Interesting building & court in Lindau; old harbor watch tower; Diana & Charlotte walking back to the train station after forgetting to get off in Rorschach.

APRIL 23, 2010 FRIDAY

Sometimes it’s just hard to get out of bed and get up the enthusiasm to go for an early morning walk. Once out of the house it turns into an enjoyable activity. I had decided I would only walk for a half hour this morning, but it turned into an hour and twenty minutes. I started by running up the hundred and fifty steep steps towards where Paul Hunziker lives. I almost ran out of gas before I reached the top, but I just made it and then continued on my walk around the upper part of the city. When I got back we continued on with our normal morning routine.

Later on we got a call from Sylvain and talked to him for at least a half hour. Using the parable about the Good Samaritan, he wanted to know how much he was supposed to do in helping others. We weren’t able to give him a definitive answer because there are so many variables that go into making a decision of this sort. We talked about the different principles taught by King Benjamin in Mosiah chapter four that he could use to help him, but ultimately it comes down to a decision between him and the Lord. At the end of the conversation he invited us to come to Schleitheim this evening for dinner and to continue our twelve step program. However, later on he called again to say he was hurting too bad to have us come. He called this evening again to discuss a couple more scriptures in his workbook and we spent another forty-five minutes on the phone working through them.

Yesterday we called Paul and asked him if we could come by today. He’s always happy to see us and invited us to drop in anytime. We also had an appointment scheduled at 3:00 with Katia and Emely Dipaolo. Last week we set this meeting up like a family home evening with Emely assigned the lesson and we the game and dessert. Diana made brownies for the dessert and since there were plenty, she also set some aside for Paul. Paul broke his large (8 cups) plastic measuring cup and was trying to glue it back together when we were there last time. We had an extra one we haven’t used so Diana filled it with brownies to take to him today.

We lost track of time a little and was only 20 seconds late for the bus; the driver saw us coming, but just went on by. Most of the drivers are callous and have no mercy. So rather than wait ten minutes for the next bus, we decided to walk up the steep stairs to go visit Paul. We got there at 1:00 and spent an hour with him at first talking about general things and then about his upcoming baptism. The first thing he does when we visit him is to bustle around making tea and getting something for us to eat. We kept telling him to just sit down and rest because we could see he was tired. Today he was satisfied with just giving us tea, thank goodness. He appreciated the brownies and especially the measuring cup. We brought a sample of our proposed baptism program with us and went over it with him so he would know what would transpire at his baptism. He was okay with everything, even with me being the one who would baptize him. We made sure he knew it was only what we proposed and that it would have to be approved by Pres. Flammia before it would be official and that Pres. Flammia may want to make some changes. Before we left we read some verses from the Book of Mormon and then had a prayer. On the way out he gave us another sack of his homemade bread. He makes great tasting bread; we’ll have to get his recipe so we can make it ourselves.

It took us five minutes to walk back down the steps to home where we made a pit stop, picked up what we needed to meet with the Dipaolos and then left again. This time we weren’t late and caught the bus okay. We arrived at the Dipaolos at 3:00 and as we rounded the corner to their house, Emely was already waiting for us out by their gate. She was anxious to give the lesson she had prepared for us. We chatted for a bit, had an opening song (I am a Child of God) and then Diana said the prayer. Emely read a story out of the Liahona and then we discussed it somewhat. It was neat to see her so excited about having a part to do. When we were finished with the lesson, we played the “Don’t Eat Pete” game. That was a big hit as well, at least with Emely. Katia wasn’t so sure she wanted Emely to have that much candy all at once.

Last Sunday Pres. Flammia told us that a family, who are friends of the Dipaolos and used to live here, but now live in the USA, will be coming back to Schaffhausen in July to baptize their eight year old daughter. Emely and the daughter were best friends at the time and Pres. Flammia said it would give Katia and Emely an incentive to get baptized at the same time. We informed Katia and Emely and they were thrilled to hear the news. They both said it would be great for Emely to get baptized when her friend does. It will also be before Emely’s operation and also before it’s time for us to leave and go back home. We didn’t know the date, but Katia still communicates with the Peterson family and will see what she can find out. Once the date is known we can use that as a goal for Emely to work towards. On the way home we ran into Lea Flammia who was going to pick up a friend of hers to go on vacation with their family. She’s only sixteen, but is far enough ahead in her schooling that she can work part of the time to get practical experience. She earns $500 a month and puts almost half into a savings account for her mission and already has $2000 saved.

At home we called Pres. Flammia to discuss Paul’s baptism program. He did make some changes and one of them affected Diana. He asked her to be the one to give the talk on baptism albeit in German. Diana is concerned about having to do it, but faithful as she is, when asked she accepts and will do her best. She feels that, even though she makes a lot of mistakes, her example of accepting assignments and being obedient, is an example to others to try in spite of feelings of inadequacy. We finished going through the program making the changes he wanted. Now Sunday we’ll be able to ask people to fill the assignments and hope they have the attitude Diana has and accept them.

Prior to calling Pres. Flammia we called our branch mission leader, Sandro De Marzi, to work through the program with him first, but he wasn’t home. He called later so we had the opportunity to review the program with him, too. We were glad we got to talk to both of them today because both are leaving for vacations tomorrow and we wanted to have everything approved for Sunday.

We had just started writing our journal when we got a call from Roxsan on Skype. We’re sure glad we don’t have to pay for these phone calls! We talked to her for about an hour catching up on all the news and the goings on in the family. She also brought us up to date on the condition of our rentals that she’s managing for us. She’ll sure be glad when we get back home and can take over the management of our own affairs. We are just finishing this blog and it’s after 11:00. Tomorrow we get up early to get ready in time for the elders from Schwenningen to pick us up to go to Tutlingen, Germany, for a street contacting activity. This isn’t our favorite thing to do, but it’s another method missionaries use to make contact with people. We go to support our faithful young missionaries.