E. Ehlen just before he goes home next Friday. Net the kids in ccharlotte's daycare made.

JUNE 5, 2009 FRIDAY

The mission president has set Fridays as the day to spend extra time planning for the next week’s missionary effort and so after our morning routine, we started to go over our past contacts, people we should visit, plan lessons for those who we are teaching and make sure we have everything scheduled we are assigned to do. During this time we also made some phone calls one of which was to a less active member we have never been able to find home. We were surprised and excited when he answered the phone. I spoke to him in German and after a minute or two, he asked if I could speak English. This was a clue that he probably came from one of the African countries. We were finally able to communicate and when he understood who we were and why we were calling him, he agreed for us to call him next Friday at 2:00 to let him know if we would still be coming then to visit him. Yippee, one more person contacted from our “not home no contact yet list.” Now, if he’ll just be there next week.

While we were in our planning mode and just beginning to think we should go to Konstanz to do some shopping in Germany where groceries are about half the price as here in Switzerland, Elder Jensen called to see if we had an Ace bandage Elder Pine could use because he sprained an ankle last night playing soccer at the Church with investigators and the Young Men. He also asked if he and Elder Pine could come over later in the afternoon and combine our planning time. Bishop Schwendener asked the missionaries last Sunday if they would systematically visit each family in the ward and help them become more involved in the member missionary effort. In order to do this and not visit the same families, the three sets of missionaries in this ward need to coordinate who we visit. Unfortunately for us this didn’t leave enough time for us to get to Konstanz and back so we canceled the trip and will save it for another day. Bishop Schwendener also asked all the ward members to include missionary work in their fasting for this Sunday’s fast and testimony meeting.

We like to make sure the missionaries stay healthy so whenever the opportunity presents itself, we prepare a meal for them. We managed to slip over to the COOP nearest us, about a 10 minute walk away, and bought some much needed groceries. When we got back, Diana got busy and prepared some spaghetti, corn, garlic bread and a nice green salad. The two elders ended up being somewhat late which cut the time short for planning because they had another appointment at 6:00. Rather than doing much planning with us, Elder Pine used our bedroom as an office and took care of a lot of business on the phone. The responsibilities of an Assistant to the President can be quite intense at times especially when “Goldens” (new missionaries) come and the old ones are released. This is also when transfers take place which takes a lot of coordination and arranging transportation for the trainers to come to the mission home to pick up their Goldens. We still got a chance to at least go over some names with Elder Jensen before and after dinner. They also invited us to attend the baptism in Luzern tomorrow evening at 5:00 to lend support to the missionary effort by our sister missionaries stationed there. They always come up here to support the baptisms that take place in the stake center.

Just before they left Charlotte called and asked if she could bring something over. Diana told her we’d be home so come. She arrived in time to visit with the elders before they had to leave. She brought us over some more of the surplus groceries from the day care. She said inspectors come and check the expiration dates on the food and if they have expired, they get into trouble. The major part of the daycare is on vacation and before they would need the food she brought over, it would have expired or the fresh fruit would have gone bad. She knows we feed the missionaries a lot so she was kind enough to think of us rather than throw the food out.

Elder Pine told us that Suki called them and asked if they could help her tomorrow to take apart furniture, move it to her house and set it up again. He said he is laid up (he’s on crutches because of his ankle) so he isn’t able to so asked us if we could help his companion because he couldn’t do it alone. We reluctantly told him we would, not that we didn’t want to help, rather because we haven’t fully recovered from the last episodes of doing this same kind of work and we’ve not been able to focus on any contacting type of missionary work. But in retrospect, all the moving and helping set up furniture etc. has been for either less-active or non-members, or both, and isn’t that the essence of the gospel, loving, helping and supporting one another?

This is E. Peter Ehlen with his Swiss doll Charlotte gave him as a go away present. His companion, E. Roberts is behind him.

Picture made by children using various things including wine bottle corks. Picture of feet hanging in Cornelia's shop where she does her work of people's feet.

JUNE 4, 2009 THURSDAY

We got a call from Elder Harris early this morning (7:00) to see when we would be able to be at Susan Serfoezoe’s home to finish installing lights and putting furniture together. We told him we had an appointment at 9:00 with Cornelia Schaer and we wouldn’t be to Susan’s until about 10:30. Elders Harris planned on being there at 10:00, a half hour before us, so he asked us if they could borrow our tools so they could get started. We arranged to take the tools to a bus stop near them which we would pass on the way to Cornelia’s. Just as we were getting close, he called again and said they were needed elsewhere and so they wouldn’t be helping at Susan’s, so we would have to do the work by ourselves. That also meant we had to lug the tools all the way to Cornelia’s and then back to Susan’s apartment which was not far from where we live. And so goes it.

We arrived at Cornelia’s shop and she was excited to show us all that had been done to make it look good and have a separate station for each of the services she provides customers, nails, feet and a tanning bed. Just a little more work has to be done for the nail station. After the quick tour we got down to business and taught her about the Plan of Salvation, where we came from, why we’re here on the earth and where we’re going. She had some good questions that we answered and she listened intently. At one point when we taught her about the resurrection, she asked us if we really believed that our bodies and spirits would be reunited again and, if they were, where would we go or would we float around in space or something. We bore testimony that we indeed would receive our bodies again only this time they would be perfect and immortal, that Christ had made it possible that everyone who ever lived on the earth would be resurrected. We continued on with the lesson a little bit, but then a customer came and we had to leave. When we talked about the spirit world and baptism for the dead, she remembered that she participated in being baptized for the dead when she was young and that she enjoyed the experience. She said she really didn’t understand a lot about it, or maybe she had just forgotten. It was good to be able to teach her again and, when she has time, we’ll continue. She said she would see us Sunday in Church as we left.

Next we went over to Susan’s to begin with the rest of getting her apartment put together. On the way over there Elder Harris called and said they would be able to help after all. We got there and began to work and shortly after, the two elders arrived. I worked on installing the ceiling lights while the elders worked on the cabinets. Diana spent quite a bit of time talking with Susan and found out she is becoming more open to hearing about the Church. She said at one time she was totally against learning anything about the Church, but her heart is softening and maybe as time goes on, she’ll want to know more. Susan is originally from the Philippines and didn’t know about the Church there. Her husband, Serge Serfoesoe, wasn’t active at the time of their marriage, but now he is. Anyway, there is hope she’ll accept the missionaries. The elders didn’t stay too long, but their help was sure appreciated.

After the elders left Diana, Susan and I continued putting the rest of the furniture together. Serge came and helped install Susan’s TV etc. We installed a metal shelf in the kitchen and Diana worked over the kitchen door handle and finally got it so it would stay shut. The last thing we did was to help hang pictures in the living room. Once that was done we spent some time just talking and getting to know one another a little better. Before we left Susan asked for a prayer and that is a good sign she’s willing to believe. After the prayer we talked a bit more and then left. By the time we got home again we were beat. We had a little time before we had to be at Charlotte’s so we both took a nap. Someone told me once to “beware of the afternoon nap” because once you start taking naps, you’re next to dead. Well, I guess we’re next to dead because we needed one.

Charlotte invited Elders Ehlen, Roberts, Harris, Nilsson and us to dinner tonight to say goodbye to Elder Ehlen who goes home a week from tomorrow. At first Charlotte found it hard to see missionaries transferred away. She said she’s gotten used to it, but she’ll miss him anyway. Charlotte just returned from a vacation in Geneva where she spent time with her brother and other relatives. This was her first time away from the “nest” since being baptized and she knew she would be put to the test by her relatives. She said the pressure to drink alcohol was intense and they said she’d lost her mind joining the Mormons. They made a concerted effort to put glasses of wine in front of her, told her she just needed a man and that she had gone crazy after her husband died some years ago. For the three days she was there the missionaries kept sending text messages of encouragement to her. She said that gave her courage and strengthened her resolve to stay true to her covenants. She returned as strong as ever and never tasted a drop in spite of them making fun of her. We spent a nice evening together and then Elders Ehlen and Roberts had to leave. Before Elders Harris and Nilsson left they gave a spiritual thought on a talk Pres. Uchtdorf gave about a three legged stool. The three legs represent faith, hope and charity, and all three are necessary to keep the stool (us) from falling down. Elders Harris & Nilsson left and Diana wanted to see the daycare center Charlotte worked at before she retired and where she occasionally still helps out. Charlotte mentioned several times they were preparing the children to put on a circus for their parents. The daycare center is in the same building where she lives. We took some photos of some of the decorations and krafts they’ve prepared and she showed us some of the costumes the children will wear.

One more inspirational note. Charlotte mentioned that on the Sunday she was away that she felt an emptiness, or that something was missing, and realized how important it is to go to Church and participate in the meetings. She was glad to get home and be among the saints again. These experiences are what makes a mission worthwhile, to see the changes that come into the lives of people as they accept and live the gospel.


Video clip of Cornelia's shop.

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The 4-leaf clover is built into the floor at the bottom station on the dolderbahn. Church outside of the dolderbahn station. Me standing where the dolderbahn comes to rest.

JUNE 3, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Today was wash day as usual. We had time to do two batches, one white and the other dark.
Yesterday we received notice in the mail that we needed to pick up a letter from the Swiss government, so this morning we took care of business (baths, breakfast, reading, and prayers) then left for the post office. We decided that while we were going to be in the neighborhood of Elizabeth Graff, we would stop in and see if we could find her at home because her partner said that she would be in t own this week. But to no avail. We have been to that house with the blue mail box so many times and it is always disappointing to find no one to home except for the one time we found her partner home last week. After finding no one home we caught the bus to go to the post office and lo and behold, who should we find on the bus but our very own missionaries, Elders Harris and Nilsson. They wanted to know what we were doing in the Deilsdorf Ward’s area? We didn’t know what area we were in, only that a member from our ward list lived there. They were a little confused about the dividing lines between the areas also. We came to our bus stop at the Oerlikon Bahnhof and all of us parted ways with friendly hand shakes and a hearty tschau.

We walked to the post office and presented our slip at the window only to find that we didn’t have the required identification. The post will not give us our mail unless we have proof of who we are such as a passport or visa with our photo and address. We pleaded with the lady but she was a stickler for the rules. “No” was her final answer. Robert remembered he may have put his visa in the bag he always carries so he quickly started to rummage through the black bag that seems to be connected to his arm and, after a few seconds or so, found his visa. Whew! That saved us about an hour’s time if we would have had to go back home to get it. So we were able to pick up the letter and leave for home. The letter wasn’t one that we really wanted; it just stated that we needed health insurance or else. We have been dealing with this problem since we got here last October. Switzerland requires that everyone within its boundaries have health insurance. We purchased a policy from Deseret Mutual, the Church health insurance company, but that doesn’t seem to be qualify. We’ll let Sister Sunke at the mission home try and solve the problem for us.

While we were home, Cornelia called us and wanted to set up a time that we could come and teach a lesson to her. We decided the earliest and best time was tomorrow morning at 9:00 which is before we have to meet with the couple we helped yesterday. At 10:00 we have an appointment with them to finish putting in the lights and assembling another closet wardrobe. They think that they may have purchased too many as they have no more room in the house to fit any more in. So we were happy that Cornelia took the initiative to call us to set up the appointment. We hoped we wouldn’t have to keep bugging her every time we talked with her.

At 1:45 it was time for us to be off to the Rodriquez family to help them. We spent a few hours there helping finish putting together the beds, tending the kids and screwing up the baseboards. In the process of helping carry up the parts for everything(from the “keller” or storage room at the bottom of the building) Robert managed to close his finger in the huge 400lb. door. It is mostly smashed so it only bled around the mashed edges of the finger, however he did get to have a Swiss bandage with a white cross on it applied to his finger, so all is well? After the work was finished we visited a bit and asked Julio if he wanted to find out more about the church. He didn’t seem too excited about it, but said we could come. His wife Gabriela finds it difficult to get the kids ready for church and watch them on her own so she hasn’t been too active. We did offer to help tend the kids while she is in church with us, but we will see what the outcome will be. They still have some furniture to put together, but can’t find the hardware to do it. We told them, when they are able to find the rest of the parts to the rest of the furniture, that we will be glad to help them again. We left on a happy note and we have a family we can visit and add to our home teaching list.

On the way home we decided to stop in and pick up a few groceries as it is so difficult to get all you need carried home on the tram. So this is one of the few times that Robert let me carry a couple of the bags, besides that he also was carrying his black bag and a bag full of tools with a saw, drill, screwdrivers, pliers, a two and a half foot level, and whatever else it is that he thought he might have needed. So with his smashed middle finger, we made our way back home. We had a humble dinner, and that is why this blog looks a lot different tonight. Love ya all. Us.

Fountain by the dolderbahn; dolderbahn we ride up the hill to the mission home in; me standing in a rose garden (in the rain) in Volketswil with the rainbow in the background.

JUNE 2, 2009 TUESDAY

This morning we again had the opportunity to meet with all of the missionaries in our district for district meeting. Diana had the snack assignment and divided up the rice crispie treats. Elder Norris selected “Priesthood” as the theme for this week’s meeting and most of the assignments were related to that topic. I was first on the agenda having been assigned to select the opening song and give the opening prayer. I had also been assigned to pick a section from the Missionary Handbook and read it. I had decided to read the section on priesthood blessings, in particular the anointing and sealing/blessing of the sick. As soon as I started Elder Norris told me to stop and pick another topic. I thought that odd, but found out after a few moments that he had assigned that very topic to Elder Carrier to discuss. I randomly selected another topic, read and discussed it. The rest of the meeting was informative and inspirational with Sister Stoddard telling us her story about why she decided to serve a mission, Elder Carrier talking about priesthood blessings, Elder Pine instructing us why it’s important to have prophets and then Elder Norris gave each companionship a problem for which they had to prepare a plan to address it. Our problem was a new bishop had been called for our ward who was not very enthusiastic about missionary work. Our assignment was to work out a plan to help him become excited about missionary work, to get better acquainted with the missionaries and how best to use them to support the ward missionary effort. It was a fun exercise, but we would never have to work out a plan like that because our bishop is top notch. He’s more than a100% behind the missionary work in our ward. Diana excused herself from the meeting about twenty minutes before it ended so she could go to the kitchen to prepare lunch for everyone. The rest of the snacks Diana had prepared was lunch. When the meeting was over, we all enjoyed Mexican beans over rice. Very tasty.

Elders Harris and Nilsson asked us if we would help them put some furniture together for a non-member who is getting divorced from a member. After lunch we went home and changed and then rode to her apartment. Elders Norris and Carrier came also and worked for about an hour and then they had to leave. Before they left Susan wanted her apartment blessed and asked me to do it. I gave a short talk on the opportunity we have to be able to invite the Lord into our homes by dedicating them as sacred edifices where family members can worship Him and find safety from the world. It’s always a good experience when one gets to use the Priesthood to bless someone’s life. While Diana and the others put furniture together, I installed a hall light. There are more lights to install, but they didn’t have any more screw anchors and they needed to buy two more ceiling fixtures. We worked from 1:30 until 5:30 when Diana and I had to go to help prepare food and set up for Institute. There is still a lot more work to do and all of us are scheduled to go back on Thursday to finish the job. It’s great to do a little physical labor, however, we’ve been getting more than our share lately. Tomorrow we are scheduled to help the Rodriguez family do the same things. The person we helped today and Julio Rodriguez are non-members and so we feel we are doing the right thing by helping them. Susan is Elders Harris’s & Nilsson’s investigator and Julio is ours. Gabriella Rodriguez is beginning to come back to Church and as soon as they get settled in, we’ll be able to begin teaching them where Elders Ehlen and Roberts left off.

We made it to Institute a little after 6:00 and helped the Wichtermann’s set things up and prepare the food. It’s always fun working with them and getting to visit with the youth when they get there. Some come a little early to just hang around and talk with us and each other. We didn’t get a chance to stay tonight because we hadn’t gotten out to Volketswil to wish Livia Bianda a happy birthday. After things were all ready, we ducked out and traveled to Volketswil. In Schwamendingen it was nice and sunny, but in Volketswil it was kind of raining. We got off the train and walked the 10 minutes to Livia’s apartment . We only felt a few drops here and there on the way there. We were assured she would be home, but she was not. We left the gift in her mailbox intending to call her tonight after we got home. On the way back to the train station it was raining pretty good and we got pretty wet. But we are wash and wear kind of people, so it didn’t bother us too much. We even stopped and took photos of the rainbow that appeared in the sky.

We made it home, tuckered out again. I started writing our journal and Diana started reading. As we were doing these things, we got a call from Elder Pine. He said he needed us to do something for him and he also had a surprise for us. He said he’d be here in two minutes which he was. The surprise was that Elder Middleton was with him. Yes that Middleton who was in our district for the first six months as a companion with Elder Pine. That surely was a surprise because he is stationed in Germany right now. He said he had to come re-register with the Zurch government because you have to do it once a year. It was certainly good to see him again. Elder Pine had two other missionaries with him, also stationed in Germany. Elder Hargett had lost his wallet on the way down here from Germany and needed to contact his mother to put a stop on the credit/debit cards. Since he is not allowed to talk to his family, Elder Pine used our phone to contact his mother and let her know what happened.

One more thing that was interesting today was Elder Harris asked us if he could use our computer to watch the funeral of Truman Madsen who died a couple days ago. Elder Madsen was a relative of his and he’d also heard that three apostles we going to speak and he wanted to hear them too. We tried to find the service on the internet, but couldn’t.

JUNE 1, 2009 MONDAY

Today was P-day and also a Swiss holiday called Pfingsten which you can read about in Acts 2, the day of Pentecost. All the stores close again except the restaurants and all the stores at the Zurich main train station. We had it in mind to go visit some of our hard-to-find-home less-actives today because just maybe we could catch them home during the day when they weren’t working. We never got the chance. Elder Harris called this morning and asked us if they could come use the computer for their emails. We told them we’d be home at 10:00 and they could come then. We needed some tools to help the Rodriguez family and Pres. Matern said they had a couple of boxes of tools they were just going to send to the brockenhaus that we could sort through and take what we wanted. We left this morning at 7:30 to go to the mission home to pick up the tools and got back at 10:00. We met Elders Jensen and Pine at the mission home and they asked if they could get haircuts this morning too. We’d already made arrangements to give haircuts to Elders Harris & Nilsson so that made four. Later on Elder Norris called and asked if he and Elder Carrier could use our computer for emails because all of the email cafes we closed for the holiday. When they got here, we saw they needed haircuts too, so that made six. On top of that Elder Jensen insisted I not cut his hair too short so I followed his instructions to the letter. When I got through with the last one, he looked sheepishly into the room and asked if it would be possible to get it cut just a little shorter. I should have known to cut it short the first time because he did this same thing a few times ago. Next time I’ll just cut it the way I want to so I won’t have to cut it twice. I’m not really complaining; we love all of these young men.

Fabian Streit is back in town for a week on leave from the military and yesterday Elder Jensen asked us if we’d host him for dinner before our normal 7:00 family home evening. The FHE was going to be at our apartment anyway because most of our group are away on vacation. So we invited Fabian, and the others who were in town from our FHE group including Elders Pine, Jensen, Harris, Nilsson, Solange and Suke. Since Elders Norris & Carrier were here and didn’t really have anything going for the evening, we invited them to stay also. Suke didn’t come so that made a grand total of 10 for dinner and FHE.

When the haircuts and emails we finished, the missionaries left to go to the Church and play indoor hockey, or soccer or whatever it is they play while we started getting dinner ready. We put a pork roast into the oven and made a salad. We had a birthday person to visit so we changed and went to visit Corrina Diethelm. Unfortunately she wasn’t home so we left the present and went back home. We finished getting the meal ready and everyone started arriving. The only one that was late was Fabian, but he brought some Berliners for dessert so we forgave him. Our meal consisted of pork roast, potatoes and gravy, broccoli and cauliflower with a hollandaise sauce, pickled turnips (not very many of these got eaten), salad, peach and cherry punch and brownies and Berliners for dessert. We had to make do with what we had in the fridge/freezer because the stores were closed, but it turned out great.

After the meal Fabian was just dying to show us photos of his military assignment in Kosovo along with some of the things he was responsible for. This took more than an hour, but it was kind of interesting. He also showed us a photo of his girlfriend he intends to ask to marry him. Next we had a spiritual thought/lesson given by Elders Jensen & Pine. The lesson was on the Jaredites after having been in the wilderness for four years after the Tower of Babel and why the Lord wanted them to go to the promised land. He wanted them to go there to make progress and grow and develop. They made the comparison that sometimes we get content with where we are in life (our wilderness), satisfied with what and how we are doing. However, the Lord wants us to go to the promised land to make progress, to grow and develop too. We need to not just be satisfied with sitting in the wilderness, but move out across the scary waters of life to get to that promised land, Eternal Life.

After that we played a game that we’d played before, but it was still fun. Suddenly, Elder Norris noticed it was after 9:00 which made it impossible for him and his companion to get home in Dielsdorf by the curfew. The AP’s had the car tonight so they offered to drive them home. We had a closing prayer and everyone left but us. We had to stay and clean up. Diana was assigned treats for tomorrow’s district meeting so she decided to make rice crispie treats tonight. She also offered to feed the missionaries lunch tomorrow after the meeting so she organized what she needed for Mexican beans over rice. While she did that, I got the garbage out and wrote this journal entry. Even though I write it, we read it together after it’s done and Diana gives her input. I revise it to include her comments and then post it.

Yesterday I wrote some emails to family and friends and we got some responses already. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings or make anyone feel guilty and that they have to write. It’s just that we love you all and feel a little disconnected if we don’t hear from you once in awhile. We understand that life is busy and we hate this computer as much as anyone, but we also love it because it bring you closer to us.