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

Rapunzel's Tower

Rapunzel's Tower

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!

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;)

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

5-9-16

I don't know what to email either.  You guys are crazy.  I love it.

This week everything fell out, and the weather jumped ten degrees. (In Celsius mind you). We just bought a fan, because we discovered that ours is broken.  But now we have one that works.  I also encourage Sister Van Vleet's impulsive shopping.  I do that to most companions...It's actually really funny, because we get back from shopping with tons of things, but only one is mine.  It's hilarious.  I'm a terrible influence.

I hope you had a fantastic Mother's Day.  I'm so glad you're my mom.  Words can't describe how much I appreciate you.  Just know that I probably put the most thought in your souvenir then everyone else's. (And the least on the boys because they don't tell me what they want.)

I love you all!!!

5-2-2016

Michelle driving.  That's a terrifying thought.

I'm glad women's conference was so awesome.  I'll defiantly see if I can listen to those talks.

So, this week.  There was a bus strike on Wednesday.  So we walked everywhere.  10.5 miles in total.  Luckily, they always warn you when that happens, so we were able to space what we needed to do appropriately.  It was way fun though.

Yesterday was an adventure.  I have a dendency to mix these two stops up in my head.  They both with a mark saying and are right after each other.  I told Sister Van Vleet which one we needed to get off at to catch the u-bahn home.  I told her the wrong one, but didn't register that until I had gotten off and the u-bahn we were currently drove off with my companion still in it.

We only have one phone between us, which was in Sister Van Vleet's purse.  Still on silent from the appointment we just had.  So, I decided to ask someone for their phone, call the Elders, and see if they can get in contact with her. (It would be awkward if she didn't answer, and this way at least someone would know where I am) The only other person in sight was a man reading a book.  So, I interrupted him (I felt so bad) and explained the situation and asked if I could use his phone.

He doesn't speak German.

So I use charades, and call the Elders.

All in all, I spent almost fourth minutes chilling at a random bahn station while my companion had a mini heart attack, said a pray, and got a call from the Elders.

Also, Captain America Civil War was spoiled by one of our thirteen year old investigators. (Liza and Celin are twins who can't be baptized until their sixteen.  We teach them every week at their grandma's house.  She's a member.). Luckily she was talking so fast and my vocabulary outside of church related things is very limited.  So, I didn't understand all of it.  Better than the Elders who had someone give them a play by play of Star Wars.  In English.

That about sums up my week.  I can't wait to see you all on Sunday!  Bis dann!

Love,

Rachel

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