"The Swiss say (fill in the blank), but that's not really German" - January 27, 2014 - From Schaffhausen, Switzerland

These pictures below are from the January Zurich Zone Conference

Zurich District - Edlers Fiedler, Petcu, Bergström, Lossau, Lappalainen, Kelly
Sister Miles and Sisters Lewis, Siems, Bakker, Robben

Aarau District: Elder Robertson, Pres. Miles,  Elders Paulsen, Vitel, Simon, Meyer, Oddie
Sisters Hoarau, Hilakari, LeFeuvre, Wüst

Dear FAMILY!  Remember how Max set a baptismal date for Friday? Well he's moving to America on TUESDAY. So that's not fun. So basically I got my heart broken this week. But he just needs time to be sure and I understand that. Mostly. Sort of. Okay I do, but that doesn't mean I like it.

We finally got some real live snow! It's even snowing a little bit now. I thought Utah was supposed to be the place with the really absurd weather that could never make up it's mind but we totally had a "Utah" day here. It went back and forth from being sunny to full-on snowing maybe 4 times.

So you already know about my visit with Ruedi and Sibylle and Tante Vreni! They were very good to us. We had a special cake at Tante Vreni's that is Grosi and Grosvati's favorite in their honor. 

With my Tante Vreni .... She's awesome

With Tante Vreni's #2 son Ueli and his family

(My Tante Vreni...my mom's youngest sister who is in her early 80s now, called me after the visit and I was so excited for her to tell me how happy Katie was, what a very nice companion she had, and how GOOD her German was!  My cousin and his wife speak English, but my aunt very little, so even though Katie has met Tante Vreni several times before, for them to be able to chat for several hours was WONDERFUL to hear about).

And I saw the special energy place where Ruedi works! I took pictures for you Mommy. It was really great to see them, and just to be at Tante Vreni's. 

My cousin is in charge of a large waste treatment facility in Winterthur.  Katie likes to 

consider herself an environmentalist, so I can imagine she really enjoyed this tour.  Of course Switzerland

is light years ahead of the USA in recycling etc.  Almost ALL the trash that can't be recycled is incinerated at

very high heat....and the heat generated from this plant heats the entire city hospital and several other large

buildings.  

Quotes of the week: "The Swiss say (fill in the blank), but that's not really German." - Sister Siems

One time Sister Siems randomly said while reading in the Bible during personal study: "God is so clever." True that. 

So this week! We had the best lesson ever with our friend Doris but she still isn't ready to make progress in coming to church. Doris is super great and super religious. I like her a lot. But she's really old and has a hard time with change. But anyway we had the best lesson with her. Eivonny was an amazing joint teach. (A "joint teach" just refers to bringing a member of the ward with to help teach the lesson.  Missionaries come and go, so the ward members can play such an important role in helping teach someone the Gospel) And we realized in preparing for the lesson that Doris needs to realize the DIFFERENCES between our religions. There are plenty of similarities, but if you're ever going to make a change, the DIFFERENCES are what you need to really understand. So we had already talked about the Priesthood and we've talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and all of that. She's been seeing the missionaries for several months now. So we started of the lesson by asking her what DIFFERENCES between the Reformierte Kirche she now attends and our church she notices. She said, "Actually not so many." Uh oh. On the one hand, that's good. We're both Christian. We both love the Bible. We both know that through Jesus Christ we can be saved. But on the other hand that is NOT GOOD. So we said, Okay Doris, let's talk about the DIFFERENCES. The Priesthood. The Book of Mormon. A living prophet. These are some major things. Jesus Christ only established one church when he was on the earth. Sometimes it's weird. Obviously there are so many good people who are not LDS who are worshiping God and living such good Christian lives. We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, can learn from them too. I just like how President Hinckley put it. He said something like, "Bring us all the truth you have and let us add to it." And that's exactly it. We don't have to ask anyone who is already faithful in their religion to get rid of anything.

I am actually surprised that I don't seem to talk to so many atheists. We talk to a lot of people who say, "Oh that's so great that you have all that. But I already believe in Jesus Christ and I have the Bible." People like Doris. And it's hard because they are already so right. And we have Christian people tell us, "That's so great what you're doing. But don't waste your time on me, I already believe in Jesus Christ. Go find the people who don't know him." What's interesting is that my calling is to bring people closer to Christ, no matter where they are at. And the point is to tell people about our UNIQUE message, which actually isn't that Jesus Christ is our Savior, but that the church he established while he was on the earth has been restored to the earth. I have no idea if any of that made any sense. It's just hard because there are so many good people and it's challenging to help them understand that there is more truth without their feeling that we are demeaning the truth they already have.

I wrote that paragraph about the weather and since then it has gone from snowing to super sunny. See what I mean?

Yesterday we shared the Erlosungswerk message and had the funniest dinner appointment with a family in our ward. I had not laughed like that with anyone besides my companion in a long time. They live in that weird Germany part of Switzerland called Büsingen.

I am officially really attached to Schaffhausen. I know I will really love every one of my areas. I really loved Wien 1. And now I have been in Schaffhausen for 3 weeks longer than I was in Wien 1. And this branch! I just love them. These people are such a huge part of my life. I feel like a part of their ward family. Sometimes it's weird to be a missionary because you feel so dispensable. I don't even know if they will remember Sister Lewis, but I will remember them.

On Thursday Sister Siems and I brought our primary songbook and our gospel art book and the guitar to a lesson my 13-year-old friend from church, Emely. She's not an investigator but we're teaching her the new convert lessons. She's not a new convert either but she never had the lessons. So we sang all of the verses of "Follow the Prophet" (yes, in German) and looked at the pictures having to do with the prophet and talked about the story. And about following the prophet. I really liked it. It felt really good. 

Someone asked what I take with me every day.  I have no idea what other missionaries take with them every day, but it seems to vary a lot. For me it depends on if I'm having a lesson with someone who speaks English. Then I have to bring even more books. I bring the ward list, the family mission plan information and joint teach sheets, a few more lists, a BOM to give away (in German) my German BOM (plus D&C and Pearl of Great Price), sometimes my German Bible, sometimes my English Bible, hopefully not both (that never fits), my camera that I never use, three different variations of my wallet, pass-along-cards, my German dictionary, mini English BOM, PMG (a resource book called Preach My Gospel) and my journal if we have a meeting . . . ah so much stuff. And two phones. And keys, Ahhhhh. Oh and my planner. What would I do without that thing.

Well I love you family! Thanks for all your support.

Sister Siems, Max and Sister Lewis

Sister Siems is nice enough to send me a copy of the letter she sent to her family. 

I love reading about Katie, so I'll share that part here.

 ich liebe es, mit sister lewis zu arbeiten!! sie ist so süss, so natürlich und vor allem echt witzig!! wir haben echt viel spass zusammen, lachen viel und erzählen uns gegenseitig immer unsere Lebensgeschichten!! =) und sie is auch interessiert in die Sachen, die ich so erzähle.. ich hab das gefühl, ich kann ihr wirklich alles erzählen, und das is super gut.. ;) ausserdem singt sie für ihr leben gerne. wir gehen ab und zu auch mit Gitarre zu untersuchern und singen Kirchenlieder. eine Lektion mit einer jugendlichen bestand darin, dass wir folgt den Propheten gesungen haben und zu jeder geschichte bilder gezeigt haben und die geschichen erzählt hasben, damit sie Propheten besser kennenlernen kann... ;) man das macht sooo spass.

TRANSLATION!!!!

"I love working with Sister Lewis, She is so sweet, so natural and above all really funny.  
We really have a lot of fun together, laugh alot and tell each other everything about our lives.  AND she is so interestedin the things that I tell, so I have the feeling that I can really tell her everything and that is super great.  Also, she loves to sing.  We come and go to our appointments with my guitar and sing church songs along the way. During one of our lessons with a young person we sang "Follow the Prophet" together and used pictures of the prophets to teach her about them.  It was such great fun!" 

I Love Mondays!  

"Oh, it's so cute" - January 20, 2014 - From Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Family!!!  Well let me just start by singing Sister Siems' praises. We work together really well. We keep getting complimented on how united we are and how well we work together. These compliments come from members, other missionaries . . . It's just been going really great. I really love working with her.  Sister Siem is from a baby village near Elmshorn,  Germany.

Oh guess what?  The other week I had Fondue for the first time on my mission. I love it. I think it was my first time having Fondue ever outside of a restaurant. It was with our branch president and his wife. But I learned this little saying. It's FIGUGEGL. And you can try and pronounce all that.

And this is what it means in Swiss German: Fondue isch guet und git e gueti Luue.

And in High German: Fondue ist gut und gibt eine gute Lauue.

Cool right?

Also I guess the other quote of the week can be Sister Siems looking at my attempt to write an email in German and saying, "Oh it's so cute!" Cute is not what I was going for! My mistakes are not cute! But she thinks they are and I guess that's better than her thinking I'm a complete idiot.

We visit this lady who lives in an Altesheim (home for the elderly)  and she can't come to church anymore. But I love the town where she lives and also the Altesheim (she has all of her own paintings and her piano and stuff in her room there!) so if I ever need to go to an Altesheim you can send me to the Altesheim Rosengarten in Kleinandelfingen. And if I never get good at German before then, at least I will when I'm 90. So anyway, I saw the name of the man who lives across from her in the Altesheim and do you know what his name is? HEINRICH GROB. Doesn't it sound like I should be related to him somehow?  (This is the name of my Mom's father....Katie's great grandfather who is from a town 20 miles from this Altersheim.)

Also, guess who set a baptimsal date? Max. And I'm so happy about it but he feels like he needs to receive a few more answers that he can recognize before he can be baptized. So this week we will be busting through some of the commandments. It should go well because Sister Siems and I fasted for two real meals that Max would get his answer and accept all of the commandments.  Tithing is tonight and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. (FYI - By this she means that they were going to teach the "law of tithing".  As talked about in the Bible, faithful LDS church members tithe....they donate 10% of "their increase" to the church.  Tithing funds are used to build temples and chapels, and provide for the operational costs of chapels and church programs.  Tithing funds go to church headquarters and are distributed from there.  That is why even the very poorest areas of the church have a chapel to meet in and the materials they need to conduct church services.) 

So sometimes people are publicly drunk. Even in Switzerland. It's a worldwide thing unfortunately. One time I went and sat on the bus and I wasn't sitting next to Sister Siems and this really drunk man comes up to me and the first thing he says is, "You believe in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." Maybe this was also because he was drunk but he always said the last part of his sentence twice. He want on to tell me that Jesus Christ lives in (insert name of random town here) and that he needs a girlfriend and that I could be his girlfriend and would I buy him a beer? And then I asked him why he drank and he said it was because he was an alcoholic and it just made me so sad. And he also told me that his mom is one years old at which point the lady on the other side of the bus couldn't keep from laughing. One experience I don't normally have at BYU. (FYI - Members of the LDS church live what we know as the "word of wisdom" , a health code which includes abstaining from alcohol.  So at BYU -Brigham Young University where Katie attends - there is no drinking of alcohol among the students and therefore she hasn't been around a lot of drunk people!  I do not see alcohol per se as evil, but because it is such a destructive force in the lives of so many, we are serving one another by all living the word of wisdom.) 

Our investigator wanted to meet us at this random city on the way from Schaffhausen to Stein am Rhein (Stein am Rhein is my favorite town and that's where she lives) so we got off there because it's close to where she had to be and it turns out there's a beautiful chloster there and that's what those pictures are of. It's in St. Katherinental. I have been fortunate enough to have seen several beautiful churches and this one was right up there. And did you see the video of someone singing our bedtime Swiss song? I still don't understand any of the words. But that's actually the husband of the investigator who took us to the Chloster. They're really great.

I'm seeing Tante Vreni and Ruedi and family tomorrow! (That's my aunt and cousins in the nearby town of Winterthur!)

I need you to go into my Facebook and add Eivonny Grimske, okay? Danke. Did Sister Gardedieu email you?

Everything seems to be sorted (oh my goodness I sound so Scottish Sis. McEwen says that) with our bus driver "friend" . A letter to his boss from one of our members did the trick. He was already on warning for being mean to someone else so he's on the edge of getting fired and he's two years away from Pension. So I don't think he'll be giving us anymore trouble. (Katie told us of the incident at Christmas....a bus driver who had threatened them and got the police involved...it's a bus they HAD to take and he is the only driver on that route so it is good that this is worked out). 

Also the little snowman in the Picture is my smoker that a member gave me for Christmas. Have you ever seen those? I love it. We're actually not allowed candles in our mission anymore (probably because Sister McEwen is in our mission) but we figured this wasn't a candle. (very funny...remember the stories of Sister McEwen repeatedly starting fires in their apartment?)

Scenes from our apartment

We also went to Sister Järmann's choir concert in a beautiful church in the adorable Alt Stadt in Stein am Rhein.

Well family, I love you. I'm happy being a Missionary. Thanks for your Support sorry I'm not doing so good on letters. Love you love you love you!

Who else but Sister Missionaries would take pictures of each other posing as flowers in the field?

The sign says "Flowers, cut for yourself".  I love those places.  Won't it be beautiful in the 

summer? 

Pictures from the ward New Year's Eve party.  You can tell Katie's 

a good sport!  She has a gift for getting along with people of all ages.

Saying goodbye to Sister McEwen. 

"Geistig! Not gonna lie...love it when the German word comes first" - January 13, 2013 - From Schaffhausen

Hi Family!  Sister Siems, my new companion, is a music whiz. She has a guitar!! Our hymns for companionship study in the morning are now accompanied by a guitar (FYI - Missionaries spend time in individual and companionship study every morning before going out). Also she's good at the piano and singing and the clarinet. And she's just really great. 

You will love Sister Siems Mom. I'm so lucky to get to work with her. But something way weird happened with the sister training leader assignment.  They called us as the sister training leaders for the St. Gallen zone but we're actually in the Zurich zone and President and Sister Miles didn't really think that through. So now we're released. Sad, huh? We were sister training leaders for one conference call.  But I’ll get another opportunity and this way we can focus more intently on our companionship and our area.

I love teaching with Sister Siems. We have had some really great lessons already. One of the interesting things about being a missionary is that sometimes people feel like they can tell you everything about their life. Your name badge allows them to spill all. We went by on a referral this week where she told us all of these awful things about her life and explained why she can't believe in God. We have had a couple appointments like that lately. And those conversations are hard. My life has been very good and here I am telling someone who has had everything thrown at them in life that God loves them and that all things will turn out for their good if they will do what is right and turn to their Father in Heaven and rely on His Son Jesus Christ. But I know it's true!

I will miss all the funny things Sister McEwen says. One time we were walking somewhere and it actually really was really cold so we had a conversation that went something like this:

Sister McEwen: How cold must it have been for the pioneers when they walked from England to America?

me: You think they walked from England to America?

her: Yeah?

me: What about the big blue wet thing?

her: They swam. You know what I mean they walked most of the way!

Me always asking Sister McEwen: "Do you have any more dried mango?" (We love eating dried mango but I always eat mine too fast so then sometimes I steal hers.)

Sister McEwen and I having full on conversations while she's brushing her teeth or eating something and she will speak to me in tones and I have to figure out what she means.

I’d like some basketball shorts. I had some nice ones from the BYU bookstore that are size small and just have BYU in the corner but Sister McEwen insisted that I give them to her.

Story:

This week we were on way back from a fall-out appointment (That means we had an appointment but it didn't happen. Our investigator had to go to the doctor and forgot to tell us.) and we ran into a younger girl on the street. We started talking to her and we asked her if she wanted to know more about God's plan for us. And she said, "Well I already know all about that. I'm very religious." And then we said, "Do you know the Book of Mormon?" And no, she had never heard of it. So we gave her one and invited her to read in it and we told her that it talks all about God's plan for us (it does!). And she was very excited and we got her number and said we'll call in a week to see how her reading is going. 

What else. Our branch mission leader took us to a little opera in Schaffhausen! Not quite the Vienna opera house I'm sure but it was cool and so nice of him to take us. And then after that we went to the most amazing church choir performance in the Münster Kirche in Schaffhausen. The church was beautiful, the singing was so geistig (Spiritual! Not gonna lie I actually love it when the German word for something comes to me first. That happens a lot now.), and the atmosphere was just so cool. It's a huge church that used to actually be a monastery and it was dark and everyone had a candle and the words to the songs that were being sung so that you could sing a lot if you wanted. Our GML came with us to the church and what he said was, "What a constrast." The Münster Kirche is quite a contrast from our cute little meeting house in Schaffhausen. An investigator was in the choir and she invited us but we never got to see her! But we talked on the phone yesterday so she knows we were there for part of it.

Jenni and Benjamin (Jenni is the young woman that Sister Kate and Sister Judd baptized in Vienna) are getting married civilly in April and getting married in the temple sometime after September when she has been a member for a year. Yaaayyyyy!!!! (I know in Switzerland everyone has to get married civilly and then they can choose to also have a church wedding if they would like.  In the LDS Church, a temple wedding includes very important covenants and the blessing that your union is not "til death do you part" but for eternity if you stay true to your covenants.  You have to be a member for a full year before being able to get married in the temple).

What's funny is sometimes when we talk to people they say something like, "Do you actually find anyone here who is interested?" They just still really see themselves as a hard people to reach with this message. And they are. But there are also people who the Lord has prepared. And I love being a missionary here.

So I've told you that I'm quite attached to my name tag. And we don't wear nametags in the temple. And I think about that every time we go. Is it that nobody has a nametag in the temple or that everybody does? I think in the temple everyone has a nametag on. We are all helping people receive ordinances that will help them return to live with their Father in Heaven. (In the temple everyone wears white as a reminder that all are equal in the sight of the Lord)

What else . . . Oh yeah I love the Book of Mormon! We have an investigator who loves, loves, loves the Bible and keeps asking why she should need anything in addition to the Bible. And I love the Book of Mormon and I know it as well as the Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, and the words of latter-day prophets are all important. But the Book of Mormon was just so essential because how else would anyone know that the church really was restored? The Book of Mormon is the proof that Christ's true church is restored. I hardly ever read in the Liahona during study but I found this amazing one from October 2011 that's all about the BOM. You should check it out.

Love you family!!!

"Hooray for my German" - January 6, 2014 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland

A short email this week....with all the transfer excitement and emailing back and forth with certain people, I'm afraid we didn't get much out of this girl!

Family! Sister McEwen is headed to St. Gallen and I'm getting a companion who is like Sister McEwen in that she hasn't left her area yet. She is the same age as us on the Mission (been out 6 months), so she was in her first area for 6 months. She’s from Germany so hooray for my German! I'm hoping to learn so much from her. We're Sister Training Leaders but I don't exactly know how that all works yet.

Where do I even start? Hooray for members and referrals! We got two this week from members in our ward. That's big for us. We're having a "spiritual thought" with one tonight. When it's a referral from a member, you really don't want to blow it.

Switzerland doesn't really do the whole ”drei König observance” but Germany does. (Epiphany is a holiday in Southern Germany which is mostly Catholic). So today we went to Germany to go grocery shopping and the whole place was deserted. Yeah oops.

Did I tell you we have an investigator, or maybe more a “friend”,  who follows TB Joshua and thinks she can "deliver" people? I have yet to figure out what I think about all that but I really like her and like talking with her. It will be hard to get her to church and I would love to know what she thought. She's pretty involved in her African church but she likes talking to us and calls us "her sisters."

I heard from Jenni and Benjamin today and they are engaged! (Jenni is the young woman that Katie and her companion baptized in Vienna. Benjamin is her boyfriend who is now fully active in the church). I love them. I want them to be so happy together and be sealed in the temple and have a forever family. Jenni asked me to be there for their wedding, so we are going to have to come back sooner rather than later after my mission! 

Schaffhausen loved the gingerbread house and I need more pictures of it!

Did I mention that Emilee Follett wrote me and also Georgina in Switzerland? THANK YOU! Also I got a letter from Ciarah Cook! And my sister and my mommy and my Daddy I think. Tell David to email me back.

So on Saturday we had a stake temple day with the Relief Society. That was really great. That means I got to go to the temple twice this transfer because our ward went twice and really wanted us there!

Also, did I tell you that we share clips with our members from the work of salvation broadcast? (This was a broadcast that originated from the Marriott Center at BYU in June of 2013 with many new mission presidents and members of the community in attendance.  Katie was in the Provo MTC at the time and was part of the missionary choir that sung at the meeting. Franklin and I attended so we could "stalk" her!) It helps them get pumped about missionary work. Love you Family.