Grüezi
Ahhh the weeks go too fast!!!
Wednesday we had tausch (exchange..) with our STLs (sister training leaders) in Zolikofen. I went to Zolikofen with Sister Moffett, and Sister Svobodová came to Reinach to work with Sister Harwood. I learned so much with Sister Moffett about how to trick (okay not trick...I mean convince or talk so much they don't realize they could just say no) people into actually talking to us when we go dooring. It was so fun, and she is just an incredible missionary.
Thursday I returned back to Reinach and we had a FHV (relief society) activity. It was a Dankfest and the members were told to bring friends. And they did. There were so many friends who were there! It was such a lovely evening with the theme of gratitude, and the spirit was strong and testified to many. Sister Häner had brought her neighbor Mareen, and we talked the majority of the evening. She's soo nice! It started off with me just asking her questions about normal life to her asking all about what we do as missionaries and why it was so neat. Sister Häner told her that she invites us over often foe lunch or dinner and she said that she too would like to come and meet with us again. :) :) :)
Friday we had an appointment with Teame, a man we found while we were street contacting. He was
15 minutes early and was so interested! He's awesome, he's from Africa, but has been here for a few years now. Friday night we had a regional thanksgiving potluck! We invited Kalppana to come to that and she LOVED IT. She had so many questions about different aspects of her church I got to very casually teach her the word of wisdom, temples, missionary work, and bits and pieces of other lessons. Her eyes just kept getting so big and she'd be like 'YES. THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE.' like, yeah it does, it's Christ's church. Ahh it was so fantastic. And Sister Häner had brought Mareen and her husband as well! I was sad I hadn't had a chance to talk to her more and I expressed that to her, but she assured me that we would be seeing each other again. Which makes me froh because I think she's so great and I want to be her friend forever and share with her the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring her peace and joy and love and happiness and all the good feels!
Saturday we had GMK at the Prellers. Bruder Preller informed me that he has been praying for the snow and cold JUST FOR ME. AHH he is just too thoughtful and too sweet, I just LOVE snow and being COLD. Ich freue mich! Wonderful! We spent the evening with Schwester Meyer, and she is just so wonderful and we could feel God's love for her so strongly. She's trying so hard to do what God asks her to do, and we know that God is pleased with her and her efforts. There's a quote by Elder Holland that says, "the great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying, even if we don't always succeed." Sincerely trying to live the gospel, is living the gospel. God knows we are going to make mistakes, we are only human, all he asks is that we try. And continue trying, even when times get tough or when we fail.
Sunday the Hugs had us over for lunch and we had tacos. Ahh good ol' tacos. I love Americans. I love tacos. I love Sundays. I love everything. Sister Hug and I were able to talk a lot, I just think she's so fantastic and I love talking to her. We were able to go dooring in Seewen and we had an experience that I will now share...
So we were dooring, just a typical Sunday dooring in Switzerland, the people were unhappy because "Sunday is not a good day" "a message about Jesus? Today is Sunday, go away. Maybe another day." HELLO EVERYDAY IS JESUS DAY, BUT ESPECIALLY SUNDAY. But then we found a cat. Or rather, a cat found us. And then another cat came. And we had a little cat party, is there any better way to boost your spirits than a cat party? I think not. But then we continued on our way, and one of our cat friends followed, for quite a while, at his own pace, but he came surely and steadily. UNTIL OUT OF NOWHERE AND I MEAN OUT OF NOWHERE ANOTHER CAT JUMPED OUT AND ATTACKED OUR CAT FRIEND. OUR POOR UNSUSPECTING CAT FRIEND!! our friend tried to follow us but the freaking Satan cat scared him away and we lost our friend. We had to keep dooring, because we can't stop salvation but we still sorrowed our lost cat. As we were walking to the bus at the end of our time we were talking about the horrific scene we had erlebt, and realized that it was something that actually happened quite often in our work. We find people, and we'll share a nice moment together but they don't all have interest to continue on in the journey, when we get one to come with us it's truly special, but that's when Satan is Satan. He works so hard against those who have the potential and progression. He'll come out of nowhere and just scare people away. It happens with us in our efforts, we've seen people progress until some hard thing happens and sometimes it shakes them and they stop meeting, sometimes they choose to rely on God. Many times that we meet with less active members it stems from the same problem. We need to make sure our foundations are sure. We need to stand steadfast and immovable so that when Satan attacks (and he will because he's satan and that's what he does) we can be prepared. We will not be moved, we won't be scared off, and we will be able to stand up against him and continue on God's paths. So that's what we got out of a cat party on Sunday. You were probably expecting something else when I had a story, but it's Reinach, and I attract cats, and it just was something a little different this week. I promise other more interesting things happen than fighting cats, but I can talk about those things another day.
Monday we had district meeting and it was something else. My district cracks me up, we just have so many different characters and personalities and it's just such a strange mixture of people but I love it. After district meeting we had another appointment with Teame...which got crashed by two of the Basel elders because they want him. It was a good lesson and it went really well but we weren't planning on doing a pass off lesson yet so we were really thrown off and Teame was really confused but he still wants to continue meeting and learning more. We also had an appointment with a guy from Tahiti, he called us the other night and said he was am inactive member from Tahiti living in Switzerland and he wanted to meet with missionaries. It was so cool. He's a professional soccer player and he has a lot of things in his life but he feels like something is missing, so he turned back to the church! We had a really cool lesson with Anja there as well.
Today we switched our pday time and went finding in the morning so it wouldn't be dark and cold so people would actually want to talk to us and that worked out really well, we met a really cool guy and he gave us his contact information to meet him later. After finding we went to interlaken and spent the day in Thun and Interlaken. We had wanted to ride a boat and spend the day on Thunsee but it's winter so they told us no.. so we went HIKING and enjoyed the city instead. It was a beautiful day!
1 Nephi 19: 22-23
22 Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, did teach my brethren these things; and it came to pass that I did read many things to them, which were engraven upon the plates of brass, that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old.
23 And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.
Nephi was the perfect example for us of how we should read, study, and teach from the scriptures. The scriptures are so easily applicable to us in these days, we just need to like them unto, that we may profit and learn from them. That's why we have scriptures, and that is how we can get the most out of them.
Have a great week you guys! I love you all!
(Several pictures of interlaken... Sister Harwood and I...oooh so pretty. Telephone booth full of nasty spidies... sunset while dooring... cutie Kalppana and I) + more pictures coming later, we left the camera at home so I'll send those when we are home and it'll come out when we have Wi-Fi tomorrow (it'll be sent during pday time just not delivered
