JUNE 5, 2010 SATURDAY

We had two reasons to go shopping in Jestetten today. The first was that we were out of almost everything perishable as well as a few staples. We needed to get some specific things for next Tuesday to make tacos for lunch after district meeting. Second, we wanted to buy some groceries to take to Madeleine when we went to Schwamendingen later today. She isn’t able to get around much because of her knee operation. Before we left, we put a load of wash into the machine and hoped it would be done before we got back.

This time when we got to Jestetten the store was open. Last Thursday when it was closed, the holiday they were celebrating was a Catholic celebration called Fronleichnam. Pres. Matern explained it is only observed where it’s mostly Catholic and celebrates the raising of the dead or some such thing. He wasn’t exactly sure either because he comes from a Protestant part of Germany where they don’t celebrate it. We bought what we wanted and then carried it all home on the train and bus.

We weren’t able to find all we needed in Jestetten, so we made an additional trip to MIGROS after we got home. We had to wait for the wash to finish (takes two hours) before we could go so we could put them in the dryer. MIGROS has a food section where you can buy Mexican stuff and we found the taco shells and salsa there. Jestetten has very little fruit so we bought some pears, oranges, kiwis and apples as well as other things for us and to take to Madeleine. We had to hurry to get back in time to go catch the train to Schwamendingen that left at 2:14. After getting back home we got the clothes out of the dryer, put them away, sorted the food, some for us and some for Madeleine and made it to the bus all in seven minutes. It makes us sweat just to think about it now.

We got to Madeleine’s at 3:10 and surprised her with the food. Danielle Schwendener, her bishops’s wife, had just been there and dropped off some food also. It’s nice to know her ward is taking care of her and maybe we won’t have to worry so much about her physical needs. Madeleine made a big fuss over what we brought which made us feel good. We had a nice visit and saw she was recovering nicely from her operation although not as fast as she would like. Because she had hobbled so long on her bad leg, it affected her good side and created some problems with her back and nerves. She said she’ll have to have another operation to correct a disk and relieve pressure on some nerves.

While we were in Schwamendingen, we wanted to visit Neide, but when we said we needed to go, Madeleine said she had a couple of things she wanted us to do first. While she was in the hospital, we bought her a picture frame so she could mount the 10x15 photo of her four sons on her wall. She gave me the assignment to put the photo in the frame, pound a nail into the wall and hang it. Diana got the assignment to wrap several gifts she had bought for the daughter of her doctor who just had a birthday. Both of these projects took almost an hour, the same amount of time we thought we would be able to spend visiting Neide. She was so thankful for the help; Neide will have to wait for another day.

Jacob Pine and his girlfriend, Fern, came from England back to Schwamendingen for a visit where he spent the last 14 months of his mission. Elder Pine was like a son to us and, therefore, Charlotte invited us to come to a raclette dinner to welcome him back. Pres. & Sister Matern, Norma Bachmann (son Allesandro), Denise Maurer (daughter Ashley) and Agnes were also invited. All came except for Norma, Allesandro and Agnes. The raclette dinner was delicious and it was fun to see Elder Pine again and meet his sweet girlfriend. She announced she had received her call to go on a mission to Halifax, Canada, and was due to leave in six weeks. We wanted to put a photo of her in our journal, but on the train as we came home I discovered I left our camera at Charlottes. Now, how will we get it back without making a half day trip to get it?

We left way later than we wanted and got home a 10:15. We saved the day on our blog and then went to bed. The day was well spent and we needed to be up early tomorrow for Church.

More photos from our Monday P-day trip.

JUNE 4, 2010 FRIDAY

Because of our interview with President Matern later this afternoon, we had been trying to get in touch with Katia DiPaolo to let her know we wouldn’t be able to make our usual appointment with her and Emely at 3:00 this afternoon. She hasn’t answered her phone or respond to text messages, emails or voice mails. In desperation this morning before we went to our appointment with Silvia and Charlotte Kunz, we went to her home and taped a note to her front door. Later in the afternoon she called to let us know she got the message. We invited her and Emely to come to Church on Sunday and confirmed our next appointment with them for next Friday at 3:00.

We met Silvia and Charlotte at MIGROS for lunch and had a good time with one another. Silvia warned us beforehand that the last time we all met for lunch, Charlotte felt she didn’t have enough time to just chit chat before we started talking out religion. This time we were careful not to rush into a religious discussion or initiate one, but let Charlotte take the lead. It wasn’t too long before the subject came up. She was especially proud that she had been married for 25 years and that gave us the opening to talk about eternal marriage and the sealing power of the priesthood. We gave her the 5-7 minute version of the first lesson and she asked what did Joseph Smith actually see in his vision. We quoted verbatim the prophet’s own words, that he saw two personages in a vision. She objected and said that it is not right to make any image of God. When we asked her when she prays to Father in Heaven, how does she picture God in her mind. She responded that she thinks of him as a presence and nothing more than that. We discussed that subject and presented a few scriptures, especially in Genesis 1. From there we used a simple salt & pepper object lesson together with a plastic spoon and a piece of wool to create static electricity on the spoon. When the spoon is passed over the salt & pepper, the pepper is attracted to the spoon demonstrating in a crude way that through the Atonement of Christ we can be cleansed from our sins. The wool cloth used to create the static represents the application of faith, repentance, baptism by immersion and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We told her that this is the message we bring to people and that we would love to have to opportunity to come to her home and teach her the restored gospel. She agreed to let us do that, gave us her address and made an appointment for next Friday at 10:00. Today was the third time we’ve met with her and Silvia and she came to Church once. Each time she seems to make a little progress and we’re glad that now she trusts us enough to let us come to her home. She has bad eyes and can read only with special glasses, so the Walters in the mission home found a set of German BM cassette tapes and gave to us. We brought them today and gave them to Silvia to give them to Charlotte, but decided today was not the day to give them to her. Silvia wanted to wait for a more appropriate time in the teaching process.

When we got through there, we made a beeline for home to pick up the barber tools and when the bus came, left to go to the Stake Center in Schwamendingen. When we arrived there, we set up the barber tools and opened for business to cut missionaries hair while waiting for their turn to be interviewed or while their companions are being interviewed by Pres. Matern. In the course of two or three hours three missionaries got their hair cut as well as President Matern. At one point Pres. Matern came out and asked me to assist in giving Sister Robinson a blessing. Pres. Matern was last to get his hair cut and while I cleaned up the hair and put my tools away, he interviewed Diana alone for her temple recommend. Then I joined them and we had a good discussion about our work in Schaffhausen, especially our investigators. We were excited to tell him about Jasmine and her daughters and the progress they were making.

Saturday happened to be stake center clean up day. Many of the Schwamendingen Ward members were there and we were able to renew friendships and talk with them. We saw the Lochers, Eddy Fuhrers, Wichtermanns, Bruno Patane’, Bea Rothmund, Helena Roffler and some of their kids. Elder & Sister Walters were kind enough to bring us the triple combination we ordered and we had a nice chat with them. They are really a nice couple and we’re glad we’ve gotten to know them.

When we got off the bus at the Oerlikon Bahnhof to catch our train back to Schaffhausen, we ran into Madeleine walking along with the help of her two crutches. She has such a bright smile and a distinctive laugh that we couldn’t miss her if we tried. We gave her a hug and told her we’d be back to visit her tomorrow, but right then we had only a couple of minutes to catch our train. We waved goodbye and hurried to the platform. We had to wait a minute and then we boarded our train and went home.

When we got home we saw our light blinking on the telephone so we knew that we’d had a call. No voice message, but we looked up the number and discovered Sylvain had called. We returned the call and he told us that he was doing okay and still was working in the 12 step program workbook. He told us some of the things he was doing to stay away from alcohol and that he had a lot of support where he was staying.

Sometime later Roxsan called us on skype and it was good to talk to her. We saw some of her kids running around in the background, but this time we didn’t get to talk to them. She and Rebecca are working at publishing our daily journal into a book for us and our posterity. We can’t imagine how much work that’ll be, but it’s nice of them to think of it and do it for us.

The tender mercy is that Charlotte Kunz invited us to come teach her the restored gospel and that we had the opportunity to visit with our old friends in Schwamendingen.

The first two photos are in St. Moritz, one being the very expensive hotel; the last one is somewhere along our train ride.

JUNE 3, 2010 THURSDAY

The day started out cold, overcast and rainy. It ended that way, too. This morning as we were quietly studying and preparing for the lesson with Jasmine later this afternoon, our door buzzer rang. When we answered the door, our landlady was standing there with a smile on her face. Alice gave us a thick stack of bandanas of various colors and motifs and said we could choose one for each of us and one for all of our children. She said there was no rush and to take our time returning the rest of them. The ones we chose all have edelweiss flowers on them, but the two red ones had pictures of Swiss cows, the two blues ones and the two black ones were the same except for the color, and the last red one had the flowers, but had hearts around the border. We thanked her and gave her a warm loaf of banana/chocolate chip bread in return. We had just baked some banana bread to take a loaf to Jasmine later today. Alice got the loaf I was going to eat. Darn! Oh well, it went to a good cause.

We met Silvia at the Bahnhof and rode together to Langwiesen to meet with Jasmine. On the way she gave us an update on Sylvain that it didn’t look like he was going to be able to get funding for the program he wanted, but had worked out something with the place where he’s been staying. The director of his group home has arranged between four or five people staying there that none of them would ever be alone. Whenever Sylvain has to go into Schaffhausen to meet with his therapist, someone would escort him there and then someone would escort him back. She was a little sad that he hasn’t been calling her every day, but also glad to see that he is taking responsibility for himself instead of relying on her to do it for him. So it’s bitter sweet for her. She said this is the best she’s ever seen him and the most committed to overcome his drinking problem. Diana wanted to find out how long before he relapsed the other times he’d been in a clinic for recovery. Silvia said he never did quit and was still drinking the minute he left the clinic. So it’s good news for her that this time he’s serious about quitting. We know our fasting every Sunday in his behalf and our prayers and the 12 step program have been helping him understand his drinking problem and how to let the Lord help him resolve it.

Jasmine greeted us with a smile and a hug for both Silvia and Diana. She was feeling much better today, but said the doctors didn’t find anything wrong when she went for an examination a couple of days ago. After the pleasantries we asked Jasmine if she would say the payer to begin our discussion, but she declined, but with encouragement said she’d think about saying the closing prayer. Silvia offered the prayer and then we launched into lesson #2, the Plan of Salvation. Jasmine was very knowledgeable about the bible as we discussed the part about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. When the discussion moved beyond the spirit world, paradise and spirit prison, it was new to her, of course. In the Protestant churches they teach that when one dies, the good people go to heaven (paradise) and the bad people go to hell (what we call spirit prison). We explained to her that other churches have parts of the gospel, but through the restoration and living prophets, the fullness of the gospel has been revealed. We read some scriptures out of the bible, Book of Mormon, D & C and the Pearl of Great Price as we went along. At the end of the discussion we asked her again if she’d like to say the prayer. We taught her the steps that we use in praying and then, with a little coaxing, she said a beautiful heartfelt prayer that brought tears to our eyes. We all felt the Spirit and we were sure she did, too.

After, as we talked a little bit before we left, we wanted to show her how to use the references at the bottom of each page in the Book of Mormon that refer to bible passages. She looked for her book, but couldn’t find it right off. She mentioned that India, her 12 year old daughter, had been reading it and must of put it down somewhere. Next, she said that India absolutely wanted to get baptized into a church sometime during the summer and because India wanted to, Deborah, her 9 year old daughter wanted to get baptized, too. We were absolutely thrilled that India was reading the BM and we invited Jasmine to make sure the next time we meet, it would be when her daughters could be there, too. We gave her a copy so India could have her own BM. We were just so excited to have the opportunity to teach the whole family. We made the next appointment for next Wednesday at 2:00. As we left we invited them to come to Church on Sunday and explained what Fast Meeting was all about so they wouldn’t be surprised by it. She also mentioned that she plays the piano and if she had some music to practice, she would maybe play for us in Church meetings. We’ll try and keep in daily contact with her. We are excited.

We left and rode the train back to Schaffhausen where Silvia went to her bus and we waited around and caught the train to Jestetten to go buy a few groceries. When we got to Jestetten and walked to the store, we noticed there were no cars in the parking lot. We discovered the store was closed because of some holiday or other and so we were stuck there until the next train came to take us back to Schaffhausen. We only had to wait about forty minutes and we were glad it rain on us. We felt a few drops, but not much.

The tender mercy today is that India, on her own has started reading the Book of Mormon and has expressed a desire to get baptized before summer is over. She may be the catalyst to help her mother and Deborah, her younger sister, enter into the covenant of baptism with their Heavenly Father.

Some more photos from our Monday trip.

JUNE 2, 2010 WEDNESDAY

At the last zone conference Pres. Matern gave instructions that all missionaries should do an inventory of their apartments to ensure all the furniture, kitchen appliances, dishes, pots and pans, silverware etc and etc. listed on the inventory sheet were still there. This is in preparation for the combining of the missions July 1. When missionaries go home, they should turn in everything they are supposed to and get rid of everything else and not leave it behind to build up in the apartments. Missionaries transferring should take everything with them. We know first hand that this is important because when we first came to Schaffhausen, our apartment was filled with junk left behind. Monday we mentioned some things to Charlotte that needed to be hauled off to the junk yard. She passed it on to Brother Klaumuenzner who called us this morning to see what we had. We weren’t prepared for such quick action so we asked him to call back tomorrow after we had a chance to go through everything.

We had a lunch appointment with Dorothea Jaermann at noon and prepared a lesson for her. She is such a delightful person to visit and talk to. She is always so upbeat and cheerful and she always gives us insights into the inner workings of the branch. Today she served us baked leeks wrapped in thin chicken sandwich slices and covered with cheese. It was really good and tasty. We know we have leek at home, but we’ve never tried it. For dessert we had fresh fruit and a cake with chesnut meat in it which was also good. Diana resisted the cake and just had the fruit. After the meal we had a discussion on bearing testimony using the statements from prophets as a basis for learning how to better bear testimony. We can thank Genielle Orgill, our home ward Relief Society President, for sending us the article that we used..

Back at home we pulled all of the stuff out of the crawl space behind the wall of our living room. It was a convenient place for missionaries to throw all their old stuff rather than getting rid of it. We found two carpets, three old coats, sacks of bedding, pillows, two backpacks, Christmas decorations, a soccer ball, small football, frisbee, cardboard boxes and etc. There was also bedding in the drawers under our bed that needed to be pulled out and sacked up. When missionaries arrive in the field, they are given all the bedding and pillows they need so there is no reason to have tons of it filling up space in this apartment. We bundled up the free newspapers we get in the mail that have been collecting under our desk for him to take with him when he comes to pick up the rest. We cut up the cardboard boxes and bundled them so they’d be easier to get in his van. We are now ready for him when he calls tomorrow.

It has been rather cold the last few days and today it rained off and on, too. When we left for our 7:00 meeting with Claudia Clavedetscher, it was threatening to rain. We were introduced to Claudia a couple of months ago by Silvia and at that time she said she had no interest in joining our Church. Previous missionaries had taught her all the discussions and more and she was just about ready to be baptized when she had a dream. In the dream she dreamt she and her daughter were going to join a church at the same time. Her daughter had no interest in religion right now and so Claudia decided to stay with the Protestant church. This evening she expressed the same desire about staying with her own church, but during our visit we discovered she still reads the Book of Mormon, even underlining her favorite verses. She said she especially likes Lehi’s dream and read the part about the iron rod leading to the Tree of Life and then she found the verse that interpreted the meaning of the tree. We then turned to one of our favorite parts, 2 Nephi 31 and read the whole chapter about Christ being baptized and that we should follow His example. Somehow the conversation got to children being baptized so we flipped to Moroni and read the verses about children not needing baptism. She acknowledged that she knew Joseph Smith could not have written the Book of Mormon and from that we deduced that she knows it is true. We left on friendly terms with an invitation to return and, for her, an invitation to come to Church with us.

Just a note of interest: For an hour appointment it took two and a half hours from the time we left home until we returned.

We tried to call Roger Ojingia but ended up leaving him a voice mail inviting him to Church next Sunday. We tried to call Irma Eggli, but she wasn’t home. We tried to call Katia DiPaolo to change our Friday appointment with her and Emely because we have to go to Schwamendingen for our interview with Pres. Matern, but she didn’t answer. We sent her a text message, but so far haven’t got a response. Elder Bentley called to get the names of our progressing investigators, Jasmine Hunsiker and Emely DiPaolo.

The tender mercy is that we felt that when we bore testimony to Claudia, we felt the Spirit and we hope she did, too.

Some more photos of our trip yesterday. We have 99 more photos to go.

JUNE 1, 2010 TUESDAY

Last night Diana cut up the onions and green peppers for the sloppy Joe mix so this morning was relatively unrushed as we got things ready for district meeting. Diana sauteed the onions and peppers and fried the hamburger then added all the other ingredients to make the S.J. mix while I cut up the honeydew melons. We always have to put a leaf in the table and rearrange things in the living room to accommodate all the elders, especially when we have nine of us here. Even though we were told again by Elder Bentley the meeting would start at 10:30, we knew some would be arriving at 10:00 and sure enough, Elders Bushnell and Sills did. Shortly after, Elders Talley and Anderson arrived followed by Elders Bentley, Dahneke and Neuffer. By 10:30 all were here and ready to start.

Elder Bentley has made it a district goal to have all of us spend a P-day together doing some kind of activity so after the announcements had been made, we presented the idea of going to Mt. Pilatus in two weeks. All of them said they’d like to do it, but we need to get the details worked out as to costs etc. Missionaries have to use their own personal money for anything they do outside of regular missionary work.

The official meeting began with Diana choosing the opening song and then saying the invocation. Elder Neuffer gave the missionary rule book tip about “study” (page 15) and using the scriptures found in D&C 11:21 and 84:85 which are about obtaining the word before trying to preach it and treasuring up the words of life continually and then we’ll be given what we need when we need it. He focused on using our alone and companion study time wisely. This was followed with a period of time allotted for whatever missionaries wanted to pass off on some of the requirements for the Master Missionary Program. We were divided into two groups and the missionaries who wanted presented what they had prepared. At the end those of us who were listeners gave positives and constructive criticism to help the missionaries better learn how to present and teach the lessons to investigators.

Next, Elders Tally and Anderson made a presentation on how we should make daily contact with our golden investigators to help them feel and keep the Spirit and prevent Satan from winning them back. They gave us many ideas on how we can do that without becoming pests. After their presentation came the closing song and the big prayer. I chose the song and in the prayer we prayed for investigators with whom the missionaries are working and said a blessing on the food. Then came lunch.

The sloppy Joes and chips were a hit and they all liked the honeydew melons although some didn’t want the vanilla ice cream on top and gave it to others who were more than willing to take it. Elder Talley only wanted the ice cream and not the fruit. After lunch while Diana did the dishes, I cut the hair of three elders, Sills, Neuffer and Talley. All of the missionaries are great men and we thoroughly enjoy associating with and serving them in any way that we can.

When they were gone, we called Paul Hunziker to see if we could visit him this afternoon. We make it a point to keep in contact with him at least a couple times a week even though we know he has a strong testimony. Today we read Moroni 4 and 5 regarding the sacrament and the prayers in preparation for him receiving the priesthood next Sunday. He has a very good understanding of the sacrament and what it means. He had a question about the water instead of wine, but after discussing it, he accepted the reasoning. When it was time to leave, he tried to give me another pair of shoes, but fortunately they were too small and I didn’t have to take them. He hates to see us leave empty handed and was successful in sending a half dozen slices of frozen bread with us. It’s very good bread and we wish we could make it as good as he does, but how much can we eat?

This afternoon we used some of the ideas Elders Talley and Anderson taught us and sent text messages to Cornelia Schaer in Schwamendingen who has had some hard times and also to Jasmine Hunziker that we missed her on Sunday and hoped she was getting better. We called Sylvain to check on him and give him some encouragement. He said his insurance has decided not to pay for the alcohol clinic program and he’ll have to go in tomorrow to talk with them to see if he can get it restored.

We’re done with our journal rather early today and for once maybe we can get to bed on time.

The tender mercy today was that the shoes Paul tried to give me wouldn’t fit.