Monday May 25, 2015 Gera, Germany

Monday May 25, 2015

Hallo! Seems to me like we have all had a busy week! I did fit everything into my suitcases which is a miracle in of itself! We had a really fun couple of P-days with Schwester Keiser! She took us to see those big trees that grow all crazy. And I guess they only grow in a strip of Europe! So that was cool! Also, that windmill was built a long time ago by Napoleons brother who was king in that part of Germany for a while! Then this past week we went to a castle the Schaumburg Schloss! The Elders came with us, so that was fun! Then we had 3 eating appointments. I almost threw up! Way too much food! But then....

Deinstag: we finished packing. Lugged our stuff down all 4 flights of stairs by ourselves. Got dropped off at bahnhof (train station) and were on our way! We traveled to Leipzig with Elder Thomas, and elder Benitz who is German! So that was fun to talk to him about American food and stuff! We then went from Leipzig to Gera. We met the Elders who were serving here in Gera and they showed us to our HUGE apartment! This is a weird
situation because this area was part of the Frankfurt mission. But it got added into the Leipzig stake, so our mission took it over. Rules are a lot different in our mission, (we have a German president. Things are stricter.)  So the members are still trying to get used to all the new rules! But yeah. The Elders showed us around. We went to a geminde abbend (?), met some members, and an investigator Lucy! She's awesome, and 20. So young! She is on baptismal date for February! A long time away...we are working on moving it. She has a hard situation with one of her roommates. But yeah. Gera is good! We live 1 hour away by train from our church, and also our Elders.

Mittwoch: The Elders showed us around a little more. We had English class and then then we met up with some other Elders, they switched companions so that Frankfurt missionaries were now with Frankfurt missionaries, and Berlin with Berlin. We then went with our Berlin missionaries to teach an investigator Pascal! He is on baptismal date for August! He just has to get married, and stop smoking! They have a wedding date! So that's good!

Donnerstag: We went finding! Cleaned (it was an Elder’s apartment) and we found a new investigator! Not while cleaning...but while finding! His name is Michael. We set up an appointment for Samstag. Then Lucy showed us around Gera a little bit.

Freitag: we had ZTM in Werdau which is where our ward building is. We got IPADS! Crazy! We had to spend a lot of time trying to get them set up. They are really cool! They are specially made for the church! They came with a bunch of apps already on them! Cool! We can't use Facebook yet. But hopefully soon! It took us forever to get home because our trains kept falling out! We didn't have lunch and I was starving! So
we ate, did our studies, and went to bed. We do a lot of traveling as missionaries!

Samstag: We helped a member in her garden. That was fun! We met with Lucy. Very complex situation, but we will try to get her baptized soon. She's very involved! More than some members actually! We then met with Michael. He is a little socially awkward...but we are too so it all works out! He said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He was very open to everything we were teaching. We then had weekly planning. My FAVORITE part of the week! Ha! But it was good, because we got to get caught up on the area.

Sonntag: Schwester Dörlitz picked us up and we drove the prettiest drive I've ever made to church! We are in the Thüringen forest! It's the green heart of Germany! Very pretty! Church was good! The members we're excited to get Sisters! They haven't had Sisters in these cities for a really long time! Bishop is President’s nephew. He called us one day and we thought it was President because he sounds just like him. President’s brother is also in our ward. We serve with two really good Elders. Elder Young, who goes home in August, and Elder Thompson, who reminds me of Dad! There is a little separation in our ward because they just joined 3 branches into one ward three weeks ago! The Gera members got all offended that the people in Werdau wanted us over for lunch! We will have to work on that. I've lived in wards where they have split and been added to, so hopefully I can help a little! Oh! And we found another new investigator! She already had a Book of Mormon! We are meeting on Deinstag!

Surprise! Today is another holiday! So we are on our iPads at McDonalds emailing! So...that means I don't have pictures this week! I'm sorry! I don't send all the pics I take either! So trust me! I have plenty of pictures of how the places look that I am serving! Gera is the biggest city that Sister Medley has served in. But it's smaller than Halle! We have strassen bahns. And we live on markt! It's really pretty! I’m loving it here!

Sister Medley really thinks that we were put together to serve here! We are on the same page, and are a really good team! We also came from a good ward, so we know what to do for member work! Everything is inspired! We have seen blessings from going the extra mile! Both times we found someone, we could have been home, but because we went the extra mile and went finding, we found people! We are truly blessed when we show that Heavenly Father that we are willing to work!

Love you so much!
Alles liebe Sister St. John

Cassidy's zone with their new iPads!

Monday May 18, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

I’m apologizing right now...this letter will be short! I will make up for it next week. But GUESS WHAT?!  We are closing our area! SO sad! To say the least it was kind of like leaving my home ward...sad. But...WE GET TO STAY TOGETHER!!!! If you can’t tell... I’m excited! And we are whitewashing in Gera. A city in the new Erfort area of our mission! President Kosak’s nephew is going to be our bishop! The interesting thing is that we are taking over an Elder’s program. So we come in both not knowing anything and also living in an Elder’s old apartment! We also have to get almost everything out of our apartment! (Sisters leave EVERYTHING when they go home!) It has been a pain, and some very late nights since we found out only on Friday. I’m very excited though! I don’t know why President trusts us to do this, but I guess the Lord qualifies his servants for the work right? 

This week has just been crazy! We handed off our investigators to the Hannover Sisters, and to our Elders. We met with Elmis, He had TONS of questions! It was cool! He said he would read the Book of Mormon in 2 days. He came to church and sat by the Elders. Turns out...he read the whole book, in 2 days! Who does that?! What a golden investigator! The elders will do good with him! Also, we got a referral from the buro, went by on her! She was friends with some members (do your member work!) and she wanted a Book of Mormon! She has 2 girls! Sad that we don’t get to teach her! But fun that we got a referral! There is not much to update other than that! I have a lot of pics to send! And they are all worth a thousand words! 

PS. we have 4 member appointments today, and one of them is taking us to a castle! That will be fun! 

Love you!! Hope you have a great week! Thanks for your emails and pics! Oh! And tell Savannah that the weather here is really nice! I usually just have to wear a cardigan. No tights. Sometimes it rains, but not often! It’s like in the 60's! 

Love, Sister St. John 

Note from Mom: There was recently some realigning between the two missions in Germany. The Berlin, Germany mission received a few cities that are at the bottom of this map and make up the new Leipzig Sud area. This was especially exciting because Cassidy's Mission President's father and siblings all live in this area! Cassidy will be in the "pink" area in the city Gera.

 Our apartment. Don't judge. We are a mess these few days.

Sister Peters & us.

Some of the young men. 

Typish German! Last P-Day was fun!

Monday May 11, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Hallo!! How are you? Talking to you yesterday was great! I’m so so glad that skype worked! We made sure to write it down in our member book to always skype at the Metzig’s house! I wish you could have met them. But they were skyping their daughter. Anyway...I hope you learned a few new things, and I hope it wasn’t too boring for you. I feel like all my little details aren’t very exciting, but maybe it’s just because it’s normal life for me now. So wie so....
Montag: We practiced our music. And our appointment fell out for that night. Schade! But, it’s alright. We will get another appointment with him soon. 

Dienstag: We had a White Day (no appointment day) so...we decided to do what any missionary would do, and go finding. But we also decided to go on a few contacts. Grace, who we found on the street a few weeks ago, told us she didn’t have any time as she was smoking inside her house, with her 3 month old baby in her arms... :( We then went by Frau Wolf, she is 95 and we are working on her for the Spirit World! She likes to talk about the Cosmos. She was also very upset because some of the old people in her home were eating chicken legs for lunch and she couldn’t believe that they would eat meat off the bone like that! “Sie haben es rein gebissen!” (They have bitten it clean!) Kind of funny! But sad at the same time! She likes reading, so we gave her a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon. We also went by Schwester Oschiena. She is also 95, but a member. We sung for her, and she just kind of laughed at us! Then we went by Schwester Ruf who made us strawberries and some really good whipped cream! Also, Brudder Klinge was there. They have been friends since kindheit (childhood)! Then... we went to the Graffs, they have us over every other week! The food is always interesting, BUT!! They made this ice cream and it was SO SO good! It is just vanilla ice cream from the store, then they mash up avocado and stir it in! Trust me mom, you would love it! 

Mittwoch: A strike was going one for Deutscher Bahn. The trains that take us everywhere! So...that makes missionary work hard! But, manageable! We had distrikt meeting, then went to back factory. The McDonalds of bakeries here in Germany. We saw a member there and he ate with us! We then did studies and then Gemi Co. I’m sorry, but meetings are SO boring! Wednesdays are not my favorite. But its ok, because they are necessary I guess! 

Donnerstag: We visited schwester Phillippen. She is a cute old lady and likes talking about her recipes. We then had English class, where I learn more about English then the Russian ladies do I think! We then made cookies (the weather was bad and we needed service hours) and we made like 5 batches of chocolate chip cookies. It was fun! And then we delivered them to people! Good service! 

Freitag: Weekly planning! Woohoo!! But we made it quick! So that was good! We also went by on Grace again, because she said we should come back on Friday! She wasn’t home sadly. We also had Geminde Sport! I’m living Colten’s dream and playing Soccer with a bunch of German guys! It’s pretty fun to watch. 

Samstag: We had a 2 hour train ride to Hameln. We ate a Döner! SO good! And we visited Irean, who is Russian. She made us eat so much candy! And also talked to us about the Law of Chastity made sure we were keeping it. Funny, because she’s not a member of our church! We also then visited Fana! She asked us for clothes last time we talked on the phone, and so we brought some from our apartment that we had laying around. She was SO happy! I love service! 

Sontag: Church!! And guess what?! We had an investigator there!! I told you this in German, but I don’t think you understood, because you weren’t very excited! But his name is Elmis! He’s an older Turkish guy that we talked to for like 5 minutes on Friday! You never know who is prepared! He asked us for a Book of Mormon, a Bible, and an appointment after church! Sweet!! It was sister Medleys first time ever with an investigator at church! So that was really exciting! Then, we skyped! SO fun! And...the zone leaders called us and asked if we could give a 15 minute thema in zone training meeting this week. It’s in German...not excited. I get really nervous for things like this! Dang! But it’s ok!

This week I really have been trying to pay attention to things that matter. It’s cool to see how happy I get over the little things that matter! How serving people, and just the simple things always help me be happy! Remember to live in the moment! Don’t dwell on the past, or the future! Live in the moment! Love every moment! 

Love, Sister St. John

A field of raps - from the train. 

 Waterloo monument in Hannover (I dont really know what it is or why its important. It just is cool. and I had the waterloo song from mama mia stuck in my head all day!)

*The Waterloo square was built at the beginning of the 19th century together with the Waterloo column. Both served to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Waterloo, by the troops of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1815 against Napoleon.

Top of the Waterloo

 Rat Haus (Town Hall) in Hannover  

Sisters in the district 

Sister Medley & Me

I play the cello! 

Typical Sunday night! Abend Brot, and a (church) movie in German! 

Monday May 4, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Thanks for your updates! The Payson temple is beautiful and it might be my new favorite! Spring is definitely in the air! Everything here is green! I’ve never seen things so green in my life! 
Woche (week)....
Montag: We practiced our music that we will be doing next Sunday! Where Can I Turn For Peace? I thought that was better than Love at Home for Mother’s Day. (Mom, you should kind of think that’s funny!) 

Deinstag: We opened the door to our apartment, all the way up on 4th floor, and our bags of glass bottles that we put in the garbage outside were returned to our door. SO embarrassing because we don’t know how to recycle here! And someone from our apartment building saw us, or knew it was us and brought them all the way up to return it! SO funny! We came back later that night and there was a nice (not so nice) note for us telling us how to throw away our garbage. Germans. We went on Tausch (exchange)! I was here with Sister Walker. Leider (unfortunately)...we didn’t take a picture! I really learned a lot from her about following the Spirit! 

Mittwoch: We had interviews with President today. I love him! I cried...he teared up. It was our last interview with him. He is like my dad out here on the mission! He asked Sister Medley how it was working with his "little princess" and when he called me in for his interview he asked where his "little lightning" was. He's pretty funny and Sister Medley and I have been having fun quoting him lately. My favorite thing in my interview that President said to me was that He would send his children across the plains with me! That right there is one of the biggest compliments he could have given me! Sometimes I just need a little reminder that I am good! 

Donnerstag: We taught English to the 3 old Russian ladies. That’s always fun. Then we had Distrikt meeting. I had a spiritual thought, and DM is always a little boring, so I decided to share a funny spiritual thought. In Proverbs 28:25 it says something about trust in the lord and you will be made fat. So I shared that scripture and told everyone that we gain weight on a mission because we are trusting in the lord. Everyone laughed! It was pretty funny! But then, of course I bore my testimony about trusting in the Lord in all things. He knows what is best for us, and in the end, we will be happier if we just trust in him. 

Freitag: It was a holiday. Not sure why, or which one, but it was. We ate at a member’s house, then we practiced music again, (I was a little rusty on the piano) and then we went by on some contacts.

Samstag: We went to Hameln. It takes 2 hours by train, so we got some good German study in, and also some good naps. We met with Fana. We were planning on showing the restoration video, but she didn’t have a dvd player. (We need the iPads) but we had a good lesson anyway. We also were dooring apartment buildings. This guy let us in and we go up like 3 flights of stairs to then see him in just his underwear, standing in the door way. He was old, on the fatter side, and hairy. Awesome. Missionary work is awkward! (Another word they don’t have a translation for in German) but it makes for funny stories! 

Sontag: We went to church, then ate by the Stake President! He looked a little like Pres. Uchtdorf! Very German. It was really fun, and I had just been fasting so it was like the best food I’ve ever eaten! Chili (not spicy) over rice. (They don’t really eat soup on its own here) And bread! And then ice cream! Which is my favorite here in Germany! I like it way better than America! 

Sorry it was a little shorter today than last week! But this week we talked to more people than I think I have ever talked to in Stadthagen! We made it a goal to go finding where ever we are going! It’s been really good, and I feel as we show more effort into this work, then Heavenly father shows more effort on his part! I think that goes with everything in life. When we put all our effort, really ALL that we can do, Heavenly Father will bless us with what we need to help us get through! I’ve really learned that we can do anything and everything with his help! No matter how crazy it sounds! We can do it! I’ve also been studying a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" By Lawrence E. Corbridge. It is one of the best talks I have ever read! It really has changed my attitude around, and I think it will change my mission! You should read it if you haven’t already! Or, if you have, you should read it again! 

Follow the Spirit, try to recognize how it talks to you! I love you so much! Have a great week! I will talk to you in a few days!! Love you!! 

Sister St. John

(Note from mom: these are all unedited pictures which means...it is really pretty there right now!)

 Sunsets, I still love them!

 These yellow flowers are all over! Fields and fields of them! They are called raps and they make oil out of them for cooking! But they are beautiful! 

Just a few pictures of me.

Plus a selfie!

Just one more! Sorry that these are all the pictures that we took this week!