"I'm sorry" - April 28, 2014 - From Solothurn, Switzerland

First Pictures of Missionary Life in Solothurn

Sis. Kate's new companion from Denmark, Sister Blohm

The local Chapel

She wrote that she was pretty excited to find a blender
in the apartment.  I guess she really was!

Oh, look!  Some of the quotes I've sent have made it on the wall!

St. UrsenKathedral in Solothurn  built between 1762-1773

Ah, a Swiss kitty.  Sis Kate and I love kitties.

Today I got this thought from Uncle Randal:

"If your happiness depends on what someone else does, I guess you do have a problem." - Richard Bach

That's pretty much exactly what I needed to hear.

And I am happy!

The thing is, now everything depends on a new mission president who I don't know at all. So he would have to decide if it's okay to pick me up (I have heard some mission president don't like that so much) The other thing is I have heard of missionaries getting released over skype . . . you would have to ask our stake president if he is okay with that. Because maybe I should be released before we go galavanting around when you come pick me up (that is, if you decide to). 

Guess what this week is mission tour. That means all the missionaries in Switzerland will be gathering in Zurich and we will be hearing from Elder Timothy Dykes. We all filled out a questionnaire about our missionary work and how well we apply preach my gospel so he will be hitting us on our weaknesses.

Quote of the week:

Sister Blohm (yelling): "Heavenly Father and President Miles want us to learn something from these trials! But I don't know what!!!"

Looking at me (and no longer yelling): "Sorry" (she was just apologizing for her minor outburst)

This is the best part . . . Then she looks up at the ceiling and says to Heavenly Father: "Sorry" (So she apologized to Him too. I thought it was so funny.)

Thank you to . . .

Liddy

Mary McCann

Bryce

Monique

Aunt Janie and fam

Mommy

Matthias

for my letters!

So this week we were having a downer day but it was so cool because then God pulls out the miracles. That day we ran into one of our members and a less active on the bus and the member had just helped the less active go to the doctor. Then that same day as we were visiting another less active and another rockstar member stopped by to help her with some paperwork. It just showed me how great this ward really is. Another day we ran into yet another less active on the bus and she told us she had invited a friend to church!!! Wait it gets better. They both came!! And she brought her two daughters! Wait it gets better. We're having a lesson with all three of them tonight at the bishop's house!! It does not get any better than that.

Also we went to the baptism of a little girl in our ward on Saturday and that was nice. We had invited people but they didn't come. But a member told us how nice she thought it was to have missionaries there at a baptism for a little person because of the reminder to do missionary work.

We also had this awesome choir event yesterday night! I had a few friends I know from Schaffhausen there! It made me a little homesick. (Home still equals Schaffhausen more or less). But it was so good. They sang Homeward Bound in German!

Well I love you!!! Keep reading and praying and going to church. No, seriously it's important.

This isn't an email letter, but one that I've transcribed from a written letter.  Before I gave Katie’s ½ way mission report back in March, I sent her a letter with some questions the answers to which I thought my help me in my “report”.  Although she emailed me that she had sent the letter, it never did arrive.  So the report came and went until finally, just last week, the letter arrived!  It was actually a tender mercy to me that day!

Here are some thoughts from that letter that I thought give a nice flavor of her mission experience:

#1 - I asked her about the challenge of teaching the Restored Gospel in Europe 

She wrote “Our mission really refutes the attitude about not being able to find individuals in this part of the world interested in learning about the restored Gospel.  To people who say “Oh, have fun on your mission.  That is such a beautiful place but you won’t have much success”, we say “There’s this really great book called the B of M that I would to invite you to read.  What about Alma and Amulek preaching to the people of Ammonihah and all of the other unlikely stories of success in missionary work?  Wasn’t King Lamoni converted?  None of that really matters.  Success isn’t measured by numbers anyway.

#2 – I asked her how she was feeling.

She wrote “I guess I don’t stop to think about it all that much.  But I’m going to try to assess my feelings now. Ha ha.

         -Sometimes I feel inadequate . . . I think things like . . .

                  I don’t know the scriptures well enough.
                  I don’t know the language well enough.
                  I’m not a good enough teacher

And actually those are all true.  Which is why it’s a very good thing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are my teammates.  With them, I can do anything.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have personal responsibility. But they don’t want me to feel bad about myself.  But Satan does!

         -Sometimes I feel discouraged.  People can be so unreliable. So very few people are ready to make measurable progress or changes.
         - Sometimes I'll think that nothing is going the way I want
         - Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. There are SO MANY people that need this message! (That’s why God needs all of us to help).

BUT, for a disproportionate amount of the time, really so much of the time, even ALL the time, because it’s still there, and an underlying feeling even when other not-as-good feelings comes up, is a feeling of PEACE.  And I’m not just saying it because it sounds good.  Really it’s true. I’m just happy and at peace. I get anxious sometimes, but I’m so at peace knowing that I have the privilege of being one of the Lord’s full-time missionaries.  I was going to say I just feel good, but I think at peace is a better way to describe it.  I am exactly where my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I’ve never been so sure of that as I have on my mission. A mission was really his plan for me.  I’m trying to do what He wants me to do in my area.  I’m trying hard to represent Him well.  Knowing that I am where my Heavenly Father wants me and that I’m doing His work really does bring me such peace. 

And sometimes I feel EXTRA happy!  There are also just extra-good moments. These happen all mover.  I can hardly even give a sampling.

         -During my personal study when I find something super interesting or something that really speaks to me.
         -When I say something in German and Sister Siems (she’s German) says I said it exactly correct!  The other day I left a voice message and afterwards she told me I said everything right!  I know that probably sounds pathetic. It was a longerish voice mail – hah hah.
         -When we found Ruth this week!  I danced down the stairs after we left her apartment.
         -When we have a good lesson with a potential who was found because I talked to them!
         -Singing with Sister Siems. Things are just so good with Sister Siems. I feel so myself with her.
         -When an investigator seriously reads in the Book of Mormon (like how A stayed up until 2 am reading all of 1^st and 2^nd Nephi after telling me on the phone she wouldn’t have time to read before we came to visit her the next day.
         -When I see something super beautiful, or when I look around and just really know that I’m in EUROPE.
         -Or when I do anything that even slightly resembles hiking.

I do feel like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are very aware of me – all the time.

THINGS I WANT TO TELL THE WARD –

-I just want to encourage everyone to keep up their good efforts to forward the WORK OF SALVATION (strengthening members, visiting less active members, reaching out to recent converts, inviting non-members to learn more.
-I want to thank everyone for their SUPPORT!  It means so much. I also just want to say that everyone’s prayers on my behalf have made and continue to make a difference.  I really appreciate them.
-For future missionaries – Get to know your scriptures. Don’t stress, but really make the scriptures a part of your life.  Get familiar with them.

Love you so much.  I love being a missionary.  

"Hope you had a wonderful Easter!" - April 21, 2014 - From Solothurn, Switzerland

Family!  I have no idea what to even tell you this week. I'm sick and I'm stuffy and it's been rainy and cold (except for yesterday because it was Easter Sunday and Jesus must have wanted it to be sunny). Our bishop and his adorable family invited us over yesterday for Easter dinner and they gave us big chocolate bunnies and it was a sweet part of our Easter. It was so nice. They have five kids under the age of 12 and they're just a fantastic family.

Kevin didn't come to church, but his friend did! So that was great. Mustafa also came to church. Have I told you about him? He is a very special kind of Muslim (Ahmadiyya). So of course he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God, and he also doesn't believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross. So it was perfect to have him at church on Easter Sunday, right?! It was the first time he had heard about Gethsemane and what happened in the garden. The best thing about him is that he really believes that we can communicate personally with God, and that we can receive answers. So that's something we certainly have in common as a foundation!

We had a finding day here in Solothurn with our whole district on Saturday. It went so well and I got to work with my dear Sister Couper. We found some great people who I am so excited to get in contact with again.

You asked about less actives. I haven't had a whole lot of experience working with less actives on my mission until now. Basically in Wien we visited one less active woman and she never came to church while I was there and then in Schaffhausen the only less actives we met with were the older women who lived in the Altersheims and really couldn’t attend anymore. But here we have so many less actives to work with. We keep track of about how many less actives that we are working with who come to Sacrament meeting that week. One time I asked Sister Siems, "Does that EVER happen? Because I have never had a less active at church." I had seen it happen for Elders I was serving with but I had never had a less active come to church. But she said it happened in Aarau. And apparently it does! Last week we had 3 less actives at church who the sisters have been working with! But this week none of them came. Working with less active members seems to lead to a lot of heartbreak. At least it does for me. It's so different than with investigators. They have already made the baptismal covenant! There are two less actives who have just been breaking my heart over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Oh and I have only been here how long? 3 weeks or something. I don't know how much longer I am going to last. I am going to have to learn patience and enduring to the end. The most heartbreaking part is that in the cases of these two less actives it is so apparent that their decisions affect the decisions of so many other people as well. They both have children. They both have two children who are baptized (okay not true one of these children is only 7 but she already wants to get baptized and she would like to be coming to church) who of course also don't come to church or have very strong testimonies. One has parents who set a baptismal date for her with the elders but have never come to church. So their baptismal dates are now canceled and not even postponed because this couple is so difficult to get ahold of. They are now our investigators because it makes more sense for us to work with them since we are working with their daughter all the time. But the fact that our decisions affect other people is true for all of us. With the other less active she has a son who is interested but hard to get ahold of and she has so many friends who she has introduced to the missionaries and who have become investigators but it's hard to bring your friends into the church if you don't go to church.

Oh guess what Sister Blohm got proposed to this week. It was so funny. She was so funny about it. We think he actually thought she was Sister Graf, a former sister missionary here who he has also proposed to because Sister Blohm and Sister Graf are both blonde.  Clearly he doesn't really know either one of them, and he thought Sister Blohm was from Germany which Sister Graf is. I was talking to another guy but then he got off the train and even though I couldn’t see Sister Blohm I could hear this guy and Sister Blohm talking and he was trying to convince her that she should marry him and this went on for a while until I finally came over to back her up. It was so funny. He said he was going to come to church to ask the pastor if he could marry her (Sister Blohm was fuming. She told me later, "We are in EUROPE! Not AFRICA! I decide if I marry someone or not!"). Don't worry he didn't come anyway.

You didn't say anything about us coming back here together. I just wanted to let you know that it turns out the transfers have been changed and I will be coming home around the 4th of December. What that means is I am no longer opposed to the idea of you coming to pick me up, if you think that is the best thing to do so you can see my mission. We could visit the Christmas markets! If you ever decide to buy a plane ticket you will have to do it through my friend Jörg in Schaffhausen. He works at the airport and he will get you a killer deal.

Thank you to Grandma, Mommy, Daddy, Tara, Bella and JJ for writing me!!! And did I ever thank Paige Tueller for her birthday postcard? And I got a nice letter from James too. Also Greg wrote me a great email! Thank you Greg!

You asked about the size of my area.  I don't know how to explain why this ward is bigger because I don't know myself. The geographic area for the Schaffhausen branch was actually larger. And so was the Wien 1 area. How big a ward or branch is has no correlation to how big of an area it covers. It has more to do with how many LDS families are in the ward who have been in the church for generations and have stayed around in that area. We have a few such families in this ward, but there weren't any in Schaffhausen because almost everyone was a convert.

Quote of the week:

Sister Blohm leaving a voice message and trying to end it:

"Im Namen Jesu Christi . . . Tschüss!"

Right now we are finishing emails at a media mart. What that means is, I'm typing you on a macbook. What that also means is Sister Blohm is typing and she's going, "It's not working!"

Me: "Sister Blohm I told you it's because you put LSD instead of LDS in the address!"

I love you family!! Today we're off to meet our district in Ikea for some kind of district P-Day.

April 14, 2014 - "It's a rock" - Solothurn, Switzerland

Hi Family!  I put some new things in Dropbox. Make sure to look for the video of the song Sister Siems wrote me for my birthday. She is the best. There will also be random videos of me trying to decide on certain harmonies with Sister Siems for the musical fireside.  Also, this week I put up the pictures from the Klettergarten outing that I left out last time. 

But now I am in Solothurn and of course I have a new companion, Sister Blohm . . . I like her. I kind of get to be bossy with her and do things my way because she is more hesitant and would rather not be so much in charge. And, as you know, I kind of  like to do things my way. Her German really isn’t so good.  But actually it turns out she's only one transfer older than me, not two. But my German isn’t so good either. And we are supposed to write an email to the ward every week and write our progress record in German and send that to the ward council and we always have to write all kinds of notes in German for random reasons like if we want to thank someone or if we go by their house and they're not there. And writing in German is hard!

I got more birthday mail! Thank you to . . .

Amy

Seth

Cambria

McKaye

Kris Fredrickson

Sister Bagby

Carl Johnson

Katy

Sister Barton

Kara

The Bieglers

Granny Franny

And thank you Mommy and Daddy for my birthday package!! It made me feel special so thank you. You don't need to feel any pressure to send any more packages because there will be no more Christmases and no more birthdays and I will need your help when I get home.  And I have to pay here again to pick the package up so it ends up just being so much money.

It was fast and testimony meeting yesterday and I bore a quick testimony! I got two because Schaffhausen had theirs the week before  conference.

This week a guy randomly called us and he talked to us in English and then we met him at the Bahnhof and had a short lesson with him and then we met up with him Sunday morning to show him the way to the church. He is a very interesting person and someone I would just love to see embrace the gospel. We brought him to church, and it turned out the elders already knew him. We think what happened is that when the elders met him they gave him our pass-a-long card and then eventually he called us. But during the time we spent with him this week I learned that he is from Afghanistan and I can’t really share a lot more about him.  But he seems to be a really good person. He only stayed for Sacrament Meeting because he had to go to work but he says he will come every week now. He keeps himself very busy and doesn't have a lot of time to be taught but he is actually the Elder's investigator. I'm just impressed with him as an Auslander for a number of reasons. He is working hard on his German and in his work. He made sure that we weren't planning on taking a bus to church because he bikes and walks wherever he can

Another thing that happened this week. So Sister Blohm and I were on our way to see a less active but we had some time to get there so we were talking to everyone and we saw these two men who seemed a little lost. So I asked them is we could help them with anything. One of them looks up from whatever they were looking at on one of their phones, sees our name tags and says, "Hey I'm a member of your church." Turns out he actually is. He is from Nigeria and has been living in Italy but came to Switzerland a month ago because there isn't much work to be found in Italy. He knew all about the gospel as he has been a member for 19 years. So we called a member family who lives nearby but only the 14-year-old boy was home. But I talked to him and he tried to explain to me over the phone how to get to his house because I thought it would be great for this new member to meet some members. Eventually he just came to find us and then showed us his house, and then we set it up so that Kevin (our new friend!) could get a ride with this family to church the next day. The best part was this family lives literally a stone's throw away from the refugee house where Kevin lives.

Mom you have asked about the acceptance of Auslanders (people from outside the country; foreigners). It varies a lot. Schaffhausen was pretty good about it but they have gotten their heart broken several times by Auslanders they fellowshipped who didn't treat them well in return. They are good to Sandra though, and they don't discriminate against her at all. They just should include her more than they do but they're sort of this little branch and some of them have a hard time really including people completely. But as this story continues you will see a problem I already had with people accepting Auslanders in this word.

Kevin didn't show up to go with the family to church, and when I called him he said he didn't make it in time (I think he slept in). Sunday after the investigator Sunday School class Brüder Pauli asked to talk to me and Sister Blohm and explained how the mother of this family had spoken to him and was very worried about the situation and didn't want to always be responsible for giving this man a ride and she thought the home where he lived was dangerous and didn't want the sisters to go there. She was totally judging the situation and didn't even tell Brüder Pauli that the Auslander is a MEMBER and maybe she just didn't really know. And we didn't go to the refugee house looking for people like I think she thought. We just happened to meet Kevin on the street because Heavenly Father wanted us to. I’m sad that she was choosing to be afraid instead of helpful.

Anyway the Kevin story will have a happy ending, I'm convinced. He was so happy to have met us and he bore his testimony to us and told us about his efforts to share the gospel and how he's trying to get to the temple. We will be meeting with him this week. But meeting Kevin on the street was a very spiritual experience for me. I know Heavenly Father was aware of him and his needs. Heavenly Father knew that Kevin was in Switzerland and had been living here for the last month feeling a little lost and alone. And I know He loves me too because he allowed me to witness this miracle.

  

Want to know a secret? I started planning in my head our return trip to Switzerland/Austria together. Okay, secret's out. I know at one point you had said you were interested in picking me up, but since that doesn't work can we come the summer after I get home? I told everyone in Schaffhausen when I had to say goodbye that I would be back. And they said, "Everyone says that." And I said, "No, I really will. Hopefully in a year and a half." So just so you know . . . Ha ha what do you think? I just want to know when we will come back. This week a missionary who served in Solothurn (twice!) and who was in my district for a while in Schaffhausen came back with her family. She is from Germany. One night someone rang our doorbell at 9:30 and Sister Blohm and I were thinking, "Uh . . . Who is that?" But it was just Sister Graf stopping by! And she was just so unbelievably happy to be back in her mission with her family. She couldn't stop laughing and smiling. She had only been home 6 weeks and then they came back to visit.

At GMK Brüder Pauli asked us how our apartments are and if we really need anything. So Sister Blohm and I mentioned that we actually have two major light fixtures that are broken. And no, they do not just need replacement lightbulbs (Of course that was the elders' first question. But no we are not that dumb!). Turns out Brüder Pauli has had some electrical training, so he wanted to come take a look right then and there. That meant the elders had to come too since he can't come alone. And I'm thinking uhhh . . . our apartment is in the worst stage of my unpacking.. So they come to our apartment and yes there is something complicated going on up there on our ceiling so Brüder Pauli will have to buy something to fix it.

Elder Kelly: "Not gonna lie Sister Lewis I expected your apartment to be way cleaner."

I was so embarressed! Our GML made fun of me too. It wasn't dirty, just messy! My stuff has not all found its rightful home yet. The good news is this apartment is already much easier to keep clean than the one in Schaffhausen.

Another quote of the week:

Sister Blohm to me: "Will you please sing with your beautiful voice and not your fake one?"

While waiting for the bus one night I found this cement thing to sit on and I said, "Sister Blohm you should come sit by me. It's comfy."

Sister Blohm:

"It's a rock! Rocks are not comfy. Rocks are hard and sharp and you use them to kill people!" By the end of that sentence she was sitting on the cement thing next to me. 

While sitting on that "rock" and waiting for the bus these two boys drove up playing loud music. And our bus stop was right next to a round-a-bout.

Me: "Watch this they're going to drive around the round-a-bout a bunch of times."

And they did and tried to get our attention when they came close to the bus stop. Then they drove away.

Sister Blohm yelling after them: "Yeah that's right you leave! I'm a MISSIONARY!"

Ah it was so funny.

Sister Blohm: "This must happen to you a lot at home because you knew exactly what they were going to do. I hope they go home now because I think they are drunk. Except they can't be drunk it's a TUESDAY!" Ha ha . . .  as if no one has ever gotten drunk on a Tuesday before . . .

Sister Blohm: "How did you get this personality?"

Me: "What personality?"

Sister Blohm: "The way you are! So happy all the time!"

Awwww that's nice, huh?

Well things are going well. You should have gotten some more stories from the forwarded emails I sent you (president's and the one to the ward).

I'm right next to the JURA! Tell Greg to send me his hikes and tell him thanks for my note!

Love you Family!!

What I wrote to President Miles today:

President Miles,

Thank you for your inspired message! I love to read what you have to say to us each week. Sister Blohm and I are doing well we are just trying to figure out how to help each of our investigators really take the next step. I seem to always make a "fantasy plan" for the people I meet about how I would like them to progress, but I know that even though these people never follow my plan for them, they have made progress nonetheless. At conference last weekend I had the privilege of watching one of the less actives we work with come to watch one of the sessions and have all the questions she had asked me earlier in the week answered better than I could have ever answered them. She was there for the Sunday Morning Session and she had questions like, "Why does God allow me to suffer so much?" and "Why must I have trials?". This week she told me about how what she heard at conference really helped bring peace to her soul. Thanks for everything!