Herbst is Here!!!!!

Sis. Jameson and I are wearing tights today and we wore them to church yesterday as well. I actually don't mind wearing tights, but sometimes I can't help thinking it would just be easier to wear pants. Maybe someday.

Today we cleaned the apartment and I am very proud to say that the bathroom and kitchen are SPOTLESS. I cleaned the bathroom and Sister Jameson cleaned the kitchen. Thank you to both of our mothers for teaching us how to clean. It is a valuable skill I (and the Lord) appreciate.

I just learned that I forwarded last week's email on accident. It was because I was copying the emails because I just email on my iPad and I'm too lazy to enter them in every time. Please excuse my lack of Tech Savvy.

This week was really great with three splits with three amazing companionships! Sister Anderson from the Frankfurt 2 district came with me Monday and Tuesday, then Sister Spaeth and I took over Hanau Tuesday to Wednesday, and then Sister Kryzanski and I hung out in Frankfurt from Thursday to Friday. It was kind of a busy week, but I love working with the sisters. It makes me sad because transfer calls are on Saturday and we have a lot of sisters who will probably be leaving. But it will be okay because they will go where they are needed and where they will be able to learn and grow the most. So it will be sad to say good bye, but with the Gospel, we never have to say any permanent good byes! So that's cool. :)

We met with one of our Chinese investigators, Yi, after church on Sunday. She told us about some of the stuff that she'd read about the church on the Internet and wanted to know if it was true. It lead to a really great discussion about what we do believe and how you can't believe everything on the Internet. We were able to reassure her and let her know that if she ever reads something that she's not sure about it to please ask us and we can talk about it. It was a great teaching moment, and she was way open about it and the lesson we had accompanying it was really great. I love her a ton and she is way sweet and open. She also said that she wants to be baptized! But she wants to learn everything first, so we're going to be working on that. Also, we think it might be better if we go a little slower with her. Something about no previous religious background and wanting to make sure her conversion is strong and all that. But she's solid so I know she'll get there. :)

Cool moment of the week: SISTER JAMESON GOT HER VISA!!!!!!!!!!! We only had to wait at the Ausländersamt for like, 3 hours. By she got it! She is now legally in Germany!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!! As for my visa, we're still waiting on Nürnberg to send my papers up. But Frankfurt seems to be really good at sorting out problems, so I'm not too worried about it.

It's been a great week. Last Monday seems like FOREVER ago, but the week went by way fast. It's been great, and there have been a lot of blessings this week because of missionary service.

I've been thinking a lot about divine nature lately. I've had a lot of good studies about it and what it means that I am a woman and I have a part in the Plan of Salvation. It's been really cool to learn so much and be able to then use that to love our investigators and contacts more. I have so much divine potential to become a Being like GOD. And EVERYONE ELSE HAS THAT, TOO. That is a powerful fact, and I'm still working on understanding it completely. But it really has helped me be able to have so much more love for the people we get to work with. I am so grateful for everything that our loving Heavenly Father has given to us to help us come to know Him and His Son and our parts in the Plan of Salvation better. It is a great comfort and a strength to me, and I hope to be able to share that more with the people we teach.

I set some goals for qualities that I have developed/am working on developing that I want to keep for the rest of my life based on this knowledge. It has been a great learning experience, and I hope to someday accomplish these goals because they're really important to me because I set them with help from my Heavenly Father. It's not something that I have ever actually done before, but I want to do it more now. I feel so excited to work on these things and do my best because I know for sure that the powers of Heaven on aware my side. Or rather, I am working on the same side as the powers of Heaven. Which is even better.

It is a struggle to align my will completely with the will of God. It's something that I'm working on doing more every single day. But I have seen so many blessings that come when we follow God's will. It's a pattern that I want to follow for the rest of my life because I may not always understand why, but I know that if I do it and try it and do my best to figure out why God has made it so, I can find an answer. The Gospel never ends, and neither do improvement and progression. I am so grateful for these qualities that allow us to always get better and always try again. Because even though I'm a "Missionary" and I'm supposed to be "perfect," I'm not. I fail. I screw up. Sometimes I screw up the same thing twenty times in a row. But it's okay, because as long as I learn from it and try and do it better the next time, I know that the Atonement will help me out. I'm so grateful for that.

Sorry for the spiritual rant. Sometimes there's just a lot of time and things to ponder on a mission and it's never coherent on Monday when you're supposed to write them out to your friends and family. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic day, and an absolutely incredible fall-filled week!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John


P.S. Yes, I did notice my year mark was on Friday. No, I did not go get ice cream or celebrate formally because we didn't have time on our split. But it was a good day, and I got to pet a cat so I'll consider that a celebration. :)

A Senior Missionary Couple who works in the office has their granddaughter here visiting for two weeks so she borrowed her grandmother's Nametag and came to an appointment with us and bore AWESOME testimony. :)














Hanau split! Sister Spaeth and I got ice cream at the end but Sister Jameson is still goin strong on her no sugar goal. We're going to bake brownies and eat them with vanilla ice cream when the transfer ends.

 

Fun Fact: Hanau is the birth place of the Grimm Brothers. There is a statue of them in front of the building that was built on top of the building where they were born. Just in case you were wondering why it looked a bit too modern.

The Longest Shortest Week

Sister Estes and her Himbeer Banane Split.
She is adorable. :)

We FINALLY went shoe shopping today, but it takes forever to get anywhere in Frankfurt so I don't have a ton of time. This week went by really fast, but it also felt really long. But we got a lot of good things done, so that was awesome. :)

We met with our investigators Yi and Yb, and they are doing great! I love meeting with them because they're just happy and they just love  learning about the Gospel. They are incredible, and I love them. :)

Church on Sunday was lovely, but I was way tired because we were up late the night before. We had an awesome lesson about being honest during relief society and it was actually taught by a less-active sister that we've been working with! It was way cool, and she worked really hard to make sure she was prepared with all of the materials she needed. It was really cool to see. :)

We split with the Friedrichsdorf Sisters this week and I discovered that Sister Estes is my long, lost twin. We had a super fun split and we ended it with Eis Christina and it was delicious. :) We were going to eat there with Sister Jameson and Sister Madsen too, but..... Sister Madsen has sworn off sugar, and she convinced Sister Jameson to do the same until the end of the transfer. I have no desire to support my companion in yet another goal that I quite honestly think will fail, but I am praying for charity and strength for her to be able to do it because my strength to support her is lacking. It's fine. We'll be able to eat sugar again someday.

I love you all! Sorry this is so short, but I really hope you're having a great day and week!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

This Jason. He is a member from Taiwan. He is literally the best Ward Missionary and he's only eighteen. Also, pay close attention to his tie. It was my favorite thing from Sunday. :)



Saw this great sign while out contacting. Actually, I have left everything behind to serve the Lord. Or at least, I do my best to leave it all behind. I'm still trying to be completely devoted, but I think that might be a lifelong process.

Deutschland has a Tempel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom's note: I am going to assume that either the German language is taking over or the computer auto-corrected her usually flawless spelling. Anyway, she had an amazing week.

Today the International Sisters have a baptism. A family from Brazil is getting baptized and it is way exciting. They're so cute! One of the daughters is twenty-two and has a two year old daughter and she is adorable. All of the missionaries have adopted her. I promise she's only mostly spoiled. ;)

This week we had time to do finding! That never happens! It was super great even though I'm not always the best at talking to people on the street. But it's fine. I am getting better and that is what is important. We talked to some really cool, prepared people, too. So that was also neat. :)

Sister Jameson just started playing How to Train Your Dragon. I am completely distracted.

As far as miracles go, the most awesome thing happened Sunday. It starts on Saturday evening, at which time we all gathered at the church house to watch a broadcast of a cultural celebration happening in Freiberg.

Why were we watching a cultural celebration that wasn't even happening in our mission, you ask? Well, why do we ever have cultural celebrations in this church??? Because we were dedicating a Tempel! The Freiberg Tempel was re-dedicated Sunday in three sessions and it was the most marvelous thing of my life! It was broadcast to every church house in Germany on Sunday and it was so great. Präsident Uchtdorf was there and can I just tell you how much I love his German? It is beautiful to hear him speak his mother language. It confirms that it truly is the celestial language. I love German. I love Germany. I love the Tempel.

Sorry, I will try and put my thoughts in some sort of order.

The Cultural Celebration was great. Präsident Uchtdorf talked about the importance of the For the Strengh of Youth pamphlet in helping us all set and keep our standards high. The program used our Area Mission Plan and talked about the history of the Tempel and East Germany. There was a part where Präsident Uchtdorf talked about his childhood growing up in East Germany and I cried. Then, all the youth out on a presentation that told the story of the temple. Apparently, some of the church leaders would go every year to ask for permission to take a group of Saints to a Tempel in another country to receive their endowments, but they were always told no. Then one year, they were asked, "Well, why don't you just build a Tempel here in Germany?"  It was a cool story, and the program ended with all the youth holding their plastic Tempel recommend protectors and walking through the front gate of the Tempel. It was beautiful, and the Spirit was way strong.

At the Tempel dedication, it was absolutely incredible. The church really did feel like the Tempel, and we all had to show our recommends to get in. We have a correlation meeting as a district Sunday mornings and all of the Elders made the comment that it just felt so good. Sister Jameson and I had already talked about it and were too busy taking it all in. It was the one moment of on my mission where I got to go to the Tempel in Germany, and it was beautiful.

In case of any of you were wondering, the Tempel is the most holy and sacred place on the earth. It is literally the house of God, and Jesus Christ. It is the most beautiful place, and I love it so very much. I miss it even more so.

If you can't go to the Tempel right now, get there! If your recommend has expired, get a new one. If you need to meet with the Bishop of Stake President, do it! I promise you that once you've gone to theTempel, you will want to be there always, and you will always want to be worthy to be there. No sacrifice will seem too great, and no sacrifice is too great to be able to enter the House of the Lord.

I love you all. Have an awesome day, and an incredible, Spirit-filled week!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John


No pictures this week because I am lame. Sorry! I'll make up for it next week!

I Never Knew 36 Degrees Could Be So Hot....

Thirty-six degrees. That is Celsius. That equates to over ninety degrees Fahrenheit. I took three showers on Saturday during our meal times and after daily planning. Bleh.

Okay, as far as the week goes it was incredible! Three of our investigators came to church Sunday and it was incredible! One was a woman who we just talked to on a bench at Konstablerwache, and the other two were the Chinese girls who came to church last week. And they brought a friend!!!! It was way cool, and we had a great time meeting with them and helping them learn more about the Gospel. The two Girls, Yi and Yb, came to church last week and we met with them again on Saturday. I was kind of scared that they weren't going to come to church again because we might have offended them when we talked about baptism on Saturday (it's a long story. The short part is that not everyone needs to be invited to baptism in the first or second lessons) so we were really hoping that they would come. And they did! Yb had to leave after sacrament because she is super busy writing her Master's Thesis (these girls are SMART), but Yi and the other friend stayed the whole three hours. Then we gave the friend a Book of Mormon and asked if they had fifteen minutes where we could explain what he Book of Mormon is.

Well, fifteen minutes turned into over an hour of us explaining a bit and then them asking questions and us testifying more and them asking more questions. It was the most spiritual lesson I have been in in my entire life. At the end, Yi had told us a few things that she is struggling with and we invited her to pray and ask God if He was there, if He is really her Father in Heaven, and what she should do to work through some of her problems. It was a big request for a first prayer.

But she prayed, and it was in Chinese so we couldn't understand the words but the Spirit was unmistakable. She asked her questions and then closed her prayer in the name of Jesus Christ and I will be completely honest, I was worried. I had been praying that she would get an answer because this was one of those moments where you just feel that it is a "Make it or break it" moment and if she didn't get something out of his prayer then she was going to walk out the door and probably not come back. So I was nervous. But when I opened my eyes and look at Yi, she had this smile on her face and this wave of pure happiness just washed over me like a tidal wave. She had this light in her eyes and she was so happy and she said that she felt like she had more energy and that she could work through this problem that she has and it was literally one of the coolest experiences ever.

The Gospel changes lives. It makes us happy. It makes us want to be better. It is incredible, and I love it.

Quite honestly, that moment is the moment that I live for as a missionary. It's not someone telling me I did a good job, having someone thank me for teaching them the Gospel, or thanking me for being a good friend. All of those have happened and they made me feel good, yes. But the true joy comes from watching someone feel the Holy Ghost and God's Love for probably the first time. It comes from watching them realize that they want that feeling all the time and they are willing to make the changes necessary to do it. The Gospel changes lives. And it changes them for the better. True happiness is found through the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

I am still learning these things, but I know them now so clearly. I love my mission. I love serving the Lord, and I love serving His people who are my brothers and sisters. It's incredible, and I would not trade a second of this experience for the world.

I love you all. Have a fantastic day, and an amazing week.

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John


P.S. Please excuse the grammatical errors. An iPad is not the best
place to type, and it's been too hot to sleep well this week so I'm
only mostly exhausted. It's fine, it's fine. :)



There's a Brazilian family who were referred to us by a member of the seventy from the International Ward. We followed up on it right away and this is literally right outside their front door. They are now being taught by the International Sisters because there are a lot more people who speak Portuguese in their Ward. They also have baptismal dates, so that is cool. :)








MLC!!!! It was way good but also sad because some of my best friends weren't there this time.... That awkward moment when you realize you're getting old on the mission. :P


Also, please excuse the elders on the right. It was a long, hot day and they were kind of crazy by the end of it. 

This is how we parallel park. There was just a bit more room in the back. #reasonswhyidon'twanttodriveingermany





We saw a dead bat on the way to visit a member and Sister Jameson was distressed by it. Also, her mother sent her that shirt and it is adorable. Also, she is adorable. My companion is great. :)

It was way too pretty to not take a picture. And Sister Jameson has all the good photos of our walk by the river after having lunch at a member's house on Sunday after church. So probably more photos to follow.

Thirty New Missionaries, Two New Areas, One Lost Sister, and a Surprise Dritt

What would you do, if you could start 

again with a new beginning? Excellent 

question. I know some missionaries who

would love to help you do just that. ;)

Okay, I learned my lesson. This is actually the second time that I am writing this email because my iPad decided to randomly have my mailbox delete the draft I made. Lame. :P

Anyways, it is finally starting to feel like fall which is lovely. Hot summer sun combined with humidity just equals sadness and melted ice cream. So it's getting better and life is good. :)

We got to pick up the new missionaries! There were thirty of them!!!! We now have about 95 companionships of full-time missionaries, so that's pretty sweet. Around thirty percent of that is sisters, which is way crazy! I don't know how Temple Square does it with only sisters. I would have died.

Anyways, we got to go and pick up the sisters from the airport! And it was super great! We were specifically in charge of picking up two sisters who were not flying in from Provo. One is from Germany and was flying in from Dresden (Sister Kux was in his mission but went home for a bit and then came back), and a sister from Manchester who came from the Preston MTC (Sister Johnson is literally the sweetest person you will ever meet).

Sister Johnson's plane was scheduled to land first, and then Sister Kux about forty-five minutes after that. It would have worked out fine, but the information board lied to us. Both sisters were scheduled to come through the same gate, which was way convenient for us so we picked a spot and started watching and waiting for Sister Johnson to come through the gate. Well, fast forward an hour and a half later and we see Sister Kux come through, but no Sister Johnson. Oops.

So we call Elder Kirk (really, Sister Jameson called Elder Kirk. I was too busy freaking out. It's moments like these where I really appreciate the amount of chill she brings to our companionship) to come and pick up the sisters luggage and try and find Sister Johnson. Turns out, she wasn't too far away. Just one gate over from where we were. And being the sweet person that she is, she didn't get mad or anything. Just smiled and laughed when we later got on the wrong train that actually took us way out of our area instead of back to the church. It was a long day, but it was great. :)

After that, we had the pairing meeting!!! We have two new areas in the Friedrichsdorf Zone - Wetzlar Sisters and Wetterau Sisters. I am way pumped because the missionaries in both of these areas are top notch. And Sister Johnson is one of them! I am so excited for this next transfer. It is going to be fantastic. :)

We've been in a Dritt with Sister Markl this week. She goes home tomorrow and I'm actually sad about that, but this week has been great. She actually "finished" her mission last week, but her parents had planned a big trip to America a long time ago and then it just happened to be the same week that she was supposed to come home! But it's okay, because she got to stay with us for a week and it was great. I've learned a lot from her and we've had lots of fun. And that's all that matters. :)

BTW, we totally met President Kearon this week. For those who don't know, he is the Area President in charge of all the church in Europe. He's way cool, and waved at us from his car and then rolled down his window and talked to us for a moment because his car was stopped at the traffic light. It was way cool, and he even shook our investigator's hand. So yeah. That happened.

We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators this week! He was actually contacted at the last new missionary street display. We had met with him once, but then hadn't been able to get a second appointment for a month. Then, we were finally able to meet with him! We had a SUPER powerful lesson about repentance, the Atonement and baptism. Then we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes! We set a date for October, so we're working with him on that right now. I'm way excited. The Gospel has already started to change his life. He is on a roller coaster that only goes up. :)

This week, I've been thinking a lot about people and who they are and what they do and why they do what they do. I've been thinking about it because I have decided that I really love being a missionary. Heavenly Father has trusted me to interact in the stories and lives of His children here, and play a part that brings them closer to Him and His Son. That is an AMAZING responsibility. An amazing trust. I love the people here and the experiences I have been given to help me love them.

I realized that if we would all just focus on a person's soul, and on seeing them as who they really are, as Children of God, there would be a LOT less racism in the world. A lot less hate. A lot less anger. A lot less sadness and sorrow. I think that would be a very beautiful world, and we could all do a little better to do just that.

I love you all. Please have a very safe and fantastic day! I'm praying
for all of you!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

This happened at our street display two days ago. Thankfully, we were on the other side of the street and had a perfect view to watch from. Plus, this man doesn't need to wash his car anymore!

Never mind the tree branches, but it was a beautiful day and I just had to take a picture and this was he best angle available at the time.

Dritt ice cream. The purple is actually blueberry flavored frozen joghurt. It was WAY yummy, but I had to go for the cherry cheese cake after the girl at the counter made me try it. :)

Still in Frankfurt!

Split with the the Hanau Sisters!
Sister Baker is a gem and is SO happy!
 I hope I can be as happy as her someday. :)

Hello! It has been a crazy week, but next week is even crazier! We are getting THIRTY NEW MISSIONARIES tomorrow. WAT.

I have no idea how we're going to do it. We're going to the airport to pick up the new missionaries again. I'm so excited! Also, Sister Jameson is going to get to pick up her MTC companion! They both went to the Preston MTC and came out together, but this sister went home after one transfer. But now she's back! It's fantastic, and Sister Jameson is way excited. I promise to take pictures. :) We opened up five new sister areas this transfer, so that's crazy. We now have two more sister areas than we used to and they're both in the Friedrichsdorf Zone. Wetterau and Wetzlar sisters are a thing! I'm super excited!

It also means more splits, so that will be great. Stressful, but great. It will be super fun because we're splitting with the Wiesbaden Sisters first this week and Sis. Starry's trainer is going to be with us! Sis. Markl is going home this transfer, but because of some traveling among her family she'll be going home a week later than everyone else. So she'll be staying in a Dritt with us for a week! I'm way excited, and Sis. Starry is totally coming to Frankfurt for this split and it will be fabulous. :)

As far as work goes, we're kind of stuck. We need new investigators because the people we are teaching right now aren't progressing very well. But the Lord has been helping us out because we have talked to a TON of people in the past week, and some of them said they even wanted to talk again! We found two new investigators this week and it was amazing! I'm super excited to see what this week brings in the way of work. We keep seeing incredible miracles and amazing blessings. God is great, and He is most certainly helping us find His children. Two Elders that I became good friends with are going home this transfer. I'm kind of sad about that, but it will be fine.

We're meeting with one of our investigators tonight. He called us out of the blue Saturday evening. We had met with him at the beginning of the transfer and he seemed really great. Then we couldn't get contact with him for literally five weeks. We called him every day and he answered only twice. Then Saturday he calls us and thanks us for our persistence because he's been having a hard time in his life and he really just wants to know what God's plan for him is and he knows the Book of Mormon can help him and can we please help him, too? We're meeting tonight I'm so excited to help him find purpose in life and take those first steps on God's Plan for him. It's going to be so good. :)

I've been feeling tons better this last week. We learned how to make a SUPER YUMMY salad from a member this week. I will be making I when I get home. Also, red bell peppers are delicious and should always go in salads. And Feta cheese. And sometimes even tomatoes. But only sometimes, and only if they're good, cherry tomatoes. :P I feel so blessed to be a missionary. It is an awesome privilege. My district is great, my city is fantastic, and I have a great companion who I get to stay with for another transfer. I know this won't last forever, but I love it here.

I also love all of you. All of you who write consistently and inconsistently. Who always read and don't always read these emails. I love all of you, and I treasure the moments and times that we have had together. Remember that you are a beloved child of God, and He loves you. He rejoices in your successes and mourns over your losses. He wants the best for you. If you feel lost, just look for Him. Because His arm is always out-stretched to help you find the way back to Him and He is always doing something to help you see the way. The funny thing I've noticed these last few months is that I can't ever NOT find God in my life. He is a part of everything I do, and the more I look for Him, the more I find Him. That is a beautiful gift.

I love you. Please have a very fantastic day, and an incredible week.
Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

P.S. It's hard to read, but I still really enjoy English grammar mistakes. Also, I would not want to be the one to pick up some old person's teeth and turn it into the Lost and Found Office. Ew.