Ziit ist Bittersweet
Anders gesagt, "Time is Bittersweet" . (Ziit is Swiss German for Zeit, and it rhymes)
Mittwoch, 4th:
I woke up Wednesday feeling a little sick and gross, so we took it a little easier this day. We spent the morning doing studies/kind of cleaning/Tschüß Books while listening to devotionals, etc.
We took a while to travel to our appointment for the day. We went to the Familie Warncke, who are the friends of the Uchtdorfs. They fed us cake, and then asked if we wanted dessert. So we also got vanilla pudding with blueberries, with an appetizer of chocolate cookies (and they gave us fruit to take home). We were highly amused, but it was so much fun listening to their stories and experiences with the Spirit and genealogy work. They're amazing people. :) Sister Akre also wrote in their Tschüß book. It also took as a while to get back home. For some reason everyone seemed to be PDA-ing and it was pretty nasty.
Once home, we sent out Area Book privacy notices, ate dinner, and cleaned some more. Sister Akre made progress packing and that hurt my soul to watch. I don't want her to leave. I also felt more like I was going to be training a new missionary...
Donnerstag, 5th:
We spent all morning cleaning, and we SCRUBBED. It felt nice. This is the cleanest our Wohnung has been since I've been here (the previous Sister left a big mess, and so we finally got that all gone, and I got all of my laundry done. Success!
We ran off to Basel to meet with Véronique, because she was treating us to a goodbye-Sister-Akre lunch. We went to a Döner shop and each got a personal pizza (I was dying by the end, it was so much food), and then we went to Marktplatz and got some Mövenpick Eis (which is a traditional Swiss ice cream brand, and made me even more full). We had so much fun with her and we joked around about so many things (we decided Sister Akre could never marry me because of my sleeping habits (apparently I roll around a lot until I fall asleep (I knew this.), and if I have bad dreams I sit up and look around the room before calming back down. (This is news to me.)) So it was a blast. We basically rolled out of the Eis shop to run back to Wyhlen for our Apartment inspection (we got 98/100). We ended up with a fixed toilet seat, freshly spackled walls, a plunged shower, and a new freezer. The freezer is actually part of a cool story, because the Ehepaar had already left, but called and said they had forgotten to offer it to us. We accepted, because our freezer is tiny, and so they came back. Luckily, we had stayed at our apartment longer than we had planned, which meant we were there to get the freezer. Then we ran off to the post office to pick up Sister Frome's phone. Then as we were running to our bus, we ran into the Bad Säckingen Elders, which was a crazy surprise. What were they doing in our town?? Turns out, they have a less-active moving here and they were helping out. We offered to help when we came back from our appointment, and they gladly accepted. So because of the freezer and the package, I got to see Elder Porter again, and we now know about a less-active we get to go by on in a month or so when he's back from Spain! Gotta love how perfectly God arranges things for us.
Anyway, we managed to catch our bus into Basel, where we met with Vivianne to teach her a lesson about the commandments. She had read in the Book of Mormon, which was amazing, and even told us about parts that had stood out to her. She's also still been praying, but is struggling to find an answer to her prayers. The Preinach Sisters came to pick up Sister Frome's phone, and in return for interrupting our lesson (Jk, we were all chill with it) we had them bear their testimonies about prayer and the Spirit to Vivianne. We asked her how she had felt and she said she felt nothing special, but that she appreciated hearing what they had to say. She's honestly trying to find the truth, and so she's a pleasure to work with. I'll be praying that she can find an answer to her prayers. :)
After Vivianne, we started to rush back to Wyhlen to help with the Move that we had run into, but it turns out they had gone into hyper-drive and had finished. So we just did some finding on the way back, and then I spent the evening texting people privacy notices while Sister Akre did Tschüß Books.
It was a solidly exhausting day of running back and forth, but it was fun. :)
Freitag, 6th:
Happy 15 months to me! That means only 3 left... *existential crisis sets in*
We spent most of this day at home, while I sent out Area Book Notices and Sister Akre worked on Tschüß Books.
We eventually left the house to drop off the Preinach Sisters' Tschüß Books at their apartment on our way to a dinner appointment. We went to the Familie Luna, a sweet younger-ish family who speaks primarily Portuguese, but can speak and understand English. They made some amazing food, but the best part was hearing the father's stories about his mission in Brazil. He had some crazy things to tell, but he seemed so excited to share his stories. Then they drove us home, but the Elders had to take the train, haha. The Elders also did a cool spiritual thought about an egg and how the shell can protect it from pressure, and how we're like the gooey part of the egg and the gospel is the shell and can protect us from things that might be attacking us (Helaman 5:12).
When we got home, Elder Drowns finally sent me a picture of himself smoldering (I've been requesting it for a couple of days), so I could finally draw a picture of him as Flynn Rider for his Tschüß book (when he thinks he subconsciously does a smolder, which is what gave me the idea) (and for anyone who knows how much I like Tangled, I promise I don't have a crush on him he just vaguely reminds me of Eugene).
We went to bed in anticipation!
Samstag, 7th:
The moment you've all been waiting for, and the moment I honestly hadn't realized was so soon until Friday night.... TRANSFER CALLS! Sister Akre and I woke up and sat in bed with the phone on full volume. Sister Akre dozed off (or pretended to) while I read Ensign articles. After a while, I looked at our phone, confused that we had heard nothing. Then I started wandering around our apartment to see where the best service was, fearing that we had already missed our call. But the best service was either on the balcony or in our bedroom, so I voted for warm blankets (because it's finally starting to turn into fall here!). Not long after, I was startled out of my study by the ringing of our phone. It read ". ZL Bern 1". Elder Smith. I paused my music. I answered the phone. A loud "Hoi Zämä!" sounded. It was time...
Wow, okay, I hope you enjoyed that intense build up. It would've been better if you had heard the background music in my head as I typed it out, or even if you could hear the intonation in my voice. But now I guess I can stop stalling and actually say what our calls were. So obviously, I'm staying (Yay!), and Sister Akre is leaving (nay!
). She'll be going to Waiblingen, in the near of Stuttgart, to be companions with Sister Rimmer (one of my favorite people from my group!). I'm psyched for her. We've heard some interesting recent developments about her area, since Elder Drowns was in that Distrikt 3 weeks ago, so I wish her all the best of luck. As for me.... I have no idea who my companion is. I don't know her name, where she's from, or anything else about her. All I know is that her last area was Preston, England...
... I'm training! I will have a brand new fresh missionary from the MTC, and I'm psyched! I'm nervous, of course, because it's going to be a lot of responsibility, but I've already felt so much love in my heart for her so I'm excited to get to know her.
As for the rest of our Distrikt (and this is probably going to be confusing to anyone who doesn't live here, I'm sorry). Sister Curran is leaving and going to Göppingen
️ to greenie-bust and Sister Frome is no longer a Preinach Sister, but rather just a Reinach Sister. She will also be training. Pratteln is now going to have Elders, so Elder Lehmann (yoooo, back in the same Distrikt (throwback to the Bonstetten days)) will be serving there and training a new missionary. Elder Drowns is going to Passau, and Elder Vogel is staying in Basel (of course) as the Distrikt leader and training a new missionary. The Pratteln and Basel Elders will be in the same apartment. So our Distrikt will now consist of 4 older missionaries and 4 new missionaries. It's going to be a party of an upcoming transfer! 
After transfer calls, we got up and got ready for the day. I did Area Book (again) while Sister Akre worked on Tschüß Books. She made some good progress!
We went to a lunch appointment with Schwester Schüpbach, another older woman. She made us spaghetti carbonara, and then got us right to work. She had Sister Akre wash the dishes while I dried, then I put on this woman's shoes for her, then we gathered tools for the garden and went outside to weed. We half-weeded her garden patch (okay, I say half-weeded because honestly for some reason people here think that some weeds are beautiful plants just because they have flowers sometimes, but trust me, they're weeds (but we left those ones alone)). Then we went back inside and swept off the outside of this member's living room window. Then I helped her hang up a bulletin board. Then we left. That's the most underexaggerated way I can tell this story, considering I'm trying to remember it as a positive experience. :) Basically, she's a sweet woman. She's just lived alone for a long time and consequently has her own very particular way to do everything, and if you vary just in the slightest from what she wants, she'll yell at you in very thick Swiss German about how it's all Falsch, show you the correct way to do it, and then make you start over. It was 3 hours of being yelled at and lectured to. Good news, I now know how good my Swiss German is (that is to say, halfway decent). We'll be going back to finish the rest of her windows another day. But now that I know how she likes things done, it means I should get yelled at less. :D
After that appointment, Sister Akre and I were pretty high-strung (not to mention Sister Akre was already stressed from her transfer call, so we were just one big mess). We decided to treat ourselves to ice cream. On our way into Basel, we saw that there was another demonstration, so we felt less guilty about choosing not to go home to change into normal clothes considering that wouldn't have been possible. So we visited Véronique (what an angel) and bought flowers for the Preinach Sisters, since they were both stressing about their transfer calls. We met up with them and gave them their flowers, and also got some free cotton candy and popcorn (for some reason the store with the free toilets was having this festival thing or whatever, so we had lots of fun riding the escalators back down from the bathrooms on the 5th floor). Then we parted ways and went to buy frozen joghurt. We ended up getting Belgian Waffels dazu, and I have to say that was one of the most worthwhile purchases I have ever made. So worth it, and exactly what we needed. And by then the demonstration was done, so we rode right to Sport and played some mean basketball. So many more people came than usual (including Véronique
and Anja ), and we invited the guys already there to play, so it was a full court and so much fun. It was also cool because everyone was included who could play, which meant that even the less-experienced people like Véronique and Anja fully participated and even made a basket or two. 
I love good sportsmanship.
Then Sister Akre and I came home and ate a nutritious dinner of bacon-wrapped-cheesy-hot-dogs dipped in ketchup (supposedly they're a Bern specialty (they're labeled as Berner Wienerli, at the very least)).
We went to bed emotionally and physically exhausted.
I'm really going to miss Sister Akre... She is my heart and soul.
Sonntag, 8th:
We woke up and went to church early, just in case one of our friends ended up going to Pratteln again. Sadly, she didn't. We enjoyed church, though, and Sister Akre learned how loved she was by the ward. So many people came up to her to wish her well.
We got a ride home by the Egens again, and then we spent the evening doing weekly planning (well, I planned and Sister Akre packed). But it was super sweet because Schwester Egen got out of the car into the rain just to give Sister Akre a farewell hug.
So today was a pretty chill day, but also way happy. :)
Montag, 9th:
I had a training call early before Distrikt meeting, but because 3/6 of us are going to be training, our whole Distrikt had to be there and it was basically just like a pre-Distriktrat. We were chastised by an old video of Elder Holland in the best way possible, and now I'm pumped to be my best missionary self (albeit a little nervous as well).
Distrikt meeting was good, and we had crepes afterwards. Elder Vogel also gave Sister Frome and I blessings so we might have a little more counsel for the upcoming transfer and training.
Sister Akre and I stopped to get flowers for Eutacia, and then showed up at the Preinach Sisters' appointment with her so Sister Akre could wish her goodbye. We got some wonderful hair tips and stayed until the Sisters were gone, and then Eutacia did Sister Akre's nails as she kind of poured out her current life story. I spoke a little Spanish, and Sister Akre and Eutacia had a very touching farewell, in which Eutacia gave Sister Akre a gift containing many memories and lots of meaning.
We were an hour late to a JAE Spieleabend, but like it was okay because the only people there were the host and the Elders. So we played a round of Wizard before we had to ditch to make it home.
I felt like trash because I had accidentally dehydrated myself throughout the day, and I didn't realise this until we were going home. So I had a terrible headache and felt like I was either going to pass out or puke, but managed to quasi rehydrate and went to bed with just a mild headache.
Oh, also, before going to bed the Burgdorf Elders (Elder Buss!) and the Biel Elders (Elder Hema!) both separately called us so it was almost like a throwback to the Linz days of having a goodnight phone call from the Elders. The only one missing was Elder Porter (rip)(but he's coming to Burgdorf to be with Elder Buss, which Elder Buss said he literally screamed when he found out) . Elder Buss was super kind and told me that he flipped out when he saw that I was training and that everyone he's talked to about it has said I'm going to make a great trainer. It warmed my heart and was a really good note to end the night on.
Dienstag, 10th:
We did shopping in the morning, we visited Véronique and I got a little tiny mini rose plant (it's so precious) for my new missionary as a welcome gift.
(We got permission to swap around our P-day hours, so we worked in the morning.)
We had a WONDERFUL lesson with one of our friends, Jasmin! Sister Akre has been texting her for months, but it was always so hard to meet with her so past missionaries always wanted to drop her. But Sister Akre was the obnoxiously stubborn person she is (bless up) and kept texting her. We convinced her to meet with us so Sister Akre could say goodbye. When we got there, we asked her what she thought we did as missionaries, and she was so sweet. She said, "You help people see the good side of God." ❣️It was so precious. We asked her why she wanted to meet with missionaries, and she said she was looking for the truth about God.
GUYS THIS RARELY HAPPENS. When someone is on the backburner for a long time and doesn't really meet with missionaries, and just is kind of in and out, they normally either just want friends or feel bad telling you to stop texting. But not only is she actually interested in hearing about the Gospel, but she's even been keeping commitments without us asking her to!! So we're sending her a link to the Gospel library app so she can start listening to the Book of Mormon and maybe find more time for it that way (literally the best part of all of our friends having to use public transportation), and we have a return appointment for next week. 
Because Sister Akre loves me, we killed some time in the art store again (she saw that I was a little stressed and figured it would help me relax, and she called her mom while I browsed so she was also able to relax) so now I have some fabulous brown and black paper and I'm excited to whip out my colored pencils.
We met up with the Preinach Sisters at the frozen joghurt place so we could get some joghurt to end our time together. It was nice and tasty, and a lot of fun.
We headed to the church, because honestly we were kind of done with everything we needed/wanted to (and could) do, but didn't want to spend all night at home. Our plan is to finish emails in time to be able to take pictures on the Rhein at Sunset. :) Then we'll head home for Sister Akre to pack, and I might make cookies and I will definitely clean.
We had an appointment with Fabiola, but she remembered that she had another appointment. I'm sad we won't get to spend time with her, but that just means I'll get to introduce my new comp to her sooner!
And at some point tonight, I should get a text of a picture of my new companion, along with her name! And tomorrow morning... Geht alles los and I'll officially be training
and Sister Akre will officially leave me . I'm a shaken up bag of emotions right now, haha. My comfort is that I'll see Sister Akre at BYU, so this isn't a forever-goodbye. Plus, I'm hyped to meet my new missionary and soon-to-be best friend.
Also, I just realised, because I can write until 9 pm.... I can send out a last minute email about who my new companion is! That is, if it comes in time... Idk, we'll see. At the very latest y'all'll (wow, what a word) find out next week. :)
Favorite new word(s): Esp, folículo - follicle (quality words I'm learning here. Let's just say my entire Sprach for the week was at Eutacia's yesterday....) Deu, verstärken - to intensify, verdienen - to deserve, Verabredung - appointment, Schwyzer Dütsch, mischkübli - Mistkübel (trash can) (although I just looked it up on our dictionary app and apparently Mistkübel is Austrian, so I don't know what the actual German word is) (but cool to know that Swiss German has some Austrian bits and pieces )
Favorite funny story: One night Sister Akre laughed so hard she gave herself the hiccups. I voice-recorded it and sent it into our group chat, but because she thinks her laugh sounds like a pterodactyl she tickled me to give back the phone so she could delete the message. We were basically just rolling around in the floor laughing so hard. So maybe not very funny for people who weren't there, but we were in stitches.
Favorite spiritual thought: "The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship" by Jeffrey R. Holland. So inspiring!
TLDR: I'm training so I have no idea who my companion is, but I'll find out tonight! I'll miss Sister Akre (Gott sei mit ihr bis aufs wiedersehen), and tender mercies are real.
Ich habe euch alle so sehr Lieb!
Sister Hamilton
I woke up Wednesday feeling a little sick and gross, so we took it a little easier this day. We spent the morning doing studies/kind of cleaning/Tschüß Books while listening to devotionals, etc.
We took a while to travel to our appointment for the day. We went to the Familie Warncke, who are the friends of the Uchtdorfs. They fed us cake, and then asked if we wanted dessert. So we also got vanilla pudding with blueberries, with an appetizer of chocolate cookies (and they gave us fruit to take home). We were highly amused, but it was so much fun listening to their stories and experiences with the Spirit and genealogy work. They're amazing people. :) Sister Akre also wrote in their Tschüß book. It also took as a while to get back home. For some reason everyone seemed to be PDA-ing and it was pretty nasty.
Once home, we sent out Area Book privacy notices, ate dinner, and cleaned some more. Sister Akre made progress packing and that hurt my soul to watch. I don't want her to leave. I also felt more like I was going to be training a new missionary...
Donnerstag, 5th:
We spent all morning cleaning, and we SCRUBBED. It felt nice. This is the cleanest our Wohnung has been since I've been here (the previous Sister left a big mess, and so we finally got that all gone, and I got all of my laundry done. Success!
We ran off to Basel to meet with Véronique, because she was treating us to a goodbye-Sister-Akre lunch. We went to a Döner shop and each got a personal pizza (I was dying by the end, it was so much food), and then we went to Marktplatz and got some Mövenpick Eis (which is a traditional Swiss ice cream brand, and made me even more full). We had so much fun with her and we joked around about so many things (we decided Sister Akre could never marry me because of my sleeping habits (apparently I roll around a lot until I fall asleep (I knew this.), and if I have bad dreams I sit up and look around the room before calming back down. (This is news to me.)) So it was a blast. We basically rolled out of the Eis shop to run back to Wyhlen for our Apartment inspection (we got 98/100). We ended up with a fixed toilet seat, freshly spackled walls, a plunged shower, and a new freezer. The freezer is actually part of a cool story, because the Ehepaar had already left, but called and said they had forgotten to offer it to us. We accepted, because our freezer is tiny, and so they came back. Luckily, we had stayed at our apartment longer than we had planned, which meant we were there to get the freezer. Then we ran off to the post office to pick up Sister Frome's phone. Then as we were running to our bus, we ran into the Bad Säckingen Elders, which was a crazy surprise. What were they doing in our town?? Turns out, they have a less-active moving here and they were helping out. We offered to help when we came back from our appointment, and they gladly accepted. So because of the freezer and the package, I got to see Elder Porter again, and we now know about a less-active we get to go by on in a month or so when he's back from Spain! Gotta love how perfectly God arranges things for us.
Anyway, we managed to catch our bus into Basel, where we met with Vivianne to teach her a lesson about the commandments. She had read in the Book of Mormon, which was amazing, and even told us about parts that had stood out to her. She's also still been praying, but is struggling to find an answer to her prayers. The Preinach Sisters came to pick up Sister Frome's phone, and in return for interrupting our lesson (Jk, we were all chill with it) we had them bear their testimonies about prayer and the Spirit to Vivianne. We asked her how she had felt and she said she felt nothing special, but that she appreciated hearing what they had to say. She's honestly trying to find the truth, and so she's a pleasure to work with. I'll be praying that she can find an answer to her prayers. :)
After Vivianne, we started to rush back to Wyhlen to help with the Move that we had run into, but it turns out they had gone into hyper-drive and had finished. So we just did some finding on the way back, and then I spent the evening texting people privacy notices while Sister Akre did Tschüß Books.
It was a solidly exhausting day of running back and forth, but it was fun. :)
Freitag, 6th:
Happy 15 months to me! That means only 3 left... *existential crisis sets in*
We spent most of this day at home, while I sent out Area Book Notices and Sister Akre worked on Tschüß Books.
We eventually left the house to drop off the Preinach Sisters' Tschüß Books at their apartment on our way to a dinner appointment. We went to the Familie Luna, a sweet younger-ish family who speaks primarily Portuguese, but can speak and understand English. They made some amazing food, but the best part was hearing the father's stories about his mission in Brazil. He had some crazy things to tell, but he seemed so excited to share his stories. Then they drove us home, but the Elders had to take the train, haha. The Elders also did a cool spiritual thought about an egg and how the shell can protect it from pressure, and how we're like the gooey part of the egg and the gospel is the shell and can protect us from things that might be attacking us (Helaman 5:12).
When we got home, Elder Drowns finally sent me a picture of himself smoldering (I've been requesting it for a couple of days), so I could finally draw a picture of him as Flynn Rider for his Tschüß book (when he thinks he subconsciously does a smolder, which is what gave me the idea) (and for anyone who knows how much I like Tangled, I promise I don't have a crush on him he just vaguely reminds me of Eugene).
We went to bed in anticipation!
Samstag, 7th:
The moment you've all been waiting for, and the moment I honestly hadn't realized was so soon until Friday night.... TRANSFER CALLS! Sister Akre and I woke up and sat in bed with the phone on full volume. Sister Akre dozed off (or pretended to) while I read Ensign articles. After a while, I looked at our phone, confused that we had heard nothing. Then I started wandering around our apartment to see where the best service was, fearing that we had already missed our call. But the best service was either on the balcony or in our bedroom, so I voted for warm blankets (because it's finally starting to turn into fall here!). Not long after, I was startled out of my study by the ringing of our phone. It read ". ZL Bern 1". Elder Smith. I paused my music. I answered the phone. A loud "Hoi Zämä!" sounded. It was time...
Wow, okay, I hope you enjoyed that intense build up. It would've been better if you had heard the background music in my head as I typed it out, or even if you could hear the intonation in my voice. But now I guess I can stop stalling and actually say what our calls were. So obviously, I'm staying (Yay!), and Sister Akre is leaving (nay!
As for the rest of our Distrikt (and this is probably going to be confusing to anyone who doesn't live here, I'm sorry). Sister Curran is leaving and going to Göppingen
After transfer calls, we got up and got ready for the day. I did Area Book (again) while Sister Akre worked on Tschüß Books. She made some good progress!
We went to a lunch appointment with Schwester Schüpbach, another older woman. She made us spaghetti carbonara, and then got us right to work. She had Sister Akre wash the dishes while I dried, then I put on this woman's shoes for her, then we gathered tools for the garden and went outside to weed. We half-weeded her garden patch (okay, I say half-weeded because honestly for some reason people here think that some weeds are beautiful plants just because they have flowers sometimes, but trust me, they're weeds (but we left those ones alone)). Then we went back inside and swept off the outside of this member's living room window. Then I helped her hang up a bulletin board. Then we left. That's the most underexaggerated way I can tell this story, considering I'm trying to remember it as a positive experience. :) Basically, she's a sweet woman. She's just lived alone for a long time and consequently has her own very particular way to do everything, and if you vary just in the slightest from what she wants, she'll yell at you in very thick Swiss German about how it's all Falsch, show you the correct way to do it, and then make you start over. It was 3 hours of being yelled at and lectured to. Good news, I now know how good my Swiss German is (that is to say, halfway decent). We'll be going back to finish the rest of her windows another day. But now that I know how she likes things done, it means I should get yelled at less. :D
After that appointment, Sister Akre and I were pretty high-strung (not to mention Sister Akre was already stressed from her transfer call, so we were just one big mess). We decided to treat ourselves to ice cream. On our way into Basel, we saw that there was another demonstration, so we felt less guilty about choosing not to go home to change into normal clothes considering that wouldn't have been possible. So we visited Véronique (what an angel) and bought flowers for the Preinach Sisters, since they were both stressing about their transfer calls. We met up with them and gave them their flowers, and also got some free cotton candy and popcorn (for some reason the store with the free toilets was having this festival thing or whatever, so we had lots of fun riding the escalators back down from the bathrooms on the 5th floor). Then we parted ways and went to buy frozen joghurt. We ended up getting Belgian Waffels dazu, and I have to say that was one of the most worthwhile purchases I have ever made. So worth it, and exactly what we needed. And by then the demonstration was done, so we rode right to Sport and played some mean basketball. So many more people came than usual (including Véronique
Then Sister Akre and I came home and ate a nutritious dinner of bacon-wrapped-cheesy-hot-dogs dipped in ketchup (supposedly they're a Bern specialty (they're labeled as Berner Wienerli, at the very least)).
We went to bed emotionally and physically exhausted.
I'm really going to miss Sister Akre... She is my heart and soul.
Sonntag, 8th:
We woke up and went to church early, just in case one of our friends ended up going to Pratteln again. Sadly, she didn't. We enjoyed church, though, and Sister Akre learned how loved she was by the ward. So many people came up to her to wish her well.
We got a ride home by the Egens again, and then we spent the evening doing weekly planning (well, I planned and Sister Akre packed). But it was super sweet because Schwester Egen got out of the car into the rain just to give Sister Akre a farewell hug.
So today was a pretty chill day, but also way happy. :)
Montag, 9th:
I had a training call early before Distrikt meeting, but because 3/6 of us are going to be training, our whole Distrikt had to be there and it was basically just like a pre-Distriktrat. We were chastised by an old video of Elder Holland in the best way possible, and now I'm pumped to be my best missionary self (albeit a little nervous as well).
Distrikt meeting was good, and we had crepes afterwards. Elder Vogel also gave Sister Frome and I blessings so we might have a little more counsel for the upcoming transfer and training.
Sister Akre and I stopped to get flowers for Eutacia, and then showed up at the Preinach Sisters' appointment with her so Sister Akre could wish her goodbye. We got some wonderful hair tips and stayed until the Sisters were gone, and then Eutacia did Sister Akre's nails as she kind of poured out her current life story. I spoke a little Spanish, and Sister Akre and Eutacia had a very touching farewell, in which Eutacia gave Sister Akre a gift containing many memories and lots of meaning.
We were an hour late to a JAE Spieleabend, but like it was okay because the only people there were the host and the Elders. So we played a round of Wizard before we had to ditch to make it home.
I felt like trash because I had accidentally dehydrated myself throughout the day, and I didn't realise this until we were going home. So I had a terrible headache and felt like I was either going to pass out or puke, but managed to quasi rehydrate and went to bed with just a mild headache.
Oh, also, before going to bed the Burgdorf Elders (Elder Buss!) and the Biel Elders (Elder Hema!) both separately called us so it was almost like a throwback to the Linz days of having a goodnight phone call from the Elders. The only one missing was Elder Porter (rip)(but he's coming to Burgdorf to be with Elder Buss, which Elder Buss said he literally screamed when he found out) . Elder Buss was super kind and told me that he flipped out when he saw that I was training and that everyone he's talked to about it has said I'm going to make a great trainer. It warmed my heart and was a really good note to end the night on.
Dienstag, 10th:
We did shopping in the morning, we visited Véronique and I got a little tiny mini rose plant (it's so precious) for my new missionary as a welcome gift.
(We got permission to swap around our P-day hours, so we worked in the morning.)
We had a WONDERFUL lesson with one of our friends, Jasmin! Sister Akre has been texting her for months, but it was always so hard to meet with her so past missionaries always wanted to drop her. But Sister Akre was the obnoxiously stubborn person she is (bless up) and kept texting her. We convinced her to meet with us so Sister Akre could say goodbye. When we got there, we asked her what she thought we did as missionaries, and she was so sweet. She said, "You help people see the good side of God." ❣️It was so precious. We asked her why she wanted to meet with missionaries, and she said she was looking for the truth about God.
Because Sister Akre loves me, we killed some time in the art store again (she saw that I was a little stressed and figured it would help me relax, and she called her mom while I browsed so she was also able to relax) so now I have some fabulous brown and black paper and I'm excited to whip out my colored pencils.
We met up with the Preinach Sisters at the frozen joghurt place so we could get some joghurt to end our time together. It was nice and tasty, and a lot of fun.
We headed to the church, because honestly we were kind of done with everything we needed/wanted to (and could) do, but didn't want to spend all night at home. Our plan is to finish emails in time to be able to take pictures on the Rhein at Sunset. :) Then we'll head home for Sister Akre to pack, and I might make cookies and I will definitely clean.
We had an appointment with Fabiola, but she remembered that she had another appointment. I'm sad we won't get to spend time with her, but that just means I'll get to introduce my new comp to her sooner!
And at some point tonight, I should get a text of a picture of my new companion, along with her name! And tomorrow morning... Geht alles los and I'll officially be training
Also, I just realised, because I can write until 9 pm.... I can send out a last minute email about who my new companion is! That is, if it comes in time... Idk, we'll see. At the very latest y'all'll (wow, what a word) find out next week. :)
Favorite new word(s): Esp, folículo - follicle (quality words I'm learning here. Let's just say my entire Sprach for the week was at Eutacia's yesterday....
Favorite funny story: One night Sister Akre laughed so hard she gave herself the hiccups. I voice-recorded it and sent it into our group chat, but because she thinks her laugh sounds like a pterodactyl she tickled me to give back the phone so she could delete the message. We were basically just rolling around in the floor laughing so hard. So maybe not very funny for people who weren't there, but we were in stitches.
Favorite spiritual thought: "The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship" by Jeffrey R. Holland. So inspiring!
TLDR: I'm training so I have no idea who my companion is, but I'll find out tonight! I'll miss Sister Akre
Ich habe euch alle so sehr Lieb!
Sister Hamilton
Comments
Post a Comment