New companion

Dear World,

What a crazy week. And I mean flippin' insane!

First off, I said good-bye to Sis. Neukomm and hello to Sis. Svoboda all on Tuesday. Funny thing about transfers, is that I had to be "babysat" by Ola while waiting for Sis. Svoboda to arive, but we mainly planned our next couple of English class lessons--we're pretty lucky to have two new "students" an Ehepaar wanting to learn more English before going to the US on Urlaub. So now we have 5 regulars that come.

Having Sis. Svoboda has been a tremendous blessing. She's Swiss but she actually studied at BYU, and lived the the "German House" and actually knows Kim Webb--who went to HS with me (she was in Ramstein ward, you remember her, right?) and so we want to write her letters now that she's on HER mission in the Ukraine. That's destiny in a jar for you. She also knows what Club Style is and said she's been wanting to join and so share a GREAT enthusiasm for hip-hop dancing and good dance music. Sometimes when we walk on the strett and I'm talking to her, a car drives by with some good beats and she laughs because I pause in mid-sentence to hear the music. I think I might challenge her to a dance-off today, except the most "exciting" song with a fast dance beat is "Go Go Go Joseph" from "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat." Naaaaaja.

So in the past week, I've been the one that had to know the area, the people, what's holding our investigators back, basically everything, so for me it wasn't necissarily SO stressful, but it's different when everything relies on my knowledge of like the trains, Straßenbahns to where things are and everything in between. But every new companion is sort of the same, where I'm spinning plates and the other companion is trying to learn everything, too. But Sis. Svoboda is really awesome, and thinks I'm really funny--what a relief!

This week for some reason though, was just so unpredictable, and I usually prefer having solid plans. Like on Wednesday, we visited a few investigator/contacts that we hadn't had the chance to visit in a while and nothing really good came out of it, as in they're not all that prepared to keep making progress.

But I got to have some pretty interesting experiences--for one thing, like dad says, teaching the lessons to Herr Dönermann is sort of heavenly with the smell of Döner meat under the nose. Dönermänner here I've decided are kinda like bartenders, he remembers what we like or don't like on our döners and I think that he thinks that when we visit we just want to talk and he doesn't realize we're giving him commitments when we tell him he should read and pray for answers. He did sort of start hating on the US, which I've noticed a lot lately. Quite a few people always talk about the US soldiers overseas or politics or what have you--even down to the food and such. But the funny thing about these people, is that with the States or with the Church, haters gonna hate, but they can't just leave us alone. I mean, I have to really control myself because I can't jump into politics, and I don't want to because then it deviates from the lesson of course. But I always think to myself, these people who have so much negative feelings about the States still watch our movies, listen to our music, speak our language, eat our food, drink our drinks, drive our cars, obsess over our politics, wear our clothes--I could go on. People are interesting like that sometimes.

Another story: We got to teach a waiter at a Greek restauraunt. We came in on Sunday just to drop off a Book of Mormon in Greek to the owner, because we talked to him on the street, and they only had two customers that whole day. So when the waiter saw us, he was really excited. However, what started out as a good lesson suddenly became apparant to me that he was just wanting to ask questions but didn't like our answers--or didn't really let us finish. But hey, pretty interesting situation, right?

Update on Parmeer. We were going to take her to the FHV aktivität in Berlin but had to cancel last minute for work, but we talked to her a lot on the phone and zum Glück on the street at random. Sis. Svoboda already knows that she's my ABSOLUTE favorite. She told us through text that she started telling her mom about her investigating the church, and that her mom wasn't wanting to speak with her. So I called her to make sure she was okay, and I think she was relieved, that she "pulled it off" so to say, and she has the attitude that her family will "get over it" soon--which is amazing because she was worried about her friend telling her mom, but she just ended up telling her herself. We also got phone numbers for her to call two Neubekehrts in Rostock that are from the same area of India. I hope she has learned a lot from them--she really wanted to talk to them and hear their stories. We're meeting with her this Tuesday--this draught of not teaching Parmeer is finally at an end.

Still, this week was crazy. For some reason, a lot of people either cancelled or rescheduled and so we really had to go with the Spirit on a lot of things, like "okay, so-and-so just cancelled, what should we do for the next hour?" A lot of it was setting goals for the transfer, helping Sis. Svoboda learn about all the investigators, Finding or randomly visiting people.

And another crazy part of the week, on Saturday we found out there was two different demonstrations going on--apparantly a large group of Neo-Nazis were planning on taking the train here to FFO and have a demonstration, and then FFO had a demonstration protesting against the Nazis with the slogan, "Nazis? Nein danke!" Everything was really really weird, because we saw the posters and flyers for the demonstration against the Nazis, but I've never seen sooo many police offers in my life. And we had no idea about the Nazis coming to FFO and we don't know if they actually came, I mean, what would they look like? But we decided, that we should travel to EHS to do our work for the day. And of course, there were a LOT of police everywhere; the Bahnhof was deserted and there was almost a blockade of policemen between Bahnhof and the path to the Straßenbahn Haltestelle. They, with no one else around, looked at us as we cheerfully passed by, oblivious to everything and went to Bahnhof--I mean we took the train to EHS, kein Problem. Sis. Svoboda said as we passed by, "it looks like they've never seen angels before." And I sort of thought to myself, we were SO not thinking OPSEC, because we could've put ourselves into danger. But everything was normal and fine in EHS. I'm so grateful that even though we might've done something stupid, like leaving our apartment that day or going to Bahnhof, that we were protected. And we had the coolest lesson (short of a taufedatum) with Chanrith later that evening. He is SO close, he just needs to have confidence that he's ready for baptism. And enough desire to be baptized to not keep putting it off.

Yesterday we got a call from none other than Präsident Pimentel. I saw his name on our phone and said to Sis. Svoboda, "You're Senior Companion, you answer!" because I thought, if it's him directly calling us, it can't be good. Well, haha, you decide if it's good or bad, but in a few weeks, we will be recieving two "mini missionaries" for a week. That's a week of four missionaries working together! In one apartment! I don't know if you've heard of mini missions before, but the church allows sometimes for people to go on mini missions for a week or a transfer, and it's usually not too far from home. For example, Sis. Svoboda served a mini mission in Hungary when she was 19 because her brother (an AP) needed her to serve for a transfer--and so that was that! So these two missionaries will serve with us for a week, so everything they will know about missionary work will sorta kinda be from how we work and stuff. No pressure, right? I was immediately thinking, mensch, I hope we have enough room!

Sooo, plans for General Conference. We get to go see the first 3 sessions broadcasted in Berlin, so we'll work in the morning, and take the train there, and hopefully bring some investigators along, especially Chanrith. Berlin is so international that they will show it in German and English, so I have the choice. I will probably watch it in English because NO one in any language can mimic the way Präsident Monson or Elder Holland gives a dang good talk. I'm thoroughly excited to get my eyebrows singed off from hearing so much good STUFF! Still reeling from last GC. Oh, and then Sunday afternoon we will watch in our branch just at church, so I'll see the last one in German without fail. Or maybe in English for Chanrith, mal sehen.

So, yeah, here's life on my end. No gray hairs yet! Danke für alles, und bis nächte Woche!

love,
Sis. Whit

No transfer this time...

Holy Mensch to the MAX!

So first things first, transfers! I am (phew!) staying here in FFO/EHS--but this next transfer is 5 weeks, instead of just 6, mal sehen how much I can get done in that time, before I have to wonder again if I'll be transferred. For me, every transfer is never the same--either a new companion or new city. I'm a mover and a shaker! Oh, and yes, Sis. Neukomm is leaving me and heading to Dresden--and I get to work with Sis. Svaboda, who is also Swiss! I hear she's rather legendary so I'm pretty confident that we'll really blow the roof off this place.

So yeah, ever since Saturday, we've been making preperations for Sis. Neukomm to transfer and for me to take on all the contact lists that we have and all that stuff so that we can keep working hard here. You would think with all the bike riding we do, all the walking and stuff that I'd be losing weight!

For one thing, tusind tak for the package! Sis. Neukomm is just as happy as I am to have some Reese's in the apartment, haha. It was nice to get a little piece of home, although I feel bad that you had to pay so much to send cookie stuff, yikes! Since I'm staying here, obviously the FFO address is still good. :D

So um...big news, I guess--I got my hair cut...reeeaaalllly short! haha!! One of our dear investigators, Bianka did it for me, and then Sis. Neukomm layered it a bit more. So now I have short hair. bahaha. Don't worry there's a picture that comes with it!

Updates on the big investigators:

Chanrith flippin' came to church after a loss of contact, a major blessing. We will hopefully meet with him pretty soon--with students it's always hard to help them realize that baptism isn't another assignment that they can put off--that it can wait until after the big projects are done, but like Dad said, it's up to them and we can't dunk 'em in the water. So yeah, a big relief though.

Hans, is a sort of eternal investigator that will forever get on missionaries' nerves--he above all refuses to pray but want answers, so mal gucken when he'll actually pray. He has been trying to read the Bible in different languages and found some pages in Dansk and printed them out for me. However, they're all from the Zeuge Jehovahs Bible, mensch. Pretty hilarious, though.

PARMEER! Mensch, we haven't seen her this entire last week which is sad. She has a friend visiting and so it's sort of hard to juggle so many people coming over, but she's worried that this friend will "tattle" on her to her family back home that she is really interested in joining the church, so we hope to meet with her soon and ask her if she's really that worried about it and what we could do or say to help her not freak out. We will actually hopefully see her today since it's the last day she will see Sis. Neukomm--she heads out tomorrow! Yipes! Transfers go way fast.

Also, slightly hilarious. Sis. Neukomm has been needing physiotherapy for her back because she works a lot harder than she has to. But if you can imagine, her physiotherapist is actually one of our new investigators! He asked her questions obviously because of the nametags, and that we sort of demanded that I come along so we could stick together, which worked out well, because we could both answer his questions. He started asking about our beliefs and Sis. Neukomm just busts out the 1st lesson while he's massaging her back! Sort of one of "those stories" I guess. He's actually really interested though; we will see him tommorrow and we will ask for his address so we can meet him like a normal investigator, but he already has a book of mormon! The Lord really throws us a bone in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Another cool experience this week: We took Nina, a sort-of-not-quite-yet investigator on a bike ride sort of activity. We visited Bianka at her little garden (kinda like mormor's sommerhus) but along the way there was this AMAZING bike path. We go through little adorable EHS, then over the little bridge and then on this long stretch of just little ponds, trees, and grass grass grass everywhere. it was absolutely amazing. Also, the weather was SO great, that I was biking in a t-shirt! With curly hair! I felt like the luckiest missionary alive, that of all places, I get to serve here. Everything felt sooo perfect, and I can't wait to try out that path again. Did I mention I rock riding a bike in a skirt? With a helmet and backpack? Woot! Riding bikes are awesome and we do it a lot.

Mensch, it's hard to really remember everything. Yesterday the branch präsident asked me to play the organ for sacrament meeting, nicht schlecht. It's a lot different from the piano but ich hab's geschafft.

I want to see a baptism so bad, and I know that Heavenly Father hears my prayers, but I'm wondering when I'll accomplish my goals. I always feel like it's my fault, like there's something missing but I don't know how to fill in the gaps. Hopefully things will change for the better. It's hard to see almost half of my mission gone by and I feel like I have nothing to show for it. The Lord trusts me, I know, I just want to prove to him that I'm worth his trust.

Thanks again for the package and for the support. Your words really mean a lot to me, all of them. I hope it's getting sunnier and lovelier in Overland Park! The weather is definitely perfect here.

Tschüss! Ich habe dich lieb!
Sis. Whit

Busy week...

Mensch, mensch, mensch, the week slipped by so fast, like a rug being pulled out from under my feet! Mainly because this week was not only ZONE CONFERENCE but also TAUSCH!

Zone Conference was really cool, because Sis. Neukomm and I were asked to teach one of the smaller Themas to our zone about "bearing testimony frequently." It went really well, except the Elders before us took up a lot of our time so we had to shorten it, but you know how it goes. We talked about how bearing testimony always invites the Spirit to support what we say and that he will "carry our message to their hearts"--and Sis. Neukomm likened the Spirit unto her Swiss Army knife (which all the Elders drooled over). She asked the group, "What is a Swiss Army knife useful for?" and one of the Elders said in quiet awe, "Everything." It was so ridiculous. But funny. I guess that means there are pictures on the blog!

After Zone Conference, we had our Tausch, and one of the Sisters from Rostock came to work with me in EHS for the day--and Tausch is pretty funny because if you get to serve somewhere else, it's like a sleepover. But if you stay, you have to plan EVERYTHING out so that you get something accomplished so the Tausch itsn't a total waste of time. Which sometimes it does because there's so much travel involved to switch back and go back home. A lot of the travel time was me getting to know this Sister Cläy, who's pretty awesome. It was funny because I got to tell her about my book that I was writing at home and she was really curious to know about the plot and all, and I sort of sat back and thought, "Mensch, it's been a while since I've worked on that thing!" I would almost forget that I'm a writer, except everyone I meet asks me about my future plans and goals. I also realized that my book is accidentally like a missionary story, since my main character has to travel from city to city and sometimes she and her friend or "companion" don't always get along. Na ja, mal sehen!

But for Tausch, we had our English class like usual at the end of a long Tuesday (Zone Conference takes up practically the whole day), and then Wednesday was a lot of trying to visit contacts that we haven't had time to visit (or don't have time for us), and that involved a lot of bike riding, but the weather was AMAZING so it was so eine gute Idee.

We also met with our new Golden Indian investigator--we've literally met with her every 2 days for the past two weeks. Mensch, she's totally amazing but has (you guessed it) a major hurdle in her path. Since she comes from a very conservative culture, it's already "abnormal" that she is able to study away from home, but her family basically picked out her future husband for her (and she can't say no) so that she has a reason for eventually coming home. So for her, having agency is a big deal for her--that we tell her SHE can choose what she does in her life, that her life hasn't been already written for her. But she's worried if she chooses to follow Christ, it will really drive a wedge in her family, and it might make it harder for her younger siblings to be married, too. It blows my mind how some parts of the world still have these traditions and makes it so hard for young women like Parmeere to be independent like they want to be. It makes me very grateful that I've never had that problem! So we're praying night and day for her to decide where she wants to go and who she wants to be--and that Heavenly Father will bless her if she does decide to be baptized. But that's the thing--she REALLY wants to be baptized! So we hope that her courage will come through for her and we can help her. We found out that there are two converts in Rostock that come from the same region of India and had sort of the same problems, and so we're going to make sure they talk with each other. I'm so excited to see what this week will bring!

Thursday was "Frauentag" which is kinda like Mother's Day only for all women (don't worry, they still have Mother's Day) and we got tiny tiny pots of flowers from a member we visited that day. We sort of have a tiny windowsill full of easy-to-care-for flowers so we have a bit of color in our apartment. :)

We're also still teaching our Dönermann--it's cool when a Dönerman is a progressive investigator, because he keeps his commitments! He was really excited to start reading the Book of Mormon in his own language.

We also taught a part-member Ehepaar, which was interesting because before we taught our lesson, Sis. Neukomm brought cheese that her parents sent her to make REAL Swiss Cheese Fondue! Mensch that was a lot of sharp cheese, and you know how I'm nooooot too big of a melted-cheese fan. But on a mission, missionaries aren't allowed to dislike anything! One tactic I've learned is when I have to eat Rotkohl (which I'm sorry, it's just icky), I eat it with a big mouthful of potatoes, meat and gravy so I hardly notice it's there. MEeeeeensch.

Another big part of the week, was that we were invited to sing at a baptism in Glenike, a part of northern Berlin, with another pair of Sisters. It was really really cool to go to a baptism as a missionary, especially because I don't think I've been to a baptism for a convert before (if I have, I can't remember), and meine gute, the air was static with the Spirit. Parmeere was going to come with us but she couldn't make it at the last moment, but we brought a younger investigator with us (we aren't technically teaching lessons yet because we're waiting for the mom to be more comfortable with it) so she could see what a "real" church building looks like, since ours is a level above a restauraunt. She didn't really have questions, but she really liked the whole trip and being able to see the baptism, even for someone we really didn't know. She likes American music, and learning English, so she practiced with me for most of the train ride there and back, until she was like, "okay, enough English!" Try speaking German 90% of the week!

AAAAand of course Sunday was wonderful. The weather was really great, good day at church with investigators, and then best part of all--two Sisters from Cottbus came to visit me! It was a big surprise, Sis. Münch and Sis. Seidl know a few members in our branch and came to visit us at church and then we went to eat lunch with them and these two members, Sis. Lassman and Sis. Urlaub. It was really really cool! They updated me on the ward of course, and Katrin, who I used to teach during a investigator Sunday School class is going to be baptised! Her husband was probably the most happily surprised of us all, and she'll be baptized I think in a few weeks. Also Chi-Yu comes regularly to church, which makes me happy to hear. Sounds like the Sisters still meet with Anna, which was what I wanted to hear. :) The thing I liked about our little lunch get-together, is that all four ladies are what they call themselves "Apple Omas" because they all use Ipads or Iphones for all the church materials there are to be found in German, and they use Skype and Facebook to stay connected. Way to be! haha. Sis. Münch made us show her our homes on Google Earth, so she could see Kansas and Wintertor, Switzerland. Das war krass, or "cool". (I hope I spellt that right).

So to me it felt like we didn't do a lot, because we had LOTS of traveling on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so this week will be great--we can relly work our tails off before DUN DUN DUUUUUN---TRANSFER CALLS! I always get antsy the week before transfer calls, because I wonder if I'll have to stay or pack--or who my companion will be next transfer. I really really like working with Sis. Neukomm, so I hope we both get to stay--we need to stay and help Parmeere!!!! There's something special about an investigator that KEEPS COMMITMENTS and wants to find answers! So we'll see where I'll be next transfer! (Sis. Münch of course says I should go back to Cottbus, I have mixed feelings about that).

So yeah! It sounds like the family is having fun on the big break, I really liked the report I got from Nicholas. Especially because his entire report about the Ripley's Believe it or Not Dingsbum was literally all just one long sentence. That kid is hilarious.

Also, reading Jordan's emails are hilarious. And weird--since when did Jordan become all mature and spiritual? haha.

Pretty cool extra tidbit--pretty soon Sis. Neukomm and I (or whoever stays) will be teaching a Mission Prep sort of class for two girls in our ward who want to go on missions within the next year--pretty cool!

Anyway, I think that's about it. I love seeing pictures of Mom and Justin holding trophies and wearing those heavy medals. I thought it was funny that people ask you where you store it all! Hopefully somewhere pretty fancy.

So here's hoping the next week will be A-MAZING! Every week I hope I can say, "We have a Taufdatum!" but Präsident tells us that the Lord gives blessings on His time, which is of course, always the right time, right place. I just hope someday I'll be at the right place and at the right time. But sometimes really helping innactives, new converts and members is just as taxing and worth it! Enduring to the end is just as important as baptism, so I'm happy to help where I'm needed.

I love you all! Keep it real! :P

love,
Sis. Whit

Very busy

Liebe Grüße von die Sister Olsen!

So like you might've guessed--this week was a crazy one!

Okay, this week we got, TWO count 'em TWO solid, awesome new progressive investigators. HOOOOOLY meine gute what a week. We found Ahmed who is also from Egypt and we introduced him to Hany, and he's already met the other two Egyptian members and it's about the smartest idea we've ever had. He's not only curious about the church but how people from his same background also decided to be members of our church. Oh my gosh, it's just WHAT ARE THE ODDS, y'know? That we would find someone willing to hear the gospel--has met missionaries in Cottbus (by the way, one of the Sisters he met was my TRAINER, Sis. Allan) and we just happen to have member friends here that he can talk to about everything, in Arabic! He said that he just loves it because as you can imagine, there aren't a lot of people here who speak Arabic. So yeah, he's soooo Golden (cheesy missionary-lingo alert)!!!

Second amazing new friend, Parmeer from India. She let us come in after dooring and we taught her for almost an hour, she had so many good questions. She reads everything we give her, and totally GETS it, and wants to learn more. Not only that, but every time she's like, "when can you come back?" and I think to myself, "ANY TIME YOU WANT!!" We also just found out there are two Neubekerts in Rostock that are from Punjab as well and so we're gonna link them together, too! We've already met with her three times in this past week. She is by far my favorite investigator here, not because she does what we ask, (which is actually not that often that people keep their commitments) but she's just amazing all around. Super nice, and has questions about her life and she's willing to pray and read for herself to know. We met her on Tuesday and we thanked her that we could meet her and teach her and she gave us a funny look and said, "I should be the one thanking you!" So yeah, AMAZING!!!

Haha, another cool find this week--we got Döners this past week and taught the first lesson to the Döner guy (just about every Döner guy here knows the missionaries, Sisters and Elders alike!) Sis. Neukomm was smart and had a pamphlet about Joseph Smith in Turkish and the guy took it and started reading and you could tell that it meant something to see something in his language and we told him about the Book of Mormon and how we have it in Turkish as well and he was like, "yeah, please bring it to me!" and before we left he gave us two cans of soda without charge.

This week we also taught A LOT. We teach a lot of investigators, of course, but we also teach quite a few members that sort of like being treated like investigators. But it's mainly people who are borderline wanting to leave the church, or perfectly fine slipping into being innactive, so we just meet and teach to sort of help them remember the basics. They all mainly have problems with the other members, not the doctrine, but so far so good. We saw a pretty big miracle on Sunday. A member who left the church and wants to come back, has come to church 3 solid Sundays in a row after 5 years of not coming and this Sunday he bore his testimony (a really good one, too) after 10 years of not doing so.

We also had a pretty interesting Saturday--we had a big ping pong activity and when I say big, I mean NINE people showed up!! Woohooo! That's pretty big for us. Two of the people were visitors from the States, sisters--the older one Tamara was here as an exchange student and could speak a bit of deutsch and her sister is doing the same program but in France. It was REALLY weird hearing real "girly" American English again. I only speak to native English speakers at Distrikt Versammlung or Zone Conferenz (which is tomorrow!!) so I always change my style of English that it's a lot more literal and simpler so others can understand me--like not using idioms or things like that--or slang (because then I have to explain what it means and then, yeah, not worth it), so girly American sounded, wow, way different. Mensch.

Fun experiences with cooking. I wanted to try a cinnamon roll recipe from our mission cookbook, and Sis. Neukomm thought it sounded delicious, so we tried it out last Pday, but I accidently used more "healthy" flour, for more harder rolls/bread, and in a nutshell, my cinnamon rolls came out like bricks--the dough didn't rise at all. I joked that they would make pretty good door-stoppers though. Sis. Neukomm thought I wasn't kidding though, haha.

Also, Ola showed me how to make Schnitzel the "Egyptian" way and it is DIVINE. I will practice for sure and make it all the time at home! It's funny because I asked what kind of meat they used (because it looked deep red/purple) and they said it was beef. But in Egypt they specifically use calf meat, but they can't find it here or something. Ahmed said, "We couldn't find calf meat here, so we went for the mother." and we just BUSTED out laughing. It's really, really easy to make the two laugh, and they both have really high-pitched giggles--higher than mine if you can imagine!

Chanrith, mensch. He's spending the week in Berlin, but Sis. Neukomm will be going there on Tausch this week, so hopefully she can help him set up a Taufdatum. We challenged him this Sunday to try fasting for the first time and pray about when he should be baptized so we're eager to hear how it went.

The weather here is actually very lovely--almost Spring! We officially don't need our big winter jackets anymore, but jackets still the same. I look forward to being waaaarm again. :)

I did hear about our new mission president, I'm pretty excited! I'm pretty sure he and his wife are nice. I mean, if he adds stricter rules or something, that would be different, but I'm not worried or anything.

Knitting. haha. So a crazy investigator we had taught me how to knit in Cottbus, and I did a lot of knitting while I was there, but it's crazy learning how to do it in German, so I think there's some things that I missed, but it's pretty fun, if knitting can be fun. My Mitarbeiterinen say I should knit a scarf. I think if I start now I'll finish by next winter for sure! haha, mal sehen.

Anyway, I hope everything is going well. We had a lot of good things happen this week, and I hope this week is full of great stuff, too. We've got a loooot of people to visit! :) Mensch, Jordan's email has so much Japanese in it, he's gonna come home all foreign and stuff. :P I hope Justin's braving the braces and he's graduated to more solid stuff. :) Thanks for writing me, Nicholas! You da beeest!

Love you all! I miss you!
love,
Sis. Whit