November 3, 2014

Well, I am in Frankfurt, and it is completely weird.  I feel like I am in a completely different country right now, which half speaking is completely true.  Its crazy to think that just at the beginning of last week, I was in Münster.  I really do miss that place.

FHE at Anna's home

Last Monday night, I had my last appointment with Raphael.  We taught the Word of Wisdom, and it was just great.  While we were teaching him, we explained how we shouldn’t drink coffee or tea.  He just stopped us and was like, "I am so sorry, I didn't know that this was a commandment from God.  I didn't know.  I had coffee this morning.  But I wouldn't have if I had known." I was not expecting that one.  We asked him if he would keep the Word of Wisdom, and he just went off about how he would keep any commandment that came from God, so naturally he would keep this one.  I just can’t get over how great this guy is.  After our lesson, he gave me this weird little bird statue to take with me so that I could remember him.  He said that he was looking around his apartment for a parting gift and saw it and how it was looking up to the heaven, and how he immediately thought it would be perfect.  Its kind of weird, but just the fact that it is from Raphael means that I will never get rid of this little statue. 

Thelea, my friend from Heidelberg, was
serving a mini mission this week, and
she stayed the night with us
on Thursday! IT was so great. 

On Tuesday, we went and said bye to the Jackwerths, Anna, Aiyanna and Chi An.  Those goodbyes were all really hard, but Anna and Aiyanna were by far the toughest.  I just feel so responsible for these girls.  They have become two of my best friends, and I will for sure miss them.  But I will find a way to go and see them soon. 

And then Wednesday we were off.  Bright and early.  We had to lug my suitcases all the way to the Bahnhof because it was too early for us to take the buses.  Sorry Sister Heywood....  The usual 20-minute walk took us about 40 minutes, ha-ha.  It was pretty awful, but the good part of that companionship is that we just laughed everything off.  So we finally got on the bus, and were able to make it down to Frankfurt for the pairing meeting the next day.

Chi An played me a nice good bye song

The weirdest part of it all was probably the fact that once I got here, I realized that I am not leaving ever again.  I am going to be here until the end of my mission and then get on a plane and go home.  That was a weird thought.  The other hard part was seeing Sister Heywood get on a bus to go back to Münster with her new golden.  Man, I miss her.  I really do feel like my best friend left me.  We did so much together and saw so many cool miracles, and we just got along so well.  I am really grateful for our time together.  Oh, cool fact…her new comp, Sister Johnson, knows Chloe Rudd.  Taryn, you have to tell Chloe that. 

My new companion’s name is Sister Sorensen.  She is 19 and from Sandy, Utah, and probably couldn’t be more different from Sister Heywood.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Sister Sorensen.  It is just really different.  She is just a sweet girl.  Really quiet, and doesn’t say too much.  Hopefully it’s just the awkward first week together thing.  But I can tell she just really wants to be a good missionary, so dafür, bin ich sehr dankbar.  She definitely wants to be obedient, so I know that we will see some cool things here. 

Our hike today...

The past couple days...they have been different.  I am still trying to get the feel for Frankfurt.  The elders passed us of one investigator, Henrietta.  She is cool.  She is from Ghana and has the cutest little one-year-old son.  We went there with them on Saturday and taught about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  The German Sisters also passed us an investigator that is 80 years old and have been investigating the church for 20 years.  We met her this week.  Yeah…don’t think she has much potential to progress, but she is really funny.   Other than that, we have been spending every day trying to find people.  The hard part is that we can only teach people that speak English, not German.  And well, we are in Germany, so that is kind of hard.  I really don’t know what I am doing right now, but I am just hoping that it will pick up eventually.  Our ward, they are intense.  I am going from my tiny branch to a ward of like 200 people.  And church in English, and with 3 hours? That is just weird.  While we were taking the sacrament, the prayers just were running through my head in German.  I realized that it is extremely hard for me to pray or bare my testimony in English. This is just all weird.  But on the bright side, the ward is excited to have sisters.  The Relief Society president and Young Women’s president are both awesome, so I am excited to work with them.  The weirdest part of this ward is that English is the second language for a lot of them, or they are from Ireland or Scotland or England, so the accents are all different.  It’s pretty cool.  There are also a ton of Spanish speakers, so I get to work with them.  So looks like my Spanish may be better than my German pretty soon.

We got to the top, and it was so foggy
that we couldnt see ANYTHING.
Not even the big look out tower.

Oh, today we went on a 7.7 km hike.  That was tiring.  I want to go to bed right now, ha-ha.  Really, this whole week has just been exhausting.  But that’s okay.  

Really, right now I am just trying to get my life in order.  I really don’t know what I am doing here.  We are just trying to find investigators, and live up to the wards intense expectations.  But I know that if we are obedient and try our best, we will be blessed.  I have a feeling in a couple weeks I really will like this place.  And I am here for a reason, so I will work and let the Lord show me it. 

Saying goodbye to this
creepy apartment

Sorry this letter is so short.  We got back late and I don’t have too much time.  Hopefully my next letter will be more entertaining, and I will have a lot of stories to tell you.  But until then, just know that I love you all.  I hope that you all have a fantastic week! 

Love, Savannah 

My two goldens...

My trainer, the other sister
she trained, my two goldens,
and Sister Heywood's
golden...quite the family tree!