Suisse

Hallo liebe Familie und Freunde :) 

This week has been pretty crazy! Tuesday we had Zone Training in the beautiful city of Bern, and that was fun to be there! We are definitely getting prepared to work super hard during this Christmas season, and we put it to the test on Wednesday. We had a couple of great appointments, and then we hit the streets to go finding. We have been so busy since I've been in Switzerland that I haven't even really gotten to see much of the actual city of Solothurn, but holy cow! let me tell ya it's adorable!! So quaint and all Christmas-y and the people in Switzerland are just so nice! I've made so many new random friends on the streets just by saying hello. We end up talking for a long time, and I definitely feel like we are scattering our little seeds everywhere we go. 

Friday was a pretty crazy day. At 8:30am we got a phone call from President Kohler saying that Sister Jones is getting emergency transferred because of visa problems. So she's leaving on Wednesday, which was a huge shocker and doesn't give us a lot of time to finish stuff up here. We have only been together for 3 weeks! I've only been in Switzerland for 3 weeks! So it's gonna be a little crazy trying to take over this area, but my new companion is from Finland, so that's exciting! The rest of the day was crazy busy with appointments and lessons and meeting up with some potential investigators, and just running around like busy missionaries do.

Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner with an American family! Best. Appointment. Ever.  It was the Elders' first Thanksgiving dinner (because one is from England and the other is from Denmark) and it was just super fun for all of us!  It made me less sad that I wasn't home with my family for Thanksgiving :)  

We have also been having some super awesome lessons with our  golden, perfect, amazing, investigator who has a baptismal date for Dec 10th.  So please keep her in your prayers!  We taught her the law of chastity and it was great, and then we went to a Christmas Bazar thing with her at her children's school.  

On Sunday we went to a member's house after church and it was so awesome.  We had some deep conversations about conversion to the gospel and how it really is just so personal for each one of us!  The members here in Solothurn are super awesome. It's such a great Ward!

Well, sorry I have no interesting or funny stories lately.  But just remember to keep Jesus Christ in your hearts and thoughts this Christmas season. And don't forget to go watch the Christmas #lighttheworld video on Mormon.org and share it with your friends! 

Love y'all. 

Sister Thunell

Schweiz

Hi I'm alive! 

Man, have these last few weeks been some crazy roller coasters. But all of that is finally over, and we are back to preaching the gospel like a couple of maniacs!  There is WAY too much to say, but leaving Augsburg was actually harder than I thought it would be!  Saying goodbye to Maili and Izu was the hardest, but before I left Izu did a prayer circle with us and said the most wonderful prayer ever for me :) He's so great. I haven't heard for sure, but he was planning on receiving the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church, so I hope that all went well! :) 

I also got to hug and say goodbye to every single one of Maili's cats...she made me, hahah! and that was awesome. 

SWITZERLAND IS SO DIFFERENT. This is like a completely different mission, guys. They speak Swiss German here and it just sounds like German with an Italian accent, mixed with a few gobbling turkeys. I literally can't understand one word of it. As soon as I thought my German was good, I get put into a whole new country and a whole new language!  The currency is different here, they use Franken instead of Euro, and the people are WAY nicer. It's actually kinda freaking me out that every time we stop someone on the street to talk to them, they actually smile and listen😳 Solothurn is probably the greatest ward at missionary work that I've ever been in.  Best Ward Mission Leader, and best member missionaries!  There are definitely people here that are so ready for the gospel, and people in the Ward that are so ready to receive them with open arms!

Cool things we have done in the last week and a half: we went to Basel and then crossed the border to Germany to go grocery shopping because Switzerland is ridiculously expensive.  We went to the TEMPLE!!...first time in over a year!  It was the most wonderful and spiritual experience ever, and I got to listen to the session in German which was better than English honestly. 

We accidentally broke a Swiss law and I almost got a GIANT ticket! 

We had a baptism for a little girl that we had to speed through all the lessons with because she's 9 (so technically an investigator) and her mom just forgot to have her get baptized when she was 8.  But she was SO CUTE and so happy at her baptism :)  

We had a ton of lessons with our other investigator, who is getting baptized in a little less than a month.  She is so cool, and so prepared!  We had interviews and training from President Kohler, and those are always great.  Stake Conference with the whole Bern Stake, so many meetings I can't even remember, and lots of appointments with members! It's been so crazy busy, which is such a blessing, and I think I'm beginning to get used to things here. Today for pday we are going to the Matterhorn (the mountain not the roller coaster) so be prepared for some awesome pictures next week!

I also just want you all to know that the power of prayer is real.  And also that more people are praying for you than you realize!  I know with all my heart and soul that Heavenly Father really does hear and answer our prayers and pleadings to Him.  If you are struggling, if you are lonely, if you are sad, or even if you are grateful, happy, and everything is going great, GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY.  Our Heavenly Father loves us more than we can imagine, and I am barely coming to a tiny understanding of what that really means for me.

Pray as if everything depends on the Lord, and then WORK as if everything depends on you. That's been my motto for the past week :) 

love you all!

Sister Thunell

Transfer Calls!

Grüezi Leute! 

Well, I don't have my planner so I can't tell you everything that we did this week, but I can tell you that transfer calls came and I am going to Solothurn in Switzerland!! 

And I'm training again! The third child is always the problem child so we will see how my new baby is ;)  I'm super excited, but most especially excited to be able to go to the temple!  I haven't been to the temple in a YEAR!! So woohoo :) 

This week we had a great lesson with our recently baptized member about Christlike attributes, and he is preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood in two weeks. YAY!  We also had LOTS of member appointments, some crazy adventures on all these weird German trains with the elders, and another planking contest at sport abend!  ELDER YOST PLANKED FOR TEN MINUTES...so I just gave up. haha 

We set a baptismal date with our landlady for December 11, and we are soooo excited for her :)  She is really the best, and probably the person I will miss the most here in Augsburg! 

Last Monday we had a Halloween party in Kaufbeuren

and today is Frau Mügel's 98th birthday, so we are visiting her with a little present :) 

Yesterday I said goodbye to most everyone at church

and today I am stocking up on everything I need for Switzerland because Germany is super cheap and Switzerland is SO EXPENSIVE! 

Well, sorry for the short email but that's all I have for today!  Next time we chat I will be living in the land of cheese and chocolate :)

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Thunell