Gladwell, Ava

Hoi Zäme!! I hope that you all had a good Christmas!! This week was a busy one with us getting everything ready for Christmas. We met with a lot of members this week, and that is always nice because the members here are so loving. We had another temple p-day, which was really nice. I like to think that it was a little Christmas present to us!! Afterwards, we went to the Christmas market in Bern, and I once again bought a lot of food . I got some macarons, a cinnamon roll, and a bunch of fries. On Wednesday, we met with a few of the elderly ladies in our ward, so that they could have some visitors before Christmas. I really love getting to visit the elderly. They are always so happy to see us, and they have the most interesting stories. During one of our visits, one old lady threw a Christmas party for us, which consisted of eating cake and listening to Christmas songs in Swiss German. (One of them was called "Es Truckli vou Liebi". You can find it on YouTube if you want to he...

Grüsech mitenand!! We had an exciting week with Christmas zone conference on Wednesday! We got to wear our dirndls (Elders got to wear lederhosen ), had a special Christmas program, a talent show (I girded up my loins for my talent ), and a white elephant gift exchange. It was so fun!! Last p-day was pretty simple, but it was a good one! We went to the Christmas market in Biel, and I bought a LOT of food. I got some raclette, cannoli, a very large crepe, and finally I tried some heiße marroni. For some context, heiße marroni is just roasted chestnuts, but they sell a lot of it here around Christmas time. I wanted to see what all the buzz was about, so I bought some. It tasted pretty good; the texture was just way different than I expected (I don't know how to describe it other than weirdly fleshy lol) I probably wouldn't buy it again, but I'm glad I can say I tried it. Christmas zone conference was so good! President and Sister Naatjes both had some amazing talks. They tal...

Bonjour!! I hope that everyone's had a good week! Not a super busy week for us, but that's how it goes haha! I was feeling down because we weren't able to meet with any of our friends this week, but Heavenly Father sent me so many reminders to keep trying. Last p-day, we got to go to the temple again!! I'm so grateful that we live close by to the temple and have the opportunity to visit it so often. It's always so nice to feel the peace that comes from the temple and from making covenants with the Lord. It definitely helps me feel refreshed for the coming week. :) We visited some Christmas markets in Bern after that, and I ate a really good waffle. It really is such a beautiful time of the year. We also had our ward Christmas party, and it was so fun!! We started off singing some Christmas songs together, and then just ate and talked for the rest of the evening. I love our little ward here in Biel. That's another week for the books!! Bis nächste Woche!! Liebe...

Hoi zäme! It's been a crazy week. Transfers were on Wednesday! My new comp is named Sister Ferrante. She's from Germany (I guess President thought I needed to work on my German haha) and is super sweet! We've already had such a blast together! On Thursday, we woke up at 4:30 am to go to a quasi-mission conference in Stuttgart. I say "quasi" because only the missionaries from Switzerland and Stuttgart zon e were there. Elder Kopischke was visiting us, and talked to us about a lot of things. What stuck out to me the most was that in order to find His sheep, we need to use the voice of the Shepherd as we teach. He taught us to primarily use the scriptures when we're teaching and focusing on how the scriptures affect the people we're teaching. It's a simple idea but a very powerful and helpful reminder. I had a tausch this week with Sister Hunter while Sister Ferrante was in Munich for a leadership conference. We ended up going finding in the town center ...