The End....Amen!

The formal end of a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to speak, or give a talk, in Sacrament Meeting to a gathering of family, friends and neighbors.

Randolph LDS Meetinghouse

It was a sweet and humbling exercise to review and then put into words the things we learned about Switzerland, about the Swiss Temple, about other cultures and languages, about ourselves and about each other.

Bern Switzerland Temple

 After the meeting we gathered at the Randolph Town Park for lunch and a chance to visit with our family members, former co-workers and Guest Services Missionaries.

Thank you for journeying with us through word and photos. We will close Our Swiss Mission blog by adapting the words and using the tune to the Primary song "I Love to See the Temple": 

“We lived next to the Temple, we went inside each day. 

Sweet patrons came to serve there, we helped them know the way.

For the Temple is the house of God, a place of love and beauty, 

We'll cherish long and ne'er forget - 

That sweet and sacred duty.”    

Home, Sweet, Home

Dorothy, of Wizard of Oz fame, was right! "There's No Place Like Home". That big bird in the sky delivered safely back into the arms of our sweet family who greeted us at the airport.

Next on the agenda....visits with the children, grandchildren and Beth's mom. 

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Cena con Amici (Dinner with Friends)

 We were honored to have our old friends from the Reggio Calabria Italy Branch join us for dinner. It was a sweet reunion for us. They rode the bus for 25 hours to come for a week at the temple. Amazing, faithful friends!!  

Farewell Party - Lots of Hugs, Lots of Laughs, Lots of Love

 Our temple co-workers gathered at the Temple President's home for a farewell party.

The refreshments afterward turned out to be a delicious selection of dishes shared by our friends from Italy, Germany, and France.

The highlight was a surprise musical number performed by our English Class students. They sang "As I Have Loved You" in English and added a second verse which they personalized just for us. 

We will never forget our co-workers and friends we have come to love over the past year. It has been a privilege to work side-by-side with them in the service of the Lord. They are our "temple family"! We will miss them!!

Final Fotos

   We are a getting a bit snap-happy as we count down our final days in Switzerland. Here are some of the things that we don't want to forget about Switzerland.

 Bumping in to acquaintances at the train station like this sweet and humble couple who come to the temple daily. 

 Visiting cemeteries with grave sites decorated each season by family members.

 Gasping at prices. Product: Mt Dew, 6-pack of 20 oz bottles. Cost: $9.99 

Wondering what goes in to these Swiss-style cold cuts.  

 Wandering and walking in the woods. 

We are so glad that we took LOTS of photos that will help us relive and remember this amazing season of service in Switzerland. 

Say Cheese! - Class Photos

Our missionary grandson, Elder Dallin Sano, serving in the Taiwan Taichung Mission, teaches weekly English classes. 

He shared this photo of his class which inspired us to take a 

similar one of our students to send back to him. 

We hope he gets as much joy from this activity as we do! Our students (all native French speakers) teach us much more than we could ever teach them. We will miss them tremendously and will always treasure the times we shared!!   

Last Hurrah in Switzerland

We used our last Train Day Pass to travel to "Heidi" country in the Swiss Alps. It was a wonderful "icing on the cake" of our time in this beautiful country.

A tram took us to the traffic-free resort town of Mürren with origins from 1384. Lovely chalets, rustic hotels, and old-timers with walking sticks make this a really nice town to visit.

From Mürren, we took a long, smell-the-cows-and-goats, hear-their-bells, stroll downhill to the quiet farm village of Gimmelwald where we saw farmers hand raking their hay onto the tractor, visited two un-manned "honesty" shops.

From Gimmelwald we took the tram down to the Lauterbrunnen valley floor. Play this short video and ride along (keep watching to get the full impact of the experience). In Lauterbrunnen waterfalls gush out of the sheer cliffs that surround it.

Another train ride took us to Lake Thun where we boarded a boat for a lazy two-hour boat cruise. It was the perfect way to end our perfect day!! Switzerland is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y breathtaking....from top to bottom, from nord to sud and from ost to west!!

It's tough to choose a favorite!

The Swiss Temple can't take a bad picture! The sky knows just what to do to show it off! We have enjoyed capturing it in all its splendor in all four seasons of the year we have lived next door to it.
We love to see the temple!! 

Quirky Finds in Bern

Sometimes it pays to get off the beaten path. Never know what you might find!!   

A squash plant growing out of a shopping cart. Who'd have thunk it?!  The clever gardener placed a sack of garden soil in the cart, broke it open and planted the squash. So cute!!  

This charming moss-covered old wooden chair is tucked into a plant filled corner garden. What a unique eye-catcher. The secret ingredient (humidity) is one that we are shy of at home in Utah. We love finding the unusual in unlikely places!  

Finding "Beethoven"

In Salt Lake City you can find decorated buffalo statues all around town. Well here they do the same thing but with St. Bernards dogs.  

It makes sense to see them here because these dogs got their name from working as rescue dogs at the Saint Bernard Pass in the Western Alps on the Swiss-Italian border.

We have enjoyed collecting pictures of these cute, sad-eyed "Beethoven" dog statues. We will keep hunting for them during our few remaining Swiss outings.

Swiss Summer Fun

The mouth-wash blue Aare River winds it way into Bern from the Alps and is a playground for the Swiss on hot summer days. We have been fascinated with this beautiful river since we arrived last Fall.

We were determined to see where and how the people of Bern enjoy the river. We figured out how to get to it and then learned that the Bernese swim, river surf, raft, paddle board, and tube in its cool, clear water and walk and bike the trails that border it. 

The river flows swiftly with a strong current and is only for experienced swimmers. We loved this message that we saw painted on the trail next to the river! It can be dangerous and there are designated places for getting in and out and there are parts of the river that too dangerous and are off limits.

Right in the heart of Bern, in the shadow of the Parliament Building (which you can see in the background) is the public swimming complex which is a great place to exit the river and then take advantage of the pools (there are four of them), showers, lots of lockers, W.C.s, changing rooms, lawn for sunning, trees for shade, playgrounds, picnic areas, snack bars, etc. The really great part of this complex is the cost....it is FREE!!! The Swiss really know how to have fun in the summer!