June 2, 2014

Hi Familie! And Friends..

Troy, I am so glad that you feel like the MCAT went well.  I have been praying for you and it sounds like Heavenly Father heard and definitely helped you.  I'm glad.  I am anxious to see how you did and where you will be going to medical school! Mom, glad that you have had a good week.  Dad, I can completely relate to your week.  Sometimes things are just hard, but I know that they will get better.  It's normal to feel overwhelmed.  But I have learned that we will never be given a task that will be too much for us.  Our Heavenly Father will always be there for us.  Taryn...well don't know what to say about her...that stinker didn’t write me this week. 

Well, it is officially June! 12 days until I am no longer a teenager.  Weird.  Hopefully, I can see some birthday miracles, because that is sure what we need right now! Let's just say, I am glad that is it Monday again.  It’s a new day, a new week, and a new month, so that means a fresh start, right? Miracles galore should be happening this week. 

This is how I look and feel
after a long day on my mission.

As for last week, it was, well, interesting.  Tuesday we had an appointment with the Vogts with the senior couple, the Leonhardts.  The Leonhardts speak no German and the Vogts speak very, very, little English.  Well, Bruder Vogt speaks very little.  Sister Vogt knows absolutely nothing.  So we spent most of the time translating between the two families.  It was pretty comical.  Elder Leonhardt would think that he understood something, and respond, but would be completely off subject.  Sister Leonhardt drank some of this drink, and made a gross face, and then we told her that Sister Vogt said she made it herself, and she got embarrassed...overall, funny.  And they gave us a referral, so that was good.

That night, we went by and stopped to see Danielle.  She hasn't been to church forever, and every time we have called her, no one answered…so we decided to finally go by.  We get there, and her husband let us in and then Danielle came and just started crying.  Life has been hard for her lately.  I know that the spirit definitely told us to go by.  I am still worried about her, but we were able to listen to her and help some of her concerns, and so it was overall good. 

Sometimes I really hate phone calls, so
I do all I can to make them better.
Sometimes, I'm just done. 

Wednesday was also...interesting.  Our appointment fell through again, and then we were had an appointment scheduled with a referral that we got from church headquarters.  She lives out in the middle of NOWHERE, and I have never had so many things go wrong trying to get to an appointment before.  First, we didn’t realize that our train split, and so we got on the wrong one, and ended up missing our connection.  So we had to go back, and by that point, we missed our bus, and so we tried to take another one, thinking it went to her place also.  Well, THE SIGN LIED.  It lied to us.  It went nowhere close to her house.  By this point, we were on a bus, out in the middle to absolutely nowhere (I don’t even know if we were in our mission at this point...), with only a crazy guy on the bus, and the bus driver hitting on my companion and singing American songs to us.  By this point, we called the referral and rescheduled the appointment for another day.  Well, at least one good thing happened.  I felt awkward from the driver staring at us through the mirror, and so I got up and started talking to the only other woman on the bus.  Turns out that she is from Romania, and knew a Mormon there.  She always wondered, but her never talked to her about his religion, so I said we could meet with her and teach her about what we believed.  So I got her phone number and we will be going there on Saturday.  A lot of chaos, but success! 

I find this picture really comical. They are
in a drit right now in Karlsruhe, and just
seeing them walk down the
street makes me laugh. 

Thursday, the elders and us both had nothing, and so we spent the day finding.  We had a street display, and it was actually quite successful.  It was a holiday, so there was a ton of people, and a lot of people stopped.  We had a lot of good conversations, and we found some people that were interested, but of course none of them live in our area, so some other lucky missionaries have some golden referrals now! 

Friday, we met with Schwester Breitenhuber again, and also finally made our way to the referral, Hannah.  Hannah was a disappointment.  We did our usual null lesson, and then asked her if she wanted to learn more, and she said "Überhaupt nicht!' (Absolutely not!)  Awkward....  Well, we don’t have to worry about getting lost in the middle of nowhere again.  Our lesson with Schwester Breitenhuber went really well.  We talked about repentance and forgiveness, and although she didn’t want to admit it, she felt the spirit testifying to her.  She also made us these really nasty salmon sandwiches, with raw salmon on top.  While she was reading a scripture or whatnot, Sister Wrathall and I would stuff the salmon into paper towels and our bags.  After the lesson, I couldn’t find a trashcan, so I went to the bathroom and tried to flush it down the toilet, but it wouldn’t flush! Luckily, I finally got it to work, so no worries. 

A golden in Darmstadt came up here for a
split.  He is hilarious.  He just loved all of
the gelato shops and wanted
to go to all of them.

Saturday, we helped Michelle and Cathy move some more and then taught Michelle.  That night we met with the bishop, and it was great.  I just love that familie. 

Sunday, I heard some of the coolest news that I have heard in a long time.  THE SPANISH GROUP IS BECOMING A BRANCH.  I will be in Germany when our mission gets their first Spanish branch.  I don’t know what it will mean as far as who we work with and how missionary work goes, but we will see.  I am so excited for them.  How cool is that? My little group gets to be their very own branch.  Cool stuff happening.  I had a dream the other night that I was training a Spanish native and we were over the Spanish branch and had just doubled the membership.  Now lets make this a reality...haha. 

Oh, and to answer your question, the next transfer starts June 16, so the new mission president should be coming in sometime around there...don’t know exactly.  I don’t really want to think about the fact that Präs is leaving. 

Well, I hope that you all have a fantastic week! Please pray for me that we will be able to find people to teach.  I feel like we can find people but then they never want to learn more or progress.  So hopefully we can change that this week. 

Love you all! 

Savannah

May 26, 2014

Familie! Schön euch wieder zu schreiben.

I feel weird that it is Monday again.  It will be June at the end of this week.  That just is crazy.  I am just glad that things haven’t changed much back home.  Except for the whole “Troy being married and talking about babies thing,” things seem good.  Taryn and Matt are taking BEAUTIFUL selfies, you are all playing Bananagrams, and then there is dad.  I think that Dads letter was my favorite this week.   "I would actually like to leisurely ride around and am even thinking about getting a roll-behind carrier for dogs so that Sparky can join me.   He doesn’t do so well with long walks anymore, so this may indeed be a good solution.   It just costs money.   Oh well." Oh man, I died laughing when I read that.  The entire Internet cafe just looked at me.  I can just see dad with a little carrier and sparky inside.  Too good. 

Anyways.  My week…

Monday, we had Sport Night, after going on a hike for P-day.  Damien brought his friend with him, which was really great.  His friend had come to church a lot and is the one that I gave a Book of Mormon to about a month ago.  He lived in Dortmond, but he is down here all of the time, so we thought, why not, let’s just try to start teaching him.  So we talked with him a lot on Monday, and he showed a lot of interest.  But then he was suppose to come to Institute on Thursday with Damien, and Damien told us that he ended up leaving to go back to Spain super sudden.  Now he is gone.  I was crushed, but hopefully he will find the missionaries there and start to meet with them. 

Tuesday was a good day.  Cathy and Michelle finally found a new place to live, and they are so excited about it.  That is a miracle if I have ever seen one.  This week we have been helping them move and everything, and then we teach Michelle.  It’s been great.  Tuesday, we went to their new place in Eberbach, and helped paint.  Cathy had another friend there helping, and we ended up talking with him a lot.  He isn’t a member and had a lot of questions about why we are here and what we are doing, and we had a really good conversation together.  Afterwards, we went back to town, and went and taught the Erbs with Sister Keil.  We taught the Plan of Salvation, and it was a great lesson.  She had SO MANY questions, and while we couldn’t answer all of them, we were able to definitely teach by the spirit, and help her understand.  It is amazing how when I am teaching investigators, the language just seems to flow. Frau Erb also read all of the chapters that we asked her to read in the Book of Mormon.  She also said that she prayed but didn’t get an answer.  Sister Keil explained how she got hers and that it took time, and Frau Erb said that she would continue to pray. 

An adorable guinea pig...

Wednesday, we met with the Onigkeits again.  Afterwards, all of our appointments fell through again.  Surprise.  We decided to go finding, because all of our investigators seem promising, and then disappear off the face of the earth.  We decided to hop on this bus and ride it until whenever.  We sat down and there was this Asian guy sitting right across from us.  We had three different Books of Mormon in Chinese so we thought, well, what the heck.  So we pulled out the books.  They were all different translations…and asked him which one made the most sense.  We were curious.  He pointed to one, picked it up, and then asked if he could have it.  Uh, yes please.  He said that he really doesn’t have any religious background.  When I asked him if he would be interested in meeting with us and learning more about what we believe and about the Book of Mormon, he said yes.  I was a little dumbfounded, because we never really get that far.  But we got his number and he said to call him beginning of June when his finals are over.  So we will do that. 

The next day, we met with Carla.  She served a mission in the Alpine, German speaking mission, and is living here for the summer working.  She told us a lot about her mission, and gave us some ideas that were successful for her.  So since our appointments fell through again, we tried some of her suggestions.  We were able to give out a couple of Books of Mormon again, so that was cool. 

Freitag war erfolgreich.  We went and met with the Roses, a family in our ward.  He is a character.  He reminds me a lot of Grandpa Keyser.  The only English that he can really speak is what he learned from Romance and joke books.  He likes to practice his English, and so what he tells us is just hilarious.  He told us all of these jokes, and they were just awful.  They were really long, and then there was no punch line, but I just laughed because they were so bad.  But Sister Rose was able to help me a lot.  I made this Plan of Salvation thing in English, and the elders want me to make it in German, and so she helped me translate some things.  So now I am almost done!

That night, we got to go and see Frau Breitenhuber.  We brought a couple from the ward along, and taught the Restoration.  After the lesson was over, we overheard her talking to Schwester Vogt.  She was saying how since we came, she has noticed an inner difference in her life.  Ah, she is so cute.  I am so grateful für sie. 

From the bottom....

Saturday morning, we helped Cathy and Michelle move again.  I was amazed at how much stuff could fit into two rooms.  But we got it all packed up.  They are all ready to move into the new house! 

Yesterday at church, the Spanish bishop came up to me and said that the person that was suppose to give a talk couldn’t and asked me to talk during sacrament.  Uhhh....  It turned out surprisingly good, though.  The spirit definitely helped there.

Two weeks ago, we challenged Sister Dabron to invite a friend over for our next appointment with her.  After church, we went to the Dabrons, and her friend Haike was there.  It was great! She has a ton of potential.  She lived in PA for 12 years, and had a lot of Mormon friends there and went to church with them a couple of times.  She was sad when she had to move back to Germany, and so one of her friends contacted our bishop and our bishop invited her to an activity last summer.   Through that she became really good friends with some people in our ward.  Aren’t church connections great! We got her number and are going to start meeting with her next week. 

To the top....

 Well, thank you for all that you do, Family (and friends).  Your letters always make me so happy.  It is always a good reminder of why I am here.  Ich habe euch Lieb! 

And Troy...good luck on the MCAT.  I pray for you every night and know you will do great.

Love, 

Savannah

May 19, 2014

Just another day in Heidelberg.  

Hallo Familie!  Thanks for all of the letters from this week.  Troy, there is a guy in my ward now that studied with you.  He says that you are smart and that you shouldn’t be worried about the MCAT at all.  So I think you will do just fine.  Taryn, life sounds as fun as ever.  I am jealous that you are going home this weekend.  That should be fun.  Say hi to everyone for me!  Also Sparky, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. 

As for my week…I ended up being a really good week!  On Tuesday, we went to see Cathy and Michelle and starting teaching Michelle the lessons for baptism.  I am loving it because she is just a typical ten-year-old kid.  Her question make me laugh, and it is really testing my ability to teach very, very, simply.  It is really great though.  We watched the Restoration DVD, and asked her if she believed that it was possible.  She said no, and we all just froze, until we realized that she thought that it was just fiction like every other movie.  We explained that it was just a reinaction (I think I just made up that word...) of Joseph Smith’s life.  After that, she said "Ohhh, I get it.  Ja, then of course I believe it.”  Dodged that bullet..  haha. 

Lost my keys for a day, and then
found them stuck to the bottom of
my makeup bag...they got stuck
to a magnet inside.  How does that
even happen?

We also had a really great appointment with the older couple, the Erbs.  Sister Keil came and joint taught with us, and she did an amazing job.  We taught the Restoration, and they asked a lot of really good questions, and the spirit was definitely strong.  Sister Keil shared her conversion story and how she came to know of the truth, and you could tell that they felt the spirit.  We are meeting again with them this week with Sister Keil, and so I am excited about that! 

Thursday was a really busy day.  We met with a few of our ward missionaries, and set up plans with them as to how they can help us and how we can get things started for the month of Invitation in June.  I am really grateful for them.  They all seem to be willing to help, and excited to do what they can to help us, so that is really cool.  I don’t know if I have told you this enough, but we have the best ward here.

We also had another good lesson with Kristin.  She is finally getting there.  I don’t want to get up on her because she is just SO CLOSE.  It was our last week with the Taylors there.  They are going to Utah for the summer so that Bryce can teach Religion classes at BYU, and I am bummed about it.  But for the last lesson together, it was really good.  We showed a film about Thomas S. Monson, and at the end, she said that she felt that he really was a man of God.  We started talking a lot about the Book of Mormon, and she said that she knew that the things inside brought her closer to God.  She knew that they were not wrong, and that they are good, but she wants to be certain that they are historically accurate.  That’s what she is waiting for.  Come on, Kristin!  She knows they are good, and that they testify of Christ.  I just want her to finally realize that she already knows it is true.  One day.  I know one day (hopefully sooner than later) she will be baptized. 

Sister Keil took us out to icecream after
our meeting. She is so cute! 

On Friday, all of the BYU students had us over for lunch.  I don’t think I have realized until that appointment just how awkward I have gotten.  That was the most awkward hour on my mission—haha.  Seriously.  Just seeing them all relaxed and joking around with each other.  I didn’t know how to interact...shoot, I am in for a wake up call when I get home.  I didn’t feel comfortable again until we were outside and got on the bus and started talking to people about the Book of Mormon...  what has happened to me?  Haha. 

We also met with a potential investigator, Xinxin.  She is from China, and so the language barrier was really hard.  We introduced the Book of Mormon and she read it in Chinese.  She doesn’t have much religious background, so we have to take things really, really slowly and simply.  It amazes me that some people don’t even know who God or Christ are.  It makes me really grateful that I do.

That night, we went to see our less active, Schwestesr Breitenhuber.  She is slowly making progress.  It was a really good appointment.  She hadn’t had contact with the church in ten years, and last time, she told us that she is very grateful for us.  She said that since we had come by three weeks ago, she has felt more peace and happiness.  She said that she hopes we know that we are good missionaries.  It was really touching, and I loved seeing the subtle change taking place in her. 

The Elders at their baptism with Rochelle. 

On Saturday, we had Zone Training, and then that night, the elders had a baptism.  It was a really great baptism.  Sister Wrathall and I help Rochelle come out after she was baptized, and the smile on her face was just priceless.  She was so happy, and as we were helping her afterwards, she just said, "I’m sorry, I just feel so good, and cant stop smiling and laughing." It was a great reminder of why I am here.  To help people feel this excitement and joy that I feel on a regular basis. 

Yesterday was also a cool day!  After church, we went and taught Michelle again, and then had probably on of the best first discussions I am had with our investigator Jennifer.  She is from Africa and is just golden.  Her brother is a member somewhere else in Germany, and that is she got in contact with the church.  We watched the Restoration with her, and the whole time we were watching it, she was just smiling, and nodding and happy.  Afterwards, she said that she wanted a copy to show to her son.  We invited her to be baptized on June 14 and she said yes!  She said that she has had the Book of Mormon forever, but she has never really read it.  But after meeting with us, she said that it suddenly became really interesting, and that she is going to read in it "straight away.”  That was a really cool lesson, and I just can feel how prepared she is.

Also, something that is way cool.  Sister Schiffmann translated three of our family letters from the old German handwriting to modern German.  I have spent language study this week translating them, so I am sending them home to you today (or as many as I have time to type up.) They are really cool, and I am excited about them!  Hopefully they help. 

Well, I love you all and hope that you have a great week!   Just know, I know that this is a great work, one of miracles and power.  I am thankful every day that I can take part in it.  I wish I could tell you every single cool thing that happens on a daily basis, but there would never be enough time to do so.  Its something you just have to experience!

Love, Savannah.