April 23rd, 1963

 Date: 4-23-1963

Been with my companions 4 days now. I think he is back sliding. He has 6 days left on his mission. I have been going to German classes each morning now with my other three companions from the mission home. Then in the afternoon I am supposed to go out with my companion and do some tracting, however, we have only visited referrals and tried to follow up on old appointments.

Yesterday, the whole town was out for a parade. Each year at this time, the people come together to celebrate the passing of winter and the coming of spring. They place a snow man on top of a huge wood pile. All the tradesmen in the town dress alike and parade with bands representing some of them; they finally end up parading in a circle around the pile of wood with the snowman. One of the groups in the parade represented the fisherman and occasionally they would throw a fish into the crowd and create a little havoc. Most of Zürich goes out to see the parade.