Another cow in Schaffhausen; Front is Dorothea Jarmann, Christina Kusz, Irma Pietroboni, and Greta Troesch (with blue scarf).

JANUARY 28, 2010 THURSDAY

We came out of a deep sleep this morning when the phone rang at 7:00. It’s exciting when that happens because the phone is in the next room and we have to race in there and get it before the answer machine gets it. Elder Vincent called to say good morning and just to see how we were getting along. Shortly after he hung up Brother Klaumuenzner called to tell us we had permission to go buy a hand mixer and the mission would pay for it. When moving furniture the other day, he asked if we had everything we needed. We told him we didn’t have an electric mixer, but we could do with the old hand egg beater that was here. He said he’d look for one for us. He was a good as his word. He gave us two options to go look at in local stores here and we could choose the one we wanted.

We decided we wanted to take banana bread to our meeting with the older single sisters this afternoon. For that we needed bananas and so I included going to the grocery store in my walk this morning. Before I left we called Charlotte and wished her a happy birthday. We thought it was tomorrow, but we found out it was yesterday so we were a day late. After looking at the email clip from the Doyles we promised not to complain about the cold here again, but needless to say, I bundled up a bit. At the end of my walk I bought some bananas at COOP and a few other things we needed including some elbow macaroni for Diana’s game this afternoon. I also bought a hand mixer for 39.90sfr from Migros. On the bus on the way home I met a man from New Zealand who has lived here for two years, but is moving to Boston tomorrow. We had a good short conversation during which he said he was familiar with the Church, but wouldn’t accept any literature, even to read on the long flight tomorrow.

While I was gone, Diana received phone calls from Verena Bosshard, Ruth Diethelm and Neide Graf, all friend from the Schwamendingen Ward. Ruth & Neide were visiting teaching Verena and they made a call together, passing the phone from one to the other. They all said that they missed us which was nice of them.

Back home we made the banana bread, Diana got all of her stuff together for the game and I finished getting my lesson prepared. When all was ready, we went to the bahnhof and met Christina Kusz, Dorothea Jaermann and Greta Troesch. We had to wait for a few minutes for the bus and then we all got on and rode the half hour to Schleitheim where Irma Pietroboni lives. She invited us in and we got a little bit acquainted and the launched into our home evening. Christina and Irma are fairly new to the Church and, since they all live alone, don’t normally have home evening by themselves. These sisters meet once a month to have one together. We started with a song and a prayer and then I was first with the lesson. We discussed the talk, That Your Burdens May Be Light, given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, that is published in the November 2009 issue of the Ensign. We had a good discussion about the burdens that we carry and that they are a blessing to us if we have the right attitude, repent and follow the commandments. Elder Clayton started out his talk by describing an older man in the Peruvian Andes carrying a load of firewood on his back and used this as an illustration of the burdens we all carry around. We used a picture Roxsan sent us of a man burdened down with all kinds of things so much so that he could only look up at the “Iron Rod” but couldn’t reach it. When we got through with the lesson, Irma served us some hot fruit tea and a piece of cake. That out of the way Diana started the game. She used the concentration game she made some time ago for a home evening in Schwamendingen. She made them out of cheap cardboard coasters, gluing pictures on them she cut out of magazines and advertisements. She spread the tiles out on the table with the pictures face down. Everyone had fun turning two tiles over, when it was their turn, to try and match them up. After all the pairs had been match up and everyone was feeling pretty good about how many they had collected, Diana told them the rest of the game. She asked them to related the picture on each set they had to a gospel principle. Everyone did a wonderful job giving good short spiritual thoughts. They thought that was the end of the game, but Diana had another surprise for them. She gave them something to represent what was on their tiles. For example, one tile pair had a picture of Charmin toilet paper. She gave her a roll of toilet paper. Another picture was of a package of elbow macaroni, the one who had this tile got a small package of macaroni. Another was of a dog and this person got a plastic dog doodoo sack. These are only examples, but it would be easy to make the game yourself and play it at your own home evening. They all thought it was hilarious to get a prize for each of the matches they had made, especially the silly prizes like the doodoo bag. After the closing prayer we walked back to the bus stop, waited for the fifteen minutes, and then rode back into Schauffhausen. From there we said our goodbyes and went home on our bus. Dinner was some delicious mushroom soup Diana made for us and then we spent some time trying to wade through all the emails in our inbox. We stopped at 70 to go to write this journal entry and then to catch up on our friends’ journals. We’ve missed a lot while we were off line.

The tender mercy today was spending some time with some wonderful older ladies who have great testimonies and are the backbone of the branch. The oldest is Geta Troesch who is ninety and has over the years served as Relief Society President in either the branch or the stake for more than thirty years.