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
9.11.2012
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
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
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
8.26.2012
August 20, 2012
Herzlichen Glückwünsch Mumsie!!! I hope your birthday was the 2nd best ever, your best being any you've had with me.
This week was insane. Not in a good or bad way, just in a "I don't have any words to describe this" way.
First of alls, I saw my beloved and dear friend Eric. I used his visit as an excuse to go to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch where I could listen to normal music. HA. So thank you for coming, Ricsters. Twas great.
Also great news. We now have 3 investigators under the age of 12. Please don't ask how this happens, it just does.
Aaaaaaand Saturday my companion (because she's going home in a week) got permission to go to this career workshop thing put on by a member. I'm glad she enjoyed it and learned a lot from it but 10 hours is A LITTLE MUCH for me. I ended up leaving the room (a lot of the vocabularly was a little over my head) and went into another room where I read an entire 200 page book, played half the hymns in the hymnbook, tried to sleep, did a Snow White puzzle I found, and read "The Little Mermaid" in German, which I don't know if you knew this but the original story by Hans Christian Anderson is heartwrenching!!!! And then I still had time left over so I wandered around the building and then stared at the wall for about an hour. LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE. Also after being a missionary for awhile days like that are like torture. I can't sit around doing nothing, it's against my nature. WHATEVER.
Sad news! My lovely friend (and investigator) Sika moved back to France! Saying goodbye was the worst. She was SO AWESOME to be around. Why why why are goodbyes so hard?! But no worries, we're staying in touch and she lives in Lyon so you know I will be there asap. Keine Sorgen, mes amis!
Other than that the week wasn't super eventful. I also can't really remember. Also I'm tired and just want to take a nap. K thanks.
Love.
Sister Young
This week was insane. Not in a good or bad way, just in a "I don't have any words to describe this" way.
First of alls, I saw my beloved and dear friend Eric. I used his visit as an excuse to go to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch where I could listen to normal music. HA. So thank you for coming, Ricsters. Twas great.
Also great news. We now have 3 investigators under the age of 12. Please don't ask how this happens, it just does.
Aaaaaaand Saturday my companion (because she's going home in a week) got permission to go to this career workshop thing put on by a member. I'm glad she enjoyed it and learned a lot from it but 10 hours is A LITTLE MUCH for me. I ended up leaving the room (a lot of the vocabularly was a little over my head) and went into another room where I read an entire 200 page book, played half the hymns in the hymnbook, tried to sleep, did a Snow White puzzle I found, and read "The Little Mermaid" in German, which I don't know if you knew this but the original story by Hans Christian Anderson is heartwrenching!!!! And then I still had time left over so I wandered around the building and then stared at the wall for about an hour. LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE. Also after being a missionary for awhile days like that are like torture. I can't sit around doing nothing, it's against my nature. WHATEVER.
Sad news! My lovely friend (and investigator) Sika moved back to France! Saying goodbye was the worst. She was SO AWESOME to be around. Why why why are goodbyes so hard?! But no worries, we're staying in touch and she lives in Lyon so you know I will be there asap. Keine Sorgen, mes amis!
Other than that the week wasn't super eventful. I also can't really remember. Also I'm tired and just want to take a nap. K thanks.
Love.
Sister Young
August 13, 2012
So.
This week was boooooooring and I can't remember anything that happened. Except that we got 5 joint teaches this week (2 of which were in a member's home!), which is AWESOME.
Oh yes, and a lovely friend of ours from Gambia is preparing himself to be baptized. Yes!
Also I ate this AMAZING spanish hot chocolate this week and I almost died from all the calories I consumed in a single sitting. And I hope you noticed that I said "ate" instead of "drank," because the hot chocolate was so thick I ate it with a spoon. And also they give you a side helping of churros, which are suprisingly delicious in chocolate. I LOVE EUROPE AND THEIR CRAZY CHOCOLATE CREATIONS.
Ok. So you remember how I told you about our little Korean friend and his awesome progess? Well it gets better. We had a lesson with him about Jesus Christ and the role he plays in the Plan of Salvation. We talked a lot about eternal life and how it means that we can live in the presence of God and how we can obtain this wonderful blessing. After we thought we made the point clear and tried to move on, he just kept getting hung up on eternal life and wouldn't let it go. He kept telling us he doesn't really understand. After trying to show him scriptures and things, we kinda gave up and decided to just look it up in the german equivalent of the bible dictionary. It roughly translates to "Eternal life: Living forever as families in the presence of God. Eternal life is the biggest gift that people can receive from God." All of the sudden his eyes lit up and he said, "That's it! Eternal life is with our families!!!" Well, we of course felt like IDIOTS for not mentioning that before! And wow, that just really struck a chord with him, that he could be with his family forever. We had briefly mentioned that once several weeks before, but for some reason in this lesson it just really hit him what that meant. And that was an aaaaaamazing experience for us, to be there for that!! We are so so so excited for him :)
Now the stupid story of the week. So Elders in another part of Berlin called us a couple weeks ago and asked if we would be able to help out with this service project thing, to which we gladly accepted. We found out a couple days before that this little town was having a birthday celebration of sorts (the city was founded 600 years before) and they wanted us sisters to help out at the Relief Society booth at this carnival/festival thing. So as we're counting down the days to help out with this thing, I had been making a lot of jokes about how we'll have to sit there and sew all day and wear bonnets and things. Well everyone got a good laugh out of it, until the day of this thing arrived and we showed up to find out that yes, WE WOULD BE SEWING PILLOWS THE ENTIRE DAY. I was pretty much dying. Worst day ever. Relief Society is sometimes a thorn in my side. That is all.
Ok ok I hope you all have a lovely week and I love y'all lots and lots.
Sister Young
This week was boooooooring and I can't remember anything that happened. Except that we got 5 joint teaches this week (2 of which were in a member's home!), which is AWESOME.
Oh yes, and a lovely friend of ours from Gambia is preparing himself to be baptized. Yes!
Also I ate this AMAZING spanish hot chocolate this week and I almost died from all the calories I consumed in a single sitting. And I hope you noticed that I said "ate" instead of "drank," because the hot chocolate was so thick I ate it with a spoon. And also they give you a side helping of churros, which are suprisingly delicious in chocolate. I LOVE EUROPE AND THEIR CRAZY CHOCOLATE CREATIONS.
Ok. So you remember how I told you about our little Korean friend and his awesome progess? Well it gets better. We had a lesson with him about Jesus Christ and the role he plays in the Plan of Salvation. We talked a lot about eternal life and how it means that we can live in the presence of God and how we can obtain this wonderful blessing. After we thought we made the point clear and tried to move on, he just kept getting hung up on eternal life and wouldn't let it go. He kept telling us he doesn't really understand. After trying to show him scriptures and things, we kinda gave up and decided to just look it up in the german equivalent of the bible dictionary. It roughly translates to "Eternal life: Living forever as families in the presence of God. Eternal life is the biggest gift that people can receive from God." All of the sudden his eyes lit up and he said, "That's it! Eternal life is with our families!!!" Well, we of course felt like IDIOTS for not mentioning that before! And wow, that just really struck a chord with him, that he could be with his family forever. We had briefly mentioned that once several weeks before, but for some reason in this lesson it just really hit him what that meant. And that was an aaaaaamazing experience for us, to be there for that!! We are so so so excited for him :)
Now the stupid story of the week. So Elders in another part of Berlin called us a couple weeks ago and asked if we would be able to help out with this service project thing, to which we gladly accepted. We found out a couple days before that this little town was having a birthday celebration of sorts (the city was founded 600 years before) and they wanted us sisters to help out at the Relief Society booth at this carnival/festival thing. So as we're counting down the days to help out with this thing, I had been making a lot of jokes about how we'll have to sit there and sew all day and wear bonnets and things. Well everyone got a good laugh out of it, until the day of this thing arrived and we showed up to find out that yes, WE WOULD BE SEWING PILLOWS THE ENTIRE DAY. I was pretty much dying. Worst day ever. Relief Society is sometimes a thorn in my side. That is all.
Ok ok I hope you all have a lovely week and I love y'all lots and lots.
Sister Young
8.06.2012
August 6, 2012
Naaaaaa?
That is a question people here ask when they want to know how you're doing. Does it make sense? No. It's not even a real word in German, I'm pretty sure. Don't worry, it only took me like half of my mission to figure this out. Naja.
So goooood news. We have a lovely lady getting baptized in October! It's extra cool because her husband and all of her children joined the church last year and she was totally against it! But now she's golden. And we have the privilege of being here. The only problem? She doesn't speak a lick of German (they're all from Cambodia). So everything we do has to be translated through her husband or children. It's quite an adventure, and not one I was really expecting on a mission. But it's still great, no worries.
With reference to above, I was thinking about how I'm not really serving in Germany as much as I'm serving in Africa and Asia. And all the returned missionaries when giving their homecoming talks are always like, "Oh, I just love the people of [insert country here]!" or "I really learned how to love the [insert nationality here] people." I don't really feel like I could honestly say that I just loved serving the German people because I don't know as many people originally from Germany as from Ghana for example hahaha. I teach just as much in German as I do in English. And now I'm learning how to pray in Cambodian! I don't even know what my mission language is anymore haha. Naja.
Ok. Now story time.
Cheesy story. So we were going to an appointment the other day and the address was not correct. We were of course bummed, and also not very prepared because we didn't have any backup plan (stupid, I know). So we decide to just walk around and try to make out an appt with someone on the street. Normally I would be totally down for that except we happened to be in a very German part of town, so there weren't many foreigners. This means it's waaaaaaaay harder to make out an appt. I was just totally and selfishly bummed, and ridiculously tired. I bent my head and offered a silent prayer that God would just PUHLEASE let someone here make out an appt with us, or at least that people would be nice. As soon as I looked up I saw a German man walking in our direction and decided to go talk to him. Surprisingly enough, when we stopped him he exclaimed "Mormons!," which is totally weird because most people here have never heard of us. We asked what he had heard about our church and, of course, he said we're polygamists and he thinks we're a cult. Needlesst to say, we cleared that up. And then we totally bore our testimonies to him and the spirit was soooo strong and he agreed to meet with us, even though he was super skeptical at first. It was a miracle!!!! But then I probably shouldn't tell you that he didn't show up for our appt 2 days later. BUT it doesn't matter because a) his positive experience with missionaries probably will prepare him to receive them later and b) it was totally a testimony to me that God really does love and care about us and he listens to our prayers. What is important to us is also important to him, and I was so happy the rest of the day.
And then. IT GETS BETTER.
So after making out an appointment with a German, which is a huge deal, we found ourselves walking into some sort of large outdoor shopping center with a million souls just waiting to be saved! But, still being our natural missionary selves, we picked out the first African we saw. The timing in which we approached her was unfortunate, due to the fact that someone had just barely stolen her purse that had her visa and stuff in it and she was kind of freaking out and didn't know what to do. So we calmed her down and told her that we would accompany her to the nearest police station. After walking a million miles to get there, we finally made it to the station and stayed with this girl while she talked to the police, who were all surprisingly jolly. One officer in particular was extremely nice and helped the girl fill out a bunch of paperwork. After telling us how cool we were to do this for her, he asked Sister Uhlig and I if we had any questions for him. I'm not sure what came across my mind at this point, but I opened my mouth and the words, "Well, do you have any interest in learning more about our faith?" just kind of fell out. Sister Uhlig turned a deep shade of red and just started laughing. The officer just chuckled and began to tell us the story of his religious awakening to agnosticism. We left him with a pamphlet and a card anyway and it was super great.
And that was the ending to a really great day.
I hope you are all loving your lives. I miss you all more than the moon and the stars. Peace and blessings.
Sister Young
That is a question people here ask when they want to know how you're doing. Does it make sense? No. It's not even a real word in German, I'm pretty sure. Don't worry, it only took me like half of my mission to figure this out. Naja.
So goooood news. We have a lovely lady getting baptized in October! It's extra cool because her husband and all of her children joined the church last year and she was totally against it! But now she's golden. And we have the privilege of being here. The only problem? She doesn't speak a lick of German (they're all from Cambodia). So everything we do has to be translated through her husband or children. It's quite an adventure, and not one I was really expecting on a mission. But it's still great, no worries.
With reference to above, I was thinking about how I'm not really serving in Germany as much as I'm serving in Africa and Asia. And all the returned missionaries when giving their homecoming talks are always like, "Oh, I just love the people of [insert country here]!" or "I really learned how to love the [insert nationality here] people." I don't really feel like I could honestly say that I just loved serving the German people because I don't know as many people originally from Germany as from Ghana for example hahaha. I teach just as much in German as I do in English. And now I'm learning how to pray in Cambodian! I don't even know what my mission language is anymore haha. Naja.
Ok. Now story time.
Cheesy story. So we were going to an appointment the other day and the address was not correct. We were of course bummed, and also not very prepared because we didn't have any backup plan (stupid, I know). So we decide to just walk around and try to make out an appt with someone on the street. Normally I would be totally down for that except we happened to be in a very German part of town, so there weren't many foreigners. This means it's waaaaaaaay harder to make out an appt. I was just totally and selfishly bummed, and ridiculously tired. I bent my head and offered a silent prayer that God would just PUHLEASE let someone here make out an appt with us, or at least that people would be nice. As soon as I looked up I saw a German man walking in our direction and decided to go talk to him. Surprisingly enough, when we stopped him he exclaimed "Mormons!," which is totally weird because most people here have never heard of us. We asked what he had heard about our church and, of course, he said we're polygamists and he thinks we're a cult. Needlesst to say, we cleared that up. And then we totally bore our testimonies to him and the spirit was soooo strong and he agreed to meet with us, even though he was super skeptical at first. It was a miracle!!!! But then I probably shouldn't tell you that he didn't show up for our appt 2 days later. BUT it doesn't matter because a) his positive experience with missionaries probably will prepare him to receive them later and b) it was totally a testimony to me that God really does love and care about us and he listens to our prayers. What is important to us is also important to him, and I was so happy the rest of the day.
And then. IT GETS BETTER.
So after making out an appointment with a German, which is a huge deal, we found ourselves walking into some sort of large outdoor shopping center with a million souls just waiting to be saved! But, still being our natural missionary selves, we picked out the first African we saw. The timing in which we approached her was unfortunate, due to the fact that someone had just barely stolen her purse that had her visa and stuff in it and she was kind of freaking out and didn't know what to do. So we calmed her down and told her that we would accompany her to the nearest police station. After walking a million miles to get there, we finally made it to the station and stayed with this girl while she talked to the police, who were all surprisingly jolly. One officer in particular was extremely nice and helped the girl fill out a bunch of paperwork. After telling us how cool we were to do this for her, he asked Sister Uhlig and I if we had any questions for him. I'm not sure what came across my mind at this point, but I opened my mouth and the words, "Well, do you have any interest in learning more about our faith?" just kind of fell out. Sister Uhlig turned a deep shade of red and just started laughing. The officer just chuckled and began to tell us the story of his religious awakening to agnosticism. We left him with a pamphlet and a card anyway and it was super great.
And that was the ending to a really great day.
I hope you are all loving your lives. I miss you all more than the moon and the stars. Peace and blessings.
Sister Young
8.05.2012
July 30, 2012
Hello hello.
This week was WEIRD.
But something cool. Did you ever see the movie "Valkery" (Walküre auf Deutsch) with Tom Cruise about the dude that worked for Hitler and planned this huge thing to try to kill him? So we totally went to the place where that happened. I stood in Stauffenberg's (his name) office where he planned it all, which is right above where he and the others were shot. There's this memorial for it in the building where it all went down, and then of course outside where they were all lined up and murdered. It was fascinating. Just thought you'd like to know.
Also I have officially succeeded in feminizing my comp. 5 down, 6 billion more to go!! But seriously, I am so proud of her. We were with our mission president while he was giving us a little devotional thing, and he accidently referred to all of us listening as "Elders," to which my companion (before I could say anything) blurted out, "and Sisters!!!!" HA. She told me she would never have noticed/done that before she met me. I WIN. 10 points to Feminism!
So I may or may not have eaten something yesterday that touched the subway station ground (for 2 seconds, totally under the rule). But listen, it was a french pastry thing (from France!!) and I can't let it go to waste just because I was clumsy! So if I get sick this week for any reason, I know why. But if it doesn't kill me then I think I am now building up immunity to at least 50 new diseases.
Nah ja. So this man called us a couple days ago and said he wanted to meet to figure out what we believe. I guess we gave him our card on the street once? I don't know. We were a little hesitant, so we agreed to meet at a cafe thingy on a very busy street. When we got there he asked us to follow him to another place. So we follow him to this arabic hookah smoking lounge thing where he invites us to smoke hookah with him hahaha. No thanks, dude. We're good. But thanks!
That's about it for this week. I hope you are loving your lives.
Sister Young
This week was WEIRD.
But something cool. Did you ever see the movie "Valkery" (Walküre auf Deutsch) with Tom Cruise about the dude that worked for Hitler and planned this huge thing to try to kill him? So we totally went to the place where that happened. I stood in Stauffenberg's (his name) office where he planned it all, which is right above where he and the others were shot. There's this memorial for it in the building where it all went down, and then of course outside where they were all lined up and murdered. It was fascinating. Just thought you'd like to know.
Also I have officially succeeded in feminizing my comp. 5 down, 6 billion more to go!! But seriously, I am so proud of her. We were with our mission president while he was giving us a little devotional thing, and he accidently referred to all of us listening as "Elders," to which my companion (before I could say anything) blurted out, "and Sisters!!!!" HA. She told me she would never have noticed/done that before she met me. I WIN. 10 points to Feminism!
So I may or may not have eaten something yesterday that touched the subway station ground (for 2 seconds, totally under the rule). But listen, it was a french pastry thing (from France!!) and I can't let it go to waste just because I was clumsy! So if I get sick this week for any reason, I know why. But if it doesn't kill me then I think I am now building up immunity to at least 50 new diseases.
Nah ja. So this man called us a couple days ago and said he wanted to meet to figure out what we believe. I guess we gave him our card on the street once? I don't know. We were a little hesitant, so we agreed to meet at a cafe thingy on a very busy street. When we got there he asked us to follow him to another place. So we follow him to this arabic hookah smoking lounge thing where he invites us to smoke hookah with him hahaha. No thanks, dude. We're good. But thanks!
That's about it for this week. I hope you are loving your lives.
Sister Young
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)