People of the normal world.
This week I will be celebrating my half mission birthday. This means I have 9 months to go people!!! It seems like forever but if I think of it in missionary transfers it kind of makes me wheeze a little bit. We'll see how it goes.
Funny story. It's called: they sell condoms and pregnancy tests in the vending machines here, right next to the candy and soda pop. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?!?!? Don't worry, I totally got a picture of it.
Also I have seen more Confederate flags flying high here in Germany than I ever have in the United States. Why why whyyyyy these people are totally nuts.
So cool story. We have this investigator from Korea named Yangmin and he is so cool. When we first started to meet with him he was very stubborn about being a philosophist and having a hard time comprehending the word "faith" and what it means to have faith. So ja, we've been meeting with him and breaking down his spiritual walls and things. Slowly but surely, we got him to read in the Book of Mormon, to come to church, and to pray. And at our appointment with him this week he said the most wonderful prayer! He prayed that he could really open his heart and learn more about Jesus Christ because he wants to become a better person and he knows he can do that through Christ. He also read a TON in the Book of Mormon and he is just doing so well! His questions are awesome and he is starting to soften his heart towards the gospel. SO COOL.
One of the other reeeeaaally cool things about a mission is not only seeing these people go through such a change (for the better) but also getting to know them. The more they open up to you about their lives and their families and their hobbies and everything the more you learn how amazingly COOL these people are!! We have an investigator from France named Sika and she is SO COOL, and not only because she's french. She has soooo much faith in God and in Jesus Christ and she is an amazing person, always trying to do the right thing. I have learned so much from her example. Seeeeeeriously, people like Yangmin and Sika totally make a mission feel worth it, if only just to know these people.
Ok ok ok that was a cheesy email but IT HAD TO BE DONE. Now I will go shopping and buy a million bags of Haribo I HAVE AN ADDICTION.
I love you all.
Sister Young
7.23.2012
7.18.2012
July 16, 2012
Hello people in the normal world!
I am officially obsessed with Haribo Pico-ballas. I will send some home they are so gooooood. Just thought you'd like to know.
Transfer results are in! And I am staying, of course. So is my lovely German comp. This is actually her last transfer! Gah! We have to plan the most epic last transfer ever in the coolest city in Germany. Ya ya ya.
This week was so boring. I don't have any to report. We just walked and talked and preached and then some crazy man once yelled at us and chased us off the street. I thought he would kill us, but it's all ok now. We were suprised to find that the JWs didn't put an "x" by his name on the klingel (where you buzz the names). They always do that for someone that was particularly mean or not at all interested. Whatevs.
On Saturday we went to Eisenhüttenstadt for a service project with the whole zone. Eisenhüttenstadt is a small town on the border of Germany and Poland and feels very empty and abandoned. The name means "iron hut city," but it used to be called Stalinstadt. Should I translate that for you? I will refrain. It was a super communist town, in case you were wondering. Anyway, we found ourselves pulling weeds in some lot for 4 hours. I'm still a little sore. But oh well, things like that are like a vacation! Loved it. Except they made us wear those stupid yellow "mormon helping hands" shirts. Ew.
I don't have anything else to report. I hope your lives are great. Love you to pieces.
Sister Young
I am officially obsessed with Haribo Pico-ballas. I will send some home they are so gooooood. Just thought you'd like to know.
Transfer results are in! And I am staying, of course. So is my lovely German comp. This is actually her last transfer! Gah! We have to plan the most epic last transfer ever in the coolest city in Germany. Ya ya ya.
This week was so boring. I don't have any to report. We just walked and talked and preached and then some crazy man once yelled at us and chased us off the street. I thought he would kill us, but it's all ok now. We were suprised to find that the JWs didn't put an "x" by his name on the klingel (where you buzz the names). They always do that for someone that was particularly mean or not at all interested. Whatevs.
On Saturday we went to Eisenhüttenstadt for a service project with the whole zone. Eisenhüttenstadt is a small town on the border of Germany and Poland and feels very empty and abandoned. The name means "iron hut city," but it used to be called Stalinstadt. Should I translate that for you? I will refrain. It was a super communist town, in case you were wondering. Anyway, we found ourselves pulling weeds in some lot for 4 hours. I'm still a little sore. But oh well, things like that are like a vacation! Loved it. Except they made us wear those stupid yellow "mormon helping hands" shirts. Ew.
I don't have anything else to report. I hope your lives are great. Love you to pieces.
Sister Young
7.09.2012
July 9, 2012
Ooooooooh you are the best family and friends in the world. I forgive you all for not writing last week and I am so so happy about all the love I received! So thank you!
Let me tell you something. It's called: I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE 4TH OF JULY. Like, it didn't even cross my mind that it was the day to celebrate the independance of rich white men in America. I could have spend entire day lamenting about it and I FORGOT. Hate when that happens.
On to new things.
First of all, I have a new mission president! I am not sure why I never wrote about this before, I guess I didn't think it was that important until he actually came and I remembered that OH MY GOSH I HAVE A COMPLETELY NEW MISSION PRESIDENT. But it's ok, he's super cool. President and Sister Kosak are from Cottbus, a city here in (former) East Germany. They have perfect English and they just got back from living in Russia for 7 years so they speak that too. Also at our first zone conference with them they sang this BEAUTIFUL Russian song and it made my heart cry, it was so sad. I think what I love about them the most is that they usually only speak to me in German, even though they know I'm American. I take that as a great compliment, especially because they don't do that for all the missionaries.
Hey hey we had 9 investigators at church yesterday! Wooooooooot!
Can I just explain to you how much I love teaching Asians? It's like the highlight of my life. For reals.
Ok ok so we met this man from Nigeria who says he wants to coordinate efforts with us to teach people about Jesus Christ. No, he's not from our church. But we are totally down because he's AWESOME and has the strongest testimony of Jesus Christ of anyone I have ever met. I love the faith of Africans. It could light your hair on fire it's so powerful.
Also we have appointments to teach 2 Germans this week! Do you realize how significant this is?!?!?! WE WILL BAPTIZE GERMANS. IN GERMANY. Prepare to have your mind blown.
I just ate an entire package of Leibniz chocolate cookies while writing this email. Ich bin dick geworden. Ich weiß nicht.
I love you all. I love Berlin. I love German chocolate.
Love,
Sister Young
ps. I have attached some pictures of Berlin. I hope you like them.
Let me tell you something. It's called: I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE 4TH OF JULY. Like, it didn't even cross my mind that it was the day to celebrate the independance of rich white men in America. I could have spend entire day lamenting about it and I FORGOT. Hate when that happens.
On to new things.
First of all, I have a new mission president! I am not sure why I never wrote about this before, I guess I didn't think it was that important until he actually came and I remembered that OH MY GOSH I HAVE A COMPLETELY NEW MISSION PRESIDENT. But it's ok, he's super cool. President and Sister Kosak are from Cottbus, a city here in (former) East Germany. They have perfect English and they just got back from living in Russia for 7 years so they speak that too. Also at our first zone conference with them they sang this BEAUTIFUL Russian song and it made my heart cry, it was so sad. I think what I love about them the most is that they usually only speak to me in German, even though they know I'm American. I take that as a great compliment, especially because they don't do that for all the missionaries.
Hey hey we had 9 investigators at church yesterday! Wooooooooot!
Can I just explain to you how much I love teaching Asians? It's like the highlight of my life. For reals.
Ok ok so we met this man from Nigeria who says he wants to coordinate efforts with us to teach people about Jesus Christ. No, he's not from our church. But we are totally down because he's AWESOME and has the strongest testimony of Jesus Christ of anyone I have ever met. I love the faith of Africans. It could light your hair on fire it's so powerful.
Also we have appointments to teach 2 Germans this week! Do you realize how significant this is?!?!?! WE WILL BAPTIZE GERMANS. IN GERMANY. Prepare to have your mind blown.
I just ate an entire package of Leibniz chocolate cookies while writing this email. Ich bin dick geworden. Ich weiß nicht.
I love you all. I love Berlin. I love German chocolate.
Love,
Sister Young
ps. I have attached some pictures of Berlin. I hope you like them.
7.08.2012
July 2, 2012
Let me just say right now that nobody deserves my email this week because I only received 2 EMAILS today. 2 EMAILS. AND ONE OF THEM WAS FROM ANOTHER MISSIONARY IN MY MISSION.
Maybe I'm crying right now, I don't know.
So I'll just keep this short.
Last P-day we went to the Pergamon museum. You should google it because it's AWESOME. They basically took an entire ancient greek city and transported it to a museum here in Berlin. It was so cool!
Also we totally had a crazy run-in with some Jehovah's Witnesses the other day. It goes a little something like this:
So we were on our way to an appointment when we pass by some JWs buzzing apartments a couple of doors down from where our appointment was. So we keep going and stop this man to talk to him. Right as the JWs come out to buzz the next door, Sister Uhlig says the word "mormon" (referring to the Book of Mormon, of course), and the women started to whisper and stare at us - weird. But whatever, we give this guy our card and keep on going to where our appointment is. So we get let in but let me tell you something - Berlin apartments are CRAZY. There are usually about 3 doors that you can go in that lead to staircases that have about 8 or 10 apartments on this particular staircase. And in order to find the apartment, you need to basically climb all the staircases until you come across the name you need on the door. Was that confusing? YES. So usually Sister Uhlig and I have the worst luck and it's ALWAYS in the last staircase we need to climb. So as we're coming down from the second one, totally out of breath, we see the JWs going up the staircase we need! NEIN!!!! So we put on a brave face and climb the last staircase and BOOM they are right there. And, of course, they gave us a rundown of Jehovah Witness doctrine. They were nice but wouldn't let us go! They tried to give us trick "do you know what the Bible says about this...?" questions and we just weren't having it. So we told them nobody knows when Jesus is coming and then we ran away. It was crazy!
Ok that wasn't a super crazy story or anything, but I can just tell you it's awkward to be dooring the same building as Jehovah's Witnesses at the same time. Except this time they were dooring and we had an appointment :)
I love you all. I would love you more if you emailed me. That is all.
Love,
Sister Young
Maybe I'm crying right now, I don't know.
So I'll just keep this short.
Last P-day we went to the Pergamon museum. You should google it because it's AWESOME. They basically took an entire ancient greek city and transported it to a museum here in Berlin. It was so cool!
Also we totally had a crazy run-in with some Jehovah's Witnesses the other day. It goes a little something like this:
So we were on our way to an appointment when we pass by some JWs buzzing apartments a couple of doors down from where our appointment was. So we keep going and stop this man to talk to him. Right as the JWs come out to buzz the next door, Sister Uhlig says the word "mormon" (referring to the Book of Mormon, of course), and the women started to whisper and stare at us - weird. But whatever, we give this guy our card and keep on going to where our appointment is. So we get let in but let me tell you something - Berlin apartments are CRAZY. There are usually about 3 doors that you can go in that lead to staircases that have about 8 or 10 apartments on this particular staircase. And in order to find the apartment, you need to basically climb all the staircases until you come across the name you need on the door. Was that confusing? YES. So usually Sister Uhlig and I have the worst luck and it's ALWAYS in the last staircase we need to climb. So as we're coming down from the second one, totally out of breath, we see the JWs going up the staircase we need! NEIN!!!! So we put on a brave face and climb the last staircase and BOOM they are right there. And, of course, they gave us a rundown of Jehovah Witness doctrine. They were nice but wouldn't let us go! They tried to give us trick "do you know what the Bible says about this...?" questions and we just weren't having it. So we told them nobody knows when Jesus is coming and then we ran away. It was crazy!
Ok that wasn't a super crazy story or anything, but I can just tell you it's awkward to be dooring the same building as Jehovah's Witnesses at the same time. Except this time they were dooring and we had an appointment :)
I love you all. I would love you more if you emailed me. That is all.
Love,
Sister Young
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