Elder Neuffer bearing testimony; elders listening intently; Zone Zurich missionaries.

MAY 28, 2010 FRIDAY

5:00 came early, but we were up for it (ha ha). We should have tried to buy our train ticket yesterday, but we were too busy to even think about it then. We decided we’d go in a little before our train came so we could buy it over the counter so we caught the 6:07 bus. When we got to the bahnhof, we found out the ticket counter didn’t open until 6:30, the same time our train was scheduled to leave for Singen. Now what to do? We tried the automatic ticket machine, but it was only good for tickets within Switzerland. By the time we figured that out we only had about ten minutes to try something else. We went down through the tunnel and came up on the platform where we’d always caught trains going into Germany and found a ticket machine there for tickets on German trains. We punched in our destination and then put a twenty Euro note into the machine and it spit it back out. We tried it a couple more times with the same result. We finally saw the message on the display that it only took bills for amounts over 9.90 Euro. Our tickets were less than that. We didn’t have change and there was no change machine either. Since the Singen elders would be waiting in Singen for us to arrive, we decided to get on and try and resolve the issue with a train employee. We weren’t able to contact anyone before the train took off. A lot of the times we ride trains when no one checks tickets and we were hoping this would be one. No such luck! A few minutes into the ride here came the ticket checker. When he wanted to see them, we told him our sad story and, because he saw us at the ticket machine, he believed us. We wondered, if he saw us having problems, why didn’t he try to help us before the train left? He wrote us a violation ticket which would require us to pay the cost of the fare plus a 40.00 Euro fine, but he also allowed us to pay for the fare and then he wrote a second little report into his machine that explained the situation. He was kind enough to write that the ticket machine was defective and when the office reviews both the ticket and the report, they will forego the fine. We are hoping it all works out that way.

Aside from being lawbreakers everything else went super today. We arrived in Singen, found the elders, piled into their car and rode to Freiburg, a trip of about an hour and a half. We were an hour early for the conference and could have left a half hour later and the problem on the train could have been eliminated. Oh well. We visited the little grocery store by the Church and window shopped to see if we wanted to buy anything before we went home. However, we did buy a couple bananas, a baguette and a bag of trail mix for breakfast.

We had a great morning session, the highlight being the instruction from Pres. Matern. He used the counsel Alma gave to his sons Helaman, Shiblon and Corianton in Chapters 36-42 in the book of Alma to instruct the elders and sisters on how to be good missionaries. He always gives good counsel. He also told the conversion story of Paul Hunsiker who took over fifty years to decide to be baptized as an example of planting seeds. The seeds grow in the timing of the Lord when the person is ready and we shouldn’t get discouraged when we don’t see immediate results. He also related another story involving Elder Talley who gave a BM to a lady who didn’t really do anything with it. The lady’s aunt visited her, saw the BM and got interested in it. She took it back to the Dominican Republic with her when she went home, contacted the missionaries and was baptized four months ago. It would really be interesting to know where all the BM’s we’ve given out end up.

The last thing on the morning session was a testimony meeting. This usually occurs at the end of the conference but, since this is the last zone conference with the Materns and the afternoon session was a special one for them, it was held before the break. Diana was one of the ones who bore their testimony and again, she did it in good German.

We broke for lunch at 12:30 and the local Relief Society had a delicious lunch waiting for us. It was a chicken curry over rice, a green salad and a strawberry quark dessert. The dessert was something like yogurt, but not as sweet, creamy or good. During the noon break Pres. Matern had us all turn on our cameras and place them on the stage for a zone photo. After we all got situated for the photo, Brother Klaumuenzner dutifully took each camera in turn and snap a couple of photos. It took almost a half an hour for this to be accomplished. After that the afternoon session of the conference convened in the chapel instead on the cultural hall.

After the opening song I offered the invocation and the meeting began. It was more like a sacrament meeting farewell because this is the last zone conference with Pres. and Sister Matern. They will go home on June 30 to resume their life at home after three years serving here. There were a lot of nice things said, many songs sung by the missionaries and Pres. and Sis. Matern gave us their last counsel and words of encouragement and appreciation for all the hard work the missionaries have done.

After the meeting I slipped over to the store and bought the few things we had decided on. We piled back into the car for the ride back to Singen where the missionaries dropped us off. We checked the train schedule and saw that we had six minutes to buy a ticket and get to the train. We found the ticket machine, but couldn’t figure out how to make the thing work. After fiddling with it for a few minutes, we got desperate and asked two girls standing there for help. They breezed through the ten or twelve touch screen buttons as we gave them the information they needed. Finally, the money went in, the ticket and change came back out and we almost ran down the steps and back up on platform four and made it to our train. Why is it we always seem to have to run for our trains and connections? And wouldn’t you know it, no ticket checker on the way back to Schaffhausen! So, a long, but good day comes to a close. We left at 6:07 a.m. and got back home at 7:30 p.m. We envy the Doyles and Kroffs who don’t have to travel at all for their conferences.

We got a bite to eat, did some planning, checked the emails and wrote the journal. And that’s it for today except that Elder Neuffer called to see if he could get a haircut after district meeting next Tuesday. There are probably a couple more that’ll probably want their heir cut, too. Elder Vincent made his weekly call to check up on us and bring us up to date on what they’ve been doing in Zollikofen. We tried to call the senior couple in Ebnat Kapell, the Hutchesons, but they didn’t answer their phone.

One tender mercy today is that we won’t have to pay the 40 Euro fine, if all goes as the ticket checker said it would.