JANUARY 16, 2010 SATURDAY

We know this moving thing is getting redundant in our journal, but for us it has been a real task. We came to Switzerland with two suitcases apiece plus a couple of carry-ons and whatever else we could carry on our persons. Since we arrived, Diana wanted to buy everything we needed for our whole mission minus the perishables that need to be bought almost everyday and, thinking we would serve in the same place our whole mission, that’s what we did. In addition to having to move our remaining seven months supply, we moved a chest of drawers, a fridge, a mattress, various tools that I didn’t want to leave behind, an office chair and other various and sundry kitchen utensils we bought and office supplies. We also didn’t know exactly what proselyting materials were already here so we brought what we thought we would need. Once here it took just Saturday evening to get things arranged so we could rest for the night. Today was another long day of finishing the deeper cleaning of the apartment, sorting through books, pamphlets, BMs, etc. and organizing what the last missionaries left behind. Diana managed the kitchen and bedroom areas and I did the living room including the book shelves with the media supplies. Once we had theirs sorted and threw away what needed to be chucked, and organized what we kept, we put our stuff away, at least most of it. We still have a few smaller boxes to finish.

We were able to break free about 4:00 to go and buy some special garbage stamps from Migros before they closed. Getting rid of garbage is a little different here in Schaffhausen. Rather than buying specially marked garbage bags, we buy black normal garbage bags, but in order for them to be picked up, you have to stick a stamp on them. The shopping mall is at the end station which is the opposite end from the train station. The shopping center is quite large with all kinds of stores including a Migros food store and Do-It Center, a COOP and a Denners. We wished there was an Aldi, too, but there wasn’t. We bought our stamps, carrots, clementines and apples and then went back home.

Along about 5:30 our door buzzer went off. Who could that be? It turned out to be Sandro DeMarzi, the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, and his son Julian who is nine years old. We invited them in and had a nice conversation and got acquainted with each other. He welcomed us into the branch and brought us up to speed on some of the challenges they’ve had over the last year. Some good members moved away which they could ill afford because the branch is so small. Another good member moved to Utah and got involved with a fundamental group and plural marriage and then came back and actively recruited his good member friends to come join his church that he started here. This kind of wreaked havoc with the branch. A few members also got disenchanted with the branch presidency and simply quit coming. It sounded like there is a lot of work to do to help support the active branch members to revitalize it.

We expected a computer guy to show up sometime today to see what we needed to do to get our computer internet installed, but no one showed up. The apartment managers were not home when we wanted to find out about it, so we are still in the dark about what and when. We hope we can get it done soon. We need the computer to not only communicate with back home, but we need it to use Google Maps to find directions to the people we want to visit. Without it we are in the dark. We have our Tom Tom, but it doesn’t tell us which bus to get on and other relevant information. Once we are headed in the right direction, it works for us just fine. We also got an assignment from the zone leaders for zone conference Monday and it would help us to find resource material to use for it. We have a ten minute workshop on cleanliness to present. We feel this is an area where the missionaries definitely need help. It’s easy to get caught up in the “work” and forget about keeping apartments and clothes neat, clean and orderly as well as eating properly. They need to be reminded constantly about these things.

JANUARY 15, 2010 FRIDAY

We thought we had almost everything ready to be moved, but when it came down to the nitty gritty, we still had too much to do. We buzzed around doing this and that when our doorbell rang. Charlotte made a surprise visit ready to help us carry our things down to the van. The only thing was, the Elders weren’t coming with the van until 4:00. Someway she had gotten confused. She invited us to come over for lunch because she saw all our food was packed up. We declined the offer using the fact that we had to wash the bedding, but we couldn’t use the washer until noon. At that she said she had access to three washers and a dryer in her building and we could just bring our wash over there and do it. We finally agreed and arranged to be there at 11:30. We checked our own washer just to see if the person using it was finished early. Yep, she was so we put in one load and got it washed and put in another and started it and then went over to Charlottes, taking the wet load with us and one to wash as well. While we ate lunch, the one batch dried as the other one washed and then that one was put in to dry also. It didn’t quite get all dried when the timer turned it off, but we ran out of time with other stuff we needed to do so we took it home to finish drying it. On the way home we picked up the bedspread from our washer and someway we got everything dried by the time Elders Dockstader & Dias arrived a half hour early.

Back home we hustled getting the last things finished when we got another call, this time from Elders Irick and Nilsson. They wanted to come over and say goodbye one last time and tell us a success story they had just experienced the night before. They said Angela Lloyd invited them over for dinner last night with a friend of hers, who is Norwegian, and her husband. They had a really good discussion with them and her friend was really excited about receiving a Book of Mormon in her native Norwegian language. They made a followup appointment with them at her request and they feel she is really a golden investigator. The other part of the success story is that Angela actually made up her baptisms program and showed Elders Irick & Nilsson what she was going to ask them to do when she’s baptized. She is so happy since she made the decision to work towards baptism again and the Elders and we are thrilled right along with her. We hope she makes it before we have to go home or we’ll have to come back over here for it. These two Elders are the hardest working missionaries we know and it was nice of them to come say goodbye to us.

Elders Dockstader and Dias arrived with the van and the other two Elders left. Charlotte arrived just in time to help us carry things down to the van. We stuffed it full and didn’t quite have room for the double mattress and a few other things. We decided that Sister Larson and Charlotte would stay behind while the three of us took the first load to Schaffhausen. The trip took about an hour and a half including unloading the van and carrying everything up the three stories to our apartment. After returning and getting everything else loaded, we said goodbye to Charlotte and made our last trip to our new home. And now we start all over again, but this time with a little experience to help us along.

We didn’t rest, but jumped right in trying to bring order to chaos as everything was just dumped in the middle of the living room floor. We were happy we were able to get a fridge from the mission home, but to our dismay, it had no freezer compartment and it’s only two and a half feet tall!!! What’s up with that? And why the Elders put it in the middle of the living room is beyond us. We plugged it in and it didn’t work at all. However, about six hours later, all of a sudden it kicked on. Hallelujah! Something is better than nothing.

First we had to get the bed in shape to sleep on. We had previously pushed the two single beds together and we were hoping the mattress we brought would cover them. No such luck. It needed to be at least two feet wider. We discussed options and decided to turn it sideways and it fit side to side, but of course, left a two and a half foot gap at the bottom. We filled that in with extra comforters and ugly pillows among old bedding left here by previous missionaries and then covered the whole thing with a tattered sheet and then a fitted double bed sheet that happened to be here, too. Rummaging through the old bedding we found a most amazing thing, a king size sheet that appeared to have been washed and folded and left there just for us. There was no reason for it or the double sheet to be here because missionaries only use single beds. It didn’t take too much to make us happy at this point. No bedspread or quilt, but we found a couple of single bed wool blankets, one orange and one blue, to top off our sleeping arrangements. When Bro. Klaumuenzner brought us up last week to look the place over, he left a “bag of pillows” for us that had been cleaned and ready for use, he said. We expected normal pillows so we didn’t bother to bring any from our last apartment. We opened the bag and were surprised to find a bunch of small couch pillows and a couple of long 6" diameter pillows, any one of which would be impossible to sleep on. The were some old ugly looking pillows here left by previous missionaries so we sorted through them and got the two best ones. And that’s our sad tale of woe. It seems to us a little more thought should have gone into preparing this apartment for a missionary couple, but we’re up for it and will make the best of it with a smile on our faces.

To end the evening we had a surprise call from Elder Norris, one of our district leaders while we were in Schwamendingen. We have an extra special soft place in our hearts for Elder Norris. He continues to call us once in awhile to say hello and to chat a bit.

The tender mercies today among many others is that we got moved safely, Charlotte spent the day helping us and Elders Nilsson & Irick came to say goodbye. One other was that Elder Norris was a familiar voice who gave us a call when we needed a little lift.

E. Irick, Madeleine, E. Nilsson getting the Church videos in French working; Agness, E. Irick & Joerg at FHE; The two covenant rocks by the orange box and the oak tree across the driveway.

JANUARY 14, 2010 THURSDAY

Happy birthday Susan on the 5th, Jade on the 6th, Shirley on the 13th, and Marilyn on the 14th.

Today was a major work day for us as we tried to finish up packing everything, sorting out our files and papers, cleaning out our drawers, cleaning the fridge and freezer, washing carpets and windows, and so on and so forth. We pulled out the fridge, dryer and stove and cleaned the walls and floors and then pushed them back in. Anyone who has moved before, knows what a job it is, especially if you do it right. Norma was coming around 2:00 because she wanted to help us clean, but we worked hard so she wouldn’t have to be bothered with our mess. We had basically everything done by the time she got here so Diana had a chance to visit with her one last time.

Charlotte called this morning to see if she could get her photos off our computer. Her computer went belly up some time ago, but she was able to download her photos to our computer before she sent it in for repairs. After several months of trying to get it fixed and couldn’t, she finally bought a new one. Later in the day while Norma was here she brought a thumb drive over to get her photos. She asked us if we were going to come with the rest of the missionaries on an excursion next Monday. We told her that we nor the other missionaries could go because we had a zone conference on that day. She was surprised to hear that and said she’d just talked to Elder Nilsson about it and he didn’t say anything about a zone conference. We tried to call him and the AP’s to confirm the conference, but neither answered their phone. At just the right time Elder Nilsson & Irick returned our call and got everything straightened out with Charlotte. They arrived a short time later and Elder Irick downloaded her photos for her. Charlotte told us it was Elder Irick’s birthday today and when he arrived, we all sang happy birthday to him.

The reason they didn’t answer our phone call is that they were teaching Michael at that particular moment. This is the same Michael who Elder Pine and Harris thought was stalking them eight or nine months ago. Elder Nilsson reported that he is taking the lessons seriously and as a new year’s resolution, is going to think more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and make changes in his life. He told them he is taking the lessons seriously. He even showed up at the Church Tuesday as the missionaries were arriving for district meeting. He asked if he could attend it with them and Elder Anderson, the district leader, let him. It just goes to show the gospel is for everyone. It would be neat to see him baptized.

Last Sunday Charlotte told us she had a new calling, but she couldn’t tell anyone about it because she hadn’t been sustained yet. She said she was going to tell us Monday at home evening, but she forgot and we didn’t ask. Today she told us when no one could hear and boy was it a surprise. She has been called to replace Sister Sunke in the mission office when she is released. Charlotte will begin working next week three days a week and, when she is trained, will take over those responsibilities. That means the whole office staff is being changed and when Pres. Matern is released in June, the change will be complete.

We were having so much fun that we forgot about our appointment with Madeleine at 3:30. Diana remembered at 3:45 and we quickly called to let her know we’d be on our way. We got no answer and we decided we wouldn’t go until we did. We left a message for her to call us when she got home. An hour later we got a call and off we went to visit her. She is a fun lady, but very hard to understand. I’ll put a video clip in our journal for the Doyles in Geneva to see if her French is any better than her English or German. While we were there Elders Nilsson & Irick called to say they we in a grocery store and wanted to buy her some chips and wondered what kind she liked. It was quite a process before the Elders understood her and were able to find the right ones. Soon after, they arrived and when they did, we sang happy birthday to Elder Irick once more. Elder Nilsson & Irick had been to the mission home and had gotten a copy of every French Church video that was available and brought them to Madeleine. It was just like Christmas for her. Madeleine baked a really good coconut cake for us as a parting gift and she gave the Elders a piece of it before they left. It tasted heavenly.

Back at home we de-iced the freezer compartment, got all Diana’s shed hair out of the vacuum roller, had a cervalat and left over noodles for dinner and puttered around the rest of the evening. We emailed some more information on members to Brother Locher so he would have everything we had.

The top two windows belong to our apartment in Schaffhausen; E. & S. Larson, Helena Roffler, and Lily Locher with Heinz Locher taking the photo; Suwang Stefaniak.

JANUARY 13, 2010 WEDNESDAY

Today we woke up one more day closer to moving day. First came a batch of wash. We want to get everything washed so we aren’t pressured when we arrive in Schaffhausen. We have the washer reserved for part of tomorrow and part of Friday, too, so we can wash all the sheets, blankets and quilts so they’ll be fresh for the new couple moving in. We also plan on going through the apartment with a fine tooth comb so that everything will be spic and span. We’ll also leave some food and a few essentials to give them time to get oriented before they have to go shopping. The couple we replaced did that for us and we sure appreciated it.

About the time we were getting ready to leave to visit Suwang she called us to not arrive before 10:30 because she had been delayed a little in getting home. That gave us a little more time to do a couple of things and then we left in the falling snow for the hour trip to her place. She called us before we got there wondering where we were and when we’d get there. When we got there, she greeted us with her happy smile and excited voice. We visited for about an hour and then she started to cook lunch which was a wonderful stir fry and egg soup. We watched her cook all the veggies and meat separately and then put them together to finish cooking. She was going pretty slow when she asked us how long we could stay. We told her we’d have to leave about 1:00 so we could be home at 2:00 for another appointment. When she heard that, she protested that she thought we would be there until 4:00 and that was why she wasn’t in a hurry to fix lunch. We really didn’t have an appointment, but told her that because we had packing to do and didn’t want to be there all day. She would be happy if we adopted her and brought her home with us when we’re released. She kept saying how disappointed she was that we couldn’t stay all day and so we relented and told her we’d postpone our appointment until 3:00.

The stir fry was absolutely great and she really piled it on three times more than we should have eaten. Diana said it looked like the Matterhorn. The soup didn’t look good and also didn’t taste so good, but to please her I ate mine down to the last drop. Diana got away without eating hers and didn’t want to because I told her it wasn’t good, and she doesn’t like that kind of Chinese soup anyway. She had all she could handle with the stir fry. She told us about her drunk neighbor who she thinks has a key to her apartment and comes in when she is gone and either takes what he wants or messes up everything else. We gave her a bag of chocolate yesterday and she said he stole it off her kitchen counter while she was gone. We brought her two more bags today. She hides all her food under her bed and then blocks up the hallway with all her furniture and kitchen table so he won’t be able to get to it very easy. Is she imagining everything or is it really happening? We don’t know.

When we started getting ready to go, she did, too, which surprised us. How do we tell her she can’t come with us without breaking her heart? So we didn’t; we let her come with us. But now we had a problem. Norma was supposed to come today at 2:00 to help us clean our apartment, but she postponed it until tomorrow. Everyone wants to come help us clean our little apartment and we don’t have anything for them to do so when they come, we’ll just visit with them. How many does it take to clean this apartment.

We were trying to figure out what to do when Elders Schmidt & Talley, the new zone leaders, called asking if we knew where a computer was that they could use to write their progress report for their meeting with Pres. Bolt and Pres. Matern tonight. The Lord once again pulled our bacon out of the fire in that now we had “an appointment.” We arrived home and soon after the Elders arrived. They did their report and we packed and cleaned. The Elders got through a little before Heinz Locher came to pick us up for a dinner appointment with them tonight at 5:00. We said our goodbyes to Suwang and left with Brother Locher.

On the way we stopped at Helena Roffler’s, Heinz’s sister, to pick her up, but she said she would rather walk the few minuted to the Locher’s home which she did. For the meal they served us a salad and then Raclette which is a cheese melted at the table and poured over boiled potatoes, dill pickles, pineapple, olives or any number of other things according to one’s taste. During the meal Brother Locher told us the story how the two large granite rocks came to be along the driveway into the Church parking lot. Hans Ringger, the stake president about the time I was on my first mission, during a stake conference said that he and his family would “serve the Lord” and invited the rest of those present to commit to do the same and to sustain it by raising the right hand. The voting was unanimous. The two stones along the one side and the oak tree on the other were put there by him as a sign of the covenant they had made with the Lord to serve Him. He said only the older members of the ward knew this story and, when we suggested he needed to recite this story to everyone so they would all know the significance of the rocks, he agreed and said he would. After dinner Diana spent time with Lily and Helena while Heinz and I went over the list of names in the High Priest Group. With the information I gave him he’ll be able to clean up the ward membership list and get the records sent to the right place for those who have moved or we can’t find. After all was said and done Heinz drove us home in the rain.

During the dinner Madeleine called to invite us over on Thursday at 3:30. As far as we know she doesn’t want anything this time except to tell us goodbye. Elder Nilsson & Irick also called wanting to come say goodbye and they’ll come over tomorrow afternoon, too.

An interesting statue on the corner of a building; many of the building in old town Luzern had frescoes painted on them; Diana and Charlotte.

JANUARY 12, 2010 TUESDAY

When we get to bed so late, morning comes quickly. Early this morning Charlotte called and wanted to bring some galoshes over for Diana to wear. She is always worrying about Diana not being properly dressed for the cold, but especially not having good winter boots. She knew we were going to go to Schaffhausen this morning and it snowed last night so she wanted to make sure she was properly dressed. Diana didn’t want to wear them and is okay with what she has and that frustrates Charlotte. She sent us a text message later telling us that Pres. Bolt said we could use the unused fridge in his basement. We thanked her, but told her Pres. Matern said there was a fridge in the mission home garage we could use. Everyone is taking care of us.

Neide offered last night to come with us today to clean our new apartment and she arrived at 10:00 to go with us. It took us about an hour and a half to take a tram from Schoerlistrasse to Stettbach, change to a train to Winterthur, change to another train to Schaffhausen and then get on the final bus to our new apartment at Fulachstrasse 245, 8200 Schaffhausen. The name of our bus stop is Sennerei and it is only about 50 yards from our front door which is convenient and we don’t have to climb up or down stairs to get to it.

We hoped for the best and expected the worst when it came to the missionaries leaving the apartment clean and ready to move in. We could see they had tried to clean some things, but in the end it was too much for them. The landlord was already in the apartment working, trying to get some things done before we move in on Friday. He was surprised to see us and was relieved when we told him we were only here today to clean the apartment and not to move in. He was doubly happy to have some help. Neide pitched right in with us as we sorted out the garbage from the good stuff and slowly brought order to the place. Missionaries come and go, leave their junk behind when they are transferred. The ones coming in stuff it here and there, not bothering to throw it away. It would have been nice if they had at least taken the garbage sacks out or cleaned out the dinky fridge. The four of us worked on it from noon to 4:00 and got most of it washed, cleaned, vacuumed, organized and ready to go. We made friends with the landlord couple who are really friendly and sweet people. He brought us a bottle of apple juice and later made peppermint tea for us all. At one point Neide asked him if he was a Mormon and seemed shocked when he said he wasn’t. She launched right into telling him about the Church and how she felt after her conversion. We told him we were going to have a home evening every Monday evening and he and his wife were invited.

They said they had made arrangements for a computer guy to come look at how it would be possible to set up our internet. He gave them two options, but he would have to make an on-site visit to see which one would work. The first and best one was to network to the landlord’s service which would cost us only for the cable. The second was to purchase our own service which would cost us $39.00 a month. Either way we shouldn’t be long without being able to stay connected to our friends and family.

We caught our train to go home and this time we traveled non- stop to the Zurich bahnhof. Neide walked with us to our tram stop and then she went somewhere else to buy something. We went home to get ready for Marcello to come get his haircut at 7:00. Suwang said she was going to come visit us tonight rather than go to Institute. She wants to spend as much time with us as possible before we move. We had already made an appointment with her to come visit her in the morning and stay for lunch. I checked the washer to see if it was free and, when it was, got in a load of whites before Suwang and Marcello arrived and dried them after Marcello left.

We had just enough time to have a light supper and for Diana to work at cleaning some spots on our carpet before our door buzzer rang. Suwang was already here at 6:30 and was so happy to see Diana. Marcello arrived at 7:00 and I cut his hair while Diana visited with Suwang. Marcello has matured quite a bit in the year we have known him and he and his mother, Neide, have a much better relationship now. Every time I cut his hair we talk about the Church. We and Neide hope that someday he will receive a testimony and get baptized. I encouraged him to read and study the Book of Mormon. Suwang stayed until almost 10:30 when she told her, if she didn’t go home pretty quick, we wouldn’t be able to come visit her tomorrow.