Items in the All Saints Church Museum. The middle one is a painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden being tempted by Satan (although the head of the snake looks like that of a woman.)

MARCH 5, 2010 FRIDAY

Last night was a terrible night. Just as I was going to bed a wave of nausea came out of nowhere and hit me. It kind of went mostly away and I just went to bed. I woke up at 1:30 and was on the run for the bathroom, not just to throw up, but everything I had inside came out the other end, too. Not fun. After things settled down I went back to bed thinking all was well. I didn’t think I had anything left to cause a problem. No sooner did I get to sleep than I was on the run again, and just made it in time. Once more I went to bed thinking I was safe. I was mistaken because for a third time I was quickly on the move. Third time is always the charm as the saying goes and it was for me. Finally. Diana, on the other hand, came down with a head cold and went to bed with the sniffles. Her nose got a lot of exercise during the night because it was running all the time and her head and ears were stuffed up as well. When I woke up this morning, I was just fine. It must have been something I ate although it’s beyond me what it could have been. For Diana, her cold still persisted and will probably be with her for awhile.

This morning was a good morning to go into the Church to type up our report, at least the majority of it. I can’t do it tomorrow because it’s the branch priesthood temple day and I’ll probably go with the brethren. While I’m gone, Diana will be able to rest and recuperate without any interruptions. As I was walking into the Church I noticed a couple of Broki Hauses (second hand stores) that we hadn’t noticed before. They were in a warehouse section along the railroads and the road I was walking on sits about 50 feet above it and runs the length of it. I found a way to get to them and when I went in them, I was amazed at how much junk there was. It was stacked high and wide with just little pathways through so a person could look at the stuff. I’d been looking for some Swiss cow bells and finally found a couple that didn’t cost an arm and a leg and I bought Diana a set of nesting dolls. I didn’t spend too long because I needed to get in to the church and get the report done. I continued on my way and when I got to the Church, the room that the computer is in was locked. Well, now what. Pres. Flammia said it would always be open and it has been, but not today. Well, since I had a little time before our afternoon appointment, I walked to the All Saints Museum to check it out. We went there on a P-day a couple weeks ago and, as usual on Mondays, it was closed. So today I took a quick tour and was quite disappointed. It is touted as one of the premier museums in Europe, but to me it wasn’t anything extraordinary. I took some photos of a few things and will put them some of them on our blog. To save time I rode the bus home.

We had a little time to review the lesson we were going to teach Emely DiPaolo this afternoon and then we left for the appointment. We should have cancelled the appointment and let Diana rest, but trooper that she is, she wouldn’t think of it. Even though the sun was out it was a bitter cold day. We are really really ready for it to feel like spring instead of just looking like it. We had a very good meeting with Katia and Emely and felt she understood everything we taught her. She is a very bright girl and when we asked her about what we taught her the last couple of weeks, she was able to give us a good summary. We weren’t quite sure she understood the nature of God the Father and so we spent considerable time teaching her that He has a body of flesh and bones and that He created us in His image. We used the Joseph Smith story to explain that He has a mouth and can talk, has hands etc. etc. We explained the difference between mortal and immortal, perfect and glorified and imperfect. The rest of the time was spent on teaching again the four principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We focused mostly on the first three and left the fourth one for next week. Diana used the boiled egg in our object lesson to demonstrate how one can be cleansed from sin through baptism and through partaking of the sacrament. As we teach Emely we are also teaching Katia, her mother.

When we were through with the lesson, we asked Katia if she had talked to her husband about letting Emely be baptized. She said she had a little and he’s getting closer to letting her. She said she had worked out an agreement with him that twice a month she could go to Church and twice a month she would stay home and do something with him. That, of course, isn’t ideal, but it’s a big step for him to make this compromise with her. Emely has something wrong with her spinal column although she doesn’t act like it bothers her. She has to see the doctor later this month and then set an appointment for the operation. Katia said she would like Emely to be baptized before the operation because it’ll take a few months for her to recuperate during which time she wouldn’t be able to get into the water. So, we’re hopeful it can take place soon. We invited them to come to Church Sunday and told them we were disappointed they didn’t make it last Sunday. They said the time just slipped away. They said they’d be sure and make it this time. We invited the older daughter, Kathleen, to come with them. We hope she does.

After that we came home and, since I will be at the temple all day tomorrow, I made a batch of cookies tonight for the Hoenle’s anniversary celebration Sunday after Church. That was torture for Diana because she loves cookies and they smell so good. However, she can’t eat any because of her commitment to Sylvain and she refuses to break it even though Sylvain has broken his part of the bargain. Tomorrow, Diana will make a big batch of brownies; everyone loves her brownies.

Suki, our member friend from Schwamendingen, asked us to get her a scripture carrying case from home because they can’t get them here for some reason. We passed the request on to Monica, our daughter, and today the package came in the mail. It looks perfect to us. Thanks, Monica.

The tender mercy today is the privilege we have to teach such a wonderful nine year old girl who is so excited to learn what the Lord wants her to do.