Guten Tag from Singen, Germany!
Man, all I have to say is that I feel like I am in a completely different world. Munich and Singen are sooo different. I don't even know where to begin.
First off, The Lord answers our prayers. I have gained a HUGE testimony of that this week. Before I was transfered here, I had been praying to Lord for help with a lot of things. I was praying for:
1- Strength to be able to street contact. I hate street contacting and it really scares me. So I was praying that I would be able to overcome my fear. (We never had to street contact in Munich, we ubahn/sbahn contacted. So much easier! haha)
1- Strength to be able to street contact. I hate street contacting and it really scares me. So I was praying that I would be able to overcome my fear. (We never had to street contact in Munich, we ubahn/sbahn contacted. So much easier! haha)
2-I prayed that my German would get better. My German is not up to par, so I was praying for Heavenly help that I could improve immensley.
3- I prayed that I could lose the 8 pounds that I have gained. Yes I know, not that much, but those 8 extra pounds have been killing my self esteem!
Well, the Lord answered all of those prayers by sending me to Singen. It was definitely not the way I expected, but every single one has been answered. How you might ask?
1- We are opening up the Singen area. We have NO investigators, NO area book, we have NOTHING. So we street contact. We are constantly contacting, because our main focus is to find investigators now. So now, I have no other excuses, I have to street contact!
2- I was blessed with a German golden!! So obviously, my german is going to get better because I am working with a native. I was so happy. Her name is Sister Freimann and she is from Hannover. She is so stinking cool. We get a long really well. She is 21- and her english is great and she is all for helping with german. She is blunt and told me my german needs a lot of work. hahaha but it is great, because she has already helped me so much. It was truely an answer to my prayers because it is really rare that Germans stay in Germany when they get sent on their mission here. They usually go straight to Switzerland because Americans can't serve there. I was the only missionary this transfer who gets to train a german, so I am so lucky!!
3- We walk everywhere in Singen. I feel like I am a pioneer on the trek. We walk and we walk and we walk somemore. It has some buses, but since it is small, there are not a lot. Our church is about a 45 minute walk a way too. So basically, I will be a lot more active which is awesome. Which hopefully means I will lose the 8 pounds I have gained:)
How cool is that???? The Lord really answers our prayers. It was definitely not in the way I expected, but so far he has answered all of my prayers. Prayer really works!!
I am not going to lie, it feels so weird being here in Singen. Just everything about it is so weird. I am in a completely different world. Singen is completely different from Munich-the landscape, the architecture, the people, everything! Munich was a city of about 3 million I think, and Singen is a city of about 40,000 with little villages surrounding it. Singen is a really weird city to me. The architecture does not match the landscape at all. When I see most of the architecture, I think of th 70s/ghettoness. But then you look at the scenery surrounding it and there are trees everywhere and it is so green! It looks like you are in fairytale land! It is so weird! haha
I am excited to be here. It is so cool because I am with completely different missionaries, in a complete different state of germany, and just everything is so different. It is a new adventure and I am excited to experience it.
So these past few days have been great. We got here Thursday night at around 7:00. (We left munich at 12:35-had a 3 hour train ride to Stuttgart, then 1 hour layover, then 2 hour train ride to Singen). The Branch President, Relief Society president, one of the counselors in the branch presidency, and The Ehepaar (Senior Couple-Elder and Sister Gurney) greeted us. They then took us to our new apartment which is SO nice. We have a huge bedroom, kitchen, dining room, and family room. It is huge and we have so much space. The whole branch had been working so hard to get it ready for us. Everyone in the branch contributed so much because they were so excited to get another set of missionaries. Awesome huh? well that night we had dinner with the Branch Presidency and the Gurney's at our apartment. They all had done so much for us, which was so nice.
Then Friday, Saturday, Sunday- was spent planning, contacting, meeting people in the branch, and having no idea what to do. haha I guess that is typical when you are starting from scratch with an area. The branch is really wonderful. There are 140 members and they just need 10 more people to be a ward. We have a brand new church house here that just opened in September which is awesome as well. The whole branch is super excited about missionary work, especially because they want to become a ward!
O sorry this is the longest email ever.
Saturday we had an appointment with a crazy less active- and i mean, literally she is crazy. It was the funniest appointment I think I have ever had. We walked into her house, and it was super dark. We sat down and she got us water. I saw that she had a ton of cds, so I asked her who her favorite singer was. She then looked at me and said "I'll show you!" Then all the sudden she put on this weird like Romanian folk music and started dancing for us. hahah We all danced in a circle for about 10 minutes, then all the sudden she was done, sat down on the couch, and said "Alma 50" then began reading. We read Alma 50 with her, then as soon as it ended she said "Okay, sis sonntag!" and gave me three huge kisses. Freaked me out a little bit. I wish you could just meet her though because if you saw her you would think this story is hilarious. haha I will bring pictures later.
Well I love you guys!! Thanks for all the prayers. Sister Freimann and I are working hard and are determined we are going to see a baptism before this transfer is over. It is going to happen. Ijust know it. heheh LOVE YALL!!!
Saturday we had an appointment with a crazy less active- and i mean, literally she is crazy. It was the funniest appointment I think I have ever had. We walked into her house, and it was super dark. We sat down and she got us water. I saw that she had a ton of cds, so I asked her who her favorite singer was. She then looked at me and said "I'll show you!" Then all the sudden she put on this weird like Romanian folk music and started dancing for us. hahah We all danced in a circle for about 10 minutes, then all the sudden she was done, sat down on the couch, and said "Alma 50" then began reading. We read Alma 50 with her, then as soon as it ended she said "Okay, sis sonntag!" and gave me three huge kisses. Freaked me out a little bit. I wish you could just meet her though because if you saw her you would think this story is hilarious. haha I will bring pictures later.
Well I love you guys!! Thanks for all the prayers. Sister Freimann and I are working hard and are determined we are going to see a baptism before this transfer is over. It is going to happen. Ijust know it. heheh LOVE YALL!!!
Sister Allman
O here is my new address!
Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Elysse Allman
Bruderhofstrasse 50
78224 Singen
Deutschland
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