14 Hours of Train Rides and LOTS of Adventures

Wow! What a week! I think that this has probably been one of the coolest weeks of my mission. I don't even know really where to begin, so I will start with last Tuesday. 

We got six new investigators in one day!!! That is not a thing that normally happens. We are usually lucky if we get one new investigator in one week. It was amazing! The first person we started teaching is a super sweet lady from Africa. She invited us into her apartment because she could tell that we are from God and all she wants is to please Him. We taught her and it went really well and she told us to come again the next day, so we did, and she said that she wants to see us every week so that she can come closer to God. That is exactly what we are here for, so that is exactly what we will be doing. 

We were celebrating after that, but then after our eating appointment, we still had about an hour and a half left in our day, so we hit the streets and rang some doorbells. These two college students let us in. They are both girls and were just genuinely curious about what our church is. We started talking with them about the Book of Mormon and stuff and then their third roommate came home and listened too. Then, two more friends came over and they also wanted to listen, so next thing we know, we are sitting around a kitchen table talking to five college students about the restored gospel. That was one of the coolest teaching experiences of my mission. It went really well and they invited us to come back next Tuesday to talk more. They also told us to bring our hymn book because they want to see our songs. We will see what happens next Tuesday, but Sister E and I walked out of that apartment and could not believe what had just happened. This is not South America :)
So that was Tuesday. 

On Friday, we began our journey to Munich to see Elder Bednar. For us, it was seven hours on a train to get there. It was SO beautiful, but it also took forever. The Elders were there too and of course we brought snacks, but by the time we got to the Munich train station I was super ready to walk around. The whole experience was quite surreal because literally, our whole mission went to Munich for this conference with Elder Bednar. There were 250 Elders and Sisters there. When we got to Munich, everyone saw each other at the train station and of course we all freaked out. When you get transferred, you literally have no idea if you are ever going to see some of these missionaries again, so seeing people is just so fun. We all ran and grabbed dinner somewhere in the city and then met at one of the Church buildings for a short meeting with President and Sister Kohler. They wanted to make sure that we were as prepared as possible to be in the presence of an Apostle the next day. They told us to stand when he walked in and out of the room and overall, just to be professional. 

After that, we all had to go to the youth hostel around the corner to catch some Z's. I was super exhausted from all of the socializing and travel. We were in a room with two other sisters in our zone and it the hostel was actually really nice. I experienced a solid handful of youth hostels when I lived in Denmark, and some of them can be pretty nasty, but I was actually quite impressed with this one. 

In the morning, we all scarfed down a sack breakfast and then went over to the Church building in waves. I was in the second wave and was nervous about getting a good seat. I'm short. It is so hard to see past a super tall Elder when he is sitting right in front of me. We got there and the building already seemed pretty full BUT I just walked to the second row and asked if there was space AND THERE WAS! So we got to sit in the second row and that was super nice. Elder Bednar was like 5 feet away from me. It was so cool, because when he walked in, you could literally feel the Spirit hit you like a wall. It was just amazing. The meeting started and it was just one of the coolest things ever because it wasn't us sitting there and being talked at. It was really like a discussion. He asked questions and we could raise our hands and answer them. This meeting was actually a training meeting because we are going to be implementing more technology into our mission (iPads). But to be clear, the meeting wasn't about iPads, it was about being more effective missionaries.
Elder Bednar is such a powerful speaker. At the end of it all, be bore the most pure and powerful testimony I have ever heard of Jesus Christ. I already had a testimony that Elder Bednar is an apostle of God, but that testimony got a heck of a lot stronger at this conference.

Part way through the conference, we all went outside and had lunch. It was nice weather and we all just ate sandwiches on the grass. My district from the MTC got together again. We haven't been all together in a year and it was so good to see them. It is cool, because a year later, we are all the same people with the same personalities, but you can tell that there has been a lot of growth too. We have all had experiences that have changed us for the better.

Anyways, after that we all left the conference and headed home on our various trains. We got back pretty late on Saturday night, but it was so worth it. I feel so blessed to be here on this mission. I hope you all have a great week and make good choices!
 
Love,
Sister Smiley
 
Pictures: walking to an eating appointment last Wednesday, we stopped in Ulm on the way to Munich so we ran over to the cathedral before our next train left, my MTC district reunited.