I also had a crazy week! I went to the temple AGAIN, this time as a part of leadership council. We left 10am Wednesday, the temple session was at 5pm. We also had to split twice because one companion went to the German speaking Frankfurt sisters and the other to the international Frankfurt sisters. It's complicated.
The temple was beautiful, as always. But it was even better because I was there with like 30 missionaries that I know are trying hard to do their best and keep their covenants. And that's really the best company.
As we were all on the temple front steps taking pictures and whatnot, this Albanian woman came out of the temple and started introducing herself to every single one of us. In Albanian. I kinda just figure she was saying "My name is ___ and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" from the rhythm of how she was speaking. I could be totally wrong. A lot of elders got pictures with her, which she was pumped about.
The plan was to then have a testimony meeting in the chapel that's on temple grounds, but as we were congregating, a whole GROUP of Albanians followed us in! They were too big from the room they'd been assigned to, so the temple president had sent them to the chapel. My dear old German mission president was having trouble processing the change in plans. It was pretty funny. I think it worked out great because we got to have the pizza, first. I love pizza. President and Sister Schwartz sat with me an the Jena Zone Leaders, and when he sat down I went to go get him a glass.
"You read my mind! How did you do that?" he said.
I shrugged. "I'm a woman."
The look he gave me! "We are not dumb, you know."
Ok, that's not what I meant! But man I love President Schwartz. (remember, this was in German. It's just not as good in English.)
We finally ended up squishing all 30 of us into a little waiting room for our testimony meeting, which lasted until 9:45. Which isn't super kosher, but when you're in the room with the mission president, everything's pretty much automatically allowed. Luckily we were staying in the hostel that is on temple grounds, so we didn't have far to go! They provided sheets, but not towels or shampoo, and no one thought to bring their own because we always overnight in other sisters' apartments and mooch off them. I'm pretty sure all 30 of us decided on our own to just use our sheets as towels. Hope no one in the laundry noticed :)
MLC itself was pretty much the same as usual. Sister Schwartz shared some amazing insights from her scripture study, President Schwartz used a crazy random powerpoint to tell us everything he's been thinking about, the Assistants to the President led us in a teaching roleplay, and by then we were an hour late for lunch. Subway sandwiches! I personally witnessed an elder eat like 5. He may have eaten more before I got there, though.
After lunch was the part where we "council", or we talk about the issues of the mission and what we're going to do to fix it. Also, every zone reports on what they've done since the last MLC and how the missionaries in their zone reacted. That's the really fun part because all the missionaries there are old enough to know how to joke with President.
Even though MLC ended at 4pm, our bus to Jena didn't leave until Friday morning (at 7:30am, no less!) So we all crashed at the Frankfurt sisters' apartment and got some planning done while resisting the urge to eat all their food.
It's really amazing how much time and money goes into making sure that a bunch of missionaries are in the same room. I love what Elder Bednar said: he'd love to abolish the term meeting and start calling them revelatory experiences. My notes from these councils, especially from the testimony meetings, are some of my most cherished notes from my whole mission.
Friday night Elder Watts, who's in the branch presidency called and asked "Has anyone told you that you're giving a talk on Sunday?" Actually, no. No one had. My topic was "What I want to say to my home ward about my mission," and I really really enjoyed writing it because I started by just listing off every thing I could remember that the Spirit has taught me in the last 15 months. And it was a long list. I ended up sharing Elder Dyches' talk, the part where he quotes the story from Corrie Ten Boom. And I testified that trials are a sign of God's mercy and love.
We had like . . . 7 extra Americans in church on Sunday! Zach and the two intern couples were expected, and then a BYU professor and his wife showed up! I think there were more native English speakers in the room than Germans. (Oh, and two Chinese!)
From all the graduations and stuff I hear about, I guess it's summer. Someone should tell that to the weather here! Sister Stoker can't take the cold much longer.
Love you!
Sister Teusch
