A leafless tree in Luzern with one of the seven towers in the background; a baby's face advertising a tattoo/piercing parlor; one of the churches in Luzern.

JANUARY 11, 2010 MONDAY

We got up fairly early this morning to get things rolling so we could keep on schedule to do everything we planned to do. First thing Diana called Madeleine to see if she needed us to get her anything besides the bottled water she wanted. She said she would be thankful if we could get her some eggs and milk so we put that on the list. I went into Schwamendingen for my morning walk and then bought the things from Migros. The water, milk and eggs were pretty heavy so I decided to ride the bus to near where Madeleine lives. I rang her buzzer, but an older couple inside the building let me in and then they and I rode the elevator up to Madeleine’s floor. On the way I gave the friendly couple a pass-along card and asked them to call the telephone number written on it and order them a free copy of the Book of Mormon. They thanked me for the card and then elevator door opened and there was Madeleine standing in her doorway. I dropped off her food and water and then went on back home, mission accomplished.

By the time I got home Elders Carrier and Davis had arrived to use our computer for emails and to get haircuts. Elder Davis has been in the field for about seven months and seems to be a very astute and intelligent young man and it was nice getting to know him. We know Elder Carrier quite well because he was our district leader some months ago, but is now serving in Basel. I got their hair done in time for us to meet Charlotte at 11:45 and then we were off to Luzern to do a little souvenir shopping. When we’ve been to Luzern before, we visited a small internet cafe/souvenir shop in the bahnhof shopping mall underneath the main floor. We’ve found souvenirs there that have been cheaper than any other place. This time the shop was closed for remodeling which made us very disappointed because the main target for this trip was this little shop. Rather than pout or throw a fit we decided to catch a bus and ride to the Old Town to see what we could find. It was bitter cold as we walked around and Diana’s knee was not feeling all that well. We found several shops and bought a few things. As we walked through the narrow cobblestone streets we photographed several building facades, some old watch towers left over from the walls surrounding the city, a Franciscan cathedral, some picturesque leafless trees, and some other things. We ended up back at the bahnhof just in time to catch the train back to Zurich where we got out at Oerlikon and took the bus home. On the train on the way back we ate a couple of pastries which lasted us until we got to Joerg and Irene’s for home evening.

It started to snow while riding the train back from Luzern and it continued as we walked to our home evening. We were hoping this home evening would be a regular one, but we knew deep down that it wouldn’t be since it was our last one here in Zurich. We usually have anywhere from eight to twelve, but tonight there were seventeen including us: Hitsch & Kathi Bolt, Pres. & Sister Matern, Joerg & Irene Moeller-Russo, Neide Graf, Madeleine Schwitter, Silas, Sister Kelli Christopherson, Charlotte Stoecklin, Cornelia Schaer, Elder Irick, Elder Nilsson and Bodo Rueckauer. Pres. Matern gave the lesson on Alma 7:19-24. After we read it he passed out a form and asked us to list all the qualities we need to possess to stand guiltless before the Lord and do good works. After we finished with that he asked us to think about ourselves in relation to these qualities and list our strongest to the weakest qualities. To finish the lesson he asked us to promise the Lord that we would work on the weakest one first and work through them to improve our lives. In Ether 12:27 the Lord promised us that our weaknesses would become strong when we rely on him to help us.

We were assigned the game and we were ready again, but instead Joerg asked each person there to relate how Diana and I had touched their lives. It’s heartwarming to hear all the nice things they said about us, but it was also very uncomfortable for us to sit through it. We would rather just do our work and let the Lord have whatever thanks and praise they felt they needed to share. Every one of these people have touched and blessed our lives in so many ways and it’s sad to think we won’t have this close relationship anymore although we’ll see them at conferences during the year. We were especially grateful Cornelia took the time to come and wish us well. The evening finally came to an end and we went home again walking through the snow.

We were just preparing to write our journal entry when Roxsan skyped us. We had a good hour long conversation with her and part of the reason she called was to make sure we understood the information her husband, Brad, had sent to us on email. While we were in Luzern, we stopped in Swiss-Com, a telephone company, and asked questions about wireless service and etc. They told us about the same thing Brad sent us in an email and between the both of them, maybe we can get it all figured out. Of course we talked about other things going on in their lives and how their remodel of the new house is coming along. She also told us that Karen Ricks passed away about a week ago. We were sad to hear about that and hope her family will be okay.