Family!!! Well let me just start by singing Sister Siems' praises. We work together really well. We keep getting complimented on how united we are and how well we work together. These compliments come from members, other missionaries . . . It's just been going really great. I really love working with her. Sister Siem is from a baby village near Elmshorn, Germany.
Oh guess what? The other week I had Fondue for the first time on my mission. I love it. I think it was my first time having Fondue ever outside of a restaurant. It was with our branch president and his wife. But I learned this little saying. It's FIGUGEGL. And you can try and pronounce all that.
And this is what it means in Swiss German: Fondue isch guet und git e gueti Luue.
And in High German: Fondue ist gut und gibt eine gute Lauue.
Cool right?
Also I guess the other quote of the week can be Sister Siems looking at my attempt to write an email in German and saying, "Oh it's so cute!" Cute is not what I was going for! My mistakes are not cute! But she thinks they are and I guess that's better than her thinking I'm a complete idiot.
We visit this lady who lives in an Altesheim (home for the elderly) and she can't come to church anymore. But I love the town where she lives and also the Altesheim (she has all of her own paintings and her piano and stuff in her room there!) so if I ever need to go to an Altesheim you can send me to the Altesheim Rosengarten in Kleinandelfingen. And if I never get good at German before then, at least I will when I'm 90. So anyway, I saw the name of the man who lives across from her in the Altesheim and do you know what his name is? HEINRICH GROB. Doesn't it sound like I should be related to him somehow? (This is the name of my Mom's father....Katie's great grandfather who is from a town 20 miles from this Altersheim.)
Also, guess who set a baptimsal date? Max. And I'm so happy about it but he feels like he needs to receive a few more answers that he can recognize before he can be baptized. So this week we will be busting through some of the commandments. It should go well because Sister Siems and I fasted for two real meals that Max would get his answer and accept all of the commandments. Tithing is tonight and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. (FYI - By this she means that they were going to teach the "law of tithing". As talked about in the Bible, faithful LDS church members tithe....they donate 10% of "their increase" to the church. Tithing funds are used to build temples and chapels, and provide for the operational costs of chapels and church programs. Tithing funds go to church headquarters and are distributed from there. That is why even the very poorest areas of the church have a chapel to meet in and the materials they need to conduct church services.)
So sometimes people are publicly drunk. Even in Switzerland. It's a worldwide thing unfortunately. One time I went and sat on the bus and I wasn't sitting next to Sister Siems and this really drunk man comes up to me and the first thing he says is, "You believe in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." Maybe this was also because he was drunk but he always said the last part of his sentence twice. He want on to tell me that Jesus Christ lives in (insert name of random town here) and that he needs a girlfriend and that I could be his girlfriend and would I buy him a beer? And then I asked him why he drank and he said it was because he was an alcoholic and it just made me so sad. And he also told me that his mom is one years old at which point the lady on the other side of the bus couldn't keep from laughing. One experience I don't normally have at BYU. (FYI - Members of the LDS church live what we know as the "word of wisdom" , a health code which includes abstaining from alcohol. So at BYU -Brigham Young University where Katie attends - there is no drinking of alcohol among the students and therefore she hasn't been around a lot of drunk people! I do not see alcohol per se as evil, but because it is such a destructive force in the lives of so many, we are serving one another by all living the word of wisdom.)
Our investigator wanted to meet us at this random city on the way from Schaffhausen to Stein am Rhein (Stein am Rhein is my favorite town and that's where she lives) so we got off there because it's close to where she had to be and it turns out there's a beautiful chloster there and that's what those pictures are of. It's in St. Katherinental. I have been fortunate enough to have seen several beautiful churches and this one was right up there. And did you see the video of someone singing our bedtime Swiss song? I still don't understand any of the words. But that's actually the husband of the investigator who took us to the Chloster. They're really great.
I'm seeing Tante Vreni and Ruedi and family tomorrow! (That's my aunt and cousins in the nearby town of Winterthur!)
I need you to go into my Facebook and add Eivonny Grimske, okay? Danke. Did Sister Gardedieu email you?
Everything seems to be sorted (oh my goodness I sound so Scottish Sis. McEwen says that) with our bus driver "friend" . A letter to his boss from one of our members did the trick. He was already on warning for being mean to someone else so he's on the edge of getting fired and he's two years away from Pension. So I don't think he'll be giving us anymore trouble. (Katie told us of the incident at Christmas....a bus driver who had threatened them and got the police involved...it's a bus they HAD to take and he is the only driver on that route so it is good that this is worked out).
Also the little snowman in the Picture is my smoker that a member gave me for Christmas. Have you ever seen those? I love it. We're actually not allowed candles in our mission anymore (probably because Sister McEwen is in our mission) but we figured this wasn't a candle. (very funny...remember the stories of Sister McEwen repeatedly starting fires in their apartment?)
 |
| Scenes from our apartment |
We also went to Sister Järmann's choir concert in a beautiful church in the adorable Alt Stadt in Stein am Rhein.
Well family, I love you. I'm happy being a Missionary. Thanks for your Support sorry I'm not doing so good on letters. Love you love you love you!
Who else but Sister Missionaries would take pictures of each other posing as flowers in the field?
The sign says "Flowers, cut for yourself". I love those places. Won't it be beautiful in the
summer?
Pictures from the ward New Year's Eve party. You can tell Katie's
a good sport! She has a gift for getting along with people of all ages.
Saying goodbye to Sister McEwen.
No comments:
Post a Comment