9.25.2012

September 24, 2012

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah this was the worst week ever. Not really but close.

So. I should probably start out by letting you know that God babied us up this week. He put SO MANY MIRACLES in our path because he knew the weekend would SUCK. We met some amazing people on the street. We're seeing amazing progress with so many of our investigators. Life was great. AND THEN.

Yangmin said goodbye to us. Forever. Actually not forever, if I can help it. But it was really sad. Story time.

So Yang was getting super stoked for his baptism, and decided to call his wife to talk more about it (she's in Korea right now). Well, it did not go over well. She has read some things on the internet about our church that she didn't particularly like, and didn't approve of his baptism. It was definitely a setback, but it is of course really really important that she approves so we decided to push it off until he goes to Korea in December to talk to her. We had a lesson with a member family here, and it was great! He was bearing his testimony about the Book of Mormon, church, Joseph Smith, Christ...the whole shebang. He said he still wanted to do everything like a member - come to church, meet with us regularly, serve, etc. Then not 30 minutes after this lesson, we got a text from him that said he wasn't going to come to church and he didn't want to see us again. It was devastating. I just crumpled to the floor and cried, I didn't know what to do with all these emotions.

The next day at church I was already on edge and not feeling well when I got a letter I reeeeaally didn't want to have. We had to prepare for a lesson we reeaaally didn't want to teach, and I had to play piano in Primary which I reeeaaally didn't want to do. Again, break down. Poor Sister Johnson (a senior missionary here), she just held me while I cried and cried. But after a while I got my strength back, stood up straight, and prepared to have one of the most miracle-filled days in all my mission.

We saw over 10 nonmembers in sacrament meeting. Primary was hilarious to watch. They asked us to bear our testimony in Relief Society about sacrifice and it was really spiritual. We talked to a member of the bishopric about how we could help the ward better and got amazing insight. We had lunch with the YSA and had really really good conversations with a lot of investigators, who in turned talked to the missionaries in their ward about being baptized. We met some French people that told me my French is great. We found out Thomas Monson is coming to Berlin on October 14th and we all get to be here to see him. We met with one of our investigators that's in the hopsital and she's making AMAZING progress. We found out that an investigator from when Sister Uhlig was here is finally back from being in Turkey for 5 months and is going to meet with us. And we ended our day with a hopeful start for this week.

Sorry to get all cheesy on you, I'm sure I'll have funny stories next week. I just wanted you all to know what's it's like, in a very condensed version, to be a missionary in the middle of Berlin.

That is all.

Love,
Sister Young

ps. Did you know that they have a German version of the "Super Nanny" show here?!?!?!?! Bahahahaha we laughed so hard and then got a little bit frightened for the poor children that have to go through that.

9.22.2012

September 17, 2012

First things first, people. I asked for Family Home Evening ideas and I didn't get any what the heck!!!!!!!!!!!! I was really looking forward to that. So please.

Also guess what guess what I have the best news ever. It's called: THE THRIFT STORES HERE ARE OUT OF CONTROL AMAZING!!!!!!!
Listen. Apparently it's not really very kosher for Germans to shop at thrift stores or something. That's at least what Sister Uhlig told me. So last p-day we decided to check one out and it was INCREDIBLE. The clothes are super ancient, like stuff from the 40's that nobody has bothered to care about, and because Germans don't usually shop there unless they "need to" there was so much thrift gold for the rest of us cheap Americans! I was thrilled. And I bought a skirt that was adorable and I'm a little bit obsessed with it. That is all.

Ok are you ready for the highlight of the week? Thought so.

It's called: I am learning spanish. Ha!

Ok ok so we have this new investigator named Corola. Have I ever talked about her? Not sure. Anyway, she's from Bolivia, but had been living in Barcelona with her brother for the past several years or something. But now she lives in Berlin with a nice German man. So about a year ago her brother joined the church in Barcelona. He gave her a Book of Mormon, she read it, loved it, took the lessons from sisters there, but then for some reason came to Berlin to live with this man. So lucky for us, her brother came a couple of weeks ago for a visit and brought her to church! So now we meet with her regularly and she's fixin' to get baptized at the end of October after she gets married to her German man! Yay!

Only problem - she speaks no English and hardly any German. So far we've managed to have a joint teach at almost every lesson, but there's only 5 people in the ward here who speak Spanish and 2 of them also don't speak German! So communicating has been difficult but SO FUN. We had this other Sister in the mission who speaks Spanish send us some stuff to study so I've been learning Spanish like crazy. Except it's still really bad haha. BUT I am able to communicate on the phone now (as long as I always write out what I'm going to say before haha)!!!

But can I just go off on a little rant here about how much I flippin' love Hispanic people??!?! There are just so loving and warm and friendly and wonderful. Some of the most spiritual lessons I've had here have been with Corola and her brother, and we can't speak each other's languages! Their testimonies are so powerful and beautiful, I just feel so happy when I'm with them. Also we were talking about the Plan of Salvation the other day and we were explaining that it's only in the Celestial kingdom that we can be with our families forever, and Corola says, "Yes, I want to go there and be with my daughter and [pointing to her German man] him, even if I have to drag him by the ear to get there." LOVE HER.

Ok, that is all for this week. Please pray we can find more investigators like Corola to teach.

Peace and blessings.

Sister Young


ps. Pictures:
1. Sister Uhlig and I with Sika!
2. A planner I made for an Elder here.
3. My new baby and I at the Berlin wall.



9.11.2012

September 10, 2012

Moin moin!

Ok ok. Berlin is really great. Except I really hating finding (new investigators, that is). I need ideas to make it more fun!

Also does anyone have good FHE ideas? Because we just teach too many families with children and we are running out of ideas!!!!!

Yangmin is doing so great, so great. He's a joy to teach. Also we got the address for the church in Korea and his wife went to church yesterday! YAY!!!!!

We're just doing super here in Berlin, as usual. Trying to survive, doing our thing, eating our feelings.

And so.

This week has been super weird, mostly due to the interesting people we've met this week. And now I will give you a Missionary Anthropology 101 lesson, categorized as follows:

1. Lithuanian pagans.

According to our experience, this involves young people who wear sweaters with strange symbols on them and speak English with a very pronounced Lithuanian accent. Very, very nice. Believes in Mother Nature, but does not necessarily pray to her. Open to learn more, doesn't necessarily want to commit to an appointment. Keep in contact, they are being prepared to hear the truth at a later date!

2. Celibate heterosexuals.

From America, almost always appear to resemble a very hippy form of Jesus. Have beautiful hair. Speaking of Jesus, they are very Christian! Very open and friendly, easy to talk to. Asks very good questions. Not opposed to sitting down on the street to learn more about religion right then and there. Practicing celibacy for a time, just to see how it goes. WARNING: will try to hug you as you part ways, but they will accept a hand hug as replacement!

3. British gothic hipsters.

Very friendly, and they usually tend to be very small in stature. Their face is usually graced with many piercings of various sorts, never boring to stare at. Not super religious, but willing to learn more. Will make out an appointment, probably won't show up. Keep in contact, they are being prepared to accept the gospel at a later date!

4. Drunkards.

It's never really a sure thing if they will be nice or not. Sometimes hostel, be on your guard. Usually no religious experience, not willing to create one. May or may not explain their life story and then confess that they're running from the cops because they need to go to jail. Avoiding them would probably be best, unless you have a new missionary that takes the sentence "Talk to everyone!" very seriously.

5. Sexist pigs.

Always men, tend to have longer hair. Creepily ride their bike behind you in order to "get a better look." Love to shout leud things while following you around town. Note: Carrying salt might be helpful, seeing that as you push them off their bike you might use that to pour into their wounds.



I love you all, have a wonderful week.

Sister Young

9.03.2012

September 3, 2012

ello! People!

And so.

Being a trainer is just super. I get to do whatever I want and tell my baby that it's totally normal. HA.

Ok but seriously, it's really great. My "new missionary" is Sister Larsen from Utah (duh) but GUESS WHAT. One of the first things she said to me when I asked her about herself was, "I'm a feminist..." Match made in heaven?!?!?!? YES. Maybe we lay in bed at night and discuss women's issues until the wee hours of the morning. I don't know.

Also a reeeeeaaally cool thing about getting a new missionary to train is all the awesome miracles that you get to experience together! And normally I wouldn't really think anything of them but she gets so excited over the little things, which really helps me to realize they're from God. You know???

Zum beispiel. The other day the Elders that we share the ward with made out an appointment with a woman but couldn't make it so they asked us to go. Unfortunately it was out IN THE BOONIES and took us forever to get there. When we finally got there and klingled her door she wouldn't let us in. We were only a little bummed as we started walking back to the bustop when we stopped a young man on the street. Turns out he's from Canada and he used to be an engineer but then realized that he really hated it - his job, all the money, his obsession with material things. So then he decided to sell EVERYTHING and pursue his secret dream of becoming a conductor and now he's an assistant to the conductor for a philharmonie here! Is that not the coolest story EVER?!?!?!?! So obviously we became best friends and he is STOKED to get a Book of Mormon. I'll let you know how that turns out. The point of the story is that if it weren't for our initial disappointment, we would never have found him! God loves us!

Also Yangmin is doing incredibly super. We made him a reading calendar that leads up to his baptism so that he can read a little bit in the Book of Mormon everyday and he told us, and I quote, "I feel so much better when I read in the book! I can really feel something! I think it's the Holy Ghost!" Awesome. Even more awesome? Apparently he read a scripture about fasting the other day so he decided to just do it on his own. He told us he had an amazing experience with it and it helped him to feel more spiritually connected. COOL, RIGHT?!?!?!?! He is just so great. I can't wait for his baptism.

Ok. That's all for this week. I'm really tired and sometimes I fall asleep on the bus, I don't know.

I love you all.

Sister Young

August 27, 2012

Peoples of the world,

Ok ok so this was the last week of the transfer!! And with that ALWAYS comes craziness and surprises. So I will list them for you in order of importance to me.

1. So last Wednesday Sister Uhlig and I were running late to catch a train to Eisenhüttenstadt for this activity thing and we showed up at the train station with only 5 minutes to buy our ticket and jump on board. So our stupid machine took like FOREVER to finally give us the right screen so we could buy the ticket. So now we have like 2 minutes, and I pay the stupid thing 30€ and we wait for it to give me my 1€ change. After like 30 seconds it spit out a 5 cent piece, and Sister Uhlig and I just look at each other and yell "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" because then it proceeded to give me the rest of my change in 5 cent increments, one at a time. Sister Uhlig and I and all the people around us were laughing hysterically as we're trying to collect all this ridiculous change and run up to our train, which we miraculously were able to catch. And that is the stupid story of the week.

2. Speaking of going to Eisenhüttenstadt, they actually made us come so I could sing at this musical fireside they put on. It was horrible. Out of protest I sang half the song in French, which I guess was great because all the people thought I was from France! YES.

3. Did you know that McDonald's milchshakes here in Germany are like waaaaaaaaay delicious?!

4. Cool story. So a couple of weeks ago my comp and I were walking down a street on our way to drop by on a less active member. As we were walking by one apartment building, I all of the sudden felt that I need to stick our cards in their mailboxes. So I did that and we went on our merry way. WELL. About 3 weeks later this guy calls us and said that a couple of weeks ago he found our card in his mailbox and he felt like he should call us! So he came to the church and we had a lovely lesson. He actually works as kind of a middle man for churches and schools and important things so he would like to organize for people from our church to give presentations in schools and conventions about what we believe! So cool. He just kept saying over and over, "I had your card for several weeks but I just kept having this feeling that I really needed to call you..." That's the Spirit, dude. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH.

5. Weirdy story. So Sister Uhlig and I stopped this girl on the street and started to ask her about her faith. She explained that she is religious, but she only answered our questions with like a one word answer. But she just kept standing there so we started to talk about prayer and how it helps us and things. So then Sister Uhlig asked, "What does prayer mean to you?," to which she replied, "Alcohol." We just stopped for a second and stared at her and then Sister Uhlig asked the question again, and she gave the same answer. We were like sooooo confused and I started to laugh a little bit and then the girl made out an appointment with us. Weird? Yes. I a little bit love Berlin.

6. Right before the above story took place, I talked to a Jehovah's Witness who insisted that I take her pamphlets. I said ok, but only if she would take ours. So we exchanged pamphlets and I took them home, where Sister Uhlig and I read them. And in all seriousness, we thought they were great. There was an article about the destruction of Jerusalem and it pinned it about 600 years before Christ...confirming the story of the Book of Mormon perhaps?!?!?!?!?! They also proved, using the Bible, why we shouldn't baptize babies. And they had an article about the true nature of God, saying that he is a very loving and kind father. I've learned a lot about their faith!! Sister Uhlig and I only felt a little bit guilty when our district leader called and asked what we were doing...hahahahaha.

7. Remember our awesome Korean investigator?! Well Yangmin is doing great, and is currently preparing himself for baptism on September 30!!!!!!!!!! We are SO excited, and he is just doing absolutely great things. We also went online and looked up where the church is in Korea, and there happens to be one right in his tiny hometown!! He asked us, "So I could go there and still use the priesthood in Korea?" and we explained there is a temple there (about an hour from his home) and he could be sealed to his family. Wow, that really hit him and he got super excited. WE ARE SO HAPPY.

8. Ok ok so now for the big news. Are you ready?

First of all, my lovely companion is going home to Frankfurt. I'm going to miss her a lot! She's super duper awesome, even if she is German ;)

Also. Transfer calls are in.

And.

I'm going to be...

A TRAINER.

Like, I'm going to be alone with a brand spankin' new missionary straight from America.

Should I mention that I'm one of the youngest trainers? Like, actually the youngest that I've heard of?! Most people start training in their 9th or 10th, and I'm in my 7th. And I'm scared out of my mind. But I'm also kind of excited. What should I do?!?!?!?!?!

So just so y'all know, I would like many prayers. I already received a priesthood blessing, which has helped, but I'm going to need some extra special prayers this week, please and thank you.

I love you all.

Sister Young