The Lake's Alpine Mission: Three events with three special groups of people

On Saturday, January 6, our Young Single Adult group was invited to join with the Young Men and Young Women in the Dornbirn Ward at an activity in Lindau, Germany, which is a major town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (The Bodensee in German). It is a beautiful place and the old city on the island is a fun place to explore. We divided into groups and raced through the city looking for clues. The goal was to beat all the other groups at finding the clues and not let them see or catch your team in the process. We had a good turnout and the teams were mixed with youth and adults, so it was lots of fun. We gathered at the end for snacks/treats and awards for those collecting the most clues. We love the people in this ward and have made many dear friends. Daniel Pail (whose family lives in this ward) and Elysse Allman (who served a few years ago in this mission and is back here working) were with us that evening and became engaged later that night. They're a terrific young couple and we are very excited for them. They will be married in August.

Daniel Pail and Elysse Allman, who are now engaged to be married!
A visiting friend and Elisabeth Pail, Daniel's mother

Diane and Bob with Gerda Stubbe-Griell, Ramona and Gert Repnik with their children
and Kenneth

Elders Hilton and Bushman with Gerda and lots of youth

The week began on Monday, January 8, with our first, and probably last, Zone Training. In the past, we have had Zone Training as part of Zone Conference. Because we aren't having a Zone Conference this transfer, President Brown taught all the Zone Leaders (ZL's) and Sister Training Leaders (STL's) in an MLC (mission leadership council) meeting what he wanted all the missionaries to learn and know and do. Then they all went back to their zones and taught the rest of the missionaries. In the future, he prefers to have zone training as part of Zone Conference. But this Zone Training was outstanding and we really learned a lot and were motivated to work harder and be better missionaries. We received great, constructive ideas on how to increase our faith in missionary work, how to build faith in personal and companion study, how we can connect people to heaven and how we can work more effectively with members. Lots of the missionaries in our zone contributed ideas and experiences and testimonies. We felt inspired to move forward with greater diligence and faith. Plus, we had the privilege of enjoying the spirit and energy of all these fabulous young missionaries. They're amazing and we love serving with them! We are the St. Gallen Zone and except for the Elders in Dornbirn, Austria and us in Germany, everyone else lives and serves in Switzerland.

Zone St. Gallen

January 12, we had a super Branch activity in Friedrichshafen, Germany. This is only the second Branch activity we have had since we've been here. We went bowling! We had a great group attend and everyone enjoyed being together and had lots of fun. We have a young family who have come to church a few times and are not members of our church, who came to the activity. We are hoping to have the opportunity to teach them more about what we believe. We also had several other people attend who are not members of our church, so it was a great friendship building activity.