FEBRUARY 8, 2010 MONDAY

This morning on my walk my goal was to find two addresses, one for Elizabeth Hurter and the other for Elvira Kobler. We had an appointment at 3:30 with Silvia Gardedieu to visit these two and we wanted to know exactly where they were so we wouldn’t waste any time looking. I found the right address for Elizabeth, but her name wasn’t on any of the doorbells. I thought I found the right address for Elvira, but I got mixed up and looked at building 14 instead of building 19. Naturally, I couldn’t find her name on any of the doorbells there either. When I got back home, I called both of them on the phone and when I did, Elizabeth simply hung up when I introduced myself as representing the Church. Elvira at least talked to me a minute. She said she had no interest in the Church and didn’t want us to come visit her. I told her we came all the way here from Utah just to visit her, but that didn’t convince her either. I finally had to say goodbye and hang up. She sounded like a really nice lady and we really would have liked to talk to her personally. We don’t like to call anyone on the phone because it’s too easy for them to say no. We only call as a last resort.

Today was supposed to be P-day so we went to Jestetten to do some grocery shopping. Jestetten in only a few stops away on the Turbo Express train, but it’s in Germany so prices are much better than here in Schaffhausen and this ALDI is much closer than the one in Konstanz. There’s not much in Jestetten that we saw except for a couple of stores near the train station. We spent 51.00 Euros (about $80.00) and had so many groceries we almost couldn’t carry them home. My backpack was full as well as two of the big MIGROS bags and Diana also had another one that she carried. It really would be nice to have a car to carry stuff in. We should have remembered to bring our pull cart except, when full, it’s also difficult to get it in and out of trains and buses.

When we got home we put all the groceries away and then got to busy figuring out who we were going to visit this afternoon. We picked out three names and decided we would wait until Silvia arrived before deciding who to visit. We had some time so we called Margaret Kunzle, an excommunicated member, to see if we could visit her. She was active and then got into some difficulty and, even though she was excommunicated, she came to Church faithfully for many years. About three years ago she had an accident in which she sustained a head injury and she hasn’t been back to Church since. Pres. Flammia said she may know a little more of the background why Elvira Buergi has so much anger against the Church. We made an appointment with her for Feb. 12. Sister Nerina Fleury called again today to tell us she has decided to move to Appenzell to be near one of her sons. She said she didn’t want us to come by and suddenly not find her there any more. She didn’t exactly know the address where she is moving, but she said she would be sure and call us when she did. It was nice of her to let us know. Later in the evening she called again wanting to know the phone number of Pres. Flammia so she could also tell him personally.

At 3:30 Silvia arrived and she needed to put on some warmer clothes so we went up to our apartment. She was surprised to see how clean and nice it was. She recognized two of her overstuffed chairs in the living room that she had donated some time ago. She also recognized the couch that she said Sandro DeMarzi donated. Before we went out visiting we had a nice long discussion on how we might help her husband, Sylvain Gardedieu. We can’t begin to understand the heartache she has been through and the hope she has to somehow help Sylvain give up drinking. She is grateful she has someone to talk to and help her.

We talked about a few things and then we decided to go visit Martin Hedinger. We tried to visit him on Sunday for his birthday, but we didn’t find him home. Sylvia explained that he is seldom home, but lives in a treatment hospital for psychiatric patients not far from where he lives. He has his own apartment, but seldom stays there. When we got on the bus at the bahnhof we sat in two of the seats that face two others. There was a young lady across from Diana who was looking at a box of perm for her hair. Diana mentioned something to her and that started a conversation. Pretty quick Diana pulled out a pass along card and handed it to her. Sylvia was sitting across the aisle, but when she saw that happen, she switched seats to the one next to the lady and in front of me. A conversation ensued between them and Silvia asked if I had any Church brochures. I pulled out a couple and gave them to the lady. She was really friendly and interested so before we came to our stop, I got out a Book of Mormon and gave that to her as well. Silvia invited her to come to Church and she said she would. She also said she would call us if she decided she wanted to learn more.

When we got to the psychiatric hospital we were walking down the sidewalk to the office, a man (patient?) walked up to me and asked for my necktie. I didn’t hesitate, but started to take it off telling him he could have it if he want it. He quickly said he really didn’t need it, said a few other things and then left. As we continued down the sidewalk, Silvia asked me if I would really have given my tie to him. I told her, of course I would have, that I had plenty of ties and really only needed one. If he needed one, I certainly could share. This seemed to surprise her for some reason. We found Martin in the hospital, found a table where we could sit and talk, and had a nice visit with him. We don’t know what his mental problems are, but he seemed normal to us. He spent time in Canada and learned English there. Because he knew English, he wanted to use it so we carried on the conversation in English. We got to know him a bit and then we told him we hadn’t seen him at Church lately. We invited him to come next Sunday and, we think, he said he would. We also invited him to come to the Priesthood meeting to hear Pres. Uchtdorf talk on February 20. He said he’d try and make that too. When we had to go, he walked us out to the bus stop where we said goodbye with the promise we would come visit him again. We rode back to the Bahnhof with Silvia and then went on our different ways back home.

Tomorrow our district meeting is going to be at our home again. We promised them lunch to entice them to come here for the meeting. We spent a couple hours putting together a chicken/noodle/veggie casserole that we’ll put in the oven and heat up tomorrow. We wanted it pre-made so we wouldn’t have to miss any of the district meeting. While we were doing it, Sylvain called to say he is again on the road to recovery and hopes to stay there. He’s going to ask his boss if he can take two nights off a week to come meet with us and work through the Churches twelve step addiction recovery program. We’ve never done this before, but we’re up for it if Sylvain is willing. We know the Lord will help us and Sylvain if he is honest in applying the principles of the program.

Elder Nilsson called tonight to see how we were doing. He also wanted to verify if we had told Madeleine that we would come and stay overnight with her the Saturday evening between sessions of Stake Conference. He said she asked him and Elder Irick to come help her clean a room for us to stay in. We told him we didn’t know how she came to believe we were going to come stay with her. Joerg and Irene invited us to stay overnight too, but we won’t be staying there either. He said he will tell Madeleine that we won’t be staying there , but he wants Diana to call her, too, just so she really understands we’re not coming. Diana did say that we would see her in conference and asked her to save a seat next to her because Diana wanted to sit by her.

The tender mercy for today is that Suki wanted Diana to find her a black leather book bag for her scriptures, one with a picture of a temple on it. There’s no place here to find one of those so we asked Monica to see if she could find one and send it to us. Monica has worked so hard to find one and finally did, with a temple on it to boot. We appreciate all our children for the things they do for us while we’re here on our mission. Rebecca for putting our journal into book form which is also a lot of work. And Roxsan for keeping our rentals going and managing my financial matters. We also appreciate our children for helping each other and especially for the help they’ve given Roxsan on the rentals and the help they WILL give her in the future. She needs all the help she can get to get the Larkspur house and the Barium Lane house rented for us.