Elder Larson & Charlotte with Diana talking the photo.

Diana, Lily & Heinz Locher, Scharlotte, E. Nilsson, E. Harris, Priscilla Wegmueller; Alp flowers; looking towards the Eiger, Moench nd Jung Frau from Grosse Scheidegg.

JULY 16, 2009 WEDNESDAY

Up and at ‘em early this morning to get to Stettbach to meet Elders Pine and Jensen with the mission van to take us to Zollikofen for our temple excursion today. Charlotte was going with us too so she could get Elder Evans to be baptized for her dead husband, so this was a special day for her. She’s been working with Brother Locher to get all the information together so she could do this today. Elder Evans has a special place in her heart and, since he’s leaving for home next week, she worked really hard for him to be able to do it for her. Joerg Moeller was also coming with us in the van. We had all arranged to meet at our Schoerlistrasse tram stop at 7:20 a.m., but when we got there, neither one was there. We assumed they took the tram that left a minute earlier when they hadn’t shown up by the time the next tram came. We got on it thinking we’d catch up with them at Stettbach. As we got to Schwamendingen we got a call from Charlotte who said they we a little late and still at Schoerlistrasse, but would catch up with us at Stettbach. When we got to Stettbach, we waited for the next tram expecting them to be on it, but they weren’t. The next tram came and they weren’t on that one either so we called them. Charlotte explained they hadn’t paid attention and had gotten on tram #9 instead of tram #7. At Schwamendingen these two trams split and go different directions. At Schwamendingen Elder Evans and Lange saw Charlotte and Joerg and just got on the tram too. When they noticed they were going the wrong direction, they realized their mistake and had to get out, catch the tram going back the other way until they could make a connection with #7, get on it and travel to Stettbach. All the while a heavy rain was coming down which made it a deary day to begin with. However, finally we were all together, Elders Pine and Jensen were a little late too, and they were fretting that we wouldn’t be able to get to the temple by the time we were supposed to. We all piled in, but then we had to drive back to the Church next to where we live to see if we could help Sister Sunke get her car started. She met some others at the Church who were going to the temple too, to give them a ride, but her car died and wouldn’t start. Someone had some jumper cables and were able to successfully jump batteries and it started. Finally we were on our way. We actually made it to the temple on time, which was a surprise to all of us.

About 40 missionaries were there from throughout our mission and we were delighted to see Elder Middleton, Elder Eschweiler and, of course, Elder Evans again. We also got to see our senior missionary couple, the Hutchesons. We thought we were going to be assigned a sealing session, but no one gave us clear directions so we ended up getting names and going into the chapel to wait for an endowment session. We were asked to be the witness couple and were escorted into the endowment room to wait for the session to start. Because of all the missionaries as well as other patron, there were too many people for the room and so the temple worker announced that all the German speaking people should go to another room. As we got up to leave to go with the other missionaries, we were asked to stay because we were the witness couple. After they left and things settled down, we were told we needed to go to the next room after all. In the mean time the Hutchesons were asked to be the witness couple and so we lost our opportunity to be the witnesses. We enjoyed the session which lasted until lunch time.

We all met in the lunchroom where Sister Matern had a macaroni salad and sandwiches prepared for us. It was there Elder Pine told us that Brother Locher was a little upset at us that we hadn’t gone to the sealing room instead of the endowment session. Later that evening we saw the Lochers at Priscilla’s stop smoking party and we told him we were sorry about the mix-up and that no one had told us where we should have gone. Heinz said it wasn’t our fault; he had given the paper listing the assignments to Elders Pine and Jensen and they were the ones who failed to pass on our assignment to us. He said next time he’d give us a list of the assignments too, and not just leave it up to the AP’s to get the information out.

We sat next to the Neidharts, Jona’s parents, and found out Martin had fainted in the sealing room. They took him out to a doctor and he told him he just needed to rest, lose some weight, exercise and eat right, of course, not all at once. Sister Neidhart needs to do the same thing.

We didn’t know exactly when Elder Evans was going to be baptized for Charlotte’s husband, but later we found out it was during the lunch time. If we had known, we would have been there to support Charlotte. On the way home on the train Charlotte said she was asked to give the opening prayer, but had declined because she had been thinking of her husband and what this would mean for him and was too emotional to say it. She asked if it was okay to decline to say a prayer and so we had a good discussion about it. She also bought a couple of student manuals for the scriptures and the booklet, “True to the Faith,” and had read a lot during the day while waiting for us. We talked about various other gospel topics on the way home.

The afternoon session again had way too many patrons so this time all the Italian speaking people were asked to go to the next room. After the session was over we had to quickly change clothes and get to the train station to catch our train home. It arrived at Zurich at 5:00 which was the time we thought we were supposed to be over to Priscillas for her party. We still had to go home, get our food and go back to Oerlikon. We invited Charlotte to come to the celebration with us so we were all hurrying to get home and get back. We arrived at Schoerlistrasse and just as Charlotte left to go home, we got a call from Elder Harris wanting to know what we were bringing and what they should bring. It was at this time we found out the party had been moved from 5:00 to 7:00 which was a relief to us, but why hadn’t they told us earlier so we wouldn’t of had to rush around like crazy? We had enough time to get everything ready including baking a loaf of banana bread.

The evening was well spent and the food was delicious. We had grilled marinaded chicken and cutlets as well as grilled hamburgers, sausages, weiners and cervalets, grilled corn on the cob, green salad, macaroni salad, jello fruit salad, a cake with fruit on the top and banana bread. The Swiss were especially enamored with the jello salad because they don’t have jello here. They loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. Elder Nilsson asked Diana to go over the principle of tithing again with Priscilla because he didn’t think she quite understood it yesterday. It seems her former church, Catholic, were sending her a bill each month like a tax bill and, if she didn’t pay it, they would double it as a penalty. We’ll try and get her some help to find out what she needs to do to get this monkey off her back. We had a good time together and she is so thankful that she now has the true gospel and friends to support her instead of being alone. We got back home after 10:00 p.m. and decided to write our journal the next day. We got our usual Wednesday evening call from Elder Norris checking up on us and then we were checking our emails and the Doyle and Kroffs blogs when Roxsan skyped us. We had a short, but happy conversation with her, Mayleah and Nathan. It was Mayleah’s birthday and it was fun talking with her.

film clip from inside the bus from grosse Scheidegg to grindelwald.

Diana and Charlotte eating lunch at Grosse Scheidegg; the other two are scenery photos during our trip taken from the train.

JULY 14, 2009 TUESDAY

At 10:00 this morning we were at our district meeting at the Church. Everyone was there except our zone leaders, Elders Harris and Nilsson, who attended the Singen district meeting in Germany. We had the usual great meeting with inspirational talks, testimonies and game. Diana’s part was a game in which she taped a goal on opposite sides of a table and two players sat opposite each other. Each had a straw and the point of the game was who could blow a ping pong ball using their straw through the opponent’s goal. First one to five, won the game. Two tables were set up and the winners of each table played each other until all were eliminated but one. For my part of the district meeting I gave all the missionaries a Book of Mormon marking guide we used when I was on my first mission. Certain passages were underlined so when a BM was given to someone, he was advised to read the underlined verses front to back. In this way the person would understand the purpose of the BM, Christ’s mission, the four principles of the gospel, and Moroni’s promise to anyone who read the book.

Elder Norris asked us if he and his companion could come over to our place after the meeting to see if he could recover the photos from his camera card. It seems something happened to it and his camera can’t read it any more. He spent some time downloading a couple of recovery programs and then tried them on his card. Unfortunately, nothing worked and so he’s lost all his photos taken during the last month or so. He was pretty bummed about it. While they were here we fed them each a meatloaf sandwich, chips, banana bread, coolaid and a half slice of watermelon. They finally left and we immediately left to do some grocery shopping for the salad we committed to bring to the “go home” dinner for Elder Evans at Charlotte’s at 5:00. We also needed a few things for tomorrow evening’s “I quit smoking” celebration for Priscilla. We’ll be at the temple all day tomorrow so we had to get what we needed today. We got back in time for Diana to make the green salad and get over to Charlotte’s. It was fun seeing Elder Evans again and talking about his future plans. We think he’ll be going to BYU in the fall.

At 6:30 we left with Elders Harris and Nilsson for our meeting with Priscilla Wegmueller. The lessons tonight were on chastity and keeping the Sabbath holy. The Relief Society President, Esther Ryser, met there as well. We had a great discussion and Priscilla committed to doing everything she was taught, in fact, she was doing most of them already. We also went over all the baptism interview questions and finished just as Elder Norris, the district leader and his companion showed up. Priscilla was nervous, but when Elder Norris came to conduct the baptism interview, she was ready. Sister Ryser left to go home and everyone else except Elder Norris and Priscilla went out on the patio so they could conduct the interview in private. We talked with the missionaries for awhile and then went home ourselves. We still needed to make a chicken salad for tomorrow night and get some hamburger patties and cervalets out of the freezer. Diana made a jello salad earlier in the day so we hope we are set for tomorrow. The last thing of note is it’s raining right now. Today has been fairly warm.

Zugersee scenery; diana at Gross Scheidegg; Robert at the same spot with the Jung Frau, Moench and Eiger in the background along with a glacier or two.

JULY 13, 2009 MONDAY

Today was our P-day and normally Charlotte has our day planned for us and lets us know on Saturday or Sunday, what time we should meet, train schedules and our travel itinerary and etc. This time we talked about a few things, but never really made solid plans. We expected a call Sunday evening, but none came. This morning we got a call from her at 7:05 telling us we needed to be at the meeting point in the Zurich train station by 7:50. It normally takes about 28 minutes with the tram to make it to the train station and a few minutes to walk to the meeting point. We were like lightning getting everything ready to go including making sandwiches for lunch and somehow we made it to the station in time to catch the train. We traveled the same direction as last Monday through Luzern and ending up in Meiringen. This time, however, we took a POST bus through the scenic mountainous country to Schwarzwaldalps and then on to the pass called Grosse Scheidegg. We got off there and spent an hour or so walking the trails looking at the mountain flowers and the famous mountains in the distance. We had a good look at the Jung Frau, Eiger and Moench. On the one side of the valley were mountains covered with green meadows (no trees) and cows grazing here and there. There were also three places that looked like farm buildings. We discovered these were dairy farms along with factories for making cheese. Many people come up and walk to these factories and buy cheese and walk back. A nice way to get exercise while doing a little shopping. After seeing everything we wanted in the time we had, we traveled by bus down to Grindelwald. We walked around town a bit while waiting for our train to take us back to Zurich through Spiez, Thun and Bern. The scenery was so beautiful that we took tons of photos. On the train from Grindelwald to Spiez we met an older couple from Alpine, Utah, who were vacationing here. They served a mission in Canada about a year and a half ago and were thinking about putting in for another mission somewhere.

We got home at 6:30 just in time to cool off a little and then change for family home evening. Up on top of the mountain it was reasonably cool, but in the valley it seemed pretty hot. It’s been a pretty cool year so far and Diana has been loving it. Today was different. Our group was pretty small tonight because the Bolt’s were still on vacation, Neide was ill, Solange couldn’t come and the AP’s were invited to the Ryser family tonight. Our group was small, but we enjoyed each other’s company, learned something new as we talked about gifts and the Holy Ghost, had a good game provided by Diana and the dessert was delicious, apple strudel with ice cream. Diana chose to divide us into two teams and have them guess Church songs by just hearing the notes. She made a list of 15 songs and the group that was “it” picked the song number and the number of notes they wanted to hear in order to be able to guess the name of the song. The other team could challenge the first team by reducing the number of notes they wanted to be able to guess the hymn. Each team could underbid the other until one team wouldn’t go any lower. Then Diana would play the specified number of notes and the team would try and guess the name. If it couldn’t, the other team would try. If neither could guess right, Diana played one additional note. This continued until a team guessed right.

During the evening Joerg said he lost his wallet somewhere in Zurich today with not much money in it, but all his credit cards, driver’s license and health card in it. He spent a lot of time backtracking everywhere he went today trying to find it. Unfortunately he didn’t find it. Later, after we had arrived home, we received a call from him telling us he had found his wallet in the bathroom on the floor. We know the feeling of relief that comes with finding something because it’s happened to us more than once.

Our schedule is pretty full already for next week. We have our district meeting tomorrow from 10:00 until 12:30. Charlotte invited us to dinner at 5:00 for a going home get together for Elder Evans who leaves for home on Thursday. At 7:30 we will team teach Priscilla again with Elders Harris and Nilsson because they feel a little uncomfortable talking about chastity with her. Every third transfer we, along with a third of the missionaries in the mission, will go to the temple on Wednesday which takes all day. Wednesday evening we will celebrate Priscilla’s graduating from the “no smoking” program. Thursday we have a meeting with Brigitte Roffler. Sunday we’ve been invited to dinner after Church with the Moeller-Russos because they probably feel obligated to return a favor for me cutting Joerg’s hair last week. Sunday afternoon at 5:00 Priscilla has her baptism scheduled. In between we’ll do some contacting with others who need a friendly word or two.

To top things off tonight Roxsan, Drayson and Nathan skyped us. What a great way to end the day.

Robert, Diana and 6 day old Maleah Martha Weidmann; Ice cream in a store in Konstanz; the last photo we made of Paulina before she left to go home to Mexico.

JULY 12, 2009 SUNDAY

We didn’t get our correlation report completed last night so we were up early to do it this morning. We were at Church a few minutes early so we could practice the hymn, Sweet Is The Work, we missionaries were going to sing in Sacrament meeting. We decided we would sing the first two verses with George playing the music, and then sing the last two verses acappela (sp). At 8:00 we attended our correlation meeting and announced that Priscilla would be baptized next Sunday afternoon, if all went well. The progress of other contacts and investigators were discussed and coordination between missionaries and ward members arranged. Priscilla needed some electrical work done on her main plug she uses for her iron and help for her was discussed.

At 9:00 we were expecting Priscilla to be at Church for Relief Society, but she didn’t show up. Elder Nilsson called her to see if she was going to come. She said she was just getting on the bus and she would be coming, but a little late. We waited at the front door and when she arrived, she explained she didn’t remember the buses have a different schedule on Sunday and that was why she was late. So we aren’t the only ones who get goofed up with the tram/train/bus schedules. We were also looking for the Rodriguez family and Ranatus Raschle to come, but in that we were disappointed. We’ll have to follow up with both of them this coming week.

For Sunday School Elders Harris, Nilsson and we met with Priscilla and reviewed the first discussion with her and watched the Joseph Smith Restoration video. Between now and next Sunday the missionaries will review all of the lessons with Priscilla to make sure she understands everything and is completely ready for baptism. They already have meetings scheduled with her on Tuesday and Thursday, and we also have an “I’ve Quit Smoking” graduation party arranged for Wednesday evening. Her baptism interview is scheduled for sSaturday.

Sacrament Meeting is always a spiritual experience. The first speaker was Michel Weiss who talked about preparing to go on a mission. Next came Sister Aeberli followed by our quintet. We thought we did well and members thanked us after the meeting. Brother Sannemann gave the last talk using the hymn, Because I Have Been Given Much, as a basis for his talk. It seems after the meeting is over every Sunday we are in a scramble to talk to everyone we need to before they leave and go home. Today we made an appointment with Brigitte Roffler to visit her on Thursday morning, introduced Priscilla to Bishop Schwendener, arranged to have Heinz Locher fix Priscilla’s electrical problem, arranged an appointment with R.S. Pres. Esther Ryser to go over the member list with her, and then try and make contact with other investigators and members to wish them a good coming week.

When we got home, we decided to make dinner for Markus & Barbara Weidmann who just added a new baby, their first, to their family and Neide, who we heard is ill with the flu. The Weidmanns named their daughter Maleah Martha Weidmann. Maleah is spelled almost the same as our granddaughter’s name, Mayleah, which is quite a coincidence. We made meatloaf, boiled new potatoes and peas & carrots. We also took a few small baby gifts to the Weidmanns as we delivered the meal to them. We stayed about a half an hour and Diana got to hold the baby for the whole time we were there. Everything went well with the birth and both mom and baby are doing great. Next we took Neide her meal and she did everything she could to not get close because her doctor told her to not come into contact with people. Everyone is concerned about the swine flu that is a problem all over the world it seems. We reached the sack through the door and left without the usual handshakes and hug.

The rest of the evening we spent reading, relaxing and preparing our assignments for FHE tomorrow night (game) and our district meeting assignments (game and 10 minute spiritual thought). And so ends another Sunday.

Esther Ryser, Denise Maurer, Ashley Maurer, Norma bachmann, Krista Aeberli, Cinthya Frioud, rita wichtermann, Isobella Daly; Diana Talking to Isobella and Emma Schmid with Fraser Daly's back to camera.

JULY 11, 2009 SATURDAY

This morning Elders Harris and Nilsson arrived at 9:00 to finish their report for their meeting this morning with Pres. Matern and Pres. Bolt. We were mistaken when we thought they were coming last night at 9:00; they meant 9:00 this morning. They finished and left for their meeting and I ran into Schwamendingen to buy some bread and fruit for our picnic at the ward outing today while Diana made sandwiches and got other stuff ready. I got back just in time to get Diana and go to the church to meet the rest of us who were going to ride to the park together. Norma was already there, Elders Harris and Nilsson finished their meeting and then Elders Pine and Jensen arrived with the van. We all piled in and away we went to Hoeriberg in Hoeri. There were already quite a few ward members there, the adults grilling wursts and weiners while the kids played in the playground and climbing trees. More members kept arriving throughout the afternoon until there were a goodly number, however, the Rodriguez family didn’t show up. We were pretty disappointed about that. But in spite of that, we had a good time and were able to socialize with the members and get to know them a little better.

We got home about 3:45 and decided to wait take a gift and card to our birthday girl, Sibylle Oberli, until just before Diana had to leave to go to Cinthya Frioud’s baby shower. Just a we started reading tomorrow’s lesson from the Joseph Smith Manual, Elder Harris called and asked us if we would like to team teach Priscilla with them again this evening at 5:00. We told them yes and that meant we had to hustle to get to Sister Oberli’s and then over to Oerlikon by 5:00. Sibylle wasn’t home, but her mother was. She didn’t come to the door, but stuck her head out of the window to talk to us. We let her know we left the gift in the mailbox and would she let Sibylle know. We walked back to Schwamendingen and caught bus #63 to Oerlikon. Elders Harris and Nilsson jumped on at the Saatlenstrasse bus stop and we all traveled together to Priscilla’s home.

Priscilla started the “no smoking program” last Wednesday and Diana has been calling her everyday to give her moral support and encouragement. Tonight we discussed how she was doing and she said she’s been a little dizzy, but she’s hanging in there. She hasn’t smoked or drank coffee since last Tuesday. The main lesson tonight was on the principle of tithing. This didn’t faze her at all because she said she’s already been paying tithing to the Catholic church to which she’s been going. She knows that paying tithing brings blessings because she’s experienced it in the past. At the end of the discussion Elder Nilsson asked her if she had picked out a date to be baptized. She hestitated a bit and wasn’t quite sure it was okay to select a date until after next Wednesday, the day her “no smoking” program would be complete. When Elder Nilsson assured her it was okay, she selected Sunday, July 19th. As we left Diana hugged her and Priscilla told her it seemed to her she’s known Diana her whole life. Diana has that effect on many people we’ve met over here.

We left there and hurried home to get the baby shower presents for Sister Frioud and then traveled to Dora Wachter’s home in Dubendorf where the shower was being held. I escorted Diana there and when we got off the bus we ran into Sister Aeberli who escorted Diana the rest of the way while I returned home. Sister Aeberli said she would drive Diana home so I wouldn’t have to worry about coming back to get her after the shower.

Soon after I got home Elders Harris and Nilsson arrived to create a baptism announcement and invitation on the computer for Priscilla to be handed out tomorrow at Church. It took them quite awhile, but finally they got it done and I was able to get back on the laptop to write our journal and complete our report for correlation meeting tomorrow. Diana got home at 10:00 and all is well. Diana said they played some fun games. They had to unroll enough toilet paper to go around Cinthya’s belly; Cyntha and Norma had to feed each other blind-folded; Cinthya had to guess who brought what present; guessing what kind of baby food it was after tasting it; and draw a baby while keeping the paper on their heads.

Video clip of aareschlucht (gorge)