Zurich museum; turtle on the wall Elders Ehlen, Larson, Evans

JANUARY 8, 2009 THURSDAY

Our goal today was to visit two less-active members and also visit Markus Boetschi to whom we gave a BM way back in October, the one who works in Zentrum Glatt. By the time we walked the the first member’s home, we were frozen. He also wasn’t home so we left him a note that said we’d be back tonight to visit him. We walked to the next one and just as we got there an elderly lady came out the main door, so I grabbed it and we went in. The lady got mad at us and told us we have to wait outside and ring the bell from there. She was right, but we were frozen and so when we didn’t go out; she left in a huff and went on her way. We rang his doorbell, but no response. We stayed long enough to warm a bit and then out we went and walked to the tram stop to continue on our way to Zentrum Glatt. We arrived there and went in to find Herr Boestchi, but he wasn’t at work today. Struck out all the way around. Since we were there at the mall, we decided to pick up some ink cartridges and paper for the printer and get a few other things. Then we went home.

At about 6:00 we went out again to see if the two members we’d tried to visit today were home tonight. They still weren’t home. We don’t know where these people spend all their time because no one ever seems to be home. Next time we’ll go a little later, but people over here don’t like to open their doors after it gets dark although we tried it tonight. We looked in the member’s mail box slot to see if he’d picked up the note we’d left earlier in the day. It was still there and I was barely able to reach it to get it out. I changed the word “tonight” to read “another time” so we wouldn’t have to come back again tonight.

We got a call from Elder Pine today giving us our assignment for District Meeting next Tuesday. Diana and I have 20 minutes for a workshop and team teach on the topic of “Teach to Find.” It can be a combination of instruction, role playing, object lessons or anything else we can dream up that is informative, motivating and spiritual. Quite an assignment, we think.

We tried to call sister Wachter tonight to set up an appointment to give her son, Misio, a blessing because he’s started having epilepsy attacks. Right now it’s under control with medication, but a blessing would help. She wasn’t home either and we’ll have to try and call her tomorrow.

We missed an opportunity to assist a woman who needed some help although we did help some, but we could have done more than we did. When we got on the tram to come home the last time, a woman alone asked us if she was on the right tram to get to Zurich Bahnhof. She had a note saying she had to get off at Bellevue and then walk to the Bahnhof. We assured her she was on the right tram to get there, but she still seemed uncertain. I checked her note again and told her she could get there on this tram. Our stop came and we got off. Later, as we were thinking of this, we realized we should have ridden with her to where she wanted to go. We could have also helped her transfer to another tram so she wouldn’t of had to walk from Bellevue to the bahnhof. We are here to serve and should have no other thing more important than that. We’re sure she would have loved to had us escort her there. We will be more careful and observant in the future and try not to let opportunities pass.

John the Baptist's head. Wood stove to heat castle. Armor

JANUARY 7, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Since today was P-day, we started it by doing our washing. This is at least a two hour project even for just one load. We have to go two building down to wash the clothes, one hour for each load, and then bring them back here and dry them. The dryer takes about an hour to dry a load. If we do a white load and then a dark load, it takes a long time. Sometimes we just hang the clothes around our apartment, like today, if we don’t have enough time to dry them in the dryer. This morning we also planned to go to the temple just to see if we could get there and back. Right now it is closed, and will be closed until January 20, but when it opens, we plan to start going on a regular basis. We want to get the route down before we actually have to be there at certain times.

However, we had made an appointment with our neighbor, Frau Enderle, to visit her this morning. We wanted to get better acquainted with her. At 10:00 we made our visit. She’s a 92 year old woman who lives alone. She has one daughter who lives near here and one grandchild. Her husband died 21 years ago. We had a good visit during which we invited her to come with us on Monday evening to our FHE. She said she doesn’t go out at night in the winter, but when it gets warmer, she may. We also invited her to dinner one day next week. We had a prayer with her before we left.

After the visit we went on our way to the Zurich bahnhof to see about going to Bern. While we were in the bahnhof, but before we could get on a train, the AP’s called us and asked if we wanted to go to a museum with them. Diana had told them one day as we drove past the museum with them, that she would really like to go there sometime. Well, that sometime became today. We canceled our plans for Bern and met them instead. We spent several hours going through the museum which had a lot of neat stuff in it. As soon as I snapped the first photo inside the building, a worker was right on me telling me I couldn’t take any photos, that it was against the rules. I’m sorry to say that I violated their rules a few more times; we paid our twenty francs and I thought we ought to get our money’s worth. Some of them I’ll post on the blog. Anyway, we’re glad we live in our time instead of back then. Even for the rich it seemed like it would have been a hard life.

After that we got on our tram #7 and went back to Schwamendingen, got on bus #62 and went to our little Thai store to buy some more interesting stuff: Pandankuchen, sweetened coconut, sweetened gourd, lychee flavored aloe vera, mango flavored aloe vera and some chicken bullion (we think). It’s fun buying stuff that we don’t know what is and trying it out. The best thing is it is not very expensive ($11.00 for all this). After that we went back to the little material/junk store Diana loves and bought some nice boxed gifts of two candles and napkins for 1 franc each as well as some nice plastic bowls and plates for 1 franc a package. We’ll use these for birthday gifts as we go along. Diana also had to stop and stock up on the toilet paper that was finally on sale again. By the time she’s finished we’ll have a two year supply. We hope we’ll never be transferred because it’ll be a real job to move us. We had about all we could carry and it was dark by then, so we came home.

Dinner was cordon bleu and something they call pomme frittes but it was really fried mashed potatoes and then left over peas. Neither was all that good but the peas saved the day. Diana thought it was all delicious. Yesterday I bought some flavored buttermilk, banana and strawberry. I couldn’t find any plain old buttermilk. Neither was exceptional and it certainly isn’t like the cultured buttermilk back home. It was ok, but I probably won’t buy it again. We finished out the night reading and studying and writing.

These are two photos of the front of one of the Zurich University Buildings. Maybe we'll have better photos after tomorrow although the weather is cold,wintry and foggy.


JANUARY 6, 2009 TUESDAY

Today was P-day, but we decided to wait until tomorrow. It’s been such a long time since we’ve been out looking for less-active members that we were anxious to get started again. So after we did our studying and I also had to get my request filled out for Medicare so I can wait until I get home to enroll. I got that done and then we had a goal of meeting three less-active members today.

We went to our underground tram stop to be on our way and we saw Sis. Bolt which distracted us from paying attention to which tram we got on. She got on and we did. We were talking as we went along and finally we realized we were on the wrong tram four stops past where we should have arrived at the stop we were looking for if we had been on the right tram. So we got off and went back to where we could catch the right bus. Frustrating. This time it was not from not knowing, but just plain inattention. Is that progress?

The first one was a sister the bishopric didn’t know and the first time we were by she wasn’t home. The first time we were there her name wasn’t on the doorbell, so we just assumed she still lived there. This time two young women were on the porch smoking and when we went up there, they asked who we were looking for. We told them and they said the person didn’t live there and hadn’t as long as they had lived there. Just to be sure, one of them went in and asked the apartment manager. While she was gone, we explained to the other girl who we were and what we were doing. She hadn’t heard of the Church before, but did recall hearing the word “Mormon.” The other girl came back out and we talked to them both for a few minutes and gave one of them a BM and a brochure. We were sorry we only had one BM with us today, because we usually carry two with us.

The next one was a less-active member who has mental problems as a result of an accident some years ago. We have tried to visit him a couple times before, but he’s never been home or won’t answer the door. We don’t know which. This time was no exception. We left another note and we’ll try again sometime.

We didn’t get to the last one because traveling takes so long especially when you go in two different directions. It was bitter cold also and waiting at bus stops in the cold for as long and 20-25 minutes is bone chilling. We got home in time to warm up a little before we were due at the English/German class. Charlotta was there as well as the missionaries who teach the class, Elders Ehlen and Evans. We found out that the two Elders have a teaching appointment with her tomorrow evening. We reported in our journal several weeks ago, before Christmas, that we had met Charlotta on the street when we were walking Naeide home. We invited her to come to the Christmas sacrament meeting and she declined because she just had too many bad experiences with her Catholic church as a young girl. She was absolutely opposed to organized religion. She has been coming to our FHE group and then she came to Naeide’s fireside last Sunday. Now she is meeting with the missionaries. When people get a chance to feel the spirit, the hearts of people can change. Of course we don’t know how things will turn out, but we love Charlotta and have become good friends with her. She and Diana have a lot of fun in the English/German class as well.

We stayed for the Institute class on world religions and this time we learned about Taoism. It was hard for us to make sense out of their doctrinal statements because they are stated in such a way as to seem mysterious and not understandable.

Today we got a letter from our ward at home and it was good to hear from them and to catch up on a little news. We miss home a lot and the people we love and care about. We would love to write everyone back individually, but the time is just not sufficient to do that. Just know that we love you all. We also sustain Brother Olsen in his new calling as a counselor in the Bishopric and Brother Moon as the new Stake Young Men’s President.

JANUARY 5, 2009 MONDAY

Today was zone conference and we had to be at the church at 8:30 so I could practice our song. The practicing didn’t help much because I messed up in plenty of places. My solo verse went ok and the second verse went fine also. Where I had problems was the third and fourth verses. Third verse I was just doing oh’s and ah’s, but I only had my notes and couldn’t see where they fit in the song, so when I couldn’t do it, I just lip-sync’d and then I couldn’t tell where I was supposed to be in the fourth verse because I missed getting the first note. I was supposed to come in after my partner started. As far as the audience knew, Elder Eschweiler had those verses as a solo. But right at the end, the singing and piano stopped and I came in acappella for the first phrase of the last sentence and then harmonized the very last with Elder Eschweiler. I did ok with the ending which, I hope, made up for the parts I didn’t get. Diana said it sounded ok, but I’m glad that’s over with.

Zone conferences are always great and inspirational. Here are some of the catch phrases that will give a general idea of the flavor of the conference. Teach to find, teach the principle of “teach to find” to members, positive thinking, never give up, thinking is the well-spring of action, bear testimony, support the stake in their two programs and when they visit members, ask them how they are doing. On the last item Pres. Bolt spoke and asked for the missionaries’ support. The two programs include one on personal worthiness and the second on member missionary work. The elements of the first is for families to pray and study to get close to the Lord, hold family home evening, visit the temple, and bring someone to church. The second ties in with the last element of the first, and that is to pray and ask the Lord to help you select three people/families to try and teach them the gospel themselves or with the help of missionaries. He asked the missionaries specifically to ask members if they can come and participate with them in their FHE and teach the “teach to find” method, and also to select 3 or 4 less-active families to work with.

Sister Matern gave some instruction on learning the German language. Pres. Matern spoke on obedience and focused his talk on missionaries following the mission rules. He taught there are three levels of reasons for obedience. First is like when you are a child, you obey because you don’t want to be punished. Second is obedience because you know you receive blessing when you obey. Third is the highest form of obedience and that is you obey because you love the Lord regardless of anticipated blessings or fear of punishment.

After conference we helped clean up and then hurried home. I needed to get some things done for my lesson in FHE tonight and Diana needed to get some prizes for her game. We hurried into town to buy the prizes (pencils, pens, cleanex’s, scotch tape, snickers bars) and came back in time for me to finish. FHE is always great because you’re with friends and sometimes investigators. Naeide was an investigator at our FHE, but now she’s a member. Charlotta is a non-member, but she came to Naeide’s fireside Sunday evening even though she said she wouldn’t. Rolf wasn’t there this time and neither was Suki. We are going to ask our neighbor and Sis. Wachter if they would like to come. Diana thought I should have told the story of “The Christmas Guest” instead of reading it, but I felt I don’t quit have the German down enough to get the whole meaning said. After, we played her game of dice, which was a hit. You split into groups, each group has six dice. The first round everyone shakes for 1's until somebody gets a total of 25 when they yell a word you select, this time “Baptism.” This ends the round. The next round you shake for two’s etc. The person in each group with the highest total of 1's, 2's etc. of each round gets to chose a prize from the 1's, 2's etc. pile and then rotate to a different group. When shaking the dice, you shake, when it’s your turn until you don’t shake the number you’re working on, then the turn goes to the next one in your group until he doesn’t roll the number and so on. After that we had dessert, talked for a little while and then came home.

Sorry no pics; it's too late and we're tired. The meaning of our blog title, Schweiz Aussicht, means " from "view from Switzerland." Stimmenvonderschweiz means "voices from Switzerland."

JANUARY 4, 2009 SUNDAY

Our Sunday always starts with the correlation meeting. We have been submitting our report on a separate form from the missionaries because what we do just doesn’t fit the categories. However, the bishop would like us to report on the same form, so we’ll try and figure it out. Also a member of the Elder’s Quorum asked us not to go meet Johannes, the person we gave a BM to in the rest home, because he felt he had a better contact with him and the Elder’s Quorum wanted to continue with him. We don’t care who gets to teach or who gets the credit as long as Johannes has the opportunity to hear the gospel. Today was Fast Sunday which meant we were privileged to hear testimonies of members. We have said this before, but it bears repeating. There are no silent pauses between testimonies; it’s one right after another. Many heartfelt testimonies were borne and even a 19 year old visiting from Argentina bore his in Spanish. The bishop stopped him and asked a Spanish-speaking sister to translate for him. He said it’s great to be able to go anywhere in the world and attend meetings and the Gospel is the same. We ditto that comment.

Diana bore her testimony in Relief Society. She also heard them ask for help to make sandwiches for some function or other, and when we met for Fast Meeting, she asked me to find out what it was so we could volunteer. I asked Sister Patane’ and she said they needed help for the blood drive Wednesday evening. So Wednesday night we know where we’ll be. We also invited George to come to dinner Friday and bring a non-member friend if he could get one to come. We also invited Elder Ehlen and Evans and Fabian. We also found out tomorrow evening for FHE I have the lesson and Diana has the game. We also gave Sister Roffler her birthday gift (cookies) because today was her birthday. The other one, Emeri, was still in the USA on vacation so we’ll have to get her when she gets back.

This evening at 6:00 was the fireside for investigators. We spent the afternoon baking cookies for it because there are always refreshments at almost every meeting (except for the block) after it is over. Three missionaries talked about success stories they have had and then Naeide gave a talk about her life and conversion. Her conversion story was very touching and spiritual. She had contact with the missionaries in Brazil when she was a teenager, but her mother wouldn’t let her talk to them. It took until she was 47 years old before she came back into contact with missionaries. In front of our ward building there are some barrier rocks and last fall she was having problems and she was wondering if life was worth living any more. She sat on one of the rocks, not knowing the building behind them was our church, and prayed long and hard for the Lord to help her. She thought the building was a wedding chapel or something and thought all the people going in and out were for weddings. She wondered how come so many people got married on Sunday. Not long after, she was waiting at her bus stop to go to her church when an older sister member of our ward got out of the bus when it arrived, and seemed to be having some problems. Naeide asked if she could help her and ended up escorting her to the church. On the way Sister Bader told her the Joseph Smith story and about the BM in such a way that it came alive for her. When they got to the church, Bishop Schwendener invited them in and Naeide ended up staying for the whole block of meetings. And that started her conversion. Before she left, the missionaries had met her and had made an appointment with her. And the rest is history. It just goes to show that the opportunities are there to share the gospel like Sister Bader; we just need to open our mouths.

After the fireside was over, I practiced the song I and Elder Eschweiler will sing while Elder Larsson accompanies us tomorrow at zone meeting. While I was doing that, Diana went home with Naeide. After I was done, I picked up Diana two hours later at 10:00 and we came home.