So I have to tell you Mom and Dad, when I first signed into my email there were no new emails in my inbox. My first thought was to be sad that you forgot about me then second thought was that something bad happened to you guys and you couldn't email. There is only one computer at the church so we can only email one at a time and this week it was Sister F�er's turn to go first. Whoever is going second prints out their emails first and reads them while the other is writting theirs and then after the first person's 2 hours are up we switch. Since I was second to write, first to print but your emails hadn't come in yet I spent 2 hours coming up with horrible things that might have prevented you from writing to me or forgetting about me. Each one just kept getting more and more terrible so what a relief when I saw your emails when I logged on again! (The scenario I thought of that was most likely was that Disneyland's Jungle Cruise decided to add real animals and make a mini Animal Kingdom like in Florida and you all went on it to try it out but the animals revolted so you were all climbing up the pole with the Rhino under it and were the new subjects to the "I think they get the point" joke. ;] )
But it did make me realize how much I look forward to your emails each week. Missionary work is hard, just like I expected and everyone said, but I never thought I would miss you all so much. I've never been homesick before so I don't really know why I have gotten homesick here, it's a strange feeling. Not sure I like it. Mom, this first picture made me think of you and when we were in Denmark together. Do you remember all the little elves? Here is a very large one in my city! You can walk under the legs it is so tall.
And Dad the second picture is of Innenstadt, kind of like main street, and it was just decorated for tourist season with flags from around the world and the Paraguay flag is there! (at least I think it's there... I thought I saw it) And seeing that made me think of you and wish I could call to get some mission advice.
And then Trey, Italy beat Germany in the European Cup on Friday so there were a lot of Italian flags and celebrations all over the city which made me think of you. Kaden, I saw someone that had a shirt that said "That's Right, I'm Awesome" on it and it reminded me of you. Cameron, I saw a huge metal shield for sale that would match your sword and wanted to buy it for you but I couldn't think of a way to send it home and it was expensive. And Cole, before I came to be a missionary here, there were Elders in the city of Bremerhaven. One of those Elders was named Nicholas Walker. Everyone in the Branch here asks me if I have a brother named Nicholas all the time! It's kind of funny :] We have a family in the ward who has little girls the same ages as Paige and Taylee and it's fun to see them and then think about the Miller Family.
Now I'm done being homesick. I refuse to be homesick any more. I still look forward to your emails though. And just saying but a surprise letter in the mail would be fun too... I got my first (and only) Post last P-Day! It was from one of the Sisters in my MTC District! She is serving in Japan right now, I sent you pictures of her, Sister Julander. So if mail from Japan can get to Germany, I'm pretty sure mail from America can too... Just saying... ;]
This week has been full of surprizes, mostly good though. Last P-Day was fun at the Zoo to answer your question Mom. I did feel bad for the animals though because it was so cold and it is an open air Zoo. Some of the animals just looked so depressed. But the Polar Bears were just great! After free time we had a lesson with a Turkish man named Halil. He is so funny. Sister F�er and her companion before me found him and we've been teaching him. We went over the 1st vision on Monday and he was reading the Turkish pamphlet and understood it and was translating it into German for us (in case we didn't know it...) and then acted it out! It was so cute! He is about 50 years old and it was so fun seeing him excited! My favorite part was when he knelt on the floor and said "He saw two people, TWO not one!!; above him in the air, ABOVE! Not on the ground!" He said yes to baptism but didn't set a date becasue he wants his wife to join too and she's never met with the missionaries. (She lives in Bremen, he only comes to Bremerhaven to work then goes back home. We're trying to get her address to refer her to the Elders in Bremen)
We had three different people come up to us this week and all said "Hey, I didn't know there were female Elders too!" It was very funny. One of these people, we set up an appointment with and it was actually the perfect example of the worst appointment ever. He had met with the Elders a little before and lives on our street. When we got there we wanted to find out how far the Elders had taught him since they didn't make a teaching record so we didn't know before. Turns out they didn't teach him anything. Not for lack of trying I'm sure, but he refuses to learn. We gave him a Book of Mormon and tried to explain it and read from it but he only wanted to talk about where exactly Mormons believe Christ's Second coming will be. Like exact street, exact. He just had the vibe of argument all around him and the Spirit was no where in a 5 block radius pretty much. So not good. Then when we realized it was pointless trying to change the topic from Jesus' address we asked him to say the closing prayer and he turned on some super scary chanting rap prayer CD so we just left and he just laughed. Eww.
Most of the Branch members live in a town called Cuxhaven which is an hour away by train, they are wonderful and come to Church and other meetings but it is hard to go visit them. But we did plan to go up after District Meeting on Wednesday. And Dad, we do have District Meeting every Wednesday except when we have Zone Conference. I love District meeting too! We meet in Oldenburg for DMs, where one set of Elders (Zone Leaders) serve. It is kind of in the middle of our District but still takes 2+ hours to get there with bus changes and trains. But this week it was fun because on the last bus transfer, we got on the same bus as the other Elders! We were all excited to be on the bus and to talk to eachother that we missed the bus stop for the Church where we meet. Not by one stop, but by 5! It was funny. The 3rd picture is Elders Primus (nicknames Optimus Primus) and Myrabo at the stop 5 stops late. Next time we'll pay better attention :]
Every DM we all bring food to share. This past week was a baking competition with the recipe "Chubby Sisters Brownies." I think our DL Elder Jones is trying out the warning that if you eat too many you'll turn into a Chubby Sister. So far no transformation. But we'll wait and see a bit longer. hehe.
On Thursday we volunteer at a place called "Die Tafeln" which is like a grocery store soup kitchen. Grocery Stores donate almost expired food and those on welfare can come get it. It is really neat I think. Our job is to sort the fruits and veggies to make sure they are still good. All the people that work there are super nice and a lot have started discussions about the Church with us! It's so cool. When we were leaving this past week, they gave us roses and insisted on giving us some food too to say thank you for the help. Between their food and then shopping with Schwester Burde ( I told you about her last week right?) we do not need to go shopping for ourselves this week and have more food than our fridge can hold. It's pretty funny but nice since we have to buy lots of train tickets this week.
On Saturday we had a Street stand in Inninstadt and two of the YSAs came with us to help. In German the translation of YSA is JAE which is Junge Allin Ert. which litterally translates into young alone adults. I think that is worse than single! We want to get more of the YSAs to our next one in two weeks but this one was a success with just us 4! We gave away 6 Books of Mormon in a half hour! It was wonderful! And also tons of the little business cards that have the website and church address on them. One miracle, someone came to the Musical Fireside that night after being invited at the street stand! The Musical Fireside went very well. We had 3 non members come and they all enjoyed it! My song went well, I messed up a little and sang one line in English (oops) but other than that it was good. This coming Saturday I'll be singing in one again in the city Celle. I made cookies for the Musical Fireside and the Branch here had never had a chocolate chip coookie before! (Cam you should come make some for them!) They dont even sell chocolate chips in regular super markets here so I broke up candy bars and used chocolate sprinkeles. Still tasted good though! Germans also have strange brown sugar, it's in grains like white sugar not moist like ours so the cookies were a little different but not bad.
The baptisms on Sunday didn't go through. But both Thomas and Andreas are still wanting it and meeting with us so soon! Just not yet. I need to be patient... But they both have a testimony so now they just have to choose when to act on it. And need the courage to act on it. But they will. :]
I Hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you! And next email I'll tell you about my new Mission President! Dad, your song insight made me cry, I need to go see if that song is in the German Hymn book. and Cam, if you want a not so scary Agatha Christie book, she has a little series called Hercule Paroit (sp?) and also Miss Marple and those aren't as scary as "And Then there were None." The ones I have are in my box in the Garage too.
Love you all!
-Sister Walker
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