Monday January 26, 2015 Halle, Germany

3 Monate (3 Months)

Hello family!! We had a pretty normal week, however, I will update you day to day anyway. First off, Dad, the language is coming. Slowly, but it’s coming! Yeah, we have lessons with Enrico every Friday. It’s very nice of him! I am able to speak more German now, and understand them better also. Everyone on the street will now talk to me in German so that’s good. Keep praying for me. I know it is helping! 

Montag, I got new shoes! They are nice and they were only like 20 €. 

Dienstag, You won’t believe it....we got up and RAN this morning! I would have lost a million dollars. It was 6:30, dark, and raining but we did it! We also visited Comfort, she is out of the hospital now and she is better so she can come to church and buy her own groceries now! Yay! This day was weird...no one was out (maybe because it was like 20 degrees!) and those who were out wouldn't talk to us! We also got SO rejected this day by someone. Then, right after that we purposefully got spit on by someone! Awesome.... nicht (not)! However, as we were walking out of the park that night we saw these two guys all dressed up in medieval clothing and they were fighting with swords! So...during their water break natürlich (of course) we went and talked to them! Turns out it’s a big thing around the world called Battle of the Nations (they told us to look it up on You Tube...but we can’t, so you should). They talked to us for a good 30 minutes about how they got into it, and how they made all their uniforms and shields! So pretty much they were larping! (Colten should know what that is! *note from Colten…larping means Live Action Role Playing*) But they were actually cool! (I will send a pic!) Also, a referral called us that we have tried to contact for like 3 weeks now and she is SO prepared! She has been looking for a church to join for a long time because she feels that she is missing something! She even tried the Jehovah Witness church! Ha! But anyway, we set up an appointment and are so excited to teach her this next week!! 

Mittwoch, We taught David again! We gave him a French CD auf French so he can listen to it and understand it! We also asked if he would be baptized when he knows it’s true. He said yes! So we are making progress. I need to get a picture with him sometime. He’s so cool! We also had district meeting, which I think is kind of funny because it’s taught by Elder Silver...who is like my brother out here! The Elders are just so young! So it’s cool and a little funny to me that they are really the leaders and teach us so much! I learn so much from district meeting, it’s amazing how much revelation comes when you have a question prepared and are really searching for the answer! 

Donnerstag, It’s my three month mark! CRAZY!!! I feel like I’ve been gone for way longer than that! But it’s ok! We delivered some thank you cards this day. You know, ward unity! It was snowing again! And we are running out of areas to street contact. We will have to do doors soon! 

Freitag, we did weekly planning, that’s always fun.... Doch Nicht! But it’s important. We also had the opportunity to go to the Händel House (museum) with the relief society! It was really cool! I'll send some pics! 

Samstag, We had the soup kitchen! I liked it better this week! (The nun wasn’t there...) Our appointment with Awa fell out because she was sick, so we did some more finding with no luck! Schade (what a shame)!! 

Sonstag, David was sick so he wasn't at church! Schade auch (also a shame)! But we ate at the Burkhardt’s and it is always so good! Melina is going to make me a scarf by hand crocheting! Cool! We also went to the hospital again to visit another less active that has major Diabetes problems! I found out that people don’t have to pay for their hospital visits. The government just pays for it! Socialism...weird. 

Well, that was my week in a nutshell! Reading the Book of Mormon in German is cool! There are a lot of translation things that are different. A lot of the time in English like when Nephi says "I will go and do the things which the Lord has..." In German it translates to "I WANT to go and do the things the Lord...." and I think that is a really big difference! We should want to go and do the things the Lord commands! I’ve been focusing on following Nephi's example while reading the Book of Mormon! He is such a good example to all of us. Love you guys so much! Have a good week!

Love, Sister St. John

We found a garden by Gebichenstein Burg! 

 We found this HUGE horse by a bridge and natürlich had to take a picture!

The knights!!! Probably the highlight of my week! Did I mention they were interested in family history? Because they have to know where they are from to know what country to battle for!

 The Händel museum is so cool! I learned a ton about him. I want my house to look like this museum someday! This room was SO cool!

 Some sheet music!

 A super old piano that he played on or something!  

 Did I mention that I want my house to look like this? The wood was so cool! And the lights and the walls with all the white picture frames! So cool! 

 Sister Lisonbee with her instructions that were in 50 different languages...welcome to Europe! Even the Pringles cans have like 7 languages on them! 

Me and Elder Gerlach! 3 months! 

Monday January 19, 2015 Halle, Germany

Hallo!!! Ok, first off, my converter works great! And I scored big time because Sister Lisonbee's last companion went home so she left a bunch of stuff! So I have a blow-dryer and that’s where I got the dress and a few other tights and stuff! Secondly, I sent chocolate on the 12th! Let me know when it gets there! Or if it does! And, I had the BEST chocolate this week! It was Saltz-Honiz- Und Nutz!! Oh so so good!! 

Montag: We did our toes with the Jamberry nails. That was fun! And we had FHE where we all made pizza all together. 

Denstag: The only thing I have written down for this day is that one of our African less actives was in the hospital! Her name is Comfort and she doesn't like the mineral wasser, so we have to bring her some normal water with no gas. Kind of funny! When she says prayers she literally asks for God to bring down the angles of healing and protection! I have to try not to laugh SO hard during those prayers! Also, we met with Schwester Shröter who has been meeting with the sisters for 7 years as a less active... yes... 7! And has not once came to church! We are stopping meeting with her because she really just needs to come! I believe that she has a grudge over the old Bishop and won’t come is what she has told us. She is very nice, strong testimony, but just needs to come to church. 

Mittwoch: ALL 3 of our appointments fell out that day! I felt like something weird was going to happen in the morning and I told sister Lisonbee, "Watch, all three of our appointments will fall out," and they all did! Just my luck. Which means that we didn't get to meet with David this week. SO sad because we were really going to talk with him and help him understand how important getting baptized by the right authority is. I was so so sad that day, but yet joyful all at the same time. I love having the Spirit with me! I'm going to have to do things differently when I get home so I always have the Spirit with me this strong! We went to a small corner Bäkeri! Oh SO good! Also, Sister Lisonbee's skirt got stuck in the bahn (bus/train) door this day and she couldn't get it unstuck so it was like flapping in the wind as the bahn was going by! I was dying of laughter!! But really trying to keep it in because NO ONE talks on the bahn! You are like told to be quite if you talk! SO weird! 

Donnerstag: We went finding and the first man we talked to this day was about 50. He told us he has heard of Mormons before, told us goodbye, we said have a nice day, walked about 10 feet the opposite direction and then he yelled, "Ich bin schon verheiratet" (I’m already married) SOO funny!!! We just died laughing!! Good for him that he’s is already married! We aren't here looking for a husband exactly!! Ha! We then went back to Frau Hellwigs house and she had visitors so we couldn't come in. We went and visited Comfort in the hospital. (I hate hospitals! We are lucky I didn't pass out!) And she is bound and determined that they are going to kill her because they keep taking her blood! And she swears they are giving it to the blood bank so that people can use it! After we tried to explain that her body makes more blood, and she didn't believe it, we went and taught a new investigator named Awa. She is Muslim and it is always interesting to teach them! She likes the Book of Mormon though! So that’s good! We also on the way to her appointment found 2 neue untersucher and gave out a Book of Mormon to someone else! Pretty cool because we haven't found anyone in a while! 

Freitag: We did weekly planning! I hate it...we have to do it but it takes FOREVER and I would rather be outside! But yeah...and we visited a couple less active members! Just trying to get people to church! Also Enrico, a newly baptized man in our ward is really nice and teaches us a German class once a week and he is very patient with me and helps me with a lot of things! He reminds me of dad and does a lot with computers for work! 

Sammstag: We met with some newly baptized people and did some finding with no success! We also went and gave a Book of Mormon to our two new investigators from a couple days before! 

Sonstag: We went to church which is always good! I went with a question to church, because we can always use church as a way to get personal revelation. Even when it’s in a different language! I would encourage everyone to do that. Prepare a question for church and listen, especially to the Spirit and find an answer! We had a joint teach with Abdull, he is from Africa also and is Muslim also. We try really hard to be careful when we teach people and we bring a joint teach for a lot of reasons! But one is to help us with the lesson and bear testimony! Trang was great at this and she asked some great inspired questions that really made him think! 

I'm out of time! But I love you guys so so much! I loved all your pictures and you guys sounded like you had a blast in Vegas! I wish I could say that I wish I was with you, but I'm really loving it here! Love you! Bis naschte woche! 

Love, Sister St. John

 The bathroom mirror with my hair is all you and can see, and all I can see when I look in it!

Me and some food that we made. No I didn't eat it all by my self! But I did buy a Coke, they don't have diet, so light was the next best.

New shoes that I bought.

 At the chocolate factory.

The following pictures are from Halle and surrounding areas and are from Elder Silver's camera.

 

 

Monday January 12, 2015 Halle, Germany

A Week Before Transfers

Montag- Chocolate Factory!! SOO cool! Except we picked the worst day to go because there was another holiday! Everyone has to take like 3 days off for holidays. So there wasn't a tour and also no samples. But we did spend like 30 € on chocolate! Woops... ha! And we accidently bought sour chocolate! What?! It had like sour sugar stuff on the outside and it was interesting! 

Deinstag- We had an appointment with Frau Hellwig fall out. Sad....I hope she really will meet with us next week. Oh! And this day was the real holiday. It was the Heilige drei-Königen (3 wise men) holiday. Which means everything is closed and the bahns only run like every hour! Ugh! And it made it hard for us to go finding because no one was out! We did get to eat with the Müllers and we ate TACOS!!! With hot sauce!! Ah!! So so good!!! 

Mittwoch- We had a cool opportunity today to do some service for people in the Middle East! These Syrian people gathered clothes and bedding and stuff throughout the month and what we did, is move it from the like 5th floor of this building into a big semi-truck! Pretty cool and it took like all day! I was really sore the next day. We did take a break though and taught David! Oh he's SOO cool!! He is so excited to learn. He had Deutsch class before we had our lesson and he was really excited to show us what he has been learning. We taught him the plan of salvation or happiness. We also found out a few words in French and tried to say them so we could help him to understand what we were teaching! Gift of Tongues is real! Ha! Also, normal Markt Platz is here. There is like 20 food trucks there! So cool!! 

Donnerstag- like 1 million people called us today and we had to re-plan our day like 7 times! We also did weekly planning for the next week this day so we were in our apartment for a lot of the day! I hate weekly planning. I just want to be out of the apartment. It also rained SO hard as soon as we were left the apartment. I was soaked!! But warm because of my coat! We also got in contact with Frau Hellwig! But she was eating...so she wouldn't let us in! Ha! 

Freitag- We went to DRESDEN again for a zone/mission tour! We got to hear from Elder Kopischke (something like that) and his wife and our President and his wife! I LOVE when we have conferences! One of my favorite things that was said was that we don't take credit for our success, and we also don't take the blame for our failure! I love that, because even though I know that numbers aren't what shows our success it still is nice to see a little success! 

Samstag- We had soup kitchen today with the nun who doesn't like me very much because I can't understand her! She is very German to say the least! However, there was another lady there this day and she was SO nice! She asked us all about what we do here. Pretty cool! Also, our appointment with Abdull fell out! He wasn't home! He's the one on Tauf Datum! Sad! Cause now he isn't going to be baptized on the 24th! We also got our transfer call. I'm staying here with Sister Lisonbee! (YES!) The Elders stay also! We get a new Elder in our distrikt though! 

Sonstag- We had church and David was there again! AND...He asked if there was any other meetings for church that he could come to! Who asks that?! So we told him about Priesthood! He's Golden to say the least! After church we went to the Jentzchs!  (Bishops familie) We had rice and gravy, because people LOVE their gravy! While here I’ve become a huge fan of mushrooms! They eat them a lot here, and they are HUGE! Ok, but my favorite part of eating there was that I asked Bishop about his guitars because he’s the one with like 50 guitars! He got SO SO excited and told me the history of a bunch of his guitars! Dad....I really found your best friend in Deutschland! He told me to bring you to his house so he could talk to someone who was interested in guitars! K, you should look up the history of guitars in Germany and Europe! Also, there is a music museum in Leipzig! Look it up! Also, I have an idea! You should send me some of your music over email! Please please please send me any of them that aren’t romantic! That would be great! Thanks!!

Well, not much time left! I'll send you some pics! Love you so so much!! 

Sister St. John

 Chocolate Factory

 Elephant that we found

 Sunset in a park

  The board of our lesson with David! French and German! Heck yes! 

 I trimmed Sister Lisonbee's hair! Ha! But really, I did! 

Mail that I got while at our Zone Conference! Thanks so so much everyone!

Monday January 5, 2015 Halle, Germany

One Month In Germany!

If this wasn't a mission I would totally say that a month in a country is the perfect vacation time! Just enough time to kind of get used to things, get to know the culture, get to see everything, etc....However! I'm SO excited that I get to stay here for longer than a month! SO excited! P.S. When I get home and travel the world, (I'm going to do it...someday!) I would really like to stay in the country for like a month! Anyway...totally off topic! You guys sound like you had a really fun Christmas break! Love hearing all your updates! New Year’s sounded like fun! Wish the kids luck going back to school, and wish Dad (and you mom) luck with going back to work! I always hated going back to school. I think I wore hoodies every day the couple weeks after Christmas break. (Which I really wish I could do here also, but its ok!) Also, Rivers coat is the cutest thing ever! And I'm glad to see mom, that my boots are getting used still! Also, Hadlie’s black boots are very cute! I'm sure Colten has some cool clothes too! And yes! I did in fact buy a coat! Because....It is FREEZING here! It was on sale from about 170 € to about 99 € so yes, $122 sounds about right! So, uh, Merry Christmas to me for the next two Christmas's I guess!

So, last Montag the Elders were complaining about their dryer not working! (The dryers here suck by the way) So I was asking them if they cleaned out the filter thing, they said yes. Then in our dryers it like sucks the water out and keeps it in this thing that we have to empty. So I asked them if they emptied the water thing...they hadn't, like ever. Typical Elders! So now their dryer works! Haha! I also bought my coat on this day! 

Dienstag we went grocery shopping for two less actives that really, physically can't shop for themselves. We counted it as our service for the week! Nothing too exciting happened this day. 

Mittwoch was New Year’s eve! We had two eating appointments one at the Wutzlers. They are kind of a less active family...all I know is that going over there feels a lot different than going over to any active members house! Plus the food is always interesting! Sister Lisonbee tried to ask them what the meat was that we were eating. Elder Silver stopped her quickly from doing that!  Then we went to the Burkhardts! They are my favorite! They have a 10 year old that is my height. Awesome. But she is fun! We played a board game with her. We ate some schnitzel and some really good mushroom sauce, and bread of all kinds! SOO good!  Then we did fireworks! Which, by the way there is like NO rule for how big, or how early, or how many days before or after a holiday you can set them off! SO...for the past two weeks fireworks have been going off! So fireworks and sparklers were fun. Then we went to bed at 10:30. I don't think there is any physical way I could stay up till 12 on a mission! 

Donnerstag New Years!! We had another eating appointment at the Ratzenburgs. She talks a lot, and very quickly! We all almost fell asleep! It was bad!

As a mission we started a Book of Mormon challenge! I'm reading it auf Deutsch (with a little help from the English scriptures to begin with) and I have a new way of marking which I'm really excited about! I have like 6 colors and the each represent something different. It's really cool! Ok, so this is what I want you to do! I'm going to send you a schedule of what chapters we are supposed to read, and I thought that It would be cool if you guys, either as a family (preferably as a family) or on your own would read it with me! It's like a chapter a day! Nothing too hard! And if anyone does it, it should be Colten! Because I think it will help with him preparing to go on his own mission!  

Freitag, we had a lesson with a new investigator David. He is about 20, and from some country in Africa, speaks French, doesn't speak English, speaks a little German, and he can't read any language. In other words...It's really hard to teach him! But he wants to be taught! He loved it when we showed him pictures of the first vision, and baptism! It’s kind of like teaching a primary kid! 

Samstag, we did finding for 6 hours and didn't find anyone! That was a little frustrating, but it happens sometimes! We accidently talked to some Jehovah Witnesses! They weren't wearing their skirts, and we talk to everyone we pass, so yep! We talked to them! They quizzed us pretty much and we invited them to our church and they invited us to their church (we were tempted to go, but we didn't). We also found a castle that’s a museum now! It's not open on Mondays though, so we will have to ask President if we can change some of our hours to go do that! 

Sonntag, I got my hair stuck in Sister Lisonbee's blow dryer! It was only a little bit! Sister Lisonbee had to help me cut it off! Ha! But don't worry Brooke, I don't even know where it happened, so no, you can't tell! And guess what?! David came to church!! Oh we were SO excited!! We had him sit next to me and another lady in our ward who speaks French! It was awesome and she is a life saver! It's soooo sad because I want to teach him the gospel so so badly! But it’s so so hard! We really have to rely on the spirit for this one! I know he is looking for something! And I know that we have it! I just hope he can feel the Spirit when we teach him and when he comes to church! 

Today we are going to the Chocolate factory! One of the oldest ones in Germany I think! So that will be cool!! Love you guys so so much! Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you! Also (mom), Sister Lisonbee told me to have you read Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale! 

Love, Sister St. John

 I cook! 

 Us at the Burkhardt's

 We did sparklers! Don't mind the snow flake in my face!

 This is part of the castle that we found! 

 During our day of finding for 6 hours! 

 This is a cool friedhof! (cemetery) 

 This was our favorite thing there! we don't really know what it is, but It's cool! 

 Am Leipziger Turm! (at the Leipzig tower)

Happy 13th birthday to my sister Hadlie!

 My coat is SO warm! Can you tell?