Work, work

Haaaaallo Familie!

Our Pday was in Minden and we just played ping pong and "kicker"--what the Elders call table Fußball here. They all wanted us on their teams. We tried making real bacon and it was a success--French toast NOT so much. I guess it only works with normal bland American bread! :P I think we tried using wheat bread to be cool, but whatevs, we still ate it! It was also nice to just practice piano and blaze through all the songs I brought that I obviously have zero time to play. 

We met with Ingo three times this week, and for a guy who hasn't really prayed a lot in his life, the prayers that he's been saying lately have been major blessings. He could potentially get a better "dream job" with Motorcross zu tun, and he also was able to find a new apartment and he's moving in this week. He's a pretty happy camper! We told him that we are preparing him now for the 21st of Oktober--we have a Russian guy getting baptized that day, too, so it'll be a DoppelTaufe! He was pretty excited and asked how the baptismal service will go. We've already shown him the Taufbecken but we didn't mind showing it again! :) He knows his positive turn around isn't just by chance. I mean, when a lady stops you on the street with a card with a number and says it can change your life around...that's not by accident! I don't know if I mentioned before, but one of our Neubekehrts was the lady who gave him the card, so she was really happy and blown away that her efforts is leading to a baptism!! I'm at least grateful for her! :)

Thursday was Sis. Child's birthday, so we celebrated on Wednesday at Distrikt Mtg--I made a cake and the Elders copied some of their CDs for her. 

But on Wednesday we visited Frank again and he's doing SO good. He wants to know everything and is like, "I want to be a member of this church, please tell me what it is you people believe." We haven't set a fest date with him yet, but we're excited. He was a bit confused about why he has to be baptized again, but he knows it's how you become a member of this church and is all for it. And he doesn't totally understand the meaning of the Priesthood yet. But his lessons are always deep, but meaningful. I feel like everytime we meet I can write a book on all the crazy stuff we talk about and how we discover over and over again, how perfect the Plan of Salvation is and how we really truly find meaning in our lives because of it. 

Thursday, for Sis. Child's birthday, we actually had...Tausch! Weird, that I couldn't be there, but we celebrated mostly on Wednesday anyway. I went to Halberstadt which is wicked far away. We all meet in Hannover and then split up to our cities. But Halberstadt is GORGEOUS. It's a car city for Sisters (so yes, Sisters can drive, y'all!) so we're just driving to different dorfs for appointments and my eyes are glued to the windows just taking in all the crazy landscapes to be had. It's a bit mountainous I guess, but it was just.. ahhh, so gorgeous! I couldn't get my camera out fast enough for my favorite Blicks, so I actually just pulled a geeky Sis. Olsen move and wrote a poem about it. But the actual appointments were hilarious. We read the BoM alloud to a blind lady and before we walk in, Sis. Abamonte was like, "don't freak out; sometimes she prays in Tongues." I just don't question things like that anymore on my mission. :P We also visited a Neubekehrt and taught him about the Priesthood some more to get him prepared to recieve the M. Priesthood--since Halberstadt is a branch of 13 people and they need more Priesthood holders. I also had to sit through the most ridiculous Gemiko ever--their GML is totally against some "newly reinforced" mission rules, and so I had to have a smack down with him. He was totally disrespectful and I was like, "I don't care what Sisters did in the past--we are obedient and we are obedient to today's rules." Do you understand that, Mr. GML? I heard about him from Sis. Laubaugh, so I was prepared. The Sisters can't be push-overs out here, so I talked to him in a polite way, but we didn't take crap from him. We really have to be frech somtimes! I respect the Sisters out here--they have patience of diamond-covered steel. 

So we switched back on Friday and then went right back to work! We tried visiting Fr. Hahn again, but it seems like everytime we try to go, just to visit, someone comes and tells us to leave or they don't like us. So we meet with her, and 30min later, someone klingles and it's like a house doctor and his assistent and it's like that song--"if looks could kill, dun duuun dun, you'd be lyin' on the floor!" They were staring daggers and tried to ask her all sweetly, "Fr. Hahn, do you really want visits from these girls? They're from a totally differentchurch." and she said, "Für mich ist Gott da." Like she was on our side, but they were like, We have business here, you can LEAVE. But it makes me mad how people here are so dumb and really think we're a cult. They sometimes pride themselves in "being in the know" but they just don't know anything about us--probably why we're here, of course. But we have those geistige Ausweisses to prove that we are legit, I haven't had to use it yet, but I might have to, just to say, "We are legit, and if she wants us to flipping just come and visit her, get off our backs!" Braaaagh! So we're bustin' some chops, but trying to stay refined. Na ja. But because we got booted out earlier than expected, it actually led to a miracle--a man came up to us and asked if we were Mormon missionaries. He said that he met with Elders in Göttingen and lost contact when he moved here, and he found us and wants us to drop by! So you have to admit, we were happy for the random miracle. Especially because we went walking through a way that we of course, never walk down, so it was one of those, NOT by chance things!

Oh, we also had to teach a 50 yr. old lady about keeping the Law of Chastity. She's been hitting on this investigator-who-doesn't-want-to-be-baptized-and-is-a-total-creeper and so we thought she needed to hear it again. You would think that it would be reversed sometimes--that I would be told to remain pure and righteous from someone older than me, not giving this lekture to an old widow? Meh. But she's about  on her year mark of being baptised, so she probably isn't used to it, na ja. 

We also went dooring and klingeled a house with a huge American and Harley Davidson flag. Leider they weren't home but we left a note saying we appreciated the flags. :)

Oh my GOSH this week went by so FAST!

On Saturday we helped Alicia and Sai--(she's American and he's in the British Army) help pack up their kitchen to move to another flat closer to Bielefeld--and it was pretty fun. Her Mann isn't a member but loves the Sisters so hopefully soon we can get him committed to getting lessons! They also took us out to Chinese for lunch. Preeeetty sweet. There's been a lot of birthdays so we taught people, then went to deliver cards, and what-not. 

Yesterday we had a feeling we needed to visit a Neubekehrt, Andre that we haven't seen or heard from in like 10 days. He was home, luckily and we found out that he hasn't been going to work or doing anything because he's really low on motivation. Especially because he got a major fine for being on a train or something and he forgot his ticket and that's hard for a student. But we shared some scriptures, (I love the promise of being able to know what to say when you need it) and it really boosted him up. Especially to hear that Präsident Monson is coming! It turns out he's not just visiting the missionaries, but pretty much anyone who can get a seat--so we called up our Bischoff and we got two seats in Hamburg!!!!!! We are flippin stoked! He's even going to take us there, so that's a tremendous help, and a LOT less expensive. I borrowed a skirt from Sis. Child to wear yesterday, and apparantly the combo i was wearing looked like a dirdl, because a few members commented on it. Maybe I just need to buy an apron and I'm good to go! :)

Yeah, I haven't really said much about Sis. Child because yeah, she's totally normal and is actually pretty hardcore. We hardly give ourselves breaks, and we always do fun things on our Pdays, na ja, but she's super motivated and pumped, and we get so much done! And we get along pretty well. It's like in the scriptures, they write one verse to say "and they were peaceful..but that's boring, right?" and spend like 70% of their writings on how wicked everyone is. So ist das Leben. 

But we have a great week ahead of us! TRANSFER CALLS!!!!! It's great to hear from everyone and that Nicholas is pushing past the squeaks--someday they'll go away, someday! 

Ich habe euch lieb! Have a super week!
Sis. Whit