Ich Gehe Zu Deutschland!! Translation....I am going to Germany!
Like in 7 days haha. So crazy! This whole MTC time warp thing is trippy!
I can't really remember life before this place, yet the past 5 weeks
have FLOWN by. I feel like my entire mission is going to be similar.
This week has been a stellar week. I got my travel plans! I leave April
24th from salt lake at 11:20am and fly directly to Amsterdam.....that
is going to be a killer flight but I am on Delta so that makes it
better. I get to Amsterdam the next day at 8am and then its off to
Berlin.....25 hours later :). The word on the street is I get there,
they give you food, introduce you to your trainer, you leave your bags,
and go right out and start street contacting. Yikes! I am so insanely
nervous/excited! My P-day this week has been switched to Saturday so I
can pack up everything. Cant wait to accommodate for the 20lbs of books
they gave us here in the MTC...sike!
Mon: Sadly Laci Tagge left. She has been such a huge help to me
throughout my time in the MTC. She is going to be the best missionary to
California! We taught Andraus again. He wanted to learn how to pray so
we taught him and explained how pray can bless his life. It was a really
good lesson. When we returned back to our room for the night we found a
paper from our next door neighbors who were are super close to. They
made a Easter egg hunt around our building for us, it was a blast! they
are all going to Colorado Springs where Christina Gilson is serving
right now.
Tues: Taught Herr berg for the first time. He is a lonely old man.
He is going to be a tough investigator, but I think he fits the typical
German stereotype of just straight grumpy.....woot woot I cant wait for a
whole bunch of Herr Berg's here shortly haha.
Wed: Today was a frustrating day in the MTC. The concepts there are
trying to teach us are just not sticking in our minds like the teachers
would like. But on a happier note, I beat all the boys in a basketball
competition haha. My ballin skills are back haha jk. Gym keeps me sane
on hard days :).
Thur: We taught Herr Berg again today. This time we had one of the
teachers, Brudder Corey, come in to the lesson with us to act like a
member. This helped a ton because he could help translate when we needed
him to. We also taught Andraus, it went really well. He has been a
pretty easy investigator.
Fri: We had a really amazing lesson by one of the teachers about
teaching people and not lessons. We need to focus on each individual
investigator and our lessons should be centered around their needs.
Friday means......TRC! yeyeah! Our first lesson was these 2 old men who
were hilarious. They just wanted to tell stories the whole time, which
based on our language skills or lack there of, we were totally good with
it haha. Our next lesson was a room of 3 RM's. For some reason RM's are
more intimidating in the TRC because you know they have been in your
exact shoes and they probably are going to critique you more. But.....it
went really well. They all commented on how they were impressed with
our German skills with only having 5 weeks in here. That made me feel so
much better about myself because the German has been killing me off. We
ended the night with a really cool activity. Our teacher assigned
someone else in our district and you had to prepare a lesson for them;
one that you feel like could help them in life right now. Since we are
all so close, we all took this really serious. I got paired up with
Elder Luening. It was so interesting to see what he felt I needed and
how strong the spirit was in the room, because we all were shocked at
how
spot on our lessons for each other were. It was also a fun way to split
up class.
Sat: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Saturday was just a stellar day! My
German is getting better, sometimes I forget to give myself credit. I
understood everything in class and I am getting more and more pumped to
get to Germany!!
Sun: I gave 2 talks today and sang in church! Can you say overload
haha, but it was a fantastic Sunday!! I know what you are
thinking.....she sang?? again?? yes, this place is killing me with how
much I have to sing haha. This time all the girls in our branch sang a
German hymn for sacrament meeting. It sounded really good.....well I
think haha. This week for sacrament meeting we had a visitor, President
McIff who is in the MTC Presidency. He got up and gave my headache a
break and spoke in English to us. He said a really cool comment about
how he was thinking of a church song and the first line is, " I'll go
where you want me to go..." and he said that most people don't have a
problem with this one. However they do with the second line, "I'll be
what you want me to be." At first I thought, he almost has it backwards
but the more i thought he was right. The hardest part of my mission has
been that I have had to be stuck in happy valley the last 5 weeks.....it
has been me trying to embody what being a missionary really means. It
has been making all the little changes and truly becoming a messenger of
Christ. I feel like this is how it is our day to day lives as well.
When
we get promptings we often times struggle with them when they require
us to change. Change is uncomfortable, but we must push through it and
follow what we know we need to. I am about to go through change all over
again. Being a missionary in the MTC is very different than being a
missionary in Germany. Just when I start to get really comfortable in
this place, it is time for me to go on and transport to Germany! But, I
know by following this, and becoming what the lord wants me to become, I
will be blessed. After sacrament meeting, it was time for the Fireside.
M.Russell Ballard came. He was so funny! He made this one comment in
reference to the twelve apostles, "We may be a bunch of old guys.....but
we are pretty cool!" The whole place was laughing. Not only did he give
a great talk, but we had a very special musical number by none other
than David Archuletta. Now, those who know me know I am not a huge fan
and the whole whoop about him here as been driving me nuts haha.
But......he did amazing! Seriously I had chills like 12 different time.
Homeboy can sing. It was his last week here so he even got emotional at
the
end. I think it is awesome he was willing to give up his music career to
go on a mission. After the fireside, we got to watch the Testament. It
is a super cheesy movie, but awesome too!
This week has been the best one I have had here! It was
is crazy that things are about to get real so soon here, but I cant
wait! I hope you all had amazing weeks! I will be able to receive
dearelders all the way up until noon on Monday, letters need to be sent
by this Friday.....after that send them to Germany :). Send it to:
Sister Jessica Linford
Germany Berlin Mission
Zerbster Strasse 42
12209 Berlin
Germany
To my family, I cant wait to chat with you while I am at the airport a week from tomorrow. Keep the faith everyone!!
Love you all, Jess
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