Hallo!
It seems like it has been an eternity since I've talked to yall. Well it has been a week and a half I suppose. So I will start at the top and work my way to right now sitting in the clarks office typing this letter.
My last little bit in the MTC was amazing no shocker there. We had several orientations on how to survive the real missionary world. That was on friday, it was nice... but from where i am sitting now it was "nice" I love the MTC I really do and you always walk away so uplifted from everything that you do there. You leave the cafeteria and you feel prepared to teach the people of Nineveh. So I was getting really pumped to step out into the really world. Saturday was pretty normal. Sunday was soo long we had meeting after meeting we went to but it was still so motivating. We were sitting in some kind of lecture or devotional for 7 hours that day. but i have to tell you about the miracle that happened. It was fast sunday and I was fasting to have comfort and reassurance that I could do this. That I could go adventuring off to another continent and speak a language I still didn't know, declaring the most important message that a person can hear in their lifetime. Then I had 7 hours worth of great motivational talks. about half way through the day was our last temple walk. We all basically stayed as a group. even president Petersen was there. At the back of the temple I was taking pictures of bees and flowers, aka off in lala land. some of the sisters and elders were circling and I saw Elder Uhlig again for the second time.
Here are my previous words to you about this elder " life got real on sunday at devotional. We just happened to sit in front of an elder going to Croatia who is from ... yeah you guessed it Frankfurt Germany. all my fello Deutscher sister were so excited and there i was about to hurl over with doubt, self frustration for not studying harder and well straight up stomach sickness. He talked to us and all i understood was he likes to run munchmal,sometimes. I was freaking out. not like a visible or even audible freakout but i was most definitely shutting down."
This Elder represented all my worries. He was my tangible connection to my mission and more accurately he was the reality of my weakness. But here we are my last temple walk in the United States and the same missionary is standing talking with my fellow deutschers once more. one missionary that has symbolically meant so much to me out of the 2700+ missionaries that were at the MTC. So I talked to him. Did I know any more german, nope. did i understand him any clearer, nope. Did I act like a giant fool again, yep. Did i feel ill and locked in despair, NOPE! It was this sweet miracle that God gave me. He gave me very a specific gift that was in direct response to my fasting for comfort and reassurance. And then I stayed true to my awkward self and asked this random elder for a picture. You are welcome.
Monday was so sweet it was our last day of class and it was on a normal schedule which added to the sweetness. We said bye to our teachers and took pictures so you will finally get to see Sis. Pingree and Br. Luna. They are just so amazing and fantastic! I love them both so much. We found out a little bit of the real people behind our investigators. Karl is actually Carla.. yep haha we were shocked too. And Xioa Hui we saw pictures of her. She is so sweet. and seeing the real people behind our investigators was so special. God knows us all. We are all his Children. After class we hardly did any studying.. aka none. We said goodbye to all our Berliners. We signed each others books. and the such. We finally made it back to the room to finish packing. aka for me to start packing. I was so excited that i couldn't think straight/ I had so much to do I couldn't think straight/ as the time went by and continued to not think straight I wasn't getting anything done so I was stressing out and not thinking straight. You would think will all the crooked thinking I would end up thinking straight again. but no. I ended staying up till like 1:15 packing and re packing and weighing all my things about a hundred times. Another miracle that occurred because the math does not add up I should have been waaaaaaayyy overweight in my bags but instead was only like 5 pounds more than i should have been. MIRACLE are happening people wake up!! I finished just in time to go to bed to wake up at 2:45. Crazy groggy and tired I got ready and left for the bus with not a second to spare... although there was a herd of even later sisters behind me. We took the bus to the Provo train station, rode the train up to the airport, were there were about 40 missionaries with about 150 pieces of luggage and bags.
Everything that happened at the airport was really smooth. No problem with luggage weight, or security or finding our gate, or having time to rearrange bags around, (and miracle we had a full flight so most everyones carryone was checked. bam that was like 50 extra pounds i didn't have to carry around) we even had time to go and find breakfast. We boarded. I was sitting in between sis. Goodrich (it was her first time in a plane so that was fun to see her reactions) and Elder Weigel. The flight to Dallas was pretty short and non eventful. They all slept for most of the time. I did talk to a German who was sitting behind me. He was really nice and friendly. We couldn't hear each other very well though so I faded away while the Elders sitting next to him took over our conversation about Deutschland.
Once we were in Dallas, there was about 30 chiefs in our tribe of 40 and so there was a lot of splitting that wasn't suppose to happen. and then we all got settled in to our gate just to find out that we were at the wrong gate. oops. so we had to book it to the other gate so that we would still have time to call home. And then the calling card thingy didn't work so I had to drag around poor sis. lyons till I just gave up and called using my card. whateves :) I loved loved loved talking to you mama! It is amazing how much the sound of your mothers voice is able to put peace into you heart and spirit. After the hang up we boarded our next flight. we were on a 777 which is HUGE! i was spot in the middle. there are two on the window sides then a row of 5 in the middle and i was in the center. I sat by elder wiegel then on my other side was sis. teeples and then elder swallow. It was a fun 9 hours! for real! we played games and cracked a million jokes but most of the time they slept. I was able to get maybe 2 hours in. so do the math on the number of hours Ive been up and the number of hours i have slept. woke up monday 6:30 didn't go to bed till 1:15 woke up at 2:45 and have been up going all the way into german wednesday at 7pm their time with 2 hours of rough sleep on the plane. I was basically a walking zombie missionary. through all of this next part.
We land in Germany!!!!!!!!! We were all so excited!! like crazy elder calhone from best two years excited. all 40 of us, plus all of our tiredness, it was a beautiful sight ;) we get off the plane and we go to costumes to yet again discover that we are missing missionaries. oops I guess we skipped that lesson of sheep in the MTC. haha but we make it all through and are at baggage claim trying to find all of our stuff. it was crazy. I look BEAUTIFUL and fresh and not at all like i stuck my head outside a semi for 100 miles and have been wearing the same clothes for the past 2 months. and oh yeah i havent used the bathroom since 2am that(ish) morning. And bam we walk in to the mission president. Who is the sweetest man! with the sweetest wife! it was so nice! I can't describe what I was feeling in that moment because it was just to much of everything. I was totally in a glazed over state. We then load all of our stuff into a car and the assistants to the president take us to the subway to start contacting!! It was so intense and a not so good experence. That was probably the furthest thing that i wanted to do in that moment. but I gave it a very bad try anyways.
after the subway we rode a bus to the stake center in Frankfurt. Were we had a blessed break and were able to sit down and fill out some logistic paperwork. aka glaze over and basically fall asleep. It was actually both really funny and really sad/pathetic. We were filling out papers and I had to fill out my home address. I TOTALLY forgot my address. not like Hmm i am a little confused over the numbers, or hey i just moved and am not 100% sure what my address is. No... oh no. I forgot. complete blank for like 15 mins. Actually it could have been a lot longer than that because i had to go over to my backpack and find a letter with my address on in to "remember" where I lived. Yeah welcome to how tired i was. It was a good thing that we are assigned companions or else who knows where i would be right now. haha but mama don't worry I am sane now, or at least a little more sane.
After the legal stuff was done we went out and were going to teach some members. It was so hot people. I was in a blazer, stupid, and thick tights, stupid. and it was 30*C outside and i was dehydrated and walking around everywhere. I was dying. The first two member we went to see weren't home and so we had to go into the middle of the town up to the mall to teach a sweet lady, Joy, at her work. After we went back to the stake center and we were suppose to sit through a little " how can we help you? what are questions you have? these are our mission goals" thing for and hour and a half. We were all so dead that that was about all i even remember from the whole hour and a half. The two elders teaching us had us go outside and stand so that we wouldn't fall asleep but that was a fail because I was literally sleeping standing up. Thankfully we had dinner next at 4 german time. and then i had like a 3 minute interview with the president because i was the last one. and then we ran to make our bus that was taking us to the hotel.
I have never been so tired in my life. like ever. and i worked graves. I. WAS. SOOO. TIRED. there are not enough words or caps large enough to describe that to you. I crashed at the hotel at 7. and woke up about 5 times during the night. Finally it was the next day. because to me all that day was still the same day that I had woken up in Provo at 2:45.
We all had breakfast together. and exchanged all our funny stories about how we figured out the European bathrooms and for special Elder Weigel how he figured out or i guess didnt figure out the comforter on the bed. We then had a meeting with President Schwartz, it was really pretty cool he gave a bunch of cool numbers like, this is the largest transfer the mission has had. because of the new missionaries there were over 200 transfers, only 12 companionships stayed together out of the whole mission. and then the fateful moment happened. We found out our trainers. Mine is flippin awesome. Sister Prince. This is her 13 month out and she actually came was transferred missions. her original call was berlin but about half way they moved her to frankfurt. With out really a clear explanation. But it was most likely for the reason that they didn't have enough trainers to train the incoming sister missionaries. So she is just awesome like that.
Papa you and Pat were right we are in Kaiserslautern. It is a pretty large area. and is in fact closer to France than Berlin. Weird I know. We are doing a ton of double duties. She is also the Sister Training Leader for the zone. and we are opening the area. Opening meaning we are the first sisters to be assigned here so we have to come up with the program all by ourselves. there are none of the regular mission supplies in our apartment. So we are trying to figure it all out. and our ward is HUGE. there are a ton of active families and a million little kids because it is a military ward. and there area also a ton of in-actives and part member families. Ohh small fact, I am English speaking. Ill get into that in a little bit. but yeah So I was really excited to hear the long awaited news of who I was with and where I was going. and I know that my assignment is the one that God has in my plans.
After the hotel we were put on to two bus and shuttled to the frankfurt trainstation. Now we have the 200 missionaries there with all their luggage. It was quite the sight! I was and really I have been on information overload so I am just there. It weird to describe but I just havent really been myself yet. And so K-town is actually the last group to leave. there was about 8 of us headed out that way, with 24 pieces of luggage, giant like 70lb each luggage. and we had 10 mins to get to our train and board with all of our stuff. It was so intense! I can't describe the hightened anxioity i had. we got on. and all went well but our train was late so we didn't have the planned 6 mins to get to the other train once we stopped we now had 3. and thankfully eventhough we were booking it we missed it. we then had a 30 minute breather and it was glorious. we got some italian ice and beautiful wasser. Then boarded our second train and were off. Our next stop was in K-town. Where Elder Moeller and Elder Jackson were there waiting for our party to come in. Elder Burden the senior couple picked us up and we loaded our stuff and drove to our apartment. We live on the fourth floor so 8 flight of stairs later time 3 people time 2 trips times 300lbs between the two of us. it was a long trip up those steps. We had just a few moments to ourselves before the elders came by and helped us find the church where our first family was picking us up.
We then had dinner with the Websters who are awesome. They live on base so we had to get checked in. but it was nice to be somewhere homey again after such a long day and then the long time at the mtc. So just to remind you I am only on thursday. I have only been in Germany for like a day. Currently I have only been in germany for 5 days! If you told me i have been here 3 weeks I wouldn't question you. It has been a long week.
The rest of the week we have had quiet a few very longs with the elders that are also assigned to our ward. Elder Jackson (think Buzz meets Spencer meet super typical missionary) who is also the district leader and his companion Elder Allen (think dodo from iceage meets quiet meets hard to tell) and we have quite a few Termines (apointments) with members. my first few days are not typical of a mission because we are opening the area. So i have kinda just been there who doesn't know a whole lot. I am glad i am english speaking although i already feel like all the german i learned is gone. but i am not terrible worried about it. It makes it easier to transistion i think which is good. The ward seems really cool although they have had bad experences with sisters so that will be a hurdle.
But I love it here so much. sorry if It doesnt seem like i communicated that too well. I look up when we walk and just fall in love with the buildings and with the views and the atmosphere. It doesnt seem real so it hard for me to write about it. Its like we are in an extended part in disney land. its so legit! I have a ton of pictures that i will unfortunately have to send later. because i am just about out of time. but I can't wait to brag about this area that I am living in. it is breath taking.
my new address for probably the next 12 weeks but for sure the next 6 is
Sister Rachel Wadsworth
Missionare der Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Pirmasenserstrasse 10
67655 Kaiserslautern
Germany
If you sent any mail to the frankfurt address I wont get it for a while. so know that. Mail takes about a week to get to seattle so know that too. But i am sending a ton. I love you all so much! please keep mailing me even when you havent gotten my letters yet.
my p-days are on monday so any emails need to be sent out by your sunday night fyi.
okay i must go now. I love you all! sorry for the jumpy intense half finished letter.
What comfort I have here in this new everything that God has a plan for me. That He has sent me here knowing full well my personality and my capabilities. And knowing everyone here auch. It is the best reminder that I get is to know that He Lives for me. I know this. I live by this. I could never live with out this knowledge.
bis dann!
Sis. Wadsworth
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