Swiss and Kanton flags; feeding the ducks in Fluelin w/Nikolas & Diana; downtown Zurich.

JULY 29, 2010 THURSDAY

Have you ever noticed that when you raise your hand to suggest something in a meeting, that it’s you who gets the assignment to do it, if it’s approved? That is one way to stop people from suggesting things that would help or improve something. In our weekly report there is a section on it to list help needed for each person we put on it. Paul was baptized on May 8, 2010, and was called about a month and a half later as the instructor for the Gospel Doctrine class for the adult Sunday School class. His first attempt was not so good, but the members were supportive and encouraging. In our report we suggested someone train Paul on how to teach a class so he would feel more comfortable doing it and so that members could learn something. Last Sunday Pres. Flammia put his arm around my shoulders and lovingly asked me if I would assist Paul and team teach next Sunday’s lesson with him. Pres. Matern would have gone crazy, if he were still here and found out I agreed to help him. Pres. Matern insisted that it’s the ward’s job and not the missionaries job. But how could I have said no? So this morning we studied Lesson 29, especially the story about Naaman, because that is the part we were going to assign Paul to teach.

Just before our lunch appointment at noon with Paul it started to rain. When we had to leave for the appointment, it was raining so hard that rivers were running down the roads. How does that saying go? “Neither rain, hail, sleet or snow will keep us from our appointed rounds” or something like that. We both had umbrellas, but they didn’t do us much good in keeping dry. We were soaked by the time we walked up the stairs to Paul’s, especially our legs and shoes. But, the good thing is, we don’t melt and sooner or later, we dry out.

We needed to start getting rid of some of the food we’ve accumulated and won’t have time to consume, at least that’s the excuse we gave to Paul. We took him four liters of milk, two kilos of flour, one kilo of sugar, three packages of peppermint tea, a package of lasagne noodles and a bag of popcorn. He’s always grateful to get what we bring. Paul had lunch ready for us and really does a pretty good job of cooking good tasting meals. Today it was a green salad, roast chicken, rice and peas and carrots.

After the meal we got down to business and reviewed how we wanted to divide up the lesson. I would take the introduction and the first section comprising 2 Kings Chapter 2. Paul agreed to do the next section which is Chapter 5, the story about Naaman. If there is any time left, we’ll both try and do Chapter 6. To help him we explained how to get a class started and some of the things one can do to spark interest. We read the story about Naaman and then went through and picked out the things we can learn from it. We spent about an hour on it and hope that it will help Paul bring out the important parts. Of course, we’ll be there to support him on Sunday.

After we finished with the lesson Paul got a VHS tape out of Schwarzwald, Germany, and talked us in to staying to watch it. We aren’t going to be here much longer, and he hates to see us leave, so we stayed another hour watching the video just to make him happy. By the time we left it was sunny, but still pretty cold. The weather has been really weird, first breaking heat records and now it feels like October. Go figure.

Back at home we put a load of wash in and then I went for my walk. I thought by the time I got back it would be finished, but I was wrong. Not too much later though it was finished and I put it in the dryer and put another load in the washer. When that load is done, I’ll have another to do. This’ll keep me busy until we go to bed late tonight. Each time I go check on the wash it requires going up and down three flights of stairs. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone out tonight and just counted this for my walk.

Katia DiPaolo called this morning and changed her appointment tomorrow from 10:30 to 12:00. That required that we change Carla Sprenger’s appointment from 2:00 to 3:00 and then make sure Sister Jaermann could come with us then, too. Luckily, everything worked out okay so we can make both appointments.

Madeleine called to get the details about Charlotte going to the temple on Saturday and to just talk with Diana about this and that. What is she going to do when Diana isn’t around to talk to any more? She still has the ward in Schwamendingen, but she has a special connection with Diana.

Last, but not least, Elder Vincent called to check in and to check on us. He has been calling us every week or two since he got to know us right after he arrived in Switzerland sometime in the spring of 2009. He said he’d be in the 9:00 session on Saturday with us and Charlotte, if Charlotte gets her recommend tomorrow.

Diana is in the kitchen right now trying out the recipe to make meringue with Splenda instead of sugar. We’ll see if she’s successful.