ZONE CONFERENCE EMERGENCY

The title says emergency, but it wasn't serious--unless you consider thirty hungry missionaries a serious emergency!

We had a wonderful zone conference today. It was uplifting and inspirational, and we felt very motivated when it was over.

There was a little glitch though. About a half-hour before the lunch break, our zone leader came over to talk to President and Sister Matern. I was right next to them, but didn't fully understand their German conversation. I could tell something was wrong. I leaned over and asked if I could help with anything. Sister Matern said the RS sisters who were to provide the lunch must have forgotten, because they weren't there and the zone leader couldn't raise them on the phone.

Well, we decided to run to the store and grab some stuff and do it ourselves. Sister Matern drove, Sister Robinson navigated, and we went to Migros for groceries. We came back and fixed a lunch of yummy chili, with bread and some apples. It wasn't a glamourous lunch, but it filled everybody up, and it was just one hour late on the schedule! The conference just kept going until we were ready, and the conference ended exactly on time at the end. We were pretty proud of ourselves for getting it done so quickly. Things just sort of fell into place.

Of course we know how that happens.

As usual, the situation consumed my brain for that hour, and I forgot to take pictures. But here are some pictures of missionaries before and after the conference.

Mail call . . .

Checking out the mission newsletter

Being silly. . .

Love that smile!

The "Golden"

Getting ready

President Matern calmly waiting for the conference to begin

All in place.


Relaxing a few minutes after lunch

I thought we'd clean up the kitchen after the meeting was over,

but when I looked in--this is what I saw!

Those darling missionaries had cleaned up while we cooks were finishing our lunch!

Elder Middleton and others packing up to leave

Gotta be done!

And what does a zone leader do? Well among other things . . .

Bye, Sisters!

Everybody loves Sister Matern!

Waiting for the bus

NEW MISSIONARY FACES--AND OLD

Well, we lost the sisters!

That is, they have been transferred out of Bern, and we now have our zone leaders here.

Although we will miss the sisters, we are excited to see what the elders can do!

Meet our zone leaders,

Elder Middleton (our resident Brit) and Elder Andrews.

We love them already!

We also have a new district leader--and he's new to the district. Elder Roy conducted a wonderful district meeting this week, and he definitely is a keeper! He changed our meeting venue this week. Kind of nice for us, because we are at the center, where we usually have them, a lot!


Elder Grassli deep in conversation !



Our I.T. expert , Elder Reinhardt, is back! Whoopee! Here he is already conferring about phones. We will wear him out. We thought he was probably relieved when he left and "Oh No!" when he found out he was returning to the district . . . Scripture thought in district meeting. Don't they look fascinated?

THREE HIGH MOUNTAIN PASSES

What a wonderful Monday!

We decided to take the day and travel three high mountain passes, and it turned out to be an incredible experience for us! We started with Grimselpass, where we picked blueberries on the way. Then Furkapass, where we went inside the Rhone glacier, and ending with Sustenpass, where we hiked and sat and contemplated the wonder of it all and heard an alphorn being played by a man in the parking lot.

When we pulled over to see the view, we noticed a man bending over the bushes and we wondered what he was doing. Then we saw three people get out of a car each carrying a small bucket, and going up onto the hillside. Lenski said, "Blueberries! They are picking wild blueberries. It's the right time of year, and those are blueberry bushes!" Instantly we were searching for something to gather blueberries in. We took a plastic bag and started picking. We picked for just about 20 minutes and gathered about a half a sandwich bag full, nibbling along the way. Oh, were they delicious!!!

A quick picnic.

Bright bluebells were everywhere and . . .


. . .these little white fluffy things in the moss were irresistable!




A zigzagging road at a distance . . . it is all so wild and raw up here . . .

. . . a little closer . . .


. . . and we are on that road . . .

The views those zigzagging roads gave us are worth every scary turn! We both said almost simultaneously, "If you see a painting of mountains that look like this, you think the artist was imagining or exaggerating them!"

In a parking lot we were serenaded by this man on his alphorn . . . sounded wonderful echoing off the mountains!

.

Lakes of glacier melt, milky opaque and slightly blue.

Waterfalls everywhere, amazing gushing waters where ever there are glaciers . . .

. . .ending in noisy rivers like this one

We saw glaciers on every high pass.

We got close up and personal with this one.

This is the Rhone glacier . . . crevasses are bright aquamarine in the bottom.

The glacier is huge. Black specks are adventurers --with guides, we hope!!

We walk inside the glacier . . .

. . . close enough to the surface that outside light gives a gorgeous glow to the ice . . .

. . . so beautifully blue! A close-up . . . it looks like we are under water!!

The happily tired but contented travelers!

Next morning, blueberries ready to be washed.

Honestly, never before have we had blueberry pancakes that tasted like this!!! Never!!!

SARIA'S FOREST PARTY

The forest behind the temple gets a lot of good use!

Saria is leaving for the Brussels Belgium Mission and she and her parents threw a little party--well, it was a fantastic grill--for friends last family home evening.

Saria


Someone said this--grilling sausages in the forest--is a genuinely Swiss activity!
"You don't get more Swiss than this!" she said.

PRIMI IM WALD

A digression from the usual:

We happened on the stake Primary presidency, who, with the help of their high council adviser, were conducting an activity day for 36 of the 8-12 year-old children in the Bern stake.

Of course we had to watch!!

They had met at the chapel in Zollikoffen earlier where they divided into two groups. One group went next door to the temple and met with the temple president, President Castellani, while the other had a temple-related presentation at the church. Then they reversed, so all the children had both experiences.

Then they changed clothes and prepared for a short trek into the forest. That's when we found them.

Gathered at the chapel.

Gathering sticks for the fire as they trekked through the forest.

Solemnly preparing his roasting stick . . .

Starting the fire--I couldn't believe it! The boys didn't show any interest and the girls did it!

A big thank you to the stake Primary presidency and high councilor for devoting their time to the children today!!!

PRAGUE

In Prague, Czech Republic,

we gave a fireside at a conference for YSA in the eastern European countries.

The wonderful young people received us graciously,

and we were impressed with their commitment to their, for most of them,

newly-found faith.

The warm-up

A knight in shining armour joined us at the talent show after the fireside.

Waiting for the plane we saw a quick glimpse of Prague

The Moldau!