R
E. Walters, Mary, Angela; Neide, Mary, Bea Rothmund; E. Diaz and Mary.

JULY 4, 2010 SUNDAY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Okay, so we’re back to our regular routine, almost. I went in early this morning to get our report typed up and to unlock the door for Michael when he arrived an hour later. It was raining this morning which was a good thing. It’s been dry and especially hot the last couple of weeks. The rain gave the farmer’s crops a much needed drink of water and it cooled things down somewhat. Diana was especially glad for that. Michel arrived at 8:00 and we had our usual chat before he got to work getting the sacrament table set up for our fast and testimony meeting. Not long after members started to arrive. It seemed like forever since we saw them last, but we only missed one week when we went to Schwamendingen for the Matern’s farewell. It was good to see them and the friendly chatter, handshakes and Swiss greetings made it a sweet experience. Pres. Flammia asked me to pass the sacrament so I went up front and Diana sat with Michaela. Most of the active members were there as well as Martin Hedinger who is less active. A couple who had been participating in the yodel fest came even though dressed in their colorful uniforms. They were asked to say the opening and closing prayers.

The meeting got started and after the sacrament had been administered, Pres. Flammia started he testimony phase by bearing a long (was it a talk?) testimony after which he turned the remaining time over to the congregation. There were a couple of small lulls and during one of them Diana bore her testimony and during the other one, I did the same. The many testimonies were borne with deep feeling and faith and the Spirit was in the meeting in abundance.

After the meeting was over many things happened. Sister Bolli got with us and made sure we knew where everything was to be able to clean the chapel while she is on vacation for three weeks. I set up an appointment with Martin Hedinger and Michael Hartig to do our home teaching. Diana set up an appointment with Silvia Gardedieu and Michael to home teach her. Dorothea invited us to lunch and we think Paul Hunziker and Michaela Zaunigt will be there, too, but we’re not certain of that. Sister Flammia asked us if we would teach Primary next Sunday because our stake president, Hitch Bolt, will be here and the primary teachers wanted to hear what he was going to teach them. We agreed to change places with them. And then Sunday school started.

Yvonny Grimske was the instructor and she did a fabulous job. The lesson was #25 in the Old Testament lesson book concerning the Book of Psalms. After the class was over we were introduced to a woman who had come to class late and so we weren’t able to greet her before hand. Her name was Fatma Altunoez and she had been taught by the missionaries several years ago. She was the nicest person we have met in a long time and she asked us if we’d come and teach her and her family. She said her husband doesn’t believe in God and her three children (12, 9 and 7) have kind of followed his example. She said she wants something better for them. She said her husband had seen us a few times in Neuhausen and had recognized us and mentioned it to her. We made an appointment with Fatma for next Thursday at 4:00 when the whole family should be home. Before she left she wrote down the names of many of the members. We hope that means she plans on becoming a permanent member of our branch. After the meetings were over, we went home and rested for awhile.

We caught the 2:51 bus to get to the bahnhof in time to board the 3:14 train for Oerlikon. We didn’t take our umbrella because it looked like it was clearing as the forecast said it would, but when we got there, it was literally pouring. Fortunately we had to wait for our bus to come to take us to Saatlenstrasse and the rain slowed down a lot by the time it arrived. We used newspaper to cover our heads while getting on the bus and later when we walked from Saatlenstrasse to Charlotte’s home. We didn’t know what to expect at Charlotte’s because she’d had a rather heated exchange with another member during Mary’s baptismal service Saturday afternoon. Charlotte called us last night sobbing and said she’d had problems with this member before and couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to either leave the Church or move into another ward so she wouldn’t have to see the member anymore. However, when we arrived and asked her how she was feeling, she said she’d had a talk with the bishop and, even though she still had to work at forgiving the other person, she could and would work through it. We still talked through some of the things we’d prepared for her and, we hoped we did some good as well. When it was time, we went over to the stake center to attend our new mission president’s fireside.

Again it was good to see the members we saw yesterday and others we worked and worshiped with before our transfer. The meeting started with President Condi playing the organ and Sister Condi leading the opening song. That made a good impression on the members. Sister Condi spoke first and gave a great talk in very good German, and basically introduced themselves and gave a little background so the members could get to know them a little. She also talked about missionary work and how important it was for the members to be involved. Sister Condi then played a piano solo for the interlude between speakers. Pres. Condi, during his opening remarks, expressed his surprise and pleasure that so many members had come to hear them. It showed him how enthused the Swiss members were about missionary work. He talked a lot about the transition and organizing of the new mission and that there may not be as many missionaries in their wards as they were used to. For example, in Schwamendingen they’ve had four regular missionaries and one senior couple for a total of six. Now the ward has only one companionship. He called on members to pick up the slack. He mentioned that for every 10,000 pass-along cards that are handed out, one baptism is achieved. It seemed the members were pleased with what they had heard and so were we.

We brought the book of remembrance for Mary hoping she would be at the fireside. She wasn’t there at first, but she came a little late. After the meeting it seemed we were swarmed with members wanting to say hello and talk, but we finally caught Mary’s eye and she came over to say hello. When we gave her the book, she was totally surprised, but very excited and happy to get it. After we talked for a bit she went off to show it to other people including the missionaries and the Neidharts.

We didn’t watch the clock too close and, you guessed it, we had to run for our bus, but watched it drive away before we got there. We waited for the next bus hoping it would get us to the bahnhof in time, but again, we just missed the train. Rather than stand around for an hour for the next train, we got on the next one to Winterthur. We got off there and were lucky enough to not have to wait long for one to take us to Schaffhausen. All in all, except for a little inconvenience, we didn’t get home much later than we would have, had we caught the train we wanted. I typed Saturday’s journal and just didn’t have it in me to do Sunday’s. too, so it’ll have to wait until Monday. It’s so hard to catch up when you fall behind.

The tender mercy today is that Charlotte is feeling more like her old self today and that Mary was excited and pleased with her remembrance book.

Elders Dias, Stucki and Christensen who taught Mary; Ewa & Martin Neidhart who first brought Mary to the ward Christmas party; Elder & Sister Larson who fellowshipped Mary And Elder Larson had the privilege of baptizing her.

JULY 3, 2010 SATURDAY

The yodelers, alphorn players and flag swingers were still doing their thing today and Elder & Sister Walters wanted to come to take part in the celebration. Before we were to meet them at the bahnhof at 1:00, I went into Schaffhausen to buy a few souvenirs and ended up getting two pairs of Swiss suspenders (one burgundy and one green), a Swiss leather belt and a Swiss wool hat. I wanted to get a vest and a shirt, too, but the shirt cost $78.00 and the vest cost $158.00, just a little too rich for my blood. I rode the bus back to our Sennerei bus stop and just had time to run across the street to join Diana getting on the bus going back into town. I didn’t even have time to take the things I bought up into our apartment. I had to come back home and ride with Diana because I had both of our transportation passes and they’ve been checking pretty close lately. We didn’t want an $80.00 fine.

When we arrived back at the bahnhof, we met up with the Walters and walked through main street taking in the sights. Hundreds of people were walking about, eating under the many canopies that had been set up and standing in groups listening to the yodelers spontaneously singing as they ate their lunches. There were many grills going and the smells were heavenly. As we walked up to the main plaza to see what was going on, we stopped at the booth selling the Swiss attire where I had bought mine earlier. I bought another pair of suspenders and a pin for my hat. The Walters bought a few things including a hat for Elder Walters. We took photos of the many people who were wearing their particular county’s traditional costumes. Some were simple, but others elaborate and most were very colorful. We didn’t have much time to spend before we had to leave for Mary’s baptism, so we made a quick trip to the Munot, walked to the top and took a few photos and then walked down the dreaded eternal steps to the city floor. We walked to the Rhine River and pointed out the bridge the Walters could walk across to get a panoramic view of Munot and then we hurriedly caught our bus and went home to change and gather a few things before we left for Schwamendingen. We met the Walters at the train station and rode the 3:14 train together to Oerlikon, then rode the bus close to the stake center. From there we walked to the Church.

We arrived at 4:30 expecting Mary Makdesi Elias to be there and getting changed for the baptism, but she was no where to be found. Hardly anyone was there yet, but we found out she had forgotten something and went back to her home to get it. I had been concerned if she had been taught what she should do when getting baptized, such as holding her dress down while getting into the water and putting it between her knees to hold it down when being baptized, how we should grip each other’s arms, how she should hold her nose, bend her knees and trust the person baptizing to get her back up out of the water. Mid week I called Elder Christensen, our AP, and asked him if he would make sure she was taught and also if he would practice with her. He said not to worry, that if they didn’t get to it, we could always do it just before the baptism. Bad idea.

People started to arrive and Mary came and got changed into her baptism clothes. The meeting was already ten minutes late getting started, but people insisted photos be taken. By the time they were done we were rushed into the service with no time to even ask Mary about having been instructed. The service went forward and Elder Dias gave a wonderful talk on the meaning of baptism and then Elder Anderson played a piano solo. Then came time for the baptism. As we met in the font it was apparent the water wasn’t high enough and no time to put more in. I positioned her and after we figured out how to grip each others arms, her dress kept floating up. I tried to explain for her to clamp it between her knees and finally she got the idea. Mary then asked me if she was supposed to go face first into the water or backwards. I knew then we were in trouble. I asked her to bend her knees and just let me lower her backwards into the water. I said the prayer and then put her under the water, but as soon as she went down, she stiffened up, the dress came loose and floated up. I lowered her to the bottom of the font, but nothing worked to get the dress down. Instead, her feet came up. By then it was time to get her up before she drowned and, when I tried to bring her up (she was pretty heavy), she lost her balance and I grabbed her to keep her from falling. Finally, we were standing and brave Mary was ready to try again. By this time we had a lot of coaches standing either at the top of the font stairs and even Pres. Condi, our new mission president, came to the edge of the font giving us instructions. It didn’t help and only confused Mary. However, on the second try it was successful. It made me sad and mad at the same time; sad that this sacred once-in-a-lifetime ordinance didn’t go smoothly for Mary’s sake and for all of her non-member family and friends who were attending; and mad because the missionaries had let Mary down and put us in an awkward position. That never should have happened and after, when I talked with Pres. Condi, he mentioned he’d have a lot to say about baptisms at zone conference next Thursday.

During the break while changing, the elders played the First Vision video and there was still time for some hymn singing and writing testimonies and well wishes by those attending to put in a book of remembrance for Mary. When that was over and Mary and I were sitting together for the rest of the service, I asked her if she was okay. She said everything was great with a big smile on her face. I thought if she could survive that experience, there wouldn’t be any worry about her falling away. Ewa Neidhart gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and did a great job. Right at the end Mary stood and bore a sweet testimony. All’s well that ends well. She and I and many others will always remember her baptism and that’s probably a good thing.

Her friends had prepared a great buffet that all enjoyed and then we went home to put together her baptism book of remembrance. Diana had taken many photos which we downloaded and printed out the ones we liked. Diana organized the many written testimonies and well wishes and inserted them and the photographs into plastic sheet protectors. On the front of the binder we put a picture of Christ and on the back a picture of Joseph Smith. We worked on it until about 1:00 a.m., but we had it ready to take to Pres. Condi’s fireside tomorrow evening and hoped Mary would be there. And so ends this eventful day.

Just some of the traditional costumes.

JULY 2, 2010 FRIDAY

This morning was preparation day for the baptism tomorrow. There’ll probably be a lot of people there for it and after Mary is baptized, there’ll be a buffet of food that members will bring. No matter how much is brought, there’s always a need for more. Members, investigators, missionaries and friends seem to linger for a long time after these occasions and eventually everything gets eaten. So this morning we made banana bread, almond cookies and carmel popcorn. Every time we visit Paul he gives us several bags of popcorn until it was coming out our ears. We hit upon the idea of carmelizing it and taking it to the baptism. As far as we know the Swiss haven’t had it before so it’ll be something new for them and, at the same time, get it out of our house. To make the banana bread we needed bananas so my morning walk was to Migos and back, but while there, I also bought some tomatoes and nectarines (half price at $1.50 a pound).

Just as we were finishing the popcorn Charlotte called and said she was just arriving at the Schaffhausen Bahnhof and wondered where we were. We told her we were still home and to come meet us here. We invited her to come today to take part in the yodeling/alphorn playing and flag twirling festival that started today at 3:00. She was a little early, but when she got here, we visited while we finished candying the popcorn.

About 2:00 we went in to town and found the Munster Church where Daniela Martin was going to perform tonight. There were a lot of booths set up selling all kinds of traditional Swiss costumes, souvenirs and food. Some dress costumes cost over $2000; men’s vests were over $400 and shirts $80 on up. I saw a wool hat for $48 and I wished ZI would have bought it. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s still there.

When we got to the Munster we realized we probably needed tickets to get in, but we decided we’d wait until Daniela got here later in the evening. She was going to perform at 7:30. While waiting for her, we took the bus and went up to the Munot where the people were going to play the Alphorns. We got there a little early, but we found a good spot and waited for the event to start. It was exciting to hear the alphorns and the music was hauntingly beautiful. There were solo performers as well as duets, trios, quartets and so on. There was a young school group that was very good, but women and men played also. I took a lot of film clips, but they are probably too long to load onto our blog, but we’ll try.

About 6:00 we walked down the steep steps from the Munot to the city floor and then made our way back to the Munster. We found Daniela and then we went to the stand to buy our ticket to the event. The people manning the booth told us the only thing available was to purchase a badge that would have allowed us in to all the events for the three days. It cost $30 each. We decided that was a little expensive for one yodeling event even though Daniela was scheduled to sing in it. We went back to Daniela and she and Charlotte went back to the ticket booth and haggled with them for awhile and gave them the sob story that we were from America and we’d only be here the one night. They finally relented and sold us the ticket for half price. We paid the price, thanked them and then went in to await the performers. It was well worth the money and Daniela performed her song without accompaniment and did a great job.

They had a break at 8:30 and since Charlotte had to leave to go home anyway, we made our way out and back to the bahnhof. We saw her train didn’t leave for another forty minutes so we walked back to main street, saw a stand selling bratwursts, and bought one apiece. They were tasty and hot. We saw a group of three men set up to play the alphorns on the street with a female flag twirler. With so many people around and these performers doing there thing in the town square, it was a picture perfect Swiss celebration. A ot of people not connected to the performers were wearing their traditional costumes just to show off. Each county has their own particular style and so it was just an amazing scene.

Charlotte’s train came and so she left and we came home. Madeleine had left a message on our answer machine to call her, but it was too late tonight so we’ll see her tomorrow. We hoped Jasmin would have called, but we didn’t. We’ll check up on her tomorrow. So that ends our day and we’ll have a long one tomorrow.

These are photos I took on my fiorst mission of Swiss dressed in their traditional Swiss costumes

JULY 1, 2010 THURSDAY

All our appointments for today and tomorrow fell through and so that left us relying on the list of former investigators we had researched from old records. We did our morning routine of getting ready, breakfast and doing our scripture study and preparing for future lessons. The recommended normal every morning missionary schedule starts at 6:30 and ends at about noon when they are supposed to start their proselyting activities. We don’t quite stick to that, but come close. We were out the door at 12:30 and on our way to Siblingen to call on Andi Koch. When we arrived and knocked, he answered the door. He was a good looking friendly man of about late thirties and we had a short, but nice chat. He had met quite a few times previously with the missionaries, but said he was Jewish and they parted company. We bore testimony of the restoration and then left on friendly terms.

We returned to Schaffhausen and then caught bus #4 to go call on Andy Schnebele on Floraweg. We found his home, but no one answered. We returned home to dry out and cool off. The weather has finally turned out rather hot and it doesn’t take much to work up a sweat.

When we first arrived here in Schaffhausen, we wrote our weekly reports on our computer and then gave a copy to Pres. Flammia. After a few weeks he got around to advising us that we should have been doing our reports on the church computer so they would have them for future reference. We’ve been meaning to put those first few weeks into the church’s database, but just never have gotten around to it. Our mission is fast coming to a close so we thought we’d better tie up some loose ends before it’s too late. While Diana stayed here to research old reports to glean more possible people to contact, I walked in and spent the few hours transferring our reports onto their system. After I was done and about to leave I noticed a list that had been posted on the bulleting board. When I looked closer, I discovered it was the home teaching assignments for July. Well, I’ll be! Nice to know. Sister Larson and I had been paired up with Paul Hunziker and Michael Hartig to visit the DiPaolo family, Gardedieu family, Hoenle family, Martin Hedinger and Kofi Safo-Adu. It won’t be hard to visit everyone except the Hoenle family who lives in Germany. There isn’t a direct train to where they live and it’ll cost quite a bit and take most of a day to get there and back. If we had a car, it wouldn’t be so bad, but we don’t. And then the other problem is that Michael Hartig lives in Horheim, Germany, which will make it difficult for him to team up with us. Paul lives close by so at least he’ll be able to come with us. We’ll see how it all works out. We’ve been telling them how important home and visiting teaching is so we want to be that good example, you know, practice what we preach. As I walked back home I kept my mind busy memorizing the Articles of Faith. My goal is to have them all memorized in German before we are done with our mission.

Tomorrow afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday there will be a yodeling, alpenhorn and flag twirling celebration going on that is supposed to bring 35,000 visitors to this town. Groups are coming from all over Switzerland and a few from Germany to participate. There probably won’t be much opportunity for missionary work, but we’ll see how that goes. There is work for us to do at home such as baking banana bread and carmelizing popcorn for the baptism Saturday afternoon.

Daniela Martin, a good friend from the Schwamendingen ward, will be singing with her group at 7:30 tomorrow evening so we’ll try to get into position to hear her. Elder and Sister Walters will be coming on Saturday for their P-day to join in the festivities. Angie Lloyd called us tonight to see if we were going to listen to Daniela. We told her we were and asked her if she knew the time and the location. She didn’t so we called Daniela to find out. We relayed that information to Angie and she said she’d try and make it. We called Charlotte to see if she was coming, but she said she had Nicholas for his birthday and didn’t know if she would come or not.

Elder Bushnell called to let us know he had gotten information that a newly baptized Chinese member (doesn’t speak German and only a little English) had moved to Jestetten, Germany, which is within our branch boundaries. He didn’t have the address yet, but as soon as he gets it, he’ll pass it on to us.

We got a text message from Sylvain, but it didn’t say anything. We called him back to see what he wanted, but he seemed surprised that we called him. We told him we missed him and looked forward to seeing him on Sunday, if he could make it.

Things are always happening, even when it seems we aren’t doing much.