Zurich City Bldg. where we deregistered; Elder Daschen; elder Bond.

Stairway to Heaven; just a photo didn't do it justice.


JULY 28, 2010 WEDNESDAY

We were on the 8:14 train headed to Schwamendingen loaded down with some large serving bowls (in my backpack) for Madeleine, two large plastic sacks with bedding for Nicholas and another bag with my hair cutting stuff in it. While we were on the train, Charlotte called us to give us an update on Hitsch Bolt. The doctors decided that he didn’t have a stroke, but that he just fainted from overwork and stress. He and Kathy were supposed to be on a vacation for him to rest, but instead, he worked around his vacation home in Klosters moving rocks and doing other things that he shouldn’t have. He is still recovering from his severe stroke from three years ago and knows better than to overdo it. It is easier said than done, however. He’ll be home from the hospital tomorrow and there shouldn’t be a problem with both Charlotte and Neide having their temple recommend interview with him.

When we got to the Church at 9:20 to drop off the stuff we were carrying, no one had arrived yet. We expected that Pres. Condie would already be underway with his missionary interviews, but he wasn’t. It was a good thing we had written down the electronic code to the side door, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to get in. We dropped off the stuff we had and then left to go inform the immigration office that we’d be leaving August 12. We went to the office in Schwamendingen and the clerk told us we were at the wrong place and directed us to go into Zurich to the city offices where they handle people leaving the country. We went back out, climbed in Tram #9 and took a nostalgic trip into Zurich. Thirty minutes later we arrived at Paradeplatz, got out and walked to the City building which was right next to the Jungfrau Kirche. It only took a few minutes to take care of the legal change of address and we were on our way back to the Church.

When we climbed on the tram at Zentral, Sister Robinson & her companion got on and rode with us. By the time we got back the place was humming with activity. Pres. Condie was interviewing, missionaries were waiting their turn in the foyer, Sister Condie was busy talking to two sister missionaries and Charlotte was there waiting for us to give her the two sacks for Nikolas. It was fun seeing missionaries we have gotten to know and love. At first no one seemed to need or want a haircut, but as they left and others came, I was put to work. All in all I gave haircuts to four or five missionaries, most before our interview with Pres. & Sister Condie and Elder Bond after.

Pres. Matern always interviewed us together by himself; Sister Matern never sat in except twice when he came to interview us at our apartment. We had a good chat together which lasted about thirty minutes. He asked our opinion about who we felt would best serve in Schaffhausen, a senior couple, elders or sisters. We expressed our opinion that a senior couple would be best because the branch needs mature missionaries to support the members. He said the Gardners would eventually be coming to Schaffhausen, but it may be a couple of months before they could. We suggested that sister missionaries would be better than elders because our investigators were mostly women and they would related better to them. At the end of our meeting he invited us out to dinner with them on the evening of August 11; they’ll be in Schwamendingen for a zone conference and we would have to travel in to meet them. It will be a little inconvenient for us, but how could we say no? He offered to let us stay in the Zurich mission home on our last night so we wouldn’t have to go back to Schaffhausen, if we wanted to.
Neide also came over to the church while we were there and it was good to talk to her again. We found out that Charlotte and Neide happened to meet yesterday at a bus stop and ended up talking with each other for an hour or so. It seemed to have been a therapeutic meeting without anyone else around. They were able to work out some issues without either becoming hostile or offensive. In talking with both of them today they said it was a good meeting. Both anticipate being able to go to the temple with us, but on different days.

We came back to Schaffhausen and went immediately to our little church and got the vacuum and cleaning materials out ready to get to work. Michael arrived and fired up the vacuum. That seems to be the job he likes to do. Diana and I cleaned toilets, sinks, kitchen and etc. Soon we were done and we all went on home. Before we did I had Michael try on my suit coat to see if it would fit him. It did and he liked it. I told him he could have it, but not until the last Sunday we are here. The suit coat he wears is way too big for him and the sleeves hang about six inches below the ends of his fingers. He’ll be happy to have a coat that fits him.

We went on home and had time to prepare a little supper, tomato soup for Diana and left over lasagne for me. We didn’t have much time to rest because we had a home teaching appointment with Kofi at 6:00. We climbed the stairway to heaven to pick up Paul on our way to Kofi’s. Paul was already waiting for us on the sidewalk so we just walked on down the street. Kofi doesn’t have his name on the outside doorbells so we just rang the four that didn’t have any names on them hoping Kofi would answer. A guy stuck his head out of a window and got mad at us for disturbing him. Next thing we knew Paul rang them all again. That made that man all the madder. I forgot my planner with Kofi’s phone number in it, but I finally found it in the memory of our cell phone and called him. He wasn’t home and wouldn’t be until later. It was disappointing for us and especially for Paul because he struggles to walk anywhere. He uses crutches because of equilibrium problems and has pains in his legs. We walked him back home and then went home ourselves.

Later on Roxsan skyped us. We talked with her about some rental problems and about our confirmed date to come home on August 12. Our flights are booked. We got to talk to Rees for awhile and then Roxsan came back on. But then something happened with our connection and we couldn’t get her back. And that kind of sums up our day. No turning back now. Our visas are only good until August 12 and our flights are booked.