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| Five minutes from my apartment... |
Mensch,
it sounds like things are going great back home. First off, I cannot tell you how excited it
makes me that Matt started his mission papers and is already almost done? Yay Matt?
This is a decision he will never regret.
I cannot wait to hear where he is going…and the twins, too! That is so great. Sounds like good things are happening with
the Jensens. Troy, I am now fluent in
Chinese, Italian, French, Polish, and Hebrew, in addition to Spanish, German
and English. Isn't that cool? And Taryn, sorry I didn’t send a shoutout to
you last week. You should send me a
picture of your outfit, and then I will judge to see if I really am proud to be
your sister...
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| This is where I live...wow! |
Auf
jedenfall, can I just say how much I love Heidelberg? Really, though. I thought I was having a good time in
Nürnberg, doing missionary work, but this place…this is what a mission should
be like. We are so busy that we are have
not even had time to go finding, or do a million less active visits. We have so much to do, and so much we want to
do, that we never have time to do it all.
It is so amazing. I really do
feel like I am in heaven here. If I
could stay here for the rest of my mission, I would probably be completely fine
with that. That being said, let me try
to describe why I love it here so much.
So
this week, we worked a lot with the Spanish people. We went around and visited about three or
four of the families in the ward. Can I
just tell you how much I love them all? They
are great people, and they love to talk.
Probably my favorite two visits were with the Villalobos and the Parros. The Villalobos have four kids. He is from Spain, and she is from Ecuador. Their kids are so cute, especially the little
two year old girl. Every time you try to
talk to her, she just starts giggling, laughing, and runs away.
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| Heidelburg |
The Parros are an awesome family, super ready
to do missionary work. He talks to
everyone that speaks Spanish and Italian, and she has a couple Spanish friends
she has been sharing the gospel with. This
week, I translated the ward mission plan from German to Spanish. The bishop wants every family to have their
own family mission plan, and so we have been setting those up with a ton of
families (and seeing a ton of cool miracles from it). He wanted the Spanish families to know about
it, too. It talks about giving out
referrals, handing out 150 Books of
Mormon this year, inviting friends to church and more. Bishop also wants every member over the age
of 12 to read the whole Preach My Gospel
by the end of the year. Well, as Hermano
Parro was reading it, he got to the Book
of Mormon point, looked up at us and asked us for a book. He also got up, took Preach My Gospel from the shelf, put it on their table, and said
they would start reading it that night. Yesterday
at church, he told me that he gave the Book
of Mormon to a man that he works with....
he gave it out within 2 days! These
Spanish people are so ready to do missionary work, and I think that we are going
to see many cool miracles. We also found
out that they all really want to learn German, and so starting next Tuesday, we
are going to be teaching a German class to all of the Spanish people and any
friends they want to bring. It is going
to be a big test of my knowledge...haha.
We
also set up a Facebook page for the "Heidelberger Missionare" this
week with one of the Young Women. It’s
going to be sweet. We have been going to
member houses and asking them to post a Mormon message, or add friends, and we
have also looked up a lot of less actives, potentials and investigators. It’s great.
We are going to have the Young Single Adult’s post about Institute and
invite their friends. We found a
potential this week by having her add us on Facebook, and she said she will
come to Institute on Thursday now. It’s
pretty cool.
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This place was established in
98 a.d.--amazing! |
Institute
was great this week. I talked a lot with
Damien there. His family moved here from
Argentina while he was serving a mission in Spain. He has been off his mission for about six months. He is having a hard time learning German and
it’s hard for him because he wants to share about his mission and tell stories
about it, but he can’t. He is our Assistant
Ward Mission Leader. We set up an
appointment to meet with all of the Spanish families in two weeks and talk
about what we can do together. There was
also a girl there from Mexico, who is a less active, and we found out that her
dad is not a member. She wants us to go
over this week and so we are excited about the possibilities.
We
also were able to meet with Kristin for the first time this week. She is the girl taking the class about
Mormons, and she had so many questions. We
taught her at the Taylor’s house, because he is the Assistant Teacher for the
class. She wants to learn why the Restoration
was so necessary and about the Plan of Salvation, so we are excited. We are teaching her again on Thursday.
Another
cool thing happened at church on Sunday.
One of the bishopric came up to us and told us that there was a girl in
sacrament that we should go talk to. Apparently,
her friend was studying at BYU and she had gone to church with her one time
while she was still in Germany and liked it.
She liked it so much that she looked up the address here and decided
to come again. She wants to learn
more, and so we are meeting with her Thursday before Institute.
Seriously,
I do not know why or how we are being so blessed, but interested people are
literally coming to us. I feel like
members are introducing their friends to us and people are walking up to us
wanting to learn more. The best part is,
these people are NORMAL. I feel like it
is the missionary curse that the only people (most of the time) that you talk
to on the street or unterwegs, and actually talk back to you, are the unusual
people. But all these people are normal. The bishop and ward are so excited that I
feel like it is just a domino effect and they are willing to help out even more. This week is going to be great. We have so many appointments that we are
having a hard time scheduling them all. That
is a problem I will gerne take.
I
love Heidelberg. I feel like while I am
in this area, it truly makes me understand why I am in Germany. I would live in this town forever. The ward, the people, the city, everything,
is just so amazing
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Sister Pederson put on my Snuggie and
wouldn't give it back. My Snuggie is amazing! |
One
of the Elders in my district said something that really stuck with me this week. He said, "Attitude is everything. So pick a good one." I testify that that is true. It is amazing how much being happy can change
everything. You have the opportunity to
pick whatever mood you want.
Pick
a good one.
I love you all! I hope that you have a
great week, and that you enjoy yourself in whatever you do. I know I will. Also Taryn, I have no clue how to say
sunflower oder Willowtree. For some
weird reason, those are words I haven’t thought to study during language study. I should probably change my focus....
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| My 6 month mark...crazy! |
Tchsüß!
Sister Teeples
P.S.
January 24th was my SIXTH MONTH MARK. I have been out six months now! It is absolutely crazy to think that. We are celebrating by going and getting
döners.
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