Tausch and Temple Tales

Well. This sucks. And I know I'm not supposed to say that word, but it fits so well right now. I had literally selected all of my email in my note to paste it and send it, and guess what happened? Aha, you guessed it! Deleted. I'm so upset. Because it's not even like I hit delete or anything! It just disappeared! 

So. Round 2. 

Wednesday, 22nd:

Our GML, Cosimo, came and checked on a couple broken/janky things. 

We went to Serena, and we taught her about the Holy Ghost. She asked us a couple questions about the Book of Mormon, and basically said that she likes what she's read so far (she keeps it on her bed and reads it every night!). Also, there was one point in the lesson where she said, "I think I'm feeling the Spirit right now." It was crazy! Then she tried praying at the end, and was just so happy to feel a little bit closer to God. She sent us a text a couple days later and said she tried praying again, and just felt so much peace and joy. It warms my soul! I'm so happy for her. 

We tried going by on a member, Mersin, but she wasn't home so we left her a couple sticky notes in her mailbox. Then, since the Elders live like right down the street, we went and Rang their Klingel, but they weren't home, so we left them a bunch of sticky notes, too. #pranked! 

Thursday, 23rd:

We had Tausch, which means that I got to go to Winterthur to be with Sister Pendleton! She's brand new on the mission, so it was fun to kind of play off of her new energy for the day. I felt like how I did when Iwas new, just with the skills that I have now. It was a blast! 

We went to a totally sweet member who served her mission in S. Meisenfelder's home ward in Berlin. She had the cutest baby, and some delicious chocolate pear cake (@Dad, haha). We had originally planned to have S. Meisenfelder go there, which is why we had this appointment, but something came up in Bonstetten so she needed to stay and I went. For which I'm quite grateful. 

We also did some finding, where I got a little tan, and then had a member appointment in the evening that was pretty nice. 

Friday, 24th:

We ended Tausch with a couple studies, since we swapped back in the midmorning. 

We went to a first appointment with a guy named Armon, who moved here from the one part of Switzerland that speaks Romanish or whatever the 4th official language is. We're not sure he's actually interested, but he's nice enough. 

We met with Jonathan, one of my favorite friends. He asked us about Alma 32 and what it meant, but we had just had a training at zone conference about how we should be helping people find their answers instead of just spoon-feeding them, so we asked him to explain Alma 32 to us, and he understood it 100%! When we told him that, he was so surprised but also so pleased. We also invited him to be baptised, since it's been on his mind for the past week or so, and he said that it's in his plan, but he didn't want to commit to a date. So we asked if he'd commit to a specific month, and he said sure, so August it is! We're excited. 

Saturday, 25th:

We had an Austellung for most of the day, and it only rained and lighteninged a little bit.

The missionaries were hungry afterwards, so a few of us went and got Döners, but they were a little disappointing, so RIP. 

We went to Serena's house again be ause it was her BIRTHDAY! We brought her a homemade cake that S. Meisenfelder always makes for birthdays, and a card that I decorated. She and her mom were both so happy and excited and so sweet. I love that family! Maybe the mom will be interested, too... 

Sunday, 26th:

We had Church, of course. 

We finally got to visit the Browns! It was crazy! We had a lot of fun, and they were super sweet.

We had a Piano Concert at the church. There's this guy who is often at our ward building to practice the piano, but he's not a member and doesn't normally talk to the missionaries, so it's always just kind of been like eeeehhhhh with him. Well, this was his l cert, and we were kind of required to go, to make the Bishop happy, and also there were nonmembers there, so we were like "sure". He played pretty decently. But my goodness, the Way he played. If your closed your eyes, it was an okay and normal concert. You opened them? Let's just say all 4 of us missionaries were crying from holding back out laughter. 2 of us got migraines. Bishop fell asleep. He played as though he and the piano were engaged in an intense battle between each other, and literally almost fell of the piano bench at one point. And my goodness, I've never seen a pianist sweat so hard. It was hilarious! Sister Meisenfelder (and consequently, I) had to leave the room atone point because she couldn't handle it any more. 

We did a little bit of Finding. Well, let me tell you, as busy as Bahnhofstraße is on Friday afternoons, it is just as empty on Sunday evening. We talked to 1 girl that whole hour, and she was there on vacation.  But hey, we reached our finding goal for the week! 

Monday, 27th:

We had Distriktrat, and the piano dude was there again to practice, I'm assuming, although we never actually saw him on a piano and just in the kitchen. Anyway, he actually talked to us, and he was SO surprised to hear that I didn't grow up in Germany, because my accent was apparently spot on (which it's not). So he was either flirting or he's deaf. Idk. He was nice enough. 

Both before and after Distriktrat we helped someone move (we had the break for DR because they had to pick up another load from their old apartment). It wasn't too bad, and I might have scratched myself on the bottom of a couch, but it only bled a little. It wasn't so bad. 

We had a couple hours of a break before Family home evening, where we went home and showered since it was so muggy and hot and we had sweat so much in our service clothes that we didn't want to change into our proselyting clothes without being clean first. Fun fact (dedicated to my bröthër, Märk): The little döts make a difference in German. Schwül means muggy. Schwul means gay. I apparently can't differentiate well enough between the pronounciations, so Sister Meisenfelder has advised me never to comment on muggy weather.  The shower was lovely and I did a bit of personal study, as well. 

We went to Family home evening and sliced some veggies and had a grand old time. 

Tuesday, 28th:

The Temple! Normally we'd go later in the transfer, but it closes after next week, so we got to go earlier. It was wonderful! Rainy, but wonderful. I loved the Spiritual boost! 

Favorite new word: Schickimicki - Fancy-schmancy/Hoity-toity

Favorite funny story: When we left family home evening, a group of guys were standing outside the apartment complex and did what stupid guys do to try and get girls' attention. Another new word I learned from S. Meisenfelder: angaffen - to ogle (as in, when guys stare at girls, etc). And a phrase I learned to respond with: "Ich klatsche dir gleich an! - I'll punch you right now!" I'm learning wonderful things that I would never learn if I had an English companion. 

Favorite spiritual thought: The temple! I haven't been since the changes, so I was interested to see what was different. But the cool thing is, that the most important parts stayed the same! It was yet another testament to me that God is unchanging. Also, the Celestial room of the Bern Temple looked a lot like the Salt Lake Temple. It felt a little bit like home. 

TLDR: I love our friends, and I'm learning some quality Deutsch! 

Much love to everyone! 

Liebe Grüße, 

Sister Hamilton