The Sister Show

Na, Servus!  (Hello!)

I don't have tons to say this week, just because the week was a whirlwind. I wouldn't even know where to start! Like, we are supposed to do in-depth planning every Thursday or Friday for the next week every week...and we are doing it today for our proselyting time. Because we seriously just had NO other time to do it. Crazy. It's fun to be busy, though.

Yesterday was by far THE most verrückt (crazy) Sunday I've ever experienced my whole mission. First of all, the cards somehow fell that Sister Bishop and I taught the combined priesthood/Relief Society lesson, AND I gave a talk. Since it's a baby branch there are only two speakers in Sacrament meeting each week and there are only two hours of church, so basically it was the sister show. Luckily somebody stepped in to conduct the music so I had a bit of a mental break, but it was pretty crazy how much we had planned on doing. AND with this crazy week we didn't get in all of our studies a couple of days, so we were down to the wire getting all of our stuff prepared. (I think I told Sister Bishop "my stress senses are tingling!" Like 5 times. Haha. She's so long-suffering. :)) AND everyone and their dog showed up at church. All the active members, as well as some WONDERFUL people we are working with, and some Americans on vacation, and the missionaries...there were like 30 people! It was like twice as normal! It was so fun. I think all the lesson-y talk-y things went okay too. Sometimes when I get flustered the German stops working, aber nichts SO schreckliches ist passiert. :)  (but nothing dreadful happened)

In our lesson we talked about Elder Gerald Causse's talk from last General Conference, "Is It Still Wonderful to You?" It was really fun because we got some good class participation. We started out with the question "Was ist Ihr Lieblingslied?" (What is your favorite song?) written on the board. We got answers ranging from hymns to pop to Josh Groban. We then asked someone specific how often they listened to that song - he said like, every day. And we were like "but why? You've heard it SO many times!" And he said that it was still good, and he noticed new little things about it each time. We talked about how that was like the Gospel - we go to church each week and learn about the same topics, but it's still wonderful and we can always learn something new. At the end of the lesson we gave every person there (we almost ran out!) a brand-new Book of Mormon with the challenge to do one of two things - either to try and re-vamp their scripture study by studying the whole book for something specific, or to renew their excitement and love for the gospel by giving it to a friend. It was fun!

In my talk I read Mosiah 2:9 (which is the beginning of King Benjamin's big address) and talked about General Conference and what we can do to prepare. We can liken King Benjamin's advice to listen with our ears, hearts, and minds so that we get as much from it as possible.

Can you believe it's already time for Conference? I feel like it was yesterday when I was eating Marzipaneier with Sister Threlkeld in Stuttgart and Sister Freimann randomly showed up. Be sure to write down a question that you need an answer to and ponder it while watching!

I love you all, have a great week!

Sister Bushman

Photos from the week:

A new German "Trachten" skirt

"High on a hill stood a sister missionary . . ."

Sister Bushman and Sister Bishop were enjoying their invitation to dine!

A little bit of home -- Sister Bushman came across
some sunflowers -- the state flower of Kansas