Saturday we got some new neighbors. They are beautiful, gorgeous, white cows that now live in the meadow behind our house. It was so fun to wake up in the morning and hear their mooing. The only disappointing thing is that they aren't wearing any cowbells, so there is no beautiful tinkling to go along with the mooing. And no, this isn't a sarcastic post, Chris and I both really love the sound of cowbells and mooing outside our window. It is just so Swiss!
Anyway, we hope the cows stay for a long time. We had horses back there for a while, and that was also fun to watch them out the window. But like I said, cows are just more melodic than an occasional whinny. I was able to get a couple on camera, although they are a bit far away.
Sunday there was a celebration at the Zurich Stake Center for the 40th anniversary of it's dedication. It is rather unique, in that it is the only Stake Center in german speaking Switzerland, and perhaps in the whole country. (I am not sure about the french side, can anyone help me out?) Christian Graub, a member of a ward, wrote up a very nice history of the struggle to find meeting places in Zurich, and then interviewed a few of the members who worked on the building and included his own personal connection to the building. Our Stake center was built on the tail end of the Building Missionary time, so some of it was done by church volunteers, some of it by the building missionaries, and some by an actual construction company.
The program was from 5 to 6:30 in the evening, and the girls were going to sing in the children's choir, and I had signed up to bring food for the buffet afterwards. As we were getting ready to go, Noah decided he really wanted to come, so just Chris and Nicholas stayed home. All I can say is, they missed out. They had some nice talks by people who worked on the building, and some reminiscing by former Stake Relief Society presidents and Stake Presidents. There was also a little powerpoint display set to church hymns put together of the construction of the Stake center using lots of old photographs. President Benson came to the ground breaking! There were two additional musical numbers, one of which the girls sang in, and everyone did a marvelous job.
It wasn't just people singing, oh no. We had two violions, two xylophones, two recorders, two flutes, a trumpet and a harp accompanying the piano and choir. About two bars into the first musical number, both girls turned to me and said "This is so pretty!" Then all three kids sat completely still, mesmerized by the music. They were actually very well behaved, considering it was basically a second really long sacrament meeting. The program said it would be over at 6:30, but it didn't actually end until 7:15, and then there was the buffet afterwards. We did have our own intermission about halfway through, where I snuck the kids some of the sandwiches I had brought for the buffet and got them a drink. But then they were able to sit through the rest of it quite nicely.
I thought it was important to go, as this building already has so many happy memories for us as well. All the Halloween parties we have attended through the years, the Fasnacht celebrations, Nicky's baptism, the baptisms of lots of friends we have attended, Chris received the Melchezidek Priesthood here, and many more. It is truly a blessing to have your own meetinghouse, one that I never appreciated until moving here, where we meet in rented rooms in a larger business complex. We will get our own meetinghouse in about two years, but still, that is a long ways away, and we will suffer through many more cramped, crowded, hot Sundays before then. A place we can truly call our own will be a great blessing indeed. And one worth celebrating!
