Cassidy Nichole: 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