Fasching (9.3.11)

Pictures
1 - District Pday (round 3) We played Basketball and found this awesome skatebowl. Best DIstrict picture ever. THis was from last transfer
2 - OUr District before this Transfer. Yep, we'Re the best and have the best bunch of Elders
3 - LIND...can't escape the softness
4 - Spaghetti Eis is for Champions...or two Sisters enjoying the 11° Heatwave

So, yes it is Wednesday and yes I am writing. Elder Richard G. Hinckley (President HInckley's son) is touring our mission this week and we had MIssion Tour with him. Mission TOur is when a General Authority comes and gives an all day Conference\Workshop along with his wife, Pres and Sis Condie, and the Assistants to the President. It was phenomenal. We also had Stake Conference this weekend so we made a grand total of 3 trips to Stuttgart this week. NAPTIME!!!! Little beknowns to us, Elder HInckley speaks perfect German, having served his mission in Frankfurt 1961-1963 (30 months long). He got up to speak at Stake COnference, opened his mouth, and out comes accent-free German. My jaw hit the floor. HIs wife used a translator.

Mom- in a previous email you asked what you can do to help the new members and investigators\missionaries. Here's a little list SIs Dietz and I compiled. 1) When the missionaries come to eat, ask them to teach you a lesson. You could even pretend to be an investigator and riase questions and concerns that investigator might have. 2) Offer for investigators to be taught in your home. It's a good way to get to know the investigators and to see how the missionaries teach. YOu can gain a lot of trust of them and then KNOW who you'Re giving referrals to. 3) Ask them to teach Family Home Evening. 4) Invite nonmembers to the house when the msisionaries come over. 5) Offer to pick up an investigator for church or activities. 6) Befriend the investigator. 7) Give the missionaries service opportunities. 8) Offer yourself as a joint-teach (mainly Dad if there are Elders there). That's where a member accompanies the Elders if they are teaching a single woman (at least in our mission Sisters aren't allowed to teach solo to men) 9)REFERRALS!!!! You will never know how much it means to a missionary to receive a name of someone to try and teach. It can be anyone you think could use hope, a friend, the gospel, or a new outlook on life. Please, make it a goal to give the missionaries a referral a month at least. It will help their spirit and yours as well when you see people you know begin a new life. Even invite someone who you think may have interest to come to your house and then have the missionaries over for dinner. THat's a perfect casual setting for this potential investigator to meet the missionaries without the oddities of a formal lesson or them going to their door.

FAsching was yesterday. It's like the German Mardi Gras. Parties, costumes everywhere, and parades out the wazoo. Really cool

LUdmila - We have been meeting with Ludmila regularly and will be extending a baptismal committment tonight. Cross your fingers. We showed her the Restoration last week (in Russian) and she loved it...and us of course.

Jenny - Baptismal date bumped up to the 19th. We're way excited. NOw we just need her to answer the phone a bit more. She's a bit flaky occasionally.

Dettlef - New Investigator we found in our Area book. He'd been taught by the missionaries in 2000 and for some reason had fallen off the radar. We visited him with Schwester Blaschta and he was great...aside from the constant cigarette smoke int he apt. ALSO, he was showing us some of his treasures, one of which was a 1900 German edition of Dante'S Divine Comedy. I'd been goggling at all of his old books, especially that one and as he pulled it out, Sis Dietz AND Schw Blaschta turned to me to see my jaw drop as he offered to give it to me. AND SO I NOW OWN AN ANTIQUE DANTE. Really cool! Dettlef is an odd sort of person. Rocker looking, plays organ and guitar, loves books, and is kind of edgy. He was kind of rude to Sis Dietz when she first called to make an appt because of her German. But, in person, we both love him. I'll keep you posted on him.

That's pretty much all I got from Ulm. Till MONDAY

Sister Chocolate