December 30, 2013

Christmas Presents!

Hello Familie!  
 First off, thank you for letting me know about Grandma.  I am so glad that she was able to pass away painlessly in her sleep.  That really is a blessing.  While it is hard and sad for me to hear, it makes me that much more grateful for the knowledge that we have about the plan of salvation.  Dad, I wish I could give you a big hug right now, but as I am hundreds of miles away, just know that I am thinking about you right now.  I love you, and your parents love you so much.  They are together again, and happy.  Grandpa was probably waiting right there and ran to Grandma went she got there.  They probably are still so excited that they are together again, that they are still hugging each other.  And now, they are both pain free and happy.  Don’t forget, they are still here with you and they are watching over you.  They are waiting for the time that they can be sealed together for all time and eternity, and only we have the ability to do that through this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are so blessed in so many ways. 


The Biggest Reese's Ever!

On another note, it was so great to talk to you all on Christmas!  Man, it doesn’t seem like much has changed back home.  Taryn and Troy making weird faces, Troy wearing a bathrobe, Mom thinking she is always right (hahaha....Mom I don’t care what it is in English, "Ohne Furcht und Adel" sounds a lot more legit), and Dad telling a story about the air plane attendant that he found so funny.  That’s my family for you!  Watching Sister Weber Skype her family made me laugh so hard because they are all so proper and quiet compared to you all.  But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I am glad our family is weird. 

Well, I already told you a little about my week, but let me tell you more.  Christmas in Germany on a mission is quite strange, because absolutely no one is outside and it is a three-day celebration and nobody wants to talk to you because they just want to be with their families.  So I am extremely grateful for the Gemeinde this Christmas (That’s ward in English, right?)  They really stepped in for us and took all of the missionaries in.  It was so great.  

My Christmas Eve Pajamas...

We helped the Loritz family move, closer to the church!  Which is so good.  We had to take the U-bahn for an ewigkeit and then a bus and then walk, and now we just have to take the u-bahn for 4 stops and we are there.  Yay!  I was able to talk to Giovanna and practice my Spanish for a while, which was fun.  Mom, transfer calls are this coming Saturday, so I still have no clue what the APs were saying when they asked me how good my Spanish was and then thanked me for preparing myself to teach the Spanish people of Germany.  I guess we will find out on Saturday. 

On Tuesday, we had a white elephant gift exchange after district meeting.  It was hilarious.  We combined districts with the Feucht district, and everyone brought the most ridiculous stuff.  Someone ended up with the legendary nasty showerhead from the Feucht apartment.  I gave out a huge jar of pickles that were in our apartment for a ewigkeit, but I got the BEST gift.  I got a SNUGGIE!!  Yahoo!  Can’t believe Elder Bishop gave it away.  I have used it every day during study time—haha. 

Mary Agnes and Rebekah...they are so
cute but little devils with tons of energy!

That day, we went and visited Bruder Keller at the nursing home with the four elders, and we sang to him.  It was so cool.  He can’t remember anything, but somehow while we were singing, he remembered EVERY word and sang with us.  It was a miracle.

We also had the Weihnacht Andacht that day, on Heilige Abend (Christmas Eve) which is something we should do in the States.  The Gemeinde came, three people gave short talks, and we sang Christmas hymns.  It helped remind us of the meaning of Christmas.  The coolest miracle happened there.  A less active family, the Meyers, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with the church, came.  They came!  After four years of being absolutely gegen the kirche, they came back.  The ward was amazed, but it was amazing because everyone accepted them back with open arms.  After, we went to the Kirzingers, which is where the whole bread apple / baked apple thing happened.  Whoops.  Oh German.  Also, Sister Kirzinger thought it was hilarious that we eat peanut butter and celery together in America, so she somehow managed to find peanut butter and gave us that for Christmas.

Little Rebekah...her family is the
bunny family that lives in the country.

Reading to Mary Agnes

Christmas Day: We opened presents while on the phone with the elders.  It was a party!  Thanks again for everything.  It was so nice.  Then we went to Caroline’s place, and played Bananagrams and ate food.  We then went to the Fosters.  They are 70 something years old, and have completely changed their lives.  They stopped smoking, drinking coffee, everything, and have been to church three times now.  They had the elders and us over for dinner, and made us a ton of food.  The elders had just finished another eating appointment, where they ate a whole goose, so we had to eat so much!  We then went to the Schwarms, where we Skyped and she tried to give us more.  I couldn’t do it though.  On Sunday, Sister Foster told me she wanted the elders to be baptized for her son that passed away when he was 6.  They are working on geneology and getting the records together to make that happen.  What a cool experience. 
Thursday was probably the best day ever though.  We had breakfast with all of the young single adults and missionaries, and then afterwards went to the Haids with Elders Allen and Williamson.  Brother Meyer drove us.  Apparently, he had been really rude to Bruder Haid last year, and he wanted to make amends, which really shows how humbled he has been.  Bruder Haid accepted him in to his home with welcome arms and we ended up staying there the entire day.  I ate rabbit for my first time!    It was actually really good.  Then we just played with their little girls, and talked forever.  It was a great third day of Christmas. 

Mary Agnes was the little girl that kicked
the turkey and then laughed in my prior letter.

Friday, we taught Schwester Canana’s grandkids, which was super fun.  We are going over again this week to teach about prophets.  We also went to the Meyers that night, and got to know them a little better.  Apparently, he baptized her and then two weeks later they went inactive (he laughed and said that wasn’t his greatest moment...I'll say haha).  They left because they got offended.  We ended up showing a Mormon message and then talking about forgiveness.  You can tell how much they have been humbled over the past few years.  They are truly ready to come back.  The spirit does amazing things. 

Saturday I have my interview with President.  He got so excited when I told him about the letters.  He said I had to find out where they came from in Nürnberg, and then go find the people.  SO I NEED THE NÜRNBERG LETTERS AUNT SHELLY.  Could you possibly scan them for me?  I have a feeling he won’t transfer me till I've done something with them—haha. 

Overall, this week was just crazy.  So crazy.  And I loved every minute of it.  We also called Lisa yesterday after she was confirmed.  She was so happy, and you could just tell she was beaming!  I am so happy for her.  Now we just need to find more investigators.  We have a high goal this week and we are hoping to meet it.  We are trying to use New Year’s resolutions to our advantage.  "Do you want to lose weight?  Let me tell you about the word of wisdom!"  "Do you want to have a better relationship with your family?  We can help!"  We are going to ask people what their goals are and then relate it all back to the wonderful gospel.  I have a feeling miracles will happen this last week of the transfer.  Last week, the miracle was with the less actives.  This week, it will be with investigators!  Wish us luck! 

Elder Williamson has lost it...and Elder
Allen is playing with the doll house.

We have to be in by six on New Year’s Eve.  As Präsident says "The crazies come out, and you must go in.”  Another one of his favorites is "The book is blue and the Gospel is true.”  He just thinks he is hilarious…which, with his little gap in his front teeth and his accent, he really is.  Haha!  His accent, when he speaks in English cracks me up!   He pronounces faith, "face.”  Oh, I forgot, during my interview, he asked me "Sister Tep-lez (people prounounce my name funny here), do yoo has die gift of Tounges?  Du are zo much besser now.  Vow!”   It is actually easier for me to understand his German than his English now—haha. 

Well, much love to you all.  Just so you know, I ate so much this week and was gifted so much food, that I refuse to try on any skirts with zippers until I do some serious morgen sport—haha.  I hope you all have a great week, and that Grandma’s funeral goes well.  Give my love to the extended family as well, since I cannot be there.  And Taryn and Troy, enjoy you break off!  Oh and yes Troy, they have break here till the 7th of January (the 6th is apparently a huge holiday here).

Love, Savannah

December 23, 2013

German Market...amazing!

A beautiful little dorf that we went tracting
in....the picture doesn't do it justice.



It's been a little cold in Germany!

Family!!!!!!! I GET TO TALK TO YOU ON WEDNESDAY.  Okay, I'm sure you are wanting details, so let me tell you what is up.  So, Sister Schwarm is letting us Skype at her house, which means that you get to see my beautiful face!  Our bus gets in at 7:00 pm which means I will probably be on Skype around 7:10, so be there!  I think there is an 8-hour difference, which means 11a.m. your time, but I am not for sure, so double check!  I do not want a repeat of what happened when Troy was on his mission...haha.  I am allowed 40 minutes to Skype, and I am trying to see if I can use the Lindgrend's iPad for 10 minutes or so sometime this week and Skype Troy since he won’t be there. 

I opened the box.  Don’t worry.  All of the presents are still wrapped, but the sugar cookies are all gone.  We made them and ended up giving them all out to less actives / members / to random people for our finding activity.  Yesterday was mission finding day so we bagged up cookies and gathered “Joy to the World” DVDs and gave them out to tons of people.  It was cool.  That box was a nightmare getting home—haha, but I am super excited to see what is all there.  Thank you so much!

Tuesday was Zone Conference, and it was awesome.  I saw all my friends from this song, and also Ehrfurt, which means that I got to see a bunch of Elders from the MTC, and also Elder Hathaway, since he is Zone Leader up there.  It was great to see all of them.  After Zone Xonference, the 80 missionaries all went to the Altstadt and attempted to do a Christmas

A beautiful Christmas memory...Germans
gathered together in a square singing
Christmas carols.

singing flash mob.  Unfortunately, with 80 missionaries, things don’t always work out as planned.  We ended up all standing on the bridge and just sang Christmas songs.  It was so cool.  So many people stopped to listen to us and sang with us.  Hundreds of people were there just singing Christmas songs…it was definitely something I will never forget.  That night, my companion and I, with the Zone Leaders went to the Dominguezs.  We also went caroling together to their neighbors. 

On Wednesday, we went to Bruder Strenz's for lunch.  He is super old so he invited another woman from our ward to join us.  We had lunch, and then taught them a lesson.  Sister Canana ended up asking us if we would teach her granddaughters the missionary discussions, because they wanted to hear them.  So now, we have a 10-year-old investigator!  How cool is that?  Hopefully their mom will want to hear them too.  We are super excited.  We are going there on Friday. 

We also had a lesson with Debbie that night.  Sister Kirzinger came with us to help set up a plan to quit smoking.  Sister Kirzinger is so awesome.  It is amazing the difference having a member makes.  Honestly, their testimony is better than anything we could ever say; especially when they are converts themselves that used to have the same problems. 



That night, we went on a split.  I was with Sister Miller that night.  We went out for the last hour and just talked to people.  We ended up talking to these two girls for a really long time.  They had no interest at the beginning, but we continued talking, bore testimony, and shared tons of stories, that by the end, they were really listening.  We ended up giving them both Books of Mormon.  Unfortunately, they didn’t want to give us their numbers, but they have ours, so I really hope that they read, feel something, and then want to meet again. 

The next day, our daytime appointments fell, so we ended up heart attacking some less actives.  We left them cookies, rang the doorbell, and then ran.  What a thrill—haha!  I ended up seeing Blanca, the elder’s investigator, on the straßen bahn home, and talked to her in Spanish for about 30 minutes, that was awesome.  That night was so cool.  We went to Sister Hertel’s home because she wanted to show us something.  We got there and stood on her balcony, and watched as hundreds of people crowded in to the square below her apartment.  Then a choir started singing…a German choir in candlelight.  It was SO COOL.  I took videos.  I will try to send one, but I don’t know if it will work. 

On Friday, Lisa had her baptismal interview; and then was baptized yesterday!  She was so excited as we walked with her to Hauptbahnhof after her interview and said bye to her.  Since we couldn’t be at her baptism, Sister Weber and I both wrote her a letter to open after she was baptized....  I wrote two pages in German, and afterwards my head hurt so badly—haha.  Still impressed though.

That night was so much fun.  We went with the elders to Sister Schürer’s home and went caroling to her neighbors again.  She was awesome.  She just moved in so she was getting to know them, and as we introduced ourselves.  She had no fear about what to say.  She straight up told them that she was Mormon and then explained what that meant, and bore her testimony.  It was so cool.  Two of the women were really interested, and one wanted to go and find more about the Mormons online, so we told her to go check out mormon.org.  Sister Schürer was awesome. 

Sunday was such a cool day.  First off, as I have already mentioned, Lisa was baptized, and we officially have a 10-year old investigator.  For me, the coolest thing happened at church.  I was by the front door saying hi to everyone, when I looked over and saw the Fosters walking in!  THE FOSTERS CAME TO CHURCH.  Oh my gosh, I was so excited.  I don’t even know who I was talking to, but I stopped mid-sentence and ran over to see them.  That was so cool.  They said that they were reading in the Book of Mormon and decided to come back to church.  They said they were changing their life, and would be there every week.  I am still so happy - one of the coolest moments so far.  They invited us over on Christmas, so that will be so fun. 

Speaking of which, I am going to be so fat by the time this week is over.  In Germany, there are THREE days of Christmas.  THREE!  So far, we have eight eating appointments this week, all within four days.  We have two on Christmas Eve, and then the celebration at the church, three on Christmas, two the day after Christmas, and then Blanca invited us over for her daughter’s birthday on the 27th.  Man, I won’t have to worry about going hungry this week…or lonely.  I am pretty excited. 

Overall, it was a cool week.  We also found out that Martha had her baby finally.  Kathrin showed us a picture of her on Sunday and she is so cute.  I hope we can meet with the family soon, because I really want to see her. 

I have been reading the Christmas books that you sent me in that package, and they are really cool.  I like the one that talks about each of the figures in the nativity scene.  I have been studying that and the story in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and it has made me appreciate the meaning of Christmas so much more.  I truly love this season.  It is a time when we can celebrate Christ, his birth, and his life.  I am so grateful for my Savior, and the opportunity to share about his life, death, and resurrection.  It has changed my life, and I love seeing it change others as well.  What a cool opportunity I have here in Germany. 

Speaking of the nativity scene, I fell in love with one at the Christmas market last week, and I have been thinking about it sense then.  So today, I splurged and went and bought it.  I love it.  I am only in Germany once, so I had to get it.  I can’t wait for you to see it. 

Well, I will get to talk to you more on WEDNESDAY, but for now, I am going to send you some pictures.  I hope Alyssa is doing better, that is really scary but I am glad that she seems fine now.  I can’t wait to see you all, and am so glad that I found a way to Skype!  Don’t be late, because I only have a limited time! 

Bis dann! 

Savannah

December 16, 2013

Hello Family!

It was sad to not get any letters from Taryn or Troy this week, but I am guessing that means that they are stressed out with finals and don't have time for their younger sister.  So just know I am wishing you luck this week and hoping that all goes well. 

I am hoping that my Christmas package will magically appear at our Zone Conference tomorrow...I just hope that it made it through customs okay.  I know you spent a lot of time and money getting it ready and I would feel bad if it got lost somehow.  So I am praying to get it tomorrow.  We will see.  I think also if you write missionary supplies on it, it will go through quicker.  Go check out our mission blog for the future.  It is frankfurtmission.blogspot.com.  They have some cool stuff on the blog, and a section just for parents of missionaries.  They also have a ton of pictures. 

It was sad to hear about Grandma Teeples.  Let her know how much I love her, and if Dad is still there, to give her a hug for me.  I hope she is doing okay and isn't in too much pain.  It's times and difficulties like this that make me really grateful for the knowledge I know that families can be together forever.  This life isn't the end.  Heavenly Father created a plan where his children could be happy.  If there wasn't something more out there, than how could we ever find that peace and happiness we need to keep going?  I know without a doubt that this life isn't over at death.  It may not make it easy, but it makes it more bearable. 

I still don't know the details for next week.  We are allowed to Skype, but I don't know when, or what time.  We still need to find a member in the ward that is willing to let us come and do that.  As for Christmas day, I still have no clue what we are doing.  Christmas Eve is a bigger holiday than actual Christmas.  So on Christmas Eve, we have a little devotional at the church, and sing hymns and stuff (something that I think is really cool and wish we did in the States) and then afterwards, the Igbinobas invited all of the missionaries over to their house.  That is going to be really fun.  The day after Christmas (they celebrate three days of Christmas here) the senior missionary couple is doing a breakfast for all the missionaries in the zone.  On Christmas day...I still have no clue.  I am sure it will be great though. 

As for this week, it was a lot better than last week, and I am very grateful for that.  We had Zone training on Tuesday, and it was really good.  We talked about personal revelation, working with members, and finding.  That is the biggest struggle right now…finding.  It is so cold that people don't want to stop and talk on the streets, and everyone is busy during the holidays.  Moreover, the old town is swarming with tourists.  It’s insane!  So Sister Weber and I held a finding rat (counsel) during weekly planning of ways to find people.  If you have any good ideas, feel free to share. 

We also had a good lesson this week with Debbie.  She is progressing very slowly, but she showed a desire to give up smoking.  So we called the Kirtzingers and they are coming with us on Wednesday to help set up a plan to quit smoking.  She is excited for that.  If she actually stops, it will show a lot.  If not, we will have to drop her.  It is sad, yet at true. 

We also had a great lesson with Lisa.  I don't know if I told you her story, but she is getting baptized next Sunday!  Sad part is, I won't get to be there.  Her best friend lives in Heidelberg, and was baptized in February.  Lisa went to the baptism and felt a good feeling, and so she started meeting with the missionaries here.  Her friends and family was baptized except for the mom.  This family is basically Lisa's family now, and she goes up there every time she has a vacation from school.  Well, Lisa and her best friend’s mom will be getting baptized together next Sunday!  It is somewhat sad that we were the ones to teach her and prepare her, and then that we won’t even get to see her be baptized, but that is not the important part.  The important thing is that she is making the decision to follow Christ.  She is so excited, so I am happy for her.  She is meeting with our district leader on Friday before she goes to Heidelberg for break to have the baptismal interview, so that is very exciting!  We went over the questions with her on Saturday.  It was so cool to listen to her responses.  She is so ready.  She says that she knows there is a reason that her parents have basically rejected her.  It was so that she could become a part of Laura's family and find this gospel.  That was amazing to hear. 

We also had two really cool less active lessons, one with the Fosters (I just love them) and also with Schwester Keller.  We took Sister Hertel, our recently reactivated member, with us for that lesson, and it was amazing.  The two hit it off so well, and they have so much in common.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation and Sister Hertel bore such strong testimony of everything.  You would never guess that she spent years not going to church.  My tongue was finally loosed during that lesson.  I don't even know what I was saying, but I was speaking so well, and with really good grammar, that at the end, Sister Kessler just asked "What happened to you?" (I love how direct Germans are.)  She said that two weeks ago, I said barely anything, and now my German was good.  It was a really cool experience, and the spirit was really strong there.  Sister Kessler told Sister Hertel she could come every time.  So cool!

We also were able to go down to Würtzberg this week for their street display...that was quite an experience.  We were running from our appointment earlier that day to the train station to be able to catch the train, because the elder's called us and told us that they needed a lot of help and asked us if we could come earlier.  So we get there, and of course the train was running late.  So we waited ten minutes, and then it was delayed another twenty minutes.  We started talking to this girl.  We talked to her for twenty minutes and then found out that it was delayed another thirty.  So we talked to her some more.  By then, it was an hour late and we were getting ready to call it quits, but the girl told us she didn't want us to leave.  The train ended up being TWO HOURS late and then it was another hour ride, and so we talked with her for three hours.  We basically taught the first lesson, and she asked a ton of questions.  Sad part is, she doesn’t live in our area, but she goes to school here in Nürnberg.  We couldn't get her number, but she has ours, plus and a nice “Christmas Joy to the World” DVD.  It was just such a cool, weird experience.  Even though we ended up getting to Würtzberg after the street display officially started, it was so cool to talk with her for so long.  I think it was no coincidence that they asked us to come early and the train was so late.  I just hope she calls us so that we can get her number. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  This week, we went over to Laura’s home.  She had a practicum for her beauty school the next day and so she needed someone to practice facials on.  So naturally, we did the Christ like thing and offered up our services.  It was great...except I think she had a little too much fun poking my zits with that needle thing, and plucking my eyebrows.  The rest was amazing.  She added me on Facebook, and I think she put up some pictures, so Mom, I give you permission to go creep—haha.  I know you will like that. 

I am excited for this week.  We have zone conference tomorrow, we are going caroling with my ward mission leader's family, I have a split with Sister Miller, a baptismal interview with Lisa, we are going caroling with the elders and a woman on Friday, and we have that smoking lesson with Debbie.  Oh, and Sister Hertel invited us to her apartment Christmas celebration.  It is going to be super busy, and so great.  Next week is Christmas and I get to talk to you!  But just because I will talk to you on Wednesday doesn’t mean you shouldn’t email me on Monday...(hint, hint, nudge, nudge my wonderful siblings).

I hope you all have a great week!  Good luck with finals and everything, and enjoy the start of your Christmas break.  Give everyone a big hug when they all get in to Colorado!  I can't wait to talk to you all next week. 

Much love, 

Savannah 

December 9, 2013

The Christmas Market

First off, family, I have translated a letter!  Yea.  Turns out it is an excellent contacting tool for the old people.  Every train I got onto, I went and sat next to an old woman and asked for help.  Here is what I discovered...

My loving Aunt Hilda and Children,

I wanted to take some time to write to you.  I've waited on the post for a letter from you for a long time.  Please write to me again.   Joseph has been gone in Italy for work for three weeks now.  He will probably be gone for half a year.  It isn’t good for me to be so alone.

(Here's the name I can’t read....  it is something like Klaüschen, or Kluischen, or Kleidchen...  I really don’t know.  I will go will Klaüschen) started school on the 1st of September, and Monika has been sick for a while.  She has pain in her throat and a very high fever, but she is a wonderful, loving child.

So many cute little shops at the market...

Summer is almost over and now comes the long winter.  And how have you been? Are you healthy? It is a great blessing, health.

And what is Wanda doing? Is she working at home or is she with her Uncle? And (Büben...  still don’t know what that is.  I think its son...)? Is he a soldier yet?

I want to drive down to Berlin this year, but it isn't possible.  It will now be nine years since I have seen my mom and dad. 

The kids are growing so quickly.  They all need new clothes.  Monika is all grown up now.  I want to take a couple pictures of (Kluis?) when he starts school.  I will send you one.  But for now, I will close.  Stay healthy, Aunt Hilda and write me soon.

Also, (Kluischen?) has a birthday on the 3rd of October.  He says to tell Aunt Hilda to send him something good.

Now for today, I will send you all my best wishes, and give you all my love from (Klaüschen?) and Monika.  Please write soon.

So there you have it...one letter down, a million to go.  Hopefully that helps a little bit!  It was kind of fun doing it, and getting it all translated.  I definitely couldn’t have done that a few months ago.  Speaking of the language, I feel like something is finally clicking.  I am able to understand more, and it is coming more naturally.  I am almost to Alma in the Book of Mormon, and I can understand almost everything I read.  It is pretty cool.  I still have a very long way to go, but it is coming. 

Also, the weather has been just as cold here!  I have never been so cold before.  Every day, I put on a hundred layers and I am still cold.  President made the zone leaders postpone zone training last Friday and all the missionaries had to stay inside all day because the wind and snow was so bad.  So we got some solid weekly planning time in...yea, haha.  Mom, Cassidy is doing well in Brazil.  She has some pretty crazy stories, but she loves it.  I have written to Ben a few times too.  He is doing well.  I actually just got an email from Megan today too.  She is doing well, stressed out with finals, but then again it sounds like everyone is.  Taryn, I have three hours of study every morning.  From 8-9 we have personal study, and then from 9-10 we have companionship study and then from 10-11 is language study.  We then eat lunch and head out for the day!  It is getting dark at like 4:30 now...  completely ridiculous, so we might be changing around our study schedule. 

I got the best package this week from the ward.  I got a huge paper Christmas tree with all of the kids pictures on it and then a book with all of their favorite Book of Mormon heroes and pictures.  I freued myself like none other when I opened that package.  It was so great. 

So this week...  it was kind of a hard week, but I was still able to see some really cool things happen.  This time of year is really cool, but at the same time it is hard, because everyone says they are really busy so, "call back after the new year", which makes it really hard to make fast appointments.  On Tuesday, all of our appointments fell out.  We had four planned, two with investigators, and they all were cancelled.  We ended up finding for the entire day, but had no success.

Wednesday made it a little better though because we had an appointment with the Mendel's, an older couple in the ward.  Turns out, they love the sister missionaries.  When he found out that Sister Weber had been here for 6 months and me for three, he just looked stunned and said "And you haven’t visited me?!"  Whoops.  He gave us a ton of chocolate and good food.  He is probably the only sarcastic German I have met so far.  His family loves America.  They asked us so many questions, and it was hilarious.  They were amazed by Walmart—haha. 

We also had an appointment with Schwester Bruder... which in English would be Sister Brother.  I laugh every time—haha.  She is super old, but has the coolest life stories.  She told us some of them, and I was just amazed.  And plus, she made us the best food in the world.  I was sad I didn’t have a bigger stomach because I didn’t want to stop eating.  Her stories were just awesome.  I wish I had time to tell you some of them, but I just don’t.  Just know that there are cool people out there, and that I am grateful I can speak different languages, so that I can understand them.

Friday, after weekly planning, we decided to try and brave the cold because we had an appointment with the bishop and we really wanted to go over there.  We bundled up in all of our clothes and waddled to the train station.  It was a fun night.  We taught the little girls a really cool object lesson, and gave them a little present so that they could all write down their gift to Jesus and then put it up so that every time they looked at it, they would remember. 

We did the caroling in the Altstadt again...the zone leaders ended up being sick, so it was just us, the Nürnberg elders and an old lady from the ward.  Elder Ludlow and I were left talking to people and handing out “Joy to the Worlds” while they sang...let’s just say it wasn’t the prettiest thing ever—haha.  We were able to give out about 30 DVDs though. 

We had the ward Christmas party.  It was really fun!  I got to sit at the table with all the Spanish speakers.  The elder’s investigator, Blanca, was there so Giovanna and I got to talk with her.  There was a table decorating contest, and let’s just say the Missionaries table was...interesting.  I will send you a picture of it soon.  We made a tie tree—haha.  It was pretty.  Everyone else’s trees were amazing.

I was able to go to a Spanish baptism!  The elders in Ansbach had a baptism for their investigator, Ulga (in the email they spelt it Ugla, and all of the missionaries thought it was hilarious so she is known as Ugla now).  It was really cool. 

FRANKAS IS BACK.  I got a random phone call from a crazy person speaking really fast German.  It turns out to be Franka wanting to meet with us.  She dropped off the face of the earth for two transfers and then came back.  Sister Weber and I were freaking out.

As for our other investigators, Debbie was not really progressing again.  I called Debbie to see how her scripture reading was going.  I ended up talking to her Indian boyfriend, and he told me that if we went to his Indian temple, he would come to our church and check it out...  we need to see if that is allowed, but I could be going to an Indian temple!  haha.  And then, if her boyfriend came, Debbie would bis stimpt come to the church.  So maybe that will give her some good progress.  We will see! 

We finally were able to meet with Kathrin.  It was a great lesson.  In it, her Grandma told her that she had a dream that Kathrin was serving a mission.  Her response was "Whoa!  Where?”  Not the response I was expecting.  She finally agreed to pray aloud next lesson, so that was awesome.  Her mom’s baby is due really soon, and so we are hoping to have the ward bring her meals, and then hopefully her mom will be open to meeting with us again.  But really, we are just trying to find more investigators, and we are struggling.  It’s been hard for us when we get rejected over and over.  Now that it gets dark out so early, we really don’t know what to do.  We are going to have to be seriously creative if we are going to make it through winter. 

I did have a cool thought this week.  I was reading about Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon, and had a thought I hadn't had before.  It was in 3 Nephi 1, and all of the believers were going to be killed if the signs of Christ's birth did not appear.  They did, just like the Lord promised.  It made me realize that from the very beginning, from the very moment that Christ entered the world, he was a Savoir.  As a little baby, he was able to save an entire people from destruction and death.  That was an amazing realization for me.  I love the Book of Mormon, and I love how I always learn something new when I read it.

Wish me luck this next week.  We don't have a ton of appointments, and it is going to be freezing cold outside!  Hopefully we can change that.  I just am ready to go out and find someone really legit that is ready to hear the gospel.  It is a perfect time of year to share the message of Christ.  We get to have zone training on Tuesday, so I am looking forward to that!

Have a great week everyone!  Good luck on all of your finals.
Love, Savannah

PS.  I can’t wait to talk to you all on the phone in just a few weeks!  Keep smiling and remember to share the message of Christ with everyone you see.  It is the month when everyone takes a little more time to think about Christ’s birth and why we celebrate Christmas!  So take advantage of that!  Know that I am having a great, cold time in Germany.