Heidelberg

So Tuesday is now my most favorite day of the week. That's when we get e-mails from Rachel! She is in Heidelberg and here is some info from her first e-mail home:

well my companion's name is sister ranzenberger and shes from kansas city, kansas. shes been out on her mission for 9 months. yeah so we were whitewashed... which means that we're both totally new to heidelburg. she was serving in another city and then we were put together and sent here. yeah so its been fun trying to find our way around here. and we dont know anyone or any of the people the sisters that were here before were teaching! ahh!!

we have 4 elders serving near us. 2 are in the english ward and the other 2 are with us in the german ward. we had to bear our testimonies this past sunday. it actually went well. i think people understood me. i cant understand a single word anyone says!!! so i just smile and nod. hahaha im sure it looks funny.

we have 2 investigators. one was working with the sisters before we got here. her name is anna and shes from england, so we teach her in english, although she understands german. the sisters before have been teaching her a long time. her husband isnt interested at all but hes totally ok with her coming to church and learning from us and stuff. so i guess we'll see where things go with anna. shes super sweet though and i think she really wants to know.

this other person we met yesterday walking across the bridge (thats over the river thats right by our apartment...arent you just totally jealous!!!) anyway so we stopped him and he said that we could speak english with him. hes from maryland and hes going to school here studying german politics. anyway it turns out that he has some lds friends that he met while he was studying in austria. yeah anyway we were just talking to him and telling him about the out-reach center that we have here. its a place the young adults can come and hang out. so he said that he totally wanted to invite his friends and come to fussball on saturday. and then he started asking about the institute class and wanted to know what we taught there and we told him that this year they were studying the Book Of Mormon and he was like..well is it like a beginners class, would it be wierd for me to come because i dont know anything. so we told him that we could teach him about the Book Of Mormon, and about the history of our church and stuff because thats what we do.

so long story short he came to FHE last night (there was free food) and he met some of the young adults and played a game with all of us and stuff and then we started teaching him and whatever. hes SO interested and has so many questions. he just like takes it all in its great! so we gave him the a copy of the Book Of Mormon and asked him to read the introduction and testimony of the witnesses and of joseph smith and stuff. we're meeting with him again tonight to teach him more! but anyway isnt that WAY cool!!!

ok so yesterday we went to visit this old lady that the sisters found and have been trying to teach. shes this old lady in a wheelchair from russia. i dont think we're going to get anywhere with her. its mostly a service thing because shes lonely. but yeah she YELLS at us. its really funny actually. shes nice but she gets mad and yells at us in german and usually she doesnt make sense. but its fun. apparently we need to stay away from cars because they are polluting the atmosphere and that makes her angry and she yells. its funny to try and figure out what things we can talk about so that she doesnt yell. she got mad at us because we didnt take the elevator up to her floor. and then when i asked if we could read a scripture about jesus and how i liked it because it shows what he has done for me..she started yelling and saying that he didnt do it just for me but he did it for everyone. its actually quite enjoyable. hahaha. but when we finally read some verses from the Book Of Mormon she got really quiet.. and also when she let me play her keyboard she got really quiet for that too. so we're thinking that next week i might bring my primary book and play primary songs for her.