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.