David Wichtermann & Sweta (Sweta, from Russia, finally got her visa and they'll be married on June 25. Elders Irick, Dias and Harris; Angela Lloyd, E. Larson & S. Larson.

MAY 30, 2010 SUNDAY

I walked to Church in the rain this morning protected by my raincoat and umbrella, but even with that, I was somewhat wet when I got there. I was busy writing our report when Michael Hartig arrived at ten minutes past eight, but I interrupted my work to wish him a happy birthday. We gave him a white shirt and two of my ties. He was most thrilled with the ties, but was also surprised to receive a white shirt. He continued on with his job to get the sacrament table set up, the chapel seats organized and song books spread out. I continued on with our report and finished it by the time I had to leave to meet Diana coming on the bus. The rain continued unabated as I met Diana and we walked back up to the Church together. When we greeted Paul, he said he wished we would’ve come to Schaffhausen a lot sooner because then he could have been baptized a lot sooner. When Pres. Matern was wrestling with the decision to transfer us to Schaffhausen, he told us he had the definite impression there was a work for us to do here. We believe, for what ever reason, Paul Hunziker was part of the “work” and we’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to work with him and help him in his conversion and baptism. Pres. Flammia asked me today if I would confer the Aaronic Priesthood on Paul next week and ordain him to the office of Priest. Paul was also sustained as the Sunday school teacher today and Bro. Wigger set him apart after Sacrament Meeting. Paul is excited to be able to serve in the Schaffhausen Branch.

Sunday school was fairly short today because Bro. Hartig forgot his glasses and couldn’t read the manual so good even with the small flashlight he had. He did the best he could, but it was hard to follow his train of thought. As soon as it was over we hurriedly said our goodbyes so we could rush to the bahnhof to catch our bus. We missed it by 20 seconds which obligated us to wait twenty minutes for the next one. We hate it when that happens. We wanted to hurry home as fast as we could so we could get lunch and then get on our way to Schwamendingen for the baptism. We finally made it home, broke our fast, packed up the banana bread, a glass platter for Agnes, a coat for Elder Porter that he left in our church building and then we took off. We arrived in Oerlikon a few minutes before 2:00, caught bus #63 and got off at Saatlenstrasse. After a ten minute walk we arrived at Charlotte’s hoping to get to visit with Elders Irick, Harris and Nilsson, who were back in Switzerland to assist or witness Angela’s baptism. The only one of the three there was Elder Irick, but Agnes was there, too. We gave her the platter which she accepted with profuse thanks. We had a nice visit with him, Agnes and Charlotte while we waited for the baptism. Whenever we see Agnes, we always ask when she’s going to get baptized. Charlotte said she told the ward she will be baptized, but hasn’t revealed the date yet although she said she would be the next one baptized. That is a big step forward for her and today she told us the same thing. It’s not a matter of “if”, but “when.” We hope it’ll be before we go home in August.

When it came time for Angela’s baptism, we left and went to the stake center. People were already coming and, by the time the meeting started, there were somewhere between 250 and 300 people attending. It was the most people we’ve ever seen at a baptism; it was unbelievable. People came from several wards to support her as well as family and friends. Missionaries came with their investigators as well. We were looking for Madeleine to give her the pre-paid phone codes to reload her cell phone, but Irene told us she came to Church this morning and had to go home early because she became ill and was throwing up. But as the meeting began, in hobbled Madeleine. We were thrilled to see her and later on were able to give her the phone codes. We also gave Elder Porter his coat.

We were able to spend time with Elders Irick, Harris and Nillson and renew our friendship with them. They are very special to us as well as Elders Evans, Elend, Pine and Jensen. The three elders came on standby flights and got here a day later than they wanted. They really hadn’t planned ahead where they were going to stay, but ended up sleeping on the floor of our old apartment on Schoerlistrasse where Elder and Sister Walters are now staying. Sister Walker was talking to them on the phone and asked them where they were going to stay the night. When they hesitated, she offered to let them stay with them. We hope this won’t be the last time we see them. Elder Harris said he is now working at a golf course in Park City and he promised us that we could go golfing there with him.

We also spent a lot of time talking to the Walters who are the mission home couple. They are uncertain what they will be doing or where they’ll be serving after the mission home closes down July 1. That’s when the Zurich Swiss Mission will cease to exist and will be included in the larger German Speaking Countries Mission. Pres. Condie, who will be the mission president of the newly organized mission, realized that the Walters have a Swiss visa and, with the restrictions the Swiss government has placed on new visas, they may be assigned somewhere in Switzerland. If they leave and go to Germany, they’ll lose their visas and couldn’t be replaced. They may even end up replacing us here in Schaffhausen; only the Lord knows at this point. The Walters said they would serve wherever the Lord calls them to serve.

The meeting was very spiritual with Rik Hansen, a high councilor, giving the talk on baptism and Bishop Schwendener giving the talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. In between those talks Elder Kevin Irick baptized Angela and after, Elder Jace Nillson confirmed her. Elder Diaz and Urs Wichtermann were the witnesses. Angela also bore her testimony. After the meeting there were refreshments in the cultural hall and, surprisingly, there were plenty to go around. The first thing I looked for was our banana bread with the chocolate chips in it, but it was gone in a flash. The loaf with only nuts in it lasted until the very end when it was almost all that was left. People over here must not like nuts in banana bread.

We had a great time greeting members from our old ward (Schwamendingen) who we had grown to know and love. They genuinely were glad to see us, too, and many of them gave us hugs and the three kiss salutation. Elder and Sister Walters brought us the German Book of Mormon on tape that we’d asked for as well as some brochures. When we thought about going home, we realized we had already missed our train, but Brother DeMarzi came to our rescue and invited us to ride with him and his son in his car. He took us right to our doorstep.

When we got home, we saw Dorothea Jaermann had called us so we returned the call. She invited us to lunch on Wednesday. She said this is her way of supporting the missionary work and who are we to deny her this blessing? Besides, she’s a good cook and she’s always excited to see what spiritual thought or object lesson we’re going to teach her. Later Elder Bentley called to get our statistics for the week and said he’d call us back later with our district meeting assignments. Mostly when he says that, he forgets until he realizes at the district meeting he forgot to call us back. Well, he still has twenty-five minutes until it’s lights out. We received a text message ten minutes after he should have been in bed asking us to give the opening and closing songs and prayers. He must have remembered when saying his prayers.

We called the Singen elders to see if they were really going to come tomorrow to spend their P-day with us going to Munot castle, Rheinfalls and Schloss Laufen here in Schaffhausen. They said they would like to, but it wouldn’t be a very good weather day and they had two service projects they were supposed to help members with. They elected to stay home tomorrow and do it next Monday. This frees us up to go with Elder Porter, his companion and Charlotte to Chur, St. Moritz and farther to two different glaciers. We don’t know exactly where we’re going, but we’ll detail it in our journal tomorrow. It’ll be a long day on the trains, but our mission will soon be coming to an end and we need to take every legitimate opportunity to see this part of the world. We may never come this way again.

The tender mercy today was the baptism of Angela Lloyd. Many years ago she was once a member, served a mission in Switzerland, married a Swiss after her mission, got divorced, fell into bad habits and was excommunicated. Then she was found by the missionaries (who were actually sent by the Lord to seek her out), rekindled her faith, repented, confessed and worked with her bishop until again worthy, was baptized and confirmed and tasted the sweet cleansing through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Her countenance is now radiant and full of hope as she looks to the future of activity and service in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was and is a privilege to be associated with her and to help in a small way as she made her journey back into the fold.