FRÖHLICHE WEIHNACTEN FROM  SISTER KATE!

It was WONDERFUL to talk with Sis Kate on Christmas.  I loved being able to SKYPE!  Our picture wasn't particularly clear but it was great to see her cheerful, happy, smiling face! There was no denying that she is happy in the work and is her joyful self!  It was great to "meet" the family where she was a guest for Christmas and also chat with her companion, Sister McEwen.  

We talked about lots of things but it was interesting to hear her talk about a couple things that she hadn't written much about.  For example, the challenge of being surrounded by "Schweizerdeutsch"!  I knew this would be an additional challenge serving in Switzerland, because even though she continues to improve daily in her German, the Swiss dialect of Schweizedeutsch is so very different and unique so you really can't even eavesdrop on conversations!  When she initiates a conversation, she is fully aware that they have to switch from their daily language of conversation to the "High German" that they typically only use in reading and writing.  If she gets to stay in Switzerland for the remaining year of her mission, I'm hopeful she'll pick up some Schweizerdeutsch as well! 

She also told us about some of the challenges of doing missionary work during the evening hours because there is a cultural norm of not calling by phone after 8 pm or knocking on a door after dark. So they save dinner until after 8 so they can use the hours they do have most productively. 

I also wasn't aware of how large their district was and the amount of time and effort required to get around to the smaller villages.  There was also a convoluted story about some legal trouble with a bus driver, a camera, an atty, letter to SLC etc.  But it's a bus they HAVE to take to get to a certain investigator in a small village and he is the ONLY bus driver!  During the holiday...the 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st and 1st they are also able to stay out as late as they need to since President Miles did not want them on public transportation late at night and also did not want them inconveniencing members by having to take them home in the midst of festivities, since their homes can be quite some distance from the Sister's apartment. 

All in all, it was a 45 minutes that went by very quickly but joyfully. She told us the Joseph Smith story in German (we wanted to hear her speak German) and that what she loves most about being a missionary is sharing something of such eternal significance that means so much to her in her life with others.  She knows she is doing something that matters and makes her Father in Heaven happy.  She is happy and working diligently to spread the gospel.  We sure love that girl! 

"Life is exciting" - December 16,2013 - Shaffhausen, Switzerland

FAMILY !  Okay so this week! It was Christmasy! Life is exciting. Want to  know how Sister McEwen and I used our treat money? Well she got her nails done and I put it towards my much-needed haircut. It was much appreciated. Danke!  

(We sent the Advent Calendar above that we had made for Sis. Kate....Frohliche Weihnachten & pictures of family and friends and a note from them on most days but we also tucked in a little money early in the month for her and her companion to do something fun together. Later in the month we tucked in some money to use to perform a service so we'll wait to hear what they did with that!)   

We had our Christmas conference! All of the missionaries in the Switzerland zones were there! And we also had a morning where it snowed and snowed here in Schaffhausen. It's mostly melted but it was pretty.

We had a BEAUTIFUL relief society dinner! It was so good to spend some time with the wonderful sisters in our branch. Hey did you know there's something smaller than a branch? Probably, but I didn't. It's called a group and Sister Kervinen (her beloved MTC companion from Finland)  is serving in one in Brook. Or however you spell that place in Italy. It was a really fancy dinner that the relief society presidency made and they insisted that the sisters come. Very sweet of them.

Joe, thanks for the info! I'm so stoked for Kate. So glad her hard work has paid off!! (This refers to her friend, Kate Hansen, who made the US Olympic Team in the LUGE!)

Also, GUESS WHO CAME TO CHURCH?! M! You probably don't remember who that is. But we met her the night we lost our area book for a time and she was so good to us and we helped her feel better that day. She told us when we met her that she really liked us but she has her church and isn't all that interested in ours. But we became friends and she said she wanted to see us again and we were also to let her know if we found our area book because she was to check a bus for us.

She goes to church every week at her church, but this week and next week her church didn't have a normal service since they had something in the afternoon where they feed poor people. And they just did it yesterday and they're doing it next Sunday too which means she might come to church next Sunday too! I just really love her. I don't know what it is. You can just feel her goodness. We had a great meeting and I understood more and was able to really concentrate because I was just thinking the whole time, "What would I think of this if I were M?" And I was trying to interpret a few things during the meeting. The stake president was there and he spoke and he shared what he called the "alternative Christmas story" a.k.a. what's going on in the Book of Mormon when Christ comes to the other side of the world. And she was interested in that and we told her where to read it in the BOM so hopefully she does! 

(FYI - Even though our church is really called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint, we are often known as "Mormons" because of the Book of Mormon.  Our church has a book of scripture which we believe to be the word of God (in addition to the New and Old Testaments). The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and is the record, written by prophets, of people who were warned by the Lord to leave Jerusalem shortly before the fall of the city to the Babylonians in 586 BC. These people traveled to the Americas and the BOM tells of them and their posterity.  It ends in 421 AD when the people are destroyed through war. The Book of Mormon includes the telling of the visit that the Savior made to the Book of Mormon people after he rose from the dead.  We believe that John 10:16 refers to these people.  "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:  them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."  We believe it contains precious truths that were lost from the Bible and thus teaching us the "fullness of the Gospel".) 

And this morning I read some in the BOM (Book of Mormon, a.k.a. Das Buch Mormon) about Samuel the Lamanite where he foretells of the coming of Christ. And in chapter 13 Samuel the Lamanite is preaching to the Nephites and then he leaves because the Nephites had not been giving his message the time of day because they just wanted to hear that what they were doing was fine and that everything was going to be great even though they were being super wicked. Then the Lord tells Samuel to return to the Nephites, so he goes back, but they won't even let him inside the city. But he was probably just thinking, "Well God told me to come back here so I have to deliver my message somehow." So what does he do? He climbs up on their city wall and preaches some more. He does what God told him. But God probably didn't give him all the details. He probably didn't say, "Go back, and when they don't let you in climb up on the city wall and declare the truth." Samuel figured that out. So that's like us. We have some direction from the Lord, but sometimes we have to figure out how we will go about obeying his commandments.

I love you family!

P.S. Sorry I never remember to thank anyone for writing. But Aunt Janie and Uncle Randal continue to be rockstars, James is the best, and Liddy and Daddy and Mommy. And Phil is so nice for emailing me. And Courtney. Thanks, I love letters!  

These pictures told me that sometimes they are outside of Schaffhausen in smaller villages and doing quite a bit of walking, which is great.  Katie send several pictures of the beautifully tilled soil. 

A little "secret santa" work  going on here... Leaving treats on people's doors.  Of course, 

in Switzerland Santa does not bring gifts on Christmas morning; it is the "Christkindli" 

who brings gifts on Christmas Eve. 

Us baking for Christmas! 

We baked in the church with the few young men and young women 

that we have and the young women's president. We even made Mailanderli! 

(FYI - Katie is familiar with Mailanderli because they are one of the many Swiss 

Christmas cookies that we have made with her Swiss grandpa, my dad)

Me and my adorable Sis. Jämann who is totally CK material. She is a convert and never got married and she has the sisters over for dinner every other week. She keeps very busy and she's an artist and Sister McEwen and I both adore her. She was at the church working on the garden when we took this picture.

(FYI - CK - Celestial Kingdom- deserves a bit of an explanation.  We believe that through the Atonement of

Jesus Christ all people will be resurrected.  After we are resurrected, we will stand before the

Lord to be judged according to our desires and actions.  In John 14:2 the Savior taught that

"in my Father's house are many mansions".  The Celestial Kingdom is the highest degree of glory. It is

NOT only for members of our church on earth. But instead of just black or white, heaven or hell, we believe that the three degrees of glory will all be vastly more incredible than our life here on earth, each with their own degree of Glory.  
Outer darkness (hell) is really for the worst of the worst.

Out and about in Schaffhausen.   

Our Happy Swiss Missionary

"I'm floating on a cloud of prayers" - December 9, 2013 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Hey My Family!

So this week I had an Austausch (FYI – switching companions and working for a day with that other missionary in their area.) I stayed in Schaffhausen and Sister McEwen went to Winterthur. It went well!

Here are some pics from that exchange when she served with Sister Miriam Lohman.

Afterwards Sister Lohmen sent this message to Sis Kate:

“Hallo meine Lieben, habt beide eine schöne Woche,

Wir sehen uns Freitag.. Sister Lewis, ich habe den Austausch mit dir sehr genossen!!! Du bist echt klasse..”  (Translated that means – “ Hello my friends. Have a wonderful week, We’ll see each other on Friday.  Sister Lewis, I really enjoyed the exchange.  You are really great.”

Hey Family, do you want to talk on Christmas? It will probably maybe be about 7 or 8 my time on Christmas day. If that works. (Answer = YES! Although at midnight our time I don’t think she’ll be chatting to the little ones!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY MY BEST-OF-SISTER!

We also had a Special finding day for some elders in our district where we went and sang Christmas Songs and handed out Book of Mormons wrapped like presents. There were missionaries and members there singing together. I talked to a man from Denmark for forever and I now have an open Invitation to visit him and his wife, and his friend that he was with, in Denmark. And the missionaries in Denmark have a killer referral coming their way.

I love you Family! Thanks for your Messages in my calendar. I love it.

(This week I got up at 3:15 am  to "chat" with Katie....which means emailing back and forth.   It's only the second time I've done this during her mission.  So the following are excerpts from a those conversations, and answers to some of my questions.) 

Do you ever go to Christmas Markets to find people to talk with? So we went to a couple minutes of a Christmas market the other day and I took some Pictures. Alt Stadt is the cutest. But a lot of the Christmas markets are on Sunday. I also saw a way cool one in the Train Station in Zurich.

Do you ever knock doors? 

We don't knock like they used to. We still knock sometimes but we don't plan to knock. Does that make sense? If you're in an area and your Train doesn't leave for 30 minutes and there's not so many people out then you might knock.

Are you staying warm enough? For now. I think I'll die in January. And I'm pretty sure I lost my gloves on the bus this morning. That would be my third pair that I've lost. I know, I'm terrible.

Did you do anything special on Thanksgiving? My Trainer who is still in the Wien Zone said that the whole Zone got together and had a Thanksgiving dinner that the Senior couple in Wien made. So that made me miss being around Americans! My cute companion gave me a Thanksgiving present but my Thanksgiving dinner was hot chocolate and mango (two of my favorite things so that wasn't so bad!). But yeah that's my story about Thanksgiving.

Do you ever get discouraged? So you asked about me getting discouraged. I get sad because people don't progress the way I want them to, but I have never gotten all that discouraged. You read last week about how Sister McEwen was feeling down. And while she was feeling that way and I was sitting on her bed with her she just started naming people that have let us down... people we had such high hopes for. But I know they all made progress and not everyone is ready to accept the Gospel right this minute. 

I should probably feel really discouraged right now actually, but I just don't really. I had this same feeling in the MTC. Sometimes I feel like I'm floating on a cloud of prayers. Things just never get that bad for me! And I really do feel like a lot of it is because of all of the faithful prayers that People say for me. 

I said something about wishing for different numbers in my email to President Miles (each missionary writes a weekly email to their Mission President), and he said this:

“Be patient, obedient and invite everyone. That is all the Lord expects from us. Our success is in the invitation, not the baptism. That success belongs to the Lord and the Holy Ghost.”  (I love this, because a mission really is about offering to others that which has so much value to us.  The Lord wants us to share our love for Him and his Word, but beyond that it is the Spirit that testifies of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Missionaries can invite the spirit, but they are not the ones who convert the individual....the spirit converts when an individual is willing and wanting to find out the truth for themselves.  

Before I got off, I asked if there was anything else she wanted me to tell me.  Just thanks for all the letters and Cards!

This is an excerpt from a note to a friend -  So now I'm here and my companion is a Scot who was actually in the MTC with me! This is our second Transfer together. She's hilarious. I'm one of two American missionaries in Switzerland and the other goes home after this Transfer (Actually there's a Senior couple who might be part-American too. Not really sure. At least I'm one of two Young American missionaries in die Schweiz.). In my Zone in Wien we had two People my first Transfer in our Zone who weren't American and one the next Transfer, so that's a huge difference between Switzerland and the rest of our mission. Switzerland was it's own Mission not so long ago, and it still kind of feels like it is sometimes. It's just impossible for American missionaries to be in Switzerland now.

The Work of Salvation is fabulous! I'm so happy to be a missionary. 

I love my Advent calendar! The whole thing was worth it because I got to read a really nice note from Liz yesterday that I don't think I ever would have otherwise gotten.

Okay so my email for this week was mostly my chatting with you. But check out these Mormon Messages!!

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-05-12-the-miracle-of-the-roof?category=welfare&cid=HPMO120213239#2011-05-12-the-miracle-of-the-roof?category=welfare&cid=HPMO120213239&_suid=1386444080289012325286235939314

There's one on Grapes and one on roofs. Also, watch the new Mormon Message about the Kids giving These gifts of themselves for Christmas. Give your own Special gift this Christmas!

Also, watch Elder Holland's Mormon Message about chastity called "Stay within the lines."

Also, Mormon Messages are just the best. Find your favorite and share it on your Facebook!

From Sis McEwen:

“This week has been super! I think I need to come up with a better word than amazing but words just cant describe how much this work really means to me. I have learned so much and well I love it.

This week I got a huge blessing in my path. We were heading home from contacting someone who wasn’t there and well we had nothing else planned so we were gonna go home and do language study, something that both of us need, but i remember looking over and these people were talking in English and I had this thought that I should talk to them but ignored it as they looked really busy. Five mins later I told my companion I think I need to talk to them and she said then do it, thinking she just might do it but nope. I finally did it and to my surprise they were going the same way and we end up talking for such a long time and then they invited us to go and get a drink and talk about our Religion. We end up speaking all night and he came to church (the wife is a late sleeper). Not only that he had a program that can help with one of our members …the Lord just blessed us so much. I remember walking home and thinking what if I hadn’t listened to the sprit? The night would have been totally different. We truly need to follow the sprit, then and only then can our father in heaven help us. I was so thankful for this blessing that was put in my path, we can do it we just have to look what is in front of us and grab it. People are everywhere . Listen to the Spirit that guides you. He knows your power.”

December 2, 2013 - From Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Dear Family! 

I got your advent package! Thank you, thank you! What a cute missionary mom you are.

Soooo yesterday we had two people who were  going to meet us at Schaffhausen Bahnhof and walk to church with us (the chapel is not the absolute easiest to find). And . . . neither of them came and neither of them would answer their phone. That is very normal.  We almost always have people who we hope will come to church, and usually some that we're meeting so that we can walk together.

Also, ignore the random capitals. Or fix them. In German you capitalize all nouns and so sometimes this Computer decides to capitalize my letters for me. Very annoying. 

Also we saw the elders at Bahnhof waiting for two people that they had planned on walking to church with. And these two are actually investigators with baptismal Dates but they didn't come that day either. So eventually the four of us walked to church together, with no visitors. But, on the way to church we ran into one of the elders' investigators (a different one)! So we convinced him to come to church. And so that was a wonderful miracle. Then I'm sitting in Relief Society (the hour of church that is the women's meeting)... and our branch president comes and pulls me out (Sister McEwen was in Young Womens (the meeting for 12-18 year old girls)  with our one Young woman and the Young Womens president) and says there's someone here who says the sisters invited him. So I go out and I don't recognize the man at all but that's fine because we invite tons of people to church and I might not necessarily even recognize them. But when he told me his name I remembered him. When we were working on the area book once his record wiggled its way across the room. So we were asking ourselves what that record was doing there and decided to call the person (a former investigator). And he said he wanted to meet us at church. So we've called him pretty regularly, about once a week since and he finally showed up at church. He was too late for Sacrament Meeting but it was also a miracle that he showed up.

This week our ward went to the temple with the youth. So we went too but we did initiatories. (FYI - a temple ordinance that pronounces eternal blessings on the individual). And it is a little bit significant that missionaries don't wear their nametags in the temple (FYI - In the temple, everyone wears very similar white clothing as a reminder that we are all equal in the sight of the Lord).  And I just think it's cool because really everyone has a name tag on when they're doing temple work. The temple matron was one of the workers for our initiatories so that was cool. Also, I had some good conversations with our DML (mission leader for the congregation) (instead of GML because we're a branch) in the car on the way there and back. One of the things we talked about was how when he went on his mission he had only been a member for a year and had no clue about a lot of the church's doctrine. And he was just talking about his spiritual growth and about how he is always growing spiritually. He grew so much on his mission, but he has just continued to learn so much and grow so much spiritually. And he still does continue!

It reminds me of President Packer's Poem about growing old and waxing in spirituality. The problem is that if you somewhere along the way stop doing your part, you will no longer grow spiritually. The missionaries who had a testimony on their mission and came home and fell away obviously stopped reading the scriptures, praying sincerely, and going to church. Why do the scriptures go on and on about enduring to the end? Because so often that's the part we're messing up.

If you will just do the big three (read, pray, attend church meetings), things will go better for you. Yes you will still have trials. But you'll be able to deal with them better. You will have your most important questions answered. Yesterday I had an investigator ask me Point blank: "How has all this blessed your life?"

And I know how! I know God's plan for me and I know how I can return to him! I know the purpose of life, I know that I can be with my family forever, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. How has it not blessed me?! All of my important questions are answered. And I could go on and on about other ways the Gospel has blessed my life, but I would say the number one way is that I know the answers to the questions that trouble so many people. I know my divine destiny.

Yeah okay hopefully that made sense. I love you family! A super awesome article that Sister McEwen read aloud to me in companionship study today is from the July 2012 Liahona and it's called "Never give Up." So don't ever give up, okay?

"Pimping up our planners" - November 25, 2013 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So this week . . . TRANSFER CALLS, SNOW, AND THE TEMPLE!

As a missionary in Switzerland I have the privilege of going to the temple once a transfer!! (FYI - "Transfers" occur every six weeks.  Every six weeks you hear from the Mission President and learn where you will be serving for the next six weeks and who your companion will be.  So,"a transfer" in terms of time = 6 week)  So we went last week and it was great. We got to do initiatory and a session.  (FYI - I wrote a bit about temples in the      post.  An "initiatory" is an ordinance that every one going to the temple receives.  It is essentially a summary of the many blessings our Heavenly Father has for us now and through the eternities. A "session" is an "endowment session" - an endowment is a gift - it is an approximately 90-minute teaching session that is highly symbolic in nature and reviews the Plan of Salvation, and is a time of making covenants - promises - to Heavenly Father.  Just as the Parables of Jesus were highly symbolic, so is the endowment.  As we participate in an endowment session it is a time to feel peace, reassurance, renew our commitments to living the Gospel and learn new things from the symbolism of the teachings.)

There's a lot of heartbreak because as a missionary you teach someone and you just love them and want so much for them to receive all the blessings of living the Gospel  and then . . . they don't progress the way you would wish them to. (FYI - Individual agency is one of the core beliefs of the LDS faith.  So although missionaries eagerly seek out those wanting to learn more about our beliefs, each individual has to decide for themselves and if an "investigator" doesn't want to learn more that is obviously their choice and is respected by the missionary).

Right now we're still just trying to get over a few heartbreaks, but honestly you almost always are as a missionary. At least I am. I told you we don't have a baptismal date anymore with R., right? Yeah that's one of the hard ones. But we are seeing miracles. We have a sort of "prayer roll" so that we don't forget anyone that we want to pray for. And we obviously pray for the people we meet with and for their needs. And there were a few people that we prayed to have contact with again and we have had contact with every one of them since we started praying for that. But now there are more people that we need to pray to have contact with again.

Mom and Linds - I still have this kind of daydream that you come help me and Sister McEwen finish cleaning and organizing this apartment and we just get to talk! And you give me cleaning advice. (Funny, don't you think?)

So I just love love love our branch president and his family. We were at their house for dinner yesterday and it was so great and they're just so Swiss and adorable and they keep all the Swiss traditions and honestly through them I'm recognizing some of the ways that my Swiss heritage has really shaped me. Just the way my mommy raised me! Yesterday we went through her Christmas Cookie book finding the ones that I'm used to making. (will you send me a very detailed Mailanderli recipe? Mailanderli for dummies?) We have baking scales but I forgot how to use them. (My parents have always made about 8 varieties of Swiss Christmas cookies and much of my Christmas season as a child was spent cracking nuts and baking.  These are VERY different from your average American cookie, believe me!  Mailanderlis are perhaps the most conventional of the bunch). 

So this one time I was talking to a woman on the bus and she had met missionaries before and I asked her if the other missionaries were nice. I just wanted to know if they had made any kind of impression on her. And we had been talking for a while at this point and she thought I was telling her that she was nice (maybe because of my not-so-clear German) and she said thank you and seemed very happy that I told her that. Then she said that we (me and Sister McEwen) had a special light about us and she asked us where in Schaffhausen our church is!!  There are several questions that I just love it when people ask me. "Where is your church?" is one of them. Well she wasn't really wanting to meet with us and she hasn't come to church yet, but sometimes good conversations on the bus just mean a lot to me, as you can tell from my stories. And the fact that she even knows there is an LDS church in Schaffhausen is great. And I promise we teach lessons too.

We had a good lesson with an older lady that we visit every week. There was some weird miscommunication about when we were meeting, but Sister McEwen and I are pretty sure it was meant to be because since she didn't realize we were coming (or rather her husband didn't) her husband was still upstairs and so we got to talk to him a lot more than we normally do and make friends with him. So hopefully from now on he will be less inclined to hide from us in the basement! We also met with a potential that we found last week and I just can't figure out how to explain to her what we believe. I've been trying to study for it but I need to even more. She's sort of atheist and she kept saying that she doesn't want to feel like there's a God who has given her everything who she has to feel like she is eternally indebted to. I mean, that's the truth, but I can see not wanting to feel like you owe someone everything. And she also feels like energy and power is spread out, it couldn't just belong to one all-powerful being. So yeah, if you have any ideas you let me know. Because then we started sharing what we believe and she kind of was just like, "You realize that this is the opposite of everything that I just told you I believe, right?" Wellll yeahhhh. And the answer is usually to pray about it but in teaching her how to pray it came up again that she doesn't want to feel like she has to thank God for everything. But she likes talking to us and she agreed to come to church next week.

Also I think you should tell the family I'm here. It's likely that I'll be here for a while and I'm hoping I'll be in Winterthur on austausch ("exchange" - going to another area for the day) sometime again. Also people like to visit Schaffhausen. Did I mention it's adorable?

And yeah we did have snow. And also transfer calls but don't worry Sister McEwen and I are staying together. But it sounds like tons happened in Wien! Read Sister Judd's blog!! Sister Packer is headed to the international ward in Wien, Sister Kervinen is going to Brixon, Italy, and Sister Judd is off to Graz to replace Sister Kervinen and now she and her new companion are sister training leaders! I love you family!!

Quote of the week is Sister McEwen talking about us "pimping up our planners." (I'm almost absolutely sure Elders - male missionaries - don't do this!  But Kate and her companions love to decorate their planners, use multiple colors etc. Funny.)

"Virtually everyone you know could be blessed in some way by your ministering." - David L. Beck "Your Sacred Duty to Minister"

Yeah I love that.