February 27, 2012

Yo my wonderful peoples of the world.



I had some pretty crazy wonderful experiences this week. Would you like to hear them? Yes you would.




Just so you know, I really like lists. So I'm just going to do this list-style and save us all the trouble of trying to make sense out of the random paragraphs with no transitions I would have written. You're welcome.




1.) So we were teaching one of our drunkard investigators and having a great time because a) he speaks English and b) he's always at least a little buzzed when he comes to lessons and you never really know what's going to come out of his mouth. He's super great. ANYWAY one of the times he was going off on something completely random, as usual, he told a story about how his friend wanted to do something to change their life. I think his friend's idea was to get super drunk and jump off a bridge or something, but our investigator said that he suggested they go to church. Why you might ask? "Because my mother put Jesus in my heart." Isn't that the sweetest phrase you've ever heard? It totally reminded me of the story in the Book of Mormon about the stripling warriors and their mothers. I just wanted to share that cute thought with you.




2.) Mmk. Best news ever ever ever. WE FOUND A FAMILY TO TEACH!!!!!!! If anyone who reads this has served a mission, you know how awesomely cool that is. They're from Iran and they are SO cool. The husband is here on political asylum (did I spell that right...?) because he basically hates everyone down there haha. It's really great. He spends a lot of time talking about how evil he thinks the government is there because of all the people they kill, particularly Christians. He also hates what they do to women, so naturally WE'RE BEST FRIENDS. His wife is SO COOL and they have the cutest children on the face of the planet, a boy who's 14 and a girl who's 5. At the end of our lesson with them the little girl, Yalda, leaned her head on my shoulder and said, "Ich mag euch," which means, "I like you." Basically my heart melted and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.




3.) We experienced a MIRACLE. So. With Tigran, one of our baptismal dates, we have quickly found out that Satan really doesn't want him to get baptized. Duh. But he's working sooooo hard on Tigran and it's a mess for us. So Tigran didn't know if he wanted to get baptized anymore, especially considering we pushed his date back to March 11th. Apparently that was a sign for him or something, I don't know. So we've been praying and praying and yesterday we had stake conference, which was broadcasted from Salt Lake City. Tigran and Sofia came and we ended up hearing from Elder Russel M. Nelson and Elder Eyring, 2 of my favorite Apostals. Well when I saw that Eyring would be speaking, I knew everything would be ok. And it WAS. Elder Eyring gave a talk about baptism and told a story about someone who didn't know if they should be baptized and was really struggling with it but finally decided to get baptized on MARCH 11th. And then Eyring talked about Mosiah 18 and read the scripture from Alma asking the people to just freaking get it overwith and BE BAPTIZED. Can you believe that?!?!?!!?!? It was insane. My companion and I started crying it was so crazy. I've never had an experience like that where my prayers have been answered so bluntly with the most perfect thing imaginable. All ist gut. Aaaaaaaaall ist gut.




4.) In case you were wondering, German still sucks. Blah. But I've found a trick. In German there are like a million and one ways to say "the" - der, die, das, den, dem, des....WHATEVER. I've found the best thing to do is to make a "daaaaah" sound very quickly and people can't really tell the difference and accept whatever you're saying. Win.










I love you all. Keep praying for me. PLEASE.




Lurves.




Sister Young




ps. I really like letters...and pictures...and walruses. But don't worry about sending those.

February 20, 2012

Guten Morgen, meine Lieblings.

So. I'm going to start this off right by talking about the best missionary experience ever ever ever.

We decided to have another lesson last week with Sofia and Tigran about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the importance of knowing everything we're saying is true and praying about it and whatnot. We're getting into the final weeks before their baptism where we have to prepare them to REALLY commit their lives with tithing and Word of Wisdom stuff and whatever. So they need to know it's true and we need to know that they know. Was that a confusing sentence? You're welcome.

So we're starting to briefly go over apostacies and prophets and stuff and Sofia says, "I already know about all of this!" and then proceed to finish explaining EVERYTHING. Hahaha it was awesome. So we popped in the "Restoration" film and when it got to the part showing the First Vision Sofia put her hand up like she wanted to touch the screen and whispered, "Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ" in the most tender manner. After the film we explained that they need to pray about Joseph Smith. If he's a prophet, then the Book of Mormon is true. And if the Book of Mormon is true, everything else is true too. Sofia immediately threw her hands up in the air and said, "Ich glaube alles!" hahahaha. Tigran, in a really sincere voice, said that ever since he started to read the Book of Mormon he's been so much happier and he can feel his faith building in God and Jesus Christ. He started to relate a scripture that he had read about Nephi to his life and said that he's learned so much from this book. He said he doesn't even need to ask God - he knows it has to be true.

Well, basically moments like these erase all the times you were crumpled up in a heap on the floor begging God to tell the Mission President to call you and say you can go home. Or all the times people laughed at you in your face. Or all the times you made a fool of yourself with your ridiculous German. Or all the times you were convinced that your existence as a missionary was pointless. Moments like these make you want to explode into a tiny million pieces with the love that you feel for these people on God's behalf. They make you want to be a better person and they make you want to work so hard the next 14 months of your mission so that you can find more Tigrans and Sofias. Moments like these make a mission worth it.

Ok, ok. Enough cheesy crap. I'm annoying myself. Another awesome thing is that we now have the "ins" with a woman named Agartha. Have I talked about her before? Maybe not. She's from Ghana and has like the worst life ever. She showed up in church one day and has come most Sundays since. She refused to meet with the missionaries and no one could break this iceberg around her heart. And then I came. HA. We somehow found her address and just showed up at her apartment. At first she hated it. But then she loved it. And now she actually invites us over and loves it when we come! And I love speaking English, so it's a win-win. She's crazy, but I love her and we're very excited to be able to teach her now.

Yesterday my companion and I had to teach Relief Society and I about peed my pants I was so nervous. But literally it was like I opened my mouth and words just started coming out and they were actually grammatically correct. It was super weird. BUT the lesson was good and anything I said to ruin the lesson was saved by my companion, as usual.

You should all pray that I have the gift of tongues everyday instead of just occassionally. K thanks.

I love you all. Like, a lot. I'm always bragging about my family and friends and I'm sure everyone is sick of it. But at least everyone knows I'm super loved. And I love you all too.

Have a lovely woche. Peace and blessings.

Sister Young

February 13, 2012

Hello, Hello.

This week has been an eventful one. I ate my first döner, which is a tragedy to all those who have become acquainted with this Turkish delicacy since it took me until my 7th week here to do it. Aaaaaand...that's about it. Maybe my week wasn't too eventful.

Jooooooookes. Good news for you. Sofia is perfect. Like, so perfect. We were talking about the importance of baptism with her and repenting even before we're baptized, and she confessed that when she was 7 she stole her dad's pen and she felt really bad about it. Hahahaha I just love her. Also randomly in the lesson she asked, "Do you drink?" We explained that we don't, not even a little bit on holidays or whatever (she asked about that, too). After pausing for a second she said, "Then I won't either." IT WAS SO AWESOME.

Even better? Tigran stopped smoking without us even asking him to!!!!!!! THIS is what happens when people read the Book of Mormon and resolve to live better. It changed lives, people.

I also had the wonderful privilege of contacting a less active woman who hadn't been to church in over 20 years. She was amazing. And her husband is hilarious. We thought we were just coming over to share a message and talk about coming back to church or whatever but they actually made it a really big occasion and had their daughter and his fiance over for a nice dinner! It was a lovely surprise. And we had soooooo much fun. That family is amazing. At the end of the evening her husband asked us how we came to know our church was true. My companion and I (the best I could) bore testimony and the Spirit was so powerful. It was by far the best night of my mission.

So. Can I tell you something about Germans? They really really really love fruit. And cucumbers. I've partaken of both at every single meal here with the members. But I'm telling you, they REALLY love fruit. The other day a member made us broccoli and cheese soup and she put pineapples in it. Then we had fruit for dessert. We ALWAYS have fruit for dessert. Weirdest thing ever? YES. Germans also really really love obscure church hymns that Americans never knew existed. I've probably sang 2 hymns I recognize in church since I've been here. I have no idea what's up with that.

You know what I realized this week? Something crazy stupid.

Before and after your mission, people think you are so great for going on one. After your mission people especially think you are so cool and know everything about the gospel and whatever. Bascially, RM's are awesome and respected. It's a great feeling, I'm sure.

But on your mission? YOU'RE AN IDIOT. And people have no hesitation to tell you that you are. It's like I'm going to spend the next 15 months feeling like the scum of the earth, and then I'll return to praise and honor. What's up with that? Seriously. You feel so stupid sometimes, and people love to make you feel that way. So WEIRD.

Well my princes and princesses, I love your guts. Be cool, stay in school, and don't do drugs.

Lurves,

Sister Young.

February 6, 2012

Hello world.

It's cold here in Hamburg. -9 degrees C and my toes have almost frozen off. Hopefully Spring comes soon.

Good news! We have 2 more baptismal dates. And we're so excited, because one of them is Sofia!!!! She's awesome. She's already read half the Book of Mormon. And she always tells us she believes in God and Jesus Christ 150% hahaha.

The other baptismal date is Tigran, the son of one of Sofia's friends. He stays with Sofia often and for the last week and a half or so he's been coming to lessons with Sofia and became really interested. He's got some...interesting ideas. BUT he's been so open and absolutely loved Institute and he's changed so much. It's been amazing to watch this transformation.

Bahahaha funny story. So we were over at Sofia's place last week teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and getting ready to ask her to be baptized. I wasn't feeling well earlier so we were hoping to get through the lesson quickly, but we brought a member and she looooooves talking. Which is great! When I'm not sick. Anyway, so I was trying not to die and then it hit me. I HAVE TO POOP. Like so bad. And I was having terrible cramps and I was 90% sure I would poop my pants if I didn't run to a bathroom. I couldn't really decided which was worse - interrupt a spiritual lesson about baptism to clog her toilet or just to poop right there on her couch. So I'm poking my companion and silently pleading with her to PLEASE end this lesson, but it just wasn't working. The member was talking and Tigran was asking questions and I was sweating bullets. So right as my companion was going to ask her to be baptized, I burst and asked Sofia if I could go to the bathroom. Hahahaha ooooooh the Spirit was gone. BUT through a MIRACLE I made it short, got back out there, and ended up committing them both to baptism. Win.

Let me tell you something else. My body is so rockin here out on the mish. I can't even hold it in, I just have to brag about it. And it's great because our morning exercise time consists of us dragging ourselves out of bed to the other room where we lay on the floor and occassionally lift our legs in the air. Ha. Jokes. But literally, we hardly move. So I just lay there and do sit ups for a half hour and now I have abs of STEAL. And then I do planks and other yoga stuff for like a minute and the rest of our exercise comes from walking around all day. It's great, especially because I'm a stress eater and so I eat a LOT here.

I had my first "tausch" (exchange) last week and I went up to Rostock. Exchanges are the weirdest things ever, especially here because I ended up just being on a train longer than I actually did missionary work for those 24 hours. But the sister I was with was pretty cool and Rostock looks awesome from what little I saw of it. You should google map it or something.

Well, I've officially started my 2nd transfer. Don't know how I made it this far.

I love you all.

Sister Young