Anyways, I hope everyone had a great New Years. Can you believe it is 2015? Crazy! We got invited to members' homes on New Years Eve and New Years Day so that was a win. We were aloud to stay out until 10:00PM on New Years Eve and we were at this couple's home from our ward. They are the Herbers and let me tell you, they are formal people. You better know your table manners when you go to their home, otherwise you are just an embarrassment. I've been working on teaching Sister Baker German table manners because they are just ever so slightly yet noticeably different than in the USofA. She was well prepped. After having a snack and chatting, we moved over to
the living room to talk while the dinner was being prepared. I always offer to help in the kitchen because I always liked when missionaries did that at my home. Not that I want them to do the work for me, but it felt more like they were my friend. Schwester Herber had everything under control though, so we sat and chatted some more with the Elders and Bruder Herber in the living room. After a more invigorating discussion, we went back to the dining room and had a beautiful cucumber salad with feta cheese in it and everything. I ate lots of that. It was delicious. Then we moved on to the soup course. It was cauliflower soup and was so yummy. Of course there was a fancy loaf of German bread, so we ate that too. We ate and ate and ate until this giant pot of soup was gone. My stomach has been well trained. I have been doing missionary eating appointments for nine months, so I can handle it when all of the food is expected to be gone, but Sister Baker is in her first transfer, so she is not quite so practiced. As we were eating I realized that I should have given her a pep talk before hand or something. Her manners were perfect, but she looked like she was struggling and I was prepared to shove some of her soup into the Elders' bowls while the Herbers where in the kitchen, but the opportunity never came. She managed to finish her second bowl of soup...but there was more. Then came a gigantic pot of rice with a chicken sauce thing. It smelled really good and all four of us missionaries gave each other the look of "bring it on". The main course got dished out and we were all manning it pretty well, but then Sister Baker really started slowing down. I tried to tell her with my eyes that she didn't need to finish it, but I guess my eyes are bad communicators because she thought I was trying to let her know that she needed to eat more...my bad. Well, all of a sudden, she gets up and goes to the bathroom, and I'm thinking, "oh boy, this is it, she's not going to be able to keep it down." I hate to get graphic here, but the walls in that house were paper thin, so we could hear everything and she made a loud belching noise, so Schwester Herber wanted me to go make sure Sister Baker was OK. Of course I was going to do that anyways, and I went and asked if everything was alright and I told her she really didn't have to eat all of the food, and she insisted that she was fine, so we went back out to the table and there was ice cream for all of us to eat. We all ate it just fine and then it was time for us to go home. When we left I kind of freaked out on Sister Baker and asked "What happened? Are you OK?" Quite honestly I thought she threw up...well lo and behold, all that happened was...she belched really really loud. We are both writing about this experience right now and as we type away at the computers we are both giggling and laughing about it because of all the places for that to happen it had to be at the Herbers, but that is what makes it so funny :) Gotta love being a missionary!
Anyways, yesterday was a good Sunday. We didn't expect our investigator to come because we knew that she was out of town, but Sister Baker and I were sitting in Relief Society when a ward member came in and said, "Sisters, wir brauchen Sie" What could that possibly mean? I was a little freaked out, but we followed him down the hall and there was a woman sitting in one of the chairs outside of the chapel. She just kind of wandered in and wanted to know what we are all about. She is just curious. I have a feeling there is more than curiosity, but we have an appointment to teach her this week, so I guess we will find out.
After church on Sunday we had an eating appointment with a family in the ward who is actually Australian. It was really strange having an appointment in English. I'm glad that they didn't ask me to pray because I hardly remember how to pray in English. It was really fun though. They have two teenage daughters and a son who is 12. I kind of felt like I was hanging out with the youth in my home ward again. Also, they are really funny people, so I think I just spent the whole time laughing which is a bit of a relief every now and then. Sister Baker and I laugh together a lot, but the Germans are just a bit more serious about things, so it was different.
But yeah, it was a good week. It's crazy that it's 2015. This year has so many adventures ahead and I look forward to finding out what some of them are. I hope you all have a great week. Make good choices!
Love,
Sister Smiley
Pictures: The two of us standing at a bus stop on the grossest day of my life (it rained AND snowed that day), me when I finally got all of my winter gear off when we got home, the fearless Sister Baker ready to go with the phone and keys at hand.
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