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| At the MTC...Packing for Germany |
Forewarning...I don’t have much time
and these keyboards are funky, so mom you’re in for a treat with editing :)
So, it’s been a crazy few days! I am officially in Germany. It was so fun to talk to you all and I love
getting all of your emails. My new area
is Nürnburg. It is in Southeast Germany
and it is one of Hitler's main stomping grounds…pretty interesting. The language is crazy. They speak
Byrish here, which is a very strong dialect. My trainer has only been out for two
transfers so even she does not understand anything. So pretty much I just smile and nod when my
companion does... seems to be working
thus far…haha. Oh well, it'll come eventually.
I can't expect to understand everything after only a couple weeks.
My trainer's name is Sister Weber. She is from California and she has been out
about three months. She just finished being
trained herself, so really we are just learning together. That will be quite interesting. We both have the same problem about being
confident enough to talk to random people, so that has become one of both of
our goals. We ride about a billion
buses, trains, and u bahns (underground railroads) every day to get where we
are going. We are going to try to talk
to at least one person on each one. It
is hard when I have no clue how to start a normal conversation, but naja, we
will try.
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| New Missionary Arrivals to Germany Frankfurt Mission |
My district is great. There are ten of us, including an Ehepartner,
which is the married couple. They are
over multiple areas though, so they aren't here much. Our district is huge, so it covers a huge
area, so all 10 of us are over one ward.
It is hard because our ward has only about 60 active members, so we all
have to make sure we do not overwhelm them, but I am hoping with that many
missionaries, we will have a lot of success.
On Wednesday when I got here, I was
so dead. That plan ride took it out of
me. We went to the main stake center and
met our mission president. I love him. He is probably the nicest, coolest person I
have ever met, and his English is so funny because his accent is so strong. Whenever he says faith, he pronounces it “face,”
but it is great. He is so inspired with
everything and I’m so grateful for that.
We were assigned to our area and
trainer on Thursday and then I left for Nürnburg on the train. When we arrived, we went and did a finding
activity in Ratsbaunhaf, which is a huge plaza.
We drew the plan of salvation on the ground with chalk and people came
and talked to us. We placed about six
das Buch Mormons and we got an appointment with a woman named Beatice the next
day...but she never showed up.
This mission is hard. We only have one investigator right now,
whose name is Kathrin. She is 14 and her
dad is a less active. The missionaries
have been teaching her and her mom, but neither of them will commit to a date. We are hoping to change that. There are also about a million less actives,
so we are going to work with them a lot and hopefully find people through them. We do many drop by visits, but they are never
home. Germany is hard because everyone
lives in apartments, so you can’t really go door to door. Yu cannot even get in to the building unless
someone buzzes you in, and many people just ignore you. So really, we need to find some more
effective ways than just dropping by.
Sunday was crazy. I understood maybe 20% of what was said, but
I loved second hour. One of our less
actives came for the first time in forever.
Her name is Maria Wolf. She is
from Brazil, and has been in Germany for about 3 years, so her German is not
too good. She spoke slowly enough that I
could understand. We spend second hour
in the investigator class, where it was only her, the elders, and us. She asked us a ton of questions, and for the
things that she did not understand in German, I was able to attempt to explain
in Spanish. So that was awesome! I also sat by her in Relief Society, and we
were able to be confused together. I
read out of her Spanish book, and that was so fun. I forgot how much I love Spanish, and it made
me excited to have a reason to use it again.
Oh also, story time…the wheels on my
suitcase broke…so on the first day, we had to drag around my ridiculously heavy
suitcase for about thirty minutes to my apartment. My apartment, by the way, is brand new and
super nice. Germany is beautiful. My area is beautiful. I am going to send pictures so you can all be
jealous. The food is great. We are going to go get some chocolate so I
can try it before I head off to play soccer with some investigators and the
elders... that should be interesting.
That is Germany so far. It has been hard because all I want to do is
teach, and I have really only had one chance to do that. I WANT MORE INVESTIGATORS. So, that is my goal this week. I want to teach, so I will make it happen. I love you all. Always remember, this life has been given to
your from the Lord. He has given you
everything, and even when things are hard or not what you expected, his plan is
greater than yours is. We need to have
more trust in Him, and to do the things that he would have us do. I am so grateful for the time I had at the
MTC and for the things that my teachers taught me. I feel so much more prepared, and I cannot
wait to use them and to teach others about this Gospel.
This church is TRUE. I know that.
I know that without a doubt. I
must be bold when I share it, because I have been blessed with so much. Sacrifice and love go hand in hand. I have a testimony of that. I love the Lord so I will sacrifice
everything for him. This is a time to
forget myself. Forget the things that
make me nervous and scared, and go to work.
Because this is the Lord's work, not mine.
I love you all so much. I cannot wait to tell you about all of my new
investigators next week! (It will happen). Hopefully German will start to come... I feel like I really have not had a ton of
time to practice yet. I hope we will
have more appointments this week.
Bis später meine Familie. Ich liebe euch!
Sister Savannah Teeples
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