Somewhere in Switzerland


JANUARY 9, 2010 SATURDAY

This morning we called Sister Gianatti to let her know we had been transferred and to invite her to come to Church tomorrow. Last time we were there we challenged her to come at least once before we go home. We were hoping, since this is our last Sunday here, that she would come, but she had visitors and said she wouldn’t be able to make it. After talking a bit and looking at options, she agreed to come to a session of General Conference in April when we would be here in Schwamendingen to watch it, too. She wanted to make sure we planned to stay and visit between sessions and plans to have dinner for us. We hope the missionaries will be able to keep visiting her and not let her fall back into oblivion again.

Elder Irick has been sick and when he and Elder Nilsson called this morning, it was to ask if they could come over and convalesce here rather than stay at home. They came and stayed for a couple of hours and then went to the Church to meet a couple of investigators of theirs.

We needed to go into town to pick up a few things for our dinner tonight and on the way we called Tony Dkere to let him know we were leaving. We told him we would like to see him one more time and invited him to Church tomorrow. He said he would come. He’s not very reliable, but sometimes he comes when he says he will. The missionaries caught him home last week, had a nice visit and made another appointment with him for last Friday. When they went at the appointed time, he wasn’t there. They were disappointed, but we encouraged them to not give up on him, that they have to have patience and perseverance and it will pay off.

We set up the dinner this evening for Priscilla so we would be able to say goodbye and she could also meet and get to know Irene, the new Relief Society president. Irene doesn’t know Priscilla very well either and so she was looking forward to getting to know her a little better, too. Sometimes the best laid plans come to naught as was the case this time. Priscilla failed to show up. We called her several times on her cell phone, but she never answered. We were sorry she didn’t come and are a little concerned because it’s not like her to just not show up without calling. However, Irene, Joerg, Neide, Elder Nilsson and Elder Irick came and we had a very pleasant evening together. For dinner we had green salad for starters followed by two different kinds of stroganoff over noodles, steamed buttered cauliflower, steamed buttered carrots, potato bread with nuts, and Aeplerbrot (another kind of bread). Dessert was a vanilla mousse pudding with frozen fruit on top. It was all pretty good except the noodles got a little overcooked waiting for Priscilla who didn’t come. The dessert could have used a little more fruit, but all in all, we felt everyone enjoyed themselves.

After the meal we were sitting around talking and then Diana suggested that someone needed to give a spiritual thought. Elder Irick volunteered and read Hebrew 13:1-2 which states we should continue in brotherly love and entertain strangers for there may be angels among them. That was meant as a thank you to us, but it stirred Neide into telling us her conversion story again. We wrote it in our journal more than a year ago, but it bears repeating. She had been having a lot of problems in her life to the point that she didn’t want to live any more. She had her plans all made to commit suicide, but prayed once more to Heavenly Father that she needed His help to find her way and that this was the last time she was going to pray. If she failed in getting an answer, she was going to end it all. She stayed up all night and the thought kept coming to her that she needed to go to church in the morning. In her own words she said, “the Holy Ghost was with me all night.” In the morning she got ready and went out the door to catch the bus at the stop just in front of her apartment building. She was just a few minutes late and missed her bus and she thought, if she was supposed to go to church, why did the Lord let her miss her bus. But then she saw an elderly lady who had gotten off the bus who needed crutches to walk. She seemed to be very tired and in need of help. Neide asked the lady if she could help her and the lady, Jeanne Bader, one of our faithful members, said she needed help to get to her Church because she had an appointment with her bishop. Neide imagined the bishop to be a Catholic bishop, but there wasn’t a Catholic church for miles. Sister Bader told her the Church was just up the street and so Neide escorted her there. On the way Sister Bader told her she was a Mormon and then Neide envisioned the Mormon bishop would be an old man with a long beard dressed in black.. Sister Bader also taught her about the Church, including the Joseph Smith story and the Book of Mormon until they got to the church. Neide recognized the building and had been there many times to sit on one of the large rocks in front crying when problems overcame her and she felt life wasn’t worth living. She said she had a peaceful feeling while sitting there. She was surprised to discover it was our Church building and even more surprised to meet Bishop Schwendener who was not an old man dressed in black with a long beard, but a young man with piercing blue eyes who greeted her warmly. They invited her in and the next thing she knew she attended Relief Society, Sunday School and sacrament meeting. After Sacrament meeting Elders Ehlen & Andrizzi met her and the rest is history. She was baptized 14 December 2008, two and a half months after we arrived. It hasn’t been easy for her, but she’s very active and has a very strong testimony. She hates to see us go and we will dearly miss her too.

After dinner was over we received a phone call from Sister Silvia Gardedieu who is the Relief Society president in Schaffhausen. She wanted to know where we were and if we were coming to their missionary correlation meeting tomorrow. We explained that we were not going to be there tomorrow, but would be living in Schaffhausen as of January 15 and would be to Church a week from tomorrow. She was disappointed we wouldn’t be there, but said she would let the others know about our situation. She also offered her services to go with us contacting or visiting less-active members. This should be fun. Up until now, we’ve always been on our own.

The tender mercy was to hear Neide’s conversion story again, and having lived through most of it with her, it was especially poignant. We spent many long hours into the late night helping her through some tough times only to see her gain strength and testimony and become the strong member she is today.