Hi Everyone!

 So, today I am emailing later than usual because we had our district meeting this morning. What? A district meeting on a Monday? Yes, BECAUSE President Kohler came to Vienna today and did interviews. It was actually a lot of fun. One district has their meeting going on while President pulls you out to do your interview. There was an Austrian reporter there who wanted to talk to President so he could write an article about what missionary life is like. It was interesting. We were in our district meeting singing our opening song and one of our Elders pulled out his guitar to accompany us. He does that sometimes and it is SO fun. It's like singing around the campfire and all happy and stuff, and then the reporter came in and started recording us singing. That was a bit uncomfortable, but it was really funny. Eventually I got pulled out to have my interview and it went really well. He just talked to me about keeping on going and serving people. It was good. After the interviews we had a lunch together in our church building and it was so good! The Elders basically constructed a sandwhich buffet. Let me tell ya, I am really going to miss the European bread after my mission. It is quality stuff here. Basically my breakfast every morning is a large hunk of delicious bread and yogurt (which is also delicious). I am so spoiled.

Anyways, this week was another good one. I'm at this point right now where I'm really just enjoying being a missionary. When challenges do come up, ya work them and that's it. On Friday we had a sport evening in our ward in Wiener Neustadt and so many investigators came. It was fantastic! We even had a bunch of less active members there too. We got to talk to them a lot and befriend them and I got to work on my poor volleyball\soccer skills. All in all it was good. I've realized that there is no such thing as a person who is not interesting to talk to. Everyone has their own story or interests that are just so interesting to talk about. If anyone knows my Dad they know that he is pretty big on running, and running shoes, and running clothes, and running magazines, and so on. Well, yesterday we were on the train from Wiener Neustadt to Wien and I noticed that the guy accross from me was wearing Newtons (a brand of running shoes) and was reading a running magazine. Basically, if you can click into a conversation about running shoes with any passionate runner, you are in. I mentioned the Newtons and the guy lit up and was able to keep going with me on this topic. Actually, he kind of took over. It was really funny, but it was cool for me to realize that every single person on this earth is interesting, and that every single person on this earth needs the gospel and as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is my job to share that message with them.

On Thursday, I got to have my first experience with Austrian dentistry...that was fun. I was flossing a couple of nights ago, like anyone would, and then randomly, part of my tooth popped out of my mouth. A PART OF MY TOOTH CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH!!!! I don't think that just happens. It hurt to drink or eat with that tooth, so I called the Mission nurse...again, and she made an appointment for me. That was nice, so we went to the address she gave us and we ended up in this really sketchy looking apartment complex. I was so not excited. It looked like this was going to be the worst dentist appointment of my life, but we found the door we were supposed to go in. We opened it and it was actually a super nice dentist office. That was a huge relief and the dentist was really nice. My tooth was fixed in like 15 minutes and the problem was solved. That was a HUGE tender mercy. Being a missionary is quite difficutlt when your tooth is hurting, so Heavenly Father's hand was in that one for sure. 

I don't have much time, so I just want to talk really quickly about what we did for p-day last week. After getting errands done, we went to the palace in Austria called Schönbrunn. It was so pretty! We basically took loads of pictures and just drooled the whole time. I'm going to put some in this email. Today, we might go see something too because we are in Vienna this week and the Sister Training Leaders from Graz are staying with us until Wednesday actually. They have meetings here with the Zone Leaders and stuff and so we have a full apartment, but it's super fun. We'll see what happens, but I hope everyone has a great week and makes good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

How the heck are we half way through August already?

 HI All! How are things going? I hope all is well. I'm doing pretty darn good. Serving in two wards and two areas is really an interesting challenge but I think we are finally getting into the groove of it...I may have just jinxed myself by saying that though. 

Anyways, we had zone training this week and it was so good! This is only my third zone training, but I felt so pumped to go out and do missionary work after this one. Something they focused on a lot was "working smarter". It is very easy to run out the door in the morning and kind of just float around and call that missionary work. It is too, but the thing is, there is a way to make it so that we spend every hour of our day doing something affective. In an ideal world, we would have appointments all throughout the day, and be doing contacting as we travel from appointment to appointment, since we go by way of public transportation. We've been trying to do that a lot. Another thing they talked a lot about is working with the memebers. MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK IS SO IMPORTANT. I think half the reason I needed to go on a mission was to realize how important member missionary work is. When the members get involved, the work is so much more affective. It's just so exciting. We have some wards that are really excited to work with us. I've been studying the ward mission plans and I'm really excited to put both of them into action. It's cool because they are really tailored to each ward. So yeah, it was a good zone conference.

The day before zone conference, we were trying to get in touch with a member so we could sing happy birthday to them, we were kind of playing phone tag and waiting for them to call us back. Well, the phone rang and we were so excited to sing happy birthday that we just put it on speaker phone right away and started belting out happy birthday. We were about half way through when Sister Freimann looked down at the phone and goes: "It's the zone leaders!". That was our bad. I picked up the phone right away and took it off speaker and all I could hear was one of the Elders saying, "Well this is awkward." It was hilarious. Maybe it was one of those "you had to be there moments", but we were laughing for a super long time.

So in our ward we have a couple who we love so much. The wife is Mongolian and I have no idea where the husband is from, but they are both awesome. We have our mission correlation meetings at their apartment because she is a ward missionary and they are about as sweet as you can get. Well, this week, the husband was checked into the hospital because he is having heart problems. They have been there about a week now and we know that they aren't having the most fun time ever. We've been able to visit them a couple of times, and one evening we went over with the Elders to have FHE (Family Hospital Evening). We brought some snacks with us and played UNO and had a spiritual thought. It was so good. It's hard to see these sweet people stuck in a hospital, but I hope that we could brighten things up a little bit. They do so much for the missionaries. We could at least try to do a little bit for them.

On Tuesday we had English class which I am a huge fan of. The one Mongolian lady that I talked about before came again and she brought a friend! I never really know what I'm going to teach when we go into the class, but I say a prayer before and with their questions and some help from Heavenly Father, we are able to have a super good hour. It is just so cool to be able to help people in that way. I have never done something like teach a language before, but it is so fun.

On Friday, we were in our Vienna apartment doing weekly planning when we got a call. One of our investigators was at the YSA center and the senior couple there had to leave, but she wanted to be taught, so we basically ran to the other side of the city and met with her. We stayed at the center and made waffles and talked about the ten commandments, because that's where we are now with her. It was a really good time, and when I was thinking about it afterwards, I realized, that I would drop almost anything if it meant helping someone come unto Christ. It's is a real special privilege being able to do this full time.

So on Sundays, Europe basically shuts down. I don't know where everyone goes or how they all do it, but literally, there is no one. We've kind of had a hard time figuring out what we should do with our proselyting hours once we have finished studies and going to church, but we finally figured something out and I think it is a really great idea. So we made this thing called The Cookie Calandar. It has birthdays on it. We also have this thing where we go to church and ask the Relief Society President who there is that she thinks needs our help or a visit this week. We then go home and bake a lot of cookies, and after our studies, we run around and give all of the cookies out. It's great because a lot of the people on the Cookie Calandar are less active, so we are able to come in contact with them, and, we are already making a dent in the list from our Relief Society President. It's a good time and I'm really happy about it.

Today, we are in Vienna for p-day. We have a bunch of errands to run, but hopefully, we'll be able to see some sights too. Who knows. Well, that's all for today. I realize that there is no real organization to these letters and that I just kind of tell random stories, but I hope people think they're interesting or slightly entertaining. I hope you are all doing well and making good choices!

Love,

Sister Anna Smiley

Pictures: The three of us wearing our matching Austria shirts headed out to do some serious service (aka, we organized wood while the Elders chopped it), Family Hospital Evening, and a rainbow we saw from the hospital room when it stopped raining.

I have no idea what to call this one so come up with your own title :)

Hi Everyone!

I think I usually start by saying life is good, but yeah, it is still good. Having two areas is pretty hectic, but we''re making it work. 

On Friday, we were doing our weekly planning and we got quite stressed because we are in two fantastic wards where they are ready to really help us do the work, but we just physically cannot do everything we could if we only had one area. We were just staring at our planners for a while wondering how we were going to make this work as best as possible when we all had the same epiphany at the same time. NO one wants to "get this transfer over with" so we can start doing "real work" next transfer.We want to make this transfer super duper meaning full because there are so many different circumstances that we're working with. Well, that's when we realized we really have to work with the members. There is literally no other way for us to do this work. We need their help and they are willing to help us, so basically the plan is to love the heck out of them and make sure that every week we can have a progress record full of things we've been doing to try to build up their ward so that they get excited and want to help too. It seems simple, but we have already seen how effective it is. When they know us and befriend us, they want to be a part of this work. IT'S SO COOL!!! That was just our little epiphany this week. We'll see how it goes.

 

On Tuesday we were at the Young Single Adult Center in Vienna just finishing up our district meeting when this cute little mongolian lady walked in. She saw our sign for teaching english classes and said she wanted to learn. Sister Freimann and Sister Bushman have never taught English before and I did it a little bit in Ludwigsburg, so basically the torch was handed to me and I gave this sweet lady her first English lesson. It was just so cool. I have been in an abundance of foreign language classes in my life so I'm pretty familiar with how the first one goes. I loved teaching her so much and we get to do it again this week!!!!! That was divine intervention for sure. Who cares if I got a C in my freshman English class in high school. I can talk and read just fine and that's all you need along with help from Heavenly Father. 

Last monday we were in Vienna and we decided to just go into the city and see the touristy parts of it. First of all, it was hilarious because we were surrounded by American and asian tourists speaking English. That was pretty strange, but it was so beautiful. We went to Stephans Dome which is a giant cathedral and we walked along the pedestrian streets. I got a new bag because mine had a gaping hole in it and did not function any more. So we went into the most hipster H&M of my life. It was in a super old building and made all of the clothes look like works of art.

 

On Tuesday we came Wiener Neustadt. It's this sleepy little town outside of Vienna and is so beautiful. It's surrounded by vinyards and you can see the Alps a little bit. It's a really pretty train ride from the city. The only thing is, that since it's a fairly small town, there is no public transit which means that we walk EVERYWHERE. I have good shoes so it's not too bad for me, but Sister Freimann's foot has been getting swollen and she said it hurts too. 

That leads me to our next adventure. This morning we were in the emergency room for about two hours. Her foot was not looking good so we went and basically, she has carpal tunnel, but in her foot. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but she has drugs and cream now, so hopefully she'll be ok. It was pretty exciting to sit in an Austrian hospital though. It was so old. Sister Bushman and I read the Book of Mormon while we waited so it was still productive :) 

Yesterday I gave one of my two talks. It was in Wiener Neustadt and it was on ordinances. I thought that was a bit of a strange topic for a missionary, but it was actually so interesting for me to be able to study that. I came to this realization, that without the priesthood (the power of God on the earth) we are basically doomed. I think my talk went over well. I'm giving another one next week in Vienna about agency, so I'm excited to start studying about that :) Well, I don't have much time, but I hope you all have a great week and make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: Us at the hospital this morning, the train ride to Wiener Neustadt, and me in front of stephans dome

When in Wien (that's how you say Vienna in German)

So I'm in Wien now. That's kind of crazy. You would not believe what I see when I look out the window from this internet cafe. Heavenly Father spoils me.

So saying goodbye to Ludwigsburg was actually heart wrenching. I got so comfortable there and loved the people so much. We were seeing a lot of success too, so leaving was super duper sad, but Heavenly Father knows what He's doing, so I'm just going to roll with it :) 

On our last day in Ludwigsburg we had English class and I had to say goodbye to a girl that became really good friends with. She gave me a book that I'm dying to read after my mission, and she wrote a note inside of it, so I'll just have to wait a while until I can read the book, but that was super sweet of her. 

We also had three eating appointments that day. Sister Powell did a really good job of letting the people of Ludwigsburg know that she loves ice cream so literally the only thing we ate at all three of those appointments was ice cream. My mouth was thoroughly covered in sugar after that.

Thursday was transfer day and that was insane. Like probably one of the most insane days of my life. Me and one other elder were going all the way from Stuttgart Zone to Wien Zone. That meant three two hour train rides with like 10 minute layovers. There were always lots of other missionaries on the trains with us, so organizing suitcases was a lot of work. Basically, when you get to your stop, Elders start throwing suitcases off the train and you HAVE to make sure yours gets off or its going to Berlin. Then you take what you can and ask other missionaries for help and book it to your next train. Once you get there, the suitcases get thrown back on again and you HAVE to make sure that yours make it on. So when we got to Munich, I also needed to meet our golden (new missionary), Sister Bushman, and help her out with getting to Wien. I found her and we dashed off to our train and somehow made it here with all of our stuff. It was insane. Transfers are always insane, but it's good and builds character.

Wien in beautiful. It is such a privilige to be serving here. Basically, everything is attractive and the food continues to be really good. We have some errands to run, but if we have time today, we are going to go see some sights.

Sister Freiman and Sister Bushman are great. They are my two companions and it is actually super fun to be in a drit. There is always someone to talk to. Sister Bushman is a beast of a golden. She's from Kansas and she literally talks to everyone. I'm learning a lot from her. Technically, Sister Freiman is the trainer, so she takes care of the official business, and I just help. Sister Freiman has four transfers left on her mission and is super great. She comes from Hannover, so she helps a lot with learning German. One thing is, when you get to your second area, everyone expects you to know German really well already. Compared to Sister Bushman I'm "experienced", but I still feel like a chicken running around with my head chopped off. I think that will be a normal feeling throughout my mission.

One fun surprise about being in a sisters drit is that we have two areas we work in actually. We have Wien 1 and Wiener Neustadt. Wein 1 is in the city and Wiener Neustadt is more like a suburb of Wien. It's kind of a struggle to try to get to know two wards at once, but there just aren't enough sisters here right now to give every ward the amout of missionaries they want, so we have to be shared around. We have two apartments, two area books, two phones, and two sets of keys. It's a little cray cray, but it is an adventure for sure. 

Another "fun" thing about two wards is that I get to give a talk next Sunday and the one after that. They aren't making Sister Bushman do it yet because she is new, so I get to do it. Fortunately, I can write out the talks and Sister Freiman can help with the German, but Heilige Kuh that is a lot of talks. Guess Heavenly Father wants me to work on my German public speaking skills. Well bring it!

Anywho, life is great. People are nice, and food is good. I hope everyone has a great week and continues to make good choices.

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures:

We took a family picture of the three of us this morning: Sister Freiman is in the middle and Sister Bushman on the left; Sister Freiman and I, and then we kind of stumbled upon the parliamnet building when we were stopping to get some food on Friday. It was pretty exciting.

White-Washed!

LUDWIGSBURG GOT WHITE-WASHED!!!!!!!! That's right, Sister Powell and I are BOTH being transfered. That is totally completely not what we expected at all. I thought I would get at least one or two more transfers here, but alas, that is not the case. So on the day of transfer calls (Friday) you get a phone call from one of three people: the Zone Leaders saying that you and your companion are both staying, the AP's, telling you that one of you is getting a normal transfer, or the President calls and tells you you're becoming a Zone Leader, a Sister Training Leader, or you're training. The later in the day it gets, the more likely it is to be the President or the AP's because Zone Leaders get their calls done pretty fast. WELL, the Zone Leaders sent out a mass text when they finished making all of their calls, so if we hadn't heard from them, then there would be change. We did expect that. We thought that just Sister Powell would leave. About 45 minutes later our phone rings AND IT WAS THE PRESIDENT!!! We were on the speaker phone so we could both hear him. He said the normal hello and stuff and then told us he had some "pretty heavy duty" jobs for us. We were freaking out at that point. Sister Powell is going to Salzburg. She is going to be training a new missionary (we call them goldens), and she is also going to be whitewashing that area, AND she is going to be a Sister Training Leader. That's like a triple whammy! 

Now you may or may not be sitting on pins and needles waiting to find out where I'm going. I did that on purpose. Isn't suspense fun? I'M GOING TO VIENNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to work in a drit (a companionship with three sisters in it). One is already there. Her name is Sister Freiman and she is from Germany. And the second is going to be a new missionary that we will be training together. I'M SO EXCITED! VIENNA IS GOING TO BE GREAT!!!! 

So now that we have established that, there are SO many things we have to do before we leave Ludwigsburg. It's being whitewashed and the new sisters are going to have no idea how to get anywhere at all. We have basically been writing an instruction book on how to survive in Ludwigsburg. It's a bit complicated with buses and random paths and stuff, but I'm confident that whoever comes will be great. 

Also, since I'm switching from Germany to Austria, there is so much paper work to do. I just spent this morning filling out papers and getting ready to live there because Austria is a bit picky about who lives there, but lets face it, this is Europe, they love their paper work here. 

And then there is the worst part about transfers, leaving the area. It's the most conflicting emotion ever, because I love Ludwigsburg so much. I love the ward and the people and basically everything about it, so saying goodbye is really sad. I wish I had recorded the reaction in our ward yesterday when the Bishop announced that both of the sisters were being transfered. It was an audible gasp. It was so funny. But saying goodbye was sad. We've been having last appointments with investigators too and that is torture. You always worry that someone is going to fall between the cracks, but that is how you learn to trust the Lord. He knows what He's doing far better than we do, so you just have to roll with the punches. We've been making sure that our records are super duper thorough so that the new sisters know exactly what's up when they get here. No one is going to be forgotten. 

Thursday is when we leave, so the rest of our time in Ludwigsburg is eating appointments, getting ready for the new sisters, and goodbyes. A lot of our district got transfered actually, so we're gonna go to the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart together. It'll be fun. 

The trip to Vienna is going to be a long one. It is literally on the other end of the mission, so on Thursday I take a train to Stuttgart, and then another one to Munich, and then another one to Salzburg, and then another one to Vienna. It's going to be a fun journey actually, and I'll be able to see a lot of other missionaries on the way. I'm not really looking forward to moving my two big suitcases around again, but hey, what are Elders for, right? JUST KIDDING'!!!! That was a joke.

Anyways, Ludwigsburg was the most perfect place possible for me to start out my mission. I have learned so much and witnessed so many miracles. It's time for a new chapter and new experiences. It's just kind of funny because essentially, Ludwigsburg area is a cluster of villages. Now I'm headed to a big city. That'll be different, but I'm pumped. 

Hope life is good for everyone.

Make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: My last picture of the Ludwigsburg Palace; my bishop (Bishop Kern) and his family (they're the greatest), our chapel.

It just keeps getting better!

So! Last week I talked about an investigator coming to church that missionaries had been working with for a long time. Well, SHE CAME AGAIN THIS WEEK! I feel like that is bigger than coming the first time. Coming back is always the hardest. It's like starting a new school year. The first day of school is fine because it's just the first day of school, but going back for the second day was always harder for me because that is when you realize that this is for real. Sister Powell and I were freaking out when she walked through the door for the second time. And what's better is that the ward scooped her up. People went out of their way to go talk to her and get to know her. That is exactly how it should be. I was so happy for her. That was our biggest miracle this week, but there are always loads.

 This week in particular has been pretty hot. We wore our lightest clothes every day and drank loads of water. One day that was super hot (40 degrees Celsius) we were getting off a bus to go to an appointment. There was also a couple of love birds getting off with us (probably about 16 years old) and when the bus started driving away, the girl goes "My cell phone! It's still on the bus!"-in German though. Right away, the boy started running SO FAST after the bus. It was actually hilarious. He basically threw his whole life into catching that bus. I don't know how it turned out, if he got the phone or not, but that is when Sister Powell and I decided that chivalry is in fact not dead. 

On Friday we had an appointment with a less active member. She is from Nigeria so we speak English with her...which is so weird, but she is super sweet. When we got there she was on the phone with her brother who told her he traveled to Atlanta to perform (with a christian rock group), and his video was on YouTube. She promptly looked it up on her iPad and started freaking out. She got on the floor and waved her hands around and was singing along. It was pretty epic. She was so happy to see her brother on YouTube. She was so happy that she made us lunch! That was a nice bonus. It was delicious African food. Apparently fried bananas are a thing. They were really good. That was such a unique experience.

Lately we have had an abundance of potential investigators to go out and contact. Every area in this mission is pretty big so it always takes a while to get there, especially with public transportation, but we have gone to so many places so many times in a row and no one has been home. It's quite disappointing, but we have a new thing we do, where when we go to a village or something to go try and contact someone and they're not there, then we have to knock on at least six doors. There must be another reason that we are there. So far, no one has fallen to their knees when we've come to their door, begging us to be baptized, but there is always something. People are interested in our English class, or they need help cleaning something, or once we ran into an investigator on the street and they just talked to us a little bit. Heavenly Father always puts people in our paths.

The other day, we were on the train headed home and a teenage girl sat next to me. Not gonna lie, I judged her pretty hard pretty fast. It was horrible, I have repented since then, but while I was sitting there telling myself why there was no point in talking to this girl, it hit me that Heavenly Father loves her so much. He just loves all of His children more than we can comprehend, so I'm an idiot for deciding that she wouldn't want our message. Well, I started talking to her and she was the best conversation I had all day. She knew about our church and said that the people from it are always so nice. It didn't get much further than that, but it was one of those sweet experiences that I really appreciated.

 

Yesterday we were at a members house for an eating appointment. It was a family and the mom was German and the dad was American. In their house they speak a mixture of German and English. They have four kids who understand both languages, so I was super confused. I had no idea what to speak. My mind doesn't switch back and forth that fast, so it was a bit of a whirlwind. It was just kind of funny. The German is hard, but I think it's coming.

This is the last week of the transfer and we get the transfer calls on Friday morning. Then the actual day of transfers is the next Thursday. I think I'm going to stay in Ludwigsburg for another transfer or two, but Sister Powell has been here for five so she will probably be headed somewhere else. We'll see what happens. No one can really predict what is going to happen though because we have a new President, but that is just my guess.

Well, anywho, that's what I have to say for this week. The work is hard, but it is good, and I am so glad that I get to serve here. Hope everyone is doing well wherever you may be.

Make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: What a sister missionary looks like when she got all of her groceries done within her budget, one of the villages that we spend a lot of time in lately, Sister Powell super excited about the Spaghetti Eis (ice cream shaped like spaghetti) 

Rainy Days, Sick Days, and Sundays

Wow, wasn't that a clever title? I'm pretty happy about it.

AND DEUTSCHLAND WON THE WORLD CUP! That's right, we basically dominated. We couldn't watch the finale, but we had ward members texting us play by plays and it was pretty intense. They beat Argentina 1-0 in a 30 minute over time. At 11:30 last night we heard yelling and fireworks and lots of honking horns. It was pretty crazy. We expected to go out this morning and see remnants of party everywhere, but it literally looked like a normal day in Germany. That's just kind of how the Germans are. They have their moment of celebration, but then life just keeps going. I do know though that most schools are starting an hour or two later today so that kids can sleep in from watching the game last night. That's pretty cool. 

This week has really been something. So far, summer here, has been super hot and humid, but randomly this week it started pouring rain and got pretty cold. We didn't know that was going to happen, but it did, so we pulled out scarves and sweaters and I got to use my umbrella a lot. Tuesday was the first day that is was really raining cats and dogs. It w

as perfect because there also happened to be a bus strike that day. Basically, we rely like crazy on the transportation system here, so when the buses go down, we go down too. The only option was to walk...a lot. So we did, in the rain. We didn't have any appointments that day so we were going out to contact potential investigators and referals. Literally, no one was home at all, so we spent that whole day walking around in the rain. It was thoroughly exhausting, but we did our best and had a pretty good attitude. When we got home for dinner that night, we wanted something super good and warm to eat. Sister Powell whipped out some chili and I found a corn bread recipe and made that. It was so good. I am actually really proud of how that corn bread turned out because I substituted a lot of ingredients too, and I don't want to brag or anything, but it was basically perfect. I take great pride in that corn bread. 

Anywho, the next day, I woke up with a cold. That wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but that's life and you just have to take what comes. I took good care of myself and bundled up a lot so after a couple days, it looked like it was going away WELL, that was not the case. Yesterday was probably one of the most amazing Sundays of my life. The sick thing is going to tie into it, but just roll with me here.

We went to church like normal and were sitting in our seats at nine because that is when sacrament starts. Right as it was about to start, one of our investigators and her less active boyfriend walked in the room. Missionaries have been meeting with them for a year and a half now. They are two super sweet people, but they have both been pretty nervous about coming to church. It's a scary thing to do when it is new. When they walked through the door I was ready to start crying. We have been meeting with them regularly and just trying to make sure they know that we love them and care about them. Them coming to church was an answer to so many prayers. It was a miracle. 

Ok, so then, during relief society, I realized I was feeling sick again. I was going downhill pretty fast actually and really didn't feel like holding my head up any more. I was in that mood where you just want a good meal and a bed. WELL, we had to stay after church because later on that day there was going to be a baptism for an 8 year old girl in the ward and there was no sense in us going home. We just brought our lunch and study stuff with. We were going to heat up our left overs and eat it, when the family of the girl getting baptized invited us to eat with them. They had this fancy meal that they brought to the church and were going to eat before getting ready for the service. It was so nice of them and they insisted that we joined them. It was a super good potato soup and German bread. That was so nice of them. They really did not have to do that, but it hit the spot perfectly. 

WELL, after that I really needed to lie down, so Sister Powell and I camped out in a classroom where she did studies and I fell asleep. I had about two hours so that was good. The baptism rolled around and it was super great. Seeing baptisms always makes me think of my own. 

At the end THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD. It was a major production. Basically the whole ward came, and everyone brought a beautiful plate of something. I tried lots of different things. When we were all done with that Sister Powell and I decided to head home because I could not do real missionary work. We began our trek to the train station and were about to walk up this gigantic hill. In my head there were two things I was thinking: I would really like to get to know the Weber family better, and I really don't feel like walking up this hill right now. WELL, two milliseconds later, the Weber family pulled up next to us, picked us up, and drove us home. Heavenly Father really does take care of his missionaries. It was just such a great Sunday.

 

Anywho, just so no one gets scared, I did call the mission nurse when I got home yesterday and she said that I have a virus that a bunch of missionaries seem to be getting right now. She told me to email and get groceries today, and then we are just spending the rest of p-day sleeping. Sister Powell is super patient with me, but yeah, it's a party.

 

Despite being sick though, life is really good. I wish I could spend all 18 months of my mission in Ludwigsburg because it is so great. Being a missionary here is the best. Heavenly Father really knows what He's doing. 

So, that being said, I hope you all have a great week, make good choices, and drink lots of fluids.

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: we kind of stumbled upon this castled one day on our way to an appointment and stopped to take pictures, my corn bread that I'm super proud of, and Sister Powell and I on the first rainy day.