Hi Everyone! How are things going? I hope you are all enjoying some nice spring weather. We have had some really nice sunny days here this week. It's been great. I think I was about to cry when I saw the first few buds on trees towards the end of winter because it is just so nice to see the sun again.
We had a pretty solid week. This Sister Training Leader (STL)job sure makes you travel quite a bit. On Tuesday we had zone training in Singen which is a solid two hour train ride. Because we are STLs some pretty scary stuff happened to us. We had to sit in front of the room next to the Zone Leaders and we had to to a part of the training. I have trained quite a few missionaries one on one during my mission, but I have not trained a room full of them before. Fortunately, our part went really well. We talked about conversion through the Holy Ghost and had a good object lesson. I like object lessons. I just think they are so fun. Anyways, after zone training, we had to go to the meeting for the zone leaders and all of the district leaders. I am not 100% sure why we qualified for that meeting, but I think it's because we talked a bit about exchanges and Sister E and I have a grand total of one exchange to organize during the transfer :) It was good though. I always realize during those meetings that Elders' brains are wired totally differently than mine. It's not a bad thing, but some of the things that were motivating to them just sounded awful to me. That was just my personal opinion though.
After that meeting, we hopped on a train with the zone leaders to Zürich (in Switzerland!). We had to meet with our Stake President to talk about how the missionary work in our Stake is going. The train ride over was SO pretty. I tried taking pictures, but they just did not do the view any justice. There are two zones in the Zürich stake: Frieburg zone and Zürich zone. That means that the Zürich Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders were there too. It's always exciting to interact with the Swiss missionaries. In our mission, you can only serve in Switzerland if you have a EU passport, so it kind of cuts our mission in half. Every time I see someone who is or has served in Switzerland, it's like the Berlin wall has come down. It's pretty exciting. It was super cool though to talk to the Stake President about what is going on in terms of the missionary work. He had a pretty thick Swiss accent, but I could still understand him. We all gave him our updates on what was going on, and then we went back to the train station and learned that there was a solid hour until our next train came. We are not aloud to proselyte in Switzerland because of the EU passport thing so we wandered around the city and ate food. It was really exciting. We ended up getting back to Singen at about 11:00 at night and didn't even bother to go back to Freiburg that night. Sister E and I spent the night with the Singen Sisters and then went home first thing in the morning. It was a pretty insane adventure and I still can't believe that the entire day even happened on Tuesday.
We did normal missionary work in our area for the next three days, and then on Saturday went to Singen AGAIN! We had to go there for interviews with our Mission President, President Kohler. Our whole district met in Freiburg and we all traveled over together. President Kohler is a beast and interviews went really well. If only I could give myself advice the way he gives me advice. That would be really nice :)
Well, after interviews, our whole district hopped on a train back to Freiburg because the Freiburg Elders had a baptism that evening. It was for a guy named Jing who is from China and is studying at the university here. It was a really nice baptism and one of our investigators came which of course is always fantastic. That made me quite happy.
After the baptism, we all chatted and ate food for a bit and then we went home and I was so finished. Gosh, I was tired. You would not believe how hard I hit my pillow that night. I still can't even believe that whole week happened. And that's not even the end. This week, we are all (as in, the whole mission) going to Munich to see Elder Bednar. That is a two day trip with a lot of train time. I will tell you all about it next week, but until then, enjoy the Spring weather and make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: Sister Earnshaw and I this morning (we are wearing civilian clothes because we are going on an adventure today), Switzerland!, I don't even know what the last one is, just don't make fun of my outfit
Hi everyone! Well, it looks like spring is making an appearance in Freiburg. I actually went outside today without tights and a coat. That is a first since the beginning of November. I would consider that progress. It is nice to see the sun again. All the tulips and daffodils are out. I love the little spring flowers that pop out of the ground. Sister Earnshaw and I were weak and bought some tulips to put in our apartment. The flower markets are just so pretty and everyone else was doing it, so we figured we might as well. Anyways, enough flower talk. We had a pretty good week this week.
A lot of appointments fell through, but the ones that didn't were really solid. We taught a lesson yesterday to an investigator who we have taught once before, so he is fairly new. We met him in the cemetery actually because he wanted to show us his wife's grave. It was a beautiful cemetery and I could tell that showing us his wife's grave was very meaningful for him. There was a bench under a tree that we sat on and taught him the plan of salvation. It was a really good lesson. I'm not 100% sure how to describe it, but it was totally guided by the spirit and that is the best. We hope that we can help him to continue to progress and develop a relationship with his Father in Heaven.
On Monday last week, it was a holiday, so we literally had nothing to do. The whole world shuts down here when it is a holiday and I have no idea at all where everyone goes. A super sweet member decided to invite the missionaries over though and teach us how to make maultaschen. We made it totally from scratch. It is a German pasta thing kind of like ravioli, but SO GOOD. I got the recipe and totally intend to make it when I am home. It was a lot of fun, and making pasta from scratch is always a party. It tasted so much better than the store bought stuff too.
Sunday was pretty crazy. Not the whole day itself, but sacrament meeting. There we were, taking the sacrament. It is always so quiet and peaceful and just perfect for thinking about things and then a man walked through the door who no one had ever seen before so he was obviously not a member of the ward and not a member of the church, so I walked over to him (no one else was doing anything) and invited him to sit down. His response was "nur hören, nur hören!" and he waved me off, and I didn't know what to do, so I sat down. He stayed standing there and a friend of his came in and told him to sit down, so they did and then the bread started coming around for the sacrament. Everyone is always reverent and quiet during this time, but the first guy who came in asked what was going on, and his friend goes, "we get food now! Waiter, over here!" He was waving at the little deacon with the tray of bread telling him to come over and feed him. The deacon looked like a deer in headlights and didn't move a bit. Then the other guy just started swearing like a sailor. The whole congregation was so shocked and no one knew what to do. Some people shushed him, but guess who stood up and asked them to leave if they weren't going to be quiet? The Primary President! She is the sweetest lady ever and there was so much fire in her eyes. She was going to rip a wall down or something. She led them to the door and then plopped back down in her seat. I WAS FREAKING OUT! I have never seen something like that happen in sacrament meeting before, but it was so crazy. Everything proceeded normally, but after that I kept thinking about D&C 59:9-10. It talks about Sunday being the day where we offer up our sacraments unto the most high. Doesn't that just sound like such an important thing to do? I feel like it can be taken so lightly sometimes that we go to church on Sunday and partake of the sacrament, but I have realized, especially on my mission, just how much I need that time. It is so important to me. It was just an interesting moment.
Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. I hope you are all enjoying spring, and for those of you at BYU, enjoy finals :)...I think those are soon, right? Make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: The one rainy day we had this week, making the maultaschen, me cranking the pasta dough out.
Hi Everyone!
It looks like another week has gone by. I hope you have all had a
wonderful Easter. We are still celebrating it over here in Germany.
Today is Easter Monday so it is a holiday and the whole world is shut
down. Fortunately, our Internet cafe is run by a family of Muslims so we
are still able to email you today which is a miracle.
Easter
Sunday was great. We didn't have a conference session to watch on
Sunday until 2 in the afternoon, so an older lady in our ward invited
Sister Earnshaw and I over for Easter lunch. It was probably the
fanciest lunch of my life. Lots of schnitzel and potatoes of course, and
a beautiful chocolate cake for dessert. The table was set so
beautifully, it was a good thing I was wearing my nice Easter cardigan
:) We were stuffed afterwards, but it was so nice of her to invite us
over.
On
Saturday morning we got our transfer calls. Sister Earnshaw and I are
both staying which is nice. We expected that, BUT there was a twist.
Usually the zone leaders call you to tell you your transfer first thing
in the morning at 7. They will either tell you that you are both
staying, or that someone is being transferred. President or the
Assistants will call you if you are going to be training or become a
Zone Leader or Sister Training Leader. The Zone Leaders called us first
and we just thought they were going to say that we were both staying,
but they called to tell us that they didn't know what our transfer call
was and we would have to wait for President to call. That was just mean.
We were sitting on pins and needles biting our nails off. About ten
minutes later, President did call us and said...we would be the new
Sister Training Leaders for the Freiburg Zone. Did not see that one
coming. My first thought was, I don't know if I have good enough hair
for that job...but you can't say no for that reason :) I was a Sister
Training Leader in the MTC, but my companion and I were the only Sisters
in the MTC at that time...so basically, we don't really know what we're
doing, but we are going to learn. Now we go to Munich once a month for
Mission Leadership Conference, we arrange exchanges with the other
Sisters in the zone, and we help out with zone training. I guess we
actually have responsibility now, but it will be fun to try something
new out.
Last
week, Sister Earnshaw and I were waiting for our tram to come and I
started talking to an older man. He noticed me holding my Book of Mormon
and asked if it was a Bible. I said no and got to talk about the Book
of Mormon and how we also believe on the Bible. We had a really good
conversation and he ended up telling me that his wife had passed away
four weeks ago. That totally changed the mood of our conversation and I
told him about the Plan of Salvation and that he could see his wife
again. It was really cool to watch his face turn from downright sad, to
really curious. We exchanged contact information and we had our first
lesson with him on Easter Sunday. It was so cool. He really just wanted
to know HOW it would be possible to see his wife again. He said that he
feels less sad when he talks to us and that he's excited to pray and ask
God to see if this is all true. It is things like that, that make my
mission so worth it. We are meeting him again this coming weekend and I
am excited to hear about his answer.
What
did you all think of General Conference? Wasn't it so good! Prophets
are the coolest. I took lots of notes and am so excited to read and
reread all of the talks. I especially liked the one President Bednar
gave about fear. Everyone is scared of things. It's normal. You can ask
anyone in my family. I am the biggest worry wart ever. There are always
'what ifs'. There is always a seemingly unpleasant worst case scenario
and as humans, we just don't like uncertainty, but as we look towards
the Savior, we realize, that it is all going to be ok. For some reason,
there is nothing more reassuring to me than when my Dad tells me that it
is going to be fine. I remember going to Summer term at BYU and my Dad
was about to leave for the airport, so it was the official goodbye. I
was pretty nervous about not being in my comfortable house all summer
with people I knew, but my Dad just said, trust me, it'll be great. He
was right. It's the same with our Heavenly Father. The whole time, he
has been telling us, 'it is going to be ok'. It's not going to be easy,
but it's going to be fine.
Anyways, I hope you all had a lovely Easter and got loads out of General Conference. Have a great week and make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures:
The district (we surrounded Elder Morey because this is his last
transfer), we went bowling last p-day, and Sister Earnshaw and I
couldn't resist some ice cream.
Hi Everyone! How are things going? I hope things are going well and that you are all making good choices :)
We had a pretty good week this week. We did all sorts of things actually. We went on exchanges with the Sisters in Singen this week. They are the next closest Sisters to our area...it is only three hours away by train. I stayed in Freiburg and worked with Sister Smith from Southern California and Sister Earnshaw went to Singen for a day. It was kind of a funny exchange because on Thursday, we went all the way to Singen to meet up with the Sisters and then we came back, so that was six hours of trains and then we added another hour on because we had an eating appointment at a member's house that day. It was a lot of trains. It was all super beautiful and scenic though. We saw a lot of castle ruins along the way so we did the tourist thing and snapped a lot of pictures. How could we not? Working with Sister Smith was fun though. She came out two transfers after me, so we know a lot of the same people and got to talk about that a lot. The eating appointment we had was actually with the one American family in our ward. It was amazing, we had corn bread! I love corn bread! There was soup too, but I was mostly excited about the corn bread :) For dinner we had brownies and ice cream. That also made me happy because my Mom usually makes brownies and ice cream when we have the missionaries over, so it was like a piece of home. We went home from the eating appointment and then exchanged back the next day, so it was a pretty uneventful exchange on our end, but it was really good. I liked working with Sister Smith for a bit.
On Saturday, the YSA's in our ward had Instituts Samstag. They spent the whole day together doing churchy things and one of the things they did was an Ausstellung in the center of town. An ausstellung is a stand that we put up with pictures and pamphlets and all sorts of good stuff that tell people about our church. A couple of people stayed by the ausstellung and the rest of us went out finding. We got to do splits which was fun. I went with Madelein who is studying here at the university and was actually just baptized in January. Going finding with her was probably one of the coolest finding experiences of my mission. We talked to LOADS of people and handed out lots of pass-along cards for Easter. It was so fun. Afterwards, we all went back to the church and had a super yummy lunch. YSA's are the best. They just get so fired up about things and it makes the work so much more enjoyable. We played soccer with them this week because we like to invite our investigators and every time we play with them, I feel like such an American trying to play soccer with Germans. Team sports aren't really my forte anyways, but then mixing in passionate Europeans...it's just embarrassing, but it is really fun. I don't know how they do all of the fancy things with their feet, but sometimes, I manage to get the ball and then when I do, I pass it to someone who would actually know what they're doing.
Yesterday, we got to watch the Women's Conference broadcast. We watched a rebroadcast yesterday instead of watching it live on Saturday night. IT WAS SOO GOOD. I can't believe that it is already General Conference again. This is how I know that I am an old missionary. This is the third and last session of conference that I will be watching as a missionary. That is just so weird. I remember watching Conference in the MTC and thinking it would be forever before I watched it again, and now...gosh it just rips by. It's just a reminder to love every moment.
Being a missionary is the bomb. It is also so hard. I have never done anything this hard in my life. I have been stretched and pulled in so many ways that I did not know possible. I experienced the hardest moments ever, BUT I have also experienced some of the purest joy that I didn't realize was so sweet. You watch a change in people's eyes when they feel the spirit for the first time. It is not describable, but it is amazing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is real and it is why I push through and try to grow from the hard things. I know that my Father in Heaven loves me and that He wants me to make it back to Him. My mission will last much longer than my release date in August. No one stops being a disciple of Jesus Christ and that is what is so cool.
I hope you all have a great week! Make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: Going on exchanges!, we liked the pretty yellow bushes even though it was super grey out so we took pictures with them (sorry, we're Sisters ok), and we went into a cathedral last week with lots of pretty stained glass
