The Princess and the Rastatt Palace

A Week Ago...

What a difference a week makes...
Last week Rachel went to the park for P-Day... blue skies... sunshine... no winter coat...

Snow!

well we're getting a lot of snow. it's been snowing since yesterday. today is a holiday and so no stores are open and since its snowing no one is out on the streets. please tell brother mayer thanks for his email. we have nothing to do today so i think we're going to take a little trip over to Walzbachtal and see if we can't make some contact with these people. unfortunately i'm being transferred out of here next week. but we'll see what we can do. we've got a lot to do this next week packing up and getting the apartment ready to be shut down.

the chinese girl is back in town and we have an appointment with her on friday. she sounds super sweet and nice and so i'm excited for that. i'll have someone to study for.

Karlsruhe Palace

This palace belonged to "King Karl". Rachel said that he must have really liked the color yellow because there was a lot of it! She and Sister Barnhart went here on their last P-Day and had fun playing at the palace park.

Power 10

things continue to be tough... but i found a scripture that made us laugh and we put it above our door: 2 Nephi 5:27 - "And it came to pass that we did live after the manner of happiness." ♥

well sister barnhart and i have come up with a game to get the elders out and contacting. its called Power 10. and what we do is we meet the elders at karl's statue and then we go contacting for 10 minutes with our companions. during that 10 minutes you have to count how many people you can get to stop long enough for you to tell them who you are... or who just stops long enough for you to say something to. if they reject you that's fine just move on to someone else. the goal really is to find someone who's interested. but it makes it a little bit more fun to count. both times we've done it sister barnhart and i have won. the first time we got 12 people to stop and the 2nd time we only got 5 but one woman actually stopped and we talked with her for a little bit. but the elders actually kind of like it. so we're going to try and get them to do it... Power 10 every day. maybe it'll make a difference. hopefully!

yesterday morning we got a call from the district leader in frankfurt. he had a referral for us. she's chinese and studying here in karlsruhe. she's friends with some chinese members in frankfurt and when she visits them on the weekend she goes to church with them. she's met with the sisters a few times in frankfurt but she told elder peterson that she wants the missionaries in karlsruhe to come teach her at her home! she's out of town till the 2nd or 3rd so we're going to call her this weekend! how exciting!!!!!! i miss having people to teach and worry about.

jess: hey sweetie. i got your birthday package last week! it came from frankfurt with my christmas packages! thanks!!! i love the bracelet :) and the notebook... i carry it with me it's very handy. and the quote book is great too. i love you!!!! jordan is suppose to be back at greenbrier this coming semester. he's living at apartment 3 again. hahaha

Christmas Day in the Black Forest

On Christmas Day, Rachel, Sister Barnhart, Elder Hafer and Elder Welch went with Schwester Schuster and her family into the Black Forest. Apparently it's called the Black Forest because there are so many trees that it looks black. Rachel told us that evening when we talked to her that she had a great time!

Christmas Day Phone Call

Since the last post, I've had many concerned friends ask me if Rachel is ok.

Yes... and thank you for your concern... she is ok.

We were able to spend almost an hour and a half talking with her on Christmas day.

Because her apartment is just one big room

and a bathroom,

and she and her companion wanted to give each other

privacy while they talked to their families,

the one on the phone camped out in the bathroom and sat on part of the couch.

So, while she chatted with us from the bathroom,

she was in her jammies

with a plateful of cheese and crackers.

She sounded wonderful... happy... positive... funny.

But, Karlsruhe is a very hard area.

There are two sets of elders that also serve there.

They do not currently have investigators either.

No one wants to hear what the missionaries want to share,

and day after day after day that can be very discouraging.

But Rachel is a "glass half full" kind of girl.

She's going to be fine... ♥