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