Monday January 25, 2016 Hamburg, Germany

Well my fellow Landsleute. Sounds like you had a good pretty normal week. Even taking the car into the shop for like 4 days sounds normal. My week was also kind of normal. I say kind of cause no week is really normal, especially when you get a new comp! 

Montag: Ok, SO fun! We went to Hagenbecks Tierpark and went to the Aquarium with a member and some other Elders and Sister that were waiting in Hamburg for new comps! Very fun! I also managed to accidently break like every single rule there. We were in a room with a bunch of lemurs (you know like on Zaboomafoo?) and one came right up to me so naturally I pet it. A missionary was like SISTER!!! You aren't allowed to do that! Woops! I got a pic of me by the sign that says we shouldn't touch them. Then, later there was a pool with stingrays in there. It was right at the level that we could put our hands in there and touch the stingrays, just like at home. So naturally...I did. I also called over a few other missionaries to do it with me, but they all saw the sign and turns out we weren't allowed to touch the things. Gosh dang it. Also, at the very end I climbed on this fake car and was pretending to drive it. Turns out we weren't allowed to do that either. Germans...fun killers. Also, I learned that missionaries are really good people and they started reading the signs for me and letting me know what I could and could not do. 

Dienstag: Picked up Sister Kronwitter from Hauptbahnhof!! We headed straight to an appointment! Also, it was really icy and cold and the bus took 45 mins for a 15 min drive. So we were late. But we got to meet and teach a part member less active family. I love those families! They have so much potential. The husband is less active and the wife is not a member. But their 2 daughters are 17 and 20 and also both less active members. Perfect! I have a goal to baptize and reactivate them. The Koomson Family! You could also pray for them if you would like! 

Mittwoch: We had Brother Stephens! Ate a total of 4 pancakes...the record for sisters is 9 and I told brother Stephens that before I left I would eat 10...we will see! Then, we had something really cool this night! It was a worldwide missionary conference all about teaching repentance and baptizing converts. I felt like I was in the MTC again! It was in English, there were Apostles, and teaching! Amazing! This week has been kind of a Prayer and Answer Session between me and Heavenly Father. I keep praying for answers to questions, simple or big, and he just keeps answering them! Seriously He is really good! So this conference was really good and I learned/remembered just how important the calling of a missionary is. It is important people, trust me! 

Donnerstag: We had kind of a weird day where a lot of things fell out. However, we did teach a less active who is SUPER excited to do family history work. Also, side note, Sister Kronwitter also just came from Sister Seare. Just like Sister Bills! So she also knows a TON about family history! Which is perfect for us right now because that's our focus as the mission is to reactivate members through Family history! Wonderful!! 

Freitag: We also had a few things fall out, so we decided to make ourselves happy and take our lunch hour and go out to eat. I’ll send you a pic of my food because it was HUGE and SO good!! Then, we went and helped the Altona sisters do a Joint teach with an investigator. It was fun to teach with them! Also, tried to do a little weekly planning...you know how much I love weekly planning......

Samstag: We did family history with our newly baptized member Phillipa!! Oh how I love family history!! She has like 8 names that she can take to the temple! So wonderful! Then, we got our lives in order and went through our area book. Another Prayer and Answer Session. Praying for miracles and appointments and we got 3 and contact with 2 more people! Thank you!! Then we had Comfort. She's the crazy voodoo lady who lives in a boat in a tree. (name that movie.... Princess and the Frog....) Just kidding, she's the crazy less active lady who's always drunk and calls me Sister John the Baptist. :) But this night she said she would come to church! 

Sonntag: Church!! Also, Comfort came!! We also had a YSA ward today! (They don't have those here) And we had our really super cool investigator David there!! We had some quality conversations with some of the other YSA's there about football. Good way to build friendships if I do say so! 

I'm actually really excited for this transfer! I'm planning on having a lot more "Prayer and Answer" Sessions!! 

Have a great week!! I love you so so much! 

Liebe Grüße, Sister St. John

 Fishies!

 Zaboomafoo!

 I promise I didn't mean to!

 The zoo!

 Hamburg is beautiful!

Sister Kronwitter and me!

Monday January 18, 2016 Hamburg, Germany

Monday January 18, 2016

Hallo!!! Well.... this email is going to be a little different today because I don't have a lot of time... and also cause Ich hab einfach keine lust. I don't really want to write a huge long email today. I'm exhausted. 

So. This week we had Tausch again. The Kiel sisters came to us, they both stayed in our tiny apartment. I went with Sister Cady and we had a blast trying to navigate ourselves around Hamburg. We met with a few less actives. It was cool because the missionary department now wants everyone that goes on tausch to come to the leader’s area because we are supposed to have a "model" area. (Key word supposed to) and so that's why the sisters came to our area! It also made it so we got to have a double booked day. We got to go to lessons at the same time. Sister Cady and I went to YW's while Sister Sorensen and Sister Kemsley went to institute! It was good. Also, we had an appointment with a less active and when we walked in she had an AMERICAN basketball game on! Carolina and Syracuse I believe! I have never been so tempted to tell someone to just leave the TV on during our appointment!!  But...I decided to ask her to turn it off. 

We also had Sister Garcia and Sister Reed came and slept over because they came to the Spanish talent show! This is one reason I'm way tired. We stay up way too late "pillow talking" when sisters are here. And we have sisters over ALL the time! It's fun! Just tiring!

While the sisters were over on Friday night Sister Sorensen got a call from President. He called her to be the new Sister Training Leader Trainer in Berlin. (They are basically Sister AP's. They go to all the conferences, important meetings...etc.) And she had to be there on Sunday night for a meeting. So, she had 1 day to pack and say goodbye. :( I was really sad! But I will get a new comp. on Tuesday. She's from Germany and I love her!! She was my sister Training leader for a while when I was in Gera! She goes home in 6 weeks so I will be sending her home! I am also the ONLY sister Training leader in the companionship! So that's also something new and interesting! 

Also, a lady from Turkey called us and wants us to teach her kids English! So we had a little English class and the kids were so cute and well behaved! They are 2 boys about 7 and 9. It was one of my favorite parts of the week! 

This week the Elders had a baptism! Koroush from Iran! It was probably my favorite baptism that I’ve ever seen! He has had to wait a few months for visa reasons to get baptized and he was SO happy that he could finally be baptized!!! I was so happy for him! 

I’m going into the last 12 weeks of my mission and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I dropped off 2 sisters at the train station today that are going home and I almost cried just thinking that I will be doing that soon. I try not to think about it too often though!  

I watched the CES devotional from Elder Nelson this morning and it was amazing!! I love how much we can learn from just an hour of an apostle teaching. He does something really cool at the end of his devotional. He says that he blesses everyone who listens to the devotional as if he has his hands on our heads. It always amazes me how powerful the priesthood is! 

Sorry my email was all over the place today! But I love you all and I hope you have a good week! Pray that Sister Kronwitter and I will have a great week and that we can find our way around this huge city!! 

Liebe Grüße, Sister St. John

 Hadi and Koroush!

 The ward missionaries and a YSA who really likes us. She liked our song we sang on Christmas Eve and called us the hipster band. Hence the "hipsterish" photo!

 Spanish talent show night!

 Only in Hamburg!

 Me with Sister Garcia! We roomed together in the MTC!

Sisters at the Spanish night!

Monday January 11, 2016 Hamburg, Germany

Hallo!! Weather update over here... rainy, snowy, humid and cold. However... I have nothing to complain about cause I read Ben Spencer’s email and they are trudging around in -25 degrees C! So, no complaints here! 

The weeks seem to go by faster and faster! Which scares me...because not that I'm counting... but I only have 13 weeks left! AH!!! Making study plans for the rest of my mission was weird! 

Dienstag: We decided we needed to get our lives in order and so we made a list of everyone that we could possibly be teaching. It's a pretty long list! We also finished planning a theme for ZTM later that day. We had Zone training meeting and it was the most spiritual ZTM I've had in a long time. Maybe it was just because we had a theme so we got to plan and study stuff for it, but it was awesome! Elders gave a theme on the Book of Mormon, we gave one on the 3rd lesson super focused on the Atonement. We also had interviews over the internet with President. Technology is cool!! Then, we had tausch with the other sisters that serve is Hamburg! I went with Sister Porter who is being trained in the moment! I LOVE her!! It was a fun night! 

Mittwoch: Sister Porter and I had a fantastic time trying to navigate Hamburg! Ha! But we did some good work, found a few less actives, they weren't home of course. We also ate at Brother Stephens! Soul food this week! So rice and sauce with all sorts of stuff in it! Soooo good! Especially when it’s cold outside! Also, Sister Porter is awesome and brought me so much excitement! She is being trained and has the best outlook on a mission! I wish I could go back and take my motivation and place it into my work here. Later that night we tausched back and went to institute. Also! Stig was there! The little Asian guy that just came into the church! 

Donnerstag: Went by on some more less actives and tons of contacts. We have a few African contacts that we needed to give to the Elders. So we went to their business and not kidding you...we walked into a room with like 20 black guys. I've never felt so short and so white in my life! Ha! But they are cool and we invited them all to soccer on Samstag! Then, later that day we tausched again with the Stade Sisters. I went to Stade and went with Sister Rückauer. She was my STL before we came here and I love her! We are also the same age out on our missions and so we talked a lot about how we are kind of just worn out. Always having to motivate ourselves, don't have that same super good excitement that we see in trainee's! OH! This day we also ate with a family that are from Ecuador! They are so cute and we taking their 15 year old daughter with us this next Samstag! 

Freitag: In Stade, we went through and called all the contacts in their area book. Sis. Rückauer had a really good conversation with someone and it was awesome!! Then, we tausched back and we started to do Weekly Planning. 

Sammstag: We had a lesson with Rene. We haven't seen him for like a month! The ward thought it was a good idea if we handed over Rene to the Elders. So...we did. Really sad because I have a love for these people. It's hard to let them go. Then, we went to Lübeck to see a baptism! It was an investigator that Sis. Sorensen taught! I love baptisms! 

Sonntag: CHURCH!!!! You know how much I love it!! We had an eating appointment and ate some kind of pork as usual. 

Today we are going to see a famous church with a less active girl that’s 18 and just moved into our ward. She's cool and I'm excited!! 

You know...my focus has this last past month basically been on myself...and that's not where it should be. Especially on a mission! I've made a goal (surprise) to say at least one prayer every day that is just praying for other people. So far it's been helping me to just enjoy my mission more. Because then I'm not so worried about myself. Weird how that works right? 

Also, a little fun fact. Sister Sorensen has a guitar with her and she plays a lot when we have lunch or dinner breaks and it is AWESOME!! 1- because that's how it always was at home! And 2- it's like having my own personal radio! 

I hope you have a wonderful week this week!! We have a super busy week and will be headed to Berlin again for tausch with the Sister Training Leader Trainers! 

Remember that if you aren't happy, service always works!! 

Love you!! 
Liebe Grüße, Sister St. John

 Back with my comp finally! We had a movie night! #legacy

 Sister Porter & Me...can you tell we get along?

Sister Ruckauer & me on tausch!

Monday January 4, 2016 Hamburg, Germany

Well well well...looks like we are all now writing 2016 on our papers. Weird! Well, let me just start out with my goals for this year. I decided that I needed to make goals for the rest of my mission and then later for what I'm going to do when I get home from my mission. So...for the next three and a half months (which is not long by the way...) for my Health Goal I want to go back to my weight of when I came out on my mission. To do that I need to drop 10 pounds. Not so hard right? Just kidding! I've got an eating appointment every other day! Ha! So...plans to achieve this goal are as follows...Eat a fruit and/or a Veggie each day. (I live like a college student so I have a problem with this) Only eat during allotted meal times. This is hard for me because I just want to eat EVERYTHING when I get home and when I'm studying! Next, my Mental Goal. I want to read my German in Review book all the way through and actually understand it. It's a $200 college book that they gave us at the MTC. Last and probably the most important is my Spiritual Goal. I'm in Alma of the Book of Mormon in German right now and I want to finish it before I go home! Which will make it twice through on my mission in German! Next is keeping a better up to date journal. I want to write in it at least 3 times a week! 

So, I’m actually excited for my goals! And I like making goals now! 

So, let’s see if I can remember my week. It's kind of a blur.

Monday- while I was writing my email a guy came into the church and wanted a Book of Mormon!  So in my soccer clothes we made out an appointment and later that day he came to FHE at the church and got to know a few members! 

Dienstag: We dropped by the Bishop’s daughter because it was her birthday. We also went by on a few less actives. Then we went to Brother Stephens. He basically makes an all you can eat pancake bar and it's a competition every week! Sis. Sorensen beat the sister’s record this week and ate 9 pancakes!! Atta girl! Then, we made our way to hauptbahnhof and went to BERLIN for MLC! And guess what?! We got to stay over with Sister Medley and Sister Brimm who just happen to be our best friends on the mission! So that was a lot of fun!! 

Mittwoch: we were in a 6 hour long meeting! It was actually really good and fun to be involved in our mission! Then, we just left after and came back. 

Donnerstag: We had a baptism in our ward for a little 8 year old Spanish boy! SO cute! It’s fun because the Spanish elders translate from German to Spanish! Then we ate and had a fiesta! Really really good food! Later that night we tried to go by on a member and it got dangerous because of fireworks and Germans are CRAZY!! So...we headed back to the church and partied with some young single adults...until 9:30 and then we went home, planned and went to bed. Sis. Sorensen woke me up at 12 and we have a sky window so we watched some pretty big fireworks go off for a little while. 

Freitag: We got ready for a 5k!! President said it would be a good way to start off the New Year! Our zone leaders are awesome and they made it super spiritual and had us do stuff with the "Becoming a consecrated missionary" talk! We filled out a work sheet and taped everything we were going to give up to a heavy rock. We then had to carry this rock with us as we ran. Just past half way we had another spiritual thought and got to throw our rocks into the river and run the rest without them! We then went the "extra mile" and got to play soccer with our zone! Super cool!! But just a side note...I was about to die at the end! We finished the day off with some great weekly planning in our FREEZING apartment! 

Samstag: We went by some more less actives. No one is ever home, or always has no interest. By the way...it was about 20 degrees this day! We then had a lesson with the man we met on Monday! He's from china and somehow found a Book of Mormon in a mobile book store! Super cool and kein Zufall (no coincidence)! We then went by on some more less actives and it was SO SO SO cold! My legs were numb! And yes, I was wearing like as many layers as possible! I’ll send you pictures. We then had a lesson with Andrea. A less active. She's doing ok, but not making any progress in the moment.

Sontag: Church! Spiritually uplifting wonderfulness!! Then, we ate with the Rade couple. They are super nice and we had American bread(gross) with butter, ham, pineapple, and Kraft cheese melted on top. It was fast Sunday so it tasted good. Then...we planned to go plan our lesson for ZTM however, I decided that we should go by on just a couple less actives before we went home. So...we did. No success. However...we came across a few things that were funny! It was FREEZING like literally the water on the ground was turning to ice before our eyes. And we needed to go to kaltenbergen Straße! Ha! It means Cold Mountain. 1. There was no mountain 2. It was indeed cold and WINDY!! Reminded me of home. We then came home and I've never been so grateful for hot chocolate! 

Today was also really good! I helped the Elders sew buttons onto their sweaters, we went shopping, I got some new boots because mine are falling apart. Which, by the way prooves that I’ve been walking a lot because I NEVER wear out shoes.) I also ate my favorite thing here in Germany which is German bread and some cream cheese stuff with herbs in it! Otherwise known as Abendbrot;) 

Remember to not give up on your yearly goals yet! Look at them frequently and remember to just take things day by day! Everything will work out if we are keeping the commandments! I love you all so much! 

Frohes Neues Jahr (Happy New Year)!! 

Liebe Grüße, Sister St. John

PS. Thanks Missy for the peanut butter, Wheat thins and Pillow!! They are all AWESOME!!! 

 

A grainy picture of us by Kaltenbergen (cold mountain)

We cleaned up the park after we threw our bad habits in the river that looks more like a lake! Hamburg is pretty!

 Us on the way to Berlin. Missionaries are awkward!

Us with some food at the Christmas Markt!

Brother Stephens holding pictures of his parents!

Mission Leadership Council! 

Cool new jersey - straight from El Salvador! Thank you Zack! I like things with my last name on the back! And the 12 is because I look like I'm 12:)

How we look and how everyone looks walking around!

Some really nice houseboats on the river by our church!

In Berlin for the Mission Leadership Council

Monday December 28, 2015 Hamburg, Germany

Well Landsleute (compatriots)...Christmas is come and gone. Luckily for me I got to celebrate it for 2 extra days than everyone else because Germany really likes Christmas! And...I cannot believe that It will be 2016 this week! Really...I sometimes accidently still write 2012 in my journal!

Now...Let’s see if I can remember what I even did this week! 

 

Deinstag: We practiced a song with the Elders that we sang for our Christmas devotional on the 24th! I'll try to send you a video because we actually sound pretty good. Then...we went by on a few less actives. Sadly only one was home and she slammed the door in our faces and said "Kein Intresse!!" (no interest) Sad, really. Then, we had a lesson with an investigator named Nicola. She's been meeting with the sisters for like 20 years! Crazy. However...she doesn't know a lot about the temple yet! So, lucky for me (because it's my favorite topic to talk about) we got to talk a little about temples and why they are important. 

 

Mittwoch: We had to go and buy a lot of candy so we could help the Elders staple candy to cards. We also stamped like 300 cards this morning. BECAUSE...later that day we went as a zone and did a little Ausstellung (not really sure what that is in English...like a display or something) where we had all of the missionaries sing in the middle of Hamburg, and the 3 missionaries that weren't singing were giving out cards. Total this night we gave out 200 cards with candy on them, and then 1100 cards just plain!! It was AWESOME!!! I’ve never seen anything like that! So we are hoping that we can get a few referrals from that experience! And if not, then at least we spread some joy throughout Hamburg!! 

 

Donnerstag: Heilige Abend!! The big Christmas day here in Germany!! We had District meeting! We did white elephant and an awesome theme on the atonement! Then, we had our Christmas devotional and the missionaries sang! It wasn't a typical missionary song...it was kind of actually hipster! Ha! The ward loved it though!! Then, we went over to Bishops house! We ate half a duck each, some Klöße, Rotkohl and then opened presents!! Fun night! 

 

Freitag: CHRISTMAS!!!! We woke up 10 mins early. Called the Elders, sang them a Christmas song, called Sister Medley and Brim, then Sister Henrie and Curry! Ha! Then, we opened our presents from our packages!! AWESOME!!! I got the biggest thing of peanut butter I've ever seen!! I couldn't be happier! Then, we went to the Johnsons. The senior missionary couple that serves here! They cooked fried chicken, green beans and baked potatoes! Then...we went to the Pontig familie! We played Yahtzee and guess what?! I WON!!! I got three Yahtzee’s in one game! Who does that?! Then, we skyped! Which was of course awesome as well! It was my last skype which felt weird! 

 

Samstag: We did weekly planning! Then, we met with the Leiß familie!! Played a sweet game of Uno with tons of different rules! Lots of fun! 

 

Sonntag: Church. Fantastic as always! Then another eating appointment! Then, we visited this family from America! They are non-members! And...guess what? The little 12 year old got a sewing machine for Christmas and she or her mom doesn't know how to sew. SO...I got to offer my help and hopefully go sew sometime! We also almost had a less active call the police on us for coming by. Which doesn't make sense because they are the ones that let us in. Whatever. People make me sad sometimes. 

 

Today!! I just got done with playing soccer for 2 hours with like 20 German boys. Colten would have fit in well! It was fun! 

 

Well, I'm going to work on some goals this week. I'm reading a few talks about goal setting and I'm going to make extra good plans so that I actually achieve my goals! I want to make goals for my physical well-being, my spiritual, and my mental! It will be good I hope! Have a wonderful week and a Happy New Year!! 

 

Liebe Grüße (loving greetings) Sister St. John

 Christmas caroling

 Fried chicken on Christmas!

 Typical Hamburg

 The tree!

 We got pancake mix from the Johnsons!

Christmas morning!

Monday December 21, 2015 Hamburg, Germany

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!! If you can't tell I'm very very excited for Christmas!! Sister Sorensen and I bought matching Christmas sweaters and pj's. We got Christmas packages and wrapped each other’s up! On the weird side of things...the weather has been really warm like 40 or 50. 

Dienstag: We had the weirdest appointment this day. This Indi couple wanted us to come and practice German with them. So we get there and they have this buffet of fruit there. And we sit down and they start taking pictures of us. We talked German and the woman asked to come to church with us. Ok, then...we had the best Zone training meeting ever!! The Zone leaders did a great job and it was exactly what I needed! Great talks about Christ! This night I left to go on exchanges to Stade! We got to drive under the Elbe (a river in Hamburg) and also drove right by the huge port with the huge boats! I'm in heaven here! 

Mittwoch: Tausch. We ran from appointment to appointment! They have someone being baptized on Saturday and I got to meet him! North Germany looks a lot different than middle Germany. Everything is made out of brick. Also, the sisters there are both from my group so that was fun. I came back home and got to sleep in my own bed! 

Donnerstag: Went on Tausch again! I went to Lübeck and its beautiful!! Look it up! Christmas markt! So pretty! Also, Sister Pickett goes home in 4 weeks. She went to my high school and we had some classes together. It was so fun to talk about home because we both know Spanish Fork. She's really good though and is a good example to me about how to stay focused on her mission even though she goes home so soon! 

Freitag: Came back to Hamburg. Did weekly planning and that's about it.

Samstag: We went to the Stade Sisters Baptism. It was actually in our church. So that was nice! It’s so nice and refreshing to see baptisms! It just gives me hope, and the Spirit is SO strong there! We also went and visited this older less active lady. Helped her feed her 30 birds and sang some Christmas songs for her. Sister Sorensen can play the guitar, so we take it around every day and do a little 15 min Christmas program for the people that we visit! Scriptures and songs:) I love the Christmas season! 

Sontag: It’s crazy how huge the chapel is and how little the amount of people is. There are 400 members on the list...but 80 active! Crazy! We are working on it! Then, we went with the Elder and Sch. Whipple to the Whipple’s house. Sch. Whipple is awesome and was helping us hand out cards on the way there! She took some cards from us and was just giving them to everyone! So we start doing it like she did. Then, we get on the U bahn and Sis. Sorensen has her guitar with her. The bahn is packed! The member told us to get out the guitar and sing a Christmas song... so long story short. Peer pressure is sometimes good and we broke out in song on the bahn. Wished everyone a merry Christmas, gave everyone cards and got off. Scariest thing I've ever done in my life! But we found a good way to give out the card for Christmas! "eine kleine Weihnachts Grüße! frohe Weihnachten! (a small Christmas greeting, Merry Christmas!)" works like a charm! Sch. Whipple also gave me a tip. She said, "You are cute, and people can’t get mad at you when you are cute. So just talk to people." I guess I need to use my "cuteness" a little more! Ha! 

Well, this week I've been studying Jesus the Christ...cause the new testament was just not going deep enough for me! So, there was a paragraph and it listed off all of the names that are given to Christ. Our ipads are cool and you can look up definitions of words. So I decided to do that for all of the names. It was really interesting because all the names are so different but they were all just parts of Christ. When you put them all together it explains him perfectly. 

Remember to make this Christmas MERRY and BRIGHT!!! 

Love, Dasher Dancer Prancer and Vixon, Comet and Cupid and Doner and Blitzen! And Rudolf!! And Sister St. John

 Christmas Markt done right!

 Hamburg is beautiful and the food I'm holding was really good!

 Beautiful Rat house

 Pizza after Zone training meeting

 Tausch with Sister Pickett!

Stade Tausch!