Sunday 2 November 2014

Deutschland P-Day & Musikalischer Abend

So, I told you all about the trotti bikes last week! After that we had a great dinner appointment with our GML on Monday evening and the food was AMAZING!! And we did a practice lesson with them which went pretty well! Tuesday we had a great District Meeting and I had an assignment to explain our goals and testify about what they mean to me (with only short notice)... Sucks to be the DLs comp! So our goals are Missionary Purpose, D&C 4 and 3 Nephi 5:13 which I now know off by heart in German! Woop! And then we had the third Tausch of the transfer, so I was with Elder Dewey in Bern 1! It was such a great Tausch! We had a right laugh and some amazing lessons with people they are teaching at the moment! It was great to actually have some lessons, as we aren't doing very well at the moment with lessons! :( Then Wednesday and Thursday evenings we had Finding Evening in Bern with the Zolikoffen Missionaries and Thun Sisters. Zolikoffen seems to be more like our district than anyone else's, as we do so much with them! It was a great two evenings where we spoke with people about the temple tour that the Sisters run in Zolikoffen. It's basically a walk around the temple grounds and an explanation of why we have temples and the history behind temples and especially behind the Swiss temple. It seems pretty cool and a great tool to use in missionary work. And we were also speaking about the Music evening next Sunday in Zolikoffen based on the Plan of Salvation! So we were working alone but within sight and sound of our comps (obviously), so I had quite a lot of German conversations on my own, freaking out as my German is still not as advanced,  but the Spirit was just a Boss in those conversations. I just understood and spoke with no problem! It was great! And the Spirit really does work through you! Then we had another DA with a member on Thursday night and it was amazing food again! Friday not much happened, but it was a pretty good day. And that is where this photo comes in! 
Missionary Haircut courtesy of Elder Little
This morning I had my first haircut! Elder Little did it, as hair cuts in Switzerland are either poor quality and cheap or good yet unaffordable! So luckily Elder Little is good at cutting hair! I hope! You'll have to tell me what you think! Saturday we had the ward cleaning day, which we went to to support the ward, and did a right good clean of the chapel! Then we had another great appointment at a member's where we got fed again! It was a curry, Swiss curry tastes good, but it's not curry as we know it back home! It's not a particularly spicy curry, however they add fruit to it to make it flavourful. It's really good, but different to British Indian curry! Then Sunday we had Sacrament and watched the last session of General Conference, which was great! Such a good session and if you haven't got round to watching it, watch it, the talks are brilliant! Then we had our 4th DA of the week (I think) at Family Burri's! It was so good! They're like a 40 minute drive away from Bern, so it's one of those appointments where we are allowed to spend the whole afternoon with them! So we ate and it was amazing, then we had another practice Resto lesson with them, which was better than our practice one with the GML, as we applied what they said we could do to improve and then we played a game and just built up our member-missionary relationship! They are such a great family and spending the afternoon doing member work reminded me of home and spending time together on a Sunday afternoon! It was great! 
Today the plan is to go to Germany to go shopping as it is so much cheaper than here in Switzerland!..... So when we went to Germany we went out at an all you can eat Chinese restaurant which was amazing! Elder Little and Dewey treated us as it was there joint Birthday thing! Then shopping there was so much cheaper than in Switzerland. Tuesday I had my first proper assignment in District Meeting. It went pretty well I think! And everyone participated! :D Thursday was transfer calls, we're staying and Friday was Friday! Saturday we had a rehearsal for the Musikalischer Abend for Sunday Evening. And this week I have really seen how little time we have each day as missionaries. It's crazy! 

Yesterday was the best!!! Sunday is always so brilliant! Our Sunday School lesson went well, we had the class doing most of the work and just explained bits and testified! It was great! We had 2 lessons this week! One with T, He keeps his commitments but it's whether he understands what we teach (due to language differences), that we can't quite tell... Then the other one was with one of the Zone Leaders investigators that we get along with quite well as the ZLs couldn't make the appointment but we were in the area, so we taught them and they went pretty well. This week our goal is to have a family to teach. A golden family! So if you could keep our companionship goal in your prayers that would mean the world. We're thinking Parents, 3 children (at least one being older than 8)! We shall see! 

Anyway the Musikalischer Abend! It was amazing!! Based on the Plan of Salvation! And it had a story going along with it broke up by musical pieces. It was packed out with members, less actives and investigators/potentials. So a great missionary tool! The whole thing was filmed and I had to film some of it for the official video they will put together as my camera is so great. 
I made a Chocolate Fudge Cake for Sister Gilmours birthday yesterday as we promised something and it actually turned out pretty well! The recipes Mom sent are coming in very handy!


Finding day in Bern
That photo was our finding day in Bern! We did a joint district finding day with Zolikofen district but not all of the 2 districts are in that photo. It's literally Bern and Zolikofen missionaries. Biel and Interlaken aren't there! I had to get new shoes last week... :( My black ones, the sole started coming off... too much work!! So I bought shoe glue and fixed them and also bought some new ones to alternate between them,  (as they were only 20 francs each I thought I'd buy two to save them a little longer). 

In a few P-Days time we are planning on going to a place called Grindelwald or something like that, down Interlaken way. Members say it is the most beautiful place in Switzerland, so if you fancy checking it out and letting me know, go for it!!

Have a super amazing week and keep being the great missionaries and examples you all are.