I Love the Fall

Hi there! 

Man weeks go by so fast. Seriously so so fast. Started off with a fun Pday with the Zollikofen sisters in Grindelwald again, but we went on a chill walk around the town and little Swiss houses. 

We also got to carve pumpkins that night for family home evening!! That was so fun haha. Second Halloween away from home but I still get to carve my pumpkin :) thank goodness. 

We had a fun time eating raclette after our district meeting. Honestly though, it was just to use the cheese Dagmar sent me haha. Did I mention that Sister Jones can't eat gluten, starch or any milk products? She can't even eat potatoes. This is the absolute worst country to be serving a mission in with that allergy, I tell you what. Anyway, my district was nice enough to help us finish the cheese :)

One of the highlights this week was when Bruder Jäggi received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. A scripture came into my mind as I watched in sacrament meeting. In 3 Nephi 17:20 where Christ looks over the faithful saints in the Americas and says, "Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full." That last part came to me as he was receiving the Holy Ghost, "my joy is full."  And it really was! Nothing fills your soul with as much joy as seeing someone covenant with Heavenly Father to always follow Him. Nothing fills you with as much joy as seeing someone be able to have the constant companionship of the Spirit with them from that point on. It's really beautiful. 

Another really cool experience was on Saturday. Kind of hard/weird to explain, but we've met the friend of a member. She had been to several church activities and loves the church and finds all these problems with her church, yet is very set in staying in her church. She doesn't want to change. Well anyway, we still have gotten to know each other through this member and one time I said, "hey! I bet you have some beautiful walks that you go on with your dog! Can we come some time?" And she said, of course!

Well we came, all ready to walk and when she found out that we had to leave in an hour she was like, "ah no, that's not enough time, let's just drink some tea all together!" So we did and it ended up being sooo good. She let us teach her all about the plan of salvation. She was also asking us all these questions about receiving revelation and answers to prayers. We asked her if we could pray for her at the end and she excitedly said yes. The spirit was so so strong. It was so incredible. She really felt in her heart that what we were saying to her was true! Incredible. You walk out of stuff like this, look at your companion, have no idea what you said in there but somehow the spirit guides you and creates a beautiful symphony of us bearing testimony, asking inspired questions, the person being taught being able to answer their own questions and the spirit bearing witness in all our hearts that our message is true. It's really beautiful. 

Hope everyone's doing well! Have a great week!

-Sister Lehmann

True love❤️

 

Selfies with the cows

Me stressfully writing emails on the train. Appreciate it if I email you or write you letters folks. It is stressful haha. Just kidding. I'm just glad I actually have people who like to write me! Still stressful... never enough time.

The Asians of Interlaken

There was a fridge-chalet-self-serve-alp-cheese thing. It was yummy :)

District finding in Biel

Biel again, exchanging with Sister Selph for the hour.

Trying to take cute autumn pictures but the umbrella broke and got stuck in my hair.

Our lovely appartment building. Our lovely dumpster❤️

Our lovely mail box (do you recognize Sister Jone's scarf, Grandma?)

One last meal with Esther, she just moved. So sad. But she treated us to Döner and that's not so sad. Haha that's my very first Döner. I hear in Germany you can find them for 2 euros!! Well here they're 15.

Brüder's Jäggi's Baptism

Hi there!

This week's highlight: Bruder Jäggi's baptism!!!  It was so great.

Well, of course it had its little kinks in the program, but we tried 😊

Like Elder Nielsen says the baptismal prayer and goes to put our tiny

74 year old investigator under the water, but it just didn't work.

Hahaha

Actually it was kind of bad because Bruder Jäggi was really trying to

go under but honestly it just looked like this missionary was trying

to drown this old man. And then all the ward members, the vocal ones,

were trying to tell Elder Nielsen what to do and and this kind of

frantic funny scene went on for five minutes. I'm not even kidding. It

was really five minutes. Finally, finally he got baptized, but I don't

think half the people were watching at this point but we all clapped

and some cheered, which I'm not sure you're suppose to do that at a

baptism but that's ok. Hahaha you had to have been there.

As funny as that was, it was still a really spiritual experience for

Bruder Jäggi. He was so happy. I've never seen him so happy before, or

emotional. It was really beautiful to see.

Seriously, he had completely turned his life around. Just a year ago

he didn't even know anything about God, but slowly but surely, his

life changed and he really knows God and has faith in Jesus Christ. It

took so much patience for me to teach him haha but now I look back and

I realize how blessed I was to be a part of this. Every week for six

months teaching him, I look back and see that I had little to do with

any of it. It's all Heavenly Father. It's all the Lord. And I've been

so so blessed to get a front row seat of the power of the atonement in

individual lives.

Have a great week,

Sister Lehmann

Had to show sister Jones some Bern...

On our way to a service project

Karyna and her kids and a random little girl. This is really the best picture, Zaiden refused to cooperate.

Hallo zusammen!

Hallo zusammen! (very Swiss German way of saying it)

Alles läuft super hier in Solothurn😊

Had a great zone training to start off the week. It's funny, I'm one

of the oldest ones in Bern zone at this point. Not the oldest

missionary, but one of the missionaries that's been here the longest.

We had exchanges that day too and that was great! I went back to

Burgdorf for the day and Sister Jones stayed in Solothurn. Haha it was

wonderful, I got a really nice break from always taking the lead and

knowing where things are. Honestly, exchanges are the best thing for a

new missionary, 'cause it helps them realize how much of the area they

actually know and how they really don't need their trainer to get

around!

So funny coming back from Burgdorf to my comp and her just going on

this long stressed rant about this person she called, and that train

connection she looked up, and this or that appointment that got

cancelled....we very much switched roles haha.

But seriously I love exchanges. For whatever reason, I'm always just a

bit apprehensive beforehand, but afterwards, I LOVE it. Miracles

always happen. Like Burgdorf hadn't been able to find anyone in the

last 2 weeks and suddenly in the hour Sister Fairbanks and I had to do

finding, we found someone, gave out a Book of Mormon to someone else,

and discovered where this long lost less active lady lived, who Sister

Tauche and I had looked for so long while I was there in June. Hahaha

Other highlights this week would have to be Bruder Jäggi's baptismal

interview going super well (seriously we went over the questions so

many times, but he did good. Incredible to see the change in his heart

over these last 6 months of teaching him.)

Then Saturday was dumb 'cause we were looking for this address forever

of a new lady in our ward, but no one knows her name and she lives in

an apartment building, so we literally had to ring everyone and ask

them if they happen to be a member of our church and just moved in

there. Haha they all thought we were pretty dumb. And the best part is

that she wasn't even home. And by this time we both really had to pee

and so I found the nearest McDonald's but we still had to walk a bit

and as you can imagine, it just felt like the biggest waste of an

afternoon. But, at McDonald's, we quickly said a prayer that with this

last hour of finding before we had to go home,  He would somehow help

us achieve our goal of finding 2 new people. And we did!!

One was a very very Muslim guy, but he said we could bring him a Book

of Mormon in Arabic. And then a really really cool guy. We were

walking down the street and he was raking his sidewalk. We went up to

talk to him and he was telling us that he already knew us and stuff,

but turns out he was talking about another church. We talked to him

for a bit about what we do and the Book of Mormon and I told him that

we share a message and invite people to pray about it and ask God if

it's true. Haha for whatever reason he got a real kick out of that

one. He said he wanted to see what his son had to say about that, and

that his son would decide if we could come in or not. So out comes his

6 six year old son. I ask him if he believes in God and he says yes.

And I ask them if they pray, and he said yes. And pretty much I told

him what I told his dad. I asked him if he understood what I was

saying and he said yes. Then his dad asks him, so what do you think

Ezra? Do we let them in? And he said we could! Thanks Ezra 😊 you're

the best.

Highlight of the week was when the bishop and a member of our ward

came over to give Karyna a priesthood blessing. The spirit was so

strong, it was SO STRONG. I seriously have never felt the spirit so

strong on my mission, maybe ever in my life. Everyone, especially

Karyna was glowing at the end.

I know for a fact God answers prayers and fasts. He answered so many

of my prayers this week, so so many. We just have to be a little

patient sometimes :)

Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Lehmann

Pday with the Zollikoven Sisters in Basel. Man I love this city, I can't believe I've waited so long to go! They have the greatest old town.

Sister Selph found this schnitzel on Donald Trumps face rather comical. No quite sure what that advertisements even for.

On our way to our ward missionary council, had to take a pic.

And last but not least, Sister Lehmann made some lentil soup. It was super good. Thanks for the recipe mom :)