"Happy BIrthday to Meeeeeeee" March 24, 2014 - from Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeee!  I want to thank everyone for my birthday wishes! It definitely seems like my mommy has been doing a very good job broadcasting the fact that TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!

I am also just happy because I got so many Pictures and even Videos! Thanks to . . .

Ciarah

Sister Lohmann

Chels

Sister Kervinen

Sister Siems

Elder and Sister Strong in Wien

Grandma and Grandpa

Andrea Nowak in Germany

Crawfords

Couper Clan in Scotland

Gants

Bieglers

James

Abby Nolan!

My Mommy

My Daddy

Lindsey

Joey

Hubys in France

Harknesses

Chase (James' roommate?)

Sue Sherwin

Kris Fredrickson

Marilyn Hulme

Jim Hulme

Uncle Randal and Aunt Janie

Johnsons

Ben Barton

Sister Judd...uh I mean Candace (Candace is home from her mission now and it's hard for Katie to switch from calling her Sister Judd to calling her by her first name) 

Bishop Davis

Sister Clark (Jackie's mom) 

OBVIOUSLY I'm in love with the video of my nieces and nephews singing me Happy Birthday. Sister Bolli and Sister Siems both had to watch it. And I'm sorry I'm bad about thanking everyone . . . I got such a sweet letter from Tara and the Kids a while ago which I loved.

And of course Sister Siems is being fun about my birthday. She's the greatest. She decorated our study room with birthday stuff last night around 3 in the morning or something. I just really like her.

We tausched with Sister McEwen and Sister Hoareau on Thursday-Friday. So I worked with my last companion in her area in St. Gallen and Sister Siems worked with her last companion in Schaffhausen. I got to see some mountains! We went to this gorgeous place called Geis to leave a personal touch for a member but they ended up catching us and inviting us to lunch. That was so nice.

Did I ever mention how beautiful Switzerland is in the Spring? There are flowers everywhere and it's so green and gorgeous.

Also Sister Siems finally realized she didn't know if her home ward is a branch or a ward. Until I helped her find out.

Me: "Do you call your Bishop 'President' or 'Bishop?'"

Her: "President."

Me: "You're a branch."

She never knew.

During planning last night:

SS my brain just turned off

SL laughing . . .

SS it's not funny this is a serious problem

SL laughing hysterically . . .

SS throws her planner across the room at me

SL laughing . . .

SS give me my planner back!

SL still laughing . . .

SS throws her pen at me

SL still laughing . . .

Then I threw her pen and planner back at her and we were able to finish planning. We laugh a lot.

Family I know I give you all These assignments (and Mommy I have been loving your "Thoughts on Faith") but this one is extra important (did anyone go on a Joint teach with the missionaries?). Well this one is to read THE POWER OF EVERYDAY MISSIONARIES. Just do it. It won't take you very Long. But don't just read it. Apply the principles inside. And send me your insights.

Also I didn't actually tell THAT many People that it is my birthday but I told an investigator in an attempt to get him to come to church yesterday (ha ha I'll get them to church just about any way I can). He didn't come but he PROMISED to come next week (I'll believe it when I see it). But he did text me "Happy Birthday God bless you" today and that made me happy.

This week we went to two Bajai Events. The Bajai prayer circle was much more intimate and seriously the spirit was there! Sister Siems and I prayed too. And then we invited some Bajai to our Musical Fireside. The other event was last night and we came way late because of another appointment but we were there. Maria (our investigator) isn't even Bajai but she loves us and she loves the Bajai and she invites us to everything. I danced with her last night to Bajai music and she was so happy. At the Event last night I met this woman who was sure she had met me before. I said no, but then I realized I had indeed met her before. She said she knew it because she "remembered my eyes." Hm. But I have knocked on her door before ha ha. Good Thing she was nice.

The next time you hear from me you'll be hearing about how great our Musical fireside went (pray for that!). Ah I'm nervous.

We gave our Spanish family a little German lesson yesterday. We love them and they love us.

We usually get to Hannah's and she has read whatever assignment we gave her from the Book of Mormon and then she brings out her lists of questions and concerns and we discuss what she can't even remember reading. This week we got there expecting the same Thing but she had NO QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS. There was nothing she felt like didn't match with the Bible. That was really different!  She is for sure coming to our Musical fireside and getting a ride with Sister Gardedieu.  We are excited about the musical fireside and also a little nervous! 

Also, we have been trying to talk to President Miles but we haven't been able to reach him. This week we are planning on visiting a Klettergarten (outdoor climbing park in the trees)  with some of the JTA (young adults) members in our branch and hopefully a JTA-age investigator! It's the safest Klettergarten ever (or so our member tells us) and we will be strengthening our relationships with members and with our investigator. I wrote him today and asked him to let us know if he thinks this is a terrible idea (because of liability).  

Oh my goodness I almost forgot. I had the greatest P-Day of my life last week (one birthday P-day is clearly not enough, so we started last week). We biked from Schaffhausen to Stein am Rhein (about 34 miles one way!) and it was outrageously fun and sooo beautiful. Jacob and Alice (our landlords) told us a couple weeks ago that we could use their bikes and helmets whenever we wanted. MUSIC to our ears. So we went on a very Long bike ride that we somehow fit in by basically doing nothing else (we had planned ahead by Shopping for two weeks the week before). And we biked through Thayngen and Dachsen (I think?) on the way there and on the way back we took a shorter way through Büsingen (This town is on the Swiss side of the Rhine, and completely surrounded by Swiss land,  but is part of Germany.  That explains the pictures they take in front of the German signs!) . We were seriously in heaven. We didn't have so much time to spend in Stein am Rhein because of our time crunch but we ate the picnic food we brought with us right on the Rhein and just soaked in the perfectness of everything.

These girls were definitely jumping for joy to be out on bikes on such

a beautiful spring day!

Definitely a happy, happy day! 

Mommy!! You went to Stein am Rhein?! You've been to my area?! aAnd yes I have been to the Munot! I went with Sister McEwen! That's where I live!!!! I love Stein am Rhein. I have only been in the alt stadt a few times briefly, but I'm in the area all the area all the time (Jasmin lives in Eschenz and Asefash lives in Kaltenbach). One time Sister Järmann had a choir concert in the old church in Stein am Rhein so Sister Siems and I went to Support her because she really wanted us to. And it was cool because we met her friends and made some friends of our own. You can see the fortress perfectly out of Asefash's window but I heard it's not actually that cool to visit.

March 17, 2014 - "Strahlen" - From Shaffhausen

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Family! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We did get theSpanish package this week! Thank you!! So far we have just given our Spanish Family one of the Liahonas (There is a a monthly church magazine called the ENSIGN that is published in English....the Liahona is the version of the magazine that is published in other languages) but they were way excited about it. We love our Spanish family. They fed us empanadas on Saturday and were just so good to us. This Saturday they said we will celebrate my birthday. I've been trying to put down some hints that my birthday is coming up. Some people just don't get the concept of birthday week/birthday two weeks/birthday month. Sister Siems is still struggling to understand the concept. (okay....this is kind of a family joke because I started out celebrating "birthday week" when Lindsey was little because her birthday was so close to Christmas that sometimes it got lost) Also Sister Siems didn't get anything special for her birthday from members. She didn't tell anyone it was her birthday (Her first mistake. I believe in telling everyone.) So, we are expanding my birthday to include Sister Siems. It can just be OUR birthday. I guess it started yesterday because we went to a member family's house for dinner and they fed us homemade Mexican Food, which we have talked about having before and they know I really wanted. So when we ate they said, "We're celebrating your birthday today!"

They're such a cute family, but hard. Their oldest son wants NOTHING to do with the church. He still has to come to church with his family, but there are very few members he will even speak to. My nametag gives me no chance of being one of them. Yesterday I went in to where all three of the Kids were sitting and one of them was playing x-box. Immediately this kid basically hid himself in the beanbag. It was obviously ridiculous so the younger son said, "Why are you hiding?" I answered for him, because he didn't say anything. "The scary sister missionary came into the room." He agreed that was the reason.  The other son is nice and I really love their 11-year-old daughter (see all the pictures of me smothering her). And of course I love the parents. And I admire the way they are raising their family. They seem to be handling their oldest son quite well and maintaining their relationship with him while staying true to the church.

Katie played lacrosse in High School so I bet this was especially fun! 

So the mother and daughter in our Spanish family have been to the temple to do baptisms one or two times before, but not for a long time. We're hoping that we will be able to accompany them to the temple to do baptisms with some other members sometime very soon! First we have to wait for the mother's member record to arrive . . . Which will hopefully be very soon.

Guess what because I'm a Swiss citizen and I'm in Switzerland I had to file income tax. Cool, huh? Luckily there is someone in the Mission who helped me put Zeros in all the right places and all I really had to do was sign it.

We had a good lesson with Hannah just about faith. That was nice, to just talk about faith in Jesus Christ, something we are all very passionate about.

One of the Highlights of my week was seeing a SOBER SYLVAIN. He has made the leap of faith and is checked into the hospital. He stays there for 10 days to get clean in a safe way, and then he will go to the clinic for who knows how Long. And we went and visited him in the hospital after he had already been there a week, and HE WAS SOBER. You take one look at him and you just know. Every other time I have seen him he has been drunk to some degree. I didn't know what he was like sober. He's still very much himself, but you can just see in his face that he is also different. And in the things he says. He says all the write things and is reading in the BOM, Bible, the Joseph Fielding Smith book, and he recently requested that his wife also bring him Preach my Gospel. And he is just being his normal natural-missionary self, but that works better when you're not drunk. When he bows his head to pray in the hospital Cafeteria nurses come up to him to ask if he's okay, and are shocked when he explains that he was just saying a Blessing on his Food. He reads his BOM and People ask him about what it is.

Other random Highlights: 

I just like feeling like I have friends in Schaffhausen. I live here. I preach the Gospel here. I have a family here (the darling Schaffhausen branch). One time this week twice in one day I sat somewhere on the train or the bus and didn't notice one of my friends that I have already talked to or taught at some point waved to me and wanted me to come sit by them. That happens sometimes, but twice in one day was cool.

When the bus Driver gave me a peace sign as we were Boarding the bus from our stop because he knew I would wave at him before getting on the bus. He is one of the bus Drivers who drives the bus that we ride at least twice a day every day, so we're friends too.

When a random lady walked by me on this full train and said to me, "Hübsch" (pretty). I said, "Wie bitte?" (excuse me?) She repeated, "Hübsch." Also a random woman told me she liked my outfit. I think she was also referring to the fact that I was dressed up and looked different from everyone else.

Oh super cool experience this week. I got the confirmation that one of our investigators WILL ACCEPT THE GOSPEL. I don't know when, and I don't even know if it will be in this life or the next, but HE WILL! Cool, right? We had a lesson with Steven where Lea and Nico were there too and basically Steven was happy to finally have someone who didn't grow up in the church to shower with questions. Nico and Steven got along fantastically. Based on Nico's testimony, Steven agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We gave him another copy since his older sister hid the last copy. The beginning of Nico's conversion Story is much like where Steven is at now, and Steven could see that. Steven always talks about how Mormons "strahlen," or shine, and that's exactly what brought Nico into the church. Nico approached Lea on the bus one day and said, "What's so different about you?" She told him about the church.

Quotes of the week:

Me: "If you have Google, you don't have to know anything. If you don't have Google, then you have to know everything."

Sister Siems: "And if you don't have Google and you don't know everything, then life is hard. And that's us."

Sister Siems was on the phone with Elder Becker (also German so this conversation was in German).

Sister Siems: "We found such a cool family today!"

Elder Becker: "That makes me happy!"

Sister Siems: "They live in your area."

Elder Becker: "That makes me even happier!"

 

These are the missionaries of the Zurich Zone

 I think this is the meadow Katie mentioned they were in last week.  

 Definitely a Sister Missionary Fridge! 

Sister Siems embracing her homeland! 

Wellll I hope you're all doing good. Don't forget to keep writing and emailing Sister Kate, because it makes her happy. Loooove you!

"Es geht um Leben und Todd." - March 4, 2014 - From Schaffhausen

So yesterday was an interesting day because we basically cancelled P-day in favor of meeting with a Jehovah's Witness. I have actually run into this particular Jehovah's Witness before when she was going dooring in a neighborhood where we were visiting someone. But I secretly really wanted to teach a Jehovah's Witness. She called us because we had contacted one of her friends when we were going through some potentials or something. But it was good! I heard somewhere that whoever is asking questions is the one in control, and I asked her a lot of questions. But yeah we probably won't meet anymore.

But also yesterday we visited a friend I made on the bus last week. And she was so cute because she said there is no way that our meeting on the bus for five minutes was chance and was just so hospitable to us. We'll see where it goes but she is just oldish and adorable and so nice.

Right now we have the privilege of teaching an investigator (Asefash) who read all of 1 and 2 Nephi in one night this week! We were so surprised. She is so open but at the same time so hard to reach. She has a hard time understanding priesthood authority while she herself has cast out devils and believes that anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ should be able to baptize. She prayed that Sister Siems and I would learn to recognize our own authority. So that is a little tricky. I have seen that when people really fail to understand priesthood authority, than their progression in the gospel is seriously hindered. And it's a hard roadblock for me to help them overcome. Any advice? 

We did a service project for another investigator who has this garden plot where all this trash had been deposited so we got to pick up trash for a service project. As you all know, I always feel like I'm making the world a better place when I pick up trash so I was happy. And our investigator was very happy. And she finally remembers my name so the service project was well worth it (this is the wife of the man who played our Swiss song on the guitar).

No pictures this week, but Sister Siems and I did record our song for our lovely Sister Järmann. Sister Siems wrote it with a little help from me and that we sang to her on her birthday with the guitar.

Also maybe it's a good thing I didn't email Monday morning or I might have sounded depressed. Sunday was just not our day. One of the highlights was my zone leader practically yelling at me on the phone and basically inferring that I have no idea how to plan an event and that the musical fireside will be a disaster. But I found out later that what really happened is he was asked to stand up in the priesthood meeting to introduce himself (it was his first Sunday in his new ward as he was just transferred and last week was stake conference) and they asked if while he was up could he tell everyone a little about the musical fireside coming up.  And he knew nothing and obviously that's embarrassing. But it's also not my fault if he didn't listen in district meeting and doesn't communicate with his companion, who knew all about it. Another highlight was another fall out appointment with our favorite Spanish family. And we had two other members who were going to come. But life really is good. Don't worry, my zone leader called me again later and he actually really is nice. Just, you know, French (oh my, did I really say that?).

Quote of the week comes from Sister Siems on Sunday night as we are laying in our beds about to go to sleep: "I'm mad at everyone. Except for Sister Lewis, and Bruder DeMarzi (our GML). And maybe Sister Peacock (a sister in Winterthur who is doing so much to help plan this musical fireside and whom we had been on and off the phone with all day)." Ha ha yeah that was Sunday.

Also I guess I was only the only American in Switzerland for only one transfer. Too bad. I felt so special. Hah! But apparently there are two American goldens here or something? But I can tell you about my district. We have an elder from Finland, an elder from France, an elder from England, an elder from Romania, our elders from Sweden and Belgium, and two sisters from Holland. So I guess our district meetings should be in Dutch? No, but they're in English/German. A little more English than before now that Elder Lossau is gone.

Also you should see Sister Siems catching trains and buses. It's incredible. The same girl who hates to run with me for morning sport or any other time is all of the sudden Usain Bolt. When I asked her about this, and she said the difference is "es geht um Leben und Todd." (It's about life and death). She's so funny. I'm just always trying to be fast enough to be right behind her so I can board the bus or train right after her after she presses the button for us. And then after we make the train or the bus we do a little we made the train/bus dance.

Also Bruder DeMarzi had a birthday earlier this week, so we left a voice message for him singing happy birthday in Italian. But it was mostly Sister Lewis singing happy birthday in Italian, because I had just briefly tried to teach Sister Siems. Also, it was Sister Lewis trying to sound a little like one of the opera singers at the Macaroni Grill (And yes, that is how I know how to sing happy birthday in Italian. Go to the Macaroni Grill enough and you'll know too.). And he told me on the phone at some point in the week that he had set this voice message as his ringtone. He is quite the jokester, so I wasn't falling for that, and I told him so. I didn't know how someone could do that anyway. Then at church on Sunday Bruder DeMarzi asks me to call him. He claimed he wanted to see if his phone was working or something. So I call him and what do I hear? Sister Lewis singing terribly, and singing terrible Italian. So, it's true. Also yesterday we had a fancy lunch with our GML and our relief society president. Our GML took us to lunch for his birthday (I know that doesn't really make any sense but he did because he's the best). So that was the fanciest restaurant I have been to in a long time. We ate Italian food for the Italian.

Also I think I forgot to thank Sister Barton for writing me a letter! She might recommend to her son that he do the same . . .

Well I love you fam! Thanks for the letters and love and prayers and just for everything.

"We're so unified" - February 24, 2014 - Shaffhausen, Switzerland

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!

 I love Schaffhausen.  You asked  about my Branch President . . . his name is President Weibel. Also, I talked to someone on the bus where I just asked her how her day was and she told me that she has grown up in Schaffhausen and has never had someone in Switzerland just randomly ask her how her day was. So that was kind of cool.

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. Also, I am trying to plan a Musical Fireside for March 15th (coming up!) about the restoration so if you have any good ideas . . . please send them this way

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.