#DasGeschenkWeiterGeben

Hi Everyone! How's it going? Things in Germany are pretty darn good. We had our Christmas Conference this past wednesday AND IT WAS SO GREAT! It was my zone (Munich Zone) combined with Stuttgart Zone which is just loads of fun because I ran into lots of friends from former districts and areas. Some ward members made us a delicious meal of ham, potatoes, and sauerkraut. It was really delicious and I probably gulped down more than I should have, but it was so good. People over here really know what they are doing with potatoes. Anyways, we also had a gift exchange. We all had to bring a small gift and before we started eating we did this switch-aroo thing where we passed them all around in crazy directions. I ended up with a German Christmas CD and some little LED lights. It was fun. AND as a Christmas present, President Kohler did not hold back. He has lots of connections and so...drum roll please... we got to watch Meet the Mormons. We were all freaking out. It was really good. It just kind of explains that while we are "Mormons" we are normal people with jobs and families. I will admit though, it was SO American. It was really funny. Everyone kept pointing out thing things about it that were "so American" while we were watching it. It was really good though. I wish it was translated into German so we could show it to people here. 

But, as part of the more spiritual side of our conference, President talked to us about the Church's Christmas Initiative. If you haven't seen or heard of it yet, check out mormon.org because it is so cool. Quite honestly, I don't know what it would be in English, but there is a video online about why we really celebrate Christmas. The Church even made special Christmas pass-along cards for us to use. The theme is Er ist Das Geschenk or He is the gift. We are just trying to talk to literally as many people as possible about Jesus Christ and share with them why we celebrate Christmas. We have already had so many cool experiences with this Christmas initiative. 

On Friday actually we had a painter in our apartment, because our landlord felt that the wall needed to be painted. So, while he was at the wall painting, I sat down in a nearby chair and just started talking to him. It wasn't anything too intense, but I then asked him if he was excited about Christmas. He said no. I asked him why and he said that it is because Christmas is all about money and he just thought it was pointless. I asked him if he believed in Jesus and he chuckled a bit and then said no, and then I asked why not. He said Christ just can't be real because it is too amazing. At that point it did kind of hit me how depressing Christmas would be if there was not a birth of the Son of God to celebrate. It would be totally commercial without Christ. Well anyways, I didn't really push anything on him, but looking around our apartment and seeing my tag, he could tell I was a missionary for some sort of religion, so he asked me what I believe. This was probably one of the coolest moments of my mission. I just got to tell this man what I believed about Christ and the Book of Mormon and why I celebrate Christmas. He was very sincere about everything, so I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to watch the Er is das Geschenk video and he said he would and I really feel like he did. I didn't get any of his contact information or make an appointment with him or anything, but I got to talk to him about our Savior Jesus Christ and why he means so much to me. It is moments like those that just make a mission so worthwhile.

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party and this ward has a tradition where they go into the forest with lanterns for a little bit and sing songs and read Christmas poems. The missionaries were asked to sing the first Noel in English (because we can do that). So we did and I think it went ok considering one of the Elders is tone deaf, but it was a fun time. I really like talking to the young women in this ward. They are great. It was just a really good time to get to know the ward better.

But yeah, that is my week in a nutshell. Things in Augsburg are good. I'm glad that I get to be here doing this. It's a privilige actually and I don't think I could take this time of my life for granted if I tried. I hope you all have a good week and make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: Us wondering what the heck we think we are doing going out into the pitch black at 5:00 in the evening, me and some of the young women at the ward christmas party, and just a random shot at the party (Sister Baker is a goofball)