"Ja hab ich doch gesagt" - February 17, 2014 - From Schaffhausen

Hey Family! Well I'm not transferred so you can send me all your letters now!  Happy Olympics! I have to say this is probably the most homesick I have been. Ha ha. I want to watch the olympics with you. But I'm not actually homesick now or ever. Just enjoy them for me. I realized I was in Switzerland during the last Olympic games too but I didn't notice as much because people who schedule their trek for during the Olympics don't care about them so much and I was hiking in the middle of nowhere away from TV's and newspapers and a fancy new bus showing highlights and the schedule of what's playing that day on the screen at the front. (This was during the 2012 summer Olympics while she was working for Alpenwild accompanying groups on hiking treks in the Swiss Alps).

So I forgot to mention that Sister Siems is a Mission legend and she was asked to train after one transfer in the field . . . a.k.a. she wasn't done being trained herself. So she has already had a golden and now Sister McEwen and her golden are going to work together. So our former companions are going to work together.

Today is P-Day (obviously) and so since our member wanted us to come a little later for emails I dragged Sister Siems outside and we went to this cool park and jump roped and tried doing handstands and cartwheels (and I actually got her to run most of the way to the park!). Exercise at 6:30 in the morning when it is dark and you have just gotten out of bed just isn't as much fun. So today we had fun. Even Sister Siems. It made me so happy. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LIZZY!!

Oh I forgot to tell you that Sister Siems and I sang a cappella in church last Sunday with one of our members. He sang Tenor, I sang alto, Sister Siems sang soprano. Also Sister Siems and I were asked to perform a Musical number in Zone conference. So Sister Siems had to Play the piano and sing because I didn't want to sing by myself. But we sang one of my Favorite Songs of all time, "Oh come oh come Emmanuel."

Okayyy so this week. It really was one of the most spiritual weeks of my whole life. I'm not really sure exactly why. Actually I think it was because of some really good lessons we had. I just searched my mail for "Asefash" to see if I had ever mentioned her before and it doesn't look like it. Maybe I have but not by name. She is from Ethiopia and she actually is a preacher. Sister McEwen and I met her on the train once. But now she is reading the Book of Mormon in Amharic and asking the best questions. Her questions guided us through the first part of the first lesson automatically. And obviously she is already one of Jesus Christ's biggest fans and has such a testimony of so many things and anything we said that was new to her she wrote down so she could pray about it. And we didn't even ask her to. It was such a spiritual lesson and so different from other times we had seen her when she claimed she wanted to know more about what we believe but really she just wanted to talk about herself. It was just so good and felt so great.

Also we had a great and also not-so-great lesson with our friend Hannah. THANK GOODNESS we had Lea (a young member who is going on a Mission in May!) there as a joint teach. She saved the day because Hannah didn’t want to listen to anything I said, and especially not to anything Sister Siems said. But she would listen to Lea's sweet and pure testimony. In Schweizerdeutch! The lesson went back and forth from having a bit of a spirit of contention to having this full-blown spirit of testimony.  (She told us over and over that Amulek was telling outright lies in the Book of Mormon, even after we explained the context and how what Amulek said is EXACTLY what the Bible teaches. She always reads what we invite her to read but she just searches for any inconsistencies with the Bible. And there just really aren't any. And since the Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ….well, it  just teaches us MORE! .) MY testimony was strengthened. Not just by Lea's testimony but by things that each of us said in that lesson that I know are true. At the end of the lesson we said a kneeling prayer and each of us prayed. Hannah prayed that she would have the Spirit of discernment and know if we were teaching her false doctrine. Whoa. She could see that we were all very überzeugt (convinced) of the truth of the Book of Mormon, so now she just needs to find out for herself. Then we had another lesson with her later in the week with Brother Flammia. We talked about prophets. She agreed that it made sense for us to have a Prophet on the earth today, but said she knew personally of no living Prophet. Sooooo we talked about President Monson (Thomas S. Monson is currently the prophet). Also now she is reading 3 Nephi 11-26 because if you're trying to find fault in the Book of Mormon, it certainly is harder to do when Jesus Christ Himself is speaking.

.

Okay Explanation. There is Tatiana. She is a member and our branch received her member record so President Weibel asked us to try and get ahold of her using the Information that we had. (As I've explained before, in our church you don't "pick" your congregation, you attend according to where you live.  So your church records follow you around to a new congregation depending on where you live.  This is actually such a huge blessing in our church, because we feel accountable for everyone in our congregation. Whether they come to church or not we know they need our love and support and sometimes our help so Home Teachers (pairs of adult men) and Visiting Teachers (pairs of adult women) are assigned to everyone and it is their responsibility to try and visit monthly and be aware of needs and communicate them to the leadership of the congregation).Turns out she lives at a different address than the one we had, but she did give us her real address when we talked to her on the phone. And guess what, she lives so close we walk to her house. Tatiana lives with her husband (non-member), her mother (member), her Cousin (non-member) and her two adorable Kids who are 2 and 4. Only Tatiana speaks English. The rest speak only Spanish. They are from Spain. And the best thing happened. We finally, after fall-out appointments and unanswered phone calls and voice messages and notes and forbeis (I don't even know what that's called in English. Uh, stopping by at her house), had a real lesson with Tatiana. Then we had a lesson a few days later with the whole Family reading in the BOM in Spanish and singing "Families Can be Together Forever" in Spanish. And Tatiana did some translating. I tried so say whatever Spanish I could get to come out of my mouth (which isn't a whole lot). Then the entire family came to church on Sunday. Oh and did I mention that they fed us fajitas? Do you know how happy I was? Do you know how long it has been since I had Mexican Food, particularly  guacamole? Yeah they're from Spain but they made Mexican Food for us. And it was delicious. And Sister Siems and I are in love with this Family. If you couldn't already tell.

Sister Judd goes home this week!  (Sister Judd was Kate's first companion, her trainer, and Sister Judd's 18 months of service have come to an end.) So weird. I will miss having her in the Mission but I'm excited for her to see her Family.

Quote of the week:

This is on a busy street at night while Sister Siems and I were waiting for the bus and dancing and bouncing up and down to keep warm.

Me: We look like idiots.

Sister Siems: We ARE idiots.

Ha ha ha. Then Sister Siems wedges herself between the sign that posts the bus times and a fence so that you can only see her feet, and continues jumping/dancing.

Me: What are you doing?!

Sister Siems: You said we look like idiots so I'm hiding.

I'm sure these are never as funny when you read them but I promise it was funny.

Sister Siems thought my prayer this morning was so funny that she made a Quote of the week herself:

lieber vater im himmel............ (Dear Father in Heaven....)

wir sind dankbar für unserennn.. (We are grateful for our .....)

fussuken korpun.

sister siems, wie sagt man physical body?  (how do you say physical body? FYI - we believe that our bodies are a gift from God.  We existed as spirits before we were born on earth and this is our time to learn the lessons and progress in ways that we only can because we  have physical bodies).

(Sister Siems says  "physischer körper")  (
sister lewis: ja hab ich doch gesagt  (yeah, that's what I just said....but with that American twist of sarcasm) 

Oh and Elder Lossau is leaving. He's really sad. I do not look forward to the day when I have to leave Schaffhausen. And Elder Bergström is getting a golden!

Momma, where are you at in the BOM? I encourage everyone to read the talk "Keystone of our Religion" from Ezra Taft Benson. We also talked a lot about the BOM at Zone conference, which was so good. We did this role play with all of us and President Miles teaching someone together. It was so fun.

Also we had another finding day in Zurich. I sometimes forget that there really aren't any CITIES in my area. It was so weird because I was really working in a CITY all day. But finding days are good for district unity and for learning from other missionaries. Right now the two other sisters in our district are both from Holland.

Also there is a picture of me and a GERMAN (her companion) supporting Kate Hansen (Katie's friend who competed in the Olympics in LUGE. Her friends sold t-shirts to support her in Sochi and I sent a couple to Katie) . She should be happy to know she had a German cheering for her.

Well I loooove you! Sister Lewis is happy. Hope you are too.

PS  I forgot to tell you about Valentine's Day! We had it with Sandra. We went and made lasagna with her and we took the heart decoration you sent me. The Picture is of it hanging up at Sandra's. She loved it and she was excited to keep it.  (I had to laugh reading Sister Siem’s letter home to her family.  She said how since Sister Lewis is from USA, she just has to celebrate EVERY holiday . . . implying that we are a bit over the top!)