View from Bear Bridge in Bern; Chris and Monica; above the front door of a Protestant church in Bern.

MAY 11, 2010 TUESDAY

We got to sleep in this morning until 6:00 which was nice for a change. Even though we didn’t have to be anywhere specific, we had to prepare for our district meeting at 10:00. Rebecca left for home yesterday, but Monica and Chris were still here so doing our morning things was still a little tricky. Breakfast was what anyone could find like left over Birchermuesli, yogurt, but Diana fried Chris some eggs.

Diana made the chicken salad mix for chicken croissant sandwiches last night, but made a nice green salad this morning to go with it. Cutting up all those vegetables takes a lot of time. I made a dessert out of layers of vanilla cookies, vanilla pudding, strawberry mousse and mashed fresh strawberries with halved whole strawberries and grated milk chocolate on the top. By the time we had the food ready, the divan put back together that Chris and Monica slept on in the front room, the table pulled out and chairs arranged, it was time for the missionaries to come. Chris and Monica were going to be on their own this morning during our district meeting, but they were still here when Elders Sills & Bushnell arrived. They left shortly after to spend time looking around the old town in Schaffhausen and to ride buses for short sight-seeing trips. Elders Bentley & Dahneke were a half hour late because the tunnel they usually travel through was blocked which caused a detour and a giant traffic jam.

We always have well planned meetings and we learn a lot as well as receive a spiritual uplift from associating with these young elders. But none of them can carry a tune so our singing is pretty interesting. Elder Dahneke covered the PMG chapter on giving commitments; Elder Bushnell gave a spiritual thought from a talk by Pres. Monson about serving others. He also used the song, Have I Done Any Good, as part of his thought. Diana had the German tip and game. In the German language each noun has an article denoting the gender of the word. She had a list of nouns and each elder in turn was given a word and asked what he thought the article was. When he gave his answer, anybody could challenge him, if he thought the answer was wrong. I had the missionary handbook tip. I chose the section on the proper wearing and care of garments. Elder Sills chose the closing song and gave the big prayer. And then came lunch. The missionaries always look forward to lunch and we like to feed them. Elder Bentley was fasting so we fixed him a take along lunch. He seems to have some kind of chronic illness that doesn’t really stop him from doing missionary work, but he doesn’t ever feel that well either. Last week we gave him some antibiotics (ten days worth) and they seem to be helping a little.

By the time we cleaned up and washed the dishes Chris and Monica came back and we just visited and lazed around until it was time for them to go to the airport for their trip to Scotland. They’ll be there for a few days. They’ll be back with us on Friday and then leave for home on Sunday. We rode on the train to the airport with them and stayed with them until they had checked in. At the departure gate we said our goodbyes and then walked around the airport window shopping until time to catch our train. Finally, we had a day that was sunny, with some clouds of course, but by the time we got back to Schaffhausen, we could see, smell and feel the rain coming. We went into Manor and bought supplies to make the book of remembrance including a binder, plastic sheet protectors, photo copy paper and a color ink cartridge for our printer. By the time we got back to the bus stop it was raining. We seldom get thunder, but today we did. It was kind of neat, really.

We spent several hours putting together Paul’s memory book, selecting and printing photos to go with the comments that were written on the pieces of paper handed out to those in attendance at his baptism. We got most of it done, but we will look it over again tomorrow with fresh eyes to see what else it needs. We also need to follow up with a couple of key people who failed to write something and should have. I am one of those and so is Silvia Gardedieu and Pres. Flammia. We may also need to take a few more photos of people who were there.

The tender mercies that caught our attention today is the elder that visited our district meeting last week, Elder Neuffer, was transferred to Schwenningen to work as a threesome with Elder Bentley and Elder Dahneke. Next, Elder Walters from the mission home called us today to let us know that Charlotte gave him the glucosamine-chondroiten pills we gave to her to give to the missionaries to give to Silvana Gianatti. We wanted the missionaries to take them to her so they would get to know her and, hopefully, continue to work with her to get her to come back into activity. Bro. Walters said that he would be sure to make sure Silvana got them. And last, that Rebecca arrived home safely and is getting a long rest which she deserves.