Cornelia's shop, Bro. Locher helping dismantle book shelf Greifensee in Mauer

MAY 4, 2009 MONDAY

We awoke to another rainy wet cool day which dampened our spirits for any kind of early morning walk. Instead we did our usual morning routine and then got to work studying German. This time we put a language disk in the laptop and followed along in a lesson book that went with it. Later we combined working on our assignment for family home evening with our German study. Using common sayings in English, we translated them into German. We used the internet program “Leo” to help us with some of the translations. Elders Harris and Nilsson called to ask if they could use our computer for their emails and then came on over. Suwang Stefaniak also called and Diana spoke with her. She told Diana she hadn’t gotten any renters yet for the apartment she was in and would have to continue paying rent for three months after she moves out unless she can find someone to rent it. She asked us to let Pres. Bolt know her situation to see if he knew of anyone who would like to rent it.

Bro. Locher showed up at 11:25 to pick me up to go help him with Cornelia Schaer’s shop. He said he’d pick me up at 11:45 so I wasn’t quite ready. I quickly put my shoes on and then we left. While I was helping Bro. Locher, Diana fixed lunch for the Elders. They continued to work on their emails until about 1:00 pm and then they left. Bro. Locher and I arrived at Cornelia’s shop a bit early, but she didn’t have any customers right then so we got to work. We took apart some nice cabinets, a bookshelf and a roll top desk. Again it would have been nice if we could have given it to someone who may have needed them, but they don’t seemed concerned about junking good furniture. We loaded all the pieces into Bro. Locher’s station wagon and took it to the huge incinerators where they burn all their garbage. In looking at Cornelia’s shop she just needs a few things to have it functional. Bro. Locher is going to fix her electrical next Monday so she can hook up her tanning bed and plug in other equipment. He’s also going to hang a light in place of the one that is hanging way down. Bro. Fuhrer is supposed to build a wall between the tanning bed and the rest of the shop so there is privacy there. Once that’s done she’ll be set except for customers. When we left Cornelia’s shop, Bro. Locher needed to take a table and two benches that were strapped to the roof of his car to his daughter’s place in Dielsdorf. After that he took me home.

We worked for another couple of hours on our game for tonight and while doing that, we thought this would also be good for a German tip for district meeting tomorrow. I have been assigned to give a German tip tomorrow which consists of teaching some aspect of the German language. It should be fun to write the English idiom on one side and the German on the other so they are all mixed up and have them match the right ones together. When the Elders were here today, we tried some of the old saying out on them to see if they had heard of them before. It’s surprising how many they have never heard of before. A couple of examples are, “a penny for your thoughts,” and “a stick in the mud.” Another is “two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar.” Anyway, it should be fun tomorrow.

One of the activities for FHE tonight was to put together a care package for Fabian who’s stationed in Kosovo. As it turned out, we and Neide were the only ones who had remembered to bring something. Diana spent some time today putting our care package together which contained gummi bears, a bag of licorice, a current newspaper, a BoM and some tracts, a package of snickers candy bars, some hard candy, a candle, Peanut M&M’s. Neide wrote him a letter and after the FHE Charlotte got a pepperoni stick for him and Juerg found a Church DVD to put in. Juerg insisted on mailing the package to him and we were glad to let him do it.

Charlotte gave the lesson on loving ones neighbor and it was very inspirational. She’s come a long way for a new member of only a couple of months. She was very relieved when it was over. The game we played was about as we expected. Some of the saying were totally foreign to Europeans, and most of theirs were foreign to us. Some the older folks understood, but were foreign to the younger missionaries as was already explained. But we did have fun and in the process learned something of each other’s culture and language.

Tomorrow is Kathi Bolt’s birthday so we brought her a present and we all sang happy birthday to her. She had made a rhubarb pie for dessert, but we used it as a birthday cake. Charlotte brought one of here fireworks candles which flared up like it was supposed to. It’s been a long long time since we’ve had rhubarb pie, but it was very delicious and the crust was like a big cookie.

We relayed Suwang’s message to Pres. Bolt. He advised us to tell Suwang she must give her termination notice to her landlord immediately so the three months has an official start. She has the obligation to advertise and rent the apartment but, if she writes the name, address and phone number of anyone who is interested in looking at it, and then gives this information to the landlord, her obligation ends and she isn’t required to pay the three month’s rent after she moves out, even if those particular people end up not renting the apartment.

While riding with Bro. Locher, I asked him what went on before the conference started yesterday. This is his explanation. In Switzerland The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Later-day Saints is not recognized as a church, mainly because the Church keeps it’s financial records confidential and won’t let the government have access to them. Because of this, the government designates our Church as an association and the “association” has to have a charter, bylaws and a designated leadership. So what happened yesterday was only to fulfill the letter of the law and really has no bearing on the Church at all. The government requires this be put to the membership once a year.

MAY 3, 2009 SUNDAY

Today was stake conference at 10:00 so we got ready and went a little early. The Stake President wanted everyone in their seats at 9:50 because there was some sort of official business needed to be done before the actual conference began. So we were there in our seats and the business was done, but we and the other missionaries we talked to didn’t understand what it was all about. Tomorrow I’ll be working with two Swiss members and I’ll have them explain to me what it was all about. Whatever it was only involved the Swiss members and excluded members from other countries. Members were instructed they could sustain the action, dissent or abstain, but they all had to do one of the three. There were no dissenting or abstaining votes that we could see. We talked to Elder Ehlen who attends the St. Gallen Stake and they did the same thing there, but he said there were a few dissenting and abstaining votes.

At 10:00 the meeting began with a song and a prayer and the sustaining of the Church leaders and officers like normal. The Young Single Adults formed the choir and they sang beautifully, a lot better than when they were practicing at Institute for the last month or so. There were several YSA’s that spoke on different subjects and then Pres. Bolt introduced a young boy who was the next speaker. He said this is the first time such a young boy (8 or 9) had been asked to speak to adults in stake conference that he could remember. The boy gave a good talk and didn’t seem to be scared at all. Pres. Bolt’s talk as well as some of the others focused on member missionary work. The new Swiss Temple President and his wife spoke. They are both Italian and needed translators. They gave a little background of themselves and the blessings of the temple. After the meeting was over we visited with members and missionaries for awhile and then started to walk home. We were walking past a couple and said hi to them and they returned the greeting in English so we stopped to talk to them for quite awhile. They were a couple from Las Vegas visiting a former missionary companion of the husband who is Swiss. During the fifteen minutes or so that we talked to them it seemed almost as if we had known them for a long time. They finally had to leave and we continued on home.

We cooked lunch and then we decided to go find an inactive member who has a birthday tomorrow. We wanted to do it today because we may not have time tomorrow with what we have planned. We took the tram to Stettbach and then a bus along Greifen Lake and then on to Pfaffhausen. It was a sunny afternoon and there were a lot of people out as well as boats on the lake. We got off at Pfaffhausen and walked to where Jean-Pierre Isenschmid lived. We discovered he had moved and talked to one of the neighbors and confirmed it. There wasn’t anything else to do but return home. Once we got home we called the number we had for him and a lady answered. She said they had indeed moved and gave me the new address. Just as she was about to hang up, Bro. Isenschmid arrived home and we were able to talk to him. When I introduced us as missionaries he immediately said he’d told others he was not a member and he didn’t care to talk to us any more. We explained we were only calling to wish him a happy birthday. He thanked us and then ended the conversation. After that we called Sis. Gianatti for an appointment, but she said she was busy this week and to try her next week. We also tried to call Sis. Bosshard, but got no answer. A couple of weeks ago when we met with the bishopric, we told the bishop we were keeping notes on our contacts with members so we could remember what we’d done with each one. He asked us for a copy. I worked the rest of the evening updating the member list so we can print him off a copy to give him next Sunday. Diana kept busy inventing another memory game for family home evening and reading. She wrote down a lot of common sayings on a piece of paper and the game would be to fill in the missing word. For example: a __________ for your thoughts. The only trouble is she lost the piece of paper so she’s had to think them all up again. The other problem is, we don’t know if the Swiss have the same sayings. It’ll be fun to find out.

Elders Nilson & Larson, Schwamendingen flea market
Lily & Heinz Locher, Naeide

MAY 2, 2009 SATURDAY

A few weeks ago Elder Evans and Jensen stopped in quick and asked if we would store a 3'x4' white board for a few days. The few days turned into a few weeks and so I asked them when they were going to get it out of our hallway. They said they didn’t want it and heard we were looking for one and asked if we wanted to keep it. So that is how we got our white board that we are now using for German study. It’s easier to teach when you can write things down on something bigger than a sheet of paper. We used it for the first time today and it was so much easier. At the end of our study time Elder Pine called and asked if we could print off a talk in Portuguese given by Elder Uchtdorf in the November issue of the Liahona. It took me awhile, but I finally got it figured out. Later on, because we weren’t going to be home, I took it down to the Church and left it where he could pick it up. As I got to the Church I saw Bro. Diethelm and Bro. Moeller directing cars where to park as members arrived for the leadership session of Stake Conference. I stopped to thank Juerg for setting it up with Bro. Locher to work on Cornelia’s shop tomorrow and that I was going to be able to go with him. Juerg said he was also going over tomorrow with him also and that he had found a nice lamp to take over too. He also said he’d been over there yesterday and had done some painting, and that Bro. Furhrer was going to build a wall or something as well as a sliding door. We’re really happy that the members have taken Cornelia in and are helping her get situated again.

We went on in to Schwamendingen to buy a few things at Migros to tide us over the weekend. As we got off the tram we saw that a flea market was in progress in the square. It’s not a real big flea market, but it’s always interesting to walk through. We saw a bunch of bags of coins in a basket and saw that each bag was from a different country. We asked the guy how much for the USA bag and he said one franc, which is about eighty five cents. We bought it and then asked how much for the bags from England, Italy, Austria and France. All told we paid seven francs for them. We know people here who go to each of these countries and we thought they might be useful for them. The bag from the USA had over $4.00 worth of coins in it, and the bag from England had about $20.00 worth in it. We don’t know how to calculate the other countries’ coins. We know the USA money is good and the coins from England are good also because England doesn’t belong to the European Union. At conference we asked Irene, who comes from Austria and works in a bank here, if the Austrian coins are any good. She said they weren’t because the Euro money has taken the place of all the currency/money from all of the countries belonging to the union. So the coins from Italy and France are probably no good either. But, even so, we made money on the deal. However, we no longer have the coins from England. As we were arriving for conference we saw Elder Pine driving the mission van out of the parking lot and he stopped and waited to talk to us. Diana gave him the bag of coins to look at and he was excited to see English coins since he’s from England. He was blocking the entrance to the parking lot and someone wanted to get in so he started to hand the bag of coins back to Diana, but the impatient driver wanting in honked again so I told Elder Pine to keep it. What I meant was for him to keep it so he could get out of the way faster expecting that we could get it back later. He, on the other hand, assumed I meant he could keep it permanently. Later when we saw him in the Church he couldn’t believe we bought the bag for two francs and was so happy we had given it to him that I didn’t have the heart to ask him for it back. He kept saying that each one pound coin was worth two Swiss francs and there were eight of them in the bag with many more of other denominations. So I guess it’s easy come and easy go.

We came back home from the store and thought we had about an hour before the conference started at 4:30. However, we received a call from Elder Jensen asking us if we could go to the Church to meet a member who had arrived from Italy a couple of days ago and wanted to speak with missionaries. So we got our things together and, just as we left our apartment to walk to the church, we had a good old thunder storm. This time we remembered our umbrella and it was kind of fun walking to Church in the rain with thunder breaking over our heads. The Zurich Stake covers areas clear into Germany and members come from that far away to conference. The parking lot is small and they pack the cars in so the last one in has to be the first one out; the first one in has to be the last one out. We met the member who was a man about 35 years old who was from Iran, but had lived in Italy for the last two or three years. The main thing he wanted was a job, any job that would last six months. He said in six months he would be filming a documentary on all the religions of the world. He claimed there were over 400,000 religions worldwide and over 78,000 just in Iran. We haven’t a clue about how you find a job here and so wasn’t much help to him. We introduced him to other members as they arrived, but they weren’t much help either. There have been many lay-offs and the unemployment among the Swiss is pretty high so it’s tough to find a job right now.

As the meeting began we worked our way to the Relief Society room where the English translation was piped to. There were only five or so of us there. The translations always leave something to be desired although you can get the jist of what is being said. Irene was one of the translators and she does a fairly good job. Our new friend left before the meeting was through saying he would be back tomorrow. Halfway through the meeting we saw Cornelia on our TV screen. She had come late and had stepped in front of the camera. We were happy to see her and to know she had come to the meeting. After conference was over, we tried to get to her before she left, but we didn’t make it. We saw that Irene had talked to her so at least someone was there to fellowship her. Following the social stuff after the meeting we walked home. For supper we fried hamburger patties, cooked grated carrots and cut up zucchini. I topped it off with frozen fruit and vanilla ice cream while Diana read a book Sister Matern insisted she borrow. And that ends our day.

Charlotte is always joking about having to give up wine and doesn't want to get rid of what she has. She saving it to serve company when they come to visit. Pres. Matern is joking around with her.

L: Heinz & Lily Locher, Robert & Diana; M: Elders Harris & Nilson, Charlotte, Lily & Heinz Locher, Neide Graf, Silvia & Pres. Dietmar Matern; R: Elders Ehlen, Pine and Roberts.



MAY 1, 2009 FRIDAY

Every two weeks we schedule an extra wash day to take care of the dark clothes, but we had already done them on Wednesday so we used this mornings to wash most of our throw rugs. They were getting pretty bad from all the traffic that comes through our hallway. Even though most of the missionaries and other visitors take their shoes off, a custom in Switzerland, the rugs still get dirty over time. When we were done with them, they looked good as new (almost). Last night we got in so late that we had to write the journal entry this morning. After that we did our German study by reading for an hour in the German BoM, looking up the meaning of words we didn’t know, or reading the same verse in English. Sometimes reading the English version doesn’t really help because direct word for word translation is not possible. After that we made some phone calls to see how people were doing. Sister Maurer was still having problems with her knee, but said a physical therapist was helping her and she had another operation scheduled on May 25. She said she wanted to get with Elder Pine and invite us all over for dinner sometime soon.

We went out to try and find Maria Cancela-Rey home, but she wasn’t so we left her another invitation, this time to stake conference Saturday and Sunday. While we were doing that Elder Ehlen called and asked us if we were home because he wanted us to look up train times and connections from Altstetten to Schwamendingen. He said he had an appointment at 5:00 in Schwamendingen and because today was a holiday, the normal train times were not valid. We told him we’d be home in time to look them up for him. We didn’t let on that his appointment was a surprise birthday party for him at Charlottes. We wanted to stop at the store on the way home to buy him a present of some sort and also mail a letter. We finally realized all of the stores were closed today because of the holiday (something similar to Labor Day where you take time off of work to celebrate that you have work). We went on home, looked up the train schedules for him and sent them via texting. We wrapped up two cans of rootbeer and a package of snicker bars and left for the party.

When we got there, everything was ready and decorated with some banners. Those who were invited besides ourselves included, Pres. & Sister Matern, Bro. & Sis. Locher, Naeide, Solange, Bro. & Sister Neidhart & Jona, Elders Pine, Jensen, Harris, Nilson and the guest of honor Elder Ehlen. Charlotte had a fun evening planned with games and activities. We visited for awhile and then the birthday boy showed up and we all yelled surprise and then sang happy birthday. We had dinner which consisted of different kinds of macaroni salad, carrot salad, and meat cheese, kind of like baloney only thicker. Naeide brought one of her famous cakes and there was vanilla pudding and chocolate mousse as well. Then the games began. One game was played by the married couples only, Bro. & Sis. Locher, Pres. & Sis. Matern and us. Our wives sat on a chair and husbands sat on our wives’ lap. The wives were given a baby bottle and the husbands had to suck the bottle dry. The first one to finish was the winner. With Diana cheering me on and patting my back we sucked the bottle dry long before the others had theirs half empty. The Elders were happy the missionaries got the win. For our effort we got a rubber funnel that would collapse flat. Following that she brought out these yellow smiley face neoprene things that when you turned them inside out and set them down, they would spring back and shoot into the air. We all had fun with those for awhile and then she handed out suckers with long sticks and told us to throw them stick first at balloons to break them. Pres. Matern was first to try and actually broke a balloon on his fifth or sixth try. I tried, but my sucker broke before a balloon did. Charlotte tried also, but couldn’t break one so she got a dinner fork and threw that at them. That did it and she broke them all. Suwang Stefaniak called during all of this confused about where she should be going to church Sunday. She said a bishopric member of her ward was coming to pick her up and would take her to Frauenfeld. Once I explained it was stake conference and her ward was in the St. Gallen Stake and would meet in Frauenfeld, she understood and everything was alright again.

During the dinner Diana prompted me to ask Bro. Locher if Juerg had talked to him about Cornelia’s shop that needed some work. He said he had and was going over Monday to work on it. I asked him if he needed any help; at first he said no, but at Pres. Matern’s suggestion, he said I could come along. He’s to pick me up at 11:45 on Monday morning. Diana wanted to come too, but there wouldn’t be anything for her to do but stand around, so she decided her time would be better spent at home reading and studying German. The missionaries left about 8:30 so they could be at home when they should be and the rest of the party broke up around 9:30. Tonight we had time to write this journal entry before we fell asleep.

APRIL 30, 2009 THURSDAY

Sister Matern asked Diana if she would bring dessert (brownies) and help her this afternoon with the meal she needed to prepare for the missionaries going home on Friday morning. Some of the missionaries had family who had come over to travel a bit and then go home with them so it made for a rather large group. On the same day Sister Matern had to prepare lunch for the new missionaries arriving as well as their seasoned companions who travel to the mission home to pick up them up and travel back to their assigned areas of labor. It is traditional for them to send the new missionaries off after a noon meal and also send those going home with a final meal. Even though Diana was only responsible for the dessert, as is her nature, she wanted to do more than she was asked to do. She made the brownies and icing yesterday so those would be ready for today. She planned to do the shopping this morning for vegetables and all she needed for a salad (green and fruit). At about 10:00 she decided to call Sister Matern and find out what time we should arrive to help her and let her know what we had prepared. Sister Matern told her she wanted her to be there as quickly as possible to help with the noon meal for the new missionaries. What a surprise and it threw us into a flurry of activity! What to do and how to get there in time? It takes 45 minutes by tram and dolder bahn. In all of the confusion Diana thought maybe she had misunderstood what she was responsible for and in reality may have been responsible for the whole meal. She quickly started gathering together ingredients to make the beans over rice main dish, but we still didn’t have stuff to make a salad. As she started to do all of this Brother Klaumunstner called and said he’d come pick us up in a car and would be there in a half hour. This eliminated the transportation problem and gave us time to quickly run into Migros to buy stuff for the green salad as well as the fruit salad. We got back to our apartment in time to organize things for carrying and then he arrived and we left. On the way there we mentioned we didn’t know exactly what we were responsible for so Bro. Klaumunstner graciously called Sis. Matern and asked her for us. What a relief! She said Diana only needed to be there to help her and that she had everything there she needed. She also said she had mistakenly told Diana she wanted her for the evening meal when she really was thinking the noon meal. She apologized again and again for the miscommunication.

The traffic was bad because of a big problem near the bahnhof which diverted both car and tram traffic. It took us a half hour to get to the mission home when it should have taken only ten minutes by car. However, Diana got right to work and helped Sister Matern put the meal together and everything turned out wonderfully. Diana put me to work icing the brownies, and then whipping up the cream mixture for the fruit salad for dinner, which is about all there was for me to do until afterwards and then doing the cleanup before the afternoon shift kicked in.

We knew some of the missionaries who came in from the field to pick up their “Goldens” (that’s what they call the new missionaries) and it was good to renew friendships and get an update on what they had been doing since we last saw them. Among those was Elder Middleton who was a companion to Elder Pine and served in the Schwamendingen Ward until six weeks ago when he was transferred to Germany. This will be his first assignment as the senior missionary although they don’t use that term in this mission. It’s great to see he has progressed to this point so fast in his mission. It’s fun to be on the sidelines and see all of the activity that takes place as the new missionaries prepare to go into the field. Pres. & Sister Matern have their pictures taken with each Golden, and then the new companionships have their photos taken as well. The new companionships spend a lot of time getting to know one another and assisting the Goldens in feeling comfortable in this new land.

Then came lunch and there was a buzz of activity as everyone served themselves. Sister Matern came and got us after all the missionaries had gotten their food and told us to come quick before they came back for seconds. After the meal was over Diana helped clean up washed the dishes while I dried them. Once everything was done we relaxed for a bit and then asked Sister Matern if she needed our help for the evening meal. She responded she had everything under control, and just wanted to know how to fix the fruit salad for the evening meal. We told her that all she had to do was cut up the bananas and dump the strawberries that were cut up into the chocolate mixture and it was finished. Our work was done so we returned home. Before we left though, we made a visit to Sister Klaumunstner and gave her 4400sfr. for rent and utilities. She was surprised to receive so much and wondered why we were giving so much money to her. We told her we wanted to pay ahead to the point where we would have our last year’s rent paid in advance so we wouldn’t have to worry about it any more. She was a little concerned about having that much money in her little cash box in her office, but in the end said it was alright to do it that way. Brother Doyle, serving in the financial capacity in the Geneva Swiss Mission, may give us some insight if this causes any problems for them.

We came home and rested for a bit and then went out to visit two members who have birthdays today. The first one was Rolf Aeberli who lives in Wallisellen. To get to his home we get off at the same stop as the Schoggi Huessli where we bought chocolate last Christmas. Fortunately it was closed, but it smelled of chocolate as we walked by. When we got there, we rang the bell and he answered. His wife was there as well. They accepted the gift and were surprised to get the visit, but they were on their way out to go pick up his brother from somewhere and didn’t have time to invite us in to visit. They apologized profusely and we tried to assure them it was no big deal, that we were just happy to wish him a happy birthday. We walked back to the bus stop and traveled back to Schwamendingen. We had a little trouble finding the Neidhart’s home. Streets and addresses are not laid out like they are at home and sometimes it’s an adventure finding the addresses. We had forgotten to bring Tom Tom along so we were on our own. After one false start we found it. It was Ewa Neidhart’s birthday, the mother of our friend Jona, the one going on a mission. Martin, Ewa and Jona are a wonderful family who have had missionary work as one of their family goals forever. They are particularly fond of the Book of Mormon and want to give this book to everyone they can. Tonight Jona had some sort of class with a group of young non-member friends, and since it’s his last meeting with them before he goes on his mission, he took all of them a Book of Mormon. We visited with them from about 8:00 and couldn’t get away until after 10:00. They loved the story Diana told about one of her great great Grandparents and their conversion. In England during a street meeting the missionaries were holding, her grandfather stopped to listen and liked what he heard. He bought a BM and took it home. His wife thought the book was from the devil and refused to let him bring it in the house. He kept the book in the barn and read it out there. One night it was raining/snowing and he must have forgotten his BM was in his coat pocket. He came in and hung his coat up. Grandma saw the water on the floor dripping from the coat and, as she was wiping it up, felt something hard in a pocket. Curious, she looked to see what it was and it was the dreaded Book of Mormon. She was so angry she decided to throw it into the fire and at least get some use out of it. But, as she tried to throw it in, something held her arm so she couldn’t move it. Try as she might, she wasn’t able to throw it in the fire. She then decided to read the book and ended up believing and being converted and both were baptized into the Church. Diana has another story from a great grandfather, but it was late and she didn’t have her grandfather’s written testimony with her so she promised to bring it with her the next time we come. We also gave the spiritual thought on faith and enduring to the end using the tea bag as an illustration. They thought that was a great way to remember those concepts. After that we had a prayer and left. Once we got home, that ended our day.