Tea Time
Mittwoch, 21st:
We got up and headed off to Basell SBB to wish Elder Gilmour farewell. We got there early, as per usual (we're pünktlich like that). So we bought some pretzels and waited on the platform where Elder Gilmour's train was going to be. Suddenly, I see a missionary carting suitcases behind him. Was it Elder Gilmour? No! It was his replacement. We ended up being the welcoming committee for Elder Drowns, and had fun getting to know him a little. Turns out he likes art, too! 
Then Pascal came to say goodbye to Elder Gilmour, worried that he had missed him, but there before him. Eventually (about 3 minutes before his train left), Elder Gilmour and Elder Vogel showed up, riding casually down the escalators. Quick hugs (and handshakes) were exchanged, and off Elder Gilmour went. And now that Elder Drowns officially had his companion, we bailed.
We went finding, and eventually the Elders showed up to participate in an Ausstellung. Elder Drowns is very quiet, but we felt bad for him because he just came halfway through a transfer into a distrikt that's been bonding for almost 3 months now... We've been doing our best to help him feel included.
We met with Véronique before institute just to go over a couple of things she had questions on and mostly just to make sure she felt loved. It was a wonderful appointment.
Institute was also fun, but I fet very awkward and like I was back at BYU, just in German. It helped me realise that as much as the mission has helped me to be willing to talk to complete strangers, I'm still a true-blooded introvert, haha. But Véronique was kind enough to talk to me so that I didn't feel too awkward.
Donnerstag, 22nd:
We did our some of our studies in the morning, and then headed off to an appointment with Vivianne (one of our friends). It was so good! Véronique came along as a joint-teach, and totally brought the Spirit through her testimony. Vivianne is so sincerely trying to discover the truth, and prayers on her behalf would be much appreciated. :) She and Véronique are also becoming good friends, so at the end of the lesson they insulted the Basel accent and bonded over that (Véronique has an accent from Solothurn (closer to Bern) and Vivianne for some reason doesn't sound like a true Basel...onian, haha).
After the lesson, Véronique offered to come finding with us. It was her first time EVER, so she was a little aprehensive. After the first 3 people rejected us, Véronique got very quiet and somewhat upset. She was so frustrated that people wouldn't treat us with the least degree of human decency, let alone give us the time of day. I had honestly forgotten that the rejection is that bad. I've gotten so used to it, but it was interesting seeing it through her eyes. It was cool though, because she channeled her frustration into becoming incredibly bold. She walked straight up to these two boys and asked them what they thought about religion. That led into an hour-long conversation about God and religion, and she was such a stellar missionary. We also had a fun conversation with an ex-Jehovah's Witness, and at one point Véronique grabbed this woman's hands and looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I just need to tell you that God loves you, Jesus loves you, and we love you." It was a very touching moment.
Véronique ended her finding with us on that good note, and then we parted ways. :)
We got some snacks. ;)
We had an Ausstellung with the rest of the distrikt. The rest of it was pretty good, and somewhat uneventful.
We then went home to do our Sprach studium and eat dinner.
Freitag, 23rd:
We went by on a less-active named Schwester Koppold, who was super kind and invited us back eventually to eat some cake. *thumbs up*
So I had gotten some new shoes on Tuesday, and I had been wearing them around the house so I thought they were broken in, but I was WRONG. Anyway, I had worn them to this appointment, and luckily I had followed my prompting that morning to back an extra pair of shoes. And luckily, Sister Akre had followed her prompting to pack bandaids. ;)
We went by on Schwester Caminada who's in the hospital because she fell. It was so cool visiting her, because first off, she's one of our dear friends. And secondly, it was the perfect opportunity for her to share the gospel! At one point, as we were sitting and chatting, a nurse came in and helped this her to go to the bathroom. They were gone for a while, and we were awkwardly sitting in the hospital room with her co-patient who couldn't speak due to a pretty bad stroke. We started to run out of things to talk about, but then our Schwester Caminada came back and the nurse left. It turns out that the nurse had asked her if our visit was wanted and that she could get rid of us if she wanted her to. She just laughed and said, "Of course I want them here!" The nurse asked why, and Schwester Caminada got to explain that she belonged to our church and that we were good friends of hers. The nurse was a little incredulous and asked again, why she would belong to this church. Schwester Caminada immediately went into sharing her testimony about tithing, the priesthood, prophets, etc. I'm not sure how the nurse reacted, but in retelling this part of the story, our friend got very emotional. Eventually, she made it back to us and the nurse went on her way. I found this story so inspirational because Schwester Caminada didn't even hesitate to share her testimony, despite being in an awkward situation (when we visited her again on Sunday, she laughed to us about how she realised how strange it was that she had shared her testimony while in the bathroom). She also has no idea if this nurse will ever investigate the church or become converted, but she felt a heavenly love for her and ministered to her in the way that she could, despite being the one who was technically being taken care of/ministered to. Man, I love this woman. She's such a power Frau and I hope that I can grow up to be as cool as her.
Afterwards, we tried to get into Basel's church, but unfortunately, it's still locked up and under construction.
So once upon a time, Sister Frome (serving in Pratteln) loooovveeesss Virgin Mojitos. And then I found Virgin Mojito tic-tacs... So naturally, we bought them (along with some orange ones), and delivered them to the Preinach Sisters. Both Sister Frome and Sister Curran were happy, and I've found it very amusing that Sister Frome was almost done with hers by the end of the next day and Sister Curran has managed to make hers last.
Samstag, 24th:
We ran into Basel to give our German passes to the Elders, because they were visiting Bruder König in the hospital in Lörrach.
We went by on Schwester Rickli, another less-active (mostly because she's old and can't make it to the Pratteln church... man, this construction thing is a pain). But she was on her way to the hair-cutter, so we said we would come back later.
We did some finding.
We randomly get this text with a 5 min warning from the Elders that they were going to be at Basel Badischer Bahnhof and we had until their bus left to pick up our passes again. So we ran to the Bahnhof and managed to get our passes, although we were a little salty about the short notice.
We did more finding.
We went to Weil am Rhein to get some ingredients for Distrikt Lunch, since we got last-minute notice that we were making it and we had like... moldy bean sprouts and some instant potatoes at home. So. We figured we could use our lunch to get some noodles and chicken for our Distrikt.
When we got home, we did our studies.
We went to Sportabend, and Sister Akre realised that she's been playing Basketball wrong the whole time and that it's not actually a contact sport. Her conclusion: Canadians are more violent, and that's why they don't have a pro basketball league.
Sonntag, 25th:
We did our studies.
The Egens gave us a ride to church again, and surprise! Patrick was in the car, too. It was a fun trip.
We had church, and they had some members give their last testimonies, since they're moving back to America this week.
We got another ride home and ate a nice, healthy lunch of some sweet breads that a Peruvian woman in our ward gave us (for the life of me, I can't remember her name, but she's so sweet and patient with my Spanish).
We went to Schwester Caminada again, and had such a blast talking to her. She's doing so much better, and we were so happy to see that. The Elders gave her the Sacrament, and in return, she ordered each of us an Eis (even a Basel brand) from the Hospital kitchen. What an ANGEL! Then the Elders left, and we kept talking to her, and she's just such a precious soul and I decided I would be her really good friend if she either A) lived back home or B) we were the same age. But as it is, she's still a really good friend, we just bond in different ways.
We went home again after that. :)
Oh, also, we managed to get 20 hours of finding this week! It was so fun!
Montag, 26th:
We got to the church early and wrote our letters to Präsident, and then we had Distriktrat.
We made a good Lunch of cajun chicken on top of noodles, and that was tasty! (shoutout to Sister Akre for actually making the sauce - I just boiled the noodles)
We went by on Schwester Rickli again, and this time she let us in. She and Sister Akre bonded about cars, and I smiled and looked cute. But she invited us to a restaurant this coming Saturday, so I guess she likes us! :)
We headed home, doing finding on way. The bus broke at one point, and they ended up switching drivers. The new driver decided to make up for lost time (after they got it fixed) by swinging around corners and almost killing us. I was facing backwards, and it made me a little motion sick, tbh.
We did our studies.
We dropped off a couple packages at the post office for the Pratteln Sisters.
We cleaned our fridge because it was RANCID. And now I'm actually willing to eat food out of it again. :)
Dienstag, 27th:
We went to Clarakirche and took some pictures. We also went to an art store! I was overjoyed. :D Plus, I had fun talking to my family.
Favorite new word(s): Esp, cariñoso - affectionate, Deu, scheußlich - atrocious/abominable/
Favorite funny story: When we went by Schwester Caminada, we had specifically planned to be there after the Elders, but when we got there it was as if they had waited for us. The sneaks. But it was chill, we got to take the Sacrament for the second time, and they were kind. We just found it highly amusing.
Favorite spiritual thought: It's a quick one this week because I'm out of time. So go read this talk: https://www.
TLDR: Life is SO SO good! I love the older women in our ward.
Hurrah for Israel!
Much love,
Sister Hamilton
Pics:
A giant spider we found after Distrikt meeting
Sister Akre and I, awwwwww
The train Elder Gilmour was on RIP
The view from Schwester Caminada's hospital room
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