Luzern from the wooden bridge; police cadets getting trained; Lake Luzern.

APRIL 27, 2010 TUESDAY

It paid off that we pre-made the lasagne last night because there was no pressure this morning. After we got ready for the day I made a quick trip into MIGROS to get a loaf of bread and more mozarella cheese to top of the lasagne. I also bought some vanilla ice cream to go with the brownies we were having for dessert. Returning home we grated the cheese onto the two pans of lasagne and put them in the oven ready to just turn it on when it was time. While I did that, Diana sliced the bread and spread the her homemade garlic butter on them and got that ready to slide into the oven, too. We finished those tasks and got other things ready, but I still had enough time to look over the spiritual thought I had prepared for the district meeting. The zone leaders were coming today, but they got the time wrong. We got a call from Elder Bentley who told us they would arrive a half hour late.

By 10:30 everyone was here and our meeting began. We were Elders Bentley (DL) & Dahneke, Talley & Schmid (ZL), Bushnell & Sills, and Diana and me. Diana had the opening song and prayer and the song she chose was, “Have I Done Any Good.” After the announcements and general business was taken care of the time was turned over to me for the spiritual thought. I chose to talk about the story of the prophet Balaam, his talking donkey and Balak, the King of Midian found in Numbers 22. Most of the missionaries hadn’t heard the story before so they sat up and paid attention. We related the story to missionaries and missionary work and how we sometimes get caught in the same way, knowing what we should be doing, but trying to do the things we want to do at the same time.

Elder Bentley does a good job in organizing our district meetings and things went along really smoothly. Diana and I kept slipping in and out to check on the lasagne to make sure it got done and not burned. At the end of the meeting it was time for the Big Prayer which meant that all the companionships wrote down the names of investigators they wanted included in the prayer. After the prayer came lunch time and the elders were duly impressed. The lasagne turned out perfect and the pickled apple/red cabbage salad wasn’t too shabby either. Of the two large pans only about a third of one was left over. Dessert was brownies and vanilla ice cream we provided and half a left over birthday cake Elder Dahneke made for a member’s birthday Saturday.

We had previously scheduled Elder Bentley to interview Paul Hunziker at 2:00 for his baptism. Elder Bentley was on a split with Elder Talley so we three walked up to Paul’s apartment. He invited us in and it took a little time for the Elders to get acquainted with him. At the appropriate time Elder Talley and I excused ourselves and went outside so the interview could be in private. About a half hour later Elder Bentley came out and said Paul had passed the interview, but he had a concern about Paul’s response to the abortion question. E. Bentley thought he probably misunderstood what Paul had said, but wanted me to ask him the question again when I went back in. Elder Bentley signed the Baptism Request form with the proviso that Paul didn’t have a problem with the question. E. Bentley hadn’t had time to fill out all the rest of the form with name, address, wife, kids, birthdays, etc. and asked me if I would do that for him. They left for one of their own meetings and I went back up to Paul’s apartment.

I spent the next half hour with Paul getting all the appropriate blanks filled out on the baptism form and, when we were all done, I asked him the question on abortion again. When he answered, I remembered the discussion we’d had last week when we went over the questions with him then. He answered that he had prevented two young women from getting abortions even though their boy friends wanted them to have them. Paul is sometimes difficult to understand and Elder Bentley probably didn’t understand the word “verhindern” which meant prevented abortions from taking place instead of participating in them. We called Elder Bentley and clarified that for him. We were relieved and happy for Paul and he was happy, too, that all went well and now all is clear for him to get baptized.

When I got back home, Diana was working hard at getting her baptism talk prepared so she can say it in her own words in the German language. I’ve got the easy part and that is baptizing Paul. The hard part will be having to wait until May 8 to be able to do it.

I wasn’t able to get my walk in this morning, so this evening I went out to do it. I tried to walk to Schloss Laufen (a castle named Laufen) on the Rheinfalls, but discovered it was way too far to walk there in an hour. I wanted to look at it to see if it were a place we wanted to take Monica, Chris and Rebecca when they get here next Monday. It’ll have to wait for another day.

After I got home we made some more phone calls to try and set something up for tomorrow. Jasmine Hunsiker wasn’t home. When we called an inactive member in Langwiesen, Germany, a lady answered the phone and told us he didn’t live there any more. She said he’d moved to Switzerland. We asked for his address and phone number and when we told her our name and why we wanted it, she said he didn’t have any interest and hung up. This is the second time someone has answered for him. What’s the matter with letting him speak for himself, for Pete’s sake?

We finished out this day with Diana reading the Liahona and me doing the journal entry.

A tender mercy today was that Elder Vincent called us from Zollikofen just to say hello.