The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Müsli

Lol, does Müsli even have a sound? 

Wednesday, 29th:

Cosimo came over again to check on my bed, because it fell apart Tuesday night. Turns out the person who put it together decided not to attach the footboard, which meant that the legs of the bed could slide away from each other, and the mattress could fall through. So, he got working on finding me a new bed. 

We went by on Angelina, a super cute less-active Young Woman. She did our make-up while we talked with her, and she got excited when she found out I can draw. So now I'll be drawing her before our next appointment with her family. 

We met with Serena and her Elder friend from America skyped in again. It was a good lesson, and she asked some good questions. Also, I got to hold her pet hamster. 

Thursday, 30th:

This day was Christi Himmelfahrt, a big holiday in the traditionally-Catholic countries of our mission. They celebrate Christ's Ascension into heaven in a variety of ways. According to Sister Meisenfelder, in Germany they drink themselves silly (more than on New Year's eve), and so it's not really safe to be out. Luckily, we had plans, so we didn't get any finding in anyway. But here in Zürich, it looked like everyone celebrated by going to the lake and running around half-naked. A little safer for us, but our eyes were scarred, haha. 

Our ward had an Auffahrtsausflug, where we basically walked from our ward building to the hill behind it, and had a campfire lunch at a rentable cabin thing. It was an absolute blast, and we got to bond really well with our ward. Plus, I absolutely dominated at this one game where you play rock-paper-scissors (or Schere-Stein-Papier) and hop around and stuff. It's fun, I promise.  I really bonded with this one kid because it was his 18th birthday the day before, and we were like, "Ah fun, so what'd you do?" He kind of sheepishly said that he just went to work, and we asked what his work was, and it turns out he's a software engineer. So, of course, I asked him follow-up questions, and then my secret nerdy side came out and we basically talked about programming, university, art, computer games, etc. He was so surprised that I understood anything he was saying. So. Basically, I'm awesome. Jk, jk. 

After the thing with the ward, we left to meet up with some of the JAE's (Young Single adults) by the lake. This is how we learned how the people in Zürich celebrate Himmelfahrt. Basically, we were looking for the JAE's, and I just saw this sea of skin, and I kept looking for like, people who were dressed. Well, we decided to keep walking, and then the bishop's daughter ran up to us and said we were in the right place. We asked where everyone else was, and she pointed to a circle of shirtless men. We were like, "oh, past them?" And she was like, "no, that's us." So. We talked about what to do, and how we wouldn't really be able to... Y'know.. Chill with a bunch of shirtless men as Sisters. They were both like, "well, we can't just walk up to them and ask them to put on shirts!" And I just looked at them and said, "Why not? I'll do it." They paused. Then Sister Meisenfelder actually ended up saying, "Either you get dressed or we leave," and they all calmly and respectfully put on their shirts so we could sit with them. But then it was weird because we didn't really do anything, since they were halfway through a long card game. But there was 1 other girl there who was only there because she had a really really long layover on her way to Tanzania from Connecticut. So we bonded with her, and left relatively quickly since we couldn't find a reason to actually stay. 

We went to the Tengg's, a part-member family, for dinner. Mercedes, the wife, moved here from South America, and man does she have the Spanish feiry spirit! She was a blast and we just laughed a lot together. And when we were leaving, Moana came on their TV and my heart did the little flip it does when I get excited about Disney and animation, and so we may have been slow enough while putting on our shoes to hear 2 of the songs and I've been on a Disney-excitement high the past few days. I forgot how much I love animation and Disney and princesses and the music and animation and Disney and the music. 

Our Bishop and his wife brought over my new bed and got rid of the old one. The new one is better in the sense that it doesn't break and creak all the time, but it's shaky and slides all over our wood floor, but hey, it's only a little messed up now!

Friday, 31st:

We helped this woman named Ruth with her Garden. She's the mother of the husband of the Tengg family. We could only stay a little bit, for which I was kind of grateful because as I was picking weeds I started sneezing like CRAZY. I've had this weird cross between allergies and a cold for the past week and a half or so. It's not fun. 

We went to the Familie Blaser and had "lunch", which was just several slices of Zwetschkenküchen and wheat-coffee. It was sooo good, but I was a little sugared out afterwards. They were a super sweet older couple. 

Saturday, 1st:

We went Finding for hours in the sun. The Zürich zone did an Ausstellung, so we hopped on board that. We also did splits with the Winterthur Sisters, and so I got to talk to a guy who believed in the universe with Sister Kearon. 

We went to Mary's home again for dinner, and ate some amazing broccoli! Like, honestly amazing. And we had some great almond Swiss ice cream. 

Sunday, 2nd:

We had Church. 

I had a Blessing afterwards, since I've been sick. It was pretty cool, and basically told me I needed to be patient. 

We had dinner at the Aeschbachers, and the mom Heidi is from Utah! They made some of the most amazing food I've ever had - and it was all vegan, except for the steak, hahaha. 

Monday, 3rd:

Happy Birthday to Lars!! 

I went to the Doctor to see what's wrong with me, and it turns out I have a "viral infection". Which means I have a cold. So she gave me some medicine to treat my symptoms, but she couldn't really do anything more. But so far the medicine hasn't been working, so we'll see.

We came home and took an off-day to recover, so I slept. I don't like sleeping on the mission. I feel disobedient. 

We had Heimabend at the church, and there was really only our GML, our Distrikt leader and his comp, and us. So it was chill. 

Tuesday, 4th:

We had planned to go to a mountain, Rigi, but our weather app said it was going to thunder and rain, so we decided to change our plans last minute. So we went to Zürich and went to the top of Uetliberg, which is like a cross between a mountain and a hill. It was very pretty! And sunny! And hot! And guess what we could see? That it was also very clear and sunny across the way over at Rigi! The weather app lied. But it was also a little smoggy, and I'm sick, so it was probably good we didn't go. But I had some amazing Birchermüsli while overlooking Zürich, so it was a pretty good day. 

Favorite new word: Der Gaumenschmaus - a treat for one's taste buds (there's really no good translation for this, but basically when food tastes incredibly 5-star amazing, it's a Gaumenschmaus) 

Favorite funny story: One of the days that we went finding, we saw this girl setting up for a party in the park by the lake. She had set up a flag pole with two flags, the bottom being the Australian flag. We didn't know what the top one was, so we approached her and asked what she was doing and what it was. Apparently it was the Aboriginal flag of Australia, and she was in some sort of English-learning group and it was their reunion. So we kept talking and she was actually really cool, and then this guy came up behind me and gave me a hug, thinking I was a part of their group. Sister Meisenfelder laughed, and pointed at her name tag, and the guy got so embarrassed, but hugged her too to try and make it less awkward. Basically, we were all laughing about that, when a third person entered the scene on his bike, 2 bags of ice on the back. He waved right as his front wheel rolled over the string supporting the flags, and promptly crashed, spilling the ice, himself, and the flags all over the grass. We took that as our cue to leave! 

Favorite spiritual thought: I love Ammon. He's such a great missionary! He truly shared the gospel in a normal, and natural way. He didn't go to the king and say "hey, I want to convert you". He just asked to be his servant, and over time (and granted, due to a miraculous event), Lamoni became interested. It's truly incredible. I encourage you to read either that story in the Book of Mormon, or the talk by Elder Uchtdorf from this past general conference. ️

TLDR: Life is good, even though I'm a bit sick (but let's be real, when haven't I been sick on the mission?). We had a lot of weird down times this week, but hopefully next week will be more normal! 

My best wishes to everyone out there,

Sister Hamilton 

Pics: making you jealous of paradise (the pic with the swan is what I walk past every time I go finding)