Today is 2 Feb 2009.

Hello All,

It's 2:30 p.m. Our computer is working well (better than it was yesterday) and it's Monday (Temple is closed), and here we are, happy as can be!

This morning there were 3 inches on snow on the ground. I took our newbies, Bro. Clair (and Sis. Joyce) Christiansen, who used to be a stake president in Granger, down the street to the bakery where we buy bread and quiche at half-price. As explained earlier, I hope, the bakery produces bread for a chain of stores through Switzerland, but allows neighbors of the bakery to buy bread at half price if we get there between 8 and 11 a.m. So all the senior missionaries go there to buy bread. I spent 14 CHF (that's the abbreviation for Swiss francs) today, for enough bread and quiche for the week, and which would have cost $27 (full price) if we had bought it in a regular store.

As we walked there, about ¼ mile, I interrogated him (oh,. . . well, . . . I just asked a few questions, that's all) like “So I'll bet you've been a bishop or patriarch or stake president.” “Well, yes, all three.” So here I am showing this guy with lots of church experience behind him, who could easily be a temple president, how to buy bread in Switzerland! If you have little language. . . and they've done 2 months of language training in the MTC, it can be tough, and he recognizes that. So I helped him out. Of course we both bragged to each other about our kids and their families. Then Alice and I took him and his wife to “ShoppyLand,” a big mall, where there's a combined grocery and other-things store, called Migros. They bought lots of stuff, and even wanted a crock-pot. We couldn't find them one, but maybe in a few days they'll buy a substitute they found. It was amazing to me how many “American” things they wanted: aluminum foil, toilet bowl cleaner, minute rice, etc. etc. They did find the foil and the cleaner, but the rice they found was “10-15 minute” rice, and you could see Joyce was disappointed. “I wish they had a Walmart here,” she said at one point. Weelll... Switzerland (and the rest of Europe) surely DO NOT Walmart here, even though Walmart would LOVE to get in here. Culture, culture, culture differences! (That is, lots of little things that are different in Europe than in the US.)

This afternoon, I'm supposed to help an Italian get some photos in town (and he knows his lack of German will make it a challenge for him!)

Gotta tell you about yesterday, at Church. For the past two Sundays, in the morning, I've gone to the German ward located next to the temple. Then, in the afternoon, both Alice and I go, with our French compatriots, the temple workers, to Bienne, 30 kilometers west of here, to the French branch that meets in that bilingual town. Alice played piano in Rel. Soc. She says R.S. was good. There was an absolutely wonderful Priesthood meeting! Sunday School was pretty good. Testimony mtg. was wonderful. One lady told the story of her conversion (which I felt was entirely appropriate!). It sounded like her husband (who is also a temple worker now) made quite a change in his life. And then the French counselor in the presidency told a couple of experiences. (BTW, the Temple pres. is Italian, and I hope to get a photo of him and everyone else here soon. One counselor, Bro. Savian, is a German and French speaking Italian, and we're in his group of workers. The other counselor is French and his group is French too; his name is Bro. Brouillet).

Anyway, Bro. Brouillet said that Sat. night he received a phone call from the police in Zollikofen. The alarm in the temple had gone off, and it is connected to the police station, so they sent two cops up here to check things out. They were able to call Bro. Brouillet, who met them in front of the temple. It seems an American and two Italians had taken too long to get out of the temple, and it had gotten locked up with them in it. All the lights were off, and it was pitch black. They found a phone and tried to call, but it didn't work (I still don't know why, and I'm not sure others know why either). I guess the alarm went off when they tried to get out of the temple.
Anyway, as the cops come to the temple, Bro. Brouillet said that he was very sorry that the alarm had sounded at the police station, and that in order to turn off the alarm, they needed to go to the Engineers' Room (all the electronic equipment in the temple is controlled from a room in the basement of the chapel) (which helps to explain why temples are often built near chapels, especially in foreign countries). Bro. Brouillet started to walk across the grass, and the cops asked if it would be O.K. for them to walk on the grass. “We know that this is a religious building,” they said, “and we don't want to do something that we should not do.”

Bro. Brouillet was obviously touched by this show of respect, and we at the testimony meeting were touched too. This goes to show, he said, that by our being kind, respectful, good citizens, etc., we *can * have a good influence on those who know only very little about us. The “problem” of whether the cops would go inside the temple was apparently never even a question, apparently, because so many precautions have been taken to avoid that. But Bro. Brouillet wanted us to know, first and foremost, how good influences of members and the “good rumors” that go around had resulted in the cops asking what few cops would probably ask “Are we allowed to go there or to do that?”

These temple workers are truly wonderful people! And especially the leaders. We feel like they are General Authority quality! I'll try to write a little more this evening.

Luv,
Dad/Gerry