What do I want for dinner? To be completely honest, I want American
pizza. I also really want to eat your rolls. And an Angie's burger.
And Dad's turkey.
I'm glad you survived trek. That must have been fun.
So, my final week in Germany. Everything fell out, buses were missed,
I said way too many goodbyes, and Germany beat Italy in the Europe
Cup. (Which apparently never happens)
Wow. It's the Fourth of July. Today, Americans around the world are
being incredibly patriotic. Me? I'm going to enjoy my last p-day in
Germany. I'll get to hear the fireworks from the base later on
tonight.
I really don't know what else to write. I'm going to see y'all in a few days.
Have a happy birthday mom!
Love,
Rachel
PS-So everyone is clear, Mom gets the first hug, then Dad, then Jake, then
the rest of you lot.
Monday, July 4, 2016
6-27-16
I hope it doesn't rain on you, and have fun. You're going to love
that you got to go on trek.
I have a few stories for you this week:
Hans got baptized last Saturday. That was happy. He also got
confirmed. That was happier. I nearly killed him when he was late to
sacrament meeting. I did not want to go through that again. But he
made it. Every time we ask him about how he feels he keeps using
words like amazing, happy, pure, etc. He also mention that he can
feel the power of the Holy Ghost. It's awesome.
I also taught the greatest lesson of my mission last week. Susanne
was introduced to the Sisters through service and has slowly been
learning about the church through them and her member coworker. (He's
awesome) She's amazing. You would love her.
Anyway, we invited her to Hans baptism, and she told us that she would
like to get baptized and wanted to know what she needed to do to do
that. (Sister Williams was so excited. Susanne is her deutsche mom.)
So we meet with her two days later to talk about this and explain what
we do. During this discussion she had offered us drinks. She said
that she k ew we don't drink tee or coffee and wanted to know if we
can't drink soda too. We reexplain the Word of Wisdom and find out
that she thought we couldn't drink that stuff because we were
missionaries. Finding out that she can't drink coffee was a big thing
for her.
She then asks us to give her two more big things before we left. I
looked over at Sister Williams, she looked at me, and we went into the
Law of Chastity.
Now, I didn't want to do tithing just yet. We were afraid she would
struggle with that and she was still recovering from the no coffee.
We thought bother of the Law of Chastity. She's over fifty, has been
divorced for a long time, and has no interest in relationships
whatsoever. So this would be easy, right?
Wrong. We finish explaining everything and she just looked at us and
asks (very dramatically) "Aber was wenn ich nicht heiraten will und
ich mag mein sex!?" (For those who don't speak German:"But what about
when I don't want to get married and I like my sex!?")
All three of us lose it. I'm laughing because I don't know what to do
with this, Sister Williams is laughing because we didn't see this
coming at all, and Susanne is laughing because...I don't really know
why. That's just something she would do. But we were all doubled
over for a good five minutes or so.
After that she insisted on one more. I look at Sister Williams, and
she goes, "Why not?" And we teach tithing.
She had absolutely no problems with that one.
That's it for this week. K-Town is amazing:)
Love,
Rachel
that you got to go on trek.
I have a few stories for you this week:
Hans got baptized last Saturday. That was happy. He also got
confirmed. That was happier. I nearly killed him when he was late to
sacrament meeting. I did not want to go through that again. But he
made it. Every time we ask him about how he feels he keeps using
words like amazing, happy, pure, etc. He also mention that he can
feel the power of the Holy Ghost. It's awesome.
I also taught the greatest lesson of my mission last week. Susanne
was introduced to the Sisters through service and has slowly been
learning about the church through them and her member coworker. (He's
awesome) She's amazing. You would love her.
Anyway, we invited her to Hans baptism, and she told us that she would
like to get baptized and wanted to know what she needed to do to do
that. (Sister Williams was so excited. Susanne is her deutsche mom.)
So we meet with her two days later to talk about this and explain what
we do. During this discussion she had offered us drinks. She said
that she k ew we don't drink tee or coffee and wanted to know if we
can't drink soda too. We reexplain the Word of Wisdom and find out
that she thought we couldn't drink that stuff because we were
missionaries. Finding out that she can't drink coffee was a big thing
for her.
She then asks us to give her two more big things before we left. I
looked over at Sister Williams, she looked at me, and we went into the
Law of Chastity.
Now, I didn't want to do tithing just yet. We were afraid she would
struggle with that and she was still recovering from the no coffee.
We thought bother of the Law of Chastity. She's over fifty, has been
divorced for a long time, and has no interest in relationships
whatsoever. So this would be easy, right?
Wrong. We finish explaining everything and she just looked at us and
asks (very dramatically) "Aber was wenn ich nicht heiraten will und
ich mag mein sex!?" (For those who don't speak German:"But what about
when I don't want to get married and I like my sex!?")
All three of us lose it. I'm laughing because I don't know what to do
with this, Sister Williams is laughing because we didn't see this
coming at all, and Susanne is laughing because...I don't really know
why. That's just something she would do. But we were all doubled
over for a good five minutes or so.
After that she insisted on one more. I look at Sister Williams, and
she goes, "Why not?" And we teach tithing.
She had absolutely no problems with that one.
That's it for this week. K-Town is amazing:)
Love,
Rachel
Monday, June 13, 2016
6-13-16
 |
I will take the keyboard. Gerne.
Aren't they turning sixteen soon? That's a scary thought.
The highlight of this week was my split. My Sister Training Leader right now happens to be my MTC companion, Sister Helmick. So we spent an entire day together. It was like seeing my best friend again after eternity. It was cool seeing how we'd changed, yet we're still the same. We still feel back into our teaching style like it was yesterday. We balance each other so well, I love it. It was also great to catch up with her.
Can I just say how beautiful Germany is. Because it's beautiful.
I wish you the best of luck with Trek. You're going to love it.
Love,
Rachel
P.S. We saw Rapunzel's Tower today
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| Rapunzel's Tower |
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| Rapunzel's Tower |
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
6-6-16
Emailing a becoming stressful. Mostly because I don't want to do it.
Does this mean I get a book for knowing where that book was? (The girls told me all about this)
So, I'm in Kaiserslautern right now. Otherwise known as K-Town. One average sized city with eight missionaries roaming around. We see at least one companionship a day. This is what happens with a military Ward. (2 sets for German, 2 sets for English)
I'm so happy to be back in southern Germany. Dortmund was awesome, but it wasn't pretty. K-town is gorgeous. We have a great view from our window too.
This week I met Hans. He want to be baptized, so his cool. He's friends with our bubbly new convert Katja. (She knows basically all of our investigators.) Their relationship is hilarious.
I have to start doing the "paperwork" of going home. When I anmelded (what you do every time you go to a new city to say you live there) and asked where you have to go to abmeld (the thing you so when you leave the country so that they know you've left) the worker was super confused. I was signing in after all.
Not to mention all the mission stuff. They want me to send in pictures for a slide show. You know how I feel about pictures.
I'm fine with living in Enoch. Who said I wanted campus life anyway;). Working out the car will be entertaining.
I'm sure your week will be quiet win Michelle gone. Enjoy it while you can!
5-30-16
I miss BB-Q turkey. Whether it really does come from Scandinavia or not.
I'm glad you're feeling better. That cold sounded awful.
As for my week...it started out being full of appointments, and almost
all of them fell out. But, when they fell out and we went finding, we
talked to some fantastic people. And a man gave Sister Van Vleet his
watch because she told him it was cool. He refused to take it back.
I thing the best moment for me was when we were riding an U-Bahn to go
by a less active family. We got on, an across from me sat an old man
with an Ohio shirt on. Naturally, I asked him if he'd ever been to
Ohio. He had not. But he had been to Texas, and had meet Mormon
Missionaries there. I gave him the church's address here, and he
promised that he would be at church in two weeks. (Yesterday didn't
work for him.) Then came the problem. He was riding the bahn to the
end of the line, and we were riding it to seven stops before the end
of the line. In other words, I had to figure out how to keep a
conversation going for twenty more minutes. You know me Mom. Small
talk is not my strong point. I was terrified.
So, with a prayer in my heart I started asking him questions about his
work. Luckily, he talked about his job and what it was like for a
long time. I just continued praying that I would be able to
understand him enough to know what to say (his accent was really
thick), and that I could keep him talking.
My prayer was heard and I made it to our stop without a break in the
conversation. And I learned a lot about what he does. Not going to
lie though, I was relieved when we got off. I can talk about God and
Christ all day in German. Not about normal life. Luckily God knew
that and just helped me ask questions so that the man could talk.
It's funny to think that when I'm home I'll probably be talking to
random people out of habit.
That's it for this week. I hope everything goes well with Ana's
graduation. And you're not that old.
Love ya!
I'm glad you're feeling better. That cold sounded awful.
As for my week...it started out being full of appointments, and almost
all of them fell out. But, when they fell out and we went finding, we
talked to some fantastic people. And a man gave Sister Van Vleet his
watch because she told him it was cool. He refused to take it back.
I thing the best moment for me was when we were riding an U-Bahn to go
by a less active family. We got on, an across from me sat an old man
with an Ohio shirt on. Naturally, I asked him if he'd ever been to
Ohio. He had not. But he had been to Texas, and had meet Mormon
Missionaries there. I gave him the church's address here, and he
promised that he would be at church in two weeks. (Yesterday didn't
work for him.) Then came the problem. He was riding the bahn to the
end of the line, and we were riding it to seven stops before the end
of the line. In other words, I had to figure out how to keep a
conversation going for twenty more minutes. You know me Mom. Small
talk is not my strong point. I was terrified.
So, with a prayer in my heart I started asking him questions about his
work. Luckily, he talked about his job and what it was like for a
long time. I just continued praying that I would be able to
understand him enough to know what to say (his accent was really
thick), and that I could keep him talking.
My prayer was heard and I made it to our stop without a break in the
conversation. And I learned a lot about what he does. Not going to
lie though, I was relieved when we got off. I can talk about God and
Christ all day in German. Not about normal life. Luckily God knew
that and just helped me ask questions so that the man could talk.
It's funny to think that when I'm home I'll probably be talking to
random people out of habit.
That's it for this week. I hope everything goes well with Ana's
graduation. And you're not that old.
Love ya!
P.S. I totally forgot to mention. I've been transferred. I'm going to
Kaiserslautern to work with the German branch there. I've got five
weeks to make a difference;)
Kaiserslautern to work with the German branch there. I've got five
weeks to make a difference;)
5-22-16
Guess what? Sanaa came to church! She's the sixteen year old we were working with. She kind tchüssed us four weeks ago after the second lesson. She said she needed more time. Last Saturday was the date she was suppose to be baptized, and she thought about that the entire day. Then she showed up to church. In Gospel Principles, we were talking about baptism, and Brother Turek asked who's getting baptized next. She raised her hand and said that she's getting baptized in June 18.
Looks like we have a baptismal date.
That's really the highlight of this week.
I hope you all have a great week, and I hope it doesn't rain during trek either. That wouldn't be fun.
Love you,
Rachel
5-15-16
I want to go the temple!
Don't stress about trek. I'm sure you're going to do great.
also, if the girls weren't driving you crazy, something would be wrong;)
My week...
Multiple people asked my companion if she could get married or asked
her on a date. We doored into a Jehovah's Witness who let us in
thinking we were JW's too. That was an adventure trying to clear that
up. (A lot of people ask us if we're Jehovah's Witness.). And then,
the next day, we actually ran into some Jehovah's Witness
missionaries. I also talked to a nun. Just about how amazing it was
that she gave her life to God. I don't have the heart to tell a nun
she should be Mormon when she has given up so much for her religion.
I've just discovered that they're really nice people.
We've give the Elders a lot of single men's numbers. It's actually
really funny. (If you want to know why, see the first sent acne of the
second paragraph.) The Elders feel bad and are trying to get us
numbers too. I've just noticed that girls are a lot less likely to
give you their number.
That about sums that up. I hope you have a great week and good luck
preparing for trek!
Love,
Rachel
Don't stress about trek. I'm sure you're going to do great.
also, if the girls weren't driving you crazy, something would be wrong;)
My week...
Multiple people asked my companion if she could get married or asked
her on a date. We doored into a Jehovah's Witness who let us in
thinking we were JW's too. That was an adventure trying to clear that
up. (A lot of people ask us if we're Jehovah's Witness.). And then,
the next day, we actually ran into some Jehovah's Witness
missionaries. I also talked to a nun. Just about how amazing it was
that she gave her life to God. I don't have the heart to tell a nun
she should be Mormon when she has given up so much for her religion.
I've just discovered that they're really nice people.
We've give the Elders a lot of single men's numbers. It's actually
really funny. (If you want to know why, see the first sent acne of the
second paragraph.) The Elders feel bad and are trying to get us
numbers too. I've just noticed that girls are a lot less likely to
give you their number.
That about sums that up. I hope you have a great week and good luck
preparing for trek!
Love,
Rachel
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