Sister Rasmussen.: September 2010

Oh das ist wunderbar, wunderbar zu mir

Hallo! Schöne woche nu?

THAT 'NU' was a confusing thing when I first got here....so I just said `beautiful week yeah?' so the Germans say 'nu' or 'no' when we in English say something like 'yeah?' or 'ya know?' So I would ask Sandy a question and she would respond saying 'nu' and I thought she was saying NO but she really was saying 'yeah.' CONFUSING RIGHT? Yeah you're tellin' me. But ive got it now. Luckily. The Lord is blessing me immensely with the language, I am understanding a lot and of course have my handy dandy translator (my companion) always with me. She is so great, we laugh all day and thta will be my goal for my whole mission, and I think my whole life, laugh everyday, enjoy the people I am with.

I know hard companions are going to come, its inevitable, but there is always something to laugh about...like today for example already so many hilarious things have happened on our lovely Pday. We went grocery shopping early (after cleaning of course which is MY FAVORITE) and we didnt have a euro to put in the cart thing. (Every grocery store, to get a cart you have to put a euro in the thing and then when youre done you put the little locky thing in and get your euro back- we should do that in America, then all the carts are where theyre supposed to go....I told you they do everything right here :) well except its hard like today when you dont have a euro obviously you have to carry everything..........well to make a long story short Sister Singer dropped the spaghetti sauce. Oh man it was so funny, so embarrassing and super hilarious.
AND THEN we got our haircuts. Sister Fröbel has a hair salon and cuts the missionaries hair for freeee! I was so grateful to get my haircut...she uses BED HEAD products which reminded me of home, and I told her which product dad uses, and she laughed and said that is for frauen :) and she said she would use it so I could feel my dad nearer :) WE took a picture with her, she looks cuter than we do, and we're like 20 years younger (how is that right at all?) oh well when we left the first thing Sister Singer said was 'I look like a mushroom.' hahaha, she doesnt...there was just some extra curl there. Well if those stories werent funny to you I apologize but they have already made my day and THAT is what I get to look forward to, everyday waking up and anticipating the laughs we will have....and more importantly the miracles we are going to witness....

I witnessed a couple miracles this week, so that Indonesian family (sp?) we're teaching? The Widodos? You remember? Well we have continued meeting with them and its mostly just meeting with the dad because no one else can understand us... but they are Muslim (hard right?) well no, its just like teaching anyone else, we arent destroying and rebuilding their beliefs, we are just building upon what they know...which is very different, but we are making progress. The miracle was.....well the committment we had given Salamet (the dad) was to read the Joseph Smith pamphlet (the only other material other than the Book of Mormon we have in Indonesian) and when we showed up we small talked about the family etc and then asked him if he had read the pamphlet (and man that thing is more than just 'a pamphlet' is like 12 pages long! Sneaky) and he brought it out and proceeded to tell us about Joseph Smith and how he went to the forest and prayed, saw the angel moroni in his room and then Oliver Cowdery (yes he said oliver cowdery in broken English) helped him translate the gold plates that he got out of the hill cumorah (yes he said hill cumorah!) and I looked and he had underlined things in the pamphlet and really went above and beyond the committment we had given him. This 38 year old muslim father was sitting there telling me about our beloved prophet Joseph Smith and the miracles that happened to him. He said they were true and the Book of Mormon is true. There were other things we have to explain and clear up (obviously) and its a slow moving process (ive quickly come to realize) but isnt that a miracle!? Yes, I thought so too.

Also Schwester Guerisch! Remember her? Grasshopper lady? Well shes been coming to church, (she was the inactive one) we`ve seen her countenence (oh man my spelling is going fast... :) change. She is happier and the last time we went by on her, she had cleaned up her little apartment and she stayed to the end of Erntedankfest helping cleaning up etc....well shes doing great, and just when things get going good Satan attacks....and the Zeugnis Jehovas (Jehova Witnesses) went by on her and told her the Book of Mormon was from the devil la di da.....and really tested Schwester Guerishs testimony. We sat by her at a concert later this week (after this all had happened, and we didnt know) and she had felt the spirit so strong and was questioning whether the church was true etc, and the spirit hit her so strong through the music. Well we decided to go see her the same night as the concert, so we took a bus out to Brand-erbis-dorf (where she lives) and at the last minute grabbed a Book of Mormon to give to her. We had noticed previously that she didnt have one lying around, and then she said it was in the keller, so I taped a beautiful picture of Christ and a lamb in the front and wrote her name in it all purdy and we marked scriptures on the bus.....well we met with her and she told us the whole experience about the jehova witnesses and she new that the concert and us going to visit her and bringing her another Book of Mormon was an answer to her prayer, she said she would start reading again and bore her testimony of its truthfulness. It was a miracle. I am so BLESSED to get to be the missionary that can see this amazing things happen.

These two experineces among many more have reconfirmed my testimony of 'by small and simple things, great things come to pass.' Its true! Just reading a pamplet, and bringing by a book, how small and simple, yet these two actions could change the lives of many people forever! That is how the Lord is building his Kingdom all around the earth and especailly here in Freiberg.

Another witness I had of this was our ward here in Freiberg had a ward party....can I just tell you how lame ours are compared to over here!? These people do it right :) No offense :) The had the ERNTEDANKFEST. Invitations made that we the missionaries gave to many people, the members gave out and were stocked in the gemeindehaus (ward house) They had all the tables and chairs ready two days before, and the day before they went crazy. They put up a stage, and trees and sunflowers, lanterns and table cloths, and center pieces and that was only the decorations. We had an appointment right before it started (which I hope I get to tell you about) and so we were a little late, but when we got there EVERY seat was filled and apparently there were '30 visitors' and one of our investigators came too. There were two tables full of food and one of the sisters were singing. Then another sister got up and read a poem, then all the primary kids had costumes on, faces painted, and they did a little play about the fall. SO CUTE. and then there were a couple other musical pieces with different members of the ward and then the Bishop welcomed everyone and said 'gute appitit!' The food was super good, we brought crazy good american brownies, and there were a lot of visitors. Everyone had a lovely time and even a lady from our English class came yay missionary work! So those small and simple additions (invites, centerpieces, costumes) made a GREAT ward party come to pass...nu?

Quickly two other cool contacting stories then Ill let you get back to your facebook or homework (Kasandra) We were out taking invites to former contacts to this concert and I was praying immensely (wrestling with the Lord in prayer like Alma did) to please place someone in our path, to let us know how we can be more worthy of the spirit to come in contact with prepared people. As we were dropping an invite into a mailbox, (this is at like 1 in the afternoon) some guy rides up on his skateboard from up the hill...we werent even facing him and after he took off his huge headphones he says something like 'so, are you guys like...from a church, or what church are you from, what are you doing' something to that nature....We proceeded to talk to him, found out his name was Thobias, he had decided to be evangelish when he was 12 etc, we told him about our church, started in on the first lesson and invited him to church and etc....he said it was weird that he saw us cause he is usually never outside at this time of day, he is usually studying... we then said goodbye and he went back up the hill, HE WASNT EVEN GOING DOWN THE HILL, he like rode to us, talked to us and went back..... it was a miracle, a tender mercy of the Lord and an answer to my prayer.

We were also handing out invitations to this concert by this Chamber Choir made up of LDS young single adults from Germany, Danemark, Switzerland and the US. We were walking up to hauptbahnhof to check out the times for (tomorrow sister singer is going to Dresden for a trainers training and Im going to Chemnitz with the sisters there) so we were looking at times and we walked past this little old lady like 4 feet tall, white hair, big glasses and a really sweet smile. She kind of bobbed her head when she talked. . . we asked her if she needed help with her bags and found out she had lived in Freiberg her whole life and was really proud to tell us her mom had lived to be 105 WOW. Well she told us about her church and didnt seem to interested in what we had to say but we told her we diened gern (like to do service) and gave her our handy number (cell #) and also at the end invited her to this concert....and said goodbye not thinking much of it. When we got to the concert we greeted everyone and it was cool to see a lot of our ward at something outside of church, and a LOT of non members came, and then little Grandma Bahnhof came wobbling in. She was so cute, and she said 'my mann said I should come!' she also remembered my last name, she had asked me if I knew someone in Freiberg with the name of Rasmussen, and she said, I remembered my cousin married a Rasmussen! Which I thought was sweet she remembered my name. That was a tender mercy too. The concert was phenomenal it was held in the nicoli kirche and the accoustics were so great. The spirit was so strong, they sang hymns, latin songs, a spanish one, and a few Mac Wilberg songs, they sang Christus ist mein Herr at the end and the spirit hit me so strong...I had missed feeling the spirit so strongly through music. I recorded it, when I sent this SD card home, maybe Kasandra can put it on the blog? Well isnt my mission hard? Meeting awesome people, all day, making appointments, teaching, going to concerts, serving near the tempel, witnessing miracles daily, hourly! I am so grateful to be here and so grateful for your prayers. Danke Schön. Thank you very much for them.

Sorry my thoughts were all over the place but so much goes on and I cant give these people and stories justice through these emails, thanks for enduring through them :)

The leaves are changing colors and are all over the cobblestone streets (its a hoot hearing Sister Singer comment on the beauty of the leaves because apparently the leaves dont change and fall in Texas?) Crazy Texans :) They are beautiful, the son was out a lot this week and now the rain is back, its so fresh and so clean I love it. We are going to the Freiberg Museam today and we went to a mineral museam last week, haha yay! Such cool experiences....we were going to go to the Volkswagon factory museam amazing place everyone raves about today with the Dresden sisters and elders, but they scheduled the tour too early, so maybe next time :) Transfer calls are this saturday! We'll see what lies ahead for my next 6 weeks on this adventure....

Love you all, Schöne Grüße

Sister Rasmussen

Herrlich Einfach und Einfach Herrlich

Das Evangelium ist herrlich einfach und einfach herrlich. The gospel is gloriously simple and simply glorious! Yes?

I would have to say so myself. Its such an amazing experience being able to testify to everyone I see something so gloriously simple and so simply glorious as YOU have a father in heaven and he loves you! How glorious is that!? Or....There is a PROPHET on the EARTH! TODAY! What? Glorious...simply glorious. Another thing I have found gloriously simple and simply glorious is well....all of Germany and how these incredible German people live. Almost everyone is BLUE (color code reference, if you dont know what I am talking about, please email Bob Rasmussen for an appt to learn more:) seriously, from all the students to all these old people they all know where everything goes and everything has a place. From where they put their garbage (all separated, ew the food is the worst, a random bucket of all our leftovers..bleahhhhh) anyway to their baskets they take shopping. Zum beispiel (for example) i saw a man, walking his perfectly tuned bike, super european shoes, nice jeans, little man purse shoulderbag thing, ipod headphones in, new haircut....walking down the innenstadt of Freiberg. Or to the old lady all bundled up-looking good, rolling behind her, her little bag of groceries. Yeah we have to bring our own bags to the store, so all you see all day are old people (with what looks like roller backpacks but lighter) going to and from kaufland.. And they have a little place to tie up your dog while you are in the store, ill take a picture, yeah Germans actually walk their dogs...actually yesterday we met a lady who was walking her cat. Floria was her name. (the cat, not the lady-you can tell what im focused on :) So they take care of their animals here. So they all eat healthy, ride bikes, here in Freiberg there are a lot of well to do people so audis all over and well, they just seem to have it all....except the gospel.

How do you try and get through to someone about the need for the gospel when they think they have everything they need? You dont, its definitely in this perspective that I see the Lord prepares people, and peopel have to be humble enough to listen. So its a blessing to know there are humble prepared people here, we just need to sift through the others to find them. And we have, we have finding goals, and scheduling appointments daily is of couse one of them, so we are constantlyfinding and scheduleingg, andwe have a lot going on, busy busy days, the kingdom is definitely growing here!

Sister Singer and I have recently gotton closer and laughed more often through our rejection. We decided REJECTION is a universal language. Doesnt matter what language you speak, the body language and facial expressions are (first of all hilarious) and of couse definitely get the point across. Hahahaha, I dont know why it is so hysterical to me, but especially the dramatic people...if we mention the words 'God' or 'Church' they immidiately well, almost throw up on you. It blows my mind how we can physically effect people by these small beautiful simple words. Haha, one lady made sort of a 'blleaahach' sound when we told her Christ visited the Americas- like she had just eaten something rotten. What? What is the big deal.... haha or, I ansprached this lady and she just said 'nie' over and over again, I said like 9 words and I think she said NIE like 38 times! Freak out. I really think they mistake what we are saying like we are saying something horrible, like offering cigarettes to a baby! Maybe its my German.....

Speaking of my German, the Lord is helping me immensely. (immensly?) Oops, welp there goes my English too. I can understand....almost everyone! And I can respond..sometimes I sound like a 3 year old, but more or less I get my point across. Actually to explain my point I'll tell a story.

THERE ARE PREPARED PEOPLE HERE... (that shall be the title of my story)

Sister Singer got a referral from some elders like a week before she got me. His name is Herr Himmel (Mr. Heaven in english)....and he had to cancel 2 appts cause he has been sick. Well we just met with him for the first time this last Friday. He is about.....50? years old. We just had a discussion about LIFE. The purpose of it, beliefs in God and Christ etc, he gave us all these lessons theories etc and they were all doctrine of the gospel! (more or less) example he said the world is just getting worse and worse, there are so many distractions, like on telephones these days, what is the phone for? To call people, oh but now there are pictures, and emails, and games and EVERYTHING you would need, and yes thats nice, but its all for money and the basic function isnt that important anymore. Okay I butchered his theory but we talked about things to this nature, and it was all in German and I got it all! We taught him the first lesson and he really already knew all of it...of course God is our Heavenly Father, of course our families are from God and are for us to have joy. Of course Christs church and authority was taken off the earth when the apostles died. Oh and of course Joseph Smith saw God and Christ and translated the Book of Mormon. ... well okay that last one he didnt know, but he acted like it! He just accepted it and when we were done talking he asked, 'So where do we go from here?' Sister Singer said. 'Well we can give you a Book of Mormon and gottesdienst -Church service- is tomorrow and then Baptism etc' and he said Well first I definitely want a Book of Mormon, and I can't come tomorrow, but I will be here next week, and maybe a little bit later baptism. ON THE FIRST APPOINTMENT! He has 4 kids (never menitoned a wife and we didnt ask) but he said as he was leaving, the kids will enjoy hearing knew stories of Christ, so much action! We said, oh yeah there is A LOT of action in this book too! GOLD! We found GOLD in Freiberg.. So that was the miracle on Friday (we have miracles everyday incase you didnt catch that)

OH and Last email I mentioned Sister Singer was leaving me!?! Well she did. We had a Tausch (splits) and ANOTHER GOLDEN came to me in Freiberg. Im going to try and attach pictures, and the random sister on the train with me-Thats sister Madsen. Shes serving in Magdeburg. We all met in Dresden and Sister Singer was staying there and I was taking Sister Madsen back to Freiberg. Well the next two trains back to Freiberg ...on the little flippy train times chart (those who have been to Europe know what Im talking about right?) well only on the Freiberg trains it said 'ZUG FÄLLT AUS' -TRAIN FELL OUT!???! What? So we took a picture underneath the sign, hope the pictures work so you can see.

Two poor goldens not going back home.. haha well we had about an hour to wait til our real train came so we went out in the platz in Dresden and got a contact some muslim guy his phone number and address for the Dresden sisters (youre welcome :) and then got back to Freiberg. We had a great time! I knew where I was going! We definitely had some Golden Power...we scheduled two termins (appts) and had some really spiritual conversations with people on the street. We went and met with Sandy, our new convert, and she enjoyed showing Sister Madsen her pictures of her baptism...well all in all, im still alive and us two goldens made it back to Dresden to our 'moms' safe and sound.

The weather has been AMAZING here...clouds are incredible as ever, Ill try and attach pictures, the one outside our window of the pink clouds..that was this mornings sunrise! AHH! Sunrise and sunset means- I LOVE YOU! I definitely feel our Heavenly Fathers love being in this gorgeous city of Freiberg. Someone (I think it was Richard Portwood actually) told me that 'the sunset is the Lords signature on the day.' Pretty cool thought yeah? Beautiful signature.

Im loving being a missionary, and if you know of anyone who has the idea of serving a mission going through their heads....KICK THEM IN THE PANTS AND GET THEM OUT HERE! It is the most incredible experience (haha, and I dont even know! Ive only been out in Germany for a wittle bit of time) But ive already met people I will know the rest of my life. For example this Chinese student Ding Ge...we taught her the plan of salvation last night, I dont know that the Lord has his store for her and her progression (for me its lookin pretty WET if you know what I mean ;) (get it...baptism...oh forget it. :) and she was like 'durften wir ein photo zusammeln machen?' YEAH! Of course we can take a picture together! (I took one too, hope you can see it)

I know I will talk to her for a long time, and these people are so cool! The people I am going to meet . . . wow Im just speechless. And the spiritual experiences I ahve had, there is absolutely no reason in the world to not serve a mission. Nothing is better! YAY missionary work.

I wanted to write the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns ´that has meant a lot to me this week...

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me

confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified

and for me, a sinner he suffered, he bled and died.

oh it is wonderful that he would care for me enough to die for me

oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.

We have been visiting this old 85 year old lady in the hospital Schwester Houschka, I think ive told you about her, well when she laughs she looks like Grandma Dot did. Identically, and I can almost hear 'WONDERFUL' the way Grandma Dot said it. (no of course she speaks mumbled soft German that I barely catch) but it has been such a blessing having her in our life, and remembering our dear Grandma Dot...So that has reminded me of that hymn I stand all amazed. And I do, I get to be here in GORGEOUS FREIBERG, talking and being hysterically rejected or sincerely listened to by these awesome children of God, serving with a stellar companion, being in a ward of incredibly dedicated members and yes, I stand all amazed.

Have a lovely week. Dont let the little things distract you from the big picture, EWIGE FAMILIE. Eternal families...thats it, lets all work every day to live the gospel of Jesus Christ to be worthy to stand before our father and creator and be able to stand with full confidence in our devotion to building the Kingdom, to live with our parents, siblings, children, friends all these loved ones forever and ever and ever and ever and ever! YAY! Tschüss!

-Sister Rasmussen

Schöne Woche!! September 13th rainyday..

Yep its rainy and beautíful here!! The past two days were perfect temperature, cool wolken (clouds) and sunshine,we had an amazing eating appointment yesterday with Schwester Lohman, outside on her deck place, she made the most fresh italian meal ive ever eaten, everyone here has little gardens and grow their own vegetables. We had an amazing salad with fresh mozerella tomatoes, brushetta she made herself and this cheezy tomatoey saucey vegetablely amazingnesson top of noodles. Oh and then yogurt (anyone whos been to Germany or mom, knows the yogurt here is like NOTHING in the US) with this cherry glaze cherry delicious something. The funny thing was Bruder Adolf was there too, so me and sister singer and those two, His wife died a year ago, and shes been divorced for about 3 years, id say their probably.....70? years old? Well they we TOTALLY FLIRTING! Basically it was them talking and Sister Singer and I were just there. :) haha, okay it wasnt that bad, we had some really spiritual conversations, but I definitely got my chick flick fill for the mission wow.

I had my first ZONE KONFERENZ! We went with Sven Apel (hes the executive secretary in the mission presidency) and he´s one of the gorgeous Apel kids (remember, the temple president and his 4 kids all live in this ward, Sven is the youngest and has 3 kids) He and Sister Singer gave a workshop to the Ehepaars, (senior married couples) for the temple information center, and so we drove with him to Dresden. It was cool to see all the missionaries in the Dresden and Leipzig Zones...lots of cool sisters, I was the only Golden sister, and there were 4 other Golden elders, Elder Carlson was the only one from my mtc district. I also saw Elder Pierson...mom you saw his mom at postmart? Yeah anyway, we had some really spiritual workshops, Elder Ballard came to our mission (up in Hamburg) andhe spoke with the missionaries there and Präsident Pimentel told us all that he said...a cool quote was ' Conversion starts with what they feel, not with what they know.' Pretty awesome lesson. We had lunch there are were taught by präsident, the aps the zone leaders, Sister Pimentel and then had a quick sisters mtg at the end. It was such a boost and really fun to see more missionaries. It was refreshing though to come back home to Freiberg and hit the streets with a new fire and more to work on and implement.

Really exciting news we got 8 NEW INVESTIGATORS! And then Ding Ge is progressing too, so 9 right now! >YAY! The bulk of that group is the Widodo family. A sweet family of 5 from Indonesia, we only counted 4 of them as investigators, because little Rio is only 6. . . They are so humble. We first ansprached (street contacted) Salamet (the dad)a week and half ago, he speaks broken English and even worse German, but made out an appt with him for this last week... When we walked up to the apt bldg, He and a little girl were on the balcony waiting for us, they buzzed us in an 5 people greeted us with big smiles...very welcoming...their apartment is so bare. All their shoes lined the entry wall, and as we walked into the main room all they had was one big round carpet and two small prayer rugs in the corner, THATS IT. Not even a light on the ceiling....their groceries lined the other wall, and there wasnt very much. . .The oldest brother Basith speaks really good english...andwhen we gave them the Book of Mormon in Indonesian they all looked through it and little Ayu was very interested (shes 9 I think) we gave them a little intro of the Book of Mormon and told them about Joseph Smith....Juliana (the mom) couldnt understand us at all, but had a sweet big smile on her face the whole time...I know they felt the spirit, and they scheduled another appointment with us for Saturday. This last time only the dad and the two youngest kidswere home and we all sat on the rug again and they brought out a plate of grapes and a plate of kitkats. Oh and two cups of orange juice. SO SWEET. They are muslim andstill have a verz different perception of God, but they are reading in the Book of Mormon and so it will be slow, but the Lord has definitely blessed us with this family!!

Another AWESOME AWESOME experience was this last Friday night....so last week we ansprached a chinese girl named Li, she was a little hmmm whats the word defensive? when we first talked to her, but she speaks a little english too and we ended up laughing together on the street, talkingabout our first names randomly and then asked if we could meet with her and bring her this book in chinese this last friday, she agreed and we didnt know what to expect....On friday evening we went and she let us in. She remembered our first names and where we were from! She got us water, and was sooo sweet! She showed us pictures of her hometown in China, and said shes been studying here for 10 years... she is Evangelisch (like everyone else around here) and goes to chuch every week, believes in God and that Christ is the son of God, but thinks listening to a priest read out of the bible every week is super boring....WELL YEAH!!!!!! haha, so she has a really strong base, and we gave her the book, read a little bit in the intro, and she seemed excited to read it! We then talked about prayer and she said she hadnt really ever prayed, we taught her how and kneeled in her little apartment ( ON THE FIRST LESSON MIND YOU) and she said she would try it alone on her own. She invited us back for this next week andsaid shed make us dinner! Shes so sweet and so prepared, I know the Lord has hundreds of people like Li here in Freiberg, and we are going to find them! YAY!

Ding Ge is our other progressing investigator and wow shes so great. She was excited to tell us what she learned from Moroni 7 this past week and said she had prayed for help on her tests (in her head) and she did well, so she took that as an answer that God was there, we're still helping her strengthen her relationship with God and Christ, but its coming and her faith is building quickly! She asks super great questions and we talked about lesson 3 this lastweek, how we get back to heavenly father....faith, repentance...and du du du duuuuh BAPTISM! She said she wasnt sure she was ready when we asked her if shed be baptized, she said 'isnt that a serious thing?' haha she had said 'its like unlocking the door to heaven?' YEAH DING GE! Exactly what it is....She said shed think about coming to church this next week and GUESS WHAT!? She knows LI! So theyre both goingto come to church and then they can speak Chinese together and wow. I just love this work...

Daliwal is another man we are working with, hes from India and doesnt really have a religion, he has a lot of beliefs but seems very open. He lives in the refugee house, and is so great, he doesnt have very much but what he does have he takes very good care of, I think he has like 3 button up shirts, and the 3 times weve seen him hes worn his purple one,but they all look brand new and clean, his little apt has a big poster of a horse, and everzthing is in its place, he said hed read the Book of Mormon in the next three weeks and is coming to church this Sunday (we are praying he does.) Sorry that was a little vague, but its so exciting I can seem to describe it. I love being a missionary and Sister Singer is the best!

This last Friday was her BIRTHDAY! The big 22...we celebrated in the morning, I decorated a bit while she was in the shower, and we had waffles and freiberg eierscheke yogurt and listened to Enya, it was great. Shes so funny, like I said before shes from Texas, the city of Spring, right outside of Houston.... We found a Texas pizza at Kaufland and she took a picture by it haha. Oh and we have a song that we belt all the time in our little wohnung. She has a super strong testimony and super good German. Im so blessed to have her as my mom. haha, this morning she woke up with a swollen eye (i promise i didnt hit her) hahahaha oh it was so sad, but so funny, she couldnt open her right eye and we took a picture she looks totally asain. We laugh all day long and keep eachother happy and hopefull.......I JUST FOUND OUT SHES LEAVING ME! Okay so we have tauscheslike twice a transfer where you spend 24 hourswith a different sister.....well of couse I was going to leave her and go with another more experienced missionary right? and shed stay cause im a golden...right? NOPE! Shes going to Dresden and Sister Madson who has only been out two transfers herself is coming to me in Freiberg!!! Wahoooo this should be fun! This will be on Thursday to Friday....so if I die...that is why, we both couldnt speak German and couldnt servive. Actually to be honest Im excited, I know Sister Madson as good German (she was fastrackedfrom the MTC) and we have English class and other funthingsthat we should survive through....

Well we were going to go hiking by the czech boarder, but its rainy so maybe next week, I feel the Lord blessing meso much, and I feel all your prayers, THANKYOU for all the love and support and for being so amazing. The Freiberg Geminde (ward) is so strong and I cant wait to DOUBLE IT ;) Have an exceptional week! Talk to you soon!

Happy Birthday Dad!

~Sister Rasmussen

Freiburg.... September 6th.. 13:17.. grasshoppers and boiling water.

Yes we tell time in military style over here, its taking a bit of work to get used to...yeah its about 1:17 and Sister Singer and I are in the Freiberg University library, its still weird typing on a Deutsch keyboard, maybe one day ill get it.. So many awesome characters.... y is in the z spot. and we have üöäß§° okay thats all but theyre in weird spots..ANYWAY on to the important stuff. This week was SO GREAT! So last Pday was awesome I got a new backpack in Dresden, and we went to the Frauenkirche, we saw some members of our ward there, the temple missionaries, Monday is their P-day too, and one of the Sisters explained to me the symbols and meanings of the art (IN GERMAN) and I got it! (I hope:) Its really been incredible feeling the Lord blessing me with my understanding of German, especially here in Sachsen (Saxony?) The diolect is different much more ´shhy´-ier. (yes I just said that word) Its hard to understand, even native Germans that speak hoch deutsch (high german) cant understand them, so I feel blessed to serve here first so I can learn this dialect and be able to understand most everyone now! Its been incredible the difference of last sunday and yesterday, people spoke to me and I knew what they were saying! For example; Bruder Fröbel- side note, he and his wife wow Schwester Fröbel and their family are so classically euopean stylish ah its like looking at a magazine everytime I see a member of their family, ill sent some pictures :) anyway apparently their son is serving in London, and they got a letter from him and brought it to church, well I saw it and I know his sons companion! Dan Hales (anyone from Ventana or the singles ward knows who im talking about) Cool right!? well apparently Schwester Fröbel wrote her son telling him all this and I guess I have a letter waiting from one of them, but Bruder Fröbel came and told me about it in his quick sachsen accent and I caught most of it, of course I talk like a babbling 3 year old, but I feel so blessed to understand most of the meetings and the members..the speaking will come later right!?

So some other cool experiences, other than seeing the Fröbels in all their stylish glory- We had district meeting in Leipzig, it was nice seeing the other missionaries, Sister Hung and Martineau and some elders and an Ehepaar-Senior couple....Sister Hung gave the Theme (lesson) and I thought i´d share a thought from it.... 'the first step in any progress is to believe that it is possible.´'- Amen to that, so whatever youre goal is.....lose weight, drop a habit, get up earlier, exercise, read your scripts everyday, well first you have to believe you can do it! Yay and another basic theory but pretty cool for me was.....Sister Hung quoted Elder Holland when he asked 'Why are you a missionary'- and among all the many answers, the real reason I am a missionary and the real reason any of us do anything right is.....du.. du du duuuuh! Becauseeeeeee... We LOVE JESUS CHRIST! Thats it. Thats the reason, the purpose to follow the prophet, to keep the commandments, to not drink coffee, or to be kind to our siblings, or to do anything we know is good is because of our love of the savior and the effort we give DAILY to try and perfect ourselves and to follow him. Ohhh I just love that concept, hope you're catching my drift.....

Well for our service we go see these ollllld omas in our ward who cant come to church any more because their health wont let them....ive only met one of them, but we´ve seen her a handful of times in the last 2 weeks, Schwester Houschka. Shes incredible. She hardly ever complains and has such a strong testimony. Well, its been a funny funny excperience everytime we go and see her, at least for me and Sister Singer. The first time I met her was like my first day here, and she was in the old folks hospital place, and I obviously caught like 4 words out of the whole conversation, and well, randomly she stopped talking and turned on the t.v. and had us watch some German cooking show with two ´happy`men making a salad....we sat there....and sat there....and she just had us watch this cooking show......for like 20 minutes! Oh mensch it was funny, especially because I couldnt understand a word of their German either....okay it must have been funnier to be there, but continuing on with the funny times, she finally got to go back to her wohnung (apt) and we went and visited her....well she needed some groceries and we had 20 minutes before our next appt which was close by so, Sister Singer attempted to write down Schwester Houschka´s shopping list. Mind you, Sister Singer has excellent German, but as far as Deutsch cooking items and random vegetables...well lets just say it was hilarious....im sure you can imagine two american girls walking in circles around the Edeka looking at every label and then once finding it wondering why in the world any human would want to eat that....and then having to ask another person what a certain vegetable was....who themselves didnt know either. haha, oh mensch it was a good time. We got 50% of the items right, and the classic moment was Schwester Houschkas face when we would pull out our newly bought groceries, she was especially surprized at our attempt to buy her a ´fleischsalat´.... apparently its a little tup of like sliced ham and mayo mixed up in deliciousness. . . well we didnt know that so we bought a salad with ham on the side, you know like those pre-made salads? Her face said ´what is that? some plastic tub...of eww, yeah, you can have it´ and yes she did give it to us. We went one other time and got everything right (she had previously wrtiten out the shopping list and made sure to remember to tell us to have a worker help us :) oh I do love schwester Houschka.

Another awesome lady Ive had the pleasure to meet is Schwester Guerisch, shes a wenigeraktiv (inactive member) and when we went bei on her, she wasnt in her house, but walked up as soon as we got there! Miracle! Well our meeting went great (wearing the house shoes and all) and we read the Joseph Smith story....that started when Sister Singer left to get a phone call and LEFT ME! a new golden, alone in the room with an old sweet german lady, so Sister Rasmussen thought 'what do I know...hmmm oh yes the first vision, glad we memorized that in the mtc) so luckily by the time I finished saying it, Sister Singer returned and the lesson continued :) well she came to church the next day! (that was my first sunday,last week) and we just met with her again this last Saturday.... when we walked in the house and got on our house shoes, we went to the kitchen I noticed a huge GRASSHOPPER on her wall, up by the ceiling on her butterfly wallpaper....okay wierd I thought.

Well she pointed it out, acting like òh wow, there is a grasshopper on my wall´ well.....about 15 minutes later we found out she actually had found it, brought it into her house and tried to feed it grass....YEAH! I KNOW! Crazy. haha, well the best part was, we changed the subject and read for like 15 minutes in 3rd Nephi, when Christ comes and visits the Nephites....it was a beautiful story and the spirit was there and AS SOON as we read the last verse, like the second after we finished the last word she ups and talks about the grasshopper....Sister Singer and I just looked at eachother and responded to her grasshopper comment and then asked her something about the scriptures, but really? This lady sure loved her grasshopper, in the closing prayer she prayed for it! We asked her if she wanted us to take it outside for her, oh and I asked her his name....sorry ive forgotten, maybe ill ask her again and let you know...but she did let us take it outside for her, sister singer did it and she crossed the busy street to put it in the trees, and Schwester Houschka had her cross the other busy street to go to the OTHER trees so he wouldnt die....how sweet of her.

The other really great lesson we had this week was with our progressing investigator DING GE! She is so sweet, from China, probably 23-24 years old and is going to this university here in Freiberg- she told us what she was studying.....yeah neither of us quite understood what she said, but we nodded and told her it was cool anyway..haha, well we had an awesome lesson about faith and umkehr (repentance) and it was actually really exciting because the conversation turned to baptism and she asked a lot of questions about it! We decided to commit her to baptism this next lesson! The spirit was strong and she said she had prayed and will pray this week for her tests etc. When we´re with her she dilligently reads between her chinese and deutch books of mormon and asks very sincere questions (I really love it too because her German isnt tooooo good so its a little slower and I dont feel too much pressure to have correct grammer etc) but as we were leaving she offered us a glass of water...we said we were okay, but she got it for us any way haha, and Sister Singer took a huuuge gulp, like downed it, well to her surprise it was BOILING HOT WATER. hahahaha, oh I wish you could have seen her face! Well of couse she couldnt react ( and I couldnt laugh) because Ding ge sincerely gave it to us so we had to hold back our laughter (and sister singers pain) til after we left her apartment. Oh mensch it was funny. Hope you can imagine it too. . . I am really excited to see where Ding ge goes, we´re meeting with her this Freitag!

We got to go to the temple this last week! (If youre a sister in freiberg you get to go 3 times in a transfer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) could I be more blessed!?! It is SO beautiful inside, and its so great knowing all the temple workers. If you want to hear a good story read the story of how this temple came to be, its incredible, and Präsident Apel....the präsident of the temple, he was there when it was dedicated...and its his family that are the gorgeous ones here-remember Schwester Fröbel? Thats his daughter, and his other daughter Schwester Schönherr is in our ward too, she feeds us every Wednesday (incredible, rotkohl, meat and potatoes, ice cream and ahhhhh amazing, yes i am quickly working my way to my goal of not-date-able when I get home:) and her family is gorgeous too and his two sons are in our ward both married (good looking) and have gorgeous families. One of his sons Sven Apel is the executive secretary in our mission presidency... so you can see the Lord blesses his servants here in Freiberg. When Präsident and Sister Apel sit in abendsmal versammlung (sacrament mtg) they just glow, I feel so honored to be in a ward with such strong, spiritual people so close to our Father in Heaven.

Sister Singers birthday is this Freitag! The big 22, so we bought a cake, its supposed to have strawberries in it, we´ll see how that goes.....! oh and Zone Conference too! we also have a return appointment with another sister I havent met and a new appt with a couple we contacted on the street at about 8:30 at night, did I talk about them? Kind of intimindating, well Im especially excited because Sister Singer was talking to the man and I was talking to the woman and she said `yes, I would like to feel Heavenly Fathers love, and yes I want to know his plan for me´ (well she nodded when I asked her if she wanted the previous) and THEN we saw them at Kaufland (the store) the day before our termin (appt) and she said yeah 16:00? Yeah! She remembered! AND THEN she called us the next day to tell her her enkelkinder (grandkids) just came into town and she rescheduled for this week-but the cool thing about that story is, she called us! she kept our card and now we have her number, and yes I know im a golden and who knows what will happen, but at least to me she sounds committed to coming and finding out what we're all about, plus we're meeting at the gemindehaus (wardhouse) right next to the temple, so how could she not feel the spirit and you know....GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!? Yes, its going to happen...actually we (Sister Singer and I) are going to baptize all of Freiberg and this university here will become BYU Freiberg (or UVU Freiberg :) so keep watching the church news, and read the story of Alma, He did it, and so can we. (so WILL we) I believe it can happen and thats the first step right!? Hope you all have absolute faith as well, no rolling of the eyes or ókay we´ll see`.....your prayers are greatly felt and love as well, thank you so much for your support and I feel overblessed to have such incredible friends and family. Good luck this week in all your endevours and remember the important things like family and your relationship with our Heavenly Father and his beloved son, our savior Jesus Christ...because those are what count.....money, work, school, all that comes second...right? Right. Okay gtg convert a city now!

Congrats to Benjamin Collett and his call to Brazil! Go baptize em!

Oh and good luck at school family and have a blast in MIDDLE SCHOOL Kara Beara!

Toph-send me your email address haha.

-Sister Rasmussen

Schöne Woche!! September 13th rainyday..

Yep its rainy and beautíful here!! The past two days were perfect temperature, cool wolken (clouds) and sunshine.

we had an amazing eating appointment yesterday with Schwester Lohman, outside on her deck place, she made the most fresh italian meal ive ever eaten, everyone here has little gardens and grow their own vegetables. We had an amazing salad with fresh mozerella tomatoes, brushetta she made herself and this cheezy tomatoey saucey vegetablely amazingnesson top of noodles. Oh and then yogurt (anyone whos been to Germany or mom, knows the yogurt here is like NOTHING in the US) with this cherry glaze cherry delicious something. The funny thing was Bruder Adolf was there too, so me and sister singer and those two, His wife died a year ago, and shes been divorced for about 3 years, id say their probably.....70? years old? Well they we TOTALLY FLIRTING! Basically it was them talking and Sister Singer and I were just there. :) haha, okay it wasnt that bad, we had some really spiritual conversations, but I definitely got my chick flick fill for the mission wow.

I had my first ZONE KONFERENZ! We went with Sven Apel (hes the executive secretary in the mission presidency) and he´s one of the gorgeous Apel kids (remember, the temple president and his 4 kids all live in this ward, Sven is the youngest and has 3 kids) He and Sister Singer gave a workshop to the Ehepaars, (senior married couples) for the temple information center, and so we drove with him to Dresden. It was cool to see all the missionaries in the Dresden and Leipzig Zones...lots of cool sisters, I was the only Golden sister, and there were 4 other Golden elders, Elder Carlson was the only one from my mtc district. I also saw Elder Pierson...mom you saw his mom at postmart? Yeah anyway, we had some really spiritual workshops, Elder Ballard came to our mission (up in Hamburg) and he spoke with the missionaries there and Präsident Pimentel told us all that he said...a cool quote was ' Conversion starts with what they feel, not with what they know.' Pretty awesome lesson. We had lunch there are were taught by präsident, the aps the zone leaders, Sister Pimentel and then had a quick sisters mtg at the end. It was such a boost and really fun to see more missionaries. It was refreshing though to come back home to Freiberg and hit the streets with a new fire and more to work on and implement.

Ding Ge is our other progressing investigator and wow shes so great. She was excited to tell us what she learned from Moroni 7 this past week and said she had prayed for help on her tests (in her head) and she did well, so she took that as an answer that God was there, we're still helping her strengthen her relationship with God and Christ, but its coming and her faith is building quickly! She asks super great questions and we talked about lesson 3 this lastweek, how we get back to heavenly father....faith, repentance...and du du du duuuuh BAPTISM! She said she wasnt sure she was ready when we asked her if she'd be baptized, she said 'isnt that a serious thing?' haha she had said 'its like unlocking the door to heaven?' YEAH DING GE! Exactly what it is....She said shed think about coming to church this next week and GUESS WHAT!? She knows LI! So theyre both goingto come to church and then they can speak Chinese together and wow. I just love this work...

This last Friday was her BIRTHDAY! The big 22...we celebrated in the morning, I decorated a bit while she was in the shower, and we had waffles and freiberg eierscheke yogurt and listened to Enya, it was great. Shes so funny, like I said before shes from Texas, the city of Spring, right outside of Houston.... We found a Texas pizza at Kaufland and she took a picture by it haha. Oh and we have a song that we belt all the time in our little wohnung. She has a super strong testimony and super good German. Im so blessed to have her as my mom. haha, this morning she woke up with a swollen eye (i promise i didnt hit her) hahahaha oh it was so sad, but so funny, she couldnt open her right eye and we took a picture she looks totally asain. We laugh all day long and keep eachother happy and hopefull.......I JUST FOUND OUT SHES LEAVING ME! Okay so we have tauscheslike twice a transfer where you spend 24 hourswith a different sister.....well of couse I was going to leave her and go with another more experienced missionary right? and shed stay cause im a golden...right? NOPE! She's going to Dresden and Sister Madson who has only been out two transfers herself is coming to me in Freiberg!!! Wahoooo this should be fun! This will be on Thursday to Friday....so if I die...that is why, we both couldnt speak German and couldn't survive. Actually to be honest Im excited, I know Sister Madson as good German (she was fastracked from the MTC) and we have English class and other fun things that we should survive through....

Happy Birthday Dad!

~Sister Rasmussen

i. am. so. blessed. I LOVE DEUTSCHLAND!!

FIRST OFF- The clouds here are like nothing i've ever seen. You are all missing out!

So the flight from SLC to France was so great, I sat next to the coolest lady, Deborah from France...well from Southern Cal but has lived in France for the last 20 years, we talked about everything, she hated church and didnt believe in God...I caught myself yes saying the first vision and takling about the plan of salvation (I remember concsiously thinking, am i really saying this right now?) but yes I was and yes I gave her a book of mormon at the end of the flight, and yes I took a picture with her, she gave me her card (after saying wow I never do this, I never talk to ppl on planes, but heres my number incase you need anything, its good to know someone in Europe) then she told me to call her at Christmas and see how good my german is....then we took a picture

WOOT! Also I had like 8 lbs of chocolate from my loving sister Kasandra, so I went and gave it to the kids on the plane, thez loved it and parents were pointing at their children asking if they could have some, it was great, but haha oh man I got my first insult and it was amazing! So I had like 20 pieces of candy left and I was at the back of the plane handing it to 4 kids and this old man came and took it out of their hands and gave it back to me saying "we dont take anything from Joseph Smith!" hahaha, oh mensch, then I said "my name isnt Joseph Smith and I asked another lady to please hand the candy to the kids...oh hahah so great. Hope you see the humor of it too. WELL THEN in the French airport we had like a 40 minute wait til our flight to Berlin and we were just standing there talking to ppl, complimenting their baby´s cuteness etc, and this sweet German lady (who honestly looks like Edna Mole from the Incredibles) she walked up to me and asked who we were, what our nametags were and then immediatelz asked if we believed in the old and new testaments....thenwe introduced the Book of Mormon and talked about the apostacy, she kept asking the coolest questions like what the difference was between our church and the catholic church (thats where the apostacy came in) but then discussed church and modern day prophets (all in slaughtered deutsch mind you) and she asked if there were members in Germany! I said yes, we didnt have any pass along cards or anything so I just wrotewww.lds.org and mormon.org at the front of her book of mormon and said she could find a church by here on there (I gave her my email address too....) well then she walked over to her husband and we talked to him too he talked about the Freiberg temple etc and then Elder Tanner gave me two deutsch pamphets on the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ that he had, they said they would read it and they let us take a picture with them....

well then we boarded and I was out on the plane...then we landed haha an hour later in BERLIN! We got off the plane and saw where we got our bags and Präsident Pimentel and his wife and the aps and Elder Morris were waving through the window! While we were waiting for the bags, we went and saw Monica and her husband (the lady we had talked to) and I asked "wie war es?" (how was it?) they said they liked the pamphlets and immediately asked "who is the prophet after Jospeh Smith?!" yeah I know!!! they really asked that! So we talked a little longer and asked if they wanted to learn more and she wrote her address in my book (thanks Erin for the journal its been perfect) and they said hopefully you´ll serve in Freiberg! We hope you do! and I said well pray for me! and the old man said I have a feeling you will.....Well awesome start to the mission right?! We then met Präsident Pimentel and Sister Pimentel and the APs...yes mom Elder Roden! He totally knew I was his moms companions daughter and we laughed a bit about that. We got some money exchanged and loaded our bags into the big boxy blueish purplish van and sister malen and I rode with the präsident and the elders went with the aps....there were nine of us in our group (the other 14 had been there for a few hours and were apparently NAPPING! geez lucky :)

Well driving around berlin was so great, we told the präsident about us and he told us about all the sister trainers areas and we wanted to go to all of them! They were all so incredible sounding! We went straight to the mission home (yes I took a picture right when I got there)

its on the coolest cobble stone street lined with gorgeous trees and fairytale homes...we got all our checking in done, passports talked about money etc, dad they give us a debit card and we get 175€ every month. yay. THEN we went and met the other half of our group at the hotel where we all stayed that night, there´s a cool buffet style restaurant. K first off get the idea of like a `hampton inn and chuckarama out of your head) I took pictures so you all see them eventually tbut this hotel had spiral staircases up to the rooms with kcool german beds and huge windows out to the street and german shower ahhh and the buffet was so nice, so formal and very german it was a perfect first meal, we had some sort of meat and breads and potatoes and rotkohl and loveliness. Then we had pastries and this pudding amazingness. Super funny too the wall on the other side of the room had a half naked lady on it! WELCOME TO GERMANZ! haha, sister pimentel had all the sisters and she and her husband sit on the side of the table facing it haha, it wasnt too noticable but I thought it was funny. Then we headed to the mission home (where the praäsident lives obviously) but they had our huge group (biggest group of goldens mind you) head the long way back and contact ppl. IT was SO cooL! I talked to a car salesman for like 12 minutes and he took a pass a long card and talked to like 12 other ppl, the funniest one was sister dorsez held out a card to two men riding their bikes past us and the first one slowed down to take it and the guy behind him didnt stop so they crashed haha and then sister dorsey and some elders talked to them and thez set up an appointment for the aps to meet with them! the men on bikes said they thought that god caused them to crash so they could meet us. haha.

Then at the mission home we had our interviews and thats when I sent that quick email home....their home is so lovely and it was good to just sit for a second. We then all headed back to the hotel and i´ve never had a better sleep.....the pillow was like heaven.

The next morning we woke up had a very german breakfast of bread and fruit and the option of goulaush hahah that is not how you spell it and other things....delicious. We then met with the präsident and took a fieldtrip to mauerplatz where the wall and no mans land used to be....SO COOL. Gorgeous, it looked like a scene off pride and prejudice, it was raining a wee bit and I LOVED IT. We walked through what used to be no mans land and went to the ´East Germanz side`...we read the dedication from präsident monson and the rededication he just gave in Feb...So great. We then went out into the woods a bit by ourselves and dedicated ourselves to our mission. Awesome moment. Well then it was the big moment, going to the church in VBBerlin to meet our trainers, I took pictures of the lovely set up for lunch and all our bags were in the gym with the tables set up so neatly. It was such a great moment when they finished their training meeting and came out to us all the sisters hugged and Sister Calder was one of them! (she went to waterford)

and that was neat to see a familiar face! All the sisters were cool.....we took pictures (dont worry kasandra :) After lunch we moved into the chapel for Golden conference and it was great they motivated us for the work and I learned a lot, präsident spoke to us and then the big moment came, it was really dramatic with all 52 of us in there- he would have a golden go to the front and read their call of where their first area was and who their trainer was....so suspenseful!

I went down and slowly read "You have been called to serve in FREIBERG Germany with Sister Singer! ( YEAH MOM I KNOW!) Freiberg! where the temple is! Yes! (everyone was excited for me because they had all heard about my lovely convo with monica from freiberg in the airport-saidly later we found out their from leipzig,but those sisters went to their place and they werent home, so theyre going to teach them I just know it, and i´m close enough if i stay here and they accept it I could go to the baptism) ANYWAY! FREIBERG! Sister Singer and I hit it off immediately before when we were eating, so it was perfect, im still pinching myself. We then quickly left from the church with all my stuff, sister singer helping me of course, and we got to the bahnhof headed out to Freiberg!

We got to know eachother really well on the train ride....Sister Singer is SO GREAT! She looks like a combination of Sydney Monson and Sarah Standing....youll see in the pictures. Shes so sweet, I still cant pinpoint whos laugh she has, but its a familiar awesome laugh :D Shes from Texas and went to BYU studying Broadcast Journalism...Shes like 6 inches taller than me and is super sweet. This is her 6th transfer and i am her second golden! Shes been in Freiberg for 3 transfers, this is her 4th...

OKAY OUR WOHNUNG IS AMAZING. )(apartment) Its on:

Poststraße 7

09500 Freiberg

Germany

So write me here and itll be faster, if you sent it to the mission home ill only get it once every 6 weeks......lame so dont to that :) OKay so its at the top of this gorgeous buildign a street ilke the fairytales, cobblestone, gorgous shops etc, the innenstadt is just down the street and we´re on the 4th floor.

As you walk in the bathroom is immediately on the right (for good reason :) with a door between the toilet room w/a bookshelf, then a sink, shower and washer in the other. Then at the end of the short hall theres a coat rack with garbage cans and shoes and lots of coats. To the left is our bedroom...two closets with cupboard doors and shelves, a bunkbed (i get the top) and a door that opens out to a railing with a view of houses, trees and old church and mostly gorgeous sky, clouds etc....i took pictures :D then if you walk straight out of the bedroom past the coats is our wee kitchen, stove sink cupboards and then a little counter cupboards, little fridge and oh I love it. Then our big room...there´s a bar table thing with two tall stool chair things...then a little couch and 4 big square windows that open up to the street, with a big windowsill that we can sit on- ahhh its gorgous. Then we have two big desks facing eachother, and a wall of bookshelves filled with church media, scriptures in all the different languages and other missionary resources :) So thats basically it! Hope you can imagine it.

My first night I woke up wide awake around 4am and we had slept with the door open and it was raining outside, I was so happy, felt so blessed, it smelled and felt amazing and I was so excited for the next day, oh and you have the same feather doon and (the germans do everzthing better than we do ps) and you just zip the sheets around the blanket (it feels like a cloud) and same thing with the big square feather pillow) you just zip off the sheets and wash them. . . I love our apartment.

Our first day we had two appointments, on with our newly baptized miracle Sandy. She had called the temple having researched our church and said ´hi, i would like to join your church`haha, amaying right, so they called Sister Singer and she was baptized 2.5 weeks ago! So we teach all the lessons to them again to make sure thex got it all, and we talked about missionary work. Shes so great, still need to take a picture....We went grocery shopping and YES THEY HAVE PEANUT BUTTER!

yay, Kasandra can I just tell you the nutterbutters you sent me with this peanut butter are going to be the death of me...oh luckily (side note) sister singer has this thing where she cant eat very much very often or she'll get sick...so PERFECT! haha, its a great help to me, and its a walking mission, we have bikes, but yeah we just walk, you can talk to more people better that way. Grocery shopping was interesting but awesome, I love Germany.

We had another really cool appointment the other day with this girl named Ding Gu. She´s from China and has no religious backround, no concept of God at all, sister singer and sister Jensen found her doing doors at the university (yes, my area is heaven on earth, picture perfect, temple, and a university) They left her with a chinese book of mormon and the assignment to read alma 32 (faith like a seed) we reviewed it (oh and it was good because German is her second language too so so spoke a little slower than everyone else so I got everything) but she was asking the most amazing questions, like defined faith and asked if we have a church and all the details and it was appropriate to ask her if she´d like to come with us the next day to church and she said, well I know its for the people who have faith so yeah once I get it I would like to come! WHAT?! cool, she asked what we do and askeed about the music and we showed her our liedbuch, the song boko in german, and eneded up singing nearer my god to thee and showing her other church music online. Oh it was so cool, we taught her to pray and asked her to pray and then we ended with a prayer kneeling in her little apartment....yeah! really kneeling! I didnt know we really sang and kneeled with investigators, but we do! and the spirit was SO STRONG! I cannot wait to see her again, oh she asked us to bring her a book of mormon auf deutsch so she could read both the german and chinese. YES.

Church was AMAZING YESTERDAY! They do the church thing the right way over here.. first off we were walking to church (of course, about 25 minutes away) and a mitglieder (member) gave us a right up the hill, listening to the motabs in his car with his 3 boys....then EVERYONE shakes EVERYONE elses hands in the foyer and says Guten tag, guten morgen, and hugs, kisses handshakes whatever....it was such a great spirit of love and I felt so welcome, everyone knows sister singer and recognized I was the new sister, I was very welcomed and loved. The bischoff (bishop) is the coolest uy in the world I want to say he's like mmm 45? 40? oh half our ward is old people, like old old haha I love them, theyre all so classy and welcoming. Anyway the fist meeting is FHV (relief society) but yesterday it was combined with priesthood, and the bishop taught, guess on what he taught on...yes...member missionary work!!! and the whole room gave their sincere two bits and asked questions and there was such a great spirit of missionary wrok and they even mentioned taking out the new pass along cards we just got with our cell phone number on it....yayaya Freiberg is the best! Then we had sunday school where we learned about Job, I sat next to Sandy and it was funny having both of us try to find the scriptures in the German Bible, me not knowing German and her not really knowing the bible that well :)

Then Abendsmall versammlung....sacrament meeting, I was asked to give my testimony and I sat next to the relief society präsident who was talking in the meeting and she comforted me, we shared a songbook and she pretended to shake it with nervousness, it's so funny relating to someone not being able to really communicate in the same language....it was a little intimidating, a huge room full of German members, but having Sister Singer there with Sandy beaming at me, and some other members I had met and remembering my purpose, I had peace, and I simply said how I knew I had been called of a true prophet of the Lord and I love the ward already and I know that I was sent here to teach their friends and the people the have the courage to talk to, I said I know Christ is our savior and that is why I am here attempting to speak German, to tell the German people in Freiberg of Christ and his love and sacrifice and of our Heavenly Father´s love for us! It was quick, and probably less complicated then that, but such a cool opprotunity and MOM guess what! I thought of you and the story of your first sunday because the relief society (and us) and the children sang together that one saong "holding hands around the world" but they changed the words to " we are SCHWESTERS instead of Kinder" so anyway it was sweet and very comforting. After church I met the temple missionary couple who are from provo and the sister spoke english to me, and apparently her husband was a professor at BYU....and then other German members came and shook my hand and said they understood my German 'wunderbares Deutsch' it was sweet of them to say.

Then we went to our eating appointment, theres a list for the next forever of every sunday feeding us...we se went to the sweetest couple in the world's house, another Bruder from the ward came with us whos wife had just died a year ago, and I think he told like 36 stories, it was really difficult to pretend and try to understand his dialect and try to pick out words I knew, but the couple was so sweet and I got a picture with them too! My first real real Deutsch homecooked dinner, meat and wierd stick balls of bread stuff and rotkohl and sweet juice, oh it was soooo good. I love them already. Then we got a call from Sandy and she just found out her Oma just died....so we immediatelz called her and took her too the coolest members in the worlds house...haha did that sentence make sense?

anyway theres a couple in our ward, they both served in the Hamburg mission, shes from Indianna and was born in Freiberg, lived there his whole live....the Dzierzons (the D is silent) they have a 21 month old son, and theyre probably what 25-26? hes the first counselor in the bishopbric, they fed us on Saturday night and thats where we took Sandy to comfort her. It was nice and I think well I know she felt better afterwards... Then the first people we street contacted right after that set up an appointment with us for next week! it was like 8:30 at night and they were jsut heading out and Sister singer talked to the man and I talked to the woman, asking her does she believe God loves her? she didnt know, and I asked if she wanted to feel her Heavenly Fathers love and live with her family forever and she said yes...so we´re meeting with them next week! yaya! So the work is very much rolling here in Freiberg and the gospel is being taught, the members are strong and the temple is GORGEOUS, so yes mom please pull that picture of the freiberg temple back out and imagine me in front and our church right next to it!!

yay! I hope My email isnt too long and you arent bored out of your mind and the y and z are switched on German keyboards....so that might be the reason you cant read it too well :) oh today we took a train to Dresden....im in Dresden! like 8 people from our district, well maybe its our whole district, I dunno, we´re all here together about to go buy me a missionary side bag and lunch and see the place!

So this adventure is incredible and I love talking about my savior all day and I love you all!

Sorry if I didnt answer all your questions, but thanks for your prayers, and I am so safe and doing so well!!! HOPE YOU ALL ARE DOING WELL TOO! I am praying for you!

ps Mom or Dad or someone will you send this out to my mass list, I might as well be exactly obedient, no one has said I cant email other people, actually I know I can, but well I guess I just want to be a hassle haha, so if you dont mind going to my past emails and fwding this on to those emails and also to sister curtis and sister hickins from the mtc that would be lovely...ps I dont know whats up with tophs email, im sending it to topher416@gmail.com...so let me know the right one! hmmm other then that, dad will you just check my account on my pluscard w/ uccu i need to buy another midsized suitcase, the pullyup handle thingy snapped completely off! and a missionary sidebag/backpack :) So yeah THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL FOREVER AND EVER!

pps sorry one other super funny thing I wanted to tell you....so of course with my and my golden beginners luck I totally offended a German without knowing it :) We were talking to two ladies in one of our dorfs at the bus stop and la di da small talk etc and as we were walking away I noticed they had flowers and I asked who they were for and she said her friends birthday....then I randomly asked, When is YOUR birthday? and she said oh, well not til next year.....and I said....oh well HAPPY BIRTHDAY early!...:Sister singer then later informed me its bad luck to wish a German happy birthday......oops. Okay bye!