Cassidy Nichole: 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!!!