Draw bridges at Lenzburg castle; edelweis, the Swiss flower; Lenzburg castle on the hill.

AUGUST 1, 2010 SUNDAY

I almost decided not to go in to the church early this morning, but because I needed to unlock the door for Michael, I overcame my moment of weakness, showered, shaved, got ready, offered our morning prayer together with Diana and was out the door by 6:50. I carried the bag that had the suit, ties and sweater I was giving to Michael in it, but it didn’t slow me down much. I arrived at the church at 7:30 and started filling out our weekly report. Michael normally arrives at 8:00, but this morning he didn’t come. What? He didn’t come and didn’t call me? Oh well, it was better to get the report done and not have to worry about it later. By the time I was finished it was about time for fast and testimony meeting to begin, but when I went down to greet everyone, Paul Hunziker wasn’t among those present. I found out he was ill and couldn’t come, so that meant I had the Sunday school lesson by myself. Dorthea picked up Diana on her way which is always nice for Diana because she doesn’t have to ride the bus, and nice for me because I don’t have to run down to the bahnhof to escort Diana back up the hill.

There were many missing from the meeting today because of vacations, illness and such so our numbers were few. After the opening song, prayer and sacrament came the testimony part of the meeting. When Pres. Flammia conducts, he not only bears his testimony, but also gives a talk which takes ten to fifteen minutes or so. Members who bore testimony following him were Diana, me, Sylvain, Brother Pederson and Dorothea which took up the rest of the time. All too soon came time for Sunday school to begin. It seemed no sooner had we started than it was time to close. Where did the time go? And why didn’t we have time to cover everything that we should have?

Following the meeting Dorothea dropped us off at home. For lunch we heated up a frozen pizza Paul had given us a couple of weeks ago and then read the Doyles and Kroffs blogs that we were too tired to read last night and then came the emails. After that Diana took a nap while I got a spiritual thought ready for Dorothea tonight and the Flammias tomorrow night. We also printed off some of the photos of Mary Elia’s baptism for her and for the Neidharts, who were the ones that made first contact with her. We left for our 6:00 dinner appointment with Dorothea at 5:45 not remembering the buses don’t run on the same schedule on Sundays as other days. As a result we were seven minutes late.

Dorothea had a good looking green salad ready for us when we arrived and so we didn’t waste any time saying the blessing and getting started. Following the salad, she cooked a thick pork chop for each of us and served it along with seasoned rice and sauteed peppers. We thought we were done, but then she brought us in another plate of rice with a stuffed tomato on it. She explained that she had planned on just doing the pork chops, but forgot and made the stuffed tomatoes. She didn’t know what to do with the pork chops other than cook them for us, so we ended up with both. It was all very delicious, but it was way too much, especially for us who are trying to keep from gaining weight. The dessert after didn’t help me very much either. When she asked Diana if she wanted dessert, Diana said no thanks. Dorthea forgot and dished her up some anyway. The dessert was two scoops of ice cream with currants and raspberries. Since Diana has given up sugar, and we didn’t want to hurt Dorothea’s feelings, I ended up eating the four scoops of ice cream (mine and Diana’s) along with my berries. Just what I needed, not! It was all delicious and we appreciated her kindness, but I’ll have to fast tomorrow to make up for it.

Dorothea came with us Friday to visit Carla Sprenger and someway she got the idea during that visit that Diana and I would sing The Lord Is My Shepherd in Sacrament meeting next Sunday. So after dinner we practiced singing it over and over. Dorothea decided she would sing with us, making it a trio, rather than try to play the piano accompaniment. We’ll try and sing it a capella. This ought to be good! Finally, Dorothea got out her violin and played us a few songs on it. She hasn’t played it for a long time, but she still plays very well.

Before we left Elder Neuffer called to get our teaching statistics for the week. We told him we were just on our way home and we’d call him back when we got there. Dorothea insisted on driving us home rather than letting us wait for the bus. It was just about dark (9:15) and the fireworks had just started. Today is the Swiss national holiday celebrating the founding of the Swiss confederation. They celebrate it just as we celebrate July 4. When we got home, we called Elder Neuffer and gave him our numbers. We also sent an email to Pres. Condie to give him an update on our status (we’re still alive). We got a message off our answer machine from Silvia inviting us to dinner on Wednesday evening. We’ll call her tomorrow to confirm.

We have experienced the tender mercies of the Lord through the hands of the members here in the Schaffhausen Branch as well as the Schwamendingen Ward. We are truly fortunate to be serving a mission among them.