Whitney's last mission email

Oh my DAAAAAYS, HERE WE GO!

So this week was pretty great--I'd say we ended off with a great finish and we got a lot of stuff done! It kinda feels like mission birthdays, where you wish it'd be special or amazing but really it's just the same as always!

As far as my plan for the next few days, I have a normal Pday today--I'm 75% packed, although I will probably send a package home that I've been meaning to send this whole transfer...na ja. So I might pull out money for that! I take a train tomorrow at 9AM to Berlin--it'll be interviews and last minute stuff--I should get my bike fund back since I didn't use it, so I should have more than enough Notgeld while I'm travelling. woot! So Tuesday, I will be in Berlin with all the Finishers. Part of the tradition is going to Mauerplatz--and they'll put pictures of that on the blog, keine Sorge. Wednesday I fly out and the rest...you know already! It feels really weird to be going home. Because it doesn't feel like I'm going home at all--like it's a big joke or something. BUT I'm pretty much packed and very much stoked. 

Anyway, like any other normal week, we had a few Termins fallen out or we tried meeting with people that we found in our area book and realized that nope, they still don't have interest! So that was good. Hahah, no, it wasn't good, but it's always good to know we went over and saw for ourselves that no, they really aren't interested so we don't "wonder" if they're ready again.

At DCM this week I had to give a Thema on what I learned on my mission. It was sort of scattered because I didn't neccissarily plan it out like a talk, but the main thing I talked about was keeping a good attitude. I personally find it annoying when people complain too much about how hard a mission is, because it means they're looking at all the negatives and they aren't shedding any light on the positives. I don't care if you did it out of Priesthood Pflicht, you signed the dotted line, you signed up for this, might as well make the most of it. Basically no one can decide for me if my mission is hard--I can decide if I'm going to enjoy my mission or if my mission was fun or full of joy. And I think that's helped me look at hard times and think, it's all in a day's work. I can stay inside and pout or get over it and teach lessons. I dunno, missions are stressful, but I don't like letting stress getting the better of me. That doesn't mean you can never say anything negative about what's happened, I know I've whined a few times, or many a time, but I see others who make hard things more difficult for themselves and they end up being their worst enemy, their biggest stumbling block, and then when they fail, it makes them sink lower and lower. But it doesn't have to BE like that. No one signs up for torture, so don't make a mission sound like it's some big scary thing. It's the coolest thing I've ever done and I wouldn't trade any of my days for anything. I'll keep my bad days, because this gospel has saved me and refined me and I don't have to stop because I'm going home. But no, I'm no judger of Sunday TV! Please, I'm no prude RM! But trust me, I've heard my share of excuses, meine flippin gute.

The funny thing is watching Sis. Avanesjan just jump into missionary work; she's waiting for her Visa so she can go to the Provo MTC and serve in Arizona, so serving a month or so in Germany wasn't really part of the plan, but she jumps right in with the lessons even without formal training in the MTC, of course she has the language down, and so she has no qualms calling people up, and that's how we ended up teaching SO many lessons this past week. But she's sometimes discouraged with OYMing because the people (I'm sure) are terrified of Dritts! So when she talks to someone, she's like, "I'm so nice, why do they act like they saw a ghost?" Just a trick of the trade! There's that, and she just laughs uncontrollably during really awkward lessons. Na ja :P

Friday was transfer calls, THAT was weird, because I knew they wouldn't call my name. Sis. Tidwell found out that she is double training--meaning she has Sis. Avanesjan and then a new girl fresh from the MTC. From what I heard, ALL the Sisters in the mission are training new Sisters. We will soon have more Sisters than Elders in our mission!!! Weird that I leave right when EVERYONE is getting a Golden, but training Sis. Avanesjan is about the closest thing to training.

Saturday was our big miracle day. We visited a Fr. Habaland, a contact in our Area Book. Sis. Avanesjan called her and set up an appointment, and later I read through the record and the last entry said to leave her alone because she REALLY didn't want contact, had some issues with commandments and didn't want to be baptized. So I was a little wary of how this would go. So that was a year ago. We showed up and after teaching a bit about the Book of Mormon and kind of letting her know our purpose and that we want to help her quit smoking and be baptized she was totally on BOARD. She wanted our number, when church was, when the English class was, when they had choir, and she was like, "you can come once a week, and I'd really like for you to come on Wednesdays." That my friends, is a MIRACLE if I've ever seen one! It was a real shot to the face, just to know that people may need time to be ready again, but she is really ready NOW for the gospel. She said the past year that she didn't go to church or didn't meet with the missionaries, she still couldn't stop thinking about the church and I think she really wanted it back. We changed our number this past month, so there was probably no way she could call us herself--unless WE called her! So that was really amazing. She is SOLID, and if she really has the desire, I know she will finally find a way to stop smoking and really make a baptismal date-finally! So cool!

Sunday was sort of weird, knowing that it would be my last in German! No more having to translate! I didn't get to know the ward as much as I'd like, because I only had 6 weeks, and most of them forgot that I was leaving, so they of course wished me well on my way home, but it wasn't really the same. I still gave a "farewell" testimony. It was just HILARIOUS because Chang, actually took a picture of me on his PHONE (we've already had to tell him he can't video-record musical numbers) and it made that camera click sound really loud and then he swore in German, so yeah, half way through I couldn't really concentrate. Meine gute.... XP

After the meeting, we met Wassili, a past investigator. He's Russian and his German isn't so good, so we just got to know him a bit and next week we'll ask a Russian member to help us translate. But he had a Book of Mormon and said, "I read this book, you can have it back." "No, we don't need it, we don't read Russian, but you can keep it really!" "But I already read the whole thing?" "Whaaat?" So I'm excited to see how the Sisters finish teaching him! Meine gute, the work goes on! We ended our Sunday with Schw. Busse and Fr. Frömmel and that was great. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and it lead to a good conversation that really helped Fr. Frömmel understand more about the Atonement.

So I'd say that's the hilights of the week--today we're just going to relax, teach some lessons, and eat a Döner Box one last time. (It's just Döner meat and fries--the part that everyone really wants!) It sucks leaving Sis. Tidwell and Sis. Avanesjan because we get along SO well and have so much fun. But Sis. Tidwell studies in Draper so we will be best friends when she comes home in 4 months, kein Problem! :)

So yeah...like jumping off the high dive. Think I might be sick. Just kidding! I haven't had a break in 18months, time for ein bissel Pause.

I'm beyond excited to see you in a few days!!!! Bis dann!

--Sis. Whit

Nine more days.....

Hallloooooooo Familie!

So this week has felt like a year, but also like 5min--all at the same time. Time is pretty weird when you're down to the wire. I'm not in denial, but it definitely doesn't feel like I'm going home. Maybe because I've had so many weird dreams about me being home it just doesn't feel real! But for right now I'm using it to my advantage and I'm just working like there's no tomorrow!

Well, one of our zone leaders had a birfday last Monday and we celebrated....by picking up our Golden! So for some missionaries, they get their call but they have to wait for their Visa for a few months...so she has a call but can't leave the country yet. If missionaries stay in Europe they go to Preston and the process isn't so lame. But she is going to Mesa, Arizona and so we're giving her pre-MTC training how a mission REALLY is, but her English is good enough that she'll probably be fast-tracked. She can teach in English schon.She is actually from Armenia but has lived in Germany for 15 years so she can speak really good German but ISN'T German, so it's great. She's actually learning a lot of slang from us, that'll get her places! Nothing too bad, just things like "dangit", "crap", "true dat" and solche andere Sachen. But don't worry, she's taught us some hiLARIOUS slang back. It's pretty intimidating to see three Sisters power walking across the street, so I'm sure we've given Dresden a run for her money. We are too le-dritt to quit! So yeah, btw, her name is Sis. Avanesjan which sounds like "I'm an Asian"--that's what I made up to help the Elders say her name right, because they don't want to get caught looking at her name tag. It's really funny because she says exactly what's on her mind in the most hilarious English ever, and I find myself looking over at Sis. Tidwell like, "should we correct that English?" Na ja, she' super sweet and ready to rumble, so we love it.

But for our actual Pday, we went to a cool museum to see a lot of cool artifacts and all these tiny, expensive things that people have crafted for the kings and queens here, kinda like looking at a jewelry. There was a special exhibit of stuff that used to belong to Ivan the Terrible and stuff like that, pretty impressive. We also had a surprise party for Elder Wride, and we blew up 195 balloons, made him a cake, and just hung out before our lessons at the church. It was pretty great.

As for our week, we had a LOT of finding time, aka not a lot of time to let Sis. Avanesjan get some practice on teaching the lessons. But we made a spontan visit bei Chang since our appointment fell out. And I pulled a random scripture out of NOWHERE to share with him as a spiritual thought, and he said (imagine in the coolest Chinese accent ever), "Olsen, that scripture was quite helpful!" Yeah, he calls us just by our last name, it's funny. But he's been stressin and I found a scripture I liked and he really needed it--quality, people!

On Wednesday, we got to go to the temple--my last time at the Freiberg. It was pretty great and I was able to do the whole session in German! I also saw some members from Chemnitz there! So that was a great surprise. It was a really great experience. What was even...more interesting as an experience was that after we ate Döners at the Dönerladen, a couple of dumb kids started throwing ROCKS at us. Like, in Germany, they don't salt the sidewalks, they use little rocks that get stuck in your boots, and the kids just picked those up and chucked them at us, like I got hit in the face a few times. We...couldn't really do anything because we're missionaries and we didn't want to do anything that would get us in trouble so we just walked away. Actually, we all stared at them dumb-founded like, "are these little snots really throwing rocks at us?" But we just walked away and the Elders were like, "we just got stoned! We're like the Apostles!" They WISHED they could call out some she-bears, meine GUTE. But if it makes anyone feel better, the weather has warmed up QUITE a bit this past week, all the snow melted away like THAT. It's back to being cold, but not really cold enough to snow. Woot.

We had this pretty cool German class--now that we actually HAVE a German-speaker with us. But we taught Peter, the investigator from the Elders how to say a prayer in German, SO cool. It's cool to be able to suppor the other Elders in their work as much as they support us.

We also had a miracle! We saw Alejandra! We haven't been able to get into contact with her this entire time and now, we finally have a Termin set up! That was a miracle for sho! Also, we've been having some major Golden Power as we call it. We had Sis. Avanesjan call people while we were updating records and she set up 8 appointments with less actives and contacts from our Area Book, in a ROW! That like, never happens, meine gute. 

My 18th month mark was this past Sunday! holy meine GUUUUUUTE. It goes by pretty fast, it's true what they say. But it was pretty great. We taught Fr. Frömmel, and ate a ton of food at our Essenstermin. I have a checklist of all the things that need to get done this week and I'm pretty excited to get it all done. I've learned a lot this past week about myself, that when others are like, "this is HAAARD" I'm like, "watch me how I WORK!" and we just get it done! And it's been great to show Sis. Avanesjan the ropes and such. We're doing a joint-training thing and it's been like, the best way to end my mission, because we're like 110% obedient and she wants to work, and we're hopefully going to see a lot of miracles this week, we already have! Sorry my email is so, lame, but our week didn't have too much to talk about and surprisingly I'm almost out of time! Email time i mean!

Anyway, have a great week everyone! I'm excited to finish strong and keep going on.

love,

Sis. Whit