Miscellaneous Musings (Wow, do I sound ancient?)

Historic homes in Ballenberg.

A rack for drying hay.

A roof made of hewn rock shingles.

It was a great day--our p-day at Ballenberg, an outdoor interactive museum of historic Swiss houses, with the sisters.
One of our quick trips to the countryside. Yummm!

Mowing the hay.

Elders Pine and . . .

Jensen hard at work.

With President Matern outside the temple.

They seemed to enjoy the lasagne! They just just love being together for any reason!

They sound amazingly good! Moms, can you believe what you see?

Missionaries training (having fun) at the last zone meeting.

Elder G. figuring budget at our desk in the center.

A walk in the forest.

We had a week of great missionary togetherness. Sunday we missionaries rehearsed for our upcoming musical fireside. Monday we took the sisters to Ballenberg, Tuesday we cooked lasagne for the district (and guests)to have after our district meeting, and Thursday was interviews with President Matern in Zollikofen. "Our" missionaries are so great! Transfers are coming up, and we are afraid a couple of them will be transferred, because nobody was, last transfer. We don't want to loose them. It's interesting how they all measure their time served by transfers. "I've been in this district for five transfers." Or, "I've been with this companion for three transfers." Or, "I have four transfers left until I go home."

Today we studied and prepared for the YSA conference in Germany. We will be teaching a total of four presentations, with repeats of two. One is a fireside, and we will be at the podium together. We think it will be fun!

After our study, we took a ride out into the countryside. Around Bern, it is mostly level farmland, little rolling hills that remind me of prairie, with forests nestled between. We walked a little. We were walking in the forest when Lenski pointed out a wildflower plant that when you touch the tiny seed pod, it explodes with a startling pop, and throws its seeds out. I did it over and over to try to see exactly what happens when it pops, but it happened too fast. It was a pod, then suddenly it was a curly mass of green with little black seeds in my fingers. We talked about our grands and how much fun they would have popping those pods!

We got off on a little trail and were in a little village that no one would see if they didn't live there. We could see close up the evidence of farm life (I'll have to paint a word picture, because I forgot to take pics!)--the barn, the round hay bales (these were bound in white plastic and look like giant marshmallows), the broom leaning on the gate, the pan of potatoes on the chair just outside the door, the farmer walking sideways on the hill behind his motorized hay mower, his wife walking behind with a huge stick broom pulling it into rows, the lone cat hunting mice in the newly cut field, the little kitchen garden with half the lettuce cut. It's all so beautiful that we have to go out every other day or so for just a little while! We think we deserve it! And it's only 20 minutes from downtown Bern!

We listened to Barber's Adagio For Strings and Smetana's The Moldau while we were driving, and I'll tell you we were in heaven. The beautiful pastoral countryside with that gorgeous music created something indescribably beautiful for us. Each enhanced the other so perfectly we could hardly stand it! Sara, remember the trip to Philmont listening to Fresh Aire? Heavenly Father certainly knows what he is doing!

This mission stuff is so great for us as a couple! We are not working on separate projects and doing them our own way. We are working on everything together, so that takes lots of compromise and patience and humility from both of us! We are working together in ways we haven't done before. We are on our honeymoon!

The members here are very tech savvy. Every meeting is announced and agendas sent by email. Every handout is a sophisticated computer design. It's probably that way at home too. We just have not been in a posititon to see them. It's just fascinating! We are so glad we have our laptop. I don't know how a couple could survive without one. All the missionaries have mission distributed cell phones, and we are in touch with each other and with the president at the push of a button. We discovered the first morning after we received ours that they are pre-programed to wake us up at 6:30 a.m. It buzzes, then a British woman's voice says, "It's time to get up. The time is 6:30." It repeats every ten seconds until you turn it off. If you don't turn it off, it continues the same announcement, changing the time as it passes. It is impossible to disable this alarm in advance! Believe me we have tried!

We attend a different ward in the stake every week to stay in touch with bishops and YSAs. We are coming to know them and hope we are building some trust. Besides it keeps Sundays from being humdrum. (Humdrum at Church? Nah!)

Institute will start again the end of this month and we are looking forward to having the center busy again. We hope to have some painting and refurbishing done before that time.

Monday we are off to Germany for six days.