ge-PIERCED

It's snowing today. 

Sister Threlkeld and I have concluded that snow is about a bazillion times better than rain; snow is pretty and you can sing about how it's "on your nose and eye lashes," while the rain gets in your boots and numbs your toes all day. I had a weird moment this week. I opened up my closet to get dressed, and realized that I didn't want to wear anything. I've finally been out on my mission long enough that I'm bored of my clothes! That's got to be some kind of bench mark. I'm over 7 months! What? I'm long enough out that I know my favorite Ritter Sport (Vanille Kipferl & Schoko Mousse,) I'm bored of my wardrobe, and when missionaries talk about other missionaries, I know who they are talking about a lot. 

Holy cow, Sister Threlkeld and I had such a good week. When I showed up last transfer, there were a few people who we were working with, but it was kind-of a transitiony phase and therefore our investigator pool wasn't huge. Sister Threlkeld and I have been trying really hard to find some more people to work with, and we've seen God making SO many miracles happen. We taught so many lessons this week - like, twice than normal. It was so cool. 

By the way. Something big happened last week. I got my ears pierced. That's right! Funny story with that...Sister Threlkeld has adopted herself as my surrogate sister, and therefore decided that I needed to have my ears pierced. So we made a deal - we both made goals of how many people we wanted to talk to/have good gospel conversations with every day of last week. We made them so they would stretch us a bit. Then, if we both succeeded, I would get my ears pierced. Well, it happened! (And we found 2 new investigators in the meantime. :)) One of the awesome members in Gemeinde (ward) Stuttgart wanted to come so we went with her and her adorable 5-year-old last Monday. And then it was done! I didn't die, luckily, and I have silver kugels in my ears. :P I even wrote to President about it in my weekly letter. I received back from him "Awesome. Can't wait to see your ears. Just make sure to stop at one." Haha.

And we did see him the next day, since we had interviews! I love interviews with President because you just get to sit down and ask him questions or tell him about how things are going and it's really great to get advice and stuff. What was funniest is the first thing he said was, "I guess the first thing I should follow up on is how the ear-piercing went!" But in actuality, he gave me a lot of great advice. And then, when we had bi-distrikt training later, he was talking about how we should use goal setting more effectively, and he was like "Elders, this isn't as applicable to you, but you could even get your ears pierced, like Sister Bushman!" and all the Elders turned and looked at me and it was hilarious. Like, whatever works!

Speaking of, funny moment. So this week we were walking down Königstraße, and these two girls with a huge CAMERA and MICROPHONE came and stopped us. The camera said something to the effect of "Church channel" and they were like, "What are your expectations for the future?" At first we were kind of flustered, but then I just went off about how we were missionaries and how we try and help people who are hopeless and down-trodden partake of the joy that Christ can bring and all this stuff and then walked away giggling because we totally crashed some other religion's TV show. 

We do a LOT of things as missionaries. Find, teach, baptize, reactivate, retain...Sherlock Holmes. But seriously. Sometimes, when inactive members of the church move (etc.) there are these people on the ward list who are total mysteries, and the ward will ask the missionaries to try and figure out who they are/if they still live there when they're working in the area of some of these people. We had an evening without many fest plans, so we decided to trek southward to the area of the airport to try and track this lady down. We found her house and asked about her, and the lady there said that she didn't live there, but that she had gotten married and to look up "so-n-so" in some different town...we literally felt like super sleuths, even if it took a bit of time. And then we were like, wait. This would have taken 5 MINUTES if we had IPads. Ahh. One day soon. (We're still waiting...France has IPads, Sweden has Iphones, one day we'll join the party!) :)

Man, we're so out of the loop as missionaries. I received a letter this week in which this girl was like "You probably heard already about this one thing that happened..." and I realized that I had absolutely no idea what on earth she was talking about. And I've been long enough out on my mission that when random people want to talk about American politics, I can honestly be like "I have no clue. Sorry." And then change the subject back to the gospel again. :)

By the way, I want to share this video. We were just clicking through Mormon messages with someone this week, and we watched "The Will of God." I just had never seen it before - and I think it greatly brings things into perspecive. 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-014-the-will-of-god?lang=eng

Schöne Woche! Ich habe euch Lieb!

Sister Bushman

Sister Bushman's Mom here:  One additional photo!

On Sunday the Sisters went with the Elders to deliver the sacrament to a ward
member int the hospital, and they came upon this lovely statue of Christ.

I'll walk with you, I'll talk with you

Hallo!

Do you remember the primary song that the title of this letter refers to? This past week, Sister Threlkeld and I were just walking down the street trying to track down this lady we had given a Book of Mormon to in my first week, and we came upon this man sitting on the seat of his walker, just in the middle of the sidewalk. We were walking pretty fast and originally passed him, but quickly noticed our oversight and went back and talked to him. His name is Volker, and he was born with a really bad leg, which makes it incredibly hard to walk. He was trying to go grocery shopping, but had barely made it a few meters before he sat down in pain. We had been speed-walking to find this lady because she said she was only home in the mornings, and it was like 11:40 at this point...but we decided to just talk with this man for a while instead. He talked about how much pain he was in, and literally nothing could cure it. He must have sworn like 15 times during that conversation, just out of pain. We read Alma 7:11 with him, where it talks about Christ taking upon our pains and sicknesses in addition to our sins. And then we just went and got his groceries for him, and we parted ways. It was one of those little moments I'll probably always remember. I hope we see him again someday. 

On a more trivial note, transfers were this past week. It wasn't quite as dramatic since we both stayed, but we got to "babysit" Sister Berry who works in Singen all day until she picked up her new companion that night, so that was fun. We also got a new Zone Leader! Elder Ridd is from Texas, and we already like him a lot. He's way cool. Out of the 4 missionaries in our ward, nobody is from Utah or other "Mormon States," since we're Kansas, Georgia, Texas, and Australia. It like, blows ward members' minds. :)

OH, also, I learned a super great phrase this week. We were at an eating appointment the day before transfers with the Elders, when Elder Smith got a text that was like, "Alles in Butter?" (Everything in butter?) And Elder Smith asked the member with whom we were eating about it. Apparently it's a bit dated, but you can totally ask if "everything is in butter" to mean "everything is okay," or whatever. How funny is that? 

During the week, Sister Threlkeld was asked if she would play piano in the PV, or Primary on Sunday. So we went, and she sat behind the piano while I sat amidst all the kleine Kindern. Okay. So I like kids, but everyone who knows me decently well knows that I'm just not quite sure what to do with them all the time. But, nevertheless, (and I don't know how this happened,) I have won the heart of just about every little girl in the junior primary. It's so funny and SO cute. Like, 5 or 6 different little German girls at different points during primary came and gave me a huge hug around the waist, or were tugging on my arm so I would sit with them, or this or that. At one point there were like 3 cute little girls swarming me and I looked over at Sister Threlkeld behind the piano and just saw her laughing at the whole situation. Mensch, they are cute kids. I have high hopes for my kinder skills!

One final cool experience I want to share. We were over at an American's house this week, and she had made us homemade pizza (oh my lecker [delicious]) with olive oil they got in Italy. She said they had bought it there last year (or so) when they visited. I told her how I really hope I get the opportunity to live in Europe again one day, so I can visit all these places I really dream of visiting. She then answered, 

"Well, the funny thing about life is that you get to do what you want."

It totally caught me off-gaurd, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Obviously I can't just decide to be Queen of Iceland or 16 years old again, and if God has better things for us in mind than what we originally want, He'll make sure we get all of those blessings...but we act so often like we are complete victims of our circumstances, we're completely controlled by whatever life throws at us... But God gave us our agency. He gave us the ability to do what we want and make our choices - for better of for worse. (Just like it says in 2 Nephi 2:26 how we can act for ourselves instead of just being acted upon.)

How cool is that? Food for thought. Make good choices this week!

Love, 

Sister Bushman

From Sister Bushman's Mom - A couple of fun photos from the week:

Sister Bushman on the streets of Stuttgart

The Gregorian Sisters?  Sister Bushman and Sister Threlkeld next to
an advertisement for a Gregorian chorus concert

Deutsche Ducks

Guten Morgen!

Transfer calls came this past Saturday. I almost completely forgot that they were coming. When Elder Smith called at 7 am Saturday morning, I was like "What on earth?" but then it was transfer calls, so I suppose it was fine. (haha.) Everything is staying exactly the same - Sister Threlkeld and I will continue working together as Sister Training Leaders in Stuttgart. This is actually the first time I've ever had a transfer where everything stayed exactly the same as the last - I've always had some companionship or area change. It will be nice; there's always an adjustment period in the beginning when stuff changes. So it'll be nice to avoid that and just keep truckin'. 

Sister Bushman remains in Stuttgart!

We had Zone Training this past week, and it was the first time I had to present there. I counted - we have 32 Elders, 4 Sisters, and an Ehepaar in Stuttgart Zone. Just fun facts? Anyway. I was a little nervous about it because for the first time it was COMPLETELY AUF DEUTSCH. President wants us to work harder to improve our German, so he made a new rule that we should try and speak 9-9 as much German as possible - and then District Meetings and stuff are also auf deutsch. Sister Threlkeld and I talked about the Character of Christ and diligence (like I talked about last week,) and since we presented near the beginning I stumbled a bit, but it went pretty well! What was really fun was that by the end of the day I felt myself chatting with everyone in German without too many problems...of course, I'm sure I made tons of mistakes and my vocab isn't huge, but it wasn't painful to just talk to everyone. I guess your brain has to just get going with it. I've already made progress even in the last week or 2 with my language, which was really fun. 

Also, cool little story from last week. Remember the cute lady I talked to on the Bahn on the way home from the MLC? We went to the lesson and taught the Plan of Salvation. I think probably one of my favorite things about teaching is when you see that they really get the significance of what you're talking about. The Spirit is there and touches them - and they feel that love from Heavenly Father. She was like " we can really live with our families forever?" Her mind was totally blown. It was so cool to watch her. 

It's been fun/totally weird to get back into normal contacting, because for like a month we really focused our contacting on Christmas. We've been trying to find different and interesting ways to strike up converstions with people. People ALWAYS talk about using family history as a finding tool - but we had never really done it because it seemed like an odd way to strike up a converstion. WRONG. This past week Stuttgart was really confused as to what season it was and therefore it was strangely nice last Saturday afternoon, and we went to try our hand at family history contacting in the park. It was so great! I literally would just go up to people and be like "where are you from?" and they were sometimes like, "Uh, what?" But it opened up this great conversation about their heritage, and we got to tell them about our purpose as missionaries with the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ - and invite them to learn about their heritage. We're totally making it a regular part of our work, it was so cool.

So yesterday we had a member appoinment where Sister Threlkeld and I were supposed to give the spiritual thought - but we weren't actually able to, and I was sad, so I'll share it with you. HA. Okay. So imagine that I have a 20 Euro schein (or 20 dollar bill...or Chinese Yen...whatever floats your boat.) It's really crisp, and nice. What if I were to tell you that I'll give you the 20? Would you want it? Probably. What if I folded it and crumpled it and it looked all dingy? Would you still want it? OF course. 

And why is that?

Because the value is the same. Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 talks about how the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. Nobody is perfect, but as we try to follow the Savior, we can become better. (And straighten out some of those folds and wrinkles. :)) 

Have a good week!

Sister Bushman

P.S.  Sister Bushman's Mom here:  Here is the explanation for the "Deutsche Ducks" title of this blog.  Sister Bushman is sharing the gospel with everyone she comes in contact with...even the German ducks!

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year, everyone! They call it Silvester here, which just makes me think of that one cartoon cat. I've been thinking about how now, this time next year, I'll be home. This year is really my mission year. That's cool.

Holidays are a really fun time of year, but to be completey honest, Sister Threlkeld and I are pretty happy to get back into the normal rhythm of things. It's kind of exhausting, and it's also harder to meet with people and have business as usual because people are busy or out of town. So we're excited for order! But, as far as Silvester goes in Germany, that means RACLETTE.

So I had heard of Raclette in the MTC. That's actually the name of a cheese, but when you have Raclette, there's this mini grill in the middle of the table where you grill meats on top and then melt cheese over veggies in this little oven under it...and I was sad that I had never tried it. So, last week, when a member invited us over for dinner on the 1st, I said Raclette. I had forgotten then that Raclette was a Silvester thing...so we had it 2 days in a row. I am in LOVE. It's like this "choose your own adventure" thing where you just make tray after tiny tray of combos of veggies and meats and cheeses and la la la. It's good. I want a grill when I get home.

Another Silvester thing is that EVERYONE sets off fireworks at midnight, when the new year begins. We got home a smidgen later than usual (President said we could be - no worries!) and so I figured that I wouldn't be able to sleep with all the racket. I shouldn't have been worried. I was literally so tired, I didn't hear anything! Sister Threlkeld did, though.

The next morning was seriously like the Apocolypse had happened. We had an appointment at 10 but wanted to share a conference talk that we didn't have printed out, so we left at around 8:30 so we could print it out at the church on the way to our appointment. The sky was grey, it was eerily quiet, NOBODY was on the streets, and there were remnants of fireworks everywhere. Finally, after an hour or two, we started seeing signs of life, but it very obviously was elderly people that were out before anyone else. I suppose that they didn't party too hard.

Crazy thing though, Sister Threlkeld printed a copy of the same talk just so she could read it (One of my favorites, "Forget Me Not," watch/read it here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/forget-me-not?lang=eng) and while we were walking, each of us holding a copy of this talk, this random woman passing us just asked "what are you holding?" Sister Threlkeld and I kind of looked at each other and talked with her a while, telling her how it was a talk from an Apostle of God, and she said she wanted to read it, so we just gave her a copy. So cool!

Wednesday night as we were walking home in the dark we got a call...from The Freiburg Zone Leaders? It was Elder Allen (I think?) who was like, "Did you get our text earlier today?" and we were like "...No, why?" And they were like "The Shaffhausen Sisters are spending the night with you tonight. And they're at Hauptbahnhof. Right now." Missionary Leadership Council was the next day and they were also going, but it's a long way from Freiburg Zone, so the Freiburg missionaries had come to Stuttgart the night before to make it easier. We were like "Ahh! Tell them we'll be there in half an hour!" So we ended up having this surprise sleepover with Sister Metzig and Sister Van der Put, from Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. So fun.

Friday was awesome because we all got to go to MLC! Missionary Leadership Council is this monthly thing where the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders go to München for a council and training, before they present Zone Training to the Zone that next week. We had to get up at like 5 to get ready and make our train in time, but it was still fun. Also, it was really nice to see Sister Wilkes whom I came in with, as well as Sisters Pentz and Bishop from my last Zone! To be completely honest, I was kind of worried about going to MLC. While being a "leader" in the mission doesn't mean much in that there are a lot of really good missionaries that aren't any kinds of leaders, I didn't feel qualified to be up at this fancy meeting with everyone else. It was actually totally cool though - while there were a ton of super dedicated people there, they were just normal missionaries like me. I learned a ton from the Kohlers and even contributed a few times to the discussions. 

BUT, another part of MLC is participating in Mission Mail. When people receive packages or letters at the HQ of the mission or people order supplies, they don't recieve them until Zone Training - meaning the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders have to carry everything home. A lot of people bring suitcases or big bags to help with that, but we didn't even have it on our radar. Big Mistake. Stuttgart Zone got TONS of packages of supplies and left over from Christmas - like, 8 or 9 in total that we had to carry all the way home. Luckily Elder Nielsen took us in his car to Bahnhof so it wasn't so bad, but we were laughing about how we were upping our "Spätsport" by lugging all of these packages home.

Also, funny thing. So...we found out this week that the Alpine Mission is literally the most expensive mission in the world. It was Tokyo, but since they split it into 2, it has become our mission. So we're trying extra hard to trim the fat on little things. A big part of that is the trains we take, so we took these regional trains instead of the fast ICE on the way home, to make it cheaper. It took like 4 hours, but it was fine because it was fun to be with the Zone Leaders planning Zone Training and eating huge Brezeln and ALMDUDLER. (Almdudler is this magic Austrian soda that the 4 of us missed, so Elder Smith pulled some strings with the Salzburg Zone Leaders, who brought us some Austrian goodness. So that was nice on the way home. :)) 

Sister Bushman with Almdudler

Elder Smith, Sister Bushman, Sister Threlkeld, Elder Sharp
with giant Brezeln (pretzel)

At MLC, Sister Kohler talked about something I really liked and took to heart. It was kind of in the vein of "The Character of Christ" by David Bednar, if you're familiar with that talk. Even when Christ was tired or in pain, he served others. (My favorite example she used is in Matthew 14 when He found out that John the Baptist was beheaded and went into the mountains so he could be alone and the people followed Him...so even though he was in pain, he ministered to them, healed their sick, and fed them.) She encouraged us to try and always serve that one extra person, even when we're tired or frustrated...because it's often that last person who is willing to listen.

When we got back to the good ol' Stutt-gart, Sister Threlkeld and I had to take 2 of the heaviest boxes because they were for us - (we had ordered a bajillion more copies of the Book of Mormon; we had run out of a few languages) - and I was exhausted. We had been travelling for hours, were pretty hungry, and were tired of lugging these awkward, huge, heavy boxes around public transit. But I thought about what Sister Kohler had said! This was that moment when I needed to turn outward, because, as she said, "The greatest joy will always come from turning outward". That night, we found this really cute family whom we have an appointment with on Wednesday. It was so cool - and a very obvious result of trying to apply what she said. None of us will ever come to the level of Christ in this life, obviously. But God is joyous when we try a little harder to be a little better. :)

Schöne Woche!

Sister Bushman

Merry and Bright

Hallo, dearies!

This week was lovely and long. When I first came out I was told that like no work gets done the weeks of Christmas and New Year's because you just go to parties and nobody is really out on the streets to talk to, but President Kohler encouraged us to try and use this sacred time to find people, and we actually had a couple really cool experiences.

So I mentioned before that we had these really cool, beautiful "Er ist das Geschenck" ('He is the Gift") cards that correlated with the video. We had given out a ton but still had too many left on Christmas Eve-Eve, so Sister Threlkeld and I decided to use that time to try and talk about Christ with as many people as we could fine. Like, power-hour contacting. We chose to go to Königstrasse, right next to the Christmas Markets, where there were tons of people. As we went out and started talking to people, we noticed that like, 10 people in a row rejected us right off the bat. What the heck? Then Sister Threlkeld pointed out that we were at the HEART of commercialism in all of Stuttgart. Oops. We continued to stroll down the street, half-heartedly trying to talk to a few people, feeling that our plan might not work after all. Then, all of a sudden we heard...drums? Pan flutes? What the heck? We walked closer to the spectacle and found this group of like 3-4 people decked out in full-on Native American garb singing this Native American/pop music. (Don't ask, but it was cool.) I was so amused about this random America flash in Germany. We watched them for a second until we realized that they were selling leather bracelets. Sister Threlkeld loves leather bracelets. We were tempted to buy some, but it wasn't P-day and we felt kind of guilty. And then we were like, hey! What if we both are able to have good convos/give out 10 of these cards, each, and then we can buy bracelets! So we got all excited and scurried about talking to the hoardes of people. And we had some success! The best part was that we felt SO energized, that we ended up forgoing our tentative plans for the evening and just kept talking to people and talking to people - and we gave out 59 of those little cards in the process, and found some cool potentials! It was so fun! (And now we have cool lamanite bracelets, too.)

In Germany Christmas is 3 days, and we were spoiled on all 3 of them. Christmas Eve we were invited over twice - and I got to eat delicious Deutsche Weihnachtskekse, sing lots of Christmas songs (they're really into that here,) and feel all warm and bubbly and stuff (mensch, I love Christmas.) At our evening appointment St. Nikolaus himself showed up to bring all the missionaries presents and it was hilarious. That evening in our apartment Sister Threlkeld and I sang "Stille Nacht" together, because it's an Austrian (and kind of German but mainly Austrian) thing to sing it on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was just as lovely - we both felt spoiled by home (and our Wohnung is like 10 scarves heavier, no joke) and it was so fun to just be outside. On Christmas. In Germany. My favorite contacting that has ever happened was during the few days of Christmas. I yelled 'Frohe Weihnachten" at like, erryone that I saw. We also had some meaningful conversations with a few people which I thought was really nice - it was nice to feel like we had really uplifted some of these people. 

Delicious Deutsche Weihnachtskekse (German Christmas cookies)

Elder Sharp and Sister Bushman at Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas morning with Sister Threlkeld

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Sister Threlkeld and I sang together this week. They had tihs really cool Andacht (fireside) on Christmas Eve and Sister Threlkeld and I were asked to sing. We literally followed a guy that works at the Stuttgart Opera (lol) but I think it went well and everyone was really nice afterward. It felt so good to sing again. Obviously singing in a church in Germany on Christmas Eve is a litle different than being on a stage, but it was closer and I missed it! On Sunday someone asked us if we were singing again...uh...let's wait a few weeks.

Also, cool thing. So we have this really lovely investigator who was a referral from another set of Elders. They had found her contacting and she said how she had wanted a Book of Mormon for years, but she was in our area so we went over and taught her. We gave her a book last week and came back this week to teach her again. One problem - she speaks no English and hardly any German. So teaching involves a lot of pointing to similar passages in the Bulgarisch (her mother language) Book of Mormon and playing charades and stuff, but what was really cool is that we all totally felt the Spirit nonetheless. I love how the Spirit can speak through different languages!

Oh, yeah. We had also been talking soooo much about how we longed for a White Christmas...but it was too warm, so it never happened. And then, on the 26th, (day after Christmas,) we got dumped on. It's absolutely beautiful, so no complaints.

Beautiful Stuttgart, dressed in white

Schnee!!  (Snow!!)

To close, I really wanted to share something that President Kohler sent in his email last week, which I found beautiful. We always focus on Christ so much during the Christmas season (makes sense,) but shouldn't we always think of him so much?

"The Christmas season is a beautiful time of year. People love the excitement found in the spirit of giving, the relationships of family and friends, and the special activities and decorations. This spirit of Christmas can be celebrated on many, all good, but not equally significant levels. 

One level is the “Santa Level.” This is the level that children really love. It’s the level of Christmas trees, wrapped packages, secrets, special food, and parties. It is filled with carolers, excited children and exhausted parents. We are generous to the less fortunate. It is a special time in which we eat too much, spend too much, and do too much and enjoy it without seeming be able to get enough. We love this level of Christmas for good reasons. 

But there is a higher, a more beautiful and significant level. This is the “Silent Night Level.” This is the level of our sacred Christmas carols and the scriptural account of a crowded inn and the Savior’s birth in a lowly stable. The angelic proclamation of good tidings of great joy and a new star in the East that wise men follow in search of the Holy One. Without this level, the season is hollow, shallow, and commercial.

The trouble is, that these levels on their own don’t last. They can’t. They are too much, too intense, too extravagant. The tree dies, the candles burn down, and the weight gets put on. The wrapping is thrown out and the carolers burn out. We line up to exchange gifts and the dieting begins. The decorations get put away and the cleanup begins. But the lonely, the hungry, and the poor are still with us, perhaps more so than before. Even if we strive to keep the baby Jesus in the manger all year long, in the end we will be disappointed and empty.

For Christmas to last all year, for its message to grow in beauty and meaning and purpose, for it to have the power to change lives, it must be celebrated on another level; the level of the “Adult Christ.” At this level – not as the infant child – our Savior provides his gifts of lasting joy, peace, hope, and salvation. It is at this level that he provides examples of love, giving, and forgiving. This is the creator, savior, and redeemer who weeps at man’s lack of affection and hate for one another. It is at this level we remember that he willingly suffered and gave his life for all men so we could repent and live again. This is the level where we take upon us his name, always remember him, and follow him in keeping his commandments. Accepting this invitation to follow him is the way – the only way (2 Nephi 31.21) – to celebrate Christmas all year and all lifelong."

As we head into the New Year, let's remember "Adult Christ". 

Alles gute im neuen Jahr!  (All the best is the New Year!)

Alles Liebe,

Sister Bushman

Im Stroh in der Krippe

FROHE WEIHNACHTEN, y'all!

It hadn't felt super like a regular Christmas since I'm in another country and missed out on Black Friday madness, (perhaps for the best,) but in the last week, all of a sudden it's been like Christmas ALL THE THINGS so that has been a lot of fun. It's also a fun way to talk to people. Yay! It has therefore been my least Christmas-y AND most Christmas-y Christmas, ever. Actually focused on Christmas, but not waking up at 5 to go to Target. It's nice. 

Not saying that we haven't had some fun, though. ;) Last P-day, we got permission to leave our area and go to Esslingen, which has a Medieval Christmas market. It's kind of funny - about a month ago I was at the Christmas market at Rathaus in Wien, (my first), and raving about the experience with some Elders we had run into there. Elder Hancey was like, "Oh, this is nothing. You have to see the Christmas market in Esslingen." And I was thinking, "what a shame that I won't be able to see it...maybe one day!" But here we are. A month later. In Esslingen.

With Sister Threlkeld in Esslingen

Anyway, Esslingen is ADORABLE. Stuttgart was bombed out during WW2, so while a lot of buildings have really cool, old basements...most of the construction is fairly new. Esslingen was spared, so they have a city gate, walls that surround the city, precious churches and buildings - Sister Threlkeld and I felt like tourists. It's how you imagine southern Germany. The Medieval Markt was SO cool. I ate bread on a stick, there were people dressed up as old-school beggars, hand-made swords for sale, a tent with fairy-princess story time, and demonstrations of juggling and sword-making and such. It was actually kind of funny - watching this man show these children and the crowd how to make swords, Sister Threlkeld remarked how it was a lot like Nauvoo...but like, Medieval Germany version? Way fun. We also ran into EIGHT different Elders there. I guess it's a fairly popular attraction in Stuttgart Zone.

Bread on a stick!

I experienced a full-on MIRACLE this week. So I need to get a visa for Germany. (obviously.) I had already Anmelded (basically registering with the city that you indeed live there,) and needed to be shipped some paperwork from the office so I could actually go and get my visa. (This mission is a bit weird in that you get your visa WHEN you get here - not before.) I went to my usual place to get my passport so we could go, and it was GONE. I always keep it in the exact same place, but it wasn't there. I took a deep breath and kept looking...but still couldn't find it. And I kept looking and kept looking...and started to PANIC. There are procedures for this kind of thing and Sister Threlkeld assured me that nobody would die in the process, but I didn't want to face the possibility of getting emergency transferred back to Austria (or HOME,) since I lost a gosh darn little paper book. I prayed and prayed and went to bed. The next morning I got up and went to my Manner Schnitten stockpile (stop laughing at me,) and FOUND IT. It was the exact place I had looked 20 times, but had somehow not seen it. I was SO happy. Heavenly Father answers prayers! (And then we enjoyed some Manner, so that's good.)

We also Tausched this week! I got to work with Sister Baugh in Stuttgart. She's brand new - only in her 3rd or 4th week in the field, but she is a boss. She's from Utah and played basketball in college and is so incredibly bold with people. It was so fun to work with her. Story - we had planned to go by on this less-active that we want to meet with, but kept playing phone tag with. She lives pretty close to the church, so it wasn't too hard to go. But the thing is - we could not for the life of us find her street. It actually turned into this hilarious (and hilariously effective?) finding technique - it was dark and kind of cold so there weren't tons of people on the street, and we found ourselves literally running strangers down to ask them where this street was. Everyone was super friendly and helpful, and we gave out a few "Er ist das Geschenk" cards on the way. One lady even walked with us the WHOLE way to the house so that she made sure we could find it. It was so cool. 

Another fun thing from this week - the Weihnachtsfeier, or Ward Party! Funnnnnny story...so a week or two ago, we (the missionaries) were all asked to sing something for the Christmas party. They said it didn't have to be super serious - just something fun. Through a couple miscommunications, we ended up literally not having a chance to figure out with the Elders what we were going to do. Sister Threlkeld and I came up with an idea - do 'Once there was a snowman" (total classic) with all the PV (primary) kids and all the other missionaries, and then dismiss everyone, and Sister Threlkeld and I sing "Winter Wonderland," because we had been playing around with it and found a fun little arrangement that we could easily do a cappella. We bounced our idea off of one of the people in charge of the party, who said it was perfect. Phew! The Elders walked in just as we were going on becuase they had something they had to do beforehand (Zone Leaders are so busy,) and we literally told them the game plan AS we walked to the front to the room. We then invited up the kids and started to sing...and NONE of them knew the song!!!! We then decided to do it again and told them to try and follow us, but it ended up being a handful of American/Aussie missionaries singing in "Denglisch" (we only knew some of the words auf deutsch,) with a lot of confused German children behind us. It was super funny - Sister Threlkeld and I then let everyone go and we sang, and it actually went pretty well! Everyone clapped really loud and said nice things afterward. It was just really funny. How could these kids NOT know "Es war einmal ein Schneemann"?!

The little "set" for the Primary kids Nativity
presentation at the Ward Christmas Party

The party was absolutely LOVELY, though. Oh my goodness. There is nothing more magical than Christmas in Germany. They had homemade Spätzle, oranges pierced with tons of cloves, this adorable Krippe thing they did with all the kids (they played this cool song and all the kids came in as Wise Men and shepherds and walked around the whole room and ended up around the manger - it was so cute,) and then they had a DANCE. Before my mission, dances stressed me out so much (ha) but they are so different here. They put on all this Christmas music and all the adults danced with each other (or sometimes their kids - it was so cute,) and just waltzed around the room. Holy cow, Germans can dance! My favorite was when that John Lennon "war is over" song came on and everyone was full-on waltzing...that was way cool. I wished I could join, but I think it was just because I couldn't that I wanted to, haha. :)

With Sister Threlkeld, Elder Smith, and Elder Sharp

I'm so excited for Christmas...people have been very generous in opening their homes to us, so we'll be very well taken care of. The Elders and our ward started spending our chunks of time without appointments caroling together. We did it last night at the main Christmas market in town and it was a really cool experience - a few people stopped just to listen to us sing about Christ. :) And I am so excited to SKYPE!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to share my testimony of our Savior at this sacred time of year. I love you all so much. Merry Christmas.

Lots of love,

Sister Bushman

(P.S. - http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos )

Er ist das Geschenk!

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

This week had SO many cool moments - there were a good handful of times when Sister Threlkeld and I would look each other and be like, "is this real life?" As a missionay, there's nothing better. Nothing beats being busy and making good stories to tell later. :)

Like, for instance, earlier last week we had a chunk of time with no sicher plans, so we prayed about where we should go to do some finding as well as introduce ourselves to some members and less-actives, since I don't hardly no anyone yet, and Sister Threlkeld has only been here 5 weeks longer, so we're both still pretty new to the area. After our prayer, I felt like we should go to the area of a certain U-Bahn stop, kind of out of the way, but still very much in Stuttgart. Sister Threlkeld agreed, so we headed out. We didn't see a ton of fruits with talking to people or dooring, but we were able to make contact with this sweet older woman who is mainly inactive because of health reasons, and share a spiritual thought with another member who lived nearby. We were happy that we had met with those people, and then went back to our side of town around an hour later, when we had another appointment. That night we got a call from Elder Sharp in our ward, who asked if we had gone by on that certain member that day. We said that we had, and asked why he was wondering. He said that Elder Smith had had an impression that they should go visit that member as well! It was the craziest thing, becuase it's even farther away from where they live. I suppose that member really needed to feel the Spirit that day. Crazy! (Also, another time this week when Elder Sharp called I answered the phone with "G'day, mate" and he laughed and didn't seem annoyed, so if anything, Elder Sharp is a really good natured person.)

Also, we were recognized TONS this week. It was so weird. I think the missionaries in the states get recognized a lot more than we do here. Often people think we are Jehovah's Witnesses, but it's not super often that people recognize us as Latter-day Saints. On Monday evening we went to the huge Christmas market near the center of Stuttgart because a member had said that she was selling Kinderpunsch and would give us some for free (sold,) but we weren't able to find her, because it was CRAZY. The Christmas market here is a lot different than the ones in Wien, but I can't really name all the reasons why. First of all, I think Stuttgart just has one big market, instead of the 29-or-so like in Wien. It was so incredibly crowded, and the roofs are DECORATED. It was so cool. Animatronic bunnies, rotating Nativity scenes, Santas on sleighs...it was crazy to look up and see everything. All I know is that I had tomato herb crepes and it was the best. But, as we were standing there, (me eating my crepe and Sister Threlkeld trying to choose a type of wurst or something,) a man came up to us and in a very American accent, said "Hello, Sisters! I served here in Stuttgart 35 years ago." It was so cool. He and his wife and son had been in France, and popped over to Stuttgart to visit his old mission. And here we were, doing the same thing! It was so cool. Later that evening on the Bahn, a man standing next to us said "I know who you are and why you are here. You're Mormon missionaries and serve for a year and a half," which was totally out of the blue. He's Italian and apparently worked in Florida at Epcot when he was younger, and had a friend who was Mormon. Crazy! AND, 2 days ago on the Bahn, Sister Threlkeld pointed out to me that there was a couple speaking English together. So, acting on one of my fave contacting techniques, I asked them where they were from. The guy was like "Tennessee. How long have you been a missionary?" He had recognized us the WHOLE time. They both had had friends who served missions. So crazy! That's totally out of the ordinary. We also talked to this lady at the Bahn stop one day who said she had seen the Elders walking around before, and described them as looking "very friendly...but very serious." Haha.

But the definite highlight of the week was...CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE! It was on Wednesday and we were combined with Munich Zone, so we got to ride to Munich that morning. The Tübingen sisters had spent the night before, so the 4 of us went to Bahnhof in the morning with...you guessed it...like 20 Elders. I ran into Elder Phillips and Elder Pingel there, both who used to be in Wien but got transferred to this area, so it was fun to catch up, and tell Elder Pingel all about the baptism that had just happened in Wien. :) I really like travelling in big groups of missionaries, because it's hilarious. I may have mentioned this love before...but we STICK OUT. Like, SO much. There is nothing less casual than 26 Elders in suits and 4 Sisters in skirts walking in a big clump down the streets in Germany. I just love it. We get a lot of looks. 

The actual conference was lovely, President pulled out all the stops and I learned a lot and just loved it. Also, I got to see a whole new group of missionaries - including my dear "Fairy God Mother" Sister Smiley and my "fairy-god-sister" (she's training,) and Sister Smith whom I came in with, and Elders Killpack and Carr, both of whom I haven't seen since we first got here. It was so fun to catch up. In the morning, Sister Kohler and President Kohler both gave beautiful messages about Christmas, and then we got a special treat. In Switzerland there was a group of missionaries that developed these really, really good firesides that cover a lot of the doctrine in the first 3 lessons. They've become super successful, apparently the last one had like, over 500 people (absolutely crazy,) including a couple hundred non-members. President had 2 of the Elders over it come and we got to see a big chunk of one of their firesides, that is called "The Light of the World". I don't know what I was expecting, but I was blown away. Dad would have swooned for it. Beautifully filmed scenes punctuated by musical numbers (ranging from hymns to EFY to pop music accompanied by ukelele.) It was seriously so cool. We may try and talk to the ward about putting on a fireside; it was that good. 

Lunch was awesome - some of the women in Munich made us the most delicious Deutsch lunch ever, including pumpkin soup which made me happy because I thought it was a just-Austria thing and I missed it. (Yay!) We also had a hilarious gift exchange - I ended up getting these fun antlers and Santa backpack and peanut butter from Elder Harvey in my district. All I know is that those antlers may make an appearance at the Ward Christmas party.

Sister Threlkeld and Sister Bushman

After lunch President Kohler had this big dramatic lead up to our next activity, saying he had an idea of something special but didn't think he could make it work...and then procured the only copy of Meet the Mormons in Europe! We were so excited. For those who don't know, Meet the Mormons is a church-produced film that came out in October and actually did really well - the purpose of it is to show the world who Mormons actually are by following the lives of a few in particular. It's SO good - absolutely beautiful and stirring (in the end a Mom who had gone through unthinkably hard challenges before she found and joined the church said goodbye to her missionary son - I remember that soo well,) to just hilarious (they showed a couple clips of TV shows and movies mentioning the Mormons, including the Simpsons and South Park. Go watch it!

And THEN (this e-mail is getting obscenely long, sorry about it,) President told us all about the He is the Gift Christmas Initiative that the church has put on this year. It's gotten to the point where so many people just don't like Christmas because it has become so ridiculously commercialized and it seems like there isn't any point - and they made this beautiful video about how Christ is the real gift. (Watch it here: http://www.mormon.org/christmas) So many people are searching for truth and meaning, especially this time of year. The church has also done tons to promote it - including taking over the banner on YouTube for a WHOLE DAY, and bilboards in Times Square. (NYC family - send me some pics! I want to see. :))

Then we all got our Christmas packages (thanks parents!) which was really fun. It also says in the White Handbook not to carry bulky items that make it look like you could have items of value...we all broke that one. Oops. OH, and Sister Threlkeld and I bought THE biggest soft pretzel that I have ever seen in the Munich Bahnhof. It was the best. 

We got these really beautiful "Er ist das Geschenk" pass along cards that we have been giving to members, challenging them to give one to a friend who needs the hope and love of Christ in their lives this Christmas season. It's been a huge success so far. It's so beautiful, and so true. Go watch the video right now, and then post the link on your FaceBook page, or send it to someone you love. 

Ain't Christmas great? I love you all.

Sister Bushman