Liebe Freunde und Familie,
Meine Gute! I dont even know where to start! Hmm..well..in traditional small talk fashion, lets start with the weather.....
IT IS SO COLD HERE! I am quite sure that Germany gives a whole new meaning to the word. There is lots of snow. and lots of bitter cold. I may or may not wear at least 2 days worth of clothing at a time. Burr! Luckily, we havent had to spend TOO much time outside yet, because we had a lot of appointments this week...
So! Yeah! My trainer/companion is sister Schulze. She is really cute. She is also..a german. Yep. A native. Which keeps things interesting...we have very different personalities. My indecisiveness drives her crazy..hah. I am working on it. It also has been really interesting with the language. Obviously she is really helpful because she knows how to say everything right. She just doesnt know WHY..haha. And her english is really good, but we always run into little language barriers where I will ask her what a word means, but she doesnt know the word...so we have to play this little game of trying to describe it using other words. Hah its interesting. Also! Fun fact. Germans dont have a "th" sound in their language. So most of them cant really say it. At first I thought it was a lisp, but its not. And the "w" and "v" are different here, so I have to listen really closely when she talks to I can understand her. For example she says "waacum" instead of "vacuum". Its so crazy! Anywho, she is a sweetheart, and I am excited to learn all that I can from her. :)
As for the food? Honestly at this point, I have been more concerned with starving to death than getting fat! Meine gute! See, we have a kitchen..with food in it.....I just dont know what to do with any of it. It is all crazy german food. Soooo I have been making crazy ridiculous concoctions and..well...bahaha. But when the members and investigators feed us? Wow. I swear they look at me and see a 300 pound man with the amount of food that gets put on my plate! Anywho..its great!
Bahaha! "Ulm, ulm on the range" hmm? Leave it to uncle Virgil:) The area is actually really big here. We have to ride the train for 40 minutes to get to some of our appointments. Hah, so I thought I was doing pretty good with the jet lag right? Wrong. we were riding the bus the other day, and I didnt even realize that I was tired....until I jerked awake just in time to save myself from falling the rest of the way out of my seat. Needless to say, Sister Schulze made me sit on the inside the rest of the week. Hah. Anywho, I dont know if we will be doing much historical sight seeing. My comp is from Germany so it isnt as exciting for her. I did see this giant church though..i Forget what its called..but! It is really neat. I think she said it was the tallest chruch in this part of germany. I believe it!
Annd of course the work here! I tell you what, missionary work is not at all what I was expecting. Or at least not here. We had a lot of appontments last week. but most of them are with less actives and new converts. Which is great! I just didnt ever really think about that. We do have a couple of investigators though. I havent yet met any of them yet except for Rodrigo. I commited him, in my best Deutsch (hah) to come to church with us on Sunday. Sunday came and we didnt see him at the stop or on the bus, and we were really sad about it. Then all of the sudden and out of nowhere, he was sitting in the seat behind us! Yay! He came to chruch and seemed to enjoy it, but we will have to talk to him more about it on Thursday at our next appointment.
Hah, I think one of my favorite people thus far has been a recent convert, Alexander. He loves to talk. And likes to try to talk english. Which believe it or not is probably worse than my german. He once told the sisters that he was a "vegetarian"...but accidentally told thme that he was a "vegetable" instead. Hah! Anywho, I asked him about his conversion story, whicih was actually really interesting..and long. Short version...he has done a lot of religious searching, including living with the Monks for 3 months..haha! But then he found the Kirche Jesu Christi in the phonebook, called the building, there happened to be someone there cleaning, they got him in contact with the missionaries, he heard the First Vision, and was sold. I love the First Vision. So much power.
The branch here is quite small. Only 30 members or so. And! Some of the members speak english! I was actually a little confused at first. See, my first few days here I went around a little like a deer in the headlights trying to understand everyone. So I h eard english and thought german and..it took a second to click. Haha. At any rate, it felt a little like dry land after a couple of days at sea. I guess I was a little homesick for my native tongue. But! I truly love german. I cant wait to be able to understand what people are sayzing to me! Anzwho! There is no church building, so we meet in a "flat". Seeing as there arent very many members...I stuck out like a sore thumb on Sunday. I was aksed to say the prayer. Three times. Which! I did gladly. They also had me introduce myself and bear my testimony in sacrament. When I sat down, a lady leaned over and whispered. "your Deutsch is as good right now as some sister missionaries are when they go home!" While I think (hope) that was an exaggeration, it was a really nice compliment. We ate with her family that night and she told me I had a lot of German potential, and that i could go home like a native speaker. Fingers crossed? The gift of tongues is so real. There is NO WAY I could be learning this fast on my own. I still ahve a LONG way to go, but with practice and hard work, it will come.
So scripture for the week: Mosiah 2:41. "Consider ont he blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God..." It has been really interesting seeing that scriputre manifest out here in Germany. Growing up in UTah you dont notice it as much, but the people here just look so sad. Even the happy ones arent the same kind of happy I am used to. The happiness that can only come from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ...I am so grateful to have been raised in the church, and for all of the blessings that come from it. I am also so very grateful adn very humble to be serving a mission. To have the opportunity to take the happiness the Lord has given me, and share it with others. It really hit me this week how short a time I have out here. I am so priviledged to be able to wear His name over my heart every minute of every day for the next 16 months. My hope and prayer is that during those 16 months, I will be changed. That my relationship with my Savior will grow so strong that while the nametag may not always be there, His name will never, ever leave my heart.
Well! I think I am about out of time. Sorry for the scatterbrained-ness of this email. i didnt know we were emailing this morning so
Much love! The gospel is true! Have a lovely week! And smile often! It's funny, I stepped on the plane to come here and soon noticed that most of the other passengers were German. And I had this unexplainable and immediate love for them. So I went around smiling all day at everyone...annnnd they thought I was crazy...but! Smile. We carry a message of joy:)
Until next week!
Sister Bice
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