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?)

In Germany, dogs are more respectable than children.

Which is odd, because the government pays you when you have children, but not when you have dogs.

This week we let Conference teach for us. Yay for the talks being on the internet so quickly! It was wonderful. We'd just be like, "We don't know how to answer your question, so listen to this apostle of the Lord for 11 minutes and then we'll see what you think." Works like a charm. Especially Elder Holland. I love that man.

This week I had ZoKo for the first time. Zone Conference, rather. Two whole zones of missionaries went to Dusseldorf and listened to our mission president ramble for a while. I love him. He says so many wonderful things. The problem is he doesn't always say them in a sensible order, so you have to take a lot of notes and then piece them all together later. Also, he switches between German and English pretty much every 4th word. Or if he's speaking German, he'll repeat himself in English. Luckily I didn't have to translate the meeting for the senior couples. That would have been a headache!
It was really uplifting to spend so much time with the other missionaries. I haven't met a lame missionary yet.

You may be aware that some missions have a culture in which there are mission family trees. My trainer is Sis. Haas, who is also my mother. Depending on who you ask, either my first district leader or my trainer's last companion is my father. Sis. Haas' trainer, who's dying (going home) in a transfer, is my grandma. I was born in Dortmund. Et cetera.  At first I thought it was kinda silly lingo, but the longer I'm here the more real it seems. What I mean by that is this: even though I'm older than almost all the Elders, the only ones that seem younger than me are the ones that arrived after I did. The rest seem much older than me. The ones who go home soon seem kind of tired, like old people. Age outside of mission life is completely irrelevant. And once someone dies, you never hear from them again.

It's all very odd.

Oh! There was a baptism in Dortmund this weekend! Hurrah for Israel! But not a confirmation. But we'll get him next week . . . (and by that I mean the Elders will.)

I love you all! Probably! (I'm not really sure who's reading these things.) But at the very least God loves you. Because He's known you since before you were born and knows your real potential.

Bye!

So apparently I'm training next transfer

because I went to the trainer/golden meeting and I wasn't the golden.

Also, this weird thing happened on the train ride home (with like 40 other missionaries because oh the whole mission is training next transfer by the way). People actually sought me out and wanted to talk to me and thought I was interesting! Those of you who know and love me already know these things about me, but in large groups of people I mostly chill on the side, so these magical traits of mine are not always apparent on first contact. So either I`ve magically developed the ability to make friends, or the other missionaries just genuinely like me. It's all very strange.

Every night I have a dream that could very well be a full length movie. One of them was about the Doctor becoming evil and Karen Gillan (not Amy, Karen) helped us save the day. And when I say we I mean me and my companion. I can't even be alone in my dreams anymore!

Other highlight was obviously General Conference! If you haven't watched it yet commit to do it by the end of the week or you know you never will get around to it. Don't look at me like that. Do it!

I don't know if it was just me being a missionary but basically this conference was alll about obedience to God's commandments! Luckily my commandments are all combined into a little book I carry around with me. Obeying God's commandments will free us and open up a lifetime of opportunity, leading us to eternal life and perfect happiness. Sounds like a pretty solid deal to me.

Ok, I'm going to go watch a bunch of missionaries play soccer! Tschüß!

My camera battery died this week

so I didn't take a single picture. YOU try remembering to plug your camera in at 10pm when you're so full of cake you can't move and your toes are freezing!

Last Sunday we didn't even plan out any members to talk to, and by the time the ward conference potluck was over, we already were booked solid for the week. I love this ward. Also, it's spring vacation so everyone has time for us. On Tuesday, all 6 missionaries went to the Oelkrugs' house to help them cut down a bunch of bushes. I got assigned to cutting all the twigs off the branches that the elders tossed out of the trees. I would say I was offended by this lightweight job (women can climb trees too ya know!), but they had Sis. Haas on root digging duty, and she's a tiny ballerina. So it had to be luck of the draw.

Although, on that subject, whenever I tried to help stack tables after the potluck on Sunday, whatever man was nearest me would start laughing and be like, "Oh Sister Teusch. No." and then take the table away from me! Excuse me sir, I've been Mormon my whole life! You think I've never stacked a table before??

Anyway.

In church yesterday we had an Easter musical program in the joint Relief Society/Priesthood meeting, and it was magical. We lucked out with an Elder who just happened to study music in college. Man can that boy sing. The spirit was really present as we talked about the Savior. Oh, and then we got chocolate eggs.

Which brings me to my next point.

I would like to dispel a stereotype that has permeated the Church culture from all sides. Missionaries are not always hungry. I'm not saying there aren't some places in the world where the missionaries happen to be more hungry than I currently am. But instead of just assuming your missionaries 1.) haven't eaten all day 2.) would also like 3 pieces of cake, may I suggest you ask them? Ask them how hungry they are. Insist they be honest. And then don't make them eat any more than they want to. It's possible they're not taking seconds because they're polite. It's also possible that they're not taking seconds because you're the 3rd person to feed them that day and they've also eaten more cake this week than you've ever seen in your life.

I hope that this public service announcement hasn't hurt anyone's feelings and will maybe help poor missionaries like me feel less like a blimp every second of their lives. Because seriously. A blimp. Who has to run after buses all day. Not fun.

My final thought (wow this is getting long) is that next week is GENERAL CONFERENCE! It's like the super bowl for missionaries. Just remember, as you start to nod off in the middle of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Consider the Lilies, that there have been thousands of years in the history of our world when people longed for the voice of the Lord through his prophets to guide them. Not only can you hear his voice, you can do it on your bed in your pajamas with facebook open in the other tab.

Just think about that. And then decide to to general conference a little different this year. Pick a question. Think of something in the gospel you don't fully understand. Think of a commandment you have trouble keeping. Think of a decision you're trying to make, or that someone you know is trying to make. Think of anything that you don't feel entirely satisfied about. And then think about it prayerfully all through conference. I promise that answers or comfort or direction will come.

And then write me about it if you want. I'm allowed to write back now :)

Love you!

Sister Teusch