Has it really only been a week?

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

Oh my goodness. I can't believe that it has only been a week. So much has happened and my head is still whirling a bit. I feel like it's been three weeks. Each day feels like at least two, because we do so much every day. I also can't believe I'll be in Germany in one week!

Okay. So. First. My district. There are ten people in our district. Six are from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from Sweden, one from France, and me. It's terrifying and amazing. I am learning German ever so quickly. The first day was a bit hard, because I knew that I'm not very good at German. But I'm listening very intently. And right now, I can understand about 90% of what is being said, if it's clearly heard. Wenn nicht, dann nicht so gut. But. I'm amazed. I feel the Lord's power and blessing in this so much. Of the three that don't speak German as a first language, I am the most advanced. Even though I've only had four years. That's that. It's been a HUGE blessing in my life.

My companion is Sister Siems. She is so much fun. She very cute, always happy, and talks a lot. Which makes for some interesting lessons, because I don't talk so much in German, because I'm thinking about what to say. But we're working on it. And I taught the Restoration to one of our "investigators," Peter, yesterday---and we committed him to baptism! We have four "investigators": Peter, Johannes, Ingolf, and Hans. The first two are played by Bruder Wilkinson, and the other two are played by Bruder Hengst. They're both our teachers. So it's fun. And each companionship comes back and we talk about the investigator and think and plan and adjust. It's fun, and hard, but good, and I'm practicing. I can speak German reeeeeally well in conversation, but in teaching, it's a bit harder. So I'm working on it. :) If I were being sent to a place with high German speakers, it would be great. But I'm not. No one speaks high German where I'm going. :) So this'll be fun. And good. Yesterday, we talked about having an hour of Sprachstudium, or language study. So yesterday I did a lot of learning and studying, both with Verkundet mein Evangelium and with learning German. I think I need to do more gospel study than German study, though, so I'm working on that, too. :)

Life is good here. We went to the temple today, and it was absolutely amazing. The Spirit was so strong. I felt a lot of love from the Spirit. Testified that  Christ loves us so much---that's why He went through the Atonement for us. It was amazing and so strong. I LOVE the temple, and am ever so grateful that I could go to the temple, which isn't something I would have  been able to do if I were in Provo. It was amazing.

The work is amazing. I am SO excited to go teach. I got the family letters (sibling letters) yesterday. So it takes about a week to get here. I'm going to go buy stamps when we go out to the store later today. And we can only send one envelope a week for free (the MTC sends it), so I'll probably be sending a bunch to our family in one envelope. This week. :)

One more cool thing---Elder Tyler Christiansen wrote me a letter to say welcome to England! I got it on my first day here, which was a huge tender mercy, because the first day was really hard for me. Probably a lot because I was so tired, but there were other things. But I was so grateful for that letter.

All right. I'll send pictures next. :)

Love, love, love,

Sister Elizabeth Winters. :)

                                  Sister Siems is the one in the green dress.