Hey Family! Well I'm not transferred so you can
send me all your letters now! Happy Olympics! I have to say this is probably
the most homesick I have been. Ha ha. I want to watch the olympics with
you. But I'm not actually homesick now or ever. Just enjoy them for me. I
realized I was in Switzerland during the last Olympic games too but I didn't
notice as much because people who schedule their trek for during the Olympics
don't care about them so much and I was hiking in the middle of nowhere away
from TV's and newspapers and a fancy new bus showing highlights and the
schedule of what's playing that day on the screen at the front. (This was during the 2012 summer Olympics while she was working for Alpenwild accompanying groups on hiking treks in the Swiss Alps).
So I forgot to mention that Sister
Siems is a Mission legend and she was asked to train after one transfer in the
field . . . a.k.a. she wasn't done being trained herself. So she has already
had a golden and now Sister McEwen and her golden are going to work together.
So our former companions are going to work together.
Today
is P-Day (obviously) and so since our member wanted us to come a little later
for emails I dragged Sister Siems outside and we went to this cool park and
jump roped and tried doing handstands and cartwheels (and I actually got her to
run most of the way to the park!). Exercise at 6:30 in the morning when it
is dark and you have just gotten out of bed just isn't as much fun. So today we
had fun. Even Sister Siems. It made me so happy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LIZZY!!
Oh I forgot to tell you that Sister Siems and I
sang a cappella in church last Sunday with one of our members. He sang
Tenor, I sang alto, Sister Siems sang soprano. Also Sister Siems and I were
asked to perform a Musical number in Zone conference. So Sister
Siems had to Play the piano and sing because I didn't want to
sing by myself. But we sang one of my Favorite Songs of all time, "Oh come
oh come Emmanuel."
Okayyy so this week. It really was one of the most
spiritual weeks of my whole life. I'm not really sure exactly why. Actually I
think it was because of some really good lessons we had. I just searched my
mail for "Asefash" to see if I had ever mentioned her before and it
doesn't look like it. Maybe I have but not by name. She is from Ethiopia and
she actually is a preacher. Sister McEwen and I met her on the train once. But
now she is reading the Book of Mormon in Amharic and asking the best
questions. Her questions guided us through the first part of the first lesson
automatically. And obviously she is already one of Jesus Christ's biggest fans
and has such a testimony of so many things and anything we said that was new to
her she wrote down so she could pray about it. And we didn't even ask her to.
It was such a spiritual lesson and so different from other times we had seen
her when she claimed she wanted to know more about what we believe but really
she just wanted to talk about herself. It was just so good and felt so great.
Also we had a great and also
not-so-great lesson with our friend Hannah. THANK GOODNESS we had Lea (a young
member who is going on a Mission in May!) there as a joint teach. She saved the
day because Hannah didn’t want to listen to anything I said, and especially not
to anything Sister Siems said. But she would listen to Lea's sweet and pure
testimony. In Schweizerdeutch! The lesson went back and forth from having a bit
of a spirit of contention to having this full-blown spirit of
testimony. (She told us over and over
that Amulek was telling outright lies in the Book of Mormon, even after we
explained the context and how what Amulek said is EXACTLY what the Bible
teaches. She always reads what we invite her to read but she just searches for
any inconsistencies with the Bible. And there just really aren't any. And since
the Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ….well, it just teaches us MORE! .) MY testimony was
strengthened. Not just by Lea's testimony but by things that each of us said in
that lesson that I know are true. At the end of the lesson we said a kneeling
prayer and each of us prayed. Hannah prayed that she would have the Spirit of
discernment and know if we were teaching her false doctrine. Whoa. She could
see that we were all very überzeugt (convinced) of the truth of the Book of
Mormon, so now she just needs to find out for herself. Then we had another
lesson with her later in the week with Brother Flammia. We talked about
prophets. She agreed that it made sense for us to have a Prophet on the earth
today, but said she knew personally of no living Prophet. Sooooo we talked
about President Monson (Thomas S. Monson is currently the prophet). Also now she is reading 3 Nephi 11-26 because if you're
trying to find fault in the Book of Mormon, it certainly is harder to do when
Jesus Christ Himself is speaking.
.
Okay Explanation. There is Tatiana. She is a member
and our branch received her member record so President Weibel
asked us to try and get ahold of her using the Information that we had. (As I've explained before, in our church you don't "pick" your congregation, you attend according to where you live. So your church records follow you around to a new congregation depending on where you live. This is actually such a huge blessing in our church, because we feel accountable for everyone in our congregation. Whether they come to church or not we know they need our love and support and sometimes our help so Home Teachers (pairs of adult men) and Visiting Teachers (pairs of adult women) are assigned to everyone and it is their responsibility to try and visit monthly and be aware of needs and communicate them to the leadership of the congregation).Turns
out she lives at a different address than the one we had, but she did give us
her real address when we talked to her on the phone. And guess what, she
lives so close we walk to her house. Tatiana lives with her husband
(non-member), her mother (member), her Cousin (non-member) and her two adorable
Kids who are 2 and 4. Only Tatiana speaks English. The rest speak only Spanish.
They are from Spain. And the best thing happened. We finally, after fall-out
appointments and unanswered phone calls and voice messages and notes and
forbeis (I don't even know what that's called in English. Uh, stopping by at
her house), had a real lesson with Tatiana. Then we had a lesson a few days
later with the whole Family reading in the BOM in Spanish and singing
"Families Can be Together Forever" in Spanish. And Tatiana did some
translating. I tried so say whatever Spanish I could get to come out of my
mouth (which isn't a whole lot). Then the entire family came to
church on Sunday. Oh and did I mention that they fed us fajitas? Do you
know how happy I was? Do you know how long it has been since I had Mexican
Food, particularly guacamole? Yeah
they're from Spain but they made Mexican Food for us. And it was delicious. And
Sister Siems and I are in love with this Family. If you couldn't already tell.
Sister Judd goes home this week! (Sister Judd was Kate's first companion, her trainer, and Sister Judd's 18 months of service have come to an end.) So weird. I will
miss having her in the Mission but I'm excited for her to see her Family.
Quote of the week:
This is on a busy street at night while Sister
Siems and I were waiting for the bus and dancing and bouncing up and down to keep
warm.
Me: We look like idiots.
Sister Siems: We ARE idiots.
Ha ha ha. Then Sister Siems wedges herself between
the sign that posts the bus times and a fence so that you can only see her
feet, and continues jumping/dancing.
Me: What are you doing?!
Sister Siems: You said we look like idiots so I'm
hiding.
I'm sure these are never as funny when you read
them but I promise it was funny.
Sister Siems thought my prayer this morning was so funny that she made a
Quote of the week herself:
lieber vater im himmel............ (Dear Father in Heaven....)
wir sind dankbar
für unserennn.. (We are grateful for our .....)
fussuken korpun.
sister siems, wie
sagt man physical body? (how do you say physical body? FYI - we believe that our bodies are a gift from God. We existed as spirits before we were born on earth and this is our time to learn the lessons and progress in ways that we only can because we have physical bodies).
(Sister Siems says "physischer körper") (
sister lewis: ja hab ich doch gesagt (yeah, that's what I just said....but with that American twist of sarcasm)
(Sister Siems says "physischer körper") (
sister lewis: ja hab ich doch gesagt (yeah, that's what I just said....but with that American twist of sarcasm)
Oh and Elder Lossau is leaving. He's really sad. I
do not look forward to the day when I have to leave Schaffhausen. And Elder
Bergström is getting a golden!
Momma, where are you at in the BOM? I encourage
everyone to read the talk "Keystone of our Religion" from Ezra Taft
Benson. We also talked a lot about the BOM at Zone conference, which was so
good. We did this role play with all of us and President Miles teaching someone
together. It was so fun.
Also we had another finding day in Zurich. I
sometimes forget that there really aren't any CITIES in my area. It was so
weird because I was really working in a CITY all day. But finding days are good
for district unity and for learning from other missionaries. Right now the two
other sisters in our district are both from Holland.
Also there is a picture of me and a GERMAN (her companion) supporting Kate Hansen (Katie's friend who competed in the Olympics in LUGE. Her friends sold t-shirts to support her in Sochi and I sent a couple to Katie) . She should be happy to know she had a German cheering for her.
Well I loooove you! Sister Lewis is happy. Hope you
are too.
PS
I forgot to tell you about Valentine's Day! We had it with Sandra. We
went and made lasagna with her and we took the heart decoration you sent me.
The Picture is of it hanging up at Sandra's. She loved it and she was excited
to keep it. (I had to laugh reading Sister Siem’s letter
home to her family. She said how since
Sister Lewis is from USA, she just has to celebrate EVERY holiday . . .
implying that we are a bit over the top!)
.JPG)
