Ebnat Kappel chapel from foundation to finished as it was built in 1963 or 1964.

JUNE 30, 2010 WEDNESDAY

On June 16 when we were at the temple Elder & Sister Hutcheson mentioned that the Ebnat Kappel Branch was going to have some sort of a celebration and they were looking for anyone who was around when their chapel was built and especially for old photos of it during construction. I helped a little bit on the construction when I was on my first mission in Switzerland from June, 1963 through December, 1965. Monica looked through my old mission photos and found eight photos of the building in varying stages of construction and sent them to me via email. I forwarded them on to the Hutchesons and we’re sure the members there will be thrilled to see them.

We called Charlotte to see if she had worked out our Monday P-day trip schedule to Mt. Pilatus so when we called the Hutchesons we could invite them to go along with us. Charlotte said they had just been to the airport to send off the Materns and she hadn’t had time to look at the schedule yet. She said she’d call us later with the details. When we talked to the Hutchesons, we invited them and told them we’d get the details to them later. Elder Hutcheson asked his wife if she wanted to go and he reported back that she jumped at the invitation. It’ll be great to have them along.

Diana called the mission home wanting to talk to Sister Walters just to see how she and her husband felt about being all alone in the mission home now that the Materns had left. She was surprised when Brother Klaumuenzner answered and told her that the Walters weren’t alone, that everyone was there except the Materns. He said even Pres. Condi was at the mission home and planned on staying there until after his fireside on Sunday evening.

We had previously researched names from the old teaching records and selected ten that we wanted to re-contact. This morning we used the online telephone book to find the addresses and/or which buses we needed to take to get us close to where they lived. By then it was time to go to our lunch appointment with Paul Hunziker.

Our meetings with Paul are always special. He had pizza and a green salad prepared for us this time and always has tales and exploits of his life to tell us as we eat. Even though he wasn’t a member of our Church until May 8, 2010, he’s always been involved in missionary work teaching out of the bible and smuggling bibles into communist countries when he was younger. Today we taught him about patriarchal blessings and told him our stake patriarch, Elder Robert Koch, would be visiting our branch on July 25. We encouraged him to talk to Pres. Flammia about getting a recommend to receive a patriarchal blessing. We also gave him a copy of the “Preach My Gospel” book since we have a number of them in our apartment that previous missionaries had left behind. It may help him to get a better understanding of the gospel as time goes on.

We came home and, when getting ready to go back out to contact the ones mentioned above, Roxsan skyped us. We talked with her for awhile about various things and, after we hung up, continued on our way. Hedi Haefliger let us right in the building when we punched her doorbell. We rode the elevator up to the ninth floor and rang her apartment doorbell and, when she answered, it was obvious she was expecting someone else to be standing there. She said she didn’t have time right then, but we could try back another time. Next we went to Neuhausen where we tried to contact Ajrula Satri. He was at work in Zurich and we were asked to call him on Saturday to talk to him. The next person, Herr Kostic, was also at work and we’d have to try another time. His daughter-in-law told us he only works part time and to just try back anytime. By this time it was rather late and so we came back home for the evening.

Madeleine called tonight to say hello. Rebecca called to talk for awhile. Its’s been some time since she has called us so it was good to see her and Mack. Mack is a busy little guy with lots of energy. Soon after Elder Neuffer called to get a verbal report on our progressing investigators. And then we got a text message from Charlotte Kunz, not the message we wanted but, nevertheless, not a bad one. We had an appointment with her for tomorrow, but she texted us on Monday and said she may not be able to keep it. She said she would let us know today. She wrote that she was busy tomorrow, but suggested Tuesday or Thursday next week would be possibilities. We wrote back and said Tuesday would be good and asked for a time and a place.
She hasn’t responded back yet, but she will.

The weather has turned out fairly warm and we’re glad we at least have a fan. We leave the windows open when it’s cool outside, however, we’ve found there are more bugs here than there was in Schwamendingen.

Today's cake. It has written on it, "Ja wohl missions Arbeit." (You betcha, missionary work).
The other two photos are from the boat; we have vineyards up here, too, although not as big and not as many.

JUNE 29, 2010 TUESDAY

District meeting was this morning at 10:30 so we were up to get everything ready for the lunch. Diana made the jello salad and got all of the stuff ready for the burgers and hotdogs (cheese, catsup, mustard, onions, tomato slices, lettuce and etc). Today was our July 4th celebration. She also gets everything ready to set the table so it takes less time when the meeting is over. I got the hamburger patties fried and the cervalets (fat hotdogs) placed on the rack in the oven to grill later on. We also cooked seashell macaroni for macaroni salad. We had leftover chicken salad from last week (we froze it) that we unthawed for it. So everything was ready when the elders got here at the appointed time.

This was the first meeting under the direction of our new district leader, Elder Neuffer. He had everything well organized, but did things a little different than Elder Bentley. We started with a song and prayer and then Diana was asked to do her mission rules book tip first. She made it into a game and it was fun for the elders and they learned some things along the way. She asked questions out of the rule book and each companionship got points if both elders wrote down the same answer. Elders Neuffer and Dahneke wrote the same answer six out of seven times, but Elders Sills & Bushnell matched only one out of seven times. One thing that will be different is that each week he will choose one elder to spotlight. Each missionary will take two pieces of paper and write something about the person and then fold it up and give them to him to read out loud. Today was Elder Sills turn and he got both serious and silly comments, but on the whole, it was an interesting exercise. At the end of the meeting he asked each one to bear his/her testimony which was a nice addition to our meeting.

As usual we cooked too many hamburgers (12) and hotdogs (14), made too much macaroni salad for only six of us. We shouldn’t have made the cake either although a few of them ate small pieces. Now what are we going to do with the leftovers? We’ll probably take some to Paul tomorrow and maybe the macaroni salad will still be good enough to take to the baptism Saturday. The elders left just before 2:00, Elders Neuffer & Dahneke to go to the zone council at the church here in Schaffhausen, and Elders Sills & Bushnell to go back to Singen. About 4:30 Elder Neuffer brought our chapel key back which was a relief. We hate to lend our key because we never know if or when we’ll get it back. We’ve had to track our key down more than once in the past.

By the time we were done cleaning everything up we needed a little recovery time. This morning we didn’t have time to read our scriptures so we did that this afternoon. Later on we did some phone contacting and actually got in contact with Roger Ojingia and Jasmin Hunsiker. Roger said he was watching a soccer game and didn’t have time to talk to us. He talked to us long enough to hear us invite him to come to Church Sunday. He said he would. We tried calling Jasmin, but she didn’t anser her home phone nor her cell phone. We sent her a text message asking her if she were still alive, because we hadn’t heard from her for such a long time. Surprisingly, she answered back and said she’s working much more now and that her four year old son had had scarlet fever, but everything was okay now. She promised to call us on Friday so we can make an appointment with her. She and her three children are such a good family that we hope we can continue teaching them. We called a few other people, but got no answers. We looked through old progress reports and wrote down about a dozen likely looking prospects and we’ll set out tomorrow to contact some of them. And that seems to be it for today.

Roxsan called on skype last night too late to include it in yesterday’s journal entry. She explained the problem with our boat and what they were doing to get it fixed. It seems the impeller that runs the cooling system got burned up which caused the motor to overheat. No one was aware of what the problem was so they took it in to Reinell to get it looked at. It was a simple fix, if one knows how to do it. I burned the impeller up once myself and had to repair it, so if I had of been home, I could have done it. Since it was in the shop already, we asked her to have them do a complete check-up on it so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later. She also told us she had posted a new video of Truxtn on her blog so we’d look at it when we hung up. We told her we’d seen the one of Mayleah singing a song with her school class. She was really cute and very active in doing the movements the song called for. It’s always good to get the latest news on our kids and grandkids and the happenings at home.

Rhine River trip to Schaffhausen; street in Schaffhausen; entrance to Stein Am Rhein.

JUNE 28, 2010 MONDAY

We only had six P-days left before we go home! Now at the end of today we only have five. So how did we use the one we had today? Well, we got up rather late for us, but we were still out of the door by 9:00 because we wanted to catch the 9:31 train to Stein Am Rhein. When we got there, we got on a bus just to see where it would take us. It went the opposite way than we thought it would and we ended up in Ramsen. From there we could have taken a bus to Singen, Germany, but we would have had to wait two hours for it. We’ve been through Ramsen before on bus #25 when we’ve gone out to Buch to try and visit Godwin. The bus driver insisted we get out at Ramsen, but he said he’d be back in fifteen minutes to take us back to Stein Am Rhein. When he came back, we rode back. The countryside was typical Swiss countryside with lots of fields of different kinds of crops in varying stages of growth. The barley and some other grains looks like it’s about harvest time. The wheat has a ways to go. The potatoes are in blossom and the corn has a good start. We saw a farmer cutting honest to goodness alfalfa, the first field of it we’ve seen. What they usually grow and cut for cattle feed is grass of some sort. Sunflowers are coming along nicely as well as the sugar beets. It’s been kind of dry the last week or so and the crops are starting to suffer, especially the corn. We’ve seen a few sprinkler systems like they use in Idaho, but mostly they rely on enough rain falling.

We got back to Stein Am Rhein and had about forty minutes to wander the streets before the ship came that we were going to ride back to Schaffhausen. We looked in a few souvenir shops and bought some place mats with pictures of different places in Switzerland. After seeing the ones the Doyles had, we decided we needed to round up some of our own. The only problem is, they’re not cheap. Diana also couldn’t pass up buying a cat made of metal to give to Charlotte when she goes through the temple for her endowments on July 31. It was fun to wander the streets again having been there a couple of times before, once with Charlotte and once with our kids.

At 11:30 we got on the ship and had a relaxing ride to Schaffhausen. It stopped at a couple of small towns on the way to let people off and others on. Many people were sunbathing and swimming along the shore and others were on the water in small boats and even rubber rafts. We saw a couple of people just floating down the river without any visible means of staying afloat. The banks of the river were tree covered and the old building in the towns we passed were interesting to look at.

An hour and a half later we arrived in Schaffhausen so we got off and meandered through the old town and ended up at the bus bahnhof. Along the way we looked at this and that, taking our time because we had no goal in mind. We found a store that sold Victorinox pocket knives, one of the companies authorized to manufacture and sell official Swiss Army pocket knives. Just before we got to the store, a person with a key unlocked the door and went in. When we got there a couple minutes later, we tried to go in, but we couldn’t open the door all the way because it was blocked by a rack of items they were selling. The lady came and told us they were still closed for the lunch two hours, but then asked if we were looking for anything specific. We were so she was nice enough to let us in. We’ve been looking for this particular item for a long time having seen one in some resort town about a year and a half ago. We didn’t buy it then because we were looking for a better price. We never saw another one until now and it was the same price as the first one we saw. So we bought three of them, two to give to others when we get home.

We went on home, got a bite to eat and then just goofed around the rest of the day. We did some things that were productive, however. We read the emails and discovered one from Neide who wrote that I, indeed, had been asked to baptize Mary next Sunday. That will be a real treat, if it works out that way. We promised to send Neide and Christa Aeberli some of the photos we took yesterday while we were in Schwamendingen, so we got that done. We also promised Elder Dias we’d send him some photos of our New Year’s Eve celebration at the Mueller-Russos, but we’ve never gotten around to it until now. He will be going home the same time as we will so we sent them to him just in the nick of time. We also read the Doyles blog because they posted it too late last night. Then I walked to the store and back to buy some hamburger and hotdog buns, lettuce, mustard and bananas. For our district meeting lunch tomorrow we’re going to have our July 4th meal only none of it will be BBQ’d. We’ll have to grill the hotdogs in the oven and fry the burgers in frying pans. That’s the best we’ll be able to do at the moment. Diana plans on making some of her delicious pineapple/cottage cheese/ jello salad and we baked a chocolate cake tonight, too.

We tried calling Jasmin, but we still got no answer so we left another message. Elder Vincent called just to say hello. Elder Haslam, our new zone leader, called to ask us to somehow arrange to have the chapel unlocked for the zone council they want to hold there tomorrow. We told him we’d send the key with Elder Neuffer. We called the AP’s to find out the details for Mary’s upcoming baptism and Elder Christensen answered. Yes, they were the ones who are putting the program together. He asked me if I knew that I would be baptizing Mary. I told him she asked me yesterday if I would do it and I told her I would. She told them that she’d prayed for who should baptize her and through revelation she received her answer. I will have to think, ponder and pray about this one , but I know the Lord works in mysterious ways and uses the least of his children to accomplish great works. And that is the tender mercy for us today.

Pres. & S. Matern with Charlotte wearing her new dress in the middle; Agnes, Neide & Angela; E. & S. Larson, Aureneide Graf, Pres. & Sister Matern.

JUNE 27, 2010 SUNDAY

Yesterday we decided that our branch here in Schaffhausen would have to do without us today. However, I still had to go to the chapel this morning to write up our weekly report and to unlock the door for Michael Hartig. I always like to walk the forty minutes to the chapel, first, because it gives me time to just enjoy the morning and be able to go over in my mind what we have to do this day. Second, it takes care of my morning walk.

I arrived at the church in good shape and placed invitations on the chairs to President Condi’s first fireside as our new mission president next Sunday evening in the stake center. I had our report nearly finished when Michael showed up. I finished, printed it off and made copies for Pres. Flammia and Bro. DeMarzi amd talked with Michael for a few minutes. It was then I noticed the time and saw I had three minutes to catch our bus at the bahnhof. It only comes every twenty minutes on Sunday. I thought I could make it so I took off running around the church and took the shortcut down some steep steps but, when I got to the road, I decided I probably couldn’t make it so I slowed down to a walk. Then I decided maybe I could so I took off running again and came oh so close, but no cigar. I called Diana and let her know I missed the bus, but was coming. I walked halfway home before the next bus came which I rode the rest of the way. When I got home, I only had five minutes to get things and then we hurried to the bus and were off to catch our 9:14 train to Schwamendingen.

We arrived at the stake center at 10:30 and had a good time talking with some members and missionaries while waiting for Sunday School to finish so we could go in for Sacrament meeting. It was good to see all of our old friends again and the reception we got was heartwarming to say the least. Some of them we saw at David & Sveta’s reception on Friday evening, but there were many more today. We met Mary Makdesi Elias again who will be baptized next Saturday, July 3. Martin & Ewa Neidhart brought her and some others to the Christmas party last year and that’s where we met her for the first time. She came to church a couple times before we were transferred on January 15, 2010, and we met her in the small grocery store one time where she works. We told her we were happy for her that she’d made the decision to be baptized and that we’d be sure to come next Saturday to support her. We can’t begin to express our love for these dear members who have been so kind to us.

Neide was especially glad to see us because she was going to sing her song for the Materns during the meeting. She wanted us to be there because we had some part in inspiring the writing of it when she was baptized a year and a half ago. The Materns gave inspirational talks, of course, and things were a little emotional for Sister Matern. The last speaker was President Rueckhauer from the stake presidency who expressed thanks in behalf of all the members for the work the Materns had done. After the meeting was over refreshments were served in the cultural hall. We had opportunity to talk with many more of our friends and, of course, we invited them all to come visit us after we are released and home. Sister Aeberli said we’d be surprised if fifty of them got together and came to visit us all at once. We replied we would welcome it and we’d be able to accommodate all of them.

I brought two of my “Camp Helaman” coins with me, but hadn’t quite decided who to give them to. But after the meeting Stefan Wichtermann came over to say hello. He has three brothers and we’ve given them each one of these coins, but hadn’t given one to Stefan. We gave one to him and he was so appreciative and thanked us again and again. We continued to talk to him and Rita, his mother, and before they left, Stefan said, “You are the best example that I have ever seen.” I write this, not to boast, but to show how loving and sincere these members are. The strength the Wichtermann family is the this ward is incalculable. We will really miss them.

Neide, Madeleine, Agnes, Angela, Irene, Norma, Denise and others all vie for Diana’s attention. She is beloved by one and all. Neide especially flitted around trying to organize photos with us, with the Materns and any others she could talk into it. Charlottte finally found a dress she could wear to Church after having looked for several months. It’s harder to find a modest dress over here than it is at home, it seems like.

As we were standing there Mary and the Neidharts came over and Mary asked me if I would do something at her baptism Saturday. She said she had two people in mind and prayed to know which she should select. She decided the first one she saw she would ask and the person was me. I thought she asked me to be a witness, but later on as we were leaving, Brother Neidhart congratulated me on being asked to baptize Mary. What? It would be an honor to baptize her, but we’ll have to find out for sure what it was she wanted me to do.

Finally, we had to say goodbye and go back to Schaffhausen so we could meet with Paul before it got too late and, hopefully, Kofi would come for his appointment tonight, too. We got home, rested for a bit, marked a BM for Hannah Stamm hoping she would be at Paul’s when we visited him. We visited Paul, but she wasn’t there. After that we came home and waited for Kofi, but he didn’t come. We called him earlier and he said he’d be by around 7:30. About 8:00 he called and asked to come over Monday evening instead on tonight. That was okay by us.

We tried calling Ewa Neidhart, but she wasn’t home. We texted her a message, but she hasn’t answered as of yet. We tried calling the AP’s, but they didn’t answer either. We’ll just have to wait to find out what I’m supposed to do at Mary’s baptism. If it’s a talk, I hope I find out soon.

Elder Neuffer called for our stats for the week and to ask us to respond to some questions regarding our goals for the zone council on Tuesday. We had also called Dorothea Jaermann to see if she wanted to come with us on our P-day tomorrow. She wasn’t home, but called us back later and said she was busy tomorrow. She promised to go with us somewhere before we go home in August. And that is our day, all in a nutshell.

Marche' (market) offering in Ferney, France; other photos from our trip to Geneva.

JUNE 26, 2010 SATURDAY

This morning we were up and at ‘em early because we offered to help Christina Kusz load her furniture into a moving truck for her move to Kreuzlingen. We were there at 8:00 and, fortunately, her son, Andreas, was there also with an older couple from the Kreuzlingen Ward to help. We worked hard for an hour and a half to get it all loaded before we had to leave for our street contacting activity at 10:30. Last Sunday Andreas told us that his brother was going to help, too, but he wasn’t there. It all worked out because Christina had everything packed and wrapped except for a big wardrobe that had to be taken apart.

We left and had time to quickly go home and clean up a little and then we went back to the Bahnhof park and ride and waited for Karl & Jecelyn Hoenle to arrive. When we saw them, we were quite surprised to see that he was casually dressed in jeans and wearing a big white straw plantation type hat instead of a suit and tie. We walked from there over to the busy main street where the foot traffic was heavy. On Saturdays there is always a farmer’s market going on and many people come to purchase fresh vegetable. Elders Bushnell, Sills, Neuffer & Dahneke arrived and armed themselves with the Books of Mormon and other brochures and videos we’d stamped with our phone number, address of the chapel and meeting times and brought with us. We then paired up and began our contacting activities, I with Brother Hoenle and Diana with Jecelyn and the missionaries with their companions. Diana and Jecelyn made a good pair and talked with a lot of people and one lady in particular. They spent about a half hour with her and she finally accepted a Book of Mormon. She said she had relatives who lived near our chapel here in Schaffhausen, but she lived in Bern. Karl and I also gave out a lot of information and had conversations with quite a few families, but we weren’t able to make any appointments to teach. Most of the people were polite, most said they weren’t interested or belonged to another Church, but some just ignored us and walked on by. Paul Hunziker saw us and came over to talk to us and later on Elder Neuffer told us he’d approached him to talk to him about the Church. Paul had a little fun with him and then revealed he had just been baptized. They and we had a good chuckle over that. Our activity lasted a good two hours, and by that time our feet were sore from walking on the cobblestone streets. We thanked everyone for coming and then we all parted ways. We hope that the people who accepted cards, brochures and BM’s will read them and respond to the invitation to learn more.

We went back home and had a bite to eat and then rested for awhile. We did some studying and preparing for our next meeting with Charlotte Kunz. She responded to our text message and said she would probably be available on Thursday, but didn’t give us a time. We texted back and said we were available on Thursday, too, and to just tell us what time. Later on we went to Migros to buy some apples, strawberries, peanuts and some croissants to make Paul some sandwiches for tomorrow.

About 9:00 Elder Bushnell called to ask us how to remove a wood tick from his leg that had embedded itself in back of his knee. We gave him some things to try, but they didn’t work. We gave him Dr. Dye’s phone number to get his advice. Elder Bushnell called back to tell us the doctor’s recommendation was to go to an emergency room and have it professionally removed. We are waiting now for him to call us back to see if he was able to find a hospital or clinic and if it was successfully removed. And that’s where we’ll end the journal entry for today.

Neide, Norma & Denise; where I did my hike this morning; Sveta & David Wichtermann.

JUNE 25, 2010 FRIDAY

Our first appointment today was with Carla Sprenger who lives in the rest home in Kleinandelfingen. Today was her 89th birthday and we wanted to celebrate it with her. She is also the one who plays the piano and who said she’d come to Church before we go home so she could play while I sing the song, How Great Will Be Your Joy in sacrament meeting. We arrived in Andelfingen and walked down the hill the fifteen minutes to the rest home in Kleinandelfingen. We’ve been impressed by these elderly ladies who, even though they live in rest homes, dress in their best for visitors. She invited us in and was really glad to see us. Diana always makes a special connection with the sisters because they feel her love for them. After we got settled she asked us if we would stay and have lunch with her. We said we would be honored so she went out and advised the facility staff that she had guests for lunch. When she returned, we spent about a half an hour practicing the song while Diana gave helpful suggestions. Carla plays wonderfully, but it took a little time to work out how we wanted to perform the song.

When lunch time came, we went out and into a small lunch room where a table had been set with a white table cloth. She said the staff do that special for people who have birthdays. There were only three other tables in the room, two with people sitting at them. We commented on that and she told us the rest of the residents were eating in the main dining room, and that the one we were in was for special occasions. The lunch we were served started with a delicious onion soup followed by steaks done to perfection, cauliflower and mashed potatoes. Dessert was chocolate and vanilla ice cream that had a spumoni center. During lunch Carla reminisced about her life and spoke lovingly of her father and mother whom she loved dearly. After lunch we returned to her room, took a few photos and then took our leave.

We were in between buses so we had to walk back up the hill to the train station. Walking uphill is always more difficult and took us a lot longer, but we made it with five minutes to spare. The train took us back to Schaffhausen and we barely had enough time to take the bus home, use the ten minutes to do what was necessary and then catch the bus back to town for our next appointment at 3:00.

When we arrived at Emely DiPaolos, she was sitting on a bench in front of her home reading the Book of Mormon while waiting for us. She is such a sweet girl and looks forward to our visits. We look forward to them, too. We had a good discussion on staying on the right track, and even a small deviation is dangerous for us. If one is off course even one degree, at the starting point it doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference, but as we travel away from the starting point, the gap gets wider and wider as our course takes us away from our intended goal. We read a story out of the Liahona about honesty that was a good example of what we wanted to teach today. We also used D&C 82:10 (if ye do what I say, I am bound) and D&C 132:5 (every commandment has a blessing attached and we receive the blessing through obedience). Again we talked about the necessity of activity in the Church for Emely to reap the blessing of baptism. We know Katia has difficulty with her husband when it comes to going to Church, but we also know Katia can come to Church more than she does which has only been one time since we’ve been here. We hope they come on Sunday so Pres. Flammia can talk to her.

When we left the DiPaolo home, our next goal was to get to Schwamendingen for David and Sveta Wichtermann’s wedding reception. Yesterday Diana said she would help Madeleine take a salad from her home to the stake center because Madeleine uses crutches and can’t carry anything. Neide called us and insisted we come to Schwamendingen for Church Sunday because the Materns are giving their farewell talks and Neide was going to sing the song she composed. So we wanted to visit Neide first to let her know we wouldn’t be able to come for Church because we feel we’re needed in our branch here. Second, we needed to help Madeleine. Third on our agenda was to attend the reception. Fourth was to deliver the two walking sticks to the Walters that we’d bought for them a couple of weeks ago. And fifth, we needed to pick up the supplies Elders Talley and Anderson failed to bring with them to our last district meeting. Elder Anderson called us today and told us he’d leave them at the Church for us to pick up tonight.

When we got to Schwamendingen, we stopped at Neide’s, but she wasn’t home. Next, we went to Madeleine’s and she wasn’t home. We continued on to the stake center and found both of them there. Someone else had already helped Madeleine. When we found them at the Church, we got a warm welcome, but Diana’s welcome included hugs and hugs and hugs. First from Irene Russo, and then from Neide, Charlotte, and Madeleine. Later on she got hugs from Norma and Denise Maurer. Suki came later and went wild when she saw Diana. As I said before, everyone loves Diana and were thrilled to see her again.

During the course of the evening we came to realize how much it meant to Neide that we come to the meeting Sunday. She had written down the words of the song and had given credit to people who had helped her with her conversion and who had inspired her to write the song. Both Diana and I were mentioned in it and she was going to sing the song during the sacrament meeting Sunday. We relented and told her we would come.

Before we left we gave the walking sticks to the Walters as a token of appreciation for all they do for us and the missionaries. We are truly fortunate to know them. Sometime in mid July they’ll be transferred to Muenchin, Germany, and after that we’ll probably not see them again unless it’s State side. As we left we picked up the two boxes of supplies they had prepared for us and went out the front door. Before we could get away, Bishop Schwendener came running out after us to say goodbye. We can’t say enough about how much we appreciate Bishop Schwendener.

Our ride back home was uneventful except we received a call from our new district leader, Elder Neuffer, who wanted to give us our next meeting assignments. We were on the bus so he told us he’d call back when we got home. He did and gave us our assignments, Diana the white rule book tip and for me, the German tip.

The tender mercy today is that we received such a heart felt welcome back to our old ward in Schwamendingen. We’ve really missed the associations we had while serving in the Schwamendingen ward.

Paul Hunziker, Dorothea Jaermann, Greta Troesch, Irma Pietroboni, Elder Larson

JUNE 24, 2010 THURSDAY

Once a month the old single adults in our ward get together and today was our turn to sponsor it. That meant that we had to prepare a lesson and provide the refreshments. The crossandwiches we had yesterday were so good we decided to make some more for today. We also wanted to make a pineapple upside down cake for dessert and a cottage cheese jello salad. We had some leftover chicken salad from yesterday’s district meeting, but we needed the croissants to go with it. We also needed to buy some cottage cheese. Before we went to the store we baked the cake just to make sure it turned out the way it was supposed to. If it hadn’t of, we’d have bought dessert instead of trying to make it. We made the trip to the store and bought the things we needed and had everything prepared by the time our guests arrived at 2:30.

The normal attendees came including Paul Hunziker, Dorothea Jaermann, Greta Troesch and Irma Pietroboni. We spent the next three hours generally chatting about everything under the sun as well as going over the lesson we had prepared. The lesson was taken from a talk given by Elder Robert L. Simpson, The Law of the Fast, in the March issue of the Liahona. It generated a good discussion which helped Paul, our new convert, better understand this principle. After the lesson we served the food we had prepared. They weren’t expecting the veritable feast Diana had prepared. Each got plate of two croissant sandwiches, a scoop of cottage cheese jello salad, two small bunches of seedless grapes and a few BBQ potato chips. They had never had this type of sandwich before nor the cottage cheese jello salad. They loved them, but only Paul was able to eat it all. They were familiar with doggie bags just as we are at home so we offered them one and they took their second sandwich home with them. Dorothea especially thought it was funny that our lesson was on fasting and then we served them so much food. She said she’s never forget this experience.

We spent the rest of the evening getting ready for tomorrow’s appointments, one with Carla Sprenger in the morning and the other with Emely DiPaolo in the afternoon. Madeleine called to see if we were coming tomorrow to attend David and Sveta Wichtermann’s reception tomorrow evening. She is making something for the refreshments and needed help to carry it to the stake center. We said we planned on coming and we certainly would help her with whatever she needed. Sylvain also called to let us know he was still doing okay and we had a pleasant talk about what he’s been doing out on the farm and the challenges he’s had to face in staying free from alcohol. Even though it’s forbidden to drink in the group home where he’s staying, other residents violate the rule everyday which makes it a struggle for him. He said he’s trying to figure out how he can leave there and find somewhere else to live where he won’t have to face those temptations every day. He mentioned that Paul Hunziker had offered him a room in his apartment at one time and he may call Paul to see if the offer is still open.

The last call we received was from Charlotte who wanted to let us know that she was going through the temple on July 31st to get her endowments. That’s just five days before we go home. She also said Pres. & Sister Matern had sent all their belongings to their home in Germany and were ready to leave on June 30 when their mission ends and President Condi takes over. June 30 is the last official day of the Zurich Switzerland Mission. July 1st it’ll be included in the Alpine Lands Mission. We’re not sure if that is the correct name, but we’ll find out.

Elders Bentley, Anderson, Talley, Sills, Bushnell, Dahneke, Neuffer and Sister Larson

JUNE 23, 2010 WEDNESDAY

We shut our eyes at night and all of a sudden it was morning. What’s up with that? The elders were due to arrive at 9:30 this morning for district meeting so we had an hour less than we normally do to get things ready. Most of it was done last night, but we had to slice the grapes and add the other fruit to the tuna and chicken salad sandwich filling and then make the crossandwiches. We made other preparations such as pulling the table out in the living room and getting it set up with peanuts, gummi bears, chocolate balls and popcorn. We got the laptop computer moved to the living room also and had it set to show the movie Elder Bentley was going to bring. This was our Omega meeting so it would be a little different than usual.

We had everything ready when the first elders arrived, Elders Talley & Anderson (ZL’s). We expected them to bring our case of BM’s, videos and other things we had ordered, but they were empty handed. They were totally apologetic that they’d forgotten, but we needed some of it for our street contacting activity on Saturday. We said we’d be in Schwamendingen for David and Sveta Wichtermann’s wedding reception and asked if they would help Elder & Sister Walters bring our order either to their apartment or to the stake center so we could get them and bring them home ourselves. Elder Talley is being transferred tomorrow, but Elder Anderson said he would be sure to do it this time. The other elders arrived and Elder Bentley called our meeting to order.

The first half hour was like a normal district meeting albeit shortened. Instead of giving out assignments in advance, he called on people spontaneously. Elder Neuffer was asked to give the white handbook tip (mission rules); Elders Talley & Anderson conducted a question answer game on gospel topics, and Diana was asked to tell a story she had prepared some time agao and hadn’t gotten a chance to give. Then we watched the show “Luther” which was about Martin Luther as he broke from the Catholic church traditions by posting his famous list of complaints on the church door. The movie was really good and gives one insight into the corrupt practices that existed at that time. We are very thankful for all of the reformers who loosened the grip of the Catholic church and made it possible for the restoration of the true gospel. Martin Luther risked his life to translate the bible into the German language to make it available to the common people.

Before, during and after the movie the elders helped themselves to all the goodies on the table. When the movie was underway, we brought in the crossandwiches for them to enjoy along with orange soda and fruit cool aid punch. What more could they ask for? Well, they didn’t ask, but we also served jello fruit salad topped with bananas and whipped cream. When the movie was over, they were still looking for something so we finally brought in the dessert which was waffle cone ice cream cones. And while they were still eating and enjoying being together my work began.

Elder Daneke called yesterday and made an appointment to get his haircut today after the meeting. I was glad to oblige. We thought we would have plenty of time after he was done and the elders had left to prepare a lesson for our home teaching visit with Michael Hartig, Michaela Zaunigt and Beatrix Oswald in Horheim tonight. However, while I was cutting E. Dahneke’s hair, Franz Meier, and inactive member we’ve been trying to contact for several months, called and said he’d like to meet with us at 2:00 in the Manor restaurant in town. There went our peaceful anticipated afternoon prep time. We made the appointment thinking I only had to cut one head of hair. Then in walked E. Bentley and asked if it was okay for both him and E. Neuffer to get haircuts, too. The pressure was on. I rushed through the haircuts fairly quickly, and E. Bentley agreed to drive us into town which saved us precious time. We were only ten minutes late for our appointment.

Franz Meier was fun to talk to, just like the last time, but all he wanted to talk about was politics and the condition of the world. During the next hour we were able to interject gospel principles into the conversation along with the other stuff. We reminded him he promised us last time that he would come to Church and hadn’t done so. He said the main reason he didn’t go is because he didn’t like some of the members in the branch. We told him we go to Church to worship God and Jesus Christ and not necessarily because of the people. We told him we saw good in all people and realize neither they nor we are perfect. He agreed with that. He promised again to come to Church and we said that Pres. Bolt would visit on July 11 and he might want to come on that date. He promised to call us to verify the date and also to set another appointment for us to get together and talk before we go home. He’s a delightful guy and very frank and honest.

When we were finished, we saw we had an hour or two so we went home and did some preparation for our visit to Horheim. When it was time, we left (4:47), traveled to Horheim by train and bus, met with Michel, Michaela and Beatrix and arrived back home at 10:00 pm. It was an enjoyable ride and we had a good gospel lesson and discussion with them. We know the Lord has just got to love these three and we do, too.

We could only stay 50 minutes because of the bus schedule (we didn’t want to wait on a bench for two hours if we missed our bus) and then we went back to Waldshut and visited the LiDL grocery store by the bahnhof and then went home. It was a long and tiring day, but we felt we had accomplished what the Lord wanted us to do on this day.

Near Gruyeres; Dorothea Jaermann, Elder Larson, Sister Larson; our delicious lunch.

JUNE 22, 2010 TUESDAY

We were up and bright eyed to begin this day. The sun came out and the sky was clear and we thought today it would be warmer as promised. As the day progressed, however, it remained cold and then the clouds came back and threatened to rain again, although it didn’t. After we got ready for the day we prepared a lesson for Dorothea Jaermann who had invited us for lunch at noon. We’ve been trying to contact Jasmin Hunziker and Priska Staehelin without success so we tried again today. We texted them both a message giving them some options of when we were available and that we’d like to meet with them. Priska texted back first and said we could come today at 4:00. Good news. Later on Jasmin texted back and said she was working today. We were hoping she would have picked one of the other days and times, but she didn’t. We also called Carla Sprenger and made an appointment with her for Friday at 10:30. Hannah Ryter didn’t answer her phone so we left a message on her answer machine that Diana and Sister Hoenle would like to visit her Saturday morning while I and the other missionaries will be doing the street contacting activity.

We called the mission home and talked to Elder Walters to order a new name tag for Sister Larson who lost hers while traveling in Geneva. While we were at it, we told him Elders Talley and Anderson were supposed to come pick up and order for us and bring it to us tomorrow when then attend our district meeting. We told him what we wanted and he said he would get it ready for the elders to pick up.

Time flies when you have a deadline and you’re trying to prepare something. We caught our bus to Falkeneck and changed to another bus. We were engrossed in conversation and didn’t notice our bus stop until we went past it. It was a good thing the next stop wasn’t too far away as sometimes they are, so we were able to walk back and make it to Dorothea’s place right on schedule. She invited us in and already had the salad on the table. She is such a dear sweet friend and a real strength to the branch. The salad was very tasty and then the main dish was baked chicken, buttered noodles and sauteed red and green peppers. It was all very delicious. Following the lunch we had a discussion on the Book of Ruth from the Old Testament. The discussion was lively and in depth. She was going to serve us dessert after our discussion, but we totally forgot about it. That was probably a good thing because she served us twice as much chicken and noodles as we needed.

We barely had enough time to get back home, drop off some things, pick other things up that we needed for our next appointment and then get to the bus stop. We made it to the bahnhof in time to catch the train to Stein Am Rhein where we had to change to another train that took us to Stammheim where Priska lives. The last time we visited her she poured her heart out about all her problems, but mostly about her delinquent daughter. Her daughter is now living with them at home again and things are pretty tense between the daughter, her live-in boyfriend and Priska. Her other children suffer as well because of the fighting and stress caused by it all. Priska had already heard most of the principles of the Plan of Salvation, but she was more interested in relating her problems than listening to what we had to say. Finally, we asked her what, if anything, we could help her with. She replied that she would like us to moderate a meeting between the three of them because when they try to do it themselves, it always ends in a fight. It seems like a no win situation for us, but we’re willing to try to help this family, if we can.

We had to catch the 5:43 train back to Schaffhausen so we could get there in time to do some shopping for tomorrow’s lunch-after-district-meeting before the stores closed. We asked Elder Bentley what he wanted us to fix for him at his last lunch before he goes home on Friday. He wanted us to fix his favorite, crosandwiches which are chicken salad sandwiches (with cashews, mandarin oranges and grapes) on croissants. So we bought most of the fixin’s for them, but we couldn’t find everything in the Migros in town. We took what we bought home and then I went to the Herblingen mall and bought the rest at COOP. Each store has it’s own bakery and they bake what they think they can sell in a day and then they stop. By late afternoon they start running out of bakery goods so if one waits too long, what you want may not be available. We needed croissants. The Migros in town was out. The COOP in Herblingen had two which I bought. The Migros in Herblingen had four so I bought those, too. The Migros bakery outside the main store had some so I bought all they had. The lady charged me for ten, but when I got home and we counted them, we found out there were only nine. We’re sure she made an honest mistake and just miscounted.

We got a call from Neide this morning asking if we were going to come to Sacrament meeting in Schwamendingen Sunday to listen to President and Sister Matern give their farewell talks. We hesitated to commit because there are so few members here in Schaffhausen. She said if we couldn’t come, she would call our Branch President and demand that he order us to come. She said if that didn’t work, she would call the stake president and have him tell us we needed to come. She went on to say that we were important to her and to many members in Schwamendingen and they would like to see us as well and that we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to bid the Materns farewell. It was heartwarming that she thought of us and was so insistent that we come. We think maybe we can attend most of the sacrament meeting here (1st meeting) and still make it to the sacrament meeting there (last meeting).

Other calls we received were from Elder Vincent who calls us quite regularly just to chat and see how we are doing. He always has a success story to tell us as well. The last call we received was from Elder Dahneke who wanted to see if he could get a haircut after our meeting tomorrow. Of course he can. He also wanted to get the recipe for snickerdoodles so he could make them as a departing gift for his companion, Elder Bentley.

While I wrote our journal entry for today, Diana made the filling for the crosandwiches for tomorrow. She also made jello salad and made some punch so it would be cold for tomorrow.

Our treasures from the broki huus; Diana & Mary Kaye in Yvoire, France; Diana, Hitsch Bolt, Robert, Kathi Bolt in Yvoire.

JUNE 21, 2010 MONDAY

Elder Bushnell called late last night and asked directions to the Broki Huus (second hand junk stores) here in Schaffhausen. He and Elder Sills wanted to come over and look through them on their P-day tomorrow which is today. After talking about it for awhile trying to describe how to get there, we told them we didn’t have anything planned and to just come on over and we’d take them. A lot of things are closed on Mondays so we decided we’d go early and look at the sign on the door to find out for sure if they were open and what time. I took my early morning walk and saw that both of the broken huus would be open at 9:00 so I called them and let them know.

They arrived about 9:30, but before we went there I gave them a much needed haircut. While I cut one, the other did his emails on our computer. That took about an hour and then we started out on our adventure. At district meetings we’ve told the missionaries about the “teasures” we’ve found in these places and how exciting it is to go on these explorations. One never knows what he’ll find, digging through all the “stuff” they have piled up in these stores. The first one we went into today was the best one and they were duly impressed. Their first words after they entered the building was, “Wow, what a lot of stuff.” We spent the next three hours looking here and there, moving stuff around digging under and through it hoping to find something we just couldn’t do without. We found another couple of tin goblets to match the last two we bought, plus a couple of other things. The elders looked and looked, but didn’t buy anything, probably because they didn’t have much money to spend. They mostly just wanted to browse through everything which is a lot of fun in and of itself.

When we left there, we went to the one that was right next door. It was still interesting, but it’s more orderly, didn’t have as much stuff and was not quite the treasure hunt the first one was. We finished there, but we got done too quickly. We still had twenty minutes before the Salvation Army broki huus opened at 2:00. We didn’t waste the time wondering what to do. We made a beeline to the Munot Castle. When the elders came last Monday to explore the Rhine Falls, they didn’t have enough time to go into the castle so they were anxious to see it. Neither one had their camera with them so we took the photos they wanted and when we got back home, we transferred them onto Elder Sill’s thumb drive. They were impressed with the size of the cavern and how the stone archways were built that held up the thick ceiling above them. We climbed up the wide circular stone-paved ramp that led to the open air top level where we had a fantastic view of the city of Schaffhausen. Elder Doyle informed us that the wide stone circular ramp was built that way to allow horses to be ridden up to the top so soldiers could get quickly into place for defense. Schaffhausen is truly a wonderful example of a mediaeval European town with many towers still standing where the rock wall at one time surrounded the town. Having used up more than the twenty minutes, it was time to move on.

The Salvation Army broki huus was the one we thought would interest them the least, but they surprised us. Whereas they hadn’t bought anything in the others, we kind of expected the same here. However, Elder Sills found a bin of donated old ties; he was in seventh heaven. He found 5 or 6 that were to his liking and bought them for 1.00sfr each. Among them were a couple of really skinny ties, one leather and the other one of wool. Are skinny ties back in fashion? On the other hand Elder Bushnell was stumped. He wanted to find a German action book similar to “The Bourne Supremacy” that he could take home with him. However, he scored a CD for 4sfr with great Swiss folk music on it. Diana bought a couple of round wooden jewelry boxes, a wind chime, a glass plaque with a cow imprint, a glass plaque with a train imprint, a small glass heart and three small glass things with a heart imprint in each. Along the way I bought a tin cup and some small pins and a rock figure for our fireplace wall. We were all satisfied with what we got.

Back at the car Diana offered to buy them something at McDonalds, but they said they had food at home and would wait for dinner until they got there. One the way to our home Diana again offered to at least let her fix them something before they left to go home. They said no until peanut butter was mentioned and then all of a sudden that changed their minds. Diana has become efficient at preparing quick meals and it took her no time to get some dinner on the table. While she was doing that, Elder Sills finished his emails and I set the table. It was all good and the elders were grateful they didn’t have to go home on empty stomachs. Elders Bushnell and Sills are as good as they come and even cleared the table and washed the dishes before they left. We do love our missionaries.

During dinner our friend, Sylvain, called to check in and tell us he was still doing okay. It is good that he calls us to gain the emotional and spiritual support he needs to stay strong.

After they left we wrote last Thursday’s journal entry and I copied and pasted segments of the Doyle’s journal into ours, just as I threatened to do. With tonight’s entry, we’ll be up to date.

In yesterday’s journal entry I forgot to write that we got a skype call from our cute grandkids, Mayleah, Drayson, and Rees and we even got to talk to Nathan although we only understood a few words of what he was saying. They all wished me a happy Father’s Day. What sweet grandkids we have. When the kids were done talking, we got to talk with Roxsan for quite awhile while she was holding Truxtn.

Our tender mercy for today is that we were privileged to spend most of the day with our other boys, Elders Bushnell and Sills which helps us to fulfill our mission calling, part of which is to support the young missionaries.

Two scenic photos near Gruyere; Chateau de Chillon built on a rock on the edge of Lake Geneva.


A Turkish toilet at Chillon; a painting in one of the places we visited; John Calvin's chair.

A medieval jail in Neuchatel; Sister Doyle, Elder Doyle and Elder Larson in Neuchatel.

JUNE 20, 2010 SUNDAY

It has been cloudy, rainy and extra cold the last few days, but more so here in Schaffhausen than in Geneva. We were up at 6:00 and I left for the Church a little late so I only got to walk two thirds the way and then caught a bus to the bahnhof. I got to the church about 8:40 and started immediately on our weekly report. Brother Hartig didn’t arrive until about 8:10.

The services started at the usual time of 9:15 and we waited in vain for Katia & Emely Dipaolo and Jasmin and her three children to arrive. We have been commanded to have faith, hope and charity, but it’s hard to maintain after being disappointed week after week. We’ve also been commanded to endure to the end so, until our mission is over and beyond, and that’s what we’ll do. But today, Martin Hedinger came although it was probably only to get his temple work documentation back and to see what else he had to do to get the rest of the work done for those who we printed cards out for. Any excuse, however, is a good excuse to come to Church. Between the sacrament meeting and Sunday School, I and Pres. Flammia told him everything he had to know.

The most important part of sacrament meeting is to partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants. The first speaker was Maggie Hoffmann, the stake relief society president. She talked on the need to come to Church meetings, becoming better, the Atonement and giving thanks to God. She used the parable of the ten lepers who were healed and only one returned to give thanks. Her husband, Brother Hoffmann (high councilor) who talked on freeing ourselves from the heavy chains of sin that Satan binds us with. He spoke on the Plan of Salvation and if we follow it (faith, repentance, baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, obedience, enduring), we can make progress. He gave the example that a musical instrument isn’t useful unless one does something with it (action, practice, play). The Plan of Salvation doesn’t do us any good either without work on our part.

Just as Sunday School was to begin Sandro DeMarzi came and got me to help him give Silvia Gardedieu a Priesthood blessing. She was having memory problems and had faith that a blessing would help her. When we were through, we went into class and saw that Paul Hunziker was giving his first lesson after his baptism and being called as the instructor. On the whole he did remarkably well, but had difficulty reading and finding his place because he forgot to bring his reading glasses. He also hadn’t been introduced to the Joseph Smith Translation of the bible and members kept making corrections for him. He is also hard of hearing even though he has a hearing aid, but he coped with that okay, too. Later on in the ward council, members were complimentary about his preparation and presentation.

We just about filled up our appointment book before we left for home; lunch on Tuesday with Dorothea, lunch today with Paul, home teaching on Wednesday evening, hosting the 60+ single adults on Thursday, helping Christine Kusz move on Saturday early morning and Saturday later morning the street contacting activity. During the contacting activity Sister Larson and Jecelyn Hoenle will try to visit Hannah Ryter, a less active member. We need to visit Carla Sprenger for her birthday on Friday, have our meeting with Emely DiPaolo and then go to Zurich to attend the reception for David Wichtermann and his bride Sveta. We still need to make appointments with Jasmin Hunziker and Charlotte Kunz. It looks like a busy week. All but two of these appointments require we prepare a gospel message (PMG lesson) so we hope we’re in tune for the Spirit to help us. W certainly can’t do it on our own.

We normally visit Paul at least twice a week and we’re glad he took the initiative to invite us today. Besides being hungry (he fed us a scrumptious salad and spaghetti) we wanted to talk to him about his teaching experience today. There are so many different translations of the bible that it’s hard to follow along unless we all have the same one. The one the Church usually uses in the “Einheit” translation. He was more than willing to use it, but didn’t have one. He said he’d have to wait until his retirement check came to buy one. He doesn’t have much money and showed his faith by immediately saying he’d buy one. We told him we had four or five copies in our apartment that missionaries had left when they went home, so we promised to bring him one the next time we came. He was grateful for that. The other thing we showed him was the Joseph Smith translation contained in the Triple Combination. He is new to the Church and hadn’t been taught about the JST. He was already aware of the translation errors and omissions in the bible and readily accepted the need for the JST.

Just as we finished eating and our discussion with Paul, Hannah Stamm arrived. She is the friend of Paul who attended his baptism and confirmation. She was very cold and critical when we first met her and absolutely refused to touch a Book of Mormon. But over time she has warmed to us and today we had a very pleasant discussion about the restoration, priesthood authority, the need for prophets and a church organization, additional scripture (Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price), revelation and etc. At the very end as we were leaving Sister Larson asked her if she would accept a Book of Mormon. She said no, she only needed the bible. Sister Larson persisted and taught her that the glory of God is intelligence and light and we need to learn as much as we can. She pointed out that Paul in his lesson today was corrected because of the bad translation in the bible where it says that God sent an evil spirit to Saul. God doesn’t send evil spirits and in the JST translation, it gives the correct translation. Sister Larson asked Hannah the second time if she would accept a BM to which she said she would. She hesitated, but said she realizes the need for additional revelation which surprised us. Up until now she had insisted her bible was all that was necessary. Unfortunately, or was it fortuitous, we didn’t have a BM with us at the moment. We had given the last one away and hadn’t restocked my backpack. We told her we’d bring her one to which she answered, she visits Paul quite often and we could meet her there. That will give us an opportunity to prepare a better lesson for her next time. We think we at least have made a friend.

The long steep stairs were not as bad coming down as they were going up. When we got home, we got a call from Elder Tally (ZL) asking us if it was okay for him and his companion to come to our district meeting on Wednesday. Elder Bentley (DL) asked us the same question several days ago and we thought it had all been settled that our district meeting would be switched from Tuesday to Wednesday. We told him we were planning on it and asked him to bring us some supplies while they were at it. We told him we needed a case of German BM’s, as many English BM’s as they could find, at least 5 Life Everlasting videos, 4 or 5 Finding Happiness videos and anything else they could find that would be helpful in doing missionary work. Our supplies have dwindled and we want to restock before the mission headquarters move to Munich. We also have the street contacting activity schedule for Saturday and need the videos for it. He promised to do what he could.

Elder Bentley called and got our statistical report and let us know that Elder Neuffer will be our new district leader. Otherwise our district will remain the same. Elder Talley is being transferred to Bad Saeckingen and Elder Haslam will be our new zone leader and companion to Elder Anderson.

The tender mercy was that so many things had to come together exactly as they did for us to accomplish everything that happened at Paul’s today. He asked us to come to lunch. We set the time at 2:00. We arrived, had lunch and completed our discussion with Paul before Hannah arrived. During our lunch Hannah was inspired to call and Paul invited her over. We had the opportunity to teach her. Sister Larson asked the question about accepting a BM to which she said no and then after additional teaching, said yes. We didn’t have a BM with us which will give a better opportunity to prepare a lesson to go along with giving it to her. Hannah offered to meet us again at Paul’s apartment.

Smurf houses; E. & S. Larson at the United Nations; Reformers Calvin, Ferel, Beze & Knox


Fountain in Neuchatel; the marche (market) in Ferney; E. Doyle getting a haircut.

JUNE 19, 2010 SATURDAY

Today began much like yesterday, overcast and looking a little like rain and rather cool. We all were ready by 8:00 to begin our day’s adventures. The first place we had on our list today was the United Nations Complex. We couldn’t go in, but we took pictures of the long street lined with all the flags of the member nations. It was an impressive sight. We also took photos of the gigantic wooden chair across the road from the entrance that had one of its legs blown off. It is to commemorate wounded soldiers who’ve had legs lost to land mines in wars. In the background was a fountain similar to the one in Bern, only covering more area. Water shoots up into the air through holes on the surface of the plaza with varying degrees of force. From there we wound through the streets and got as close as we could to the “Reformers Wall” which has statues of important reformers. A lot of them are there, some we’d never heard of, but some important ones are missing including Martin Luther and Zwingli. The main one on the wall is John Calvin. From there we went back to the apartment to make a pit stop and park the car so we could walk to the “Marche” which is the big street market not far from the Doyles apartment. On our way back to the apartment we visited the Smurf Village which is a neighborhood built with whimsically constructed and painted apartment buildings that remind people of the Smurf characters.

We’ve read many times in the Doyle’s blog about how exciting and wonderful it is to walk through the marche and see all of the different foods, produce and stuff that’s for sale. We got to experience it for ourselves. It was all we thought it would be and it was hard not to buy things, but we mostly resisted because we can’t take much home with us. The cinnamon candy coated roasted almonds got me finally and Diana bought a long fat cheese/ham bread stick. We got to taste goat cheese (delicious), fudge, and melons, but finally we left and went back to the apartment to have lunch. Diana and Sister Doyle, who also bought a bread stick, heated them up in the microwave for their lunch while Elder Doyle and I had spaghetti. Everyone enjoyed their lunch.

This time, when we left the apartment, we made double sure we had everything because we weren’t coming back. We drove the hour and half along Lake Geneva to Neuchatel and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the sites there. We found the medieval prison and Elder Doyle and I climbed the steep wooden stairs to the top where one had a magnificent view over the city. It cost 2.00sfr. to get through the gate, but when E. Doyle put his money in, it didn’t register the .50 piece. We didn’t have any more change, so he was able to climb over the gate and got in anyway. From the top we saw Sisters Doyle and Larson sitting in the court yard of the church we were going to visit next. We took their pictures and then went back down and joined them. The church was built by the reformer, Guillaume Farel.

We paid for two hours of parking and the time was running out, but we had just time to stop in McDonalds for a late afternoon snack. For me it was the usual disappointment, but the others seemed to enjoy their meal. By the time we were through, the two hours of parking time had expired so we hurried to the parking lot. As we approached we saw two police officers helping a couple of people in the parking lot and hoped they hadn’t ticketed our car. Fines are pretty stiff here in Switzerland. Our worries were for nought; no ticket on the window.

Our next worry was to find the train station in time to catch the 4:27 train to Zurich and we only had about twenty minutes to do it in. We drove back towards where we thought we’d seen the SBB sign (train station), but it didn’t look like the right one. A young man happened by on the sidewalk and Elder Doyle quickly drove up beside him and asked directions. Fortunately, he knew where it was and gave us fairly good directions. We drove the way he told us and we started seeing signs which we followed. We took a wrong turn and instead of going in to the train station, we ended up on a road that ran parallel to it. We saw a sign pointing to a tunnel leading under the road toward the station, so Elder Doyle stopped the car. We got our stuff, told our hosts goodbye and went through the tunnel hoping it would take us to the right spot. Everything worked out as it should have and we even had a couple of minutes to spare before the train arrived. We hopped on and the rest is history. Three and a half hours later we were in our own apartment safe and sound.

We were so rushed right at the end that we didn’t have the time to properly thank the Doyles for being such wonderful hosts. They were gracious enough to let us come, provided us with a place to stay, even taking two mattresses off their bed for us to use, and acted as our tour guides for the three days we were there. We had a wonderful time and saw many of the best places in that part of the country. We can’t thank them enough. We wish they would reciprocate and come up north and visit us before we are released.

To finish off the evening we sent text messages to Jasmin Hunziker and the DiPaolos inviting them to come to Church tomorrow. Madeleine called and talked to us for awhile, too. Now it’s time to put our missionary faces back on and get to work.

Day 3: Today, Saturday, we were up before 6 again and ready to leave the apartment by 8. Denny asked Robert to cut his hair around his ears. We have some shears from the mission home garage. The cut was really perfect. Denny was grateful! We made sure Larsons had everything with them so no matter what we did, we could get them to the train for home without having to waste time returning to our place. Our first stop was to the mission home to leave the gift purchase with Sister Murdock…we left it on the office side because of the early hour!

Next stop was at the United Nations complex for photos of the flags and standing beside the sign. Saturday at this early hour is a great time to be out and about. There was little traffic and many areas for parking. Next we wanted to see the Reformers’ Wall and giant chess boards. What a surprise to get close and come against blockages and security guards everywhere! Denny drove up close enough to ask a young guard why the blockades and was told that it is for the Music Festival, “La Fête de la Musique.” He said we’d need to go a long way around to find a place to park and to walk into the park.

Denny did a masterful job finding underground parking near the Vieille Ville. We walked up into and through the Old City, then down and into the Park. The chess pieces were all locked away in the storage bins on the site because of the expected crowds for the music festival in the late afternoon and evening. There were hundreds of tents set up throughout the area to house eating establishments and musical groups. The theaters were also going to feature a continual program of musical entertainment. We made our way over to the Reformers’ Wall and took our time reading the chiseled messages. It was pretty at that early hour. There was the beginning of excitement in the air as people began coming to their places to prepare for the day’s events.

I took a picture of a newspaper headline, stating that tourists are disappointed by the lack of flowers in the world-famous Flower Clock!!! Hallelujah!!! I’ve been complaining ever since the day we took Kevin and Nathaniel to see it and found it looking like a weed patch in celebration of the “Year of Bio-diversity.”

We took a different way back through the Vieille Ville to our car and then drove to the Smurf apartment complex to take a few pictures of the whimsical buildings. It was about 11:00, so we drove to our place and parked the car, made a pit stop and walked up into the Ferney open marché. It was crowded with locals and tourists alike. If we had unlimited packing capabilities, we’d probably buy something each time we visit, but we refrained once again. Robert did buy some candied almonds and Diana and I bought a mini-baguette of cheese & lardon bread. When we returned to the apartment, it was just 12:30. We had a lunch of sorts—spaghetti for the men, cheese bread and drink for the ladies.

Next stop was to Neuchâtel. It was a good hour and a half north of Geneva. We found parking for a maximum time of 2 hours, then walked into the Vieille Ville—pedestrian-only quarter. They were also celebrating a Festival of Music here, too. There were a few musicians and groups of musicians performing and hoping for a some financial donations from passersby. One ingenious activity set up was a tube slide for children—like a 50’ water slide, but without water. With each ticket purchased, the child received a carpet piece to carry up the hill to the top of the slide to slide down on. There was a continual line of children, waiting his/her turn.

We four trudged upward and onward until Robert located the ancient prison tower. The men had to pool their Swiss coins to pay for their 2-franc entrance fee. There was no one there to take their money—it was automated. They didn’t have enough for the two of us ladies, and we were not disappointed having to miss the additional stairs to climb. (The machine didn’t take one of our coins, so we didn’t have enough to get in! I climbed over the gate and we made our way up) We said we’d meet them by the old church and château. We were able to take a picture of them when they arrived at the top, and they took our picture from above. They could see across the city of Neuchâtel from that highest point of the city!

After a few photos, the four of us headed back through the festival crowds, stopping for a half hour at the local McDonald’s. We needed a drink and fries and added a burger just for fun. The place was hopping. We calculated our time and realized we needed to hurry to get to our car before the two hours were up. The men ran ahead and got there “just in time!” There was a guy checking each timed parked car, too.

Robert had the train times listed (4:27 and 5:24). We just needed to find the train station! We asked a young man who directed us back to where we had been parked and then up the hill! Oh, we weren’t thinking of going upward! We found the gare and let the Larsons out of the car to walk quickly to the building. We figured they had about 10 minutes and sincerely hoped they made that first train! Our farewells were given in haste, but we all knew that the others had had a fun time and that we’d see each other soon in Sandy, not to mention our continued daily blogs to keep us apprised of each other between now then! The Larsons’ release date is August 5.

Mary Kaye and Diana came down the path to meet Robert and me at the Chillon photo spot. On our way to Gruyeres, we stopped at the fence and the cows came running to meet us! Robert accidentally touched the electric wire and got quit a shock!

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