It's great to hear how excited she is! You can read more about Claire's adventures this week by visiting her companion's blog:
Dearest Family,
I loved my first week in
Leipzig! More than a plethora and a myriad and a cornucopia full of
love! That is true love right there. Even though it snowed. Every single
day. Apparently more than it has all winter, but I'm too happy to be here to
care how cold or wet it is. I think missionaries sometimes lie in their emails
because they say they're happy and they are, but they're also way too stressed
to really feel that joy because there's so much to do. But I really am happy.
And not too stressed yet :)
People at glance:
The people here are one
of the reasons I love it. Our ward is great (lots of cute old ladies and lots
of families too, which surprised me). We have people who always want to go
teach with us or even talk to people on the street with us and they love the
sister missionaries. We're kind of adorable like that. Then there's our
investigators (people we teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ) and our new
converts. They come from China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Vietnam, but
they somehow ended up here and learned German. I can't understand the Vietnam
lady's German but...I smile and that's usually acceptable. We teach one Chinese
guy in broken English (both his and our English are broken). Our investigator
from Turkey is really philosophical and has met with LDS missionaries for the
past 8 months or so. This week we talked about God's plan for us and he had
some good questions. Like why it's important to know why we're here or what
will happen after life. And what God eats.
We weren't sure.
Good news is I understand
everything we teach in a lesson and all of our investigators' questions.
Bad news is I don't
understand people on the street as well. We did some street contacting with the
four elders in Leipzig this week (winter wonderland style) and it was an
adventure. I usually got too excited when I tried to start a conversation and
would blurt out "Wir sind alle die Kinder Gottes!" (We're all children
of God). Except then when people actually stopped, I didn't know what else to
say and would look helplessly to one of the elders or my companion and they
would save the day. I liked it nevertheless.
Also we ate lunch at a
Schewster Pfeffer's (Sister Pepper—what a
great name!) house this week and I
only caught 40% of her German. To speak German, you need to use your mouth
muscles a lot more than with English. However, Saxisch (spelling?) requires no
lip movement. So it's still German....but you don't move your mouth. Rough
times.
Trainer of the
Year:
Sister Diederich has been
a great trainer. We get along well and she has no fear of anything and she has
a great love for everyone that we meet. As she puts it, "If you're not
having fun as a missionary, you're doing something wrong." Simply put, her
German grammar is atrocious. But she has so much courage and just talks
regardless and people understand her and know she loves them, which is the
important part. That's been a good example for me because I'm terrified my German
won't be perfect or I'll run out of words. But I'm working on it. Her words of
wisdom for the week are that "we will see miracles if we go outside our
comfort zones." Amen sister. Keep scrolling for details.
Near Death Experiences:
Sister Diederich and I
were walking with one of our joint teaches (someone who teaches with us) over a
bridge this week when I saw beavers under the bridge. I don't know that word in
German, so I asked Mike (friend-man) and he said "Rat." I said
"Okay." Then we realized they were giant river rats. The size of
beavers. SAY WHAT--GIANT RATS? Sister Diederich wanted a photo so we went
closer and they proceeded to come out of the water and chase us. Oh my
goodness, scariest rats EVER.
Wunder der Woche:
Look up the translation
for Wunder. You all get to learn the German words for miracle and week! Because
miracles happen all over the place! New missionaries here are called
"goldens" and there is such a thing as "golden power,"
demonstrated by.... A.) a lady came up TO us on the tram to ask about our
church because I was proudly holding my precious Buch Mormon. That never
happens. We taught her about prayer, prophets, the Bible and the Book of
Mormon, and baptism. She left with a free blue book. What a gem. B.) Someone
just decided to walk into sacrament meeting (church) with her child yesterday.
She heard singing and saw the sign that said all were welcome so she came
inside. We have an appointment to meet with her this week :)
Things German
Missionaries say...
There are 6 missionaries
in Leipzig right now, four elders and then me and Sister Diederich. I like them
all mucho. And they say funny things like...
"We can totally
schaff that" or "Man, we just didn't schaff that." (schaffen=to
make, do, create)
"Let's go ansprach
this lady right here." (anspraching=to go contact someone)
"All of our
neubekehrts came to church today!" (neubekehrts=recent converts)
"How's the golden
doing?" (That would be me.)
"SHE MAKES BANANA
BREAD!" (the elders on finding out my ability to cook. Apparently they've
called Sister Diederich for help making scrambled eggs...)
So....it was a good week
and we have lots of teaching appointments this week so that's awesome. I love
talking to people about what is important to me and what is important to the
world. Even if they stare blankly back and I wonder if I forgot to speak in
German. But it works out. And I love it. In case you didn't catch that in the
first paragraph. And now the awkward trail off at the end of an email....
Keep living the dream!
--
Sister Claire Michelle Woodward
A picture of the "river rats":
No comments:
Post a Comment