Cassidy Nichole: Monday April 20, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Hallo! Sounds like it’s been a pretty busy week for you guys! Spring was always my favorite, especially because school was SO close to getting out! Feel lucky kids, they only get 6 weeks for summer break here in Germany! I think we get a little more than that! Na Ja.

Stadthagen! Oh it’s wonderful! Spring is in the air, and all is bright and sunny (most days)! Sometimes I start singing the "Oh what a beautiful morning…" you know that one that Grandpa Stewart always sung? But I have to stop myself every time because I can only remember the version of it where he swears... :) I'll make my own missionary edition soon! So dad asked for some differences. I’m sure you can see some of the differences in the pictures, but, one difference here is that none of our investigators live in Stadthagen, and a lot of our members don’t either. They live in other little Dorfs (towns) around Stadthagen. Getting investigators to come to church is harder. We travel a lot by bus and big trains. It takes a long time, but it’s the only way to get places! The members feed us a lot more here (just because there is more of them) we have a GML, and like 3 ward missionaries. We have had a joint teach with every investigator we have met with! It’s been awesome! We work with the youth a lot too! We do doors more often. I’m not a huge fan of door finding because I’m not very good at it, and it’s just awkward for me. Not that everything I do as a missionary isn’t awkward for me, but ya know, it’s just more awkward. I like street finding! But it’s not very effective, unless we go to a bigger city. Other differences...I can’t really think of them! It’s just like the difference from Salt Lake to Springville. Big to small!

Montag: FHE at the Peter’s house! That was so fun! They have 2 kids at home, Mattis is 17, and Mia is almost 16. We are actually pretty good friends with them because they are really active and come to seminary and a couple other things we do with the youth. Then they have a son on a mission who comes home in a couple months. We had a normal family home evening! We prayed and sang, and then we had a spiritual thought, and then we practiced a song (they like singing) then we ate Abend Brot. Have I ever told you about abend brot? Here they don’t really eat huge amounts for dinner usually. They just eat bread with cheese or soup or something! I like it!

Dienstag: Every day we leave our apartment at 11, having already ate lunch, and then we don’t come back or eat until 18 or 6 at night. Weird schedule, but we are working ALL DAY LONG! It’s fun! We went by on a less active, she’s 95 and looks SO German! Darkish skin, and bright blue eyes. But she’s only less active because she lives in an old folks home. She doesn’t like it there, but she thinks she’s going to die soon so she said for now es geht! (It goes) We then went on a referral from a member! (I love member work!) He answered and said he would love to meet and we could come back next week! Sweet!! Do, your, member, work!! It helps SO much! We also took a language assessment. I’ve improved a lot since the last time I took it!

Mittwoch: We had distrikt meeting and that takes most of the day because it’s in Hannover! And we still have to do our studies afterword! But it was good, and really truly always a good motivation to see other missionaries and know that they are going through some of the same things we are. Then, we taught seminary! Oh it was SO fun!! There are about 10 kids that come! I miss being a youth! It was fun, and also spiritual! I really like teaching through personal experiences. They told me afterword that they really liked that because then they could relate the message to themselves better. Unfortunately we don’t teach every week, and the Elders teach this next week! Then... we had Gemei Co. (ward conference is what it stands for, but it’s just with the ward missionaries, us, and the ward mission leader.) It was very long, and sometimes I think that the ward mission leader doesn’t think we do anything because we don’t have anyone at church. It’s sad! But we are working on it! He has some really crazy ideas, and always asks our mission president for permission, or the stake president and they almost always say no. Sad! But also good because some are pretty extreme! It’s good that we have a GML though!

Donnerstag: We went finding in innen statt (?) for like 30 minutes and guess what?! We found someone!! AH!! She’s 18 and was so excited to meet with us! Luckily we have a lot of youth here so that should be fun for her! We then went to Rentln and had a joint teach with an investigator Helmut! He is the nicest German I’ve ever met! He was really touched by our testimony about the priesthood, and also was impressed with our joint teaches testimony! Joint teaches, I love them! Parents, I know that you’re busy, and that we don’t have a lot of missionaries in Utah, but, if you meet any of them, ask them if they need any joint teaches!

Freitag: We had an appointment inspection and the only thing that is wrong is that our washer won’t spin...so that’s always good. And we have been washing our clothes in just softener! Ha! Not knowing the language! We then taught English class with the three ladies that speak Russian! One is going to America this week! Hopefully she’s not in too much of a culture shock! We then did...guess what? Weekly planning.....meine gute (my goodness)! SO long! I swear I have ADD or something...I cannot sit still! While planning and talking about our members and investigators I had to start playing trash can basketball with chocolate wrappers just to stay focused! I know I don’t have ADD, I just want to get OUT of the apartment! Sister Medley makes fun of me because I can’t sit still in weekly planning! She says I’m like a little kid! But then...we got to teach Activity days!! Oh, So fun! There were like 4 girls there and we taught them what we do during the day, how to plan a lesson, and how to teach. Then we did a role play! It was so fun! They were good teachers too! It was cute to hear them change from their Du sprache (informal, friendly form of German) to their Sie Sprache(respectful, we have to use it as missionaries all the time unless with people younger)!

Samstag: We went by on a "less active." She’s not really less active, but her dad died a few months ago and the ward wants us to go by on her! She is super nice, but still really really sad! We then had another joint teach with Kate (newly married, but went on a mission to England so we take her on English joint teaches) she drove and so we saved a lot of time! We have an investigator in Hameln. She’s African and named Fana. Her family is still in Africa. She told us something horrible happened in her family and her 18 year old sister was escaping their country (like Fana did) but she got caught between the border of Egypt and Israel. The people want a huge amount of money and her mom can’t afford it. But they will most likely kill her sister if they don’t pay. I cannot believe that things like this happen! We talked about prayer and the power of it. She asked us to pray for her sister with her! She was so so sad! We had to leave because she had another appointment! But, Kate had a good idea. It was Fana’s daughter’s birthday and she couldn’t afford a cake or presents so, we ran to the store really quick and bought a cake, some flowers and some small toys for her daughter! We then delivered it! Her face was priceless! She cried and told us thank you a million times! It’s these times that being a missionary is all worth it! Service. Just serve. We then went finding until I felt like I was going to pass out because we hadn’t eaten in so long! So, we bought a Döner (Turkish food!) and it was the best Döner I’ve ever eaten! I was really hungry!

Sonntag: Church! I love church! Then we had another joint teach with an investigator named Alise! We brought Sarah Graf with us. She served a mission in the Alpine mission! She is great! Then we met with Sister Habbermann! She made a good normal German meal. Rotkohl, potatoes, and meat! All swimming in sauce! Pretty good! She is awesome and going to help me fix a dress that’s too big!

This next week is super busy! We are going to Berlin and staying the night with some Sisters there on Thursday, then we will be getting Ipads (I know nothing about them) on Friday and having a LONG conference!

Remember to focus on the little things! They all add up to be big things! I’m doing great and loving every moment! I cannot believe you sent me pepper spray. I’m never going to use it probably! Can you imagine that in a paper?! "Sister missionary pepper sprays someone on the street!" But better safe than sorry! Love you tons!!

Alles Leibe, Sister St. John