The Life of a Missionary

please pray for bruder "M"!!!!!!!!!! he told us that he's worried that he's going to drink coffee this upcoming weekend. he makes it sound like his friends are going to shove it down his throat. i WANT to say... bruder "M", you're like 40 years old. no one is shoving the coffee down your throat. and i'm pretty sure your friends will still like you even if you don't drink coffee. patience.... i'm still learning patience. he's getting really excited for his baptism. the ward is awesome with him. someone invited him to a FHE group that they have and he asked us about it and we said that we didn't know anything about it and we weren't going. he looked pretty happy that we had no idea about it and that the ward asked him without us asking them. it's awesome.

sister davis is off crutches. we're still a little slow walking but getting a little faster everyday. we get transfer calls a week from this saturday. i have a feeling that i'm staying. i kind of want to go though. not that i don't love mainz because i do and i love the ward and stuff. i just don't know how much longer my patience can go... but it'll go as long as Heavenly Father needs it to. but Heavenly Father has been kind to both of us and has been answering my prayers and this week was a little better. it was nice having sister barnhart with us for a day.

anyway the weather here is cold! it's august for heaven sakes! where's the sun!?! i've started pulling my sweaters out and wearing them with scarfs. i don't want to wear nylons again.

we watched the movie hercules last week with our elders... that is an awkward movie to watch with elders! i had forgotten how flirty the girl character was! everything she said was like in this trying to be sexy voice and sister davis and i almost died! hahaha it was so funny and also really awkward! i still love the movie though...just not with elders. i've realized how many awkward situations i go through every day. pretty much everything i do is socially awkward. sister ranzenberger would always say that she now thrives on awkward situations. it's so true! but hey it's the life of a missionary.

Photos From the Park

I love these photos of Rachel.

But then... I am her mom...

I will admit that after I read her letter

and saw these pictures this morning...

I've really missed her all day.

The Palace

Rachel says this palace looked like something

from "Pride and Prejudice".

She loved it.

However, she didn't tell us much about it.

Just that she would like to move into it

when they're done remodeling. ♥

Learning Patience & Charity

well sister davis re-sprained her ankle playing soccer on saturday. that makes things a little more difficult. so i'm stressed again because she doesn't know anything about that sort of stuff and not like i'm an expert. but she's like oh it feels better today i'll put pressure on it and i'm like no... did you not listen to president... he said no pressure for a long time. i just need to be more patient. i think Heavenly Father wants me to learn patience and charity... i wonder how long that's going to take!!!

we still have a baptismal date with bruder "M" so that's good. but satan is definately working on us! all of our other numbers are going down! we're losing all our other investigators... no one wants to meet with us... we have NO member appointments this week and we called EVERYONE including all the inactives... and we can't find any new investigators! we're doing everything we can but it's just kind of discouraging. plus sister davis' hurt ankle, we can't get around super fast. german crutches are wierd and don't work as well as american crutches. we found some through the relief society in the american ward but sister davis says that she doesn't want them - it would be easier if we had them. she'd be able to get around easier and faster.

today we get to watch Hurcules! (disney one) i'm so excited i LOVE that movie! sister ninow gave us permission.

oh the elders found microwave popcorn! it's at the store we get food at but not at the one here in mainz! bummer! but the elders said that they'd get some for me today and i'll pay them back! i'm so happy!

With Sister Davis in Mainz

Rachel called these pictures of "the dome" in Mainz and "the food market". And here she is with her new companion, Sister Davis. ♥

Miracles and Adventures

GUESS WHAT!!!!!! BRUDER M IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we set a new baptismal date last friday! he's getting baptized on September 7th - the absolute LAST day of this cycle! (did i tell you how i had the impression that sister davis and i should fast for a baptism THIS cycle? well we did...and now we have one!) what a miracle and blessing from Heavenly Father!

it's been amazing how quickly the time is going by and to see how much i'm growing! before sister stevenson left i was SO worried because i still had a hard time understanding german and i was thinking... how the heck am i going to be able to talk to everyone? but Heavenly Father has blessed me SO much these past 2 weeks! i can understand everyone that i need to! i can understand members and investigators when i talk to them... but when i'm listening to a talk or something i have a hard time understanding. it's wierd but a miracle!

i'm less stressed now - but we've been getting a lot of opposition! every day is a battle, whether i'm personally struggling with something or we have appointments that fall out or whatever. i never know what to expect when i wake up in the morning! every day is an adventure!

anyway so talk about adventures! we got on the bus to head home from church (it takes 2 buses and a train to get home) so it was the first of the 2 buses. and the bus pulls up and the driver yells at us in english to get on the bus. yeah guess what... he's drunk! he had a can of beer in his hand and drinking it while he was driving. but we had NO other way of getting to the other bus! we got off as soon as we could though. what an adventure!

oh last pday we went to the Guttenburg Museum and took a tour. most boring HOUR tour of my life! all in german. couldn't understand anything. too many people and he only took us to 3 little exhibit things! but we got to walk around the whole museum. still - boring. a t least i can say though that i've been to the guttenburg museum in mainz germany where he lived and printed things. i can't remember if he printed the bible here or not. anyway he is still a really important person! just a really boring museum.

today we're going to wiesbaden to the schloß (palace) there! actually theres 2. one at each end of a park! i'm WAY excited! i love castles! well these are a schloß...so i love palaces!!!!! (i'm the princess what i can say?) it's a little overcast and rainy. i feel right at home! ♥

Feeling a Little Stressed...

Well i think i'm going to explode! i don't know if i've ever been more stressed before in my life! it was like the moment that i found out that sister stevenson was leaving and i was getting a new companion i've felt such a HUGE responsibility! i almost feel like i'm training a new missionary because sister davis has never been here before and she was where the temple was which is a SUPER small area and Mainz is a LOT bigger area compared to where she was. but sister davis has been out 3 cycles longer than i have - so she knows how to do the work and everything, this area and the people are all new for her.

i've hardly taken a break since last wednesday. there's so much to do and SO much to remember! i don't know how i'm still standing but i almost made it a whole week without losing it. i cried for an hour last night before falling asleep. i feel so overwhelmed. we've had 3 fallen out appointments since saturday and since sister davis doesn't really know everyone yet i feel like i've got all the responsibility. she's great though. she's totally willing to call people and at church she talked to the members and investigators that she already knew. i'm just trying not to overwhelm her with too much right away.

so i'm losing sleep, almost crying over everything and i'm starting to not be very effective. which of course stresses me out more and then the cycle continues. i'm trying really hard to make myself relax but every meal time we get i keep thinking about all the things that need to get done so then i eat quickly and then i'm working working working. and then at the end of the day i'm working working working until it's time to get to bed. AHHHH!!!

Meg: sweetie thanks for the email and i'm glad to know that your surgery went well! i've been thinking about you and hoping that everything went well! nothing that you said offended me at all!!!!! so no worries whatsoever! i love you lots and thanks SO much for emailing me!!!!!!!!!!