Monday February 23, 2015 Halle, Germany

I’m not a baby anymore…last week of training!! Crazy! Looks like you guys had a busy week. Sorry everyone was sick. I haven't been sick yet, so that’s good! To answer the questions....1. My new companion is Sister Egbert. I haven't met her yet, but I heard she is short. So it should be fun! 2. I will be in Leipzig like all day tomorrow so I will ask about the Leonhardt family. 3. 5k! We try! I don't know how long we run but we go running three times a week. 4. Yeah, the weather here is rainy, but not too cold! So it’s good. 5. My camera just sucks!! it’s at full rez...sorry! 

Dienstag: I guess we went finding that day. That’s what I wrote down. We didn't find anyone. We had an appointment with Enrico to start with our ward mission plan. We were talking about the priesthood and I thought of the story of when I was born and then, in my patriarchal blessing it says that because of the priesthood I was able to come into this world. I shared that with him and cried...of course! The priesthood is SO important!

Mittwoch: We had our last Distrikt meeting with our district! SO sad! Ugh....I hate goodbyes. We also taught David. We taught him about the 10 Gebote! 

Donnerstag: It was Frau Hellwig’s Geburtstag (birthday)! So we went by and she LET US IN! We were amazed! She is a little crazy...but we talked with her about the Book of Mormon and we made another appointment for next week. We will see if she lets us in again. It would be good for her to come to church! We also went by Nicole and started the ward mission plan with her. She’s engaged to a boy from Mexico...who lives in Mexico! I hope that everything works out for her. 

Freitag: We did weekly planning. Then we met with Trang. I taught her a little more piano, and we talked about beten (prayer)! She's so cute! I'll get a picture with her soon. Then we went to Leipzig for a Taufe (baptism) from some Elders in our district! It was a couple and it was so cool! I've never seen a convert baptism so that was cool! The church building is really cool, and Leipzig is really pretty! 

Samstag: We got our transfer calls! Sister Lisonbee is going to Cottbus! And Sister Egbert is coming here! She was in the MTC with Elder Silver and Sister Lisonbee! I will tell you more about her, when I learn more about her. We also went finding in Peißnitz! There was a beautiful sunset that night. I love sunsets! 

Sontag: We had Church, David wasn't there....He was sick! Then we ate by the Mitte's, she’s such a good cook! 

A pretty normal week! We found a couple contacts, but no investigators. Soon we will get one. Ok, so I need some recipes! First off some chocolate chip cookies! Next... anything that is easy and I can make with pasta or potatoes! Thanks! 

Love, Sister St. John

 A cemetery!

 Some cool statues in the cemetery! 

 The weather rock - notice the rock hanging below the sign... 

 From Mom: Cassidy told me this is funny and to translate - so here goes from Google translate...

Stone is wet...rain

Stone is dry...cheerful

Shadow on the ground...sunshine

Stone is top white...snow

Stone is not visible...fog, alcohol?

Stone swings...wind

Stone moves back and forth...earthquake

Stone is away...tornado

Stone hangs up...world upside down :)

 We have good bakeries here! 

The district!  

 The sunset in Peißnitz!!!

 Sister Lisonbee packing...

Us...I did a face mask... 

We hit our four month mark!

Monday February 16, 2015 Halle, Germany

Familie!!! Hallo! To answer some questions, Yes, after we were done eating at the African guy’s house we just got up and came out! It was awkward, but I’m pretty used to awkward by now! Dad, I am getting your music. Thank you! It is adding a good variety. I have found use for my semi-piano skills.... I should have practiced more. I play for the Relief Society every week because no one else can play that doesn't have a primary calling. Not a lot of members can play, but a few can. I am SO excited for Savannah!!! And also Jared! I knew he would go to Taiwan! He will be great! And also Rachel! And.... I'm SO SO excited that Natalie and Ricky are moving right next to us!! Let’s do something really cool with our back yards! Ah! SO exciting! 

So, Montag: We emailed, and then Sister Lisonbee got a coat just like mine, because mine is SO warm. But hers is green.

Dienstag: We had a plan to go by on some less actives in Wolfen, a small Dorf, (not to be confused with dwarf) so, we bought our tickets and were on our way. On our ticket it said our stop was Wolfen (Bitterfeld). The () usually mean that we go through that stop to get to our stop that we need. (At least that’s what sister Lisonbee thought!) So we get to a stop that says Bitterfeld. I feel like we need to get off, but sister Lisonbee reassured me that our stop should be in just a few more and that Bitterfeld isn't our stop. Long story short about an hour later the train guy says...."Wittenberg! This is the last stop, please everyone get off"(except, he said it in German) So... we get off, SO confused. Called Elder Silver because he's our District leader and we didn't know what to do, and we felt like we shouldn't be there. So we called and asked if Wittenberg is in our area! "You are where?!"  Was his response! Wittenberg is not in our area! So...we kaufed a ticket back to Wolfen. We got to Wolfen finally!! We found a map at the post office, weird right? But I felt like that’s where they would have one, so we went there and the lady just gave us her personal one. So come to find out the less actives actually like live 3 hours away by foot and we had one hour until our train back to Halle came. So we just went finding. We checked the train time back to Halle and the train came on time. However... 30 minutes later we hear Leipzig. What!?!? Again...that is NOT in our area!! How did we get on a train to Leipzig? We have no idea! But we had to call the Zone leaders twice that day because we were out of our area! Elder Thorly just laughed and told us to get back to Halle! We gladly did that! 

Mittwoch: We had a lesson with David! He's doing great! Learning Deutsch really fast! We talked to him about the Holy Ghost. He is awesome! We also got re-invited to Ward Council. I guess Sister Lisonbee's last companion got mad at the ward or something so we got kicked out! But...I guess they trust us now because we were invited back. It was good to be a part of it.

Donerstag: We met with an investigator Jessica to try to help her with her family history. She is awesome! But has no real interest in anything other than family history! We are working on it! 

Freitag: We went to Leipzig for Zone training meeting and interviews! President is amazing! He did like 250 interviews in 2 weeks! A few things our Zone needs to work on is 9am bis (to) 9pm Deutsch! Exercising (except for I do that every day because I need to! I'm pretty sure I’ve gained a couple pounds... ugh!) But President wants us to run a 5k three times a week! Yep! Three times a week! In a half an hour at 6:30 in the morning! He told us we complain about it being cold, but that he will take us to Siberia and show us cold! So...we agreed to go running here! During interviews I also found out that Sister Lisonbee and Elder Silver will be leaving Halle next week! :( SO SO sad!!! 

Samstag: We went running this morning! I don't know if we did a 5k! But we went running! We also had the Supe Kitchen! There is a lady there who loves us and always volunteers when we do. This day she asked us a lot of questions about what we believe, so that was cool to share with here while serving. We are going to invite her to church next time. We then had an appointment with Trang! I teach her piano for 15 minutes and then we have a lesson. She's so cute and just got a calling in the primary. Then we did weekly planning. 

Sonntag: We went to church. David was there and he told us he read every day this week and prayed every day, and has been praying about the Book of Mormon! AH! Yes!! Then we ate at the church with a few other members that don't have families. We then went by on some less actives! And we talked to at least 30 people! That was our goal for that day! 

Today is a holiday here. Not sure what it is...it’s called Rosen Montag, it has something to do with spring! Anyway...people are dressed up and loud music all over the city! Weird!

Love you guys so much! You guys look like you had fun this week! I did get your package right in time for Valentine’s Day! I missed our dinner! But hey! Those hand warmers work SO well! They are so cool!! 

Thanks for all you do! Love you so much! 

-Sister St. John

Lost on a train!

On our way to Wittenberg...and then after we left! the train ride was really pretty!  

The Saale!

Zone training meeting in Leipzig

Running at 6:30 am!! 

 Happy Valentine's Day! I love you!

Monday February 9, 2015 Halle, Germany

Monday February 9, 2015

Kein success? Ich denke nicht! (No success? I do not think so!)
 

Hallo! This week was a little hard! If you were to look at our numbers this week you would think we hardly did anything! Every single one of our investigator appointments fell out! Every. Single. One. Ugh! SO frustrating and exhausting really. Planning lessons, praying SO hard, working day in and day out for these people and their salvation, and then not having them show up to meetings, or to not be home when we go by. It’s hard! However, this week, one of our neubekerhts (newly baptized), Irma printed out this blog post from a sister missionary that she found and it was all about the honest truth of missionaries. The honest truth is...its 98% hard work, struggle, and enduring. The other 2% is pure joy! PURE JOY! And let me tell you...that 2% is SO worth it! I am the most happy I have ever been in my life! I have a deep, pure, happiness that is within me! (Does Colten read these emails? Because if he doesn't tell him to read what I just wrote and tell him that he needs to start preparing now! And that he should be SO SO excited to serve!)
 

Also, thank you so much for the stories of my great grandparents! Those will really help! 

Montag: P-day and then tausch (exchange)! AH!! I was on tausch with Sister Hann! She is awesome! And SO happy all the time!
 

Dienstag: Tausch! Oh I really love tausch and learned so much! She is such an example to me of how to show my happiness! Even through the BLIZZARD we were laughing! Also...Frau Hellwig wasn't home...surprise there!
 

Mittwoch: We had Distrikt Versammlung (district meeting) and we talked a lot about getting the members involved from our wards. I'm really excited to start our plan! Also, for lunch we got three whole chickens and just cut them in half and ate them! It was pretty awesome...and gross at the same time! And no, I didn't eat the whole half of the chicken! Then, David didn't show up to our appointment! So that was weird! We did some finding, and then visited a sister in our ward who is from Africa and she is awesome! I love the Africans here! 
 

Donnerstag: Frau Hellwig wasn't home again. We visited schwester Odie who is a less active and a German! She is married to an African that is active in our ward! Interesting relationship, they can hardly communicate. Her husband made us some African food and stuck me and Sister Lisonbee in a room and shut the door. So that was a little interesting and we had NO idea what we were eating! We went finding in a park in Neustatt and talked to so many people! But didn't find any investigators! Schade (what a shame)! 
 

Freitag: We did weekly planning, and I was actually ok with it this time because we were going to go through our area book and really looking for people we could go by and see if they have interest! Missionaries need to remember to keep good records! I promised myself that I would keep good records because it’s SO frustrating when there is a person, awesome background, and then NO way to contact them! But we did find a couple people and after weekly planning went by on one. She said she had no interest. Schade! Then we had Deutsch kurs and then English. We focused on the Th, Ch, Y, and R sounds! 
 

Samstag: We had the soup kitchen today and the nun wasn’t there again! (Kind of glad, is that bad?) But there is this super cute lady that likes to volunteer the same days we do. She brought a CD player with some American line dance songs that she played because she is always distraught by the fact that we, "don’t have any fun as missionaries because we can’t do anything." We try to tell her that we do have a LOT of fun! But she doesn't believe us! Anyway...the point is, she brought this music and played it softly and it was country music! Like REAL country music! Oh I miss that about as much as I miss spicy food! After the soup kitchen we met with Trang, a newly baptized girl. She’s 24 and Asian and SO cute! She wants to learn the piano, so I take about 15 minutes every time we meet to teach her some of the basics. Then we met with Irma. She is also a newly baptized. Her story is really cool! She went to AZ Mesa as a foreign exchange student and her host parents were LDS and took her to church and she had tons of Mormon friends and a Mormon boyfriend who is actually just getting back from his mission next week! She gets to go see him next week and stay in America for 6 weeks. So cool! She is awesome! She was also the one that printed that talk out for us about how the 2% of pure joy is worth it! (It really is! trust me!)
 

Sontag: We had church. David was at church and is learning Deutsch really fast! I keep telling him to read the Book of Mormon auf Deutsch and that it will really help him! Hopefully he tries it! I pray for him a lot. He's had a hard life. He has no siblings, and he has never seen his dad, and his mom died a few months ago. He needs the Gospel.... We then ate at the Müllers and had a great meal there as usual. When they feed us I don't have to eat dinner and sometimes don’t even feel like eating breakfast the next morning! 

It’s been a good week! No success in numbers...but I don’t think that’s where the success is! If we are progressing and trying our best we are successful! Always remember that family is SO important! Take time to spend time with family! (Especially because I can’t) Doing this family packet really has made me realize how blessed I am to know about so many of my ancestors! And to know SO many of my aunts, uncles, great aunts, cousins, second cousins! It’s SO cool and really such a special thing! Not every family is as lucky as ours! I'm grateful to be a part of it! I love you so so much! Keep reading scriptures, keep praying, and remember to rely on the Lord! 
 

Love you so much!  

Bis Später! Alle Liebe, (see you later, all my? Love) 
 

Sister St. John

 A view from a park we went finding in!

 Germany has the coolest parks and this one is a ship!

 

Me doing Titanic ohne (without) a guy... because I'm a Sister missionary! 

 Tausch with Sister Hann! 

 Some cool lighting during my favorite hour of the day! 

The markt kirche (market church)! It's HUGE! 

 Markt Platz

 An orange building and a bahn! 

 The distrikt and our lunch! Hahaha! And we wonder why missionaries gain weight on their missions.....?

 The process of opening the chocolate!

Monday February 2, 2015 Halle, Germany

*Note from Mom: As Sister St. John becomes more fluent in the German language she is including more and more German words and phrases into her sentences. I am doing my best to put an English translation next to the German words in () but my translating skills only go as far as Google Translate. So if there are any German speakers out there that would like to correct my translations, I’ll happily change them!*

Hello!! Wow, sounds like you guys are having a great time! I loved all the pictures this week! I like seeing our house and the sunset that Colt took! AH! I miss sunsets like that! Hadlie, your hair is very very cute! You look older! STOP growing up!! Also River, don’t cut your hair. I like your long hair! I found some magic hair growing pills from Sister Lisonbee's past companion and I've been taking them! They are basically straight vitamin b! Also, I have to buy new shampoo and conditioner for the first time here! Ah! Grocery store shampoo and conditioner...we will see how things go! I’m so glad you got my chocolate! You guys still opened them wrong though! Did I explain that in my letter? It was only 7€ to send! So not bad at all! However, I do need you to look something’s up for me! Will you see if I can pull money out using my credit card? Also, I need stories/ memories of Papa Marks Dad, and both of Dads Grandparents! I don’t know really much of anything about them! I need to have that Family book all the way done by next week. So if you could send some stories to me next Monday that would be awesome! 

So...for my week...

Montag, We played Äpfel zu Äpfeln (Apples to Apples)!! Pretty fun auf Deutsch! 

Dienstag, We found a new investigator after we went finding for a long time! We prayed to know what to do and where to go. We felt we should go by on these students that were our contacts. But its finals week so we didn't want to bug them! So we were Überlegen (I think that’s the right word) things. But, we followed the Spirit and went by on them! One, Lotte, was home and we set up a return appointment and so now she is our new investigator! She is so cute and I'm excited to teach her! Also, we had an appointment that was ausgefallen (fallen out) with Awa! We need to be in better contact with her! 

MIttwoch, We had Distrikt Versammlung (meeting). We learned about Grundlage (foundation)! I love Hel. 5:12 that talks about bauen unser Grundlage (basic foundation) on Christ! We also had an appointment with David! We reviewed the restoration with my favorite way...the Gospel cup pyramid! We also had him pick a date for his own Baptism! He picked Marz 28th! He wanted to get baptized next year, so even though Marz seems like a long ways away, we were lucky he agreed with us on that one! Also, we found out that he's 26! Crazy! He looks younger than that! 

Donnerstag, Ah! Ines (the one I was really excited to teach) texted us the night before and said she decided to join the Lutheran church! I cried...really! I was SO sad! She was SO prepared! Stupid Satan....ugh! Anyway...we had a few other appointments with a newly baptized member. She’s super awesome! And a less active that has one tooth and is 78! She is super sweet!

Freitag, We did weekly planning! Then....Sister Lisonbee's parents got to visit us for a few hours! SO fun! They were here because they won a trip to Germany or something! We got to eat lunch with them, showed them around Halle, and her dad gave us blessings! It was really cool to have them come and just to realize how foreign all of this really is! 

Samstag, It was sister Lisonbee's birthday! We made pizza in the church with a few investigators, members and the elders! We had a few other less active members’ appointments! They just need to COME TO CHURCH!! 

Sonnstag, We taught Relief society this day! We had our eating appointment canceled, so we cooked pasta with the elders and Enrico in the church! Then we went finding and it was a beautiful day!! 

Love you guys! I'll send some pics! Have a good week!! 

Sister St. John 

The best bakery ever!!  

This church on Markt! 

The cool organ in the church!   

The second biggest bell tour in Europe!  

The Händel statue! 

Me and the Elders! Ah they are so funny!! 

Me and Sister Lisonbee's impersonation of Elder Silver! 

Again in the kitchen on sunday! Elder silver always has a pen auf his ear! He thinks hes cool!  

Sister Lisonbee being the best mom ever and making us sauce!

With Sister Lisonbee's dad

This was sent to us from Sister Lisonbee's parents. They sent an email that explained they had a trip to Germany planned and asked the mission president if it would be ok to spend a few hours with these Sisters. He approved it and they had a great time.