New City

Chemnitz is HUGE. Like big enough that we have another set of Elders that we work with and an Ehepaar that run the Institute here. And it really means that there are a TON of people. Does that make it easier to talk to people? For some reason, no. I'm definitely fine with talking to people like Jordan is, but it's not fun having an audience of people sitting around in the BEAUTIFUL warm weather watching us getting repeatedly rejected, just over and over. 

But you'd be pretty proud of me; this transfer I fit everything in my suitcases and made the 5 hour journey by myself and got my luggage in all 3 trains! There was a few times where there wasn't an elevator, so I would just lug one up at a time and go back for the next one. And there was one old-school train that had really steep steps (not really handicap or bike friendly) that I schafft as well. If you can imagine, it's so steep that the floor is too my shoulders or so, so I threw all the light stuff in the train, and then climbed in and just pulled them up and into the train. Geschafft! I had lots of nap and journal time. But my trip was through Cottbus (my Golden city!), then Leipzig and then Chemnitz. 

The best part of the week was that on Monday after emails and such, (so last Monday before transfers) I got to meet with Parmeer one last time and we swapped info and I have a picture of us, sweet! She`s my fav and I hope she sticks with the Sisters.

But yeah, it's a good thing that I write down each day all of the details of what went on, because this week was a blurr. We are starting to teach again a girl that used to meet with the Sisters and then lost contact, so that's always a good start, but we also have a lot more progressing investigators. One sweet guy from Vietnam, named Tan, then we have Xiao who has a baptism date (she's from China and ABSOLUTLEY adorable), and Bennett, a German who thinks he's pretty clever--and plenty more besides that. We also teach Stefan who was just baptized too weeks ago, and he's also pretty cool. We are pretty busy and always unterwegs. We aren't teaching as many evige investigators, because if they don't have interest, we don't have the time or energy to keep visiting them. We also have creepers that call us and ask to come clean their house or something (because we always offer service, you know) but this same girl keeps calling and wondering when we have time to come do stupid cleaning projects. It's like, dude, we're Sisters, not maids!

And Sis. Laubaugh is hilarious. She really likes messing with the Elders a lot, to kinda show them "who's boss." But they mess with us, too. For example, Sis. Laubaugh told us how Chemnitz has just a lot of creepers, so sometimes we give them Elder's cards if we're not sure what exactly they're interested in--but they wrote us a fake creeper note and put it in our Briefkasten. But we do take it seriously and if we have no more plans and we feel like it's necessary, we head in early so we're not out and about when people might be of course, drunk. Which here, there's people drunk or with a bottle in their hand during all hours of the day, not even joking. I have to watch where I walk because there's always broken glass all over the place. Naja. 

But I do get along with Sis. Laubaugh really well, although I of course miss Sis. Szvoboda. It was hard leaving her, but she's got stress up to her armpits with training a Golden in a city that she's only been in for 5 weeks. Mensch. 

But starting a new city naturally brings stress and I've been pretty tired the last few days. Usually it hits hard in the afternoon, so we try walking a lot to keep ourselves awake. I can practically sleep in any situation, sitting in a bus or train or Straßenbahn--no problem! Even if it's for 5 minutes. 

Haha, but something really hilarious. We have lots of things going on at our church--we teach English, and we invite everyone to Familieheim Abend and Intstitut, and guess what? the FHV has a free Zumba class every Thursday that we bring our investigators to. Can I say how much I miss dancing? It's great to go there and get it all out, and have some actual REAL exercise. And our FHV präsidentin told us that there's always friends of ward members there so we're practically supposed to go every week to be there if people have interest to talk, too. So that's probably my favorite thing about this ward so far besides our investigators and recent converts (and Sis. Laubaugh). She's from Ohio, and it's weird finally having an American comp and she asks ME a lot about German since I've learned a lot of random words through my German speaking comps. But the German "down here" is RIDICULOUS. How is it spellt, Sächsisch? It's a killer Ausprache, mensch. 

But weird being in a normal sized ward with children and young families. We've already met a few this week because we use them as joint teaches a lot. It's just harder with larger wards to show them that you care about the ward and helping them however we can. We might start up a new mission prep class for the Junge Männer & Damen or just whoever wants to learn missionary tips so that we can get to know people better. 

Have I forgotten to mention? It's summer in Germany! That's right, shirtless men on their patios drinking. Which is the same as usual minus the shirt. Blech. But it's about 29°C(84°F) everyday, all day, and so that's been way fun. I've been waiting for SO long for it to be warm! Woot!  

As far as the other questions go, every missionary is different, as far as if they move around a lot or if they stay for a long time, or if they stay on one side or the other. I've been all in the East, and I had a companion who moved all over the place, and her transfer map looked like a star from all the random points she went to. I guess I'm just needed in the east, but I try not to compare myself with other missionaries because it's just where I'm needed and who I need to work with. There's also hardly any Sister cities in the West, so I always have more of a chance to stay in the East anyway. 

I also have no memory of being in Chemnitz as a family, but that's sort of creepy to think about. :P

Oh, and to clarify, Kiel is actually closer to Danmark itself rather than Rostock--Rostock is closer to the water which is way close to Danmark. They had ads everywhere for those ships that ferry people from Germany to Danmark, though. 

Speaking of which, how could I forget?
My last Pday with Sis. Szvoboda was great--because we crossed the bridge over to Poland! It was really creepy, even though we had permission from Präsident to do so, but it definitely felt like a totally different place--not just with the language and signs, but it felt like I really stepped out of my Missionsgebiet. So we really only wanted to take pictures of the Frankfurt Oder side and cross back, so we didn't venture in or anything. But it was still pretty fun!

Sorry everything's a bit random, but it's always jarring trying to jump in a new program and schedule, and really it feels like a totally different world, and so I'm learning my way around pretty quickly and trying to get used to it quicker so that I can help make some progress here. As Jordo says, Challenge Accepted!

love,
Sis. Whit