Since it was ward temple day, we thought we would feature photos of the temple even though you probably have seen them already. We didn't take any new photos because it was such an ugly day.

DECEMBER5, 2009 SATURDAY

We got up early, got ready and walked to the Church to be there at the pre-arranged time of 8:00. Not long after we got there David Wichtermann drove up in his parent’s van. Natasha, his married sister, was in the front seat, too. We got in, had a prayer and were off to the temple. It was a foggy morning and it remained cold, dreary and a little rainy the whole day. It took an hour an fifteen minutes to drive from the Church parking lot to the temple parking lot. We arrived in plenty of time to get ready for the session. It was good not to be rushed and to have time to write names on the prayer roll, then to sit quietly in the chapel until the session started. We saw quite a few ward members there including Pres. & Sister Bolt. After the session was over, we found David, but this time he had his older brother, Pascal, with him and when we asked where Natasha was, he said she would be riding home with her husband who had come for a later session. The ride home was uneventful and we arrived without any problems. We brought some cinnamon rolls for us to eat on the way back and David and Pascal thought they were great. They had never had cinnamon rolls before. It seems cinnamon rolls are an American thing and even though their father works in a Migros bakery, they had never seen or tasted them before. Good! The next Church function we have, we’ll have to bake some for it. We are really blessed at home with temples so close that it only takes a few minutes to get to one and a few minutes to get back home. For this one session it took us about seven hours from doorstep to doorstep. But them we think of other members in the world who have to travel and sacrifice much more to attend a temple.

This afternoon we did a little shopping, not just for food, but we’re trying to get a few presents for Christmas. Our home evening group will have a present grab because we’re in charge of the game. We’ll probably have a present exchange at our zone conference like last year and then one in our own district meeting. Plus, we have a few special people we want to give a gift to as well. We didn’t find much in Schwamendingen so we’ll have to go somewhere else another time.

This evening we filled out our report for tomorrow and emailed it to Bodo Rueckauer. Bruno Patane’, the Elders Quorum President, wanted a copy of all our weekly reports for 2009. I finally figured out how to attach these reports to an email and sent them to him. We’ll find out tomorrow if it worked. We also made a few calls and sent a text message to Tony encouraging him to come to Church tomorrow as he promised us on Monday he would. Diana told Cinthyia Frioud she’d bring brownies for the after Church social when her baby was blessed so she called her tonight to confirm which Sunday it would be. We thought maybe it would be tomorrow, but her husband is out of town so they will do it on December 13. She also tried to call Priscilla, but couldn’t reach her.

Among our blessings today was the opportunity we had to add people’s names to the prayer roll in the temple. Every time we visit the temple we are encouraged by our mission president to place the names of all the people we are working with, investigators and less-active members, on the rolls. We also include everyone we know who is struggling with health or other issues both at home, in our families and over here.