My First Temple Trip in Switzerland!!

Wow. All I can say... is WHAT an experience. It's been a while since I've felt the way I felt today and I'm SOOO incredibly grateful for that. Here's how the day went...

Last night, Marvin threw a birthday party for me in the YSA Room in the basement of the church (note to Bishop... we need one of those :) Add to list of projects for renovations ;) I was thinking... knocking down the wall that separates the two classrooms up stairs...) there were ping pong tables, a pool table, fooseball, projector, projector screen... it was pretty awesome!!!! So Marvin picked me up, gave me his car keys.. and I drove!!!!!!! From St. Margrethen to Feldkirch which is about 40min from here, and from there, backtracking to Dornbirn to the church which is about another 25min or so. It was really cool!!!! He was totally relaxed and gave me directions on where to go, and we got there alive!! It's really hard to describe the driving out here, the only way I've come up with is... Swiss people drive crazy!! And there's different rules, and it's in kph (kilometers per hour) which is different, and they're CRAZY strict with tickets. Ahh. Anyway, so I was nervous... but I did it! Oh.. and round-abouts! Those are... interesting. It reminded me of Australia Dad! :) Anyway, so the party at the church was great. Not a lot of people were there, but that was totally ok with me because those that were there, I knew, so it wasn't awkward at all. It was great. It was me, Marvin, Mariam, and Daniel(who by the way DOES speak English. Marvin told me he didn't speak any.. hmmmmm... ;) lol) so we were hanging out and started watching "Daja-Vu" (which, is GREAT!) and the missionaries show up with this HUGE box of pizza!!! It was SOOO awesome!!! Elders Tickler, Grange, and Heath. They pretty much rock. And they're really fun to talk to. Elder Tickler is from Germany, and Elders Grange and Heath are from Utah, so that's REALLY great to be able to talk to them in English at church. And Elder Grange is the one that translates, and he was translating that first Sunday I was there and I thought, "oh, he SOUNDS REALLY cute!!!" and it was cracking me up because he was LITERALLY talking in my ear-through a headset. And he turned out to be pretty cute once I met him! lol He's a freshie though ;).

Anywho, so the Elders stayed for a bit and hung out. Mariam and I played some two on two ping pong. She was with Elder Heath, I with Elder Grange. It was really fun... I have some mean ping pong skills... ;) so not. lol I seem to hit the ball too hard when I get excited.... and Elder Heath kept hitting it AT me really hard... it was super! Marvin dissapeared for a while and then so did Elder Tickler, only to reappear later with candles and a cake and they sang to me :) it was really really great. These guys are super and we really have fun together. I'm in the process of getting pictures! It's a little tough cuz it sends the wrong signal if I'm like, "hey! Elder Tickler can I take a picture with you?!" I don't know, I worry about it... so I'm waiting for a more relaxed setting or something...

So, I didn't get home until about 11:45pm, called home, went to bed at 12:15am... woke up at 4:15am to get ready to meet at the church at 6:15am to catch the bus with the ward to go to the temple which is about 2 1/2 hours away.... phew. It was a pretty long day. Marvin and I were both like.. zombies on the bus and slept as much as we could lol. But we rode a charter bus! And I think just about the whole ward was there, and we filled all the seats... lol that's how small the ward is... but it's great.

The temple was BEAUTIFUL!!!! It was the first temple built in Europe, so it was older and really cool to compare it to the Saint Louis Temple. The session was great, I walked about the temple outside, which is one of my favorite things to do when I go-just walk around and think, or not think and absorb. After our session a couple was sealed to each other and to their family, so that was really neat and we had a reception kind of in this little woody area just off the temple grounds. Elder Grange plays the guitar, so that was fun to listen to him play around.

Then we hopped back on the buses, and headed home! I was reading my Twilight book.. well... more like reading my underlined, favorite parts.. and Marvin asked me what it was... the Elders (Grange and Heath) overheard me (they were sitting nearby) and Elder Heath started making fun of me... even though he admitted to reading all the books and knew EXACTLY what I was talking about lol and Elder Grange was teasing me about how on the back a publisher described it as "seductive and fast paced" or something... and calling me a romance nerd... anyway. Whatever :) I'm secure in who I am, and I've accepted the fact that I'm obsessed with Twilight! :D hahaha

It's been a long day, so I'm going to sign off and get to bed early so I can get back up for early church! WHOOT! lol love you all!! It's only JUST starting to get hot out here... and it's pretty warm... but NOTHING like home! I'm counting my blessings.. but still complaining about the heat! lol