Team Christus

Mittwoch, 28th:

We did our studies in the morning. And by studies, I mean we listened to General Conference talks as we cleaned our apartment. We had cleaned a bit Tuesday night during personal time, but didn't get very far. So we made up for that. 

We headed into Basel to Tausch with the Zollikofen Sisters. When we get to Basel SBB, we greeted them and I was told that we either had 2 or 30 minutes to catch a train back to Bern. So we gave quick hugs and ran off to our platform. Luckily, we made our train! We got off at a different station to catch our connection, and while waiting for it we planned a lesson. At the time when our train should have come, we realised that the only train that was there said "Geschlossen" (or closed) and the travel board asked us not to board that train. So we quickly checked the app and changed plans, dashed off to another platform, and caught a train heading into Bern. Once in Bern, we went straight into finding, and we actually had a wonderful conversation! Sister Derry (my temporary comp and a precious sweetheart from England) stopped this one girl with the question, "What made you happy today?" Now normally, it takes people a couple minutes to think, but this girl just rattled off a long list of things she had either done, see, or heard. Then she asked us what makes us happy, and it was sweet to have the question asked back for once. Apparently this girl swears she's seen me several times before, but I don't know how she would have, haha. But I'm keeping my eye out for her now. 

After finding, we headed off to the Zollikofen chapel (in the shadow of the temple) for our lesson with a recent convert. It went... Mostly well. She met with missionaries for a long time before she got baptised, so she's getting kind of bored of hearing the same lessons over and over again. I tried to explain to her that as  members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we hear the same things over and over again throughout our entire lives (the basics are so important!), but that if we put in the effort we can always get something new out of what we're hearing and doing, thanks to the Spirit. Unfortunately, I don't think it got through to her, but at least for the rest of the lesson she didn't complain about what we were teaching. Sister Derry ended the lesson on a positive note by telling the all-classic joke, "How does Moses make his tea?.....He-brews it." And then I said a prayer. So we all left with good feelings. 

After that, we traveled back into Bern for about 20 more minutes of finding, in which I drew a super sweet girl who had the day off from working as a nurse. She wasn't super interested in the church, but thought it was cool what we were doing. 

Then we went right back to the chapel in Zollikofen for Deutschkurs. It was the first night, so everyone was buzzing. The Zollikofen Elders taught the lesson, thank goodness, haha. But it was actually hilarious because they were also on Tausch, so Elder Vogel was also there. There was only minor contention as the Neubekehrt corrected the Elders often (some correction is welcome, but it gets to the point where it's just awkward, but about halfway through she calmed down and helped the person sitting next to her). So all-in-all it was a success! 

By the end of Deutschkurs, I was ready for food. I was very excited for dinner. So we got to the Sisters' apartment and Sister Derry started making stir-fry (I, like the hero I am, cut the onions ). But only a couple minutes into cooking, the Neubekehrt called us to apologize for how she had acted the whole day, which was very sweet of her. But because the stir fry was too loud, we COULDN'T COOK which meant we COULDN'T EAT. I was dying. So after about 35 minutes of being on this phone call (it was a long and round-about apology, which I've heard is very true to character), I said to myself, "Patch this." And I got up, walked into the kitchen, and continued to make the food. Sister Derry looked very grateful, haha, as she was still talking through things with this Neubekehrt. I basically just cooked it at a lower heat, so it wasn't too loud. So by the time the phone call was done, the food was ready, and we could finally eat at around 9:50-10. Then we went to bed. 

And in the end, things with this Neubekehrt were smoothed over. She still doesn't want to be taught the same things (she made that very clear), but she apologized for the way she had said it. Which like, I don't blame her, hearing the 1st vision every couple months for 2-3 years straight would be a bit of a pain... So good luck to the Zollikofen Sisters - my prayers are with you.  But she did seem interested in a patriarchal blessing, and I'm not sure how much about that she knows. So they've got somewhere to start. :) 

Donnerstag, 29th:

We woke up and went for a nice walk around the temple (and through the forest behind it) for our Frühsport (honestly so gorgeous and refreshing for both body and soul). I accidentally forgot my name tag and ran into a member from the Bonstetten ward - it was fun to be able to say hi again. 

We got ready for the day and I had multigrain cheerios for breakfast, which reminded me of how much I love and actually loweky prefer not-sugar-cereals (shoutout to Corn Chex and Wheaties), and I had a nice little moment to reminisce about home while Sister Derry showered.

We only got about 12 minutes of personal before we had to run out the door to an appointment. We met with an older less-active woman. The Sisters had showed up to her house the day before (before we tausched), but she told them they had come a day too early. So they felt bad about that. But when we showed up on Thursday, the first thing she said was, "I was in the wrong. You guys were right - it was yesterday!" She had felt sooo bad because the second the Sisters had left, this woman had checked her calendar and realised that the Sisters were right, but by then the Sisters were nowhere to be seen. So she apologized for a while, and told us that she had made a cherry cake to apologize (I felt kind of guilty, because I got free cake for no reason, but I think it really touched Sister Derry). So we shared a spiritual thought while the cake finsihed baking/cooled off (it took us a while to share this thought because the woman kept getting sidetracked, but she was super sweet). At the very end, we got to eat some delicious cake, exchanged hugs, and then we left. 

We dashed off to the church (yet again) for GMK. The original plan was that Sister Adam's and Sister Akre would come from Basel and go to GMK, because it started at the same time that we left this woman's house. But they had sent us a text earlier saying they had missed their train, so we were afraid that they weren't going to make it. So we went to GMK for the last 10 minutes or so of it, but it turns out that the other Sisters had managed to make it. So it was kind of pointless for us to be there, but also hilarious that 3 of the 6 missionaries there were actually from Basel. Lol, what an effective GMK. But as far as I've heard, it actually was quite effective, and the GML was kind enough to ask us Basel missionaries for our input. 

Then we untausched, said goodbye to the Zollikofen Sisters, and headed back to Basel. I loved working with Sister Derry in Bern, but it was so nice to be back home with Sister Akre. ️

We spent the rest of our day doing some finding and some studies, with a quick dash to the Preinach Sisters' apartment since Sister Akre had borrowed their keys and we needed to give them back. 

Freitag, 30th:

We did our studies in the morning and headed into Basel to do some more finding. It was hotter than usual, so I felt kind of sick, and Sister Akre's migraine was pretty bad. But we pushed through, sticking to the shady alleyways (lol, notice the double meaning) of Basel. It was actually really cool, because we found some really old buildings and fountains. I felt a little more like I was discovering the true character of Basel, since where we normally spend our time is so modernized. I also found a nasty open urinal (no doors - walk right in and enjoy the stench of stale pee!) built into the side of a wall. Europe cracks me up sometimes. 

We also ran into the Preinach Sisters and talked with them for a bit, which was fun. 

After a while, though, Sister Akre's headache was bad enough that we just decided to do bus finding on the way home to finish out our hours for the day. Before heading out, though, we stopped by Véronique to say hello and tell her that Sister Akre is going to be leaving in a week or so (because President Brown's letters to us said that Sister Akre has been here for a long time and that she has some new adventures in store... RIP. It's okay, we've just been in denial this whole transfer; she actually had already started packing, so it's not a surprise to us). 

The rest of the evening we did studies (I finished General Conference, finally!) and cut out pictures for Tschüß books. 

Samstag, 31st:

Wowee, what a day. I woke up in the morning feeling inspired and ready to take on the world (I had a solid prayer the night before). I made my bed, put away my clothes, did laundry, tidied up my desk, got ready, and even read a few Ensign Articles - all before 9! (6:30 am, the usual morning lineup...) At one point, I accidentally spilled a bowl of popcorn kernels all over the floor in my efforts to clean, but I didn't let that ruin my day, and quickly got it cleaned up. I have to say, it really set a good tone for the day. 

We did our studies, and then went to Claraplatz for a lunch appointment with Schwester Rickli (we met with her on Monday the 26th). She said she's too old to cook for 3 people now, so she invited us to a restaurant called B.GOOD. We met her at Clarakirche and crossed the street to get there. When we walked in she said, "Sisters, PLEASE: Ignore the price!" She insisted we get whatever we wanted. Even though she said that, I still feel bad about using other people's money, so I tried my usual trick of, "Oh, so what are you getting?" so that I could price match and hopefully get something cheaper than she did. But she was sneaky and managed to order without me hearing, so I was left to truly get whatever I wanted. So... I'm pretty sure I got one of the more expensive things on the menu, but it was well worth it. She also ordered us drinks and told us to get sides, so by the end of this I was feeling pretty bad about how much she was spending. But it tasted great, and she seemed very satisfied with herself. I sat in something sticky so my dress felt crusty and nasty all day (but my hair was cute!). Another member also saw us while we were eating and talked with Schwester Rickli for about a third of the time we were eating, so that was fun. After we finished eating, I was very full and ready to give our spiritual thought, when Schwester Rickli suggests we move over to Starbucks for dessert! We all waddled over there and got some milkshakes, and Schwester Rickli ordered us some chocolate rice krispie treat things on sticks. In the end, I'm pretty sure she spent something like 100 Franken for this appointment, and she barely batted an eye about it. That's Switzerland, for you. But she also shared her conversion story with us, and it was super sweet about how these two Elders in Chur knocked on their door and said they had a message to share with her. She thought it was a joke, but invited them in anyway. She and her husband offered them some coffee, black tea, whiskey on the rocks, and a cigarette - all of which these Elders declined. She laughed about how within the first 5 minutes of speaking with the missionaries, they had already had the Word of Wisdom lesson. Also, the junior comp could only say things he had memorized, and when he was reciting things he did it so terribly that Schwester Rickli intentionally dropped something on the floor so that she could laugh behind the table, but when she started laughing she couldn't stop, and she couldn't bring herself back up again. The senior comp recognized this, but the junior comp was oblivious. Anyway, long story short, when they asked if they could come back they said yes, and met with them for a bit. Then Schwester Rickli and her husband moved to Basel and lost contact for a bit, but one day they got a call from the twin brother of the senior comp, who was serving in Basel! They met with the missionaries again and eventually were baptised. And cool thing about this story, apparently the Elders in Chur were so disliked that some people literally threw stones at them and they ended up getting pulled out of Chur. But they were still successful! So even if it feels like the world is against you, Team Christus always wins. 

After this appointment, we went by on Schwester Dudli (the FHV gave us a list of people to visit, and so far they've all been widows, so it's been a lot of fun). When she opened the door, she felt so bad that she hadn't prepared anything for us, of which we assured her that all was well, especially since we had forgotten to call ahead. We'll anyway, this woman couldn't hear us very well, but apparently her hearing aids pick up Swiss German better than Hoch Deutsch, so Sister Akre's Swiss accent went through better. About halfway through this lesson, I realised that Schwester Dudli didn't think I could speak German! She was speaking mostly in English to us, but usually looked directly at me, and then when she couldn't think of a word in English she would turn to Sister Akre and say it in German, and then tell her to translate for me! We were cracking up at one point because she had said a whole long sentence, and Sister Akre was Translating this whole sentence to me, even though I had understood everything. Then, because this woman also spoke Spanish, she said we could say the prayer in Spanish, if we knew how. So I said a very simple prayer in Spanish, and at the very end she looked up at Sister Akre and complimented her on her Spanish, haha. So I got a grand total of 0% credit for this appointment, and 100% amusement. But Schwester Dudli invited us back for a real appointment so that she could spoil us. Oh, and I almost forgot! We gave her a Team Christus sticker, which she held against her heart and just patted. Then with tears in her eyes, she said, "There are very few times when I cry. But I always feel so sad when I think of how much pain He must have been in when the nails went through his hands." Then she held the sticker in front of her and said, "I know we make you said sometimes, but we're doing our best to make you happy." It was such a tender moment.

We went finding, talked to one of our resident Bible-bashers (who currently feels that God doesn't love him because he feels like he's suffered more than Job because he's never had a wife) and tried to comfort him but he wasn't having it, and ran into the other missionaries. We saw a flash mob, and ran off to make it home in time to change for sport. 

Unfortunately, we missed a couple busses, I couldn't find my pants, or my shoes, and I got caught in some thorns. But I wasn't going to let that ruin my day! I pulled out the thorns in my finger, chose to stay positive, and happily enjoyed a Käsestangerl while waiting for the next bus. 

We got to Sport about 45 minutes late, but we still had a lot of fun. Honestly, I was a little exhausted and I was just grateful we didn't play that extra 45 minutes - blessings in disguise! It was also the last time Pascal was going to be at Sport, since he's going to America for a couple weeks and then moving to Frankfurt for his studies. So it was a little like a farewell sport. 

When we got home, Sister Akre made us spaghetti, and made sure I got to bed quickly. But I cleaned up a little before going to bed, Mom, you'd be proud of me. :) 

Sonntag, 1st:

We woke up and listened to some talks while we got ready, and I even managed to finish cutting up all of the pictures I have for Tschüß Books. It's kind of weird, because even though we haven't gotten our transfer calls yet, we know exactly who's leaving from our Distrikt. Gotta love Switzerland.

Church was great - the Scheibles are back, along with cute little baby Danek. He got a baby blessing today, and everyone was just eating up the cuteness. Schwester Caminada was also back from the hospital, and she got up and gave her testimony about the Priesthood blessing she had received and the experience she had with the nurse that I explained last week, and the sacrament. It was so touching, and I lowkey cried a little. It was also cool, because that's the first time I've heard someone share their testimony because of an experience that I had with them - it was like I was more in tune with the Spirit because of it. I also love testimony meetings here in Basel, because there isn't a single pause - just a constant flow of people up to the pulpit.

After church, there was a little after-baby-blessing luncheon, where we snitched a couple of cinnamon rolls. Then Bruder Egen drove us and the Elders to his home, because Patrick and Pascal had invited us over for dinner. They're leaving on a trip to America, and then Pascal is moving to Frankfurt, so this was basically a goodbye dinner for him, Elder Drowns, and Sister Akre. We had taco salad and laughed a lot. It was a good end to an era. :) 

We ended up missing our connections home, so we just walked the 25 or so minutes. It was nice and refreshing in the cool evening air. 

When we got back, we had a message from the APs asking us to send them a short video, so we threw on some makeup in less than 10 minutes and took a quick video before getting ready for bed.

Then the ZLs called us asking us for our opinion about something, and we had our weekly call with our Distrikt leader, and then I went to bed because I was exhausted.

Montag, 2nd:

Distriktrat! Pretty standard. I enjoyed the hymns we sang (Come thou Fount and More Holiness Give Me). We can actually harmonize so that's nice. :) 

The Elders made lunch (it was very bland - but not burned!). They also didn't make a dessert, which for some reason we always have and it was weird to not have it. So we were all craving some sweetness... Which is key to this next story. 

After we got back into town, the Preinach Sisters had mentioned wanting to go to the frozen joghurt shop, so we were like, "Oooh, yes, Sister date!" and invited ourselves along. But the Elders kind of raised their eyebrows at us and were like, "On p-day, right?" We just smiled and moved the conversation along. As we gave hugs (and handshakes) to part ways, we gave some very direct looks between us Sisters, and it was subtly communicated that we would be meeting at the Frozen Joghurt Shop in 5 minutes. We parted ways, and Sister Akre and I headed there first. We realised it was closed on Mondays (RIP) so, we messaged the other Sisters and made plans to meet at the Lindt chocolate shop to get some ice cream instead. But that meant we were going to have to be extra sneaky, because that would potentially put us in the path of the Elders (they were finding on that street). So Sister Akre and I walked around the back side of all of these shops and crossed through H&M to try and avoid the Elders. But as we were leaving H&M, we saw that they were basically RIGHT THERE outside of the door, talking to someone they had stopped. So we backtracked, went through a side street, and dashed inside the Lindt Shop, where the Preinach Sisters were already ordering their ice cream. They left while we payed for our Eis, and then we went and got our scoops. We peeked our heads out the door, and then dashed down to Véronique's flower shop (where sadly, she wasn't working today). We found the Sisters in the alley right there, so we joined them and enjoyed some fabulous Eis. Like legit, Lindt knows what it's doing.  We all laughed about how fun it was to sneak around the Elders, and how it made the ice cream taste so much better. We also mused over the fact that we're now so accustomed to desserts after larger meals that we were willing to go to such lengths to get it. It was fun. I love my friends. 

Then the Sisters got back to finding, and Sister Akre and I headed over to Eutacia's hair salon for our appointment (my bangs had gotten mega long, and she's going through some tough times, so we wanted to be there for her, and she's good Sprachstudium for me (#español)). AND WOW WHAT A LEGENDARY APPOINTMENT. It needs its own new paragraph.

So we start talking to Eutacia as she's going at my bangs. She's telling us more about what she's going through, things are making more sense, she's bearing her testimony about how if she just relies on God and trusts in him then everything will turn out okay. She's awesome. She also pulled out one of her rolling tray/drawer things with a towel on top and glasses of water and cookies. She spoils us. ️ She ended up asking me if I wanted layers, and I said sure so I also have some layers now. But after I finished, Eutacia asked Sister Akre if she wanted anything done, and Sister Akre was like, "nah, I'm good," but then Eutacia was like, "Do you want to cut your hair short again?" Because earlier Sister Akre had asked her to cut it short and Eutacia told her no and to try growing it out, but apparently Eutacia gave her stamp of approval to cut it short. So in a spur-of-the-moment decision, Sister Akre said yes. She sat down in the chair, and Eutacia started cutting. At one point, Eutacia decided she wanted to wash Sister Akre's hair, so as she was getting her hair wet, the doorbell rang and we heard someone walking in downstairs. Eutacia was confused because she didn't have another appointment until later in the evening, so she figured it must have been a walk-in. And in walked the boyfriend of one of our friends! (He, she, and her daughter had all gone to the Pratteln ward on Sunday with Eutacia, and we heard that every single one of them thought it was a great experience!) We all laughed about the coincidence, and just had an all-around great conversation. He had gotten off of work several hours early so he decided to come for his appointment (I think he was getting his hair un-permed?) while he was still out and about. At some point, he told us he had had a good experience at church, and then started asking us questions about what we believe. He said he hadn't been to church in about 2 years, until Sunday. Sister Akre asked him a lot of questions about what he believed, and whenever he finished answering he'd turn the question back to us (z. B. "So what do you believe about what happens after we die?"). The entire time we were talking he told us about how much he was enjoying talking about God again, and how it felt really good to be able to hear us say things that have been floating around in his head but that he's never voiced before. He also told us that other churches have always left him with questions, and how the things we had been saying were answering them. Particularly with the Plan of Salvation - he said it answered one of his biggest questions, and that it felt right in his heart, so he felt like it might be true. Then we talked about how to recognize truth and praying to God for confirmation of truth, etc. The whole time he was so engaged in this conversation and asked us questions and answered ours and he gradually smiled more and more. Eutacia would also pipe in in Spanish or German and share her testimony about whatever it was we were teaching, holding her straightener in one hand and patting her heart with the other as she looked into his eyes through the mirror. We ended up being there for almost 4 hours, testifying to each other about Christ and God and Their love for us. When the guy was done, we all stood to pay/leave, and he asked us if we would be at church next Sunday. We told him of course, and he said he was going to talk to his girlfriend (our friend of the church) and see if they can go again. He said he'd see us there!

Honestly, this appointment was so amazing because the Spirit was there the whole time. It was such an uplifting experience, and I think it's one of the most natural lessons I've had. We covered almost every single official lesson, and taught almost all of the first and second lessons. I have to say, this makes it into my top list of "times I've felt most like a missionary". And the coolest part is, this was something that anyone back home could have done, too. Sister Akre met our friend at Eutacia's during an appointment, and just over time would run into her on the street and just say hi. Whenever opportunity arose, Sister Akre would bear simple testimony, and that's how she became our friend - because Sister Akre was teaching her little bits at a time. Then at one point, again at Eutacia's, we invited her to Church and she said she'd even bring her daughter. And then her boyfriend came too! And then we met him at Eutacia's. So literally, any member could have done what we've been doing - just make friends and don't be afraid to share what you know to be true. 

Anyway, after this amazing appointment, we picked up Sister Akre's Tschüß Book from the Egens', and made guacamole for dinner because they also gave us tortilla chips.

Dienstag, 3rd:

Today we're going to some castle ruins as a Distrikt to have a picnic and play card games. Because that's more fun than doing it anywhere else. 

The Elders were late, though, so we missed our first train, then we realised that they can't even take the trains to begin with (because Elder Drowns only has a limited city-pass as opposed to all-of-Switzerland pass). So we made a new plan to take a tram an hour later. In the meantime, we chilled in the Preinach Sisters' apartment and wrote emails.

Tonight should be pretty chill, since we'll be sending out privacy notices to all of our contacts. Because of laws here, we can't actually save any information about anyone (not even a phone number) without sending this notice, and we have a grace period until the 23rd of September to get these notices out to everyone who we're already in contact with. So... Yay, more Area Book work! (#throwbackToWelsAndHaag)

Favorite new word: Esp, peine - comb / Deu, Anstoß - umbrage, impact, impetus (I'm pretty sure I've used the word "Denkanstoß" as a favorite word before, and to break it down it means a thought-activation or something. Hence its nonliteral translation: food for thought.) / Schwyzer Dütsch, Habsorg - a way to say goodbye (take care)

Favorite funny story: See the story about us sneaking through the shadows of Basel to get ice cream.

Favorite spiritual thought: Team Christus! If anyone back home wants to order some of these stickers, I think you might be able to. Here's the website: www.teamchristus.org These stickers are so cool! We give them out to members to show other people that they're on Christ's team (they can stick them to anything - their car, a notebook, a mailbox, etc.). If anyone wants to look it up, there's also a fun talk/devotional by Troy Dunn called "Life is a Game of Football". It was published by Covenant Communications. He also talks about how we're a part of Christ's Team, and it's a really fun analogy. And good news - if you're on Christ's team then you know you're going to win! 

TLDR: I think this is the most detailed weekly I've ever written, so if you really want a view into missionary life, go ahead and read it. If you're normal and don't have several hours on your hands, basically we met with old women again and they were sweet. We also had an amazing impromptu lesson and it strengthened my testimony of member missionary work. :) 

Viele Liebe a todos,

Sister Hamilton