"Happy BIrthday to Meeeeeeee" March 24, 2014 - from Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeee!  I want to thank everyone for my birthday wishes! It definitely seems like my mommy has been doing a very good job broadcasting the fact that TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!

I am also just happy because I got so many Pictures and even Videos! Thanks to . . .

Ciarah

Sister Lohmann

Chels

Sister Kervinen

Sister Siems

Elder and Sister Strong in Wien

Grandma and Grandpa

Andrea Nowak in Germany

Crawfords

Couper Clan in Scotland

Gants

Bieglers

James

Abby Nolan!

My Mommy

My Daddy

Lindsey

Joey

Hubys in France

Harknesses

Chase (James' roommate?)

Sue Sherwin

Kris Fredrickson

Marilyn Hulme

Jim Hulme

Uncle Randal and Aunt Janie

Johnsons

Ben Barton

Sister Judd...uh I mean Candace (Candace is home from her mission now and it's hard for Katie to switch from calling her Sister Judd to calling her by her first name) 

Bishop Davis

Sister Clark (Jackie's mom) 

OBVIOUSLY I'm in love with the video of my nieces and nephews singing me Happy Birthday. Sister Bolli and Sister Siems both had to watch it. And I'm sorry I'm bad about thanking everyone . . . I got such a sweet letter from Tara and the Kids a while ago which I loved.

And of course Sister Siems is being fun about my birthday. She's the greatest. She decorated our study room with birthday stuff last night around 3 in the morning or something. I just really like her.

We tausched with Sister McEwen and Sister Hoareau on Thursday-Friday. So I worked with my last companion in her area in St. Gallen and Sister Siems worked with her last companion in Schaffhausen. I got to see some mountains! We went to this gorgeous place called Geis to leave a personal touch for a member but they ended up catching us and inviting us to lunch. That was so nice.

Did I ever mention how beautiful Switzerland is in the Spring? There are flowers everywhere and it's so green and gorgeous.

Also Sister Siems finally realized she didn't know if her home ward is a branch or a ward. Until I helped her find out.

Me: "Do you call your Bishop 'President' or 'Bishop?'"

Her: "President."

Me: "You're a branch."

She never knew.

During planning last night:

SS my brain just turned off

SL laughing . . .

SS it's not funny this is a serious problem

SL laughing hysterically . . .

SS throws her planner across the room at me

SL laughing . . .

SS give me my planner back!

SL still laughing . . .

SS throws her pen at me

SL still laughing . . .

Then I threw her pen and planner back at her and we were able to finish planning. We laugh a lot.

Family I know I give you all These assignments (and Mommy I have been loving your "Thoughts on Faith") but this one is extra important (did anyone go on a Joint teach with the missionaries?). Well this one is to read THE POWER OF EVERYDAY MISSIONARIES. Just do it. It won't take you very Long. But don't just read it. Apply the principles inside. And send me your insights.

Also I didn't actually tell THAT many People that it is my birthday but I told an investigator in an attempt to get him to come to church yesterday (ha ha I'll get them to church just about any way I can). He didn't come but he PROMISED to come next week (I'll believe it when I see it). But he did text me "Happy Birthday God bless you" today and that made me happy.

This week we went to two Bajai Events. The Bajai prayer circle was much more intimate and seriously the spirit was there! Sister Siems and I prayed too. And then we invited some Bajai to our Musical Fireside. The other event was last night and we came way late because of another appointment but we were there. Maria (our investigator) isn't even Bajai but she loves us and she loves the Bajai and she invites us to everything. I danced with her last night to Bajai music and she was so happy. At the Event last night I met this woman who was sure she had met me before. I said no, but then I realized I had indeed met her before. She said she knew it because she "remembered my eyes." Hm. But I have knocked on her door before ha ha. Good Thing she was nice.

The next time you hear from me you'll be hearing about how great our Musical fireside went (pray for that!). Ah I'm nervous.

We gave our Spanish family a little German lesson yesterday. We love them and they love us.

We usually get to Hannah's and she has read whatever assignment we gave her from the Book of Mormon and then she brings out her lists of questions and concerns and we discuss what she can't even remember reading. This week we got there expecting the same Thing but she had NO QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS. There was nothing she felt like didn't match with the Bible. That was really different!  She is for sure coming to our Musical fireside and getting a ride with Sister Gardedieu.  We are excited about the musical fireside and also a little nervous! 

Also, we have been trying to talk to President Miles but we haven't been able to reach him. This week we are planning on visiting a Klettergarten (outdoor climbing park in the trees)  with some of the JTA (young adults) members in our branch and hopefully a JTA-age investigator! It's the safest Klettergarten ever (or so our member tells us) and we will be strengthening our relationships with members and with our investigator. I wrote him today and asked him to let us know if he thinks this is a terrible idea (because of liability).  

Oh my goodness I almost forgot. I had the greatest P-Day of my life last week (one birthday P-day is clearly not enough, so we started last week). We biked from Schaffhausen to Stein am Rhein (about 34 miles one way!) and it was outrageously fun and sooo beautiful. Jacob and Alice (our landlords) told us a couple weeks ago that we could use their bikes and helmets whenever we wanted. MUSIC to our ears. So we went on a very Long bike ride that we somehow fit in by basically doing nothing else (we had planned ahead by Shopping for two weeks the week before). And we biked through Thayngen and Dachsen (I think?) on the way there and on the way back we took a shorter way through Büsingen (This town is on the Swiss side of the Rhine, and completely surrounded by Swiss land,  but is part of Germany.  That explains the pictures they take in front of the German signs!) . We were seriously in heaven. We didn't have so much time to spend in Stein am Rhein because of our time crunch but we ate the picnic food we brought with us right on the Rhein and just soaked in the perfectness of everything.

These girls were definitely jumping for joy to be out on bikes on such

a beautiful spring day!

Definitely a happy, happy day! 

Mommy!! You went to Stein am Rhein?! You've been to my area?! aAnd yes I have been to the Munot! I went with Sister McEwen! That's where I live!!!! I love Stein am Rhein. I have only been in the alt stadt a few times briefly, but I'm in the area all the area all the time (Jasmin lives in Eschenz and Asefash lives in Kaltenbach). One time Sister Järmann had a choir concert in the old church in Stein am Rhein so Sister Siems and I went to Support her because she really wanted us to. And it was cool because we met her friends and made some friends of our own. You can see the fortress perfectly out of Asefash's window but I heard it's not actually that cool to visit.

March 17, 2014 - "Strahlen" - From Shaffhausen

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Family! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We did get theSpanish package this week! Thank you!! So far we have just given our Spanish Family one of the Liahonas (There is a a monthly church magazine called the ENSIGN that is published in English....the Liahona is the version of the magazine that is published in other languages) but they were way excited about it. We love our Spanish family. They fed us empanadas on Saturday and were just so good to us. This Saturday they said we will celebrate my birthday. I've been trying to put down some hints that my birthday is coming up. Some people just don't get the concept of birthday week/birthday two weeks/birthday month. Sister Siems is still struggling to understand the concept. (okay....this is kind of a family joke because I started out celebrating "birthday week" when Lindsey was little because her birthday was so close to Christmas that sometimes it got lost) Also Sister Siems didn't get anything special for her birthday from members. She didn't tell anyone it was her birthday (Her first mistake. I believe in telling everyone.) So, we are expanding my birthday to include Sister Siems. It can just be OUR birthday. I guess it started yesterday because we went to a member family's house for dinner and they fed us homemade Mexican Food, which we have talked about having before and they know I really wanted. So when we ate they said, "We're celebrating your birthday today!"

They're such a cute family, but hard. Their oldest son wants NOTHING to do with the church. He still has to come to church with his family, but there are very few members he will even speak to. My nametag gives me no chance of being one of them. Yesterday I went in to where all three of the Kids were sitting and one of them was playing x-box. Immediately this kid basically hid himself in the beanbag. It was obviously ridiculous so the younger son said, "Why are you hiding?" I answered for him, because he didn't say anything. "The scary sister missionary came into the room." He agreed that was the reason.  The other son is nice and I really love their 11-year-old daughter (see all the pictures of me smothering her). And of course I love the parents. And I admire the way they are raising their family. They seem to be handling their oldest son quite well and maintaining their relationship with him while staying true to the church.

Katie played lacrosse in High School so I bet this was especially fun! 

So the mother and daughter in our Spanish family have been to the temple to do baptisms one or two times before, but not for a long time. We're hoping that we will be able to accompany them to the temple to do baptisms with some other members sometime very soon! First we have to wait for the mother's member record to arrive . . . Which will hopefully be very soon.

Guess what because I'm a Swiss citizen and I'm in Switzerland I had to file income tax. Cool, huh? Luckily there is someone in the Mission who helped me put Zeros in all the right places and all I really had to do was sign it.

We had a good lesson with Hannah just about faith. That was nice, to just talk about faith in Jesus Christ, something we are all very passionate about.

One of the Highlights of my week was seeing a SOBER SYLVAIN. He has made the leap of faith and is checked into the hospital. He stays there for 10 days to get clean in a safe way, and then he will go to the clinic for who knows how Long. And we went and visited him in the hospital after he had already been there a week, and HE WAS SOBER. You take one look at him and you just know. Every other time I have seen him he has been drunk to some degree. I didn't know what he was like sober. He's still very much himself, but you can just see in his face that he is also different. And in the things he says. He says all the write things and is reading in the BOM, Bible, the Joseph Fielding Smith book, and he recently requested that his wife also bring him Preach my Gospel. And he is just being his normal natural-missionary self, but that works better when you're not drunk. When he bows his head to pray in the hospital Cafeteria nurses come up to him to ask if he's okay, and are shocked when he explains that he was just saying a Blessing on his Food. He reads his BOM and People ask him about what it is.

Other random Highlights: 

I just like feeling like I have friends in Schaffhausen. I live here. I preach the Gospel here. I have a family here (the darling Schaffhausen branch). One time this week twice in one day I sat somewhere on the train or the bus and didn't notice one of my friends that I have already talked to or taught at some point waved to me and wanted me to come sit by them. That happens sometimes, but twice in one day was cool.

When the bus Driver gave me a peace sign as we were Boarding the bus from our stop because he knew I would wave at him before getting on the bus. He is one of the bus Drivers who drives the bus that we ride at least twice a day every day, so we're friends too.

When a random lady walked by me on this full train and said to me, "Hübsch" (pretty). I said, "Wie bitte?" (excuse me?) She repeated, "Hübsch." Also a random woman told me she liked my outfit. I think she was also referring to the fact that I was dressed up and looked different from everyone else.

Oh super cool experience this week. I got the confirmation that one of our investigators WILL ACCEPT THE GOSPEL. I don't know when, and I don't even know if it will be in this life or the next, but HE WILL! Cool, right? We had a lesson with Steven where Lea and Nico were there too and basically Steven was happy to finally have someone who didn't grow up in the church to shower with questions. Nico and Steven got along fantastically. Based on Nico's testimony, Steven agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We gave him another copy since his older sister hid the last copy. The beginning of Nico's conversion Story is much like where Steven is at now, and Steven could see that. Steven always talks about how Mormons "strahlen," or shine, and that's exactly what brought Nico into the church. Nico approached Lea on the bus one day and said, "What's so different about you?" She told him about the church.

Quotes of the week:

Me: "If you have Google, you don't have to know anything. If you don't have Google, then you have to know everything."

Sister Siems: "And if you don't have Google and you don't know everything, then life is hard. And that's us."

Sister Siems was on the phone with Elder Becker (also German so this conversation was in German).

Sister Siems: "We found such a cool family today!"

Elder Becker: "That makes me happy!"

Sister Siems: "They live in your area."

Elder Becker: "That makes me even happier!"

 

These are the missionaries of the Zurich Zone

 I think this is the meadow Katie mentioned they were in last week.  

 Definitely a Sister Missionary Fridge! 

Sister Siems embracing her homeland! 

Wellll I hope you're all doing good. Don't forget to keep writing and emailing Sister Kate, because it makes her happy. Loooove you!

"Was macht ihr zwei schöne Frauen denn da?" - March 10, 2014 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Hiiiiiii! Remember how last Sunday was a rough day? I forgot to add the part about someone being so mean to Sister Siems on the phone. But don't worry because yesterday was the best Sunday ever and the best day ever!!! For so many reasons. Sister Siems and I made a list and I will share some of them with you. The most important thing was that Jasmin came to church!! She just cannot accept the Book of Mormon, but she really liked church. It was so cool that she came. She has been invited so many times, but she just always said she would come sometime. And so we got a surprise phone call Sunday morning from her asking us to meet her so she could find the church (she did try to come one other time before I was even here but she got lost). Also another investigator came to church, who we have actually given to the elders, but he is another person where we had almost given up hope that he would ever come but he came and he loved it. Also the weather was fabulous, totally like spring. Also our branch president and his wife said they'd be in the choir for the Musical fireside! Also Schaffhausen officially introduced Tatiana and her Family and welcomed them to the ward with goodies after church. And we did part of our weekly planning in a field in St. Katharinental. It was just a good day! It could have been a bad day, because Maritza didn't come to church. I was all excited to tell you about Maritza, but now I'm not as excited anymore because she didn't come to church yesterday. But we saw her twice this week and set a baptismal date with her! And we're trying to help her quit Smoking and everything was looking really good until yesterday. But, it will still be good.

Also we sang "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" with Jörg on the piano. It's such a beautiful accompaniment and this whole singing "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" thing was really his idea because after I told him it was my favorite song (this was during Christmastime) he found this arrangement and now we finally got around to singing it in sacrament meeting. We also sang it to Sister Sprenger (our friend in the care home) the way we did it at zone training. She was so happy.

Also Jörg gave us this HUGE thing of peanut butter. Now I just need to find enough celery to go with it (it's hard to find!). Sister Siems doesn't like peanut butter and celery. Such a shame.

That's about all for yesterday. But earlier in the week Sister Siems fixed our sink. She took it apart and cleaned it so it would drain better. I just cleaned the rest of the bathroom and complimented her the whole time so she would keep going.

So today I ran into the Jehovah's Witness who we saw last Monday. She sat next to me on the bus. It turns out she wants to do bible study with us? And she said the brochure we gave her didn't come only from the Bible (ha ha it was a restoration brochure!). (FYI - Our belief that the true Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith is the essence of the restoration that is taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  There was such a long period of apostasy and then reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli paved the way to enable what would happen in America. America was a unique land where people came to pursue  religious freedom and it was this very environment that provided the fertile soil for the Lord to restore the fullness of the Gospel  through the prophet Joseph Smith in 1830.)  And she talked about how much she loves the Bible and I told her how much I love the Bible but then I said that I found it such a pity when people didn't accept more of God's word. (We believe the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and there is much in the Book of Mormon that adds unto). But I'm pretty sure she misunderstood based on how wholeheartedly she agreed with me!

Our new friend that I talked about last week is fantastic. She's like, our best friend. She reads a little in the Book of Mormon everyday during her Meditation time. I want to be like her when I am old. She has decided to invite us to anything that is spiritually related. So far we haven't been able to attend anything that she's invited us to because of previous engagements but next week we should be participating in a prayer circle with her.

Also remember Sylvain? He's in the Hospital now getting ready to go to the clinic for a few months.

Quotes of the week:

Me: "I want to know how the brain works."

Sister Siems: "Except I think your brain works differently than everybody else's."

We had the elders meet us in Thayngen for an appointment with an investigator that we wanted to give to them, but the appointment fell out. We forgot it was Fastnachts (Mardi Gras) in Thayngen that night and so everyone was partying like crazy and dressed in these crazy costumes.

Sister Siems: "These people are dressed so weird!"

Elder Bergström: "That's exactly what they think about us."

Too true. We were the ones out of place walking around party town with suits and skirts . . .

"Was macht ihr zwei schöne Frauen denn da?" (What are you two lovely ladies up to here?)

A little boy to us yesterday, he could not have been older than 4, as we walked past his house. He was adorable and he was driving this little baby tractor that Max (Katie's nephew) would have loved.

Sister Siems has a new theory that she is older than me because in Germany you're an adult at 18 and in America you're an adult at 21. I told her actually we are adults at 18 too and she said, "No because you can't buy alcohol!" Apparently the definition of an adult is one who can legally buy alcohol ha ha (since that is so important in the lives of Sister Siems and Sister Lewis). But she claims she has been an adult for two years and I for only one so that makes her older. Poor Sister Siems. She must be feeling intimidated by how wise and old I am, especially now that I am turning 22!

I'm almost at my half-way point so I'm going through a kind of midlife crisis trying to figure out how effective and consecrated a missionary I am. I am halfway through my fourth transfer in Schaffhausen, and it is so weird to me that I will probably leave after this transfer. Transfers are so weird. Any advice for me?

I can't believe you went to lunch with Sister Judd! How fun is that?! (Franklin and I were in Las Vegas last week and took Katie's trainer, who had just gotten home from her mission two weeks earlier, to lunch. We had such a great visit!)

President Miles sent us this today:

"Elder Holland once said that if you want to enjoy the blessing of miracles in your life, set goals that you can’t reach without the Lords help. His is a work of Miracles."

Welllll I love you! Thanks for all the support!