Info regarding pictures:
1. With the cutest family ever!! They're from Cambodia and they were all baptized last year.
2. Me right outside of our apartment.
I would have sent more pictures but it won't allow me. DUMB.
10.23.2012
October 22, 2012
I forgot to attach pics to the last email. Woops. Enjoy!
Info regarding pictures:
1. With the cutest family ever!! They're from Cambodia and they were all baptized last year.
2. Me right outside of our apartment.
I would have sent more pictures but it won't allow me. DUMB.
Info regarding pictures:
1. With the cutest family ever!! They're from Cambodia and they were all baptized last year.
2. Me right outside of our apartment.
I would have sent more pictures but it won't allow me. DUMB.
October 22, 2012
Guess what people.
This week I hit my mission birthday - I HAVE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8760 hours. 525,600 minutes. 3,153,6000 seconds. That's a lot of time to spend on one of the hardest things I've ever done. Woof.
Well well. This week God loved us in abundance. We found a lot of new amazing people to teach, we had good lessons with all our investigators, the weather was perfect...
The problem with having good or easy times on your mission is that you're constantly scared for something horrible to happen. That's just how it is. If you're having an amazing week, you immediately get nervous for the next week to suck like crazy. If you tell any other missionaries that you're having a successful week, they respond with, "Oh...good luck then." Then we all kind of crawl into a corner and wait for God to drown us in misery. So Sister Larsen and I are a little nervous is all.
Ok but I will tell you the funny story of the week because this will make you so happy! I promise.
So. Do you remember the story from my last week with Sister Uhlig about a girl who responded to the question, "What does prayer mean to you?" with "alcohol"????? Ok well just keep that in mind when I tell you that this week Sister Larsen and I talked to this woman on the street and she said, "Oh please come help my daughter find Jesus!" or something like that. So we set up an appointment to come over and when we showed up guess who answered the door? ALCOHOL GIRL. Bahaha she and I just looked at each other awkwardly, but then her mom invited us in and we taught a lesson. Probably the most perfect lesson we've ever taught. We asked all the Preach My Gospel inspired questions, taught the doctrine simply but powerfully, gave commitments, bore testimony, etc etc. Her mom was loving it, but this girl was laughing awkwardly the whole time and wouldn't make eye contact. She answered all of our open-ended questions with one word answers.
And then! She came to Institut. WITH HER MOM. Kind of weird. Then we set up an appointment, only to find out her mother wouldn't be there!!!! So we were a little bit insanely nervous about it. But we went. And as soon as we sat down she asked to borrow our phone and went into the other room for like 10 minutes calling weird numbers! Then she came back in and sat on the other side of the room and asked what we wanted to talk about. I was just so confused and asked, "Um...do you even want us to be here? We only want to come if this is something you're interested in," to which she replied (with a completely emotionless face), "Yes." ?????????? So we taught an awkward lesson about prayer, tried to bring the Spirit but it was hard with her laughing occasionally at us, and invited her to church. Then we left.
Question: What do you do with an investigator that keeps all the commitments, keeps making out appointments with you, but doesn't actually want to meet with you??!?!?!?!
Bahahaha I never ever EVER thought that would be a problem on my mission, but obviously I did not give Berlin enough credit. Thank you, Deutschland, for continuing to blow my mind.
Lurve,
Sister Young
This week I hit my mission birthday - I HAVE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8760 hours. 525,600 minutes. 3,153,6000 seconds. That's a lot of time to spend on one of the hardest things I've ever done. Woof.
Well well. This week God loved us in abundance. We found a lot of new amazing people to teach, we had good lessons with all our investigators, the weather was perfect...
The problem with having good or easy times on your mission is that you're constantly scared for something horrible to happen. That's just how it is. If you're having an amazing week, you immediately get nervous for the next week to suck like crazy. If you tell any other missionaries that you're having a successful week, they respond with, "Oh...good luck then." Then we all kind of crawl into a corner and wait for God to drown us in misery. So Sister Larsen and I are a little nervous is all.
Ok but I will tell you the funny story of the week because this will make you so happy! I promise.
So. Do you remember the story from my last week with Sister Uhlig about a girl who responded to the question, "What does prayer mean to you?" with "alcohol"????? Ok well just keep that in mind when I tell you that this week Sister Larsen and I talked to this woman on the street and she said, "Oh please come help my daughter find Jesus!" or something like that. So we set up an appointment to come over and when we showed up guess who answered the door? ALCOHOL GIRL. Bahaha she and I just looked at each other awkwardly, but then her mom invited us in and we taught a lesson. Probably the most perfect lesson we've ever taught. We asked all the Preach My Gospel inspired questions, taught the doctrine simply but powerfully, gave commitments, bore testimony, etc etc. Her mom was loving it, but this girl was laughing awkwardly the whole time and wouldn't make eye contact. She answered all of our open-ended questions with one word answers.
And then! She came to Institut. WITH HER MOM. Kind of weird. Then we set up an appointment, only to find out her mother wouldn't be there!!!! So we were a little bit insanely nervous about it. But we went. And as soon as we sat down she asked to borrow our phone and went into the other room for like 10 minutes calling weird numbers! Then she came back in and sat on the other side of the room and asked what we wanted to talk about. I was just so confused and asked, "Um...do you even want us to be here? We only want to come if this is something you're interested in," to which she replied (with a completely emotionless face), "Yes." ?????????? So we taught an awkward lesson about prayer, tried to bring the Spirit but it was hard with her laughing occasionally at us, and invited her to church. Then we left.
Question: What do you do with an investigator that keeps all the commitments, keeps making out appointments with you, but doesn't actually want to meet with you??!?!?!?!
Bahahaha I never ever EVER thought that would be a problem on my mission, but obviously I did not give Berlin enough credit. Thank you, Deutschland, for continuing to blow my mind.
Lurve,
Sister Young
October 15, 2012
Well let's just jump right to the point and spread the news: PRESIDENT MONSON WAS IN BERLIN YESTERDAY AND WE GOT TO SEE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No big deal or anything, but I had the privilege of talking about prophets with my investigators and had the joy of saying, "Actually, the prophet is coming to Berlin this weekend. Want to come with us to hear him?" Yangmin just about fell off his chair haha. But win! Several of our investigators came and it was a glorious event.
Speaking of Yang, he's back!!! Obviously he couldn't hide from the Spirit for very long. He said he still doesn't want to be baptized until his wife approves, which of course is acceptable, but he will still meet with us once a week and come to church. Yay yay yay my heart is full! Also he's been receiving a lot of anti-mormon stuff from friends and family and he'll bring it to us sometimes and say, "What am I supposed to do with this? I might as well throw it away because NONE OF IT IS TRUE!" Best. investigator. EVER.
Also I'm learning Chinese from a new investigator named Ronny. She is the sweetest thing to ever grace this planet and Sister Larsen and I get a kick out of her laughing at our Chinese lessons. But I'm basically fluent so no worries.
Aaaaaaaand the best day of my mission happened to be on Saturday. We went to Eisenhüttenstadt for a service project and it was AWESOME. The branch president's mother-in-law (she's not a member) has the biggest garden in the entire world and we helped her pull out trees and things. It was the perfect combination - perfect, sunny, autumn weather + working in a garden + finding random beautiful pieces of glass as we were digging because the garden used to be a glass factory from the early 1900's!! + eating delicious Polish food + talking with hilarious East Germans = the best missionary day ever. I have never felt more zufrieden. It was wonderful and I wish I could just transport all of you to Germany where you can meet these hilarious people. That is all.
So this guy we met on the street told us we were witches the other day. I've heard a lot of things on my mission, but rather surprisingly I have never been called a witch. I guess it wouldn't have been such a big deal except right before we talked to him we talked to a Jehovah's Witness who was not very nice. And right before we talked to the JW an Italian man told us he would come to church if we kissed him. It was just icing on top of our terrible day of trying to find people who are trying to come closer to Christ. Oooooooh man ich mag es überhaupt nicht!
I hope you have a wonderful week. Love your guts.
Sister Young
No big deal or anything, but I had the privilege of talking about prophets with my investigators and had the joy of saying, "Actually, the prophet is coming to Berlin this weekend. Want to come with us to hear him?" Yangmin just about fell off his chair haha. But win! Several of our investigators came and it was a glorious event.
Speaking of Yang, he's back!!! Obviously he couldn't hide from the Spirit for very long. He said he still doesn't want to be baptized until his wife approves, which of course is acceptable, but he will still meet with us once a week and come to church. Yay yay yay my heart is full! Also he's been receiving a lot of anti-mormon stuff from friends and family and he'll bring it to us sometimes and say, "What am I supposed to do with this? I might as well throw it away because NONE OF IT IS TRUE!" Best. investigator. EVER.
Also I'm learning Chinese from a new investigator named Ronny. She is the sweetest thing to ever grace this planet and Sister Larsen and I get a kick out of her laughing at our Chinese lessons. But I'm basically fluent so no worries.
Aaaaaaaand the best day of my mission happened to be on Saturday. We went to Eisenhüttenstadt for a service project and it was AWESOME. The branch president's mother-in-law (she's not a member) has the biggest garden in the entire world and we helped her pull out trees and things. It was the perfect combination - perfect, sunny, autumn weather + working in a garden + finding random beautiful pieces of glass as we were digging because the garden used to be a glass factory from the early 1900's!! + eating delicious Polish food + talking with hilarious East Germans = the best missionary day ever. I have never felt more zufrieden. It was wonderful and I wish I could just transport all of you to Germany where you can meet these hilarious people. That is all.
So this guy we met on the street told us we were witches the other day. I've heard a lot of things on my mission, but rather surprisingly I have never been called a witch. I guess it wouldn't have been such a big deal except right before we talked to him we talked to a Jehovah's Witness who was not very nice. And right before we talked to the JW an Italian man told us he would come to church if we kissed him. It was just icing on top of our terrible day of trying to find people who are trying to come closer to Christ. Oooooooh man ich mag es überhaupt nicht!
I hope you have a wonderful week. Love your guts.
Sister Young
October 8, 2012
PEOPLE.
Ok ok ok so the one thing everyone has been asking me is "OH MY GOSH how do you feel about the fact that the Church changed the ages of Sister missionaries from 21 to 19????"
I will give you my personal opinion.
I think it is great for the following reasons:
1. Less girls will be getting married at 19 and 20, which I believe to be a splendid improvement. No offense to all my friends and acquaintances who got married at these tender ages, but I am all in favor of girls waiting to have significant life experiences before settling down.
2. This will increase the number of sisters by like a bajillion percent!! I'm like 99.9% sure that in about a year over half of the young people serving missions will be girls. Almost guaranteed.
3. So many girls that would have otherwise have had to turn down the opportunity may now go. I happy so happy for them.
I am terrified for the following reasons:
1. I was almost still a poophead at 19 and I'm a little scared a lot more immature girls will be entering the field.
2. With #1 being said, I'm afraid that a lot more immature 19 year old girls and boys will be falling in love with each other on the mission. Lock your heart problems, perhaps?
3. It's just one more giant decision that they have to make at such a young age. Please please PLEASE do it prayerfully!!! I think all the girls considering missions need to remember that they do not have to do it now - you can still wait until you're 21 or 24 or 26! And the older you are, the more life experiences and maturity you have to bring to your mission experience. Ward members and investigators see that and many times prefer it.
With all of this excitement and confusion and just plain weirdness, I have decided to do something special. I would like to write this letter home as a letter to my 19-year-old self. And so.
Dear (future) Sister Young,
First of all, to ruin the surprise, you went on a mission!! Ha ha!! Yes indeed, your future self decided to follow those promptings you have probably barely received about serving a mission. Again, ruining the surprise, you have been sent to the freezing cold of Berlin, Germany, and you secretly are falling in love with it. Indeed, a language so harsh and a people so stubborn are managing to squeeze through the tiny crevices in the wall around your heart. As scary as it sounds, you will find peace with this incredibly daunting responsibility of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sister, to be completely honest, I don't remember what it was like to be 19. I think I tried to block those memories out, so I apologize in advance for any sort of suckiness you're about to experience. I'm sure it wasn't that bad, so you'll learn to get over it. I DO remember, however, that you have started a "Happy Thoughts" journal, recording all the wonderful things each day there are to enjoy about life. Please keep this habit up. Your 21-year-old self is insanely horrible at keeping any sort of journal, and it would be such a lovely talent to have on a mission.
You have a really long road in front of you, and the time will probably seem to just creep by. You will make so many stupid decisions, but in the beauty of God's plan they will lead you right to where you need to be. Just don't forget to repent and to turn to Christ. Learn to become more like Him. I'm not sure if that means anything to you right now, and I'm actually not sure if that means anything to me either, but just keep reading in the scriptures and praying and going to church and doing what you're supposed to and maybe we'll learn one of these days.
I would love to gush out all the feelings of my heart right this second and to impart all the wisdom that I possess, but I just want you to learn that for yourself. It's time to fall on your face a few more times and to have your heart broken a few more times and to know what it means to climb the mountain of self-hatred and pity a few more times. That is what is going to make you a good missionary, and probably a good everything else.
Also are you not just dying from the cheesiness of this letter yet?? Ok then I will tell you some funny things and good things about your missionary-self.
#1. I still laugh at poop jokes.
#2. I am famous in the mission for 3 things: being a feminist, reading auras, and taking awkward pictures. This is how the 214 other missionaries in this mission will remember me for the rest of their lives. I am very pleased.
#3. I spend my p-days teaching Elders to be feminists and have had the privilege of hearing my district tell me that they have been converted to the cause of defending women.
#4. I am still addicted to Nutella.
#5. I think I am the funniest person in the world and I need to work on my pride a little bit.
Ok. That is all.
I love you!
Love,
Sister Young
ps. Please don't flunk that French test coming up. It's actually going to become your major and you need to stop being so lazy.
Ok ok ok so the one thing everyone has been asking me is "OH MY GOSH how do you feel about the fact that the Church changed the ages of Sister missionaries from 21 to 19????"
I will give you my personal opinion.
I think it is great for the following reasons:
1. Less girls will be getting married at 19 and 20, which I believe to be a splendid improvement. No offense to all my friends and acquaintances who got married at these tender ages, but I am all in favor of girls waiting to have significant life experiences before settling down.
2. This will increase the number of sisters by like a bajillion percent!! I'm like 99.9% sure that in about a year over half of the young people serving missions will be girls. Almost guaranteed.
3. So many girls that would have otherwise have had to turn down the opportunity may now go. I happy so happy for them.
I am terrified for the following reasons:
1. I was almost still a poophead at 19 and I'm a little scared a lot more immature girls will be entering the field.
2. With #1 being said, I'm afraid that a lot more immature 19 year old girls and boys will be falling in love with each other on the mission. Lock your heart problems, perhaps?
3. It's just one more giant decision that they have to make at such a young age. Please please PLEASE do it prayerfully!!! I think all the girls considering missions need to remember that they do not have to do it now - you can still wait until you're 21 or 24 or 26! And the older you are, the more life experiences and maturity you have to bring to your mission experience. Ward members and investigators see that and many times prefer it.
With all of this excitement and confusion and just plain weirdness, I have decided to do something special. I would like to write this letter home as a letter to my 19-year-old self. And so.
Dear (future) Sister Young,
First of all, to ruin the surprise, you went on a mission!! Ha ha!! Yes indeed, your future self decided to follow those promptings you have probably barely received about serving a mission. Again, ruining the surprise, you have been sent to the freezing cold of Berlin, Germany, and you secretly are falling in love with it. Indeed, a language so harsh and a people so stubborn are managing to squeeze through the tiny crevices in the wall around your heart. As scary as it sounds, you will find peace with this incredibly daunting responsibility of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sister, to be completely honest, I don't remember what it was like to be 19. I think I tried to block those memories out, so I apologize in advance for any sort of suckiness you're about to experience. I'm sure it wasn't that bad, so you'll learn to get over it. I DO remember, however, that you have started a "Happy Thoughts" journal, recording all the wonderful things each day there are to enjoy about life. Please keep this habit up. Your 21-year-old self is insanely horrible at keeping any sort of journal, and it would be such a lovely talent to have on a mission.
You have a really long road in front of you, and the time will probably seem to just creep by. You will make so many stupid decisions, but in the beauty of God's plan they will lead you right to where you need to be. Just don't forget to repent and to turn to Christ. Learn to become more like Him. I'm not sure if that means anything to you right now, and I'm actually not sure if that means anything to me either, but just keep reading in the scriptures and praying and going to church and doing what you're supposed to and maybe we'll learn one of these days.
I would love to gush out all the feelings of my heart right this second and to impart all the wisdom that I possess, but I just want you to learn that for yourself. It's time to fall on your face a few more times and to have your heart broken a few more times and to know what it means to climb the mountain of self-hatred and pity a few more times. That is what is going to make you a good missionary, and probably a good everything else.
Also are you not just dying from the cheesiness of this letter yet?? Ok then I will tell you some funny things and good things about your missionary-self.
#1. I still laugh at poop jokes.
#2. I am famous in the mission for 3 things: being a feminist, reading auras, and taking awkward pictures. This is how the 214 other missionaries in this mission will remember me for the rest of their lives. I am very pleased.
#3. I spend my p-days teaching Elders to be feminists and have had the privilege of hearing my district tell me that they have been converted to the cause of defending women.
#4. I am still addicted to Nutella.
#5. I think I am the funniest person in the world and I need to work on my pride a little bit.
Ok. That is all.
I love you!
Love,
Sister Young
ps. Please don't flunk that French test coming up. It's actually going to become your major and you need to stop being so lazy.
10.07.2012
October 1, 2012
Just so you know, I'm going on a diet tomorrow. I have gained 2 pounds this transfer and I DON'T LIKE IT.
Blah. This week has been the pits. Well not thaaaat bad, but not really that great either. After our wonderful Sunday of miracles, God decided to answer my prayers of pleading with another rough week. He is just so great like that.
I'm sorry people, I just don't feel like talking right now. I hope you'll excuse my lack of writing.
I'll leave you a nice video instead. I hope you understand.
Love,
Sister Young
http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng
Blah. This week has been the pits. Well not thaaaat bad, but not really that great either. After our wonderful Sunday of miracles, God decided to answer my prayers of pleading with another rough week. He is just so great like that.
I'm sorry people, I just don't feel like talking right now. I hope you'll excuse my lack of writing.
I'll leave you a nice video instead. I hope you understand.
Love,
Sister Young
http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng
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.
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.
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.
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