Swiss Temple in Zollikofen

One of the highlights of September was our trip to Zollikofen Switzerland to accompany Jessica Cigni to the temple there.  Jessica is a member of our branch in Ancona and has been planning and preparing for some time to go to the temple.  Since there have been delays in the Italy Temple, plans were made to go to the Swiss Temple.   It is out of our mission so we received special permission to accompany her.  It was a long trip on the train (12 hours) but well worth the effort.

It was definitely a more relaxing trip on the train than driving all the way to Switzerland.

 This is Milano Centrale, a very busy train station where we made connections.

I love the arched hallways.

We stayed in the temple hostel near the temple.  It wasn't the ritz but it fit the bill for a place near and convenient.

There is a common kitchen and dining area in the hostel for the patrons to use while they are staying for the week.  It is an expensive trip, so when members come they have to make it worth while by staying a good share of the week.

We shared the space with members speaking French, German and Italian.  It was so interesting and fun watching everyone prepare their meals and enjoying each others' company.

Some bring the entire family so all can benefit.  The young couples take turns going to the temple and staying with their children.

We took advantage of every minute by doing as much as we could in the 3 days spent there.  We traveled on Monday, attended Tues, Wed  Thurs, and traveled home on Friday.

 The four languages that we encountered there were German, French, English and Italian.  It was amazing how smoothly it all went even in the temple with all of those languages.

We truly were in Switzerland

 Traveling through the Swiss Alps was an amazing sight.

This wouldn't be complete without a picture of the temple at night.  Beautiful!

An added surprise in September was a short visit from our son, Curtis, and one of his co-workers, who were on their way to Germany for a work conference.  Due to flight prices, they stayed for a whole week, so that meant that they had a couple of extra days.  So why not throw in a trip through Italy?  They arrived on a Saturday evening so gelato was in order.

We also had a bit of time on Sunday before their train to take a quick trip to Loretto.  I've posted about it before but here it is again.  It's a place of great importance and pilgrimage.  The house of the Virgin Mary is enclosed in the cathedral.

It was a short visit but much enjoyed.

Also in September the Relief Society had a hike/picnic at the Parco del Cardeto.  We had to do a bit of walking to get to the park as it is on a high hill overlooking Ancona.

Once at the top we had a great view of the sea and part of the city.

Here are the sisters and Samuelito with his mother.  We had good food but most of all good friendly conversation enjoying each other's company. In the background is the old lighthouse.

We stayed until sunset and what a beautiful sight it was.

It doesn't get much better than this.

On the way out we also were able to get a picture of the current lighthouse all lit up.

One day while sitting in church I noticed that the back of the chair in front of me had a little dust on it so I gave it the finger test.  Sure enough.  They needed to be cleaned.

The bottoms were worse than the backs so as Young Women we went to work.  Kimberly also enlisted the help of Francesca.  

Many hands make light work.

Kimberly reminded us that it was a service project.