First Communication with Sister John

Who knew how much an email could affect me. Wow! Sierra didn't send a general email for this week, I think we will have to work on how this is going to go, but she did send an email to me and generally the family so I will put some of the highlights (and to me they are all highlights) in here. Thank you to all of you who know and love Sierra. If there is anything we have learned as a family this past year, it is that the power of prayer is incredibly strong and makes a difference in our lives.

 Speaking of missionaries, I am one! We sang the Army of Helaman primary song the first night here and they changed the words from 'we will be the Lord's missionaries' to 'we are now the Lord's missionaries.' It was super cool and I'm really glad we sang it. 

My companion is Sis. Bakker and she is pretty cool. She is very out-going, likes to talk, likes to sing ALL THE TIME and generally believes the best about everyone. 

Sis. Bakker and I are the first Germany-bound Sister missionaries in over 4 months! And we're the ONLY sister missionaries in our entire zone! Granted, there are only 11 missionaries in our entire zone, but still. The Elders in our District (the other Frankfurt-bound missionaries) are Elders Clemente, Smith, Van Dam, and Fugal. They're all super awesome.

Learning Deutsch has been..... An experience. You dropped me off on Wednesday, but we taught our first lesson to our investigator, Lukas, on Friday. In German. It went horribly. But then we did the same thing again on Saturday. Then again on Monday. And then we had another lesson yesterday. Each lesson has been better than the last both doctrinally and language-wise. Yesterday I spoke German almost the entire time and Lukas understood almost all of it! It was so cool! The MTC is definitely a sacred place. The Spirit definitely felt like a fire hose to the face the first few days, but after Sunday it's gotten a lot better. The schedule is SUPER busy. Worse than Band Camp and Timberline combined. But it's so good. And I really am starting to love it here.

Sister Sell has told me that she talked to Christy. It was really good to hear that little thing from the outside. :) OH! I saw Elder Blume! I ran into him in the cafeteria and it was SO GOOD to see a familiar face. I didn't realize how much I missed that kid, but I did. He speak Tagalog really well. It's amazing.

Okay, I don't have much time but I wanted to tell you that our entire branch is singing in the choir and it's amazing. Also, our district (just the Frankfurters) are going to make a little choir of our own because we have all the parts and our voices blend really well and it's amazing. I'm getting a German hymn book today. And a water bottle. Because I forgot. This is why they tell you to bring $50 to the MTC. But it's good and I did that so I can get all that stuff. :)

I love you guys, and I love it here. It's where I need to be. 

Will you tell dad to see if he can find a talk by Elder Bednar? It's called the Character of Christ and it's all about the characteristics that Christ had and it's amazing and all I could think about during it was the lesson on Servant Leadership at Timberline. Also, we used SMART goals to set some District goals the other day, and we're using SSC to evaluate our goals and to set new ones. It's been really good. Elder Van Dam got to open his call at his Eagle Court of Honor!!!! How sweet is that??? I'm super jealous.

Love, Sister John

P.S. Our district is going to Frankfurt. The other German district is going to Berlin. They call us Frankfurters and we call them Jelly Doughnuts. It works out. :)