"It's called Psalms" - December 30, 2013 - From Schaffhausen

FAMILY ! I gave my first talk as a missionary this Sunday!   I didn't quite make the 15 minutes because of course I spoke too fast! That just meant our branch president got to give a longer talk. But I thought my talk was good. I worked hard on it. I had to call one of our members and the elders sometimes for some translation help. And one time when I called a member and told her the sentence I had written in German she said something like, "I know what you want to say, but I'm pretty sure you just tore up the German language."  Ha ha ouch. (one thing I love about Katie is that she has no guile. I can just see that she would have no hesitancy contacting her ward friends for help.) 

Sister Kate at her desk...studying, writing. 

Other quotes of the week . . . Well in the last two days Sister McEwen may or may not have gotten Brown shoe polish all over our floor and dyed parts of it red and burned a hole through her desk. Yeah. I know. But this is what Sister McEwen said: " We could just add loads of shoe polish and have a red floor. I'm just saying . . . ." Ha ha.  Also, I have added a few pics to dropbox. Including a video of the husband of one of our investigators singing our favorite Swiss song (you'll see that he specifically asks for it not to be shared). Also, I am sad to say that I still understand basically none of the words except for bells. That is Swiss German, not normal German.

Another Quote from Sister McEwen (I've been failing at quotes of the week so I'm trying to catch up) during companionship study:

"Let me just turn to Palms really fast . . ."

me: "It's calls Psalms."

"I've always called it Palms. I'm not changing now."

(I have to admit I'm a bit anxious for "transfers" this week.  They suspect that it's time for Sis. McEwen to be transferred to another area since she has served in Schaffhausen for the entire first 6 months of her mission. These companions work hard, but it's always been obvious that they can laugh with and at each other with no offense taken! A new companion is always a big adjustment ... teaching together by the spirit while living together 24/7 is no easy task and takes communication, commitment and blessings from our Heavenly Father! 

I set up an appointment with Ruedi and his family but I'd like to see everyone in Winterthur that day. Maybe you could talk to Ruedi and be like, "I heard you talked to Katie" and then he'll have some idea who I am and what the heck I'm doing in Switzerland when I show up at his house. And maybe he could invite some other family members to that dinner . . . What about Kathi? Should I call her? We have Meetings in Zurich all the time and president said I could go see her. (These are my family members who live in Winterthur.  Ruedi and Kathi are both my first cousins.  I'm not sure why she thinks they don't know what she is doing there, they do.)

Something else you can do Mommy (and whoever else), start reading Our Heritage! I'm taking Jesus the Christ pretty slow, just trying to finish it by the end of my Mission, so I've started Our Heritage too. I'm already in chapter 5. Mommy I want you to read it too! What do you think?

THANK YOU FOR MY LETTERS! I have gotten lots and I'm really grateful. Just remember what Scrooge said about keeping Christmas in your heart all year Long . . . don't wait for Christmas to write your missionaries!

I've gotten letters from . . .

Regan

Randal and Janie

Orullians

Jim and Amy

James

Grandma and Grandpa

Daddy

Sue Sherwin

a package from Kate and Paula (was there supposed to be a letter in there too?)

Liddy

Oh and guess who I got a Christmas Card from?  The First Presidency. (FYI - The First Presidency consists of the Prophet and his two counselors.  We believe the Lord once again guides his children through a prophet.  For people unfamiliar with the LDS Church, it's important to know that for the most part the Prophet guides the Church by reinforcing basic Christian principles. Most importantly, we consider the prophet to be a special witness of Jesus Christ. Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet and his counselors are Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf  (who is German, born in 1940, raised in East Germany and fled with his family to West Germany in 1950).  Yeah, Me. That was cool and nice of them to send it to the missionaries but I wish they had one specifically for the missionaries.

I actually mentioned the gingerbread house in my talk during Sacrament Meetings (hey, it was about righteous traditions) and I said I had pictures. 

(This requires several FYIs -

What is Sacrament Meeting?

Sacrament Meeting is the name of our main worship service.  We take the bread and water, the Sacrament, weekly and this is the most important part of the service. Taking the sacrament renews our baptismal covenants of REMEMBERING our Savior and trying to be like him.  It's like having the blessing of baptism every week!

      
What are baptismal covenants?

When we are baptized,  we covenant with the Lord to:

             1. Come into the fold of God and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ 

             2. Be called His son or daughter

             3. Bear one another's burdens that they may be light, mourn with those that mourn and comfort

                 those in the need of comfort

             4. Stand as a witness of God at all times and in all places

             5. Serve God and keep his commandments

      When we keep our baptismal covenants, the Lord promises to: 

             1. Forgive our sins

             2. Give us the companionship of His spirit, the Holy Ghost 

             3. Redeem us in the eternities

Why is Sister Kate talking in Sacrament Meeting?

The LDS Church is a lay ministry.  We have no paid ministry.  Every congregation is watched over by a "Bishopric"  I described this a bit in the     post.   Because of this, there is no minister who gives a sermon.  Instead, members of the congregation speak every week. Hymns are sung, prayers are said, the Sacrament is taken, and typically 3 talks are given in the 70 minute service. One is usually a youth speaker.  Topics are often assigned and focus on the teachings of the Gospel. 

So after Sacrament Meeting I showed people pictures and gave them away and had people coming up to me asking for them. So I gave them all away. They made lots of jokes about it like how maybe we need to extend a little out the one side so that our church looks more like the gingerbread house and that my parents should come pick me up and bring the gingerbread house with them so that Schaffhausen can have it (no don't pick me up. let's just come back here together . . . but not wait too long). And they just love it. They sent their most heartfelt compliments. And I've been told by about 4 different members to give their regards to my family so . . . regards from Schaffhausen!

(FYI - This is the Gingerbread house we made this year "resembling" the LDS Chapel in Schaffhausen.)

I loved Skyping.  I thought it was really nice that we prayed together and Mom you said such a good prayer.

We had in no way a white Christmas. But I found out that it's actually the fault of some other missionaries in our district. At least, when it doesn't snow on Sundays it is. They have an investigator who can only come to church when it doesn't snow. He works clearing snow, so if it snows he has to work. But this investigator is the husband of a less active member and since it hasn't been snowing he has been coming to church with his whole family. That’s so great.

On Christmas Eve Katie and Sister McEwen went with their member friend to church services

at a church of another denomination.  I believe this tree was from inside the church, complete

with the traditional lighted candles that were always a part of my Christmas growing up.

Sister Lewis & McEwen with the daughters of the ward family that they spent much of

Christmas Day with.  The older daughter is in college and the younger still home.  They

were so kind to host our missionaries and let them Skype from their computer! 

Transfer calls are on Friday. Obviously I'll let you know what happened next week.

We're having a ward Party on new year's at a member's house so we'll be there and get a ride home from an active member and her inactive husband (which is great because he actually wants nothing to do with missionaries and now he's stuck in the car with us for a little while so we will have to become friends).

M. came to church yesterday! I think it must have been kind of unusual for him (the sunday School lesson was on Zion . . . did you have that one?). But we just hope he makes it a priority to get work off and keeps coming to church.

Sometimes less actives that we go find live in the prettiest areas! Our area is very big and some of the exploring that we get to do is going to find less actives.

Love you family!!! Thanks for everything!

FRÖHLICHE WEIHNACTEN FROM  SISTER KATE!

It was WONDERFUL to talk with Sis Kate on Christmas.  I loved being able to SKYPE!  Our picture wasn't particularly clear but it was great to see her cheerful, happy, smiling face! There was no denying that she is happy in the work and is her joyful self!  It was great to "meet" the family where she was a guest for Christmas and also chat with her companion, Sister McEwen.  

We talked about lots of things but it was interesting to hear her talk about a couple things that she hadn't written much about.  For example, the challenge of being surrounded by "Schweizerdeutsch"!  I knew this would be an additional challenge serving in Switzerland, because even though she continues to improve daily in her German, the Swiss dialect of Schweizedeutsch is so very different and unique so you really can't even eavesdrop on conversations!  When she initiates a conversation, she is fully aware that they have to switch from their daily language of conversation to the "High German" that they typically only use in reading and writing.  If she gets to stay in Switzerland for the remaining year of her mission, I'm hopeful she'll pick up some Schweizerdeutsch as well! 

She also told us about some of the challenges of doing missionary work during the evening hours because there is a cultural norm of not calling by phone after 8 pm or knocking on a door after dark. So they save dinner until after 8 so they can use the hours they do have most productively. 

I also wasn't aware of how large their district was and the amount of time and effort required to get around to the smaller villages.  There was also a convoluted story about some legal trouble with a bus driver, a camera, an atty, letter to SLC etc.  But it's a bus they HAVE to take to get to a certain investigator in a small village and he is the ONLY bus driver!  During the holiday...the 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st and 1st they are also able to stay out as late as they need to since President Miles did not want them on public transportation late at night and also did not want them inconveniencing members by having to take them home in the midst of festivities, since their homes can be quite some distance from the Sister's apartment. 

All in all, it was a 45 minutes that went by very quickly but joyfully. She told us the Joseph Smith story in German (we wanted to hear her speak German) and that what she loves most about being a missionary is sharing something of such eternal significance that means so much to her in her life with others.  She knows she is doing something that matters and makes her Father in Heaven happy.  She is happy and working diligently to spread the gospel.  We sure love that girl! 

"Life is exciting" - December 16,2013 - Shaffhausen, Switzerland

FAMILY !  Okay so this week! It was Christmasy! Life is exciting. Want to  know how Sister McEwen and I used our treat money? Well she got her nails done and I put it towards my much-needed haircut. It was much appreciated. Danke!  

(We sent the Advent Calendar above that we had made for Sis. Kate....Frohliche Weihnachten & pictures of family and friends and a note from them on most days but we also tucked in a little money early in the month for her and her companion to do something fun together. Later in the month we tucked in some money to use to perform a service so we'll wait to hear what they did with that!)   

We had our Christmas conference! All of the missionaries in the Switzerland zones were there! And we also had a morning where it snowed and snowed here in Schaffhausen. It's mostly melted but it was pretty.

We had a BEAUTIFUL relief society dinner! It was so good to spend some time with the wonderful sisters in our branch. Hey did you know there's something smaller than a branch? Probably, but I didn't. It's called a group and Sister Kervinen (her beloved MTC companion from Finland)  is serving in one in Brook. Or however you spell that place in Italy. It was a really fancy dinner that the relief society presidency made and they insisted that the sisters come. Very sweet of them.

Joe, thanks for the info! I'm so stoked for Kate. So glad her hard work has paid off!! (This refers to her friend, Kate Hansen, who made the US Olympic Team in the LUGE!)

Also, GUESS WHO CAME TO CHURCH?! M! You probably don't remember who that is. But we met her the night we lost our area book for a time and she was so good to us and we helped her feel better that day. She told us when we met her that she really liked us but she has her church and isn't all that interested in ours. But we became friends and she said she wanted to see us again and we were also to let her know if we found our area book because she was to check a bus for us.

She goes to church every week at her church, but this week and next week her church didn't have a normal service since they had something in the afternoon where they feed poor people. And they just did it yesterday and they're doing it next Sunday too which means she might come to church next Sunday too! I just really love her. I don't know what it is. You can just feel her goodness. We had a great meeting and I understood more and was able to really concentrate because I was just thinking the whole time, "What would I think of this if I were M?" And I was trying to interpret a few things during the meeting. The stake president was there and he spoke and he shared what he called the "alternative Christmas story" a.k.a. what's going on in the Book of Mormon when Christ comes to the other side of the world. And she was interested in that and we told her where to read it in the BOM so hopefully she does! 

(FYI - Even though our church is really called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint, we are often known as "Mormons" because of the Book of Mormon.  Our church has a book of scripture which we believe to be the word of God (in addition to the New and Old Testaments). The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and is the record, written by prophets, of people who were warned by the Lord to leave Jerusalem shortly before the fall of the city to the Babylonians in 586 BC. These people traveled to the Americas and the BOM tells of them and their posterity.  It ends in 421 AD when the people are destroyed through war. The Book of Mormon includes the telling of the visit that the Savior made to the Book of Mormon people after he rose from the dead.  We believe that John 10:16 refers to these people.  "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:  them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."  We believe it contains precious truths that were lost from the Bible and thus teaching us the "fullness of the Gospel".) 

And this morning I read some in the BOM (Book of Mormon, a.k.a. Das Buch Mormon) about Samuel the Lamanite where he foretells of the coming of Christ. And in chapter 13 Samuel the Lamanite is preaching to the Nephites and then he leaves because the Nephites had not been giving his message the time of day because they just wanted to hear that what they were doing was fine and that everything was going to be great even though they were being super wicked. Then the Lord tells Samuel to return to the Nephites, so he goes back, but they won't even let him inside the city. But he was probably just thinking, "Well God told me to come back here so I have to deliver my message somehow." So what does he do? He climbs up on their city wall and preaches some more. He does what God told him. But God probably didn't give him all the details. He probably didn't say, "Go back, and when they don't let you in climb up on the city wall and declare the truth." Samuel figured that out. So that's like us. We have some direction from the Lord, but sometimes we have to figure out how we will go about obeying his commandments.

I love you family!

P.S. Sorry I never remember to thank anyone for writing. But Aunt Janie and Uncle Randal continue to be rockstars, James is the best, and Liddy and Daddy and Mommy. And Phil is so nice for emailing me. And Courtney. Thanks, I love letters!  

These pictures told me that sometimes they are outside of Schaffhausen in smaller villages and doing quite a bit of walking, which is great.  Katie send several pictures of the beautifully tilled soil. 

A little "secret santa" work  going on here... Leaving treats on people's doors.  Of course, 

in Switzerland Santa does not bring gifts on Christmas morning; it is the "Christkindli" 

who brings gifts on Christmas Eve. 

Us baking for Christmas! 

We baked in the church with the few young men and young women 

that we have and the young women's president. We even made Mailanderli! 

(FYI - Katie is familiar with Mailanderli because they are one of the many Swiss 

Christmas cookies that we have made with her Swiss grandpa, my dad)

Me and my adorable Sis. Jämann who is totally CK material. She is a convert and never got married and she has the sisters over for dinner every other week. She keeps very busy and she's an artist and Sister McEwen and I both adore her. She was at the church working on the garden when we took this picture.

(FYI - CK - Celestial Kingdom- deserves a bit of an explanation.  We believe that through the Atonement of

Jesus Christ all people will be resurrected.  After we are resurrected, we will stand before the

Lord to be judged according to our desires and actions.  In John 14:2 the Savior taught that

"in my Father's house are many mansions".  The Celestial Kingdom is the highest degree of glory. It is

NOT only for members of our church on earth. But instead of just black or white, heaven or hell, we believe that the three degrees of glory will all be vastly more incredible than our life here on earth, each with their own degree of Glory.  
Outer darkness (hell) is really for the worst of the worst.

Out and about in Schaffhausen.   

Our Happy Swiss Missionary

"I'm floating on a cloud of prayers" - December 9, 2013 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Hey My Family!

So this week I had an Austausch (FYI – switching companions and working for a day with that other missionary in their area.) I stayed in Schaffhausen and Sister McEwen went to Winterthur. It went well!

Here are some pics from that exchange when she served with Sister Miriam Lohman.

Afterwards Sister Lohmen sent this message to Sis Kate:

“Hallo meine Lieben, habt beide eine schöne Woche,

Wir sehen uns Freitag.. Sister Lewis, ich habe den Austausch mit dir sehr genossen!!! Du bist echt klasse..”  (Translated that means – “ Hello my friends. Have a wonderful week, We’ll see each other on Friday.  Sister Lewis, I really enjoyed the exchange.  You are really great.”

Hey Family, do you want to talk on Christmas? It will probably maybe be about 7 or 8 my time on Christmas day. If that works. (Answer = YES! Although at midnight our time I don’t think she’ll be chatting to the little ones!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY MY BEST-OF-SISTER!

We also had a Special finding day for some elders in our district where we went and sang Christmas Songs and handed out Book of Mormons wrapped like presents. There were missionaries and members there singing together. I talked to a man from Denmark for forever and I now have an open Invitation to visit him and his wife, and his friend that he was with, in Denmark. And the missionaries in Denmark have a killer referral coming their way.

I love you Family! Thanks for your Messages in my calendar. I love it.

(This week I got up at 3:15 am  to "chat" with Katie....which means emailing back and forth.   It's only the second time I've done this during her mission.  So the following are excerpts from a those conversations, and answers to some of my questions.) 

Do you ever go to Christmas Markets to find people to talk with? So we went to a couple minutes of a Christmas market the other day and I took some Pictures. Alt Stadt is the cutest. But a lot of the Christmas markets are on Sunday. I also saw a way cool one in the Train Station in Zurich.

Do you ever knock doors? 

We don't knock like they used to. We still knock sometimes but we don't plan to knock. Does that make sense? If you're in an area and your Train doesn't leave for 30 minutes and there's not so many people out then you might knock.

Are you staying warm enough? For now. I think I'll die in January. And I'm pretty sure I lost my gloves on the bus this morning. That would be my third pair that I've lost. I know, I'm terrible.

Did you do anything special on Thanksgiving? My Trainer who is still in the Wien Zone said that the whole Zone got together and had a Thanksgiving dinner that the Senior couple in Wien made. So that made me miss being around Americans! My cute companion gave me a Thanksgiving present but my Thanksgiving dinner was hot chocolate and mango (two of my favorite things so that wasn't so bad!). But yeah that's my story about Thanksgiving.

Do you ever get discouraged? So you asked about me getting discouraged. I get sad because people don't progress the way I want them to, but I have never gotten all that discouraged. You read last week about how Sister McEwen was feeling down. And while she was feeling that way and I was sitting on her bed with her she just started naming people that have let us down... people we had such high hopes for. But I know they all made progress and not everyone is ready to accept the Gospel right this minute. 

I should probably feel really discouraged right now actually, but I just don't really. I had this same feeling in the MTC. Sometimes I feel like I'm floating on a cloud of prayers. Things just never get that bad for me! And I really do feel like a lot of it is because of all of the faithful prayers that People say for me. 

I said something about wishing for different numbers in my email to President Miles (each missionary writes a weekly email to their Mission President), and he said this:

“Be patient, obedient and invite everyone. That is all the Lord expects from us. Our success is in the invitation, not the baptism. That success belongs to the Lord and the Holy Ghost.”  (I love this, because a mission really is about offering to others that which has so much value to us.  The Lord wants us to share our love for Him and his Word, but beyond that it is the Spirit that testifies of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Missionaries can invite the spirit, but they are not the ones who convert the individual....the spirit converts when an individual is willing and wanting to find out the truth for themselves.  

Before I got off, I asked if there was anything else she wanted me to tell me.  Just thanks for all the letters and Cards!

This is an excerpt from a note to a friend -  So now I'm here and my companion is a Scot who was actually in the MTC with me! This is our second Transfer together. She's hilarious. I'm one of two American missionaries in Switzerland and the other goes home after this Transfer (Actually there's a Senior couple who might be part-American too. Not really sure. At least I'm one of two Young American missionaries in die Schweiz.). In my Zone in Wien we had two People my first Transfer in our Zone who weren't American and one the next Transfer, so that's a huge difference between Switzerland and the rest of our mission. Switzerland was it's own Mission not so long ago, and it still kind of feels like it is sometimes. It's just impossible for American missionaries to be in Switzerland now.

The Work of Salvation is fabulous! I'm so happy to be a missionary. 

I love my Advent calendar! The whole thing was worth it because I got to read a really nice note from Liz yesterday that I don't think I ever would have otherwise gotten.

Okay so my email for this week was mostly my chatting with you. But check out these Mormon Messages!!

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-05-12-the-miracle-of-the-roof?category=welfare&cid=HPMO120213239#2011-05-12-the-miracle-of-the-roof?category=welfare&cid=HPMO120213239&_suid=1386444080289012325286235939314

There's one on Grapes and one on roofs. Also, watch the new Mormon Message about the Kids giving These gifts of themselves for Christmas. Give your own Special gift this Christmas!

Also, watch Elder Holland's Mormon Message about chastity called "Stay within the lines."

Also, Mormon Messages are just the best. Find your favorite and share it on your Facebook!

From Sis McEwen:

“This week has been super! I think I need to come up with a better word than amazing but words just cant describe how much this work really means to me. I have learned so much and well I love it.

This week I got a huge blessing in my path. We were heading home from contacting someone who wasn’t there and well we had nothing else planned so we were gonna go home and do language study, something that both of us need, but i remember looking over and these people were talking in English and I had this thought that I should talk to them but ignored it as they looked really busy. Five mins later I told my companion I think I need to talk to them and she said then do it, thinking she just might do it but nope. I finally did it and to my surprise they were going the same way and we end up talking for such a long time and then they invited us to go and get a drink and talk about our Religion. We end up speaking all night and he came to church (the wife is a late sleeper). Not only that he had a program that can help with one of our members …the Lord just blessed us so much. I remember walking home and thinking what if I hadn’t listened to the sprit? The night would have been totally different. We truly need to follow the sprit, then and only then can our father in heaven help us. I was so thankful for this blessing that was put in my path, we can do it we just have to look what is in front of us and grab it. People are everywhere . Listen to the Spirit that guides you. He knows your power.”