre-cooked noodles, chicken, fried onions, sauce, carrots, peas, broccoli and cheese into a casserole dish ready to warm up at the Church for an after meeting lunch. For an extra special treat, I quickly went into Schwamendingen and bought some gipfelis (croissants) to go with the casserole. I got back just in time for us to get what we needed and we both walked to the Church in the fog. I had the assignment to pick the opening song and give the opening prayer. Transfer calls were made this morning and we found out the sisters are being transferred out of Luzern and Elders Harris and Baird will be replacing them. One of our AP’s, Elder Richeson, is also being transferred to Freiburg, Germany. Elder Diaz, a missionary who arrived in Switzerland the same time we did, will be transferred from Chur to be an Assistant to the President and companion to Elder Dockstader. Other than that, no changes were made in our district for which we are glad. We really have top notch missionaries and we always hate to see them transferred away. Elder Irick was feeling sick and so was his companion, Elder Nilsson. Before we left our apartment this morning, he called and asked us to bring some ibuprofen for him, if we had any. We had some and we brought some to him. We had a good meeting and at the end, talked over some suggestions for our Omega meeting next Tuesday, our last district meeting before transfers next Thursday. Midway through the meeting, I slipped out and put the casserole in the oven to heat so it would be ready when the meeting ended. I was careful not to turn it on too high this time because last time we burned everything. Diana had the assignment to select the closing hymn and say the closing prayer. The hymn she chose was, “Did You Think To Pray.” After her prayer the sisters complimented her on how much progress she has made speaking the German language. She really has done remarkably well.

We brought in the casserole and were embarrassed that it didn’t get very hot, in fact some of it on the bottom was still cool. I just haven’t figured out how that blinkety blank oven in the Church works. First we burn it and now we couldn’t get it hot enough. But the good thing is, it was already cooked and it tasted pretty good anyway. Most came back for seconds, although that may have been because they are tired of living on cold cereal.

This afternoon we called Priscilla Wegmueller, who is back from the Philippines, to see how she is doing. The day she got home she became ill and had been ill ever since and that’s probably the reason she wasn’t to Church last Sunday. Even though she’s sick, she still has to work, ironing those 200 shirts every day; she can’t afford to not work, especially since she spent a lot of money going to the Philippines to see her mother who she thought was dying. The good news is her mother seems to have improved while she was there and that made her happy.

Then we continued on with our self-imposed goal of visiting every member on his birthday this year. We walked down to our tram stop and, when a tram stopped going the other way than the direction we wanted to travel, we saw Valerie Otte sitting next to the window. We knocked on the window getting her attention and waved at her. She smiled and waved back. We hope this will remind her to call us for another appointment to come teach her and Friede.

We traveled to Volketswil to take little Joris Sanneman (2 years old) his birthday present, cookies and a put together foam airplane. He was playing outside with his grandparents, Edi & Marlise Fuhrer, and when we gave him his present, he was really excited. His brothers were happy also because he shared his cookies with them. We visited with his mother, Nadia, for awhile and then the Fuhrers offered us a ride home in their car, so we left with them. They don’t live too far away from us so it wasn’t too inconvenient for them to take us home, but we appreciated their thoughtfulness. They are old time members of the ward so we took the opportunity to talk to them about a an inactive member we haven’t been able to catch home. They gave us some background information that may be helpful.

We had one more birthday boy to visit tonight, but couldn’t find anything in our apartment that would be appropriate for him. Daniel Wichtermann had his 19th birthday today. I went into town to see if I could find something to give him that wasn’t too expensive, but after going to four stores, I had no luck. Schwamendingen only has grocery stores so we weren’t too hopeful of finding something. I went back home and we looked through everything we had and finally found a few packages of “rattlesnake eggs.” We decided that would have to do. If you don’t know what rattlesnake eggs are, they are two egg shaped magnets that, when thrown in the air together, they react with each other with a buzzing sound like a rattlesnake makes. We wrapped that and a snickers bar and walked over to the Wichtermanns who live about a ten minute walk from us. He wasn’t home, but came a short while later. In the mean time we had a good conversation with mom and dad. When he came, he had his girl friend with him who is a member from the Winterthur Ward. We took a film clip of him speaking Swiss German and then had him say the same thing, only in high German. It really shows the difference between the two.

On the way home Charlotte called and told us that Elders Nilsson and Irick were really quite sick and that she had taken them some dinner as well as some medication she either had or bought at a pharmacy. She told us that we needed to check on them in the morning and, if they weren’t any better, to make sure they called the mission home to get permission to see a doctor. When we got home, we called them to see how they were and if we could do anything for them. Soon after that we got a call from George Wimalasuriya, a good member on our ward, asking if we were still available in the morning to help him move his daughter to somewhere. He gave us the address and we’ll meet him there in the morning. And that about ends our day.