Bern Switzerland Temple

Last week we were able to go to the temple in Bern, Switzerland.  A youth group from our District went and we were asked to accompany them.  We got permission from our Mission President since the temple is out of our mission.  We went with the Rossi's who were going to work in the temple for the week.  The drive to Switzerland was absolutely beautiful.  Switzerland has four official languages - German, French, Italian and Swiss.  In the temple we heard all of those languages and English and Spanish.  I thought it would be confusing like the tower of Babel.  But instead there was order, peace and a wonderful spirit of brotherhood. It was an amazing experience.

 With Brother and Sister Rossi at Simplon Pass in the Alps.

 A huge eagle statue at Simplon Pass.

 This temple was built in 1955.  The little town of Zollikofen, just outside of Bern, was not happy that the Church was building the temple there.  There was a petition signed by many of the residents protesting it because they thought it would ruin their little town.  It was discovered that the site was not actually in Zollikofen but in another suburb of Bern and that little community had no problem with the construction of the temple.  Once the temple was completed and they saw how beautiful it was, Zollikofen has claimed it as one of their tourist attractions.

 Sorella Jefferies was able to attend 13 sessions and Anziano attended 10 sessions and 3 baptismal sessions.

 On Thursday we were assigned to spend some time with the youth group so we played games with them in a park close to the temple.  They enjoyed making a pyramid.

 Sorella Jefferies liked this unique merry-go-round.

 We ate lunch with them in the basement of the guest house.

 One of the temple workers in the temple stopped me in the lobby of the temple and asked me if I had ever been on a mission in Bari.  I looked at his name tag and saw that his name tag said Antonio Petroni.  When I was a young missionary in Bari, Italy,  Antonio was a single, 22 year old member of the Bari Branch.  He and his wife work in the Swiss Temple every summer.  We spent the evening together talking about the members and missionaries from Bari.

 One afternoon we took the train into Bern, which is the national capital of Switzerland.  This is one of the clock towers in the city.

 This is one of the many banks in the city.

 This is the Swiss Parliament building.

 In an outdoor market we ordered a ham and cheese crepe.

 It was really good.

 My companion liked it too.

 This shop had some mighty fine desserts.

 This apple fritter type thing was to die for.

 This apple turnover was also very good.

 The trip back to Italy took us through some beautiful valleys.

 We rode on two trains going back to Italy.

 You drive your car onto a train and it takes you through a tunnel.

 Looking over Brother Rossi's shoulder.  Going through these tunnels saves quite a bit of time.

Near the border of Switzerland and Italy.