Hello

Hi Family!

I forgot to tell you about Elder Heslop, my bad. He is serving in Sister Hinkle's home branch and I did get to say hi. It was kind of fun. Her Dad asked me where I was from and when I said Claremont he asked what it was by and then got all excited and said their new Elder is from there! It was cool to see the small Mormon world in action.

This week was pretty good. I taught a lesson in Spanish. It was strange. I felt like a new missionary, not understanding everything. But I didn't have a Senior Companion to save me! After the lesson, Sister Hinkle just laughed and said that she understood even less in that lesson than she did in her first German lesson. It made her have a little more confidence in her German. Why am I teaching in Spanish? We're going to baptize the husband from the Spanish family that just moved into our ward, that's why! When finding out that there are 3 SPanish speaking families in our branch (about a third of our branch) I figured I needed some Spanish. So I called the office and asked if there was a possibility to get the MTC Spanish learning materials and they were able to get them for me! I was so happy.

We were not able to get a joint teach for this lesson because of work schedulas so it was just us and the Spirit with the family. I taught about prayer and how that helps us know truth. For Dad, here's a little of my lesson: (the grammar is probably all wrong, but remember, back to new missionary here) (I'm using German letters with accents because there are no spanish accents on my key board)

La oraciön es un los Mandamientos. 

La oraciön nos permite obtener un testimonio del Evangelio y Jose` Smith. 

?Puedoo hacer la oraciön? 

and maybe most importantly was lento por favor.

I also said a prayer in Spanish. Yup. Spanish in Germany. Who'd 'ave thunk?

Also talked to a man who was speaking Italian and got his address to send to Anziano Walker. We did not have another Polish Sunday School lesson sadly but there was also English this week. I wish I could just speak everything. And am greatful the Spirit can!

Mike was confirmed and ordained a priest last Sunday and yesterday was his first time blessing the Sacrament! It was so fun to see him at the Sacrament Table and doing that. He is going to be a joint teach with us this week. And we're talking about sending him on a mini mission in the Berlin mission (2-6 weeks with a pair of Elders) to help him decide if he wants to go on a real mission. How cool is that?

Sister Hinkle and I gave talks again on Sunday. No BYU devotional this time because someone else was speaking too. We were asked to speak about missionary work, of course. It's kind of funny to me to talk about missionary work in sacrament meeting. We had 3 investigators at church and all they heard was about missionary work. If I was an investigator that would be weird. I did kind of make missionary work a background topic not the main topic in mine. I rewrote Pres. Uchtdorf's forget me not flower with waht not to forget about missionary work. 1-have faith 2-the difference between a good and bad example 3- to see success now 4-the why of missionary work and 5- that God loves ALL His children. The Relief Society  thought it was cute :]

Sister Hinkle did like her 9 things we love about her book. The other Sisters were excited that we could give it to her together at Zone Conference and she almost cried. It's been hard but I am slowing down a little and giving her jobs I know will take her more time than if I did  them but I'm trying to trust her more and encourage her more. Things are getting better. She even contradicted me once. I was so happy!! She spoke her mind not just followed. I think she thinks I'm crazy, that I got happy when she disagreed with me. That is crazy, but so it is.

This week on Tausch I went to the city of Lübeck and we did a service project in Lauenburg. Lauenburg is a city in my district where the floods did come and the water was still up so much higher than normal! This was my first time going down there since the floods and I was a little shocked at how high the water still was. For our service project we cut a tree into itty bitty pieces and I have some giant blisters from it. But it was fun. The member family we were helping lives on a farm in the German country side. So pretty there. And this picture is from one of the animals they raise- giant bunnies!! I was so happy I got to hold this one :] there were new babies born last weeka nd they are as big as this one's nose. It was pretty fun. The other sister in the picture is Sister Sykes from Colorado.

We were focusing on Less Actives this week and with one couple we had a cookie bake-off. I lost. I cried. Not really though. But Sister Hinkle's cookies beat mine. (But then we did it again with the smae cookies and active members and mine won there.) I was doing the bake-of in the Pommerville basketball bracket kind of style, you know with smack talk and alles so it was really kind of funny to lose. (mine were rollo cookies but with sugar cookie dough and Sister Hinkles were chocolate chip) maybe I should have done chocolate dough too.  Oh well, i can share my baking crown.

I don't know when I will watch the Leadership training. We have an exchange this week and can't go to Ward Council and I hope we don't miss the training. I'll ask Branch President about it.

I hope you all have a great week! Have fun in Summer school boys! It will be great! I want to know how fort building goes. I expect pro fort builders when I get home.

Did Alyssa send you Paige's announcement too? That was cute.

I love you!

Love,
Sister Walker

ps- no Sister Dittrich did not call me, I don't know if she's allowed to sicne I'm no longer in Cottbus. I'll let you know if she does though.

I forgot to say that we had a Mormon Helping Hands day! Here is my Branch before we started cleaning a park.

P Day Once Again

Hello family!

Happy Father's day! I hope Dad, Pa and Jared all had a great day. Yesterday in the investigator Sunday School class I taught about the Priesthood and was very greatful for you three. I have received priesthood blessings from you all and remembered the wonderful example you set by being worthy to do so. Thank you!

I have to tell you a little more about this Sunday School lesson. It was so cool. It was in 4 languages: English, Polish, Spanish and German. Two of the nonmembers that had visited the baptism were there (Polish and Spanish), the wife of the Spanish man who is a member, a visiting member from Layton, UT (who was a blessing he came- he spoke German and Spanish so could translate to the Spanish couple when my 5 words of Spanish over Priesthood didn't answer all their questions), a kind of less active lady in my ward was there as my companion while Sister Hinkle taught the Young men-Young Women, and the missionary couple from the institute center came a little later. About half way through Mike came in too after his interview with the Branch President. We all had the 1st missionary pamphlet in the language of our choice (except I had Polish... naja...)  and we just read the one page over the restoration of the priesthood. Then all the members bore testimony. Mike's interview was for him receiveing the priesthood so his was especially tender and hopeful and excited. And then at the end we all read Moroni 10:3-5 in our language. That part was cool. Even while Spanish and Polish were being read I could feel the spirit. Sometimes I hate the Tower of Bable but am very gratefl for the Language fo the Spirit.

Then in Sacrament Meeting Mike was given the Gift of the Holy Ghost and confirmed a member of the Church! In the blessing that came after it talked about how he will serve the Church and also how he will marry a beautiful woman in the Temple. (that was the old lady topic of choice in the after church chatting time! they teased him so much about that hehe) But it was so cool to hear this blessing and see how the focus really is all about the Temple. That is what we have been teaching about in the new member lessons. I miss going to the Temple.

Our appointments with the nonmembers who were at the baptism went well. One was with two at the same time, they are a dating couple, the son (his name is Nadia) from a member and his girlfriend. It went very well and at the end the topic also went to the Temple. The girlfriend, Jessie, is really interested and wants to learn more. We have another appointment with them on Friday. (side note- I'm a little nervous for it because I woun't be there, I'll be on Tausch. I'm working on trusting Sister Hinkle more with appointments but she is so quiet she never says anything. And they ask a lot of questions. Pray. That's all I can do is pray and trust.and breath) Another side note that's a little happier, Jessie and Nadia are visiting America in March next year and are coming to California. I invited them to our house :] They are very nice, don't speak English, and not yet married, but hopefully by then they will be married, and I will be home, hopefully come down from school and it should be fun! I said we could all go to the LA Temple visitor center together and they both said yes. Then Jessie said "I wish I could go in the temple. If I were to be baptized, could I go in?" Yes you could :]

A struggle this week was trusting in Sister Hinkle. Sometimes she doesn things I just can't understand. I don't want to sound mean, she is a great missionary and her testimony is very strong and vibrant, but sometimes I feel like I do everything alone. I hate this feeling, especially in missionary work. With Sister Neukomm I was used to it and she was a little bit Special-Needs-Sister so it was to be expected, but now it is not to be expected. I need a strong companion who can do the work and lead others without asking me every 5 minutes what to do. Or who ends up giving me her deligated responcibilities becasue she doesn't have confidence to do them. But I shouldn't complain. She is a great missionary. She and the members get along very very well and all the investigators call her "adorable." Sometimes it is hard for me to see the good in the ways she does things so I am making her a book. Her 9 month (half way) mark is on Wednesday so I called all our Sisters and also her Trainer and asked them to send me "9 things they love about Sister Hinkle" and I am making a little book to give to her with them all in. Part of this was selfish so it made me look for 9 things I love about her. But now I recite them in my head when I am a little frustrated or annoyed and things go better. I hope she likes the book. If it boosts her confidence (which is another goal) then I think things will go smoother.

K, now I feel bad and like I'm complainging. I'm sorry. Some good things about her now. We are singing a song together at Zone COnference on Wednesday, the song "Home In His Heart." We have been practicing it in comp study the last few days and she really lacks confidence singing so she sykes herself out and can't do it. She has a beautiful voice and so to build confidence today in practice time I gave her different themes to sing it as. We sang it as we would if we were Broadway Stars, as cowboys, as on a Soap Opera, and other funny ways. Maybe it was a little unreverant of this lovely song, but after she sang her part the real way strong and with testimony behind! She'll do great at Zone Conference!

Yup. That was about our week.

I was sad to hear about SIster Munson. Poor lady. Of course I will keep her in my prayers.

And my shoulder has been coming in and out since the MTC,. It happens when my backpack is too heavy or I have to lift heavy things. But I put ice on it and rest it after so it's ok. Nothing to worry about.

Summer Vacations sounds fun! Fort Building class would be one I would take. The pictures Dad sent from Scout Trip looked so fun! Except the one where Cam's boat was sinking the other boy looks like he's going to whack Cam with his paddle. That's not very nice. How did they get the water out? It doesn't look possible. But it's good to know for when Pa gets a cannoo! Have fun with that Pa! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!

Love, 

Sister Walker 

forgot one question- no I am not flooded. I am far away from the Elbe river. As the floods came north it got smaller and smaller. My district leader's cities was one of the last to be flooded but there was no damage done. if you go on the mission blog though you can see where the floods were in my mission.

love you!

 My number 11 has absolutley nothing to do with the number, I just wanted to send you this picture. Maybe we need another theme hehe. This was found at the train station in one of the cities we do exchanges with, Lüneburg.
Me and Sister Hinkle were schocked and a little concerned :] it was just funny. Looks like a sign you would have in a picture of you and Jared kissing hehe. Have a great week! I love you!

Love,
Sister Walker

Happy 10th Transfer

Hello Family!

Today I am double digets old in mission time, start of my 10th Transfer is today. Number 10 of 13. Funny. I remember looking to the older Sisters when I was new and thinking how mature and smart they were and expecting to feel the same when I am old. But that didn't happen. I still feel like I'm new.

Anyways, I'm so happy that you got to meet the Dittrichs! And that you had a great time :] Thank you for the pictures. It makes me happy to see my family and members in Germany that I love together. And the house looks great, the bathrooms especially. Good job decorating Mom. And I love it that you said you'll visit them in Germany! Hehe You will love it here. It sounds like a great weekend! Was Lee able to speak German with them or was it all in English? Did Kaden get and German practice? I laughed a little when you said Sister Dittrich didn't like the Hawaiian Haystaks. I can totally see her seperating everything on her plate :] And I am glad that Brd Dittrich got his hike in. He likes doing that. I love them :] Do you by chance have their Germany address? I don't have it any more and would like to send them a letter. Could you email it to me if you do have it? Thanks!

My week was good! Mike got baptized! Here is the picture. He didn't want to take one because he hated the one piece jumper but he was a sport and took one. The man who baptized him is Bruder Imbeck. He and his wife are some of my favorite people in this Branch :] He was normally the joint teach with Mike. 

The Program went well. Mike chose not normal baptism songs for the service, the first one was a sacrament hymn and closing was "Abide with me tis Eventide" but they worked. The Spirit was there and the messages in the songs were nice. Mike asked Sister Hinkle to give a little talk about Baptism and me to sing. So I sang the "I like to look for rainbows" song. I also sang that at Michael's baptism. Maybe I'll make it a tradition to sing it at every baptism! I sounded a lot better this time though. And I actually stayed on key. My voice has changed a little since coming here. Not really deeper or lower but while singing it is stronger. I think Sister Burns would be proud of how much I#ve improoved since her singing lessons. Then after my song it was into the font! When they got into the font and stood in the stance, Mike tried to dunk himself before the prayer was even said! We all got a chuckle out of that.

There were 4 nonmembers at the service and we have appointments with all 4 this week! Get ready for more baptisms Bergedorf! One is a man named Paul. Members brought him to our Summer Party and again to church. He's doing well. Then another is the husband of a member. They just moved here from Spain and German is only so-so. Remember in my setting apart blessing it said I would learn all the languages of my mission? We need some Spanish here. There are 3 member families who speak mostly Spanish.  Last week we taught Primary and I was able to help the daughters from one of the families. They asked me what words meant and I was able to tell them the word in Spanish. That was cool. But I don't know Spanish and I told them words I didn't know. (yay for the Spirit!)  I think I need to learn a little bit so we can communicate better. I talked to the Office about it and they ordered the MTC Spanish material for me. Wish me luck! The other two nonmembers were also brought from a member. It is her son and his girlfriend. We had an eating appointment with them after the baptism where Mike came too and taught them a little and made a new appointment out. Their names are Nadia and Jessie. 

After the baptism part while Mike and Brd Imbeck were changing we watched the finding happiness movie. It's 5 minutes long and invited the Spirit. Sister Hinkle and I thought that would help the nonmembers more than just singing hymns while waiting. I think it went OK. then when the men got back, Mike stood up and bore his testimony and tld his conversion story! It was so cool! Then Schwester Imbeck gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. It was all very good. There were also 3 friends from Institute there and after all the members came and hugged Mike and gave him presents and welcomed into the ward. I know he'll be a very strong addition to this little Branch!

Other than the baptism nothing really exciting happened. We weren't even in Bergedorf for more than 3 days. We had Tausch with the sisters in Elmshorn and the Zone Leadership Council in Berlin. But it was cool, we were able to have a sleep over with the Lankwitz Sisters! I saw Sister Peine again and met my "granddaughter!" Sister Lartey. It was so much fun. We drove the train with 3 elders and the ride was 3 hours delayed. It should have just been a 4 hour train ride but we were on the train for almost 6 with an hour long change beecause the second train was delayed and then the streettrain never came because of police activity so elders from the office had to come pick us up so we didnt even get to the Lankwitz apartment till about 11pm. But it was still fun to see the other Sisters in the morning! 

The computer just kicked me off again so I will end this email in the second half.

It was a great week, yes there are things to improve on and moments could have been better. My shoulder came out but I got it back in so no worries.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I love you all :]

Love, 
Sister Walker 

PS- mike's favorite colours are green and black so Sister hinkle and I matched with his favorite colours!

Hello Family

Hello Family!

Happy Pday! Boy do I need a pday today. This past week was just super frustrating and complicated and stressful, thank goodness for prayer and the calming Spirit it brings! And also thank goodness for Pday. A little time to relax and re coup.

To start with Mom's questions:

What to feed the Dittrichs- something yummy. Sister Dittrich is kind of a health nut so homemade rolls and bread would be great. Potatoes are always a good idea, but take the skin off before you cook them (unless it's baked potatoes, then it's OK to leave the skin on). I don't really know why but Germans never eat the potatoe skins. Other suggestions are just your favorite foods, try Stack-em-stuff and BBQ and Tallerinni... I'm sure they'll love anything you make. 

What to plan to do- I have no idea what their schedule is so I can't really help you there. But I would have a few activites up your sleeve just to be prepared. Olivera Street would be fun, The navy ships or Santa Monica Peer, Go on a hike, walk around Temple grounds, ... fun things! They probably have an agenda but inviting them to do things would be nice. Even a game night at home could be fun one evening! And you will be able to understand them more in person, on the phone is a little hard but their English is pretty good. It will be fun for Lee to meet them! 

You said that it would be hard when the others come that speak less English, who else is coming? 

I think it's cute that you are getting everything all nice for them. They will appreciate it I'm sure!
Sister Dittrich is an opera singer (something like that) and both play the piano very well, maybe even singing together would be fun!

Dad's questions:

Yes, Sister Hinkle is also a Sister Training Leader. Sometimes it is hard to workin Bergedorf because we do have exchanges every week and meetings in Berlin once a month but we have at least 3 days a week together in our city which is good. 

The weather here is still cold. Last week I had to bring out my winter coat again. It rained for 3 weeks straight and Sister Hinkle and I both had fevers and other sickies this past week. But starting yesterday the sun decided to grace us with her presence at last which is nice. So today the winter jackets are away again and spring jackets are here. But it is very pretty. Germany is so green i can hardly believe it. And no one here has sprinklers because they don't need them from all the rain. The trees are blooming and in Bergedorf there are Lilacs everywhere in purples and whites and blues. And the Germans love to garden so verywhere there are pretty flowers that I have never seen before. Last Tausch I went to Kiel which is a port city and it is gorgeous there.It was sunny there and the water was sparkling and the old ivy covered buildings were so lovely I didn't really want to leave.

Sunshine moment of the Week- On Saturday we had a ward Summer Party. The weather wasn't summery at all but the rain stayed away for the first time in forever. But the cool thing was that at this party at our church, there were more Non-Members than members! The members worked so hard inviting thier friends and it worked! There were 21 Non Members there, 3 Less Actives, and 18 active members. It was pretty cool! We made out appointments with some non members, and got a new investigator from it! (named Paul.) I tried really hard to talk to everyone especially the nonmembers and It was so great! Sister hinkle worked more with the members so it was team work there. It was a fun paty, with a bounce house, a puppet theatre (put on by a less active) face painting, food, and ping pong and lots more. From the Non-Members only two were brought from us missionaries, the rest were from Members! Yay member missionary work!! 

Mike is doing great! He has officially been taught everything and we are just smoothing out some bumps for him now. Yesterday I had a mini heart attakc because of him. From other investigators, I've seen how hard Satan works before baptism and confirmation and we've really been trying to do everything we can for Mike. We meet everyday almost because since he doesn't have the gift of the Holy Ghost yet he can really only feel it when we are together, when he prays or when he reads. We're trying to put the Spirit into his life as much as possible so that he can continue progressing. On Saturday he didn't come to the Ward party but said he would be at church. But he never came. And he didn't answer his phone or text messages and we were just so worried. We also didn't have his address so we couldn't go and stalk him (but stalk with good intentions of saving his soul). We tried looking int he phone book, nothing, teaching record from the elders, nothing. Then on an old progress record there was a name of a street with a ? next to it. We decided we needed to do all we could to find Mike after two days of no contact (so two days where Satan had more chance than we did) so we changed plans and went to this street. We placed pass along cards in every mailbox while looking for his name on the Klingles. Along the way we made out an appointment with a very nice lady and on one of the last klinges we found his name! Once we found his name we got a text from him that appologized for not coming to church and we were able to make an appointment out for today. Whew. K, it may not sound so bad but I was a little paniked.

I don't like not being able to control things. This little adventure was a huge test of my faith. Because of Tausch I hadn't been at the last appointment with Mike. Sister Hinkle is still pretty new on the mission and the sister that came here is only in her second transfer so they didn't understand everything he said in the lesson and I had to have faith in them teaching and trust that what he said they didn't understand wasn't bad, then I also didn't talk on the phone or send the texts to him it was again Sister Hinkle. Now, I do trust her but she is very passive and won't ask questions so sometimes comunication when she is on the phone is not as clear as it could be. I sometimes want to always have the phone so we get our purpose done the first time we call (not have to call back 3 times). But really I did all I could, while still giving Sister Hinkle her responcibilities, and really just had to give it to the Lord. That is hard for me.

I have been feeling pretty stressed lately with all the duties I have- helping Sister Hinkle, doing Tausches and helping the Sisters there, having so many expactation from the Branch here, doing everything President asks,... that sometimes I feel the world is on my shoulders. I had an interview with President a bit ago and told him all my worries and fears and doublts and he told me two things that help me so much. 

1- I am his Sunshine Sister Training Leader. That's all I have to be, just so others the sunshine that is sometimes hard to see. I don't have to be the most patient, the strongest, or the one with perfect plans that work everytime. Just be the Sunshine Sister. Show others the light and the love. I can do that. 

2- There has already been a Savior of the world, and of Bergedorf. I don't need to try to be it. 

So when I feel stressed or don't want to lose control by putting things in the Lord's hands I have to take a breath and remember those two things. And realize that He has more control than me anyways. Give it all to Him.

Sometimes I do feel alone in the work, but that's not really new, and it reminds me that I just need to get on my knees when I can't stand anymore. How wonderful is prayer!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Cole, it was fun to see you with Germany multi cultural day! hope you had a great time :]

Cam, you look so cool fixing the sink! What a handy man.

Kade, did you like helping with cole's class? Are you excited to practice you r German with real Germans? Viel Glück! Du wirst es gut machen!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister Walker

PS- say hi to the Dittrichs for me! Could you please take a picture with them and send it to me? Thanks!