December 3rd, 1963

   Date: 12-3-63

We have been really having some good turn outs to church here. The last two Sundays we haven't had enough Charis. It really is a "mix-mash" of people. For example this last Sunday we had people there from three different national backgrounds besides us: Italians, Swiss Germans, and Americans.

The service was consequently held in three languages. The opening remarks were in Italian, German, and English. The opening song was in Italian. The sacrament was done in German because most of the members understood German. The talks were in Italian and the closing song was in Italian. It is really cosmopolitan. The American group is mostly the kids from the post graduate school in Lugano. The Italians and Germans are people that we have met tracting in treno. The English/Italian class we have here is really something GROWING! Last week some of the girls from the American School came down so we broke the people up into two groups. We taught the Italians English and the Americans Italian. After about an hour of separate study, we brought them together to practice what they had learned. We sat everyone down in a circle. To warm them up and put everyone at ease we played a few games. The Italian boys were kind of anxious. Then we had everyone introduce the people sitting next to them in the others language. it worked out real well.

Tracting this last week we met an interesting character. We tracted out his house in German. He invited us in, old man, and asked us what church we were from. We told him from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then he said, "well, why didn't you say so. 'The Mormons'" After a little bit of conversation we discovered he was from Salt Lake City and had been on a mission to Greece in 1906. He had translated the Book of Mormon in to Greek. We invited him and his wife out to church the next Sunday. They came even though his wife isn't a member she came also. Life is full of all kinds of surprises! But I'm a little skeptical of this man's derogatory character. He has aid of few things that were dero.