Zone Photo

This photo makes me laugh.
This is Rachel's zone,
or at least it was before transfers this past week.
These are sweet, gentle missionaries
and I guess this is their
"tough guy" look.

Taufe Photo

sister moser, sister rice, bruder terhaag, sister terhaag, me

The Taufe

ok so Friday night we went to the church to meet with the ward secretary because he was going to preside over the taufe (baptism) and he wanted to see the program. so i had the program all typed for him and we went through it and he understood everything and said it was fine. then we met with bruder t and taught him our last lesson before his taufe and explained everything and finished all our last minute things. so now it’s saturday. and i swear i had planned for pretty much everything and anything to go wrong and had thought of how to overcome everything. i was very prepared and stressed. but anyway we got to the taufe early and everything was going just fine.

well.....the bruder L gets up to lead the program and announces things differently. and he skips over our musical number. what the HECK!! i could NOT believe that he switched it up like that! the bishop was even confused! but seriously i almost burst into tears when he changed everything around. i had showed him the program the night before and he didn't have any problem with it! and then to do that right then i was so upset and it was so embarassing. i had made those programs myself and then everyone was confused at the baptism and it just wasn't right. but the most important thing was how good bruder terhaag felt. and then on sunday he received the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting. despite what happened - it was a very special weekend. now it's time to get sister t baptized! we`ll set a new date with her on thursday.

transfer calls were this weekend too. there are 21 missionaries going home and 19 coming back. i'm staying :) can you believe i've been on my mission for 13 months! on thursday i'll have been in germany for 11 months!

tomorrow we have to be in dusseldorf by 7am to leave to head to frankfurt for transfers. (sister moser is going to heidelberg - lucky!!!) so we have to leave our apartment tomorrow at 6am. but this time... we get to ride a ICE to frankfurt. they are like the fastest trains ever! they go super fast! i'm really excited. it's really expensive to ride them too. i dunno know why we get to ride one this transfer. i think it's because we have so many missionaries that need to get to frankfurt or something.

we haven't met with the nigerian sisters again yet. we had to cancel our appointment on sunday but we're hoping we can meet this sunday.

McDonalds!

Last Wednesday after a long day of travel and interviews
with the President, it was about 10 pm
and they hadn't eaten dinner yet.
McDonalds!

A Quiet Week

so sister rice has been sick for almost a week and so we haven't done much of anything. i'm getting bored. but although we haven't done much lots of things have happened!

sunday the married couple had their baptismal interview. she decided after her interview that she wasn't quite ready to get baptized just yet. she wants a little more time to develop her testimony of the Book of Mormon. but he is determined to be baptized on saturday and so he is! it's all planned out and he's SO excited about it!! he really wants to be able to baptize his wife and they both want to get sealed in the temple next year. they are so awesome! we're going to set a new baptismal date with her when we meet with them again. i feel bad because we have been treating them as like a whole... and not so much as individuals, so i kind of blame us for her not being as ready. but she'll get baptized there's no doubt about it! his parents are coming to the baptism and he's already given his mother a copy of the Book of Mormon and she's reading it already! she lives in krefeld though so we're going to have the krefeld elders come to that so they can meet her and hopefully start teaching her. i'm singing a solo as sister moser plays the piano and Bruder Luchs will play his flute. i think i'm crazy. i don't know how i get myself into things like this.

i'm bummed because karnival starts on thursday and ends next tuesday so we're not going to be able to go out much this weekend. it's not safe for us. karnival is like mardi gras but more intense because its over a weekend and all everyone does is get drunk. we haven't gotten any specific instructions yet but we'll have to stay inside for sure at some point because a karnival parade is going to go right by our apartment. too bad our windows don't face the street. it would be fun to take pictures of! people dress up like at halloween and are apparently just crazy. i'm kind of excited. our lives have been kind of boring the past week.

Marci: thanks for the Valentine's package! i got it this morning as we were walking out the door to come do emails so i haven't had a chance to look at everything yet but it was really sweet of you to put it all together! you're awesome!

Jameson: you've said like nothing about your dating life since you've been home! i'd love to hear about what's going on!! my companion heard about a RM here in frankfurt who used PMG to get married. just used the same things she learned on a mission and instead of getting someone baptized she found a husband. i think that's so funny!! good luck with tests and everything!!

Two Companions and a Cat

I'm guessing that these are the new boots they got from the woman Rachel mentioned in last week's e-mail. I'm not sure who the cat belongs to.
Sister Moser, Rachel and Sister Rice.

Teaching!

so on sunday we went to go teach the 3 nigerian sisters. we got there and there were only two of the sisters (christiana and gloria) and christiana`s husband Prinz. (the other sister apparently doesn't live there). but they let us in and we taught them the plan of salvation. it was an awesome lesson..a little wierd because we were teaching in english. but prinz was so accepting, he´s a little sceptical but he asked some awesome questions like: how do i raise my children? and my favorite: how do i know if this is all true? i then asked him: do you believe you can receive answers to your prayers? he said: absolutely. i then said: then ask your Heavenly Father. He knows everything and He`ll tell you if this is true or not. Prinz said that he would do it. he received a copy of the BOM from his niece in america after his uncle died a few years ago but he never read it. he still had it and had it out when we got there. his wife christiana said that she believed the plan. it was awesome unfortunately they are going to be gone for a while so our next appointment is on the 22nd. we`re going to watch the restoration dvd with them and catch Prinz up because he wasn't there for the first lesson. amazing huh! we`re teaching another family! and they have children!!!

the married couple is still scheduled to get baptized on the 21st. we`re almost done with the lessons as well. they are so amazing. they just say yes to everything we say - they have so much faith!

playing soccer last week was amazing. we could only stay for an hour but it was worth it! i was SO sore the next day i almost couldn't move. but it was so nice being able to play. the weather was really nice too!

Meg: hey sweetie thanks for your email! i`ll try and write you a letter and let you know how i`m doing! miss you and love you! oh and i`m so proud of you with your job! you`re so amazing why wouldn't they love you?!

Jess: hallo liebe! thanks for your email!!! i`m working on a tape for you right now, are you still in the same apartment? good luck with your concert! i know you`ll be amazing!!! love you! miss you...oh and thanks for my poem ;)