Meine Lieblings!
First of all, thanks again for the package, Mom. Everything you sent me was perfect. Helps a lot! It's been super freezing up here. It's snowed almost every single day since I've been here, and that didn't help my sickness. I was really, really sick this past week, which was not fun at all since I had to miss class, which meant that my companion had to miss class, too. I feel so bad for that! I talked to my branch president last week, and he said if I wasn't feeling better by Thursday that he wanted me to go to the medical clinic here. And since he's a retired doctor, I took his advice and went there on Friday morning. I guess I just had a really bad virus that was going around. Anyway, he prescribed me some sinus relief stuff and some horrible, horrible nasty cough syrup that was seriously the nastiest thing I've ever tasted. But they helped a lot, and I'm finally feeling a lot better.
Thanks for all the letters! They helped me a lot. Sorry, I was just having a sad day last week, haha. But I talked with President Peterson, our branch president, and he made me feel sooooo much better. He is like the coolest guy ever. He's just this little old man with this really white hair, but he has the softest heart and he cares so much about everyone in our zone. I'm hoping to talk to him one or two more times before I go out into the field, because he just wiped away so much anxiety and stress. I wanted to give him a giant hug, but NO ONE is allowed to hug sisters here, and I couldn't even shake his hand because that's against the rules now, too, because everyone in the MTC is like super sick all the time. So we just do this little elbow bump thing. It's silly, but it's a good way to stop passing along that nasty virus I picked up. Lucky me. Anyway, after that the zone leaders gave me a blessing, and that was really nice. Our zone is actually really interesting. We have like four or five British Elders, and we actually have two Elders from Finland, all going to Germany. One of the Finnish Elders is a zone leader, and he gave me the blessing. His accent was so cute, haha.
Even though it's hard here, there are so many people that want to help us. We have two teachers, and then we have around four or five resource teachers that are here if we need help with anything. They are all really amazing, and I learn so much, not just about Deutsch but about teaching and relying more on the Spirit. And it's not just the teachers, too. Last week after theTuesday night devotional, a cute senior couple missionary came up to us and the Brother was so excited and said, "Are you sisters going to Germany? I was born in Munich!" And he talked to us for a little bit and told us that Frankfurt is the Shangrai-La (sp?) of Germany. He says the motto is "The sun always shines in Frankfurt!" Then he asked if there was anything we needed help with, and we were like, uh, yeah, of course, we need to know how to speak German. So he took down our building and classroom number, and then the next morning he was there!! He taught us so much. Turns out he was a German professor at UVU for a really long time. Anyway, stuff like that just proves how much the people here want to help you become better.
I'm so glad you guys all had fun in Orlando! Sounds like a lot of fun. I was just stuck here freezing and trying to cram all the Deutsch I can into my brain, but that's really okay. It's been a really good week. Of course there are tons of downs, but it's mostly been up. I'm halfway through! Crazy thought. I'm going really, really miss my district, though. They've made me laugh so much. And despite the Elders being nineteen, they've taught me so much about being good missionaries and good teachers. So that'll be a bummer to leave them. But! I'm still really excited. I've learned so much already. We've taught a lot more lessons, all auf Deutsch, of course. Last Friday we taught this little old German lady. Well, tried to, anyway. She was really cute and just wanted to teach us everything. That was okay, though. She was from Freiburg, but I could understand about ninety percent of what she was saying. That's probably because she used a small vocabulary, haha, but it's still encouraging to know that. Tomorrow Sister Miller and I are only going to speak German. We have one Elder in our district who's been speaking only German for more than a week. It's amazing! He's so dedicated, and he's actually the youngest one in our district, but it's crazy to see how hard he works. That just makes me realize how inspired the announcement was last October (even though I'm still trying not to be too bitter about it, haha). All these really young Elders are working really hard.
Robert, I'm really glad you learned a lot at tennis camp! When I come back I'll probably be about thirty pounds heavier, so you could definitely beat me. And Lauren, good luck with track!! Josh, thanks for the nice letter. I hope you're doing well in school and are learning a lot! Dad, I miss you a lot, and at each meal I just sit there and miss your cooking! Also, Sarah, if you could, send me your email address so I can email you, too. I can email family here. And BriAnne can send me hers as well. Writing takes a long time, but I'm a fast typist so I can get around to a few emails a week.
Anyway, my time is almost up and we have to get to the temple, but I just wanted to let you all know how much I love you! I'm learning so much here and I'm having fun a lot of the times, which is good for me. Miss you guys all bunches! Thanks for the letters.
Love,
Sister Shipton
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