2-8-16

That's got to be crazy for Dad.  And you.  You're in my prayers.

Everything that happened this week feels like it happened forever ago.  

One highlight though is Monia.  She's a recent convert from Italy that we meet with every week to help her learn German and English.  While we can communicate with her, it's a little hard sometimes.  Italians speak way fast no matter which language they speak.  Anyway, this week she asked us to help her write down her testimony so that she could say it on Sunday.

Along comes Sunday, and she needs a little push, so Sister Bray goes up first.  Then she goes up and speaks in the best German I've ever heard her speak.  It was simple and sweet.

She came back down and was worried she did a terrible job.  Then the Relief Society president gets up and compliments her.  You should of seen Monia's face when we translated that for her. (She speaks better English than German)

Oh, another quick story.  We had a goal to get double digit less active appointments.  Because less actives are brilliant.  We were sitting at nine through very little effort of our own.  So, we decided to go by on some people we don't know.  While doing that, we had a few tell us to never come back or close the door before we even said a single word.

We picked another person, but called the Elders first because they've meet with the family before.  They said that the ward has asked us to not go by on them for a bit.  So we go somewhere else, and get let in by a sweet lady who invited us to come back.  

We called the Elders afterwards (we wanted to share our joy of not getting the door slammed in our face and reaching our goal) and they said that they'd said a pray for us after we'd hung up.

Gotta love the power of prayer

A bunch of other stuff happened too.  And Carnival started, so we're not allowed to go by Dortmund Hauptbahnhof or anything.  Poor Elders had to make sure their ties weren't cut off. (On the first day of carnival, girls cut of guys ties then kiss them)

Love you lots and I hope all goes well with the new ward.

Love,

Rachel

2-1-16

Dad's bishop.  Does that mean I don't have to give a homecoming talk?

I'll find out my release date sometime next transfer.

So, the inactive family wanting to reactivate called us almost every
day to say that they've read in the scriptures, said a prayer, or had
questions.  Satan's working hard on them though.  The cool thing was
that they recognized that and asked us for help.  We sent the Elders
to them.

We also visited another less active, and the day before the
appointment told us that she was going to have a friend over she wants
us to teach.  Less actives and in-actives are amazing.  I love working
with them.

This transfer is really weird because I know I only have six weeks
with Sister Bray.  I wish I had more.  She's so amazing and hard
working.  Our work styles are very similar and I can talk with her
about anything.

I also have to learn how to find my way around a giant city in six
weeks.  I can find the church and our apartment, so I think I'm good.

And, a German complimented my German!  First time ever.  Other people
have told me that, usually other missionaries or people from other
countries.  But to here it from a German.  That made my day.

How do you feel? Dad's bishop.

I love you and wish you the best of luck,

Love,
Rachel

What happens when I braid (Sister Bray braids) my wet hair plus humidity

 

 

 

picture

1-25-16

This week has been mental.

To start, I have to pack and said goodbye to everyone.  Because they changed transfers to Tuesday, it's a lot more crunched. The Bishop was really sweet and wanted us to come over, but it didn't work.  So he but his phone on speaker and had everyone say bye to me.  His wife made me cry.  She started out by saying "Sister Peterson, do you know what I think of you?" Then proceeded to compliment me for a good five minutes.

Then I took a four hour train ride to Dortmund.  It's basically on the opposite side of the mission, and one of the top ten largest cities in Germany.  Very different from Feucht.  They have buses and subways. But my house is purple, so I'm good.

The cool thing though, is I got to spend two days with my trainer, Sister Brown before sending her home. (Transfers changed, but the tickets for leavers was already bought.  It'll be the same for the next group too). That was an entertaining adventure.

Then it was just me and Sister Bray.  She's from Singapore, American, beautiful, and crazy.  I like her.  This is her last transfer, so we're going to make it the greatest transfer ever.

Then, on Saturday, I met the Rodrigez's.  A half American, less-active family.  We meet with them every week, but have been pretty stubborn, and hadn't been to church in a really long time.  However, this Sunday they came to church because their little girl missed Primary.  Yesterday night, we get a call from them.  The wife said that they'd been talking and realized how much happier they were after going to church and want to reactivity.  They want to life Mormon standards, go to church every week, the whole nine yards and asked us to help them do it!!!  

It's moments like this that you realize how wonderful church attendance is.  It changes lives.  People can feel the difference of when they go to church and when they don't.  And it was even cooler, because the Ward had changed it so Sacrament was first, so they came to all three hours instead of the two hours they usually do.  Which was perfect because Relief Society was perfect. They talked about Elder Hales talk, "Meeting the Challenges of Today's World" and afterwards she asked us if it's bad to mix two religions.

Church is so cool.  And I'm very grateful for their little girl who missed Primary.  Little children certainly are more in tune with the Spirit.

Wow, this is a long letter.  But like I said, this week was mental.

I'm jealous of your French toast.  But my house is purple. See:

Rachel's favorite color is purple:)

Purple.

I love you all so much!  Your awesome.

Love,

Rachel

1-18-15

Tina has not been to church.  In fact, she has not been home and her
phone number no longer works.  However, before she left a friend of
hers sat in on a lesson with her and is now investigating.  He's name
is Jesse, is from Ghana, and is married to a German with two girls.
He loves the scriptures and it's been so cool to show how the Bible
and Book of Mormon go together.

I didn't know you had to stand up for your beliefs like that.  That
must have been hard.  But I'm so glad you did.  You're the greatest
mother in the world.

I'm being transferred and head out tomorrow for Dortmund.  Which is a
4:14 train ride using the fastest train possible.  Gotta love being in
Nürnberg Zone.  Far away from everything. It's sad to say goodbye to
everyone.  This Ward is so strong and care so much about everyone.

I hit my year mark this week.  It's been interesting to look back and
see the changes.  The biggest one would be that I'm more confident in
who I am and what I stand for.  Hilary Weeks  it right.  I found God,
then I found me.

Well, that's all I can think of.  I'm really bad at this.  I don't
remember yesterday, remembering a week is a work out.

Love you all and thanks for all you do!



Celebrating the year mark with French Toast!
Thanks Sister Riser for the Pics

1-11-16

So wait.  Were you in the trailer?

Tina didn't come to church.  I don't know what else to do but keep
loving and teaching her and hope that she'll make the decision
herself.  Cuz that's the only way this is ever gonna work.

 This week was a bunch of go bys, dooring adventures, and finding
activities.  It was fun, but I don't really remember what happened.
As usual.  I'm terrible at this.

Oh, some Russian people we could really communicate with thought we were
part of the Three King thing and gave us Russian candy.

Yep, that's all I remember.

Hope y'all have a great week:)

Love,

Rachel

1-4-16

I'm so glad you're in primary again.  It finally snowed! Enough that it'll stay!

New Years was crazy.  President highly suggested we go home at six if
we didn't have any appointments.  Drunk people with fireworks is not a
good idea.  It was weird when midnight struck.  Our apartment was
positioned so that we would have to lean out our window to see
anything, plus it was super foggy.  We could hear them though.  And
see flashes of color.  Until about four in the morning.  It was crazy.

Yesterday was awesome though.  We managed to get an appointment with a
super busy inactive.  She was very open about what she struggles with
and agreed to have us reteach her the lessons.  She even pulled out
her schedule to see when we could come again.  It's not for two weeks,
but the fact that she's so open and willing is incredible.

I'm sure primary will be healing.  Watching Frozen did that for me.  I
was nervous about seeing it -I hadn't once Nicole died- but in the end
I feel like I've been able to recover more within these two weeks.

I hope you all have a great New Year.  I love you all.

Love,