"Should I check your fridge too?" - May 26, 2014 From Solothurn

Hey Family! 

First. Linds I got your letter! It had gone to the mission home because Dear Elder is silly and they turn certain punctuation symbols and German letters into question marks so Dear Elder wasn't sure about the address so they sent it to the mission home. Maybe if you send it with a normal a instead of a ä it will come directly to me. But I loved your letter so much! Such a fun surprise.

Next. I finally got another package full of vitamins that went to WIEN! About six months ago. But I got it and just make sure no more packages go to Wien.

What else. We have a new investigator named XO. We speak English with her. She is from Kenya and has great English and German. We had a killer  lesson with her and I already have my hopes wayyyy up.

An update on the mom and girls we've been teaching. You're not going to like it. We heard from her friend (our less active who brought her to church) that she heard something bad about the church and that's why things have changed. Nooooooooooooooooo!! Satan is a clever guy, isn't he? Now she won't follow through on an appointment with us. And we need a chance to clear up whatever falsehood she has heard. Ugh. It's frustrating.

We had interviews with President! That was good. I can't believe that he's going to leave.

Good news!! A member from the ward is trying to help Sister Blohm and me with German! Bad news: He spams my email inbox every week with about 9 emails about German stuff. And I will never read them. I don't even think he's technically allowed to email me. But the good news totally outweighs the bad.

Did I ever tell you about that awkward time when I found alcohol in a member who is less active's fridge and I was way awkward about it? I was putting away the salad dressing and I ran into the alcohol. I didn't really say anything but we both felt awkward. That is a necessary introduction to the quote of the week from our visit this week. (FYI - This refers to the "Word of Wisdom" . . . a health code followed by people of the LDS Faith.  No alcohol, coffee or smoking is part of that commitment.) 

Me (looking at a coconut coffee package at her home): "Hey it's coconut!"

Her: "It's coffee."

Me: "Yeah, I noticed. Should I check your fridge too?"

She has two brothers who are bishops. She went on a mission but she came home earlier and is choosing not to be active with Church.  But we are best friends. I really love her.

Sister Blohm: "Shsdgilaskjlydkm yiaodfaisjflkakdfajf yfiadjfka." Something like that. I couldn't understand it at all.

Me: "What?"

Sister Blohm: "Sorry sometimes I don't know how to say something in German or English." Yeah so that unintelligable stuff was Danish. I love listening to other languages

XOX and her two kids came to church! That was amazing. And a new convert brought 3 FRIENDS TO CHURCH!! He's a rockstar. Plus he ran into one of our former investigators this week and told her we missed her at church. Celestial material that one.

I don't know what else. We're trying. I've never had it so hard as in Solothurn. I don't know what it is that's different.  I love teaching the gospel and I would love progressing investigators. But I am happy and I know that the church is true. That's just the problem. I know the church is true and I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I just want to be a good enough missionary for Him and His true church. And Satan will always try to get you to think that you're not good enough. I just want to be better in every way.

This talk is one of my favorite's of all time. It was given by Elder Bednar at the MTC and we watched a recording of it in the MTC. . But I have it now through someone in our mission who somehow had it and I am sending it to you. It's just such a good message. And I am so imperfect. Here's a link to that article: "The Character of Christ"

I love you family! Thanks for all the support.

"This isn't Utah!" - May 19, 2014 From Solothurn, Switzerland

Hiii!! I'm here early because we have to go to Zurich today to do some legal stuff for Sister Blohm so she doesn't get kicked out of Switzerland (because she has already been here a year). 

Ganz wichtig: My sim card broke. Meaning I can't take any pictures. I don't know where to find a new one. Can you send me one? Luckily I don't think I lost very many pictures.

So there is a huge favor that I would love you to do for me. That is, to gather the quotes of the week that have something to do with my companion (just Sister McEwen and most importantly Sister Siems who really wants them). We do this thing where you make your former companions a baby scrapbook about your time together (but who has time for that? No one). But Sister Siems really wants the quotes of the week in hers but I don't know when I would collect them all.

Does Bishop Davis know my blog address? I know he likes to keep close tabs on the missionaries.

Yesterday Sister Blohm had a really hard day. After Sacrament she went in the bathroom and cried for half of Sunday School and then again for all of Relief Society. I didn't know what to do and I felt so sad that I didn't feel like I could help. I basically just left her there after checking on her and then took care of her after church. Yesterday in Gemeinderat the bishop pretty much gave one of our investigators to the Elders because he is a man and it just makes more sense. But it really tore Sister Blohm apart. The Elders are having much more "success" than we are at the moment (they have another baptism on the 1st of June).  And the investigator that the bishop gave to the elders is the one we had just written that ward email about. He is probably the one who is closest to having a baptismal date (he has had one once before but said he wasn't ready) and he was our only investigator at Guiseppe's baptism and the only one who came to church yesterday. Sister Blohm just felt like why are we even here if the Elders can do all the work? We meet with a lot of less actives which the Elders don't really do, and that's really not as "rewarding" as meeting with investigators. Actually, Sister Blohm has had "success" on her mission, as in she has played a part in 5 people choosing to be baptized. One got baptized a week after she got into her golden area (so even though she wasn't a huge part of the teaching, it was still great to be a part of), then there was another baptism in her golden area, then she baptized two men in St. Gallen (unfortunately both of them are not only inactive now but literally MISSING. No one knows what happened to them.). And then she had another baptism in St. Gallen who was a referral from a member. Anyway, she's been frustrated and I've been frustrated because I don't feel like we teach well enough together to prepare anyone for baptism anyway (I know, that's so awful but we both are still struggling with our German sometimes!). We have a challenge teaching together, mostly because neither of us are really strong as we would like to be in our German. Our English lessons go much better. So we've had to talk a lot about what "success" really means, which I feel like every missionary should understand, and I think is particularly important for Sister Blohm to understand so she doesn't get so discouraged.  SUCCESS IS IN THE INVITATION. If you are inviting people to come closer to Christ through commitments and following up, then you are doing your job. If you are not inviting people, then yeah you are not doing your job as a missionary. I'm grateful to be learning right along with her though.

Jocelyne and her daughters are still doing okay. It was too stressful for them to come to the baptism on Saturday (which literally broke my heart). And she was visiting a friend in the hospital yesterday. We visited them last night to figure out what was up. I think things have been going a little too fast for Jocelyne. The communication barrier does not help. So we just need to go slower, be more patient, and also clearer (we need to be good at teaching!).

But we had a good week. Like I said, I love the less active members we work with.  One of them wasn' home when we showed up for our apointment but I felt better when she called us and texted us yesterday to say sorry and to talk about the flooding in her home country. She really is sweet. She gave the elders two new investigators by promising two of her friends that the church would give them jobs. They came to the church (she gave them the address), and the elders were here and explained that that's not actually true but it turns out they are actually interesting in the church and loving the Book of Mormon. The other less active came to church yesterday!! Which is huge. And it was cool because one of the missionaries who taught her was visiting. Plus she also just communicated with us more this week so I am happy.

Guiseppe's baptism was amazing. The members were so supportive. Guiseppe is a miracle. He bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday in Italian (with translation from a member) and three of his kids and his wife were there to hear it. He even told the ward to let him know if there is anything he can do to help them.

Thank you to Ciarah for my package!!! And to the whole Cook family for my birthday wishes. You guys are the greatest.

I need the music of the arrangement I sang at my farewell. Can you please send it?

Also I forgot to say that last week we got to have a fireside for the missionaries from the temple president. That was pretty neat.

So Saturday was a good day because we went through the temple with a new convert, Guiseppe was baptized, and we had a great lesson with two members present after the baptism. 

The other best part of the week was when our new convert told us that she hadn't smoked in 10 days (although I'm not sure that still stands). She's really great though.

We also did a service project helping a less active clean her house. She was so appreciative.

Quote of the week:

Sister Blohm and I were walking home last night and there were these tractors working in a field.

Me: "Why are they here? It's a Sunday! They should go home."

Sister Blohm: "This isn't Utah . . ."

Elder Kelly and I talking about Guiseppe's children.

Me: "His daughters are really nice!"

Elder Kelly: "Yeah? I think (insert the name of the son who was at the baptism) is the nicest. And by nicest I mean the most interested in the church."

From our lessons with Guiseppe when he feeds us all spaghetti:

Guiseppe: "Essen! Essen!"

When we're not eating enough (according to him) . . . "Keinen Kompliment!" (that's not a compliment to the chef!)

Really Guiseppe is just the best person ever.

So the week really was good. I am happy. I know what it means to be successful and I love being a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. Inspiration has come to me this week in the way of a line from "Come, come, Ye Saints." "Why should we think to earn a great reward, if we now shun the fight?" Men are that they might have joy, but we are also here to fight. We are here to prove ourselves. As much as we might not like it, life is not meant to be a breeze. But it isn't just about this life. This life is the time to prepare to meet God. We may have much joy in this life, but there is also much joy awaiting us on the other side. Don't shun the fight. Remember the real reason we're here. That's a lot easier to do as a missionary, but I want you all to remember it too. Love you family!

Short emails and long letters are still good Momma. Love to all!!!

"Okay, so the Weidmanns..." May 12, 2014 From Solothurn, Switzerland

At the Swiss temple in Bern

Katie and all the companions she's had in Switzerland reunited
Sister Bloem, Sister McEwen, Kate, Sister Siems

Hi Family!  Mommy this link is for you. I just really like what it says about making sacrifices to read the scriptures.

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/heritage?lang=eng

It was also my inspiration for the ward email.

Soooo where to start! There is a convert baptism in our ward this week! He's the elders' investigator but obviously we're good friends with him too. His name is Guiseppe. He's the one who took us to the gym that one time. Actually, I don't know if I ever told you about that. Apparently he met a member at the gym and got a ride home with him once and then it became a regular thing and then the member referred him to the missionaries and . . . here we are today! He's getting baptized and he's so ready. He has been coming to church almost every Sunday for 6 months. He's Italian and the bishop, who went on his mission to Italy and is married to an Italian, is baptizing him. And the Bishop’s wife, who is Italian, happens to be one of my very favorite people. Actually the whole family is my favorite. I'm skyping you from their house later today. Anyways we're really excited about this baptism and it will be great to invite people to attend and the whole ward should be there. If everyone in the ward isn't there I’ll actually be really disappointed because Guiseppe has been to church so many times and to so many other things and this is a really big deal to him and he needs their support. I'm so excited to meet his Italian family. Joceline and her daughters as well as Adiam (the less active who brought Joceline to church) have also promised to come. 

We got to help a member with her garden this week. Loooots of weeding. But fun.

We meet with lots of less actives members this week. Not just the ones the sisters before us had been seeing regularly, but new ones too. It was rewarding to find a less active again who thought the missionaries had just forgotten about her.

One of the things Elder Dykes told us was to make sure that when we decide to no longer teach people that we do it the right way and with kindness and guided by the spirit. We should make sure they understand why. That's actually not always easy but it's something that I know is important. And it's something Sister Blohm and I are going to have to do. Mom you actually mentioned this to me about this once that you hope we write the people we won't be visiting anymore a note with encouragement but letting them know and stuff. So yeah in the near future Sister Blohm and I are going to try to write some of those hard notes and have some of those hard conversations. It's time for some people. I never want to give up on anyone but sometimes we just have to put our efforts toward building up and supporting those who are more willing to work to be closwer to the Lord and to keep commitments.

I hope you know that we are working hard, but some of the missionary to missionary dynamics are just so funny. So we're going to try and really focus on teaching referrals (especially since sometimes the ward  struggles with embracing the people we bring to church that really are interested in the Gospel, but don’t  speak German and so forth). So Elder Kelly has this sheet called "My Record of Friends" that will help us see what missionary efforts our members are already making and help us know how to support them and what the next step for their friends is. And so we discussed in GMK that we need to really focus on referrals (And this sheet is super perfect. Good thing I had already made Elder Kelly give it to me so I could copy it). So ever since then we have been in a little bit of a friendly competition. Here are some quotes to illustrate:

Elder Kelly: "Sister Lewis your tip for today is to read all of Preach my Gospel by tomorrow" (as if!)

Me: "Yeah right. My tip for the day is to ask for referrals."

Elder Kelly: "No! That's what I'm doing!" (this makes no sense to me, which further illustrates that this is some kind of secret missionary to missionary talk that I just don’t get).

At church I start noticing that Elder Kelly talking to A LOT of members with his planner out. And then it dawns on me that he's stealing the whole ward. So I confronted him, with a smile of course.

"Elder Kelly! We haven't exactly talked about who was going to visit who! You can't just steal the whole ward!"

Elder Kelly: "I decided that I need to."

Later . . .

Elder Kelly: "So let me tell you who I made appointments with."

Me: "Well it's a little late now!"

Elder Kelly: "Okay so the Weidmanns . . ."

Me: "You can't just take the Weidmanns!"

Elder Kelly: "There was no way YOU were getting the Weidmanns! That is my territory!"

(I'm sure these quotes will make her laugh years from now when she rereads them...but I'm thinking it's one of those "you just had to be there" incidents :-) )

Keep in mind that the Weidmanns are just the best. He's the GML I never got to have (Another thing that made coming here a little hard. What I heard from missionaries about Solothurn is how epic the GML was. Turns out he was released the Sunday before I got here.) He is a former bishop, stake president, and area 70. He was released as GML because he and his wife are going to be mission presidents this summer. We're really grateful for him for filling in some of the gaps our current GML has left. Yesterday Bruder Weidmann taught the investigator class and it was great. There were so many people there. It was translated into Russian, French, English, and Italian. And it was originally in German. One of the Weidmann's daughters was translating into Russian and another into Italian (they served missions in these countries). 

Yeah it's really just funny. Sister Jäger (the bishop's wife) caught on and said, "We have such good missionaries for them to be arguing about this!" 

It was so funny to see Sister Blohm skyping her family in Danish for a second. I loved listening to her talk!!!

Well family I'll see you soon! Love you!

Mother's Day Phone Call - May 12, 2014

FYI - Missionaries call home two times a year . . . on Christmas and on Mother's Day.  Sister Kate couldn't call

on Sunday, which was Mother's Day, but called on Monday, May 12, instead.  It was, of  course, great

to talk with her and particularly wonderful to SEE HER!  Love Skype.  Mission presidents typically

suggest the "appropriate" length for the call.  For Katie it was 40 minutes, which goes by quickly.  It' was so 

good to hear her voice, see her smile and know that she is happy, working hard, and loving her missionary life.

"I'm not going to suffer just so I can be high" - May 5, 2014- From Solothurn

Hi Family!  Mom, thanks for your good thoughts about less active members! So just to explain it a little more. Yes there are some members who are less actives who we visit and typically we don't don't even feel the need to invite to church or worry about whether they are at church at this point. Our goal is to bring them closer to Christ. We will start wherever they are. With one last active a while ago, for example,  we shared a spiritual thought about making our prayers more meaningful. And as a commitment we asked her to think about what we had talked about and to try and make her prayers more meaningful. She said that she should probably start with just praying . . . so then her commitment was to start praying again. We'll see her again this week and see how she is feeling. There's just these two less actives who are really hard because they have been visited regularly by the missionaries for forever and they know they believe they ought come to church and they will bring it up themselves. One of them continues to have many questions about receiving answers to prayer and why she must suffer and we talk about it alot but God  really give us most answers through the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost can't really be with us unless continually seek to stay close to the spirit, are worthy of it and trying to keep the commandments. And she doesn't come to church, or read, or pray  or even keep other commandments but still expects answers. The truth is that communication with God does take a lot of effort on our part.

Quotes of the week:

Sister Blohm's conclusion about running:

"After all the pain and the hardness there was a moment where I was just high. But I'm not going to suffer just so I can be high."

"Oh Sister Lewis you could be a comedian!" I have no idea why she thinks I'm so funny. I would never make it as a comedian.

Elder Kelly: "Sister Blohm I heard you live in a mansion."

Sister Blohm: "Who said that?"

Elder Kelly: "I can't remember and even if I could I wouldn't tell you." (obviously he made up the whole thing)

Sister Blohm: " Well I don't live in a mansion but I have my own house. Well it's not MY house but . . ."

Elder Kelly: "I was going to say! If you had your own house I would marry you."

Sister Blohm: "You wouldn't dare!"

So I started talking to this young guy on the way to the temple. I have to explain his type. He was young, working on his master's degree, well-dressed and clearly very-confident. He was even wearing those round Harry-Potter-type glasses which you can only wear if you are really confident in your sense of style. And I started a conversation with him before he had a chance to put on his enormous headphones. (That's the key. It's usually a bad idea to wait very long at all before you start talking to someone. They will start listening to their music or playing a game on their phone or reading the newspaper or anything else and you've lost them. And it's just way more natural to say hi to someone when one or both of you has just sat down than when you've already both been sitting their for five minutes.) He decided that I was interesting and forgot all about his music. We talked for quite a long stretch of train (we were on our way to the temple) and our conversation was interesting enough that the whole train car decided to listen. Apparently two young people having an animated discussion about morality and life after death was entertaining enough to put a stop to all other conversations. I would see people smiling or hear them laugh about things we said but no one said anything. Among the funny things he asked me (but he said it in German): "Do you really live like a Christian?" Me: "Yes but what do you mean by that?" Him: "Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Me: "Yes but no I've never had a sexual relationship." He was astounded and lots more questions came after that. "But you must know that some people are better at sex than others. And how will you know if you're marrying someone who is good at it?" And so forth. He did like my answer that I am happy I will never know the difference because he realizes that at this point he just compares women too much. And he asked me how it's going to work in the spirit world that people who have had such different experiences on earth will all live together. Will he have to explain to the grandmas how an iPhone works? Yeah I don't know if that's blog appropriate but it leads to another quote of the week: (from Sister Boelm) "Do you know you just contacted about 10 people at once?" Seriously the whole train car listened the whole time as I explained our standards and what we believe about life after death in some detail because he had such specific questions.

I forgot to say that I went on austausch to Zollikofen last week! That was cool.

We had two lessons this week with two different devout Muslim individuals. One of them was last night. In their home there is Arabic writing everywhere and even a picture of the Kaaba. But this couple has agreed to read in the Book of Mormon in Arabic together every day. So we'll see how that goes. Obviously their main question is, "Is Jesus Christ really the Son of God?" So we talked about the importance of reading the scriptures, praying, and coming to church in order to receive a true answer. And they asked if they can receive their answer by reading in the Koran, going to the Mosque, and praying the way they normally pray. And then we had to explain, "Well, not if you want to find out if Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You won't find that out reading in the Koran or going to the Mosque or praying the way you normally do. You have to say personal prayers, read in the Book of Mormon, and seek to learn more about him through attending church." They're not ready for church yet but we'll see how it goes.

We had two great lesson with our new investigator and her two daughters (the first one was the FHE lesson I already told you about.) But we had another lesson with the three of them, plus a bunch of their friends who were there! Plus we had an awesome joint teach there. Plus the oldest daughter is going to young womens on Tuesday. Cool, right?

Mission tour was good! It's always good to have some more direction and motivation. Elder Dykes gave us some good advice.

Love you Family! Keep being the best.

The experience below was sent to the Alpine Missionaries by President Miles - 

A few weeks ago the Elders in Biel, Elder Müller and McColgan spoke with a lady on the street who had some interest in their message, they traded numbers and arranged for a follow up appointment. The following is a quote out of their letter to me:

“When we arrived at the appointment (with a little trouble finding the apartment), we continued our discussion a little more. We showed a quick film about Jesus Christ, and at the end of the film, it shares a scripture about coming unto Christ. We intended to read the scripture together out of the Book of Mormon, as a way of introduction for the Book, and as Elder Müller was about to read it, she interrupted us. She exclaimed "This is the book from my dream!" A little shocked, Elder Müller and I allowed her to continue to explain her dream, which she had the night after meeting us. The dream went as follows.

She came into her room, and saw 2 books on the windowsill. They were 2 Bibles, one black and one blue. The black one had written on the front cover that is was a Bible, and the blue book has some text that she didn't really understand at the time. All of you, who are familiar with the Book of Mormons that we give out, will know they are always in plain blue. She then went to her window, to see where the books came from, and as she approached the window, she saw an Angel standing outside. She then repeated that the Book of Mormon, the book she was holding in her hand, was the book from her dream.”