Canada Day

Turns out there is nowhere in this city we can volunteer. Ah, socialism. I love you.  Everything is a government organization.

 

Tuesday was Canada Day! So we went to an international student meeting for a presentation on America. It sort of reminded me of all the things about America I don't really like or had forgotten about. For example, I didn't know anything about Portland, but it seems way sketch!

 

Zone Conference with the new mission president was a hit. I loved his vision for the mission and his emphasis on helping everyone to make covenents with God, not just a focus on baptism but also helping members to progress. President Stoddard is just a really nice man, too. He was in church on Sunday in Erfurt, because of the leadership role he plays here, and he interviewed a guy from the district for his mission! That was so cool. I like Arturo. He'll do great.

 

Friday was INDEPENDENCE DAY! (You know, like the movie.) We went to an american grill, which was delicious, but we're almost positive the waiter was drunk. At 11:30 in the morning! What!

 

Saturday we went with the Relief Society to the BIGGEST ROSE GARDEN IN EUROPE. oooooooo aaaaaaaaa. Sorry, don't have my camera cord. But someday you will see!!!

 

We also met with Anja, and her daughter Lorena was really quiet and cute! She sat next to me and played with stuffed animals the whole time. She also told me that the skin is the best part of the potato! Then she ate like 2 with the skin on (they were really small) and then her mom had to peel the rest. Well, someday.

 

I now only have 3 sundays left in Erfurt. Sad!

 

I love you. Forgive someone today, just because you can.

 

Sister Teusch

Whiplash!

June 30, 2014

This week we sent President and Sister Schwartz home to Nürnberg with big hugs and some tears. And then Elder Brown showed us how to break boards! Which was a huge amount of fun, but we practiced a lot and so my right side tensed up. I had to practice with the left side when I got home to balance everything out!

 

We're heart attacking all the members (there aren't that many), and it's been a fun adventure. Some of them live in houses in far away villages, so getting there is the hard part. Some of them live in town, but in apartment buildings! So there's a lot of sneaking involved. One less-active, we were standing outside her complex door waiting for someone to let us in and SHE showed up! And then got all flustered and said we should have made an appointment . . . we tried to explain we were trying to surprise her. Oh well. We did stick the hearts on the door on the way out! And she loved them. Of course. Everyone loves hearts stuck to their door.

 

We're back to visiting Frau Starke. I love her. She's so funny. We were walking with her in her wheelchair and we found like, 15 coins of either 1,2 or 5 cent value just lying on the sidewalk! We gave them all to her (It's your house!), and she made each of us take a 1 cent as a good luck charm.

 

This week we had THREE eating appointments. The first one we asked for vegetables when he asked what we wanted, so he made DDR schnitzel and a cucumber salad. Close enough. The 2nd one was to watch Germany vs. America in the world cup!! It wasn't a super good game. I cheered for Germany. We won. The best part was all the snacks they had! We were a little short on money this week. And then yesterday, we had our official eating appointment. Klöse! Gotta learn how to make those. And then Sister Stoker got to play his violin. He tells the best stories about being mormon in the DDR. (You know that DDR means East Germany, right? Sorry.)

 

This week we have another zone conference, this time to greet our new mission president. Because he has jurisdiction over our district (as in a baby stake), we sustained him in branch conference on Sunday. THAT was weird. I'm going to miss the Schwarzes!

 

Love you all. Pray hard!

Sister Teusch

Things that happened this week

Sister Stoker borrowed a member's violin. She's really good! 

​

She wanted to take an angry picture. This is how we show our love! We won 1-0! Yeah! (Okay, sorry, but getting one goal in an hour and a half is just not a fun sport.)

​

We got the elders all dolled up, too! 

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I BROKE THIS BOARD. It was so fun!!

​

And there's Huiying, everyone's favorite chinese girl. She's a superstar. 

Erfordia

June 23, 2014

Hola! I'm back in Erfurt, the land of dreams. It was sad leaving Jena and also weird because once again, I only transferred within the same district. But actually, this transfer over half of our zone changed! So I have been in this zone longer than anyone else by like 4 months, at least. Zone empress. That's me.

It was funny being back in the branch because, well, I didn't really need to introduce myself to anyone. I got lots of half hugs from the old men of the branch :P There's like a club of grandpas that are so legit.

 

Ok, I learned the coolest thing this week. There's this talk by F. Enzio Busche called Unleashing the Dormant Spirit, a BYU devotional. And from that and my personal study, I finally figured out what it means that the word of God is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

 

That's really intense, and I just never really understood how God (or Christ, in D&C) could be a two-edged sword. It cuts into our soul and discerns our hearts.

 

In Luke 14:33, Christ says, "whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." That's pretty harsh, but there it is. Elder Busche said "Christ is literally cutting a knife into our soul, making it clear to us that there is no middle way and that we have always to ask ourselves where exactly we stand. When we can, with honest reflection, says: "Yes, I am a disciple of Christ, I'm willing to sacrifice my own will, my habits, attitudes, and selfish desires, and endure the hurt and pain that such reflections cause, and bring to him as a sacrfiice a broken heart and a meek spirit, then will be baptize us 'with fire and with the Holy Ghost', and we will not be deceived."

 

Now, he was talking about how to not be deceived. But what I learned is that we are all in this world, and we have habits, attitudes, and desires that are not God's. These have been building up in our hearts for a really long time. Christ wants to heal those things, but they've been there so long that He has to break the heart so He can reset it, and it can heal properly. Like a poorly healed bone. It hurts, but He, just like a doctor, knows it's better for us that way. And so the word of God is a surgical knife. It hurts, but it's the only way for us to become whole.

 

It's kinda weird opening an area when we're 98% sure it'll be closed again, but we made great plans to focus on service and finding people who we can give to the elders when we leave. It's nice knowing that we have a very small amount of time. We made really finite, achievable goals that are keeping us focused and energized. We've also cleaned up the edges of our obedience to the mission rules to go out with a bang on the blessings front. It's been a little annoying but mostly it's been so much easier to just decide, "If the white handbook says not to, I won't; if it says to, I will." Much less time wasted on being unsure if something is ok. I really like it.

 

I love you and am looking forward to going to President Schwartz's final Zone Conference tomorrow :( Pray for the Stoddards that they get here safely and get established quickly!

 

Sister Teusch

This week

June 10, 2014

Hi Mom!

Can I just get you in trouble for a second? Literally NO ONE told me Megan Paxton is getting married! NOT A SINGLE SOUL. You're all fired. The first mention was in the emails from Rachel. Can I get a picture? Please?

One of my favorite things about knowing the book of mormon better now is that people are starting to get personalities and voices. I really love all of mormon's "and thus we see"s becuase you can just feel how exhausted and frustrated he is. "It's right here! On the paper! Please notice it! It's so important!" I think he's just excited to knowsomeone will listen someday.

This week was pretty bleh. It was hot, there was a holiday weekend so everyone was gone, and Huiying took a break to work on her thesis. She came to church and everything, but her appointments are the highlight of all of our week. We got new "lattenröste" for under our mattresses, and so our beds are a lot more comfortable, but I just don't even want to lie on it because the fabric is gross in this heat. Luckily we also got a new fan, so now we have 2 and all the windows open. I do enjoy not having AC, though. Because then when you go outside it doesn't kill you, because you're already used to it.

I was having trouble being focused in my study this week. I studied the blessings of the house of Ephraim one day, the next day I studied reverence, and today I read through "The Blueprint of Christ's Church", a fireside from Elder Callister. And I always start out wanting to just read the book of mormon and preach my gospel. I dunno! But it's always fun!

Love you! Have a marvelous week. 

Last days of Jena

June 16, 2014

Hi mom!

Transfer calls: I got transferred back to Erfurt, with Sister Stoker, for our last transfer. Sister Weber will stay in Jena with a Sister Robison, and Sister Weber is the STL now. It would have been weird to go to leadership council with a new mission president, anyway! President Schwartz has 2 weeks left. :(

This week we hit the dorms and rang those doorbells, and met a lot of really interesting students! One had even met with elders before and was willing to meet again. But the biggest thing was that a referral from a member was really willing to talk to us about her personal experiences with prayer and she really enjoys  coming to our church for activities. I really really like her and I think she's going to stick around!

On Monday it was a holiday but not our P-Day (because everything is closed on holidays) so we made sushi. Turns out sushi tastes good because you put vinegar in it! Did not know that.

Wednesday we went by Charlie and we knew that the elders were having an appointment with Zach, so we called them to let us in, and it was ridiculous. They were chucking things off the balcony at us. (the elders, not zach.)

Friday was Sister Weber's anniversary of arriving in Germany, so we went to an american bar and grill called Cheers! and got HAMBURGERS. And they were authentic!!!! The fries were even awesome. BUT. The tvs on the walls were playing volleyball, biking, golf, and a strongman competition. We were definitely still in Germany.

Saturday was our final conference call with President Schwartz and -- he didn't do it in German!!!! Darn. Ah well. "You cannot understand my german and you cannot understand my english, so I hope you can understand the spirit." I love that man.

There he is.

Here's a wrap up of the Jena branch:

Sister Weber, Meredith and Matt Durrant, me, Sister Stoker (we're short!), Jalena and Jeff Nielson, Shi Rui, Olaf and Serge, and Sister Schwendiman.

So American 8x, chinese 1x, russian 2x.

Benny, René, his fiancée Josi, with Katharina and her boyfriend Benjamin in the back. Me, Eleen, Sister Stoker, Ada (from Cuba), Sydney (RM from Canada), Zach (you know him), Sr. Böseman.

That's almost everyone. I gotta say, we're a pretty attractive branch!

This week I'll pack up my stuff and put it right back where it was for 6 months. Or maybe I'll take the other half of everything to shake things up. I've already started texting my investigators in Erfurt. Luckily Sister Weber still had the Erfurt phone and keys! Almost every sister to serve in Erfurt must also serve in Jena. I'm so special, I get to just flop back and forth! 

I love you guys! Sorry that my P-Day turned out to be Monday anyway. Gera didn't need us for their street display anymore. Have a great week! You already know my new address :D

Sister Teusch

Cool!

Lots of mission lingo in this one!

June 2, 2014

Hello!

Our mission turnover rate is messy. Basically, all the "boom" sisters will be leaving about a transfer before the next rush comes in, so there will be a lot of ghost town sister areas for about 2 months, and then they'll almost all reopen. Everyone left will be training. That's why we expected to stay in this drit (threesome), there's no turnover before we leave! BUT, we found out we're losing 1 and gaining 2 for my last transfer. So we will have to break up the drit. It's for the best. I just do not want to die with another leaver! Trunky gets all over my stuff that way.

This week was pretty busy and successful, even though it got cold and rained for 3 days. Again. Sister Stoker can't take it anymore (the cold). We met with an investigator I taught in Erfurt. Flashbacks. And we got pictures with the Erfurt merchants' bridge, and great chinese food! We met with Sister Plett's cousin, who had her baby. She is really looking forward to having her baby receive a blessing, because we explained that Jesus never baptized babies, but he did bless them! Sister Plett talked to her before about how babies cannot choose and therefore cannot sin, but that was maybe a bit too complicated for her.

Huiying continues to be a dream to teach. We talked about how to grow our faith and even though she's working on her master's thesis she figured out her own way to fit in daily scripture study! And on Sunday, we got to meet with her AND President Schwartz! She really really enjoyed that. And he loved her.

I made chocolate zucchini cake. Still as good as ever, even with fake german brown sugar. Maybe the zucchini is just better here!

I got (probably) my last interview with President Schwartz, who goes home in about 3 weeks. That'll be so strange, but I know he's very tired and is looking forward to visiting all his extended family who don't live within mission boundaries (he's from near Nuremberg, which is within the mission, so he does get to see his own kids). Mom, he said he'd love to coordinate with us so you can meet him!

On Saturday we were in the park and ran into a Syrian friend of ours and his brother. They chatted with us for a long time. I was talking to his brother, who has been in Germany longer and lives in Berlin, and he was very curious about our religion. Then he said, "Honestly, I just made him come talk to you guys because he has a hard time finding people who speak English and so he doesn't socialize very much." And then he told us his brother would be coming to FHE on Monday for sure. What a nice brother! I was really touched by that; even though neither of them are interested in investigating, they are just really good people and I hope at least the one who lives in Jena will come make friends with all us english speakers.

We have yet another leadership council this week, the very last one with President Schwartz. It'll be a little different because instead of all 5 Jena missionaries going to Frankfurt, the Coburg sisters are going to come up to Jena and then just me and the Coburg STL will go to Frankfurt together. Bummer for my companions but it's good that at least someone will be working in Jena that day. I hate leaving the city to fend for itself for whole days at a time.

She's congradumalated, too!

May 26, 2014

Zach to get on our Jena Missionaries facebook page for us (we're allowed one, we're just not personally allowed on it) and then Zach showed my companions my facebook page and ALL my old profiles pictures. Sister Stoker's been teasing me about my emo phase all day.

On Saturday we were dooring in this dorm where international students live (gold!), and we were about to ring the last doorbell on the floor when we heard footsteps, so we waited to see if that person would come down this hallway. Then I heard the person stop right behind us, so I turned around. . . and it was Zach! He lives literally across the hall from the last door, where we found a new investigator: a chinese student who has only heard the name Jesus in passing.

 

On Sunday we had an appointment with her (her English name is Charlie) and it was so cute. We spent a good half an hour just explaining prayer. How you it doesn't matter how you hold your hands, and you can say whatever you want, and she asked if when she's practicing, if she has to pray in English. We said she could pray in Chinese. . . "The Heavenly Father speaks Chinese?!" ah, adorable. Then we rang Zach to thank him for letting us in the building (the doorbells don't work from the outside. . .) and he was skyping his dad so I got to say hi. That wasn't probably kosher. Zach also gave us Rice Krispie treats. Score.

I'm so happy that President Schwartz committed us all to fill out our My Family books. Because of that, I asked all 3 of my living grandparents, all converts, to share their conversion story with me. Mom, both of your parents have written back and it was just the best to read those and to read their testimonies.

Friday we went to a musical fireside in Erfurt, because Sister Weber was on the program. And it was so nice to see all the Erfurters again! And Elder Norman made really really really good cinnamon rolls (that he then transported to the church in an emptied-out drawer lined with baking paper. Elders!). Sister Loch made sure to invite us, Mom, to come to dinner when we're in town!

I am loving the weather, I love Jena, and I love my tiny little branch. And I love you!

Bye!

 

May 19th

I also had a crazy week! I went to the temple AGAIN, this time as a part of leadership council. We left 10am Wednesday, the temple session was at 5pm. We also had to split twice because one companion went to the German speaking Frankfurt sisters and the other to the international Frankfurt sisters. It's complicated.

 

The temple was beautiful, as always. But it was even better because I was there with like 30 missionaries that I know are trying hard to do their best and keep their covenants. And that's really the best company.

As we were all on the temple front steps taking pictures and whatnot, this Albanian woman came out of the temple and started introducing herself to every single one of us. In Albanian. I kinda just figure she was saying "My name is ___ and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" from the rhythm of how she was speaking. I could be totally wrong. A lot of elders got pictures with her, which she was pumped about.

 

The plan was to then have a testimony meeting in the chapel that's on temple grounds, but as we were congregating, a whole GROUP of Albanians followed us in! They were too big from the room they'd been assigned to, so the temple president had sent them to the chapel. My dear old German mission president was having trouble processing the change in plans. It was pretty funny. I think it worked out great because we got to have the pizza, first. I love pizza. President and Sister Schwartz sat with me an the Jena Zone Leaders, and when he sat down I went to go get him a glass.

"You read my mind! How did you do that?" he said.

I shrugged. "I'm a woman."

The look he gave me! "We are not dumb, you know."

Ok, that's not what I meant! But man I love President Schwartz. (remember, this was in German. It's just not as good in English.)

 

We finally ended up squishing all 30 of us into a little waiting room for our testimony meeting, which lasted until 9:45. Which isn't super kosher, but when you're in the room with the mission president, everything's pretty much automatically allowed. Luckily we were staying in the hostel that is on temple grounds, so we didn't have far to go! They provided sheets, but not towels or shampoo, and no one thought to bring their own because we always overnight in other sisters' apartments and mooch off them. I'm pretty sure all 30 of us decided on our own to just use our sheets as towels. Hope no one in the laundry noticed :)

 

MLC itself was pretty much the same as usual. Sister Schwartz shared some amazing insights from her scripture study, President Schwartz used a crazy random powerpoint to tell us everything he's been thinking about, the Assistants to the President led us in a teaching roleplay, and by then we were an hour late for lunch. Subway sandwiches! I personally witnessed an elder eat like 5. He may have eaten more before I got there, though.

After lunch was the part where we "council", or we talk about the issues of the mission and what we're going to do to fix it. Also, every zone reports on what they've done since the last MLC and how the missionaries in their zone reacted. That's the really fun part because all the missionaries there are old enough to know how to joke with President.

 

Even though MLC ended at 4pm, our bus to Jena didn't leave until Friday morning (at 7:30am, no less!) So we all crashed at the Frankfurt sisters' apartment and got some planning done while resisting the urge to eat all their food.

It's really amazing how much time and money goes into making sure that a bunch of missionaries are in the same room. I love what Elder Bednar said: he'd love to abolish the term meeting and start calling them revelatory experiences. My notes from these councils, especially from the testimony meetings, are some of my most cherished notes from my whole mission.

Friday night Elder Watts, who's in the branch presidency called and asked "Has anyone told you that you're giving a talk on Sunday?" Actually, no. No one had. My topic was "What I want to say to my home ward about my mission," and I really really enjoyed writing it because I started by just listing off every thing I could remember that the Spirit has taught me in the last 15 months. And it was a long list. I ended up sharing Elder Dyches' talk, the part where he quotes the story from Corrie Ten Boom. And I testified that trials are a sign of God's mercy and love.

 

We had like . . . 7 extra Americans in church on Sunday! Zach and the two intern couples were expected, and then a BYU professor and his wife showed up! I think there were more native English speakers in the room than Germans. (Oh, and two Chinese!)

From all the graduations and stuff I hear about, I guess it's summer. Someone should tell that to the weather here! Sister Stoker can't take the cold much longer.

Love you!
Sister Teusch

April?!?!?!?

Familie und Freunde:

Yo.

This week we made cookies for our neighbors, did actual doors on actualy houses (actually the doorbells are on the fence gate but still), did surveys in parks, and ate some ice cream.

We had Zone Training and on the way home, Elder Richards and I both forgot to change trains in Weimar, so we ended up having to wait for 30 minutes in Apolda. It was really cool because we ended up takling about why we all went on missions which is missionary equivalent of asking people their conversion story. So I was glad the train ride was longer but I wasn't happy about buying extra tickets!

Which reminds me. The tech elders bought us these crazy tickets for mission council this week involving busses and all sorts of nonsense, and I was pretty mad and then I remembered that Sister Paxton has to take a bus EVERYWHERE, and I'm mad I didn't get first class seating! Spoiled rotten!

While we were dooring in this cute little village we asked this man about his garden and he talked to us for 45 minutes about how his wife left him, how his father was in a POW camp, about what it was like with the Russians in charge, and some funny stories about being a computer programmer in the 80s. I loved it but i think my companion got a little lost :)

Huiying had to work all week so Friday night at like 8 we brought her cookies at work. She was so excited! She showed us all this cool optics stuff and told us that she had talked to her friend about why she goes to church. She's just precious. I love her.

Tonight we're teaching FHE. Hopefully we'll play a game. We haven't planned it yet :)

Pictures next week when the dropbox isn't full!

Love y'all.

It's just becoming a thing

So this week was awesome! I had a great split with Sister Weber in Erfurt, and we got a new investigator on the street, that was fun. Finding with new people is always an adventure because you're not used to what kinds of things they say. Luckily the spirit converts, not us! Which sounds like Sister Weber is a weird finder. Actually I'M a weird finder. I just say the most random things. Sigh.

I LOVE what you said about Brother Chandler. Isn't that just it? Testimony meeting is just practice for the real world! Although I will say that bearing testimony in an appointment or on the street is sometimes easier than bearing testimony in church, just because of the microphone and stuff.

In church for the 5th Sunday the 4 missionaries talked about different aspects of how full time missionaries do missionary work, and then our mission leader compared what we do to what members can do, and talked about how we can support each other and how what we do can overlap. I think it was awesome, at least that's what our mission leader said about it. Granted he thinks everything is awesome. That's his favorite word.

I love you all, I'm staying in Jena another transfer! It's a 5-week transfer, if anyone's keeping track. My new companion is Sister Stoker. I hear she's from Virginia. Whoo! She goes home at the same time as me, though, so I doubt I'll be finishing my mission here. We can't both leave at the same time!

Love you!!!

Sister Teusch

A Tree-Herder! A Shepherd of the Forest!

This week has been a little strange. I don't even remember last week.

 

Our investigator Huiying got her wisdom teeth removed and so we dug out a box of orange jell-o we had lying around our apartment. She'd recently heard a reference to the green jell-o aspect of mormon culture and was curious to know what it was, so she was pretty excited when we made her some. And she loved it! Yay! 

 

Tuesday we helped a man clean up his garden for spring. He's the classiest man I've ever had an appointment with! It was nice getting our hands in dirt for a while. And it wasn't even cold outside. Afterwards we raced home, changed into skirts, finished packing up all our stuff, and took our suitcase for the week to the senior couple's apartment, where we left it while we borrowed their car to drive to a visiting teaching appointment. Last time we'd tried to show her and her husband how to do family history, but the site was down, so we wanted to go over it today. Turned out they were so excited to get their names entered that they'd figured it out on their own! So we had our visiting teaching lesson and then showed them a few tricks and were out of there again. After trading in the car for our suitcase we met up with the elders at the train station to take an ICE down to Nuremberg for the night. The Feucht sisters picked us up and took us home to their super cute apartment, all decked out with the exact same furniture as ours. Ah, the blessings of having so many newly-opened areas: nice new cookie cutter apartments.

 

Wednesday we got up super early to be at the Nuremberg chapel for a 8:30 leadership meeting with Elder Timothy J. Dyches of the Seventy. He gave a talk in October called "will you be healed?" or something, and that talk helped me out a lot over the last 6 months so I was excited to hear more from him. His wife and he are both wonderful teachers. Sister Dyches showed us a clip from a movie called "Taking the Giants" in which a football player bear-crawls an entire football field with another guy on his back, because he was blindfolded and didn't know how far he had left to go. Go find it or something. It made me cry.

 

At 10 am was zone conference, with the missionaries from Nuremberg Stake and Erfurt District. I learned a hundred things but most importantly, I left the meeting feeling like my entire life was a lot simpler and clearer, which was a feeling I had sorely needed. The thought that I'm most intrigued with from the meeting is that the Bible Dictionary says that we are all naturally inclined to renounce sin. I've been thinking that sometimes I'd love to stop doing something I know I shouldn't, if only someone would call me out on it. It's a hard feeling to describe. It also works with sins of omission: I know I should be doing something, but it takes someone suggesting we go do it to kick me in to gear. I'd love to be my own cheerleader but we're not perfect and we need other people to motivate us sometimes. The important part is to accept the extra help!

 

We stayed at the Nuremberg sisters' apartment so we could catch our 7:30 am train from Nuremberg to Frankfurt in the morning. By 11:30 am we were in Friedrichsdorf, where the temple is. The next session wasn't until 1:30 so we went and got pizza at a local hole-in-the-wall that members lovingly call Temple Pizza. It's so delicious. Dad and Ben have been there before! Ben probably doesn't remember :)

 

It'd been maybe 8 months since I'd been to the temple and I am so grateful I got to go, even though I forgot to mention that I came down with a really bad cold on Monday evening. I feel like something inside me has been re-inflated and I just feel peace.

 

Tonight we're staying with (reportedly) 6 other sisters in one apartment because tomorrow morning we have mission council with Elder Dyches. And Friday night we go home, back to dear old Jena and back to work!

 

Remember kids, the leaders of the restored Church of Jesus Christ are called by God to serve His children by revelation and faith. Listen to your leaders and get to praying!

 Love y'all, Tschüßi!

President said I looked chic in my blue dress

Well, last week was the best. I got my soul readjusted and I'm ready to commit myself anew. Everything is simpler and happier and I'm just full of energy. Spiritual energy, anyway.

I've realized that it really doesn't matter what character traits you have, or how sensitive you naturally are to the Spirit. What it all boils down to is whether you're repentant. Even if you're stubborn, do you give in eventually? Even if you're angry, do you apologize? Because no matter what you started out with, God can't do anything with you if you're not willing to come to Him.

Something I realized was missing from my prayers was apologizing for things. I know repenting is a constant, sometimes subconscious process of changing. But outright telling God you know that He knows that you could have done better really speeds up the whole process. And it makes me feel light and bouncy. Prayer is all about remembering who God is, remembering your relationship to Him, and realigning yourself to that truth.

And you can do it over and over and over! God's voice has changed in my mind. When I was younger, everyone in the scriptures had a monotone. But more recently I would read Jesus' commands in kind of a boom. "Repent ye, repent ye!", he shouted in their faces. And now I hear him like the way the actor talks in the biblevideos.org : calmly, lovingly, clearly, confidently, pleading us to listen and soften and obey. He begs us to accept that He truly loves us as much as He says He does. Isn't it wonderful?

Be good! Eat vegetables!

Re: finally a little bit warm

Lauren’s answer to my weekly email. 

-Nancy

-----------l

I'm so excited about Cornell! Ahh! That's so great. He [Ben] said "I guess we'll both be moving a long distance in August." That stinker.

Today was nutso.

Sister Plett is from Vancouver and is 24, came out at the same time as me. She likes manga and Sailor Moon and draws cartoons in her journal. She's really calm and clear headed and we understand the noises that we make when we answer without opening our mouths because we're chewing. And she let me rearrange the entire apartment! (all 2 rooms of it . . .)

Go watch Jesus Declares the Parable of the Lost Sheep (biblevideos.org) because it is so good. I didn't realize how much effort went into rescuing a lost sheep!!

Did I tell you? Every Sunday we missionaries have a paper route. We do it to help an investigator who took it over from his friend who was a new convert, but then he died, and the investigator is too old to do it alone. He gets paid, we get to stuff mailboxes with something people actually want. Win win.

Saturday we went to Shi Rui's apartment and he made us real chinese food! He's from China and he's a member. He's working on his PhD and works with Huiying, who he referred to us about 8 months ago. She was there too, and another friend. We watched I'm a Mormons in Chinese. And some in English. And then Shi Rui showed us a video of elders lip syncing in the car. Oh, the internet. You silly thing. The food was excellent and we taught Elder Hathaway to use chopsticks.

Today we went to Wartburg castle and it was quite fun. The buses don't run until April so we had to walk and on the way back down we had to run.

You're all cool. Keep it up.

TSCHÜß!

Very cold. And snowy. Again.

Hi Mom!!!

Everything you said was awesome, I'm so glad it's not snowing here!! It's like spring!

On to my life!

I made it through my first week in Jena! I feel like I've been here forever, maybe partially because I've known Sister Plett for over a year. And we get along and understand each other so well! Sister Plett is an avid sticker collector--meaning she pulls cool stickers off street signs and poles and stuff. I've started doing it too. Which is awkward because then I stick them on my planner so that I can put them in my journal when I get home, so I have to be careful not to show off my socialist propaganda graffiti when I'm asking people for their numbers.

Speaking of which, we TALKED TO PEOPLE ON THE STREET this week! It only took me a year to figure it out! I know I shocked a lot of RM's by saying I'm just now getting to that but God pays the afternoon servants as much as those that came in the morning. We realized we needed to do it and that we can do it but we're just too scared to do it, so we asked the Zone Leaders to come with us to give us a boost. Basically, it's terrifying always and we're learning to get over ourselves. Also, we've been practicing approaching with the Book of Mormon which is way easier because if you have nothing to say you just say "Hey do you know this book?" Done. Phew!

This week we did some service, as you may have noticed in the pictures. Sister Plett has some relatives in Jena and one of them is having a baby today, so last week we moved her bed back to her mom's house so she would have room for all the baby stuff. We borrowed the car from the senior couple and strapped the spring-loaded storage space bed frame to the top of their tiny tiny car. Then we parked it back in the garage, went to our chiropractor appointment, then went and got the car and drove it to Krippendorf. The way to Krippendorf (we call it Gryffindor)  is steep, windy, and narrow. And this was only my second time driving in Germany ever. (Remember when I got that speeding ticket on Sister Lehman's 3rd day in the country?) It's always a good time when vehicles are involved.

Our apartment used to house the senior couple, so it's way nice. It's right in the middle of the university and we have a TV with a USB port!!! So we just have mormon messages and bible videos running all the time. I love it. But we have to be careful. If I watch more than 4 mormon messages in a row I start crying. SO GOOD.

Love y'all! Be nice!

Do it for God... and the Elders

This week I moved to Jena! It was pretty lowkey because Jena is 30 minutes away from Erfurt, so Wednesday night Sister Plett and I just headed off. Everyone else transferred down to Frankfurt the next morning, but we had an 8:30am appointment. With the cutest chinese girl. She's writing a paper about electromagnetic fields in a macro interface. If I understood correctly, she calculates what happens to light after it passes through or reflects off of bumpy or complicated surfaces. COOL. Oh and also she has wonderful, active faith in Jesus Christ which grows every day. Even cooler.

Jena is pretty small and the branch is even smaller. There are about 10-20 people in church + 6 missionaries (elders, sisters, couple). The missionary couple, the Schwendimans, are so funny. Elder Schwendiman is branch president and Sister Schwendiman is a Home Ec teacher. MAN can she cook!! On Friday they had all 4 of us over for homemade chinese food in honor of Elder Richards' birthday.

It's also really nice being in the same area as my zone leaders. I missed that. I learn so much from them and they push us to be better through their examples. And as a sister training leader we need to coordinate a lot of meetings so it's nice being in the same area for that.

A year ago Thursday I arrived in Dortmund, an angry confused Golden who didn't have warm enough tights! Ah, how the time has flown.

On Sunday we had stake conference in the form of a broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Bednar gave his talk in German! I could tell that it was hard for him to keep his really good pronunciation up. I know from experience it can make your mouth muscles really sore! But he did it because he loves the German-speaking people and he wanted to tell it to them in their own language. What a wonderful man. It was funny to be back in Erfurt, the stake center, again. The branch members there were very confused to see me. "Didn't you leave?"

Sister Plett, my new companion, went into the MTC at the same time as me! And she was trained in Hamm, which is right next to Dortmund, so we've known each other a long time. She's from Canada and is really really good at drawing cartoons and doing word art-type graphics. Also, she's a clear minded, happy person who's looking forward to working hard with me. Scary!!!

It's a wonderful day in Jena, the sun is shining and there is food to be purchased. I love you all and so does God! (a little bit more than I do though.)

Sister Teusch

hiya!

I got transferred to Jena, which is about 30 minutes East of here (I think, you can check) and I am still the Sister Training Leader for the zone. Now I'm in the same area as the zone leaders which will be nice! And they redid district boundaries so now all 4 sister will be in the same district. Convenient.

This week I was so tired! We had a really fun Zone Training: we practiced approaching members with the Book of Mormon like a sports drill and then went outside for 10 minutes to try it out! And we also played some unity building games, and got permission from Pres to watch the scene from Space Jam with Mike's Special Stuff. Ah, gospel connections.

Love you! I'll be reading you from Jena next week!

still cold

Just a little bit from Lauren this week:

This week we spent 4 or 5 hours helping a couple move. They're having a baby soon and need a bigger apartment. We mostly cleaned the old apartment, which is really satisfying because it's completely empty and you get to attack scrub everything you see.

In church on Sunday Sis. Stout and I sang 2 verses of Lead, Kindly Light because our only YSA is moving to Hannover to get married. And then we sang Come, Come Ye Saints with the elders because the topic of the day was the saints in Nauvoo. And after church we were about to leave with the branch president's wife to go eat at their house, and a couple walked in! They saw our The Church is open, please come in! sign and CAME IN! So we gave them a church tour and we stopped and explained every single painting and picture, because they were so interested. We taught the first lesson through the pictures and gave them the articles of faith and a restoration pamphlet. They said they'd come to Stake Conference! Woot! They were a totally normal middle class german couple. Pretty weird.

love you! transfer calls on Saturday!
Sister Teusch

Maam

This week I went to a Heilpraktiker, so basically all of the types of doctors that Dad thinks are sketchy rolled into one. I'm getting some acupuncture for my neck pain tomorrow. Whee!

"There's always a way around the system. but there's never a way around God." Elder Gamble

"Oliver Cowdery missed the opportunity of a lifetime because he didn't   seize it in the lifetime of the opportunity." Elder Holland

We had a branch game night and we had an investigator come and bring a friend! So we had 4 missionaries, 3 old single men, an 18-year-old girl, and her friend. We played Pictionary Telephone. Everyone LOVED it! Phew!

On Friday we helped the German alcoholic version of Daniel Radcliffe move from one part of a massive apartment building to a different part because his girlfriend was pregnant and they needed an extra room. His mom bought us ice cream afterwards. Oh and his friends who looked like a blue collar Neil Patrick Harris let us borrow his wheely thing!

In church on Sunday no one did anything mean or weird in Testimony Meeting, we got to eat cold german pasta salad after church because we were waiting for the font to fill because the Jena Branch had a baptism!!! And 3 of our investigators came! So proud!

Keep being cool.

Sister Teusch

Eager to Please, Ready to Fight

Lauren asked me to edit the typos on this email. But I didn’t because I thought it was funny that she kept typing away even though she couldn’t see what she was typing! Moms can do that…

- Nancy

 

"We locked ourselves out of our apartment at 8am." - Me

"Is that why your hair looks like that?" - Elder Hathaway

 

Gmail is being super laggy today. BlaSo I'm going to just type blind and see how bad this is.

 

On Monday I bought myself a sidebag! Now I can finally followthe the new sister guidelines! Go me! My backpacks still going to get a lot of use though. it's just so partical.

 

For my birthday, we had zone training. So I brought decorations and decorated the room whre I gave me workshop. nd the elders popped all of my balloons. As expected.

 

Also, I got my trash kicked at Monopoly by the young men. It was aweseome. But that wasn#t onm ybirthday.

 

WAnd we had the greatest lesson in relief Society about missinary work! I was so proud!

 

That's about it. This week will be the same as all the other ones, except I will be 22. I don#t know what the heck Swift was talking about, 22 feels the same aas 21! But I guess 21 doesn't rhyme with you. So there you go.

 

Mom, please edit this. I' am so frustrated at this computer right now!

 

love you all!

 

Siter Teusch

You blew your nose in my apology note!

You can thank Sam Flack for these random, ambiguous subject lines…

 

Hallo Bekannte, here's the weekly news.

 

Late in the evening, our 18-year-old investigator called us, crying, so we hurried across town and all sat on her bed and sat there talking about boys for an hour and a half because she needed us. What a wonderful experience to see that the gospel truly applies to every situation and every problem: we had to go home eventually (there are rules and stuff) but we had borne testimony that God has a plan for her life that includes a happy marriage to a wonderful man who will respect and love her and help her have a Christ-centered home. And we left her with a comforting chapter in the Book of Mormon to read that helped her feel enough peace to go to sleep.

 

Don't ever put boundaries on what is considered missionary work! God's message is a message of love and peace.

 

Other thing: This week I read Hosea 2 (thanks Beth!) and I loved it so much. I'm pretty sure it's an analogy-thing about the fall of the House of Israel, but that's unimportant. It's the story of a whore who gets all of her food, water, jewels, lovers, etc taken away from her by God, and it seems like He's only doing it because He's angry with her.

"I will also cause all her mirth to cease", says the Lord. He takes away everything that makes her happy, everything she needs to live a comfortable life! And then he "will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her."

 

He's not angry, He only wants her to learn: true joy, everlasting joy, and the important things in life, the things you really need, are all things that God provides in His way and in His time.

 

 "And I will give her her vineyards (joy) from thence, and the valley of [trouble] for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me [my husband] and shalt call me no more [my master]."

 

As you allow the Lord to take away the extra things in your life that bring you only temporary joy and blind you from Him, He will provide you with the joy that your soul truly desires. And as you come to recognize the source of your joy, you will no longer see your God as a taskmaster, prepared to command and condemn, but a friend, who will lead and guide you into happy paths.

 

Keep being wonderful and keep having faith!

 

Sister Teusch

From Lauren

I got a long written letter from Lauren this week. It was so good! She said I could share some of it with you:

 

Hi, Mom!

It’s Christmas Eve. I’m sitting in the dark living room, with the blanket I stole from our living room couch, with a hot chocolate & a great view of the baby Tannenbaum the branch gave us. I opened one of my packages as my Christmas Eve present. J

On July 23 you wrote me all about RAGBRAI. Wow, sounds so warm! Then you wrote me about allowing God to mold me—becoming malleable in His Master hands. I wanted you to know that that inspiration has been guiding me for 6 months now. It made the currant bush story (http://www.lds.org/new-era/1973/01/the-currant-bush?lang=eng) really become written on my heart. I’ve felt so often that I’ve hit a brick wall in trying to learn what I think I need to learn, & then I remember God is the gardener here, & all I’m in charge of is allowing Him to shape me.

Like when I first got my companion I thought I was supposed to be working on learning how to work harder, faster. To find. To balance responsibility. Turns out I’d already learned that enough but hadn’t stopped yet, so God gave me a companion who wasn’t happy when I did the things I thought I needed to work on—like following the schedule exactly, to the minute. After a very frustrating month, I gave up & went with the flow. And God taught me patience, charity, kind words, listening. So much more important. So much more eternal.

At a zone conference we studied the difference between ministering & administering. My last paragraph illustrates that.

You wrote about “Be not weary in well-doing” & “Do not run faster than you have strength.” Then you jokingly said, “If that were really true, then when I felt tired I could just stop!” But what it really is, is that if you are running faster than you have strength, you’re not running where or how God wants. Because with God’s strength you can run a marathon. If your strength is failing, stop. Look at your trail & your pace. Realign them to God’s will, move forward. And you can be tired & still have strength! I relearn that every stinking day.

At some point you said, “I wish that were true. I felt it was true when I was praying.” That reminds me of a quote a missionary once shared: “True character is when you follow a prompting even when you’re no longer feeling prompted.” So hard though!

On the back of his letter I wrote “Helaman 10:4.” Let’s see what that says! “Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.” Oh. Ok. This basically sums up everything I just said. And I wrote Matthew 19:29 in the margin, “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

That reminds me: I loved the last verse of D&C 123 that you wrote on my Christmas chain (I love every single part of that gift, thank you so much.) “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” I found D&C 78:17-18 which is my current favorite scripture. “Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.” So good! Be of good cheer. I will lead you along.

On 4 May 1987 [I sometimes send Lauren letters or journal entries from my mission], you were sharing a 2 bedroom apt. with 6 people! Ahh! You ate Churrasco—that must be where Churrascaria comes from! You wrote, “I hope ____’s happy, happiness is the most important thing!” That’s so TRUE! Like with roommates/companions—it doesn’t matter what I trying to help her understand, if she’s not happy she won’t hear it, so I have to help her be happy & then I can lovingly correct her. And with my calling [as sisters trainer], my #1 responsibility is to help my sisters be happy. I love it! I’m also surprised by what makes me happy. Usually it’s doing really hard things.

On September 19 you sent me a snippet from your first week in Brazil; on the back you wrote that on your mission you prayed for East Germany to be opened to missionary work. Tada!!! Br. Schumann, in our branch, served in this area, from Chemnitz. He wasn’t ordained to an elder or set apart as a missionary until after he’d been on his mission over 6 months!! And at one point he was stationed in the mission office for night watch duty because the police were trying to sneak contraband Books of Mormon (printed in the West) into the office so they could shut down the church! Ahh!!

…[referring to thoughts from June 2012 “Hastening the Work” broadcast] When Pres. Monson said, “Wishing will not make it so” I knew it was true. It’s pretty obvious-sounding. But on my mission I’ve learned to understand the real connection between faith & action. When you truly believe something will happen, really truly, you act as if it’s already the case! I hope I can find this reference…YES! Mosiah 16:6 “And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.” Abinadi was to utterly convinced that Christ would truly come (& had probably already felt the Atonement in his life) that he spoke as if it had already happened. And so of course you’ll actaccordingly, and so that thing will truly happen, because of your actions. Get the vision, live the vision.

The other side is that talk from a sister last conference about how if you want to know if something is really from God you can’t just ask Him, you have to try it out too!

So acting & faith feed each other, growing brighter & brighter until the perfect day. Oh, or was that light? (It’s all the same thing.)

Dad said recently that a mission tends to allow the unimportant things in life to fall away. I’m not sure if he was being deep or commenting on my hair, but he’s right. When we focus only on what God’s directing our focus to, if we stop looking the right & to the left, we’ll do the most important things in the proper balance for that moment—everything in its season. So in this season God allowed for us to have very few people we’re responsible for so that we could focus on helping my companion overcome obstacles in a positive, building-up (germanism) way.

I repent of my sparse emailing. I can never remember anything that I’ve thought about or experienced as soon as I sit down at the computer. *sigh*

Merry Christmas! Can’t wait to open my presents -- & can’t wait to send yours on Monday. J Sorry! I’ve had some…weird P-days recently.

Lots of love,

Sis. Teusch

Don't Trip!

This was Lauren’s email last week when I was in California (December 30). She keeps promising to do a better job of writing a letter for everyone each week. Her P-days have been a little crazy as she works with her companion who still isn’t feeling 100%.

-Nancy

 

This week was one of the longest weeks of my life.

 

On Monday my companion was still a little bit wobbly on her feet, which made the prospect of grocery shopping scary. I think I'll always have negative associations.

 

On Tuesday I made a cream cheese frosting for Elder Gamble's cinnamon rolls and we had a white elephant exchange at district meeting! I got gingerbread. I put it on our sugar shelf, which is really full. And we met with our favorite investigator, an 80-year-old woman who can't leave her apartment. But boy is her mind sharp! She remembers everything we teach her!

 

On Christmas day we went to Mexico!! Or to a mexican restaurant with our investigators. It was super good. I ate a ton of enchiladas, which made me full for 2 whole days. Then we went to Weimar and I had to pass on some delicious-looking sloppy joes!

 

ON Boxing Day we went caroling with a member family, who fed us. I was not hungry. I ate it anyway! It was delicious! Then we went to another member family and I skyped with my fambly all the way out in California, and got to see Jacki's smiling face for the first time in live-action! 

 

Friday I think I took a nap, I don't really remember anymore.

 

Actually, everything after that is a blur.

 

I had a very happy christmas and wish you all, as the Germans say, a good slide into the new year! See you on the flip side!

 

Sister Teusch