A girl with a mission

October 13, 2014

Well right now I´m in an internet cafe in Basel. And I´m struggling with this German keyboard. And guess who I´m with?! Sister Kervinen!! She is technically my sister training leader and even though we have already had a tausch this transfer (when I came to Olten with Sister Wüst) right now we are having another one. A P-day tausch! It was actually so that Sister Wüst could have an adventure P-day before she goes home. So she and Sister Oswald (who is the master of adventure P-days) were supposed to go hiking and ride a glass elevator today. I think they still did even though it´s raining. And Sister Kervinen and I get to be together. It´s so nice. So we´re actually in Basel and apparently we´re going to Germany to eat Chinese food because that´s what the elders in the district are doing and Sister Kervinen wants to and then we will just go shopping I guess. Everything is cheaper in Germany. In Switzerland many people go to Germany to shop (except not the really truly Swiss people... they would not do that) and in Germany people go to Hungary to shop. Everyone wants a better price.

It´s been a good week. It has been interesting seeing the benefits of having two Americans together. We visited an inactive sister this week who is originally from the midwest but has lived here forever and she basically told us, "You know, you two are pretty cool for missionaries." She just didn´t really connect with the German sisters who were here before us and I think she appreciates us being here. She said maybe it´s because we´re American and she can just connect to us. We have also gotten really close with the American family in our ward. The father of the family is working here as some kind of airplane engineer or something. And the mom has worked hard at integrating herself into the ward but I guess you sometimes still end up feeling like an outsider. Especially when you can´t really speak German all that well. This week we went on a hike with her and her children in between appointments and we talked all about missionary work! Really, we did. And she talked to us about her efforts to be a missionary and she finally shared with us some pretty personal things and I think that meant a lot to her to be able to share. 

So today was crazy and I have to finish tomorrow. Weird. See you then.

PART II

I'm hurrying and finishing emails today. Sister Kervinen and I have been companions since Sunday night and then we will switch back after district meeting today. So more stories from the week . . . we visited a less active who we will see again today and she has a lot of progress to make but I hope we will be able to help her. Did I tell you she actually came to church once after we invited her with her "husband" (they're not actually married) but he didn't feel like they fit in and she felt uncomfortable too because she knows so little. But we're working on it. You just get the most random stories, sorry. I also talked a less active into giving us a German lesson but it ended up being really awkward. He is not that much older than us and he lives with his mom and we're trying to work with her too so I just thought he was a good candidate for German lessons. And he also had to learn German after growing up in the U.S. with a Swiss mother who didn't teach him any Swiss or German. (Sorry Momma but I'm pretty sure all of Switzerland is disappointed with you for not speaking Swiss German to me when I was little. But it's okayyyy I guess I understand. You didn't grow up here either.) And he has gotten really good from living here and he corrected my German after I gave a prayer once so I decided he should just teach us. Anyway I warned him that it would include a spiritual thought and he knew that it would anyway. It turned into a bit of a challenging situation because of the dynamics between him and his mom, but we did our best with that.

Also we had zone conference! I actually saw my mission president! It was good and I hear he wrote parents about our new goal to have a baptism in every unit before the end of the year? I really want it to happen!!!

After zone conference we got to have a short dinner with Sister Oswald's grandparents who live in Zurich since we were there anyway (and they aren't members!). That was really nice.

I'm sad about Beamer. I was really starting to think she would make it. (Our dog Beamer, that we've had since Katie was 8 passed away last week). Didn't I tell you there was a while when I seriously thought she had died because I hadn't heard one thing about her or seen a picture of her in so long? And I thought you just didn't want to tell me or something. But then I think you sent a picture and I thought, "Whew!" But mostly I feel bad for you Mom and Dad because you're the ones at home checking the garage and seeing no doggy there. It will be sadder for me when I go home (but we are getting a kitten and a puppy for Christmas . . . right Daddy?).

Mommy I liked your message to the Euro moms. And will you add Sister Kervinen's mom? Leena Kervinen.  Love you family....your Sister Lewis