Where in the World...

... am I going? 

... is Carmen Sandiego? 

... does someone have experiences like I do?

Answers: Switzerland! 

Mittwuch, 12th:

We went to Familie Autiero, and we invited Estefania from the international ward to come along, since she speaks Spanish and would better be able to connect with the mom, who doesn't really speak very much German. When they started going off in Spanish, it really humbled me and I realised just how much I've forgotten.  So, a goal of mine is to relearn/remember my Spanish when I get home. And the appointment was a little weird, because we sat down on the couch, and I was kind of expecting the family to come and sit to talk to us so we could share a spiritual thought or something, but as with a surprising amount of appointments this week, the family was all over the place and didn't really come and talk to us. But the teenage daughter did, so eventually we moved to her room so we could actually hear each other. It was actually quite special, because she really opened up to us, and we could all just feel so much love in that room. Oh, and we found out that she isn't a Friend of the Church, like we thought, but rather that she's a member and has even been to the temple to do baptisms! Gotta love confusion and the lack of communication that causes it.  But yeah, Sister Meisenfelder is going to do her best to keep reaching out to this girl. Also, just a quick shout out to Estefania for being amazing. She really was perfect, and brought such a spirit with her. Never underestimate the power that a member can bring to a lesson. 

We went straight from that to a preparation for the Pinewood derby. Our bishop requested that we participate, plus normally about 50% of the people who go aren't members, so we decided we're going to make our car "Team Christus" and give it a little Book of Mormon flag on the back. It won't be very fast, but that's not why we made it, if you know what I mean. 

Donnstiig, 13th:

We visited a new member of the ward, Nicole, who moved here about a month or so ago. She was sweet, and had a lot of stories. She and Sister Meisenfelder got along well, and I just kind of sat there and drank my raspberry tea and tried to actively listen. But it was one of those days where neither my body nor my brain was having it, so I was grateful that Sister Meisenfelder let me kind of passively listen instead. 

I met with Sister Thayne, our mission therapist, who's also kind of in charge of the Europe area or something like that? Anyway, I had had a weird transfer, but especially the past week I just felt off, so at the encouragement of my companion and the Spirit, I met with her. Good news: I'm normal! She helped me realise that the things I was feeling were normal and they were clearly connected to other things that have happened recently. It was actually very (wait for it) THEREPEUTIC  to talk to her. She also said that some of the things I said made her feel like I needed to leave this area, and I tried to assure her everything was fine because my companion and I get along, and she went into Momma-Bonner-mode and told me no about how staying would be fine. She said some things made her think it would be good for me to stay, but that there were other things that meant I should leave. So she respectfully asked me if I REALLY thought I should stay. I think my silence told her enough, haha. But yeah, so she said she would talk to our mission president. So over the course of 45 minutes, my transfer call went from me being very certain that we were both staying, to thinking I was probably going to leave but also hoping I could stay.  But seriously, she really reminded me of Momma Bonner (shoutout to one of the wonderful women who kept me sane back home)! 

We met with Jonathan and he asked some good questions about how to recognize answers to prayer. I'm really impressed at his faith, that his questions were never "Does God REALLY answer prayers?" but more "How do I be patient? How do I recognize the answers that God could already be giving me?" Like honestly, WHAT A LAD. Also, it was so cool, because at the end of the lesson I said the prayer, and that was the first time I've felt like I received a little bit of revelation about the person I prayed for. So once I finished the prayer, I just turned to Jonathan and I said something about how I knew that God has been answering his prayers, which means he doesn't need to be patient to wait for an answer, but how instead he needs to try to find how God has been blessing him. It was SO cool. What a special experience that was. I literally felt like the instrument of God that so many peoole in the Book of Mormon talk about being. 

We had Gemeinderat, which went pretty well. Nothing too special to report here, other than that Bischof told us he was grateful to be working with us (according to Sister Meisenfelder, that's only the 2nd time in the past 7.5 months that he's said that, and the first time was my first Gemeinderat here - credit goes to her, though, I honestly cannot claim that). 

Friitiig, 14th:

We met with Alice, a member here, and basically just got to know her. She introduced us to the miracle that is a special kind of dried apples. To quote her, "They're like little clouds..." Sister Meisenfelder and I bought our own bag of them, and they were gone that night. I found my new healthy snack. She was just awesome in General. She's from Utah, and consequently has the creative artsy skills that many Utahns seem to have like photography and everything, but she's lived in Switzerland for the past few years and so also has that perspective, so like she was cool.

We met with Viriya, and the Zürich International Elders came too. It was a really good lesson and the Elders really helped to invite the Spirit. I was impressed. :) 

There was a Women's strike all day, about like equality in the workplace and stuff. No political comments from me are allowed, but I can say that it was a bit of a pain trying to do missionary work when random people are running around blowing whistles and there's a parade on your finding street but you're not allowed to be near demonstrations, so you have to take a side-route to get to Bahnhof and you get scared that you're lost for a half minute and then you show up late to your appointment. But I think that was kind of the point of the demonstration, to show how much women can influence the world. 🤷🏼‍♀️

We stayed up until midnight, because Sister Meisenfelder was going through some rough things, so we basically just had a heart-to-heart.

Samstiig, 15th:

We got our Transfer Calls! And surprisingly, but also at the same time exactly what I had thought was going to happen since Thursday, I'm leaving. Yes, that's right, I got 1-transfer-slapped here in Switzerland, which as far as I'm aware, is the first time that's happened. But I mean, I was also in Austria the whole time before, so I was pretty oblivious to anything happening in Switzerland and Germany.  Which brings me to where I'm going! I will be transferred to Basel, which is in the Bern Zone. But it's right on the border, which means I'll be living in Germany, but doing all of my work in Switzerland. So I get the best of both worlds, haha. My companion will be Sister Akre, who was Sister Kubricky's MTC companion. And here in Bonstetten, Sister Meisenfelder will be getting Sister Griffith (aus Texas?) and they will be STLs. 

So because it's Gay Pride month, the stores here have been decked out for the past few weeks, the Quaibrücke was redecorated to be the Gaybrücke with rainbow street stuff everywhere (the crosswalks had rainbows on them, etc), and Gay flags have been hanging from every flag pole that didn't have a Swiss or Zürich flag on it (which meant there were more rainbow flags than Swiss flags). Again, no political commentary allowed, but I can say it was pretty hard to do missionary work this Saturday because nobody was really out while we were finding in the morning, and we thought that was pretty strange, but once we needed to leave we started walking up Bahnhofstraße and found all of the people. Not only did we find all of the people, we found the Parade. We literally ran across the street in front of it so we could make it to Bahnhof, otherwise we would have been stuck right smack dab in the middle of everything for who knows how long while they blocked the road. Luckily, I'm pretty good at being blind, but Sister Meisenfelder says she saw some things that she wishes she could unsee. This time, unfortunately, we weren't so good at avoiding the demonstration, so we kind of just pulled our hair to cover our name tags and hoped for the best. But all is well that ends well! 

We made it to an Ausstellung in Oerlikon, which isn't in our Zone but is in Zürich, so everyone kind of just went (because let's be real, we weren't going to get any effective finding done in Zürich central). The Ausstellung was also a little unique because it was in a more... cultural part of the city. So we talked to some cool people, even though the area wasn't as crowded as we would have hoped. 

We went to the Familie Bradford for a dinner appointment, but they had written down in their calendar that we would be coming on Sunday, not Saturday, so they weren't expecting us.  But they were super sweet and made us paninis even though they had already eaten that night. We asked if we could do anything for them, so we made an appointment to come and help them clean on Monday, since they're expecting guests within the next week or so.

Sontiig, 16th:

We had Church. (obviously. I don't know why I always write this, haha) 

It was Father's day! You know what that means now.  I got to call my dad! It was a bit of an adventure getting to that point though, because we went to the church for wifi, but then the church's wifi didn't work, so after a couple calls, Heidi Aeschbacher picked us up and brought us to their home, where they kindly gave Sister Meisenfelder and I separate rooms so we could call our families. It was so nice to talk to everyone and to see their smiling faces (and to see South Royalton). It was a good talk. 

After I hung up with my family, Sister Meisenfelder was still talking, and the dear sweet Aeschbachers offered to feed us dinner, as well. So I donned an apron and got to work making a carrot salad (in other words, I peeled and shredded carrots) and I just got to chat with Heidi while we both washed veggies and cut things and everything. It was so wonderful, and I felt a little bit like I was back home (she's also from Utah, and reminds me a lot of BillieJo! ). She was like my own mom for a few minutes, and we talked about her son who is in France on his mission and the different things happening there, etc. Then Sister Meisenfelder finished her call and came to help finish the meal prep. And then we had a wonderful meal (again, Vegan, but this time without the steak, haha) full of veggies and fruit, and for dessert we had peaches and (ice) cream (so I guess it wasn't 100% vegan again, haha). It was so sweet of them, because they hadn't planned for it, were busy, and went above and beyond. People like them... They're quality souls. 

Mäntiig, 17th:

So we went to the Bradford's home to help, and we were getting into a pretty good groove. It was just the mom and us, because the kids were at school. When the kids came home for their 1.5 hour lunch break (wow, Switzerland), the mom sliced some bread and everything was fine and dandy. Then all of a sudden, the mom grabbed her purse and ran out the door saying something about an appointment she had forgotten. Surprise! Plötzlich, we were babysitting. Which, is against mission rules. But like, you can't exactly just abandon kids in a home, either. So we ate lunch at sat very awkwardly at the table as the children told us that it was fine, because we weren't babysitting them, they were babysitting us! That didn't make us feel much better, haha.  But, we also needed to get to Distrikt rat, so we left the 15-year-old in charge, who had claimed to be in charge the second the mom left the house anyway. When we left we just prayed that they wouldn't burn the house down. 

We had Distriktrat, which was actually pretty good for the most part. We got notice of some new rules for Area Book and privacy data laws and everything, and I'm not gonna lie it's going to be REALLY hard to really do much of any recording and to not scare people away from meeting with us, but I'd rather that the church didn't get in trouble. So. But I'm sure there will be unforeseen blessings, and I'm staying hopeful. It was also a little weird because a couple of the missionaries were a little rude to our Distrikt leader (I think and I hope unintentionally) but he's so sweet that he got over it pretty quickly. But because these Elders left Distrikt meeting early our Distrikt Leader (Elder Thomson) and I gave our farewell testimonies outside of the church on the steps, since we can't be 2 Elders and 2 Sisters alone in the church. But it was a really good ending to the meeting and the transfer. 

After Distrikt Meeting we went back to the Bradford's to help again, but the family didn't know that we were coming back (we did, however, confirm that with the mom?). It felt good to keep cleaning, but for some reason one of the daughters was very upset about what we were doing. The 2 younger girls though, they totally helped and were so happy to clean and the 7-year-old even cleaned the entire bathroom by herself! But yeah, as we kept cleaning more people came home. The 18-year-old walked into the house and just kind of stood there dumbstruck, and immediately asked us how he could help. His mom ended up telling him to make dinner, and I helped a little while Sister Meisenfelder cleaned the table and the area around it. While we were waiting for everything to cook, the mom also seemed kind of annoyed and told us to just sit on the couch and not clean anything and to relax for 20 minutes. So the 2 younger girls each grabbed a tablet and one sat by Sister Meisenfelder and the other sat by me, and they started watching Netflix. I have a new show to look up when I get home, haha (it's called Carmen Sandiego).  But yeah, it was really awkward because we felt kind of unwanted and we accidentally broke a couple rules, but like we still felt like we had done a good thing. So it was weird, but good. They really are a sweet family, I just think it might be been a bad day.  But the 2 little girls were absolutely putzig (lol, get it? Probably not. But that's okay. I think it's funny). Oh, and the dinner was good, too. :) 

After we headed home from this appointment, we saw Cosimo at our town's station. He gave us Madelines from the family home evening that we missed because of the service project, and then he told me he had a present for me! He said that because I was kind of sad that we weren't able to do a chalk Ausstellung in Zürich where we draw the Plan of Salvation or something, he bought me CHALK to use in Basel. It was literally sooo sweet. We had talked about it like once 4 weeks ago, and he remembered, and he got me chalk. It was so touching, and honestly was such a big example of charity for me. Everyone should take notes on this, because this is how you treat others! He also, after hearing our Spiel about how our day went, said, "Es geht um die Menschen und man soll sich auch daran erinnern, dass Missionare auch Menschen sind." Which translated means, "It's all about the people, but you should also remember that missionaries are people too." That brought me so much comfort. Because obviously there's the saying that missionaries are people too, but that's more to remember that like we're not perfect and we're normal too. But what he said means more that we have needs that need to be met as well. Literally, he is such a precious soul. I'm going to miss him. He deserves so much good in life. 

Ciestiig, 19th:

GUESS WHERE WE'RE FINALLY GOING TODAY? That's right, family and friends, after 6 weeks of planning and it not working out, we are going to RIGI!!!!!!! 

LOL, okay, no time passed for you, but I wrote the rest of this email before Rigi, and now I'm adding an addendum. IT WAS SO GOOD. It was so pretty and I felt like I was in paradise. Sister Meisenfelder and I just sat in the grassy field and ate lunch and were just amazed at how much God loves us. Like, He literally gave us such a beautiful world to live in, and heaven is going to be even prettier. Ah. I love it. It was a perfect last P-day here in Zürich. ️

Now we're on our way to Zürich Hauptbahnhof to get some Souvenirs. 🇨🇭️ LOL, Jk. We'll see. 

Favorite new word: Fleischettiketierungsüberwachungsübertragungsgesetz - the longest word in German (according to Sister Meisenfelder), and I don't know how exactly it translates. But you know how in German they just squish words together to make longer words? Well, if you translate the smaller words, it means this: meat labeling monitoring transmission law. Which is about how Sister Meisenfelder explained it. But it's mostly just cool because it's a long word. 

Favorite funny story: Honestly, just this week. It was such a Rollercoaster, but one of those fun ones that doesn't make you too motionsick, but also like you're a little scared of that big drop that's about to come, but you know that you're going to enjoy it no matter how much you may scream your lungs out. That was this week. Sister Meisenfelder and I have had soooo much fun together these past few days. But as mom always says, "Leave while the party is still fun!" Or the German version, "Man geht, wenn es am schönsten ist." 

Favorite spiritual thought: See the story about Cosimo. 

TLDR: I'm being transferred, and life is good. ️

My best wishes to everyone!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Hamilton

Pics: Rigi (and accidentally meeting 4 other Elders there), Cosimo, and a little taste of Zürich this week