Hallo Leibe Familie!
(in case you didn't catch it, I was quoting JFK when he called himself a Jelly Donut in Berlin. The people here still joke about it.)
First off, I am sorry that I did not email yesterday. On Saturday night we got a call from the APs saying that two members of the 70 were coming and wanted to interview all the Sisters in our mission that coming Monday. So all of Monday was waiting for my turn to interview. I was the last of 45 Sisters. How cool is that? 45 Sisters!! Elder Teixeirn (spelling?) and Elder Richards came to ask about Sisters perspectives on a few things. They told me at the emd that I was a wonderful missionary and that the Lord was pleased with my work. They probably told that to everyone, but it still made me feel good :]. It was fun being will alll 45 Sisters though. It did take all day. We left our house at 7am and didn't get back till almost 8pm. President gave us permission to change our plans to make PDay anyother day and we are actually so busy that we will take 2 hours of PDay a day this week! Will be interesting, but good I guess.
Hmmm, how was my week? Well... I left Cottbus, got to Berlin, said good-bye to all the finishers, and then Sister Curtis and I moved into a huge apartment that had no food and no Area Books (which I consider to be very important in Missionary Life.) But it has been an adventure. We live the next street over from the Mission Office, so when you send packages, I will be able to get them right away, I won't have to wait till Zone Conference. My new address is
Sondershauser Strasse 58
12249 Berlin
Germany
Our first day we unpacked a little, made a list of things the apartment needed and then found our way to the office and then to the grocery store and back home. Our apartment is pretty huge. I thought Cottbus was a huge apartment. Each companionship has their own room and the kitchen is giant! The study room is bigger than our front room and we have a dining room, a closet room, and a balcony. It's in the same complex as the missionary couples who work in the office which is kind of fun!
No, Sister Curtis and her companion (Sister Munford) are not in my Ward. They work in the area of Neu Kölln and are actually moving to an apartment there at the end of this transfer. We will be gatting a new apartment too but don't know when that will be. I'd be OK to stay in this aparmtnet for a long time though :] It is fun having 4 Sisters. We have differnet scheduals becasue of our different areas so we only see eachother at night really which makes it hard to go to bed on time. Especiaally last night when 2 other Sisters slept over between the Interviews and Zone Conference which was today. To try to help everyone go to bed on time, I sing a lullaby when we are on time, when not on time then no song. WOrks pretty well actually.
And I was mistaken, the APs are not in my Ward but there are two Elders there (Carter and Gleason) and the two missionary couples (the Gibsons and the Beezleys). President and SIster Kosak switch off which ward they go to, mine or the next one over- Dahlem. The Elders are pretty helpful and gave us most of their women investigators. They also help us find our way around which is helpful becasue Berlin is HUGE. The map is rediculous. I have never seen a larger, more complex map in my life. It is about as thick as the 3rd hHarry Potter book. When you open the cover, you pull in out sideways and it unfolds 10 times, into 10 sectiopns of a map. Each section then folds out 6 times. Lankwitz is more of a suburb (like Claremont to LA) so it's not right in downtown (that is Teirgarten, our Stake center) but there are still huge high rise apartment buildings and over a quarter million people in our boundries. (which touch Cottbus' boundries actually which is kind of funny.) One of my pictures is from the 19th story of an apartment building we Klingled. There are always people out on the streets which is nice for us. We are still working on finding our own investigators but now we are exploring and doing Member reactivation with the single sisters in the ward.
In Church on Sunday the ward was so cute to us! Each prayer said "and Father we thank Thee for the SIsters, Walker and Peine, and we are so grateful to have them in our ward. Oh and thank Thee for the others as well." We laughed. On Saturday we went to a Relief Society Brunch and met members there. It was fun! There is a lot of work to do but we can do it!
Sister Peine (pronounced pine-E, or in German pine-UH) is great! Her family comes from the German city Peine and it is fun for her to be back. She is very nervous and kind of follos me like a puppy but she is not scared to ask questions and is learning very fast! On our first day we were out inviting people to our English class and a phone call came, I stepped to the side of the sidewalk to answer it and she just went right ontalking to people! She didn't understand what they said back, but she kept doing it! I was so proud :] We are learning to work smarter not just harder so that we still have study time and find the prepared people here.
We've had 2 eating appointments with the ward so far and both times had to tell them we don't eat as much as Elders. One lady was pretty dissapointed that we only ate one plate of mashed potatoes and goulausch and stuffed mushrooms and not 4 like the Elders. Naja. They have to accept that. My skirts only stretch so much.
Other than that, nothing too exciting happened. You know, just got a new Trainee, am Whitewashing Berlin, and had an interview that was just two members of the 70 and me. Nothing too special. :]
Please pray for us, we need it :] We need to find these prepared people here. (On a side note about Cottbus, When Sister McCandless was up for the interviews she said that Herr Graf and Herr Wonneberger said yes to baptism! And Sandro is still on too! Yay!!) Now time to get some in Lankwitz!
I hope you all had a wonderful week! I love you all :]
Love,
Sister Walker
PS- be prepared if emails don't come next Monday either, it's Easter Monday and the internet cafe is closed. I will email probably on Tuesday again. Then back to Monday.
PPS- HAPPY EASTER!! Fröliche Ostern!
At the Sister Interviews on Monday I was able to get a "Family Picture" of my "Daughters!"
one is me being a hausfrau -a house wife. I have cooked every meal for everyone so far and normally do most of the cleaning. They were laughing at me for my apron over my silky PJs. I put on Sister Curits' headband to add to the silly. (The other girls have started to do all the dishes which is nice)
ELder Fullmer (an AP), Sister Peine, me, and Sister Munford playing with the Scripture Hero cards while waiting for interviews.
One giant elephant in the Berlin Zoo! :]
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