Horse Poop and Pencil Skirts

Well, this week the Fantastic 4 was split up :(  Elder Spencer was transferred to SWITZERLAND!!  He is one of 7 Americans in our mission pioneering the effort this transfer to get the Swiss to allow us to have visas there again!  So hopefully that will go well!  Don't worry, of course we did a selfie photo shoot in the middle of the city before we had to say goodbye!

Tuesday was Elder Spencer's birthday!  We had a little party for him after District Meeting, which was super fun, and then we had a Relief Society activity!  We made these adorable little Easter chickens, so fun!  And we got some appointments with some ladies we don't know very well! #yes!  

Wednesday we had lunch at the Relief Society President's house, which was probably the best appointment I've ever had!  I could understand 100% of what she was saying!  And I talked a lot too, which was great because I love to talk, and we were all cracking each other up the whole time!  It was just so rejuvenating and fun!  Then we went finding for two hours, and it was the first time I have had doors actually SLAMMED in my face (haha.) There are some very strong old ladies here!  We found this awesome apartment complex on the top of a giant hill, and we had to climb like the Great Wall of China to get there, but the view of the city was beautiful!! No one let us in, but it was a great place to see the sunset! 

Wednesday night we went to Schwester Ollendorf's, who is so awesome! She served her mission at Temple Square so she likes to just speak English with us, and she is the craftiest most talented person ever.  She showed us all the patchwork quilts and purses she has made, and crochet shoes and blankets, and some makeup bags and pillows, just bazillions of things!  So we are gonna go back sometime so she can teach us how to make stuff :)

Friday we went to visit an inactive lady who lives an hour bus ride away!  Our area/ward boundaries are so big that some of these inactive members are just inactive because they can't get to the church by 9am on Sunday!  This lady basically lives in the farm country of Graz (didn't even know that was a thing) and it was LEGIT!  She took us on a little tour of her farm and I felt like Miley in The Hannah Montana Movie when she has all her fancy stuff on and she like falls off her horse and gets all dirty.  I mean, we were trudging through sticks and horse poop and I was wearing a pencil skirt!  (Hence the subject of my email...) But I ain't complaining!  It was THE BEST.  I don't know what's happened to me, but I've become a real outdoorsy girl lately! The memories of collecting eggs from the chicken coop at the Grs came back to me and I was like "hey, maybe I want to live on a farm again when I grow up" and then I saw a spider on a log and I was like "nope." 

Saturday we spent the entire day at home doing weekly planning and cleaning out our closet because the moths have moved out of our kitchen and into our wardrobe. We had to wash all of our clothes, and our washing machine is the size of a pomegranate, and we don't have a dryer. So, silly us, we weren't thinking and we just did a gazillion loads of laundry and laid them all around the apartment to dry, and then Sunday morning we woke up and realized every piece of clothing we both owned was still wet, so we had nothing to wear. So we had to blow dry some outfits with Sister Fast's hairdryer #firstworldprobs.

So I would just like to say how grateful I am for MUSIC! As missionaries our musical choices are limited, so I do a lot of singing in the shower. SO glad I have all the High School Musical songs memorized. But really, music is one of the most powerful things on this earth!! It can put you into a good mood, or make you depressed, or bring the spirit into the room, or chase it away! President Kohler tells us to consider the regular music playing in stores or on the bus as a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, and I got SO excited the other day when I heard "Hey Geronimo" on the bus, but really, I am actually grateful for this opportunity I have to detox my ears for a year and a half!  Listening to music focused solely on Christ and the gospel is so awesome! And by the way church music can be fun. Just look up the a cappella group Inside Out, or listen to some Gladys Knight songs. So this week I challenge y'all to take a long hard listen to the music you let enter into your ears, and make some conscious decisions of whether or not it should really be going in there. Let the Holy Ghost be your q-tip this week, and do some spring cleaning in there! You will be amazed at how much of a difference it makes, even if it's just in the mindless thoughts that come to your head! They will be more likely to be centered on clean and pure things if that's the kind of music you are listening to :) Personally, I thought I was so cool back at home when I was listening to all that rap crap, and now that I have been on my mission for almost 5 months I think I agree with all the old people when they say that the music kids listen to now days isn't even music haha. So start memorizing some Hannah Montana songs! (You'll thank me later) and know that Heavenly Father knows your heart, and knows that you are trying your best :) 

love y'all!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Thunell