Our Whirlwind Trip to Switzerland

In the last part of June our FamilySearch office was trying to upgrade the computers in several Family History Centers (FHCs) in Switzerland. We, Elder and Sister Howlett, had already done six of them in Austria in May and were supposed to have completed six in Switzerland the same trip. However, as told before, the Dell computers that were supposed to arrive in St. Gallen, Switzerland, did not arrive.

Chapel in St. Gallen Switzerland

We had to go home from that trip early. Our director, Bengt Svedjot, found out that the Swiss Dell Computer Company decided not to grant the church the previous status of a reliable business customer thus enabling the computers to be paid for after arrival. Bengt was very disgusted with the company for doing that. It was a very bad business action, so he cancelled our order with Dell Switzerland and ordered six Lenovo computers instead. We finally got word the Lenovo computers would arrive in Switzerland on the 8th of August, so Elder and Sister Howlett planned to go there on Monday, August 12th. It would be our last job before going home to America.
The week before we left to go do the job in Switzerland, Bengt Svedjot got word that Dell Switzerland was still going to send us the six computers we had ordered. Rather than get angry at them, Bengt decided that when these computers would be delivered to St. Gallen by the end of July, Elder and Sister Halliday, who were being trained to be the our replacements there in the office, would go down to Switzerland and complete the setting up and delivering of these last six computers to other FHCs that needed new computers.

Before we could go, however, we needed to attend the annual birthday party of our landlord, Wilhelm Shäfer on 11 August.



Wilhelm Shäfer's family. Herr Shäfer is in the middle.

He had reminded us of his party at least 15 times. It was a party he really looked forward to all year and wanted our whole office to come. It turned out that 7 or 8 of our office members made it, though all of our directors were already on vacation. Herr Shäfer loves to give parties, especially on his birthday and as usual, it was a very nice party with lots of good food and socializing.

The next morning we left very early for Switzerland and made it to the St. Gallen chapel just after Noon, where we would be working on the six computers to reconfigure and install FamilySearch software, etc. on them.


Elder Howlett reconfiguring and installing software on new computers

After starting three computers and beginning to work on them, Paul Boos, our contact person there in St. Gallen, called and told us that they would be receiving six more computers from Dell Switzerland in 15 minutes, did we want him to also deliver these computers to the church for them to work on? Sister Howlett called their director, Bengt, and told him about the six Dell computers arriving early and asked him what he wanted them to do with these other six computers. He asked us to please reconfigure and install the FamilySearch software, then deliver them to those other FHCs that had been planned to receive new computers. Sister Howlett said, “Okay!”

Now instead of six computers to do, we had twelve to work on and then deliver them. We finished three of them that afternoon and set up the one to be used there in St. Gallen, then took the computer to Kreuzlingen that afternoon. This city was a beautiful tourists’ attraction located near Lake Constance (Cone-stonce) as the French call it, or Bodensee, in the Germans’ language.


Lake Constance or Bodensee

This lake is the source of the Rhine River which travels for many miles bordering Germany and France, then through the middle of Germany and down through the Netherlands and into the North Sea. The Rhine River has been a very important waterway for ships in this part of Europe for centuries, and the site of many battles. Again we had to take pictures from our car as we traveled. In Kreuzlingen, the FHC director’s wife met us at the church, and was very happy to receive the new computer.

We made it back to our hotel that evening which was up on the foothills of the mountain above St. Gallen. It was funny in that we looked up at the buildings up on the mountain and wondered how the people got up there, then we found ourselves following the GPS info right up on that mountain to reach the hotel we were looking for.

View of St. Gallen and mountains from our hotel room.

It was a special peaceful and quiet hotel with a panoramic view of St. Gallen and the mountains on the other side of it. There was a little goat herd around the back of the hotel and a very lovely room. After eating at a nearby restaurant, where it started to be windy and rainy, we enjoyed a peaceful and cool night’s rest at the hotel. The next day was a frantic rush to finish as many computers as we could. All but two were completed and after a nice rest at the same hotel that night, we finished up the remaining computers the next morning, then loaded all ten computers, monitors, keyboards, and our luggage into the car along with the microfilm reader we had to take to Geneva. It was a tight squeeze, but Elder Howlett figured out how to get it all in.

Our second stop on this whirlwind trip was in Winterthur.

Elder Howlett and Winterthur FHC director

We were able to call ahead and the FHC director graciously agreed to leave his work and meet us there to open the church and let us into the building where Elder Howlett set up the computer for the FHC. Again, the director was very grateful for the new equipment.

Zürich was our next stop. We called ahead and got a hold of the FHC director who told us to arrive there between 12 noon and 1:00 p.m. (13:00). So we hurried over the next 2 hours to get there on time, and we arrived about 12:47 p.m. However the church and even the gate on the parking lot were all locked up. After calling the director again he said that he left about 12:40—just a few minutes before we got there. He couldn’t come back, so he gave us the code to open the parking lot gate and also the code to open the back door of the chapel. Finding our way downstairs to the FHC was also a challenge, as the lights on the stairway going downstairs were out. But we felt our way down, and found a light switch. After negotiating through a long hall with various sets of steps up and down, we found the doorway to the FHC at the end of the building- The doorway looked like it was the door to a bomb shelter or a bank vault, though it had been all painted a nice white color. They wondered if the building had been used as a bank or emergency shelter before. Luckily they were able to leave one computer for Zürich and another computer there for the Wetzikon ward, since we could not contact anyone to receive the computer for that FHC in Wetzikon. So, two more down and six computers to go.

From there we went to Zollikofen, which is where the Bern, Switzerland temple is located. We needed to leave a new computer there. It was very nice to have the FHC director, who didn’t speak much English, bring another brother with him to help translate for them.

Elder Howlett with the Zollikofen FHC director and his friend/translator

The director spoke very little English, but Sister Howlett finally was able to talk to him about Indexing by using two young proselyting Elders from America, who happened to show up, while Elder Howlett was setting up the computer. After getting the computer setup, Elder Howlett responded to queries about Indexing by giving them a short but complete training session, and together they completed a batch of German records. It was fun to speak with all of them and excite the FHC director in searching for his ancestors in the Record Search pilot site. We also got a chance to visit with a former high school classmate of Elder Howlett’s whom he had known 55 years ago.

Gerry & Alice Giauque. Gerry was a former Jordan High School classmate of Elder Howlett's

Gerry Giauque was serving at the Swiss temple with his wife there in Zollikofen and it was nice for them to recall former years of memories.

Now we had to travel another 3 hours over toward the Geneva area on the far west side of Switzerland. We had a reservation for a hotel in Lausanne that night, right close to Geneva and we had to make it to that hotel before dark. We drove through many tunnels through the Alps.

A buffalo herd seen from the Autobahn (Freeway)

It was so beautiful to see the villages, farms and animals grazing on the hillsides next to the autobahn or freeway. Switzerland is a beautiful country nestled in amongst the hills and mountains of the Alps. We made our way down to the city of Lausanne on Lake Geneva, which is about half an hour from the city of Geneva. It was a beautiful place, but very expensive. However, after a good night’s rest, we were able to make our way over to the FHC in Geneva. What a blessing it was to have a GPS (Geo Positioning System) that helped us find all those places where we had to go. Imagine all the headache and time wasted many years before when people did not have that marvelous tool!
Staying in that tourist city of Lausanne was fine. It was interesting to see the people coming and going. Breakfast the next morning was entertaining in that the windows and doors were wide open, and birds came flying right into the restaurant to see what crumbs they could get off of the tables, just like they had done that many times previously.

Notice the bird on the railing in the middle of the picture.

Sister Howlett even got a picture of a bird right close to them on the railing by their table as they were finishing their meal.

We arrived at the Church in Geneva, where we had arranged to meet a high counselor, Jean-Pierre Gaggini and his wife. Luckily we were able to leave 5 computers and monitors there to be delivered and set up by the stake technical director in their selected FHCs in the Geneva stake. It was very nice to be able to leave those five machines there and not have to travel to each of the FHCs to make the deliveries. We also had a replacement microfilm reader to be delivered in Geneva, and Elder Howlett and Brother Gaggini, carried it up the long flight of stairs into the FHC.

Brother and Sister Gaggini with Elder Howlett in Geneva FHC.

After getting it up there, a larger and heavier microfilm reader that was broken was removed so the new one could take its place. Then Elder Howlett and the high councilman carried the very heavy old microfilm reader back down to our car to take back to our office in Bad Homburg, Germany. Elder Howlett’s left leg was getting very tired and sore from all the lifting and carrying of equipment, but he kept going anyway. It was very nice to meet Brother and Sister Gaggini there and feel of their dedicated service to the saints in the Geneva stake. It was critical for us that Sister Gaggini be there, as she spoke English, and Geneva is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. We could not speak or understand French.

The last stop we had to make, delivering the last computer and monitor was in Prateln, next to Bassel and just a few miles before the border back into Germany. It was early afternoon and one of the members who does a lot of genealogy there agreed to meet us at the center. He locked it into an adjacent cabinet to their old computer so it could be set up at a later time.

Elder Howlett with Brother Von Allman in Prateln FHC

Finally the deliveries were finished and now we could proceed back home to our office in Bad Homburg, Germany. We arrived home around 9 pm (21:00) on Thursday night, 15 August, and decided to rest through the night. We had only five days left until we were scheduled to end our mission and fly home to America. Elder Howlett’s leg was very sore and weak, so he decided to rest it during the night. Our last trip was done, and we got all the jobs completed! Even though we were tired, it was a good feeling of accomplishment.