Argh! This is what happens when you let yourself get too far behind on your blog! You forget important stuff, and then the chronological order is all screwed up. Which I know is only important to me, but it really does bug.
Anyway, on March 6 we attended the groundbreaking for the new chapel in Bonstetten. Ever since we moved to Switzerland, our ward has been meeting in rented rooms in an office building. The "chapel" is always packed, so much so that they finally installed a camera in there, which feeds into the Primary room. It used to feed into the Relief Society room, but that could only fit about 3 families, and basically, a good third of the ward can't fit into the area used as the chapel. We have to have Sunday School and Primary classes in a different part of the building, using classrooms belonging to the business school housed there. It is not ideal by any means.
And we have only been here 9 years. The ward hasn't had a permanent meeting house since it's inception 50 years ago! But finally, FINALLY! we will have a beautiful ward building just for us, and only one town over from where we live. I have already told Nick that when it is finished he will be 13, and during most of the year he can ride his bike through the forest to Young Men's. 🙂
The morning of the groundbreaking there was a huge blizzard. Big fat flakes, lots of wind, and bitter cold all combined to make us fear that no one would show up. Apparently, freak Mormons can still attract quite a crowd, and by the time we pulled up, there was a large group of mostly non-members huddled together against the cold.
I tried to get a picture, but it was so cold, the camera kept freezing. this was all I could get. It was really snowing that hard! There was a choir that sang, a few short talks, and then they passed out the pretty golden shovels decorated with flowers. The ground was so frozen, they were basically shoveling snow, not dirt, but one determined man from our ward, managed, after 20 minutes of hard pounding to make a small dent in the ground. The flowers, of course, had long since fallen off his shovel, due to the beating the shovel was taking, but we applauded his efforts.
Chris was invited to be in the second group of men that took a turn with the shovels. He held Alexandra in his arms and made a token motion with the shovel. Just then a photographer snapped a photo for the local paper, and that is the picture that ended up in print. Now everyone in the family but me is "famous".
They had refreshments in the parking garage of the neighboring apartment building, but our kids were so cold by this time, that we just left our muffins and went home. It took us a good hour of being home, under blankets to feel truly warm again. But it was a truly historical moment and I am glad we could be a part of it.