WEEK 9: SERVICE, FONDUE & a FAIR

Wow, I can't believe that today is my 2 month mark... it has been such an amazing journey and I haven't even scratched the surface! So this week was so great, we had tons of member lessons and lots of spiritual experiences.

Monday night we were at a members house and we had fondue and it was the first time I had it - and let me tell you - It was amazing!! Its apparently super popular here... it seriously was so yummy haha.

Tuesday we had Zone Training and it was a lot of fun to get together with everyone and learn some new stuff. We all had to get flu shots and we were late so there was like 20 missionaries bookin it down the road to catch a train and it was so funny!

District - Flu Shots :0

 So that took up most of our day and then we had a member lesson that night with an AMAZING family (I've talked about them before)  named the Eggenbergers. Oh my goodness this family has been my saving grace here.  I absolutely love them they remind me so much of my family!

Wednesday we had 2 appointments scheduled and they both fell through... sad day... and so we went finding and no one was having it that day. They would just look at us and shake their heads no. haha We went to an apartment and every person we talked to was muslim and again  not interested, The last person we klingeled was a catholic lady who came down and actually talked to us! The minute I saw her I felt the impression to give her a Book of Mormon. It was SO strong! She said she wasn't interested, and she was saying goodbye to us and I suddenly just blurted out "can we give this book to you? Its free!" hahaha.  She  still said No - but I really felt like I needed to give it to her, so we wrote a note in it and left it on her doorstep. I have never felt a prompting so strongly!  I don't know what's going to come of it and I may never will, but I couldn't deny what I felt and I was so happy that we were able to leave it with her. I hope it helps her in some way :) I love how in tune with the Spirit we can be if we choose to be obedient and listen to the holy ghost.

Thursday we taught 2 members, and Sister Stamp and I were both impressed to share our thoughts with one of them about patience. It was so perfect and it was just what she needed to hear. She's going through a rough time and the Spirit in the lesson was so strong (it was also in english so that played a small part in it  :) lol)

Friday was a weird day... I really hurt my neck the night before while I was sleeping and I couldn't move my head in the morning so i was pretty out of it all day. We went to a doctor appointment for Sister Stamp in Germany and then we got home and did weekly planning. It was a really off day haha...

Saturday we had a service project at the Eggenbergers!!! We helped in her garden and we ripped up trees and weeded and it was so great. it was so nice to feel needed after a week of rejection haha. We ate more fondue that night :)))

Sunday was great we taught the young womens class about service and i really realized how important service is. it was amazing to think of all the different ways we can serve in our lives! We had brunch at a members house and we gave a spiritual thought and the mom asked us what our mission stories were and so being able to share my personal story with a member was amazing and it really brought the spirit. Again, i love how individual this Gospel is to everyone. We each have things that stick out to us and influence us in different ways. The son who is inactive actually stayed and listened to the spiritual thought so that was amazing as well!!

Today (Pday) we went to a fair thing called Olma as a district (minus 2 of our elders) and ate wurst and rode this crazy ride that made a little kid puke and it was just a blast hahaha! It was nice to kind of be normal today. We wore normal clothes and didnt look as threatening, so people were nicer to us hahaha but no it was really fun!

Okay so yes im really good - everythings good,  This language---- well, I had an awesome talk with Pres this week too cuz I  had enough and was gonna break down,  so I called him and we chatted for a bit.  He is what got me through this week. He is so amazing mom, I love that man. He is so comforting!! I feel like I've opened up a bit more this week with the German - like I don't really care if I mess up, I  just have spoken- so thats better I guess!! Its still a struggle but it will always be a struggle - so whatevs!  And did you ready Shamy's letter!?  Yes he is amazing like wow.. if Shamwow hasnt shown you the email he sent me im going to forward it to you... it is probably one of the best emails I've ever gotten. I love that man!  Hardest thing I've ever done,  But just know that im safe and im trucking along. And I'm so beyond blessed. I realize that every day.  "We can't be comforted by The Comforter, unless we are Uncomfortable!"  that quote is my favorite thing in the entire world, keep sharing it okay?? People need to hear it.

Alrighty were gonna go do some finding :)))))))) yuck i have to change into a flippin skirt lol. (typical me!)  Love you guys so much!! Keep up the emails comin I really do love them like so so so so sooooo much. Keep me updated on everything!! I cant believe its almost halloween haha those pics were dang funny of you at the moores party!!! I was dying!! Tell everyone I love them!!!! I hope everyone had a great week! Remember how much God plays a part in our lives. I promise that you will see so many tender mercies if you just look for them.

I love this gospel with all my heart and I love being a missionary!

Sister Samantha Barnett
Ackerstrasse 5,
9000 St. Gallen
Switzerland 


PS: Thinking ahead - I will be in my 3rd transfer for christmas and I wont be in Switzerland. If I stay for the next transfer, I will definitely have to leave on December 15th thats when my 90 days are up.......... :((((( That's all they allow us to stay in this country.  I'm so sad.....

And Yes I get emails throughout the day -every day!!!  I love them!!!! Every time we go to bahnhof I get them and some buses have wifi. I dont have wifi in the apartment, no one does we arent allowed!! 

1. my district today at the fair :)

With Sister Stamp

The Swing Ride they went on!

Her District (missing 2 elders)

2. a dead mouse on someones doorstep while finding hahaha

SWISS CHOCOLATE HEAVENNNNNNNN

KINDER EGG BIGGER THAN MY HAND!  TOYS AND TREATS INSIDE :) 

still being an obedient missionary even when I'm broken lol. My NECK!  Cute Sister Stamp set up this contraption so i could do the first 12 weeks hahaha!! a program we have to do in our first 12 weeks on the mission...  ask Nate
(my nice ghetto sock/rice heating pad!)

Meeeeats and Cheeeeeeeses  - took this for Dad!!! :)

Just for the boys:
 This week I rode in an electric tesla..... and he floored it and my tummy tickled so bad!!! hahahaha I totally thought of you drew and nate! It was amazing. Also we went to a members house last night and the son was part of the Swiss military and he has this gun it's called a sig 550 and it's the Swiss army version :) I thought you'd get a kick out of it!! Especially me in front of Jesus lol. I LOVE all of your pics of work, you are amazing!! I hope you had an awesome time in WA even if you slept in a ghetto garage on a minions pillow😂😂 love you so much I'll write lots later today❤

Street view - St Gallen Switzerland  -On the way to an appointment

Sister Samantha Barnett
Ackerstrasse 5,
9000 St. Gallen
Switzerland

WEEK 8: UNCOMFORTABLE

This week was crazy! We had so many lessons with members and with our investigators it was great. The best thing that happened was on Tuesday...

We were dooring and we talked to a man that was extremely drunk and he was screaming at us that we had no idea what his life had been like and how God had never been there for him. He just about fell down the stairs he was so drunk... he was getting all up in our faces and showing us all of his tattoos from a war he had been in. I was terrified. It took everything in me not to run out of the building haha. After we finished our conversation with him I was DONE. All I wanted to do was go back to the house. Then Sister Stamp stopped at another door and I thought to myself, "You have got to be kidding me... I'm not doing that again." We ended up teaching a man for an hour in his doorway about the plan of salvation and eternal families. We scheduled a return appointment and we're meeting with him and his family on Wednesday this week! It was absolutely amazing... I couldn't believe how fast the situation turned around - from wanting to go hide in a corner -  to feeling so relaxed and filled with the Spirit.

Yesterday I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and that was so nerve racking haha. But all the members came up to me afterwards and complimented my accent so Holla. I was so lost the whole day... that's just a constant thing here now though, I have no idea what's going on.  This language   is  HARD!  People could be totally insulting me and i would just sit there with a smile nodding... which leads me to the biggest thing I've (re)learned this week.

In the mtc one of my teachers said something to me that ill never forget. He said, "The Comforter can't comfort you if you aren't uncomfortable."  These past 2 weeks I have felt more uncomfortable than I have in my entire life. I don't even know how to explain the feelings I've had, but I do know one thing, and that is that I've never felt closer to my Heavenly Father than I have in these last 2 weeks. I have had to rely 100% on Him because I cant do all of this! But I know that through Him I can.

I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have about the Holy Ghost and the privilege I get to be uncomfortable, as weird as that sounds. I love this gospel with all my heart and even though I can't express it all in words to these people, Ihope that they can at least feel it.
I hope you all have a great week!❤

Our dinner apps last night with some members from the ward❤

 A view from the train😍

Our ghetto trip to the store today... we fill up a suitcase cuz we take trains to germany to buy our groceries cuz Switzerland is so expensive lol

Okay!  So I have a bit more time and I want to tell you guys about my investigators/experiences I've had real quick!~
Aileen is from the phillippines and she is so sweet, shes been meeting with the missionaries for years now and has issues with commitment. We talked to her about baptism and she said that once she knows a little more she will. We are going to get her on date in the next couple weeks!

Lea is our other investigator, She has met with the missionaries before as well. We met with her for the first time this week and already talked about baptism! It was insane. She said that she doesnt know if Joseph Smith is a true prophet but she has such a strong testimony about everything else so once she prays to know about Joseph Smith she said she'll be baptized. She has an 8 year old son so they would both be baptized and thats our transfer goal this transfer is to have them both on date to be baptized :)

Like I said in my other email- we are teaching Fritz now and his family that we'll meet with on Wednesday. Dooring here is called klingeling  (that's what we call it cuz klingel means ring in german) and it's the scariest thing ever everyone here is either Catholic or atheist mostly Catholic and they want nothing to do with us. Some are nice but there's been some that are soooo mean. We taught an Italian guy as well this week for like an hour in his doorway and when people listen they're pretty open about things which is cool! But I'm legit such a chicken I hate disturbing people! Haha but I'm working on it.  People here aren't super fond of Americans either, actually no one really is in Europe or at least those that ive met... so that's been an adjustment like people bashing on my country and stuff. I wish I knew more facts about history so I could back it up but I don't...



Fun Facts:

 So ICE isnt a thing here- and water here is sparkling water. You have to specifically ask for water from the tap or else they will give you sparkling water which if you remember correctly i think is poisionous acid!!!  So we were at Aileens house and I remembered dads story about only drinking half of the milk if you didnt want more when he was serving in Japan - so i did just that and I thought I was home free but when we go up to leave she freaked out at us and was like YOU NEED TO BE DRINKING WATER FINISH IT!!!!! so I had to CHUG this nasty acid and i had tears in my eyes hahaha it was so great.

Okay another thing is in Errand of Angels when they just keep coming out with more and more portions of foodthat is not an exaggeration. The food JUST KEEPS COMIN MAN!! The biggest thing I've had to learn is that I need to eat a lot slower cuz if they see that your plate is empty they offer you more and you cannot say no to the food in this country! It is either extremely rude or they just keep insisting until you say yes, so you might as well just say yes the first time and avoid the awkwardness. I HAD 5 SERVINGS OF THE MAIN MEAL THIS WEEK. When I tell you people i'm going to be chunky I'm not kiddin. They dont freaking mess around with food here. And everything is very fancy like a 5 star restaraunt with your  knife and fork and yeah just super high class.   So I'm going to have to learn how to eat properly.  (Think "My Fair Ladaaaaay!")

Then there are the buses and trains. Thats how we get everywhere and I kid you not - It's the craziest thing in the world and everything is in German which makes it even crazier... idk how im going to get it down... but what I love is that everything here is on time -  like to the second!  Itss amazing. Everything is extremely organized and clean - like you'll get fined big time if you put your feet up on the seats on a bus or train.


(I'm trying to think of anything else thats happened - theres been so much and it stresses me out cuz i want to involve you guys in everything but i think i just need to accept the fact that its not going to happen cuz it really does give me anxiety lol. I want you to be involved and know EVERY LITTLE DETAIL but theres just no way.)

OH the bells here. I think I'm going to miss those a lot when I get home. There are constant church bells every hour. and constant cow bell too. THERE ARE SO MANY FLIPPEN COWS IN THIS COUNTRY!! haha and everyone smokes here. Legit its weird if you pass someone and they arent smoking.

The guys here are super good lookin they have amazing style - and some of their eyebrows are better than mine just sayin. :P   ugh I wish you could just be with me experiencing all of this!!


k the Members here are legit what make all of this worth it!  Honestly they are amazing. We met with the Eggenburger family last night and they have 4 CRAZY kids that scream and fight and it totally reminded me of Home it was the greatest. They met in the mission field in Manchester and hes from Switzerland and shes from Ohio and their story is AMAZING ahhh. They are all just so amazing and nice to us-- I love it!!

Anyways I love you guys soooooooooo much you have no idea!! I hope everyone is doing good. I love all the pictures like Fuzzys wedding and stuff - tell him congrats! Know that I do see your emails and they mean everything to me they keep me GOING!
Love you love you love you!!😙😙😙❤❤❤❤❤❤

Reppin "home" -  Lake Chelan Washington

So many skirts - so little time!!!  hahaha

Sam says 'You know you're in Switzerland when you hear Cow Bells, Church Bells and smell cigarette smoke!"

Loving her Trainer Sister Stamp

They take a train or a bus EVERYHERE they go

TRACKS

Sister Samantha Barnett
Ackerstrasse 5,
9000 St. Gallen
Switzerland

Week 7: GRÜTZI VON ST. GALLEN!!!

Oh my goodness these past 2 weeks have been literal mayhem... I don't even know how to start this email so much has happened! So first of all, for those of you who know my mother :) You have probably been told by now that I'm serving in Switzerland! In a city called St. Gallen :) it is beautiful here I'm still in awe, I did not think I would get the opportunity to serve in Switzerland! I'll go more into details later in the email...

So my last Sunday in the MTC was amazing. We had sacrament meeting IN GERMAN which was interesting, but I loved it. I was surprised with how much I understood and I loved that I could feel the spirit, even when I couldn't understand everything that was going on. The church is true people. Haha so I sang in sacrament meeting (yes really mom) with my 2 companions and an elder and we sang "come thou fount of every blessing" or komm du Quele jeder segens auf deutsch it was incredible and again, yes mom, I did record it :) after sacrament we went as a whole mtc and took tons of pictures. Super sad... the MTC has literally been my home away from home and the people there have been my second family, so it was SO hard to think of that being our last Sunday together.

Monday was insane. We packed and did some training and had our last class together as a district. We sang "God be with you till we meet again" auf deutsch and talk about tears... I was a mess. It was so hard to say goodbye to my teachers! That night we stayed up all night and packed some more and then we had to be up at 2 am and start getting ready.

Tuesday morning we had to leave the MTC by 3:30 am. The whole MTC got up with the Germans and wished us off. It was the sweetest thing ever! Then we were on a plane and off to Germany.... we arrived in Munich and president and sister Kohler greeted us at the airport. We got together for a quick snack and then they sent us with a book of Mormon on a train to try and give it out. WHAT. Haha I was so scared. Sadly I didn't give mine out but I did manage to talk to some cool people in extremely broken german lol. Later that day we had training for the rest of the day and I kid you not I have never been so tired in my entire life. I don't remember anything of that day I was in and out of consciousness lol😂 that night we all slept in a hostel and experienced a lot of drunk Germans at Oktober fest.... super interesting hahaha they were running into our door at 4 in the morning and screaming random german sentences that I count myself lucky I didn't understand!

So Wednesday we woke up ate breakfast and went to the train station, said goodbye and we were off to our Areas! It was a 4 hour train ride from Munich to Zürich and it was great. I got of the train and saw my new "mom"!!! She is incredible her name is Sister Stamp, she is from England and she is amazing. She calls me her child or her Golden (that's what they call greenies in this mission lol) so we took another train to st. Gallen and then unpacked and settled in a little bit to my new home!

Thursday was great we had an appointment with our investigator named Aileen. She is from the Philippines and oh my gosh she is such a sweetheart. She made us a whole carrot cake.... needless to say I'm gonna be looking at little chunky in my pictures from now on the members here feed the missionaries like crazy and yeah... we're very loved here in st. Gallen lol. Anyways we had another appointment that night (more food) and it was in German and I was so silent haha I don't think I've ever not talked more in my life... I understand a lot of the language, I just can't respond. It's super frustrating! 

Friday we went street contacting..... ummm.... yeah I am the biggest chicken. Sister stamp kept saying "next one is yours" and I said k and when they passed I would say "grützi" which is hello but "Swiss german" screws everything up so that's the greeting here... yeah idk... anyways and that was it! hahaha I have the hardest time stopping people because I don't know what to Say! I'll be better this week... maybe.....😂

Saturday night we watched Conference at a members house in German and it was soooo weird.. I understood a lot, but not hearing the apostles voices was bizarre! When we left it started POURING rain and we had a tiny umbrella and no coats so we got soaked haha it was really Funny!

Sunday was amazing because of Conference, it was just what I needed to hear. Russell M. Nelsons talk on having JOY was my favorite. Go listen to it -if you haven't heard it it's wonderful! I met some of the members and I felt like I was engulfed in a huge hug. The members here are amazing, I feel so loved! This area is crazy beautiful and amazing and I just feel so blessed to be Here!

Today we went shopping and that's pretty much it haha. There is so much more that happened this week, but these were the Highlights! I just want to thank everyone for the emails, I'm so sorry I can't respond to all of them but just know that each one means the absolute world. I love being here, I love being a missionary!

This week has been so tough and I've never felt more inadequate in my entire life, but I am learning so much and I can see the Savior's hand in every aspect of my life. I love this gospel with all my heart and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be sharing it with the amazing people of St. Gallen switzerland. I love you all so much, have a wonderful Week!

Tschüss❤❤

Sister Barnett

View from the train I take all the time!  Gorgeous

This was my first meal here "Weishurst" ... you suck the sausage out of the casing!  hahahahaha!
(for those of you who know Sams gag reflex... I was dying!)

We were street contacting and I couldn't help but think of Nate and Dad!  BMW :)

Her views every day....

So pretty much to sum up Switzerland:  You hear constant cow bells, church bells and smell cigarette smoke more than fresh air hahaha!

Going into town for their first PDAY today - Sister Stamp

"I feel like a GIANT here! 

Add caption

St Gallen TAG PIC!  I have to get off now - time's up!  My boots are Great!  I'm so overwhelmed and stressed, and idk how I'm going to do this, but I  JUST  AM.  Hahaha.  That's my answer.  Every day I'm doing it and I know Heavenly Father is proud of me.  I DO love being a Missionary.  I LOVE IT HERE!  I love you Momma!  Tell everyone HI from me and that I love them.  Give them a Hug from me!!!!  :)

You cannot describe the beauty or intricate details in this cathedral

You can DRINK straight from the fountains here!

Had to have dinner in the stairway one day cuz they aren't allowed in the sister's apartment

My view on our walk to Church

Cat Shirt for the WIN!

Sister Stamp - The Best MOMMA & trainer

Vending machine in die sweiz!

Sister Stamp - I seriously love her so much you have no idea!  I really do consider her my mom and I'm her daughter.  She is an angel sent from Heaven!

Swiss CHOCOLATE

On a bus every day!

View from her apartment balcony

WELCOME HOME SISTER!  Banner made for Sam by Sister Stamp

Home Sweet Home

Letter and chocolates for me left by the previous sister serving here in St Gallen :)