Spring is in the Air!

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.