New companion

This week I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Schoepf, she is from highland utah, and has been on her mission for 16 months. She is so cool, and we get along great! I will be her last companion, and will send her back to america is august. We have lots and lots of fun together! and its just been a really great week!

It has been a good four months! 4 months away from home, away from family and friends, away from the life that I know. 4 months of Berlin, of learning and speaking a new language, of teaching and preaching, of loving strangers, and making friends. It has been such an amazing experience, and I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have!!

Done with training

 So the big news for this week is that I will be getting a new companion tomorrow! That means that I am done with training, and I am a regular ole missionary! 

I am going to miss Sister Schwantes!

She was such a great trainer and I learned so much from her!

I am so grateful for the gospel! my gratitude grows as I bear testimony of the truthfulness daily. my testimony is strengthened with every conversation that I have! It is wonderful! 

HOT . HUMID . STICKY . STUFFY . STINKY.

It was a good week! I loved it! I love every minute of the work! Even though we don't have many people to teach, and not very many people like talking to us, there are many great opportunities to meet new people and share testimony. Its always a surprise when the person standing behind the door doesn't slam it shut when they realize we are from a church! then sometimes we can have a good conversation. 

More of the wall

We went to Tegel on P day, and walked around this beautiful body of water. ein see. it was really pretty, and fun to see one of the many different parts of Germany.

 We also painted pots and planted flowers for our balcony. Everyone else has flowers, we thought we would try to make our apartment look a little more European.

it is beginning to be summer weather aka. HOT. HUMID. STICKY. STUFFY. STINKY. we cruise around on our bikes in the sun a lot a lot and then members invite us in for tea and insist we drink it because it is supposed to help in the hot weather. false. who made up that rule. drink hot drinks when its hot outside?

I always crave ice water. ice doesn't really exist here. bummer!

The very hungry caterpillar

Amazing things happen every day, and we are blessed with all sorts of miracles, big and small. It is amazing work, and I love it so very much!!

really rainy days make it kinda hard to walk down dirt roads.

 sometimes, just sometimes, I find an outfit that I like.

Thanks to some American connections that I was able to find, I got some reeses peanut butter cups!!! such a good candy! 

 Who remembers the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

I was that caterpillar on thursday... It was a holiday so a lot of people were at home, and we were able to schedule three appointment with three of the member missionaries on that day. We went to the first appointment and ate through one salad 3 potatoes 5 asparagus and one bowl of ice cream. we were very full! It was great and we finished with a good spiritual thought and talked about missionary work, and then left. We went to the second members house and much to our spurprise she had a beautiful table set and said oh I hope you are hungry I made us some lunch. so we ate through one salad lots of noodles and lots of meat and sauce, and were told to eat more noodles and more sauce and more salad, so we did. then we ate through quark (its like a yogurt dessert thing with fruit in it that is good, and very german.) we were very very very fullllll and gave a spiritual thought and talked about missionary work and then left. a half our later. we went to our ward mission leaders house, who had a couple friends over from America, and they had a big dinner planned. soooo we ate through one plate of rice and curry, and then one big serving of meat, potatoes, and rotcole, and then we ate through one bowl of ice cream.

People are so good to us, and they were all so nice, that we couldn't just leave all of our food on the plate, so I prayed lots and lots that my stomach would be able to take all of this food, and I was able to make it through it. haha it was quite an experience.

It was literally awful. the facial expression my companion and I kept making to one another were priceless. you know like behind the back of the host who so kindly prepare waaaay too much food for us to eat, and still forced us to eat all of it. I was full for the next three days and the only thing that made me a little bit hungry again was because I fasted on sunday.