What a Week!

Oh my gosh! Let me tell you, ladies and gents, missionary work is hard, but it is so amazing. I don't think I will ever be able to fully convey what it's like, but it is really amazing. 

First of all, we were able to go to the castle gardens last week in case anyone was sitting on the edge of their chairs dying to know. It was so pretty. Roylaty really has it made...I guess. But it was fun. We also had an eating appointment last monday with an old couple in the ward. They are very formal and gave us a huge meal. It was so delicious though. It was just a little difficult becuase they kept dishing more onto our plates and expecting us to somehow be able to finish it. I think I did pretty well. I saw one of the elders hit the wall though. We were eating dessert, and he was struggling so hard to finish it though. He was a man about it and managed to get it all down. It was a miracle. Ok, but in all honesty, I really do appreciate the eating appointments with a lot of food, because we walk around a lot, and I get hungry, so I like it when we get to sit down and eat a lot. I actually love it.

So aside from my eating rant, this week was pretty tough, not gonna lie, probably the toughest week of my mission, but I have seen so many miracles this week as well. On Friday we were teaching an investigator and he had gotten into some anti-mormon literature. I think anti mormon literature is the dumbest thing ever. The investigator said flat out, that he does not believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. That broke my heart. I really did want to sit down and start crying because I can't imagine what it must be like to not know or believe that we have a prophet on the earth today. It is just so sad to me. We talked about dispensations, and how we can have a relationship with God and find out for ourselves. AND THEN our ward member who came with us busted out a perfect talk from a general authority about trusting the internet vs. trusting God. It was amazing! This my friends is why we have members present at lessons, not just because they can whip out their technology, but because they are also able to figure out what the investigator need, usually better than us. It's so great. The investigator seemed to like this talk, so we told him we'd give him a copy and he said he would pray again to know if this church is true. We are all praying for him now.

Saturday, was a particularly hard day for me. We went in the morning to teach a different investigator about the plan of salvation. This investigator is great, he wants to be baptized and has a date set to be baptized in June, so it was going to be a pretty good lesson. Well, Sister Powell is doing great talking about death and resurrection, and she passed the torch off to me. I started talking, but realized that I really had no idea what to say or how to describe what I wanted to describe. I think I said something about outer darkness, but who knows. Sister Powell saw me struggling, so she took over and finished it off, but I felt horrible. I know the plan of salvation. I have been learing it my whole life, but I could not teach it. It was actually horrible. I prayed a lot in that moment. I just needed some comfort because I have really been trying my best the whole time I've been out here, but I was so mad at myself for messing up. Well, we left the appointment, got some lunch, and in the midst of my despair, Sister Powell told me to recite D&C 4 auf deutsch. In that moment, I thought she must be crazy because I really didn't feel like it, but I did it anyways and it helped me remember what I am doing here. It was really great actually. Heavenly Father gave me the perfect companion. I am not perfect and I shouldn't expect myself to be. I can only do my best. 

Later on that day, we went to see an investigator who is sick. She has some infection in her throat I think, and was sitting at her table scared to take antibiotics because she reacts to them sometimes. We watched her take the drugs and told her to go lie down on the couch. Her neck was kind of swollen and she seemed to be hurting a lot. Sister Powell was talking to her, and I dampened a cloth in some hot water for her to wrap around her neck. It felt so good to be doing something for someone else. She is the sweetest lady ever and I'm glad we could help at least a little bit. We are going to make an appointment to teach her this week.

One great thing about the ward here in Ludwigsburg is that it has a pretty big primary. If you can win the kids hearts over, their parents will love you too. My parents sent me some smiley face stickers, and all the kids love my name, so I give them stickers on Sundays. It's so fun. When Sister Powell and I were leaving yesterday, I had a whole pack of them running over. They pick what color smiley face they want and stick them on their shirts. 

Next Sunday, we have a group visiting our ward called "the mormon bikers". Bikers as in motorcycles. Apparently there's a whole group of them here in Germany and they ride around going to different wards and stuff. I am so excited to see what it's like.

Anywho, life is good. I am learning to appreciate this work more and more as time goes on. I love hearing from you all. Keep it coming and make good choices.

Liebe Grüsse,

Sister Smiley

Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained

Hi Everyone! It is safe to say that missionary work is literally what it's title says: work. I'm totally ok with that though because that's what I signed up for. I have a handful of experiences that I'm really excited to share.

So first of all, studying. It is so important, not because we have to have every scripture in Das Buch Mormon memorized, but because if we have not studied something out in our mind first, than the Holz Ghost can not bring what we need to mind when we need it. For example, when I was on the plane flying over here, I was actually scared to death, but all of a sudden a scripture mastery popped into my head that I really hadn't thought about since I was in seminary. It was the "be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest" one. It literally popped into my head out of nowhere and comforted me more than anything could have at that moment. I could not have had that happpen though if I didn't study it out earlier in my life. Well, I don't know if any of that makes sense, but I've been learning that lesson a lot this week.

Another lesson I've been learning, is that I really have to let the Lord control things that I have no power over AT ALL. Zum beispiel: The other day, Sister Powell and I were in a village going to drop off some flowers for a member's birthday, but low and behold, the buses changed routes without our knowledge and we got lost. We walked around the village for about 45 minutes looking for a bus stop that had a route that would take us to where we wanted to go. At first I was super frustrated and annoyed because this would mess up our schedule for the rest of the day, but there comes a point where you have to throw your hands up in the air and say: I tried my best and this is obviously how things are supposed to be right now. The positives from this experience: it was a super pretty day, the village we walked around was so pretty, we had to wait a while for the bus to come that we wanted to come, so we had lunch at a really good bakery, AND we found a potential investigator!

By the time we did get back to Ludwigsburg, Sister Powell HAD to use the bathroom, so we went to the train station. I was waiting just outside and started talking to a worker there. His name was Jurgen and he really wanted to know what I was wearing a name tag for. It was awesome! We talked about Das Buch Mormon, what Mormons generally believe, and next thing I know, he's giving me his card and asking to make an appointment so we can talk about it more. We gave him a Buch Mormon and our card and made an appointment with him that night. IT WAS SO COOL! It was the first potential that I found and I'm quite excited to meet with him and talk about it more. We'll see what happens.

 

Another cool story: on Saturday, our district got together in an area called Pforzheim, and had a finding day. We set up a stand on one of the walking streets and set out to go find people. Most often, people say, they are happy how they are, or they don't have time, or they're not interested, which is fine because everyone has agency, but it's like candy when someone stops to hear what you have to say. We got to talk to a few people, and get some contact information, but the coolest part for me was being able to use my Italian. I stopped a guy probably in his thirties and started talking to him. I realized that he didn't really get what I was saying, so I asked where he came from: ITALY! His name is Angelo, and I got to use my broken Italian to talk a bit about Das Buch Mormon and Jesus Christ. He said he liked it and the book, so I gave it to him, and information for contacting the Pforzheim elders. Fingers crossed he does, but I was just so excited that my eight weeks of Italian at BYU payed off.

One thing our mission is big on is serving the members of our wards. I think that is awesome because we need their help teaching investigators, but it kind of seems rude in my mind to ask that of them and not do much in return. So Sister Powell and I often find ourselves baking cookies or making cards to give to members. Something we have started doing is bringing flowers to members homes when we have eating appointments with them. IT IS SO FUN! Ask anyone in my family, I love flowers! And here they turn the bouquets into art. Sister Powell and I have a usual flower shop where we go to and the ladies there know us. We're always so mezmerized when they put the flowers and greens together to make a beautiful bouquet. It's just so classy. And the members really like it too. It's so fun

Something else that's kind of cool here is that members all bring baskets to church here. They carry scriptures and whatever else they need in a basket. It makes going to church so much more old school. I like it a lot. The ward is great too. We have loads of eating appointments because people want to get to know me and the other new elder in the ward, so I'm just going to keep running every morning and hope I don't end up rolling home from my mission. 

Today is P-day, and Sister Powell and I have set aside some time today to go see the castle gardens. It is such a pretty day, so I hope we can get everything done we need to in order to do it, but I love my mission and I love being here in Lundwigsburg. I hope you all have a great week. Make good choices!

Sister Anna Banana Smiley

The pictures: we have a cow toilet in our bathroom, we found facemasks in our bathroom, and eating a "donner" on the finding day

LUDWIGSBURG!!!!!

I'm here! I am in the field and it is so great!! The name of my first area is Ludwigsburg. It is north of Stuttgart and is SO pretty. I'll put more details about it later on in this email, but I want to start with my journey here and my last days at the MTC.

So first of all, leaving the MTC was so sad. I loved it there so much. Life was probably a little too easy there. At least it became too easy. On what was supposed to be our last day of instruction, our teacher wasn't there, and our two other teachers were out of town for a conference. We found out that the one teacher was in the hospital because his arm got infected (yes, that can happen). So we didn't have a teacher for our last day and they told us to conduct our own studies. Well that was so not going to happen. Our district talked to the MTC President and he let us walk to the hospital in Chorley and go see our teacher. We all signed a card and then walked over. It was like a ten minute walk. We got there and he was actually just getting ready to check out because everything was all good, so we gave him the card talked a bit, met his wife, and headed back. I guess when I write it out, it sounds simple and uneventful, but it was super exciting to us. People don't usually just leave the MTC like that.

Well, on Wednesday, after many hours of departure orientation from the previous day we headed to the airport. Let me tell you, I have never been so scared in my life. I think the word I used in my journal was petrified. On the way to the airport, my district of five missionaries was freaking out. Sister Arnold and I kept telling each other that we couldn't believe we actually signed up for this of our own free will. There are not many churches where teenagers hop over to Europe and start teaching the gospel in a language they don't know to a culture they are not familiar with. This is actually insane, BUT I have one thing that makes it completely and totally ok. Faith. Heavenly Father knows what He's doing. He is watching over me, is proud of me for doing this, and wants to see me do well. Being scared is normal. We are all humans, but if we have to rememeber not to be dismayed because the Lord our God is with us withersoever we go. ITS SO AMAZING!!!

We spent our first night at the mission home in Munich where we ate dinner and did some training. The dinner was amazing. Sister Miles is a wonderful cook. 

Me & Sister Powell

Later on in the evening we were put with our new companions. Drum roll please.....SISTER POWELL!!! She is so awesome. She is from Arizona and has been super great about answering my questions and helping me out with my adjustment to the mission field. The next morning we were off to Ludwigsburg together. 

We got to the train station in Munich and there was a whole cluster of missionaries and their suitcases there already. We all just stood there and talked with one another until our trains left. It was cool too because missionaries from parts of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany were all coming in from their trains to be transfered to their next areas. My whole MTC district was still there but we were all dreading saying goodbye to each other. We literally spent all day everyday together for six weeks. You get really close to people when stuff like that happens. One by one, they all filtered away on their respective trains and it was so sad. It's like saying goodbye to siblings you are really close with and having no idea when or if you'll see them again. Ok so I will see Sister Arnold and Elder Lynch again because we all ended up in the same zone, so we'll see each other on June 3rd for zone conferences. Elder Marley went to Zurich Switzerland, and Elder Werner went to Innsbruck Austria. I'm just praying that we will all get together again at some point because they are all awesome people and I feel so blessed to have been able to get to know them. 

In da square

Anywho, Sister Powell and I got on our train to Stuttgart and it was the most amazing thing ever. 12 missionaries, and 24 suitcases...big suitcases. Thank goodness for elders, because I didn't have to lift my suitcases once, but it was really amazing when we got to Stuttgart watching all of the suitcases get ripped off the train by some elders in a matter of a couple minutes. I was thoroughly impressed. Sister Powell and I took one more train and then a bus to get to our apartment in Ludwigsburg, and that was it. Our apartment is fantastic. Super clean and modern, and there are disney princesses on my bed. Anyone who knows me knows that is doesn't get much better than that.

 

Ludwigsburg Ward is on fire right now. My planner is already packed with appointments. We have inactive families and investigators. The ward makes lots of eating appointments with us so we get lots of good food, and we talk about family mission plans and stuff. It's great. 

Ludwigsburg itself is so pretty. It is a little city outside of Stuttgart. There is a castle, that Sister Powell and I are going to see on one of the upcoming p-days, and there are loads of little villages that look a lot like the kingdom in frozen.

 

Yesterday we went to our ward mission leader's home to skype our families for Mothers Day. It was so fun. We made pizza and at 6 I got to talk to my family. Just so everyone knows, they are alive and well. 

I don' have much time left. Sorry this one is so long, but loads has happened. Here is my address for the next 12 weeks. This gets things directly to my apartment. The Munich address gets things to the mission office. I get that mail once a month so decide what you think is best, but here is my apartment:

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT

Sister Smiley

Simanowizstrasse 11

71640 Ludwigsburg

Make good choices!

Sister Anna Banana Smiley