Danke.

All I can say is Danke. Thank you so much for all the birthday love. I haven't felt so surrounded by love ever before. I am so grateful for the postcards and letters and packages. You are the greatest family and friends a missionary could ask for!! I was very spoiled as well by my missionary mother, Sister Singer. She and I got to go on a tausch last week and she spoiled me too! She made me a peanut butter cake, presents and lots of motivation for the next stretch of my mission. It was such a great 'pick me up' and on top of that she 'kidnapped me' on Pday, and while the other sisters went shopping, she surprised me with an appointment with a member in Berlin who said she would do my hair for freeeee! I felt so pampered and I forgot how great it feels to get the hairs done. :) THANKS SISTER SINGER!

I was also spoiled the day of my birthday, I saved all the letters to open on the day of and was so grateful for the drawings, notes and pictures from you all. Sister Forsyth made me pancakes and I BECAME A 'mother' for a week! on my birthday we got sent 2 golden sisters who just came to the mission the day before from the preston MTC! One, Sister Svoboda is from Switzerland and the other, Sister Uhlig is from Frankfurt am Mein. So we get to be trainers from Thursday to Wednesday morning. SO we all went to Eisenhüttenstadt and Rosel had Yvonne and Sister Heitbreder come over and they baked me a cake and I got flowers and felt so loved. We then split up and did some work and then met up at Schwester Zimmers place and she made me a cake as well! I sure love her and she gave me a little present with 'forget me not' flowers. I am so excited to know these people for eternity. We then had a great day of lessons and in the evening we had 'gemiko' aka our meeting with Ahmed who is our ward mission leader and afterwards Heny and Ola came in and they celebrated my birthday with me too! They put me in the other room and turned off the lights and lit candles, and then brought me in and sang I love these people so much!  

So we get to split up all the work we had to do and it really was an answer to prayer. There is so much to do in this area and not enough time or missionaries to do it! SO now we had double power and got 31 lessons taught! Its been cool because president asked us to switch off the goldens so they could learn from both of us and its cool to see them so excited and motivated to do the work!

We saw a lot of miracles, of course Heny is the golden investigator surprising us everyday with miracles. He gave up coffee, he really doesnt even know why because we havent taught word of wisdom yet, but he said his boss brought him a cup of coffee and he told him he doesnt drink it anymore....and the boss insisted so Heny told us he dumped it out when the guy wasnt looking hahaha. Oh wow I wish you could meet this guy, I really am laughing alll day long over what he says. These Egyptians of mine are really like family, they are so hilarious. I wish you could listen to a conversation with us. Anyway, we were so excited because yesterday we had stake conference in Berlin and we had 3 investigators come! Heny of course with Ola and Ahmed, Ahmed bought him a white shirt and a tie and he looked sharp. Then our new investigator Christian showed up too in a suit! We have only taught Christian twice but he is so open and I am so excited too see what happens with him! He was born in Frankfurt and works hard and loves his family, he hasnt ever had any religion and said he would be baptized when he knew it was true and could talk to some other members, So he came to stake conference and seemed to really enjoy it, he stayed afterwards and ate with us and the Zimmermans, and Heny stayed with us as well! Then this sweet old grandma came in and started telling them (both Heny and Christian) she knew both of them have good hearts and she can see it in her eyes, she told them to just open their hearts and listen to the spirit and they would be blessed. She was so cute. We then taught Heny the plan and we went to a baptism in Dahlem so Heny could see it, he is still waiting for an answer that Joseph Smith is a prophet, so he is taking his Book of Mormon on the train everyday this week and said he will pray. Its such an incredible aspect of missionary work to be able to PROMISE an answer to their prayer. I love telling investigators, you dont just have to believe our words, if you pray about what we have said, you will know for yourself it is the truth. Ah its so incredible teaching people about the spirit and helping them feeling the strong warm feeling of our Heavenly Father's presence.

We also had TRANSFER CALLS this past Friday and I am staying here! It will be my 3rd transfer here and Im staying with Sister Forsyth, it will be her last transfer on her mission! So we have a lot of work to do and a lot of miracles to see. I am excited to stay with her, I feel myself being stretched as a missionary and growing spiritually, we know how to work best with each other and to push each other so I am very grateful to stay. Especially to get to stay with this ward. Some other news, Sister Singer is going to 'white wash' in Cottbus with Sister Kitterman (a sister I was with in the MTC) so theyll still be close but not in the same district, ahh that was such a fun blessing, we are already figuring out a pday plan. :)

I am feeling so blessed, feeling the Lord guide our plans and our lessons. I feel so honored to be called a servant of the Lord and to meet these incredible people on the way. I have changed so much already and hope to keep improving. I have felt a new motivation from being with these new goldens! There is nothing better to do with our time then to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. To help people change their lives to follow Christ, to strive to be perfect and to umkehr when we make a mistake, to use the gift of the atonement which is constantly given to us. To lift up everyone around us and make them appreciate the fact they met us and to hopefully have felt the spirit when they were with us, I hope you are having some cool missionary experiences back there at home, and know how much I love you! I felt so loved this past week and am so grateful, so so grateful for the motivation. I really loved something my mother sent me this week and would like to share it with you too....

  LOWELL BENNION'S PHILOSOPHICAL CREED

Learn to like what doesn't cost much

Learn to like reading, conversation, music.

Learn to like plain food, plain service, plain cooking.

Learn to like fields, trees, brooks, hiking, rowing, climbing hills.

Learn to like people, even though some of them may be different   . . . different from you.

Learn to like to work and enjoy the satisfaction doing your job as well as it can be done.

Learn to like the song of birds, the companionship of dogs.

Learn to like gardening, puttering around the house, and fixing things.

Learn to like the sunrise and sunset, the beating of rain on the roof and windows, and the gentle fall of snow on a winter day.

Learn to keep your wants simple and refuse to be controlled by the likes and dislikes of others.

Entschuldigung my emails are so long and all over the place but I guess thats like life! Have a fantastic week and dont forget how much ich hab euch lieb!

LOVE YOU! Sister Rasmussen