Last Day In Bremerhaven‏

Hello Family! 

Yes, the title is corect. I've been transfered. I am leaving Bremerhaven. I don't want to write about that right now or I will cry. Maybe in a few paragraphs...

Mom, I remembered the reason why the rule to only send packages to the Mission Home is there: Transfers. Yup. While customs between the US and Germany are a little strange it can take weeks to get a package if it is too big (I don't know how big is too big, sorry.) and with Transfers the missionary may be in a new city before the package gets to the old one. So, if the package gets sent to the Mission Home, they'll send it to the new city and the missionary will not have to wait maybe months for it to get from the old city to the new one. Hope you haven't sent the package yet, or if you have, hope it's going to the Mission Home or it may be my Christmas Package! Any time I get it I will love it. Letters do not go through customs neither do large envelopes so those can be sent to the address of the city I serve in. 

New Address:

Virchow Strasse 39 (can also write Strasse as Straße) 
03044 Cottbus
Germany

One Sunshine Moment of the week- We were knocking on doors in Cuxhaven on Wednesday and at one door a man answered, didn't seem interested and started to close the door. But when I said something about Family History work, he opened the door wide, grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I was a little scared at first to be honest but then he showed us all the work he has been doing to find his ancestors! He has also been looking for God his whole life and in his overflowing bookshelf of religeous books was The Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ. We were able to share a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon, answer some of his questions, and even showed him Sister Faerber's Pedigree Chart! He asked us to have a new appointment and said that the next time we come we will find his family and God. It was just such an unexpected spontanious visit and the Spirit was there, it just made me smile. The next appointment will be with members from the Branch who know more about Family History. I was also thankful for the 'First 12 Weeks' training program. One of the activities was to get familiar with the Family Search Website and print a Pedigree Chart. Because we did that, we were able to help answer one man's questions! 

This past week we had a Tausch that taught me an important lesson; don't just judge a story from one side. Every story has two sides, each person has their points of view. In order to truely understand events and make proper decisions and ideas, one should gather information and then sort it out, not just make snap decisions. This is something that I have been working on for a while, trying to understand Investigators, and a renewed effort since Tausch. I am not to judge, but am to be wise in what I think and do. The Tausch was fun! I tried to send you an email especially about it with a video, I don't know if the video was able to go through or not though. 

OK. I think I can talk about Transfers now. Transfer calls were a big conference call on Saturday with every missionary in my mission and President Kosak makes it like a mini fireside with a Spiritual thought and then goes through city by city one zone at a time saying the new companionships. Then on Tuesday we go to our new city and get to work. I was not expecting to leave. Nope. I thought Sister Faerber and I would stay together one more transfer and then she would leave. When my name was one fo the first read I started to cry. Not only am I leaving Bremerhaven, but I'm making the farthest transfer, all the way to the Polish boarder almost! I am very sad to be leaving the wonderful people here in Bremerhaven but am excited to serve God's children in Cottbus! Saying good-bye to the Branch and investigators, and especially to Sister Faerber, was ,and will be, hard but I am greatful that the Lord trusted me enough to help those here. My hope is that they continue to progress in the Gospel and that in the future or in the next life we can rejoice together both parties being closer to God. Today is my last day here, I'm enjoying every last minute of it. Then tomorrow morning I will get on a train by my self and head to Cottbus, about 7 hours away. My new companion is from Switzerland, Sister Neukomm. I'm a little nervous for the new dialect, no more Hoch Deutsch but Saxisch Deutsch and a companion who speaks Swiz Deutsch. Dialects here are much more complicated than a simple accent like in America. It really is like a new language. There are dictionaries between Hoch Deutsch (normal German, Kaden will learn this in CHS) and the others. Woo-Hoo! This is what the blessing meant by learning all the languages necissary I think. 

I know President Kosak is called of God so I know the Lord wants me in Cottbus now, but I will miss everyone here. It's not fun saying good-bye. Auf Wiedersehen is better, it means till we meet again. Church yesterday was sad. Lots of people in the Branch got teary eyed and I was asked to give a farewell testimony. Ya'll saw my farewell talk, my testimony wasn't much better. I am most sad about leaving Sister Faerber. Being with a girl 24/7 is a little hard but with Sister Faerber it wasn't as hard as it could have been. We worked well as a team and had fun together. She taught me so much and her example has been a wonderful influence to me. I hope someday I will be able to Train so that I can help someone like she has helped me. 

Pictures: Lasagna Ice Cream and on a train, I thought I looked a little pretty so I'm being conceaded and sending it to you. I think I like Spagehtii Ice cream more than Lasagna in case you were wondering. And also me with the Branch President's daughters AKA the Branch's only Young Women. They are such sweet girls, the two oldest are twins (long hair is Allyson, short hair is Abigail, and the little one is Tanalee) 

Kaden, Cameron and Cole- Have a great first day at school!! You are all so big and I know you'll do great! Make good friends and be nice to everyone. I'm so proud of you all! Thank you for your letters, I am writting you back :] 

Mom, you are such a great Missionary! When people call you Sister Walker, that's your missionary title too. That's one thing I think is cooler about Sister Missionaries than Elders because we always are called by our missionary title, we can always remeber that we are missionaries. Every member is a missionary and you did great work! Have you heard any more about him? Did you give him the missionaries number? I'm proud of you! 

Dad, take it easy with your back! Have you gone to the chiropractor? Be careful. Thank you for the picture of Jeremy and Kendelyn (spelling? I forgot) They look so happy! Thank you for comparing me to Abish, she is one of my favorite people in the scriptures. I will have to go read that article, we get the Liahona not the Ensign, do you think it's in there? Thank you for your example to me Dad. 

Alyssa, all the pictures you sent me are so cute! Loved how Paige matched your belt, that was cute. I would love pictures for my book! Just the normal size picture fits in my album, don't remeber the dimentions. 

Trey, two weeks!!! WOO-HOO!!!!! :D!! 

I love you all, have a great day! 

Liebe Grüße, 
Sister Walker

Tausch with MTC companion

Tausch = Exchange 

This past week I was able to do an exchange with the girl who was supposed to be my MTC companion had I not been fast tracked. Her name is Sister Diederich, is from Salt Lake City, dances on the UofU dance team and loves Disney. She is being trained in the city of Kiel and I was able to go there. We had so much fun! The video is of old elevators in the Kiel City Hall. We rode on them and they do not stop. It's kind of scary to hop on and hop off. Dad, you would have to duck in them too because they are short. But fun. It was great meeting her and helping her with her German. I am glad that I was able to meet her after all and I hope that we'll be able to see eachother again somewhere along the line of our missions! 

Sister Burde

I just wanted to introduce you to Sister Burde. I know I've talked about her before but this is a Burde Email. 

She is a convert of 17 years and every week of these 17 years she buys the Missionaries groceries and lunch and every other week makes them a steak dinner. It costs betweek 50€ adn 70€ a week. Thats over 44,000€. Holy Cow!! To say thank you, most companionships make her a present, like a Liahona, a covered wagon, and a Chrsitmas Tree. (all from elders) Sis Faerber and I wanted to make her something too so we made her 'the book of burde' where we took pictures of Christ and put her in them and then each picture went with a scripture that we put her name in. She loved it :] Made me happy. She is my German Oma (Grandma) and I will miss her. She gave me a little Teddy Bear to say good-bye, it was so cute! 

Another Zone P-Day

Hello family! 

Dad- the Chapel is in a part of northern Bremerhaven, about a 7 minute walk from my apartment, an hour walk or half hour bus ride from city center. City center is where we find most of our contacts and investigators. Most of our members live in the city Cuxhaven which is an hour drive by car about 50 minutes by train and 2ish hours by bus. Yes it is quite a distance for people to travel by German standards but I think it is good too. If people are really commited they will find a way and be blessed. It is hard for some but always worth it. Thomas rides his bike 45 minutes then has 30 minutes on a train to get to church and he comes pretty frequently, almost every week when the weather is not stormy. That's sacrifice right there but he loves church and always feels the spirit so he keeps coming. It's right across the street from a huge park, Speckenbüttel Park. Most people know it, so finding the church is no problem, the big white building in SPeckenbüttel with a big sign that says "Kirche Jeus Christi der Heiligen der letzten tage" is generally hard to miss. 

Mom- you can send packages to my apartment too. I don't remember the reason I said not to so feel free to send it to the same address as the wonderful letters! I have gotten 4 so far, yours, Dad's, Cam and Cole's. replies are being written. Thank you for them! Each day I've gotten one has been a little brighter. :) Thank you. 

Parents- I have an idea for you to do for Trey, ask someone to write, or record to write later, his setting apart blessing so he can read it on his mission. Sister Faerber's friend wrote hers down and she reads it all the time and it helps her. I tried to write down mine after but I forgot a lot of it. Just an idea. 

Trey- You will be going into the MTC soon!!! AAHHH!!!! I was writting the dates in my new planner and you will become a missionary this next transfer! (middle of my 3rd transfer!) I don't know if every mission does this, maybe ask dad if he did, but here we decorate our planners with a theme that we want to focus on that transfer. My trainer decorated my first planner with theme of trusting in God and learning to balance all things, good advice for beginning of mission! The second one I did, with hold on to the rod so everytime I look at my planner (multiple times a day)  I remember to be 100% obediant and think over the end goal and also with a verse from "I'll go where you want me to go" that has the line "ill be what you want me to be. Well, for this next transfer, I won't be the only missionary in this family any more! How exciting!! We both get to share in the spot light of the title "Missionary." I have the 1st article of faith and when I think of the "we believe", that's you and me, we both believe in god our eternal father and in his son jesus christ and in the holy ghost so we are out serving his other children to help them remember this belief. (Dad- your spiritual thought about the spirit reminding us of what we already knew has been on my mind this week, what good syncronization! Thank you for it) Also on my planner is a picture of theRome temple and elders on bikes. It's a bit premature but it's coming time to say "Welcome to the field Elder Walker!!" Congrats on teaching Su nday School too, scary but it will be great practice! 

This is all I have time for again since it's Zone Pday once again (the junior copms creamed the seniors today at soccer thank you! I made 3 goals and was goalie!!) 

I love you all, thank you for the letters, youll get my reply soon. 

-Sister Walker

Schöne Grüße von Bremerhaven!‏

Hello Family! 

Just wondering, can you see the German characters when I type them? The ä, ö, ü, ß? And in case you're wondering the ß makes the "ss" sound. When there are two s' in a word people use the - ß - (example street = Strasse = Straße) Hope you have enjoyed your German lesson of the day. 

Sunshine Moment of the Week: (This was something my Mission President asked me to do in my Emails to him, highlight a Sunshine Moment. I thought it was a great idea so I've been doing it in your emails too.) 
In Zone Conference and District Meetings lately a lot of emphisis on Street Lessons is being made. A Street Lesson is just what it sounds like, giving a lesson to someone right there on the street and not waiting till another day for a formal appointment. A Street Lesson includes asking them if they have a few minutes right then to talk,  1 or more points from a lesson in Preach My Gospel, both campanions bearing testimony, asking questions, and leaving them a commitment, generally setting up an appontment follows as well. These are very effective because having to people with nametags talking to you on the street asking for your address to talk about Jesus is a little strange. But if we take the time to get to know them a little and give them to opprotunity to feel the Spirit, we start forming a relationship right then on the street and their journey to get closer to God starts right away. We are having a lot of success from these! The German People are open to talking but still private so lessons right then and there are great ice breakers and a good foundation. We try to have a goal of at least one Street Lesson a day and most of the time get more than one! This week two lessons in particular stood out to me. 
One was with a man named Dieter. We were walking home at the end of the day and he was standing at the bottom of an apartment building just smoking his cigarette when we went up and just wanted to give him a card because it was getting late. As we started to walk away he asked us, "Wait, do you really believe in God?" Which then we went back to him and answered his question, then his next one and his next one... We ended up teaching him the whole Plan of Salvation right there! He didn't want a Book of Mormon then and said he'd look on the website and call us for an appointment. So the ending was not ideal, but the Spirit was there and Sister Faerber and I did a good job taking turns answering his questions, so we felt good about that Street Lesson and hoped he would think about what we said. Well, that was at the beginning of the week. Then yesterday, guess who showed up to Church?! Dieter! He said he had been thinking about what we said and he wanted to learn more. Wow! Sister Faerber was talking with another investigator who was at Church so I was alone answering his questions about what he heard in Sacrament Meeting. He wanted to know about our Church President and more about what we believe. So I told him about Prophets and Joseph Smith's First Vision and how we came to get the Book of Mormon. He didn't take a Book of Mormon but he did take one of every pamphlet we had saying he wants to read them before the big book. I hope he does read them and that the desire to learn more burns in his heart. 
The other SL that stood out this week was also with someone we spoke to on our way home. His name is David. He was raised a Jehova's (this is the German spelling, is it English too? I don't know...) Witness but didn't believe all of it. As we explained  and showed pictures of the Book of Mormon he exclaimed quite happily "Why haven't I heard about this before?!" He listened to all we said and took the Book of Mormon and started reading it right there on the street!! I hope he continues to read and then prays about it. 
Another wonderful moment is we ran into Andreas on the street! We were able to give him a SL too and he said he wants to start meeting with us again!! YAY!! Que song: "Our God is an awesome God, He reighns from heaven above..."
The Gospel is True! Don't forget that. 

For P-Day last week we went to the Klima Haus (Climate House). This has to be the coolest museum in the world! Each room is a different city that is on the same longitude line as Bremerhaven, 8°East. It goes all around the world, Switzerland where we milked "cows" and climbed the Alps, Italy where we learned about their weather, Africa in the Sahara desert, then a rainforest in Africa, Antartica, Samoa, Alaska then back to Bremerhaven. Each room was not only decorated and had films about the places but the climate was there too! In the desert it was so hot (about 40° C) then in the rainforest it was humid and gross, Antartica was freezing and there was a glacier, samoa was humid again but a good warm, Alaska pretty perfect... it was SO COOL!! 

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! 25 years, that's longer then I've been alive! (hehehe....) And it's only the start. Thank you both for being such wonderful examples to me. I want my marriage to be like yours. Thank you for saying you love eachother in front of us kids. We may have been grossed out at times, but when I see families that don't say that, it's sad and the family is not as strong. 

Dad, thank you for the music! Sister Faerber was teaching me how to play this song and having the music would help do that :]. Your talk sounds like ti was very good and inspiring, you'll have to give it again when I can hear it, you know when I come home in 5 years. I'm sorry your back still hurts, what did you do? Mom, I've been thinking a lot about Young Womens lately because we have 2 girls who are 17 that we've taught and I see the girls that age walking around the street adn I think how much they need Young Womens. It really does set girls ont he right path in this scary worold. I'm greatful for it and think it is the most important age to hear the Gospel. Keep up the good work teaching the Young Women! 

Speaking of teaching, I taught the Theme, lesson, in the last District Meeting. It was a little intimidating teaching other missionaries especially since I'm still a Golden, but it went well and was fun! I taught about John 15:4-6 and how the lost sheep aren't talking about bringing new investigators into the Fold, but keeping the sheep in the Fold in. It went rather well I thought. I used Pres Hinckley's address about how missioanary work is pointless if there is no retention of converts. Sister Faerber and I have been more activly trying to contact less actives this week, wish us luck! 

To answer a question I think Kaden asked, No I have not played the piano in Church yet because Sister Faerber is so good but in 2 weeks (on the 24th) we are having a fireside and S Faerber will accompany the choir on the piano and I will on the organ. I'm playing the organ. ORGAN!! AHHH!!!! :] It's an arrangement of Called to Serve. I Will try to have someone record it so I can send it to you. 

Boys here are some ideas on how not to be bored this summer: 
1-write me a letter and send it in the mail. 
2- color me a picture and send it in the mail
3- read the book of mormon and high light every time it talks about Jesus (every Christ, Savior, he, him, I.....) 
4- get a book of mormon, write your tetimony in it and give it away
5- make cookies for Sister Hughes,
6- deliver said cookies
7- practice the piano

I love all of you and hope you all have a wonderful rest of the summer! Be safe especially in the pool! Lyssa, have fun up in Utah! I love you and your family too! 

- Sister Walker

Spiritual Thought- from an Ensign article titled "Our Savior the Master Teacher" By someone that I forgot who. Jesus Christ went through the veil when he was born just like we did. He was able to develop a perfect faith in God and the Plan and He needed to study the scriptures just like we do. We are already more like Christ than I realized. We can continue to become like Him.

PPS- Mom, you'll need to buy that Bollywood work out DVD. I'm gaining weight. Stupid yummy bread, potatoes, and chocolate... 

Hello Family

Hello! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. It was an exciting week last week here in Bremerhaven and pictures say more than words, hope you heard them all!

One Sunshine Moment this week was with a man named Helmut Bertram. He is the one who wrote his recipes in secret code and was a part of the rescue team "Christof 6." He said in an appointment we had that he doesn't really pray because he doesn't see answers. This week, Herr Bertram went into the Hospital for a few days. We thought it would be nice to visit him if we had time and planned to only drop in to say hi and leave a spiritual thought. When we got to the Hospital on Saturday, his face lit up when he saw us and tears came to his eyes. He said that he had been so lonely these past few days in the Hospital and had tried to call family to visit him but no one came. When no one came, he said he prayed to God for comfort and then we came a few hours later. He called us the answer to his prayer and now can see God does answer prayers. I feel blessed and grateful that a simple visit was an answer to a prayer. We were also able to read almost a whole chapter of the Book of Mormon together and it gave him a desire to continue reading! 

Margarete Schnackenberg (the 92 year old lady, this is how to spell her name. Pretty sure I misspelled it in every other email) also called us an answer to her prayers! She has a nurse that comes everyday to help her clean and shower and shop and all that jazz but her nurse in on vacation for 2 weeks and the replacement nurse doesn't take the time to do more than give her her medicine and take the trash out on the way out the door. She is too frail to go grocery shopping alone so her nurse bought her what she thoght would be enough food for 2 weeks but Margarete ran out on Saturday and the nurse does not come back till Tuesday. We called her to confirm an appointment and she asked us for help which we were more than happy to do! She said that we truley do come from God. We also showed her the Jospeh Smith First Vision movie as part of a lesson and sweet Margarete said as soon as it was done "that was a wonderful movie, I loved seeing the cows and the sheep and the birds." We will be watching this movie again and making sure she notices the important people this time :] 

On Friday we had President interviews in Hamburg! Because my Zone is so small, only 10 of us total!, we join the Hamburg Zone for Interviews and the Hannover Zone for Zone Conference. It's fun for us becasue we get to see lots of other missionaries! Bad thing is we have to travel a long time to get there. But after a 3 hour train ride and my District was able to ride the last hour together, we were in Hamburg around 9am. We were the last ones to have our interviews so while we were waiting we played "Telephone Pictanary." Such a fun game. Everyone is in a circle and wrote a scripture on a piece of paper. then we passed the papers and had to illistrate the written scripture, folded the written scripture backwards to pass the paper again and the 3rd person had to write a sentance desiphering the picture. and thenthe next illistrates and so on till the paper is full. then you read all the sentances and see how far off from the origional scripture we got! I will have to send you some of the pages, they are amazing. Example- starting scripture 'o be wise, what can i say more' ending 'and it came to pass capitan hook accepted the book of mormon from two american navy officers' :D!! hahaha! so fun! and good object lesson on mistranslations of bible hehe. 

Before lunch we had lessons from President and Sister Kosak which were very good and inspiring, then lunch where I got to see some elders from my Golden Group including my MTC companion Elder Duff! It was so fun and I felt a little like Alma the Younger rejoicing that my bretheren (sons of mosiah) were still doing well and preaching the Gospel! We all were exchanging stories and ideas for finding that I almost didn't eat lunch! Then they left and my District got to wait some more. 

We had a meeting with the Assistants to the President then sang some hymns, then were so itching to do something meaningful that we decided to go street contacting! It was so fun to do it in a new city and see the Elders working hard! Sister Faerber and I were able to place a Book of Mormon even! About 30 minutes into our contacting it started pouring rain (we placed the Book of Mormon in the rain, it got wet but is still wonderful!) so we headed back to the Church building for more waiting. We sang more songs and made a cake in the microwave and read some scriptures and played chess. Around the time we started with the cake we started getting called in one at a time. 

Because it was the first Interview with the new President they were taking longer than expected, which was OK by us. I was the very last to be Interviewed and we had a nice little chat. I was able to ask him my questions and receive his personal council that I am taking to heart and seeing the blessings already. President Kosak only asked me one question after the 'how are yous' because he wanted the interview to help me so I asked most of the questions. But the one question he asked me, I was not expecting. He asked me if I was ready to be a Trainer. 

Honestly I was not expecting a question like that since I am still a Golden but thinking about it made me realize that being new is no excuse not to be ready. I have pondered what I still need to do to be ready and there is a lot but now that I've seen what I need to do, I can start doing it! Patience is still something I need to work on and in conjunction with that, this week I am focusing on my self accountablility. Sister Faerber is great and wonderful but I can't keep waiting for her to always take the lead. I can be an equal companion and learn by experiance as much as I can learn by her example. I have made new personal goals to make myself a more exactly obediant missionary and more self diciplined to be ready to confidently accept responciability if it is ever asked of me. 

I'm glad you all had a good week! 

Trey, did you get my birthday card? If not, look for it soon! I'm glad you had a fun party! It's important since you had an important birthday 19!! wooo-hoo!! Guess what? 1 month and 6 days till you go into the MTC!! I'm sure Dad will give you all his wise council as he did to me but if you have any questions for me, I'd be more than happy to answer them! 

Kaden, way to hit on a College girl! Hehe ;] Did you get her number? tehehe... It's so happy that you enjoyed EFY! Keep growing your Testimony. I was thinking, you're 14 right? The same age as Joseph Smith when he had the first vision. Can you imagine that? If you keep studying the scriptures and saying your prayers and doing all you are, you can have the same knowlege as Joseph Smith. You probably won't have a vision, but keep nurturing your testimony and it will be as strong as if you had. 

Cam, you looked like a movie star sitting on the Horse at Scout camp! Congratulations on earning hard merit badges!! You rock dude! What was your favorite part of Scout Camp? Was it fun to have Dad there? Do you have anything else fun this summer? It's almost over so I hope you do! 

Cole, if you're ever bored at home again, you can always write me a letter! I will write you back! Did you have fun with Mom? Which restaraunts did you go to? SOmething else you can do this summer is make a goal to finisih the Book of Mormon before school starts. I'm trying to finish it in German before October, maybe you can finish it in English before school or before your birthday! 

Mom and Dad, I love you! Thanks for your emails, they always lift me up. I do have one more request for you as well, can you please email me the scanned music to "Waterfall" and "Home in His Heart?" Thanks! 
I have a question for you as well, I know you are praying for me and I am for you too, but how do I feel your prayers? People always say they feel others prayers for them, what does it feel like. I've been thinking about that but havent thought of an answer yet. 
How are the Olympics? I heard Mary Poppins was in them? I hope all is going well and rememebr that I love you. Thank you for your examples to me.. Dad in responce to a few emails ago, I never get tired of you saying you love mom, it makes me want to marry someone who loves me that much. It's a great example, thank you. 

Love you all! 
-Sister Walker

PS- letters in the mail are a great little pick me up! my address in  case you forgot it is

Alter Postweg 28
27578 Bremerhaven
Germany

:]

More Fun Pictures

Hello Family! I wanted to send you some pictures of my past week before I write my letter. 

 The first is the SmartCar van! Mom, you said i would regret getting a smart car because it wouldn#t be practicle if i get married soon after coming home, so maybe I'll get the van :] 

 second- last P-day we did end up going to the beach in Cuxhaven with the family that was baptized in Celle, the family that sister Faerber taught. They came and we had a blast! We were also blasted by sand. But after we ate our picnick the wind stopped and we were able to play with them and their 3 dogs. Guess the weather wanted us to be sure to have sand in our sandwiches. Thanks weather. This family is  so cool! The dad is in the British army and met his wife while stationed here. Their kids, Nathaniel and Emma, are 8 and 5 and so cute. Emma said something that just melted my heart: "Did you know that we lived with God before we came to Earth? I miss God so much that sometimes I want to die so I can see Him again." The mom, Vanessa, is in the picture too and she is awesome! Such a dedicated mom and wants what's best for her family. The dad, Phil, is working towards getting the Priesthood so he can baptize Nathaniel! I would love if I get to serve in Celle to get to know them even more. They said they hope I do come there!

the third- the nastiest slugs ever. This is not even the biggest we've seen! when it rains (about every day...) the slugs come out like the worms at home. I would rather have worms. I thought one was a stick and stepped on it and got slug guts all on my shoe and leg. gross

 Sister faerber and I have a goal to take one picture together a day. This day we had forgotten to take one so right before bed we took this gem. our mustaches are some padding from our helmets and the little green bible was a gift to us from a crazy turkish lady. last week she came up to us on the street and asked if we were mormons and then asked if she could have a book of mormon. that was pretty great and we pretty much had her baptism planned when we went over to deliver the book. then when we got there she showed us her collection of religious books. she has about 50 different books explaining different religions. when we taught her how to pray to know which of these churches and religions was right, she taught us how to pray like the catholics, the Lutherans, and the muslims. dont think shes quite ready for baptism yet... but she wanted to help us find god too, how thoughtful of her, so she gave us these bibles.

 that's me, a golden. we went to Hamburg for President interviews this week and my District Leader (my mission dad) said I needed to follow our family tradition and take a picture as a golden by this sign. this tradition goes back 5 or 6 mission generations. he was so proud that his 'daughter' was the first sister to be a part of the tradition!

President interviews took all day long and I was the very last person to be interviewed. we got there around 9am and I wasnt interviewed till 5pm. after lunch and a few themes,  or lessons, the group of us that still had to wait went to talk to people on the street in Hamburg! It was so fun to see other companionships out and working! sister faerber and I found this street and I wanted to show Pa, Dad, and Trey :] Richard-Straße! Richard- Street!