First and before I forget I wanted to let you know of the P-Day changes here in Germany. We Missionaries only receive written mail and packages at Zone Conference, so once a transfer/ once every six weeks. Becasue of this, all mail and packages should be sent to the Mission Office (the address you have) and I'll get it eventually. This does not mean you don't need to write letters. I love letters. Please send them :) But it does mean that the President has given us longer time on the Computer and permission to email friends in addition to family. So if you could, please put on my Facebook this email address and that people can email me if they would like. And Dad, you said in your email you were sorry for writting so much to take up time, don't be sorry and feel free to write me a novel, I'll have time to read it and will love it! (I can also print emails out so I can read it all week long!)
How is everyone doing? I'm doing very well here in Germany! Can you believe I'm here? Sometimes I can't, but then I step outside into the freezing air and know I for sure am not in California anymore so then I believe it. Also, remembering the adventure it was to get here makes me realize it's for reals that I'm here.
On Tuesday morning at 8 I left the MTC for the airport. There was a group of 14 missionaries going to Berlin together, me and 13 Elders. After half of us got through security and were waiting at the gate, a call over the loud speaker came on that said: ,,Will all Missionaries going to the Berlin, Germany Mission please return to the Ticket Counter. Thank you.'' Now boarding for our flight was going to start in 5 minutes so we were a little worried about missing our flight, and boy did we miss it. Turns out that our layover in Amsterdam had canceled the connecting flight to Berlin. We would have been stranded there had we gotten on the plane. The only reason the airport caught the mistake was one Elder arrived late at the airport and they noticed his flight had been canceled. Good thing he was late or maybe I'd still be in Holland! (Missionary Miracle #1.) When we got back to the Ticket counter and learned all of this they said we were going back to the MTC because all flights that had connections to Berlin were full and they needed time to find and schedule a flight for us which may take a day or two. Right after the airport called a bus to come back and get us, however, someone found a flight to Paris with connections to Berlin that had a few openings! (Missionary Miracle #2) They would split the large group up on the flight to Berlin but we'd fly to Paris together that night at 5pm.
The plane was delayed and did not come into SLC untill after 5 though. We did not leave the SLC airport till around 6pm. This long time in the airport gave us plenty of time to eat, rest and start talking to real people! Some of the Elders were so cute going up to everyone and handing out the passalong cards we were given to hand out at the airport. I started talking to a Mom and her 9 year old son. The mom was a recently reactivated member but her son has not been baptized yet. It was fun to talk to them about church and why it's important and the Book of Mormon. We talked for a while and then on the plane they asked for my address so they could wright to me. How sweet :)
When we finally got on the plane, I was sitting next to a Preacher from Benin, Africa. This was Miracle #3 (or #4 depending on if you count talking to a nice family as one, which they were definatly a tender mercy to help me not be so nervous) because I was so nervous to talk to someone on a plane where we would be so close together for 11 hours. If I said something that offfended them or they got angry, there was no where to go. But this Preacher was so nice and we talked on and off about both of our churches and he was very interested that someone as young as me was on a mission leaving everything behind. We exhanged cards, he gave me his business card and I gave him a Mormon.org card, and had a pleasant flight. (Another request- when you are on my Facebook, can you look up Ethan Christiansen (maybe Christianson) who is on a Mission in Benin and give me his email address so I can forward this man's information? Thanks)
Once in Paris we separated and I was in the group with the 7 hour layover. With limited French (the 5ish sentences and words I know) we could not talk to anyone so we sat down to study. We started practicing the lessons and a German lady over heard us and corrected our grammar which was helpful. Then we started reading out of the Book of Mormon outloud to keep us awake. People would stop to listen to us, whether from curiosity on what we read or trying to fingure out which language we were butchering I'm not sure. But they would still stop.
The flight to Berlin was also a little delayed but not too bad. I was too tired to try to talk to the French lady sitting next to me so I tried to read but started dozing in and out becasue I had not slept on the long plane ride and was exhausted. Didn't sleep so well. When we finally got to the airport around 9pm Wednesday evening, the Assistants to the President were there to greet us which was nice. But our bags had not flown with us which was not nice. We went with the APs to look for them and Missionary Miracle #4 was they had come on the flight before us and we found most of them! (all that were still missing were found the next day) all mine were found.
Yay! After getting the lugage we could, we drove to the church building in Berlin, dropped them off and went to the Mission Office to meet the President. His wife fed us dinner (it was now about 11pm) and we had interviews.
Since I was the only Sister, I was going to sleep at the Mission Home with the President and the Elders would go to a Hotel where the other Elders were, but had problems there too. The Hotel had double booked the room so the 3 Elders I was with had to come to the Mission Home too. After we were settled and able to shower, it was about 1:30 in the morning and we were finally able to sleep after more than 31 hours of travel.
Later that morning we woke up (the only day we can sleep in on our missions ;) ) we Missionaries and the President and his Wife went to the Hotel to meet the other Elders. After eating breakfast with them we all went on a field trip! We went to a place called Maur-Platz, meaning place of the wall. It is where the Berlin Wall divided the city and there was no man's land between the sides but now there is a jogging path with pretty trees and a cornfield. We went here and read the dedicatory prayers from Pres. Monson and Pres. Uchtdorf dedicating Germany and Berlin for missionary work and then we went off to say our own prayers to dedicate our mission to the Lord. it was a very spiritual experience where I was able to talk to my Heavenly Father and ask for help and tell him I am here as His servant to bring my Brothers and Sisters to Him and to ask for His help in doing so. After I opened my eyes from my prayer, I saw the cornfield and D and C 4 came into my head ''the field is white already to harvest...'' Germany, prepare yourself! :)
After this field trip we went to meet our trainers!! Yay! New Missionaries here in the Berlin Mission are not called Greenies (that is a swear word around here) but are called Goldens, because their testimonies are all bright and shiney being fresh from the MTC with so much zeal and power, and also becasue gold is maleable and able to be molded for what it is needed. We new missionaries need to be molded to be hard working and dedicated to our calling. Our trainers were given advice to treat us as Gold Plates (as in the days of old where the scriptures were written upon) and that they were the first person to write on us so to choose what they wrote very carefully.
We did not know who our trainers were (well, mine was the only Sister so I knew her name) and when we met the trainers were in a line and we Goldens went and shook all their hands. After meeting everyone, the Goldens sat together and the Trainers together. One at a time the Goldens went up with the President to be claimed by their trainer. The video is my trainer claiming me. It was so fun! The Trainers were just so excited to get a Golden that they litterally jumping over benches to claim them. Then we sat by our companion and had Golden Conference which is a welcome conference, then got a sack lunch and left to our Areas!
My wonderful Trainer's name is Sister F�er (english spelling -Faerber) from Minnesota. She has been here for a year and is super enthusiastic about our area Bremerhaven. This is the farthest Sister City North and the only Sister Area with bikes right now. Of course I'm just thrown into the cold on a bike in a skirt... But it's a harbor so the ocean is there to make me smile. It is so cold here and has rained every day I've been here so far but I love it already! I'm even starting to like my bike :)
Bremerhaven is a Harbor city (Haven = Harbor) so there are boats coming in everyday and fog horns sounding and the smell of the salty ocean is everywhere! It used to be an Elder city but was opened to Sisters a transfer or two ago. Sister F�er and I are the only missionaries here and the area is pretty big. It takes about 2 hours by train to go the whole length. There are lots of little towns but mostly we are in the city of Bremerhaven where the chapel is but will occasionally go to other cities to visit members and find investigators. One picture from Part 1 is the two of us in front of our Chapel. It used to be a Capitan's home and is pretty gorgeous. Church yesterday was so nice, we taught Primary and I got to bear my testimony to the Branch. There are only about 40 members but we'll make it grow! We have 8 people with Baptism dates, two of whom I invited to be baptized!
Friday was my first day as a Missionary here. After we left Golden Conference and hopped on multiple trains to get here, which took about 5-6 hours, it was really late at night. So with jet lag and not much sleep the night before I was pretty much exhausted but we worked hard! We helped an older member with her shopping then had lunch with her and left with a Spiritual thought then we went Street Contacting! My German is good enough that I understand almost everything when a lady speaks but for some reason I can only understand about half of anything men say. Hopefully this improoves soon! We made a few appointments while Street Contacting! I was very surprized actually how many people actually stop and talk to us. There are a few who say ''Nein, danke'' when they hear ''Church (Kirche)'' but most will chat with us a while, take a passalong card or Book of Mormon, and make an appointment. It's great! While walking to an appointment with a recent convert, the blue sky suddenly turned black and it started pouring buckets of rain and peltting us with hail. We had to take cover in an entry way to an apartment building
--moment from the story to explain something. Most people live in apartments here in Germany, next to no one has their own house. And apartments are not opened, you need a key or someone to buzz you in to get to the doors and the mail boxes. On the outside are things called Klingleboxes (bell boxes) with intercoms to talk to people and see if any one will let you inside. It is also surprizing to me how many people talk to you on the Klinglebox, wonderful!--
A lady opened the door to the apartments for us but didn't want to talk anymore so we were just waiting for the rain to pass. I saw the mailboxes and thought ''hey, since we're here, why not give a card to everyone in their mailbox?'' we have special cards here that on the front ask about the meaning of life then on the back invites people to go to the website kirche-jesu-christi.org and then our cell phone number witht the Chapel's address. As soon as I put the last card in the mailboxes, the rain and hail stopped. It was like we didn't hear a prompting to stop at that apartment building so God had to drive us in with the rains! Hehe :) Or just a freak ocean storm but I like my idea better.
After that, we went to our lesson with the new convert and he's doing great! And even has asked us when he can go to the Temple!
Saturday was another day full of appointments and Street Contacting. Remember how President White's setting apart prayer said ''all the languages of my mission'' like 3 times? Well, right now we have investigators in German, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, and Ouldo (like Hindi.) Awesome! One lesson we had today was with a Street Contact who is a man from India and wanted a Book of Mormon in Ouldo! We talked a bit about Bollywood at the beginning of the lesson, knew those would come in handy someday! :) And then taught the first lesson. He was loving everything we were saying and was so happy the learn about Christ and that we can follow him. He accepted the invitation to baptizm and his date is July 15th! Keep him in your prayers that all continues well as we continue to meet with him! As we left he was so thankful to us that he wanted to kiss our feet in gratitude as it's from his culture. It was strange and uncomfortable but at least he was happy, right? Don't think we'll let him try to kiss our feet again next time.
After meeting with him, we went for Abendsbrot (evening bread, their big meal here is lunch and dinner is more of a snack) with a member and her son. They were both nice and we talked about the scriptures and how every member is a missionary. Then we went and visited the cutes Old Lady. Pretty sure she would be best friends with Inger. She is 92 years old and Sister Faerber found her last transfer through the Klinglebox! She loves prayer and reads the Book of Mormon everyday and is sharing it with all her friends. She has gone through so much in her life but says that she now knows it was God's will and that she is beggining to understand why. She's amazing!
Sunday was church and I was nervous to speak in Sacrament meeting but all went well and after Church we had a lunch appointment with a member family and taught a lesson. I didn't talk much during dinner so when I started teaching my half of the lesson they all looked shocked that I talked. After my half and before they let Sister F�er speak again to close the lesson, they all (a family of 8, grandma, grandpa, 2 aunts, uncle, 3 kids) remarked on my German and how impressed that I could speak so well. They even said I didn't have an accent and that I should help my companion with pronunciation. I think that made her feel a little bad but she was happy for me and that gave me confidence to speak more the rest of the day. They also fed us the most delicious carrot cake I have ever eaten, wonderful!
We had a lesson today with someone who reads the Book of Mormon in Arabic. He is so cool! He is only 19 but he lives alone and he also accepted the invitation to baptism! Yay!
The work is going well here, keep Bremerhaven in your prayers. I'm doing well and miss you all but am loving it here. Hope to hear lots from you next week! And I hope Colin Ross improves. Kaden, congrats on making Concert Choir! Sing loud and proud :) Cameron, I hope you have amaying adventures this summer but stay safe and help Mom and Dad. Also Hope you had fun in Germany on your multi-cultural day! Germany is a great place! Cole, glad you enjoyed Gold Rush Day! Enjoy your last bit of school and have fun this summer! I love you Dad, Mom, Kaden, Cameron, and Cole. Also give Trey, Alyssa, Jaren, Paige and Taylee my love! They can email me too if they want! Have a wonderful week!
-Sister Walker
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