A BEAUTIFUL DAY AT THE TEMPLE

At home we go to the temple once a week, but here, we have attended about once a month. We have really missed the more frequent visits, so, since we can fit it in weekly, we decided to attend once a week.

Today was an especially good day for us, and the sun was shining beautifully as we came out.

We saw a darling young French couple who are dating and thinking about marriage. They were sitting quietly talking and they reminded us of ourselves on the day we got engaged at the Salt Lake Temple grounds.

We asked them to take this picture.

And then on the way home . . .

. . . we saw this beautiful old apple tree in full bloom

and covered with moss. Look carefully and you can see the moss.

Couldn't resist!

OMEGA DISTRICT MEETING

The last district meeting of a transfer is affectionately called "Omega" by the missionaries.

Fitting.

At this one we were saying goodby to just one--our district leader, Elder Knight.

One part of the meeting was watching the panel at a Harvard "Faith Day" event in which Latter-Day Saint Rachel Esplin participated. She was very articulate and was well-prepared to tell how her faith affects her life. Very substantive. Terrific! An example of the great young people in the Church today. (I don't know how other computers would respond, but on ours, if I click on these two pictures they enlarge, so you can see your missionaries better!)

Elder Knight says goodby to us and the Institute Center for Young Adults, maybe for the last time. We sure hate to see him go! We grow to love these missionaries so much!

FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE

Last week the YSAs held their first monthly Friday night dance in our center.

We consider it a success in terms of attendance (50+)

and general atmosphere (party!)

It was intentionally no frills, just get together and have fun without a lot of work.

Our center shares space with the Bern Ward. The chapel is tiled and the chairs are moveable, so they cleared the room for the dancing.

The music was great!

Twister got involvement to begin with . . .

. . . A little dance instruction . . .

. . . And the dancing begins in earnest!

Throw a little fussball into the mix . . .

. . . Check up on friends . . .

. . . Make some new ones . . .

. . . And keep the energy up with food! (Did I say no frills?)

They didn't seem to want to leave,

but these great young people cleaned everything up.

They also put the chapel and center back in order.

Elder Grassli and I got to bed by 2 a.m.

All in all, a great evening . . .

. . .We look forward to more!

Saying goodnight to Anna!

EASTER WEEKEND 2

In Switzerland, Easter weekend starts with Good Friday, when everything is closed and people go to special church services. Saturday is open again, but pretty quiet. Most people are still off work.

Sunday, is of course, Easter services, and everything is closed.

Monday is referred to as Easter Monday. Everything is still closed.

We took advantage of this extra day to go to Basel yesterday and be with Greti.

It has been Elder Grassli's dream ever since leaving Switzerland 50 years ago to see the cherry blossoms again, and we went to a lovely place where they are abundant, and there are walks through the area to enjoy the bounteous white blossoms.

It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day and one of the real highlights of our stay here so far.

Here are some scenes.

The meadow flowers look white but they are a lovely pale pinkish blue.

Resting at the top of the hill before taking the walk back down.

We tried to take our own picture!

The dandelions were thick all over the hilly meadows. Just thick! It was beautiful!

On these days of incredible beauty, I feel that I can hardly take it all in!

I love the beauty in an almost spiritual way.

Sometimes I feel that my mortal body limits my capacity to fully absorb and appreciate it all to the degree equal to the power or magnitude of the beauty.

Maybe our bodies have to be changed somewhat to be equal to the experience, as the prophets have to be changed in order to be able to speak to the Lord, or to angels. Joseph's description of his exhaustion after heavenly visitations may be an example of this.

Maybe one of the blessings of the next life is to be able to have bodies that can more fully experience true beauty.

In the meantime, I will enjoy to the degree I can!

EASTER WEEKEND 1

We began the Easter weekend on Friday by reading in the four gospels the accounts of the last day of Jesus' life. I have also been reading Jesus the Christ, so that was an enhancement and helped me understand more about that time. In the evening we had dinner at the Laueners'. They are the parents of 8 boys, two of whom are still at home and some of our fineYSAs.

But Peter and Ann were home alone on Friday, and prepared a lovely dinner for us. We had a great visit . . .

. . .and a walk to view the wonderful countryside in which they live. A peaceful evening!

Saturday morning we took Sister Susan, left, and Sister Tina, the two Catholic nuns who live next door to us, into the countryside. They don't have a car and seldom get out of the city/apartment. This is Wollensee and it was wonderful on this sunny Saturday morning. They seemed thrilled to be out!

We certainly enjoyed it!

Later that day, Elder Grassli and I went again into the countryside on our own and walked in the forest. The floor of the forest is carpeted everywhere with miniature anemones. It's amazing! The photos don't do it justice.

Sunday we were in Solothurn for Church. When we returned, together we prepared our part of the Family Home Evening group Easter Feast.

The two of us make a pretty good team!

The tablecloths we made months ago from the fabric we had to cut off our apartment curtains to make them fit the windows. The extra place setting is for a less-active who didn't show.

The already-cooked-and-dyed Easter eggs are from the local market. They have been selling them since Christmas! They are really gorgeous saturated colors. I don't know what they do to preserve them.

The moss is fresh from our forest walk the day before! We had a few critters emerge during the dinner, and we had to, ahem, exterminate them!

(Ants, a spider, and a centipede! But no frogs or mice, thank heaven!)
But we had our traditional scripture readings with lamb, garden salad, water, eggs, bread, sweets, and even the napkin in red water/clorox. Anna did salad, the sisters brought the vegetables, and Matthew made his famous pear tart. We filled in with the lamb, potatoes and gravy, and homemade rolls.

With our little FHE family here, it almost felt like home!

Except we missed our Tressa, who had her Easter with our friend Brittany and a Swiss family. See you next week, Tressa!

NEW DISTRICT PHOTO

Here is our latest district photo.

Can you see why we love them?