Transplanted

Because that sounds more fun than "Transferred". 

Mittwoch, 19th:

Transfer Day! One of the most stressful days in the life of a missionary. So normally because I was traveling from Switzerland to Switzerland, my travel plans for the day were just "eventually get where you need to go" (because each missionary in Switzerland has what's called a GA, which means we can ride in 2nd class anywhere within Switzerland without having to buy a ticket - so when our office Elders make travel plans for everyone so they can buy tickets, they just kind of leave the Swiss missionaries up to their own devices). However, my future companion had texted us on Tuesday night asking us to be there relatively early in the day so we could make an appointment.

So I showed up early to Zürich Hauptbahnhof with Sister Meisenfelder and all of my luggage. It honestly wasn't too early, just earlier than we otherwise would have come. I got to see a couple of faces I haven't seen in a while - for example, a Sister from my MTC group who went home earlier and is now engaged to someone from Zürich. I had no idea she was engaged until someone had told me the day before, so my mind was a little blown and I'm still not entirely over it.  I kept looking for my MTC companion as well, since she also went home a while ago but was traveling the mission and had intentionally planned to spend all day at the Bahnhof so she could say hi to everyone. But, it turns out for the 30 minutes that I was there, she left to get food. So I missed her, but it's okay - I'll see her again one day!

When the time came for me to officially say goodbye to Sister Meisenfelder, we hugged and were sad, but didn't cry! I mean, we'll see each other in a couple weeks at zone conference, so it wasn't too terrible, haha. I gave my new companion, Sister Akre, a hug and we dashed off to catch our train to Basel. I LOVE HER. So much! She's one of the most absolute precious Canadian gems of a soul whom I've ever met. I'm very excited for this next transfer!

We dropped off my luggage at the Pratteln Sisters' apartment, since we had an appointment that we needed to get to quickly. I got to see Sister Grundvig again, which was wonderful. It was weird though, because when I saw her open the door I half expected the inside of the apartment to look like the Salzburg Sisters'.

We dashed off to Schwester Culminada, who is a sweet older woman. It was the first time she had invited missionaries over in a while, so we were so happy to get to go. Also, we were amazed to hear about how much she used to work with the missionaries! Honestly, I aspire to be her one day. She invited missionaries over every week and was present and several lessons each week and was a stake missionary and everything. Truly a quality human being.

After the meal appointment with Schwester Culminada, we had some time to kill before the Pratteln Sisters would be back at their apartment to let us in to get my luggage. So we went by on Véronique, a recent convert and yet another of the most precious souls I've ever met. She was a little bit stressed, but so excited to see us and tell us about some of the recent blessings she's seen in her life by just trusting in God and being patient. We were so happy for her!

We ran from Veronique to the Pratteln Sisters, got my Luggage and headed home for me to unpack. All in all, the day was a little exhausting, but so much fun.

Donnerstag, 20th:

We did an inventory of our part of the basement (you know, where you have like a storage stall, since it's an apartment building), because that was on the Basel Sisters' to-do list before I came, they just weren't able to find time to get it done. Nothing too exciting, but we did find a couple of extra chairs!

We Heart-attacked Patrick and Pascal to thank them. They're two twins in our ward who got back from their missions less than a year ago and they apparently help us out a lot. I'm super excited to finally get to meet them because I've heard so many good things about them.

We went to the Pratteln church (ours is currently under construction, so the Pratteln church is actually our temporary church building) and I met with Sister Thayne over a video call again. She just wanted to check in with me and see how things were going since our last call. And apparently Sister Akre and Basel are exactly what I needed to get over my weirdness from before, because Sister Thayne said I am doing very well and I don't need to meet with her anymore. Yay! I'm back to being/feeling myself! 

When we got home on Thursday night, we (and by we I mean Sister Akre, and I provided moral support) made us a meal/exercise plan for the coming week. She's had some bad migraines, and the doctor thinks that better nutrition/exercise might be able to help with it, so we have a goal to work together to help her migraines go away (or at least get better). As sad as I will be to give up chocolate, Haribo, and pastries, I think this is going to be really good for me too.  So we've been pumped all weekend and we're trying to finish all of the treats in our apartment before Monday. We're slowly getting there. 

Freitag, 21st:

We ran over to the Pratteln Sisters again to pick up some Cake pans, and on the way back we did a little bit of shopping for ingredients BECAUSE there was a baptism on Saturday and nobody had signed up for bringing food, and Sister Akre had helped to teach the woman but wasn't able to go to the baptism because there were already going to be too many missionaries, so she got permission to show her support by baking 4 desserts and counting it as a service project. Together, we managed to back 4 desserts in the span of 3-4 hours. We were very impressed with ourselves, especially considering our oven is a little bit lame.

After baking, we packed the treats into big bags so we could carry them without smushing everything, and ran over to Eutacia. Eutacia is a wonderful human who moved here from the Dominican Republic and is a queen at hair stuff. She's a member, and so she gives incredible discounts to missionaries, and we have permission from Präsident to stop by on not-P-days in order to fellowship her a little more, since she doesn't come to church very frequently. And of course, since I haven't cut my hair in over a year, I had some pretty major split ends that I wanted to get taken care of. She made my hair healthy again, but because she also loves long hair she kept it as long as possible. And when I asked her to trim my "bangs" that were honestly just layers at this point, she asked me if I wanted my bangs back. I figured why not, because I did love my bangs, and they're easy enough to grow out. So she gave me bangs again, and when she finished she just looked at me and said very seriously in a Spanish accent, "Du, immer Pony, bitte!" Which means that I'm not allowed to grow out my bangs while I'm here, because she won't stand for it.  But I'm okay with that, because I like my bangs. She also helped tame my eyebrows, and they look incredible. Anyway, that was a long description of my hair adventure, so to turn it back to something spiritual, Eutacia told us that her older son wants to have the lessons and get baptised! She was so excited. Too bad I don't speak Spanish well enough.  But it's okay, we have some wonderful members who do, and the Elders will be teaching him anyway. 

After Eutacia, we dropped off the 4 desserts to the Reinach Sisters (since they would be going to the baptism), and then went home for the evening.

Samstag, 22nd:

So in this Distrikt, apparently we do Sport every Saturday with the intention of helping ward members and friends of the church bond better. However, because it was a little rainy, only 4 missionaries and 2 friends showed up, so we just played "World Cup". Man, it was so nice to be able to play football/soccer again - I've missed it! Sister Akre decided we're going to buy one for me, since hopefully it will help me in our journey together to be healthier. If that tells you anything about how excited I was. 

We did some Finding to finish up our hours for the week. But it was yet again difficult because of yet another Demonstration, this time against racism. 

This day was absolutely phenomenal because I got to talk to two of my bois (meaning, 2 of the wonderful Elders with whom I have interacted in the past and for whom I have Christlike love), Elder Porter and Elder Hema!! So the baptism that we baked stuff for happened this day, which meant (because of some reasons that are a little hard to explain in an email) that the Reinach Sisters (who are in our Distrikt) went to the area where Elder Porter is serving for the baptism. Which meant he used their phone to send me a selfie and voice recordings saying hi, and it absolutely MADE MY DAY. I can't wait to see him at zone conference! And I got to talk to Hema because Sister Akre needed to ask his companion a favor for a recent convert, so we had permission to call them. I'll also get to see him at zone conference, so it's going to be a grand reunion of the Linz Rats! 

Sonntag, 23rd:

We had Church, and I got to introduce myself. 

After church, Sister Akre and I both got Blessings from our Distrikt leader and his comp. 

Montag, 24th:

Happy birthday to Mark! 

So today was Day one of getting fit! My legs are sooooo sore, but I've felt pretty decent! 

We had Distrikt meeting, and Pizza soup for lunch. 

We went to the Doctor for Sister Akre, and we think it might be a scam but we're going to do our best to pretend like we don't think that and just do what he told her to do. 

We met with Véronique, our recent convert who also wants to serve a mission!!, and answered a couple of questions of hers. 

We also met with Vivianne, and Véronique and Patrick both came along as joint-teaches. We met on the edge of the Rhein on the grass. She was sweet, but it was soooo hot, so I think we were all a little grateful to part ways and head home. 

Dienstag, 25th:

Today we went to a little street market close to our town, and we also went to the big shopping center where all of the Bern Zone missionaries were going to be. We missed most of them, but I still got to see a couple. And I'll see the rest next week. 

Favorite new word: Wälzen - To roll something over, Walzen - To roll something up

Favorite funny story: So Sister Akre's old companion left behind a lot of make-up, so we brought it to the Pratteln Sisters to go through and claim. They ended up sending us pictures of themselves with the caption, "Someone got a little carried away" or something. Basically, the red lipstick and fake lashes were quality. So we decided to rival their picture, and we did my make-up intentionally atrociously. Aside from the terrible eyeliner, I actually didn't look too bad. I looked better than some girls I've seen on the street, however I don't think I'll be repeating the look. 

Favorite spiritual thought: God knows exactly what is best for us. Even if it might be a little a intimidating or we're not sure we want to follow through with it, it's exactly what we need. Thank goodness God knows us better than we know ourselves! 

TLDR: I'm doing GREAT!! 

Sending my love and prayers your way,

Sister Hamilton

Pics: Goodbye to Sister Meisenfelder, hello Sister Akre, new haircut, nasty eyeliner/make-up, and I forgot to say that on Wednesday it rained so hard that the tram was leaking and I literally had to use my umbrella inside the tram