Week #35 (1-26-09)

This week...wow!! What can I say?? To start off...Monday and Tuesday was spent visiting people for Sister Fowkes and saying goodbye. She was really sad to leave. It was her first city and she was only there for about 3 transfers...not quite though because she left 2 weeks early!! She is doing well though in Dortmund. On Wednesday morning we rode the train up to Hamburg and I said goodbye to my comp of 5 weeks and headed with the AP´s to the mission home. That was my first time being alone with elders (well, guys of any kind) in 10 months!! It was a little weird!! :o) Then we headed to the airport and waited...and waited!! They lost the 3 missionaries' luggage on the way over from England (Which isn´t that far...how they lost it I´m not sure) and so that delayed it a bit. We ended up leaving the airport without bags and headed out with the AP´s to do some street contacting with the new missionaries. I told Sister Sayson that I was going to be her first comp and that we were going to be serving in Bremen. She then asked me if I remembered her. I was a little confused because She is from Frankfurt and I have never been there and she has never been to America. She then asked if I ever went to Paderborn. I told her yes, because I served in Bielefeld and Paderborn is were my District leader served. She then asked if I was there for a street display last summer and then I remembered. She was there and I met her. I talked with her a little and found out she wanted to go on a mission. I asked her were she wanted to go and stuff and told her "wouldn´t it be cool if you came to our mission??" Well here she is as my little golden!! I can´t believe it!! So funny. Anyway....we went out and talked to people and she did really well. It helped that she could speak German, but she was just as scared as I was at first and she had a hard time knowing exactly what to say. It took me back to my first couple days on my mission (which were like yesterday) and I felt and looked just like her...deer in the headlights type of thing. She did wonderful and then we hopped on a ferry and boated a little around the harbour in Hamburg. It was so beautiful...except for all of the ice in the water...yeah...it´s cold here!! :o) We then went to this rock thing that I went to on my first day and president told us a story about it and we took pictures. When we were heading back we were walking up this HUGE hill and we saw unicyclers coming down the hill. I was a little worried for them, but they looked like professionals with tight spandex and sporty looking unicycles. They stopped to talk to some of their friends in front of us and then stopped us...probably because we look funny in what we walk around in. I was talking to one of them and he kept trying to get me to ride his cycle. I kept telling him that is was too steep of a hill and that I would die. I started talking about who we were and tried to give him a card, but he told me that if I would ride on it he would take my card. I told him again that the hill was too big and that I would die and he told me that if God was there He would save me. I turned the subject back to the church, but he didn´t want my card unless I rode it. I really really thought about it and if it wasn´t on a hill I totally would have done it...but I thought that that would be a stupid and deadly way to give away a pass along card. He started showing off and rode up and down the hill and even started to bounce up and down...crazy man!! It was really cool though and they were really nice. Then we went to the mission home and ate dinner and called for the luggage and did some training...called again for the luggage and then went to bed. The training was pretty cool. I was there with 2 of the Elders that I came out with...one of which was in my district when I was in the MTC!! They are really really good elders!! The AP`s committed us to some things and I got really excited to recommit myself to work harder then I ever have before!! I love being on a mission and even though it is hard being a representative for Christ...for HIS church. I love being able to wear HIS name everyday and be able to bear testimony of HIM everyday. He is why I am here and why I wake up every morning no matter how tired I am. He is why I talk to complete strangers on the street, door to door and in the bus and bahn. He is why I am so happy everyday.

On Thursday morning we woke up and ate breakfast and then did some comp study. We finally figured out the luggage thing and they came at 11:00am sharp (they were supposed to be there at 5pm the day before) So we headed to the train station and headed down to Bremen to start her first day on her mission...well in the field. She was in the Preston MTC for 19 days!! She is such a hard worker and I love her already. Her english is ok, but I think that my German is better then her English...so we have decided to speak only German outside of the apartment and then only English in the apartment. It is working out ok!! Sometimes we have a hard time understanding each other...I can´t fully explain myself in German and she doesn´t fully understand sometimes what I mean in English. It is fine though because we both understand that we are going to have to have patience to understand each other. Mostly it is fine and I can explain myself in German. I love working with her. On Saturday we went to the RS president's house and talked to her about the ward list. We have a 17 page ward list...about 300 members or so...less then 100 are active. She knows the whole ward so we went through and found out who was active and who was not. We are going to find out what is going on with the inactives and see if we can reactivate them. We have a lot of work to do!! I´m very excited...we get to get to know the ward together and that makes it easier!!

On Sunday she was a little nervous to meet her first mission ward, but she did so wonderful. I don´t sit by my comps because I sit by the members, so she was a little nervous of who to sit by, but that is how you get to know the members is by sitting by them and reaching out. She gave her testimony and did wonderful of course with her perfect German!! :o) President and his Wife were there and they both spoke. Pres. talked about the importance of being one...missionaries and the ward...unity is important. He also told them that by the end of the year we will have 25% less missionaries in our mission. Probably so that those missionaries will be sent to Africa and South America. He talked about how having only one set of missionaries per ward will help get more baptism because it will be more up to the members to find people. Members are the finders and missionaries are the teachers. I can´t wait for the day that that really happens because I can tell you that finding people on our own is not as effective. It works and we find people, but it is not as effective as when it come from a friend of a member. Sister Thompson gave her testimony and she did so great. She doesn´t speak German, but she bore her testimony in German and did so wonderful.
Life is good here...we are still looking for an apartment...the search is slow, but we will find one!!

Well I think that is all the news from the great City of Bremen. Have a great week. I love you!!
Sister Jones