Jungfrau above Grindelwald; Diana & Madeleine; Robert, Diana, Silvia & Sylvain Gardedieu.

AUGUST 4, 2010 WEDNESDAY

After my walk this morning we spent some time going through things deciding what to take, what to throw away and what to leave behind. Where did all this stuff come from? We have been careful not to buy much, but it seems to have multiplied while we weren’t looking.

Diana called Suwang, our little Thai friend from Altstetten, to tell her goodbye and that we were leaving in a few days. She did everything she could to convince us to come visit her, but we just don’t have time. It would take most of a day to make the trip both ways and have a little time to visit. She was sad, but understood finally. She said she’s come visit us in America.

Madeleine needed some help to move a few things in her apartment and Diana promised her we’d come today to do it. We arrived in Schwamendingen about 1:30, did what we could, and then came back home for our appointment with the Gardedieus this evening. Madeleine is another friend who is hard to say goodbye to, but she is in the good hands of the Schwamendingen ward members.

We got home at 5:00 and were able to collect a few things to take to the Gardedieus, rest for about thirty minutes and then we were off again. We arrived in Schleitheim at 6:30 then walked the fifteen minutes up the hill to their home. Sylvain had a wonderfully delicious dinner prepared for us consisting of a traditional green salad with a viniagaret dressing, poached fish covered with a shrimp sauce along with a side of basmatti rice. We had a great time talking about our time together while we were enjoying the meal. They both asked us questions about our mission experiences, beginning with our application and then the MTC training. They both would like to serve a mission as a senior couple, when the time is right. The time went all too fast, but before it got too dark, Silvia insisted on taking a phot of us on their front lawn. Silvia gave Diana a red silk scarf with an Edelweis flower design on it. She said each flower represented a prayer that had been offered in their behalf. We finally had to say goodbye because we needed to catch our bus. We’ll see them at least one more time at Church next Sunday.

We got back home at 10:15 p.m. and before we could start our journal, first Roxsan skyped us, but she couldn’t hear a thing we were saying. Then Rebecca called and we talked to her for fifteen minutes and then Roxsan called us back. This time we could communicate. It started to hail there and Rees went out and brought in hailstones and some were as big as quarters. And that about brings us to the end of our day.