The work continues...

This past week was flippin insane so I hope I can remember all the good stuff that's happened! The week seemed to go by pretty fast but still super great. When I look everyday for miracles they always seem to find us!

We have a goal every week to make out 7 appointments, or one a day, of just meeting people on the street and finding those with interest to actually meet with us so we can teach and give them a Book of Mormon, and this week was our first week of getting a perfect 7, so I know it' possible! Of course not all of them turned out perfectly but to talk to people and share testimonies is why I'm here. One in particular was amazing because an American heard us speaking English while we were cutting through our Altstadt and he stopped and wanted to talk because we spoke English. But he called over his friend passing by, a German, and we made out an appointment with him! It's cool to see that the Lord knows where we're going and where to send blessings. This situation was just bizzare because it all happened majorly outside of our beloved H&M (i have yet to check it out!!) because some Elders came to visit us to do Visa stuff and one is sort of a problem Elder, who was a jerk and was like, "I'm going to H&M" and his companion had no choice but to follow--he's a Senior comp that I swear I have no patience for because he just breaks the rules and everyone knows it but it's hard to discipline him, y'know? Like he wanted to go and it wasn't our Pday and used his funds to go to a leadership training mtg on a stupid suit. Ugh. Anyway, while we were waiting for him to be done being a jerk-wad, this whole situation just unfolded. Even though we were in a frustrating situation, the Lord sent us random people to still let us do our missionary work. And the companion that was outside waiting with us was SO happy to actually be doing work, even when it wasn't "his" Termin, y'know? He's one of the most positive Elders I've ever seen.

My favorite part of the week was meeting with our new investigator, ANNA or the Hungarian Mutti. She was a member referral that we met 2 weeks ago while visiting said member and she speaks really good English and yup, she's from Hungary. She officially wanted us to teach her more, and her whole family, because she wants something to bind her family together and after hearing our testimonies about families and how we're so close because of the gospel and what it teaches us. It was cool for me to see something that I have that Anna desperately wants. She has moved a lot and is currently going through the "settling in" phase of moving and her children miss Hungary and she's waiting for furniture and stuck with a messy house trying to find a place for everything. Sound familiar? I told her about our experiences with moving and how no matter where we were in the world, we had the gospel and I had my family, and she lit up like a Christmas tree. How cool is it that the Lord knew she needed to hear that? We told our member all of the good news and she teared up in joy to see that her friend is willing and yearning to learn about the gospel. She even has other referrals in mind that she wants to share! Our members are fired up about missionary work, but to see her sooo happy about her friend meant a lot to us! This Friday we get to meet ANNA again with her family; look how blessed Sis. Allan and I are! We get to teach a FAMILY!
Haha, CHRISTINE on the other hand, not so fun, but it's teaching me patience, that's for sure! Dad, we asked a doctor in the ward, and we pretty much feel like, yeah, it's all Quatsch, she's off her rocker with the whole "the doctor says I shouldn't stop smoking" bit, but it's hard to call her bluff without being rude I guess. But we taught her about baptism and invited her to baptism, and haha, she throws another curve-ball. See, we wanted to either commit her to baptism or "give her a break" and neither of those things happened. She says she wants to be baptized in FOUR years when all of her kids are 8 (her girl and her boyfriend's kids, ugh such drama) "so none of them will be confused why mama and papa are baptized and they aren't" which we all know happens to tons of families all the time and kid are totally fine. So, we are going to see how serious she really is about this goal of hers and we're going to prep her by asking her to stop smoking! If she really cares about her kids, she would be responsible and stop anyway. It's sad to see that she can't even handle a whole Termin without rolling up her own (I guess it's cheaper??) and having a smoke outside. Next step is getting her to live Law of Chastity. And then of course after all of this stuff, she's all excited to knit with us. She said my stitches were too tight and just pulled it all out so I could start over, so yeah, it's fun having her turn down baptism and watch her rip out my practice work. GEDULD! haha

Dad, just to let you know, the monthy funds are put into an account that's taken care of by one of the people in the mission office. Each missionary has a card and it just gets put on the card and we can pull out what we need at local ATMs. We also though get refunded for travelling expenses so we never run out if we have a busy travel week like this one for example.
I got to for example go on my first Tausch in LEIPZIG! Or I gues, "Leipsch", they like to abbrev in Leipzig apparrantly! But Sis. Allan and the other senior comps went to a leadership meeting there and I was on a "golden Tausch" with Sis. Faerber who was actually in the MTC when I was, so that was a wonderful reunion! :) We mainly did OYMing (Open Your Mouth) and helped her make out a few appointments, visited a member and taught a lesson. Leipzig is huge and amazing! I took some pics while we were there, and I will send the camera card hopefully today or next Monday, seeing how I'm behind on that, and I figured that would be fun for Dad' bday coming up! :) This upcoming week will be lots of fun travelling, too! Another Tausch in Dresden and we get to go to the Freiberg Temple tomorrow!! Ausgezeichnet! Because we're serving so East of the mission, we get to go once a transfer, I think, which is a privilege, seeing how it's not the same for all those serving in the Western side, so I won't take it for granted!

But this last Pday I finally got to do some "sigh-seeing" in Cottbus to the Branizt Park, I forget if I spellt that right. But it's this park with a random pyramid with grass and what have you all over it in the middle of a lake, pretty random but you know how I enjoy art, no matter how crazy it is! It was actually really warm and so we walked in the walking paths they have, it was just absolutely gorgeous! There are pictures of that, too! It was just so random; apparantly the guy who set it all up died a while back and he's actually buried UNDER the lake pyramid. Creepy. And I don't even wanna know how they even do that. *shudders*

Yup! One of our Pdays I think we'll try and make it all the way to downtown Berlin and see the Checkpoint Charlie stuff and the, oh jeez I can't even remember what it's called, but just the iconic wall--thingie, roundabout with the statue, just fun stuff that Sis. Allan wants to see before she leaves, and I'm willing to join too of course! Just find the name of all that stuff and put it in so I sound like I know what I'm talking about! :P

Cool fact of the week: we had 6 investigators come to church this Sunday! Some of them came because we asked them nicely to come because we sung a duet of "Because I Have Been Given Much" during Sacrament. We also got to teach a Sunday school class for two part member couples, and it was a joy to see them both there and help the non-member wives and the less-active husbands. We got to teach about the scriptures and how they help us learn what we need to know today, and really see the whole picture of our purpose here in life rather than just a quarter of it with the Bible.
Each week just keeps getting better and better, and I think I'm pretty much over jet-lag, although Sundays are still sort of a battle of staying awake! I get bad migranes and it's hard to understand Deutsch when all I want to do is rest my eyes, but I didn't fall asleep! I'm noticing it's less and less of a problem and I want to be able to work all day on Sunday rather than sleep, so I'm not letting it get to me just yet! I also remember that they have a scene in "Errand of Angels" where the main girl almost falls asleep in a lesson and I'm like, "that's so true!" Sundays are just our longest days and we also work the hardest. Granted, I'm not tired if I'm standing up or walking around, it's just when I'm sitting and full of delicious food...and Rotkohl, meine gute.

Anyway, see how awesome the Lord is? I alway knew that Sis. Allan is the perfect 1st companion for me, but seeing what this Elder in our district has to deal with this transfer...and how patience and faithful he is, it makes me even more grateful that Sis. Allan follows all the rules and wants to, because she's shown me that yes, it's frustrating at times, but we need the miracles that we see everyday, and they don't come if we aren't willing to work for them and be obedient. I don't think sisters have much of a problem, at least I would think they don't because they're out here by choice, but I really hope Jordan doesn't get any Dummkopfs for trainers. Or just at all, because missionaries are out here to serve, not BE served, and our attitudes about our work make all the difference when it comes to finding success. I'm sure Jordan's hearing an ear-full in his mission prep class! Speaking of brothers, say hello to Nicholas and Justin for me! It's nice to know they can "beat up" people for me if I need them to! Just kidding, but my little bros are AWESOME. And I mean little as in younger, I'm sure Justin is taller than me by now? Sis. Allan's family is ALL blackbelts except her in karate, so that's pretty cool.

I'm glad to hear that Mormor is doing okay and that hopefully she can get better, but I know that it's probably über frustrating. We actually have a few widows in the ward because of the Cold War and such. I've heard stories already of how Cottbus was bombed pretty badly during all the wars going on. You hear some pretty sad stories from the members, but they keep the faith!

I'm excited to hear from you all next week! Any fun Halloween plans? Any interesting costume ideas? I'm sure Jordan's got a good idea; you pretty much have to on the college scene! I'll be having a fun Pday for sure, although we don't know what we're doing just yet. But I'm sure Dad will have a fun birthday and I hope my pictures make it there in time! :)
I love you guys and hope everyone is having a fun time. Can you believe I'm half way through my first transfer?? Holy meine gute!

I love you guys!

--Sis. Whit
P.S. I got a letter from Sis. Nelson, my MTC comp and she's serving in Friedrikdorf, giving tours for the Frankfurt Temple! Isn't that just off the chain or what? She's loving it of course, and I bet she'll see the military peeps while she's there. I've heard bits and pieces from the Elders in my MTC district and I only know that two of them that were comps are serving in the same district in Wien, Elder Dolben the Brit is in die Schweiz (no surprise there--the Americans have visa issues getting there but he doesn't) and that's all I know so far. We're just all spread out and having so much success, meine GUTE!