Yo. Dec 28, 2011


I'm in Deutschland now!!!!!!!!!! And guess what. It's cold here. Ha.


So here's a play by play of my travels:
We flew to Minnesota and then to Amsterdam and then to Berlin. In case you were wondering, having a cold and being in an airplane is like the WORST experience ever. I still can't hear because my ears are all messed up. But the flights weren't so bad and I'm glad to be done with that.


We were greeted by our Mission President and his wife at the airport. I decided I really like being greeted in English, particularly when I don't speak the language of the country. They took us to a church building, had us pack a small bag for a couple days, and we left our luggage there. Then we went to the mission office and did some paperwork. Did you know I'm a licensed minister now? I can marry people! So if you want to get married, come to Germany and I will do it.


Anyway, we chilled there for awhile then we went to our hotel and ate dinner. Eating German food is exhausting. You're expected to eat SO MUCH FOOD and I can't do it. I'm going to die here. Then we went to bed at 7pm. You better believe it.


So we're doing things a little differently because we're waiting on some missionaries coming from the MTC in England (they're native German speakers from Austria and Switzerland) so we're chilling with the Mission President today and we won't go to our areas until tomorrow. Pray that I get a native German or Austrian or Swiss trainer!!!


Alright, I'll email again on Monday. I love you. I pray for all of you. And I hope your Christmas was amazing!!!


Ich liebe y'all.


Love,
Sister Young

December 19, 2011

Listen people. I leave in a WEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heavens I am so READY to leave. I've been here for ages.


Feminist story of the week: Every Tuesday we have a devotional here where prominent church leaders come to talk. They usually bring their wife, who speaks for about 10 minutes, and then the dude will talk for like 45 minutes. Sometimes it totally sucks because the wife is waaaaaay better than her husband. Anyway, so I was complaining about this to my district and I told them I was going to pray for a woman to come who would talk longer than her husband. You better believe God answered my prayers because the very next week Elaine Dalton came and gave the most incredible devotional EVER and her husband who preceded her only talked for 10 minutes. God loves me.


I totally forgot to mentiont this before, but my wonderful companion's mother sent me a lanyard a little while ago that I put my key and stuff on. It reads "BREASTFEEDING TOUCHES EVERYONE." It's the greatest gift I've ever received.


Also I aruged with an Elder in my district about slavery. Why would that even be a discussion, you ask? Because this particular Elder doesn't believe it's wrong. Don't ask me how we got on the subject, I don't even know. But I can promise you that I spoke my peace and now I try to avoid him at all costs. WHY ARE PEOPLE SO IGNORANT?! a;sdlkfja;lsdkjg;lakjdfgl;jkasdklfj


I will tell you all a bad secret. It's called: I can't stop dreaming about watching my favorite movies. I've had several dreams where I'm in the middle of "Hook" or I'm just watching the movie "Ever After." It's insane. That's all I'm going to do when I get back. Also can everyone commit right now to watching "Midnight in Paris" this week? Do it for me. I miss that movie so much.


This week I have to say goodbye to everyone and a part of me is going to die inside. But I am so FREAKING excited for Germany!!!! I hope you all still write me, even though it's a little more expensive. Also please pray that I get a native-German speaking companion when I get out there. Please.


Well, I'm sorry this is so short. I'm really tired and I'm sick today. But I love you all and just remember - the next time you hear from me I'll be in DEUTSCHLAND!!!!


Love,
Sister Young

December 12, 2011


What is up my peoples?!?!?!


I know, I miss you too. Also I have many things to tell you. Because I know you absolutely love lists, here's one for you:


CRAZIEST WEEK EVER

1. There is a missionary here named "Elder Fickin." It means the f-word in German. You have no idea how hilarious that is for us Deutschers. Oh how I wish he was coming to Germany!

2. Can I just tell you how amazing all my friends are? Because they're the best. Friends in the real world, friends here in the MTC...I am SO freaking blessed.

3. There is an Elder here who will NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE. Help?!?!?

4. I had this interview with this really sexist old man and it went something like this -


Old man: Why aren't you married? You're pretty enough.
Me: Oh I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that LOOKS AREN'T THE ONLY THING THAT FACTOR INTO MARRIAGE/ I DON'T TO BE MARRIED/ I AM ON A MISSION WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THIS?!?!?!?!


Later....

Old man: Well obviously your feministic views are prohibiting you from having a normal relationship with men.
*pause*
Old man: How do you feel right now?
Me: Well, I feel that you have no idea who I am and therefore are making judgements against me that are unfounded. You have preconceived notions of who I am because I'm a "feminist" and that's driving your perception of me.
Old man: That's probably true.


You might think I'm kidding, but I'm not. That's really how it went down. And I really did say those things back to him, but that shouldn't really suprise you.


5. So the music lady here found me and made me promise to come back into auditions and sing "O, Holy Night." Can you believe it?!?!? After my traffic accident of performance last time, she's insisting that I sing for Christmas. Ridiculous. But yes, I'm doing it. No idea why.

6. Ok. So we have something called the TRC and I'm pretty sure I already told you about this. Anyway, so one of the volunteers who comes in is a student at BYU and she's from Germany. We have had her EVERY SINGLE WEEK (which is unusual because we usually switch up the people we teach every week). Oh, and did I mention that she's not a mormon in real life? Way to add the pressure. Anyway, so we've actually grown pretty close to her these past few months and this week she made us earrings! How cool is that??! Also she wrote on her comment card that she'd like to start coming to church and read the Book of Mormon. Aaaaaaah. I'm going to miss her so much :(

7. Did you people know that 1 in 5 old mormon men served in Germany? I swear it's true.

8. Teaching here is one of the most frustrating and rewarding things I have ever done. Most days we can't speak German the way we want and our investigator is not understanding and it's a big mess. But every once in a while you'll have an AMAZING lesson where your German still wasn't perfect but the Spirit is totally there and your investigator is opening up and telling you everything you wanted to hear and more and it's just awesome. Just so you know.


Well my peeps, the church is true. I love you a whole lot.


ALSO! I know you all want to send me Christmas packages of love, but you should know that they need to get to me BEFORE Dec. 23rd. K thanks.


I love you!

Sister Young

December 5, 2011

I am down to 3 WEEKS!!!!!!! DREI WOCHES!!!!!!!!!!! Praise the Lord.

So. New things this week....nicht. Just kidding. I made some new friends and we are pretty much bffs. There's a group of missionaries going to Norway and their classroom is kind of by ours and for some reason I started talking to them one day and now we are so tight. There's a solo sister (meaning she doesn't have a companion) in there who might be my friendship soulmate, just saying. And there is a dude from Iceland! Dream come true! Meeting someone from an obscure country, that is. He is WEIRD. That's probably why we are all best friends. So it's pretty nice to have a change from the ordinary.

One of our roommates that was supposed to leave last week had to get surgery last minute! I feel so so bad. It's been really hard on her, so please keep Sister Westover in your prayers. So now there's 3 of us in our room, but we're getting some new Deutschers this week, and I'm pretty sure 3 of the sisters are moving into our room. Woof. I hope they're cool or I will die.

German. I haven't talked about my progess in the language for awhile, probably because it depresses me. BUT I'm doing...ok. I hate learning it from returned missionaries. I don't trust their grammar and I don't trust their accents. SO I've started to rewrite my entire grammar book on 3x5 cards. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I'm on page 50 in my grammar textbook and I'm loving it. For some reason I find great joy in doing this activity. Also we've started to speak German 24/7 around here, so hopefully that helps. I'm pretty sure we all sound like cavemen. But we get our point across, and that's what's important right now.

Also, I'm going to officially inform the world that I have a new nickname here, and I can't disclose it because you'll have to write me for it. But basically everyone here teases me because all the black guys here love me. Like, they seek me out of a crowded room to come talk to me. One of them said he wanted to marry me (don't worry, I told him that he was super creepy and to leave me alone). I don't know what it is. Actually, I do. But you'll have to write me to find out.

The funny thing about weird 19 year old boys that are all of the sudden thrown into a world where they have to think about Jesus 24/7 and never touch a girl is that they start to find EVERY sister here at least a little attractive. But then they feed that in their mind and all of the sudden you're the hottest thing on the face of the planet and they all want to sit by you at lunch. THEN they realize that they shouldn't be talking to you and they get SUPER weird and say STUPID things. And then you tell them to go away and they run with their little tails inbetween their legs. THIS PLACE IS WEIRD.

Thank you for all your letters!!!!! They keep me sane. Also, the closer it gets to Christmas the more depressed I become because I can't be with my family. And Christmas is the best time of the year at the Young house! But I will be in Germany so soon and THEN I can rejoice.

I love you all my little kinders.

Sister Young