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This was such a good week! We thought it was going to be really slow because of the three days that Germans celebrate for Christmas, but we saw tons of miracles yesterday!
Monday:
We enjoyed our last pday at the Christmas market! And we bought more stuff haha. We did a little split with the other sisters so we could buy our companions presents. It was just a beautiful night and we took some time to enjoy the fact that we are in this wonderful country.That night we went by a former investigator. We decided to try to get in contact with a bunch of people by bringing by joy to the world all wrapped up as a gift for Christmas. This lady let us in and we were able to share the Christmas imitative with her. She is going to a
health clinic soon and we made her promise that she would take the Book of Mormon with her!
Tuesday:
Way weird day. We split with the international sisters so that we could finish our split that we had started the week before and ended because I got sick. Sister Bakker and I did studies together and then went to the street display. We gave out a few Books of Mormon and got to talk to a super cute girl from China. Then we went to a church to do a service project. There is a church in Frankfurt that holds a giant feed the homeless activity on the 24th and the 25th and we were supposed to help early on the 25 to serve food. But they ended up not
needing us:( we did however get to help decorate this giant room for the feeding the homeless. And it took FOREVER. there were about 65 tables that we had to cover with paper to be table cloths and we had to wrap each table individually. Everything looked good on the end, but it was a lot of work. While we worked, I was able to talk to a girl about our church and religion in general. At first she was asking me all about regular life things and I just can't even talk about that anymore so I switched the topic to god haha... Later that night we did our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. But we held the meeting at the Christmas market and he bought all of us wurst:) we did more eating than correlating but it was way fun. We are blessed with an awesome ward mission leader and councilors! Today I met a lot of cool people in the buses and trains. I met a
really nice lady from Romania and we are going to visit her this week! I think her daughter is interested too. I also ran into a previous investigator and a woman I had contacted a couple weeks earlier.
Wednesday:
Today we got a little bit of studies in and then headed to a coordination meeting to plan a zone training. We actually had to go to their apartment and sit on chairs in their hallway so that we could be obedient. We probably looked so weird! They had to be at their apartment for a gas pipe check type thing. This zone training is going to be so good! Then we had district meeting and I got to give a thema about charity and Christmas.
We traveled to Darmstadt to do a power split with the sisters and their district and we did a finding activity together. We went to their town square and then just started singing Christmas songs! People loved us. We also found 4 potentials for the sisters:) I love splits because they are such good learning opportunities for both of us! I was able to contact with a brand new sister. We met a really cool girl who couldn't believe that we wanted her to think more about God haha. But she was open and said she would give it a try. Wednesday night was wonderful. We visited the Turovski family and cooked Russian food with the mom and her niece. I absolutely love this family! They are part member and less active. This niece is also not a member. There were a ton of languages going on and we are teaching them English too:) it took us two hours to make this dish but it was so worth it. Sister Turovski said a prayer in Ukrainian again and cried again. It was wonderful!
Thursday:
Today we did studies and then baked a lot of cookies to give to the members who invited us over:) we visited a single sister who is less active to bring her a bit of Christmas cheer. We watched the Christmas devotional in German with the ward. And then we went to sister gessner's for Christmas Eve. She lives on the 19th floor of a high rise and has such a beautiful view of the skyline! I'm pretty sure she cooked all day for us. She fed us a three course meal with lamb and a ton of German foods. She is also a great story teller and she told us
all about her experiences with World War Two. She was 6 when the war ended and she remembers so much. She and her family had some way crazy experiences and we were fascinated. I just love the Germans!
The sisters slept over at our apartment because president gave us permission for a Christmas sleepover haha. We put 4 mattresses on the floor and sister Bakker played some Christmas songs for us on her guitar. Sister Parker and I may have stayed up way too late talking...I'm so grateful for her.
Friday:
Sister Parker and I went on a run together at 6:30 and the other sisters started baking for our Christmas breakfast with the Frankfurt missionaries. We opened presents together and then joined everyone
else at the church! We played white elephant with the missionaries and ate a lot. President and sister Stoddard stopped by and shared a sweet Christmas spiritual thought and then the went to their breakfast with
the senior missionary couples. Then we traveled to visit two single sisters who made lunch for us
together. We were not hungry, but we managed to eat it! It was just way weird celebrating Christmas not with families haha. Just different but still good! Sister Godwin and I were able to study for a while and then we got to skype with the family!
Saturday:
We started out the day with another zone training planning session for a different zone. This one is also going to be great! Then we went to a baptism and I got to play the piano again. I have to explain the story because it's so cool. So Muhammad is a refugee here and has been here for three months. He had heard somehow about the church before and referred himself by walking into the church. And he got baptized last week:) then he brought his friend to church and he got baptized on Saturday. And this friend brought his other friend to his baptism and he will be getting baptized next week. It's so amazing! There are so many refugees here and we are all pretty sure this part of hastening the work:)
We visited Schwester Hickathier today and brought her more Reese's and sang a few songs for her.Then all nine of us missionaries loaded up in what we call the family Frankfurt van and drove to the Hovizavi family for lunch. This wonderful woman invited all nine of us haha. I'm pretty sure she cooked 5 chickens and made pounds of rice. Everything was so good and it was fun to be with such a big group of people!
That night we tried to visit that Romanian girl I wrote about, but she wasn't at home. But I met a cool guy on the way there and then we shared the Christmas video with a lady on the street.
Sunday:
MIRACLE DAY. I was honestly feeling pretty sad about the work for this week and was just praying that it could pick up these next four weeks! And it did. I had my going home interview before church..that came a lot sooner
than I had expected! It was really nice being able to talk to president Stoddard and I think we talked about marriage for a solid hour. Good thing I'm still a missionary! But I'm grateful for him and sister Stoddard and their advice and counsel! Then I did something absolutely terrifying and had to play the ORGAN in sacrament meeting. I have no clue how to play an organ but the bishop insisted that it had to be the organ and not the piano. It was rough, but we made it through! The gospel doctrines class was so good. A family from China brought two of their friends and they want to learn more and we get to teach them today! I love members.
Then brother Turovski came up to us and said he wants us to start preparing his 10 year old son for baptism:)
Then we went to dinner with a funny but cute couple. It was very German-pasta salad and wurst.
We finished the day with call ins and we were ready for bed haha Well I'm just so grateful. Life is good and the mission is great and I'm so thankful for this gospel. I just see every day how happy life is when you live it:)
Happy new year and I love you!...even though you didn't write me:)
Sister Funk
Monday:
We enjoyed our last pday at the Christmas market! And we bought more stuff haha. We did a little split with the other sisters so we could buy our companions presents. It was just a beautiful night and we took some time to enjoy the fact that we are in this wonderful country.That night we went by a former investigator. We decided to try to get in contact with a bunch of people by bringing by joy to the world all wrapped up as a gift for Christmas. This lady let us in and we were able to share the Christmas imitative with her. She is going to a
health clinic soon and we made her promise that she would take the Book of Mormon with her!
Tuesday:
Way weird day. We split with the international sisters so that we could finish our split that we had started the week before and ended because I got sick. Sister Bakker and I did studies together and then went to the street display. We gave out a few Books of Mormon and got to talk to a super cute girl from China. Then we went to a church to do a service project. There is a church in Frankfurt that holds a giant feed the homeless activity on the 24th and the 25th and we were supposed to help early on the 25 to serve food. But they ended up not
needing us:( we did however get to help decorate this giant room for the feeding the homeless. And it took FOREVER. there were about 65 tables that we had to cover with paper to be table cloths and we had to wrap each table individually. Everything looked good on the end, but it was a lot of work. While we worked, I was able to talk to a girl about our church and religion in general. At first she was asking me all about regular life things and I just can't even talk about that anymore so I switched the topic to god haha... Later that night we did our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. But we held the meeting at the Christmas market and he bought all of us wurst:) we did more eating than correlating but it was way fun. We are blessed with an awesome ward mission leader and councilors! Today I met a lot of cool people in the buses and trains. I met a
really nice lady from Romania and we are going to visit her this week! I think her daughter is interested too. I also ran into a previous investigator and a woman I had contacted a couple weeks earlier.
Wednesday:
Today we got a little bit of studies in and then headed to a coordination meeting to plan a zone training. We actually had to go to their apartment and sit on chairs in their hallway so that we could be obedient. We probably looked so weird! They had to be at their apartment for a gas pipe check type thing. This zone training is going to be so good! Then we had district meeting and I got to give a thema about charity and Christmas.
We traveled to Darmstadt to do a power split with the sisters and their district and we did a finding activity together. We went to their town square and then just started singing Christmas songs! People loved us. We also found 4 potentials for the sisters:) I love splits because they are such good learning opportunities for both of us! I was able to contact with a brand new sister. We met a really cool girl who couldn't believe that we wanted her to think more about God haha. But she was open and said she would give it a try. Wednesday night was wonderful. We visited the Turovski family and cooked Russian food with the mom and her niece. I absolutely love this family! They are part member and less active. This niece is also not a member. There were a ton of languages going on and we are teaching them English too:) it took us two hours to make this dish but it was so worth it. Sister Turovski said a prayer in Ukrainian again and cried again. It was wonderful!
Thursday:
Today we did studies and then baked a lot of cookies to give to the members who invited us over:) we visited a single sister who is less active to bring her a bit of Christmas cheer. We watched the Christmas devotional in German with the ward. And then we went to sister gessner's for Christmas Eve. She lives on the 19th floor of a high rise and has such a beautiful view of the skyline! I'm pretty sure she cooked all day for us. She fed us a three course meal with lamb and a ton of German foods. She is also a great story teller and she told us
all about her experiences with World War Two. She was 6 when the war ended and she remembers so much. She and her family had some way crazy experiences and we were fascinated. I just love the Germans!
The sisters slept over at our apartment because president gave us permission for a Christmas sleepover haha. We put 4 mattresses on the floor and sister Bakker played some Christmas songs for us on her guitar. Sister Parker and I may have stayed up way too late talking...I'm so grateful for her.
Friday:
Sister Parker and I went on a run together at 6:30 and the other sisters started baking for our Christmas breakfast with the Frankfurt missionaries. We opened presents together and then joined everyone
else at the church! We played white elephant with the missionaries and ate a lot. President and sister Stoddard stopped by and shared a sweet Christmas spiritual thought and then the went to their breakfast with
the senior missionary couples. Then we traveled to visit two single sisters who made lunch for us
together. We were not hungry, but we managed to eat it! It was just way weird celebrating Christmas not with families haha. Just different but still good! Sister Godwin and I were able to study for a while and then we got to skype with the family!
Saturday:
We started out the day with another zone training planning session for a different zone. This one is also going to be great! Then we went to a baptism and I got to play the piano again. I have to explain the story because it's so cool. So Muhammad is a refugee here and has been here for three months. He had heard somehow about the church before and referred himself by walking into the church. And he got baptized last week:) then he brought his friend to church and he got baptized on Saturday. And this friend brought his other friend to his baptism and he will be getting baptized next week. It's so amazing! There are so many refugees here and we are all pretty sure this part of hastening the work:)
We visited Schwester Hickathier today and brought her more Reese's and sang a few songs for her.Then all nine of us missionaries loaded up in what we call the family Frankfurt van and drove to the Hovizavi family for lunch. This wonderful woman invited all nine of us haha. I'm pretty sure she cooked 5 chickens and made pounds of rice. Everything was so good and it was fun to be with such a big group of people!
That night we tried to visit that Romanian girl I wrote about, but she wasn't at home. But I met a cool guy on the way there and then we shared the Christmas video with a lady on the street.
Sunday:
MIRACLE DAY. I was honestly feeling pretty sad about the work for this week and was just praying that it could pick up these next four weeks! And it did. I had my going home interview before church..that came a lot sooner
than I had expected! It was really nice being able to talk to president Stoddard and I think we talked about marriage for a solid hour. Good thing I'm still a missionary! But I'm grateful for him and sister Stoddard and their advice and counsel! Then I did something absolutely terrifying and had to play the ORGAN in sacrament meeting. I have no clue how to play an organ but the bishop insisted that it had to be the organ and not the piano. It was rough, but we made it through! The gospel doctrines class was so good. A family from China brought two of their friends and they want to learn more and we get to teach them today! I love members.
Then brother Turovski came up to us and said he wants us to start preparing his 10 year old son for baptism:)
Then we went to dinner with a funny but cute couple. It was very German-pasta salad and wurst.
We finished the day with call ins and we were ready for bed haha Well I'm just so grateful. Life is good and the mission is great and I'm so thankful for this gospel. I just see every day how happy life is when you live it:)
Happy new year and I love you!...even though you didn't write me:)
Sister Funk
