Exchanges, Ward Council, and Scripture Mastery!

HI everyone! So I would say Sister Mehr and I had a pretty good week. Last Monday we had a pretty chill p-day. We went into the city and ran some errands and then ate pizza at this family run place that is pretty well-known in Augsburg. It's called Il Dragone and was really good. Sister Mehr and I tend to take a lot of pictures with food because this mission is such a culinary experience. Well anyways, we also went to Sonja's store to go visit her. I call is a makeup castle, but to others, it is a cosmetics boutique. We were trying out moisturizers and she started asking us about the kind of husbands we were looking for. It caught Sister Mehr and I off guard because her questions are usually about Jesus and prophets and things like that. So our first response was the joking Sister missionary response that we are not looking for husbands right now because we are missionaries, so we just tell awkward dating stories when we are bored, but we started to talk to her about it even more and we realized her real concern. It was an interesting one to me: are we going to love a man for his money? She just wanted to know our thoughts on this. Do we want to be really rich in temporal things when we are all grown up and stuff, or are we ok with living a humble life, and what is the church's stance on that. I wanted to tell her exactly the right thing in that moment, and at first, I just racked my brain a bit, but then it just came: Jacob 2:18-19. Before you seek for riches, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and after ye have obtained a hope in Christ, ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them and ye shall seek them for the intent to do good. That was my pathetic translation from German, but her face lit up when we said that because it made perfect sense to her. It was just really cool. The scriptures can answer basically any question. So after we said that, Sonja pointed at us and said we could marry brain surgeons or something that makes loads of money, but it's still ok as long as we seek the Kingdom of God first. That was exactly it. It was just such a cool moment where you can see the lightbulb go on. 

On Tuesday this week, we had Gemeinderat or ward council and quite honestly, it scares me to death every time. Germans tend to get worked up about things, so there are a lot of opinions that get thrown around the room, and the goal is to not get stuck in the middle of it. Well, the Sister Mehr and I and the Elders were getting pumped up before we went in and gave ourselves a little pep talk. It was kind of funny actually, because we were all legitimately nervous. Well, we went in, and IT WENT GREAT!! We did our bit and got a lot of head nods and smiles and then moved on. I think you could hear all four of us sigh with relief once we got passed our part. It was just a good moment. Ward council is really something. 

On Wednesday and Thursday I went on austausch (exchanges) with the Munich Sisters. I was in Munich and Sister Mehr stayed here. The fun thing is that I got to go with Sister Motto who was in my zone in Stuttgart and she was the first Sister I went on exchanges with on my mission. She is awesome. We are the same height and everything, so it's always a good time. Well anyways, the first day of the tausch went well and everything was fun, but then the next day we headed out to go to an appointment and when we got to the train station, we learned that the Deutsch Bahn system was on strike AGAIN. So all appointments had to be cancelled and we had to figure out how we were going to switch back. We went to the church and looked up train times to see if there was anything at all going to and from Augsburg and there was one train in the evening. Needless to say, I was in Munich for much longer than I expected, but Sister Motto and I had a good time. 

Yesterday was November 9th, and for you history buffs out there, you already know that on that day in 1989, the wall came down in Berlin. Let me tell you, November 9th is a really interesting day to be in Germany. We had an eating appointment with a member who lived on the east side of Berlin before the wall came down and gosh her life was interesting. She told us the differences she noticed when the wall came down, and how her life changed. There is just such an interesting history here. The people have really experienced some crazy things. 

But anywho, my life is going pretty well. I hope you are all doing well. Make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: The first one is our pizza date last Monday, the second one is Sister Motto and I at the München train station, and the last one is what it looks like when Sister Mehr and I do emails every week.