On the wall of the Protestant church; archway in Bern; part of a fountain in Bern.

MAY 12, 2010 WEDNESDAY

Our focus this morning was to first prepare a lesson for Paul Hunziker on the priesthood to prepare him for his receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. Second, we needed to prepare the workshop for the Relief Society meeting tonight on the subject of how to invite the Spirit into their visiting teaching visits. And third, was preparation for tomorrow’s appointment with Priska and Mike in Unterstammheim.

Paul had invited us to lunch so when we got there at noon he was ready and so were we. Diana was inspired to take him a case of toilet paper. He said he was glad to get it because if he doesn’t have enough money, he cuts up newspapers to use as toilet paper. He loves to cook and he is very good at it, too. Today we had a nice salad on the side and breaded fish with rice for the main dish. It was all very good and filling. After lunch we got right into the lesson about the priesthood. He’s been investigating the Church for so long, even having read the Articles of Faith book, that he was finishing my sentences for me. He has a very good understanding and only needed some clarification on some points. For his baptism we gave him a Triple Combination so he would have a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. He hadn’t seen these before. We gave him the assignment to read three Sections, 20, 84 and 107. We also asked him to read the chapter about the priesthood, Chapter 13, in the Priesthood manual and to write down any questions he had to discuss next time we meet. When it came time to leave, he always insists on sending something home with us. This time he sent three big bags of popped popcorn. Tomorrow is his birthday and he’ll have his married children and their families there to help him celebrate it. While we were there, he received a bouquet of flowers from a daughter who won’t be able to come tomorrow.

We went back home and this time we worked on our second focus for today, the RS workshop. We had spent time on it last month, but then it was postponed because only two sisters showed up. We reviewed what we had and then added to or changed some things that we felt important. That must have worn me out and a short power nap was just the ticket.

We had a better turn out at the RS meeting this time with nine present counting us. Sister Gardedieu introduced the theme of the meeting which, of course, was visiting teaching. First she asked the sisters to write a descriptive word on a piece of paper why it is hard or what causes them problems in doing their visits. Some of the responses were no time, hard to set a time when everyone can meet, distances to travel and etc. Other responses were more spiritual in nature such as inhibitions, not wanting to be spiritual on demand, not knowing what to teach, not wanting to make a mistake, etc. The first set Silvia thought were organizational and that with better planning and forethought, she could resolve some of their concerns. The second set were more on the spiritual side and those she wanted us to address in our workshop. We had a lively interactive discussion and we hope they were able to come away with a better resolve and some ideas to help them do their visiting teaching. The meeting closed with singing the song, Search, Ponder and Pray. We wanted to sing the one we and Dorthea worked on to translate, but Sister Flammia politely refused to sing it. She said there was already a translation in the children’s songbook and she didn’t want to get our translation mixed up in her head with the real one. Before we worked on a translation, we searched to see if there was a German version and couldn’t find one. If we had known, we wouldn’t have gone to the trouble. Sister Flammia made copies of the official version and we sang that one to close the meeting, but we liked our version better. Diana was asked to say the closing prayer. Following the meeting Sister Gardedieu brought out the refreshments, mostly fruit (strawberries and bananas) but some lemon cake as well. We also gave the sisters, who didn’t already have one, a sunstone.

It was raining again when we left to go home. For some reason I had taken our umbrella out of my backpack, but we borrowed one from the rack in the Church and will return it next Sunday. Dorothea offered to drive us home in her car which we gladly accepted. We finished up tonight writing this journal entry.

Phone calls today included a text message from Priska Staehelin cancelling our appointment for tomorrow because she’ll be in Zurich visiting her daughter that’s in a group home for disturbed children. We’ll have to reschedule with them. We also received a call from Dennis Doyle while we were visiting with Paul. We didn’t have much of a chance to talk to him and tried to call him back twice. The first time the phone just rang with no answer. The second time we left a message on their answer machine.

A tender mercy is that Sister Bolli’s mother is getting better so she won’t have to miss any more Sunday meetings. We were also able to pay for some yarn and have Sister Pietroboni knit it into caps for little babies in Africa.