Monday, June 8, 2015

Monday June 8, 2015 Gera, Germany

Poked and Prodded…

Hallo!! Meine Gute (my goodness)! Your week was crazy busy! I forget how busy summer is sometimes. But at least you can go swimming. For some reason, I have missed that this week. Wait...maybe it’s because it was like 85 degrees, and I was wearing garments and a skirt and not swimming like everyone else was in all of the public fountains. Germans do not wear very much clothing while it is hot.

I am also so glad to hear about your good temple celebration! It has been my dream to go to one, or be in one. So you should feel lucky that you all lived my dream! I can't wait to actually go to that temple! It’s beautiful!

Really quickly my week!

Montag: I ate SO much crap today! I don’t know why, I was just starving when we went shopping and bought a bunch of chocolate and candy. Stupid. Then we ate a Döner which is like 3 times the size of my stomach, but I eat the whole thing anyway. Colten would like it. We did contact sheets at night after P-day (but really hours) ended because it was raining. Sometimes we feel that we need inspiration to translate the things written in the area books by the Elders! But then we also got to talk to Pascal and Sch. Meckel on Markt because we saw the Elders talking to them (the Elders were sleeping over in Gera in the empty couple apartment). That was good because all of our appointments had fallen out these past weeks.

Deinstag: I woke up, and threw up. Awesome. If you know me, after I throw up I’m like done for the day. Except for today. We were supposed to go to Berlin for our last Zone conference with President! We had to go. So by some small miracle, I got ready for the day and felt fine the rest of the day! I got to see so many old companions, and I learned a lot. President talked a lot about Joseph Smith. He was an extraordinary man. We also had to say goodbye to President and Sister Kosak. I cried to say the least! If I would have known that I would have to say so many goodbyes…ugh! But! This day was also fun, because we drove with the Elders to Berlin! (President told us to)

Mittwoch: I went to bed a half hour early, and woke up a half hour early because I did NOT feel good at all on Tuesday. It really helped and I was able to do the work today. It was SO hot! SO SO hot! I don’t remember the last time I’ve sweated so much in my life! To make it better we had a white day of finding (nothing scheduled)! We also had a spantan (?) lesson with Lucy! She is amazing!

Donnerstag: We went by on some less actives that we are trying to get in contact with. None of them were home. We had German and English class! In English class 2 teenage boys came and asked us a lot of questions about the church. That was really cool because that just doesn’t usually happen to us! Then, we did more finding, with little success. It was also very hot this day. And yes, I have been wearing sunscreen!

Freitag: We helped Sch. Dörlitz in her garden again! It was SO hot! Like 80 in the shade! Then we went by on less actives that were also not home. And then did some finding. I think we switched numbers with someone today, and made out an appointment for next week. All the finding pays off, slowly. But it does. We then did weekly planning.

Samstag: The Meckles said they wanted help in their garden, so we went over, not in dresses to help, but it was too hot so everyone just hung out, and Pascal wasn’t even there. Kind of sad, but it was good because we met some of their friends and got to know Schw. Meckel a Little better. We then met with Lucy, and made some good goals. She is really awesome! Tells everyone she knows about the church, and brings people to English! I love her! Went by on the less actives again...and again...they weren’t home! None of them! We then met with Raymond. He is very African. We will see if we can make any progress with him.

Sontag: Church! Then to Schwester Kretchmar's house. She taught us how to make Klöße (dumplings)! She talked a lot about the DDR which is cool to hear now that I’m back in the East and actually understand what they are telling me. She served a mission in this time and it was very cool to hear about how it was all really about strengthening the members! We then tried to find a couple contacts in Bieblach (City part) and had no luck. But! We talked to a few people and they actually had interest. Also, I used my photography skill and there was a guy who was just about going to walk away when I asked him about his camera he had around his neck. He did photography real estate for a job. Not many people do that here. So we talked for a while and he actually wanted a Book of Mormon. He wasn’t from Gera, but he knew the missionaries number from where he was from and said he was going to call them. Sometimes...just sometimes I feel like I have my talents for specific reasons! Also, our old lady neighbor wanted to show us her cats so we went in and she was amazed by my blue eyes, like she had never seen blue eyes before! She said I looked like I came straight from heaven. I told her I did! She laughed and actually, we then had a really good talk about heaven. She had a Book of Mormon already and said she was going to read it again.

This week is called poked and prodded because....ugh! I have to go, but we are going to McDonalds in a couple hours to finish our email time! I will tell you more about it in a few hours! Love you all!

Ok, as I was saying....poked and prodded because, well for a lot of reasons! I've been physically drained! Emotionally drained! I get very attached to people, and having my mission president leave is kind of very sad! It's like losing my mission parents! Also, finding just drains me. Especially this week! Everyone that we talked to said something mean about the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith. It just really makes me realize how strong my testimony has become. I don't think I realized until this week how much stronger it has become. When I can testify with the utmost sincerity of my heart that I KNOW Joseph Smith was a true prophet. That he was called of God. That he translated the Book of Mormon. That the Book of Mormon is the truest book on Earth. It changes lives. I've seen it. I've seen people change with this Gospel. I've seen myself change. God loves us, he wants the best for us. Ask him for help. He will answer your prayers.

I love you! I hope you have a good week! But never forget what is really the most important in life. Never lose sight of that. Love you!

Love, Sis. St. John
 Our study room
Our bedroom
 

 The hall with towels we need to get rid of (Elder's towels)
 Kitchen

 Us
 Bathroom
 
From the final Zone conference with President and Sister Kosak

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