To Cry or Not to Cry
Mittwoch, 9th:We ran off to an appointment with Eutacia and her daughter Cheyenne. They were so sweet and ordered pizza for us, and we basically just chatted for a little bit. We all shared our first kiss stories (Cheyenne insisted she's never kissed anyone, and Eutacia just laughed and said "the story is always different when the mom's around!", to which Cheyenne defended her statement but in so doing also acknowledged she had kissed someone). It was amusing, because it was like we were just friends meeting up for lunch. We also shared a spiritual thought and encouraged them to share the gospel with those around them, and wished Cheyenne luck with an essay that she had procrastinated until the last minute. I love these two women so much and I definitely plan on staying in contact with them. Eutacia also called me out for slacking in my Spanish study, so I've been focusing on that more this week. Next time I'm only allowed to speak Spanish with her. This appointment will be very quiet, hahaha. Not because I'm not willing to speak, but because I only know so much!
We left to go to the Familie Warncke, the sweet older couple who know the Uchtdorfs. We basically had a tea party (complete with cute tea set and little cakes) as they explained all of their missionary experiences that they had back in Darmstadt (where they joined the church). They were sad that they live too far away from Basel to be able to invite us over to teach our friends at their home so Sister Smith and I made a goal to go dooring in their town and find someone to teach who can be fellowshipped by this couple. I'll be saying many prayers that this plan works out!
Donnerstag, 10th:
We left the house early to go to our local Burgeramt to work out some problems with Sister Smith's Anmeldung. It was quickly smoothed out and now she can stay here stress-free!
We did some studies. :)
We met with Vivianne, and talked more about baptism. We read in Preach My Gospel and Moroni 8, and touched on the Priesthood as well. She asked really good questions and when we ended she said she would seriously think about what we had said. :) I'm praying for her!
We ended our day with a mux of finding, gojng by on a less-active (who was less-than-enthusiastic about seeing us), and studies - one of which we had in a Frozen Joghurt café. ;)
Freitag, 11th:
We had lunch with a member that ive never met before, Schwester Bartnick-Daehn. Apparently she's been going to church with the Pratteln ward the whole time since we've moved buildings, but she was so excited to have us over for lunch and was such a sweetheart. We had a good talk, and we must have made a good impression because as we were leaving she handed us 4 chocolate bars and said, "This is all I have. Will it be enough?" We assured her that it was more than we ever expected, and when we walked out the building she waved to us from her balcony. What a precious soul!
We had an Ausstellung that was so much fun and was going so well that we forgot all about our next appointment! We quickly called and said we were going to be 30 minutes late.
We showed up to the Familie Banholzer, with intentions to just get to know them and share a 15 minute thought and leave. But they were older and were just so excited to have us over that we talked for longer, and then right as we were getting ready to go (we had already shared our thought), they invited us in for tea and some lemon cake. So we ended up staying for about as long as any other member appointment, but I feel like it was time well spent. They were angels and such sweet Swiss women (there was a husband, a wife, and the wife's best friend, but the husband was sick so we mostly talked to the women). They praised us for being such stalwart believers, warned against war, and encouraged us to eat a special kind of jam they were making from a fruit that I honestly couldn't understand through their accents and have never seen before. Apparently, though, it's the healthiest jam you can ever eat.
We decided we would go by on another woman, since we were in the area. We ended up walking through the poshest neighbourhood I've ever been in (literally it was straight out of those high school movies where the non-cool kid goes to a party at the cheerleading captain's house, and it's in a rich neighbourhood with shaped (not just trimmed) hedges, gates, and houses that rival those in Alpine). We pushed a doorbell, the woman opened it, told us she wasn't who we were looking for, after some questioning said she was actually who we were looking for, told us to go away, and shut the door as Sister Smith asked to use the bathroom. That, my friends, is what I call Affluenza (affluence-influenza, where your heart is set on the rich things of the world, and consequently your testimony suffers). But I loved seeing the neighbourhood, and Sister Smith had fun pointing out all of the pretty flowers, trees, and clouds on the way home.
Samstag, 12th:
We went to Sport in the morning. We switched it from evenings back to mornings because it's getting too dark now at night. But it was fun and just as many people came, and we also played a bit of football (soccer) off to the side whenever our team wasn't playing on the basketball court (so many people come that we have 3 teams and rotate them out). I miss playing football. I might sign up for one of those BYU co-ed teams when I get home. :)
We came home and cranked out the final hours of Areabook. It was hard work, but now we just need to go by on one person, and then wait on some others to either call us back or get deleted. Such is life!
Then we did our studies. :) We were grateful that we had exercised in the morning, because the rest of our day was spent inside!
Sonntag, 13th:
The Egens drove us to church, which was so sweet of them. :)
We had Church, which was great. Sad news, an older man in our ward passed away on Friday, so several of the testimonies talked about how much he had inspired them. He had joined the church when he was 70, and did push-ups every day and went skiing every winter until he was 87. What a lad. He had such a strong testimony, too. I'm going to miss him.
After church, we had GMK (ward mission correlation), and made good progress with several things. We were hyped for missionary work after that.
After church, we ran into a friend of ours, Peter. He told us that even though he didn't come to church today, he knew we were going to meet. Kudos to the Spirit, for reminding him that he needs to stay focused on learning more about our church. Then we had an impromptu lesson with him and taught the first lesson. Peter really likes to share his ideas, so we were stuck n the topic f the apostasy for about 45 minutes. Every time I tried to move on, I would at something like, "Yes, and that's why - " or "No, because - " or "Jesus - ", and then I'd get interrupted. This is when I learned that my patience has not improved on my mission.
At the end of the night, I was saying my bedtime prayer and realised something. Despite having an achey/sore throat for the past 2 days, and after not drinking for 26 ish hours, my throat was better. I didn't feel sick! I asked Sister Smith how her throat was, since she had also had an achey throat, and she said she was fine too! I was amazed. I never knew that fasting could do that. :) I quickly said a prayer of thanks, and I haven't felt sick since.
Montag, 14th:
We had Distriktrat, which was pretty uneventful, and then we made French toast for lunch. It went over pretty well. Shoutout to the Reinach Sisters for providing the toppings, since we had no Geld.
We had another Ausstellung, and this time Véronique came and helped out! She and Sister Smith had a nice long conversation with 2 guys, and I ended up talking with a woman about who-knows-what because I couldn't hear her (thanks, trams), but I picked up something about Morocco, Putin, maybe a religious President, and the number 2. She took a card.
But Véronique and Sister Smith really both rocked that Ausstellung, and some funny experiences came as a result. Véronique was getting a little sassy because the people were bothering her, so one time she tried to stop a woman and she got ignored, so she asked, "Do you not see me? Do you really not see me?" And the woman responded, "I don't WANT to see you!" And Véronique said, "Well, why not?" And the woman gestured at our bike and said, "Because you're with THIS Zeug!" Véronique just looked at her all innocently and asked, "And why is that bad?" The woman muttered something under her breath and walked off. You meet some really kind people on the street. :)
After ending the Ausstellung, we went to Fabiola's house for dinner. The Elders came, too, and when we arrived Fabiola's mom and friend were both there, visiting. They made traditional Columbian food using Yuca, and I was in love. I've also learned that my spice tolerance has increased, thanks to Sister Akre. We had a great conversation about the word of wisdom, amongst other things. Fabiola drove us home, and we had a good talk then, too. Not to mention, we bored the Elders by listing our favorite chick flicks. ;)
Dienstag, 15th:
This morning we bought our Groceries (ran into a member, so that was fun) and headed into Basel. We did finding for 3 hours, and had a couple of good conversations. We even got a potential out of it!
Today was Rainy, so we had planned to just get lunch and then ride to the church to write emails, but after eating dessert, Sister Smith suddenly turned ghostly white, got light headed, and ran off to the bathroom to throw up. Like the good companion I am, I watched her bag and the door, and kept writing emails. She came back and just sucked on mints while she called her family. So we just stayed in this store/restaurant/café to use their internet, and then we came home. Sister Smith took a bath, I made tea, and now we're rushing to get our weeklies out in time!
Favorite new word: Esp, lograr - to achieve, Deu, bescheiden - modest/humble/frugal, Swiss, Konfi - Marmelade - Jam
Favorite funny story: Véronique was feeling kind of down when everyone was rejecting us, so I tried to lift her spirits by saying "we're just sitting through the ones who aren't interested until we find the ones who are prepared!" But I didn't now how to say sift, so I said, " it's like when you make noodles and there's water and you have to let the water out to find the noodles. We can find the noodles!" And later I overheard Véronique explaining this to Sister Frome and she said, "Ich finde die Spagett!" (Which means, I'm finding the spaghetti!) I about died laughing when I saw Sister Frome's face.
Favorite spiritual thought: From this last conference, the talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, The Joy of the Saints (it's answered so many people's concerns this week - it might answer yours!): https://www.
TLDR: This was a week full of laughing and crying, mostly both at the same time. What a rollercoaster the mission is! Also, SHOUTOUT TO KYLE, HIS BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!! I love you, bro
My love to you all,
Sister Hamilton
Comments
Post a Comment