Another Miracle! 6/16/14

Things are still going really well here! Sue  is progressing really well and everything is still looking good. We all had lunch with the Bishop after church on Sunday, and I think she enjoyed herself. We're also doing a Relief Society Temple trip on the fifth of July, and she really wants to come to that as well!! So things are going good.

Also SURPRISE! Can you believe it?? Sister Lehman and I are staying TOGETHER. I've never ever ever heard of that happening. FIVE transfer companions! So crazy. We were sure she was gone. But we're waaaaay excited. I'm really excited she's my last companion. It's going to be a way awesome last transfer. We're going to make it really awesome.

This week we're going to Felsenmeer again for PDay. It was reaaaalllly fun the last time, so we just decided to go again! We have to make sure that all our PDays are really good because we don't have that many left, and there's still a lot to see and do!

Zone Training was pretty good. We missed a good chunk of it because we were teaching Sue. I went on a split to Darmstadt afterward. It was really fun. I like Darmstadt actually! Some people think it's an ugly city, but it's prettier than Mannheim at least lol. So I had fun there. Next week we have our goodbye ZOKO with President Schwartz. :( Bummer about that.

I can't believe that this is my last transfer!! It's so unreal. I was looking over my journal the other day from this time last year. I just barely got into Hanau. The time goes by soooooo fast. 

The List of Miracles! 6/9/14

After much complaining about all the rain and cold, Germany has decided to show us up by boiling us alive. It has been SOOO hot lately. Soooooo hot. It's supposed to be in the mid-90s today, and on top of that it's a holiday, so all of Germany is shut down. So either we hide in our stuffy, hot apartments (because Germany does not believe in Air conditioning) or get baked in the sun. We'll see what we end up doing today, haha. Supposed to be just as hot the rest of the week. I hope I survive!

We have transfer calls this Saturday. So crazy! I hope Sister Lehman stays. She hopes she does too. That's a lot to say for comps who have been together six months, haha. But really, it would only be like six more weeks together, and it would be really fun. We have Zone Training on Wednesday, and then afterward I'll be heading up to Darmstadt for a split, which means I'm going to miss a HUGE finding activity for half of the Zone in Speyer, but oh well...I like Darmstadt! Also for the holiday this week half of the ward is gone, so we'll see what we can do this week as well.

BUT we have had MIRACLES happen this last week. Get ready for me to list them all. So for the ward hike a couple weeks ago, we felt that maybe we had stayed out too long at that we should just take half a PDay last week. We were bummed of course, but yeah anyway. We had lunch with our district, but we took too long with lunch, and we really wanted to go to the Speyer Dom, but we felt that it would probably be better if we headed back to Mannheim. So we did, and then about thirty minutes later our investigator (we'll call her...Sue?) calls us and asks if we could meet NOW because she was feeling really bad and needed help. So we were able to meet with her then! If we had gone to Speyer it would have taken probably an hour and half to get back and get to the church to meet her. So we were able to see her, and because the Elders here in Mannheim had done the same thing, we were able to call them and ask them to come, because Sue wanted a blessing. It was soooo cool because at first she had been a little skeptical of the laying on of hands; she's been to other churches and has seen some sketchy things with that. But she got a blessing and said she knew it was from God because no two 19 year-old boys could have done and said those things! That was soooo cool. Then we were able to meet with our other investigator afterward and have a way good lesson with her and another member. It was soooo cool.

But THEN it gets even better. The next morning we were heading off to see Sue again, and she lives waaaay far away. Sadly, no members were able to drive us and come teach with us that morning, so we set off waaay early to take the train and the bus all the way out there. But as were on our way, Sue called us. We were really nervous that she wanted to cancel our appointment, and we had been planning to challenge her to baptism, but the conversation was basically like, 'Heyy Sisters, how's it going? Yeah I'm good...So I was thinking this morning, could you two prepare a lesson about baptism? I'd really like to get baptized.' WHAT?? We were like...'Uhhh yeahh uhhhh sure we could do that...' So we talked to her about baptism and she was soooo solid and excited and she said she wanted to get baptized ASAP. We initially set the date for the 14 of June, but then a couple days later realized that might have been a little tooooo soon. We talked to her about it, and we prayed about it as well, so now we're doing it on the 28th of June!! Miracles??? Oh yeahhhhh Miracle Mannheim!! So awesome.

Our other investigator left today for a vacation to the US, and Sister Lehman is way sad because she might get transferred and never see them again! But they said goodbye last night (like hopefully not goodbye but just in case goodbyes, haha). I can't believe I only have one transfer left! I have to buy a Kinder Egg tomorrow. My last real one! So crazy. This is President Schwartz's last transfer. :( Next transfer we'll have a new mission president.

But...yeah. It's been a pretty good week, you could say, haha. The Church is really true!! 

Miracle Mannheim! 6/2/14

There are MIRACLES happening here in Mannheim. Miracle Mannheim. So we're teaching this way awesome prepared woman, and we had a couple lessons with her last week, and she was reading in the BM and everything. She said she would come to church on Sunday, and church started and we were way sad because NOBODY was there. None of our investigators came, and we had been meeting with a ton of less actives who said they would also come. But then like fifteen or twenty minutes in EVERYBODY in the world shows up. It was sooooo cool. Our Gospel Principles class was the fullest its ever been. It was so awesome! The woman we're teaching said she didn't want to come to church cuz she had a way bad headache, but then she just had this feeling that she really, really needed to be there. We're so happy! And another one of our investigators is doing so much better. She's been having a lot of family problems lately, but she actually asked for a blessing from the Elders! Sister Lehman has been telling her to get a blessing since October, but she's always been a little hesitant, but on Friday she actually called us and asked for one. It was such a huge miracle. Sister Lehman cried cuz she was so happy lol. And some less actives came and asked us to teach some of their family members who aren't members. So we have a lot planned for this week!

We went on a hike with the ward on Thursday. That was really nice. The ward is soooo loving. Yesterday a nice couple invited us over after church and stuffed us full of rouladen and knödel and bubbly water. (Typical German food--you can google it if you want to know more) It was way good. Then they stuffed us with cake. I could barely move afterward. Then it was our investigators birthday so we brought cake over and sang happy birthday and ate MORE cake. Uggghhh I felt sooo gross, haha. But now I'm hungry cuz it's a new day and it's almost lunch time! Last week for PDay we went to this place a little farther away called Felsenmeer (also Google-able). It's like this giant giant rockslide, and we climbed up it. Took a really long time, and it was waaaay fun. We want to go back sometime this transfer. I'll have to send pictures next week--I forgot my card reader, sorry! Anyway, it was really fun. Today we might make it out to the Speyer Dom. We'll see if we have time.

Sister Lehman is still here, haha, and will be here for at least another week or two. Transfer calls are next week. That's really crazy. Crazy to think that June is here as well! Also there's going to be a really big 2-stake conference in a couple weeks with the Area Presidency, and guess where it's going to be?? HANAU!!! I am soooooo excited. Also really puzzled why they're having it in Hanau, cuz Hanau the city is a little dinky town, haha. I guess they rented out this ginormous city hall auditorium thing. But still I am soooooo excited to go back there and see everything again! I'm going to see people from Frankfurt, too, because it's a huge stake conference. I am super stoked.

We have the worst luck with transportation 5/26/14

Things have been really great this week. The weather got super nice again, so that was a really nice miracle. We were able to get out with a new convert for a while and she showed us this little lake with these cute little baby swans! Soooo cute. Also this other family of swans tried to come over and use the lake, but the dad swan of the other family got right over there and fought the other one. It was waaay mean of him. Then the mom and dad swan with their two little babies had to walk all the way back up the hill to try to find somewhere else to live. Lol it was soooo sad! And the baby swans were so cute. They kept plopping down to rest cuz they were so tired from walking everywhere. So that was a cool drama to see, haha.

But really, it was a cool week. We got in touch with some really cool people, so we have even more people to work with! A woman Sister Lehman taught over five months ago got in touch with us again, and we taught her last week and she came to church yesterday!! That was so cool to see. Unluckily, yesterday happened to be the day that a crazy man tried to visit our church. He came in with an American flag and a flag from Israel and was shouting a bunch of crazy stuff. That was nerve-wracking!! haha, luckily he didn't stay too long and didn't cause too much drama, but of course the day we have a really awesome investigator show up is the day the crazies show up. Satan's way of making them scared of the church!! But no fear, we're still teaching her this week. She's really nice and I hope she makes a lot of progress.

There was also another fair thing going on in Mannheim this week. I dunno, the city just decides it needs another party. So we were trying to work on some things with our district one night, but then like no one showed up on time so it was a huge waste, and then we tried to get back to Mannheim with the Elders. Then our train fell out, of course. Then the next didn't come for like thirty or forty minutes...Then it was delayed and delayed. So after waiting an eternity we finally made it back to Mannheim, but then our street car to take us back to our apartment didn't come for like forever, so we ended up just walking, but that might've been a mistake. It was 10 pm on a Saturday night with a party going on in the city. That was really interesting. Also frightening. But the Elders were really really nice and walked us home. So point is, we got home safe and sound, but it was scary.

We have a ton of really cool things to do this week. We're excited to get going! I really feel as if Mannheim is ready for a change. Things are really picking up. We're so happy to see that. I'm super happy and love the ward so much. Also Sister Lehman. I'll be sad to see her go. :( Six months of our lives together!

Christi Himmelfahrt 5/19/14

This week has seemed pretty long, haha, but I still somehow can't believe it's Monday again. Sometimes the days seem to drag on forever, but then when I lay down to go to sleep I feel as if I just got up a minute ago, haha. But that's pretty normal, apparently. I heard the last two transfers go by sooooo fast. Noooo! But it's already the third week of this transfer. That's so weird.

Felsenmeer

Last PDay we played some sports with our district and ate lunch together. Nothing too amazing but it was pretty fun. I think we're going to try to have some kind of bbq today. Our district has been basically the same for such a long time, so we've all kind of seen almost everything there is to see, lol. But next week I think we'll be doing something a little more exciting. We were talking to a member about it yesterday and she told us about these huge rock fields that are really fun to visit and see. So we'll see about that.

This week was pretty good! It was just another week of a lot of fallen-out appointments, haha. Also I got sick again one day?? I don't know why this keeps happening. And then on Saturday we had Zone Training, so we went down to Heidelberg. We walked to the church from the main train station through this field thing, and then randomly my body decided it has allergies to things like that, so for most of the Zone Training I was sneezing and itching my eyes. Plus I was asked to give a Thema (like a lesson...thing?) and I had just taken a Benadryl so I was pretty loopy throughout most of it. Then we went back to eat lunch and I kinda passed out. But after that I was okay, haha. We also did a finding activity with the Elders where we went to the big main square/market thing of the city and chalked the plan of salvation, and we talked to a ton of people and gave out Book of Mormons and stuff. It was way cool. And a guy even called us afterward about it!! Because we write our number in case people see it afterward and have questions. That was cool. So for the past two or three weeks Sister Lehman and I have been chalking it in a park near our apartment, and as I was talking to these two girls in the big square last week one of them was like, 'HEY I saw a picture of this thing on Facebook! It was over in that park--that's so weird!' Hehehe...coincidence?? Anyway that was cool. We're way famous.

Sunday was a really awesome day full of miracles! So many amazing things happened. So many people showed up to church and we've been working with a lot of them, so that was really cool to see. We also got to talk to the new Bishop and we're really excited for what's going to happen here in Mannheim. As for German holidays, there are plenty of them. I think Christi Himmelfahrt is either this week or the next. That's the day Christ ascended to heaven. So they celebrate that. And Pfingsten is next month. What is Pfingsten you ask?? I'm not really sure. I think it's just like a summer holiday? But basically all the Germans go away for like two weeks on vacation and there is no one here to visit or teach. You wouldn't think about this, but holidays are a really stinky time to be a missionary, haha. No one is home.