Germany is the Greatest!

HI Everyone! 

We had a great week in Ludwigsburg area. It has really been awesome. On Thursday, all of the missionaries were given permission to watch the Germany vs. USA game for the World Cup. Sister Powell and I were pretty pumped. A family from our ward invited us and the Elders over for dinner and then the game. Of course Germany won, but it was still super fun to watch. Afterwards, we walked from their house to the train station to go home. Usually they drive us to the train station, but this time, it would have been so unrealistic. Because Germany won, everyone was driving their cars around and honking their horns so it was pretty epic. We walked through this little village and watched everyone celebrate. It was such a cool cultural experience. Germany is so passionate about their soccer.

On Wednesday we had a mission-wide cleaning day. There are some pretty new apartments in this mission (ours is only a year old) and there are a pretty good amount of apartments that date back to when Elder Bednar served here. They needed some work. Ours required pretty basic cleaning and we spent a lot of time organizing shelves and closets and stuff, but it was good and our huble abode looks lovely now. We were told to literally spend the whole day cleaning. No appointments or anything. They said that if we thought we were done early then we should clean the undersides of our refridgerators, but it was necessary because a lot of apartments needed it. We had fun doing it too. We listened to music and told lots of stories. It was good companionship bonding time. 

On Saturday our district got together in an area called Pforzheim. There is a branch there and one set of Elders and we had a "finding day" where you literally spend the day just finding people. We were all given different areas of Pforzheim to go to visit some former investigators and just talk to lots of people. It was raining so that was kind of a bummer, but there were still people out because this is Europe and people walk everywhere. Sister Powell and I talked to some nice people, handed out a lot of passalong cards, and almost got a Book of Mormon out, but it didn't happen. One guy took the passalong card and said that he didn't want a Book of Mormon until he met with the missionaries and talked to them more about what it was, so that was good enough for us. It was just a fun day with the district. I enjoyed it.

 

Friday, was a super long day. We had loads of appointments that were all on opposite ends of our area so we were running around all day, and it was pretty hot and muggy. Our appointments went pretty well. We made some progress with people, but on the bus ride from the train station to our apartment at the end of the day, we were exhauseted. We were kind of just sitting dead on the bus which isn't good because we should have been talking to people, but this man saw my name tag and was just staring at it for a long time. In my head I was thinking, that's kind of creepy, but he got off at the same stop as us and stopped us to ask loads of questions. It was amazing. He had questions about how we can know when someone is a prophet and why would the Book of Mormon be true. We were tired and ready for some food, but we still gave everything we had to talk to this man. In the end he said he wanted to meet with us to learn more. Does it get any better than that? Heavenly Father sends us these insane miracles sometimes and you have to scoop them up when He does.

 

Yesterday was ward conference and in relief society we were being taught by the Stake Relief Society President. I got to talk to her a little bit before sacrament and she is so sweet. But my conversational skills are far better than my deep doctrinal skills, as far as German goes. During the lesson she asked me to read a scripture and then gave me a corresponding question to answer. I had NO IDEA what the question was or what the context of it was though, so I was pretty lost. I kind of threw some words out there about how "he wants us to succeed" because I thought we were talking about what God wants for us, but it turns out we were talking about what Satan wants for us...so that would be my bad. She kind of just kept going, but once I figured it out, I had to try really hard not to freak out laughing in the middle of the lesson. Oops, well, I've only been here for a transfer and a half, so life goes on. Moral of the story: don't take yourself too seriously. Life is way happier that way.

Well, anywho, I hope you have all had a wonderful week. After emails, Sister Powell and I are going to do the tour of the Ludwigsburg palace, so expect pictures.

Have a great day and MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Sister Smiley

Pictures: watching the soccer game, walking in the rain to an eating appointment, and on the bus this morning going to do emails (we take a bus and then a train and then a bus and then walk to get here, it's a bit of a journey)