I'VE BEEN TRANSFERRED!!! I found out on Saturday that I will be going to Freiburg on Thursday. I'm in the bottom corner of Germany. My new area boarders France and Switzerland. It will be at least seven hours of train rides on Thursday, but everyone says that it's beautiful. It's right in the Black Forest. Also, my ward is in the Zurich Switzerland Stake, so that means that I get to go into Zurich if there is Stake Conference while I am there and for Zone Conferences I get to go to Switzerland. It's pretty exciting.
It feels weird actually leaving Augsburg. I've been here for four transfers which is about six months and it went by so fast! Augsburg has become home, so I don't think it has really sunk in that I am actually leaving. I don't think I'll really realize it until I walk out of my apartment with my suitcases. Saying goodbye to the ward members on Sunday was super depressing. That's the thing about being a missionary. You go into an area and you literally throw everything you have emotionally and physically into helping and loving the people. Then, you get transferred, and you have to pick up and do it somewhere else. It is a really bitter sweet transition. My new companion's name is Sister Earnshaw. I've never met her before, but she is going into her third transfer, so she just finished being trained. It's a new adventure and I'm excited to see what the next few months bring.
Oh! And I'm 20 now. My birthday was on Thursday and I really didn't expect to do anything for it. I was going to just do the normal stuff, but it all started on Monday when the Elders in my district decided to make me birthday tacos. Six Elders in a kitchen is just so fascinating to watch. They did a great job and they even sang to me (or did their best to sing). They forgot candles, so I blew out someones lighter and that was really something, but it was great of them to think of me, so it was fun. Then, on my actual birthday on Thursday, two ward members who I have become really good friends with made me set up a breakfast eating appointment. I walked through the door just expecting breakfast, but there was actually a giant cake, and this was not just any cake, IT WAS RED VELVET! I love red velvet cake, but that is really not a thing you find in Germany at all. It was so sweet of them to make that for me. That night, we had our sport abend at the church where we played volley ball together and one of the ward members ordered pizza for my birthday. OH, and I finally figured out the trick to volleyball. If you don't grunt when you hit the ball, there is no way it is going to go over the net :) Too bad I got transferred because I was actually starting to get the hang of volleyball. Maybe there will be a sport abend in Freiburg too...we'll just have to see. Anyways it was a good day.
For those of you that are regular blog readers, you might remember that last week we ended up doing our emails at an Internet cafe and not at the church because the computers were being stupid at the church. WELL the guy who works at the Internet cafe became an investigator last week! His name is Frans and we got to have a really good conversation with him as we were paying for our time on the computers. He told us to come back and tell him more, so we did, and he said he wanted to keep learning more, so Sister Baker is going to keep the ball rolling with him, because he is awesome.
We also found another new investigator this week who is a professional women's soccer player. She plays on the FC Augsburg team for women. If she is living in Germany and getting paid to play soccer, you know she kicks butt. She also has the kind of hair that every girl would kill for, but she is super cool because she said she had a Mormon boyfriend once and went to church with him a couple of times, but she never really knew what we are actually about, so she wants to know more! All of these people are coming out of the woodwork now that I'm leaving :( I guess that's just how it is sometimes, but I'm glad that I've at least gotten to meet them.
Yesterday we thought we had a normal eating appointment with a member after church, and they drove us out to their super far away village and didn't actually end up taking us to their house. They took us to a reception hall, and we looked at each other like "What is going on?" and we knew that this member had a birthday that day, but we didn't realize that our eating appointment was actually going to the birthday dinner party for it. Good thing I was wearing a nice skirt. Anyways, we got there and figured out what was going on and then people started showing up. There were people from our ward there and friends of theirs from work, so Mormons and non-Mormons. Something that tends to happen at parties like that is the separation. Mormons at one table, and work friends at another table. The four of us missionaries were there and we decided to make the most of this moment, so I sat down next to two guys who were drinking beer and had tattoos, and spiky hair, and piercings and stuff. I have NO idea why I chose to sit next to them. I got scared the second I sat down, but we actually had a really good time talking to each other. They are both nurses in the emergency room and and one of them told me about his experience with cancer. They had a lot of questions about what the heck we do here as missionaries and it was just super great. You never know who will be curious. I was a good time.
Well, that is my week in a nutshell. It was good one! And I became an Aunt this week! JULIE is in the world now! I hope you all have a great week and make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: Me at a place in Augsburg called Fuggerei (Google it), me drinking my hot chocolate at cafe dichtl, and I busted the elders acting cool
First of all, we usually do emails from the two computers at church, but one of them decided to crash today, so we are at an Internet cafe listening to the radio and there's this Justin Timberlake song playing right now that I listened to a lot before my mission. I don't remember what it's called, but I don't know how to react. This is really conflicting, but such is life :)
Anyways, we had a really cool week this week. From Tuesday to Wednesday we had exchanges and I got to work with my old companion Sister Mehr again. She is the bomb digidy. We had a great companionship, so working with her for a little bit again was super fun. We went and visited a less active family together and it turned into an eating appointment which I really can't complain about because I was SO hungry, so we had some soup and ate some strudel and talked about the gospel. It doesn't get much better than that.
Sister Baker went to Munich to work with the other Sister Training Leader Sister Ahlm. They had a good time together and did a lot which is good. Exchanges are kind of fun. It's like going on vacation within your mission while still doing missionary work.
On Thursday we had Mission tour, and that was AWESOME! So an Area Seventy came and talked to our mission. It was basically like a private general conference for the missionaries. It only happens once a year, but it's so awesome. We had Elder Patrick Kearon come talk to us. He comes from Great Britain and it was SO GOOD! The overall message that he gave is that we should be so happy to be doing this work and I think it was a really good message for us to hear. In missionary work, it can be easy to get bogged down in numbers and records and transportation and details, and then we end up forgetting just how wonderful this work is that we get to do. I spend all day every day trying to bring people unto Christ, and it really doesn't get much better than that. He said though, that it is up to us to choose to be happy. It is so easy to decide that you are going to be in a bad mood when things don't go the way you want, but that makes things drag along so much more. Be happy about it! We only get to do this for a little while. Enjoy it! Anyways, it was great.
Another really cool thing about mission tour was that all of the Austria and Germany missionaries came together, so that meant that I got to see Sister Bushman from when I worked in Vienna and Sister Arnold from the MTC. It was so great to see them. I hadn't seen Sister Arnold since July. We both freaked out when we saw each other. We talked a lot during the lunch. It was just so fun to see everyone. I saw a lot of the Elders I've worked with too. Whenever I go to these events I remember just how greatly outnumbered I am. Dang, there are a lot of Elders and not a heck of a lot of sisters. So many suits. It's good though. It's just funny how you become a part of the brotherhood. Männer...immer das gleiche Thema...says Schwester Schmid from my ward :)
Yesterday we had Ward Conference and the Stake President came and talked to us. The Stake President here is really a beast. First of all, he knows my name. That is not something I would expect the Stake President to know. That was really impressive. Also, his 11 year old son passed away in October. We were all at the funeral, but I know that it has been rough for his family. The thing is though, they have had the best possible reaction to it that I could possibly imagine. There are pins that every one in the Stake wears that say "Familien sind ewig" which means, families are eternal. He has been a really good example to loads of people, so I always feel honored when I can hear him speak.
But yeah, that was my week, really good. Full of stuff. We are still on the search for people that are ready for this gospel. It is a process and not easy, but that is how it is supposed to be. I think I would actually be quite disappointed if this was easy. It's not easy, but it's great. You would think that combination isn't possible, but I'm living evidence :) I hope you all have a great week. Make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures:
Sister Arnold, Elder Werner and me from my MTC district (we are super awkward, I know), Sister Bushman and I, and me being happy when we got back from a good appointment
Heilige Kuh! Where did January go? I can't believe it is February already. Crazy how the time just seems to get sucked up.
Well, I want to start off my email with some super exciting news. Aigerim got baptized!!! I got to teach her a little bit while I was in Vienna and I literally just found out that she got baptized. I was flipping out. She is the coolest. I am so happy for her for making that decision. So that was some happy news to find out today.
Anywho, our week has been pretty good and also pretty rough if it is possible to have both in the same week. We have this one referral that we have been trying to contact for a couple of weeks now. The number we were given doesn't seem to work so we have been taking an abundance of trips out to the town of Kissing. Yes,I know it is a funny name for a town :) But anyways, we take the train out there and then have a solid 30 or 40 minute walk to get to the address. It isn't too bad, but the last time we went it was snowing like crazy. Most people view snow as a peaceful thing where it floats gracefully down to the earth in pretty little flakes...well that is not at all how the snow was that we got. These were snow chunks smacking us in the face. I think we took it like champs, but the referral was still not home...so we have to go again. I will seriously tear down a wall or something to contact this referral because referrals are not usually accidents. Ok, sometimes you do get the ones that were jokes or something, but I'm not buying it. Seriously, we are going to get in contact with this person if it means we turn into snowmen.
But, on a different note, Sister Baker and I were on the tram this week going somewhere (I can't remember where right now, but probably to share the gospel with someone) and I started talking to the woman sitting next to me. That is what we usually do. We talk to people. It's not legal to flat out proselyte on the public transportation, so we just try to have conversations with people and drum up some interest and stuff. Well this lady had a lovely back bag that I complemented in order to start our conversation, and then we had a good conversation, I found out that she was Russian and a bunch of other things and it was a really nice conversation actually. Well, we were coming to our stop and she started emptying out her bag. She put all of the contents into her grocery bag and I was wondering what on earth she was doing. Then I remembered that I complemented her bag at the beginning and I got what was going on. I started telling her that I couldn't accept her bag because it was her bag and it was too nice and all these things, but she just kept emptying her bag and then she shoved it in my hands and told me never to forget my Russian friend named Olga. I told her that I really couldn't accept it, but she just said take it...so I got off the tram with a new black bag and I kind of felt like scum for a bit. She gave me her bag! That isn't a thing that just happens. As we were walking away though, I was thinking about what I had studied in the New Testament that morning. It was the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan passes sees a man on the street who has been beaten by thieves and is not doing too hot. Well, the Samaritan has never met this man before but he sees to it that he is taken care of and gives what he can offer to help him out. I wasn't mugged by thieves or anything, but Olga literally gave me what she could offer without hesitation. I learned from her that we should literally ALWAYS be looking for opportunities to serve. That is how Christ like love works. I have experienced it first hand. I don't know if I will ever see Olga ever again, but I know that I will never forget her.
So yesterday (Sunday), I tried something new. I went to ward choir. I noticed on the back of the program during Sacrament meeting that there was choir practice that day and then I kept reading because ward choir was never a thing I did. I don't know why, I was just never interested, but then I was thinking about how annoying it is to have a musical number by the choir and then like four people go up to sing. It is actually really depressing. Then I realized that I am a hypocrite because if I wanted the choir to be bigger, than why am I not in it. SO I may or may not have shoved the Elders and my companion upstairs to choir practice after church on Sunday and I am very glad that I did because when we got there, we literally doubled the size of the choir and I could tell that it was a relief for the choir director to have more people there. It was a good time. I recommend it to everyone.
Last night when I was laying in bed during that moment before you fall asleep, I remembered something that I want to share with you all. When I was 16 or 17 I went on a double date (just roll with me on this one) and it was with three other Mormon kids and we were going into the city to see a movie. Well, my charming father, took it upon himself to put a tracking device app thingy on my phone before I went on the date so that he could see where I was all the time. Now, I'm not the kind of child who was running around doing reckless things and stuff, so I was a little confused about why my Dad felt it was necessary to put that on my phone. Well I went on the date and that is another story that I will not go into now, but I remember thinking about the tracker thingy a little bit later and how it really doesn't make a difference at all because Heavenly Father literally knows what I am up to all the time. The tracker was just Him and my Dad teaming up to make sure I was ok and they were doing that because they love me. It was one of those brain explosions that I had in my mind and last night I remembered thinking about how awesome it is that I have a heavenly and an earthly father that care about me so much that they want to know what I am up to all the time. That is just something so special to me.
Anyways, that is all I have to say for this week. I hope you all have a great week and make good choices, and stay warm!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures:
Sister Baker and I walking to our eating appointment last night (she's a goofy one), Sister Baker super tired after spending a day in Kissing, me trying to stay warm with my hot chocolate and trying to stay happy even though we didn't contact the referral
