Monday May 25, 2015 Gera, Germany

Monday May 25, 2015

Hallo! Seems to me like we have all had a busy week! I did fit everything into my suitcases which is a miracle in of itself! We had a really fun couple of P-days with Schwester Keiser! She took us to see those big trees that grow all crazy. And I guess they only grow in a strip of Europe! So that was cool! Also, that windmill was built a long time ago by Napoleons brother who was king in that part of Germany for a while! Then this past week we went to a castle the Schaumburg Schloss! The Elders came with us, so that was fun! Then we had 3 eating appointments. I almost threw up! Way too much food! But then....

Deinstag: we finished packing. Lugged our stuff down all 4 flights of stairs by ourselves. Got dropped off at bahnhof (train station) and were on our way! We traveled to Leipzig with Elder Thomas, and elder Benitz who is German! So that was fun to talk to him about American food and stuff! We then went from Leipzig to Gera. We met the Elders who were serving here in Gera and they showed us to our HUGE apartment! This is a weird
situation because this area was part of the Frankfurt mission. But it got added into the Leipzig stake, so our mission took it over. Rules are a lot different in our mission, (we have a German president. Things are stricter.)  So the members are still trying to get used to all the new rules! But yeah. The Elders showed us around. We went to a geminde abbend (?), met some members, and an investigator Lucy! She's awesome, and 20. So young! She is on baptismal date for February! A long time away...we are working on moving it. She has a hard situation with one of her roommates. But yeah. Gera is good! We live 1 hour away by train from our church, and also our Elders.

Mittwoch: The Elders showed us around a little more. We had English class and then then we met up with some other Elders, they switched companions so that Frankfurt missionaries were now with Frankfurt missionaries, and Berlin with Berlin. We then went with our Berlin missionaries to teach an investigator Pascal! He is on baptismal date for August! He just has to get married, and stop smoking! They have a wedding date! So that's good!

Donnerstag: We went finding! Cleaned (it was an Elder’s apartment) and we found a new investigator! Not while cleaning...but while finding! His name is Michael. We set up an appointment for Samstag. Then Lucy showed us around Gera a little bit.

Freitag: we had ZTM in Werdau which is where our ward building is. We got IPADS! Crazy! We had to spend a lot of time trying to get them set up. They are really cool! They are specially made for the church! They came with a bunch of apps already on them! Cool! We can't use Facebook yet. But hopefully soon! It took us forever to get home because our trains kept falling out! We didn't have lunch and I was starving! So
we ate, did our studies, and went to bed. We do a lot of traveling as missionaries!

Samstag: We helped a member in her garden. That was fun! We met with Lucy. Very complex situation, but we will try to get her baptized soon. She's very involved! More than some members actually! We then met with Michael. He is a little socially awkward...but we are too so it all works out! He said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He was very open to everything we were teaching. We then had weekly planning. My FAVORITE part of the week! Ha! But it was good, because we got to get caught up on the area.

Sonntag: Schwester Dörlitz picked us up and we drove the prettiest drive I've ever made to church! We are in the Thüringen forest! It's the green heart of Germany! Very pretty! Church was good! The members we're excited to get Sisters! They haven't had Sisters in these cities for a really long time! Bishop is President’s nephew. He called us one day and we thought it was President because he sounds just like him. President’s brother is also in our ward. We serve with two really good Elders. Elder Young, who goes home in August, and Elder Thompson, who reminds me of Dad! There is a little separation in our ward because they just joined 3 branches into one ward three weeks ago! The Gera members got all offended that the people in Werdau wanted us over for lunch! We will have to work on that. I've lived in wards where they have split and been added to, so hopefully I can help a little! Oh! And we found another new investigator! She already had a Book of Mormon! We are meeting on Deinstag!

Surprise! Today is another holiday! So we are on our iPads at McDonalds emailing! So...that means I don't have pictures this week! I'm sorry! I don't send all the pics I take either! So trust me! I have plenty of pictures of how the places look that I am serving! Gera is the biggest city that Sister Medley has served in. But it's smaller than Halle! We have strassen bahns. And we live on markt! It's really pretty! I’m loving it here!

Sister Medley really thinks that we were put together to serve here! We are on the same page, and are a really good team! We also came from a good ward, so we know what to do for member work! Everything is inspired! We have seen blessings from going the extra mile! Both times we found someone, we could have been home, but because we went the extra mile and went finding, we found people! We are truly blessed when we show that Heavenly Father that we are willing to work!

Love you so much!
Alles liebe Sister St. John

Cassidy's zone with their new iPads!

Monday May 18, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

I’m apologizing right now...this letter will be short! I will make up for it next week. But GUESS WHAT?!  We are closing our area! SO sad! To say the least it was kind of like leaving my home ward...sad. But...WE GET TO STAY TOGETHER!!!! If you can’t tell... I’m excited! And we are whitewashing in Gera. A city in the new Erfort area of our mission! President Kosak’s nephew is going to be our bishop! The interesting thing is that we are taking over an Elder’s program. So we come in both not knowing anything and also living in an Elder’s old apartment! We also have to get almost everything out of our apartment! (Sisters leave EVERYTHING when they go home!) It has been a pain, and some very late nights since we found out only on Friday. I’m very excited though! I don’t know why President trusts us to do this, but I guess the Lord qualifies his servants for the work right? 

This week has just been crazy! We handed off our investigators to the Hannover Sisters, and to our Elders. We met with Elmis, He had TONS of questions! It was cool! He said he would read the Book of Mormon in 2 days. He came to church and sat by the Elders. Turns out...he read the whole book, in 2 days! Who does that?! What a golden investigator! The elders will do good with him! Also, we got a referral from the buro, went by on her! She was friends with some members (do your member work!) and she wanted a Book of Mormon! She has 2 girls! Sad that we don’t get to teach her! But fun that we got a referral! There is not much to update other than that! I have a lot of pics to send! And they are all worth a thousand words! 

PS. we have 4 member appointments today, and one of them is taking us to a castle! That will be fun! 

Love you!! Hope you have a great week! Thanks for your emails and pics! Oh! And tell Savannah that the weather here is really nice! I usually just have to wear a cardigan. No tights. Sometimes it rains, but not often! It’s like in the 60's! 

Love, Sister St. John 

Note from Mom: There was recently some realigning between the two missions in Germany. The Berlin, Germany mission received a few cities that are at the bottom of this map and make up the new Leipzig Sud area. This was especially exciting because Cassidy's Mission President's father and siblings all live in this area! Cassidy will be in the "pink" area in the city Gera.

 Our apartment. Don't judge. We are a mess these few days.

Sister Peters & us.

Some of the young men. 

Typish German! Last P-Day was fun!

Monday May 11, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Hallo!! How are you? Talking to you yesterday was great! I’m so so glad that skype worked! We made sure to write it down in our member book to always skype at the Metzig’s house! I wish you could have met them. But they were skyping their daughter. Anyway...I hope you learned a few new things, and I hope it wasn’t too boring for you. I feel like all my little details aren’t very exciting, but maybe it’s just because it’s normal life for me now. So wie so....
Montag: We practiced our music. And our appointment fell out for that night. Schade! But, it’s alright. We will get another appointment with him soon. 

Dienstag: We had a White Day (no appointment day) so...we decided to do what any missionary would do, and go finding. But we also decided to go on a few contacts. Grace, who we found on the street a few weeks ago, told us she didn’t have any time as she was smoking inside her house, with her 3 month old baby in her arms... :( We then went by Frau Wolf, she is 95 and we are working on her for the Spirit World! She likes to talk about the Cosmos. She was also very upset because some of the old people in her home were eating chicken legs for lunch and she couldn’t believe that they would eat meat off the bone like that! “Sie haben es rein gebissen!” (They have bitten it clean!) Kind of funny! But sad at the same time! She likes reading, so we gave her a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon. We also went by Schwester Oschiena. She is also 95, but a member. We sung for her, and she just kind of laughed at us! Then we went by Schwester Ruf who made us strawberries and some really good whipped cream! Also, Brudder Klinge was there. They have been friends since kindheit (childhood)! Then... we went to the Graffs, they have us over every other week! The food is always interesting, BUT!! They made this ice cream and it was SO SO good! It is just vanilla ice cream from the store, then they mash up avocado and stir it in! Trust me mom, you would love it! 

Mittwoch: A strike was going one for Deutscher Bahn. The trains that take us everywhere! So...that makes missionary work hard! But, manageable! We had distrikt meeting, then went to back factory. The McDonalds of bakeries here in Germany. We saw a member there and he ate with us! We then did studies and then Gemi Co. I’m sorry, but meetings are SO boring! Wednesdays are not my favorite. But its ok, because they are necessary I guess! 

Donnerstag: We visited schwester Phillippen. She is a cute old lady and likes talking about her recipes. We then had English class, where I learn more about English then the Russian ladies do I think! We then made cookies (the weather was bad and we needed service hours) and we made like 5 batches of chocolate chip cookies. It was fun! And then we delivered them to people! Good service! 

Freitag: Weekly planning! Woohoo!! But we made it quick! So that was good! We also went by on Grace again, because she said we should come back on Friday! She wasn’t home sadly. We also had Geminde Sport! I’m living Colten’s dream and playing Soccer with a bunch of German guys! It’s pretty fun to watch. 

Samstag: We had a 2 hour train ride to Hameln. We ate a Döner! SO good! And we visited Irean, who is Russian. She made us eat so much candy! And also talked to us about the Law of Chastity made sure we were keeping it. Funny, because she’s not a member of our church! We also then visited Fana! She asked us for clothes last time we talked on the phone, and so we brought some from our apartment that we had laying around. She was SO happy! I love service! 

Sontag: Church!! And guess what?! We had an investigator there!! I told you this in German, but I don’t think you understood, because you weren’t very excited! But his name is Elmis! He’s an older Turkish guy that we talked to for like 5 minutes on Friday! You never know who is prepared! He asked us for a Book of Mormon, a Bible, and an appointment after church! Sweet!! It was sister Medleys first time ever with an investigator at church! So that was really exciting! Then, we skyped! SO fun! And...the zone leaders called us and asked if we could give a 15 minute thema in zone training meeting this week. It’s in German...not excited. I get really nervous for things like this! Dang! But it’s ok!

This week I really have been trying to pay attention to things that matter. It’s cool to see how happy I get over the little things that matter! How serving people, and just the simple things always help me be happy! Remember to live in the moment! Don’t dwell on the past, or the future! Live in the moment! Love every moment! 

Love, Sister St. John

A field of raps - from the train. 

 Waterloo monument in Hannover (I dont really know what it is or why its important. It just is cool. and I had the waterloo song from mama mia stuck in my head all day!)

*The Waterloo square was built at the beginning of the 19th century together with the Waterloo column. Both served to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Waterloo, by the troops of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1815 against Napoleon.

Top of the Waterloo

 Rat Haus (Town Hall) in Hannover  

Sisters in the district 

Sister Medley & Me

I play the cello! 

Typical Sunday night! Abend Brot, and a (church) movie in German! 

Monday May 4, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Thanks for your updates! The Payson temple is beautiful and it might be my new favorite! Spring is definitely in the air! Everything here is green! I’ve never seen things so green in my life! 
Woche (week)....
Montag: We practiced our music that we will be doing next Sunday! Where Can I Turn For Peace? I thought that was better than Love at Home for Mother’s Day. (Mom, you should kind of think that’s funny!) 

Deinstag: We opened the door to our apartment, all the way up on 4th floor, and our bags of glass bottles that we put in the garbage outside were returned to our door. SO embarrassing because we don’t know how to recycle here! And someone from our apartment building saw us, or knew it was us and brought them all the way up to return it! SO funny! We came back later that night and there was a nice (not so nice) note for us telling us how to throw away our garbage. Germans. We went on Tausch (exchange)! I was here with Sister Walker. Leider (unfortunately)...we didn’t take a picture! I really learned a lot from her about following the Spirit! 

Mittwoch: We had interviews with President today. I love him! I cried...he teared up. It was our last interview with him. He is like my dad out here on the mission! He asked Sister Medley how it was working with his "little princess" and when he called me in for his interview he asked where his "little lightning" was. He's pretty funny and Sister Medley and I have been having fun quoting him lately. My favorite thing in my interview that President said to me was that He would send his children across the plains with me! That right there is one of the biggest compliments he could have given me! Sometimes I just need a little reminder that I am good! 

Donnerstag: We taught English to the 3 old Russian ladies. That’s always fun. Then we had Distrikt meeting. I had a spiritual thought, and DM is always a little boring, so I decided to share a funny spiritual thought. In Proverbs 28:25 it says something about trust in the lord and you will be made fat. So I shared that scripture and told everyone that we gain weight on a mission because we are trusting in the lord. Everyone laughed! It was pretty funny! But then, of course I bore my testimony about trusting in the Lord in all things. He knows what is best for us, and in the end, we will be happier if we just trust in him. 

Freitag: It was a holiday. Not sure why, or which one, but it was. We ate at a member’s house, then we practiced music again, (I was a little rusty on the piano) and then we went by on some contacts.

Samstag: We went to Hameln. It takes 2 hours by train, so we got some good German study in, and also some good naps. We met with Fana. We were planning on showing the restoration video, but she didn’t have a dvd player. (We need the iPads) but we had a good lesson anyway. We also were dooring apartment buildings. This guy let us in and we go up like 3 flights of stairs to then see him in just his underwear, standing in the door way. He was old, on the fatter side, and hairy. Awesome. Missionary work is awkward! (Another word they don’t have a translation for in German) but it makes for funny stories! 

Sontag: We went to church, then ate by the Stake President! He looked a little like Pres. Uchtdorf! Very German. It was really fun, and I had just been fasting so it was like the best food I’ve ever eaten! Chili (not spicy) over rice. (They don’t really eat soup on its own here) And bread! And then ice cream! Which is my favorite here in Germany! I like it way better than America! 

Sorry it was a little shorter today than last week! But this week we talked to more people than I think I have ever talked to in Stadthagen! We made it a goal to go finding where ever we are going! It’s been really good, and I feel as we show more effort into this work, then Heavenly father shows more effort on his part! I think that goes with everything in life. When we put all our effort, really ALL that we can do, Heavenly Father will bless us with what we need to help us get through! I’ve really learned that we can do anything and everything with his help! No matter how crazy it sounds! We can do it! I’ve also been studying a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" By Lawrence E. Corbridge. It is one of the best talks I have ever read! It really has changed my attitude around, and I think it will change my mission! You should read it if you haven’t already! Or, if you have, you should read it again! 

Follow the Spirit, try to recognize how it talks to you! I love you so much! Have a great week! I will talk to you in a few days!! Love you!! 

Sister St. John

(Note from mom: these are all unedited pictures which means...it is really pretty there right now!)

 Sunsets, I still love them!

 These yellow flowers are all over! Fields and fields of them! They are called raps and they make oil out of them for cooking! But they are beautiful! 

Just a few pictures of me.

Plus a selfie!

Just one more! Sorry that these are all the pictures that we took this week!

Monday April 27, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Nichts und Alles (anything and everything)

Wow our yard! So cool! We have so much land. No one has a yard that big, or close to that big here! And Chalis’ babies! SO cute! Colten’s birthday! Fun fun! I miss that cake! All German cake has fruit in or on it. Thanks for all the emails and fun updates. Now for this crazy packed full week, but also, I feel like I’ve done nothing!

Montag: We have a lot of time because we don’t have to spend forever emailing! So... Elder Thomas wrote us a song (yes wrote) so me and sister Medley can play the piano and cello together. I’m obviously playing the cello! Just kidding. But I did try it and its fun! I just need a smaller one! We also went over to Schwester Dietrich's house. She’s a cute little old lady who told us every story I think she could remember. She has a very strong testimony and she loves to do genealogy work. She has a strong relationship to her cousins (they don’t have a word for all cousins put together! you have to say if it’s a boy cousin, or a girl cousin! it’s one of the annoying words in German) which is really cool to see because I want that really bad too!

Dienstag: In the morning after studies we went by a member Schwester Metzig! She broke her rib a week ago because she was riding her horse, it got spooked and fell over on top of her. Luckily, nothing else was broken! But, we brought her flowers and visited with her. She speaks English with us, just because she likes to. She is really nice and we had a good visit. While we were there we got a text that the Deutscher Bahns (German buses/trains) were going to be on strike on Wednesday and Thursday. The day that we were headed to Berlin! So we had to change our ticket along with almost everyone else in Stadthagen that was planning on going anywhere. Strikes are funny here because they tell everyone when they are going on strike, and then some of the trains still run. So we changed our ticket and then tried to do some finding in Bükeburg. No success! So we prayed and we felt like we needed to be in Stadthagen, so we came and one of the only people on the street was a mom with two kids. She didn’t speak much German, but she invited us over to her house this next week so we could tell her more about Jesus! Cool! I love little things that happen like that! We then went to The Familie Grafs house. The missionaries are over there every week, because they invite us! It’s very nice, and they want us to have a good relationship with their kids. (They are all teenagers) Bruder Graf wasn’t there, but he drove past and stopped his car and got out to talk to us. I asked him how we was and he started crying. He is going through a hard time and has some health problems with his heart that he is scared about. He told us thanks for coming over to his family every week because they really need the extra support. I love helping people. Being a missionary is worth it because of these small things! It meant so much to me, that he would tell us his struggles so we could know how to better help their family!

Mittwoch: Schwester Metzig invited us over to do service, because she has a broken rib and can’t do anything. So we went over...in jeans...on our BIKES!! It was too big for me (surprise!) and I swore that I will NEVER do that in a skirt! Way too dangerous for me trying to get on and off! Sister Medley got a pretty good laugh from me trying to get on and off. But the service was good. We did a lot of cleaning and weed pulling (it wasn’t a magic garden like ours!) We then had our gemi co and Gemeinde Rat. Also...it was my 6 month mark! And earth day. Good thing I helped the earth and pulled weeds! :)

Donnerstag: This was a day packed full of a lot of stuff! We picked up a driver’s license for Sister Sibley that served here before me, then we taught English, then we practiced our song that we are doing in sacrament meeting sometime, then we packed for our overnighter in Berlin! (AH!) And then we went on a pretty crowded train to Hannover, then to Berlin. It takes a long time! Like 3 hours with trains going 200 km/h! We got to Berlin and stayed with 8 other sisters in the sister training leader’s apartment! It was really fun! We made pizza and talked! The usual for girls.

Freitag: BERLIN!! We got the church at 8 along with 250 other missionaries. 2 members of the 70 were there! Elders Nielson and Kearon. We talked for a while about iPads and how we will use them in our work. We got some pamphlets with guidelines and safety things so we don’t get into things we shouldn’t. They said that our mission is one of the most obedient missions in the whole world! President Kosak does a good job at keeping us in line! :) One thing they said that stuck out to me is that getting iPads in Germany is revelation. We need to be able to communicate with these "well off" people and share the gospel in a way that they will respond well to. It thought that was cool! Also, this iPad vision is pretty cool! They will one day use them in the MTC and have language learning apps even before you enter the MTC! Cool! We didn’t get iPads today because they didn’t ship enough of them. But I’m glad because that would have been overwhelming. It was a great meeting. But...one of my favorite parts was that it got over early and so we had like 3 hours in Berlin! WHAT?! I got to talk to all the missionaries that I’ve served with and met some new people. It was cool! I’ll send you pictures! Elder Silver (remember him?) knew how to get to the Brandenburg Gate, so he kind of led a tour of a few missionaries over there before we had to get on a train. It was SO cool! I have pics of it too! Don’t worry! Then we headed home and it took forever. And we couldn’t sit next to each other because the train was full! Lame!

Samstag: We helped a less active family move along with the rest of the ward. It took a long time because nothing was packed, or cleaned. People...but it was fun and I got to wear jeans again, so I wasn’t complaining! :) We also did weekly planning! That dad...is where we make ALL of our phone calls for appointments, we plan the outline of our week, we plan what we are going to teach investigators, make goals, etc. In preach my gospel chapter 8 (orange section) is where you can find what we are supposed to do. It takes a long time but, its good because we are planned. We also made chicken roll ups!

Sontag: Church! I sat by the youth (they don’t sit with their families, kind of weird) because we had no investigators at church, and I want to get to know the youth better. Anyway, they are fun and all really good kids! Our ward is big and it’s SO hard for me to remember names, especially when we call each other Brother and Sister. But, it’s fun to get to know someone new every week. We then ate by the Hägel familie. Then we visited an investigator that is 95! She was a referral from a member, we are preparing her for the spirit world. She is cool! She is still going, doesn’t even have a walker! She talks a lot about the plan of salvation and asks a lot of questions. It was cool! I like hearing all the old people’s stories. She was a teenager during WWII! I can’t even imagine going through a life like she has!

So, we did a lot, but we also didn’t do very much! It really is the small and simple things that make being on a mission worth it! Praying, and getting answers. Building relationships with missionaries, members and investigators! I’m loving it and doing great! Love you so much! Also, Hauptmann Moroni is one of my favorite people in the BOM! He was so prepared and helped his people so much! Plus the war chapters in the BOM are way better in German! They sound cool! Kampf, Schwert, Hauptmann, Krieg. All sound better than fight, sword, captain, and war! Learning a different language is cool! It’s still not all here, but it’s coming! The Lord qualifies his servants!

Love, Sister St. John 

Missionary Training in the digital age - Berlin with Elders Kearon & Nielson (Cassidy is on the second row)

A river in Berlin (we have no idea why there are people watching on the side)

Elder Whitiker - he's Kaia & Jace's cousin!

The German Capitol building

A WWII Memorial in Berlin

Some other cool thing in Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate 

 

 

Me & Sister Medley

Remember these missionaries?! Sister Garcia, Sister Isrealsen, Me, Elder Gerlach, Elder Westbury, Elder Clements! 6 months baby!!

Elder Silver and me...Please just enjoy the awkward Elder/Sister pictures! 

 Roommates reunited!

Selfie with us and the Elders 

 A selfie during planning 

Me on my big bike!

Monday April 20, 2015 Stadthagen, Germany

Hallo! Sounds like it’s been a pretty busy week for you guys! Spring was always my favorite, especially because school was SO close to getting out! Feel lucky kids, they only get 6 weeks for summer break here in Germany! I think we get a little more than that! Na Ja.

Stadthagen! Oh it’s wonderful! Spring is in the air, and all is bright and sunny (most days)! Sometimes I start singing the "Oh what a beautiful morning…" you know that one that Grandpa Stewart always sung? But I have to stop myself every time because I can only remember the version of it where he swears... :) I'll make my own missionary edition soon! So dad asked for some differences. I’m sure you can see some of the differences in the pictures, but, one difference here is that none of our investigators live in Stadthagen, and a lot of our members don’t either. They live in other little Dorfs (towns) around Stadthagen. Getting investigators to come to church is harder. We travel a lot by bus and big trains. It takes a long time, but it’s the only way to get places! The members feed us a lot more here (just because there is more of them) we have a GML, and like 3 ward missionaries. We have had a joint teach with every investigator we have met with! It’s been awesome! We work with the youth a lot too! We do doors more often. I’m not a huge fan of door finding because I’m not very good at it, and it’s just awkward for me. Not that everything I do as a missionary isn’t awkward for me, but ya know, it’s just more awkward. I like street finding! But it’s not very effective, unless we go to a bigger city. Other differences...I can’t really think of them! It’s just like the difference from Salt Lake to Springville. Big to small!

Montag: FHE at the Peter’s house! That was so fun! They have 2 kids at home, Mattis is 17, and Mia is almost 16. We are actually pretty good friends with them because they are really active and come to seminary and a couple other things we do with the youth. Then they have a son on a mission who comes home in a couple months. We had a normal family home evening! We prayed and sang, and then we had a spiritual thought, and then we practiced a song (they like singing) then we ate Abend Brot. Have I ever told you about abend brot? Here they don’t really eat huge amounts for dinner usually. They just eat bread with cheese or soup or something! I like it!

Dienstag: Every day we leave our apartment at 11, having already ate lunch, and then we don’t come back or eat until 18 or 6 at night. Weird schedule, but we are working ALL DAY LONG! It’s fun! We went by on a less active, she’s 95 and looks SO German! Darkish skin, and bright blue eyes. But she’s only less active because she lives in an old folks home. She doesn’t like it there, but she thinks she’s going to die soon so she said for now es geht! (It goes) We then went on a referral from a member! (I love member work!) He answered and said he would love to meet and we could come back next week! Sweet!! Do, your, member, work!! It helps SO much! We also took a language assessment. I’ve improved a lot since the last time I took it!

Mittwoch: We had distrikt meeting and that takes most of the day because it’s in Hannover! And we still have to do our studies afterword! But it was good, and really truly always a good motivation to see other missionaries and know that they are going through some of the same things we are. Then, we taught seminary! Oh it was SO fun!! There are about 10 kids that come! I miss being a youth! It was fun, and also spiritual! I really like teaching through personal experiences. They told me afterword that they really liked that because then they could relate the message to themselves better. Unfortunately we don’t teach every week, and the Elders teach this next week! Then... we had Gemei Co. (ward conference is what it stands for, but it’s just with the ward missionaries, us, and the ward mission leader.) It was very long, and sometimes I think that the ward mission leader doesn’t think we do anything because we don’t have anyone at church. It’s sad! But we are working on it! He has some really crazy ideas, and always asks our mission president for permission, or the stake president and they almost always say no. Sad! But also good because some are pretty extreme! It’s good that we have a GML though!

Donnerstag: We went finding in innen statt (?) for like 30 minutes and guess what?! We found someone!! AH!! She’s 18 and was so excited to meet with us! Luckily we have a lot of youth here so that should be fun for her! We then went to Rentln and had a joint teach with an investigator Helmut! He is the nicest German I’ve ever met! He was really touched by our testimony about the priesthood, and also was impressed with our joint teaches testimony! Joint teaches, I love them! Parents, I know that you’re busy, and that we don’t have a lot of missionaries in Utah, but, if you meet any of them, ask them if they need any joint teaches!

Freitag: We had an appointment inspection and the only thing that is wrong is that our washer won’t spin...so that’s always good. And we have been washing our clothes in just softener! Ha! Not knowing the language! We then taught English class with the three ladies that speak Russian! One is going to America this week! Hopefully she’s not in too much of a culture shock! We then did...guess what? Weekly planning.....meine gute (my goodness)! SO long! I swear I have ADD or something...I cannot sit still! While planning and talking about our members and investigators I had to start playing trash can basketball with chocolate wrappers just to stay focused! I know I don’t have ADD, I just want to get OUT of the apartment! Sister Medley makes fun of me because I can’t sit still in weekly planning! She says I’m like a little kid! But then...we got to teach Activity days!! Oh, So fun! There were like 4 girls there and we taught them what we do during the day, how to plan a lesson, and how to teach. Then we did a role play! It was so fun! They were good teachers too! It was cute to hear them change from their Du sprache (informal, friendly form of German) to their Sie Sprache(respectful, we have to use it as missionaries all the time unless with people younger)!

Samstag: We went by on a "less active." She’s not really less active, but her dad died a few months ago and the ward wants us to go by on her! She is super nice, but still really really sad! We then had another joint teach with Kate (newly married, but went on a mission to England so we take her on English joint teaches) she drove and so we saved a lot of time! We have an investigator in Hameln. She’s African and named Fana. Her family is still in Africa. She told us something horrible happened in her family and her 18 year old sister was escaping their country (like Fana did) but she got caught between the border of Egypt and Israel. The people want a huge amount of money and her mom can’t afford it. But they will most likely kill her sister if they don’t pay. I cannot believe that things like this happen! We talked about prayer and the power of it. She asked us to pray for her sister with her! She was so so sad! We had to leave because she had another appointment! But, Kate had a good idea. It was Fana’s daughter’s birthday and she couldn’t afford a cake or presents so, we ran to the store really quick and bought a cake, some flowers and some small toys for her daughter! We then delivered it! Her face was priceless! She cried and told us thank you a million times! It’s these times that being a missionary is all worth it! Service. Just serve. We then went finding until I felt like I was going to pass out because we hadn’t eaten in so long! So, we bought a Döner (Turkish food!) and it was the best Döner I’ve ever eaten! I was really hungry!

Sonntag: Church! I love church! Then we had another joint teach with an investigator named Alise! We brought Sarah Graf with us. She served a mission in the Alpine mission! She is great! Then we met with Sister Habbermann! She made a good normal German meal. Rotkohl, potatoes, and meat! All swimming in sauce! Pretty good! She is awesome and going to help me fix a dress that’s too big!

This next week is super busy! We are going to Berlin and staying the night with some Sisters there on Thursday, then we will be getting Ipads (I know nothing about them) on Friday and having a LONG conference!

Remember to focus on the little things! They all add up to be big things! I’m doing great and loving every moment! I cannot believe you sent me pepper spray. I’m never going to use it probably! Can you imagine that in a paper?! "Sister missionary pepper sprays someone on the street!" But better safe than sorry! Love you tons!!

Alles Leibe, Sister St. John

 The Church

Street! Looks kind of like Las Vegas where Brittney lives I think 

 Innen Statt in Rentln!

 Sister Medley and me

 A crooked house.

WWII Memorial