What Did We Even Do This Week???

Week one of being an STL!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Seriously. What did we even do this week? I honestly can't remember. We met with some people, talked about the Gospel, did some REALLY awkward role plays. We were basically missionaries. We did call-in's for the first time yesterday. That was fun. We have call-in's every Sunday night where we talk to our Disteict Leader, STL's, and the Zone Leaders if you have a baptismal date set. Now that we're the STL's though, we have to call all the sisters (which is only two companionships so it's not too bad), the district leaders of the sisters, our District Leader, and the Zone Leaders. IT IS SO MANY PEOPLE. Actually not, but it definitely seemed like a lot. But I didn't even participate in half of the calls because Frau Bezold came up to our apartment and asked us to help her read her electricity meter thing because she's too short to read it but it took her an hour for her to actually ask us because she talks for FOREVER. But she's cute and we're friends and she agreed to let us bring a Book of Mormon to her! Finding through serving tiny old ladies. It's great. :) So, the beautiful Sister Clifford is training. Her New Missionary is actually German, and she is fantastic! She get's to come to Nürnberg on her first split, and it's going to be great.

Zone Training is Friday Sis. Riser and I are giving a Thema on Emotional Stress. We're still not entirely sure what we're going to do for it. It's fine. We'll figure it out. Hopefully before Thursday night/Fridayy morning. We'll see.

....I really have nothing. This is so bad! I promise we did stuff! Even proper missionary stuff!!! I just can't remember..... It has been pretty rainy this week. We went by on a less-active member and it started raining, but it was an awesome, spring rain that wasn't too cold. We had no umbrellas and were appropriately soaked. It was so much fun. :)

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ZEYNEP IS GETTING BAPTIZED TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How could I forget that!?!?!?!?!? Oh my gosh! I have not been this excited since EVER. Zeynep has not been this excited since ever!!!! It is tomorrow!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. We still have so much to do, but EVERYONE is super excited. Zeynep has been so ready for this since long before I got to Nürnberg and I can't even tell you how happy I am for her that she's finally made this decision. She is so incredibly excited and she KNOWS she is making the right choice. It's hard for her, because everything in her life isn't perfect and the reasons that kept her from being baptized last year aren't entirely resolved, but she is committed. Her testimony is strong, and she is ready to receive the Holy Ghost and start preparing to go to the temple next year. By the way, I will be home by the time she goes to the temple. And she wants to go to the Salt Lake Temple. Elder Clawson and I might have already planned her temple tour of Utah..... It's going to be fantastic.

Friends, family, random acquaintances who really are just not friends yet, I really can't explain how ecstatic I am for tomorrow. Zeynep is making the first covenant that will put her on the path to Eternal Life. She is going to be cleansed of all her sins, and receive the Holy Ghost through the proper priesthood authority of God. How incredible is that? This beautiful Daughter of God has been waiting for over a year to receive this ordinance, and then 23 years before that wondering who God was and if He really cared about her. Tomorrow she gets to take her first big step back to Him. The Gospel is a beautiful thing.

Well, I think that's it. Really, my mind is totally blank because I can't stop thinking about Zeynep. It's going to be so great. I am so excited. I KNOW that this Gospel is true. The last few weeks I got slammed with this wave of depression that was not fun, but I know that I am only going to be stronger because of it. There's a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland that I read during personal study his morning that I really liked. He said that when life gets tough, just remember that we have help from both sides of the veil. If we could see the Angels with their chariots of Fire racing to our rescue, we would never be worried about anything (I would quote it exactly, but I don't have the quote on me). It just really made me think about how much I think about the help we have from Heaven every day. It's incredible, and it just strengthens my faith and encourages me to continue to make my prayers to Father in Heaven more meaningful and to have the courage and faith to ask for bold things for my investigators. Because really, they are His children that we have been allowed to teach and when we ask for the things that will help them progress and come to recognize the truth of the Restored Gospel, those prayers WILL be answered. That is truly incredible.


I love you all! Have a fantastic day, and a wonder-filled week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

Welcome to Nürnberg! Again!

To be quite honest, I am convinced I will never have a normal transfer on my mission.
This is week one of my fifth transfer, and the only "normal" transfer I've had was the very first one, and even that doesn't really count because I kind of changed countries that first transfer. Anyways, not to keep y'all in suspense for too long, but there has literally been something super crazy happen every transfer of my mission. Changing countries, sending two companions home, taking over two areas and being in a drit, and now this! We had transfer calls on Saturday and we all got a text saying at President Stoddard would be doing the leadership calls starting at 14:00 and then the Assistants would do transfer calls at 17:00. We were doing district finding in Regensberg, and it was like, 13:30. And then we got a call from President. Sis. Clifford answered and promptly got called to be a Trainer! She is going to be so great. I'm so excited to see her work with her new missionary. She'll be great. So yeah. That was all well and exciting. Until President Stoddard said he needed to talk to her companion. "Oh yeah? Which one?" "Both of them, actually."

WAT.


Sis. Riser went first, and she got called to be a Sister Training Leader!!! She is going to be the best STL. Really. Her leadership skills are phenomenal, and she loves the people she works with. She will be so awesome.

Anyways, after Sis. Riser talks to President she gives me the phone. Keep in mind that I have been convinced this entire transfer that I would be leaving Nürnberg. It was bad. I have been very, very sad about that because the last thing I want to do is leave Nürnberg. I was super sad and now President wanted to talk to me, and I was freaking out. When President does leadership calls, if you're a sister you're either getting called as a Trainer, or a Sister Training Leader. I kind of don't want to be a Trainer right now, and there is NO WAY I could get called as an STL. Right? WRONG.

They have re-opened the Coburg sisters area, and we now have STL's in Nürnberg! Of which I am one. Which is kind of overwhelming. But I get to stay! And it's great! Never mind the fact that neither I, or Sis. Riser know what we're doing!!! Yay for adventure!!!! Anyways, that was the crazy thing for this transfer. At least, I hope that it's the only crazy thing for the transfer. With the whole added responsibility and lack of training and all that, I am ready for a normal(ish) transfer. We'll see if that actually happens.

Well, we don't have a lot of time for emails this week. Ugh. What even happened? We found two SUPER FANTASTIC potential investigators in Regensberg (which is BEAUTIFUL by the way), had a surprise birthday party for Sis. Clifford, and visited this AWESOME family in Feucht. They're from Russia. I love them a lot.

ALSO!!!!! Two of the Elder's investigators got baptized and it was SO COOL!!!!!!!! Their names are Rick and Thomas, and they are incredible. I love them both so much. After church on Sunday, we went and had a barbecue at their house. It was delicious. There was much happiness. Anyways, it was a cool week. The church is true, and I know that with all of my being. Our Heavenly Father is God Almighty. How cool is that?
I love you all! Have an awesome day, and a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

Of Conference and Baptisms!

Okay, actual weekly email!!!!
General Conference was amazing!!!! We watched it in English, but it was so cool! Also, we still haven't watched the Sunday afternoon session, but we'll do that Sunday during Relief Society. It will be awesome. :)

Also, can we just appreciate Elder Ballard's talk? It was so good. I really liked the emphasis on talking as a family and just being loving and giving correction in a loving manner and having love as the motive for aforementioned correction. I know it's definitely something I want to apply to my future family. That won't be for a long time though, so I'm excited for the practice with my future roommates in college. :) As for Präsident Uchtdorf's ansprache.... You all heard it from a General Authority. German is the Celestial language. So you'd better start studying. ;) But really, I love German. It is a beautiful language and the more I learn the more I love it. Also, the more I love the people, the more I love the language and vice versa. It is fantastic, and basically I just really love Germany. :)

We haven't had to wear tights the past three days. It has been heavenly. We're going to Bamberg today. I've never been, but it's supposed to be really pretty. Hopefully I will get some good pictures to send to y'all. Other than that, it's been a pretty calm week. By calm, I mean super crazy with lots of traveling between cities, but it's been great. :) Oh, and we also set a baptismal date this week. No big deal. ;) But really, Conference brings miracles!!! One of the investigators from Feucht said that he was going to come to General Conference on Sunday. Then Sunday morning he texted us and said he wouldn't come after all. We texted him back saying, "God will bless you if you come to General Conference today." He did not reply.... :( Then, one hour before conference is scheduled to start, he calls us and says that he's coming!!!! And he came!!!!!!!!! It was super cool. We sat and watched conference together and he was kind of confused because we watched Saturday Afternoon and the sustaining of general authorities is kind of confusing if you don't understand what's going on, but then we got into the talks and he was okay, but not blown-out-of-the-water okay, which is what we had been hoping for. BUT THEN. The choir sang Israel, Israel, God is Calling and SOMETHING HAPPENED. He said, "I love that song! I want to be a part of Isarael! I know I missed the last baptismal service, but can you tell me when the next one is? I want to be baptized." IT WAS SO COOL!!!!

This man had denied a baptismal invitation two weeks earlier, and had discontinued meeting with us, and now he's getting baptized. If that's not the power of the Holy Ghost unto conversion, I don't know what is. I cannot even begin to tell you about all of the miracles that happen every week. Being in a drit has been tough sometimes, but we've been able  to balance two areas, two investigator pools, and two wards. We're going to transform the Nürnberg ward, and work even harder than ever. It has been such a blessing. We've had to work for these miracles, but every moment has been worth it. I am happy. :) I love you. Ea ch and every one of you. I don't know all of you personally, but I want you to know how grateful I am that you take the time to read these emails. I know I'm just a punk 21 year old in Germany, but I'm also a missionary for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Your support means the WORLD to me. Even if all you do is feel good while reading an email. That makes a difference. And that good feeling? I'm pretty sure that's the Spirit. I hope it's the Spirit. And I hope you pursue that feeling and try and keep it with you all the time. Because it's really cool when you can. Maybe you can ask your local, lovable, LDS missionaries to help you out. ;)

I love you all! Have a fantastic day, and a herrlich week!!!!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

Pictures from the Easter week letter

Easter lunch with the Hart's and Caroline!

Easter egg!!! I can't remember if I sent this already, but it's an actual egg that's been painted and had beads glued on it and it's super pretty. They hang eggs on the trees here for Easter and it's super pretty. I'm doing it next year and none of y'all can stop me

The face of regret at Volksfest

I fell off my bed and landed in between my companion's mattress and the bed and they both trapped me there

Easter and Zone Conference and Street Displays, Oh My!

Frohe Ostern!!!

This is one major holiday that I only get one of on my mission, so I'm doing my best to enjoy it while it's here. And really, it's not that hard. Flowers are blooming literally EVERYWHERE and the Sun is now rising at a normal time in the morning (which is to say at some unholy hour when the missionaries wish we could still be sleeping). Spring is definitely in the air, and life is good.

This week I went on a full day split with a member of our ward. We had two appointments for the day and a list of go-by's to keep us busy and I was excited! First, we went to the wrong address for one of our go-by's. Then as we were trying to correct that error, our first appointment called and cancelled indefinitely for the next few weeks/months. Okay. Well, not exactly preferable, but it can still be a good day! So we went off to go try and go-by another person who lived in the neighborhood. But me, being the blonde that I am, got us lost for 20 minutes. But good news, we found them eventually!!! And they were home!!!! We had a lovely hour-long chat with a less-active family and shared a gospel message. Missionary work! All is right in the world! Woo!! Feeling quite invincible, Sch. Kreuzmair and I decided to go do some street contacting in the park by the church house. Person one we tried to contact said they had no interest. Person number two also had no interest and would we please leave her alone? Person number three was a JW who argued with Sch. Kreuzmair for 30 minutes about God and the bible. After the incidents in the park, we called our second appointment to make sure we could still meet, and she had completely forgotten! So now we're down two lessons, possibly an investigator, and no one wants to talk to us. Perfect! I will admit, it was a rough day. I was struggling, and when my companions called to ask if we could split back a bit early, I jumped at the chance. I was so tired and so done with the day and just wanted to go home and collapse that nothing else even mattered. When we met Sis. Riser and Sis. Clifford at the church, Sch. Kreuzmair proceeded to tell them all about our day and what we had done. She talked about how happy she was that she had been able to help with missionary work and feel the special spirit of missionary work. She just talked and talked about how great the day had been and how much happier she was knowing that we had touched the lives of some people for good and helped them feel the Spirit. It was really cool to hear her talk about it. Especially since that's not how I was feeling at all. I was tired, discouraged, and embarrassed that all of this had happened when I was supposed to be having an awesome day of appointments with a member and building ward relations. I was upset. But Sch. Kreuzmair was absolutely impressed. She kept saying that the work is hard, but we are "the army of the Lord." It was really cool to see the impression that the day had made on her, compared to how I was feeling. It was a rough day, but it was a good day. Sunday was the best!!! I don't know what it was, but we had the best Sacrament meeting of my life today, and I was super happy. We had three awesome talks about Easter, Hope, and the Atonement. It was super great and spiritually uplifting, which was fantastic! Feeling the Spirit in German is occasionally hard, so it was a really great experience.

We had Zone Conference Tuesday and it was awesome!!!! It was almost entirely auf Deutsch, and I got to translate for the first half of it!!!! Never mind the fact that my voice was still barely above a whisper, but you end up whispering for translations anyways. It was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot about how to learn German better. The only bad thing that came from the conference is that now that I've translated, Elder Clawson said that next week I get to start translating Sacrament Meeting. That is really stressful. But it will be fine, I'm sure. It's usually only the Hart's who listen anyways. We had a street display and it was super cool!!! Elder Ault was trying to learn how to contact people with me (which is a horrible idea because I'm not very good at contacting) and we were picking people for the other one to contact. So Elder Ault told me to contact this man who had just purchased a Nürnburger (a roll with three little sausages in it that is absolutely DELICIOUS) and was eating it when he walked by us and I asked him if he believed in God. He said that he did, but more importantly he believes in Christ. By the way, NO ONE SAYS THAT HERE. We then proceeded to have the best conversation about religion that I have ever had on my entire mission. I even messed up my German and then discovered that this man is American!!!! It was quite literally the best moment of the week. It was awesome. We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with him and he told us that he appreciate what we were doing and to keep it up! He was cool. I hope he reads the book we gave him.

Right now there's this thing called Volksfest going on here in Nürnberg and it's awesome! It's basically just a giant carnival (think Lagoon, but German) with tons of food! It's amazing. Also, they have the Wild Mouse!!!! It's just a normal carnival ride here, but it's exactly the same as the one in Utah! It's great. I'm so excited to (hopefully with permission) ride it next week. I just want to get some clarification on what we can and can't do from President before I do anything crazy.

Anyways, that's it for this week! I love you all! Have an awesome day, and a fantastic week!!!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

Save the Important things for the Postscript Letter

The Postscript letter

My City! I Love It!

Totally forgot to mention. I am sick. I got a cold in Frankfurt, and promptly lost my voice. It sucks. I keep squeeking and Elder Clawson keeps making fun of me. It's not fun. :(

Also, we went to Ikea today!!! It was fun! It was great! We bought a new pan!!! I am way more excited about that then I should be.... 

Here's a video of what happened on our way to Hauptbahnhof. The doors on the subway start beeping when they're about to close, and there's nothing you can do to stop them from closing. So if your companions get on the train when the doors are beeping and you don't.... Well. It's exciting. 

Well . . . That Just Happened

So........ I really have no way to begin this letter. This last week has been (hopefully) the craziest week of my mission. To start with, I mentioned that Sis. Reay was sick. Well, she was sick. Sick enough that the missionary board in SLC cleared her to go home. So that was fun. Wednesday evening the Feucht Sisters came to Nürnberg and we went with the Zone Leaders to Hauptbahnhof and put Sis. Reay on an ICE train to Frankfurt where she was picked up by the STL's and Tech Elders. Then she flew back home on Thursday morning. It's really sad, and I miss her a ton. But she can get better faster at home than she can here, so it's okay. I know that God has a plan for her, me, and this area. I have absolutely no idea what that plan is, but I know there's a plan.
So yeah. That happened.

As for my new companion (because missionaries can't be alone), I have two! The Feucht Sisters and I are now in a Dritt!!! Which is super crazy, because they didn't close the Feucht area, or the Nürnberg area..... Yep. Three sisters. Two areas. One big ball of confusion, craziness, and a fair amount of fun as well. This last week has definitely been the hardest on my mission. Hands down. Harder than taking over, harder than working through problems, it was HARD. But it was also a TON of fun. We have done so much work and it's amazing!!! 

We had to go to Frankfurt because the Feucht Sisters had a split with the STL's on Thursday and we couldn't change that, so I had to go too. Then we got home on Friday after our train was delayed for an hour, and finally were back in Nürnberg!!!! It was crazy. We have been traveling between Nürnberg and Feucht SO MUCH. But it's cool. It's definitely crazy to be working in two areas. But it also feels really divine. Like, none of us have doubted for a second that this what is supposed to be going on here. It's crazy, but we've seen a TON of miracles. So it's awesome. :)

Our lessons have been super crazy, and I honestly can't remember what happened this week. So.... Have some pictures!! I got SO MANY. It was awesome!!!! But I don't think I have enough to send back..... I'll do my best!

Eis Cristina (Yum!)

My latest P-day