Transfer time....but not for me! 9/9/13

Everything is going wonderfully over here! Transfers went by smoothly, though I did shed one tear for Sister Imbach when I saw her leaving Hauptbahnhof. She is “dead” now. :( But that's fine, she is now in the Land of Eternal PDay, and I'm sure she's doing just fine. Speaking of PDay, today the Elders and we went on this long crazy fun bike ride through forests and fields and things. It was way fun and pretty. I took some pictures...but then forgot my card reader at my apartment. I'm sorry!! But just so you know, I have some for next week! Sorry, I am the worst. Oh well. You can live another week. They go by way too fast. It's been a little chillier these past couple days, with some rain and wind. And I see some leaves falling down! Nooooo! How did the summer go by so fast? I don't understand.

Sounds like everyone is doing well over there. Dad, please eat raspberries for me because they are crazy expensive here. But luckily Germans have a soft spot for raspberries, so sometimes we get to eat them at a member appointment or something. And give Molly a hug for me! Germans also love their dogs so much, so it is so easy to find a dog here to pet and hug (also a great way to contact people, hehehe...). It's been an awesome week of miracles! Sister Beck is a really awesome missionary. I'm so excited to work with her. She is such an example for me. We got like three referrals this past week, which is more than I've like ever gotten in my whole mission! And we have some really awesome ideas for this upcoming transfer. I'm just so happy I could stay in the Zone. I'd be totally fine staying in this Zone my entire mission. It is the best!

My new companion is way awesome. Sister Beck is such an example to me. I am so excited to work with her. She is an awesome missionary, and really sweet and goofy and cute. I think we'll get along fine. We've already seen some miracles together and experienced some crazy appointments. Those always bond a companionship pretty quickly, lol. Things are going well here in Hanau! The members are awesome, and I'm excited to keep working with them. Love them all so much. And I love you guys all so much too! Mom, maybe you better have your eyes checked for allergies or something. Don't want people to think you're crying! Lol. Hug everyone for me, okay? It's been an awesome week, and we're going to have another awesome week! Remember to choose the right always and remember that Christ is the Son of God and our Savior!

From small things..... 9/2/13

Happy Labor Day!

I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist in Germany, so have fun over there with your free day! But today is like a holiday, because we have our PDay. Mostly it'll be spent packing...but not me! Hahaha. Sister Wilson is getting the boot and is getting transferred down to Kaiserslautern. I'm staying here and am getting a new companion on Thursday. I think she's only one or two transfers behind me. I've never met her before, but I'm sure she's awesome. I am so glad that I am staying here. I love this area and this ward and would have been really sad to go. Sister Wilson is really sad, too. She doesn't want to leave. We're sad that we're getting split up, but it'll be good. So I am still staying in the Zone, yay! Haha. I'll be here at least six more weeks. It sounds so short, and it actually is! September already, wow. We're waking up to semi-darkness now, which is really weird and just tells us how the season is changing here. I'm actually wearing a cardigan today because it's just a little chilly. Soon we'll be breaking out the tights again. There goes my somewhat-pink legs, haha. My camera has been dead all week, and I finally got new batteries, so I have no new pictures this week, sorry. I will just send you some old ones from the MTC that I just got the other day. But there will definitely be new pictures for next week. And yes, we received that peanut butter for having a very clean apartment. We made peanut butter cookies last night. They were sooooo good!! Mmm and it was crunchy peanut butter too.

Sounds like everyone is staying busy! We're doing the same. Today we actually got another referral. So crazy! It's like the Lord is hastening His work or something...We have some really good things planned for the upcoming transfer, including baptizing someone!! That somebody doesn't know, and we don't know who it is...but it'll happen, haha! I am just really happy I am staying in this area. That means I get to go back to Frankfurt on splits and for conferences and stuff. Yay! Also if the package is here I'll grab it on Thursday when everybody goes to the train station for transfers. If it's not there I'll wait and get it on October 1, which is our upcoming Zone Conference, and they always bring all the mail and packages there for missionaries to pick up. But I promise not to open it until October 7.

We are staying busy and things are going along well. Not too much to report on this week besides transfers, and that's done already, haha. This is such an awesome opportunity that I'll never have again. It is so cool to be able to spend so much time every day studying the Gospel.

One thing that I've noticed is how important it is that we are doing the little things in our lives. Remember that it's said that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. If we're doing the little things that we think might not be important, they build up and are actually VERY important. Christ was born in like a barn, but He is the Redeemer of the world. Remember how there was this little family in Jerusalem, but they followed the Spirit and sailed across the sea and founded an amazing civilization. There are just these awesome examples in the scriptures about how simple things always end up becoming amazing and great things. So we have to make sure that we are doing the small things in our lives. We need to be reading our scriptures and saying our prayers and attending our church meetings and fulfilling our callings. These things might seem tiresome or annoying, but we can't afford not to be doing them. That's how our testimony decreases. If we're not making a conscious effort to increase our testimony, it will decrease. That is something that the Prophets and Apostles talk about a lot. If we're not consciously moving forward, we are moving backward. We can't stand still in the Gospel--we're going forward or backward. So make sure that you are going forward! You need to do something every day to increase your testimony. And my challenge to you right now is to have family prayer every night. (Maybe you're doing it already--AWESOME!) But if not, make a conscious and dedicated decision to have family prayer every single night. It's something that is promised to bring such amazing blessings. Companionships are like little families, and we pray together a lot throughout the day, and it makes a difference. So praying together will do nothing but bless and help you!

Give hugs to everyone from me! Miss you guys, but I'm not planning on coming home anytime soon. Have an awesome week!