Cutting E. Bushnell's hair; E & S Larson, E. Bushnell, member, E. Von Niederhausen; Diana street contacting a family walking by.

MARCH 13, 2010 SATURDAY

Wow what a day!! If we have many more like this, we may wear out before our time. We were up getting ready for the day when Charlotte called to chat, but also to see if we wanted to come to Zurich to visit Martin Neidhart in the hospital. Last Sunday Martin fell and broke his leg in several places which will require him to have an operation to fix it. It will be dangerous and complicated because he has a bad heart, bad lungs, diabetes and poor blood circulation. Did I mention overweight? Charlotte wanted us to visit him before the operation takes place. We tried to call Ewa, Martin’s wife and our dear friend, during the day to see if a visit Monday would be okay, but she didn’t answer. Finally, at 9:00 tonight, we got her on the phone. She said he was going to be operated on Monday morning so we’ll have to postpone the visit until later. She asked us to fast and pray for him which we planned to do anyway. It was too late to call Charlotte and let her know so we’ll do that tomorrow.

We were ready to go when Elders Tavake & Bushnell came to pick us up at 9:30 to go to Singen for our street contacting activity. We thought it was supposed to be a fairly decent day, and it was, except for the bitter cold. Will it ever warm up? By the time two hours was up we couldn’t feel our feet anymore even though at one point we went into a store briefly to warm up. We had some success in passing out brochures and other material as well as an occasional Book of Mormon. If we could just get them to stop and seriously listen to the message of the restoration, it couldn’t help but change their lives. Unfortunately, they are just too busy, proud or set in their ways to do it. Our street contacting permit was good for only two hours so at noon we took down our display and had lunch. Diana and Elder Bentley bought Chinese from a little shop next to where we were working and brought it with them while the rest went to a sandwich shop and bought ours there. After lunch the elders took us back home to Schaffhausen.

We were able to make a pit stop at home for a few minutes and then we were off to meet the mysterious Lily to help her with some furniture. We were a little late because we didn’t realize bus #6 only ran every twenty minutes on Saturday instead of the usual every ten minutes. We got off on the right bus stop, but had just a little trouble finding the right address. We found it, however, and rang the doorbell. Lily, whom we hadn’t met before, opened the door and was surprised to see an older couple instead of two young strong missionaries. She knew missionaries lived in Schaffhausen and had their number, but didn’t know they had been transferred out and replaced by us. We found out Lily lives in Zug, was once a member, but has been inactive for over twenty years. We were at her sister’s home to help carry some furniture she had brought from Zug to put in her sister’s home and some in the attic to store. She didn’t have a lot, but it required four or five trips up five stories which took about forty-five minutes. While we were in the attic, she told me her sad story. She said she had never told it to anyone else these many years and why she told it to me, I don’t know. While I was helping her carry the furniture, Diana was visiting and making friends with her older sister who couldn’t help because of being crippled by polio.

When she was in her early twenties she was looking for the true Church and she prayed that God would help her find it. She was skiing in Davos that winter and had a dream that she met a man who taught her the true gospel. As the dream continued she realized this man was the one she was supposed to marry, but for some reason she didn’t understand, they split up before they could marry, he going north and she going the other direction. Shortly after this dream she met Sandro, a member in our Schaffhausen Branch. Sandro introduced her to the gospel and later on they met in Schaffhausen and he took her to Church. She gained a quick testimony and was baptized and thought sure that Sandro was supposed to marry her. Sandro ended up going on a mission to Germany and Lily followed suit with going on a mission and was called to serve a mission in Salt Lake. Hence, the part of her dream that they would be separated came true. For some reason, after two weeks on her mission, she said she wasn’t suited to do missionary work so she came home. When Sandro came home, he married another woman instead of her and that caused her to lose her faith and she’s been inactive ever since. She got married to someone else, had two children and got divorced and that’s her current status today. I told her it was time for her to come back. She said she probably would, but now isn’t the right time. I replied that sooner was better than later and she agreed. She doesn’t live close to where we serve so we’ll refer her name to the missionaries who live near Zug.

When we were finished, Lily showed us a shortcut to the train station. She said it was much faster than waiting for the bus so we decided to try it. It was probably faster, but it was very steep and in some places very icy. We made it there fifteen minutes before our train was supposed to arrive to take us to Waldshut to meet Brother Hartig for our home teaching appointment. As we sat there we got to wondering if Waldshut was in Switzerland or Germany. It was important to know because our travel passes were good in Switzerland but not in Germany. If you’re caught on a train without a valid ticket, there’s a 100 Euro ($140) fine for each person. We used our GPS and discovered it was in Germany. I ran to the ticket office and bought the two tickets for us to the tune of 16.20 Euro and made it back in time to catch the train.

When we got to Waldshut, Brother Hartig was waiting for us. He took us to the bus stop where we waited for about fifteen minutes for the bus to take us to Horheim. We got on and bought our tickets and settled in for the ride. It was a half hour ride to Horheim where we got off and hiked up a very steep road an additional 15-20 minutes to the group home where both Michael Hartig and Michaela Zaunigk live with other residents who are handicapped, but able to function with a little help. We got there right at dinner time for them and so we waited the half hour for them to eat. When they were finished, we went to their room and had time for a short lesson. By then we couldn’t stay too long because our bus left at 7:10 and the next one didn’t come for two hours. They were really appreciative we made the effort to visit them. Michaela, who is a big woman, gave us a big bear hug when we got there and also when we left. We hurried back down the road to be sure we didn’t miss the bus. Fortunately, we didn’t and so began the long ride back home on bus, train and then another bus. We finally got home sometime after 9:00 tired and worn out with very sore feet as well. Cobblestones are not kind on the feet. We made the one more call to Ewa Neidhart and then called it a day.

It is a tender mercy to see these two members, who live so far away, faithfully attend Church almost every Sunday. Usually, someone picks up Michaela, but Brother Hartig walks and rides the train. He starts out at 7:15 and gets to the Church an hour early, but can’t do it any other way because of the train schedule. Now, since Sylvain is back living with Silvia on the weekends, I have been assigned to be at the Church at 8:00 to unlock it for Brother Hartig so he doesn’t have to stand out in the cold for an hour. He also told me I had been assigned as his home teaching companion and Brother Hoenle had forgotten to tell me. We guess that means we’ll be doing this same thing, home teaching, once a month. So to do our home teaching it’ll take two and a half hours on the bus and trains, at least an hour total wait time for bus and train connections, an hour for the visit and a cost of about $35.00 for the tickets. No one should ever complain at home about home teaching for it is so simple to do.