Deutschland
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
This week we rolled once again through the looming Alps, across the border and into Deutschland for Missionary Leadership Council. I discovered Munich to be a city of gleaming and glistening grays, much more modern than he colorful and Victorian Vienna. Yet around every bend was another ancient church and among its gems were the gothic Rathaus and the Parthenon-like monument, where they were already beginning to set up for Oktober Fest.
Missionary Leadership Council was a really cool experience because we not only got to meet lots of missionaries but also got so many pep talks that made us all pumped to be missionaries.
However, my favorite part of that whole trip there was when we were riding up. There were no seats anywhere on the train, and we were walking from car to car to car. Finally we found two 4-seater tables across the aisle, both with two people. This would have to do. As we were sitting down one of the guys sitting there just had the biggest grin. We were like oh no. But luckily he wasn't there to Bible bash us, he was just an American who has a Mormon best friend and thinks everyone should have a Mormon best friend. We ended up having a
two-and-half hour conversation about everything from his cool traveling career to learning languages to the cultural/governmental differences between Europe and America to why we are willing to make this sacrifice as missionaries. It was so neat!
IT'S TRANSFERS! Bet you're dying to know what's happening. At least I was. Well....
......Drumroll.....
I'm staying here with Sister Selph, and Sister Fast is going to Switzerland! We were shocked when president told us. Literally everyone thought I was leaving, but honestly I am so excited for another six weeks in the beautiful city of Wien. However, I am so sad that we blondies will be split up; we got along so perfectly and we will really miss the laughs brought on by Sister Fast. That girl has the biggest heart and the best stories.
Some other things that went down this week:
* We went running in our ghetto neighborhood and wandered into some random little park with a playset and then saw a sign that said that famous composers such as Mozart and chubert used to be buried there. #we're_not_in_kansas_anymore
* We went to an African festival for Pday me this guy with hip length dreads made me a ring so I had to buy it haha. Seriously though I want to go to Africa now. The culture is so colorful!
* A car drove past with the windows rolled down BLARING GERMAN FOLK MUSIC like literally accordion and everything. This guy was just hunched over in his tiny car NBD so yeah it was one of the funniest events of my life.
* Saturday was a disaster to the point of comedy. Sister Fast went into semi-shock after transfer calls so when she went to make her weekly bread she forgot to put in oil and salt. I also broke a ceramic bowl. Then we went to have our three appointments. 1) Our first guy
called last minute to cancel on our lesson. 2) We waited and waited for our 2nd lesson and he never showed. 3) Before we could go have an eating appointment with an elderly member, Sister Selph got sick to her stomach so obviously we had to cancel this one too. Then as we were heading home we forgot a bunch of stuff at the institute center and had to turn around and get it. So later during our dinner hour Sister Fast and I had a competition to see what we could do with the two ruined loaves of bland bread.... Sister Fast made fried powdered sugar donut holes and I started making a type of baked French toast. But you want to know what I forgot about in the oven? You guessed right.
* For district meeting we watched Elder Johnson juggle banana peels and we also sang harmonized hymn with the guitar. It only made me slightly campfire trunky....
* We spent the train ride talking to an elder and I was freaking out because I am 5.5 months out on my mission and could only understand like 30% of what he was saying. Then my comps told me he was speaking a North German dialect. Dang.
* I used to be terrified of praying in front of groups in English, but bishop has asked me to give the prayer in my German-speaking sacrament meeting TWICE in the past few weeks.
* On Friday I got up before 6 and played Fußball on a team of Germans.
* We had Bulgarian food twice in one week.
* Six months ago as a college student I could stay up till 4 AM easily, but then on Friday night we got home at 11 because our connecting train from Salzburg was delayed, and we were DYING of exhaustion haha.
* I tried a whopper candy again. I used to love those things, but the other missionaries and I were so sad because after living in Europe, whoppers taste so weird! Seriously though Europeans know what's up with their chocolate.
* As a note to students who think they can cheat their way through language class by typing their homework into Google Translate...don't. I wrote a few paragraphs in German and then pasted it into Google Translate for fun to see what it said. It spit out the most horrible
incorrect translation ever.
* Sister Selph's Young Women sent a package including three sister missionary sugar cookies for us three companions! So cute!
* My comps said that my personality like a mixture between Hercule's Meg and Tangled's Rapunzel and that made my day.
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." -Ecclesiastes 9:10
Have a good week!
XXX
Sister Lundgreen
P.S. I am so sad, I accidentally brought the wrong camera cord so I will only have iPad pictures this week :(
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