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
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