Goodbye October; Hello November 10/28/13

October is almost gone. I can't believe it! It's NOVEMBER this week. We've had an awesome October with so many crazy ups and downs and a lot of faith-building trials and miracles. So goodbye October, hello November. The colors over here are gorgeous. There are so many trees, and the sidewalks are covered with leaves. It's way pretty. We get to drive around in the country a lot and see all the really pretty colors, so it's really cool. 

I got to go to nursery one time in Frankfurt with Sister Imbach. That was really fun and quite an adventure. Little-people German is a lot harder to understand. Vegas for Thanksgiving sounds awesome! I don't know where I'll be, because transfers are a week before. Hopefully here!! I got to talk to Sister Wilson last night--that was super fun. I love all my companions. I've been SO lucky to have had such amazing comps. They are all the best. (knock on wood!!)

Things have been really good here this week. We had an activity for the ward last Saturday--let's just say it was a huge learning experience for us all, lol. And we have a street display in Büdingen on Wednesday, so we're trying to get everything ready for that as well. Stake Conference is next Sunday, so that's going to be really fun. We get to see all the missionaries serving in the Stake. Also today we are having Zone PDay in Frankfurt and are going to be carving pumpkins!! So that'll be really fun as well. I'll try to get some pics. 

We've had a really good week and I love it here so much! It's so beautiful and luckily the weather has been pretty warm (windy, but warm). We are just doing normal missionary work and are praying for success. I love you all so much and hope that you have an awesome last week of October. Send me pics if anyone dresses up for Halloween. 

This is going by too fast! 10/21/13

Another week gone. How? But it was so good and so busy. We had hours and hours of service this week, which was way fun. A really awesome lady in our ward was moving, so we helped with that. But it was bad because Sister Beck and I had done an intense workout the day before and I was SO. SORE. I still am a little bit...but seriously, it was like super funny and also really sad because it just hurt to walk, lol. But the week went by super fast and we had such awesome things in it! Thanks for all the updates. I hope everyone is still doing well! I'll keep my eye out for the Petersons. Things have been just going along here really well. We had Zone Training last week, and they split up our zone because it was so big. So now there's the Frankfurt zone and the Mainz/Wiesbaden zone. I'm still in the Frankfurt Zone, thank goodness...best zone EVER. I hope I die here! Probably not. But we'll see. 

I'm super excited for Christmas! It's not for another transfer and a half, but we're already all getting stoked and getting so many cool Christmas contacting ideas. But this transfer will be awesome. It's just getting started! Sister Beck and I get along really well. She's awesome and a really intense and focused worker. I think that she'll be training here in Hanau sometime...but we'll see whatever the Lord has planned for her. Hanau is just doing wonderfully! What an awesome area. I love it so much. There are lots of things to do and a lot of improvement to be made, but I feel like it's on the right track. 

This is such an amazing ward, I love it so much. It's been a really cool week, and we're trying hard to find the Lord's prepared people. Pray for them that we can find them! Thanks for the spiritual thought. If it's the right talk I'm thinking of, I think there are some really good Mormon Messages about revelation as well. 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858986001

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858984001

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858984001

I love you all and thanks for your example and love! Thanks for everything. Keep up the awesome work!

Transfer or no transfer? 10/14/13

Sounds like everyone is doing well over there, that's always good to hear. We finally got to watch all of the conference sessions. Wasn't it so awesome?? It was awesome. Only six more months until the next one! Haha. The time really went by so fast!! I can't believe it's already been six months from the LAST conference. I remember watching them as a kid and thinking they took forever too...but now it goes by way too fast. Only ten hours of meetings?? :)

Oh yeah--haha, no changes in transfers this time. I'll be here with Sister Beck for another transfer. But before we're ready for it, it'll be transfers again, and then we'll see what happens. Some Sisters that I came out with have not left their first area--that is nine months in one area! I mean, at least their companion changes occasionally, but still...that'd be so crazy.

A member and me from the Frankfurt Ward

And thanks for the birthday package!! We ate brownies all night, but then we got fat and regretted it. Oh well. We're saving the Reeses Bars until my halfway mark. That is INSANE. It is only a couple weeks away!! I just left yesterday!! Nooooo! We won't talk about that now. I still have plenty of time.

I can't think of anything else I need/want for Christmas. I've kinda said things sporadically here and there for the last couple weeks, so I hope that you got everything. Thanks so much!! I felt special to get a package. And I'm going to feel special again! I can't believe we're thinking about Christmas already. There are not Christmas things in stores now. It's not even Halloween! Not that they really celebrate that here...but still. Not even November!

This was the day we went to Schöllkrippen and hiked around and ate blackberries all day

The Temple was way awesome and so were Transfer Calls. We've had some really good lessons with some less actives, and we have a lot of cool plans for the upcoming week. Today we're going up to Fulda and Steinau with our District for PDay, so that'll be way fun. This week we'll be having a lot of service, and that is going to be awesome. We're really, really busy here. We don't know how we have time to squeeze in everything that we need to do. But it's all right, that is an awesome feeling.

Say hi to everyone for me! It is awesome here--cold now, but awesome! The trees are gorgeous, but soon it'll be way freezing and I'm sad that I complained about how hot the summer was. Come back!! It gets dark at like 4 or 5 o'clock here. That's weird. And it doesn't really get light until like 8 or 9 in the morning. But it's fun, plenty of things to do, just funky weather. Lots of rain this last week! How is it in Vernal? Snow or just freezing cold?

I hope everything has an awesome week! It is awesome being out here. Remember that General Conference is our scriptures for the next six months, so review the talks when they're available! They are what the Lord wants us to hear and learn. Love you all!

Schloss in Büdingen

Read the Book of Mormon! It's True! 9/30/13

The district went up to a town called Schöllkrippen today. We didn't know what it was really...I'd heard it on the train stations a lot and so we just decided to hop on a train and go and see what was there! We hiked this...'mountain.' Mostly it was a hill. Anyway, it was really fun and gorgeous and Sister Beck sang The Sound of Music the whole time. And we ate wild blackberries all day because they were growing like crazy up on that mountain. It was super fun. But that meant a crazy day with like no time for emails, sorry! But now I will repent and email you all really fast.

It's been a really good week. We had Zone Training last Tuesday, which was fun, and tomorrow we have Zone Conference! WOOOO! And in Heidelberg too!! That is going to be so fun. We get to ride a fancy train tomorrow and I've heard Heidelberg is one of the most beautiful places in the mission, so that is going to be way awesome. We also have a split this week--I'll be staying here in Hanau, but it'll still be good. And we are PUMPED for General Conference! So we're probably going to Frankfurt to watch it. It doesn't broadcast at the church here because it's too small. But I was serving in Frankfurt in April and was able to watch the broadcast there no problem. Anyway, the times will be Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night. The Sunday afternoon session is broadcasted a week later during church. We are super super pumped and are trying to get a lot of people there. It's going to be such a busy week! October 3 is also this week, which is like the German 4th of July but bigger. So that'll be fun. TOMORROW IS OCTOBER. I just realized that. Howwwwww???

Anyway, we saw a lot of miracles with less active work this week. There are a couple people we're working with that I just love so much! I'm going to miss them so much when I get kicked out. The way missions work is this way: you are trapped in an area until you love it, and then you are kicked out. Heavenly Father only asks you to give up what you love, after all! Haha, no, jk, but...really, in a mission kinda. I was not pumped to be in Frankfurt, but as soon as I realized how much I loved Frankfurt, I was kicked out. But we'll see! I might be another transfer here in Hanau. That'd be fine!!

This week we also got to go up to the top 1/3 of the area, which was way fun. We were so close to being in the Berlin mission. That was cool! I've never been past Fulda, so it was cool to go wayyyyy out there. Only problem was driving home...only a couple hours, lol. But that was our cool adventure. We also went to a Catholic Bible Circle. That was fun, too...but lemme just say how grateful I am for the Book of Mormon, haha. It's true!!

Total Bike Wreck!! 9/23/13

This has been an awesome, crazy week! We've seen so many miracles and so much crazyness. It's been so fun, but the week has gone by so fast, and I can't believe transfer calls are only in a couple weeks already!! I feel like we really just had them a couple days ago. The longer I'm out here, the faster and faster the time is going. Lots of other missionaries have told me that, but it's really only when you're out here experiencing it all that you realize how true it is. We have zone training this week, and then next week is zone conference, and then we have a split and then it's General Conference, and then we're going to the Temple at the end of the transfer. It's so crazy! Such a busy transfer, but full of so many crazy fun things. 

Anyway, we were able to pick up some more investigators this week! We contacted our member referral and hopefully she'll be coming to church in a week or so. We're working with several families and have been trying to do a lot of finding. It's been just a lot of missionary work. Good thing the Lord is helping us! Also earlier this week I had to register for my German driving license, and then I went and they told me I wasn't allowed to drive until I got my physical copy in the mail, and that was way bad news because Sister Beck wasn't allowed to drive because she hadn't taken the driving test, and we HAVE to have the car in this area. Also the Elders had the exact same problem. So we all made an emergency split-second trip to Frankfurt for a morning. That was fun! Also we get to go there for our training tomorrow. 

Also we ran in the Stadt Lauf this week! It was a 6km run. Afterward we got some ice cream, so it was definitely worth it, haha. That ice cream was so good. We ran with some members of our ward and the Elders. There were tons of people running in it and the route was just all over the city. That was fun. But you all know how much I love running, so you can just imagine! No, lol, it was good. Sister Beck is a runner, so she just jogged by me and sang Rocky and Eye of the Tiger to me. Also people were handing out fizzy water. Good thing I'm used to that now or I might've thrown up, haha. Also yesterday we were riding our bikes around and I totally crashed all over the road. It was a huge, dramatic fall, just as it should have been. Sister Beck says she is my second witness. It was a flying-over-the-handle-bars, bike-falling-on-top-of-you, legs-flying-everywhere kind of crash. I crashed outside of a restaurant and the waiter came running out, and then I laid there for a second trying to figure out what had just happened, and then twenty other bikers came whizzing around the corner, and then a car came down the road and was going to run me over. Basically, everyone was there staring at me and yelling at me and asking if I was dead. Not really, but it was just really funny. I had to do the awkward get-up-and-walk of shame. Nothing hurt, just some sweet bruises and scrapes and wounded dignity. But I'll never see any of those people again (maybe hopefully). 

And yeah, it's been a colder week. I had to break out my tights and coats again!! But I've heard that it's supposed to be nice this week, so we're happy about that. The ward is doing great. I love these members so much! I haven't heard anything from Jade. I hope she's doing well. Also nothing else from anybody else. But tell them all I said hello! About technology--we're allowed to use computers for an hour every week to do things we need to, but that's all for now. But President says that as soon as he knows something, we'll know something. 

Sister Beck and I are doing great out here! It's been an awesome week. We've got so many things coming up and we're so excited. It's been a really awesome, and I love being out here. Germany is beautiful and a wunderschön country. I am so happy to be here.

Lovin' Germany! 9/16/13

It's been cold and rainy and windy here this past week as well. I maybe would like it...if we weren't outside all day. But it's good. At least we're not roasting. But it's only going to get colder. Noooo! I don't know what I want, haha. I can't believe it's already mid-September already. That is crazy. 

Sister Beck and me

My companions have all been from the States. Sister Mosher is from Colorado, Sister Imbach is from Southern California, Sister Wilson is from Idaho, and Sister Beck is from the Wasatch Front. She's a BYU-loving, church-connected Utah Mormon girl, lol. They've all been such amazing examples to me. It is so crazy how personally the Lord knows us. Every companion that I've had has been the exact one I've needed to teach me something or make me grow. It's really amazing to see. I think I understand a little bit about why the Lord has us proclaim the Gospel two-by-two. It is such an inspired pattern! 

Chalking!

Hope you enjoy the pictures I'm sending. Don't be blinded by my dazzling beauty. We'll be out in the country a lot this week, so hopefully I'll be able to get some more pictures. The rain makes everything so much greener, if that is even possible. This is such a beautiful country! Sometimes Sister Beck and I are driving around and just looking and it's just amazing to think that we have this opportunity. It is gorgeous out here.  

Just a ruin of a castle

The other day we went over to a less-active's house, and it was SURPRISE her birthday and she is from like Sri Lanka or something and made all this food and literally took our plates and filled them overflowing with spicy spicy spicy spicy food and I wasn't even sure what most of it was. Sister Beck and I almost had heart attacks later that night. That food was intense! Also I had proper English custard the other night from a cute little member from our ward who's here from England. That was super delicious. It's pretty awesome that Germany is so multi-cultural! It is such a beautiful, awesome country. 

The Lord is in our lives every single day if we'll just be willing to look for it! It's so amazing how interested the God of the universe is in our daily lives. We should take advantage of that fact. He loves us and wants to help us! So let's let Him.