Immer Unterwegs!!!

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