Hallo!! I'm sorry to hear that it is
so cold at home. We must have switched air! It's been a nice 60-70 degree's
here this week. Not even a need for a jacket!
Well, let's see if I can even
remember what we did this week. It seems like a dream normally. Speaking of
dreams, every time I dream of me being at home...it's in our old house. I have
never once had a dream where we were in our new house. And also, I had a dream
this week that a friend called me at like 10 at night to hang out and I knew
that I only had 2 hours so I asked you permission, and promised that I’d be
home at 12 and then you said no and made me make a scripture calendar for
school. (Half missionary mode and half school, kind of funny.)
Anyway...my week!
Montag: We had a wonderful P-day and
then went to an appointment with Claudia. We had done really well and stayed in
contact with her this day and she said that she might not be there on time but
that she'd be there 30 minutes later. So we went with Lucy. Claudia wasn't
home. We called. No answer. So, we had FHE with Lucy:) she showed us where her
new apartment will be! We are SO excited for her!
Dienstag: We met with Frau Dhillion
and last week she asked us to talk about something from our church. SO...natürlich
(naturally) we picked the temple! We had a really good lesson on the temple and
then Sister Bills had the inspiration to talk about family history. Sister
Bills had previously been with a companion that is in charge of teaching us how
to do family history and the importance of it etc. So she knows a lot and has a
very strong testimony of it. We both bore testimony of family history and
showed Frau Dhillion a "my family" packet. (which we had already
given her like 3 months ago) and she was SOO excited! I have NEVER seen Frau
Dhillion so excited! She wants to do some family history next time we meet and
is so excited to learn some things about her mom because her mom died when she
was younger. Then, after the good lesson, we taught her 13 year old daughter
English! She's only 13 and can have a normal conversation in English. German
school...I swear. Then...Gemeinde Abend! That was fun! We brought a few things
with us to put in some Christmas kits for little kids in really poor countries
so that they can have a Christmas too. We were at Schwester Dörlitz's house and
so we sung a few songs and then ate Abend Brot. I broke my own rule this night
and asked what kind of meat I was eating. Schwester Sorge says, "blood
sausage." Me, "blood sausage? So it's all blood?" Schwester
Sorge, "No, that's meat, that's meat and that's meat (as she's pointing to
the little pieces of meat on my slice of "meat")" Me, "so
the rest is blood?" Schwester Sorge, "yeah, but it's cooked!"
HA! Like that makes it any different! It actually didn't taste so bad...just
don't ever ask what the meat is. Then, we had Gemi-co with Bruder Krause! He's
an awesome GML (ward mission leader) and he's going to help Sister Bills and I plan
an activity for the 10 and 11 year old girls in our ward because I had an
idea:)
Mittwoch: Distrikt meeting. And we
were allowed to have district lunch! Fun!! We then delivered a couple of thank
you cards to people! Then, came home and met with Nele! Schwester Meckel
is sick and so we couldn't meet with the whole family this week. But we met
with Nele, talked about Joseph Smith and God! She is awesome and will pray out
loud with us now, without complaining! We also tried to have another
appointment with Claudia. We went with Lucy there and the same thing happened, except
for Claudia sent us a text saying sorry and that it wouldn't work out for the
rest of this week! I believe that she has an internship and is super busy.
We've been trying really hard to stay in contact with her though. It's hard...especially
when she doesn't text us back.
Donnerstag: We went to help Lucy
pick out a sink for her kitchen. The night before we had helped her pick out
some hair color so she could dye her hair. She did it that morning and called
us in a panic because her hair looked like a fire truck! Not funny (but kind
of;) but, she went and bought brown dye and dyed it over it and it was totally
fixed, and it didn't look bad! But to make her day even worse...the place
didn't have any kitchen stuff and she can't really afford to go anywhere else.
She had kind of a crappy day. So, we went and got large pieces of pizza and then
stacked the boxes on my head (see attached video). After that we went and
helped Schwester Sorge in the garden with the elders! We raked leaves and
pulled weeds. Then, ate potato soup. I love service! Then, the day was over...weird.
Freitag: We went and did some
finding...which was weird. I haven't done that in a long time. Then off to
Schwester Dörlitz! We had eggs, spinach, and potatoes. I guess it's a pretty regular
meal here. Then...she gave us a whole bowl of black current berries. I'm
already not a fan of any berry besides strawberry and raspberry...and this just
made it worse. They were SO bitter! Sister Bills and I ended up just swallowing
them whole and chugging them down with our drink! After Schwester Dörlitz, we
went and helped Schwester Riemann pack some more glasses and wrapped them in
newspaper. The newspapers here are interesting and there are many that have
straight up porn on them. They just put all the newspapers into people’s mail boxes,
so they don't buy them...anyway interesting. Then, we met with Aja! We
introduced Personal Progress to her and she seems pretty excited about it! We
actually found a Personal Progress book in our apartment, so we were able to
give it to her! Small little miracles like that...Heavenly Father sure does know
how to do his work! Then…weekly planning!! (my favorite part of the week....)
Samstag: We got to go help Lucy pick
her paint for her new apartment! That is totally my realm! We went into this
place that looked and smelled like Home Depot! Heavenly! We got to pick paint
swatches, hold them under the different lights...ahhh...it was a good few minutes!
We helped Lucy choose a color and we all settled for a coral (more red though)
then, we went to her new apartment!!!!!!!!!!! :D it's so cute and bright and
happy! The Spirit is already so much stronger than in her old one! She's
excited and we are excited for her! We had a lesson on her floor while eating potato
cake:) Lucy is wonderful! We from there made our way home, packed up and made
our way to Leipzig for Stake Conference! We stayed there overnight with the
Sister Training leaders. The conference was really good. There was an area 70
there and everyone talked a lot about reading scriptures as a family every day.
He told a story about his wife and how she always wanted to start reading as a
family, but he would make up excuses. Too tired, kids are too young, too busy, stressful
day...etc. Til finally, one day, his wife was all excited about the new picture
Books of Mormon that they got and asked if they could read scriptures that day.
He made up another excuse and she said "Honey, if the Melchizedek Priesthood
can't run this household, then the Relief Society will." And from that day
on they have read scriptures every day:) It's important, and I'm proud that you
do it!
Sonntag: Wow...Sunday was cool! We
had to travel to this cultural hall place because the church is too small for
the whole stake. We got there and there were SO many people there! Like 600! That’s
the most members I've seen all together since the MTC! It was really fun because
I got to see lots of people from Halle! They actually remembered me! Cool! The
best thing though was, that Lucy was asked to give her testimony in Stake Conference!
She did SO SO good! It was perfect and totally from the Spirit! I wonder at her
every day! She is so strong and I wish that I could be as strong as she is.
Then, we came home. Sister Bills wasn't feeling to good, coughing and lost her
voice. So we finished our weekly planning and studied. Heavenly Father closed
the week with a beautiful sunset that didn't look as good on camera so I didn't
take a picture.
I've been thinking a lot about
service this week. We did kind of a lot of it. To be honest, I have a hard time
having the desire to do some parts of missionary work. It's very against my
natural self. Sister Medley really helped me with that, because she was SO motivated
all the time, to do everything! She was a really good example to me and was
really great at helping me be motivated. Now that she's gone, I'm having to do
it by myself and it's proving to be a little hard. However, I was talking to
our district leader and asked him what he keeps as his motivation. He said,
that he has a vision. He has a vision of this ward having their friends and
family sitting by them in Sacrament meeting, taking of the Sacrament, and receiving
the blessings that this Gospel has. That is his whole motivation. He has a
vision. I’ve never had a vision. Not like that. Not for a specific area or
anything. I thought it was so cool! It's a goal that you can actually see, you
can play it like a movie in your mind. The way that we and the Elders have been
trying to get the ward involved in our work is by doing service. The Elders
have about 4 or 5 service projects a week and don't even wear missionary clothes
like 2 days a week because they are so busy with service! I’m thinking about
our tactic as the Ammon Project. You know, Ammon from the Book of Mormon? He
went to the Lamanites and they captured him. He asked the King if he could be
his servant. The king said yes, and later the king was so astounded by his
faith and example that he asked questions. All Ammon did was serve and was a
good example. That...is our goal. I've noticed that the hearts of the Germans
are a little...hard. But one way that I've found that softens them is when we
serve them. Schwester Sorge is really good at having us invite all of her garden
neighbor friends to eat with us. The garden neighbors know us and talk to us every
time we are over there. They ask us where we are from, they ask questions about
our lives and because we LIVE the gospel it is our LIFE. With every service
opportunity we have, we have the opportunity to share the Gospel. Even in Utah
we can look for examples to share what we believe. I remember some kid in Jr.
High was talking bad about tithing. I may have been a little sassy and told him
that he had the percentage wrong and that it was actually only 10% but then I
bore my testimony right after. Not a big deal. There are always opportunities.
Look for ways to serve. In your family, in your school, with the ward, friends.
Everyone! Do it!
I love you all so so much and I'm
glad that you did so much to serve me and that you still do, so much! Love
you!!
Liebe, Sister St. John
Us and Aja (at the top)
Garden work on a sunny day.
Blood wurst...the one that's really red with the pieces of actual meat in there.
The district at our neighborhood skate park next door to the church.
A krapfen...it was like the best thing ever!
