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?)
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