Week of 2 May 2010:

In Geneva, if we didn't already know where we were going, we'd be lost








We can (and will) be replaced: Sunday, we drove up to Renens to meet Br Crisinel, the former bishop of that ward, who with his wife has been called to be the institute director and, after we leave, the Center director also. Monday, much of the day was spent preparing materials to share with Br Crisinel so that he can learn what kinds of things we do in Yverdon at the Center for young adults. Tuesday, we again went to Yverdon to “open the center.” We arrived just before the Buhlmann family, who had come for the setting apart of their son Jean-Denis for his mission to Toulouse. Br Crisinel arrived around 8 pm for a meeting of the Stake High Council, and was able to visit with us for before it started. He seemed a bit overwhelmed with the various documents we shared, so we withheld the list of 20 or so things we actually do each week/month. His back problems and his work schedule will not allow him to do all the things we do, especially the meals and the Thursday family home evening.




It's not a fire; those are just very low clouds over Ferney-Voltaire




Tell me if these clouds don't seem to be getting a little TOO friendly




After age 39, who counts birthdays anymore? Wednesday was Dede’s birthday. Because of the preparations we needed for Thursday’s young adult dinner and Friday’s treat for them, we decided to wait until Saturday to celebrate. After French class, it was highly satisfying to finish the monthly YSA report and send it off to Frankfurt and the other 4 people on the distribution list before we went grocery shopping. We also took a few hours to help Sister Oswald prepare her father’s name for temple work.





Sister Oswald's elevator will hold 4 people - but only if 3 of them are dwarfs







Meanwhile, an email had come from Fr Passeraub indicating he wouldn’t be able to teach the Institute class on Friday and asking if we could – 75 minutes in French! Consequently, while Dede began the cooking – stroganoff and Russian Borscht soup – I found the Book of Mormon student manual and downloaded and then read the 15 pages of the English component from the Church’s website. Around 8 pm, our doorbell rang; Sister Jones was delivering a 3-orchid bouquet for Dede’s birthday. Later that night, around midnight, I composed an email to Elder Doyle offering him the amazing opportunity to interact with the special young adults of the 3-lakes region by teaching them this Friday. Thursday, we chopped beets, carrots, potatoes, and the boiled beef rib for the Russian soup, cooked noodles and baked fondant. Around 5 pm, we headed back to Yverdon with our goodies. We arrived in time to buy butter and a baguette to complement the stroganoff and borscht soup dinner before I headed up the mountain toward St Croix to pick up Anthony, who would teach the family home evening lesson.

Wee miracles still count, and guys sew dolls: Around 2 pm Friday, we realized that we didn’t have sufficient cream cheese to make cheesecakes for the expected 30 young adults. A little miracle was that we were able to drive to the Migros grocery store at the airport and find the extra cream cheese and a can of cherries for topping that we could mix with a can of cherry pie filling, but perhaps more importantly, we were able to find a roll of 32 butter cookies exactly the right size to fit the 3-inch diameter aluminum forms we’d bought on Wednesday. And the whole excursion took only 30 minutes, allowing time to finish the baking before we had to pick up the Doyle’s at 5:15. We wondered a bit how to transport all the cheesecakes without their sliding around in the trunk of the car. A tender mercy was finding that a cardboard box I’d brought up to begin packing things to send home – exactly held the cookie sheets on which 15 cheesecakes had been baked – with just enough room on the sides for our fingers to lower the trays into the box. Elder Doyle’s lesson was excellent. He had put a list of perhaps 20 scriptural passages for the lesson on the board, and then he handed out slips of paper with corresponding individual references that he asked class members to examine and identify key words or short phrases. After members of the class put their key words on the board and then read their passages, he invited discussion from the class about applying the principles covered. His great sense of humor also had the class laughing much of the time. After class, the activity was to finish the doll-making project for children who were hospitalized for serious surgery. The guys sewed heads onto their little dolls and even painted the faces. As things were winding down – around 10:30 pm, I went around with the trays of cheesecakes Dede had prepared during classes – each topped with 3 cherries in the tangy pie filling. The kids loved them!




Our visit to the chocolate factory was terrific - check out the smilebox below


There is now no doubt that Switzerland is the land of cheese and chocolate: Saturday was a special day for us also. We went with the Doyles to visit the Cailler chocolate factory near Gruyere, Switzerland. We entered the first room, the doors closed, and the floor began to lower slowly, just like at Disney World’s “Haunted House” attraction. Part of the wall then opened to allow us to enter the next room, where a South American jungle scene appeared, with a 5-foot figure mounted on one wall representing the Toltec god Quetzalcoatl. Different parts of the room were sequentially lighted to emphasize different parts of the story about the origins of chocolate and the Spanish conquest. The following room looked like the inside of a Spanish sailing ship from the 1500’s which carried the cocoa beans to Europe. Another room featured King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Portugal, and subsequent rooms told more of the story, including information about men such as Henri Nestlé and Mr. Caillier, who in the late 1800’s developed the manufacturing processes that would allow the combination of milk and chocolate to produce the wonderful things we enjoy today. Eventually, we moved to see the actual factory. In a passageway where people were invited to write their comments on pieces of paper and post them on the wall, we stopped to take pictures of the factory’s interior. A man stepped up and asked if we’d like him to take a picture of the four of us. In our conversation, we learned he was the factory manager himself. The best part, of course, was the tasting room, where we were free to sample each of the kinds of chocolate they specialize in making – and to eat as much of each type as we’d like. This became our lunch for the day. It was glorious. And this whole experience (other than the chocolate we purchased) only cost us 8 francs each. We then drove thru the town of Broc and took pictures of the ancient church and bridge, with the Alps and the castle of Gruyere in the background, before arriving at the cheese factory.



The cheese factory was also a treat - finish looking at the smilebox pictures - they're less cheesy

Dede had wanted to tour this facility, and on two previous trips, we’d thought about it, but I’d been reluctant to spend the 14 francs each, especially since I don’t particularly like the strong flavor of this brand of cheese. But since this trip was to celebrate her birthday, we 4 would go ahead. When we asked the Dirndl-clad young lady at the front desk, she said that because today was the 10th anniversary of the new factory, and the day for the “Cheese Foundation” convention, the tours were free! We learned some interesting things about cows, milk and cheese production (for example that a cow gives up to 25 liters of milk per day – with a morning and an evening milking; that a cow consumes about 100 kg of grass/hay each day, and drinks 85 liters of water, and that each 35-kg cheese round (77 lbs) is aged for up to 6 months in a controlled atmosphere). The facts were interesting, but the tour itself couldn’t compare with the one we’d just had at the chocolate factory – and they had no free samples, either. Nevertheless, with the money we’d saved from the free tour, we ate dinner in their restaurant, while listening to music from the convention in the adjoining tent and watching the conventioneers in their Swiss jackets with a green and red sash, each with a 4” metal image of the Gruyere crane near its point. Elder Doyle and I each had a ham and Gruyere cheese sandwich with a salad; Sister Doyle had French onion soup with Gruyere cheese, and Dede had a salad with three kinds of Gruyere cheese (different ages and with different extents of salting). Dessert was a ball of apricot and a ball of pistachio ice cream. As we left for home, a soft rain began to fall, just as had been predicted, exactly at 7 pm. Dede felt she’d had a wonderful birthday celebration. Please check out the 7-minute smilebox, with music even. Credits to Elder Doyle: he created it and we slipped in a few extra pictures.

This photo slideshow customized with Smilebox