Cassidy Nichole: 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