Ok ok. So.

DEUTSCHLAND IS SO COOL!

My companions name is Sister Riser and she is from Houston, Texas. She

only has three transfers left. We are opening an area (meaning we have

no investigators/nothing to do other than talking to strangers on the

street) in Köln. Köln is the highest populated city in Deutschland (1

million people). Needless to say there are always people out on the

street to talk to. 9 times out of ten, the person you talk to is not

from Germany (Russia, Albania, Syria, France, Dominican Republic,

Bulgaria, etc... Hence the array of book of Mormons in various

languages), so their German is worse than mine. We've resorted to hand

motions and pictures of Jesus to explain our purpose quite a few

times.

We are living in Müllheim which is nestled up right next to the Rhine.

Across from the Rhine is downtown where the infamous Catholic Dom

Cathedral is. We visited it today with our district. It was fudging

amazing. I relived half way through that I had learned all about it in

Music Civ at BYU. I FORGOT EVERYTHING.

The first day we got here, they had us all out on the streets of

Frankfurt contacting random people. Two old taxi drivers proposed to

me and I made friends with a young group of Save the Children workers.

That flight was death, but worth it. Since out apartment is new (for

us, our ward is 50 people and they have 3 sets of missionaries-- 1

elders and another sisters) it is super nice. Probably nicer than our

house (sorry). Downside: it's not finished. We have no stove or oven

or sink, so we eat things we can make from a toaster. It also wreaks

of paint and has saw dust and parts for book shelves and curtain

everywhere. Yup. But it is super nice, and I think we're getting a

microwave, vacuum and stove this week so fingers crossed! Also, our

first night in the apartment we had to yield outlandish beds so we

could sleep. Obviously there is a reason the lord needs us here now,

we're just working hard until we figure it out.

K I absolutely love my companion.... But I haven't slept since I got

here because she snores really loud. We also live right next to the

bahn and airplanes fly over us at night and we have to leave the

window open otherwise we suffocate from the smell of paint. I'm making

it sound unpleasant, but it's actually really cool. I love it here.

My German is apparently really good. That makes me really happy. I

still make mistakes. I told a guy on the bahn that he had a pretty

shirt. Another guy said he would think about hearing our message, but

I thought he said no, so I said ni which means never and so he was

like ja ni and walked away. My companion had a good time with that.

Also,my first two days here I spoke to two people who only spoke

Spanish, and I realized that was God telling me he needs me to work on

my Spanish because I forgot it all. There is a Spanish branch more

south I think. Right now it only has elders. I'm really determined to

learn Spanish by reading the Spanish Book of Mormon and then when an

area for sisters opens up, I could go there. It's a lot, haha, but

it's what the lord wants me to do. I know that, and I know that he's

going to help me do it.

I have this goal to up the active membership of people my age here.

Everyone in our ward is old or has only part member families. There is

so much work to be done, and I am really excited.

Also, fun fact, German playgrounds are not safe. I'll try to send a picture.

The work: we have made about twenty potential investigators, most of

which we had to refer to other areas because they are not from here.

Last night was the first time we actually got our first investigator!

We were going to the Rhine to meet with a man from Bulgaria who we

told we'd bring Bulgarish material. We figured out we had none, so we

brought a Russian one and an Albanian one. THEN we ran into a man who

was from Albania, and couldn't speak Deutsch. He called his friend out

who could speak more Deutsch, and then he left. Then, we ended up

having a forty five minute conversation with her about her faith and

how the Book of Mormon would fit into that. We had her read from the

Albania BOM intro and the promise in Moroni, and then got an appt with

her next Sunday! She was really reluctant to read it. A lot of people

here are. They all are either Catholic Protestant or hate organized

religion and believe in a hippyish form of religion. The cool thing is

having these deep conversations with people from all different faiths

and realizing how much good and truth is in every single one.

My favorite thing about being a missionary? The way people look at you

after your done talking, even when they don't want anything to do with

your church. Most of the people we talk to just don't understand the

role of Christ in their lives. Others are amazingly devoted Catholics

who love Christ and their church. Every time we talk to anyone deeply,

they walk away with this super intense grateful look in their eyes.

ITS SO COOL AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO DESCRIBE IT! We met a cute old man

from Germany wearing a Canada hat and attempted to share our message,

but he was a devote  Catholic. We ended up just talking about America

and skyscrapers. When he got up for his stop he said "I want the best

for you" with that super cool look in his eyes! Everyone here is just

really grateful to us for the work we do, even though most don't want

to hear our message. My favorite response is "Kein zeit ". Most people

numbers we get end up saying they just don't have time.  I just want

to be like "you really don't have time for Christ?!?!" My challenge

for you this week is to really think, do you make time for Christ in

your life? Or do you simply push him aside because you "don't have

time?" I know that there is so much more that we can become through

Christ. I have already changed so much by dedicating two months of my

life. That's how I decided to make time for Christ, how will you?

As always I love you all!

PS we have this crazy goal of breaking Sister Risers record and

getting 6 investigators to church with us (1. Because we have zero

investigators right now and 2. We want the members to trust us enough

to start doing their own missionary work. Most of them say they are

too old to do the work. That's really not possible, so I'm working on

inspiring them), so any prayers you could send to the people of Köln

that they can be prepared to accept the invitation would be gratefully

received!

Addison is somewhere else north east. I'm north west, but we're in the

same zone so I'll see her tomorrow!!!

I love you!!!!!