Well, can I just say that I am more than just a
little relieved about Matt. He has been
in my prayers every night, and I emailed him last week, but he didn’t reply. Tell him that he better reply to me before he
goes in to the MTC! I am so glad that he
is still choosing to go. That makes me
really happy.
And news on coming home…I am praying and hoping
that my mission president lets me go home in time for the semester. I have been emailing Elder Ockey (I guess
he's Dan now...) and he has been home only a few weeks and he is going crazy. And he starts school really soon! I don’t know what I would do if I had to sit
around for that whole time, and I am not a fan of the block classes. I did that with Spanish, and having it every
single day is just too much. I know that
whatever happens should happen, but I just hope that it happens how I want—haha.
Until I cross that bridge, I am loving my mission. And I am still loving training. I really don’t even feel like I am training. Ja, her German isn’t too good, but she
doesn’t let that hold her back. She
holds her own on her part in lessons, isn’t afraid to speak during dooring, and
is just not afraid to talk to people. Zum
Beispiel (for example), we had a really cool miracle this week. So we were trying to find this potential’s
house, and we just couldn’t find it. Well,
we didn’t want to just go all the way out here, get frustrated that it wasn’t
there and then give up and leave, so we decided to go dooring in the area. Well, like usual, nobody had interest, and it
was getting late, so we decided to head to the bus stop to go home. At the bus stop, there was a guy, who kept
looking at us, and he had really broken German, but he kept saying awkward
little comments to us, and smiling. We
were a little weirded out, but felt like we should talk with him. But the bus came, and we got on. He sat down across the isle, and didn’t
really look at us. Well, behind us in
the bus was this lady breast-feeding her baby, which was completely
awkward. The bus hit a bump and her
stuff went everywhere. So Sister Heywood
went and helped her, and came back and sat closer to the guy. Then, she just started talking to him. Within a minute, we learn that he is from
Spain, so I practically jumped out of my seat, and start speaking to him. Turns out he is living here, but has seen our
church everywhere in Spain, and wanted a Book of Mormon. He told us all about his life, and we ended
up getting off the bus with him, taking him to the church, and giving him a
tour, and setting up an appointment for tomorrow night. Thank you, Sister Heywood. We now have a potential Spanish investigator,
and I am so excited!
We also met with Aiyana a lot this week. She is awesome. She already is reading in the Book of Mormon
every day and has her own marking system.
She is wanting to do missionary work, and believes everything already. She has such a strong testimony. She starts school again on Wednesday, and
once she gets her schedule, we will set up a baptismal date! We are all just so excited. I just love Aiyana.
We also had another lesson with Sister Lutzack. I love her.
She is this little old lady who is super shy, but wants more than
anything else to share the gospel. So we
went over and did role-plays with her. She
was so cute. She would talk about the
weather for like three minutes, and then just give testimony of how it was from
God. And then after, she was so proud of
herself. I just couldn’t stop smiling. We got her to agree to joint teach with us
tonight for Rafael, and that in itself is a miracle. She was so nervous, but I just couldn’t be
more excited. It’s going to be a great
lesson.
We met with Bianca, our less active, again this
week too. That was a sad appointment. She hadn’t responded to our texts or calls,
and so we stopped by after church. Turns
out she sold her phone for money to go to Holland and smoke marijuana. I couldn’t believe it. I let her know how I felt about that, and
made her promise me she would never do it again. She wouldn’t promise me, but I don’t think
she will do it for a while. I just don’t
know what to do with her. We have really
good appointments, and while we are there, she wants to change, and come to
church and read in the Book of Mormon, and stop smoking and everything, and
then the second we are gone, she forgets everything. I just don’t know where to go from here. BIANCA!
We went finding a lot this week, and were able to
find some people that are interested, so we are pretty excited about this week. We have a couple solid potential appointments
set up for this week, which will be awesome.
The funny part is that none of them are native Germans. I guess it’s not that funny, but more often
than not, we are teaching Ausländers. That’s
probably why Aiyana is such a miracle to me.
But this week, we have a person from Spain, Costa Rica, and from
somewhere in the Middle East. Just so
you all know, I love Germans. Seriously. They are amazing people, and I would probably
live here in a heartbeat, but I just have to say, they aren’t a big fan of
dooring. So we decided to go in an area
where it wasn’t really natives. We door
the building, and no one is really interested, but they are all super nice. We had a couple of really good conversations,
and it was just really fun. And then
Sister Heywood turn to knock on the door was up. We get to this door, and I told her,
"Hey, this name is actually a German name.
I think they are the only natives in this building." She just
looked at me and says, “Oh great.” But
she klingels. This cranky man answered,
and she told him that we believed in Christ, and asks if he believed in Christ,
too. He leaned over and just yelled, “NEIN!” But to her credit, she asked him if he wanted
to, and he did the same thing. He leaned
over, stuck out his butt, and just said “NEIN!”
After he shut the door, we both just couldn’t help but to crack up. We had to take a moment before we kept going. It was just to classic. "Hey look, a native lives here" and
then “NEIN.” Thank you, old man, for
being the stereotype. 
But I love Germany.
The people may seem closed off at first, but once you break that initial
contact, they are the most loving, helping, down to earth people ever. I want you to meet my branch. They are just hilarious. And I just love them. They really are like my family. I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting
yesterday in German, and just felt so comfortable. And then afterward, they all just gave me
compliments and said my German was great.
That was pretty good. When I go
home, I will fight against all of these stereotypes about the Germans. Except for this man— haha. He was classic German.
The mission is a great place. I love seeing people change and grow in faith. I love training. I seriously learn so much every day. It really pushes me to be on my top at all
moments. I have never been so tired, but
also never so grateful. Cool things are
happening, and I am glad to be apart of it.
Oh Troy, I gave Sister Heywood a copy of The Fourth Missionary, and she just
loved it. She said to tell you thank
you.
I love you all and hope that you have a great week!
Sister Teeples
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