Week of 27 June 2010:

With the recovery of our camera, Elder Hinman is caught conducting the Tuesday evening's international family home evening in Geneva







Our camera was just hiding, after all: After Saturday’s fall on the ice/slush, I could barely walk, so Dede went to the Geneva 1st Ward sacrament meeting, and I just slept. Amazingly, even after sleeping past 9:30, I still took a couple naps of an hour or more. By 3 pm, however, I felt well enough to go to the Geneva 2nd ward Sacrament meeting (Spanish). Dede drove. Br Miranda asked my help to complete a computerized psychological profile and a series of aptitude tests his boss at work needed him to furnish the next day. So Dede began to straighten our living room when we got home. She moved the mending pile from the sewing machine, and then picked up the sewing kit. As she did so, she felt a slight bulge in a side pocket. On investigating, IT WAS OUR LOST CAMERA!! Somehow, ten days ago at Yverdon, probably as we were about to get out of the car to enter the chapel, she had tossed the camera into the large (grocery-size) doll bags in the back seat (she had brought them to work on the doll faces the young adults hadn’t had time to finish as part of their service project), and instead of just lying loose on top of the dolls, the camera had landed in the pocket of the sewing kit. We had been so busy every day we had planned to go shopping for a replacement camera that we had not been able to do so, and thus we saved many hundreds of dollars (or francs or euros), as well as the hours of time shopping. We also retrieved the extra battery and the memory card with all of our pictures since Rob and Crystal’s visit after Christmas.





In Switzerland, both the houses and the vineyards are well-organized


Summer finally arrives (with a blow torch in her hand): Thursday for the Yverdon family home evening, Sister Crisinel brought 4 homemade pizzas. We feasted on the pizza (ham and onion, ham and cheese, even ham and anchovy – a bit salty) and then enjoyed Dede’s lesson regarding qualities of parenting that we ought to develop even if/when single, since these qualities and skills are things we’ll need to apply throughout eternity. It’s been quite hot outside these past few days. It was cool and mostly overcast or rainy thru much of June, but about the 23 saw temperatures rise into the 80’s. Today it was over 85 – and a bit humid as well. That’s why we made a “tartiflette” for Saturday’s picnic with the senior couples the first thing in the morning – before it got too hot to bake – except that that evening Dede still had the fortitude to bake two batches of cookies for Yverdon YSA whose birthdays come after we finish our mission.

What could beat a picnic in the shade beneath two castles in Sion? Saturday was special in several respects: at 11 am, we attended the baptism of the Ojo family, from Nigeria. Br Dickson Ojo was really enthusiastic, and his wife Joy along with their son Ozak and daughter Princess were also quite happy. After the buffet reception in the cultural hall, we drove home to change clothes and wait for the Doyles and the Hansens. We loaded all our stuff into the Hansen van and headed off past Montrieux and Chillon to the town of Sion, nestled at the far end of Lake Geneva. It was still quite hot out, but the car’s air conditioning worked well. The main features of this town are castle and monastery ruins on adjacent small peaks; the castle shell is named Tourbillon (whirlwind), and the old monastery (from the 11-1200’s) is called Venère.



"Whirlwind" (Tourbillon) is the name of the castle ruin in Sion; maybe that's how it became a ruin?



It was too hot to hike up to Tourbillion, but we were able to park near the base of the monastery/museum and walk up there. A thermometer on a tree in the shade indicated 30 degrees C (86 oF).




Through a square "looking glass" the Hansens wave hello in Sion









We had thought about sitting under a tree for our picnic, but Sister Doyle convinced us that down in the town there would be some parks with lawns and shade trees, and maybe even a fountain. Sure enough, we found a couple of such parks. The picnic was great: Sister Doyle had made chicken salad (she’d cut the seeds out of grapes she split, and cranberries, and the other usual stuff) and brought croissants to stuff with the salad. Sister Hansen had brought a three-bean salad in a sweet-sour vinaigrette, and Dede had made the tartiflette. We feasted royally on a blanket we’d spread out in the shade, with a pleasant breeze blowing and a multi-jet fountain nearby. Just as we finished, around 5 pm, it began to rain. We made it back into the car before the heavy rains hit us. By the time we got back to Geneva, things were dry.





The storm hits just as we leave Sion




That evening, Dede and I went over to Tiffany Dansie’s home in Prevessin that she had just sold (for 1 million euros). There we met a young Chinese woman who seemed interested in learning more about the church. We told her we’d make sure she received a copy of the Book of Mormon, a copy of which we still “happened” to have – since Dawn (our upstairs neighbor) had said that she and her mother only needed one copy themselves. About half way through the hamburger and sausage, we remembered that the next day was fast Sunday – and we decided to fast in gratitude for our having found our camera (and the Lord’s having kept us so busy we hadn’t had time to go shopping for a replacement) and for the Yverdon family home evening situation that will need to be resolved, hopefully before we leave.