Elders Bentley, Niederhausen, Larson, Holzapfel & Tavake standing in front of the Church; Elder Diaz getting a haircut; the castle.

FEBRUARY 2, 2010 TUESDAY

We found out yesterday that our district leader, Elder Bond, was transferred to the Bern District as a zone leader to take the place of an Elder who was released an sent home because of an injury that just wasn’t healing. We don’t know anything of his situation, only that Elder Bond was transferred. We had three missionaries working together in Schwenningen and one of them, Elder Tavake, was transferred to Singen to take Elder Bond’s place and work with Elder Holzapfel, who is now our district leader. He called us last night to tell us the district meeting time had been changed from the normal time of 10:00 to 2:00 this afternoon and we would be meeting at the Church. He hadn’t given us an assignment yet, so I asked him if he had one for us. He said, “Well, it’s short notice, but if you’d like to do a spiritual thought, I would appreciate it.”

I went on my usual morning walk during which I wanted to stop at Migros and buy some milk. I expected the store to be open at 8:00, just as it was in Schwamendingen. When I got there at 8:15, I got a surprise because it was still locked. It didn’t open until 9:00. What was I to do for another forty-five minutes? I decided I would try and find the castle I’d heard was in the area. I didn’t want to go downhill so I took the road that swung around and continued on up through some building the way the bus makes it turn around. As I walked up the road I saw what looked like maybe it could have been the castle, although it was relatively small. The closer I got the deeper the canyon was between the road I was on and the other side where the “castle” was. I got as close as I could and then took a photo using the telephoto function of my camera. I turned around and by the time I got back to Migros it was open. I got what we needed and went home. When I came into our apartment, Diana greeted me with a big hug and a happy birthday. She is so good to me.

Sylvain called us this morning to let us know how he was doing. He said he was doing good and that he put a picture of the temple up in his room as a goal he wanted to work toward. Diana talked to him for awhile to encourage him and give him support. Diana made him a sunstone this morning to give to him to go along with his picture.

The next thing to do was to check the computer to see if it would boot up okay and to write our journal entry for yesterday. It booted up just fine and we’ve not had a problem with it today at all. We wrote the journal, prepared the spiritual thought, and got ready for the missionaries to pick us up for district meeting. Elder Holzapfel kindly offered to pick us up and drive us to the Church so we wouldn’t have to walk up the slick, icy, snow-covered road. He called a little before they were supposed to be here and said they would be a little late because they had to stop and get gas. He asked if we had the DVD “Other Side of Heaven” which we didn’t. The only DVD movie we had was “One Good Man” and he asked if we would bring it. While we were waiting for them to come, we tried to find Franca Flammia’s new address, but were unsuccessful. We called Pres. Flammia Sunday to see if he had it because she is his sister. He knew where she lives, but didn’t know the address off by heart. We called his wife today in hopes they had looked it up, but they hadn’t. We tried to find it in the white pages, but since she just moved, it was there either. It’s Franca’s birthday today and we wanted to go by and wish her a happy birthday. No such luck. The Elders finally arrived and picked us up.

When we got to the steep part of the road leading to the Church, the car was unable to get up the hill because it was too slick. At the high point, we got out and walked the rest of the way to the Church and left the two Elders to see what they could do. They backed back down the hill and tried a couple more times and finally made it up to the Church. Since the changes in the district leadership only happened a couple days ago, Elder Holzapfel didn’t get the meeting planned as it should have been, but we still had a worthwhile meeting. After the song and prayer we had training using our mission rule book and then we gave our spiritual thought. After that we watched the movie, had a closing song and prayer and were done. Elders Holzapfel & Tavake took us back to the bahnhof and then left to go to their own area. As we climbed the stairs back up to street level we saw our bus pull out. We just missed it again. Rather than stand on the cold street waiting for the next one, we walked through to the main shopping street, stopping here and there to window shop. There was a McDonalds there and since we hadn’t had a burger in such a long time, we went in and ordered a couple. I don’t like them, but Diana loves them so she enjoyed hers. After that we saw a book store and remembered we needed to find an English dictionary for Kofi, so we went in. It was amazing that we found one and for only 9.90sfr. We bought it and went back out onto the street and as we were walking, we saw a lady in a wheelchair trying to get over the snowy icy hump between the street and the sidewalk. She was having a terrible time so when we got to her, we pushed her on through it and to her door. As we were doing this we recognized it was Narina Fleury, a less active member who we visited a couple of weeks ago who just had an operation on her foot. We got her through her double doors into her apartment building. She was grateful we came along when we did and we promised to call her once in awhile to see how she’s doing or if she needs anything. After that we went back out and caught our bus and went home.

Tonight Diana called Suki to see how she was doing and found out she found a new apartment and will be moving on February 13. That is good news because otherwise, she’d be out on the street. We also called Silvia Gardedieu and found out that Jasmine Hunziker would be coming to Church Sunday. We’ll be able to meet her and see how we can help her with her English as well as teach her the gospel. A little later Silvia called us back and said she had arranged an appointment with Claudia Clavadetscher for February 15, an investigator the last elders had been teaching. The rest of the evening Diana read in the scriptures while I wrote this journal.

The tender mercy for today was that we missed our bus which put us in a position to help Sister Fleury when she needed it the most. We don’t know where she had been, but she was stuck in the snow with her wheelchair, didn’t have a coat on, and was trying to push her way through using both feet including the foot her cast was on. Did we just happen by at the right time? Or were we guided?