Elder Tavake & Elder Holzapfel; I liked the bells on this Church.

FEBRUARY 4, 2010 THURSDAY

Today we had our every six week interview with Pres. Matern scheduled for 2:00 in the stake center in Zurich Schwamendingen. He also wanted us to bring our hair cutting equipment to give him a haircut during his lunch break. That meant we had to get up at 6:00 and be on our bus by 7:47 to catch our train in Schaffhausen by 7:09. Yesterday Sister Matern called us and said she had some sheets and blankets she wanted us to have and we told her we’d come to the mission home this morning before we went to the stake center. When we got to Zurich we used the trams and dolderbahn to get to the mission home. It was good to be back on familiar ground. When we got to the mission home, no one was there except Sister Matern. She said she sent what she wanted to give us with Pres. Matern and he’d give it to us during our interview. Charlotte said she’d meet us there, too, to see if we wanted any of the materials they were going to throw away. It seems Pres. Matern is going through the mission home top to bottom and getting rid of everything that isn’t absolutely necessary because the mission is being dissolved July 1st. She finally arrived at 10:00 and we took some of the things off their hands, but we’ll give them to the ward for them to use. We have enough stuff here in our apartment to last for a long time.

We went to Neide’s on our way to the stake center to take her the birthday presents we brought for her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t home so we put the crystal platter and the English hymn book in her mailbox. We sent a text message telling her they were there.

We got to the stake center just in time to walk in with Elder Baird and his companion. Both needed a haircut. I quickly set up shop and not only cut their hair, but cut Elder Rowley’s as well. By that time President Matern had his break and I cut his hair as well. While we cleaned up, Pres. Matern ate his lunch and then we had our interview with him. He checked to see how we’re doing and made sure we have everything we needed for our apartment. Then we reviewed our progress reports and discussed the people we’ve contacted and the work we’ve done. He gave us some suggestions and counsel as well.

From there we went to the Oerlikon Bahnhof and just missed our train by 15 seconds. This has been a recurring theme lately. We decided to take a train to the Zurich Bahnhof because we felt we would be able to get a better seat on the next train to Schaffhausen rather than wait to get on it at Oerlikon. It would be warmer as well rather than standing out in the open. We had about twenty minutes to wait in Zurich and, since neither of us had breakfast or lunch and it was nearing 4:00 pm, we decided to buy a roll for Diana and a nut-filled croissant for me. However, when we passed a hotdog stand, they smelled so good we just had to buy us one of those, too. We enjoyed them as we waited for our train.

We made it home this time without any problems. All this traveling and lugging around heavy hair cutting equipment, books and stuff was really tiring. We were glad to get home. On our steps coming up to our apartment we found a package from Shirley. She is such a sweetheart. And she knew just what would hit my happy button. Fruitcake! Yep, all the way from Spanish Fork, Utah. I ate half of it right away, not waiting to follow her directions to wrap it in fruit soaked cheese cloth and let it sit for a couple of months. No siree!

No rest for the wicked, however, because we had to catch up on our wash. While the wash was getting done, we finally caught up on all our emails. We pass the good ones along, but people are probably getting tired of being bombarded with these things. We often wonder where they all come from? Who dreams these up and then starts them on their worldwide trip?

We called Neide tonight and wished her a happy birthday for tomorrow. She found her presents and she thanked us for them.

The Church in Schaffhausen; sunstones Diana makes; Diana's treasures she bought in the second hand store for a total of $19.00.

FEBRUARY 3, 2010 WEDNESDAY

I chickened out this morning and didn’t take my morning walk because it was still snowing and I knew the sidewalks and streets would be snow covered and slushy. Instead I decided to make some banana bread to take to the Bolli family with whom we were going to have lunch at noon. After it was in the oven and baking, I finished putting the beans on to cook. I started them soaking last night and this morning I braised the pork, added that to the beans as well as salt, rosemary, thyme, garlic and a little paprika and dried parsley then put it on to cook. I never know what spices to use so I just put in what smells or sounds good at the time and it usually works out. All this time Diana was doing what I should have been doing; reading the scriptures. At the last zone conference Pres. Matern gave us the assignment to read the Gospel of John before our next interview with him. Our interview is tomorrow at 2:00 in Zuerich. While Diana was in the shower and getting ready for the day, I buckled down and spent the time reading John. Then my turn came for the shower.

The morning slipped away and before we knew it, we had to hurry to catch the bus, but this time we made it in time. We always have to change buses at the bahnhof when we want to go anywhere and you have to be quick about it because they don’t stay but a few minutes before they take off again. We got on bus #3 which took us to Quellenstrasse and then we walked down the street to where the Bolli’s live. They already had lunch on the table which was the traditional Swiss raclette. Robert & Beatrice Bolli, with their two boys, Lukas (22) and Manuel (10), are a great family although Robert is inactive right now. His job is with the border patrol between Switzerland and Germany and she is a stay-at-home mom although they are both employed to clean and maintain the Church. During the course of our visit, we found out he at one time was a counselor in the branch presidency and Bea works with the Young Women. We were advised by Bea last Sunday when she invited us to come to lunch to use this first meeting with Robert to just get to know him. She said if we tried to teach him right off the bat, that “it would be over” and we wouldn’t be invited back, so we had to be careful in how we approached him. However, we found him to be friendly and open, and we did talk about the Church. However, we didn’t get into why he doesn’t come to Church anymore. We saved that for a different time. The Fasnacht parade is being held Saturday here in Schaffhausen and we asked him if he and his family were going to go watch it. He was a little non-committal and so we said that if we saw him there, we’d wave and, if not, we’d see him in Church Sunday. He replied, “okay, maybe.” Good enough for us. We hope he comes. We remembered we had left the pot of beans on the stove albeit on low, but we’d been gone for about two and a half hours and were worried the pot had gone dry. If that had happened, we knew we’d be in a mess. Robert was kind enough to drive us home so we’d get there quicker. Our worry was for naught because all was okay with the beans.

We were able to relax for about thirty minutes and then we were off again for our next appointment at 3:00. This time we changed to the #1 bus at the bahnhof and traveled to the “Alpenblick” bus stop to go visit Hannah Ryter, an inactive member. When we got there she invited us in and we had a good two hour meeting with her. She was converted by missionaries in the Philippines when she was twenty three, met a Swiss member there and married him. They moved to Switzerland where she thought she would have an ideal marriage and have the eternal family she always wanted. They were married in the temple and all went smoothly for awhile and then her husband, for some reason, fell away from the Church. Finally about three years ago they separated and then divorced. She said she did everything she could to live the commandments and when things went sour with her marriage, she couldn’t understand why the Lord let it happen. Why didn’t her bless her with the happy family she wanted. Because she felt the Lord didn’t reward her for her obedience, she decided to leave the Church, too, and now she has lost her testimony and has gone back to her old ways. She has beautiful daughters, age seven and nine, but doesn’t take them to Church or teach them the gospel for two reasons. She wants them to decide for themselves and, the other more important one for her, is that she doesn’t want them to learn the commandments and then see that she isn’t living the way she should. She doesn’t want them to be disappointed in her. We tried to help her understand the principle of agency, covenants, the Atonement, and enduring to the end. She has found a new boy friend and said she is just getting past the hurt and doesn’t want to come back to the Church. She’s a sweet lady. She said we could come visit again which we’ll do.

From there we caught our bus and on the way back to the bahnhof we stopped at the Salvation Army second hand store. These “broken houses” (that’s what they are called in German- “Brockenhaus” are fun to walk through, but this time we had a reason. Tomorrow we’ll visit Neide even though her birthday is on Friday the 5th , so we wanted to find her something. Diana found a couple of crystal platters, one that we’ll give to Neide, and the other to keep for our 43 wedding anniversary. She also found a crystal vase and another little porcelain dish. They were giving away some marbles that were pretty so I grabbed a handful of them. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them, but I liked them. From there we came on home.

The beans turned out wonderful and that’s what we had for dinner. After that we spent some time looking up the marks on the bottom of the one platter and the small porcelain tray. Both were made by famous Germany companies, of real quality, but are not old enough to be worth a lot of money. Both were about $4.50 each.

Yesterday Diana made a sunstone using plaster poured into a mold we brought with us, and today she made another. When she has a minute, she uses something sharp to clean up the lines and fix the slight imperfections. When we were in Schwamendingen, we gave these to members when we visited them and sometimes for their birthdays. It makes a nice unusual gift that they seem glad to get. Diana is going to be busy making these for awhile.

We also need to mention that Monica skyped us last night and we got to talk to her and we could hear Chris in the background as well. Her camera wasn’t working so we didn’t get to see her. She said she was going to send us a package and asked us what we needed or wanted. We couldn’t think of anything except Suki asked us if we could find her a book bag for her scriptures with a picture of a temple on it. They aren’t available here in Switzerland. We were also skyped by Charlotte who just tonight learned how to make it work. She was pretty proud of herself.

A tender mercy today was that this morning Diana called Sylvain because he said mornings is when he has the most problems keeping from drinking alcohol. That’s when he needs the most support. He said he was happy and that he hadn’t taken a drink yet. He called tonight to check on Diana and to report he was still alcohol free. We hope he keeps this up, one day at a time, until it becomes a habit. Another tender mercy was someone found my name tag that I lost several days ago and put it in our mailbox. I already called the mission office and ordered another one. I hope the Lord blesses the person for being so kind.

Elders Bentley, Niederhausen, Larson, Holzapfel & Tavake standing in front of the Church; Elder Diaz getting a haircut; the castle.

FEBRUARY 2, 2010 TUESDAY

We found out yesterday that our district leader, Elder Bond, was transferred to the Bern District as a zone leader to take the place of an Elder who was released an sent home because of an injury that just wasn’t healing. We don’t know anything of his situation, only that Elder Bond was transferred. We had three missionaries working together in Schwenningen and one of them, Elder Tavake, was transferred to Singen to take Elder Bond’s place and work with Elder Holzapfel, who is now our district leader. He called us last night to tell us the district meeting time had been changed from the normal time of 10:00 to 2:00 this afternoon and we would be meeting at the Church. He hadn’t given us an assignment yet, so I asked him if he had one for us. He said, “Well, it’s short notice, but if you’d like to do a spiritual thought, I would appreciate it.”

I went on my usual morning walk during which I wanted to stop at Migros and buy some milk. I expected the store to be open at 8:00, just as it was in Schwamendingen. When I got there at 8:15, I got a surprise because it was still locked. It didn’t open until 9:00. What was I to do for another forty-five minutes? I decided I would try and find the castle I’d heard was in the area. I didn’t want to go downhill so I took the road that swung around and continued on up through some building the way the bus makes it turn around. As I walked up the road I saw what looked like maybe it could have been the castle, although it was relatively small. The closer I got the deeper the canyon was between the road I was on and the other side where the “castle” was. I got as close as I could and then took a photo using the telephoto function of my camera. I turned around and by the time I got back to Migros it was open. I got what we needed and went home. When I came into our apartment, Diana greeted me with a big hug and a happy birthday. She is so good to me.

Sylvain called us this morning to let us know how he was doing. He said he was doing good and that he put a picture of the temple up in his room as a goal he wanted to work toward. Diana talked to him for awhile to encourage him and give him support. Diana made him a sunstone this morning to give to him to go along with his picture.

The next thing to do was to check the computer to see if it would boot up okay and to write our journal entry for yesterday. It booted up just fine and we’ve not had a problem with it today at all. We wrote the journal, prepared the spiritual thought, and got ready for the missionaries to pick us up for district meeting. Elder Holzapfel kindly offered to pick us up and drive us to the Church so we wouldn’t have to walk up the slick, icy, snow-covered road. He called a little before they were supposed to be here and said they would be a little late because they had to stop and get gas. He asked if we had the DVD “Other Side of Heaven” which we didn’t. The only DVD movie we had was “One Good Man” and he asked if we would bring it. While we were waiting for them to come, we tried to find Franca Flammia’s new address, but were unsuccessful. We called Pres. Flammia Sunday to see if he had it because she is his sister. He knew where she lives, but didn’t know the address off by heart. We called his wife today in hopes they had looked it up, but they hadn’t. We tried to find it in the white pages, but since she just moved, it was there either. It’s Franca’s birthday today and we wanted to go by and wish her a happy birthday. No such luck. The Elders finally arrived and picked us up.

When we got to the steep part of the road leading to the Church, the car was unable to get up the hill because it was too slick. At the high point, we got out and walked the rest of the way to the Church and left the two Elders to see what they could do. They backed back down the hill and tried a couple more times and finally made it up to the Church. Since the changes in the district leadership only happened a couple days ago, Elder Holzapfel didn’t get the meeting planned as it should have been, but we still had a worthwhile meeting. After the song and prayer we had training using our mission rule book and then we gave our spiritual thought. After that we watched the movie, had a closing song and prayer and were done. Elders Holzapfel & Tavake took us back to the bahnhof and then left to go to their own area. As we climbed the stairs back up to street level we saw our bus pull out. We just missed it again. Rather than stand on the cold street waiting for the next one, we walked through to the main shopping street, stopping here and there to window shop. There was a McDonalds there and since we hadn’t had a burger in such a long time, we went in and ordered a couple. I don’t like them, but Diana loves them so she enjoyed hers. After that we saw a book store and remembered we needed to find an English dictionary for Kofi, so we went in. It was amazing that we found one and for only 9.90sfr. We bought it and went back out onto the street and as we were walking, we saw a lady in a wheelchair trying to get over the snowy icy hump between the street and the sidewalk. She was having a terrible time so when we got to her, we pushed her on through it and to her door. As we were doing this we recognized it was Narina Fleury, a less active member who we visited a couple of weeks ago who just had an operation on her foot. We got her through her double doors into her apartment building. She was grateful we came along when we did and we promised to call her once in awhile to see how she’s doing or if she needs anything. After that we went back out and caught our bus and went home.

Tonight Diana called Suki to see how she was doing and found out she found a new apartment and will be moving on February 13. That is good news because otherwise, she’d be out on the street. We also called Silvia Gardedieu and found out that Jasmine Hunziker would be coming to Church Sunday. We’ll be able to meet her and see how we can help her with her English as well as teach her the gospel. A little later Silvia called us back and said she had arranged an appointment with Claudia Clavadetscher for February 15, an investigator the last elders had been teaching. The rest of the evening Diana read in the scriptures while I wrote this journal.

The tender mercy for today was that we missed our bus which put us in a position to help Sister Fleury when she needed it the most. We don’t know where she had been, but she was stuck in the snow with her wheelchair, didn’t have a coat on, and was trying to push her way through using both feet including the foot her cast was on. Did we just happen by at the right time? Or were we guided?

FEBRUARY 1, 2010 MONDAY

Today was Monday, our P-day, and Charlotte invited us to come to Schwamendingen and have lunch with Elders Nilsson, Dockstader, Irick and Dias to celebrate her’s and my birthday. We were on the train to Zurich by 9:00 and arrived a few minutes after 10:00. On the way we called Madeline to see if we could visit her this morning and she told us she would be home. Before we got there we stopped into a COOP and bought her a six pack of bottled water just to make sure she has some. It’s difficult for her to get around and she can’t carry it by herself. She was excited to see us and we were excited to see her. We had a nice visit and during it she asked some questions about the temple, baptism for the dead and temple marriage. We gave her a quick review of the 2nd discussion, The Plan of Salvation, and the opportunity she would have to make sure the work for her deceased husband was done and then to be sealed to him for time and eternity. We taught her that she would have to be a member for a year before she could actually go through the temple herself and discussed the worthiness requirements. We finally had to leave to get to Charlotte’s by noon.

We had fun at Charlottes and she had prepared a wonderful lunch of a spicy sauce and chicken over rice. It was good to see all of the missionaries again and to be around them. In Schaffhausen we don’t have that opportunity any more except on our district meeting day once a week. Diana taught them the game, Bonsai, we played at our district meeting last week and it was a lot of fun. Charlotte finally finished writing her conversion story and gave us a copy. Now we have to translate it and then send a copy to Jan Tolman for her “Womenofgod.com” website.

It was getting close to the time we had to leave and we wanted to stop in and visit Neide for a minute. We called her to see if we could drop by quick and told her we’d be there in about ten minutes. As we were leaving we met Hitsch & Kathi Bolt and Marcus & Barbara Weidmann and said hello to them. Still on our way out of the building we ran into Joerg and he invited us in to visit with him and Irene for minute. We are lucky to have such good friends and we had a happy reunion. On Saturday, February 20, there is a special meeting in the stake center in Schwamendingen for all the priesthood holders to listen to a broadcast from Pres. Uchtdorf and then stake conference will be on Sunday. Irene invited Diana to come visit her on that Saturday while Joerg and I go to the priesthood session, and then both of us to stay overnight so we wouldn’t have to go home only to have to come back on Sunday. We’ll have to see how that goes, but it was nice of them to offer. We finally made it to Neide’s and were able to visit with her for about twenty minutes before our bus came to take us to the Oerlikon Bahnhof. The whole day it snowed and snowed and as we left Neide’s it was still snowing pretty heavily.

We made it to the bahnhof and got on our train to go home. We were merrily wending our way home when, as we neared Winterthur, an announcement came over the loudspeaker system that there was a problem up the line and that the train wouldn’t travel past Winterthur. We all had to get out. Holy cow,! Now what! Everybody got out and we went with the flow down the steps underground and back up to where the main big waiting room was. We got in line for the ticket counter and, when we finally got to talk to the clerk, he told us to go out into the foyer and talk to the people with the fluorescent green vest on and they could tell us how to get to Schauffhausen. He said there had been a collision between a train and a vehicle and the line would be closed to Schaffhausen for quite some time. We went out into the foyer where a hundred people were milling around and located an information officer. He assured us that buses had been ordered and it might be awhile before they arrived because of the unusually heavy snowstorm, but he would inform us when they arrived. We waited and waited in the unheated foyer and occasionally checked back with the information officer just to make sure they knew we were still waiting. And hour and a half passed by and we were getting pretty antsy because we didn’t see many people waiting around anymore. We thought maybe the locals knew better ways to get home when trouble came, but we decided to check one more time with the information officer. When we did, he said the buses weren’t coming anymore and that we’d better hurry to platform six because a train was just about ready to leave for Buehlach and then continue on to Schaffhausen. We didn’t have time to vent our frustration about their continual assurances that they’d keep us informed and then forgetting about us, but hurried as fast as we were able down the stairs into the underground tunnel and then back up to platform six. We arrived just in time to get on the train bound for Schaffhausen by way of Buehlach.

We settled into seats across from a woman ready to get warmed up and enjoy the rest of the ride home. I had removed a Book of Mormon from my backpack and began to read it. The woman was busy reading something, but after awhile she was just sitting there looking bored. We noticed that occasionally she looked to see what I was reading. Opportunity was staring us right in the face. We asked her if she liked to read and offered her the Book of Mormon. That lead into a discussion about what it was about and we were able to give her a shorter version of the 1st discussion. She was interested and asked questions, but when we asked her if we could visit her and her husband to teach them more, she declined. She also declined taking a Book of Mormon or any of the pamphlets we offered her including the Testimony of Joseph Smith. She was surprised when we told her we have a church in Schaffhausen and accepted a pass along card with the address on it and our phone number. She told us that this is the second time in a week that she had had a discussion about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and at this point, Diana told her there was a reason for it and that the Book of Mormon we offered her was for her and she should take it. But she didn’t. We hoped we planted another seed.

On home we went on our Bus #5 and we were glad to be home. We should have been home about 6:00, but here it was after 8:00. It could have been worse, however. After getting comfortable we decided to start in on our journal for the day and also catch up on some of our emails. We decided to do emails first and while looking at them, we noticed our computer getting gradually slower. And then all of a sudden it froze up. Nothing worked and the screen went black. We tried shutting it off so we could reboot it, but the laptop has a battery and it wouldn’t shut off either. We tried the soft boot with the control/alt/delete. Nothing; the screen was still black. We closed the lid and let it sit for a half hour and then opened it back up. The screen lit up, but was still blank. Finally, a message came on asking if we wanted to boot in normal or safe mode. We chose the normal mode and eventually everything seemed back to normal, but slow. We decided not to push our luck, exited and turned it off for the night. So, if anyone reading this has a suggestion as to what went wrong, or what we need to do to avoid something like this in the future, please let us know. At home our neighbor came over one time and did something to our desktop computer called “defragment.” Is that something we should do, and how do we do it?

A tender mercy today was that we were prompted to ask the information officer one more time, just in time, to catch our train to Schaffhausen. Otherwise it would have been a much longer wait before we got home. In addition, our computer seems to be working again. We also got to visit some of our dear friends in Schwamendingen.

JANUARY 31, 2010 SUNDAY

We set the alarm this morning, first because we didn’t want to be late to Church since we were giving talks and, second, I wasn’t at peace with what I wanted to say and so I needed some more time to work it out. To top it off it really snowed hard today. Not just light stuff, but big heavy flakes that piled up to almost a foot deep. The locals said this is a very unusual storm for Switzerland and they were not used to the snow being this deep. It wasn’t easy, but we made the walk up to the Church from the bahnhof and were there in time to greet most of the members as they arrived. We greeted Sylvain and noticed he had alcohol on his breath. He acknowledged his weakness and, crying, pled for help. Diana and he renewed their pledge with the counsel that he should call us anytime he feels the urge to drink, before he does instead of after.

Sacrament meeting started and we were the first speakers followed by President Flammia. Diana introduced herself by talking about her family and then ours. She then based the rest of her talk on Matt. 21:21-22 (faith), Moses 5:5-6 (obedience) and then used Roxsan as an example of obedience. When Roxsan heard President Hinckley say women should only have one earring in each ear, she immediately took out the others without hesitating, to comply with the prophet’s counsel. Pres. Flammia as well as other members told Diana they were impressed and surprised by how well she spoke German.

I used the story about “The Birdcage” for my talk and that we all need to love and support one another in following our Savior. Pres. Flammia talked about how everyone leaves a signature on the things they create. For example, he works in a furniture manufacturing plant and, when he looks at a piece of furniture at work, he can tell who it was that made it. It’s the same with the Lord’s creations. He left his signature on all His creations which testify that He is. It was a very inspirational talk. We invited our landlords, the Steubles, their married daughter and two kids and Kofi Safo-Adu to come to Church and they all did. We were happy about that. Franz and Anita Maier didn’t come, but he said they may not make it until next week.

After the meetings were over Karl Hoenli asked if he could speak to me for a few minutes. When we were in a separate classroom, he said he was the Elders Quorum President and he needed two counselors to help him. He suggested that we set a goal to see if we couldn find and baptize at least two young families before we go home. We agreed that would be a worthy goal and, if we have faith and include the Lord in helping us, we should be able to reach it.

We were walking down to the bahnhof in the heavy snow when Pres. Flammia asked us if he could drive us home. We quickly accepted and got home a lot quicker than with the local bus.

This afternoon we worked on finding stuff on the internet to help us teach Kofi how to read English. We also made a phone call to Walter Burri to thank him for coming to Church. He said he had a good time and would probably go again, but would wait until the snow and ice were off the road. He is such a good old guy and we love him a lot. Sylvia called this afternoon to coordinate who we were going to visit Monday afternoon. We agreed to visit Paul Hunziker, but later on we realized we were going to be in Zurich tomorrow and wouldn’t be able to. I had to call her back and cancel which I hated to do. Diana tried to call Jecelyn Hoenle to coordinate a visit to Maria Ryter, but she wasn’t home.

We had a meeting set up with Kofi for tonight at 5:30, but he pushed it back to 6:30 so he could watch his Ghana soccer team on TV. It was dark, cold and the snow was a foot deep and it wasn’t easy to leave the comfort of home to meet with him. But out we went and had a good two hour meeting with him. We started our lesson with a prayer and a spiritual thought and read the scripture about receiving blessings when we keep the commandments. He wanted to know what some of these commandments were so he could get some of these blessings. He continued that he had tried to better himself and to do the right things, but he seemed to be slipping backwards in that he had no job and the relationship with his wife was not the best right now. He wasn’t being flippant, but really wanted to know so he could do the things he was supposed to. We had a good discussion on commandments and blessings and also talked about how adversity could also be a blessing. And then we got down to the business of reading and learning. Two hours later he called it quits and we made an appointment for the next Saturday. This time he would come to our home so we could show him some programs on the internet that may help him. He said he had internet so we think that may help him a lot.

We arrived home about 8:45 and saw that our phone was blinking. We had missed the call from Pres. Flammia to discuss the progress report for the week so we returned his call. We exchanged some good information that will help us meet and talk to some people. After that we looked at a few emails and then worked on getting our journal written. In the middle of that Rebecca called and we had a good conversation with her. It’s been a long time since we had talked to her. And now the journal is finished and it’s only 12:35 am. Sorry, no photos today.