Elders Zenger & Nilsson; Elder Fox, Sister Matern, Elder Hutchison; sister Jensen, Robinson & Larson.

FEBRUARY 11, 2010 THURSDAY

We were up early again this morning to get to a meeting with Jasmine Hunziker, an investigator who has met with former missionaries off and on. We had to go to the bahnhof and board a train for Langwiesen to get there. It was below freezing and still snowing.

We met Jasmine last Sunday in Church and got to know her a little bit, but not much. She wanted us to come and help her learn English because she needs it for her work where she is a receptionist. Our plan today was to get to know her a little better, find out how we can help her with English and determine how open she was in learning more about the Church. We found out she’s a very sweet person who is easy to talk to and like. She has a small son named David and has two older daughter (9 and 12) who weren’t at home. She has studied English and knows some things, but needs to practice speaking. Diana had spend some time this morning selecting vocabulary words she thought she might need.. She gave them to her to memorize and then we did a lot of role playing such as receiving phone calls or answering question when someone comes to her receptionist desk. Silvia Gardedieu had already invited her to come to the branch Easter Camp, but she said she had been offended in the last ward where she had participated and didn’t know if she was ready to try it again. Silvia asked us if we could give her a spiritual thought to help her resolve her feelings and hopefully encourage her to decide to go to the camp. Our spiritual thought was on Christ-like love and the example He gave us to love our enemies and forgive. As we began our visit we started with a prayer and asked her if she would offer it. She was reluctant to say it so Diana said we would teach her how and maybe she would feel better about saying the closing prayer. After the spiritual thought Diana taught her the steps of prayer and then Jasmine offered it. She said a wonderful prayer and we were happy that she had the courage to do it. As we left she said she would see us at Church Sunday and would bring her three kids with her. She is going to start an English class at work in a week or two and when she does, she asked us if we’ll help her with her home work.

The train station in Langwiesen is just a platform with a three sided covered waiting place with a button to push to get the train to stop. We didn’t realize we had to push the button every five minutes to keep it active, but we found out before the train actually came. We traveled back home and finished our morning routine. On my walk this morning I looked for a cat someone had lost and who had posted a reward of 100,000 sfr. for information leading to its recovery. I also took our empty food cans and bottles to the recycling station by MIGROS. Unfortunately I didn’t find the cat, but I did get rid of the empty cans and bottles. While I was at MIGROS I bought some oranges and a bag of noodles to replace the noodles we used in the casserole.

When I got home, we worked on the spreadsheet detailing our mission expenditures to send to Roxsan for our taxes. It was a necessary chore that had to get done although not a very pleasant one. We had been putting it off for too long. We worked on that as long as we could, but then I had to get a spiritual thought together for our next appointment while Diana answered the phone and talked to Sylvain. Diana is a very good support for him and he appreciates the help and the time she takes to talk with him. He wants us to come to where he lives so that we can meet someone who also wants to help him give up drinking. Silvia, his wife, told us it is very hard to get to where he lives way out in the country and it may not be possible for us to do it. But, if it will help him and, if there is a way, we’ll do it.

Our next appointment was with Katia Di Paolo and her nine year old daughter, Emely. Katia and her oldest daughter, Kathleen (18), were baptized about nine months ago. They haven’t been very active because her husband is not very friendly toward the Church. At one time he was being taught by the missionaries, but he found some anti-Mormon stuff on the internet and as a result, lost interest. However, their nine year old daughter, Emely, said she wants to be baptized. She is a very bright girl and knows what she wants. Silvia came with us today and we had a really good meeting with them. We asked Katia if her husband was agreeable to Emely being baptized and she really didn’t know for sure. Emely was definitely sure he would approve. It was decided that Katia would talk it over with him this weekend and, if he will agree to meet with Philippo Flammia and us to talk about it, they will arrange a meeting for us all. We gave a short lesson on putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-18) using two oranges to demonstrate. The oranges represent the person you are talking to. The orange with the peeling intact will float. Compare the orange peeling to the armor and the water in the bowl to sin. Ask the question, “What will happen when you take off the armor or, because of unrighteousness, you lose it? As you discuss what would cause the armor to be removed, such as stealing, lying, drugs, smoking, not praying, not going to Church, etc., take a small piece of the peeling off until the whole peeling is gone. You will see that the orange sinks deeper and deeper until it is completely buried in water (sin). Bring out the new orange and explain that through repentance and/or baptism for the remission of sins, you can replace the armor and will once again be protected from temptation and the sins of the world (float it on the water again). At the end of our meeting we sang “I Am A Child of God” together and had a closing prayer. After we left Silvia told us Emely has a medical problem with either her back or hip and will need surgery sometime in the future and that maybe her father has soften his position a little because of it. We can only hope and pray he’ll let her be baptized and better still, allow his wife and children to go to Church.

Back home we finished the tax spreadsheet and emailed it to Roxsan. We looked at our emails and Diana worked hard at her German while I typed up our journal.

The tender mercy today is that we have two real investigators whom we can teach.