Here in Switzerland you never see Santa on a roof top, just on ladders climbing in windows. The missionaries lined up for a zone photo, but my camera was still on video mode so I didn't get one. I had to settle for these photos after the group broke up. Elder Knight promised me a copy of his photo next time he's here for a haircut.

DECEMBER 13, 2009 SUNDAY

Before we went to our correlation meeting this morning we whipped up some thick chocolate mousse to ice the brownies Diana made yesterday for the baby blessing today. Just as we were leaving we got a call from Elder Irick who, with a begging whining voice, said they left to come to Church without breakfast and could we please have pity on them and bring each an apple or orange with for them. When we met them at Church, we gave them each an apple and orange plus one of the brownies we were carrying. That kept them from starving to death until after the sacrament meeting was over. During the correlation meeting we texted reminders/invitations to Priscilla Wegmueller and Tony Dkere to come to Church this morning. Tony sent a message back saying he was coming, but he never did. We also sent a text message to Daniella Martin who is still in the clinic in Davos just to let her know we are thinking of her.

During Priesthood opening exercises I was asked if I had an English Book of Mormon at home which we did. During the short break between Priesthood and Sunday school I ran home and got it. I gave it to Bruno Patane’ who needed it to give to someone he is working with. Bruno is our Elders Quorum President. Edi Fuhrer was our instructor today in Gospel Doctrine class and we really enjoy his lessons because he speaks clearly, slowly and gives a good lesson besides. After Sunday school we look to see who of the ones we hope will come, come, and today Priscilla came. We were thrilled to see her because it’s been about three months since she’s been to Church. She was six weeks in the Philippines and when she came back, she was sick with the flu for a few weeks. Angela Lloyd came, too, and seemed happy to be there. Madeline Schwitter is a regular attender now; we found out today that she has set a new baptism date for December 27. We walked her home from the First Presidency Fireside this evening and she told us that when Elders Irick & Nilsson set the date with her, she told them she wanted me (Elder Larson) to baptize her. Elder Irick objected telling her they were the ones who contacted her and taught her and he should be the one to baptize her. Madeline was giggling as she related this to us and said she would rather have someone who was a little sturdier and had a better chance to not drop her during the baptizing. It may be a little tricky baptizing her because she has one knee that is painful and won’t bend and she is a fairly large woman. No matter who baptizes her, we’re just happy that she will be baptized. We’ll see how this plays out.

Max and Cynthia Frioud had their baby blessed today in Sacrament meeting. After the opening and before the Sacrament the bishop tried to bless little Aline, but it didn’t work. Little Aline started crying and it was a loud piercing cry. Bishop Schwendener decided to postpone it until the end of the meeting and then try again. The second time was no better than the first time, but Bishop Schwendener forged ahead and blessed her in the French language. The parents requested it be done in French because that is Max’s mother language and Cynthia understands it better than German. Both times, as soon as Aline was back in her mother’s arms, she quit crying and was happy again. After the meeting was over everybody reconvened in the cultural hall for the usual refreshments. We’re having a tough time not gaining weight because of all these after meeting socials. They have so many good things to eat and we like to try anything we haven’t seen before as well as the ones we know are good. But these socials are a good way for members to socialize and fellowship investigators and new members. We saw many members visiting with Angela, Priscilla and Madeline which we were happy to see. Priscilla mentioned to Diana that she would like to talk to the bishop. Diana in turn asked Elder Dias to let the bishop know and to see if he had time today. The appointment was arranged and the visit took place and we hope Priscilla’s concerns about missed tithing were addressed. We’ve had so many say they won’t know what to do when we have to go home, so we really try to get out of the way as much as possible so they make friends with permanent members. Brother Neidhart mentioned to me today that he’s noticed a lot of the new members and investigators seek out Diana to sit with her and he called her “Mother Sister Larson.” Little do they know that we’ll be leaving this ward sooner than they think and we’ve become attached to them as well so it’ll be difficult for us to leave too.

We went home for a couple of hours during which I read the next priesthood lesson and then took a nap. Diana kept busy on the computer among other things and, when it was time to go to the baptism at 4:00, we walked through the lightly falling snow to the Church. A member family from the Altstetten ward baptized their 8 year old son, but we wanted to be there to be with Madeline who was there to see how a baptism was conducted. After seeing this baptism she knows what to expect when she is baptized so there’ll be no surprises. Following the baptism we slipped into the Relief Society Room to watch the First Presidency Devotional. All three talks were so inspirational that it just made us want to go around and hug everybody. On the way out of the building Madeline met a man who she recognized from her home town of Kamaroon and stopped and talked to him a moment. He bore testimony to her that the Church was true and that he was happy to see she was getting baptized too. We walked Madeline home and then we came home ourselves. Not long after we got home Charlotte called and asked if she could use our computer to look up the train/bus connections for their P-day trip tomorrow. She and the other missionaries are going to Altdorf where William Tell is supposed to have lived. After she left we tried to call Tony Dkere, but he didn’t answer. We called Beatrice Jakob to set up another appointment, but when she didn’t answer, we left a message for her to call us. We hope she does. Elder Knight called to get our report for the week and now we think we are finished for the day and it’s only 9:45. What’s up with that?

Some of the tender mercies we experienced today was being with Madeline as she witnessed a baptism to get prepared for her own (she is such a sweet lady), listening to the talks from the First Presidency, and seeing Priscilla come to Sacrament meeting again. And, Mom's knee is getting a little better all the time although she has a ways to go yet.