Some more photos from our Monday trip.

JUNE 2, 2010 WEDNESDAY

At the last zone conference Pres. Matern gave instructions that all missionaries should do an inventory of their apartments to ensure all the furniture, kitchen appliances, dishes, pots and pans, silverware etc and etc. listed on the inventory sheet were still there. This is in preparation for the combining of the missions July 1. When missionaries go home, they should turn in everything they are supposed to and get rid of everything else and not leave it behind to build up in the apartments. Missionaries transferring should take everything with them. We know first hand that this is important because when we first came to Schaffhausen, our apartment was filled with junk left behind. Monday we mentioned some things to Charlotte that needed to be hauled off to the junk yard. She passed it on to Brother Klaumuenzner who called us this morning to see what we had. We weren’t prepared for such quick action so we asked him to call back tomorrow after we had a chance to go through everything.

We had a lunch appointment with Dorothea Jaermann at noon and prepared a lesson for her. She is such a delightful person to visit and talk to. She is always so upbeat and cheerful and she always gives us insights into the inner workings of the branch. Today she served us baked leeks wrapped in thin chicken sandwich slices and covered with cheese. It was really good and tasty. We know we have leek at home, but we’ve never tried it. For dessert we had fresh fruit and a cake with chesnut meat in it which was also good. Diana resisted the cake and just had the fruit. After the meal we had a discussion on bearing testimony using the statements from prophets as a basis for learning how to better bear testimony. We can thank Genielle Orgill, our home ward Relief Society President, for sending us the article that we used..

Back at home we pulled all of the stuff out of the crawl space behind the wall of our living room. It was a convenient place for missionaries to throw all their old stuff rather than getting rid of it. We found two carpets, three old coats, sacks of bedding, pillows, two backpacks, Christmas decorations, a soccer ball, small football, frisbee, cardboard boxes and etc. There was also bedding in the drawers under our bed that needed to be pulled out and sacked up. When missionaries arrive in the field, they are given all the bedding and pillows they need so there is no reason to have tons of it filling up space in this apartment. We bundled up the free newspapers we get in the mail that have been collecting under our desk for him to take with him when he comes to pick up the rest. We cut up the cardboard boxes and bundled them so they’d be easier to get in his van. We are now ready for him when he calls tomorrow.

It has been rather cold the last few days and today it rained off and on, too. When we left for our 7:00 meeting with Claudia Clavedetscher, it was threatening to rain. We were introduced to Claudia a couple of months ago by Silvia and at that time she said she had no interest in joining our Church. Previous missionaries had taught her all the discussions and more and she was just about ready to be baptized when she had a dream. In the dream she dreamt she and her daughter were going to join a church at the same time. Her daughter had no interest in religion right now and so Claudia decided to stay with the Protestant church. This evening she expressed the same desire about staying with her own church, but during our visit we discovered she still reads the Book of Mormon, even underlining her favorite verses. She said she especially likes Lehi’s dream and read the part about the iron rod leading to the Tree of Life and then she found the verse that interpreted the meaning of the tree. We then turned to one of our favorite parts, 2 Nephi 31 and read the whole chapter about Christ being baptized and that we should follow His example. Somehow the conversation got to children being baptized so we flipped to Moroni and read the verses about children not needing baptism. She acknowledged that she knew Joseph Smith could not have written the Book of Mormon and from that we deduced that she knows it is true. We left on friendly terms with an invitation to return and, for her, an invitation to come to Church with us.

Just a note of interest: For an hour appointment it took two and a half hours from the time we left home until we returned.

We tried to call Roger Ojingia but ended up leaving him a voice mail inviting him to Church next Sunday. We tried to call Irma Eggli, but she wasn’t home. We tried to call Katia DiPaolo to change our Friday appointment with her and Emely because we have to go to Schwamendingen for our interview with Pres. Matern, but she didn’t answer. We sent her a text message, but so far haven’t got a response. Elder Bentley called to get the names of our progressing investigators, Jasmine Hunsiker and Emely DiPaolo.

The tender mercy is that we felt that when we bore testimony to Claudia, we felt the Spirit and we hope she did, too.