Mold

Schönen guten Nachmittag!

Hello my lovelies! This was a LOVELY week in Passau. It's not that we set 5 baptismal dates or anything absurd like that, but I've just been appreciating my days with Sister Bishop in this lovely little town. I'm falling in love with it more every day, really. It's just so cute here.

The Passau missionaires:  Elder Gibbs, Elder Faux, 
Sister Bushman, Sister Bishop

The title of this email is maybe a little weird, but is entirely accurate about life right now. Sister Bishop the other day was like "If I were to describe Germany in the summer in one word, it would be this: Mold." And she's right. We don't know how, but food seems to go bad SO FAST here. Something with the lack of preservatives. Or the humidity. Or lack of centralized air conditioning. No idea - but it's helped me deal with my food mold phobia. :)

But holy cow, are there a LOT of Americans around right now, seriously. You have no idea. Since there's so many cruises that stop here and we are in the height of the summer tourism season...yeah. You get the picture. BUT. It's just SO FUN because sometimes there are members and they see us and are so kind and wonderful and always say hi and meet us! There was even a couple the other day who took us and the Elders all out to dinner at this yummy Bayerisch restaurant. It was so so kind of them. I've made a promise to myself to love on the missionaries when I see them randomly in my life. If I'm on vacation in Texas (or whatever) in the middle of the summer and run into the Elders biking around, I'm going to take them to Sonic and buy them milkshakes. It's not that the Elders (or Sisters, of course) can't go themselves if they want to, but you just feel SO SPECIAL as a missionary when people are so kind. If you go see the missionaries, give them a handshake and a smile. I promise it will completely make their day.

We had a couple really cool opportunities just kind of finding people as we lived life this past week. I really believe that God leads us to people in such a subtle way, that things seem coincidental. Like, I want a Bierstein SO badly. I really want to bring one home. (For root beer, no worries. :)) Aber die sind ein bisschen teuer (but they are a bit expensive). So one day we had been contacting for a while, and I saw some really beautiful Biersteins in the window of an antique shop, so I popped in with Sister Bishop to see how much they cost. The shop owner recognized us as missionaries, and said that he has a friend who is Mormon who gave him a Vietnamese Book of Mormon many years ago. He met with the Elders and LOVED what he learned, but he has a big family to support here and in Vietnam, so he's crazy busy. But he said that when he's old and doesn't have to work, he wants to come back to church! He even talked about how he really respected the Mormon pioneers, and how he kinda feels that way himself having left his country to come to Germany. He was super cool and said he would love it if we come by to talk again!

And then, one time we were simply standing on the boardwalk next to this tourist shop (I think we were debating whether to get ice cream or not, haha) and this shop lady came out to see if we needed anything...and it turns out that she's majoring in theology and wants to hear about what we believe! It's so cool how we'll just "happen" to run into people who are excited to see us. :)

Oh! And another one! We went to go visit a friend of ours who lives at a refugee home on Sunday. We knocked - and she didn't answer. Ack! We hadn't been in contact for a few weeks and we were a little worried. We were in the stairwell trying to decide what to do (which bus to take, if we should door the building or not, etc.) and then our friend walked out into the stairwell! It turns out that she had barely moved rooms, that was all that happened. So she let us in and we talked about prayer. It was great!

It should cool down a little bit next week, weirdly enough. I don't know if it will be tights weather, but I can't help but think about the fact that after the season changes, the next time I won't HAVE to wear tights with a skirt, it will be in America. :/ ENOUGH OF THAT TRAIN OF THOUGHT.

Hm, what else. It's crazy that September is this week. This time last year, I was still gallivanting around Vienna with Sister Smiley and Sister Freimann, who are actually Anna and Sarah now. Weird. Man, I can't believe how fast the time is going.

Love,

Schwester Buschman


Sister Bushman's mom here:  some more photos from the week . . . 

The missionaries worked on a service project: