Hey Hey Familie!
oooooh, Mensch, we had to squeeze in a lot of appointments in this week because we had Tausch and Zoko right after each other, which means quite a bit of time (almost 2 days' worth) of travelling and what-not. But I'll get to that in a second.
I had quite an interesting Pday last week. As in, I sat at my desk for much of it and wrote 9 postcards and 5 letters. I must say it was half to people I promised to write to in FFO (they had birthdays coming up, too) and the other half friends that still write me. Meine Mensch, was für eine glückliche Schwester! And because of Zoko post, I've got a couple more to write today as well.
We've been having some drama with our District Leader this week--as in we wanted to bring up a few problems between our companionships (the Elders are both German and quite frankly have the lamest sense of humor ever) and they sort of think that we were being sensitive--anyway, long story short--I just wanted to tell Jordan, that I'm sure he'd do this anyway, but if he ever has a leadership position, or even as a "normal" Elder--try to have respect for the sisters, okay? Some Elders on the mission act like they're 19yr. old boys and not Elders, and it's hard to deal with sometimes, especially when they're your district leader and should be a bit more mature. But our Zone Leaders already know what's up and they will take care of it. Drama!
On Tuesday we spent half of the day doing service bei Sch. Härtig, an older lady in the ward. She's a BEAST. Not because she's crazy, but she asked us to come help do some yard work for her to speed it up, but she was right there with us doing the work, too. I spent most of my time weeding this humongous plot of land, and got it DONE! Sis. Laubaugh said that I looked like an extra person casted in the Restoration movie. We've seen that so many times that we started quoting it--in English and German. So ist das. It made me think a lot of my own "plot of land" here in Chemnitz. It says in Alma 34 that we should "pray over our fields" that they will prosper, and I find myself doing that a lot. Every missionary wants to come in and shake things up--I probably won't be legendary, but I definitely want to own up to at least working like a fiend down here. Not because it's a bad place, it's just really hard for me to focus on the people who are pure in heart, while everyone else here looks us up and down, and we get cat-calls by drunk Germans at like 10:30am. GET A JOB!
We taught so many awesome lessons this week. Bennet has an official Taufdatum in 2 weeks! We are so excited, and I think we persuaded him finally to let us take ONE picture of his baptism. He wants his Taufe to be pretty much private, like us, the Täufer, 2 witnesses and the Bischof, and him. That's it. But Frau Neugebauer (already affectionately known as SCHWESTER Neugebauer--we keep doing it by accident!) loves going to church in Görlitz and gets along really well with the Elders there, so I think we will definitely be nudging her a bit into making baptism for her a reality. When a German says that they don't drink alcohol and can give up Gröntee, you know you've got yourself a Golden.
Naja, Wednesday was also super duper! I mean, we had a lot of lessons work out, some fell out, but it was a weird day where our schedule fell into place and even our plan Bs worked to our advantage. It IS getting pretty hot here, but I've got water handy! It still goes up and down as far as the temperature, but no rain and no sweaters!
Thursday was Tausch. We started off the day great with helping an old lady cross the street. *brush the shoulder* I stayed in Chemnitz and Sis. Laubaugh went to Cottbus, and I got Sis. Curtis to come visit me for the day--she's two transfers younger than me, that's about 12 weeks? Anyway, she's amazing--I hope I can be like her when I grow up. She helped me teach our Englisch class (we got like a buttload of herbs that smelled like celery from one of our students), teach Stefan (also nicknamed Stefy-stef by the sisters) and of course tear up da floor at Zumba! There's a story to go with that. So there was a wedding this past Friday, and the groom is from Cottbus, so I heard that the ward would be coming down for the reception and everything--well some of them were there a bit early and watched us all do Zumba! So afterwards, I changed back into missionary attire and said hello and such. It wasn't really any of my super favorites, but they were like, "look at our Sis. Olsen!!" So it's interesting how in this transfer I got to see people from FFO AND Cottbus! That's love from above right there.
We were then reunited with our compy-comps the next day at Zone Conference which was nice. I think there's already pictures of it on the blog! But it was a good conference. I'd like to point out though, that Jordo's mission president SOOOO copied mine, because last year, Präs. Pimentel gave the same Thema. Nice try though. :P They asked me to play piano which wasn't all that bad, but every once in a while I get baaad migranes towards the end of Zoko, and as I was playing the closing song, I was really shaky---but I didn't fall off the bench! I survived and Sis. Laubaugh was nice enough to share some Advil because I left mine at home by accident. At home I always thought that missionaries were perfect--like they never fell asleep at church, want to die because of headaches, or whatever, but I'm not the only one. I'm at least getting better at pretending I'm bullet-proof until I get better. But I've noticed that it was a bigger problem as a Golden then how I am today--like yesterday I got a headache but it was wimpy compared to before, and after a hearty lunch I was fine.
One reaaaally cool thing that's coming up this week is this group Finding effort that our mission AND the other two missions in Germany are doing--called Esprit de Corps (spirit of the group--don't ask me why it's in FREEEENCH): like never before! We all had a tri-mission mini fast yesterday, and on Wednesday we're doing heavy-duty finding for GOLDENS. Like serious people who are ready for the gospel. So I'm really excited, but I also hope that we find some good people! I always pray that I'll find people who aren't just prepared, but people who need my message now in their lives, and so far, it's been tough, but it totally works.
A miracle that happened at church yesterday: So we have problems with helping Tan enjoy his Sundays, because he comes faithfully every Sunday, but you can tell it frustrates him that he can't understand everything, and even when we translate it into easier German, he feels behind and confused. During church, I saw this couple in the ward, an Asian-looking guy and his German Frau, and I thought, "that guy better speak Viatnamese--sonst gibt es Krieg!" Well, he does! It's a shame that he's visiting from another ward, but we introduced the two to each other and Tan looked SOO happy. It made us pretty happy, too, because we think the language barrier makes it a struggle for him to see baptism as a reality--because he wants to understand everything--and he has that right, of course. So yay! Maybe this will help him where we necessarily can't.
Speaking of Sunday, we had lunch bei den Bischof! That was pretty cool--we kicked around a soccer ball with his grandkids until they were done with making dinner. Just the Sisters, this 7 yr. old kid and big Stefan, the only one who can decently play. Nothing TOO straining (the ball we were passing around had Disney princesses on it) but for me it was a amusing mental image that I won't forget so soon.
Also glad the package survived to Nicholas. How long did it take? I will repent and send stuff home a lot sooner when the time comes and plan accordingly.
I think it was really funny reading about how the Sisters that came to teach you guys acted all nervous--or at least the Golden. The Goldens they keep sending us are like bold as brass and I dunno, probably eat nails for breakfast; Mensch, transfer calls are this week and everyone thinks I'm training. Heaven help me! But I think back on MY first lesson--and it was with that crazy lady who smoked so much she lost her twins and such--and her German was crazy-ridiculous. And she taught us how to knit and thought my stitches were too tight. So I'm sure teaching a Golden guy like your co-worker couldn't have been THAT nerve-wracking. Unless she was worried about messing it up. Na ja.
Sooo, that might be it on my end of the globe. If Jordan needs ideas for what to make that's really fast, he should make that maccoroni beef whip-up thingie: brown ground beef, cook noodles (making spaghetti noodles and cuting them short tastes pretty good), tomato sauce and miracle-whip. I make it once a week because it's just something really easy and fast and doesn't take up our whole meal time. I don't really know what he has down there, but I've found in past apartments these cookbooks that people have gotten that have easy recipes for missionaries, and most of them are pretty normal stuff. I always try to eat more of the stuff that I can only eat here because when is my next opportunity to eat quality Würstschens? So yeah, hope that helps.
I love you guys and I can't wait to hear about the latest adventures! Ich habe euch lieb!
--Sis. Whit
About Me
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- Wie geht's! As a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Berlin Germany mission, I'm bound to have lots of fun experiences!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Loving the work...
Woop woop! Hallo Familie!
So this week was (kein Witz!) pretty insane. We are working on Spring Cleaning in our apartment because you can tell certain things just haven't been cleaned in forever, and it's a good time to get it out of our hair! So our apartment's lookin pretty fly right now.
We've been having random blessings this week, mainly with Finding. For one thing, on our way to an appointment we found this cool French guy who was pretty interested and talked to us for quite a while, and then after the appointment, we took the Straßenbahn and talked to an Italian girl (both people are students here) in the Straßenbahn! It was a big deal for me, because it's just the German way to NOT talk to people, especially in public transportation. It's just something they do; just sit by themselves with headphones in or whatever. So that was basically my first experience of teaching on a Straßenbahn, and probably the last, mal sehen.
Something random--in my personal study time, I'm studying Jesus the Christ, because I figured this will be my only chance to have the time to get through that beast, and so far it's pretty rad. Sort of reminds me of reading for school because of the way it's written, but there's a lot of cool stuff in there. I've read the first 13 chapters so far, and if you've looked at that thing before, it's still a long ways away before I finish...
Random cool story--so Germans don't really greet each other on the streets, either--but we always say "hallo" or "Guten Tag" to be friendly if we don't have time to stop people on the street--and we said hallo to a lady waiting at the same Haltestelle as us, and a minute later she said with a smile, "Are you always so friendly?" And we were like, yes--yes we are! She ended up taking just a card, but I like leaving good impressions.
This week we got to go to the temple! Soooo what I've been needing and it was great. A major blessing because who was there? Two ladies from the EHS Zweig! It was a dream come true, and they were all like, "of all places to meet up again!" and they let me know how the ward was doing. It was a treat for sure. I feel like it's a sign that the Lord loves me. But yeah, we went to the little store and I got a nice picture of the Freiberg temple, a Buch Mormon case and a WDR ring (Wahl das Recht!).
But we're not doing so bad here--we will finally have a baptism for Bennet, a 20yr. old German here on June 16th! I'm BEYOND excited, even though he's being a girl and says I can't take pictures and he doesn't want music, the talks or really anyone but the bare miniumum to be there. Sorry, kid, you're getting pictures and prelude music, dangit! But Tan is also getting pretty close to setting a date. We promised him that if he feels good about the answers to the Taufinterview questions, then he is ready, and he said he will talk to his wife who is still in Vietnam right now. Woot! He looks like the kind of investigator Jordo would teach.
CHRISTIHIMMELFAHRT. Probably the craziest day of my life. It's supposed to be a Catholic holiday to celebrate the day that Christ went back to heaven after his resurrection, but here's it's like Abe Lincoln's birthday--where people just get out of work and school, Catholic or not, AND it just so happens to be the same day as Vaterstag, or Männertag. Which is so unbelievably ridiculous, because Germans drink openly on the streets every flippin day of their lives, but they STILL have a holiday to drink! And they think Americans are lazy? Dude, we WORK! People drink here on the government's dime, really. But it wasn't a very fun day for us, because there wasn't anyone on the streets--either on bikes or drunkards. We tried to keep ourselves busy so we wouldn't be stuck trying to spend hours talking to people, but it was sad to see people already drunk and you check your watch and it's 11am. Meine. Gute.
But zum Glück, we had another miracle! Georgi, a street contact ran into us the other day--or we ran into him--either way, the 3rd time we've seen him and the 4th time he saw us, so we finally made out an appointment; the other times we would see him while we were rushing to a bus and so we couldn't stop and chat, but we got a hold of him! He gave us his number but he like most people, don't answer, so it was way cool. You know the Lord's up to something when you see the same guy 3 times in a big city.
Like Jordo, I too had my share of photos this past transfer! We have this huge Karl Marx head in our stadt and finally broke down and took pictures by it. This thing is HUGE. We also did some OYMing and less-active searching in the more dorf-parts of Chemnitz, so lots of gorgeous views. I'm sort of in the country, kind of like our views out the window going from dorf to dorf to visit the Allreds or heading to Landstuhl with the marshmallows all over the place, and these huge fields of yellow flowers--we think they use it for cooking oil or soemthing. Or tea. But it's been pretty this past week. It did hail for 5 minutes in Freiberg, but all is forgiven.
But mensch, we had lots of teaching this week! P day is always MY Tag der Ruhe because we always go from place to place and I need a day where we get groceries, write emails and go home and write letters---I got a letter from Anna at Präsident Interviews so I gotta write her and see how she's doing. It's nice to still get mail from people! But I gotta write them all back so I can keep getting more! :)
Again, way cool to hear about all the stuff you guys are up to--people keep telling me about the new temple--AS IF I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT--but yeah, it's fun. Also, I hope Nicholas had a fun birthday!! Sounds like he celebrated right. Also, nice to know that Mac has good taste in Brats--although we've never really had pets that eat "normal food" but no one can top Ingebor with her love for joghurt. Or Zelda trying to recover from whip cream. haha, die Arme.
Was sonst noch? Miracles happenin' every day. And it's trying to stay warm here, I sure hope so! Germany's on fire up in here wegen all the soccer games coming up--perfect opportunity to buy cool Germany shirts. If I need to send some home, let me know!
Ich habe euch lieb! Til next time!
love,
Sis. Whit
So this week was (kein Witz!) pretty insane. We are working on Spring Cleaning in our apartment because you can tell certain things just haven't been cleaned in forever, and it's a good time to get it out of our hair! So our apartment's lookin pretty fly right now.
We've been having random blessings this week, mainly with Finding. For one thing, on our way to an appointment we found this cool French guy who was pretty interested and talked to us for quite a while, and then after the appointment, we took the Straßenbahn and talked to an Italian girl (both people are students here) in the Straßenbahn! It was a big deal for me, because it's just the German way to NOT talk to people, especially in public transportation. It's just something they do; just sit by themselves with headphones in or whatever. So that was basically my first experience of teaching on a Straßenbahn, and probably the last, mal sehen.
Something random--in my personal study time, I'm studying Jesus the Christ, because I figured this will be my only chance to have the time to get through that beast, and so far it's pretty rad. Sort of reminds me of reading for school because of the way it's written, but there's a lot of cool stuff in there. I've read the first 13 chapters so far, and if you've looked at that thing before, it's still a long ways away before I finish...
Random cool story--so Germans don't really greet each other on the streets, either--but we always say "hallo" or "Guten Tag" to be friendly if we don't have time to stop people on the street--and we said hallo to a lady waiting at the same Haltestelle as us, and a minute later she said with a smile, "Are you always so friendly?" And we were like, yes--yes we are! She ended up taking just a card, but I like leaving good impressions.
This week we got to go to the temple! Soooo what I've been needing and it was great. A major blessing because who was there? Two ladies from the EHS Zweig! It was a dream come true, and they were all like, "of all places to meet up again!" and they let me know how the ward was doing. It was a treat for sure. I feel like it's a sign that the Lord loves me. But yeah, we went to the little store and I got a nice picture of the Freiberg temple, a Buch Mormon case and a WDR ring (Wahl das Recht!).
But we're not doing so bad here--we will finally have a baptism for Bennet, a 20yr. old German here on June 16th! I'm BEYOND excited, even though he's being a girl and says I can't take pictures and he doesn't want music, the talks or really anyone but the bare miniumum to be there. Sorry, kid, you're getting pictures and prelude music, dangit! But Tan is also getting pretty close to setting a date. We promised him that if he feels good about the answers to the Taufinterview questions, then he is ready, and he said he will talk to his wife who is still in Vietnam right now. Woot! He looks like the kind of investigator Jordo would teach.
CHRISTIHIMMELFAHRT. Probably the craziest day of my life. It's supposed to be a Catholic holiday to celebrate the day that Christ went back to heaven after his resurrection, but here's it's like Abe Lincoln's birthday--where people just get out of work and school, Catholic or not, AND it just so happens to be the same day as Vaterstag, or Männertag. Which is so unbelievably ridiculous, because Germans drink openly on the streets every flippin day of their lives, but they STILL have a holiday to drink! And they think Americans are lazy? Dude, we WORK! People drink here on the government's dime, really. But it wasn't a very fun day for us, because there wasn't anyone on the streets--either on bikes or drunkards. We tried to keep ourselves busy so we wouldn't be stuck trying to spend hours talking to people, but it was sad to see people already drunk and you check your watch and it's 11am. Meine. Gute.
But zum Glück, we had another miracle! Georgi, a street contact ran into us the other day--or we ran into him--either way, the 3rd time we've seen him and the 4th time he saw us, so we finally made out an appointment; the other times we would see him while we were rushing to a bus and so we couldn't stop and chat, but we got a hold of him! He gave us his number but he like most people, don't answer, so it was way cool. You know the Lord's up to something when you see the same guy 3 times in a big city.
Like Jordo, I too had my share of photos this past transfer! We have this huge Karl Marx head in our stadt and finally broke down and took pictures by it. This thing is HUGE. We also did some OYMing and less-active searching in the more dorf-parts of Chemnitz, so lots of gorgeous views. I'm sort of in the country, kind of like our views out the window going from dorf to dorf to visit the Allreds or heading to Landstuhl with the marshmallows all over the place, and these huge fields of yellow flowers--we think they use it for cooking oil or soemthing. Or tea. But it's been pretty this past week. It did hail for 5 minutes in Freiberg, but all is forgiven.
But mensch, we had lots of teaching this week! P day is always MY Tag der Ruhe because we always go from place to place and I need a day where we get groceries, write emails and go home and write letters---I got a letter from Anna at Präsident Interviews so I gotta write her and see how she's doing. It's nice to still get mail from people! But I gotta write them all back so I can keep getting more! :)
Again, way cool to hear about all the stuff you guys are up to--people keep telling me about the new temple--AS IF I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT--but yeah, it's fun. Also, I hope Nicholas had a fun birthday!! Sounds like he celebrated right. Also, nice to know that Mac has good taste in Brats--although we've never really had pets that eat "normal food" but no one can top Ingebor with her love for joghurt. Or Zelda trying to recover from whip cream. haha, die Arme.
Was sonst noch? Miracles happenin' every day. And it's trying to stay warm here, I sure hope so! Germany's on fire up in here wegen all the soccer games coming up--perfect opportunity to buy cool Germany shirts. If I need to send some home, let me know!
Ich habe euch lieb! Til next time!
love,
Sis. Whit
Monday, May 14, 2012
Lots on her mind...
So this week was pretty dandy--we had Präsident Interviews last Tuesday and it was amazing! First of all, everyone kept telling me that I got a lot of mail, and I was like, "dude, quit snoopin' through my mail!" but they were right, I got a TON of old letters that some people sent to Cottbus and FFO, plus to the normal Berlin address, so I got lots of love from my friends. I'm working slowly but surely to answer them all, I promise!
Something that I learned in Interviews, is that I'm a great missionary. Not that I'm wanting to parade that around, but I've been feeling like in this new city that I could always be doing better, learning more and making things happen while I've got this time. But they compared missionary work to chocolate cookies (can you tell what the Zone Leaders miss the most about home?) Saying that the sugar and salt in the list of the ingredients is like our work--cookies don't turn out to be cookies without them--and the chocolate chips are the investigators--what REALLY makes the cookies, chocolate chip cookies. But one Elder said that without them, you'Ve still made cookies. And sometimes that's how it is here; you can't sway people to listen or change, but it's so much better when they are prepared to do so anyway. And then of course, the flour, eggs, oven, every other ingredient or thing needed to make cookies is the Lord and His blessings. And I know he always delivers, and I know that I'm doing what I can, and so if I'm missing those dang chocolate chips, I'm still makin' cookies over here. But they had us kneel down as a zone for the closing prayer and the person praying was asked specifically to pray that we would know if our work was pleasing to the Lord...and Mensch, I started getting all teary-eyed!
But another thing that has been helpful in the work this week, and maybe it'll help Olsen Choro--is with helping with commitments. A lot of times, people want answers and they just want them now before you get the chance to answer them, or before they even try reading in the Book of Mormon. But something they need to realize is that it takes work. I've been asking our investigators, "What will you DO to get your answer, and what will you do WITH that answer?" to see if they realize what this could mean for them. Lightbulb anyone?
And just for you BYU Cougars out there, I got a picture by the REAL Karl G. Mäser statue outside the Dresden Stake Center. Woop woop!
We had a miracle this past week with a less-active lady. We had time to go by and see her and as soon as we were approaching her apartment complex, Sis. Laubaugh said, "I think we've already tried to visit her but I can't remember if we left a note or not." But we decided to do it anyway. So we klingled and she was there (a miracle in itself) and invited us up! So we were feeling pretty good about that, and when we came, who was there? Our FHV Präsident and her husband! She gave us the list of ladies to visit and this one was one of them, so it was great to be "caught" doing our work. She called us her "fleißig Sisters" as we greeted everyone (Germans have this thing with having to shake hands with EVERYONE when the come in a room or arrive at church, I don't remember that much back in the day). The couple stayed and talked to her for a bit and then suggested that they leave so we could talk to her. It was really great and she really wants to come back to church. She started pulling out these ancient reading calendars and other things the Sisters made for her as they were teaching her. It makes me wonder if other investigators I've had will do the same, but she's like, "my heart is so connected to the church, how can I not go?"
Thursday was also great, lots of lessons and lots of other things to do. I vollenTOLD ourselves to be in Chor and we are singing "This is the Christ" in German, nich schlecht. We had lots of good lessons, and contacted some people who need to be meeting with us--some less actives and neubekehrts. We also taught English--our English class is actually mostly made up of creepers, one in the form of Garrett, an old "ladies" man that asked me a lot of questions (in English, mostly) about myself, like my first name and how to say, "can you give me a wink?" in English. Whuuuuut a creep. But he's a married creep.
We also had a random street lesson just before heading home that night with this guy who "thinks" he knows all about religion, because he says if he's a son of God then he is his "own" God and doesn't need to pray. But he was very impressed the whole time, not just with our testimonies and what we had to say, but he said something to the effect of, "I can tell that you two have this inner drive that drives you to volunteer to come out here and speak nearly perfect German Say what, ALMOST perfect German? That made our day! and talk to people on the streets about God. But why do that when you could be using your time and energy at home studying and raising a family?" Some people are always just that shocked. :P But really it's because all the things I DO have in life and the person that I am and always will be is--all those things come from the gospel. And people don't believe me when I say it, but if it helps someone like it helps me, then DURR I wanna serve! You can't lose with the Lord on your side.
Friday was great because we taugh Tan, one of my favorite investigators. He always feeds us gummi bears, and he really wants to do his own fast to know if the Book of Mormon is true. yay! He said that's what he wants to do; believe in God and be a righteous person. You can't find anyone more Golden than that! After a long day of teaching a few people, and planning for next week, we went to our favorite ZUMBA. Can I just say--Germans can't dance. They always comment how the Sisters are "getting too much" into Zumba, as jokes, but it's like, "erm, we know how to dance, sorry." But was there some bum-jiggling choreo we had to do? Maybe, just maybe.
On Sunday I have to "translate" the German in church into "Sis. Olsen German" so Tan can understand--because he can't understand the Ausspraches. I made one of the old ladies mad because she thought I was "quatching" the whole time during Sacrament mtg. Oh. By the way. Mother's Day in our Gemeinde was ridiculous! We had TWO hours of Sacrament meeting! One hour was a normal Sacrament meeting and then the second hour was the Mother's Day program. I mean, all we wanna hear is the PV Kinder sing, and they only sang ONE song, and the rest were more Anspraches, which meant all the kids were extra fidgety. But they had the moms sit in the middle, so the dads had to wrestle with the kids, hahahah. But yesterday was special because Stefan one of the Neubekehrts passed the sacrament for the first time. He's this big German army-looking guy passing the sacrament to Omas, making the Diakons look a lot shorter. :P
We also found Cindy, an investigator who hasn't been taught since 2010, and she's ready to be taught again! She's amazing. And she's from China. Have I already raved enough about how awesome it is to have an "international" mission? So far no Japanese investigators.
Also, I will be thinking more of potential things from home, but really, as far as food goes, Reeses and Mac&Cheese are fine; I don't really need or want much else in the way of food because as you know, I've got it good here. I ate enough things with Ranch in the MTC that I'm still not really missing that stuff all that much... but if you see any really cute skirts (especially if they are any other color besides brown or black) that'd be cool (next week I can send measurements so it'll be easier to find something my size I guess...) NO it's not because the ones I have are worn out or too small! It'd just be nice to be able to wear more colors now that I'm able to. and MUSIC. BITTE. You guys know I can listen to a lot more than just church music! It would actually be really nice if you could find some kind of "workout" music--just something with a good BEAT and probably without words or something just so I have something decent to do Morgen Sport with than "be still my soul"--I love me some church music, but it's hard to stay awake or keep a pulse going in the morning. I also heard good things about a CD "Wish Upon a Star" by Jenny Oaks Baker (violinist) and if you can find anything by Audrey Assad (Christian musician--I have one of her songs and it's one of my favorites) and/or 2CELLOS (celloists) that'd be great. If not, I might just try and find some soundtracks in German when I have the time. I already have Tangled in German and we listen to it everyDAY. Also, if there are any good new Disney soundtracks out (like Chronicals of Narnia:the Dawn Treador) or something like that? I'm open for anything. We have a CD player, so that's fine. That's really all I can think of. I'm just gonna be happy getting anything from you guys, and I'm NOT picky at all! :) Letters from friends (Facebook should be warning them pretty soon that I have my birthday 19 June!) are of course GOLD. That's my one big hint.
Okie doke, I think that's really just about it. Liebe Grüße to the BIG Elder Olsen in Japan and family in the States and Danmark! Ich habe euch lieb!
love,
Sis. Whit
Something that I learned in Interviews, is that I'm a great missionary. Not that I'm wanting to parade that around, but I've been feeling like in this new city that I could always be doing better, learning more and making things happen while I've got this time. But they compared missionary work to chocolate cookies (can you tell what the Zone Leaders miss the most about home?) Saying that the sugar and salt in the list of the ingredients is like our work--cookies don't turn out to be cookies without them--and the chocolate chips are the investigators--what REALLY makes the cookies, chocolate chip cookies. But one Elder said that without them, you'Ve still made cookies. And sometimes that's how it is here; you can't sway people to listen or change, but it's so much better when they are prepared to do so anyway. And then of course, the flour, eggs, oven, every other ingredient or thing needed to make cookies is the Lord and His blessings. And I know he always delivers, and I know that I'm doing what I can, and so if I'm missing those dang chocolate chips, I'm still makin' cookies over here. But they had us kneel down as a zone for the closing prayer and the person praying was asked specifically to pray that we would know if our work was pleasing to the Lord...and Mensch, I started getting all teary-eyed!
But another thing that has been helpful in the work this week, and maybe it'll help Olsen Choro--is with helping with commitments. A lot of times, people want answers and they just want them now before you get the chance to answer them, or before they even try reading in the Book of Mormon. But something they need to realize is that it takes work. I've been asking our investigators, "What will you DO to get your answer, and what will you do WITH that answer?" to see if they realize what this could mean for them. Lightbulb anyone?
And just for you BYU Cougars out there, I got a picture by the REAL Karl G. Mäser statue outside the Dresden Stake Center. Woop woop!
We had a miracle this past week with a less-active lady. We had time to go by and see her and as soon as we were approaching her apartment complex, Sis. Laubaugh said, "I think we've already tried to visit her but I can't remember if we left a note or not." But we decided to do it anyway. So we klingled and she was there (a miracle in itself) and invited us up! So we were feeling pretty good about that, and when we came, who was there? Our FHV Präsident and her husband! She gave us the list of ladies to visit and this one was one of them, so it was great to be "caught" doing our work. She called us her "fleißig Sisters" as we greeted everyone (Germans have this thing with having to shake hands with EVERYONE when the come in a room or arrive at church, I don't remember that much back in the day). The couple stayed and talked to her for a bit and then suggested that they leave so we could talk to her. It was really great and she really wants to come back to church. She started pulling out these ancient reading calendars and other things the Sisters made for her as they were teaching her. It makes me wonder if other investigators I've had will do the same, but she's like, "my heart is so connected to the church, how can I not go?"
Thursday was also great, lots of lessons and lots of other things to do. I vollenTOLD ourselves to be in Chor and we are singing "This is the Christ" in German, nich schlecht. We had lots of good lessons, and contacted some people who need to be meeting with us--some less actives and neubekehrts. We also taught English--our English class is actually mostly made up of creepers, one in the form of Garrett, an old "ladies" man that asked me a lot of questions (in English, mostly) about myself, like my first name and how to say, "can you give me a wink?" in English. Whuuuuut a creep. But he's a married creep.
We also had a random street lesson just before heading home that night with this guy who "thinks" he knows all about religion, because he says if he's a son of God then he is his "own" God and doesn't need to pray. But he was very impressed the whole time, not just with our testimonies and what we had to say, but he said something to the effect of, "I can tell that you two have this inner drive that drives you to volunteer to come out here and speak nearly perfect German Say what, ALMOST perfect German? That made our day! and talk to people on the streets about God. But why do that when you could be using your time and energy at home studying and raising a family?" Some people are always just that shocked. :P But really it's because all the things I DO have in life and the person that I am and always will be is--all those things come from the gospel. And people don't believe me when I say it, but if it helps someone like it helps me, then DURR I wanna serve! You can't lose with the Lord on your side.
Friday was great because we taugh Tan, one of my favorite investigators. He always feeds us gummi bears, and he really wants to do his own fast to know if the Book of Mormon is true. yay! He said that's what he wants to do; believe in God and be a righteous person. You can't find anyone more Golden than that! After a long day of teaching a few people, and planning for next week, we went to our favorite ZUMBA. Can I just say--Germans can't dance. They always comment how the Sisters are "getting too much" into Zumba, as jokes, but it's like, "erm, we know how to dance, sorry." But was there some bum-jiggling choreo we had to do? Maybe, just maybe.
On Sunday I have to "translate" the German in church into "Sis. Olsen German" so Tan can understand--because he can't understand the Ausspraches. I made one of the old ladies mad because she thought I was "quatching" the whole time during Sacrament mtg. Oh. By the way. Mother's Day in our Gemeinde was ridiculous! We had TWO hours of Sacrament meeting! One hour was a normal Sacrament meeting and then the second hour was the Mother's Day program. I mean, all we wanna hear is the PV Kinder sing, and they only sang ONE song, and the rest were more Anspraches, which meant all the kids were extra fidgety. But they had the moms sit in the middle, so the dads had to wrestle with the kids, hahahah. But yesterday was special because Stefan one of the Neubekehrts passed the sacrament for the first time. He's this big German army-looking guy passing the sacrament to Omas, making the Diakons look a lot shorter. :P
We also found Cindy, an investigator who hasn't been taught since 2010, and she's ready to be taught again! She's amazing. And she's from China. Have I already raved enough about how awesome it is to have an "international" mission? So far no Japanese investigators.
Also, I will be thinking more of potential things from home, but really, as far as food goes, Reeses and Mac&Cheese are fine; I don't really need or want much else in the way of food because as you know, I've got it good here. I ate enough things with Ranch in the MTC that I'm still not really missing that stuff all that much... but if you see any really cute skirts (especially if they are any other color besides brown or black) that'd be cool (next week I can send measurements so it'll be easier to find something my size I guess...) NO it's not because the ones I have are worn out or too small! It'd just be nice to be able to wear more colors now that I'm able to. and MUSIC. BITTE. You guys know I can listen to a lot more than just church music! It would actually be really nice if you could find some kind of "workout" music--just something with a good BEAT and probably without words or something just so I have something decent to do Morgen Sport with than "be still my soul"--I love me some church music, but it's hard to stay awake or keep a pulse going in the morning. I also heard good things about a CD "Wish Upon a Star" by Jenny Oaks Baker (violinist) and if you can find anything by Audrey Assad (Christian musician--I have one of her songs and it's one of my favorites) and/or 2CELLOS (celloists) that'd be great. If not, I might just try and find some soundtracks in German when I have the time. I already have Tangled in German and we listen to it everyDAY. Also, if there are any good new Disney soundtracks out (like Chronicals of Narnia:the Dawn Treador) or something like that? I'm open for anything. We have a CD player, so that's fine. That's really all I can think of. I'm just gonna be happy getting anything from you guys, and I'm NOT picky at all! :) Letters from friends (Facebook should be warning them pretty soon that I have my birthday 19 June!) are of course GOLD. That's my one big hint.
Okie doke, I think that's really just about it. Liebe Grüße to the BIG Elder Olsen in Japan and family in the States and Danmark! Ich habe euch lieb!
love,
Sis. Whit
Monday, May 7, 2012
Half-way done...
Liebe Familie--
Mensch to the MAX! Everybody's busy and doing great it sounds like. It was super cool to hear from everyone and I'm glad you all enjoyed all the fun plans for the weekend, aka, Präsident Monson, woot wooot!
I'm really surprised at how fast time is really flying here, I'm almost half way through this transfer! Yikes! It's also good that I'm getting pretty used to the city already--I think I know what gets us around so far, mal sehen. It always comes with stress because it's a new area and I wanna work with all my guts over here, and there are always the people who won't let me. But it's also still trying to get used to the next phase that is Chemnitz. Usually involves being extremely tired if I sit down for too long.
So this week, mensch. Lots of drama, and really you can't wear this badge without getting some drama.
But the weather this week was AWESOME. Well, for the first half...then it got rainy and now it's back to jacket weather again. But on Monday the weather was perfect and we enjoyed the Carnival pretty close by us, just a Frühlingsfest thing, but later they had a Hexenacht bonfire that we did NOT attend, but smelled it afterwards. The drunks were still drunk and shouting at each other around the good ol' 6:30am. ;P But we did the bumpercars and had cotton candy and our district was all there, so that was pretty fun. Actually it was embarassing because the Elders didn't bring Pday clothes like we did, so they were acting like 19yr. old BOYS in their missionary clothes while on the rides. *shudder* We also went to Familieheim Abend at the Church for the YAE's since one of our investigators and one of our Neubekehrts went. And we played Badminton! Sis. Olsen showed off a bit of skillz on that one.
I read a talk this week that really helped me have a better positive attitude, and I recommend it to anyone, especially my friends who are thinking about serving a mission: "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Fears" by Jeffrey R. Holland (BYU Devotional i think) It talks about how Satan tries to sucker punch us in the gut just before or just after a major spiritual experience or spiritual confirmation, because he knows that it will change us for the better if he lets it slide. I actually borrowed it from Sis. Laubaugh, so if you could send me my OWN copy to mark up like a fiend, that would be appreciated.
Weird fashion trend: I've been seeing lots of men lately with fanny packs. Ick.
Tuesday we had a cool lesson with Xiao and her son, Shen Zhi (both from China if you didn't notice) because we taught the son (10 yrs. old) for the first time, and he had lots of questions about what happens after we die. He's a pretty sharp kid and it was a great experience. She also fed us the most spicy fish soup auf der ERDE. My face got all red (because she didn't set out cups or drinks) and I was like, "can I please have some water?" She thought I didn't like it, but I just didn't like the hole burning through the back of my throat, really. She has a Taufdatum for next Sunday actually, but we don't think she's exactly ready for it, so we might push it back--seeing how preparing for a baptism in a week and letting the ward know and such--too much stress in the forseeable future.
But we do have Tan, from Vietnam who is learning German and has the GREATEST Ausprache ever-- only the Sisters can understand him. We taught him a lot about Fasting and he didn't fast yesterday, but he's planning on fasting this next weekend about his answer about the Book of Mormon. Pretty impressive for a once-hardcore Buddhist, to all of a sudden believe in Christ.
Thursday was the big 9 month mark! And if you can imagine it was, yup, pretty uneventful. It's sorta when the rain came tumblin' down and when I woke up that morning I was FLIPPIN TIRED. But I read through my journal of all the month marks throughout my mission, and some days were really good and other days I had a really good cry. And in some instances I thought I hadn't really made much progress and other areas I was pretty dang proud of myself. But I called Sis. Szvoboda because we got the Taufdatum text that morning and I saw that they got a new one so I called to see who it was--and it was Herr Schmidt! He's the most evige Investigator you can find (he's been investigating the church as long as I've been alive) and now he's finally doing it! His wife is a strong member and to think that in a year they can go to the Temple together was such a great feeling. He's getting baptized the same day as Micha, and so I'm severely tempted to go see their baptisms. The thing is, it comes out of my pocket and I need Präsident's approval. But Sis. Szvoboda updated me on all my favorite people--I miss that ward like nobody's bidness--and they have contact with Parmeer again. She's been having a hard time lately because her whole family has shunned her just because she was meeting with us, not even that she wants to be baptized. But she was ignoring us because we of course remind her of that stress, but she's not ignoring the sisters anymore and i think she'll really get baptized. It made me feel sooooo good.
Which was much needed--I had the most BEHINDERT joint teach lesson of my life this week. This is how it goes: we took Bennet to the big Toni Meier, the Elder's Quorom Präsident of our ward for a joint teach because he thinks Toni is perfect and that he spills all the "secrets" of the church--which really is just what he does--answers Bennet's questions but then tell him all the branches of the answer that doesn't matter at ALL and he didn't ask about. But basically Toni has no respect for missionaries at all, especially Sisters from the US that are learning German because he corrected us, or quizzed us to make us look like a couple of sacks of hammers with nametags on. He basically doesn't know us, but just assumed that we don't know what we're doing--and he taught the entire time and we could barely get in a word--even though I wasn't going to play his games and when he "quizzed" me I got the answers right. Like, "you think I'm stupid? Try again; I got the Prophet's and the Lord's stamp of approval on my work, BACK OFF." But I'm not letting us go there again, because there was, you guessed it, no spirit, (because he talked the whole time like a talk but void of scriptures and testifying) and he just has this Vendetta against us, and Bennet already has problems with respecting people, and Toni isn't exactly the most stellar example of humility. So yeah, I've heard of stories of crazy members, but this one wasn't all that funny.
But we taught Bennet again later this week (actually about humility as a Christlike attribute, har har), but the library that we wanted to teach at was packed with people for some art exhibit, and it was really rainy outside, so guess where we taught him? At a covered Haltestelle--lucky for us a bus didn't stop there, but it was by a lot of traffic. Good times. Oh the random places you'll teach... But my Brookstone umbrella is still working! woot! Sometimes I forget that place exists, meheheh.
But all and all, I feel good about this week--we will hopefully have 3 people with baptismal dates this week, and they're all amazing. It's always up or down in this city, I don't know if it's just me, but I always get this clashing effect of opinions all the time thrown in my face--one minute we're the best missionaries ever (our FHV president loves us and is soooo great) and then we have Toni bash us, people on the street laughing at us, or an old lady in church "bear her testimony" how she's ticked that the missionaries haven't been visiting her for months. MENSCH! It's a good thing the Lord sees what we do with every minute of our time, because He's way more merciful of a Judge then just about everyone. I think Frankfurt Oder and Cottbus had a running line of legendary missionaries that makes the work for us go a lot more smoothly in the present and here I think either they had really dopey missionaries or they just never got to know them and what kind of juggling act we put on every week to balance finding, and teaching and keeping all these people. I mean, sure, judge us, but don't you dare judge our investigators and think they aren't really serious about baptism because they aren't German (Auslanders have a bad rep for being immediately innactive or being "easy to find investigators" when really that isn't true--they just actually listen to us).
We all went to a family's house for Sunday Mittags and I loved it because we met some quieter but really awesome members of the ward. And our ward has PRIMARY! How I miss primary kids.One of them, Louise is in this family and every so often she would let us know, "es gibt Nachtisch!"
Wanna know the coolest thing that happened this week? Stefan, who got baptized almost a month ago got the PRIESTERTUM this week! He was glowing. He's like 30 but he's super excited to pass the sacrament next Sunday. He's not only super amazing, but Tan really admires him and talks to him a lot in his broken German and asks him questions.
So like I said, this week was my 9th month mark, and it was also Sis. Laubaugh's 10th month mark, so we did some traditionaly warped traditions. For example, for the 9 month mark, I've seen/heard Sisters taking fake "prego" pictures because it's "nine months," but all it did was really freak me out and think, "I can wait just a little longer for the real thing...." but Sis. Laubaugh actually did something a bit more popular--burning. She took some winter socks and tights that were tattered and torn and burnt them on our patio. Keine Sorge, es gibt Video davon. Elders actually burn like ties, shirts and suits, depending on if it's 1/4 or 1/2 way through, but Sisters burn Strumpfhose and who knows what else. I am not planning on doing that because I've been walking and trekking like a fiend and all of my stuff is still in working condition. Maybe new socks, but I've already thrown them out as a part of the transfer. Na ja, pretty fun though!
I hope my emails don't sound like I'm hatin' but it comes a lot after people are hatin' on us and I get sick of it. This work is really not for the faint of heart, but I felt the same way with FFO because I was mainly missing Cottbus. But now I'm understanding more and more of what's going on here, and the investigators that we have I LOVE. And quite a few of the members I've met here, also are lovable. But as you know, it's always the legendary members or the crazy-ridiculous members that actually are remembered. Kinda like missionaries--most of them are remembered for being like purely amazing and blowing everyone's minds or severely being a pain and breaking the rules. *sigh* Good thing I have Zumba. Probably the greatest thing since Pday and Döners.
Also something fun--I got the soundtrack to Tangled in German way back in my Golden days, and we literally listen to that thing every day of our lives at least twice and have the German words pretty much down. Sis. Laubaugh LOVES it. I hope the CD still works by the end of it all! I think the next thing I need to get is Tarzan auf Deutsch. Because the songs are upbeat and it literally sounds like Phil Collins auf deutsch. Kann er deutsch?? Mal sehen.
Ich habe euch lieb! Bis MUTTERSTAG!!!
Sis. Whit
Mensch to the MAX! Everybody's busy and doing great it sounds like. It was super cool to hear from everyone and I'm glad you all enjoyed all the fun plans for the weekend, aka, Präsident Monson, woot wooot!
I'm really surprised at how fast time is really flying here, I'm almost half way through this transfer! Yikes! It's also good that I'm getting pretty used to the city already--I think I know what gets us around so far, mal sehen. It always comes with stress because it's a new area and I wanna work with all my guts over here, and there are always the people who won't let me. But it's also still trying to get used to the next phase that is Chemnitz. Usually involves being extremely tired if I sit down for too long.
So this week, mensch. Lots of drama, and really you can't wear this badge without getting some drama.
But the weather this week was AWESOME. Well, for the first half...then it got rainy and now it's back to jacket weather again. But on Monday the weather was perfect and we enjoyed the Carnival pretty close by us, just a Frühlingsfest thing, but later they had a Hexenacht bonfire that we did NOT attend, but smelled it afterwards. The drunks were still drunk and shouting at each other around the good ol' 6:30am. ;P But we did the bumpercars and had cotton candy and our district was all there, so that was pretty fun. Actually it was embarassing because the Elders didn't bring Pday clothes like we did, so they were acting like 19yr. old BOYS in their missionary clothes while on the rides. *shudder* We also went to Familieheim Abend at the Church for the YAE's since one of our investigators and one of our Neubekehrts went. And we played Badminton! Sis. Olsen showed off a bit of skillz on that one.
I read a talk this week that really helped me have a better positive attitude, and I recommend it to anyone, especially my friends who are thinking about serving a mission: "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Fears" by Jeffrey R. Holland (BYU Devotional i think) It talks about how Satan tries to sucker punch us in the gut just before or just after a major spiritual experience or spiritual confirmation, because he knows that it will change us for the better if he lets it slide. I actually borrowed it from Sis. Laubaugh, so if you could send me my OWN copy to mark up like a fiend, that would be appreciated.
Weird fashion trend: I've been seeing lots of men lately with fanny packs. Ick.
Tuesday we had a cool lesson with Xiao and her son, Shen Zhi (both from China if you didn't notice) because we taught the son (10 yrs. old) for the first time, and he had lots of questions about what happens after we die. He's a pretty sharp kid and it was a great experience. She also fed us the most spicy fish soup auf der ERDE. My face got all red (because she didn't set out cups or drinks) and I was like, "can I please have some water?" She thought I didn't like it, but I just didn't like the hole burning through the back of my throat, really. She has a Taufdatum for next Sunday actually, but we don't think she's exactly ready for it, so we might push it back--seeing how preparing for a baptism in a week and letting the ward know and such--too much stress in the forseeable future.
But we do have Tan, from Vietnam who is learning German and has the GREATEST Ausprache ever-- only the Sisters can understand him. We taught him a lot about Fasting and he didn't fast yesterday, but he's planning on fasting this next weekend about his answer about the Book of Mormon. Pretty impressive for a once-hardcore Buddhist, to all of a sudden believe in Christ.
Thursday was the big 9 month mark! And if you can imagine it was, yup, pretty uneventful. It's sorta when the rain came tumblin' down and when I woke up that morning I was FLIPPIN TIRED. But I read through my journal of all the month marks throughout my mission, and some days were really good and other days I had a really good cry. And in some instances I thought I hadn't really made much progress and other areas I was pretty dang proud of myself. But I called Sis. Szvoboda because we got the Taufdatum text that morning and I saw that they got a new one so I called to see who it was--and it was Herr Schmidt! He's the most evige Investigator you can find (he's been investigating the church as long as I've been alive) and now he's finally doing it! His wife is a strong member and to think that in a year they can go to the Temple together was such a great feeling. He's getting baptized the same day as Micha, and so I'm severely tempted to go see their baptisms. The thing is, it comes out of my pocket and I need Präsident's approval. But Sis. Szvoboda updated me on all my favorite people--I miss that ward like nobody's bidness--and they have contact with Parmeer again. She's been having a hard time lately because her whole family has shunned her just because she was meeting with us, not even that she wants to be baptized. But she was ignoring us because we of course remind her of that stress, but she's not ignoring the sisters anymore and i think she'll really get baptized. It made me feel sooooo good.
Which was much needed--I had the most BEHINDERT joint teach lesson of my life this week. This is how it goes: we took Bennet to the big Toni Meier, the Elder's Quorom Präsident of our ward for a joint teach because he thinks Toni is perfect and that he spills all the "secrets" of the church--which really is just what he does--answers Bennet's questions but then tell him all the branches of the answer that doesn't matter at ALL and he didn't ask about. But basically Toni has no respect for missionaries at all, especially Sisters from the US that are learning German because he corrected us, or quizzed us to make us look like a couple of sacks of hammers with nametags on. He basically doesn't know us, but just assumed that we don't know what we're doing--and he taught the entire time and we could barely get in a word--even though I wasn't going to play his games and when he "quizzed" me I got the answers right. Like, "you think I'm stupid? Try again; I got the Prophet's and the Lord's stamp of approval on my work, BACK OFF." But I'm not letting us go there again, because there was, you guessed it, no spirit, (because he talked the whole time like a talk but void of scriptures and testifying) and he just has this Vendetta against us, and Bennet already has problems with respecting people, and Toni isn't exactly the most stellar example of humility. So yeah, I've heard of stories of crazy members, but this one wasn't all that funny.
But we taught Bennet again later this week (actually about humility as a Christlike attribute, har har), but the library that we wanted to teach at was packed with people for some art exhibit, and it was really rainy outside, so guess where we taught him? At a covered Haltestelle--lucky for us a bus didn't stop there, but it was by a lot of traffic. Good times. Oh the random places you'll teach... But my Brookstone umbrella is still working! woot! Sometimes I forget that place exists, meheheh.
But all and all, I feel good about this week--we will hopefully have 3 people with baptismal dates this week, and they're all amazing. It's always up or down in this city, I don't know if it's just me, but I always get this clashing effect of opinions all the time thrown in my face--one minute we're the best missionaries ever (our FHV president loves us and is soooo great) and then we have Toni bash us, people on the street laughing at us, or an old lady in church "bear her testimony" how she's ticked that the missionaries haven't been visiting her for months. MENSCH! It's a good thing the Lord sees what we do with every minute of our time, because He's way more merciful of a Judge then just about everyone. I think Frankfurt Oder and Cottbus had a running line of legendary missionaries that makes the work for us go a lot more smoothly in the present and here I think either they had really dopey missionaries or they just never got to know them and what kind of juggling act we put on every week to balance finding, and teaching and keeping all these people. I mean, sure, judge us, but don't you dare judge our investigators and think they aren't really serious about baptism because they aren't German (Auslanders have a bad rep for being immediately innactive or being "easy to find investigators" when really that isn't true--they just actually listen to us).
We all went to a family's house for Sunday Mittags and I loved it because we met some quieter but really awesome members of the ward. And our ward has PRIMARY! How I miss primary kids.One of them, Louise is in this family and every so often she would let us know, "es gibt Nachtisch!"
Wanna know the coolest thing that happened this week? Stefan, who got baptized almost a month ago got the PRIESTERTUM this week! He was glowing. He's like 30 but he's super excited to pass the sacrament next Sunday. He's not only super amazing, but Tan really admires him and talks to him a lot in his broken German and asks him questions.
So like I said, this week was my 9th month mark, and it was also Sis. Laubaugh's 10th month mark, so we did some traditionaly warped traditions. For example, for the 9 month mark, I've seen/heard Sisters taking fake "prego" pictures because it's "nine months," but all it did was really freak me out and think, "I can wait just a little longer for the real thing...." but Sis. Laubaugh actually did something a bit more popular--burning. She took some winter socks and tights that were tattered and torn and burnt them on our patio. Keine Sorge, es gibt Video davon. Elders actually burn like ties, shirts and suits, depending on if it's 1/4 or 1/2 way through, but Sisters burn Strumpfhose and who knows what else. I am not planning on doing that because I've been walking and trekking like a fiend and all of my stuff is still in working condition. Maybe new socks, but I've already thrown them out as a part of the transfer. Na ja, pretty fun though!
I hope my emails don't sound like I'm hatin' but it comes a lot after people are hatin' on us and I get sick of it. This work is really not for the faint of heart, but I felt the same way with FFO because I was mainly missing Cottbus. But now I'm understanding more and more of what's going on here, and the investigators that we have I LOVE. And quite a few of the members I've met here, also are lovable. But as you know, it's always the legendary members or the crazy-ridiculous members that actually are remembered. Kinda like missionaries--most of them are remembered for being like purely amazing and blowing everyone's minds or severely being a pain and breaking the rules. *sigh* Good thing I have Zumba. Probably the greatest thing since Pday and Döners.
Also something fun--I got the soundtrack to Tangled in German way back in my Golden days, and we literally listen to that thing every day of our lives at least twice and have the German words pretty much down. Sis. Laubaugh LOVES it. I hope the CD still works by the end of it all! I think the next thing I need to get is Tarzan auf Deutsch. Because the songs are upbeat and it literally sounds like Phil Collins auf deutsch. Kann er deutsch?? Mal sehen.
Ich habe euch lieb! Bis MUTTERSTAG!!!
Sis. Whit
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