Winter photos of Davos.


DECEMBER 28, 2009 MONDAY

This evening we were going to sponsor the weekly home evening so we began by calling the missionaries to give them assignments to give the spiritual thought and the game. When we called them, we found out neither companionship would be attending ours because they had made other appointments. While we were on the phone, Elder Nilsson asked if they could come over a quickly do their emails. While they were here we asked them if they had had their breakfast. Of course they hadn’t, so we fixed them an egg and cheese sandwich apiece. No wonder these missionaries are all so skinny, they don’t eat unless someone makes them or cooks for them.

We decided to do the lesson ourselves and we called Charlotte who agreed to do the game. Diana called Suki and Madeline to make sure they knew it would be at our house this time. Good, everything was set except for something to give them to eat as they arrived. We decided on toast with a slice of tomato, or pineapple, or pear on it covered with a slice of cheese melted over it. Simple to make and tasty. We also had the dessert so we made a vanilla pudding which we put in the bottom of a bowl for each person with a couple of pear halves on top of it and sections of clementines around the edge. We decided to try and go a little healthier after eating all the Christmas goodies.

During the morning and early afternoon we cleaned house and packed up a lot of things we weren’t using, preparing for our move in a couple of weeks. We’ve tried not to collect much of anything, but it seems a little has crept in, especially in the food department. That being said, we still had to go buy a few groceries to make what we wanted for tonight. Mostly tomatoes, pineapples and clementines were on the shopping list, but we also wanted to buy some canned green beans. Before I left to go buy them, I gathered up all the plastic bottles, cans and glass containers to drop off at the recycle bins down the street. You can only put the cans and glass in the bins; the plastic goes in recycle locations inside the grocery stores. As I approached the recycle bins I noticed a lot of dishes, pans and utensils placed along the curb. Most were old or chipped, but there were three small dessert bowls in perfect shape that looked like they would match the four we had in our cupboard. However, I resisted picking them up and went on my way to the COOP store down the street. I stuffed the plastic bottles in the slots and then looked around the store. Clementines were too expensive as were the other stuff so I didn’t buy any there. There were some big bins full of Christmas stuff and clearance items that had been marked down to half price and I couldn’t resist looking in to see what they had put on sale. I discovered some packages of 100 10" and 8" plastic plates that would be handy to have, but I resisted and walked out of the store. I didn’t get far before I had second thoughts, but I called Diana instead to see what she thought. She advised me to go buy some, that maybe Charlotte could use them or someone else could when doing something at the ward. I went back and bought two packages of each.

As I walked back home to drop them off, I had to go past the three dessert dishes along the road. I couldn’t resist the second time and picked them up and took them home. Diana was happy with what I brought home, but the dishes didn’t exactly match although they were close and we can use them. I went back out to walk to Schwamendingen for what we really wanted to buy. It didn’t take me long to get what we needed and get back home with them. It really felt good to get out and walk around for the exercise, something I haven’t been doing for awhile.

We had everything ready when Neide came. She was the first to arrive although Charlotte and Madeline weren’t far behind. We had a fun time together tonight because we all had a hard time understanding each other. Charlotte speaks German/Swiss German, but can speak French although she’s rusty, and Spanish; Madeline speaks French, but also German and English very poorly; Neide speaks Portuguese, but also speaks German and English with a heavy South American accent. Of course Diana and I speak English and German somewhat. At times none of us understood what Madeline was saying when she spoke anything other than French to Charlotte and Neide. We broke out laughing a lot because of the problems with the language. There was a spiritual side to our home evening, however, as we talked mostly to Madeline about the restoration, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and Priesthood authority. We watched the DVD, Special Witnesses of Christ, in French with English sub-titles. The is the video of all the Apostles and Pres. Hinckley bearing testimony of Christ. We also discussed Madeline’s upcoming baptism. She joked that she really wanted Diana to baptize her, but she knows she can’t. We got a real kick out of that. She is planning on getting baptized next Sunday. We think this time it may happen.