Mission Revisited -- September 1999

By this time on my mission I was on to my third companion in the field. I had left Elder Bohm in Basel and after 1 month together in Aarau Elder Burt was transferred, which meant I was taking over an area for the first time on my mission. It was really stressful and I felt like I was losing all of my confidence. When Elder Burt left I ended up getting a companion who had been in the field only 1 month longer than me, Elder Dairman. Man, I sure loved every minute I spent with him. We ended up having 4 amazing months together in Aarau, with September being the first month of our companionship. During our time together we saw a lot of success, really both grew as missionaries, and honestly just had a lot of fun. We used to make "Top Ten Lists" in German just to test out our language skills. Below are a couple of our "lists" translated into English. Enjoy!

Ten Worst Reasons to Go Home

10. My birthday package never came.

9. My testimony was already strong enough, before my mission.

8. My "Gleis 7" (A train ticket that let you go anywhere in Switzerland after 7pm) got me to the airport.

7. German reflexive pronouns pissed me off.

6. I wanted to surprise my family

5. There are no Taco Bells in Switzerland

4. The white handbook didn't say that I have to stay for 2 years.

3. My mom said that I could be a district leader at home.

2. I stubbed my toe and need surgery.

1. The holy ghost told me to.

Top Ten Things Not to Say At Doors

10. We are Jehovah's Witnesses

9. You want to fight about it?

8. We're not here to take your faith away, we're just here to eat your children.

7. I don't know a word of German but I'd like to talk to you about God.

6. Did you know that the sun is a celestial planet?

5. How old is your daughter?

4. May we help ourselves to 10% of your income?

3. Elder Dairman would like to sing a song for you.

2. May I have a smoke?

1. Do you want to have more than 1 wife?

We did stuff like this to keep things fun. We had too, at this point in my mission we spent the vast majority of our days doing doors. Some days were great, others were really rough. One thing never changed though, Switzerland was always beautiful! It made it easier to do all of the doors I did when doing doors meant I had to walk around in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I was so blessed. I still get all emotional when I think about how much I loved Switzerland.

Brooklyn the Student

We're excited but also sad to say that Brooklyn is now a school girl! She started preschool last week and will be going 3 times a week. She's really excited and so are we, but we're sad at the same time. It's hard to believe that she's 4 years old already... What a difference 4 years makes... Here's a pic of her on her very 1st day of life:

and now here are some pics of her on her first day of school:

She's changed so much in 4 years (obviously). We're proud of the girl she's becoming, she's happy, energetic and sincerely loves to make people laugh. We also struggle though with her with some things. She struggled on her first day of school with "transitioning" from one thing to another and cried a little bit during the class. It's all part of learning how to react to life I guess. I'm sure it's as frustrating for her as it is for us. Most of all though we're just happy to have her. She and Carson both keep us in stitches and are the main foundation for our happiness.

Congrats on your first day of school Brooklyn, we're proud of you!