Hi Everyone! Well, my email last week was kind of dramatic and things at home are still happening. I am still getting information and learning about what is going on and am in almost constant communication with my Heavenly Father, as much as I have ever been in BUT the missionary work in Freiburg Germany continues.
This week was really a week of adventures. We had the opportunity this week to go with a member to visit a friend of hers. She said she was really interested in religion and would be interested in what we had to say. Sounded perfect to us, so we went with her. It was a bit of a drive to get to her friend's house. It was gorgeous. We got there and she wanted to go for a walk. Well, we expected a walk around the block...but it was actually a walk around a beautiful monastery. We felt really spoiled. We got to talk about what we do as missionaries and why we are here. It was so cool. I don't know how far it will go, but it was a cool experience and I will attach some pictures in this email from our walk. We couldn't help but get a bit touristy. Afterwards, we went back to her house and had cake and tea (fruit tea, the kind a Mormon can drink) and it was such a good time. If only missionary work was always that pleasant :)
On Thursday we had Ward Council and we switch off with the Elders going every other month. It was our turn to go and they were talking about an Elders Quorum activity where they were mostly just eating food and hanging out, but they wanted a set of missionaries to go because there would be a lot of less active members there and such. Ideally, the Elders would have gone, but they needed to catch a train to go home (they live kind of far away) so for some reason, Sister Earnshaw and I were sent to the Elders Quorum activity. Needless to say, I felt pretty out of place. It was a good time I guess. The Elders are still making fun of us for having gone, but the Bishop told us to be there, so we couldn't really say no. Now I can say I have crashed an Elders quorum activity.
On Sunday we went to a member's house for a member appointment and for dessert we baked cookies with them. It was really good and we shared a killer spiritual thought about hope. THEN they took us to the woods with them to go herb picking. How did we end up herb picking on a Sunday evening? Well, we got a bunch of herbs to take home. It was fun.
Lots of really weird things this week actually. We went to visit a member in the hospital this week with the Elders because he was supposed to have an ear operation two days before. We got to the hospital and asked at the front desk what room he was in and they told us he was still in surgery...what? He should not have had any surgery that day and the nurse to us to wait because the surgery he was having that day was not planned and he did not even have time to tell his wife and kids that it would be happening, so there was no one there to say hello to him when he got out. So we waited for a little bit and he just came walking down the hallway and when he saw us, the biggest grin spread across his face. We help him chop wood on Saturdays so we are all pretty tight. He kept telling us how happy he was that we were there and so obviously Heavenly Father orchestrated that one.
Anyways, that is my week in a nutshell. I hope you are all doing well and remember that Heavenly Father loves you all so much! Make good choices.
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: 2 with the monestary, and a really pretty bakery that we ate at last monday
Hi Everyone! How are you all doing? I hope you all have had wonderful weeks. Right now, I am sitting in our Internet cafe in Freiburg and I really don't know what to say. Usually, I make bullet points with what I want to talk about in my email but this week was easily the craziest week of my mission, so I am going to just start from the beginning and see what happens.
Sunday. Not yesterday Sunday, but the Sunday before, I woke up with a really tight feeling in my stomach. I just felt really wound up and unsettled about something. I was trying to figure it out thinking that maybe I wasn't being totally obedient with something or maybe my personal study wasn't meaningful enough or something. I really had no idea at all and it was the most annoying thing. I kept doing life and doing the things I knew I should do and I felt this way all the way through Tuesday. Tuesday we had zone training and that meant three train rides that were each 40 minutes long. It was a beautiful trip. It took forever, but it was fantastic. I was still feeling uptight about something, but I thought maybe I would get my answer in zone training. I had a cute outfit on and brought cookies to share with people, and as we were walking through the door to the church building an Elder pointed out to me that our cell phone was ringing. It was in my purse, so I pulled it out just in time to miss the call. I looked at the phone and realized that I had missed four calls actually...from my Mission President. I really couldn't imagine what he needed that badly, but I called him back right away and he said, my dad had called him and that my mom was having some health issues and that my Dad needed to talk to me. That was when the tight feeling in my gut finally unwound. Something was wrong. My heart started pounding and I went over to my Zone Leaders to tell them that I would need to sit out of zone training to take a call from my Dad because my Mom is having some health problems. They are great Zone Leaders and were super understanding. They let me use the Bishop's office to take the call, so I just sat for a minute waiting for the call. Then I realized I was an idiot because I hadn't said a prayer yet. I got on my knees at in the bishop's office in Singen Germany and begged my Father in Heaven for everything to be ok. At this point, I literally had no idea what it could be. I sat back down in the chair after my prayer and stared out the window for another minute and then the phone rang. It was my Dad. I would just like to say, that my parents are amazing. They are two really fantastic people and I don't know why Heavenly Father thought I would be cool enough to be in their family, but I am so glad that He did. My Dad started talking to me and told me what was going on. I won't give you every detail of the phone call, but my Mom wasn't feeling to well on Monday and got taken to the hospital. A lot of tests were done and doctor's found that she has cancer in her brain. It isn't the kind of thing that they can do some radiation and some chemo on to make it better and so her time seems to be more limited than we expected. I cannot tell you how I was feeling. There were still so many things unanswered and more tests and stuff to do and I really don't know what I should and shouldn't say in this email, but I have never in my mission felt so far away from my family. All I wanted in that moment was to be in Chicago with all of them. My Dad told me that my sisters and niece and brother-in-law and Aunt were all there. He talked about how great the ward had been and about what else the doctors intended to do. It was so hard. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I felt stuck and useless. They were all there and I was here in Germany just going about my life. I still can't explain what it felt like, but it did not feel good.
Well, there were more phone calls and I was blessed to get a blessing from my zone leader. I called my Mission President back to tell him exactly what it was because he himself didn't even know and then we talked about how to go about this and how to handle this. I've been doing a lot of talking this week. I've been talking to my Dad, I've been talking to my Mission President, and I have been doing a heck of a lot of talking to my Father in Heaven. It has all been trying to figure things out and what I should do. At the same time, I have been doing a lot of listening. I have been listening to my Dad, I have been listening to my Mission President, and I have been listening really hard to my Father in Heaven.
I love being a missionary. This work is amazing. It is also a feeling that I cannot explain, but it is amazing. I feel so blessed and honored to be here. I have given everything I have to help bring others unto Christ and in doing this work I have solidified a few things for myself: I have a Father in Heaven who loves me so much. He wants me to be happy. I know that He lives. I see evidence of that every day. I know that He is aware of me and I know that He has a plan that is far greater than my own. There is power in prayer that is far greater than I can understand. I have seen miracles already. I have been able to think about this work when I need to think about this work and I know already that He has been looking out for my family at home. NO one ever predicts something like this happening, but my Mission President has told me that I have some decisions to make. I haven't made any yet because I haven't gotten an answer yet, but I know that when the time is right, that Heavenly Father will give me the right answer, and you better believe that whatever that is, I will be acting on it right away. I trust my Father in Heaven and I know that He's got this. My mission president told my ward here in Freiburg and they have also been so great. My Mom has an army of Germans praying for her :) What a week. Anyways, I have a beast of a family and am so grateful everyday for them. I hope you all have a great week and I hope you all know that I mean it when I say to make good choices.
Love,
Sister Smiley
Of course there are still pictures: Us at a park on a nice day. We had an awkward time gap so we did some contacting, and then the cookies on our train ride to zone training.
Well, I am in my second week in Freiburg now and I am still figuring it out and getting to know the transportation and the area, but it is going great. Yesterday we had stake conference actually and right now I am in the Zürich Stake, so that meant we had to go to Zürich yesterday...yup, life is hard :) It was super nice because our ward rented out a huge coach bus, so we all met at the church in the morning and drove together for an hour and a half. Talk about a ward road trip. It was so great. And SO pretty. We got a few glimpses of the Swiss Alps. I tried taking some pictures, but my camera would just not do it justice.
Anyways, we got to conference. None of the ward buildings are big enough for the whole Stake, so they rented out a conference hall sort of thing at a university there. It was probably one of the coolest Stake Conference experiences of my life. The whole room was red :) Conference was really good. President and Sister Kohler were there. I love them both a lot. Sister Kohler got to speak and she talked about when she decided to serve a mission when she was 21. She served a mission in California (somewhere) and said that she started out with just a little wish to serve a mission, and over time it grew. I have noticed that throughout my mission too. Of course I started out wanting to serve, but the more I do it, the more I want to keep doing it. I did not come on a mission simply to get high numbers and go on the most insane tour of Europe of my life. I came here to invite people to come unto Christ, and let me tell you, it is so worth it. So yeah, conference was great. It was also fun because I got to see a lot of missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time. We all chatted and caught up on what we had been doing for the last number of months and then Sister Earnshaw and I hopped on our bus back to Freiburg. It was a really good day. And of course, we brought snacks, because I don't like being hungry :)
In Augsburg, we had a sport abend every Thursday where we played volleyball. It was a great activity to invite basically anyone to. Well, I was finally getting the hang of volleyball when I got transferred here. Guess what? There's a sport abend in Freiburg too! Except we don't play volleyball...we play soccer...and all of the YSA's come. I haven't played any soccer since I was in the MTC and it's not like I had any real skill there either. Well, you will be happy to know that I actually scored two goals this week. They were the kind where I accidentally kicked the ball in the right direction and everyone watched it slowly roll into the goal, and then they all looked at me like they couldn't believe that actually just happened, but I'm going to call it divine intervention. German YSA's playing soccer is intense. It is seriously no joke, but it was way fun. We'll see what happens next week.
On Saturday we did a service project. There is a family in this ward that heats their house with wood (I think it's more economical) but that means that they need to go into the forest every Saturday and chop down loads of wood. So we went with the Elders and met this family in the Black Forest (it was so pretty) and the dad cut down a bunch of trees with a chain saw, the Elders chopped it, and then Sister Earnshaw, the mom, the daughter and I carried it to the stack. It was a solid work out, but after my suit case escapade on transfer day, it was really nothing. I think I actually have biceps now. That's a new sensation for me :) We were there basically the whole day doing that and we got pretty dirty, but it was so great. We roasted wurst over a camp fire for lunch and had potato salad and drank loads of water. It was something I had never done before, but it was good. Not many people can say that they went to the Black Forest to do a service project.
So yeah, that was basically my week. When I say basically, I mean that is just part of what happened. I couldn't possibly write everything that happened, because a lot happens in one week, especially on a mission, but it was good. I hope you all have a great week and make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: Sister E and I with a "welcome to the district" gift from the Elders, the main part of Freiburg, Sister E and I at Stake Conference with our bus :)
Hi everyone! Well, it looks like I'm in Freiburg now. Saying goodbye to Augsburg was super depressing, but that is just how it is on a mission. You gotta pick up and go because there are more people that you need to love.
Transfer day was insane (as always). Getting from Augsburg to Munich went pretty smoothly, but it's when I got on the train to go to Stuttgart that things started getting crazy. There were about 10 of us on the train and 6 of them were brand new fresh shell shocked missionaries straight out of the MTC. I was the oldest missionary (in terms of how long I'd been on my mission) on that train. I don't know how I became so old, but anyways, getting them all on the train was an accomplishment alone because they just kind of wandered around the train station, letting it sink in that they were actually in the field, which I understand, it is a big deal. But OH MY GOSH you need to get on the train because if we miss it, we have messed up our travel plans for the rest of the day. Somehow we got all of them on and their 20 suitcases onto the train with 30 seconds to spare. Well, then we went to Stuttgart and when we got to the stop, we had a limited time to get us and our suitcases off the train. In under two minutes, we got all of the missionaries and our 20 suitcases off the train. I have never thrown so many suitcases in my life. If anyone wants to tell me I am not tough, they will get a suitcase thrown in their face. I now know the real reason that I had to do trek when I was still in Young Women's. Shoving that cart across Wisconsin was practice for shoving those suitcases off the train. Needless to say, I was pretty sore the next day.
Well, after that I met with my new companion Sister Earnshaw. She is probably one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She is from Pennsylvania and just finished being trained last transfer so I am her greenie buster. We had two more train rides to take in order to get to Freiburg. They were both an hour long and required a lot more suitcase lugging, but somehow, everything worked out. We made it to Freiburg and the Elders there met us at the train station to help get my suitcases to the apartment. I think I know just a little bit what that handcart company felt like when the rescue team came to help them. I was ready to cry when they took my suitcases out of my hands and rolled them away for me. That sounds a bit dramatic. All I'm saying is, I'm glad that transfer days don't happen all the time.
WELL, now I can tell you what Freiburg is like. IT'S BEAUTIFUL! It is a college town because there is a university here and it is surrounded by mountains. We are right by Switzerland and France and you can really feel it. Augsburg was really German. I would say that Freiburg is really European. Also, since there is a university here, there are a lot of YSA's. They have a center here and a lot of activities that we get to go to when we don't have eating appointments. That's another thing. The ward is really great. We have a solid handful of eating appointments next week and they are really excited to help us with the missionary work which is really all that a sister could ask for.
One thing is, I have never gotten such a strong reaction to my last name before. Oh my gosh. I got introduced in Relief Society, Sunday school, and Sacrament meeting and everyone laughed a lot when they heard my name. I figure it's a good thing because it will be easy for them to remember. Sunday was fast Sunday, and the bishop "invited" me to bare my testimony first. This is my fourth area and fifth ward on my mission and a tiny tid bit that I have learned about the "introduction" testimony is that it makes a big difference to walk to the pulpit with good posture. It just makes you seem less sheepish and like you aren't afraid of the ward members. Just keep that in mind if you get the opportunity to do an intro testimony somewhere.
Anyways, I really haven't been here that long and there is still LOADS to learn. I kind of feel like dead weight to my companion right now because I don't know anything about the area, but I'm trying to be helpful. I hope all is well and that you are all making good choices.
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: The view from my kitchen window in Freiburg, the goodbye picture at the train station, our last district picture in Augsburg
