Family!
I loved seeing the pictures and I am so happy that
you had such fun in Lake Powell. Now I know you are just all even more excited for when I can
come. :-) Mommy, I got my letter with the pictures this morning and I was sooo
happy!
So
I thought I explained this at one point but I guess I will give writing down a
"typical day" my best shot, since Daddy asked. But every day is seriously so different.
So the morning
doesn't usually change a whole lot unless we have an early appointment for some
reason and have to do study later.
6:30 - wake up,
pray, and exercise for 30 minutes
7:00 (or actually a
little later when the 30 minutes is over) - get ready, eat breakfast
8:00 - personal
study (the best)
9:00 -
companionship study
Now things start to
change a lot. Sometimes we do language study and then lunch and then get out
and start doing missionary work outside the apartment. Sometimes we leave at
10:00 and then we come back for lunch, have a lunch appointment, or grab
something outside. Sometimes language study actually gets jipped which would
explain . . . wait I'm not allowed to say that my German is bad.
So I'll walk you through Wednesday. We had normal studies (including language study after companionship
study) and then we took a bus and then a train to get to our lunch appoint with
an older couple who is less active. Now I will tell you about that. In
Switzerland I don't see so many unsanitary things, but I did this day. I used
their bathroom and in order to do so I had to walk through their kitchen. Which
meant I had to see where our food had been prepared, and the kitchen was
disgusting. Not only was there cat food right next to our food on the counter,
but just everything was grimy and dirty. They have a toilet in their garage but
there is no door. Or any soap at the sink next to the toilet in the garage to
wash your hands with. Which meant I had to wash them in the kitchen and see
even more of the kitchen before I ate lunch. Rough. We are trying to help
this couple but they are just old and part of the reason they don't come to
church is because she has such bad health, but I think there are other reasons
too. On this day I heard all the same stories I heard when I visited this
couple with Sister Blohm for the second or third time. The man actually got
baptized insanely fast and went through the lessons in one week so he could
marry the woman. So we would like to teach him the new convert lessons and we
started to but it didn't go that well because they just never stop talking and
telling stories. But he could really use the lessons again because he even said
himself that he doesn't know anything anymore.
After that we had
planned to help a member in her garden but we couldn't because it had been
raining and she said the soil was too wet. So we made our own service project
and cleaned the outside of the church. I actually feel like our building is not
well-kept enough, especially on the outside. About a month ago some kids drew
on the side of the church with sidewalk chalk and the sidewalk chalk has just
been there for about a month now for the whole world to see and has been really
annoying Sister Lewis. So since no one had taken care of it we decided washing
off the chalk was a job for the sister missionaries (see pictures).
During our service
project we got a text from A. that she couldn't meet that night. Then we
were miraculously able to make out an appointment with T. for that night.
So we tried going
by on a referral, who wasn't home, and then we went took another train and
taught Tatyana a lesson.
Sister Blohm and I
once found a potential who lives near T. who wanted a BOM in Arabic but he
was never home when we tried to bring it to him. And we didn't want to just
leave it in his mailbox. So Sister Bognar and I tried again and he was home and
we gave him his BOM in Arabic.
After that I think
we had to take the train to Bellach and walk home and eat dinner and then plan
the next day and go to bed. And of course we tried to talk to people who were
put in our path during the day. So that's one day.
The picture of us
with the Olten sign at the train station is because we were in Oensingen trying
to go to Oberbuchsiten, which is richtung (direction) Olten, but apparently I
put us on a train that went directly to Olten without stopping. So we were
outside of our area. Awkward how in the 10 minutes we were in the Olten train
station before we could get on a train back to our area we ran into the Aarau
elders. But it was great because we also ran into a member who needed to take
our same train and we were able to have a really good talk with her on the
train ride back. Apparently I will still make stupid mistakes like that after
14 months on a mission and after 5 months in this area.
That being said, I have,
predictably, never been so led by the Lord in what I do as I have as a
missionary. My goal is obviously to be a tool in his hands, and when plans fall
through we have to expect that He has a greater plan. And when things go wrong,
we can even assume that the change of course may also be part of His plan. That
isn't always easy, but my goal is really that I want Heavenly Father to be able
to count on Sister Lewis. I want Him to know that He can put someone across
from me on the bus who is ready to learn something about the gospel and that
Sister Lewis will speak to them. I don't care if all our plans fall through if
we can accomplish something greater for Him (although we did try to make our
plan with His inspiration in the first place). So I'm not going to say that God
didn't actually really want for us to interact with the man on the train that we met or have this
good talk with one of our ward members.
Also don't be too
disgusted by the picture of the bread in the oil. It's Hungarian, okay?! It's
called làngos (but you say it langosh) and we're never going to make it again .
. . I hope. But you eat it with sour cream and meat or cheese (did I tell
you Sister Bognar is allergic to all meat? except not to fish.) Also her name is
actually Sister Bognàr but I'm too lazy to put the special a every time.
So quote of the
week:
Sister Bognar: "Làngos in Hungary is like hamburgers in America."
Oh also we got
controlled by the police this week. Apparently in Grenchen, where we were at the time, they have been having some problems with beggars. So they asked for
our ID and stuff and asked the old man we had been talking to (who knew some
members!) about our conversation with him. And he was the nicest and was very
defensive of us. He is from Italy so one of the police officers spoke Italian
with him and he kept saying, "Solo Gott!" meaning that we had only spoken
with him about God.
So actually only
one of the elders' investigators is getting baptized this Saturday. Apparently
the one we found for them and his friend are not quite ready yet. But this
investigator's name is Mulugatha and I have never taught him I just always talk
to him at church and whenever I see him (we had to escort him to Zollikofen for
his baptismal interview with the mission president this week because the elders
couldn't).
You'll see a picture of him in front of the temple. And then after
Mulugatha's interview we had district meeting and interviews with President
Kohler. But yesterday we had ward council before church and we were talking
about the baptism and the bishop was asking about the baptismal program and the
elders said it was all finished and Mulugatha had decided what he wanted. So
they asked who was speaking and Elder Kelly says, "There will only be one
talk and it will be Sister Lewis." That was the first time I had heard of
this. So not only am I talking at Mulugatha's baptism this Saturday, I am the
only speaker. One man show. Sister Lewis. Speaking in English and German so
that Mulugatha and the ward can both understand. No idea how that's going to work. :-)
And my dear little
Megi Jäger (she's the one who wrote on the board that I am the best sister, the
sweetheart. I asked Sister Bognar to take a picture ha ha) is getting baptized
on Sunday
Spiritual quote of the week:
This is commentary
from Jesus the Christ on when Jesus Christ condemned divorce:
"By making marriage indissoluable, He proclaimed the equal rights of woman
and man within the family, and in this, gave their charter of nobility to
mothers around the world. In her nobler position in the Christian era, compared
with that granted her in antiquity, woman is indebted to Jesus Christ." (J
the C p. 484)
Isn't that cool?
Thanks Jesus.
Bye love you.
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| Looks like instead of names on Coke bottles, they have phrases! This one says "eternal love"! |
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