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Hiiiiiiiiiiiii Family!!! Guess what happened this week?
I don't feel like a "new" missionary anymore. Crazy, right? I know I'm almost half way through my mission! Maybe it's because we have a golden in Schaffhausen. He is from
Belgium. Also if there was an award for the "most unified
companionship in the zone" Sister Siems and I would get
it. Because one of our Zone leaders told me all about how it's so
obvious that we both have such strong testimonies and work so well
together . . . And he also told me that we have been and are the most
unified companionship in the Zone. Funny. Sister Siems and I basically just
joke about it and how incredibly unified we are. "I'm hungry." "Me
too." "Oh my goodness we are so unified." Except we
really are and we are so grateful for each other.
 |
| UNIFIED! |
Also we had a super great dinner appointment last
night with some members. The husband has had a longstanding drinking problem. But he's the greatest person and he's also French.
But he also always hugs me and he knows he's not supposed to hug a sister missionary. This week he even
admitted it while he hugged me at stake conference in front of all the
missionaries in our stake. He said, "I'm not allowed to do this but I just
love you." And I love him too. His drinking has caused a lot of stress in their marriage and they knew that since they want to stay together, they
needed to do something about it. So they are really working to strengthen themselves spiritually. They are reading together in the Book of
Mormon every day in French. Every morning for the last week they have done it.
They told us that yesterday and I almost cried I was so happy. He is getting
ready to enter a clinic to try and overcome alcoholism, but unfortunately he
has been in this clinic a few times before. But they read about how Nephi and his brothers had to try more than once
to get the plates from Laban, and they read 1 Nephi 3:7 and he shared that with
us as our spiritual thought and I just bore my testimony to him that as he does
everything he can to keep the commandments, God WILL help him. Just like it
says in 1 Nephi 3:7. I was just so happy to hear that.
Hey Mommy and Daddy. Can you tell
the missionaries in the stake that you want to be a joint teach
for them sometime? You can do it separately or whatever but that would be so
cool. I don't know maybe they have too many joint teaches.
So Sister Siems and I have this Fantasy that we need
e-bikes for our area. Obviously I know that it's a completely unreasonable
idea, but my idea is that then you could take them on the Train and then get
off and ride for forever more easily. But it has been our impractical fantasy
for a while now but then Sister Siems told a member about it and she told us
all the reasons why it wasn't a good idea. While still acknowledging that it
is, in theory, a good idea. And as my mommy already knows, if I already
know something is impractical but I like the idea anyway then the last thing I
want is to hear is all the reasons why it won't work. Oh well. (Anyone who knows Katie...this is so true. There's a reason why we call her "quixotic")
Also you should look up pictures of Stein am Rhein.
It's in my unbelievably beautiful area. Someone told me it's the best preserved
alt Stadt in all of Switzerland. I haven't explored
there much yet but we will have to go on a p-day. Today we went to the Rheinfall . . as you can see in the pictures.
Also Daddy I gained a new appreciation of you and
all of your meetings. An experience I had recently made me think of my Daddy and his millions of church meetings and church services
and how glad I am that he still decides to go to stake conference. (FYI - Remember, we are all volunteers within the church and some callings are more time intensive than others! But we grow as we serve and it is an honor to serve each other)
And for
Stake Conference (FYI - A 'Stake" is a group of wards (congregations) that are grouped together for organizational and support purposes and are under the leadership of a Stake Presidency. Twice a year all members of a Stake come together for meetings and the speakers not only include members of the Stake, but often other church leaders as well) on Sunday we had an "Übertragung" where
there was a live meeting in Salt Lake City that was broadcast to all the
German-Speaking stakes I think. Elder Bednar spoke (in German! - he served a
Mission here!) and Elder Hales. And some other great people. And on Saturday
night they spoke ALL ABOUT MISSIONARY WORK! EIGENTLICH ERLÖSUNGSWERK (actually the Work of
Salvation)! And they invited all the Young Men and Young Women to come. And
they asked all the missionaries from the stake to write something to the stake
about missionary work and they shared what they said. It was so powerful. And
then they had all he missionaries serving in the stake do two Musical numbers.
As a missionary I especially love all this focus on missionary work.
So I have this friend named Peter who we also met
on the train and it's cool because he got a BOM from missionaries in South
Africa. And he has read the whole thing! I think I've talked about him. But he
just kept telling me how amazing it is that he decided to keep the BOM at all because
not so many books made the move from South Africa to Switzerland and how it
must be special.
I just love being with Sister Siems....
Me: "Happy New Transfer Day Sister
Siems!"
Sister Siems: "Oh that's right now that
Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day have passed we have to celebrate something else. Where
are the fireworks?"(Part of the ongoing tease that Americans overcelebrate everything!)
Sister Siems, in the middle of a fit of
coughing/laughing: "Sister Lewis stop doing funny things - I'm
dying!" Ha ha I really appreciate how funny Sister Siems thinks I am.
Also our giant finding day was cool! See pictures!
Well I love you all! The gospel
is true!
I look at these pictures and I think of the courage of these young missionaries
to put themselves out there like this.
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