Golden Arches

Hallo Hallo! Alles gute! The weeks really are starting to fly by, I can’tbelieve it is time to write you all again! I feel like my emails are gettingmore and more boring, so I apologize!
Monday- Last week was a crazy P-day. Another district came into Dresden to doemails on their way to Bostei. Well, the internet place that we go to is notthat big, so sadly there weren’t enough computers. We spent the next 2 hourssearching this massive city for another internet place. After an epic fail, wefinally had spent long enough that they were finished and we were able to nab acomputer! However, we with Sister Curtis and Sister Niebergall, and the four ofus together can make any situation fun!
After emails, it was time for all 6 of us missionaries assigned to Dresden togo to our Bishops house. He has us over once every transfer to get to know usbetter. It was super fun being around his family! I remember last transferwriting about it as well. Over here we dont spend hardly anytime aroundfamilies. You forget how much fun and love you feel just by being around one.Although I loved it, it happened to spark a lot of frustration in me. As thefamily was asking me lots of questions about myself trying to get to know mebetter, I realized I could not saying anything more than when I had been there7 weeks ago. Whooo, this was the start of a VERY frustrating week of German.
Tuesday- Unfortunately nothing exciting happened on Tuesday, so we will justskip it!
Wednesday- My district consists of 6 missionaries in Dresden, plus the seniorcouple in Dresden, and then 2 sisters in Meissen. Well Meissen was just made asisters area, so neither of the two sisters know the area very well. Plus, themissionaries in the city of Meissen have been really struggling the last year sothey were left with no investigators to take over. Because of this, we reallywanted to help them out, so ee did a special District Finding Activity. We alltook a little trip to the city of Meissen to hit the streets! Meissen isamazing! It even has a castle! I will be sure to send some pics. It was reallyfun to go work in another city and help the other sisters out!
If that wasnt already a good enough day, the senior couple wanted to take usout to lunch. Oh the joy the golden arches brings to people worldwide! I didn’teven like McDonalds before my mission....but that hamburger was the best dangthing I have had in the last few months haha.
That evening we taught the new German class! We also taught the English classthat night as well. I love teaching all the classes!
Thursday- So we have had a little bit of heating issue in our apartment. Theheater in our room broke a few weeks ago and has been on full blast all thetime. With the summer heat being killer, this was not making for the bestnights of sleep. We finally got a guy to come look at it. He told us he wouldcome in the afternoon. So we waited and waited......and waited some more.FINALLY, at 5pm he comes in. Yep a whole day wasted because of the darn heatingman, tisk tisk! But Institute that night made up for it :). I taught Mosiah11-16. That Abinadi dude was pretty hardcore! Love it! And love teachinginstitute! We have had a lot of good luck too with keeping the class numberpretty high; we are averaging 10 every week to our Book of Mormon class!
Friday- Zone conference!!! Now, normally zone conference is in the 5th week ofever transfer but this transfer we are having 2. Why you ask? Well sadly it istime for our incredible Mission President and his wife to be released :(. ThePimentels have done such an amazing job here, they will be greatly missed! Itwas also great to come together and see everyone again! I had a really fun timecatching up with Sister Neukomm, my last companion. She is doing much betterand hopefully will stick it out here on the mission. I was also asked to teacha workshop. Well me and my companion were, but my companion got way nervous andasked me if I could do it. I was a little nervous while I was preparing becauseI have never even seen a workshop haha, but it went really well! I spoke for 30minutes on how to listen to the spirit. I feel like I learned so much inpreparing for it. Even though this week was so crazy and stressful with havingto teach Sunday school, English class, German class, and then the workshop....itwas a very spiritual week because of all the preparation that was required.
Saturday- Honestly, Saturday was a tad rough. We have been really low oninvestigators lately and all day Saturday we set aside for finding. After 8hours straight of being on the streets, no one was found. Days like this happenon the mission. They make you grateful for the days where you are able to findpeople. They are days that make you humble and end the day on your knees longerthan normal. But there is a quote that I love, "You are never taller thanwhen you are on your knees." Aint that the truth!
Sunday- Danita came to church again! I almost cried when I saw her walk inagain. Not only that but another less active that we have really been workingwith, Massumo, came too! Not only that he brought his sister who isn’t amember....score!
I had the joy of having sauerkraut at my eating appointment again yesterday. Sohappy about that.....SIKE. Really if anyone is looking for a businessventure.....the sourkraut business in Germany has to booming and it doesn’tlook like its going to slow down anytime soon! But, the eating appointment waswith all 6 of us missionaries in Dresden which was really fun! My districtreally is stellar!
Update with some investigators:
Cuong: Even though his baptism date had to be pushed back, he know is going tobe baptized in Vietnam in his mother toungue! I am so happy for him! This isthe best situation for him. He is back there visiting his family for the next 7weeks. We got in contact with the missionaries over there and he is so excitedto be taught in Vietnamese.
Melanie: She is doing really well too! She just needs some time to tell herfamily and that is okay! She is still so strong and is learning soooo muchevery week. We teach her like a member because she knows so much and she hasonly been an investigator for 7 weeks!
Igor: He is still traveling, but he should be coming back soon and we arereally excited to teach him again. I think he will be on date in the nextmonth!
Ifaneayi: We had two appointments with him this week and he is doing well. Idont know how interested he really is though. He loves talking religion withus, but I dont think he is seperating our religion with the one he is apart of.We will have to see!
Farman: We had such an amazing lesson with him this week. He is normally verydifficult to teach because he is literally a genius and LOVES to talk. Wenormally find ourselves struggling to take control of the lessons. However,something changed this week. We watched the Restoration video and talked aboutJoseph Smith. He was silent and just took it all in. It was a fantastic lessonto be apart of!
This week I have found myself getting even more frustrated with my languageability or lack there of. I really dont see any progress and I have no ideawhat to do to fix that. Every day I am putting extra time into studying thelanguage but nothing is happening. I have no felt so dumb in my life. Pray forme, I need the extra help!
Overall, life here is still going realllllly well though! This whole missionthing is amazing. At zone conference Sister Pimentel told us of a story. Shesaid she was talking to a member and they were asking her how she liked hermission. She responded, "I wouldn't trade it for the world!" The memberreplied with a smile, "You did." It really got me thinking. I reallyhave just about traded my entire world for this mission, but I wouldn’t tradeback for anything. Serving a mission came a lot sooner than I ever thought itwould, but it has always been one of my biggest dreams in life. But, serving inGermany has become one of my biggest joys. I am super grateful to be here.Every dang day I count my blessings out here! I am also sooo grateful for allof you back at home and for your support! Love you all and wish you the bestthe coming week! Bis montag!
-Sister Linford