Christmas time is here..

Hallo Familie!

 

What a week, it was surprisingly "busy" for the week before Christmas! Can't complain with 18 lessons. :)

 

Last Pday we went to Osnabrück with our District mainly to check out the Weihnachtsmarkts there! It was pretty fun and it was great to see all the decorations out. Sis. Young bought a Pyramide and I finally found a Rauchermann! He just looks like a Bayerisch Mann with a pretzel in his hand. :) The time went by really fast, but Osnabrück is a pretty neat city--and close enough that we could use our Monatskarte to get there! Deutschland ist am besten!

 

We met with Katarina this week again and it was great! She is so sweet and open to what we have to say. She's been reading and we taught her the first lesson. We talked about the pattern of there being prophets on the earth and then the people kill them/God takes them away, and then talking about Christ and at that point after we talked about his Crucifixion, she said, "But there has to be a prophet after him, right?" As though the thought of not having any more prophets would be horrifying. It was so süß. But she's 18, so we want to introduce her to all the JAE activities and such.

 

Here's a phrase we taught Valentin this week in English--mayber Jordo can use this idea: "Be there or be square." Who'd thought that describing what "square" means would be so hilarious.

 

We still had good Termins with George, Sai, Herr Bremiker and the rest of the gang. They aren't really progressing as much as they could/should, mainly because it's the usual--we've all heard it: I'll start doing that in the New Year! You have all the time in the WORLD to read--we know you don't do anything else with your time! Mensch!

 

We also had an intersting lektion with Ines--usually they're just for her, but she had two of her neighbors over and so we had a "joint teach" on the spot! We talked about how we tell others about what we believe--which was interesting because the two neighbor kids were Catholic and the other Muslim. But we talked about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and about Jesus Christ--and the Muslim girl knew more about him than any of the other kids! She was my favorite...I think she really likes learning about Jesus but probably wouldn't get permission from her parents...

 

Saturday was a pretty interesting day--mainly because we FINALLY got to see Frau Möhner, our miracle Turkish lady from 2 transfers ago and she fed us until we burst. And still complained we didn't eat enough! It was hilarious, she accused Sis. Young of drinking so much so she wouldn't have room for the (very very delicious) food--ever heard that before? :) But she has a referral for us, so we roll with the punches. It was also a fantastic day, because Vladmir had his Taufinterview and it went SO well! We weren't sure if he was ready or even had a testimony, because if you can imagine he shows like, zero emotion. Except right after his interview. He like smiled and I realized he has like, NO teeth, except for a few gold ones. That's why his Russian sounds like glutteral sounds. :) Then we met with Joe, but by himself at his apartment with our trusty Joint Teach, Olaf (a JAE), and it was totally normal and great. He's still doing his reading. We didn't have a lot of time, but we're giving him a chance to prove himself. I haven't talked to Paul since the whole thing and I don't plan on it. Blarg.

 

Sunday was GREAT! The baptism went through and it was SUPER! It felt really good to be there to help, even though I just played the piano and such. But we loved it! The Bischof came up to us afterwards and said, "Thanks for being the best Sisters in the world!" A direct quote! I think mainly because Valentin, who wanted to take his records out when I first got there is now active again and gave a talk at Vladmir's baptism. The talks were in Russian! Michael, his son (a convert) baptized him and said the prayer in Russian, but the Geist war immer noch da! Schwester Krichler, the member who introduced us to Valentin via Essenstermin was also pretty happy to see she started something great. She said that I've been here for a while and have done a lot of good in the Gemeinde. I certainly hope so, I always wonder in the back of my mind, just because the work is going a bit slower. As in, people have been Tschüssing us, or we've tschüssed other people and since then, we've only found one new investigator, but we're still working on it. I've seen a baptism once a transfer since I've been here, which is the mission goal, so I'm pretty happy about it. :) Sis. Schneider said that Tan got the Holy Ghost yesterday and it made me SOOO happy. Stefan, a Neubekehrt that I worked a lot with, baptized him. Blessings! I'm bugging her for pictures! It's what I want since I couldn't be there. 

 

After the baptism, we were invited over to eat a Russian feast to celebrate Vladmir's big day! The little girl in the picture is Michael's niece, and she was pretty sweet. They fed us quite a bit. If anything, missionaries don't go hungry during the holidays--we got a TON of cookies and chocolate yesterday, and who knows what's in store today---we have a Weihnachtsandacht at the church later today, so it's seeing the whole ward again! I am playing a musical number for it, already nervous about it! :P 

 

Sooo....transfer calls are this upcoming Saturday, and I honestly have no idea what could possibly happen to me. Quite a few Sisters have been sent somewhere for their last transfer, and it could happen to me--I could train--pretty much anything could happen! So I'm nervous but I'll do my best no matter what.

 

I'll talk to you tomorrow 5pm my time! I'm excited! :) I thought I'd at least write something for Jordo and the rest to read.

MEEEEEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS! Fröhlich Weihnachten und eine gute Rutsch!

love,

Whit

Let it snow, let it snow....

Hallo Familie!

 

Yup, the snow! It snowed like crazy on Sunday and sort of kept going on Monday, but leider it got a little TOO warm, it's about 5-9°C and so most of it is gone. We couldn't do much on Sunday because we were moving SO SLOW trying not to die, but also, the Nahverkehr was just FR-EAKIN out and everything was late. But now, it's all slush and mush. We are hoping for more snow, we can't have a slushy Christmas!!

 

Well, this week was slightly, actually VERY VERRÜCKT.

 

For one thing, we decided to check out this little town in our area called Rheda-Wiederbock or something like that because we saw it while driving by in a train and it looked süß! Germany is awesome because even in the small towns, your chances of magically finding a MEDIVAL CASTLE are pretty good. We seriously found this cool castle with a moat! We also went to IKEA to experience the magicalness thereof. Also Sis. Young bought a box of IKEA cookies and...they're pretty good. It looked about the same as last time except they had a big area with "Swedish" decorations for Christmas. They had these house slippers that are basically in essence the Duve' blankets (I forget how it's spellt paa dansk) but in the form of booties. For €10. Gaaah, I was pretty close to getting 'em! I would probably have to wear them on the plane because I wouldn't have any room, soooo, that was the deciding factor. If anyone needs a pair, lemme know! ;)

 

Well, this week in general has been pretty frustrating, because people are of course with Christmas a little less erreichbar or able to meet, but it's WORSE because we set up Termins and then they call later to absag, so it's hard to keep everything in control. But who am I kidding, the last thing you have as a missionary is CONTROL over any situation. So ist das im Leben!

 

We do have a miracle for the week--we are teaching Katarine, an 18yr. old from the Dominican Republic! She's an old contact that we decided to got try and find. We're pretty sure she's meeting with JWs so we'll see if she really has interest, but she was beyond excited to have a Book of Mormon!

 

Our Neubekehrt, Bru. Richter (he was confirmed my first Sunday in Bielefeld) has had some recent seizure (spelling?) attacks, and he called us to let us know that he couldn't make it to church, and we invited the Bischof and his Home Teachter to come and give him a blessing. It was, a pretty amazing experience. I have such a tief Zeugnis on Priesthood and it's amazing what the brethren can do  to help others.

 

On Wednesday we took a 6:40am train to Hamburg--again! We got to have our second Zoko because Elder Richards of the Seventy came to visit! In order to get in on time, we got permission to ride with a ICE (this time with a valid ticket, not as a vagabond!) which was pretty slick! It was in essence, a 4hour Thema and then lunch. He literally talked to us for FOUR hours straight! We all were a bit brain-dead afterwards. We got to sing our duet again and it was great! We sang it in German though to represent our Mission! I liked a lot of what he was talking about, except it was just sooo much, like talking about every single aspect of missionary level where I felt like I have to fix EVERYTHING! Usually we focus on one thing and try to improve on it, but he had multiple Themas in one big Thema. But I took notes, so it's good. Elder Adler from the Seventy, who's in our ward was there, too and I sat by his wife (best joint teach EVER) during lunch. I got the packages from Brigham and Kansas! I'm pretty excited! :) I forgot that Aunt Shell was doing a 12 Days of Christmas, so I guess I'll peek in Grandpa's package and fish it out and leave everything else inside...

 

But Wednesday evening we started our Tausch, aka, I went with Sis. Curtis to Celle, her city, which is THE cutest Christmastown EVER. Their Innenstadt is just rows and rows of the Bauwekrhäusern, the traditional houses in Southern Germany and it was lightly snowing, just perfect! It was like being in a snowglobe! It's a bike city, so I had a pretty intense day of work, but I love riding bikes, no problem. Well, I like riding bikes but not with wimpy tires on ice and slush! I had a few almost-accidents, but unlike Choro Jordo, I can stay SEATED on my bike and not fall over! In a SKIRT! :P And so we did mainly OYMing around that part of town, and found Brian who should come to church on Sunday, and while we were talking to this guy in German, two random Mitglieder from IDAHO came up to us and talked to us in English! I was thinking, "Can you let us finish this app and THEN we'll talk? We're clocked in right now!" So that was random.

 

Thursday was also in Celle, so we had a couple of Termins, all of which were interesting because if there's one secret about each area, is that you meet one person and you will meet a person just like them in every other city you serve in. Seriously! The same personalities, same commitment problems, you name it. Pretty helpful for the people who pop up later in the mission and I'm like, "I've worked my tail off for someone with that same issue! Don't think I don't know your tricks!" :) But I was pretty lucky--Celle is pretty level and so it's not so hard to bike around. You can tell they had their bikes recently stolen though because the bikes we used were pretty nice and new! We did bike for 40min to a Termin, like on a path along a highway or whatever, so we dressed pretty warm for that. Which is like, heck, because you are entirely WARM AND ON FIRE from biking, but your face is pretty numb.

 

We then Tausch'd back in Hannover on Friday morning and Sis. Curtis and I got in a bit early so we went super quick through the Innenstadt in Hannover as well--also decked out for Christmas!! :) Everything is absolutely magical here.

 

But Friday was a bit rough, especially with fallen-out Termins and we met with Adrian for the last time. We had a mutual "Tschüssing" where we decided all together that he's not progressing at all and he needs to do some extensive work on HIS part on his testimony and he can call us when he's ready. He just...won't do what we ask, and that's officially a waste of our time. So it was sad but we can't give him a testimony and there's no point in trying to help him when he can't help himself. Na ja.

 

On Saturday we had a GREAT lesson with Sai and Alicia! I swear every lesson is always pumped up by cool stuff I find during personal study, but that lesson was especially great. We were talking about what the Gift of the Holy Ghost can do to affect our conversion in essence, and I remembered this thought I had while reading in the New Testament. Like, before the Pentacost, Peter was I think, sure about Christ being the Son of God, but not enough, because he didn't understand the Atonement while it was happening, and they didn't understand the Resurrection, either. Not to mention, he denied Christ three times. But after the Pentacost, he was bearing down pure testimony CONSTANTLY, quoting scripture, and standing before rulers and kings refusing to stop preaching and healing in Christ's name. The gospel turned a fisherman into an Apostle! And so we were talking about conversion and how it makes us into the people God has in mind for us to be.

 

We also had the ward Christmas party, and they had a Talent Show-type thing and they asked us to sing for it, (we didn't know it was for a Talent Show) but we came and they're like, "you're next!" And it was great and all; all the kids were on the gym floor all loud and crazy and two of the girls insisted on coming up and holding our hands while we sang, so yea, a bit different! But one lady came up to us and said, "Your song was the best out of all the other ones...no really the other stuff was...so-so..." haha! Weird compliment!

 

We also met with Vladmir--we think he's pretty set for this Sunday! Wir drücken die Daumen!

 

But guess what?? TAN GOT BAPTIZED IN CHEMNITZ YESTERDAY!!!! That made me unbelievably happy!! I'm gonna bug the Sisters there for pictures of one of my FAVORITE INVESTIGATORS! Gahha! So great.

 

So yeah, we should hopefully still have a good week, as far as things to get done and do. Mal sehen! The goal is to get in touch with Neubekehrts that have fallen off the face of the planet...

 

Elders (the ones that are now on their mission) are icky, because they're pretty much the same age as Jordan, and you find out that they're also WAY weirder than Jordan, too! Dad was pretty lucky that it didn't phase you, or that he isn't weird! haha I dunno, maybe it's a weird way of thinking about it, but these guys out here are pretty much like my brothers away from home.

 

AAAAAANyway, you'll hear more from me next week--in person! I'm pretty excited. I love you guys! Have a great week before Christmas!!

 

love,

Sis.Whit

Christmas Markets are great...

Oh Meine Mensch,

Can I start off by saying, that Jordo's earthquake story had me and my comp laughing like craaazy?! Jeeez, Elder Jordo is always a source of laughter in the Internetladen. 

Soooo... we got snowed in yesterday! It was like legit snow everywhere, and it was still snowing like crazy on our walk to church! It was sooooo great! Especially because our GML and his wife picked us up half way there! I got some new boots last Pday so it came in handy! :) All of our Termins were also blessedly close by, so we didn't have to rely on the Straßenbahns or whatever; they always go a little weird when it's the first snowfall. It just meant that there was hardly anyone who made it to church, aka, no investigators and hardly any Neubekehrts, it was weird. 

But last Pday, we went through our Weihnachtsmarkt in Bielefeld, and it was sort of, MEH, because it was mainly food and Gluhwein, and not so much Christmas-y things, but we're gonna check out another one today in a little dorf in the näher and next week we're going as a distrikit to OSNABRÜCK! It's only an hour's train ride! That's what I'll miss most about Germany, trains that go ANYWHERE!

We have been doing major "construction" on our work here in Bielefeld--called being real with ourselves and re-focusing on what we need to accomplish here in Bielefeld. For example, we visit too many "just fine" Neubekehrts that are already a year old, so to say, that really need more attention from home and visiting teachers, and they rely too much on Sisters for help! We need to focus on people like Ingo who JUST barely got baptized and such. But also we visit with less actives who really won't ever change, they just like having us over to feed us or talk to us, or whatever. So it's like, figuring out who needs us the most and making sure they get our attention first, and visit everyone else less often or not at all anymore. Which means we FINALLY have real time for finding! We really need new investigators, since we've been also "tschüssing" some that are also showing zero interest. Cutting people out always hurts because you hope that it's the right thing, or the numbers just go way down, but I've promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn't let numbers control or rule me--as in I wouldn't think we're failing because they are going down or whatever. But anyway, we're making room for miracles. 

Another sort of funny story; we visited an Ehepaar who are less-actives trying to get more active in the church and coming more regularly, and we made a spontan visit to get to know them and see where we can help. Well, half way through, the wife gets a call from her neighbor and she goes out of the Wohnung to talk to her real quick. She comes back chuckling, saying that her neighbor saw two JWs going to their apartment (aka, us) and wanted to know if she should create a diversion or something so that they could get rid of us. She had to explain to them that we're from THEIR church, and they don't want to get rid of us. Haha! The loyal neighbors have struck again! 

Friday we were able to do some real finding, which was great, I usually am not a big fan of it, mainly because it can be pretty frustrating at times, but we had a list of previous contacts and actually found three who are interested in meeting again! We were thrilled. I've been pretty confident that this week we would find someone, mainly because I just had a good feeling about it the whole week and knew that we were paving the way that our work would be filled with more meaningful Termins where we're actually meeting people to help strenghthen them and the ward, not just staying out of the cold. 

We met with Sai and Alicia this weekend as well, but it turned out more to be a Essenstermin rather than a lesson, so we didn't get in as much as we wanted, but we're totally wanting to be straight with him and get him on track--mainly because in the new year he's going to Kenya for training (he's in the British Military) so there will be a gap of meeting with Sisters, so we're gonna strike while we can!

We FINALLY met with George after a long while of not hearing from him. He's obsessed with his new "project"--helping his girlfriend get divorced from her husband! Apparantly she was forced to marry some old German guy so that she could send her parents money every month, really really horrible stuff, so he's trying to help her get divorced and her own house in Bielefeld. It's pretty honorable I'd say, except...he's like putting EVERYTHING under that on his list of priorities. Pretty frustrating, but we set a new Taufdatum for him, Feb 26th, which is, leider after I'm back home, but getting him baptized when he's ready is like, natürlich the biggest priority.

Lemme just say, reading Jordo's email today was absolutely fantastic. It's so great to hear that he's getting the ball rollin' and seeing some success! I'm excited that his Ehepaar will be baptized in Dec! If we're lucky, we'll get Vladmir baptized the SAME DAY! Dad, do you have any friends who'll be ready by Dec. 23rd??? :)

Anyway, hope you guys have a great week! Mine was a little bit bumpy with new rearranging with our schedule and the gradual decrease wegen Christmas, but we are still just blessed beyond measure. I'd rather have 2 people ready for baptism that really want it rather than a congo line of people who don't put in the commitment dafür. I love my job, what more can I say?

Ich habe euch lieb!
love,
Whit

Christmas is almost here....

Hallo Familie! 

So...this week has been a doozy! I am confident that this week will turn out better, but mainly because I need a Pday to de-stress!

So like I wrote last Monday, I spent my Pday in Hamburg! It's really SUCH an amazing city with all the really cool canals and I wish I could see more of it, but it was pretty dark by the time we got there around 3/4pm. Meine gute, it's getting so dark so soon! Anyway, EVERYONE is deckin' the halls up in HIER! Our lovely Bielefeld looks absolutely fantastic and we love walking around during our lunch hour part of the day. 

Anyway, in Hamburg, we walked through a couple of Weihnachtsmarkts, they had a LEGIT "historisches" one that just had really fancy stands and it was just practically perfect in every way. I tried to find some boots AGAIN but for some reason I can't find something that just right for missionary work--everything is high-heeled, too expensive, doesn't have thick durability or just look dorky. I think third Pday's a charm. It like, snow-rained yesterday, so I better find something! But I didn't want to spend so much time shopping in Hamburg, I wanted to enjoy Hamburg itself, but it was so great! We stayed there overnight with the Langenhorn Sisters and then went to our Ho-Ho Zoko on Tuesday. We had this super early Leadership Training Meeting at 8:45am which is why we stayed overnight--it takes like 3-4hours to get to Hamburg from here! But the leadership training meeting was about the LEGION of Sisters we'll be getting in the next few months, or just missionaries in general so it was preparing us for training. They said every single Sister would be training, but with one possible transfer to train, I don't know if that really applies to me, but I plan on asking the AP's on the 12. Dez. We are having another Zone Conference on the 12th and that's when I will be picking up my packages! I'm pretty excited. Elder Richards from the Seventy will be visiting and speaking to us, so that should be pretty exciting. 

But the actual Zone Conference was great! We had a gift exchange and you'll never guess what I gave as a White Elephant gift! A big liter bottle of Dr. Pepper! I found some in Penny and I thought of Grandpa! And Jordo--does he need some? :P But the Elder who got it was astounded and amazed. I got a little stuffed animal of a lion, no biggie, but that's how White Elephant gifts are bei missionaries. One Elder got a Santa suit and he wore it in our Zoko Bild. Dweeeeeb. But it was so great meeting with the other zones! There are people I saw that I haven't seen since I was a Golden in Cottbus! I literally saw someone from each of my old districts throughout my mission, it was SO great!

Sis. Young and I got to be the musical number, too! We sang "the First Noel" accopella (spelling?) and it was SO great, they wanted us to sing it AGAIN when Elder Richards come. But I plan on doing it again like in our apartment to record it, we did a pretty cool version of it. Sis. Young likes to sing a bit jazzy, too, so we didn't sing it "white bread" like Mr. Pellaton would call it! But still--appropriate for the chapel, keine Sorge! 

So with the stress--it felt like a lot of things fell out for no good reason and that's like, hard especially when there's nothing you did wrong, the person either forgot or decided to absag last minute, but the "few" lessons we had (few for Bielefeld) were really really incredible lessons--not just where you deliver a great message but I left a changed person. However, this week still seemed pretty long. I'm trying to break free of my worrying tendencies, but there are a lot of people to kummer, but I think enough of them don't NEED us anymore but they're just so gewohnt to Sisters coming--like Neubekehrts who are distraught that we don't come over twice a week anymore but their testimonies and progress are solid enough--and they've been baptized for at least a year! Yikes, we need more attention to our investigators!

But we met with Michael Mauritz this week, and we finally talked baptism with him, and he wants to be baptized! He's a sure but steady kind of guy, but he says that he wants to be baptized, but still wants a confirmation first. Which is...ridiculous, because he weeps openly almost everytime we bear testimony or when he's in our Sunday School class! We tried explaining to him that if he feels that way all the time and it's good feelings, that's the Spirit! Meine Mensch. But he's got an assignment to pray about a Taufdatum! We hope to have him be baptized before January because he has to go to the hospital and we're not sure for how long...but we'll help him however we can!

Had a surprisingly "tame" lesson with Joe and Paul this week. It was funny because Paul opened the door and said in a weird voice, "hellooo ladies!" and us Sisters said in unison, "We brought a friend!" aka, JOINT TEACH! Talk about fighting fire with water! So yeah, we talked mainly about prayer since Joe is starting from zero and we figured the conversation wouldn't go all weird. It was a really great experience and Joe got to know Bru. Krüger from the ward who was also a convert, so he was able to identify with him pretty well. I think Paul brought up Armeggedon like ONCE but other than that...a relativ normal lesson! Phew! 

What was even FUNNIER was after our Sunday School class, we come out and our Bischof says, "there's these two guys waiting for you in the front, one's German and the other isn't...?" and I was like, NO. FLIPPIN. WAY. Paul and Joe came to CHURCH! We were pretty surprised and nervous the whole time that Paul would get up and say something blasphemous during fast and testimony meeting, because he WOULD do such a thing! We really can't figure Paul out at all, whether he's interested but tries to come off as not being interested, if he's really trying to help Joe through our church, or if he's waiting for something bad to happen to make us look bad in front of Joe. Meine gute, we're puzzled but glad he came to Church! *shakes head* There's never a dull Sunday with this nametag...

But the best remedy for my stressful situation was our lesson with Sai and Alicia! We finally had an open conversation with him about his interest in learning--Alicia is the member and he isn't and he wants to join the church someday, he just thinks he needs a long time to do so. But before, we had to almost sneak in a spiritual thought or whatever and tip-toe around this huMONGOUS elephant in the room, but we were able to just talk about it and we really felt the Spirit and it was SUCH a spirit-led conversation. Gahhh! So awesome! So that changed my life. I still think that my work will be stressful until Sis. Young has a better idea about the area and how to get around and I don't loose my mind or whatever. Y'know, the usual!

So with the train story--I had enough time to get out if I could, the doors just refused to open themselves again, so I was frantically trying to get out for like 5 minutes without any luck. But the ticket checker understood and was pretty barmherzig, so I didn't have to pay any fines, I just had to pay €12 to get back home! 

I always say I'm from Kansas City, because it sounds cooler than "Utah"--but if they really get to know me, they know I'm an Air Force brat through and through. But picking a hometown is just way easier! 

As for a job at BYU, she works at Cougar Creations, like a copy shop right in the Wilk, and she will be contacting her boss in January to ask to work there again and she totally offered to put a word in for me, and she's done it for a ton of other people, it sounds really cool, really lokker and close to home, right? You've signed up for housing and classes already, or is it not time for it yet? But she will be at BYU in the Spring as well--she's leaving a transfer early in March to start school, so we've got post-mission plans lined up! :) 

Well, thanks for the emails wie IMMER; I really want to bring something home for the boys, and not just candy. Can you give suggestions? I'm still looking for good deals on jerseys...

So yeah, bis nächste Woche! Habe euch lieb!
love,
Whit