letter #3 (6-16-08)

(answers/comments to her sisters questions)

Teri,
Well I don´t know Elder Thompson, but if I meet him I will say hi from his family. That is funny that his family wants to follow my progress. Elders tend to not write much!! The Elder in you ward from Kastle?? I´m not sure where that is at, but if I get moved there I will definitely find his parents. That would be awesome.

(and the rest....)

This week has been great!! I love my companion and the ward that I am in. They are so supportive of us...which makes our work a little easier. The German is coming...slowly. I´m trying to learn as much as I can and I sometimes can understand what people are saying, but only every once in a while. I love that I can be sitting in church and feel the Spirit and have no clue what they are even saying. That is a testimony to me that this is the truth. It is amazing.

Ok...so I have been thinking of funny things that have happened this week. I have been making a list of interesting things that are in Germany that are not in America and I also have been making a mental list of my favorite excuses of why people can´t talk to us on the street.

Reasons people can´t talk:
Most use- "Keine Zeit, keine Zeit" (no time, no time)
They don´t think it is right to talk about God on the street. (Jesus Christ talked to people everywhere, so why can´t I as His representative?)
The best reason, so far, why they can´t talk:
This one lady said- "Ich habe keine Zeit. Ich muss auf Toilette." (I have no time. I have to go to the bathroom) It was so funny!!

Ok, so cool things about Germany:
- The washing machines take a few hours to wash the clothes.
- The toilets have hardly any water in them...the US wastes water.
- There are NO public toilets or drinking fountains. If you find one, you have to pay to use it.
- There is graffiti EVERYWHERE.
- Not many houses. Mostly just apartments and they have these Klingle boxes that you have to push and someone who lives there has to buzz us in. Even places that look like one house...it is really one apartment per floor.
- People have simpler lives. Not everyone has a TV...most people don´t have computers or the Internet. They just have less stuff because they don´t have HUGE houses to fill with just things!! It´s really kind of cool. People get out and go for walks in the BEAUTIFUL parks. They ride bikes everywhere and spend time outside. It is so wonderful.
- The ambulance has this really annoying sound...like you hear in movies, but the worst part is when it passes by you. The annoying sound somehow changes keys and it drives me batty. I get one key in me head and then the moment it passes me it changes and I freak out!! (Well my insides freak out because it sounds horrible) Maybe it is just the singer inside of me!!
- My personal favorite thing is the bike bells. They are hard to explain in writing, but I will try. In America the bells on bikes are like a "bring,bring" sound. Here it is just a little "ding". When I first heard it I had no clue what it was. I don´t know if that makes any sense, but it I love it!!

Ok, so one more funny thing. Sister Welch and I were waiting for the Bahn (subway) and this man came up to us and said, "Ich bin Gott" (I am God) We were really confused. So sister Welch Said, "Sie sind Gott? (You are God?) And then he went on to tell her that he was God and that if we were going to be representing him that we shouldn´t dress so professionally. People would take us to seriously. I think that is that point though...they need to take us seriously. I don´t think that he was quite all there in the head!! It was really funny!!

So we have this investigator Sonja who we are struggling with a bit. We will commit her to things and sometimes she will keep it and sometimes not. On Tuesday she didn´t read, so we spent the appointment reading with her what she had committed to read. So we gave her more to read and committed her and went again on Thurday expecting that she didn´t read. Then she did. Sister Welch was all ready to tschuss her. (Tschuss is goodbye in German and that is what the missionaries call it when you let an investigator go...or when they let you go.) But now we are at a loss of what to do. We had a great meeting with her on Thursday though. During the lesson the words, "Werden Sie sich taufen lassen?" came to my head. (Will you be baptized) and I felt like we needed to ask her that. I didn´t know how to just come out and say it with the little German that I had, so as I was thinking about what to say first when sister Welch started to talk about baptism and asked her. She said no, but it was so great that we both had the prompting. There was a reason for that...we are not sure what it is yet, but hopefully we will find out someday. We committed her to pray about it. She is so awesome and we know she knows it is true...she just doesn´t want to make the change. I hope we can help her realize how important this is.

So I had a super cool experience on Sunday. My mission pres asked that the whole mission fast for the investigators that have baptisimal dates in our individual zones. We have 3 on date right now. So Sister Welch and I fasted and also added the names of our investigators to the list of people we were fasting for. Well we had this one investigator, Andrea, that we hadn´t heard from in almost 2 weeks. I only met her once at a lesson and the Spirit was so strong there. Then we just couldn´t get a hold of her. We would call and she wouldn´t call back. We went and visited her and she was never home, so we left notes and still nothing. So Sunday afternoon after our fast she called us!! On the message she said that she was sorry that she hadn´t called us. She said that things were not going so well and that she wanted to meet with us again!! It was a miracle!! I know that was a blessing from the Lord. She is so ready to get Baptized. She is just scared....that is why she disappeared. I will keep you up to date on her progress.

Anyway...my time is up. I´m a little sick this week and by a little I mean...snot, cough, head and chest pressure...I hope it goes away soon!! I have work to do!! :o) I love you all and I hope you are well!! Thanks for all the support!!

Love,
Sister Jones