Fammmilllyyyy!! Where to start. Maybe with one of my funniest stories. So we do this thing called TRC (Teaching Recourse Center) where members who speak German come and we go share a message with them. It's more low-key than our investigators and we think it's so fun. So last time at TRC we taught this really nice man and we had all just been chatting so he knew where we were all from and right after I read a scripture he said, "You speak German with a Finnish accent." Ha ha ha ha ha ha. It makes sense since I'm with Sister Kervinen all day every day! So you're right Daddy, I am a mimic! Only I seem to be mimicking the wrong thing. Hopefully my accent will improve once I get to GERMANY IN TWO WEEKS! Ah life is good.
Oh so you asked about what Sister Packer was talking about with the dress stuff. The time she asked me to change was when I wore my spandex pants to work out in (ha ha bad move). And I could totally understand that so there was no drama. I'm keeping them though in case I want to wear them in the winter under shorts when I'm working out. The dress that I've decided is just barely too short is the Boden one with solid gray on top and stripes on the bottom. So I'll send it home and it will be fun to wear when I get back.
Letters, letters, letters. Maybe this will make it sound like I'm getting tons of letters and people will be less inclined to write me. That is NOT what I want to happen! But I want to say THANK YOU! Thank you to Marilyn, James, Grandma, Aunt Janie, Uncle Randal, Mikkel, Brother Syd, Collin, Ciarah, Phil, Sister Williamson, Jesse, Tara, Bella, Joe, Lindsey, Mommy, and Daddy for the letters/Dear Elders. And thank you to Chelsea, Court, and Aunt Brenda for the emails. And thank you to Sister Williamson, the Harknesses, and Mom for the packages!
The first day of my mission I wondered what I was going
to do with all of this study time. What exactly would I spend all this
time studying? Now I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to
study. Most of my study is focused on my untersuchers (investigators).
We normally teach zwei untersuchers jeden tag. Oh look at that. I speak
German. Well not quite. But seriously that kind of just came out. Zwei
untersuchers jeden tag=two investigators every day. I'm getting good at
Danglish. Deustch is another matter. But it's coming. Slowly but surely.
But I feel like we have so much to do to prepare to teach our
investigators. And our lessons have been going well. They have both
committed to prepare for baptism. Our companionship is becoming a better
and better team.
FYI - In the MTC there are volunteers from the community who come to the MTC to serve as "investigators", the term used to describe individuals who are investigating the church. Many of them are returned missionaries who speak the language. This is obviously great practice for the missionary in the MTC to practice conversations of a spiritual nature.
FYI - In our faith, baptism is an important covenant we make with our Heavenly Father. We baptize by immersion. Babies in our faith are not baptized as infants because we believe a child enters the world pure and without sin and is in fact incapable of sin because they are in an age of innocence. A baby is given a special blessing, and we believe that 8 is the "age of accountability" when a child can make the decision to be baptized.
FYI - In the MTC there are volunteers from the community who come to the MTC to serve as "investigators", the term used to describe individuals who are investigating the church. Many of them are returned missionaries who speak the language. This is obviously great practice for the missionary in the MTC to practice conversations of a spiritual nature.
FYI - In our faith, baptism is an important covenant we make with our Heavenly Father. We baptize by immersion. Babies in our faith are not baptized as infants because we believe a child enters the world pure and without sin and is in fact incapable of sin because they are in an age of innocence. A baby is given a special blessing, and we believe that 8 is the "age of accountability" when a child can make the decision to be baptized.
My Spanish is being replaced with German. The other day
when I tried to formulate a sentence in Spanish I was struggling. One
of my teachers, Brüder Hill (who is AMAZING), studied Spanish before he
went on his mission to Germany so he understands what I'm saying when a
Spanish word comes out. The other day he explained to me the difference kennen and wissen by relating them to conocer and saber.
Brilliant. And he avoids speaking English at all costs so sometimes he
explains to me what a word means by saying it in Spanish.
So one time we had a fire drill because someone pulled the fire alarm just for fun at 6:30 am.
So it was just like an extra loud alarm because that is when we get up every day except we had to leave the
building and stay outside for a while. But I didn't think a SISTER
missionary would do that. I have been very impressed with how cute the
sister missionaries are dressing. ASOS didn't let us down. At the same
time I sometimes wonder why it's so hard for us to follow the dress code
(It said no denim and no see-thru. Can you read?). Seriously though,
there are so many cute sisters.
FYI - in October of 2012 it was announced that young women could now apply to become missionaries at the age of 19 and young men at the age of 18. Previously young men could go at 19 and young women not until 21. After the age of eligibility changed, the number of young people volunteering to serve a mission skyrocketed, especially among girls. So now there are MANY more young women serving missions than ever before. In addition, up until a few years ago (I don't remember exactly when) the dress guidelines for female missionaries were much more conservative than they are now. Typically they wore longer skirts and solid colors etc. But now they are encouraged to maintain standards of modesty while embracing color, pattern and style in a way that fits their own personality and the culture where they are serving. So, as girls will be girls, shopping for missionary clothes has become a topic of interest and conversation among girls serving missions.
FYI - in October of 2012 it was announced that young women could now apply to become missionaries at the age of 19 and young men at the age of 18. Previously young men could go at 19 and young women not until 21. After the age of eligibility changed, the number of young people volunteering to serve a mission skyrocketed, especially among girls. So now there are MANY more young women serving missions than ever before. In addition, up until a few years ago (I don't remember exactly when) the dress guidelines for female missionaries were much more conservative than they are now. Typically they wore longer skirts and solid colors etc. But now they are encouraged to maintain standards of modesty while embracing color, pattern and style in a way that fits their own personality and the culture where they are serving. So, as girls will be girls, shopping for missionary clothes has become a topic of interest and conversation among girls serving missions.
Wanna hear another funny story? One time the elders in
my district were teaching an investigator about the kingdoms of glory
and they said "Dritte Reich." Afterwards in class our teacher, who was
the investigator (well Brüder Hill - I guess you know who he is now),
explained that if you're going to say "Dritte Reich" you have to make
sure that you say "Dritte Reich der Herrlichkeit." Ha ha ha
ha ha. Germans are pretty sensitive to "Dritte Reich."
The quote this week is "Piep piep piep, wir haben uns alle lieb Guten Appetit." (Christie's translation of this is " Piep, piep piet, all of us that we love have a good appetite" in a rhyme.) We say that every day when we leave class to go to lunch.
The quote this week is "Piep piep piep, wir haben uns alle lieb Guten Appetit." (Christie's translation of this is " Piep, piep piet, all of us that we love have a good appetite" in a rhyme.) We say that every day when we leave class to go to lunch.
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