Freezing Rain and Vögel (Week 50)

St Michelis Kirche

More from St Michelis Kirche

More from St Michelis Kirche

Hey y'all,

I honestly don't have that much to say about this week. It was pretty normal. We met with some people, some appointments fell out. We met with Gina/Schw. König (my favorite America/Haitian combo), went and helped Ana out (and decided to take a break because she's not making progress at all), and met with Peggi. We had an Austausch where I went to Elmshorn and we biked around, doing missionary work and it was awesome. We ate "manchos" (man nachos) with a bunch of elders for district lunch, invented the most amazing quesadilla ever (with potatoes and scrambled eggs), and had some great gospel discussions.  We went to church, I'm basically the Altona ward translator now (sorry English speakers). We saw the sun once, it was freezing and windy and rainy, and occasionally it was not so cold. Solid. (Thankfully I got tons of tights for Christmas, so we're surviving:)

Here are the funny/odd stories of the week:

So, on the way home from church, we saw a teenage boy rescue a baby bird, which then flew all over the bus, and the cranky old German lady yelled at him. We were totally cheering him on, #America, land of the free. The bird landed on Sister Harger's shoulder, so she feels connected to it. This other guy grabbed it and took it off the bus, so it was sad. We are hoping to run into this kid if we ever see him again because we want to talk to him. He has a good heart!

Also, on Saturday, it got really cold, but of course, it's Hamburg, so it was still raining (no snow! Good riddance!). It basically created a thin layer of black ice on everything, which made mundane activities like walking very exciting. It was so slippery that if the sidewalk was tilted, we'd slide around. We slid around from appointment to appointment (which all fell out, darn it). Another random German lady walking home with her groceries yelled at us for not picking up our feet because apparently it's bad for the "nachfolger" (Google translate says "Successor", I guess meaning the person walking after them.~~Lynette). We took about twenty normal steps before we went back to sliding, because a) she was going home to the warmth b) she was probably going the eat the food she bought and we were fasting, and c) ice skating is more fun. Sister Harger slipped on the dirt and I almost fell a few times, but other than that, nothing tragic happened.

 One of our appointments that fell out was with Eunice. We had planned on watching "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with her, but she was 2 hours late and we had other things to do, so we ended up cancelling (yes, after two hours of waiting/Duolingo/trying to stay warm at the church). But then we had the movie on our iPads, so we watched it ourselves for dinner one day and it is beautiful. Also, it turned out okay, because we had this amazing lesson in FHV (relief society at church) about the restoration of the church and Eunice really liked it. I love Joseph Smith and I'm so thankful for the sacrifices he made, as well as all the early saints. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much! It's so true. No man could have made this all up. It's true. I know it is, and it has changed my life. It has changed me!

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)

Oh yeah, you asked for updates: sorry! We are starting to meet regularly with Gina, so that's awesome. Her dad is a member in America, so we got to know her and we are meeting this week. She's interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, which is exactly what we love to teach! Peggi is also going well. She's not super busy, so we're trying to meet as much as possible!  She's so awesome, it's such a blessing that she moved back! This is truly God's work!

Well, love you all! Have a fantastic week! Be careful with all that snow!

Sister Simpson

Snow!

Sunday night we haven't taken any pics this week

Waiting for Eunice, Duolingo/staying warm

When your sticker rips

Beautiful moment in Hamburg :)