Finding people

Not the way you think.

Things I love about Germany:

-No sales tax. If it's 7,99€, it's 7,99.

-Rainy days.

-My German scriptures.

-Bahns.

-Cookbooks.

-This district.

-Speaking German.

AH! Life is so good.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the scarves and the pictures and the sticky notes! You are wonderful. Thanks for sending them through Nana Gilmour. :) I'm learning not to be surprised when other people show up with things you sent for me......I love it. It's delightful, and you are far too good to me.

Nana Gilmour and Aunt Alison and her boys was WONDERFUL. We met them in Feuerbach, then went to Vapiano's for lunch. (SO GOOD.) And it was just fun because we talked and talked and talked. Walked around Schlossplatz, went and got ice cream, and just talked. I saw more how British Sister Gilmour is. And I felt soooo American. They are wonderful people. It was a lot of fun.

Monday funny: Sister Gilmour couldn't remember the word for "triangle." So, we decided to call it a "drei-Ecke-Ding." And laughed SOOOO much about it. Then......we looked up the word when we got home: "Dreieck." Seriously?? :) It was so funny.

Quote from Bahnhof on Tuesday: "Ich muss den Wissen aufheben, um Glauben Platz zu bekommen." (I think that's how it goes. Only on the screen for a few seconds.) "I must lift up knowledge in order for faith to get space." (Something like that.) We talked with K Tuesday night. She's a JAE (young adult), Neubekehrt, and is going through a really rough roller coaster. So we took her to dinner and just talked, which was really good. We also had another really good conversation with U (at Basteln). It's so good. So fun.

Tuesday....kinda funny: We broke the Word of Wisdom. Okay. Don't panic yet. :) Here's the thing: I have absolutely no idea what alcohol tastes like. And U and the Basteln people gave us each a little hand-made bunny basket (of paper) with a couple chocolates drin. I was craving chocolate, so I ate one, a little cherry-chocolate thing. (Mind you, nothing that mentions alcohol on the wrapper.) Sister Scoggin once told me that it zings your tongue/throat a bit (which is the only way I would have had any idea that there could potentially be alcohol involved). (Thank you, Emily....) So, when I bit into this chocolate, there was a fair amount of zinginess to it, but I wasn't really sure, so I ate the other half. (Terrible, right?) A couple mintues later, I said to Sister Gilmour, "Um....you might want to be a little vorsichtig with that cherry bon-bon.....it was a little zingy...." See, the thing was, I had no idea if I was crazy and just being overcautious (which is VERY likely), or if there really was alcohol in it. She tried it and got the zinginess, too, so when we met with K (who got baptized in January), we asked her to take a look at that chocolate (Sister Gilmour's), and all she did was smell it and said, "Yep, that's rum." WHAT???? So, yeah. I'm just going to be quite a bit more vorsichtig about those chocolates...... OH my goodness, I just laughed and laughed about it. Because of COURSE I wouldn't have eaten it if I knew it had rum in it. But there I'd just eaten this rum-filled chocolate...….Oh, man, it was funny......

Wednesday, we tausched. I went to Tübingen with Sister Wunderli. It was a lot of fun. :) Talking with bus drivers, having NO idea which bus to take to get out to these little places....it was good. And a lot less stressful than the last one.

Thursday: Frau S fell out. We had a lesson with D, which was interesting. She's really hung up on a small detail with Adam and Eve and the fall, and I don't think we'll meet with her for long. She's tough.

Thursday funny: We were waiting for the international elders to give us the key for the Zentrum, and this is what they texted us: "Es sind ungefähr eine million Menschen im Zug und er kann nicht weiter fahren...." and then, "Jetzt bei Schwabstrasse....und es ist unerträglich heiß im Zug weil es immer noch 2 Millionen Menschen gibt." SO FUNNY. And this is the thing that I don't like about Germany: Frühlingsfest. Everyone in dirndls and lederhosen and drunk. Especially through Bahnhof. BAH. Sometimes I really hate the world (the natural man world). But they were trying to come with the S-Bahn, and people were just coming on and coming on to the Bahn because it couldn't go...because people were coming on. Oh, so funny. "There are around 1 million people in the train and it can't go any farther....", then, "Now at Schwabstrasse (where they were)....and it is unbearably hot in the train because there are still 2 million people here." #wehavethebestelders ;) I love them.

Friday: We had a lesson with Schwester G---so good. She's really, really sweet. And she was at church!!!! Which is AWESOME. (Their whole family is less active.) That night, we did family history with E. SO MUCH FUN. It was so good. We connected a lot of people of familysearch.org, we entered information, we looked at pictures and heard stories and it was a BLAST. And the Spirit was SO STRONG. So good. 

Saturday was good. AH. Beautiful things: we were walking through a Friedhof to try and find another street. Fastest way: through the cemetery. I am definitely not surprised that I wanted to go study at Great-grandpa Gould's grave last year---the Spirit is so strong. It is so peaceful and protected from the world. Peace and the Spirit. And that's how it was.  

That night, we went to the Bs (members) with all of the missionaries.  They invited us over for a night of games and a big fire. This is why we were in normal clothes---we were playing some sports. (I cannot tell you how much I love wearing jeans. I felt so myself.) It was a lot of fun. There were some JAEs there as well.

AH! And the storm. We came home, and right about when we got home, the rain started coming. And there was lightning and thunder and lots and lots and lots of rain. So once we were done planning, I just sat on our windowsill and watched the rain and counted the space between lightning and thunder. It was magical. I need a place like that in my future home. Ah. So, so, so good.

Sunday was...good. GMK is often a bit rough 'cause we are doing a lot of things, we are meeting with the members, but we haven't found any new people to teach in a looong time, and we're trying to help a lot of people. That was really when I felt it the most, that I'm not doing enough, which isn't a fun feeling. But it was also a bit hard because I'm probably going to take over the area in a week and a half (transfer calls are on Saturday) :(, and I don't feel like I'm ready. I don't know it well enough yet. But.......we're not there yet, so that's good. :)

But there were a LOT of good things that happened: X came to church! The Gs came to church. I went to Jungen Damen, and that was wonderful---talking about the Restoration. V, L, and her husband came to church. Set up a TON of appointments. There were a lot of good things. Dinner at the Gs' home with D, which was really, really good.

I also really, really love reading my German scriptures. They're so great. I haven't used them enough I think. But I LOVE them.

Things are good. This week is CRAZY. Crazy, crazy, crazy, I tell you. And transfer calls on Saturday.....sigh. I love life and Germany and the rain and our elders. (They really take so much care of us. We're best friends, our district.) I love missionary work and doing good. And healthy food. Life is good. :)

Love,

Sister Beth Winters