May 21, 2012

Hello hello hello. Let's start off by reminding you that my birthday is on Thursday and you are more than welcome to think of me the entire day. You're welcome. Last week an Indian couple in the ward gave me a saari for my birthday!!!!!! Is that even how you spell it? I DON'T KNOW. Doesn't matter. It's beautiful and maybe ridiculously skanky. I'll modify it, have no worries. Also I punched an Elder last week. But that's only because he was being the most annoying person in the world. He deserved it. Also WORST THING EVER. Not really, but it was scary. It's called: MY COMPANIONS MADE ME TALK TO A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS BY MYSELF. With no disrespect to the religion, they are the bane of our missionary existence. And talking to them is sometimes like bashing your head against a wall because they love to tell you that God is Jehovah and that's all they really like to argue. Anyway. So this particular day my companions were going around talking to peeps a little ahead of me while I talked to people by myself. We can't all do it together because then it looks like we will eat them and they hate it. So I'm bouncin' around, doing my missionary job, and I stop this lady and start to talk to her. Oh wait. She's a JW and she was waiting for her companion to come so they could go talk to people too!!!! AWKWARD. Well she ended up being pretty nice and she took one of our cards. We talked for awhile and, of course, she asked me what God's name is. I told her it's Elohim and she was like what the heck? It blew her mind of course because she had never heard that. So secretly she wanted to learn more but she couldn't because she was scared/her companion was coming. But all in all it wasn't so bad and I was able to tell her about the Restoration and I could see something click in her eyes! She didn't even try to refute it! I WIN. Mmk. Remember how I told you that we flirt to convert? Well we did it times ten this week. And it was awesome. Story time. So we were walking to an appointment when we see these 3 young looking dudes (and by young I mean our age) riding bikes and looking very lost. They saw us and I guess we looked like we knew what's up because they stopped us for directions. Funny thing: they are all attractive AND French. Did I die a little bit? YES. Anyway so we directed them towards a restaurant where they could watch a football (soccer) game. We of course talked about who we were and gave them our cards. They invited us to come with but we sadly declined. WELL. A little bit later it totally hit us that we are IDIOTS and we should have worked harder to get them to agree to meet us. THEY WOULD DO IT. So we marched over to that street and walked up and down it until they came out. Yes, they totally did. Then we got their number and we organized a giant soccer game with the Elders and other YSA people and they're coming!!!!!! HA. Anyways. I love you all. Don't forget about me. Sister Young 

May 14, 2012

So so so. This week was boring. Every week was boring. Except! I got to skype my family :) That's the best, always. Except it felt like it was only 10 minutes long. I'm pretty sure it was. Poooooooooooo. So Hamburg is still freezing. It's unnatural! The weather is fine everywhere else except here. I still wear tights and boots and a coat. Can I kill the weather? Yes. But I do have to say it is beautiful. Really really really. It rains a lot here so it's very green and everything is blooming and it's wonderful. WUNDERBAR. Except let me tell you a little problem called I get bugs in my hair errrrrday. That's a cool way of saying EVERYDAY. It's disgusting. My companions and I feel like monkeys, we're always going through each other's hair picking out ants and spiders and other weird things that we haven't named yet. But it's worth it to have so many beautiful plants and trees and things. Our boundaries are the boonies of Hamburg so I'll have to send some pictures sometime of the awesome farmlands we get to track in. Also let me just confess this right off the bat - we flirt to convert. Or more accurately, we bat our eyelashes a little to get people to agree to come to church or meet with us. I'm not even ashamed. It totally worked for some people who later became progressing investigators. And sometimes we get creepers. But either way we get those so WHATEVER. Anyway. So there's this dude that loves to flirt with us everytime he sees us, but the difference is everytime I talk to this man I'm really mean and sassy. He loves it for some reason. So the other day we got on the same bus and he was talking and I was telling him what a butt face he is. So then he says, "Sister Young, I can really see something special in your eyes. It's magical," to which I responded, "It's Jesus." Everybody started cracking up around us and I told him he needs to come to church or we would never speak to him again. He didn't show up but I wouldn't be surprised if we met him again. Ha. Ok so these other Elders in our district had a baptism the other day so we went to support it. Also the girl that got baptized is American and we LOVE her so of course we had to go. Well guess what. She is married to this famous singer who's also American but is apparently only really popular in Germany. His name is Dante Thomas, in case you wanted to youtube him. ANYWAY the baptism was awesome and I got to meet a famous person and we're going out to lunch with her this week! I'm stoked. That's basically all. Reminder: my birthday is coming up. This is a chance for some of you weenies to find an excuse to write me!!!!!!!!! I'm really lonely. Ok loves loves and more loves. Sister Young

May 7, 2012

Hello hello hello. I have recently found out that all my blog posts are super weirdy-looking and make all my emails into one giant paragraph. This is stupid, and I'm sorry it keeps doing that. Let me tell you, not many things happened this week. We had a total of zero investigators at church, and we haven't been able to meet with Familie Bastan-Mehr this week :( We taught a total of TWO LESSONS to investigators and TWELVE to members. We are SUCKING. One of the member lessons/eating appointments we had this week was with a lovely lady who was baptized a little over a year ago. She used to be a traveling singer back in the day and she speaks FRENCH. So, naturally, she dusted off her old Edith Piaf records and we spent a lovely time eating lunch and listening to my favorite French singer in the entire world. I am so trunky for France. WHY AM I IN GERMANY?!?!?!?!?!!?!? Whatever. Embarrassing story of the week. Ready set go. So there is this ancient man in our ward that we teach who is also crazy. Anyway. So he's really sick and has had a lot of falls lately. The problem is that he lives alone and sometimes he'll fall and nobody knows for days until his doctor comes to visit or something. The other day we had an appointment with him and he didn't answer, which is weird because he calls several times in the week to remind us that we need to come visit. So we had someone else buzz us in and we knocked on his door - nothing. We call him like 50 times and we could hear his cell ringing inside the apartment. We don't know what to do so we call his hometeacher, who tells us to get the man in charge of the building to open up his door. Well, that man was a pile of poop and said he'd only open up for police. So we call the hometeacher back who says we should call the police. After much hesitation we call and relate our concerns and are very clear on the fact that we have no idea if this is a real emergency, we just need permission to open up the door. So then what happens? The fire department came. They brought a bunch of tools to knock down his door and we were FREAKING OUT. So these 2 police officers come and bang on his door really loud and good ole Bruder Wölfl wakes up from his hangover/nap and then everyone left. And you can bet that when he asked why the police came we blamed it on his hometeacher. Ha. Don't forget my birthday. Or me. Or how amazing French movies and food and music and everything about France is. I love yous! Sister Young

April 30, 2012

Welp. I have officially hit my 6 month mark on the mission. Weeeeeird. Also I have a feeling some of you are thinking, "Oh golly gee, that went by fast!" Poo poo on you, it feels like I've been here for an eternity and that I never really did have a life before this. Blah. Also my new companion is Sister Schaerr. She's really nice. And really pretty. Too pretty. I look like a piece of poo in her presence. Sometimes I'm self-conscious. Whatever. Well let me tell you some really awesome things. 1. Tigran got the priesthood yesterday AND passed the sacrament! I am so proud of my little baby. He is the most excited new convert I have ever seen in my life. And he's been bugging us about getting him a picture of Jesus smiling to hang up in his room. I kept telling him that all the pictures of Jesus smiling are kinda creepy but he wouldn't listen. So WHATEVER. 2. Frau Bastan-Mehr and Yalda came to sacrament meeting!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. Yalda was REALLY upset that they had to leave so her mama promised they would come back next week and stay longer. I love my life. I love them. I am so happy we teach them, even if they're our only investigator. And I'm not exaggerating. They really are the only investigators we have hahaha. 3. Elias came to church!!!!!! He's a less active that is AWESOME and has asked us to help him make major changes in his life. We've been trying to visit him ever since I first got here but now he invites US over and he came to church for reals! I am so happy for him.  So. Wanna hear the stalker story of the week? Yes you do. The other day we were boppin' around, just doin' our thang, and we turned a corner and BAM. A weirdy man is standing in the middle of the street. This is never good news. People like that are just WAITING for someone to latch on to. And, of course, he did. We decided we would just try to walk past him but it didn't work. He immediately started to follow us and talk to us. His name is Axel, and he's from the Netherlands. No idea what he is doing in Germany. He used to be in a rock band. These are the things we learned about him as he followed us. Also he only has one arm and I'm not really sure what happened to the other one. ANYWAY. So he's following us, and Sister Schaerr says that he probably doesn't have a bus pass so we could just get on one and he'll go away. It seemed like a good idea. WRONG. He had one and proceed to follow us across town. We get in the neighborhood of some members so we stop the bus and get off, with him right on our tails. At this point we've already told him to leave us alone and he's not allowed to follow us, but he was so high I'm not sure he really understood what was happening. He's also crazy in the head, so that didn't help. So I call these members, this old dude and his wife that love me a lot and maybe wouldn't mind if I brought a crazy man around, and asked if we could hide from this man in their apartment. YES OF COURSE was the answer, and we started running. And oh yes, Axel started to run after us. Really, he's harmless. He kept asking if he could hang around because he was so lonely, and I did feel bad for the fellow. He was really nice. But you just can't have a crazy following you as you do missionary work! So we ran until we saw good ol' Bruder Wolff walking down the street, coming to pick us up. So we meet him with Axel coming up close behind. I really wish ya'll knew Bruder Wolff. It would make a lot more sense when I tell you that he recited a poem to Axel about this guy who got shot for following women around. Hahahahahahaha. Anyways, long story short, he managed to convince Axel that he is more than welcome to come to church on Sunday but not to follow us around. Then we stayed with the Wolffs until Axel was long gone.  Being a sister missionary is nuts, in case you were wondering. Loves. Sister Young

April 23, 2012

Ok ok. Transfer results are in and I have good and bad news. Good news? I'm still in HAMBURG!!!!!!!!!! So this is the start of my 4th transfer here, and by the end of that I will have been here for 6 months. Wowza. Bad news? I'm still in a freaking trio. WHAT THE HECK. It's like God hates me or something. Also it's super weird because I'm now Sister Moon's trainer but I'm also getting a senior companion...?!?!? Don't ask. It's just DUMB. BUT. Best news ever. Frau Bastan-Mehr AND her husband AND her daughter Yalda came to a ward activity!!!!!! So exciting. Yalda is already best friends with everyone there and Frau Bastan-Mehr was holding someone else's baby the whole time hahaha. They're already a part of the ward. At one point we went into a different room and we were able to answer a lot of their questions and it was so great. Her husband said that the second he walked in he felt calm and peaceful, so we explained that was the Spirit and blah blah blah I CAN'T WAIT TILL THEY'RE BAPTIZED. But we're taking baby steps. No worries. And now I get to stay here and work with them more!! Also. So the Hamburg stake had a youth activity last Saturday where they could sign up to follow us around all day and be a missionary. Normally I would think that's super cute, but it happened to be the most stressful thing EVER. We found out about it like 5 days before and it was super confusing. We also found out that some Sisters would be coming from another city to help us out, so we needed to make appointments for FOUR COMPANIONSHIPS on ONE DAY. It was impossible. We made a total of ZERO, in case you were wondering. So basically I spent my Saturday walking around with a 16 year old trying to talk to people. Poor girl. Now she REALLY knows what missionary work is like. OH! And the one time she got the courage to talk to someone on the street it was a Jehovah's Witness. They can be pretty brutal, so she may or may not have been scarred from this experience. Whatevs. Wanna hear something funny? Cool. So there's this Bruder in the ward here who's pretty awesome. His family invites us over all the time and gives us referrals so we like them a lot. ANYWAY. My favorite thing about this Bruder besides his very old sense of humor and his bald head is the fact that when he feels the Spirit, he starts laughing hysterically. Like, he can't stop. Every single time we share a spiritual thought, he just starts laughing. And sometimes you'll look over at him during church and you can see his shoulders bouncing up and down from laughter. His wife says it's uncontrolable in the temple hahahahaha. Isn't that the funniest/coolest thing ever? I think so. Well my beautiful people, I loves yous a lots. Don't forget about me. And I like letters. Lurves. Sister Young

April 16, 2012

Well. First things first.

Tigran was baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay yay yay. Everything is super GUT. And also his mom and brother and a bunch of friends came. Over 100 people! He is so loved. And his mother was super super worried that he was joining a cult but after talking to Sister Risenmay for like a hour she said her heart "feels lighter." And, of course, she's going to check out the church in her hometown!!! Woooooo. Win win win.

Also Frau Bastan-Mehr came to the baptism with Yalda!! They're that family from Iran, if you can't remember. And Yalda's the cutest thing on the planet. And they're coming to a ward activity on Saturday!!! Oh, my heart is beaming with joy.

Also you want to know something else good?! I only cursed 3 times this week. And none of those times was in reference to someone else! I am making progress! Maybe I'll be an angel by the time I come back. Maybe.

Oh yes. And Crepe Boy is doing great, despite the little tiny setback we call WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HIS NAME IS. Oops. BUT it doesn't matter because we've taught him the first lesson and he was eating out of the palm of our hands. Then he kept asking questions that deal with the second lesson, so basically we like to call him a golden investigator. Ha.

Ok and I have the awkward story of the week. Ready? Ready.

So remember how I was getting love texts and stuff from an investigator? Well for our next lesson we set it up so that I was chillin with a member while Sister Risenmay and Sister Moon (it's so handy to be in a trio) taught him. Too bad so sad, he didn't show up. But he called and we set up another appointment for a different day. So again, we planned for me to be at Sofia's home and teach her while my companions went to the appointment. Except this time Sofia wasn't home for an unknown reason and she doesn't have a cell! Bad news. HOWEVER we found TIgran outside who had forgot his keys and had no idea why Sofia wasn't home either! So we invited him to be a joint teach because we were already going to be late. So we're at the church with Tigran waiting for our investigator and then the confusion starts - what the heck do I do? Sister Risenmay was under the impression that because TIgran was there I would come to the lesson too. Sister Moon thought that I was going to hide in the bathroom. I wasn't really thinking. SO. Our investigator shows up and Sister Moon just yells "Get down!!!" and I drop to the floor to hide. The problem? HE SAW ME DROPPING DOWN. So I just pretended I lost an earring and shot back up and ran to "go to the bathroom." And then I stayed in the bathroom for the entire lesson. And then I heard the lesson was horribly awkward because a) I guess he hates the idea of joint teaches and b) he knew I was hiding in the building somewhere. BUT I guess he wants to meet again. And next time I will be 50 miles away. Hopefully.

Oh, to be a sister missionary.

Also, Sister Risenmay and I play chess every single day to keep our minds limber. Watch out, we're getting real gooooood.

I love you all. And I love you all more when you send letters.

Lieeeeeebe,

Sister Young

April 9, 2012

Hello hello.

I have hilarious things to say to you.

First things first, I have officially received my first love letter of the mission. Well, actually, it was a text. BUT IT COUNTS. And it was a LOT of texts that told me all about my beautiful aura and my lovely features and my awesomeness. Duh. It's just too bad he's an investigator. Now we have to go on splits for his lessons so I don't have to be there. And we've devised strategic plans for how I can avoid him when he comes to church. Gah. It's just ANNOYING. I heard it just gets worse. The second I move to the East I'll get proposed to at least 50 times, or so I hear.

Speaking of the "East," Germany is the most divided country ever. People in the west don't like the DDR (doesn't even exist anymore, but that's how people refer to the east), nobody likes Saxon, and everyone loves to make fun of Byron. Ridiculous.

So. For those who are always asking what I do on P-days, the answer is COOL THINGS. I've seen a lot of Hamburg. Things to google that I've visited: Rathaus, St. Petri's Kirche (I paid an euro to walk up to the very tipy top of the steeple = scariest thing EVER), St. Michael's Kirche, Altona, Stadt Park, Planetarium...I think that's about it. Sorry if I spelled the church's names wrong. Oh, and last week we decided to go to a concentration camp and it was INTENSE. It's called Neuengamme, you should wiki that. Crazy. A ton of the biggest camps are in our mission, so I'll keep you posted on all the ones I visit.

Ok cooool story. So we were having a really really hard time finding new investigators and we were really struggling for a while, especially because all our appointments were falling out. WELL. We prayed and fasted and we ended up getting 3 new investigators and now have 4 progressing investigators instead of 2!!! Prayer works. Fasting works. Doing both at the same time is GREAT. Oh, and one of our new investigators just asked before we started our lesson, "So when can I get baptized?" Bahahaha it was crazy.

Speaking of cool things, we were teaching Tigran about missionary work and we read that scripture in D&C 18 about how if you bring souls to Christ then you'll experience great happiness and whatnot. WELL. Tigran just looked down and said, "Well Sister Martinz and Sister Young can be very very happy because they found Sofia and I. I can promise that because they found me, thousands of people will be brought into the church." WOOF. It was like this feeling of...I don't even know...just swept over me. I was just thrilled that these two awesome people changed their lives and were baptized, but it occured to me right then that Tigran will get married and have children who will have children and ALSO Tigran said he wants to serve a mission!!!!! Thousands. Literally thousands will come through him. Buh. I can't wait for his baptism on Sunday!!!

Also. Being in a trio is far too much fun. We laugh waaaaay too much.

People. My darling people of the world. I am going to remind you right now that my birthday is coming up (May 24) and I'm expecting at least a card from every single one of you. And if you want to send me a package I really miss mac and cheese. In case you forgot, my address is:

Sister Lesa Young
Germany Berlin Mission
Zerbster Strasse 42
12209 Berlin
Germany

Our Mission President has asked that we have all the packages sent to the mission office, just so you know. But if you want to send a letter directly to my apartment, email me and I'll give you the address.

I love yous.

Sister Young