A Mission is Hard Work! April 29, 2013

Hi Familie!

Thanks for all the updates. Sounds as if life is going on over there! Can't believe it's Monday again. Sister Mosher is getting transferred this week, so I'll be getting a new companion. I've met her once, and she seems really nice and cool. Sister Mosher said she's an awesome missionary, so I'm excited. Thankfully I'm staying in Frankfurt for another transfer. I love this city! I didn't think I would, but when I thought that I might have to leave the city and the ward, I was super sad and didn't want to. So yeah, I'm so glad that I can stay here for another six weeks, at the very least! When I think about it, I feel like Frankfurt is kinda like Salt Lake. There are a ton more little city parts, like in comparison to West Valley and stuff, but I feel like downtown has the same size and feel as Salt Lake. I just heard that Berlin is the size of three Frankfurts, so yeah, it's not super big, but it's still the biggest city I've ever lived in.

Everything has been going well. We've seen some really awesome miracles here. Last week we got three new investigators! They all need a lot of work, but hopefully everything will go well. Missionary work is so hard!! I know everyone said it, but you can't really understand until you experience it. It's draining, mentally and emotionally and spiritually. But it's so good! When I'm teaching someone, I just feel sooo incredibly happy. So yeah. It's cliché, but it's true: missionary work is so hard, but it's the best thing ever! I always thought people were babies when they said it was hard. But yeah. It's hard. Thankfully we have prayer and awesome companions to support us and cool families who like to write us! The temple was way beautiful. I hope the picture I emailed you went through. That's two districts at the temple there. It was so gorgeous that day. We went to eat at a café afterward. It was pretty good, so yeah, it was a really good day. It was so nice to just go and feel the spirit and not have to worry about anything else for a couple hours.

I play the piano a lot more than I thought I would. And I think I'm supposed to be singing at the testimony meeting on Thursday night. It's for all the missionaries who are leaving. But I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel that's how the whole mission is. You just have to kinda go with the flow a lot of the time. So yeah. I think I am, but we'll see.

The language is slow and painful, of course. Haha! No, that's how it's supposed to be. Like I said, I understand about 95% of what's being said, I just struggle with saying stuff. But it's good! Luckily everyone I've talked to has been really nice and understanding and supportive and aren't mad that I can't speak German fluently. But it just takes time and practice. I've only been in Germany six weeks, so I try  not to beat myself up too much!

I love all the emails I get! I never, ever think they're boring. I like knowing what's going on with all of you because I love you so much! Not too much new food here. Yesterday we got to have dinner with a member of the seventy (area seventy?? I dunno, that stuff confuses me still). That was fun and scary. But luckily his wife is American so it was really good. I learned so much from him! His son made us burritos, haha. Send some of that warm weather our way! The weather keeps teasing us. It's doff.

Hope you all have a great week! I love hearing all of what's going on. This week I get to take a couple of the new missionaries who are coming on Wednesday around Frankfurt. So wish me luck that we won't die or end up in Berlin somehow!! It'll be a crazy week, but good. I'm going to miss Sister Mosher! But it'll be fun to have a new companion already. My split with Sister Miller was really fun and really good! She asked about a lot of you, actually. It's so nice that she remembered. She's so cute.

Okay, love you all! I think we're going to a cool old church this afternoon, so hopefully next week I'll actually have some fun, cool pictures for you. We'll see. :)

Love you all!

Sister Shipton

Germany April 22, 2013

Familie!

Hi! Yeah, the weeks are definitely going by so fast here. Every time I go to bed I just lay there for a minute and think, "How is the day over already? I just got up!!" But it's good. Sister Mosher is always telling me to make sure that I work hard and enjoy it, because she says it all went by too fast. 

I'm glad your talk went well. I'll learn more things the longer I'm out, so if you have to talk again and need me to tell more advice, I'll have more advice for you. And yeah, the ward better be amazing when I get back. I expect nothing less from Bishop, who is like super cool. If you see him sometime, tell him thank you so much! I never really got to thank him before I left. He is just so amazing and is so inspired. His advice still helps me all the time out here. 

There’s one thing that I've been learning a lot about here. Even if people say they believe the church is true and stuff, and then they don't come to church, they're missing the whole point. If you say you believe it, you have to live it!! The Lord commanded us to go to church. It should be as simple as that for some people.

My companion is awesome. She's from just south of Denver, and she has two brothers and an older sister. Her dad passed away when she was fifteen or sixteen, and she is so strong and has such a strong testimony of the Gospel. She's told me about some of the miracles she's seen in her family since she's been out, and it just really strengthens my own testimony. She went to BYU for a couple years and is going back when she gets home in a couple weeks. And she teaches me so much. Of course it's humbling, Mom!! Haha. The Lord is smart. He knew exactly the companion I would need. The Elders here are really funny, and all of them are really experienced. It's kind of a weird situation. We have the zone leaders and the APs in our district, so we don't actually really make a "district," but we correlate together and everything. So yeah, I'm just surrounded by the leaders of the mission all the time, and I just kinda wander around and try to help. lol, it's such a learning process. 

Yoyo weather here as well. It was super warm for a couple days, and now it's back to being chilly again. Weird weather. Also I'm playing tennis today! An investigator really likes tennis, so we're playing in a couple hours. I haven't played in a while, so I'm not sure how good I'll be. But one day I'll beat you, Mom! One day. That's my dream in life. 

French! Wooo. That'll be fun for Josh. Maybe he'll go on a mission to France. I feel like sometimes people think their calls aren't inspired when they find out they're going to a country whose language they've already studied, but they don't realize that the Lord was preparing them since they were like fifteen or sixteen!! They just have to remember the stories of the Elders and Sisters who study a language for a while and then get called somewhere completely different. Like a sister here studied French for six years but was called German-speaking. So it's all inspired. 

German food is too good. Dang it. Luckily we're able to exercise every morning (except Sundays). It's a really good habit to get into. I still like my sleep too much just now. But someday I'll be ready to jump out of bed and go running. I had sauerkraut the other day. Hmmm...yeah. Well. Let's just say I won't be disappointed if I never eat it again, lol. But I ate it all. The Elders here have all become European. I think they're more worried about their weight than the sisters, lol. 

I need to write Grandpa still. I'll do that tonight. I've been thinking about him a lot this past week. Tell him I said hi and that I love him!! Also, I love you all, too! It's been a crazy good week. This week we get to go to the temple, and then on Thursday I'm doing a split with Sister Miller, who was my comp at the MTC. So it'll be fun to see her again after only a month! We had zone conference last week, and it was soooo good. Sis Mosher said it was the best zone conference she's been to. I'm starting off all these things right, I think. 

Every week we see just little miracles. Nothing huge, but just little tiny things that help us get through the day. So every day I'm learning to recognize the Lord's hand in this work. I just always have to remember that it's His, and not mine! We have to do it His way or else nothing will happen. And it's a process, but it's so good for us. Love you all lots. I hope you have a good week!! 

Sister Shipton

Happy Spring! April 15, 2013

Hello!

The warm weather has moved over here as well! It is sooo nice outside today. We're going to go down to the river and play volleyball and eat some stuff with some other missionaries, which should be fun. Let's hope this weather will last. When the sun is out, all of the people are so nice and friendly. I went outside without a coat on for the first time today, and it was nice and weird. 

Sounds like a lot is going on! Hope Lauren didn't make out with her date too much, haha. Tell Sarah and BriAnne that I love them and miss them! I know everything will work out fine with them. I told Sister Mosher about you guys, and I told her about Robert and realized that he doesn't have that much longer until he's able to serve. I told her that he's going to go to some crazy place with crazy stuff, and I said something like, "It's a good thing Heavenly Father knows me well enough not to send me to some crazy place, because I don't think I could handle it." And she looked at me and said, "No offense...but I agree." Lol! She already knows me too well. She's such a good missionary and a really good example. I'll be sad when we're split up in a couple weeks. 

Also I got crushed by train doors for the first time the other day! That's always like a milestone here for a missionary. You walk through the train stations or the subway stations and see people just like doing the death sprint because they're going to miss their train. I've done that a couple times, but I got crushed the other day for the first time. The doors don't open again once they're closing, so Sister Mosher slipped in and I tried to, too, but they crushed me. Luckily there was this guy who helped Sister Mosher wrench the doors open so I could get in. Haha, it was really funny! It didn't hurt or anything at all. It's just funny to see that happen. 

Glad Prom was fun! It's crazy to think that it's that late in the school year already. And I'm so glad your lesson went well, Mom. They say this all the time to missionaries, but I think it's true to any teacher in the church. The teacher is the Spirit, and you're just there to facilitate it. And it's up to the people or the students to choose whether they want to be edified and taught. That's something I never really understood until I got out here. No matter how much you just want to force people to listen and accept, you just have to pray that the Spirit will be there and touch them. 

We're doing a ton of member work right now. Präsident wants us to focus on getting member referrals and getting the members involved in missionary work. But the members are German, so it's a lot of work! Haha. Luckily our Ward Mission Leader is really, really cool and helps us a lot. We're also focusing a lot of time on the Young Single Adults in the ward because Präsident wants us to do that as well. So we're at FHE and Institute during the week. But we're teaching a woman named Magalee. She's progressing, but we just need to take it slow, haha. And we were out street contacting the other week, and this guy with tattoos and piercings and a cigarette and a beer came up to us and asked us for money. We're not allowed to give out money, so we had to say no, but then Sister Mosher was like "WAIT, we can't give you money, but we can give you something else." Yeah, hopefully we can meet with him sometime. I'm not sure, but we got his number. He had a really hard life with lots of deaths in his family, and he said he moved to Frankfurt to get away from drugs and all this crazy stuff. Hope we can meet with him soon! The Gospel would really help him.

It's just been a crazy last week. The Sisters living with us got assigned to their area, and then two more sisters came and became their companions, so it was just hectic getting everything situated, and then they  moved out, and now it's Zone Conference tomorrow so Sister Mosher's trying to get everything ready for that and stuff. Yeah, just another crazy week. But I have a good feeling about this week. The weather should be nice, which means happy people who are willing to talk to us! 

Sorry I don't have any pictures this week! I'm really bad at taking them. I promise I'll be better and have some fun ones for you next week. Glad everything is okay over there. Goodbye, little Nissan! It was a good little school car. Are you going to get a special space car like Mrs. Gillman? Haha. Thanks for the addresses and all the emails and support. Love you all lots!

Sister Shipton

New Goldens



Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes?



Mission Update April 8, 2013

Familie!!

Hi! Man, it has been a crazy week. Sister Mosher is the coordinating sister, which is basically like she's the "leader" of the sisters here, so she had a conference for a couple days. I was on a split with Sister Prince, and it was really good. It forced me to get to know lots of things, because she's brand new in Frankfurt as well, so we were able to find our way around fine, and we did tons of work, which I loved. But now Sister Mosher is back, and the new sisters will probably be leaving either tomorrow or the next day for their real area. It's been fun having them, but it's definitely much more stressful trying to get four schedules set up instead of two. I don't know what'll happen at the end of this transfer, but I have a feeling Sister Mosher will get the boot and I'll get someone else. Two trainers! Wooo!

Mom, what you said just made me think of conference. So much of it was on missionary work!! We were all so excited. I guess at the Priesthood session they talked a lot about member missionary work, which we all love. I'm so glad that you got to talk to them about the Gospel! It's scary, yeah, but it's so worth it. We just have to love them enough to open our mouths. It's still scary for me, mostly because I can't speak very well, but I find that when I'm just trying my hardest to talk and listen and explain, I feel so happy. Conference just helped me so much this time. We got to watch the Saturday sessions and the Sunday morning session, and I really enjoyed it. Two hours used to feel like such a long time, but everything was just so good for me to hear. And I'm glad you got to see your family up there! I hope I will be able to visit them sometime when I get back.

It's still pretty chilly here, which makes everyone grumpy because apparently it's usually super nice in April. But apparently in two weeks it's supposed to get really nice. We can't wait! People are so much more willing to talk if the sun is out and it's warm. Also, Lauren showed me her nasty sunburn, and I'm sure Robert's just a brown man. haha, remember that time BriAnne was working and Sarah drove by her a couple times?? I'll bet that's how Robert looks now. It sounds like everyone is doing so well. It's crazy that it's April already! Easter was good. We had dinner with the mission secretary, and then another senior couple came around and gave us a little Easter treat. That was really nice of them. Also DAD. Get surgery on your shoulder!! I don't like that you're just sitting there hurting when you could get it fixed. And I love you, too.

Haha, that story about Molly made me lol. She's a lot smarter than we give her credit. LOL. I can just imagine her. I was like so worried about her and told my companion all about it. I'm glad I can just laugh now. And I want to send a postcard or something to Grandpa or some chocolate or something soon. Do you think he'd like that? I'd just need his address, if that's okay. I'll send you all some candy too in a couple months, once I've figured out my favorite kinds. All of the candy here is so good. There's "American" food here, too, but it's mostly like the German version of American food. It's good, though, nothing really gross. All the members we've met with are SO nice. Okay yesterday, we went by on this family, and they invited us in, and gave us like a chocolate bunny and some candy and an apple, and then she gave us like these decorations that Sis. Mosher said were pretty, and then she like gave me some clothes, and THEN she was like, what's your favorite color? And I told her purple, and she said she's knitting me a scarf. And then the next day at church she showed me that she had started it. I know!! The people here are so nice, actually. Everyone just wants to make sure you're happy. The only problem is that we're thirsty a lot, and so they give us water, but it's like CARBONATED. It's sooooo freaking disgusting! It's just water with carbonation. They think it's healthier for you. It tastes NASTY. So they're always like, "Would you like something to drink? Some water?" And I'm always like NEIN DANKE. Bleh. It's so gross. Sis. Mosher always has to drink mine when the people are out of the room, just because I can't drink it.

Hoping to try my Mt. America card today! Just been too busy to use it, sorry. Got reimbursed for my luggage. They put it on my mission card. The shoes are doing really, really well. My feet have never hurt once. We're walking and using public transportation. No bikes here because the public transportation is so extensive. And we moved into the new apartment a couple days ago. It is a PALACE. It is soooo nice. Sis. Mosher said she's never seen such a nice apartment. I don't have anything to look forward to, now!! Haha. I'll have to send some pictures. It's really sooo nice. And the landlord-guy is really nice, as well. He wants to practice his English with us.

The schedule is getting easier every day. There are still so many things I need to learn, but luckily the Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect all at once, haha! So yeah, I'm just plugging along here, trying to be a better missionary. Gotta go, but I love you all so much. Thanks for the emails!! I get to see you all in about a month. We'll probably have to start coordinating soon with that.

Love you all so much!!

Sister Shipton

Mission Report March 30, 2013

Familie!

Hi! Thanks for the letter, and thanks for getting one to me by Saturday so I wouldn't be lonely on my Pday! It's been a crazy, crazy couple of days. I guess crazier than usual. Even Sister Mosher was like, "What's going on?? This is crazy!" On Thursday Präsident called us and was like, "Sisters, I just got a call that we'll be receiving new sisters in just a couple days!" He didn't have anywhere to put them, and we have an extra bedroom and are here right in Frankfurt, so he had them stay with us. Then he called us like three hours later and was like, "Sisters, they're coming tonight!" So we had to like suddenly get ready for two more sisters. They're here from the Berlin mission. It's crazy. They seriously got a call one morning and were told they were being transferred that day to the Frankfurt mission. Man, if that happened to me I wouldn't be handling it that well. But they're both really nice and fun and hard workers. Sister Prince and Sister Moon. Sister Prince and I wandered around a little town called Bad Vilbel today, looking for this family. Some people gave us some crazy directions, and we walked around for like an hour and a half. But it was really fun. When Präsident gets back to Frankfurt on Sunday he'll interview them and decide where they're going.

Thanks for sending whatever you do!! You're right, I can get stuff like that here no problem. I'm right in the middle of a huge modern city, so there's like nothing I can't buy. But it's all just a little more expensive here. And just those packages are awesome!! Thanks so much in advance. :)

Give Papa and Grandma and Aunt Valerie and everyone else all my love. I've been thinking about Aunt Valerie a lot over the past couple days. Hope she's doing okay.

Yeah, German will just come. I'm trying not to worry too much, but of course I do. If I'm not fluent right now then I'm like argghhh whyyyy. But Sister Mosher is awesome and won't let me be sad. I just have to practice and stop being afraid of making mistakes. And it's still really cold here, which is not so fun, but we're keeping pretty warm. They just found and bought a new apartment just a couple streets away over a döner shop, so we're calling it the Döner apartment now. Oh yeah, I finally had one the other day! Mmm döner. They're like this Turkish sandwich thing that the Germans have embraced, and they're really popular over here. Also delicious and fattening. It'll be dangerous living above a shop. Not sure when we're moving there, but probably in the next couple weeks.

We're really working with the ward here and trying to kind of just get things going. They're all really awesome, but they're just so busy, so it's totally understandable. And lots of them live like an hour away with the train, so it's hard to go see everyone. People here are really nice, just set in their ways. But we're trying hard to find people! Easter is just a fun time to close down stores and have a little holiday here, haha. But they hang Easter eggs from trees, so that's fun to see. We have an eating appt. for Sunday night, so hopefully it'll be delicious. I had another interview with Präsident Schwartz on Tuesday, I think it was. Man, he's awesome. He goes around trying to interview everyone, and Church headquarters have told the mission presidents that they can't take too long with interviews because so many missionaries are coming in, but Präsident Schwartz is like, "No, I can't do that. We must talk and talk and see how we can help one another." So there are regularly-scheduled interviews with him, and it takes forever because he loves the missionaries so much and loves to talk to them. His interview really, really helped me. I have a feeling that every single one will, haha.

I saw Kaitlyn Sprouse the second day I was here! She came to pick up her Golden. It was crazy. We were like...hiiii! I think she's going home in a couple months, though. Sarah, you can just write her an email I think or just send her a letter using the mission home address, and then it'll get to her.

Sounds like life is going well there! I told the new sisters all about you the other night. I talked a lot, haha. They probably think I'm crazy now because I just had so much fun and cool stuff to say about you all! Hope you all are having fun with your different sports and crazy lives! It's way awesome here. Hard, but really awesome! Thankfully Sister Mosher is just like helping me through it all. Also, Mother's Day is coming up really soon, oder?? Soon we'll have to coordinate Skype calls! Wow crazy.

Okay, love you all so much! Have fun and be safe traveling, Mom, and if there's one thing I've been thinking about this week it's that the Lord really knows each of our personal needs and directs our lives to better us. We just have to trust Him and do what He asks. Remember the 2000 Stripling Warriors obeyed with exactness, and they were all saved.

Liebe Gruße,

Sister Shipton

PS, No one's ever told me what's wrong with Molly! Is she okay now?? I hope so!! She needs exercise I guess, just like I do, haha.

PPS. Sorry the pictures aren't anything way cool. That was just me saying goodbye to the Sisters from my MTC district at Hauptbahnhof. And the third one is a picture of our last night at the MTC with my entire district and our teacher, who's the tall skinny guy on the right. I look like a polygamist monster, so don't mind me too much. Hopefully soon I'll have some fun pictures of Germany to send. We've just been crazy busy here!