Diana butting heads with the battering ram; Robert, you see only half of the bells; bear statue at the gate to the Einstein Museum

Film clip of the Zeitglockenturm in Bern.


AUGUST 5, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Wash day once more. When will the scientists invent clothes that don’t need to be washed, dried and ironed? It takes until noon to get it all done, but in between running to the washer and taking them in and out of the dryer, we do our studying and lesson preparation. I worked on my lesson for the High Priest Group while Diana read in the German Preach My Gospel handbook. Since the AP’s attend four zone conferences this week, one on Monday P-day, they used today as their P-day and wanted haircuts. Diana had lunch prepared and on the table when Elders Pine & Richeson came over at 12:30. After lunch I cut both of their hair; when one was getting a haircut, the other was on the computer.

When they left at about 3:00, we got ready and just as we were looking up addresses on Google Maps for where we wanted to go, Roxsan skyped us to talk about a house she’d found to buy. Soon after she hung up, Rebecca called about the same subject. President Matern called too and made an appointment for Saturday at 10:00 to get his hair cut. By the time we finished talking with them it was cool enough outside to go see if we could find someone to talk to. The first one we went to was Sarah Otte’s mother. Sarah is the one we went to a week or two ago to take her a birthday present. We found out she lived in Luzern, but didn’t get an address or phone number because she said she already knew the sisters who work in Luzern. We rang the doorbell and Mrs. Otte stuck her head out of the 2nd story window. She recognized us and was glad to give us Sarah’s phone number, but she didn’t have her address. After we had the phone number we asked her if she had ever talked to the missionaries. She replied she had her own Church, but we persisted and gently asked her if we could visit with her anyway. Surprisingly, she said, “sure, why not?” She let us into the building and then into her apartment. She had a lot of different knick knacks, dolls (witches, clowns and dolls) hung around her apartment and numerous large and small fans decorating the walls as well as a couple of large tapestries. We spent about 20 minutes as she took us on a tour of her home then we sat down and got acquainted.

We talked about religion, of course, and she told us a little about her church and some others that she didn’t approve of. Diana felt inspired and all of a sudden had the gift of tongues and taught her in German for about ten minutes before I could get a word in edgewise. Mrs. Otte believes in Christ as our Savior and that you need to be baptized. She had a lot of religious booklets between bookends on a chest of drawers and we asked her if she had a Book of Mormon. She emphatically said she didn’t and didn’t want one either. She pulled an anti-Mormon brochure out of the row of booklets and read a paragraph which, if it were true, we wouldn’t want one either. During the course of the conversation we bore testimony of Joseph Smith, restoration of the gospel and true Church, the need for the Priesthood, the organization of the true Church and so on. Towards the end on our visit she asked us if we knew William Branham, a preacher who gave a talk on January 16, 1963, in Mesa, Arizona. When we answered no, she got a pamphlet out of the row of them and gave it to us. We told her we would read it, but she would have to do something for us. We got a Book of Mormon out of our backpack and made a deal with her. We would read hers, if she would read the underlined verses in the Book of Mormon. We bore testimony that we believed in the bible, but we also believed in the Book of Mormon and if she would read the underlined verses, she would understand that we believed in Christ as our Savior and Redeemer and she would understand why we believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. She agreed to do it. Quite a change from emphatically not wanting one to agreeing to read from it. We talked a while longer, had a prayer, arranged to come back after her vacation and then left.

Next we went to the apartment of Luisa del Carmen Chavez-Munoz who was listed on our member list as someone who didn’t want us to contact her. As we’ve written before we are rechecking everyone again to see if their hearts haven’t softened and are ready to respond to the call of the prophet to come back. She wasn’t ready, but maybe someday. The next one we went to was Frau Peyghambari, the ex-wife of Ali Reza who we met there months ago. He didn’t live there any more, but was there celebrating his birthday. At that time he didn’t have time to meet with us, but we gave him our phone number and he said he’d call us. He didn’t, so we went there today to see if we could get his phone number and address from his ex-wife, but no one was home. It was almost 8:30 so we thought it time to get on home. We made it home by 9:00 and just in time to get our mid-week check up call from our district leader. Yep, all’s well. We called the sisters in Luzern and gave them Sarah’s phone number and a short history on her. Sarah is 26, divorced with one 7 year old son. She’s going with a 50 year old man who is still married and has two kids of his own and he’s her boss at work. She thinks she’s going to marry him. Her mother says she is not religious any more and she is really worried about her. She is grateful we are going to send the sister missionaries to see if they can help her. And so ends another day.

Hugging and riding the bear in Bern (he didn't seem to mind); Zone conference in Singen, Germany.

AUGUST 4, 2009 TUESDAY

Today our zone conference was in Singen, Germany, so we were up early, dressed and on the tram by 7:15. The AP’s told us they would pick us up at Stettbach between 7:35 and 7:40, but we should have known by now they would be late. Elders Harris and Nilsson showed up at 8:00 because they were a little smarter than we are. Elders Richeson and Pine finally got there at 8:10 and we were off to Singen. We made good time and arrived by 9:20 and the ZL’s had time to set up what they needed before the meeting began. Our mission right now has 105 missionaries including couples (6) and 35 of the 105 are in our Zurich District. There are a total of 4 districts and ours is the largest.

All of the missionaries who had assignments and presentations did a wonderful job. They were competent and inspiring and we’re sure the Lord is pleased with their work. The highlight of the conference was the question and answer session by President Matern. During lunch break missionaries were invited to write down questions on pieces of paper and the Pres. Matern answered them later in the afternoon. He gave not only insightful answers, but also taught doctrine and principles related to them. All too soon the day was past and we had to come home. Ten of us piled in the van, two sisters and Diana in the back seat, four of us in the middle seat and three in front. We drove that way for about fifteen minutes until we arrived at the Singen train station and let the sisters off so they could ride the train to Luzern. The rest of the way home was a little more comfortable, but instead of taking us all the way home, we were dropped of in Dietlikon. We hopped on bus 787 to Stettbach and transferred to tram #7 for the rest of the way home.

Diana made potato soup for dinner and we cut up a fresh pineapple Charlotte sent over yesterday for a sweet treat. We checked our emails and found out the home we’re selling in Draper won’t close for another month, September 12, because the lawyer for the purchaser wants to get it surveyed etc. Mr. Woolstenhulme said he would try and hurray them along to make it sooner, but who knows. As soon as we finish up this journal entry and check the blogs of our friends in Geneva and Buenos Aires, we’ll call it a day. Maybe we can get to bed before midnight for once.

Einstein Museum; Bern state capitol building; Diana in front of fountain by Einstein Museum.

AUGUST 3, 2009 MONDAY

Today was P-day, but we had to get ready for family home evening tonight because it was going to be at our apartment again. We volunteered for the dessert and so Diana spent this morning making Ritz cracker pie. The pie recipe called for egg whites which left a lot of yolks to decide what to do with. However, the problem got solved when Elders Harris and Nilsson came over this morning about 10:30 to get their hair cut. They said they had already had breakfast, but we could see they weren’t telling the whole truth. Before I finished cutting their hair, Diana started cooking French toast and had everything ready by the time I finished. Both of them had their emails finished too, so we enjoyed a leisurely brunch of French toast. We had some left over maple syrup we made months ago, but kept in the fridge. It was all really really good and it was a treat to have something American (even though we call the toast French). Soon after they left to meet other missionaries at the stake center and we got ready and left for Bern.

We looked on the internet to discover what to go see, but we didn’t decide on what we would do once we got there. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Bern from our apartment front door. Once we got there we walked a block or two and then got on a tram and rode to the end. We passed one of the places we wanted to visit and saw another that looked interesting. The tram we were on took us in a loop at the end of the track and back to the Albert Einstein Museum where we wanted to get off. What a surprise. We took some photos of the statue/fountain in front as well as the two bears guarding the front entrance and then walked up to the front door. We were hoping it would be open, but as is the case in Switzerland, most good places to see are closed on Mondays. Disappointed we made the best of the situation and wandered around the outside and took photos of various things including a canon, a bell house, a platform with a rope hanging through a trap door where it appeared they really hung people, a battering ram with a ram’s head on it, a couple of water wheels and stacks of rocks threaded onto some sort of flexible rods.

We left there, got on the tram again and went a couple more stops and got off at another fountain. We took more photos and then walked on to an interesting building which had gold leaf (probably only gold paint) on the wrought iron gates. We took some more photos of it, but we don’t know if it had any historical significance. We got on the tram again and went back to the Einstein Museum stop and got off. We walked over the bridge spanning the Aar River and on the way over took some beautiful photos of the river with Bern in the background. We took photos of the back side of the state capitol building from approximately the same position where I took a photo some 45 years ago. Interesting. We continued over the bridge and took photos of another bear, Diana petting it and me riding it. By the way, Bern is named after bears and the founding person (can’t remember his name right now) killed a bear right where he started the town of Bern and that’s how it got it’s name. From there we walked back towards the train station and stopped at the famous Zeitglockenturm (Time Clock Tower) where a whole lot of people had congregated to see what happened when 4:00 came. We waited the eight minutes with the rest of them. A couple minutes before 4:00 a lot of little figures went around in a circle, coming out of a whole and going back in. Then at 4:00 the staff of the figure sitting down moved four times as the bell sounded four times. And that was it. For the full show we would have had to be there at noon.

We only had two hours to spend in Bern before we had to be on the train to return to Zurich. We had used up all our time and hurried back to the train station. We returned home, picked up a present for Dominic Weiss, who had a birthday today, got back on the tram and rode to near his home. We walked the rest of the way, but discovered Dominic wasn’t home. His brother was so we gave the present to him for Dominic. We got home a half hour before FHE started and we able to get a few things ready by 7:00.

Everyone that normally comes, except for the missionaries, were either sick, busy, stuck at work, had visitors at their own home, or were on vacation. Even Elders Pine & Richeson were late coming back from Stuttgard, so we started with just we two and Elders Harris and Nilsson. Elders Pine & Richeson joined us about a half hour after we started. Even though our group was small, we had a good family home evening and Diana’s Ritz cracker pie and ice cream was delicious. We tried to whip some real irradiated cream to put on it too, but it turned into butter instead of turning into whipped cream. Now we have sweet vanilla flavored butter!

With FHE over we were settling in to write our journal and slowly slide into bed when Rebecca skyped us. It’s always good to talk to the kids and see little Mack. Among other things Rebecca and Diana discussed homes and financing and such related to the sale of our house in Draper.

Independence Day spare ribs; fireworks. Last photo is on Grindelwald trip.
film clip of fireworks 1 Aug 2009


AUGUST 2, 2009 SUNDAY

Sunday morning once again, our favorite day of the week. We have the opportunity to meet with the members of the missionary correlation council and discuss how ward members can help less-active members back into activity, fellowship and help teach our investigators. Unfortunately our ward mission leader wasn’t in attendance again, but the rest of the council came at their appointed time. Pres. & Sister Matern also came and participated. After the council came the regular priesthood and Relief Society meetings then Sunday School. We kept looking for Gabriela Rodriguez and Cornelia, but they didn’t come. Gabriela’s youngest has been ill and he’s also teething so that may be the reason. We called Cornelia tonight and she’s had what others have had which seems to be going around, stomach pains and diarrhea and listlessness. Quite a few of our members have experienced this during the last couple of weeks.

Just before Fast and Testimony Meeting there was a little bit of a stir when Elder Paul K.Sybrowsky from the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy came into the chapel with his family. As is protocol he sat on the stand and presided at the meeting. We always have a great inspirational testimony meeting and this time many of the young men stood up who had just returned from the Especially For Youth activity. We have a lot of future missionaries here in this ward. Diana also bore a wonderful testimony in German and many were nodding their appreciation that she did it in their language. She has been trying so hard to become proficient in the language and she has made a lot of progress. After the meeting was over we tried to get to as many as we could to fellowship and let them know we appreciate them.

When we walked to Church this morning, it was cool and overcast, but not raining. When we walked home, it was in the rain. It was fairly cool and it’s been raining all afternoon, but this evening (8:30) it’s clearing and may be a good day for our P-day tomorrow. Charlotte is one whose been ill, so we’re not going on one of our all day trips; we may stay home and get some things done, or we may just go to Bern and look for something interesting to see. Who knows.

In district meeting a couple of weeks ago we handed out a Book of Mormon marking guide to help investigators get a quick understanding of the purpose of the BM by reading the marked verses. Elder Nilsson called and asked if we had an English copy already marked because they needed one for an investigator. Unfortunately we are out of English BM’s and couldn’t give them one. They had their own so they asked if they could come over from the Church and use our guide to mark theirs with. They quickly did that and then left. Before they left, however, they made an appointment to come over tomorrow morning at 10:00 to get their hair cut and to do their emails.

Later on in the evening we made a couple of phone calls. We called Renatus Raschle who we met a few weeks ago and then he and his family went on vacation. He promised us he’d come to a Sacrament Meeting and so we called to invite him again and to see if we could come by and visit. This time he was less than happy that we called and told us essentially that he wasn’t interested and to quit bugging him. He said he’d come to Church sometime, but we shouldn’t call him anymore. We were disappointed at his decision and tried to impress upon him how important our message was and bore testimony to no avail. Before we go home we’ll try one more time because we know how important our message is, that the true Church has been restored to the earth and only by entering into covenants through the priesthood and enduring to the end can we have hope of returning to our Heavenly Father.

For dinner tonight we finished off the left over chicken pot pie and some of the chocolate fruit salad. After fasting all day it tasted pretty good. Soon after, Elder Carrier called for our weekly report. Filling in the gaps this afternoon, I continued preparing the lesson for next Sunday’s High Priest Group meeting, Chapter 39 in the Joseph Smith Manual. Diana studied German and read more in the Book of Mormon.

Just a note to say we appreciate the emails and the comments on our blog from our families, friends and MTC couples wherever they are throughout the world. It’s gratifying to know we aren’t alone in this world.

E. Harris & E. Richeson holding the broom with E. Nilsson going under; BBQ at Charlottes; Missionaries watching fireworks.

Allesandro & Charlotte naming the county flags in Switzerland while at the BBQ. Those who attended the BBQ were Elders Harris & Nilsson, Elders Carrier & Vincent, Elders Pine & Richeson, Norma & Allesandro, Diana & I, and Charlotte & her five cats.

AUGUST 1, 2009 SATURDAY

SWITZERLAND’S INDEPENDENCE DAY

Today the Swiss celebrate their Independence Day. All of the stores are closed and, other than that, we’ve not heard too much going on. We’ve seen the same traditional fireworks tents set up by vendors to sell fireworks just like at home. We’ve heard a few firecrackers, but not even close to what we hear starting a few days before July 4th and culminating on the 4th. We hear there will be a lot of fireworks going on tonight all over Zurich, and we suppose, all over Switzerland and Charlotte wants to take us up on the mountains surrounding Zurich somewhere so we can watch them all. She has prepared a celebration at her home and invited a lot of missionaries and people to come after which the fireworks will begin. We’re supposed to be there right now (3:30) to help decorate, but we had to take a break for a little while.

We invited Priscilla, her friend Eva, Norma & Allisandro and Elders Harris and Nilsson to come over for lunch during which we were going to present her with her Baptism Remembrance book as a surprise. Unfortunately her friend didn’t come, but the rest of them did. We started cooking and preparing about 9:00 and just finished by the time everyone arrived. I made the chicken pot pie while Diana made the salads, shredded carrots with shredded apples and raisins, and a chocolate mousse with fruit cocktail, bananas and peaches. Heated up croissants, rolls, sliced bread, Sprite, Kool-aid and punch rounded out the meal. Diana had already made a cheesecake yesterday so that was one thing less to do, just put ice cream on it and serve it up for dessert. We wanted to take a photo of everything, but we forgot so you’ll just have to imagine the best you’ve ever tasted and drool. The bottom crust on the chicken pot pie didn’t get all the way cooked and when Priscilla asked if it was a cheese layer, I told her it was. I didn’t want to tell her it was dough that hadn’t quite got cooked and it did taste and chew like cheese, so will I be punished for this white lie?

After the meal was over Elders Harris, Nilsson and Norma gave a lesson on Prophets and how important they are. Diana added some wise counsel as we went through the discussion. Then came the big moment, presenting her with the book of remembrance. At her baptism all those present wrote their testimonies/thoughts on sheets of paper and all of these were mounted in the book along with many photographs taken of her and others on that memorable occasion. As you can imagine she was thrilled to receive it and was overcome with emotion. She said she would treasure it and would never forget the Elders and Sister Larson who taught and baptized her. What a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. And we think we accomplished one of our goals which was to find another friend, Norma, for Priscilla.

We cleaned things up and then Diana took a short catnap while I wrote our daily journal up to this point because I knew we wouldn’t get home until later tonight. I also wrote our correlation report and when I woke Diana up, we went over it again together and she reminded me of a couple of things that we added to it. We told Charlotte we would come over and help her at 3:00 to decorate for the celebration tonight at her home, but Elder Harris called with a question for us and during the conversation, he told us they had everything done so we didn’t have to go until 5:00. Charlotte grilled pork ribs for us and had a yummy traditional Swiss potato salad. For dessert she made a traditional fruit torte with plums on some and apricots on the other. After we played a game which tested our knowledge of things in general, but they were questions oriented to Europeans. We didn’t do very well; we only got three out of ten questions right.

We were mostly killing time until it got dark enough to go see the fireworks. We had intended to go up on a mountain somewhere, but we decided it would be too late before the fireworks started. The missionaries asked Pres. Matern if they could stay out late tonight, but his answer was to look in the handbook and see what it said about when to be in their apartments. The rule says 9:30. He didn’t give them a yes or a no, but left it up to them to decided if they wanted to stay out or not. Being the kind of missionaries they are, they decided they would be obedient to the rules. However, Norma and Allesandro brought some fireworks with them, kind of like we can buy at home only a little better, and we lit them off before we went home. By the time it got full dark we were home and nothing much was going on around where we live. It’s 10:20 right now and there is fireworks and explosions going off everywhere now. It’ll probably take awhile before things settle down so we can go to bed and have enough quiet to go to sleep. It’s legal to set off fireworks until midnight because of an exception the government made to the law that all noise has to cease at 10:00. They are very strict about this law and if someone violates it, they get reported right away. But not tonight.