August 4, 2014

We got area mustache glasses for
us and our Ward mission leader. 

Thanks for all of the emails!  Its always good to have solid, long emails to read.  Makes the day better.  Although my friends are starting to slack!  But that’s okay.  I am glad that everything is going well back in the States.  It sounds like Taryn had a really good time on her vacation, and hopefully Troy is having fun on his. 

The train ride home from Gemiko

Our ward mission leader fits right in...

We had a massive flash flood, and
got completely drenched. 

Well, I am officially training!  Looks like mom already did her creepy Facebook stalking, but my little golden is awesome.  She actually reminds me a lot of Chelsea, my roommate from college, so it is awesome.  She is a great missionary, and I think that we will have a really good time together.  I love her German too.  It makes me realize how much I have learned.  After I got her, it was like someone turned on a light switch, and I suddenly understood German not perfectly, but a heck of a lot more than I did before.  And I am able to speak it a lot better too.  So that is really exciting!

Completely soaked from the storm...

We were completely soaked, so we
had to wear the elders nice huge
clothes during FHE that night. All
of the members laughed at us.

My group with all of the new missionaries

This week was absolutely crazy.  I can’t even believe that I was with Sister Busath at the beginning of this week.  On Monday, it was a beautiful day.  We went shopping for P-Day, and all of a sudden, we walk out of a store, and it was just pouring rain.  We had no umbrellas or anything, and so we just had to walk through the rain for the rest of the day.  We didn’t have time to go home and change and get stuff, so we all ran to the church, and we ran to the bathrooms and started squeezing out our drenched clothing.  Luckily the elders live right above the church, so they brought us dry clothes, but we got to wear t-shirts and basketball shorts during Family Home Evening that night.  All of the members laughed at us, but it was okay.  Probably my only time on the mission that I am allowed to give a spiritual thought in a t-shirt.  That night, we did the “soap and pepper and watch” object lesson to represent the atonement making us clean, and our crazy member got up and drank it mid-thought.  All in all, quite the evening.  

Here's my friends from my MTC group
that are all training with me this transfer! 

Then, the buses weren’t going, and so we had to walk home another 20 minutes in the down poor, arriving home only to find that our basement was filled mid thigh with water, and people were out with buckets, trying to dish it into the street.  So we got to stay up late helping with that.  Now, we still have no hot water in the building.  But luckily the washer works again.  All in all, completely crazy.  Münster was completely flooded within a few hours! 

Sister Heywood....my new companion

The next day, we met with a couple of members for Sister Busath to say goodbye too.  It was really sad for her, because she has been here for 8 months, but she handled it better than I thought.  I was impressed.  After that, we packed up, and on Wednesday Morning, we were gone.  I rode a train down the Frankfurt with Sister McMurray (she’s training too!) and a few other trainers, and we had to go  to a couple of meetings for trainers and everything.  Thursday, we got paired with our goldens!  It was nerve wrecking, but I got Sister Heywood, who is really great.  She’s super cute and happy, is 19 years old, and from Texas.  She is just ready to go work.  She has a ton of good ideas, so it will be great for here in Münster.  I got really lucky!

My old companion and
my new companion

That next day, we went to district meeting, and then we had an appointment with Kai.  We focused on developing faith in Christ.  His said that he didn’t really have a problem with that, his problem is more with people.  He doesn’t like how people say they are Christian or religious, and don’t really follow what they say.  He also wanted to know how people can actually live a good life.  So we ended up stressing how when people have a stronger testimony of Christ, when they study his life, and everything, they will be able to follow his example, and that is what makes a good life.  His questions made me really think 

Sister Heywood and our
new mini-missionary

and appreciate the gospel.  Yes, not all of our members follow everything that we believe, but I would say that one thing that sets our church apart is that we live what we believe.  We try our best to follow the commandments and follow Christ.  It’s not that we are baptized and we’re done, or go to church every month or so, and say we are good people.  No, that is why the “endure to the end” factor is so important.  We must make this faith part of our everyday life.  It starts with faith, which grows to a testimony, which turns into true conversion.  And it is something you much practice every single day. 

Michelle's baptism...
I'm so excited!

Then Saturday, we went down to Hamm to help the Elders out there.  They have an investigator that is a little crazy and were getting a little too attached to the elders in a non-missionary way, so they called our President and he said that we should start teaching her...  well thanks, Elders!  It was the most awkward appointment of my life.  She was mad at the elders at the beginning for  something that happened last time, and then she started randomly crying, and just weird stuff.  It was just a weird appointment.  We made out an appointment with her this week, but then apparently she told the elders yesterday at church that if they weren’t teaching her, she didn’t want to be taught, so, it looks like she will be taking a little break for a while. 

What a great day for Michelle

Sister Heywood is great.  She wants to practice her German, so we spent Language Study teaching her how to compliment people.  So she has this goal to compliment someone on every train and bus that we get on to start a conversation, and then she hands it off to me, ha-ha.  But this is great.  We have had some solid conversations, and I love how excited we get when we get off the bus and she replays the whole thing.  She even got up on Sunday and bore her testimony in broken German, but the branch just eats her up.  She will have no problem here.

Yesterday, we rode up to Dortmund and got a mini missionary!  She is 17 years old and lives in Bocum, part of the Herne ward.  She is super cute.  Its going to be intense having a native German with someone that speaks barely any, but it has run smoothly so far.  She is super relaxed and happy, and willing to help us both with our German.  I was super stressed about this week, but I think it will be pretty good.  And then after this, it will be like smooth sailing! 

Michelle's baptism

Well, that’s my week.  It has been completely crazy and a ton has changed, but I am super excited about it all!  It is exactly what I needed, and I am going to learn a ton.  Watch out, Münster! 

Also, our investigator, Aiyanna, and Anna were at EFY this week, and absolutely loved it.  I am super excited!  Cool things.  As I am writing this, her mom just texted us and said that it is official.  Aiyanna wants to get baptized as quickly as possible.  I am freuing myself right now! 

Oh man.  Also, Dad, I am going to want to visit all of the places that I have served for sure, and a cool other sights in Germany.  Don’t know where yet for sure.  But we should either go to Nürnberg or Heidelberg for the Christmas markets.

I love you all!  Have a great week. 

Sister Teeples 

Well, love you all.  Have a great week!