Insane Asylum

 On Saturday, the 30th of November, we were playing soccer. (Sidenote: I am getting way good.) Sis. Stout started being really distracted by the red that other players were wearing, and she got so disoriented that she forgot what she was doing when she turned around. She thought she was making it all up until she got hit with the soccer ball. Twice. So she sat down on the sidelines to take a break, when the church bells right next door starting ringing. For TEN MINUTES. She thought she was going to die.

 

That was the beginning of the strangest week of my mission.

 

On Sunday she didn't even make it 15 minutes, because she couldn't make herself respond to all the greetings and the German, and then the organ started and it freaked her out. So we had her lie down in the Genealogy Center so that I could stay and sing (with the opera singer again) before someone drove us home. We stayed inside all day Sunday, and she either slept or talked nonsense the whole day. It was hilarious, but also worrisome.

 

Monday she fooled me into thinking she was fine. We made it through emails, but while at the grocery store she got really pale and really . . . docile, I guess. I made her hold on to the cart and every time we got to a new section i would place her in the corner and make her stand there until I was ready to move on. She kept spacing out hardcore and I kept asking her questions like "Do you want the same bread as last week?" She'd stare at me for a couple seconds and then be like, "It was really. . . good." It was just so weird! We had to have the Elders come pick us up because I couldn't help her walk in a straight line AND carry all the groceries on the tram myself.

 

Tuesday I had to go to Jena so I could go with the Zone Leaders to Frankfurt for a leadership meeting. So I had to spend all morning convincing her that she DID need to eat, and DID need to put on her shoes, etc, like talking to a child. And then I took her to Jena so she could sleep in the Jena apartment for a day and a half, and then I took Sis. Leonardson to Frankfurt with me.

 

Wednesday was the meeting! I got to see so many of my friends, like Elders Guymon and Kent who were in Dortmund with me. We had a ton of fun and it was a very spiritual meeting. We focused on how important our personal testimony of the Book of Mormon is, and how we have to strengthen it and share it with others so that they will feel the Holy Ghost testifying of our words. We did a roleplay where I was the investigator and Elder Guymon taught me, and he almost made me tear up because the Spirit was so present. It was really strengthening to me.

 

Thursday and Friday, Sis. Stout continued to be crazy. We went to doctors and things, but no one has any clue what was wrong. I did a LOT of laundry and baked a LOT of cookies, which the elders then delivered to ward members for us. And I started picking up Sis. Stout's crazy a little bit!

 

By Saturday she was mostly fine, but we stayed in for most of the day just to be sure.

 

Sunday I gave a talk on how commandments help us to channel our righteous desires the way the Lord knows is best. Then a member invited us over for lunch and he told us all about how, on his mission here in East Germany, he and his companion had to take watch shifts in the misssion office to keep the police from sneaking illegal copies of the Book of Mormon into the office so that they could frame the Church for smuggling! Woah!

 

Anyway, this week was nutso but Sis. Stout has gotten over whatever was wrong with her, and we are looking forward to going outside a LOT this week. I love you all, keep being awesome, and don't forget my address!!

 

Tschüß!

 

Sis. Teusch

hello

Last week Sis. Young got transferred out of her Golden City to Darmstadt, to be companions with Sis. Muncy, who was with me in the MTC. So that's cool. Sis. Stout, who was only 30 minutes away in Jena, came to replace her. It somehow never occurred to me that I would be taking over Erfurt, so we've been spending a lot of time looking at maps, but otherwise things have been great. Sis. Stout met a miracle on the train in the form of a super friendly 40-something couple who have only even been Christians at all for 3 years and are very excited about it. I've never had anyone be so excited to receive a Book of Mormon and to recognize it as the treasure that it is. When I told her it was a gift for her, she basically squealed! And she said she and her husband would have to fight over who got to read it first at night :) We said next time we came we could bring one for him, too. It was so wonderful.

 

Did I tell you we have an opera singer in our branch? She's an American and she's basing herself in Erfurt while she travels Europe on an audition tour. The branch is pretty excited about it (it was a little embarrassing but also cute). The only problem is that the branch presidency thinks it'd be a great idea for the 2 of us to do a duet. Um, what!?

 

Dress shopping is the worst. When Ben told me I would miss his wedding, the thought that I wouldn't have to buy a dress for it is what consoled me.

 

HAS SOMEONE TOLD RACHEL (Paxton)WE'RE GOING TO BE COUSINS?!? I will tell her right now. She will feel so justified.

 

I got your letter from the 80s! Your transfer stories are unbelievable. I don't know how you survived.

 

Your Relief Society lesson sounds wonderful. I heard a lot of stuff this conference about preparing yourself and your home against the hurtful things of the world.

 

Ben is so excited to show Jefferson to Jacki, just like I always am. Jefferson is such a wonderful town.

 

I love you!

Sister Teusch

Stuff You Might Be Curious About

Lauren visited Wartburg today on her day off & didn't have time to write a letter. She sent 2 pictures, though!

 

 

The post for this week is instead what she wrote her mother for her birthday (in English) entitled,“Stuff I thought you might be curious about”:

 

W H A T   H A P P E N E D   T O D A Y – Thursday 26.9.13

  6:30      No.

  6:31      Ok fine! Feet on the floor!

  6:40      Breakfast

  7:00      Shower

  7:40      Neck stretches, ab exercises

  7:55      Get dressed

  8:05      Start personal Study (oops)

  9:00      Sing, pray, read white handbook, share what we learned, plan our lesson

  9:50      Go thru the new Adjusting to Missionary Life book to find a de-stress tip to focus on

10:30     Do “Passive Voice” exercises

10:50     Do a role play auf Deutsch

11:05     Make a spelt spaghetti with bread & carrots, watch Preach My Gospel training videos

12:05     Pray & hug @the door, go sit outside & write our testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon

12:20     Run inside to change shoes because it started raining

12:30     Go back outside & take the Strassenbahn to Schwester Erkwein’s house, hold the door open so a mom can catch it

 1:10      Go around the back of Schwester Glewein’s building & jump around outside her balcony hoping she sees us (she’s mostly deaf & half blind), she finally does & she chats with us for a good 45 minutes over the balcony railing. We can’t respond because she’s deaf so we smile big & nod our heads. She’s so funny: “People always ask me if I need help. Do YOU need help? I’m deaf but I can still see great out of one eye!”

2:00      Take the Bahn to the Elders’ house to give them 3 Persian copies of selections from the Book of Mormon & 75E from the branch president for a street display permit.

  2:20      Go to Elders’ & leave again promptly

  2:24      Make it to the train station to take a train that doesn’t com

  2:30      Take a Bahn way out (45 minutes away) to visit a less-active Sr. Thurau, who has a TV with a USB port so we watch “Men’s hearts will fail them” & talk about overcoming doubts & fears. 

  4:30      Go home! Oh & on the way out we met 2 super friendly old ladies who had been friends for 70 yearswho were going to a Friedhof (cemetery), we talked about genealogy.

5:15      Potatoes & scrambled eggs, & a sauce made of warm milk & a packet of salad dressing seasoning

6:15      But to Church

 7:00     Sunday School (4 missionaries & 3 old men) [Lauren’s branch meets 2 hours on Sunday, I think, plus a weeknight for SS]

8:00      Correlation with the ward mission leader about our street display

9:30      Get home, pray, journal

In order to keep ourselves useful to the ward & from despair, we do a lot of less-active visits. Slow & steady learning on the finding front. J

I wore my leather walking shoes, tights, a thrift pencil shirt (3E!), a sweater, a scarf, & my backpack & I took my blazer on & off every time we went home. The weather kept changing between hot & cold!

In my backpack:

Triple

Book of Mormon

Family Proclamation

Restoration pamphlets

wallet

chapstick (my beeswax)

Tylenol

pens

clippes [sic]

tissue

umbrella

planner

GPS (no really)

phone

proselyting permit

white handbook

family photo

pass-along cards

mints

camera

USB stick

keys

 

               

 

 

 

"Oh, you mean this gate key. "

This week was great. I'm going to tell you about yesterday.

 

In church we had three (3) Americans. Two were guys who work for a prosthetics company and they were cool. But then the other one was a professional opera singer from New York! And no one really noticed her until combined Sunday School when she started singing. One man thought it was me. Hah! I was like "Thanks for the compliment but it was coming from over there. . . ." I think he was kind of embarrassed. And then the whole branch treated her like a famous celebrity and flocked to her and invited her over to their houses and stuff. Then Elder Motto had to translate that to her, and she basically responded the same way I imagine turning down a date sounds like. "Oh, that's so sweet . . . thank you . . . I'm sorry but I don't think my boyfriend would like that. . . ." Poor Elder Motto. He was just translating!

 

Then we went to Br. Schumann's for lunch. He made Klöße (potato balls with toast inside), fried potato drops, green beans, peas and carrots, and goulash. It was delicious! And ice cream for dessert of course :) He is so funny. He is probably my favorite person here. He grew up in the Chemnitz ward, and after Anglo-American troops destroyed 60% of the buildings in the city, the 3 wards had to meet together. So they had 300 people in sacrament meeting! In Germany! Woah!

He plays the violin, so after lunch I played the piano while he played the violin and Sis. Young and the Elders sang. I messed up a lot but he was playing so loud I couldn't even hear. It was really fun.

 

The most awkward part of member eating appointments (other than the fact that we're not really supposed to be having them . . .) is that Germans have tiny cars. So you have one Elder up front and 2 Sisters and an Elder shoved together in the back. And sometimes you get really skittish Elders who freak out if you touch them. It's one of those "It's only awkward if you make it awkward" moments.

 

In the evening we had planned to go to an inter-religion Prayer Hour in the small synagogue as part of Erfurt's Intercultural Week. We thought it would be a good chance to talk to religious leaders about what it means to be searching for truth, which was the assigned topic. And when we got there, our stake president and bishop were both there! And then President Schumann (Br. Schumann's son) talked! It was great.

 

The setup was that each invited religion (Hare Krishna, Jewish, Christian, Mormon, Muslim, Bahai, Buddhist) had a chance to go up and share thoughts on what they believe truth is, and there were music pieces inbetween. Everyone got up and shared some scriptures from their religion, and I felt that God was in the room as we discussed Him and the truths of the world. But then Pr. Schumann got up, and instead of just sharing some scriptures, he talked about how God is the source of all truth, and he referenced the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. And as he began to speak, the Spirit of God was significantly stronger in the room.

 

I am so grateful that the blessings of the proper priesthood authority of God are available to me because I live in this age of the world. And I'm so grateful that I know I can go to God and His prophets for pure truth, without having to dig through the partial and half truths of well-intentioned men.

 

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Mutti!

 

LG, Sister Teusch

My one regret is that I didn't pack my Star Trek snuggie.

This week was great. It rained a lot and got really cold and we drank a lot of tea and wore a lot of scarves!

 

And we went to Jena and did a service project where we weeded a forest.

You read that right. We were removing invasive species. It was a lot of fun. And then it started raining. And then we saw this view.

 

Some other cool things happened but then the computer decided to upload pictures really slowly.

 

 I love you all and will actually draft my email for next week so I actually remember things I wanted to tell you about.

 

Tschüßi!

Something Strange is Afoot at the Circle K

 

I'm going to ERFURT!!!!!!

 

On Thursday I will experience my very first transfer ever. Four sisters will come stay in our tiny little apartment Wednesday night, my companion will go to Essen, and then on Thursday morning all 5 of us will go down with almost every elder in the zone to Frankfurt. Over 150 of the 220 missionaries are moving this transfer, so the Frankfurt train station is going to be CRAZY. 

 

Also, everyone wants to have us over in the next 2 days to say goodbye to me, which is amazing and I'm so excited.

 

We had a way weird week. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to, a bus took us to the wrong town even though we take that bus literally every day, our water heater broke so we've had no hot water or heat (the heaters are run by cycling hot water), and it's been freezing outside!

 

I'd love to tell you about all the different interesting people and things that I've gotten to know in Dortmund and be all nostalgic and stuff but I have to go talk to the heater repairman.

 

I love you!

 

Sister Teusch

I've been here for a long time.

I've been on my mission over 6 months and almost been in Germany for 6 months so I guess I'm no longer green. I like to remind myself of that because it helps me act like a grownup. 

 

I've learned so many things but I think more importantly, I've finally begun to really live things that I've understood on an intellectual level for a long time. And that's what conversion is! 

 

For example: I never understood, like, what you're supposed to do when you're taking the sacrament. And then in the MTC I learned that the sacrament is essential to the process of continual progression and it was a lightbulb moment. Then on my mission I finally learned to really prepare for and then appreciate the gift of being able to take the sacrament.

 

On a similar note, I love novels. And I had a heck of a time making myself read my scriptures because there are so many more exciting things to be reading! But I have come to learn that the scriptures are not just books. When I was feeling worn down or sad or empty before, I would go to the library and get novels. And I devoured them. I loved them and loved disappearing into them. But when they were done, I just wanted more novels. And I only recently realized that all those times when I was devouring stories to feed my empty soul, what I wanted wasn't words, but the Word.

 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
Amos 8:11-12

 

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 4:11

 

I can't believe that I was denying myself something that I did know how to find for so many years, but now I tell myself that if I wake up on time, I get to read more of Genesis, and it's a greater motivator than any I've ever had before. Which is good because getting up on time is hard! 

 

Keep being awesome and read your scriptures!

 

LG Sister Teusch

I have a fringe now. Fringes are cool.

This week was GREAT! Probably because we did absolutely nothing for P-Day, and you all know that doing nothing is my favorite.

 

Actually, it was probably because we planned well, studied well, used our time well, and prayed really hard.

 

As I was sitting in sacrament meeting this week, I realized I pretty much know every single person who was there, and that that's probably never happened to me before, even in my own branch. Hopefully that doesn't mean it's time to get transferred!

 

That's all I got. Love you!

 

Sister Teusch

We Forgive You for Your Mistakes Since 1988

Well, I'm staying in Dortmund! And so is Sis. Lehman!

No one saw that coming. Really. Which is why I remembered to take some pictures this week.

 

I'm way tired and my whole body hurts, so nothing has changed there!

 

We met a way cool member this week. She doesn't come to church because of her depression, so we read in the scriptures together. She's great. We're going to help her come to some activities.

 

This week someone we've been working with texted us and asked us if we could bless her daughter's room? We didn't know what that meant, so we called and she explained that she tried some magic things in her house, and since then her daughter has woken up screaming at night. We had the elders come with us and we dedicated her house through prayer. It was a really powerful experience--no force on Earth is as powerful as God.

 

We're helping a woman to quit smoking and have been for a while, and she finally started this week. Tuesday morning she forgot she had planned to start and went to smoke her first cigarette, and she heard a voice say something like, "What are you doing? Stop that right now!" She instantly flushed all her tobacco and threw out all her matches and paper. She's gone a whole week now!

 

Here it is, guys: It doesn't matter how little life experience I have, or what bits of church history I haven't heard before, or whether I've ever gone through X thing personally. The message of the gospel will help you. It will bring peace into your heart and teach you to turn to your God in your times of trials. And no earthly experience is worth more than that.

 

I love you all! Keep on keepin' on!

would just like to clarify

Last P-Day we went and saw a castle! It was sweet.

 

We went by [the house of] an investigator we'd finally gotten in contact with since meeting her in March. She was there with a friend, who knew Elder Guymon! Turns out we met Stef in March, the Elders met Stef and Joice together in April, and we finally got back in contact with them in June. And then Joice didn't want to go to the baptism because she's embarrassed to face Elder Guymon :P But she came anyway! It was great!

 

Oh! Sr. Pelc got baptized! Her husband wants to too, but he's still unsure about some things so he told her to go first. It was so wonderful. She was so happy!

 

We spent pretty much all day Friday at a member's house picking strawberries, making jam, and baking cake. But then her neighbor came over and started crying to us about how her dog died, and we were like uhhh.... We taught her that Christ takes away any kind of sorrow if you let him, and she didn't really understand so we prayed together. And her heart was instantly lighter and she kept talking about how warm her skin was! God answers prayers instantly, my friends.

 

I'm sure many of you are aware that I love Peter Pan very very much. One of my favorite things about Peter Pan is that I really really want to be able to fly! So I was playing Flying from the 2002 movie soundtrack while we were eating, and that night Sis. Lehman had a dream she was flying with that song in the background. Hah! I have a convert! So now we blast that with the windows open and jump around the apartment pretending to fly.

It's very stress relieving.

Also magical.

Also it drowns out the prayers someone across the marketplace keeps blasting out their windows. . . . The Lion King also works well for that.

 

I love you! Make good choices!

Snippets from my Planner

 

Put simply, President Monson does what most people only think about doing.

 

Be honest with me. Is this llama too much?

 

Missionary work without a phone is hard.

 

Make cake, buy ingredients. scratch that, reverse it.

 

FINDING FAITH IN CHRIST

 

Where DO you like finding, sis. Teusch?

 

CALL EVERYONE

 

SISTER ROARK SONGS

 

help i am not funny

 

reverence for god is the beginning of wisdom

 

Elder Jensen, I think you're really funny, but I'm trying to have a serious conversation right now.

 

work gloves

lotion

post its

conditioner

 

FOLLOW UP!

 

I wonder what my birthday wish was last year. Oh sorry, that was off topic. -Sis. Lehman

 

Have you ever committed a crime? I've broken a lot of men!

 

How will we work through the ward every day?

 

MOLASSES

 

Polish Book of Mormon

I think we can safely say that none of this was the sisters' fault.

On Sunday I played with nursery children for 2 hours while the ward watched the Work of Salvation broadcast. The children were super adorable, but more importantly, if you haven't watched that broadcast, you must. And if you had, what are you going to do this week to apply it to your own covenant to witness of Christ?

I'm serious about this. If the membership of the Church puts off this call to the work that coincides with this push of missionaries, I don't know if another such opportunity will be given to us. They don't call it the Work of Salvation for nothing.

 

The world teaches that prophesies will be fulfilled by destiny--that no matter what we do, we cannot change the outcome. But the promises and prophesies of the Lord are always based upon our agency: we have to choose to act in a way that the promises can be fulfilled, or they won't be, and it will be upon our heads, not His.

 

We visited the famous Frau Koch again last night and my companion spent the whole visit sneakily hiding the food into her bag so she didn't have to eat it. I could barely keep myself from laughing.

 

A woman we're teaching is getting baptized in 2 weeks. This week we laid out 20 pictures of things that are important in front of her and her husband and made them slowly narrow it down to the number one most important thing, and they picked faith! It was awesome. And then we were like, hey, you picked it, not us. Now act on that. And they did!

 

I think the point of this email is DO THINGS!

 

 Love you!

Sis. Teusch

THIS WEEK WAS INSANE

We knelt down and prayed with someone and then God told her she was going to be baptized in September. God not only answers, He answers immediately! All you have to be is ready for it. I'll never forget it.

Mary and the baby are healthy.

We watched Finding Faith in Christ with a member this week, and I've always found that movie a bit goofy in parts which used to distract me from the message. But this time I didn't even care. I was overpowered by a knowledge that Christ's miracles really did happen. It's no story or fable, they really did happen, and they are continuing to happen. Sometimes we just have to get over ourselves to recognize it!

On a split my companion helped a couple decide to be baptized--the wife officially in July, the husband is still waiting on an answer but if he gets it he'll join her. The member we invited to come with us was a huge help and blessing, and she almost didn't come because she couldn't find the house and it was raining. But when she tried to drive away, her car wouldn't start! After the lesson it worked just fine. Hah!

We dropped by on a young mother we know for a couple minutes. I almost wanted to just leave again because she was so physically exhausted from her children and school, she almost didn't make it up the stairs. But we shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon to remind her the strength that can be found in God, and she was so grateful she almost begged us to stop by again this week. Sometimes I have to remind myself I'm not an inconvenience, I'm a bringer of hope!

Saturday was just great all around. We met with a man from Cameroon, and he is the most punctual, responsible, genuinely ready person I have ever met! It was a perfect first lesson! And Ana was a perfect joint teach! Ahhh! And then I called him just now and he apologized for not reading more than 30 pages. I was like THAT IS TOTALLY JUST FINE YOU KEEP GOING!

And on the way back to the streetcar this guy on a bike stopped us and was like "Can I see your name badge?" And he got all excited and tried to have us come over right then but we had an appointment we had to get to, so we got his number and wrote down his address . . . and we'll probably send the elders because we got weird vibes from him. But it was funny.
Then we got attacked by a Polish Jehovah's Witness. I almost wanted to stop her and be like, "No, THIS is how you approach people on the street. Practice with me." But we just smiled at her until she got off the train. You know, maybe the Bible doesn't ever mention Birthdays. But I can't help but think there are issues more relevant to our personal salvation.
Later we went to Ana's because it was her birthday and explained what a Seventy was and about Patriarchal blessings while eating American Cookies (that we made, go us).

Then on Sunday, a little girl received the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands through proper priesthood authority! Yes!

Also, I think my achilles is starting to be messed up, it was 90° at the beginning of the week and now it's 60°, and because of Zone Conference and a 3-day power split, I haven't gotten a full night of sleep all week.
BUT I'M SO HAPPY. WHAT IS MY LIFE.

<3!

Eggs stay good for a surprisingly long time.

This week I learned 2 very important things.

1. Stinging nettle is appropriately named.

2. The Lord does His most important work through small impressions and good people making good choices.

There's an African woman in our ward who had a baby this weekend. Mary doesn't speak German and is alone here in Germany, so a couple weeks ago Sis. P started worrying about her and asking us to call her and tell her things. I thought it was wonderful that P was worried about Mary, but I knew the Relief Society presidency was taking care of her so I wasn't too worried about it. Once P mentioned that if no one was already planning on being with Mary for the birth, she would gladly go.
Then on Friday, R from the Relief Society presidency called and asked us if we would go visit Mary in the hospital. We said we would, and right before R hung up I mentioned that she should call P and ask her if she wanted to visit Mary, too. She said that was a good idea and hung up.

We did end up visiting Mary on Saturday morning, but we didn't find out what all had happened until church on Sunday. R called P and told her Mary was in the hospital and she should visit on Saturday if she had time. It was already 10 pm, but P felt prompted to go to the hospital right away. Through a series of small miracles, she was allowed to sit with Mary for a couple hours even though it was well past visiting hours.

At 1 am, the doctors tested the baby's heart rate and found out it was racing, as well as some other stuff, and determined that instead of waiting for a normal birth they needed to perform a c-section right away. None of the doctors spoke English, or if they did, didn't take the time to explain to Mary what was happening. But P explained it to her and comforted her enough that she agreed to the c-section. Afterwards, the baby was unstable so they rushed her to intensive care. Mary was so out of sorts and scared that it took P 2 hours to explain that her baby was safe, alive, and in the hospital, and she would be allowed to see her in the morning. P went home at 5 am.

As P was telling this story in sacrament meeting, I was overwhelmed with the realization that if P hadn't shared her feelings about Mary with us a couple weeks ago, and if I hand't remembered at the last second to ask R to call P and tell her Mary was in the hospital, it's very likely that the baby would have died. And if not, Mary would have spent maybe all night in terror, unaware of where her child was or whether she was alive.

I can't help but feel that saying "Oh, you should call Sis. P, she mentioned she wanted to visit Mary when she went to the hospital" is possibly the most important thing I've ever said in my life, and I am beyond grateful that the Lord allowed me to be a small part in this wonder.

Please don't ignore small ideas to do good things. Just do good things. When I made my planner cover for this transfer, I picked a sentence from an Ensign article about our prophet Pres. Monson: "Put simply, President Monson does what most people only think about doing." If you've thought about doing something good for someone recently, even if it's dumb or small or maybe a little uncomfortable, just do it. Allow the Lord to bless you by using you in His work.

Love, Sister Teusch

That is my favorite activity!

I've taken a leaf out of my cousin Sam's book and from now on will attempt to have email subjects that are never explained in the body of the message.

This week many things happened. I will only tell you about 2 because I gots things to do.

ONE: Sister Lehman and I passed by this cemetery on the way to see if someone was home and we were like what the heck, let's go in. Because German cemeteries are the best! And we found this hole in the hedge and it made us feel like Alice in Wonderland, which was excellent. And then we walked in stinging nettle, which at this point could do nothing to hurt our moods. (insert photos here)

TWO: On Saturday, BVB played FC München in the Champion League final at Wembley Stadium! Aannnnd BVB lost. Ah well. They played really well anyway. But on Saturday, I was not in Dortmund, I was in Münster. Which is apparently a very beautiful, magical place. But I didn't get to see it because the sister I was on a split with, Sis. Leonardson, got sick. Was I bummed out? Of course not! I'm sure you all know that my favorite thing ever is to be stuck inside all day basically by myself. No sarcasm. Especially because, due to a series of unfortunate events, the Münster sisters only had moved into their apartment a few days before. The man who put together the furniture put the stuff in ALL the wrong rooms. So while Sis. Leo slept like a stinkin' rock all day, I dragged all the furniture out from around her and swapped the study and bedroom rooms. Then I went back through and rearranged everything in the whole house and cleaned. I was in heaven. Don't laugh.
Sis. Leo woke up around 5pm and shuffled into the kitchen, and the first thing she said was "How are there desks in my bedroom?"

Maybe I should take this opportunity to say that I DID in fact ask for permission first, so she wasn't totally shocked. She was just shocked she slept through the whole thing.

FINALLY: Mom keeps asking me all these questions about my ward and apartment and stuff, but I never remember to answer them. SO. Everyone has one week to email me at lauren.teusch@myldsmail.net and ask me questions about stuff and then next week I'll answer questions. It'll be more officialish that way. Kaythanksbye!

100% Claudy Apple Juice

This week I looked down to make sure I had remembered to move my name tag to my shirt from my coat, and it hit me that even though sometimes I think it would be nice to have a break or go home for a while or something, if President Monson called me up and told me that the Lord had excepted my efforts and I could go home, I still wouldn't want to. And that was a big deal for me.

Missionaries always talk about how tired they are. And we say we're tired because we don't sleep much or because we walk a lot or because we talk to a lot of people, but I think I'm tired because never before in my life have I felt driven like I do. The truth is, if I wanted to sleep more or walk less or talk less, I could. No one is making me do the things I do. But ever since I was set apart to preach the gospel, I have felt this urgent purpose propelling me forward. I can't sleep more than I should. I can't walk less than I should. Because I want to be doing the things I feel driven to do, to fulfill my purpose.
I'm tired because the parts of me that fight against that purpose, that passion, can't keep up because they don't want to. But this life is our chance to cast off the impurities and become precious, just like metal is purified by fire.

Yesterday all 8 of the Dortmund missionaries got the chance to go to the temple with the ward. It was a wonderful experience to be there with so many people that I love in a huge group. I may have done a poor job of hiding how hungry I was though, because Br. Oelkrug told me I could bless the food so I'd be right up front and could eat first. Some things never change.

We got home from the temple pretty late in the afternoon, then taught a lesson, so when we got home I was ready to go straight to bed. But then a sister in the ward called and told us her 9 year old daughter had decided to be baptized and asked us to teach her the lessons. All of them! In 2 weeks! So that kind of threw going to bed early out the window. It's totally fine though because I am so excited! I've been wanting to teach this girl for a while to help her decide if she wanted to get baptized or not. I can't wait to talk to her about it on Thursday.

Sorry, I forgot to explain that a golden is what we call green missionaries, or new missionaries. We call them golden because they come in full of fire and faith and haven't been affected by rumors or reputations of what missionary work is or which areas are bad. It's a great, positive name and I love it.

This week, we played soccer for 2 hours and I was mostly goalie and I was boss at it. Don't scoff. I'm serious. But then my hands hurt really really bad for like 4 days.

I love you bye!!!

I drove a car!

After years of waiting, I have finally driven a car in Germany.
It was somewhat terrifying.

 

In other news, I have a golden now! Her name is Sister Lehman and she's from Idaho. Interestingly, her boyfriend McKay Archibald served in my hometown. How do you like them apples.
I look crazed in this picture. We'll just call it exhaustion and move on.

As amazing as Sis. Lehman is, training is hard! It turns out Sister Haas spent all this time planning things and calling people and recalling people and calling people again while I was, I don't know when! Brushing my teeth? But now I get to do all of that. I don't know if you know this but I really hate talking on the phone. A lot.
I've also had a cold for like a week. My head feels fuzzy (name that movie). And I haven't decided if I should tell my mission president's wife because if I do, she'll make me stay home all day and sleep. On the one hand, that sounds amazing. On the other, we have too much stuff to do to waste time sleeping!



Elder Guymon and I were equally perplexed by the car in the Church parking lot with a window-pope in it.



We got doored by the Jehovah's Witnesses. We didn't let them in. (Is he writing our address down?)



Have you ever seen a more Germanesque vista?

Mom sent me a lot of wisdom about being a mother in preparation for mother's day, and hopefully you won't be surprised to find out that a lot of it applies to me and what I'm doing. I don't even mean with my golden: I just mean in missionary work.

There are some lines attributed to Victor Hugo which read:
“She broke the bread into two fragments and gave them to her children, who ate with eagerness. ‘She hath kept none for herself,’ grumbled the sergeant.
“‘Because she is not hungry,’ said a soldier.
“‘No,’ said the sergeant, ‘because she is a mother.’”
...
One young mother wrote to me recently ... one thing, she said, keeps her going: “Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that in my motherhood I am in an eternal partnership with Him. I am deeply moved that God finds His ultimate purpose and meaning in being a parent, even if some of His children make Him weep.
“It is this realization,” she says, “that I try to recall on those inevitably difficult days when all of this can be a bit overwhelming."
-- Elder Holland

Eve was given the identity of “the mother of all living”—years, decades, perhaps centuries before she ever bore a child. It would appear that her motherhood preceded her maternity, just as surely as the perfection of the Garden preceded the struggles of mortality. I believe "mother" is one of those very carefully chosen words, one of those rich words—with meaning after meaning after meaning. ... Some women give birth and raise children but never “mother” them. Others, whom I love with all my heart, “mother” all their lives but have never given birth.
-- Sister Holland


What a power couple. I love these quotes because I'm not a mother, but I am a woman, and I sure do a lot of mothering every day. I spend all day doing what I can to assist in God's work--the immortality and eternal life of man. Every person I see on the streets of Dortmund is a child of God, and my job is to guide them, lovingly, back to Christ. I don't give my bread to anyone but I give them my time, keeping only enough for myself to live on, because I feel how much God loves them.
Every woman is born with the power of mothering--it is our gift, our right, and our responsibility, just as the men have the right and responsibility to exercise the priesthood. Regardless of a woman's maternity, as daughters of God (and daughters of Eve), we are also the mothers of all living. How powerful is that!

So on Mother's Day, thank God for the women who have blessed your life. And then thank the women.

I started combing my hair

and that really helped me not look like I just rolled out of bed.

I'm training this transfer! And staying in Dortmund. I'm pretty excited about it. My poor golden, though. I hope she's not easily frightened.

I had to take the extra week out of last cycle's planner and put it into this cycle's planner because the zone leaders ran out of planners and missionary work does not work without planners.

Cool thing I learned this week from the Gospel Principles book: 'Got schloss die Ehe zwischen Adam und Eva, bevor es den Tod auf der Welt gab. Es war eine ewige Ehe.' Pretty cool, huh? Oh. You don't speak German. Weird. It says 'Adam and Eve were married by God before there was any death in the world. They had an eternal marriage.' (It sounds cooler in German.) That means that marriage is older and more powerful than death! When we are married by God, through His representatives in the temple, our marriages can also be eternal: not til death do us part.

We had some great meetings with some wonderful member families this week.  The kids are slowly starting to accept me, which is of course the most important thing when getting a ward to trust you. Yesssssss. Except now they kidnap me all the time and get me all muddy.

Miracle Time! This week, we helped a family in their garden for several hours. Rain was forecast, but it was a beautiful sunny day! Until we got ready to leave after finishing all the work. Then it poured the rest of the day. And we thought we wouldn't be able to get any work done at all!

Well, I'm going to the zoo. Tschüß.

Skirts, Miracles, and Sunshine

First, I just found out that 200€ was about $264 this week. Jeez.

Down to business! A word of advice to the masses of sister missionaries currently skirt shopping:

Just because a skirt/dress is long enough in the mirror does not make it long enough in real life. If possible, power walk somewhere in your skirt. Does it climb up your legs? Stairs are also a good test of this.
Second, liners and pockets are your friends. Liners are when there's a silky fabric underneath the skirt. This helps with the first problem. I think you know what pockets are and why they are your friends. Just remember, the elders have like 9 pockets in a suit, and missionary materials were made with them in mind, so the more pockets the better!
Third, if you are stressing out about not having enough skirts, stop. There's a good chance your apartment or even mission home will have some from dead sisters lying around. (This will become less and less likely as new apartments are opened to accommodate the rush of sisters).
Fourth, please avoid black. If you start buying black stuff, you keep buying black stuff to match it, then you get lazy and wear black all day every day, and that my friend is depressing. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a lot of things, but depressing it is not!

That's all I've got on skirts.

Now, MIRACLES! This is the fun part, so men, you can start reading here.

At the beginning of the cycle back in March, the zone leaders announced that the week of April 15th would be a week of miracles. In our mission, the Standard of Excellence is to teach 20 lessons a week. This number was received by inspiration as the standard this mission is capable of working at, but it's very difficult to reach. The average lessons a week in the mission was 3 or 4, I believe. But this week, every single companionship in the Dortmund zone set a goal to trust in the Lord and reach 20 lessons. And miracles did happen! Out of a total goal of 312 lessons, we taught 278! That is simply unheard of. President was shocked, and mission presidents are hard to shock.
Many areas had miracles of all shapes and sizes, including mine. But the real miracle was that we all decided together that the expectation set by the Lord was reachable, and then we relied on the Lord and went out there and worked really really hard. And then, even though the week is over, everyone still has amazingly high goals!
I didn't think I would be able to keep up the pace over the long term, it felt like a sprint. But looking back on the week, I don't remember being unhappy. I definitely remember being tired and wimpy and sniffly and frustrated, but I don't remember being unhappy. And that's the key here. As long as we (and this is not just missionaries, this is everyone!) are doing what the Lord expects, and trusting in Him to carry us, it will still be hard. But we will be lifted up through our difficulties, and we will look back and realize that when we thought we were dragging ourselves along the ground, we were actually being carried through the clouds.

Sorry for the poeticness. I got a little carried away.

Urgh. Bad pun. Unintentional, but there's no going back now.

The last bit is that spring has finally broken here in good ol' Germany, so I get to go spring jacket shopping today! Yay shopping . . . . (false. shopping is not enjoyable. especially because i could totally be going home to take a nap right now. did i mention that i'm tired?)