Flowers and vase Paul Hunziker gave us; cute little cow.

MARCH 24, 2010 WEDNESDAY

Another beautiful day so I went for a walk this morning to start my day off right. I took all of our empty cans and bottles to the recycle collection bins about a half hour walk away. When I got back and after we did our usual morning things, we started getting prepared for our two guests we invited for lunch today. Every two weeks Sister Jaermann invites us to lunch and this time we turned the tables on her and invited her to come to us instead. Sister Kusz has had a problem with some members and can’t seem to get over it and we thought this was a good time to give her some support and encouragement as well as help her understand that she will never be happy until she’s able to forgive.

Last Sunday Sister Flammia served us lasagne and it was so good we decided to make it ourselves to serve for lunch. We only had to make enough for three because Sister Kusz can only eat very few things because of health problems. She mostly exists on certain kinds of bread, some cheeses and water. Diana made a wonderful green salad and we had corn as a side dish and then fresh fruit with a yogurt dip for dessert. We had everything ready by the time both of them arrived and we had a great time together. As is usually the case after the meal is over we had a spiritual thought or, in other words, a gospel discussion. When we are invited, our host expects we’ll be the one to present and lead the discussion. Since we were the hosts, we turned the table and Diana asked Dorothea if she was prepared to do it this time. It took her a bit by surprise and then she replied that we could do it better than she. And so we did. We’ve heard so many times that the Lord won’t allow us to be tempted more than we are capable of withstanding, more than we can handle. In our opinion that is false doctrine or a misunderstanding of principle. People are given more than they can handle. We’ve experienced that ourselves time to time. We used Alma 13:28 and 1 Nephi 15:24 as references for our discussion as well as a talk given by Becky Thomas: More Than We Can Handle. To quote her, “...if we are humble and obedient, with an eye single to the glory of God, then we will not be tempted above that which we can bear, nor would we be destroyed. In each case it was dependant on our obedience, humility, prayerfulness, or faithfulness.” When we do these things, the Lord will This discussion led to the things we need to do to be able to receive the help and strength from the Savior that we need to overcome, conquer and withstand the things that come our way. When we are totally exhausted or overwhelmed, that is when we need to get on our knees and ask the Lord to carry us the rest of the way. That is when we will learn what he can do for us. “These moments are priceless, when we are able to learn firsthand the power of God! It is true we will not be tempted by anything that will be too much for us, when and only when we are humble and obedient and willing to pray continually, because it is at that time we are entitled to the power of God.” That includes help to forgive others who may have offended us. We hope this after lunch discussion will help Christina to forgive and move on with her life.

We had time enough to clean up everything and relax for a few minutes, listening to the Swiss music CD we bought, before we had to leave for our appointment with Priska Staehelin, a former investigator of previous missionaries. It was disappointing there was no Swiss yodeling or Alpen horn music on it. We got on our bus at 3:37 and arrived at the Neuhausen Migros, where we agreed to meet at 4:00, right on the button. We stood around or sat on a planter for twenty minutes waiting for Priska to show up. We’ve never met her so we were counting on her to recognize us and initiate contact. That didn’t happen. Next, we decided to check the restaurant on the top floor of Migros to see if that’s where she expected us to meet her. There were only a few people eating there and none looked as if they could have been her. Finally we decided she wasn’t coming and left ourselves. We rode the bus on home.

It was only about 5:30 so I decided I would walk to the Church to work on some of the reports we haven’t been able to do because the office was always locked. Pres. Flammia took the lock out of the door so it couldn’t be locked. When I got there, the office indeed was unlocked and I spent the next two hours doing reports. It was way past dark when I finished. I started to call Diana to let her know I was on my way home when I noticed we had received a message on our cell phone. Priska Staehelin sent a message earlier telling us something had come up and she wouldn’t be able to meet with us today, but wanted to reschedule. That solved the mystery of why she didn’t show up to our appointment. I called Diana and then went on home.

A tender mercy today is that everything turned out good. The lasagne was fabulous and the fresh fruit and yogurt was very good and refreshing, too Dorothea also was thoughtful and brought us a potted Begonia that was in full bloom.