Transfers!!! (Week 24)

 Happy 4th of July!

Big news! I've made it 6 days without a permanent retainer on my bottom teeth. Haha. But the actual big news is that I am leaving Altona. I am going to Stadthagen, in Hannover zone. I am whitewashing an Elders program and training again. Sister Fulton is the new sister training leader, will be staying here in Altona and will also be training. It will be an adventure for both of us. I love the people here in Altona, but I've heard really good things about the ward in Stadthagen and I'm excited. Elder Pilling is going home and Elder Smith is going to Olsnabruck to be a Zone Leader, so Altona will be getting 2 new elders as well.

Last p-day, we went to St. Nikolai kirche and read all about Hamburg during and after WWII. It was really cool to see pictures of the devastation and how much these people have rebuilt this city. The coolest part was the next day, when we met with Frau Klie and Schwester Wendt and they talked about that time and I understood exactly what they were talking about. Frau Klie actually left Hamburg for a while after the war and Schwester Wendt was born Silesia, and she told us she slept in a drawer for the first few years of her life. They lived through history and experienced it.

The young women in our ward are making a missionary short film, so they asked us to be in it as the missionaries. Haha. It should have been simple, given that all I had to do is exactly what I've been doing for the past 5 months, but it took a while. You bring in a camera and it changes things. Let's just say I was not destined to be an actress (or a missionary on the District).

We met with Peggy this week. She's still has some challenges that she wants to overcome but she wants to do what's right. We invited her to be baptized again and she said yes! We had been praying about a date and felt that we should let her choose. She picked August 13 as her date to work towards! It feels good and I am SO excited for her to take this next step, even if I won't be here.

We found an interesting man this week. It started out so perfectly: he told us he had seen missionaries before in Poland and that he's been praying to find some direction in his life. We were super excited. Then he told us he must "speak with himself" and ran off (I think he went to pee) and it went steadily downhill from there. We told him about the first vision and bore testimony to him and then things got weird. He told us he has hallucinations and all about his girlfriends and unfortunately, he did not skimp on details. He also told Sister Fulton that she looked like one of his girlfriends, and "what would it be like if we had a relationship?" Long story short, we got the heck out of there and we will be giving the new elders a referral. Haha.

Church yesterday was fantastic! The three of us leaving (Elder Smith, Elder Pilling and I) bore our testimonies. Peggy came 25 minutes late to sacrament meeting, but in Sunday School, the lesson was on the sacrament and she loved it! She prayed at the end and asked for forgiveness for missing it and told me later that she will do better to prepare for the sacrament. It was also a good reminder to me of how important that meeting is. We have the chance every week to remember the Savior and all that He's done for us. When I got baptized, I remember feeling pure and clean, and I wanted it to last forever. But it didn't because I made mistakes. God doesn't expect us to be perfect and He gives us the opportunity every week to be born again as we renew our baptismal covenants. It is such a blessing to be able to partake of the sacrament and be cleansed of our sins. We can start every week with a clean slate.

We had an Essen termin with our relief society president and her daughter. And then we had Gemiko (ward correlation) with the Lopez's. Because 3 of the 4 of us are leaving, they decided to just do dinner and play chicken foot at their house for the 4th. I'm going to miss them. They are so awesome and are a great example of lifting where they stand. This ward is full of solid members who are doing their best. I feel so blessed to have served here. I have learned so much from the examples of the members.

Anyway. This week is going to be super crazy. The elders assured me the apartment will be clean (skeptical face). The good news is that we'll probably overnight with the sisters in Leipzig (aka Sister Hammer, my MTC companion!) I love you and I hope you have a great week.

God bless America!
Sister Simpson

P.s. Farshid is doing well. Yes, Hadi is back from the USA and we do Persian pals every week. Also, we did have a lesson with Frau Byo. We taught the law of chastity, and found out she's not married. So we are working on that but I know she'll get there eventually. She has to talk to her man.