"I am sooooooo nervous" - April 1, 2014 - Last letter from Schaffhausen

Family!! Okay so I am being transferred to Solothurn which is in Switzerland between Berne and Biel.  I can't even spell it or say it. I'm going to be working with Sister Blohm from Denmark. I went on austausch with Sister Blohm in St. Gallen. She has only been in Solothurn for one transfer. I am soooooooooo nervous.

Actually it's weird because I just try not to think about it. I'm in denial. But sooner or later I have to start packing. I really don't know how much information you're going to get today because we don't have much time to email. I have to go to a district p-day today in Zurich which isn’t my first choice. I rather hang out in my area and have a goodbye day and go to Stein am Rhein but also there are other things I really should be doing like cleaning and packing.

Sister Siems and I have been upgraded in our compliments to the most unified companionship in the mission. It will be so hard to leave for lots of reasons.

My birthday was the best and Schaffhausen has been so good to me and the musical fireside went well. I felt a little bit too much like the star of the show because I was onstage so much. I had to go to the bathroom the whole time and never could because I was worried I would miss a cue. People REALLY LOVED it. (Kate's on the far right with her hands in the air.  What's that about?)

So this week. First,my birthday. Everyone was so great. Alba and Katia surprised me that night when we went to visit Alba for a normal lesson and Katia was there to surprise me and we ate cake again and we were able to share the spiritual thought we had planned. Alba  asked so many gospel questions and we had such a good talk.

I just want to thank everyone for being so good to me. I got  more birthday mail!

Johnson Family

Crawfords

David and Matthias Hulme

Seth

Barton Family

Hermana Ashley Bunker!! 

Also we went to the temple.

Also we had transfer calls.

Also we had an awesome fireside.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!! Getting older is weird, right?

 I'm sorry this is all I can writet today! Gotta go!  Love you all.

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!

"Es geht um Leben und Todd." - March 4, 2014 - From Schaffhausen

So yesterday was an interesting day because we basically cancelled P-day in favor of meeting with a Jehovah's Witness. I have actually run into this particular Jehovah's Witness before when she was going dooring in a neighborhood where we were visiting someone. But I secretly really wanted to teach a Jehovah's Witness. She called us because we had contacted one of her friends when we were going through some potentials or something. But it was good! I heard somewhere that whoever is asking questions is the one in control, and I asked her a lot of questions. But yeah we probably won't meet anymore.

But also yesterday we visited a friend I made on the bus last week. And she was so cute because she said there is no way that our meeting on the bus for five minutes was chance and was just so hospitable to us. We'll see where it goes but she is just oldish and adorable and so nice.

Right now we have the privilege of teaching an investigator (Asefash) who read all of 1 and 2 Nephi in one night this week! We were so surprised. She is so open but at the same time so hard to reach. She has a hard time understanding priesthood authority while she herself has cast out devils and believes that anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ should be able to baptize. She prayed that Sister Siems and I would learn to recognize our own authority. So that is a little tricky. I have seen that when people really fail to understand priesthood authority, than their progression in the gospel is seriously hindered. And it's a hard roadblock for me to help them overcome. Any advice? 

We did a service project for another investigator who has this garden plot where all this trash had been deposited so we got to pick up trash for a service project. As you all know, I always feel like I'm making the world a better place when I pick up trash so I was happy. And our investigator was very happy. And she finally remembers my name so the service project was well worth it (this is the wife of the man who played our Swiss song on the guitar).

No pictures this week, but Sister Siems and I did record our song for our lovely Sister Järmann. Sister Siems wrote it with a little help from me and that we sang to her on her birthday with the guitar.

Also maybe it's a good thing I didn't email Monday morning or I might have sounded depressed. Sunday was just not our day. One of the highlights was my zone leader practically yelling at me on the phone and basically inferring that I have no idea how to plan an event and that the musical fireside will be a disaster. But I found out later that what really happened is he was asked to stand up in the priesthood meeting to introduce himself (it was his first Sunday in his new ward as he was just transferred and last week was stake conference) and they asked if while he was up could he tell everyone a little about the musical fireside coming up.  And he knew nothing and obviously that's embarrassing. But it's also not my fault if he didn't listen in district meeting and doesn't communicate with his companion, who knew all about it. Another highlight was another fall out appointment with our favorite Spanish family. And we had two other members who were going to come. But life really is good. Don't worry, my zone leader called me again later and he actually really is nice. Just, you know, French (oh my, did I really say that?).

Quote of the week comes from Sister Siems on Sunday night as we are laying in our beds about to go to sleep: "I'm mad at everyone. Except for Sister Lewis, and Bruder DeMarzi (our GML). And maybe Sister Peacock (a sister in Winterthur who is doing so much to help plan this musical fireside and whom we had been on and off the phone with all day)." Ha ha yeah that was Sunday.

Also I guess I was only the only American in Switzerland for only one transfer. Too bad. I felt so special. Hah! But apparently there are two American goldens here or something? But I can tell you about my district. We have an elder from Finland, an elder from France, an elder from England, an elder from Romania, our elders from Sweden and Belgium, and two sisters from Holland. So I guess our district meetings should be in Dutch? No, but they're in English/German. A little more English than before now that Elder Lossau is gone.

Also you should see Sister Siems catching trains and buses. It's incredible. The same girl who hates to run with me for morning sport or any other time is all of the sudden Usain Bolt. When I asked her about this, and she said the difference is "es geht um Leben und Todd." (It's about life and death). She's so funny. I'm just always trying to be fast enough to be right behind her so I can board the bus or train right after her after she presses the button for us. And then after we make the train or the bus we do a little we made the train/bus dance.

Also Bruder DeMarzi had a birthday earlier this week, so we left a voice message for him singing happy birthday in Italian. But it was mostly Sister Lewis singing happy birthday in Italian, because I had just briefly tried to teach Sister Siems. Also, it was Sister Lewis trying to sound a little like one of the opera singers at the Macaroni Grill (And yes, that is how I know how to sing happy birthday in Italian. Go to the Macaroni Grill enough and you'll know too.). And he told me on the phone at some point in the week that he had set this voice message as his ringtone. He is quite the jokester, so I wasn't falling for that, and I told him so. I didn't know how someone could do that anyway. Then at church on Sunday Bruder DeMarzi asks me to call him. He claimed he wanted to see if his phone was working or something. So I call him and what do I hear? Sister Lewis singing terribly, and singing terrible Italian. So, it's true. Also yesterday we had a fancy lunch with our GML and our relief society president. Our GML took us to lunch for his birthday (I know that doesn't really make any sense but he did because he's the best). So that was the fanciest restaurant I have been to in a long time. We ate Italian food for the Italian.

Also I think I forgot to thank Sister Barton for writing me a letter! She might recommend to her son that he do the same . . .

Well I love you fam! Thanks for the letters and love and prayers and just for everything.