Power Knocking

guess what.... on the 23rd (so last week) i reached my HUMP DAY... do you know what that means?? that means that i am now more than HALF WAY done with my mission!! does time FLY by or what!

Picture: me and sister davis eating pink laffy taffy - the american ward had a halloween party and the elders got some candy

so yesterday we went power knocking as a district. there's only 8 missionaries in my district and we had never been power knocking together. power knocking is when we find a tall apartment building and we get in and go to the top floor and then we each go to a door and knock and then ask every one if we can sing to them. and when they say yes then we sing a hymn and then whoever knocked that door goes with their comp and talks to that person and tries to get their contact. i love doing this and it's been months since i've done it. we did it in heidelberg every week and yesterday was the first time since i've been in mainz. anyway it was a lot of fun and we did 2 apartment buildings - each had like 20 floors. haha but we got 3 comebacks! one lady gave us 3 bottles of wine - which we told her we didn't drink it and she insisted and said that we could even give it to someone as a gift. and then this sweet old lady like demanded that we take her money (the elders handled both of these doors) and so we ended up with 3 bottles of wine and 10 euro. so we don't know what to do with the wine... probably dump it and we used the 10 euro to buy icecream. so all in all i thought it was a very successful power knocking session. haha

a few saturdays ago sister davis and i were contacting along the Rhein river and we found a flou market! (it's like a garage sale) tons of people just bring their old stuff and set up tables and then sell it. apparently they do it every 3rd saturday of the month along the Rhein. we're totally going next month! we got there at the end apparently because people were packing up. it's actually really hard to find really german things in stores here - but at the flou market there were TONS and TONS! plus the prices aren't bad either.

i'm so excited - next week is zone conference and sister ranzenberger will be there!!!! i miss her so much and i'm SO excited to get to see her!!

Frankfurt Temple

Here's a funny comment from Rachel's e-mail today:

question: are people in america mixing brown and black clothing?

it's HUGE here in germany!

everyone is wearing brown with black.

i think it's because they saw

all the sister missionaries doing it

and thought it was fashionable. haha

Staying in Mainz

guess what... i'm staying in mainz! i was actually not too happy about it to be honest. but i heard a talk on sunday and this woman shared a really cool story... and because it was in english i can repeat it to you. (we were in the american ward)

It went something like this...
Pretend that one of your greatest desires is to go to Italy. You've always wanted to go there and you finally have the chance to go there on vacation. so you buy all these tour guides and maps. you learn a little bit of italian and decide all the places you want to visit and all the things you want to see. you pack your bags and get on the plane. when your plane lands the flight attendant announces that you've arrived in Holland! what?! holland! but you're going to Italy. that's what you've been waiting for your whole life! well now of course you're upset and angry. you planned and prepared to go to Italy but ended up in holland. but you're here and on vacation so you decide to stay. you have to buy new tour guides and learn some words in dutch. after spending some days in holland you notice that holland is very pretty. there are windmills and tulips. holland isn't Italy, but it's beautiful and different. you have different experiences and meet people that you wouldn't have met if you had gone to Italy.

how often in our lives do we plan on going to italy but end up in holland instead? and if we are too caught up in the thought of not being in italy, then we would never find out and enjoy all that holland has to offer. we will miss out on experiences and opportunities that we would have never had. so all in all, when we plan on going to italy and end up in holland, just enjoy the journey and be grateful to be in holland instead of italy.

ok so i put my only little spin on that... mainly because i forgot what the lady really said. but i really enjoyed it and really needed to here it... especially because it was right after transfer calls and i wasn't happy. so i decided to be happy that i'm in mainz and not somewhere else... besides, i have 2 very good reasons to stay in mainz:

Bao Bao: she is my ball of sunshine! she's this little chinese woman that we're teaching. i love her to death! she's been meeting with sisters for like 3 years and things are finally clicking! haha she just graduated from the mainz university and she just got a job in darmstadt. she'll be moving there sometime soon, but sister ranzenberger is getting transferred there so i'm ok with bao bao leaving because i trust ranzenberger! bao bao is going to get baptized. i know it and she knows it. she just needs to have a few more things click and she's good!

Dottie: oh my gosh i love Dottie! i will fall apart and die if she doesn't get baptized!! not just because she's someone we're teaching but because we've become such good friends and i will just lose it if we have to stop meeting with her!!! we just finished teaching her all the lessons. she's struggling to let herself believe everything. we fasted on sunday for her.

i'm not falling apart anymore!!!!! i've been trying to go to bed early when i can. i think that's helped!

thanks for the emails!: Marci, Meg, Aubs, Jameson and Pierre

Pierre: danke für Ihre Email! elder peiper wird versetzt on mittwoch. er geht nach Wupertal (whatever it's up north) so Sie konnen ihm ein Hug gaben. ich habe bemerkt dass ich kein Bild von Ihnen haben. Konnen Sie mir ein Bild emailen bitte? danke! so ich habe versucht auf deutsch zu schriben... Sie konnen lachen veil mein Deutsch so schlimm ist und wenn Sie es nichts verstanden haben... too bad! haha

Aubs: i'm so excited for your package! i can't wait! i'm almost done with your tape i promise! where do i need to send it? hope all is well! love you lots!!!!

Jameson: hey sounds like you're working a ton! but that's good! i haven't gotten your letter yet but it'll probably be in the mail today. but if not no worries i'm not going anywhere! haha have you watched the new brian regan yet????

Electoral Palace

This is the Electoral Palace in Mainz.

It was originally built in 1137 and is one of the important Renaissance buildings in Germany.

Today it is a museum and a place for events to be held.

Rachel would like it to be her next home.

I guess every princess needs a palace... ♥

I'm Falling Apart!

i'm falling apart! apparently i'm too stressed. that's what doctor gardener told me! he said that he thinks i may have irritable bowel syndrom and then something about spazzing muscles in my back. i called him twice in like the past week or so because it hurt to eat and then one day my back hurt SO much so he told me stay in bed for a couple hours so i got a nice nap. that seemed to help. anyway he gave me some relaxing things to do and since then i've been trying to relax more... i just think the 2 hour nap that one day helped a lot. but now i'm sick. haha just a head cold. anyway it's really not that serious but i laugh about it and say that i'm just falling apart! haha

transfer calls are this saturday! i have no idea what will happen. i want to go but then i want to stay as well. i love the people we're teaching.

today we went to the temple! but i had to wake up an hour earlier so we could go to an earlier session. it was wonderful except they don't have kleenex in the celestial room. that's a bummer when you're sick and your nose is running. but other than that it was wonderful. the session ended up being in english cause there were only a few germans there. so that was cool.

i'm doing a lot better... with the exception that i'm falling apart. haha. our investigators are slowly making progress. the weather is getting cold but that still doesn't stop us from getting a scoop of ice cream now and again. haha

thanks to: meg, jameson, karly, marci, wimp and cindy for your emails this week!! ♥

sorry i really don't have much to say. i will next week for sure though cause something exciting might happen for transfers... and if not then i'll make something up! haha

Correction

I was wrong... the photo Rachel sent this morning was taken in front of the "Mainz Cathedral",

not the Church of Christ.

And for your reading enjoyment... a little info on the Mainz Cathedral:

It was build in 975 AD, but was continually rebuilt and restored.

It currently holds a collection of religious art.

Deutschland

The beautiful church building behind Rachel is called "The Church of Christ"

and is located in Mainz ,

the city where Rachel is currently serving.

Not long after Rachel got to Germany,

she asked if for an early birthday present

(VERY early... this was in April and her birthday isn't until November...)

she could buy a new camera.

We told her yes, but only if she would send us lots of pictures

of her experiences in Germany. ♥

General Conference

Conference was AMAZING this weekend! i got to see ALL sessions, including the relief society session... except that was in german and i couldn't understand a dang thing. well, thank goodness for the conference edition of the ensign! my favorite talk by far was Elder Holland's talk... i bawled through the whole thing. our investigator Dottie was sitting next to me... poor thing, she probably thought i was crazy. his talk helped me remember all of the angels that i already have in my life! every week i get e-mails from my angels that help carry me throughout the week. you are ALL a blessing to me and i thank Heavenly Father every day for you and for the love i feel from Him through all of you!

Dottie came to all of the conference sessions this weekend. she was suppose to go out of town but didn't get paid enough so she couldnt go... Heavenly Father answers prayers... i prayed that she wouldn't go and that she could stay and come to conference. she really enjoyed it! she said it was a little overwhelming and a lot of information but she really liked all of it! i think her favorite talk was the one from president Uchtdorf from the saturday morning session about Hope.

conference was a much needed blessing and i didn't want it to end!! i can't wait till next conference!

hey guess what.... i'm more happy! i've been trying to do what president told me to do and i've been trying to apply the things i learned at conference this weekend and things are looking up!

thanks to everyone for your emails: Jess, Meg, Jameson and Diane!