Last One Best One

Mittwoch, 16th:

Happiest of Birthdays to Kyle! He's now officially 18. Crazy! 

We Tausched with the Bern Sisters in Basel SBB, where they surprised us by handing us dental floss. Only it wasn't dental floss, it was those fancy, new-fangled Apple wireless earbuds, only without the ear buds. I don't actually know if it was important, but my guess is it is. Apparently a guy left it on their train. So Sister Derry and I took it to the lost and found. Hopefully the poor guy gets his floss back. We're really concerned about his dental hygiene. 

Sister Derry and I did some Finding, but it seemed like nobody was willing to talk to us. Big schade. 

So we went to Starbucks to do a companionship study. It seems like a weird place to choose, but they had some cheaper baked goods and I wanted to celebrate Kyle's birthday. So we treated ourselves while planning a lesson. 

We finished finding on the way over to Lucienne. We taught her the Word of Wisdom. She wasn't the most enthused about it, but agreed to kind-of-sort-of follow the parts that she liked. We'll be going over it again. But Sister Derry was amazing and shared such wonderful testimony and had some great insights that really clicked with Lucienne. I was so grateful to have her there! 

We went home after the lesson. 

Donnerstag, 17th:

We Tausched back, and this time we traveled all the way to Zollikofen. We ended up eating lunch at the Bern Sisters' apartment, and then we all went back to the Bern Hauptbahnhof to part ways. We continued back to Basel, where we met the Reinach Sisters and got some ingredients and new bedding.

We dropped it all back off at home and did our studies. 

We left for an appointment with the Familie Wiese. The young daughter is awesome, and we now have a secret handshake with her. :) They fed us Toast Hawaii (bread, ham, pineapple ring, and cheese), and we shared a Book of Mormon video with them. I'm seriously loving these videos not just for myself, but as spiritual thoughts, too! 

Freitag, 18th:

We did our studies and called through our member list trying to set up 15-minute spiritual thought appointments. It's interesting how sometimes members can be just as rude and disinterested as the people we talk to on the street. But the few who are kind make it all worth it! 

We met with Vivianne and talked about following the prophet. She is so wonderful and was really into the lesson and agreed to read a talk that we were going to send her. Also... She's now on date to be baptised!! I'm so excited for her! We still have a couple of things we need to teach her and she needs to come to church, but she agreed to a hesitant date (until she gets her work schedule), which is huge because it means she's willing to move forward in her relationship with God! I've been praying for her every day, and if you don't mind me asking, I'd like for you to keep her in your prayers as well. Satan really likes to work hard at people once they make the decision to follow God, so she's going to need the extra help, love, support, and blessings that you can all send her way. Thank you so much! I'm excited to see what her future holds. 

After our lesson with Vivianne, we went Finding in the direction of the Reinach Sisters' apartment. We dropped off Sister Frome's rain jacket that had come in the mail (because it was going to rain that day). It was nice to be able to chat with them for a few minutes. :) 

On the way back home I felt something wet on the back of my leg where my boots had been rubbing all day. I figured it was probably just a popped blister so I whipped out my handy-dandy bandaids that I had packed with me that morning with the intent to put them on to prevent said blister, but I figured it was better late than never. But when I bent over to place the bandaid and peeled down my sock, I realized that it wasn't a blister. It was blood. My boots had cut me. But luckily bandaids were just what I needed! So now I'm walking around with bandaids on the back of my legs. I think it's a new fashion that'll really catch on. 

When we got home, I baked 3 separate kinds of cookies for a baptism in Reinach. I didn't get it done as fast as Sister Akre and I did the first week we were together, but I was still somewhat impressed with myself. Somehow, since Sister Akre has been gone, I've become the new "really good cook". It cracks me up because every time I make dinner, Sister Smith is like "wow how did you make this" and my response is always "I followed the recipe on the back of the packet". Thanks mom, for teaching me everything I know.  Haha, Jk. You taught me more I just must not have been paying a lot of attention. 

Samstag, 19th:

We woke up this morning and anxiously anticipated our transfer calls. Well, I wasn't actually that anxious. I was about 95% sure I knew what was going to happen. The zone leaders called and lo and behold, I was right! Sister Smith will be staying together for this final transfer of mine. I look forward to what this last 6 weeks hold for me. As my Dad encouraged me: I'm going to make this last one my best one! 

When we finally got going for the day, I Taste-tested the cookies and decided that one of them tasted like fish, and consequently would not be fit for a baptism. Sister Smith only half-heartedly protested as I threw them away. So we made a quick dash to the store and bought more butter and some frozen berries, and I quickly made a berry crumble. Good thing I did, too, because this thing ended up being a hit! 

We did our studies while it baked and while I cleaned up. 

Well, somehow the time flew away from us, and when we looked at the clock we realised it was time for us to go. But we were in the wrong place. We had planned to leave from Basel. Which meant it would take us an extra 30 minutes, and that would place us at a fashionable 15 minutes late to the baptism. So we made an emergency decision: we were going to bike. We quickly ran down the stairs with our helmets, unlocked our bikes, somehow managed to fit all of the cookies into the bike bags, and Sister Smith ingeniously tied this berry crumble to the back with my scarf (still so impressed). Then when we were about to leave we realised my tires were flat. So we ran all the way back upstairs, grabbed the bike pump, and ran back down. It took me what felt like an eternity to figure it out because our tires just had to be so special that it wasn't working (but I got it after a panicked prayer). We tossed the bike pump back into our building, hopped on our bikes, and rode off. As we pulled out of our building's driveway, the Reinach Sisters called, asking when we were going to show up. It was supposed to take 30 minutes to bike, which would get us there with time to spare. But then our bikes were still broken, so Sister Smith rode in 6th gear up several hills, and we had to cross main roads, train tracks, and a river to get there. But! We made it to the baptism with 2 minutes to go before it started. We ran to the bathroom, combed out our hair, and planted ourselves in our seats as the guy in charge stood up. One of my proudest accomplishments yet.

The Baptism was beautiful. A couple, Emmanuel and Gloria, were baptised and were just absolutely glowing afterward! They had wonderful people there to support them, and I'm certain they could feel how loved they are. Sister Frome and Sister Preston were also glowing, and according to Sister Frome's weekly it was from stress, but I'm sure it was the Spirit. ;) 

After the baptism, Sister Smith insisted we leave right away and I was a bit peeved about that because I wanted to congratulate Emmanuel and Gloria and minister to the members there. But Sister Smith was peeved that I didn't want to leave because she thought that all I wanted to do was have fun with the other missionaries and she wanted to go and contact members. After some quick words were exchanged, I gave in and we left. On our way out to the tram station (our bikes had officially ridden their last ride, and we need to take them to get fixed before we ride them again), harsh words were exchanged, and then feelings and desires were explained, and suddenly we weren't mad at each other because we realised that we both just wanted to be good, obedient missionaries. We kind of laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation, realised we had missed our tram, and decided to go back to the baptism. After all, they only happen every so often, and we could contact members in person! So I got to congratulate Emmanuel and Gloria, we almost have an appointment in line, and we got to help clean up. I'm so grateful that Sister Smith and I have worked hard to have the kind of open relationship where we can just talk things over quickly and move on. Communication is so important! 

After the baptism and after cleaning up, we walked our bikes home, locked them up, picked up our bike pump from the foyer of the building, and went to bed exhausted. 

Sonntag, 20th:

Sister Egen drove us again, bless her heart. 

We went to the church earlier in the morning because it was the Frankfurt Temple dedication! It was beautiful, and hearing Elder Uchtdorf speak in German, and basically just hearing everything in German... It was all amazing. The church is true in every language. ;) Definitely a highlight of the transfer. 

We went home and did our Studies/ate lunch, then went out and did some finding, and then came home and did Weekly planning while I cooked dinner. 

Montag, 21st:

We went to the church earlier because we had a Skype call with all of the missionaries in their 1st transfer, and because 1/2 of our Distrikt is, every companionship was there and we all scrunched in to fit in the camera. I think that was the only time that these new missionaries with all of their fancy phones were grateful for my dinosaur of a tablet. ;)

We had Distrikt meeting, and Sister Frome/Elder Vogel/Elder Lehmann gave their farewell testimonies. I'm going to miss those three. 

We had spaghetti for Distrikt lunch. 

Sister Smith and I stayed at the church to do Personal study. I worked a little more on MyPlan, and made sure I had everything ready to go with my BYU classes because apparently my registration date isn't until the 28th and I thought it was the 21st. But, now it should all work out. :)

We went finding, and we found a potential in the rain! And she didn't even have an umbrella! Also, speaking of umbrellas, the little $2 umbrella from Walmart that I've used my whole mission finally broke. But out of spite and sentimentality, I'm going to glue it and use it for these last 6 weeks.

We met with Emma, and taught her the Restoration. She was so sweet, and bought a slice of cake for all of us to share. Such a sweetheart! 

Then we went home. :) 

Dienstag, 22nd:

We went shopping for groceries, and then sent off a hoard of letters and a package that we had collected from all of the missionaries in our Distrikt over time. :) 

We met with the Reinach Sisters at our favorite Frozen Joghurt Café. It was a little send-off for Sister Frome. I'm seriously going to miss her. Until your homecoming, chica! I love you! 

We went to a store and talked to our families while Sister Smith looked for a sweater. But everything was so expensive, so she didn't end up buying anything. 

Because we can move our pday hours, we switched to a little earlier and met with Reetu. She was so sweet! We only had a little bit of time, so we taught her a speed-round version of the Plan of Salvation. Luckily she seemed to understand it, but we'll still send her a picture of the plan and we'll bring a pamphlet next time. She also invited us over to her house for Indian food! We're excited. :D

Then we went to an appointment with the Familie Gessler, and on the way we ran into the daughter so I could stop stressing about the Fahrplan and just follow her. Blessings. They made some wonderful food, and shared even better testimonies during our spiritual thought. What's also cool is that their entire family performed in the Hill Cumorah Pageant a couple of years ago. :) 

Favorite new word: Esp, boreicho de la vida - to be overstimulated by everything going on / Deu, Pfau - peacock (I'm proud of this word because I figured out what it meant before ever looking), Schwyzer Deutsch, Dessert (said with a French Accent) - Dessert (the normal German word is "Nachtisch") 

Favorite funny story: Sister Smith and I separated to walk around either side of a group of loud, obnoxious men. When we came back together, she whispered, "I wonder how they feel; they were just surrounded by the light of God." 

Favorite spiritual thought: I hope you all have been watching the Book of Mormon videos. They're life-changing. I absolutely adore them and when I get home I'm down to have a movie night with anyone who wants to have a video-marathon with me! But in the meantime, I recommend reading the chapters this week for the next video that's going to come out! They should have the schedule online. It'll be really cool to study the story before you see them on the screen. :) And just a little warning to all you men out there: the Sisters and I have been talking about how wonderful Nephi is. We have all agreed that we want to marry someone like Nephi/Captain Moroni/Enos/All those cool people. We're working hard to be like them ourselves, and we have high expectations for our future husbands. Make sure you're doing what you need to. If we all strived to be our best, imagine how much better the world could be. :) 

TLDR: I'm starting my last transfer tomorrow. This week was a little wacked, but filled with miracles and tender mercies! :D

Much love to you all! See you in 6 weeks!

LG,

Sister Hamilton