Our bus over the mountain pass; scenery; Nikolas and Charlotte on the train.

JULY 26, 2010 MONDAY

My eyes popped open at 5:20, but I waited for the alarm to go off at 5:30 before I got up. A half hour later I was showered, shaved, dressed and ready to make lunches. I woke Diana up and while she got ready, I made the lunches, packed in some fruit, a bottle of berry flavored buttermilk for me and a bottle of water for Diana. All set to go we had a prayer and were at the bus stop at 6:47. While waiting for the bus, a man approached us and asked in very bad and heavy accented German if we had a bible. We told him we did, but it was in German. He asked again if we had the three books in one so we asked him if he meant the Book of Mormon. He said he did, but we weren’t quite sure exactly what he wanted. We finally determined his mother language was Kurdish and/or Turkish. He was happy when we told him we’d bring him a copy of the Book of Mormon in one of those languages, if we had his address. He wrote his name and address down in our planner so we are now obligated to take him one. He got on the bus the same time we did and put his finger to his lips and asked us to be quiet. He then continued to talk in a pretty loud voice that he was a Christian instead of a Muslim, and said a lot of other things which we couldn’t really understand. So we’ll have an adventure when we take him his book.

We caught our 7:01 train to Zurich, met up with Charlotte and Nikolas Sigrist, Charlotte’s 6 year old godson, got on the train and traveled to Linthal. We got off there, got on another train and traveled to Ziegelbruecke where we got off and climbed aboard a bus that took us over the pass and down the other side to Altdorf. The ride was up a winding narrow road that switched back and forth as it climbed up one side, over the summit, and down the other. It was such a magnificent ride through green mountains with little communities and homes in places you wouldn’t believe without seeing them. Many waterfalls cascaded down the steep mountainsides, some seeming to come right out of the mountain wall. There must have been thousands of cows grazing in the hanging valleys and when the bus stopped for twenty minutes at the top, the mountains were alive with the clanging bells hung around their necks. There were many little cheese factories along the road selling their cheeses made right on the spot. During our twenty minute break we climbed a trail a picked a few heidelberren (blueberries) growing wild on the hillside. We bought a small chunk of cheese just for the heck of it to see how it tastes. Then we continued down the other side.

When we got to the outskirts of Altdorf, the home of William Tell, we got out at the William Tell Museum. The museum wasn’t very big, but it had the story of William Tell, many statues and paintings as well as a lot of books and medallions etc. They showed a ten minute video about his story, too. We ate our lunch sitting on a bench outside the museum and just finished when the bus came. Since we’d been to Altdorf before during the winter, we didn’t stop in the town, but continued on to Fluelen where we fed the ducks until our paddle-wheeled boat came. We climbed aboard and road it the length of Vierwaldstaettersee to Luzern. We have taken this trip a couple of times before, but we never tire of the beautiful scenery, the picturesque towns and the clouds which hang in the mountain valleys.

We arrived at Luzern, disembarked, walked to the train station and caught our train back to Zurich. As soon as we got off in Zurich it was a mad dash to get to our train for Schaffhausen, but we made it. We were home by 7:30 none the worse for wear.

Today’s trip was a treat because we had little Nikolas with us. We got to know him when we were working in the Schwamendingen Ward. His mother is less-active and his mother and father don't get along too well. He’s just a good fun little boy who needs a good father figure in his life. After the first little while he insisted on sitting by me and following me wherever I went. We really had a good time together the whole day.

Elder Neuffer called at 8:45 apologizing for the late call for our district meeting assignments for tomorrow. Great! It’s already bedtime, we have to be up early to prepare their lunch and now we have an assignment? Diana’s is a five minute talk on “diligence;” mine is a five minute talk on “hope.”

Just as I hung up with Elder Neuffer, we got a call from Charlotte. She gave us the bad news that Hitch Bolt, our Stake President, had another stroke and was in the hospital. She didn’t know exactly how bad a shape he’s in, but she said he has weakness in his left side, but can still talk okay. She feels Satan is working overtime to keep her from getting to the temple. First, Irene & Joerg Moeller-Russo insisted she wait until they returned from their vacation so they could go with her. She postponed it for them, but then she had the blow-up with Neide which delayed it again. This week she was to have had her final interview with Pres. Bolt on Wednesday, and now he’s in the hospital with a stroke. His wife told her to come to the hospital for her interview, but she’s not sure if it’ll happen. Pres. Bolt doesn’t want anyone to know about it in hopes it won’t get any worse, but Charlotte wanted us to know so we can pray for him and her. We promised her we wouldn’t tell anyone and we would honor Pres. Bolt’s wishes that he be the one to tell when he decides it’s time.

This morning we sent Neide an email asking her how she’s doing and how things were progressing with her plans to go to the temple. We expressed our support and desire to go with her when she goes for the first time. We were hoping to have an answer from her when we returned tonight, but we didn’t get one. We're not sure how Pres. Bolt's condition will impact Neide's going to the temple either.

And that was our day today.