Busy weekends

September has been a busy month and we are all looking forward to life slowing down a bit. One weekend was spent with members of our stake going on a hike together. Our motto for the year was "Unsere Berge bezwingen" which means to overcome our personal "mountains", or in other words to attempt overcome some of our chosen traits or weaknesses. As a crowning event for our work we joined together as a group of saints to literally climb a mountain, the Ebenalp. We met in Wasserauen in Appenzell Innerhoden at 9.00 am and set off in single line to climb the 768m to Ebenalp.

It wasn't very easy to walk in single line especially as people were stopping to take photos (I only took mine when we had come to a halt - sorry for the blurry ones ;) ) so after about 20 minutes the hubster and I started to overtake people to get to the front. After that it got a lot easier :)

As we climbed out of the forest the weather was rather foggy but we hoped that by the time we reached the summit that it would have cleared up.......

 

No, this is not blurry - it's fog! And by the time we got the the top we were sweaty and hot and in no time at all we were freezing our butts off.

 We took refuge in the building where the cable car reached the summit and it was full of mormons eating their lunch on the floor!

Daniel was so cold I asked him if he wanted to wrap himself in the blanket - he did :)

 After our singing and dedicatory prayer the clouds and fog started to lift......

 

Looking down on to Seealpsee. Isn't that green just breathtaking?

The hubster and I took a different way down  - a longer way, of course so it was just the two of us. Jordan went with his group of friends and Daniel didn't want to walk down so he went down in the cable car with Krystyna. We arrived back down in Wasserauen just after 4pm - tired but happy.

The weekend after this one found us in Zürich for a special conference with Elder M Russell Ballard. The spirit was strong and we came away uplifted. Elder Ballard's talk about staying close to the whisperings of the holy ghost touched our souls and we have been trying to follow this wise counsel. The hubster tried this out on Sunday afternoon as he felt that he should come with me to visit a sister I visit and teach who is currently in hospital. While we were there she asked for a blessing and he was able to call another priesthood holder to come and assist him in giving this dear sister a much needed blessing. He was glad that he listened to the promptings of the spirit.

The following weekend after the conference was our ward temple trip. Every year we travel as a ward by coach to the temple which is 2 hours (by car) in Zollikofen. The primary aged children are tended while the youth participate in baptisms and the adults do a session.  There was a special moment in the celestial room as Renée, Krystyna and I sat together on a sofa holding hands and feeling the bonds of sisterhood and friendship. (Our husbands were all helping out in the baptistry)

For lunch we all drove to a nearby restaurant and were able to eat and chat with friends before loading ourselves back in to the coach for the journey back to St. Gallen

I just love this picture of these young aaronic priesthood holders.....

The day after our temple trip was our ward primary presentation. The children did a great job and we (the primary presidency) got a lot of compliments for it. They sang well and spoke clearly and the sunbeams were just darling. Personally, I am glad its over with and look forward to a few months of "normal primary"

So this was our busy September with October just around the corner. October means General Conference and school holidays and my mum will be flying in on Wednesday for a three week visit. It seems to me that it'll be a good month......

Hugs all,
Becca

Pentecost

The weekend started with beautiful weather. We were having a nice lie-in when at 9 am the phone rang. Even though the person on the other end said his name, I didn't register who it was. After two attempts of "who's on the phone?" I realised that it was our friend, Niggi H.!

He and his wife, Sarah and their family also used to live in Münchenstein (they moved away not long after we did) and we were members of the Reinach Branch. Two of their five girls are the same age as Jordan and Daniel and we used to do a lot together.

Anyway back to Niggi - he and his friend Gilbert (who apparantly lives in Münchenstein) were in Heiden (10 km away from us) staying at a hotel and were here in eastern Switzerland for a weekend of mountain biking and wanted to know if they could pop by and say "Hi". Of course, we said yes!

They came, we gave them some refreshments, showed them the house and our lovely view which they were duly impressed with (the view I mean) and after about an hour of chit-chat they left, taking Roland with them. Roland had offered to show them a route that he knows and off the went.

Roland, Niggi & Gilbi

While the hubster was out, Jordan and I went grocery shopping for the weekend and for the bank holiday on Monday. We'd planned to go on a picnic with Renée and Wolfgang and kids so we needed to get some stuff for that.  It was t-shirt weather - finally!!!

I have so much more energy when the weather is nice. 

Sunday was uplifting. The hubster gave a talk about the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting which I thought was really good and I gave sharing time in primary, also about the Holy Ghost! 

It made me realise that I don't pay enough attention to the whisperings of the spirit. I could receive a lot more guidance if I invited Him into my daily life. We, as members of the church, have a wonderful gift available to us and I'm sure we could decrease some heartache if we applied more faith and attenttion to listening to the spirit. I want to improve that part of my life. Why should I take the hard road when there is somebody there willing to guide me to my destination? I'll let you know how I progress.....

A lot of the young single adults were missing at church as they were attending a camp/convention, and Melissa was one of them. I missed her! Krystyna and Curdin went to attend the YSA Sunday meetings (Curdin is our stake pres.) so we took their two youngest boys home with us and fed them. As we all got out of the car I realised that it was 6 boys to 1 girl - me! Where's my Melissa!! I'm soo glad I have at least one girl!

Aaron was with Samuel and Jordan with Elias. The weather, as I mentioned, was great so we decided to have to have the first mini barbecue of the season. Mr D, Jordan and Elias got to work in the garden while I started making the rest of the food.

Jordan lighting up

The hubster and Jordan

Elias and Jordan

Our marinated meat - it looked disgusting -  but was actually really tasty

For me, the highlight of the day was sitting outside in the garden with Roland. The kids were all busy and it was just the two of us. I really love one-on-one time together where we can just talk. We celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary on the 20th and we didn't get to go out and really celebrate it, so the time spent in the garden together kind of made up for that. In his talk he said the best thing he'd ever done was marry me; wasn't that really sweet of him?

On Monday we went to Obersee in Näfels (Glarus) with friends of ours. They were minus one (Eric) and we were minus two (Melissa and Aaron). Aaron decided not to come with us but spend the day with Samuel and Eric instead. At the moment, our family activities are only with two of our four children. I guess that is part of them growing up and leaving, although I must say I don't like it! It's happening far too quickly!

Anway......we made the hour drive to Obersee and were greeted with fantastic views of the lake and mountains. Why anybody would want to leave this country, I don't know!

The lake wasn't overly large and the signs told us that it would take 90 minutes to walk around. Well, we were in no hurry......

We stopped off in two places - once to make a fire and barbecue our sausages and meat and secondly to let the kids swim in the lake. We spent a lovely afternoon there and came home feeling rather lazy and a little sunburnt! We had good food, good company and wonderful weather!

 Obersee

A wind-swept me with Renée

There was still a mound of snow on one of the hillsides which attracted the kids like bees to honey.

 Joel, Jordan, Noemi and me

Me, Renée, Noemi, Jordan, Wolfgang and Honey, the dog

The hubster collecting wood for the fire

Jordan cutting a stick to be able to grill his sausage with

Our humble fire

Jordan playing with the fire when he knows he shouldn't ....tut tut Jordan!!

Daniel, Joel and Jordan freezing their butts off!

The view from where the kids were swimming

The view on through the valley

Jordan with a wise old man....

Well that was our weekend! It was busy but good. Now everyone is back to school and work. Melissa is happy as she now has a new boyfriend (they got together over the weekend) so she is on cloud 9!

Have a lovely week!

Hugs all,

Rebecca