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

2-29-16

Life is treating me well.  I'm enjoying it at least:)

I know Michelle is crazy.  She makes things entertaining.  Actually, we're teaching thirteen year old twins that remind me of Michelle and Daniella.  It's kinda scary how much they remind me of them.  They're grandma's a member and they're planning on being baptized at age sixteen.

Sounds like you had a busy week.  I wish I could take a long nap.

I miss snow.  It just rains all the time.  While being freezing cold.  Life is funny like that.

I get the quotes.  I love them!  They always brighten my day.  I think it's a brilliant idea.

We had stake conference and Elder Boam of the area presidency was there.  I really like him.  He talked about how to magnify something is to simplify.  He also shared amazing stories of his ancestors and how they helped encourage and support him in the adult session.  In the Sunday session he talked about spiritual and temporal self reliance.  

Finding an ancestor and self reliance are two of the three things in the Europe Area Plan.  The other is bring a friend.  

That's it for this week:). I love you so much and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Rachel

2-22-16

Um.......I don't think so.  Honestly, despite how hard high school
tried to tell us what to do, I have no idea how one goes about the
collage thing.  Going to college is still scarier than being a
missionary.

I'm so happy my family is boring.  It means I can finally get some
sleep when I go home😉

Of course Dad knew everything.  No body knows the scriptures as well as Daddy.

That's okay.  I miss the Temple too.

Monia's been in Italy the past week for work and got sick as soon as
she got home.  We're meeting with her tonight, so I'll keep you
updated.

Sister Bray also had a mini breakdown during weekly planning because
she's leaving something she knows to go to something she knew but
doesn't anymore.  So I took her out for ice cream and playing on some
swings for a few minutes.  It worked.  I mean, it's ice cream and
swings.  How more therapeutic can you get?

It's really funny how much easier talking about gospel things in
normal conversation has become.  I'm not talking about just teaching.
I'm talking about me and my companion waking down the street joking
around with each other and a gospel principle is thrown in as a part
of the joking around.  Not making fun of it out anything, more like
its a fact that everyone knows.  Like the sky is blue.  Or having
lengthy conversations about what would happen if the Nephite armies
had modern artillery. (Yes, this was with the Elders). Just things
like that.

I hope you have another fantastic week. (It doesn't have to be an
adventure to be fantastic)

Love you!

2-15-16

The city is treating me well. Everyone is super nice.  Actually, Germans in general are super nice. I like Germans.

As for what happened this week, I literally don't remember.  We had a Zone Training that was awesome, but zone events always make me forget what happened more than usual.  I don't know why.  Nothing major happened anyway.

I have my license with me.  I'll send the stuff to Dad.  I don't really need it though.  It's only good for the first six months and there are currently no Sister areas with cars, so I haven't needed to get a German one.  Which is nice, cuz I don't want to take another drivers test.

I forgot Presidents Day was a thing...

Well, that's all for this week.

Love you!