Week #27 (12-1-08)

This past week was fun, but slow. A lot of our appointments fell out, which was sad, but we had fun anyway!! We moved our p-day to Thanksgiving last week so Monday we went out and worked. We had 2 eating appointments, one with an active family and the other with a part member family. The part member family is from Italy and the mother has been a member for almost a year!! It was really hard for her to join the church because of her extended family. They are Catholic and very much against breaking that tradition!! She is so strong and has learned so much over the past year. I think that her husband would be more open to the church if he spoke better German. They come to church as a family once a month and they sit right in the front row, but he finds it boring....well I do too when I don´t understand what the heck they are talking about!! Hopefully he will allow us to start working with him, but he had a hard time understanding us...if only I spoke Italian!! JK. It would help our German because we would have to speak so simply!! We will see what happens.

On Tuesday we met with a inactive woman named P M. We have been meeting with her for the last couple of weeks. She has now given up smoking...going on 7 or 8 days!! But she thinks that our religion is too strict. She is bugged by little things...like that we need to wear a skirt to church. I told her that that is not a commandment, but she still finds it dumb that it is requested. She said that she would wear a skirt anyway, but just because they tell her to, she doesn´t want to. (Kind of sounds like how I was...when I was like 14!!!) She is a super cool lady and just needs to get a Testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She still agrees to meet with us, so she must like something about our church!!

On Wednesday we met with Frau H. She is a lady that we met through doing doors. She is kind of old and is leaving for the Month of December with her family for Christmas. The appointment was super good though. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she agreed to read and pray. She even said that she would take the Book on Vacation with her!! Cool huh??

On Thursday we had Frau A, but she was not home. We waited for a little bit, but not long enough. She called later and said that she got home 15min past. She had another appointment and tried to get home as fast as she could. Normally we wait 15 minutes, but we didn´t this time!! To bad...oh well, we made an appointment for Friday. We then went to our District Thanksgiving Party!! It was kind of a bummer because 2 of our Elders went to play soccer with some other missionaries...so they came a few hours late!! Our Zone leaders were also invited, but they told them no because they already had plans with the district!! To me that shows what kind of people they are...they really are the nicest Elders ever!! I wish I had friends back home to hook them up with, but they are all getting married now!! Oh well!! We ended up having so much fun anyways. As the other Elders were playing Soccer in Minden (about 30min train ride north) we were making the food. I was in charge of the Jello salad...you know the kind with the cool whip and fruit cocktail and jello powder stuff!! Well I had to improvise...they don´t have cool whip here. The Elders had Extreme Green Apple Jello from America so I used that and also made my own cool whip. It was ok, but I´m not a fan of Extreme Green Apple!! Pistachios is so much better. The Elders were nice though and told me it was good...good thing guys eat everything!! Sister Cha made the Turkey...well they were turkey breasts with this super good sauce!! It wasn´t like a normal thanksgiving, but it was SOOO good anyways...a little Germanized!! We then just played cards and then went out to work! It was a Memorable Thanksgiving...the only one I will have in Germany!!

Friday was Sister Buynak´s Birthday so we went out to eat and then had weekly planning. Frau A called us and cancelled our appointment and changed it to Monday!! I think I´m going to buy her a daily planner for Christmas. She never remembers her appointments!! lol

Saturday we did splits. We went over to a members house and made a bunch of cookies and then we went out and delivered the cookies and advent calendars that we made to the less actives and new members. I went with the Member. Her name is Carolin Adler and she is 24...so we are the same age!! She is pretty cool and we had a good time together. Not to many people were home and they live SO far away from one another that it is hard to visit too many, but it was still effective. We left notes and calendars for a lot of people though. It was weird to not be with my comps. I have not been away from them in so many months...it was weird to have it just be me and a member!! :o) The Adler family actually have relatives right around where mom lives in Federal Way. They are not members, but I will visit them when I get home and tell them that I met their family in Germany!! It will be so cool!!

Then Sunday we went to church and then there was a baptism of a little girl in the ward after church. We then had our Christmas dinner (lunch). It was super fun. I taught some of the girls there this cool cup game that I learned at girls camp. We had fun doing that. It is really weird because before my mission I was super loud and what I would call crazy fun. I loved to just be me and not care what others thought around me, but now on a mission I have to be a little more serious...only a little though. I try not to be as loud and I´m a lot more serious then I thought possible. Sometimes I miss having my silly fun, but I can be that way when I get home. I still have fun with people, but it is not the same because I need to be more professional...plus the German´s are a little bit more of a serious people. I love being more serious though because I notice more people around me and am learning how to help and recognize other people's needs!! It is good for me to settle down and grow up...but that is sometimes hard!! I´m working on a good balance of both.

Sunday night we were visiting some more inactives and we stopped this lady on the street. She said that she used to go to church with the Mormons and that she would like to start coming back. We were right by where she lived so we went in and talked to her for a while. Her name is Frau S and she is an older lady. She hasn´t been to church for a long time, but wants to slowly make her way back. We invited her to come to a RS activity tomorrow. She said she would come!! Oh...funny story. Ok, so there were some chocolates on the table and she said that we could eat some. Well we didn´t take dinner that night so I decided to eat one. Well I unwrapped it and took a bite and juice went everywhere. I made a noise and she looked over and asked me if I didn´t like it and I told her (while holding the juice and chocolate in my mouth) that it just went everywhere. She then asked me if I didn´t like alcohol and told me that there was alcohol in them...she said that while she was getting me a paper towel. I looked at her with big eyes and she said that it was just vodka. I then took the paper towel and spit it out. She then asked if we don´t drink it and I said no...we don´t drink alcohol. I only ended up swallowing a little bit because I held most of it in my mouth. When I had unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite I thought that maybe it was one of the chocolates that had a cherry with juicy stuff in it, but no...it was vodka!! You got to be careful here in Germany. They put alcohol in everything...chocolate, bakery foods, ice cream!! They sure love their alcohol!! I think that that is the second time I have broken the work of Wisdom while on my mission!! Hopefully the last!! :o) Man...it was so funny...I felt kind of sick the rest of the night. It was either my guilt or the fact that I had drunk a little bit of alcohol for the first time...I think it was my guilt!! :o)

This morning we had an appointment with Frau A, but we did splits again and so Sister Cha and I didn´t go. We thought it would be better with only a few people. So Sister Buynak and Schwester Wächter went. She said it was good and that Frau A is just really confused!! She even prayed that she wouldn´t be so confused. I hope that the Lord answers her prayer!!
I love this Gospel and the fact that I get to talk about it everyday!! I really know that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that what we do everyday is so important. Everyday we are one day closer to meeting our God and I can´t wait for that day to stand before Him and be able to kiss his feet!! I love Him and all that He has done for me. He gave up His life so that I can live and I have given Him this time to try and pay Him back. I know that that is impossible to fully pay Him back, but I will do what I can to make Him proud of me and to help His children here in the wonderful country of Germany!!

Deine,
Sister Jones