Familie!

This week we had Zone Conference,

had an adventure in the German forest,

 

 

raced snails,

 

and built a fort. 

 

 

Bis nächste woche

Sister Brown

Skills

 

 

This is getting passed around the missionaries right now.  It is hilarious.  Both  Sister Odenwalder and I were dying.  It is SO true.

 
Oh and PS Osnabrück is not one of the many flooded areas.  We are safe and dry!

 

Meine Familie,

So this week was awesome.  We did a lot of finding and we also did a lot of teaching.  We even had three investigators tell us they wanted to be baptized.  We are hoping they will all be diligent and work towards a baptism date.  So it was a good week!  I am learning a lot here in Osnabrück.  I gained a bunch of new skills this week.  I learned:
 

* How to paint in a skirt

 So we showed up to one of our appointments and the 12 year old daughter wanted our help painting her room purple. It was quite the unexpected request, but we painted.   The paint got all over but luckily most of it came out of our clothes.  We used Tide To Go pens as we waited for our bus afterwards.  I still have paint in my hair and on my arms.  It was an awesome adventure.
 

* How to find a German prison

 This one was actually kind of creepy.  We were walking in a little dorf to a contact and we took a wrong turn.  We had never been there before so we didn't know exactly where we were going.  So we just kept walking and walking.  We ended up in the middle of nowhere walking along a two lane German highway. There was no sign of civilization and then all of the sudden we were next to a German prison with big electric and wire fences and huge brick walls.  It was a dark and stormy day so that only added to the creepiness factor. 
 

* How to play German hand games

 Oh this was probably my favorite acquired skill of the week!  We had an eating appointment with a family with two little red haired German girls. They taught us little German hand games and rhymes while we waited for the food to cook.  My favorite was one called Michael Jackson.  We taught them Double Double This This and then played that over and over for the rest of the night. It was so fun.  One of them was super sassy and witty and reminded me so much of Gracie!
 

* How to end a German fairytale

 This one just makes me laugh so hard. I learned this week how Germans end their fairytales. 

"Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, leben sie immer noch heute."

The translation is:

"And when they are not dead, they are still alive today."

Not exactly our Happily Ever After...

That's how the Germans do it!

* How to give out a Book of Mormon on the bus

 So this is a cool story.  We were on the bus and sitting across from a man.  He was kind of looking at us funny but we get funny looks ALL day so we didn't think anything of it.  Then he leans forward and says in English "Where is your house?"  We both just looked at each other and were pretty creeped out.  Who was this guy??  It turns out he was really wondering where we were from in America, his English just wasn't great.  We started talking and he ended up sharing his religious beliefs.  We taught him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and then he said he would  like one.  So we pulled one out and gave it to him.  That's how it's done!  Meanwhile, the entire bus was watching and listening to the crazies talking about Jesus in broken English and German.  We're just always Riskin the Awkward...
 

* How to eat someone's pet...

  Ugh this one is a skill I would have rather not learned.  We were at this eating appointment with a Russian family.  They took us out back and showed us all of their animals.  There were chickens and bunnies and random birds and dogs.  They told us about their sheep too but we didn't see it.  When we started asking about the sheep we got a pretty gory story of how it was recently slaughtered.  Then we sat down to eat and were served a crazy Russian soup with chunks of meat in assorted crunchy and chewy textures.  We both did the Pray'nChew to get through that one...
 

* How to use an axe

 This one is a little happier than eating other people's farm animals.  This week we did some service with the elders in the garden of one of their investigators.  We ended up moving a bunch of old stuff out of a shed and doing some more painting. {This time in jeans :)} Then the guys all went to take the load of stuff to the dump.  They left us with these mega axes and a big pile of wood.  They told us to chop it all up into small pieces while they were gone.  Then they left.  Sister Odenwalder and I both just looked at each other and wondered if this was real life.  Then we got to work.  She had a big Thor hammer and I had an axe.  An hour later the pile looked like it had been hit by a bomb.  Sister Power!  Our arms are SO sore still!
 

 

That is all the excitement from our week!
 

Hope all is well.
Thanks for all of the fun emails and prayers and love and support. 
I love you all!
 

Liebe Grüße,
Sister Brown

 

Gotta love the late night planning sesh

I wish the DL would call and get our #s so we could go to bed...

 

 

So not much has happened since the last email.

 

We spent our Pday today playing German board and card games.  Once I got past the initial language barrier and started to understand how to play, they were a lot of fun. 

 

The Elders made us pancakes too.  The problem was that the stove top was broken so they ended up cooking them in the microwave.  That made the texture a bit spongy but we are starving missionaries so we ate them up. 

 

Today was our last day all together as a district before the transfer moves. 

So that is pretty much it.

Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Brown

Bye Bye Berlin

So this week I got blitzed to Osnabrück. 

 

It was crazy. 

 

Osnabrück is way west and in the middle of the German countryside.  It is a big change from busy enormous Berlin. It is so pretty with the cobblestone roads and little cottages with red tile roofs. 

 

I love it.  We ride bikes a lot so that is fun too.

 

I look like a chipmunk here...

Leaving Berlin was hard.  It happened really fast so I didn't get any time to say goodbyes.  It was hard to find out and then pack up and go.  I just have to trust that this is where the Lord needs me right now and get back to work. 

 

 

A goodbye gift from the BEST.ELDERS.EVER!

 

My new companion is Sister Odenwalder.  She served with Sister Thornton earlier so us serving together is just completing the weird mission relationship circle.  Perfect! We get along great and have a lot of fun together.  She makes the best pancakes and sings me songs every night with her Uke. 

 

 

 

The adventures have already began here in Osnabrück.  It is also a new area and we are doing a lot of finding still.  Good thing Dahlem has turned me into an Adventure Finder.  Osnabrück is the main area but then all around us are small little dorfs.  We have been picking one to go explore every day. We don't even have maps of these areas so we really do just roam.  We have met some really interesting people as we go on our finding adventures. 

We went to the old folks home this week to visit a member.  We ended up showing up just in time for music time.  We got to sit in the circle of little old ladies in wheelchairs and sing German folk songs.  It was a blast! 
 

We also taught C**** this week.  She is the neighbor of one of our JAE (YSA) members.  They are really good friends and he has been working on sharing the gospel with her.  This week we met with them and made pancakes and taught a little bit about Christ.  She is a little hesitant but willing to listen.  She is coming from a nonreligious background so this is all brand new stuff for her.  She is really cool though and I am excited to teach her some more.
 

The other day we also came across a rap battle going down at Bahnhof.  We were there to buy our monthly bus ticket and there was a big crowd gathered around a stage.  We discovered it was a German rap battle.  This was a cool discovery so we stopped to listen for a minute.  Then we heard words like "Jesus Christus" "Vater im Himmel" and "Wort der Weisheit".  At first we thought they were being used in a crude way but then the chorus came and they were singing about not wasting your life away and coming to Jesus.  Then a man walked by and gave us pamphlets about Jesus.  We had stumbled upon some kind of Christian Church's Jesus rap battle street display.  The last place on Earth I would expect something like this to go down would be at the bahnhof in Osnabrück.  It was a huge surprise and it was most definitely awesome.
 

We got transfer calls this morning and we will both be staying here in Osnabrück.  I was kind of glad I don't have to pack everything back up again.  So looks like at least 6 more weeks here. 
That is all for this week.  Another email will come on Monday.
 

Have a great day!

Love,
Sister Brown
 

Oh and this week our district moved Pday to Saturday so that is the reason for this random Saturday email

 

Holocaust Museum, Berlin

 

I saw this shirt the morning I got transferred to Osnabrück...

Beautiful Osnabrück