Week 2!

These are the pins Lauren got me for Christmas.. I tried to wear them as earrings but they hurt so they will probs stay on my scripture case for now

After dinner one day, I drew this on the board.. Everyone thought it was cute, but then Bruder Nielson rebuked us for not using our time wisely and doing the best instead of just good things.. not going to lie, I was hurt and my pride was hurt, but it was a good lesson, because this is not my time, it is God's. Plus the MTC is a sacred place, and I know I wouldn't have done that in the temple, so I need to treat the MTC like the sacred place it is (also, I think he thought we did it during study time..) Lesson learned.

German flag in our classroom.. I spend at least 9 hours a day in here

Sister Darton's mother made a banner and we hung it up. It fell down by the next morning, but it is supes cute, ya?

I love these sisters

me and schwester Hammer in our classroom. (like my shirt?) ;)

Me with art. Sister McCrary and Sister Balls used it as a metaphor to teach die untersucher, Roy.. Like Christ is the foundation and without him, we fall. Haha.

Elder Hughes AKA Harry Potter (sister hammer's glasses..)

Long day, so I made art. Elder Passey sits across from me. He's our DL until week 3

 

 

Hallo!  TIMOTHY LUKE SIMPSON!! I can't believe I forgot to tell you happy birthday. You're a teenager!!! Meine gutte! Gutte himmel! You're so big. I love you, buddy. Thank you for writing me. Also, thank you benjamin, for your cute little letter. Now that I'm gone, you have to tell me all your secrets about who you like and your deepest darkest secrets, because I can't tell anyone. Got it?

This week was busy. It's hard but good. It is exciting. I decided not to read the german lessons to Roy and it might stink for him, but I understand more and I know exactly what I am saying, so the spirit is there more. We challenged him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and he said yes. (although we knew he was just a returned missionary pretending to be an investigator.) The next day, he came into class and started teaching us, because he's our teacher, and we all freaked out. :) His name is Bruder Alston and he is super nice. he's taught here for 3 years, he served in the Alpine mission, and his wife has a baby due in May, I think. He said it all in german, so that's what I picked up. I think. It is hard to understand. Sister Voigtlaender and I have started running a mile during exercise time in the gym (10 laps = 1 mile), then we do abs/push-ups, then we play volleyball or basketball. We played lightning and bump one day. One day, we played volleyball, and one companion was on one team and one was on the other, and the one on Sister V's team was pounding it to his companion. I've never seen anyone hit a volleyball like that. It was terrifying. His comp was right next to me in the rotation, and one time, he accidentally hit it at me. I think it hit my legs (maybe?) but my hands were there? I don't know really what happened, I just remember laughing because he stopped after seeing my look of pure terror. It was slightly embarrasing. I don't remember feeling pain. Just scared. (Don't worry, I didn't pass out or cry or anything. It was just funny/bizarre). Also, I finally hit the volleyball overhand.. breaking barriers. It took me a week. This is embarrasing. I'm not a volleyball player in the slightest. 

I'm sorry, normally I just bring my journal and write about my highlights. (normally? what? its been a week and a half). haha. 

Sunday and Tuesday are probably my favorite (lieblings) days because of devotionals and choir. Sunday, we has a MTC relief society meeting, and one of the speakers had 2 sisters sing "Be Still My Soul" and for some reason, I just cried. Like big tears rolling down my face. She shared a missionary story with it before. It was great. The musical numbers are my favorite. On sister sang Nearer My God, To Thee + I Need Thee Every Hour. Ah, I love hymns. I haven't missed music that much. We do talk about how much we LOVE the sound of music on a daily basis. And Sister Darton and I re-wrote the words to "think of me" from Phantom of the Opera to be about Christ and sang it in our room. (Is that inappropriate?) And I really craved Fiddler on the Roof the other day. All ist gut. Anyways, back to Sunday. I did not have to talk in church in german, (but I did prepare a talk because we have to every week). There is one georgian sister, and she spoke (she actually went to RockyMountain: Sister Olson), and I think she's lucky because no one can understand her if she speaks it wrong or anything. it's pretty cool. We didn't get a temple walk because the branch presidency was doing interviews. I went to Choir with my district (and zone.. everyone goes to choir). We sang "Hurrah For Israel" and the choir director is awesome. It is a combination of a fireside and choir rehearsal. He has so many cool stories about the hymns. We didn't sing at devotional on Sunday. I saw Aaron (my FHE brother!) but he didn't see me. Stephen B Allen spoke at the devo, and it was awesome. His wife spoke before him, and she stopped in the middle and said, "i feel like I should bear my testimony and just let my husband talk," and he decided not to give his talk he prepared.. he talked about where your heart is and it was awesome. It was what I needed. In the middle of his talk, he asked the organist (a missionary) if he could play "Dear to the heart of the shepard" and we sang it, but he kept interrupting and would talk about the words, then we'd keep going. So props to the organist and tech people who put the words up. Later, we also watched the Character of Christ, by Elder Bednar. It is the best. I read it before I came, but it is so so SO good. Look it up. We've been trying to turn out instead of in as a district and it has been great.

I've decided that God blesses me and teaches me through the people he places in my life. My district is SO GOOD. We all want to be there and become the best we can be, so we try hard every day to stay focused and put our hearts into the work. We talk every few days about how we can improve and keep the spirit with us. I love them all. I will miss them. It will be a sad day when we have to split up in the frankfurt airport.   

We did sing our "Hurrah for Israel in the devotional on Tuesday. Before, we had practice and he showed us clips from "the other side of heaven". I love that movie. Elder Hallstrom spoke.  

Funny story: everyone always says "Wie gehts?" and for some reason, I thought you responded by saying "Wie gehts gut" but I got laughed at last night when I said it to Elder Passey. But I've been saying it since I got here, and no one has noticed. But they thought it was SO FUNNY! I guess I thought it was like "ca va?" in french, to which you can reply " ca va bien"

I love you guys. That is probably the cutest sweetheart asking. EVER. [Jacob was asked to sweethearts, and I sent her pictures] I told Sister Hammer and the Elder on my other side thought it was awesome. Props to you, Mom for cleaning his room. Sorry, dis email ist nicht gut. Better luck next time. I love you so much!

P.S. My waterbottle statue fell right after we took the picture. [she took pictures of this, they are on her blog]

P.P.S. I really love getting dear elder letters during the week and it's not distracting because I just read them right before I go to bed. But I can't reply until P-Day and I don't have emails, so THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO WROTE ME!!! I will try to hand-write you a letter back today.