Cassidy Nichole: Monday April 13, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Stadthagen! The Utah of Germany!

Hallo! Well, I feel like it’s been a year since I emailed last! Wow! But, this week has been good and packed full of TONS of new adventures! Let’s start from the very beginning...It’s a very good place to start.

Montag: The normal (I was still in Halle). We had Family Home Evening and there was like 12 people there! Crazy! Mostly because it was my last day and I didn’t get to say goodbye to people on Sunday wegen (because) Conference! Na ja (and ya). Oh, I also packed very quickly thanks to those ikea things we bought so all my clothes are in them all the time! Ha! We also had an eating appointment at Sister Bunks house and we had this noodle ablauf stuff and it had cheese in it! Elder Gerlach HATES cheese! So for once, at an eating appointment we traded plates so I could eat his food! Funny! Saying goodbye to the Elders was sad!

Dienstag: TRANSFERS!!! We went to Leipzig, said goodbye to the zone leaders! :( Elder Becar went home this transfer! Then, I had a 2 and a half hour train ride BY MY SELF!! What?! It was the weirdest thing! I felt so weird I can’t even describe it! Then I arrived safely to Hannover, then to Stadthagen! Hannover is crazy huge! I’m glad I’m not there! Stadthagen. Wow! No bahns, no busses (that we ride) and our bikes are broken so...we walk! However, there was a really nice member who picked us up and helped us with our luggage! We have Elders in our area and they are close! We also live right across the street from the church! It’s an actual church building! It’s SO cool! Stadthagen is small. Like really small. I love it! We go out of Stadthagen almost every day to go finding and for appointments and stuff! Pictures will explain it better! When we got to the apartment I unpacked and we talked about the ward, and our investigators and studied! Oh! Sister Medley! She is one transfer ahead of me, which means she was in the MTC with me for one week, and she is amazing! We get along so so great! She is pretty tall though and walks fast! That’s the only problem that I’ve had to bring up with her ;) no, but really! She is SO fun! She’s from Tooele, UT, she has 5 siblings, her ACT score was 28, but she told me to tell you 36! (mom’s note: the asking the companion’s of their ACT score is a running joke we have that Randy asked Cassidy to really get to know her companions, and his example was – find out their ACT score and things like that. So Cassidy has taken that to heart and works that in to conversation when she first meets her companions!)

Mittwoch: We had distrikt meeting in Hannover! We have 10 missionaries in our district which is pretty big! Elder Yarbrough serves here in Stadthagen with us and he is our district leader! We came back and went to innen statt (?) and it’s SO cool! I’m having a culture shock being in West Germany and in a small town! Wow! I will send pictures! We went by on a member, Schwester Phillipen. We did studies, and then had a coordination meeting with the Elders. Our ward is HUGE. Like 200 active members! 200! I went from almost 50 to 200!! It’s almost like being home! Stadthagen is called the Utah of the mission because it really is kind of! They have everything set up like Utah here! They have all three hours of church, a ward mission leader, young men’s and young women’s! Seminary! Everything! It’s so cool! But, it is going to be hard to get to know all the members! There is also drama in the ward that the missionaries need to be aware of, like any other Utah ward I would say. But, it’s good and I’m SO excited to be in a big ward!

Donnerstag: On this day the first thing I have written down is WALKING. I have decided that the song should be changed from Pioneer children walked and walked, to The missionaries walked and walked and walked and...walked. Mensch (man)! We walk SO much! All day! The only time I’ve walked more in my life is on trek! And there I got to wear tennis shoes. Blisters suck. But they are now just callouses! I’m going to be in such good shape though! On this day we went to the beautiful city of Bükeburg for finding! I will send you pictures! Beautiful! We also had a Neu Bekehrte (new convert) appointment they are really sweet, and both have disabilities. They were really fun to teach though! We also taught English class to these three sweet Russian old ladies! I love old people! They just have so much life experience and life advice for me! I learn something every time I talk to them! Plus, these three Russian ladies have the cutest Russian accents, if I could roll my r's I could do it for you! But they roll every r! It’s so cute!

Freitag: It had been really warm these past couple of days! We didn’t have to wear a jacket at all! But, on Freitag we have to do Weekly planning, so...we didn’t get to enjoy the weather as much as I would have liked. We also got me anmelden (signed up for living in the city) and then we did weekly planning! SOOO long! But we had to make out a lot of appointments and talk about a LOT of people! Getting caught up on an area is hard! After weekly planning we went by on some contacts and made an appointment with a contact that was a friend of another one of our contacts! She is a 7th day Adventist or something like that! Hopefully she will have the desire to learn more and not to just hang out with us! I’ve been doing better with my language study here! It’s fun, and everyone here asks me how long I’ve been out and they are always surprised that I haven’t been out longer because of my German. So it may not be as bad as I think it is! OH! And the German here sounds beautiful! I was in Saxon-Anhalt which is close to the worst accent in German, and now I’m in the best accent in German! I can understand everything! Some words that I don’t know are the only problem! But, oh, it’s SO good!!

Samstag: We went to Hameln, and that’s a pretty place too! We had an appointment with an investigator wer heißt (who is called) Fana! She has two little girls and she is trying to look for work! We actually aren’t sure if we can be teaching her for baptism yet because she fled from her dangerous country in Africa and it could be dangerous for her if she is Christian. Wait...I think she already is Christian...I don’t know for sure! Broken English is hard to communicate with! Oh! The African that spoke in General conference, that’s about how everyone that speaks English here sounds! It could understand every word perfectly! Language is weird! Anyways...we taught that lesson and it was good! Love the restoration! Then we went by on a contact who was a former investigator. She let us in and told us all of her life long problems. People have a lot of problems. We testified of the gospel and she invited us next week! New investigator! Yes!

Sonntag: Wow! The WARD!! AH!! I’m in love with the ward! They are so so nice! We had a really good Gemi- Co.(where we meet with the ward mission leader) Actually my first one! He is awesome and really involved! And...we even have ward missionaries that drive us places and go on joint teaches with us! Elder Becar wasn’t kidding when he said I was going to the Promised Land. It’s a hard area for finding, but the members are here, and most are willing to help! We watched the Sunday afternoon session of conference and that was really good! I love conference! Then I had to bear my testimony in our ward, I was WAY nervous because the ward is so huge! But I did it and everyone commented on my last name! It’s a good conversation starter! Also, I met some of the youth! We have 20 and we get to teach seminary every Wednesday! I’m excited! We then had an eating appointment by the Müllers! They went to conference in America and got back the day before they fed us! They had a lot of stories about buffets and such! America...sometimes I miss the food. Like Cafe-rio, or just any Mexican food for that matter! Anyways...A girl in our ward had an exchange student from Israel over and so we went with them to The Bükeburg castle! And we talked to the exchange student and she had a LOT of questions about our church! She was there today and Sister Medley translated for her! But it was really cool! I’ll send you pictures! Then we studied! Right now I’m in Alma 38 and I’ve read like almost 400 pages all in German. The gift of tongues. It’s for sure not me learning this language by myself!

Also...I know I’m probably forgetting a lot! But, I will send pictures and I have next week to send you all of my details that I forgot! Tonight we have FHE by the Bishop’s family! I’m excited! Hope you are doing great! Thanks for the pictures and I hope my swim stuff doesn’t have too much sand in it! (Hadlie;) Thanks for your emails! Love you tons! Oh... ps. package ideas...crunchy peanut butter. Small town and they don’t sell any peanut butter here. Also, granola bars. The kind that I liked before I left! Also, any crackers, Cheese-its, wheat thins, gold fish! Yeah! Those are the only things I’m missing! Don’t send me candy or chocolate! We have too much of it here!

I know that Stadthagen is where I’m supposed to be! The Lord would never send me somewhere where I wouldn’t touch the life of someone! Never forget to have an eternal perspective!

Alles Liebe,

Sister St. John