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.