Gladwell, Ava

Grüezi mitenand!! Another week has flown by! My new comp is named Sister Smith, and she is from Utah (naturally haha). Sister Smith is super motivated to work and has a ton of great ideas, so it's been cool to work with her. I'm also just super impressed with how well she's doing! Her German comprehension is so good, so I feel like we've gotten by pretty well so far. Last Tuesday was our zone temple day. We got to go to the Bern Temple again, and it was another great experience! I was feeling sad about Sister Bauman leaving and worried about training, so it was really refreshing to be there. We had transfers on Wednesday, so Sister Bauman and I had to get up early for that. We arrived in Zürich, I said goodbye to her, and she got on a train to Munich. We then ran her off. (We have a tradition of running by the train as it takes off with departing missionaries.) I spent the rest of the day with Sister Marriott, and we were able to go to a really cool art museum as w...

Hallo Familie und Freunde! We got transfer calls last Saturday. Sister Bauman will be heading to Landshut, Germany. I'll be staying in Singen and Schaffhausen, and here's the kicker: I'll be training. It was quite a shock to get transfer calls because we thought we'd be staying together for another transfer. I'm sad that Sister Bauman is leaving, and it's pretty nerve-racking to be training so early, but I'm excited at the same time. On Tuesday, Sister Bauman and I travelled to Konstanz. We then took a boat to Mainau Island, and spent the day there. The island was covered in flowers, and we got to visit a petting zoo and a butterfly garden! The rest of the week was pretty typical. We met with our friends, went through the ward list with members, and visited some less-active members. What stood out this week was that we got to go to the temple! There was a ward temple trip for Schaffhausen, and two converts would be going for the first time! I was so glad t...

Grüezi mitenand!! It has been a bit of a challenging week. Nothing too big happened, just a few minor inconveniences haha. Our bikes broke down and we just had a lot of trains cancel on us because of construction. Nonetheless, I'm really enjoying it here in Singen and Schaffhausen! We went to Seealpsee last Tuesday. It's definitely a hidden gem here in Switzerland. There weren't very many people, but it was so beautiful—definitely one of my favorite hikes here! We took the gondola up the mountain and hiked down. The hike took us through a little cave, and there was a little restaurant on the side of a cliff. It was a very rocky hike, so our feet were pretty sore by the end. Luckily, we were able to put our feet in the water when we got to the lake. I was on Tausch this week with Sister Kerksiek in Singen. It was my first time leading out my area on Tausch, but it went really well! We visited some less-active members, and delivered a Book of Mormon to a referral in Radolf...

Hallo Familie und Freunde! This week was really good! We had our Stake Mission Week, so there were quite a few ward activities geared toward missionary work. I think Sister Bauman and I both saw a lot of miracles! Last Monday, we had a ward Family Home Evening with the Schaffhausen branch. We gave little presentations on our experiences with missionary life. I was nervous because I had to give the presentation in German, but I think it worked out. I spoke in really simple sentences and made a lot of mistakes, but I'm happy with myself for trying! It still is a struggle to learn German, and it sometimes feels like my progress with the language is really slow, but I feel like I've had a lot of help from God. I feel like He's definitely given me the confidence to try. We went to Zürich last Tuesday. We got breakfast with the Schwammedigen Sisters, and Sister Bauman and I shared an amazing waffle!! (It's so pricey in Switzerland, so we always just share food haha) Anyw...