We arrived home on June 12th at 1:30 in the morning.....

....we thoroughly enjoyed our 24 months in Switzerland.

Our farewell dinner next door....

....we will really miss our neighbors......especially Marco.  (Don't tell him I said that.)  :)

This is our Branch President's family....

....they are a great family.  He served his mission in Boston, and she in SLC.

One of JoAnn's best friends....

.....it was hard to say goodbye.  Our adopted daughter Brooke Rigaud.

Another one of JoAnn's best friends....

....at the going away party.

We had to say many goodbyes this week...

.....Antonia was a special friend of ours.

We also said our goodbyes to our good friends....

.....Sis. Kuenzli and her daughter Julia....plus Elds Faatoma & Leau.  (Both from Pacific Islands)  Eld. Kaiser is our new Branch Mission Leader.

We had a great going away party....

.....good food, good company makes for a good time.

Even Anita came to our going away party.....

 .....she could speak to everyone as she is fluent in German, French and English.

We bought the meringues from the place where they make them.....

....and the double crème from the farmer down the street.  We brought these to our going away party.  Maybe we should start selling this in the US?  It would be a hit for sure.

This is how you prepare maringue w/double creme....

 

....I almost want to lick this picture.....it is soooooo good. 



We still have Swiss cows coming up.....

 ....to the mountains for the summer.  What a noise they make with the large Swiss bells.

We arrived in Tel Aviv after a 3 1/2 hour flight from Geneva....

....our first introduction to Israel while here waiting for our shuttle driver was to hear an air raid siren....that we were told was a drill.  We heard another one during our 5 day visit.

We were offered camel rides...

....this one looked nice and calm.  Our hotel is the 2 arches you can see in the upper left.

We could have taken a Segway tour of Jerusalem...

.....these people looked like they were having fun.

We did a lot of walking....

 

....and noticed many walls had cut glass buried in the cement on top.

We were trying to find the BYU Jerusalem Center....

.....but all the locals know this facility as:  Mormon University.  It is very close to the Hebrew University which we also visited.

We were very impressed with the....

....BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.  Tours are open to the general public of the building and it's beautiful garden and view.  Also free organ concerts are given several times a week.

Here is where Orson Hyde visited Jerusalem...

....One hundred seventy two years ago, on October 24, (1841) a Sunday, Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve climbed the Mount of Olives. There, with pen and paper, he recorded a prayer of dedication previously given him by revelation. In the prayer, he asked the Lord to inspire “kings and the powers of the earth” to help “restore the kingdom unto Israel.”    He also prayed that the Lord would remember his promises to all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Orson Hyde garden.....

.....was very close to our hotel and we didn't even know it was there until the people at the BYU Jerusalem center told us where it was.  It was very quiet and peaceful.