The Dish on the Mish: 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!