First Cottbus p-day‏

Hello Family! 

It's that time again, P-Day letter writting time! This week I was pleasantly surprized by getting emails from Amy Tucker and Todd Pommerville! Made me very happy :] Writing and reading emails is like a 2 hour pause to recouperate, feel loved, and to be strengthened from home so I can do by best the rest of the week. Thank you all! 

Cottbus is bigger than Bremerhaven, and yes Dad I do believe that city you asked about is in my area. It goes from Near Lipzig across to Poland! One of the cities is half in Poland, half in Germany. Kind of funny! I want to share my email that I got from my Mission President this week: 

"Dear Sister Walker, 

Wonderful letter. Thank you so much. You will love Cottbus. It's my home ward - I was a bishop there. Teach the Gospel in purity there. 
May the Lord bless you.

President Kosak"

Yup. No presure there! His in-laws live here too. We are actually going to spend P-Day with them in a big park called Spree Wald. I hear it's beautiful. I will send you pictures next week if it is. There is a Ward here with an actual Church building! I was so excited to see it. Next step: make Cottbus it's own Stake. We can do it :] Probably will take more than one transfer, maybe in two. Hehehe. The German here is not as bad as the people in the North made it sound. More like the dialect in Gelsenkirchen where I did my exchange. They pronounce the "ch" differently but that's about it. Every now and then some one speaks in Saxisch and I can hardly understand but that's only a few people. Swiss German is funny to listen to, Sis Neukomm is determined to teach me some, we'll see how that goes. 

Sis Neukomm is great! She has been out for a little over a year and is not wanting to go home. She has a little depression so the doctors and Pres Kosak told her she needs to sleep in and do some things a little differently. It's a little hard for me to wake up early alone, and be the one who gets us out the door but I can for sure see the Lord's hand in helping me be patient and understanding. I also have thought back to how roommates have prepared me in some ways for companions. I feel like I am being taught how to be self diciplined more, which is great. Also a plus is I get 3 hours of personal study a day. One can never have too much personal study! I love learning about my Savior and I hope that I will be able to love the people of Cottbus as He would. Another plus of being her companion, my German is improving very much! 

I am glad to hear that you all had a good week. Trey NINE DAYS LEFT!!! WOO-HOO!! I am soooo excited for you!! You will be a wonderful missionary :] I hope this week is wonderful and that you all will have fun in school, work and play. I love you all! 

Love, Sister Walker