Seriously, When is Thanksgiving?

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a good week and doing good things. I'm doing pretty well. Sister Mehr and I had a good week in Augsburg. Last Monday we went on one of the most killer p-day adventures of my mission. We went to Neuschwanstein which is the giant castle that the Disney princess castle is based off of. It's in my district and we all hopped on a train and went over and IT WAS SO COOL!!! It was really weird being among tourists and hearing people around us speak English, but it was just so amazing. We hiked up to the castle, walked around the courtyard and saw some stuff, and then went over to this bridge that has a super pretty view of the castle and ate lunch. Lots of pictures were snapped and we stopped at a gift shop and everyone got their souvenirs. I got an edelweiss necklace. It was just so much fun and I feel SO blessed to be serving in this part of the world. 

On Tuesday we went to Munich again. We had training with President Kohler and interviews. It was a really good day. We got to see the Munich Sisters which is always fun. Sisters are few and far between in this mission, so when you see another set of sisters, you enjoy the time with them while you can. During the training with President, there was a part where we could ask him anything we wanted. Sister Mehr and I were wondering when Thanksgiving is, because seriously, we have no idea. I think it's this week, so we are going to be eating chicken for dinner in our apartment. We'll probable wear brown and orange or something and make some hand turkeys. We'll have to see. 

Training was really good though. President wants us to vamp up or finding skills and try dooring differently than we already do. Well, Sister Mehr and I did what he said. We tried dooring a little differently than holding out the Book of Mormon. We used pamphlets and family search and basically any Church resource we could think of, but gosh people can be mean. You would not believe some of the rejections we got. You would think we are trying to come into your house to brain wash you and feed you to zombies or something. Geez. We've come to the point where we are successful if people give us a nice rejection. Quite honestly, it's not my favorite thing in the world, but we are missionaries and we do it and there are promised blessings, so I'm going to keep going.

Anyways, this week we were the activity for the young men in our ward. They made dinner for us and the Elders. They told us to come to Church at 6:30, so we did and they pulled out the Foosball table and told us to play while we waited for the food. We were obedient, so we did what we were told, and I hate to brag, but I crushed everyone. Apparently, I've got game. It was fun, but yeah, so the food came out and it was delicious and we got to hang with the young men in the Ward. That was pretty fun. It was super nice of them to think of us for their activity and give us some delicious schnitzel. 

Last week we got a new investigator, and this week we went over to teach her about the Restoration. Sister Mehr and I role played it like crazy because we really just wanted it to go well and for the Spirit to be able to be there. We had a joint teach there and my goodness, it went really smoothly. She was happy to see us when we got there, she had already been reading in the Book of Mormon and was just excited to learn more. We taught the lesson and it was probably one of the most powerful lessons I've had on my mission so far. Everyday I am more and more impressed with how far Sister Mehr's German is coming, but in that situation, she was able to say everything she wanted and I know that is is because the Holy Ghost was there helping her. It was a really cool experience. I am just so fortunate to be able to be a part of moments like that. Being a missionary really is the coolest thing. Yes, you do have moments where people tell you to get out and don't like you the second they meet you, but then you have the moments where the Spirit is there bearing witness to those that need it, and it is moments like that that make a mission so worth it. I just love being here so much.

On a different note, more than half of our light bulbs went out this week and our shower head snapped in half. Don't ask me how, but it just did. So we were living in a dark apartment and essentially hosing ourselves off in the morning. Well, we called the senior couple responsible for our apartment, and they told us we could go to a hardware store and get light bulbs and a shower head. Sister Mehr and I went to the German version of Home Depot and did some home improvement. It was pretty fun. I can tell you all about watts and stuff now. We got what we needed and now are apartment is lovely. We can see and everything. It was one of those moments where you're just kind of proud of yourself :)

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week. Make good choices!

Love,

Sister Smiley

Pictures: us at Neuschwanstein, and selecting a shower head at Bauhaus