Week of 27 September 2009

Marriage can involve a happy triangle: Sunday’s testimonies in Rive Gauche Ward were continuous and spiritual. Tears almost came to my eyes, even when I didn’t understand much of the Spanish. I didn’t understand a whole lot of Fr Gillet’s testimony in French either, but still it was good to be there. In the Geneva Ward Sunday School, it was a blessing at how well the lesson on eternal marriage went. We reviewed the scripture in Matthew 19:3-8, where the Savior told how that divorce came later in history, but that from the beginning, “it was not so.” We also considered how man can “put a marriage asunder” both physically by divorce, but also spiritually, by denying the possibility of an eternal marriage. We noted the need for proper authority, and the requirement for marriage to qualify for exaltation. To help see how we could work to make a marriage become worthy of eternity, I asked Elder Hanson to come up, and then Elder & Sister Doyle. I positioned the Doyles at equal distance from each other and from Elder H, who had his back to the class. I then had Sister D take a couple steps forward, where she came closer to Elder H (representing the Lord), but stayed about the same distance from her husband. Then when Elder D came forward towards Elder H, husband and wife were both closer to each other because they had come closer to the Savior. In Monday’s interview with President Murdock, we were really impressed when he suggested we “go slowly, conservatively, and perhaps one afternoon a week, put out a sign on the fence at Yverdon to the effect that “If you’d like to be happy, step inside for a chat” or “if you want to know the purpose for life, come on in for cookies and some conversation.” He also suggested that since there is a university in Lausanne, we might check with Sabrina and Eric to learn their impressions regarding what we might do – perhaps even consider renting some space that might draw people in. We were really impressed that he’d come up with two ideas, even within minutes, while we’ve been puzzling for weeks. After district meeting and lunch with the Gex elders and the Rive Gauche Sister missionaries on Tuesday, we went down to Lake Geneva so Dede could get some pictures of the flowers and shrubbery

It sure looks like Swiss chard

(it seemed that Swiss chard had been planted as part of the floral decorations). She was gone for more than an hour, and I had become mildly concerned, but when I finally left the car (parked in an illegal spot), I saw her coming up the walkway. She had been out to the lighthouse on the jetty, and she had taken some hundred or so pictures.

An early fall dip in Lake Geneva

Edenics, anyone? Thursday’s major event was dinner with the Aedo family. By day he is a computer tech person, but during his mission to Montreal he became intrigued with the possibility that native Peruvian languages might be derived from Hebrew (or Nephite). He found numerous similarities, and recently has worked with a Jewish fellow (Isaac Mozeson) in a language exploration project called “Edenic.” The premise is that prior to the Tower of Babel, there was a single language (which premise would even be acceptable to evolutionists who claim we all had a common progenitor, “Eve”), and that the original language was so flexible that it could be rapidly modified, as happened following Babel. In the “Edenic” language, as in Hebrew, the letters of the alphabet represent the shape of parts of the mouth and throat involved in making the sounds of each character. Dede is not sure how their theories would be accommodated using the rules of historical linguistics, but it was certainly interesting to learn that more than 25,000 words, from probably 80 different languages, share commonalities. A couple of books have raised a storm of controversy: The Word, and The Origin of the Speeches, Intelligent Design in Language, partly because they support biblical religious history, but maybe even more because they use the phrase “Intelligent Design” in referring to the development of speech, which phrase is an anathema to evolutionists. Br Aedo showed us the power point presentation that introduces Edenics (http://edenics.homestead.com/files/fpened.swf), and we had quite an evening of discussion.

It’s hard to beat a chocolate fondue in Switzerland: Friday, after delivering invitations to General Conference and trying again to find some of our families at home to deliver cookies, we headed to Yverdon for a meeting with the Young Adult Advisory Council. Somewhere near the town of Aubonne, there had been a serious traffic accident. Consequently, there was a 51-minute interval where we travelled only 6 km (less than 4 miles). A miracle/tender mercy was our nevertheless arriving in Yverdon at 6:42, with 18 minutes to stop at McDonalds, buy some chicken nuggets and fries using the automated credit card ordering system, eat them in the car, and still get to the chapel with 2 minutes to spare before our 7 pm meeting with Eric, Sabrina, and stake President Maerki. He was happy to approve the suggested agenda of activities for the year. Another special tender mercy was the inspiration that we realized came to Pres Maerki when we presented some of our concerns regarding Frankfurt’s requirements for certification as an official “Center.” He pondered for a moment, then asked Eric first to survey the young adults about their perceptions of a need for a separate YSA FHE and to ask the YSA in the region if they felt it would be helpful to open the chapels – perhaps in Yverdon, Neuchatel, and Lausanne – for certain periods each week where they could bring their friends, or could come to study, etc. After institute classes, the young adults had a chocolate fondue party. All kinds of fruit were available to dip: chopped apples, pears, strawberries, peaches, kiwi, pineapple, plums, bananas, frozen cherries, grapes; even shredded coconut and roasted chestnuts had been furnished.

Eric, Serge, and Sabrina among 32 fondue connoisseurs

Running of the cows in St. Cergue is presumably safer than the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain:

Saturday, we staggered out at 5:30 am for a senior missionary couple outing with President & Sister Murdock. The festival at St. Cergue in the Jura Mountains is called “Desalpe,” and involves the bringing of cattle down from their summer mountain pastures to prepare for wintering in the local farms. The “best” cows get bouquets of flowers to adorn their heads, and all have the rather giant bells around their necks that clang as they come thru the village. We arrived by 8 am, and thus had plenty of time to stroll past various booths set up

Sister Hinman can even withstand the temptations of Swiss pastries

to sell foods, souvenirs, and other mementos, to take pictures of some local citizenry with their alpenhorns, and generally enjoy the festive atmosphere- truly, people seemed to enjoy an opportunity to get together and celebrate something.

So much air is needed to blow these horns, it’s a wonder they can play a song

The cow is muttering: flowers are an irritation, but these bells are driving me deaf

About 8:40, the first of several sets of cattle came down the road thruthe village, herded by men or boys with thin sticks, their bells clanking. We were close enough to reach out and pat some of the cows as they rushed past, and fortunately no one got his or her feet stepped upon. But the spectators did need to be careful where they stepped, since the animals hadn’t had the courtesy to make a rest-stop before running thru town. After the first session of general conference (that ended at 8 pm in Geneva) we got even with the cows by going with three of the senior couples to McDonald’s for a hamburger dinner.