Baptism!!!

AAAAAAHHHHH my birthday is tomorrow!!! WHAT THE HECK. It's crazy. One of the Elders has officially tried to "curse" me by wishing me a happy birthday today--it's bad luck to do so in Germany apparantly! But we're doing things riiight! Today I'm writing in Dresden, and we will take trip to the "Sächsischer Schweiz" which is supposed to be beautiful and perfect for photos. It's a perfect opportunity for us Sisters to wear PANTS. We are pretty dang excited. We might have leftover time to see Dresden in all it's glory, but I think Sis. Schneider will come here later on another Pday. I don't feel like any one of us will be transferred anytime soon. I already got to come here around Christmastime and nothing really holds a candle to that! Especially because I got to do a bit of "missionieren" while being here! And the weather is surprisingly sunny and warm. Gotta love it.

I already got something in the mail from DANMARK and I am being patient and waiting tomorrow. I'm sorry we lost, but it was funny because at church yesterday I was talkin' smack to our Neubekehrt, Stefan (he blessed the sacrament yesterday AND taught our investigator class! It's like he's our son!!! Wie süß!) and he texted us his victory text saying "Deutschland geht weiter und Dänemark is raus!" I haven't checked mail this morning (not yet!) because we had to scramble to get here for emails and then on to the rest of the day. 

So I think I gotta go through the week day by day to make sure I didn't forget anything and also to save da best for last!!

Monday was basically a chill pday of writing as many letters as possible, and then we met with Bennet (or now Bruder Kuhlmann!!!!) to teach him and help him not be nervous for the big taufinterview, and of course he passed! We worked on the program for the Taufe while doing so, and I already have one for my journal. EEEE!

We soared this week with new people. We got into contact with a previous investigator which was a victory, especially when we would knock on her door whenever we'd go knock on a wenige aktiv's door in the same apartment complex. Now is the time for finals and such, so we're bracing ourselves to have people really say "keine Zeit, keine Zeit!" but we delivered an Arabic BoM to Annis from last week with a bookmark in Moroni 10 which I slightly pride myself--thanks to a mini lesson from an investigator in Cottbus, I know my way around the Arabic numbers from 1-10! He texted us saying he was really impressed with the scripture and our testimonies that we wrote with it. Service with a smile!

Wednesday was like a Gold medal day because we managed to fit in 5 lessons in the time span of 14.00 to 20.00, and from that we have two new progressing investigators! One of them, Nath, was a miracle. He's the French guy from cirka a month ago--and we couldn't get any contact info from him, but true to his word, he met us with plenty of questions at that Höhe Brücke Haltestelle at 18.00 a month after last meeting with him. What the awesomeness? After a day like that, I found myself saying over and over, "I LOVE MY JOB!"

We also met with Manuel to give him a Book of Mormon, making him our 3rd new investigator. Sis. Schneider was shocked at how this passed week only one "new appointment" fell out and the others all went through and were super positive and amazing. She thinks it's a "chemnitz" thing. 

If you can imagine, most if not all the planning for the Taufe fell on our shoulders, to make sure everything was according to plan and everything was done right, and the people who needed to help us with the baptism was also pulling through. And it was a success! Bennet's mom wanted to come (which was a miracle because 2 weeks ago she wanted nothing to do with it) but she lives in Baden Baden which would've been too late. Sis. Schneider and I got to fill the font (which is surprisingly exciting!), she made a Swiss dish (gipfeli), we brought Eis, I played piano, and in total there were 15 people there--including Sis. Laubaugh and Sis. Schär--the Sisters who really worked through some major stuff with him. He was a bit skeptical about feeling different after the baptism and getting the Holy Ghost (which he did on Sunday) but he looked and sounded a lot different. We still can't manage to get him in a shirt and tie, but we're taking baby steps with him! We sang a musical number while waiting for him to change clothes and that was awesome. It was the "Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman" song and it sounds WAY more amazing when it's sung by missionaries, Missionaren Power! It was a tremendous relief that everything went perfect, and Bennet didn't seem to be upset about the songs and the food, which he was total dagegen before. He asked if there were any more gipfeli afterwards, the punk! aaaaand we got pictures! the baptism was in the evening so we could just go home and CRASH. The other sisters stayed with us and that was pretty fun. kinda like, "that's right, he went DOWN--in the waters of baptism!" I know that the baptism is really for the person and for God, of course, but to see the blood, sweat and tears just totally be worth it as they go under and come back up, man. It was definitely an early b-day gift from above. After Sunday the Bischof firmly shook our hands and said, "We look forward to the next Taufe!" I mean, Stefan was baptized about 2 months ago, who's to say we can't do it again??

With teaching and baptizing this week, our Finding was lacking because we have the weirdest problem ever: we are teaching SO much that we rarely have time to OYM so we have to do it between appointments or in every spare moment. And this week we found one person from Brazil and he's pretty cool. His English was pretty great, and it's fun to be able to teach in English and say exactly what I want to say! He only has 2 weeks here in Chemnitz so we will meet him hopefully soon with a Bom in portugese and our testimonies. 

Sunday was great of course, to see Bennet confirmed, and then earlier mentioned--Stefan blessed the sacrament and taught our investigator class. The worth of souls can't be measured, they're too great! And then a Schwester in our ward gave a talk and she was a convert many years ago, and she talked about the power of the Holy Ghost. She said something to the effect, "I don't know why the Elders felt like they needed to stop me and talk to me on the street that day, but I'm glad they did." 

As for the people of my district. I think the Elders are settling down. They've been a lot nicer and better, and they were actually very supportive and helpful during this week because of the baptism. i mean, I asked them to sing with us and they didn't put up a fight or fuss or whatever, they just went with it. 

And of course we had a comp inventory this week--we didn't have time last week because normal planning took too long. But I found out that she is having a hard time being here because she doesn't like big cities, and she doesn't like how the first 3 months of her mission have been in 3 cities and with 3 companions, but she said how she's been liking this transfer anyway because she thinks I'm a really great missionary and she's learning a lot from me. A lot of things she said, (I'm not gonna list them or anything) were things I didn't realize in myself, and it meant a lot to hear her say that she thought I was on top of things, making miracles happen and willing to talk to people. Maybe I'm an actress, but talking to people is never really a favorite part of the work, but it's impossible to see any results without it! But we were able to talk things through and I guess I thought she was trying to be bossy or whatever, but i think that was me. So as of yet, things are going a lot better. A lot better. Can I say it again? I LOVE MY JOB!

So yeah, I think that's just about it! The weeks with all the work really catch up to me and I get really tired and exhausted on Sundays, but it's a good kind of exhausted. Remember me a year ago? I hope I'm a whole lot better, smarter, (faster, stronger--like the song by Daftpunk) and all in all, I'm a lot happier! One of my friends from BYU got her mission call, and I remember waiting waiting WAITING to get out on the mission field! It's a lot of hard work, but it is SO SO SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO worth it. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Tell Aunt Michelle thanks so much for her email! I will promptly write her a letter. And Jordo, his email (he sent me an extra one) was pretty swell. I starred it in my inbox!

Well, I gotta go! My Pday awaits!

I LOVE YOU, Family! I miss you!

love,
Whit