"I still hate lost letters" - November 25, 2014 - From Luzern

November 24, 2014 

Hiiiii. I hope I can write a good email this week for a change. I think how tired I am is really showing through in my letters. It wasn't until last week that I started actually feeling excited thinking about how many days it would be until I left to come back home. But now I think I am getting a little smarter and I am getting sad. A week and a half isn't very long. And I know that real life will be hard too. Harder than I can imagine. And there are so many things I will really, really miss. Of course I will miss Switzerland. I'm actually worried about how much I will miss it. But there so many people I will truly miss, so many people I already truly miss, and so many things about just being a missionary. About this sacred calling. Oh now I'm sounding all missionaryish. Well guess what, I am one. I have been one for almost 18 months now and I am going to miss being one.

Well enough of that. Guess what yesterday was the musical fireside. Do you know what that means? That means it's OVER. And that is soooo awesome because it was not only a lot of work but stressful with all the uncertainty and my own fears about singing "When you Believe" since I'm really not Mariah Carey!  And guess what?  It went really well!!! The district number was a complete flop, but nothing else was, and Sister Oswald and I already knew that it would be and were against it the whole time so unfortunately it was an I-told-you-so moment. Except of course we didn't say that. And my song with Tabby went so well! Everyone has been on Tabby's case this whole time but it was so good. Apparently everyone was sooo worried. And they were worried after hearing our first run through on Sunday. But we didn't really care about impressing them we were just kind of messing around and trying not to wear out our voices because we were both on the verge of sore throats. The second run through we put a little more of our voices into it. But then for the real thing obviously we gave it all and everyone was really impressed. Some people had been so difficult about Tabby participating, which, of course, was so annoying to me because they should have been totally behind her wanting to be involved!  Ah, sometimes people just don't get it!  So we were really hoping that she would just show them and she did. We were pleased with it. It was a success. Several non-members were in attendance! Ingrid couldn't come because Chris was sick. But René (the hiking guide) was kind enough to come! Along with friends of members and less actives and our new friend, whose name I don't even really know for sure. It sounded like Kurdi. But she is a miracle. She was referred to us from missionaries in Kosovo but she was just visiting. She lives in Luzern! But we haven't gotten to meet with her yet. We were given her number by the bishop, who got it from the mission president in Albania/Kosovo, who he knows personally, and who Sister Oswald and I also know! But this phone number we had been given was not working. We called and called. We were sad. She sounded so awesome. But then one day Sister Oswald called and the call went through! And then she called us back. She came to the musical fireside and loved it and met a few members and we have our first meeting with her tomorrow. Cool, huh?! That lady that I told you about who we met on a Monday morning who has never even been to church in Luzern and has been innactive for such a long time came with her partner! Way cool. And the spirit was there and things really did go really well.

Check out my cool pics. I made my own Swiss Army Knife at the Victorinox factory. Rad, huh? And it has "Kate's Knife" engraved on it so that everyone will know that's it's mine and that I made it. And on the knife blade it says it was self-made in Brunnen.

Today we were in Zurich with a member (Kimberly. You know who she is? and we went to the Grossmünster and we took the stairs to the top and we visited the Fraumünster and we wandered through the old city (Altstadt). Writing about wandering through the old city makes me think of Jerusalem. Altstadt is more accurate. Then we went on a boatride on the Zürichsee with other missionaries who are going home while Kimberly ate and shopped.

Guess what a missionary who is in Schaffhausen now said I had still gotten some letters (and she said like 5!) and she gave them to her zone leader to give to me. I have never ever seen them. They are lost forever. Way sad. I still hate lost letters. So if you have any letters you want to send, send them within the next day. There's not much more time and I don't want any lost letters. This weekend was really crazy. I found letters in the mailbox from James and Mom on Saturday night and I didn't even have the chance to read them until this morning on the bus!

Well life is good. The church is true. I'm tired. What else is new? Also we continue to be able to teach Gabriela which is great. Also I randomly ran into Phil Mast today in Zurich! Huge tender mercy. Well, I love you all. Thanks for being the best.

Missionaries in the Zurich Zone at zone conference