The Berlin Wall

 

Familie,

 

So a lot happened this week. 

 

* I got called a witch.

 

* I found a new delicious ice cream flavor.  It is called cookies and it is like cake batter and cookie dough and chocolate ice cream all mixed!

 

* We found a park near our house that we have been running to for Morgan Sport.  It has a big gravel trail all the way around the park.  It is like a big track.  It is perfect because we can all run around it and stay within sight and sound and still be able to go our own pace.  Sometimes getting in some good solid thinking time while running solves all my problems!

 

* I got candy thrown at my head.

 

* A man stopped us on the street and asked us if we knew anything about Joseph Smith. 
Do we!??!??!? 
He is now a new investigator.

 

* We played little game this week.  Every day I wore one of the skirts I got last week from the family who is moving.  It was quite adventurous.  We had so much fun trying to put together outfits every morning.

 

* It has rained and rained for days.  We went back to big jackets and boots and tights.  We are praying for warmer weather, seeing as it is almost June!

 

* Things in Dahlem are starting to pick up.  We taught a lot this week.  That was a big change from our weeks of white days and finding for hours.  It has been good to have the opportunity to practice teaching in German. 

 

*We got stalked for hours by a drunk man who periodically yelled crude things at us. We went to register and he followed us and then waited outside the room we were in.  We ended up sneaking out the back and calling the Elders.  The elders came to our rescue and walked home with us. So that was an adventure.

 

* We taught a drunk man.  We have been teaching him for about a week and we had an appointment the other night.  He called to tell us he would be late and then called later to tell us he was in the park in stead of our normal meeting place.  We found him and it was extremely obvious that he had been drinking way too much.  He asked me to say the opening prayer so I did.  He started making weird meditation noises and when I peeked over at him I saw him contorting into yoga poses.  I lost it and started laughing.  Then he stopped us and chastised me for laughing in a prayer.  It was rather irreverent but I'm not sure that interpretive prayer yoga is all that reverent either.  He asked me to say an apology prayer and try again.  I'm not going to lie, it was really hard to get through those prayers without laughing again! 

 

* We set a baptismal date!! YES!!!  We started meeting with a friend from one of the members in our ward.  Her name is V**** and she is 19 just like me.  We really get along well and I have loved teaching her.  She is so patient with my crazy German.  (She is also into fashion and design so she got a kick out of our crazy skirt game this week)  She is really ready for the gospel and making serious changes in her life.  She came to her friend and asked if she could start meeting with us.  It has been great that she has that support from her member friends.  After one of our lessons we just asked if she would work towards a baptismal date on June 16.  She wanted to set it for the 18 of December because that is the anniversary of her cat's death.  We compromised with June 18 which is the half birthday for her cat's death. So June 18 it is!

 

* We had two investigators come to church and one of the less active families we have been working with.  That was amazing!

  

That is pretty much all I can think of to write about. 

 

Have a great week.  I love all of you so much!

 

Love,

Sister Brown

Baking Bread

 

Siegessäule (Berlin Victory Column)

 

 

Brandenbur​ger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

 

 

 

 

Talent shows and Toilet seats

Leibe Familie!!
 

So this week has been crazy. Last night we were brainstorming ideas of which stories we should email home and the list was enormous. We had some good ones this week!

 

 

Our Relief Society had a talent show this week. We went because one of the members was bringing her non-member friend and we also had invited some less actives we were working with. We were excited to see all of the hidden talents of the ladies in our ward.

 

So how did it go?

 

Let me tell you that a German talent show is quite different from our talent shows back home. It was very dry and serious. It was very German. There weren't any funny skits or silly dances or weird talents like licking your elbow.

 

None of that.

 

There was a lot of poetry and short stories read. One lady even read her journal to us. Lots of sisters played the organ or piano but like crazy hard core Bach pieces. That was the talent show.

 

But wait, are any of you wondering what we did for our talent?!?

 

Sister Schrade played a really jazzed up version of the Hokey Pokey on the piano and we danced and taught the ladies the dance.

 

Yes we did.

 

That is real talent :)

 

We also tausched this week. I got to go to Marzhan with Sister Kriser. We served in the MTC together and got to be really good friends.

 

 

It was so fun to spend some time with her. They also ride bikes in Marzhan so I had my first bike riding adventures in Germany. The skirt, bag, and helmet combo is really cute. Trust me! (Or don't because I have attached a picture. You can see for yourself).

 

 

I also broke a toilet seat while on Tausch. I sat on it and it snapped in two places. I didn't even know that was possible. I need to seriously lay off the Ritter Sports this week!!

 

And yes, this toilet seat does have sand and shells in it.

 

 

We did a lot of finding with our Englisch Kurs fliers. That starts in a few weeks so we have been working with the Elders to get them out. The enormous stack we started with has gone down significantly so that is good! The other night we were finding and a man was walking toward us. We made eye contact and I moved forward like I wanted to speak to him. Before I even said anything, he turned and in a deep booming voice barked out "Mahlzeit!!" (meal time) I think that was supposed to be his explanation for not talking to us. We haven't heard that one before!

 

Service this week was helping a family in our ward pack and get ready to move. My job was packing up the family library. Originally all three of us were doing this job but the other two struggled and were reassigned. Schewester Reichardt was impressed with my ability to box the books. Hello! Lee Brown is my father. I can pack a box of books!!

 

 

 

She rewarded me by letting me dig through her box of clothes she is giving away. The sisters and I pulled almost all the skirts and dresses out. Some of them need a little help but we have made it a goal to wear them all. This is Berlin. Everyone wears whatever they want! This week I will be adding some old German grandma skirts to my wardrobe choices.

 

 

Ummm..... Was noch???.........
 

I found a new favorite German thing. It is big thick vanilla chapstick that looks like a glue stick. LOVE it!

 

 

That is pretty much it for this week.

 

 

Thanks for all of your fun letters and emails. I love hearing from all of my sweet family and friends. You guys are the best!

 

 

Hope everyone has a great week and remembers to pray. (Seriously though. Beten Sie!)

 

 

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Brown

 

Here is me pretending my head is being eaten off by this weird ostrich advertisement. This is a totally normal activity to engage in after hours of finding...

 

Mother's Day

Liebe Familie,

 

This week we had interviews with President Kosak. He is still extremely intimidating for me. He is so kind and loving but he is also so big and so German.

 

My two biggest fears are him and speaking German. In the interview I had to do both!

 

I went in there pretty dang nervous. He was so great though and gave me really good advice. The first thing he asked was "Do I still have the same energetic excited Sister Brown?"

 

Yes! Yes, he does.

 

He was super encouraging and just told me to keep going because there are people in Germany just waiting for Sister Brown. I tend to be kind of a stresser. (OK that may be the biggest understatement ever!)

 

My favorite President Kosak quote is "Don't Worry!" He tells me that all the time. He just says it with a big smile and his thick German accent so it sounds like "Don't Vurry" I love it. Good advice!

We had an appointment with Görtz this week. (He was the man we found after praying about which streets to go on) We went to the address he wrote down for us and he wasn't there. The house belonged to someone else. We klingeled in anyways but no one knew who we were looking for. It was pretty discouraging because we really thought he had interest. We tried his number too but we couldn't get a call to go through. We were kind of bummed out. Then later that night we tried calling again. The number worked this time and we got through. He told us his address and we realized we had misread his handwriting. We had gone to #25 but he had written #21. So we rescheduled and went back.

 

We had a wonderful lesson. We taught about Joseph Smith and the restoration and the priesthood power. That wasn't what we had gone in there prepared to teach but that was where his questions took us. He had even been reading out of the Book of Mormon. My favorite part of the lesson was his prayer. I had the opportunity to teach him how to pray. Then I said the opening prayer and showed him how to do it. When the lesson was over I asked if he would say the closing prayer. He didn't seem too sure. He was really hesitant and took a long time to think about it. Then he just started praying. He told Heavenly Father about his trip to Spain later this week. He was really nervous about flying on the airplane and he asked that everything would be OK and he would make it safe. It was a beautiful prayer. It was straight from his heart and that is all that matters.

 

We also had a cool finding experience. I was with Sister Schrade and we walked past an outside cafe. There were two ladies sitting down and they stopped us. I LOVE when people will stop and talk to us. It is much easier to talk sometimes when you aren't the one initiating it. So this was a wonderful surprise.

 

 

They said they saw us on the corner and we looked so happy and shiny. We looked like we were glowing and so they decided they had to talk to us. So we sat down and started talking. They are sisters who have been to our church and even met with the missionaries before. They had met for lunch and were telling each other about all of their problems. They had some hefty issues and didn't know what to do.

 

That was when we showed up.

 

We started testifying of Jesus Christ and the power of the Atonement and even shared a scripture.

 

When we were done they asked if we could read another one!

 

Oh yes we can!

 

So we started reading in 3 Nephi 11 when Christ comes to the Nephites. They both just kept saying how they couldn't believe that we found them right then and how we seemed to have answers to all of their questions. They were looking for something like this and then we showed up. I just kept baring testimony of how that is a sign that God loves them both so much. He knew what they needed so he sent us there. It was so nice to be able to know that we helped someone that day. It was also so cool to see how we could be used and directed to help play a tiny role in our Heavenly Father's big plan.

 

Ich liebe missionarsarbeit!

 

 Me and Sister Schrade

 

The highlight of my week this week was skyping my family on Mother's Day. It was so great to see them and hear their voices! It will be a long wait until Christmas...

 

We are now officially in a drit. Sister Avanesjan left this morning at 4 am. I will keep you posted on the adventures being in a drit brings. Wish me luck!

 

I pray for you all every day.

Have an amazing week!

 

Ich Liebe Dich!!!

 

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Brown

 

 

Package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{editor's note: Sister Thornton quickly crossed out all the information on the customs form so she wouldn't know what was inside until she opened it.  Way to go Sister Thornton!!}

 

My closet is covered in German posters I made during language study. It looks like a German preschool...

4

Leibe Familie,

 

This week we turned into a 4 missionary companionship. It has been so interesting from day one. No one really knows how it is supposed to work. We are one companionship so our numbers are all together and we have the same area and teaching pool. It is just weird because we have to tausch pretty much every day. We can't go finding and dooring with four people. We look like a little missionary army. So we have to split the appointments and decide who will go to what. Planning is kind of a nightmare. It is really fun to have new sisters living with us though.

 

The Quad: Sister Thornton, me, Sister Avanesjan, Sister Schrade

 

This week we also got the new sisters from the MTC. They bring them to Lankwitz for their finding time. That is super close to us so we were asked to come and help. I was able to go finding a couple different times. I was so amazed with the sisters. They were so brave and were ready to jump right in. It was fun to watch. It was also really good for me to be able to see how far I have come this transfer. Just 6 weeks ago I was in their shoes.

 

We had a ward service project this weekend. We went and cleaned up a park. We weeded inbetween the cobblestones and raked and bagged the dead leaves. It was really fun to be all together. I worked with some of the young women in our ward. They only like to talk to me in English so they can practice but I try hard to only speak to them in German so I can get practice too. Their English is SO much better than my German! I am always so impressed.

 

 

We had some good experiences with prayer this week.

 

 

The first one was on the night before the new sisters came. We had a lot to do to get everything ready for them and then the dish washer broke. It was making weird noises and water was all over. It was kind of a mess and Sister Thornton and I were freaking out. We tried to clean it up and then to fix it but after taking it all apart we realized we didn't have any idea what we were doing. We put all the pieces back together but it wouldn't work. So then we prayed. We loaded the dishes back in and put in some soap and pressed the start button and it worked. The dishes came out clean!

 

The next one was when we went by on a contact. We had found this man in a Burger King. (For the longest time we didn't know his name so we just called him BK) We needed to give him a Book of Mormon but we were having a hard time getting in contact with him. We got to the right building and were supposed to leave it in his mailbox slot but we didn't know his last name. We looked at all the boxes and then put it in one. We prayed that we had picked the right one and that the book would end up in the right hands. Later that night we got a call that he had gotten the book!

 

The last one is the best. Sister Thornton and I were together doing finding this week. We had done a lot of finding that day and it wasn't really successful. We weren't sure what to do. So we detoured into a park and sat down and took a break. We pulled out our map and picked two streets that were by us. Then we prayed to know where to go. After the prayer Sister Thornton thought we should go to Meckelberg Straße and I thought we should go to Laubacher Straße. I was pretty confused. We had both picked a different street. What kind of an answer is that!?!? So we decided to start on Meckelberg because it was closer and then head to Laubacher. We started finding again and nothing really seemed different. We just kept going and stopping people and giving out cards. Then we finished the street and headed over to Laubacher. On our way, we ran into a man who was interested. His name is Görtz and he took a Book of Mormon and gave us his info for a return appointment. We hadn't seen anything like that all day. We were so excited. Later we pulled out the map to mark where we found him. The place where we met him was exactly inbetweeen the two streets. Exactly!

 

Yeah so God loves us and answers our prayers. Stimmt!

 

It was a good week!

I hope everyone is doing well.

Thanks for all the support and love and fun letters!

 

Love,

Sister Brown

 

Me with Sister Avanesjan

This is after 4 hours of finding when we sat down at a bus stop.

That should explain the exhausted look we're sporting!

 

 

Our ward members are super generous and always give us stuff. They have started just leaving us piles of things in a corner of the church building. Whenever we get a chance we take the load home. It is perfect for more "rug moments". This week it was a table, plant, and Jesus picture. 

 

Ritter Sports were on sale this week...

 

 

Transfers, Fish, and Men without Pants...

Meine Familie,

 

So this week has been crazy.

 

Like Dallin, we had transfers this week too.

 

Saturday morning Sister Thornton and I were sitting at our desks pretending to study, staring at the phone waiting for our call. It was so nerve-racking. We are expecting 17 new sisters in this next transfer and so we had been told a lot of the sisters from my transfer would be training. That made me super nervous. Then Elder Fullmer called to tell us that we were still together and we were both in Dahlem!

 

When we finally stopped screaming and dancing around the apartment, he told us the rest.

 

We couldn't just expect that to be the end of the news. Nope. That would have been way too unadventurous.

 

So we are, as of this Tuesday, a quad with two other sisters. Not a drit, a quad. Was ist das???

 

Like he said, Sister Thornton and I are staying together in Dahlem. We just are going to be joined by two more sisters. One of them was in the MTC with me and I don't know the other one. She is a German sister here who has been waiting for her visa to go to her mission in Arizona. She finally got it and leaves in 3-ish weeks. After she leaves then the three of us will be a drit for the remainder of the transfer. Then we get to go through all the fun anxiety of a transfer call all over again!

So that is the status after the transfer call.

 

So our investigator Helga "tschüssed" us this week. (Tschuss is the informal goodbye in German) It was sad for me. I know that in that first lesson she felt the Spirit and had interest. I'm not really sure what happened there but at least I don't feel disappointed in us. We taught and testified and invited. That's all we can do!

So one of the elders we serve with had a birthday but didn't tell any of us. Not even his companion knew until President called to wish him a happy birthday. We felt bad so we all met up as a district for lunch one afternoon. We let him pick the place because he was the birthday boy and all.

 

Sushi.

 

He picked sushi. I am a fish lover but I usually like it cooked. It was fine. We all ordered a bunch of different ones and then just shared. My favorite had avocado in the middle. It was a strange combo but I liked it a lot. Plus no one threw up so that was a bonus!

 

The next time was in an eating appointment. The husband went back to get us some water and comes back with plates of food. His wife makes homemade bagels and they are delicious. He had made us bagel sandwiches with some cheese and raw fish. Big fat thick huge slabs of raw fish. That was raw fish meal number two.

 

The other day we were finding and we got klingeled into a building. Went in and knocked on the door. It was a really dark hallway and the man opened up the door just a bit and then peeked his head around while he hovered behind the door. We gave our door approach and then he told us "Oh I don't have time for that. I am about to shower." Then to prove his intent to bathe to us, he stepped out from behind the door.

 

He was NOT wearing any clothes.

 

We gave him a card while awkwardly looking up at the ceiling and then we fled. We did sure not see that one coming! I tell you, finding is always an adventure!!

 

We had an eating appointment this week with that nearly put me in a food coma. It was an enormous multiple course meal. We had salad, soup, bread, meat and potatoes and sauerkraut, a cheese and fruit tray, and berries and cream. It was intense! This member owns a restaurant and is an amazing cook so it was all delicious, there was just SO much food.

 

The elders taught us this trick they call the sumo roll. It is this really silly looking almost dance move that you can do while sitting to help "compact your food so you can eat more". It makes you look really dumb and I don't think there is any way that it could physically even make a difference with your digestion, but we did it. If nothing else it was just a mental thing. So a few sumo rolls later and we were back to eating!

 

So here's scripture thought with Sister Brown time:

 

"This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."

-Psalms 118:24

 

This was my scripture this week. I am so blessed to be able to be a missionary right now. It is a little miracle to me that I am here on a mission. I never really saw myself serving one and it wasn't even a choice until last October. I just like waking up every day and being able to think of what a blessing the day is. I am here in Berlin serving the Lord. That is amazing and definitely worth rejoicing and gladness!

 

So that is the end for this week.

 

Bis Montag!

Love,

Sister Brown

 

We got to play sunshine fairy this week and took around flowers

and cake to members who we had been meeting with. 

 

Woche 6

Familie,

This week has been another one full of finding. I feel like that is all I ever talk about but we do a lot of it and sometimes the stories are just too good not to share. There sure is never a dull moment when we play the finding game!!
 

We had a lot of the typical finding where people flee and say 'I don't have a need for that.' Or my current favorite 'I don't speak English.'

 

Did you not hear me gagging on my own tongue??

That was most definitely NOT English!

 

I also talked to a man who yelled at us about how God was nonsense and only stupid people would believe in Him. We get a lot of funny and crazy conversations from finding. However, I picked to talk to him because he looked safe. He was kicking around a soccer ball with his son in the park. I hadn't seen that one coming. You never know!

 

 We did have some good experiences finding this week too!

 

 

We had district finding in Lankwitz this week. We set some goals before. Every companionship was supposed to pass out 15 of the big Book of Mormon pass along cards and 1 Book of Mormon and then our usual little Mormon.org cards too. I will be honest and say I wasn't super convinced we would make it. It may not sound like a lot to do, but sometimes we can't even get people to stop and talk to us so finding people to have enough interest to take cards and a book seemed daunting.

 

It would be safe to say I was lacking some serious glaube.

 

We got started and it was pretty slow. I was thinking we would be good to get 5 cards out. Then we prayed and things started to pick up. We continued to find and not only met our goals but we passed them. We ended up placing 2 books and passed out 17 big cards and some small ones. We got some names and numbers too. It was incredible. The best part was that when we all came back together to share, everyone had the same experience. We had all given out books, cards, and made out appointments. It was crazy how much success we could see in one small area in just an hour of finding.

 

 

On a completely unnecessary side note: one of the men we gave a Book of Mormon to was wearing a cowboy hat. That was the first time I have seen one here. So yes, we are converting the German cowboys!

 

 

We have been visiting lots of members this week as well. We go by lots of less actives or just older members who have a hard time making it to church. It has been so great to meet these people. We usually go and just listen. They will bring out pictures and tell us stories. The older members have lived through the war and the wall and have amazing stories of the church through all of that. It is so interesting to hear. I also made a new friend this week during one of these visits. Her name is Madie R*** and she is 5 years old. She calls me Sister Brownie!

 

 

We also had another English class this week. We were teaching how to show possession. One of the ways we showed was with 'of'. For example those are the shoes of the man. Anyways we taught all the ways to show possession and then asked for examples of each one. Steven had the 'of' way and his sentence was ''I am a child of..."  At this point all the missionaries in the room are holding their breath. He finished the sentence with 'my parents' so it was a little bit anticlimactic but still a grammatically correct sentence. We all thought he was going to say 'I am a child of God.' That would have been awesome and a great teaching moment. One day, Steven...One day!

We ran a race this week. Yes we did!

 

About a week ago the Zone Leaders called to see if we wanted to run. We thought they were kidding, but they weren't. I don't know how they got President to agree to it but he did and even let us count it as our weekly service. I have no idea how that went down! It was so fun though.

 

We ran through a park in Tiergarten. It was 7K so just over 4 miles. We got a free race T shirt and they also made us missionary shirts. That was the best part of course.

 

We all know I only run for the shirts!

 

It was so fun to be at a race again. There were a bunch of different distances so we got to watch other races before ours. The numbers had names printed on them and it was so fun to cheer everyone on as they finished. We didn't complete the whole experience though because we decided to opt out of the drinking parties at the finish line :)

 

 Nothing pumps you up for a race like a weird dog cow thing in a belly shirt!

 

photo from Germany Berlin Mission 2012-2015 blog

photo from Germany Berlin Mission 2012-2015 blog

 

I feel like I need to share something kind of uplifting after all of the random stories from my week.  

 

So here's a shot at that:

D&C 64:33

'Be not weary in well doing for ye are laying the foundation for a great work and out of small things proceedeth that which is great.'

 

That was our scripture for the week. It was just good to remember that our efforts do matter. We may not see success right away and it might feel like we aren't making a difference but we are laying a foundation for something amazing.

 

The gospel is going to be spread all over German! How exciting is that!?!??

 

I am so thankful for the tiny role I get to play in it.

Hope everything is going great! Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Have an amazing day!

Love,

Sister Brown

Klingeling

 A fort we found in the forest

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

 

 

Ampel Man and Checkpoint Charlie

Hallo meine familie,

 

I went on my first Tausch (split) this week with Sister Curtis.

 

I spent the day in Neukölln.

 

One of their new members had her sweet 16 and we got invited to the party. We didn't have a lot of prep time so we just threw together some no-bake cookies. We had to explain to the other party guests that they really were edible cookies. Some thought it was cat food and others thought it was dog poo.

 

After that drama the girls turned on some music to dance to. The party mix included some Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and F.U.N. The other missionaries I was with have been out too long to know the songs. I was happy I could add my voice as we all sang Call Me Maybe! It was a fun party with delicious food. I think Maia had a wonderful sweet 16.

 

So, the finding adventures continue.

 

We had a trend going this week of people talking to us through the door. It is a super odd thing to talk to someone through their door. We have to bend down really close and speak really loud. Plus it is awkward to think that their faces are also so close on the other side.

 

It is just an extremely awkward situation that I wish could be avoided.

 

I don't quite understand why they don't just open it up and talk to us.

 

We did have some conversations that went better and even gave out a Book of Mormon on the street.

Then, on Sunday we were meeting members of the ward.

 

We were talking with Schwester Coleman and then a lady walked out of the bathroom and talked to us for a minute and then walked out. She just asked if there was a picnic after our meeting. There wasn't. We didn't really think anything of it.

 

Then the Elders run over and ask what went on. We told them and they freaked out and told us she wasn't a member. We obviously don't know the ward well enough at all!

 

Sister Thornton and I both just stood up and ran out. We seriously chased her down the street. We weren't even sure it was her and had no idea what to say but that didn't stop us.

 

It turns out she lives really close to the building and was just checking out what was going on. We invited her to come back next week and got to know her a bit. When we went back to the church the Elders were all shocked we had ran after her.

 

We need to find, Elders.

 

We do what it takes!

 

 Plus after the rug and bunny cookies weird looks mean nothing ;)

 

 

As a mission we have been memorizing Auserwählt zu Dienen (Called to Serve). The words have been in my head a lot lately. They have been super helpful and uplifting to think about when we are finding or just have a long day. God really is our strength. He is there and helps us every tiny step of our crazy days here in Dahlem. So "weiter immer weiter!"

 

Hmmm. What else can I share??

 

So Sister Thornton and I have been eating chocolate. Ok that is an understatement. Since being here in Germany, I have consumed an obscene amount of chocolate. It might be possible that I have consumed more chocolate in the past few weeks than I have in my whole previous life... So yeah a lot of chocolate.

 

Anyways we went to the Ritter Sport store where there are walls and walls of chocolate.

 

 

They also have a little bar where you can make your own chocolate bars.

 

We sure did! It was so much fun. They just came out with all their summer flavors so we happily sampled berry and coconut chocolates. German chocolates will be the death of me!

That is pretty much all for this week!

 

Can't wait to hear all the updates next Monday.

 

Have a great week!!!!!

Love,

Sister Brown

Berlin South Zone

 

We got pizza after zone training. It was a meter in diameter. We ate two. I seriously thought I would explode.

This is the little sign on the crosswalks here when you can cross. There is a little walking green one for "go" and a little stopped red one for "stop". He is called the Ampel Man (ampelmann) and I love him. 

Berlin Wall

 

Checkpoint Charlie