Train going up to Arosa; Marco going on the gondola; Diana & Robert on Weisshorn Peak.

OCTOBER 5, 2009 MONDAY

For P-day today we were invited by Elder Harris to go with him, Elder Nilsson and Charlotte to visit a relative of his in Arosa near Klosters and Chur. He had never met this relative or her family and wasn’t quite sure about how he was related, just that he was. We met the three of them at our meeting place in Zurich and hopped the train at 8:09. It took us a couple of hours to get there and, when we arrived at Arosa, we searched for this person and couldn’t find her and so we waited. After about twenty minutes, she, with her 10 year old son Marco, showed up and it seemed to be a happy meeting between them and Elder Harris. We all got on another train and continued on to the end station. We all bought a $10 day pass which allowed us to ride the gondolas, trains, buses, and if we would of had the time, use many other facilities in and around Arosa. There was even a golf course where we could of hit 30 balls for $5.00, but we just didn’t have time. The first thing we did was get on the gondola that took us to the top of the Weisshorn, the highest peak around, 2653 meters high. Again we could see mountain peaks for as far as the eyes could see in every direction. Off one edge we could see the town of Chur way below. There were quite a few other small dorfs (towns) along the mountain sides and houses as high up as the tree line. Up above tree line it is pretty barren and not so pretty as riding the train up to Arosa. But in the winter when everything is covered in snow, it must be really spectacular. This is one of the famous ski resorts among 1500 other ones in Switzerland.

We stayed on top for at least an hour and a half, taking pictures and eating our lunch. Marco was pretty fun to play with at times, but mostly he stayed with his mother. Finally, we rode the gondola back down where Elders Harris and Nilsson went with his cousin to see their old home and meet the rest of her family and his relatives. We walked around town and took a bus for a short ride. We saw a smaller ski lift we could have ridden, but we didn’t have the time.

We were on the train to go back home at 2:50 and the train was really crowded. We found two seats together and one across the aisle for Charlotte. A man was sitting opposite her taking up both seats on his side with his feet resting on the seat opposite him. He had his shoes off and his baggage on the floor taking up most of the space where passengers feet would normally be. Charlotte had to sit in the one empty seat by the man’s feet which, she said, stunk. I could see she was really uncomfortable sitting there and, since we were the end seats before the compartment where the exit doors were, I stood up and went out into this area. Charlotte immediately got up and sat by Diana which was a relief for her. I was also in a place where I could walk back and forth to look out of either side of the train and take photos through open windows. That is, until the next stop where Elders Harris & Nilsson and his relative and son got on. They sat on the fold down seats by the windows which essentially blocked me out. Opposite Diana was sitting a woman from the Philippines who, Diana found out, spoke English. The train stopped at little towns on the way down and finally Charlotte was able to find a seat close and I was able to come back in and sit by Diana. During the trip to Lauterbrunnen where we had to change trains, Diana found out that she knew about the Church, had a Book of Mormon and she didn’t want to find out more. She was very nice and pleasant and talked about herself, her family and other things. At Lauterbrunnen we got on the train for Zurich and his relatives went back home.


We got home with an hour to spare before we had to leave for home evening at the Bolts. Elders Harris and Nilsson came with us to do their emails on our computer. We put frozen lasagne in the oven for them and we got ready and left. Home evening is always a good time and we learn a lot. The lesson this time was one the 2nd chapter in Ephesians, but cross referenced to the Book of Mormon. Irene had the game and what she had us do was answer questions relating to talks given in General Conference. We know that we attended, listened and took some notes during the various sessions. Recalling information to answer the questions was more difficult than it should have been. The point of the game was to remind us the importance of reading and studying the talks during the next six months. We can’t possible remember all that was said and, if we can’t remember, how can we put into practice what we were taught?

On the way home we saw the Elders coming from our apartment and, when we met, they asked us if we had seen the Blick evening newspaper. Of course we hadn’t, so they told us about the picture of the conference going on in the Conference Center in Salt Lake. The newspaper stand was right by us so we got a paper and looked. It had a large photo and a short description of the Church and that it was the fourth largest church in the USA. There was nothing negative in the description for which we were thankful. Diana took about a third of the newspapers, which are free, intending to cut out the photo to show people as we contact them. And the rest of this day is history.

And that is the tender mercy of the Lord today, that the Blick newspaper, which is similar to a gossip paper at home, had a photo of the General Conference and accurately reported what was going on along with a little background information.

This is one end of our between conference visitors: Elder Nilsson, Fabian, Joerg, Suwang, Charlotte, Irene, and the ones you can't see are Elders Richeson, Vincent, Carrier, Harris and Dockstader. Middle photo is of Elisabeth Kalt, Charlotte, Diana, Robert, Elders Dockstader, Richeson, Nilsson and Harris. Charlotte holding blanket, Elisabeth and Diana.

Elisabeth's birthday party.


OCTOBER 4, 2009 SUNDAY

This morning was Elisabeth Kalt’s birthday and last time we visited her, we promised to come celebrate with her. We invited the missionaries, Charlotte, Suki and Neide and arranged to have them meet us at the Church at 9:30. The missionaries showed up with the van, but the others didn’t come. We knew at least Charlotte wanted to go so Elder Nilsson called her. She had forgotten, but she came over quick and then we left. We called the care center a few days go to have them get Elisabeth ready and bring her down to the visiting area at 10:00. We wanted everything ready so we could have her party and then get back to the stake center for the 11:00 Priesthood session of conference. When we arrived at Phlegeheim Bombach, Elisabeth was nowhere to be found. It took fifteen minutes find someone and have her brought down. Once she was there, we had a good time with Elisabeth and gave her some presents: a comforter and matching cloth bag to put it in, a pencil for her crossword puzzles, a stuffed airplane, a chocolate bar, some candles that looked like balls, and Charlotte gave her some more chocolate. We also brought her the Schwarzwaeldertorte (black forest cake) that she asked us to bring last time we visited her. She liked all of the presents, but she reacted mostly to the little stuffed airplane and the chocolate. She also liked the cake. Just as we were leaving, an older couple came to visit her. We found out they were legally appointed by the city to help her do everything she can’t do for herself.

We were only a couple of minutes late to conference, but before I went in, I walked Diana home and then went back. Priesthood session was way good especially Pres. Monson’s talk on anger. After that session I went home and found Diana had been busy getting everything ready for when people came over later today. She cut up the brownies and banana bread, got the ham out, cut up the cheese, cut the bread and set the table. She does such a wonderful job in preparing things and making it look good. We didn’t expect many to come until between 4:00 and 6:00, and the only one who came over was Fabian, who needed a couple of sandwiches to keep him going through the next session. While that was going on, I slipped into our bedroom and made a few phone calls to our less-actives to remind them of conference. Only one was home, Charles Aboussou, and he said he would come to the 6:00 session. We whipped up the chocolate pudding Fabian brought with him, put it in the fridge, and then we all went back to conference for the 2:00 session. We met a sister from Missouri who was born in Appenzell, Switzerland, who was back here visiting relatives. In 1980 she went to Canada to save her sister from the Mormons and ended up being converted herself. After conference we invited her to come home with us, but she wanted to stay and watch the in between video on the Church. We told her we’d bring her something back when we came for the next session.

We hurried home to get everything out of the fridge and set up for when people arrived. We rolled the little wieners in blankets and got them in the oven. Soon we had a houseful of people, half missionaries and half members. Everyone had a great time visiting and eating, but soon we had to return for the last session of the day. We wanted to be in time to greet Charles and anyone else who may come who we’d invited. We try to think positive, but we’ve been disappointed so many times, however this time, Charles actually came. We’ve been working with him a long time to get him to come and it was rewarding to see him. We know that he was spiritually fed.

Diana brought quite a few of our goodies with us to pass out to those who were waiting for conference to start. She had fun doing that and the people were really appreciative, especially those who didn’t go home in between and didn’t bring anything to eat with them. A lot of people travel great distances to come to the stake center and can’t return home between sessions. We made sure the sister from Missouri got everything she wanted. Elder Zenger was really vocal in his appreciation to Diana for thinking of them. While Diana sat in the English side with Irene, I sat with Charles in the German side. Charles was disappointed there wasn’t a French translation although it was set up for German, English, Spanish and Portuguese. On the English side Susanna Soefoesoe, a non-member, came and we talked to her for awhile after the conference was over. The sister from Missouri came over and bore testimony to Susan which was really nice of her. After they left we walked toward home with Suwang and parted company with her when she went to catch the tram. We went home.

The tender mercy of the Lord today was that Charles recognized the Spirit and followed the prompting to come to conference. We’ve been praying for him a long time and we hope he continues to come to Church.

OCTOBER 3, 2009 SATURDAY

Up again early today to be at the Church by 7:15 to catch our ride to the temple with the Wichtermanns. We got there just as they pulled in. They already had Ewa and Martin Neidhart with them and we waited for a few minutes for Norma and her son Allesandro to show up. After waiting and a few phone calls, Bro. Wichtermann found out she got a ride with someone else so we finally left for Zollikofen. The trip was pleasant on the way down and we arrived in time to dress and be in the chapel by 9:15. Our session was arranged specifically for our ward and we had about 2/3 of the seats filled. While we were in session, the children were cared for by a few adults who took them on walks around the temple grounds and did other things with them. After we were through and before we left, a group photo was taken on the front steps of the temple. Of course I forgot our camera so we didn’t get a picture. We had a couple more passengers on the way home, Witney Weibel and Phillip Huber, both returned missionaries.

When we got home, we listened to some of the Relief Society Session of conference on lds.org and then we took an invitation to Valerie Otte. As we went down to our tram stop, we met Gitta Kummer on her way up to go to the Church for the satellite re-broadcast of the RS Session. We visited for a few minutes and then went on our way. When we returned, we walked directly to the Church and Diana went in and I went home to wait for the 6:00 session to start. At 5:30 I went to the Church and joined Diana in the cultural hall, but then I went to the foyer to see if any of the people we had invited would come. One person came wandering in looking like he was coming into a strange building and, when no one else greeted him, I did. He said he had been invited by the Hartmanns, but I didn’t know anyone by that name. After thinking about it a few minutes, I asked him if it was the Neidharts who had invited him. He said yes. The problem was the Neidharts weren’t there and, when the meeting started, I couldn’t leave him alone. Diana was in the cultural hall where the English version was being broadcast and I was in the chapel where German was spoken. Diana thought I had abandoned her, but I couldn’t just leave the man sitting alone. The Neidharts finally arrived fifteen minutes after the conference started but, when I started to leave, Bro. Neidhart grabbed me and said I needed to stay there. They want us to teach all of their contacts so he wanted me to get to know this man. I sat by him until that speaker was finished and then I got up and went into the cultural hall to sit with Diana. When the first song break came, I went back into the chapel for a bit and then decided this was nuts, going back and forth, so I went back in and sat with Diana until conference was over. While I was jumping back and forth, Diana sat by Priscilla doing some fellowshipping of her own. Priscilla hasn’t been a member too long and it helps to have a friend to sit by so she looks for Diana. She is getting to know more people, but it takes a while to get integrated into a ward.

Once conference was over we went out into the foyer. The Kummers were standing there waiting for their ride home with the Lochers so we visited with them for awhile. I felt I needed to go back into the chapel to talk with the visitor that the Neidharts had cornered. I ended up doing the same thing as before, spending a few minutes with the Neidharts and then going out and spending a few minutes with Diana and the Kummers. I went back into the chapel one final time to say goodbye and when I came out, Diana was gone. No one saw where she went so I looked all over the church and Sister Locher looked in the bathroom, but she was nowhere to be found. I ran home and found her standing patiently in front of our apartment building waiting for me because she didn’t have a key to get in. I told her I was waaaay sorry, and I hope she forgives me.

To end the day Diana made some brownies for tomorrow and we also made some little pigs-in-a-blanket to see how they would turn out. The were delicious so we’ll make some more tomorrow when we have people come over.

These wonderful frescoes are on many buildings throughout Switzerland; Diana hanging from a coat rack in Castle Minot; the last photo is overlooking the Rhein River with part of the Minot Castle.

OCTOBER 2, 2009 FRIDAY

Diana’s project this morning was to make two batches of Hazelnuss Staenglis (hazel nut stick cookies), for Sunday’s between conference get-together. Both batches have ground up hazelnuts in them, but in addition, one had coconut in it and the other almond slivers. Diana likes the one with coconut best and I like the one with almond slivers in it the best. Hers is not cooked quite so hard and mine is crunchy. But, the best thing about them, both are really really good. There are a lot of members who live far away and, rather than stay at the Church, we invite them here for a quick snack. Missionaries also don’t have anywhere to go, so maybe some of them will come here too. Last conference we had wall to wall people, but it was kind of fun. I helped her a bit and then got busy with my project which was to deliver invitations to neighbors inviting them to conference.

I already had about a hundred invitations when I left the apartment so I went the direction away from the Church stuffing mailboxes. When I ran out, I turned around and walked to the Church and made about a hundred more; that’s all the copy paper I had with me. I should have brought more. I went back out and delivered those until I ran out and then I went back home. While I was home, Elder Hutcheson called and we made plans on what we were going to do together next week. They want to go on Friday to Romanshorn, catch a ferry and cross over the Bodensee to Friedrichshafen and visit the Blimp Museum. After that we’ll try to find another ferry to take us to Konstanz and, if we can’t, we’ll go back over to Romanshorn and then take a train to Konstanz. Then we’ll shop and go home.

I got some more copy paper, went to the Church and made another couple of hundred invitations. I spent the next couple of hours stuffing mailboxes. While I was doing that I saw Tito, the son of the woman we met yesterday, walking by with some other school kids. He recognized me and we said hello to each other as he went by and waved too. When I ran out of invitations, I was close to COOP so I went there to see if we could find something for a gift for Elisabeth Kalt’s birthday party Sunday. On the way I ran into Gabriella pushing Siskea in a stroller and Julian in a backpack on her back asleep. I invited her to conference, but she said she’d probably watch it on the internet. COOP didn’t have anything suitable for a present so I went back home.

Our apartment smelled so good when I got back. Diana had really been working hard at baking. We spent a little time on the computer looking up our train connections for tomorrow morning to go to Bern for ward temple day. The session starts at 9:30 so we will have to catch our train in Zurich at 6:58. That means we have to be up by 4:45 to get ready and be on the tram by 6:15. There must be a better way.

We had to be at the Church by 3:00 to help Norma decorate the gym for the Single Adults dance tonight. Before we went there, however, we walked over to Kofie Bobie-Ansah to deliver a birthday gift and invitation to conference to him. He is the inactive member to whom we taught two lessons probably nine months ago who is now a Pentecostal minister. We want to keep reminding him where the true Church is and hope he’ll come to conference. He wasn’t home so we left it on his door and then walked over to the Church. Norma, Heinz & Lily Locher, Felix Locher and Elders Nilsson & Harris were already there and we were fifteen minutes earlier than when we were asked to be there. Oh well. We pitched in and helped set up tables and decorate for an hour or two and then came home. Elders Nilsson & Harris came over a little later to see if they could find something on LDS.org to help them with a lesson for Agnes. Diana made her hazelnuss staenglis this morning and I made my two loaves of banana bread tonight. Too bad we have to save it all for Sunday. While at the Church, Heinz mentioned that Bro. Wichtermann may have room in his car to ride to the temple, if we wanted to call him. We called him and he did, indeed, have room so we’ll meet him at the Church at 7:15.

The tender mercy for today is that I saw Tito again and he recognized me and waved. It’s good to have a little friend.


A photo of the place where we bought our tickets and got on the boat to go to the Rheinfalls.

Looking out a window of the Minot Schloss in Schaffhausen; Diana & Charlotte in the boat we rode to the Rheinfalls; water wheel at the Rheinfalls.

OCTOBER 1, 2009 THURSDAY

Today we’ve been in Switzerland exactly one year, kaum zu glauben (hard to believe). We began the day by getting ready for our district meeting, and making final preparations for our assignments. It started at 10:30 with all ten of us being there this time. It seems like the AP’s or ZL’s are missing every week because they are on exchanges or visiting other district meetings. We always start with a song and prayer. We have some good singers in the group and we think we sound pretty good. Diana’s assignment was to choose the opening song and then offer the prayer. The song she chose was, “We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet,” because conference is this weekend and after we sang it, she gave the opening prayer, in German of course. My part was to teach on some point in chapter ten of Preach My Gospel; the point that I picked was on the importance of listening, not only to investigators, but to the prompting of the Spirit as well. In this meeting Elder Richeson was spotlighted. Elder Carrier read the information everyone had to fill out on himself and then had each of us draw a picture of him and write a few comments about him. Diana drew the best picture out of everyone.

At the close of the meeting Elder Nilsson asked us what we were doing for lunch. That is his way of asking if they could come home with us and feed them. We had leftovers from last night and frozen pizza and so that is what they got. Their goal this afternoon was to walk from here all the way to the Zurich Bahnhof, about a two hour walk, and talk to everyone along the way. We wished them luck as they left. After they left, Diana took a nap while I cleared things off of the computer. I also called the Bombach care center and arranged to have Elisabeth Kalt dressed and brought to the visiting area for her birthday party Sunday morning. We’ve got it arranged for nine of us to go wish her a happy birthday.

Early evening we went to our underground tram stop to catch a tram to Duebendorf. There was a lady sitting on the bench with her little one year old daughter. We sat down and Diana was prompted to get up again and go sit by her. Diana said hi to the little girl and the mother started talking to her in English. They struck up a conversation and Diana found out that her name was Liz (Elizabeth) Bouso and her daughters name was Triana. We invited her to conference and then she looked a little closer at our name tags. She asked if we had a Church near the Roemerhof tram stop to which replied, we did, that it was our mission headquarters. Liz said she had worked at the mission home as a cleaning lady some fifteen years ago. We asked her if the missionaries had taught her about the Church at that time. She said they had not and she felt they only wanted Swiss people, not foreigners. We told her we’d like to come visit her and she said we could. She wrote her name, address and phone number in our day planner. She liked to visit and we both let several trams go by without bothering to get on. Finally, we had to get along, but when the next tram came, she got on it with us. When we got to Schwamendingen, she and her daughter got out and we continued to Duebendorf to invite the Wachters to come to conference. He really wasn’t too happy to see us and told us, in the future, to call before we come. Evidently he doesn’t like surprises. Our little pawn shop was open so we went in to browse a moment and discovered a cross-stitch picture, a parmesan cheese grater and a better potato masher than we have now. We bought them all for 5sfr.

We headed back the other way on the tram, passed Schoerlistrasse and continued on to Milchbuch to catch tram #10 to go visit Sister Isobelle Daly. Isobelle is from England and just had a baby two months ago and it’s her birthday today. She told us they had just been to Geneva for a short vacation and met the Hinmans who are serving a mission there. She also mentioned the Joneses. When we told them we had friends, the Doyles, serving in Geneva, she said the Hinmans mentioned them, but they didn’t meet them. We visited for awhile and then took our tram back to Schoerlistrasse. As we got off the tram, there was Liz again, only this time she had both Triana and Tito ( nickname for Jacinto or Justin) with her. This lady loves to talk and again she passed up quite a few trams to talk to us, or I should say, Diana. While she was telling Diana about her child-rearing ideas, I mostly played with Triana and talked a little with Tito. He’s a very quiet six year old, while Triana makes her presence known every second. Finally, we tore ourselves away and went home knowing we had made a friend. We made an appointment for next Tuesday to come by.

Sister Hutcheson, the senior couple stationed in Ebnat Kapell called just as we had to leave for district meeting this morning and Diana told her we’d call her back. When we got back from our meeting, Diana called, but then they weren’t home. When we got back tonight, Sister Hutcheson had called again, but we weren’t home. Diana called her again tonight and they finally got to talk to one another. They want to get together with us next Monday and spend a P-day doing something, maybe going on a boat ride or something. We talked about meeting in Romanshorn on Bodensee and riding the boat to Konstanz. It doesn’t take much coaxing to get Diana to go to Konstanz because she loves Konstanz. Brother Hutcheson wanted to check it out and see what options there were and they’ll call us back to make final arrangements.

Roxsan called us on Skype again to get better directions to find the wheat grinder in our barn. She wants to start grinding her own flour for making bread. Good idea. We also got to see our cute little granddaughter, Mayleah.

The tender mercy for tonight is that Diana was prompted to get up and go sit by the lady and her daughter at our tram stop. If she hadn’t of listened and acted upon the prompting, we would have passed up an opportunity to teach her.

The two stories from Bruno:

#1 We were talking about enduring to the end and Bruno told this story. This member had been active in the Church his whole life, but as he got older, he decided he had done his share and refused callings and didn’t come to Church much anymore. Well, this member died and arrived at the pearly gates and was met by an angel. He was escorted down this street and, at first the homes on both sides were small and kind of shabby. As they went farther, the homes got bigger and prettier with better yards until they became palaces with marble driveways, gorgeous flowers and lawns and gold plated doors. They stopped at one of these and the member was told this one was his. He looked the palace over and was pleased and happy with it until he saw that it had no roof. He asked the angel why it had no roof to which the angel replied, “You supplied materials to build your mansion by the good works you were doing, but you quit before you had the roof built.”

#2 Men usually die sooner than women. The reason is that either men get the lessons of life learned sooner than women or women need longer to be perfected.