3-28-16

Mom! I haven't seen the General Women's session yet!  That's at two in
the morning here and they haven't sent the talks to the gospel library
app yet.  Life in a forge in country is hard.  I also won't see the
last session of conference for a bit, so no spoilers.

I actually do love that you're planning my life for me.  Just so long
as I can hug my bookshelf when I get home, I'm good.

I love Jake.

On a more serious note, I am aware of what happened in Brussels.  The
mission told us not to worry, but to avoid large crowds and stay safe.
I'm not really worried.  After all, "For he shall give His angels
charge over thee, to guard thee in all thy ways." (Psalms 91:11 with a
German translation twist)

As for this week, the most entertaining thing happened Saturday night.
So, we're walking down the street and some guy comes up and shakes our
hand.  In my brain I'm going "less active, Elder's investigator, a
member whose face I don't recognize?" Because no one else would react
to us like that.  Then he turns to my companion. "You're tall, I'm
tall.  Do you like to tango?"

I left Sister Van Vleet to explain that we're not allowed to date for
eighteen months because I was internally dying of laughter and if I
opened my mouth I would have externally been dying of laughter.

But it was cool, due to the "we can't date you, we're missionaries" we
had a twenty minute conversation about religion.  He wasn't super
interested in learning more, but it was a memorable experience.

We also learned not to go dooring on a German holiday (Karfreitag)
unless you want to be chased down the stairs by a crazy lady in
underwear.  Or have an old lady yell at you.  Germans take there free
time very seriously.

That's all for now.  I hope you all had a fantastic Easter!

Love,

Rachel

It's a good thing Rachel will send Pictures to Kersten.  She only sends me pictures of flowers.

3-21-16

I'm glad Aunt Carol is doing better.

Most entertaining conversation ever:

Us: "Do you believe in God"
Random Stranger: " I am here."
Us: "Cool, so how to worship Him?"
RS: "No, I am God.  I created this world. Etc."
Us: "..."
RS: "Do you doubt? You look like you doubt me.  I don't like people
that doubt me."
Us: "Well, yes actually.  But would you like to watch a video about your self?"

He didn't watch the video.

We also had a split this week hat shows that God cares about the one.

So first of, Sister Markl was suppose to come to Dortmund, but had to
stay in Duisburg.  Then, taking Sister Roderer home, I got on the
wrong u-bahn, but because of that, we meet Janice.

Janice is amazing.  She was very curious about what we do and the
church.  We offered to give her a tour of the church the next day and
agreed to meet at Hauptbahnhof at five.

As we were walking towards the meeting place, we both were thinking
that she probably wasn't going to show up.  That's what usually
happens.  Of course, neither of us said it out loud, but we both
thought it.

She showed up.  We wound up giving one of the most spiritual church
tours either of us have given, which is impressive seeing how I had to
give Sister Roderer a tour earlier.

It was the first time Janice has ever set foot inside any church building.

Afterwards, she told us that she needed some time, but maybe in a few
weeks she'll actually come to a church service and learn some more.

Sister Roderer needed to be in Dortmund because of how well she
connected to Janice.  I needed to mix up bahns.  There was a reason we
couldn't get any appointments for that night.  This split was for
Janice.

Other than that, I don't remember what happened this week and what
happened last month.

Have a wonderful Easter!

I love you,

Rachel

3-17-16

Ana mentioned Aunt Carol.  Is she okay?

I've never realized how blessed we are in Utah with so many temples until I got here.  I can't wait to go back to the temple.

So, we found a Romanian family.  It cool because we have a recent convert Romanian family that can translate the lessons.  (The husband speaks a little German, but translation is always nice.) not going to lie, I'm a little wary after Tina.  But, they felt the Spirit in the lesson and want to learn more.

I love your daily quotes.  They always make my day:)

I'm so excited for the new Easter video that's coming out.  Those videos are magical.  

I love you all!

Love,

 

It's a good thing Rachel sends pictures to Kersten:)

 

3-6-16

My new companion is Sister Van Vleet from Chicago.  It's been really
weird because for the first time ever my companion looks at me with
the "what did she just say" look.  But despite being new to the
mission, she already understands a lot and has great German.  She
studied it before and was actually fast tracked. Aka only two weeks in
the MTC.

I believe Dad's busy. At least he got some cake:)

Surprisingly I do have the bus system figured out.  Dortmund is
actually pretty easy compared to some cities.

The teachings going good.  We've been doing a lot of less active work
and that's been fun.

I cannot tell you weird it is to have a release date.  It's weird.

Nothing terribly exciting happened this week.  Just sending Sister
Bray home and picking Sister Van Vleet up.

Love you!!!

Sister Peterson