Kids having fun while waiting for the BBQ; Before we ate; some of what we ate. Who says we don't have fun on our mission?

JULY 18, 2010 SUNDAY

We always begin our Sundays early. I get up between 5:30 and 6:00 and get ready. Diana is awake by the time I need to go so we can have our morning prayer together before I leave. I normally walk to Church, but today I had to take the frog-eye salad and a couple loaves of bread so I planned on taking the bus. That gave me enough time to whip the cream and add it and the fruit to the salad. I caught the bus and arrived at the church at my normal time which gave me enough time to write our report on the computer before people started to arrive for services. The members were excited that the Peterson family were here from the USA for a visit. They lived for a few years in this ward and then moved back to America, but they’ve stayed in contact with quit a few of the members. The after meeting potluck was to welcome them back.

After the Sacrament was blessed and passed, the Petersons gave short talks and then, surprise! Diana and I were asked to bear our testimonies. We’ve learned to be prepared and Diana bore a wonderful testimony, in German, of course. I talked probably longer than Pres. Flammia expected me to, but he should know better than to leave it open-ended. Bro. Hoffmann, the High Council rep, was the concluding speaker. Diana was asked to say the closing prayer again. They must like to hear Diana pray because she gets the opportunity almost every week in one meeting or the other.

We were hoping Kofi Safo-Adu would come today and bring his two sons with him. We were getting ready to be disappointed again, but then he and his sons came in about ten minutes late. After the meeting Pres. Flammia, Kofi, Tito and I went into a classroom and gave Tito a blessing. Tito will check in at the hospital today and will be operated on tomorrow. The operation is to correct something in his mouth and throat that will help him breath better and, hopefully, help him to talk. He’s six years old and can’t say much that one can understand. This time I annointed and Pres. Flammia sealed and gave the blessing. Now we will trust in the Lord to bless him according to His purposes.

When the services were over, everyone got busy. The women made the many different kinds of salads and other dishes while the men carried the tables, benches, chairs and the grill out of the basement and set them up. Brother Hoenle and I got the briquets started and when the coals were ready, on went the different things people brought to grill. We had wurst and cervelats, others had the same as well as fish, shrimp, meat kabobs and a couple had steaks. Most of the food that was prepared had a vinegar dressing which is normal Swiss food. It’s very healthy. They aren’t too much into sweet stuff, but they loved the frog-eye once they tasted it. Swiss don’t usually like to try new things, but we talked them in to it. They also loved the coconut chew and Yvonny’s sister insisted on getting the recipe. The only thing is they don’t sell corn syrup over here and they also don’t have another ingredient here either. We had to search high and low over here for over six months before we found the syrup in a little out of the way Greek store. We haven’t seen it since. Anyway, we had a good time visiting and eating although both of us tried to go easy on everything. Everyone has noticed that Diana has lost some weight, but nobody has noticed I’ve lost about fifteen pounds, too. I probably put it all back on today.

We waited with bated breath all day for either Bishop Schwendener or Pres. Bolt to call to see what their decision was about wanting us to extend our mission. The call from Pres. Bolt finally came this afternoon about 5:00. Bishop Schwendener had given him an update and we talked about the situation for awhile after which he asked us to extend our mission for two or three weeks. He felt he needed the time so that both Charlotte and Neide wouldn’t be going through the temple on the same day and he wanted us here for both of them. After talking about it we agreed that one week would be enough time for him to do what he needed to do rather than two or three weeks. Our visas won’t allow us to stay any longer and truth to be told, we are ready to go home. We’ve been mentally preparing and have been doing all we can to prepare investigators and members for our departure, and we’ve made some arrangements at home for dentist and doctor appointments that will now need to be changed. It’s a little difficult to accept the extension, but we are committed to do the Lord’s will so we’ll be happy anyway. Our daughters and grandkids will probably be a little disappointed though. So now we look to August 12, we hope, as the day we’ll be going home.

I was asked to give the Sunday School lesson on August 1 so this afternoon I spent time reading Chapter 29 in the Old Testament lesson manual. Diana busied herself with her own reading program until we were interrupted by Pres. Bolt’s telephone call. Diana called Sister Sunke, the person who made all the flight arrangements for our old mission to see if she could find out if there were any flights available for August 12. While she was talking to Sister Sunke, Madeleine called and I had the challenge of trying to understand what she was saying. I managed to understand a word or two and got by for about ten minutes by just saying yes or uh huh. It finally caught up to me when she asked a question and wanted me to respond. I had no idea what to say. I was desperate for help when I saw Diana end her call with Sister Sunke. I hurried and said Diana wanted to talk to her and gave the phone to her. For some reason I don’t understand Madeleine. Diana can carry on a conversation with Madeleine and does just fine understanding the mishmash of English, German and French. I don’t know how she does it. Somewhat later, when I thought it was safe to call Pres. Condi, I called and informed him of the day we were going to fly home. He said we’d be notified of our flight sometime tomorrow evening. Elder Neuffer called a little later and we reported our statistics for the week. Charlotte called to make arrangements to meet us in Gossau for our P-day trip tomorrow to the Saentis.

We thought we would leave things a little open this week so that we would be able to catch up our teaching records and begin sorting through things to decide what to take and leave behind, but the coming week filled right up. We’re as busy as we’ve ever been. Maybe we’ll let everyone here think we went home on August 5 and just lay low for a week except for what Pres. Bolt wants us to do. Do you think we could get away with it?