A Swiss chalet without flowers; somewhere around Urnaesch; Diana, Deborah, India, Jasmin, Robert, and David in front.

AUGUST 5, 2010 THURSDAY

Right now we would have been in a jet on our way home, if we hadn’t extended another week. But, if we had gone home, we would have missed some wonderful experiences meeting with people. We probably would have missed Markus and Dora Wachter, Claudia Clavadetscher, Jasmin Hunziker and her three kids, Emely and Katia DiPaolo (tomorrow) and the Klaumuenzners (tomorrow). As yet, after tomorrow, we don’t have any appointments scheduled, but that may change. We have to have some time to prepare our talks for Sunday, finish sorting, packing and getting rid of stuff, thoroughly clean our apartment from top to bottom, wash all the bedding and put it into shape for the two sisters to take over. We also have one more P-day to spend with Charlotte so that takes care of Monday. Tuesday we have district meeting and lunch which takes all morning and into the afternoon. We’ll probably visit Paul one more time Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday late afternoon and evening will be spent with Pres. and Sister Condie in Schwamendingen for our final interview; they also want to take us to dinner somewhere. We’ll probably get home late that evening, the day before we leave for home.

This morning we arrived at Jasmin’s home at 9:45 and were glad she and her three kids were home. This was the first time we’ve been able to meet with the whole family. After the greetings and how are yous, Diana offered the prayer and then we had a wonderful discussion. For the benefit of India (12) and Deborah (9) we gave a brief overview of the Plan of Salvation in simple terms and then jumped into a discussion about the commandments God has given us. Nothing was really new for Jasmin; she already new about the Word of Wisdom and tithing. Diana used the object lesson using M&M peanuts to illustrate the windows of heaven being opened up and God showering us with blessings, when we pay our tithing (Mal. 3:7-12). Diana poured 10 M&Ms into her hand, asked for 10%, then poured the rest into her hands which, of course, spilled over her hands onto to the floor. The kids really enjoyed that part of the lesson. We didn’t get to discuss all of the commandments in the lesson, but we briefly mentioned the ones we wouldn’t cover. Among those was chastity. Jasmin didn’t let us skip over that one, but asked us to briefly teach what chastity meant. As we taught it, she looked at India to reinforce and agree with what we were saying. India is only twelve, but it seems her mother wanted her to understand the meaning of chastity.

We included India and Deborah during the lesson, asking them questions and having them read some of the scriptures. When the Spirit was strong, we reminded Jasmin that last time she agreed to be baptized and asked her, if we could set a solid baptism date. She responded she hadn’t received a strong testimony yet, and thought maybe she would be ready in three months. When we told her we were going home next Thursday and this was probably the last time we would meet with her, she was anxious to know if someone would replace us to continue teaching them. We assured her that two sister missionaries would be coming to replace us and they would be glad to continue with her. We were glad to have that established and that she wanted the missionaries to come. We told her we would be speaking in sacrament meeting Sunday and she said she and her kids would be there. We asked India to say the closing prayer and taught her and Deborah how to pray. She was too bashful and asked her mother to give them an example of how it was done, so Jasmin offered it.

When we got back to Schaffhausen, we were a little early to go meet Franz Maier, so we went home briefly. An hour later we met Franz, where we usually meet him, in the Manor Restaurant. As soon as we said hello and got settled, he pulled out some photos of a female who he claimed was an international fugitive wanted for manslaughter. He said she lives in Schaffhausen and that he reported her to the police, but nothing has happened to her. She’s still running around loose. He continued his normal theme about how governments are crooked, the banks take all our money and etc etc etc. He surprised us by inviting his wife to meet us today and a half hour into our meeting with him, she arrived. She’s a very nice lady and thinks Franz is too critical of everything, that he takes it too seriously. He, on the other hand, thinks she’s naive and sticks her head in the sand. After she finished her lunch she had to go back to work, but not before Franz told her Sunday will be our last Sunday and would she come to Church with him. She agreed and so that’s another commitment for Sunday. We carried on the conversation with him for another half hour and then he surprised us. He asked us why we came on our mission and who pays for it. We had the opportunity to bear our testimonies, talk about the gathering of Isreal and our responsibility as members of the true Church to bring the gospel to all peoples. Finally it was time to go and we left with his promise ringing in our ears that “absolutely we’ll come to Church Sunday.”

We were going to go to Jestetten one last time to spend the rest of our Euros on groceries, but we missed the train. We decided to just go home and continue our task to getting things ready to go home. It has been raining all day anyway and wasn’t a good day to be out and about, especially with groceries. When we got home, I changed, gathered up all the plastic and glass bottles and cans, put them into my backpack to take to the recycle bins by Migros. There was also a bag of old shoes other missionaries had left in the basement as well as a bag of overcoats, belts and bedding. Missionaries have been asked to get rid of everything, when they are transferred, but it seems they don’t get around to it. We did it for them. With the backpack on my back, a big bag in each hand, I climbed the stairway to heaven and continued on up to Hochstrasse where there were some collection bins for clothes and shoes. It wasn’t a big problem to donate them. I walked the half hour to Migros and also got rid of the cans, bottles and containers. While I was there, I bought some more garbage bag stamps because we were almost out. We’ll need them to get rid of all the other crap that’s been left here (in the basement storage room) which we’ll do through the normal weekly garbage pick up.

We noticed yesterday a lot of inch and a half long green worms eating on the leaves of some plants by the front door of our house. We didn’t have an opportunity to tell our landlords about it until this afternoon. Jakob was working on the front door, when we got home, which is right next to the plants so we showed them to him. He in turn got his wife and showed her. They were amazed they hadn’t noticed them and said they had never had a problem with them before. The little bounders are fast eaters because they had just about stripped the plant bare from yesterday to today.

It’s only 8:45 right now and we’re just about done with the journal entry. It seems kind of odd, but by the time we add photos and post it, it’ll probably be 9:30. Hopefully, we’ll get to bed early because we have another meeting with Emely at 9:00 in the morning.