WASNT CONFERENCE AWESOME!?!? Yes. Yes it was. We watched the Saturday Morning session at 6:00 Saturday night and then the Saturday afternoon session on Sunday at 2:00. Music and the Spoken word at 5:30 and the Sunday morning session at 6:00, they will reshow the Sunday afternoon session in 2 weeks for sunday school and relief society (so no I didnt watch it from 10pm til midnight) but we had the COOLEST EXPERIENCE! We invited all of our investigators to come watch Music and the Spoken Word at 5;30 Sunday night by saying things like 'one of the biggest choirs in the world is giving a concert! and then adding, oh and it will be broadcasted from Salt Lake City...' So we didnt know who would come or not, but we had arraged to go with two of our investigators, our two chinese students, Ding Ge and Li. We walked to Ding Ge's and they know eachother, so we had a great walk in the crisp fall air the four of us laughing and talking heading two the church right next to the temple.
Another really great tender mercy this week, Hollie Odekirk who is study abroading in Wien (Vienna) came to visit the temple with her friend Ariel and we got to take them to a couple lessons and to get some Freiberger Eierscheke (really good Freiberg pastry) we also got to do a session together which was really special. The lessons were cool and they are both going on missions so it was exciting to talk about missionary work and being a sister missionary. It was so crazy having Hollie here, it felt so like home, but then I remembered we were in Germany, crazy, thanks for coming Holls!
SOME OTHER GREAT NEWS! SISTER SINGER AND I ARE STAYING IN FREIBERG!!!! >Yes another 6 weeks with my mom (trainer) We were so excited. In our mission we have a big conference call with the whole mission and we all mute ourselves and the APs and Präsident talk to us and präsident reads off the transfers. Its really cool because we hear where everyone else is going. We had all the sister missions and who was where set out on our table and it was neat to see where all the transfers were. Sister Lanctot and Sister Malen are the only golden sisters whose moms are leaving them and they are staying. When we heard 'and Freiberg, Sister Singer and Sister Rasmussen remain.' We jumped up and cheered and hugged and it was a really sweet girly missionary moment (you men wouldnt understand ;) This will be Sister Singers 5th transfer here!!! Thats record breaking we think.... a lot of members have been asking if we found out the calls and so it was fun to let people know we were staying, a lot of hugs and 'thank goodnesses' We sure do love this ward and luckily they love us too. It was neat bringing 10 people to conference, some of the american wives who are living here told us they havent seen that many investigators here ever....yes times are changing and Freiberg is ON FIRE!
We have some really great miracles coming our way. A cool couple who called the temple and said they were interested in doing geology work have had a couple of appts with us that fell out and one random morning he called and invited us over for tea-- yes they do that here. We have fruit tea and its amazing, I recommend it! Anyway he was really sweet trying to speak english, pretty good actually, he is 81 and hmm his life partner? haha not wife, but lady he is living with pulled out a Book of Mormon they had from 6 years ago when the missionaries came by....they told us they had gone to church twice and it was nice. The say they are 'liberal lutherans' whatever that means, they were SO great and he told us how last sunday he had gotton homesick for his little dorf he was born in about 30 km away and they drove out there in the rain, he started crying, and showed us a picture of his old home. . . They told us stories of the Hitler days and Hitlers youth and how SCHLIMM the times were, how different. It was incredible to hear the stories from a man who lived through it all. They then told us they were going to a bath in poland for the next 3 weeks because they are old and need some recooperation. IT WAS SO FUNNY when he was trying to speak english and describle the old people pains they have, they said what do you call the shoulder, elbow and wrists....and we said 'joints' and he was so confused and asked a couple more times, trying to describe it differently, and we said 'yes they are called Joints!' he said 'isnt that what the young people smoke?' hahaha, we said yes, same word. It was a funny moment for all of us. Who knew I would be talking to an 81 year old man in Germany about joints and baths in poland? It was great, he then asked for our address and they said they would write us a letter while they were gone! And also said they will call when they return and we can meet again!! So THAT will be a miracle.
So sister Singer left me on Tuesday for a Trainers Training in Berlin and I joined the sisters in Chemnitz for the day. It was crazy awesome. We had to get up at 4am and run to the busbahnhof and she went straight to Berlin and I went to Chemnitz. It was neat going to another sisters apt and do study with them. Sister Hung is dying (ending her mission) in 3 weeks and Sister Martineau only has this last transfer left, so that was a different dynamic too being with such old sisters, they were definitely NOT trunky and worked so hard, we had three AWESOME LEssons, one with a sweet sweet chinese lady they have been teaching since may who is really close to baptism, then a wenegaraktive (inactive) and we had a really great great talk with her, the power went out when we were there and we were laughing and talking by candle light, we sang I am a Child of God and she ended up giving me an old umbrella because I left mine in Freiberg, she was so sweet and the spirit was strong, the last lesson was a first appointment with a young man and it was SO COOL! He said he and his family were catholic but he was learning about other churches, he was a referral, some Elders had ansprached him on the street and some others in the bahnhof so thats how they got his info. He was super open and caught on to most of the first lesson pretty quick, I bore my testimony and cracked most of the jokes, especailly how I needed sugar in my fruit tea and no one else did, it was so exciting, and i was said to tell him I actually served in Freiberg but have a great lesson next time with the other sisters....anyway, awesome time in chemnitz and the coolest sisters!
We also got to go to the temple because it was Sandys first time doing baptisms for the dead!!! (Sandy is the newly baptized 22 year old miracle who got baptized two weeks before I got here) and it was so special, the spirit was so strong and I got to see what it would have been like to see her get baptized for herself... oh I just love Sandy, did I tell you she was going to come next october to slc to go with sister singer to conference, but now she is coming next april so I can come too! yay! She is so great.
It was Schwester Houschkas birthday this week too....Schwester Houschka was the 85 year old lady who when she laughs looks like Grandma Dot.... well we had visited her on Saturday and took her the quarck and buttermilk she wanted haha, and so she wasnt expecting to see us the next day, Sunday for her birthday. But we went to her kurzepfleggeheim (old people home place) and called her from the other room and asked her if we could sing to her, and then we walked into her room and Surprised her! She was surprized and laughed at our silly birthday hats, and loved the cards we made her. We also took balloons and had a really great talk. She is so special and has the strongest testimony, I have a picture of me and her, and sister singer and I in the birthday hats yay.
Conference has been definitely a different experience, watching it in a skirt, not on a couch with Kara playing legos (thanks for the pic of the awesome lego house btw Kara ;) and cuddling with kasandra writing down the prophets words, but it was so special, I couldnt write fast enough and it was neat to be with the other old missionary couples from america who are so close to us. They all remind me of my grandparents, so funny, and especially the Streulings, they are from provo, he was a professor at the Y and they are so cute. She is so classy and he is tall and they are so caring. They had us over for dinner last Thursday at their little temple worker apt and were so sweet. Its neat seeing them in the temple too, I imagined Grandma and Grandpa doing the same thing.... :) ANYWAY it was cool watching conference with them and then watching the other session in German. Realizing how the gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly the same all over the world and everyone jokes around how Präsident Uchtdorf always talks about planes, and everyone has a deep love for Thomas S. Monson, it just reconfirms my testimony that he is the prophet for the whole world and for ever nation, ever person on the earth. Wow. He was so motivating when he started off with missionary work! BOOYA! (get going mom and dad, the prophet told you to start getting ready ;) and then was so sweet in the relief society meeting as well, and I loved his words about dankbarkeit = Gratitude. He is 100% a prophet of God and it was cool to learn that his words are more valuable than even the scriptures because they are for OUR time! His words about how to raise a family or ANY problem we have are the words our HEAVENLY FATHER wants us to hear! Wow. We are so blessed to live on the earth with a living prophet! I am so excited to hear what these inspired men said in the Sunday afternoon session! (Sister singer and I were tempted to ask you all to tell us what they say in the last session, and then invite our investigators to come and be able to say something like 'well if you have an issue about ____ maybe they will address it in conference, because they are inspired, with us already knowing they were going to talk about _____) Yeah did that joke make any sense? well forget it. haha, I am just having the time of my life and am so pumped about missionary work, so if you know anyone thinking about it.......GET THEM OUT HERE! It is so incredible, ha and ive only been out here 1 transfer and my life is already changed forever!
I hope you enjoyed conference as well and are powered up for the next 6 months! Cant wait to get these talks on paper and restudy them and learn more of our Heavenly Fathers guidance for us....you too? :) Congrats to Hailey getting married soon, Syd getting her patriarical blessing, Kasse getting her mission call and Hollie almost getting hers! We are going to a cool hiking place by the czech boarder today! Yay for fall weather!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week! Talk to you soon.
-Sister Rasmussen
ps No mail this last week! Whats up with that fan club? hehe, no worries, Im okay without it : )
There is a picture of us with our little papers waiting for the transfer call
With James Dzierzon - the cutest little kid ever
With Sister Singer and Schwester Schönherr on the couch at the church, that is who feeds us lunch every week...and some others at the temple
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