Confetti filled air; one entry in the parade; Diana covered with confetti.

FEBRUARY 6, 2010 SATURDAY

Yesterday I felt like I had a cold coming on and this morning I decided to stay in to see if I could recover. I took some cold/flu stuff similar to Theraflu along with some vitamin C. It seemed to help as the day wore on. We were going to try to visit Paul Hunziker a little after noon, but Madeleine called and Diana ended up talking to her until it was too late to go to see Paul. I called him later on and we made an appointment with him for next Tuesday at 3:30. He isn’t a member, but he comes almost every Sunday to our Church meetings. We’ve heard he doesn’t want to get baptized because he’s afraid his friends won’t come anymore if they find out he’s a member.

Just before 3:00 we got ready and went in to Schaffhausen to watch the Fasnachts parade. This celebration is supposed to drive out the winter so spring can come. We made arrangements to meet the Bolli family there, but there were so many people we didn’t find them. We saw Silvia Gardedieu, but we don’t think she saw us. She was too busy looking the other direction and taking pictures. We took our share of pictures and got just as cold this year as last. The parade was a lot smaller, but it still lasted a little over an hour. Everybody likes to throw confetti, the onlookers as well as the people in the parade. Many of the floats had machines that pumped confetti into the air and all over the onlookers as they went by. By the end, we were really covered. We tried to get it all off and out of our hair, but it was impossible to get rid of it all.

We hopped onto our bus and went all the way in to the shopping center to buy a few things. On the way there the bus wasn’t so crowded, but on the way back they used shoe horns to get everyone in. At each stop maybe one person got out and five or more got in. By the time we got to our stop, we had to force our way out. We bought a bag of plaster of paris for Diana’s sunstones, some bananas and tomatoes. At home we made sure we stayed in one spot as we took our coats and scarves off because we still had confetti on us. When all was said and done, we got the vacuum and vacuumed it all up. And then we got ready for Kofi to come for his English reading lesson.

While we were waiting for Kofi to arrive, Brad & Roxsan skyped us and we also got to visit with all their kids. Soon after Kofi arrived and we spent the next two hours helping him with reading English. We found an English dictionary for him and also gave him a Book of Mormon on cassette and loaned him a tape player to [play them with. This way he can listen to the words as he reads along in his own Book of Mormon. We had two plush toy animals left over from Christmas and we sent these home with him to give to his boys, John and Tito. He left to go home at 9:30.

Today we got a phone call from Franz Maier telling us he and his wife wouldn’t be to Church tomorrow, that they wold be out of town. He talked so fast and didn’t give me a chance to clarify anything so we hope they make plans to come another time. We got a call from Elder Holzapfel letting us know what our district meeting assignments were. My assignment is to choose an opening song; Diana’s is to teach something out of the missionary little white rule book. We got a call from Sylvain this morning and said he is still doing good.

After he went home we wrote this journal, completed our progress report and then checked out some emails. Tomorrow is fast Sunday and we started right after our breakfast. We have a lot of people on our “fasting for” list, here in Schaffhausen, in Schwamendingen and also at home.