Letter 3 from Sister Sarah

Hey Family Type Peoples!

I’m now battered and bruised…well just my arms and parts of my hands… it was a zone p-day today so it was the first time I’d played volleyball since the MTC and before that I’d only played it really in high school. It was fun. I laughed a lot because of the elders reactions to things and that they came up with mascots for each of the teams. The first was the wombats. Then my team decided they would be the unicorns and then “my little Pony.” We kicked some wombat behinds J It was hilarious. I was definitely not the reason we won, but I did nit the ball several times. Hence the battered and bruised.

Anyways the most exciting thing is we have my first convert baptism coming up! We taught him for the first time after he got married (The Friday I arrived). On Thursday the 3rd , then Wednesday the 9th we asked how his reading and praying has been going. He grinned and said ‘good’ (now some background, he is VERY shy and had just come from Fiji to get married.) Sister Halladay and I both had the feeling he got an answer to his prayer, but we didn’t want to ask if he wanted to be baptized at that moment. We both wanted to be sure he understood and our bishop asked us not to pressure him into baptism. Late in the lesson Sister Halladay felt impressed to invite him. He had kept bringing up baptism himself, like he said the reading we had given him was all about baptism which there is some mention of baptism, but it’s not all about it. He’s excited. That’s second lesson he talked a whole lot more and opened up quite a bit for him. He accepted the invitation and is getting baptized on Friday, the 18th. Pretty fast, but he has a huge support from his new wife and her family, they ‘re all members. His name is Rajendra (pronounced RahJen) Sammi and his wife is Keshni Gaundar Sammi.

Something else that’s exciting is that we started teaching a family today. We found them in our ‘former investigator’ area and when to see them on Saturday before the ward Christmas Dinner. We invited them to the dinner, but they weren’t able to come because their car broke down, but we met with them this morning at 10 and both Misty (wife) and Robert (husband) were soaking it in when they were being side tracked by their 4-year-old son Dante. They’re both very good to each other and to their son. They treat each other and their son with respect and have come a long way already. They used to use a lot of things, but then Dante came around they stopped. They were both listening intently and liking what they heard. We explained that we’re family oriented as a church and they loved that. We hope the best for them and are excited to see them progressing even farther then they have already.

Wendy Tinker is a recent convert who got baptized just before I arrived. They day of her confirmation she was called as a ward missionary. She went out of town and came back and stared getting right to work. She ahs several friends that she’s invited to 2 different dinners that Sister Halladay and I were also invited to. Two of those friends – a mother and a daughter- now want to learn more for themselves, so both we and sister Tinker are excited.

In this (and probably other) missions we have what we call standards of excellence, which is the mission presidents’ vision of what each companionship of missionaries could feasibly could find, teach etc for each week. Well last night (Sunday Dec 13) we needed to find one new person to teach (investigator) and one person to ‘put on date’ for baptism, so they had a goal to work towards. Well, we’d already done everything we had planned, there was no one outside that we could talk to and were at a loss. We pulled off to the side of the road and prayed. We waited a minute, listening and praying in our hearts (sis Halladay offered the verbal prayer and paused before saying “amen’ and during the pause I gave my own silent prayer that sister Hoalladay would be directed to where we needed to got) then looked at each other. Sister Halladay asked me what I thought, I told her that I felt we needed to go back the way we’d come (we had pulled into a side street) and she feel impressed that we should go to some apartments just down the road. So we turned around and got off the side street and back on the road we had been before. We got to the apartments and started knocking on doors. Most of the people were polite, but not interested. Some accused us of soliciting, I girl – Cassie – was interested, but she was going off to school soon.

We almost skipped the middle section, but I pointed it out to sister Halladay and we knocked on those doors making so we started walking to out car just in time to meet Antonio.

Just before we exited the apartment parking , Sis. Hallsaday said “I guess it was for Cassie’ then a man came around the corner and walking his huge dog (Doberman I think). Sister Halladay and I stopped to talk to him. He mentioned he was having a hard time and Sister Halladay said something to the effect of :if you give Jesus the time first, life will get easier.” He perked up and she said, basically “we’re holding a baptismal service on Dec 31st, will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that day?” he said he would, we got his name, number and address and will be teaching him on Wednesday J God loves giving us miracles at the last second.

Anyway, LOVE you all! Be good! And let Santa think you deserve coal this year

<3 Sis. Sarah Durtschi

letter #2 From Sister Sarah in WA

Dear Family Type Peoples,

I’m currently watching Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration with 6 guys and 1 girl. My district plus our Zone Leaders. It’s kind of weird to have Elder district and zone leaders, etc. I mentioned to one of my zone leaders last night that it was weird not to be able to hug my district/zone leaders.

This week has gone a lot faster then last week. I’m starting to get used to being in Washington. I’m starting to get used to teaching everything all the way to baptism rather than just the first lesson or trying to get to know what their concern or knowledge is of the gospel and building on it or teaching to that concern. I’ve learned a lot so far, especially from my companion Sister Halladay. We’re been working, fasting and praying for baptisms. We have several people who we believe are ready, but things keep coming up. The ward (Lake Forest Park) needs 3 more baptisms to reach their goal for the year and we don’t have a whole lot of support from the ward as a whole, but there are several members who are very supportive. I hope you don’t see this as negative. I love the ward & branch I am serving in but things have happened in the past that makes it difficult for the members to trust us completely. That being the case we’re working hard and trying to gain trust and get the Lord’s work done.

The mission goal for the year is 1,000 [baptisms],which means 4 more baptism for each companionship. A lot of people say it’s not about the numbers, but it is. Not to make anyone look good, not to up the members of the church, but every number we add to the people baptized is another soul saved, it another child of God who has the chance to live with him again. Sometimes it hard for mission to put the two together, I think. Sister Tew helped me to see that in both ways.

It’s kind of interesting seeing missionary work from the missionaries’ point of view. I remember going to PEC meetings as first councilor in the relief society and it’s really different.

And the rest will have to wait until the next week. Please write and if you have questions ask, they will help get my letters going faster.

Love you all!

Love Sis.

Letter from Sister Durtschi 11/30/09

I received a letter from Sarah today :) I've typed it up below. Enjoy!

My Dear Family type Peoples! 11/30/09

Well I’m out. It’s kind of weird. And it’s kind of weird that I’m not emailing. I guess that Heavenly Father wants to see if I can go 4 months without touching a computer.

So I got to Washington last Wednesday (late for a missionary) because my plane was delayed an hour or so. It was supposed to leave at 3:30pm with me and Sister Baily (a sister from class and is in the mission next-ish to me, Tacoma) but it left at 4:50pm or so. Our mission presidents and their wives were there to greet us anyway and mine, President Shewalter, took me to eat at Olive Garden. We then went to the mission office and met the assistants to the President and my new companion. Sister Halladay, the sister who had been sister Halladay’s companion, sister Coleman and her new companions (sister Dewitt & Cicern (sp?).

We – sister Hallway and I – went home and planned, I unpacked a bit and crashed. The next day was Thanksgiving, which we went street contacting beforehand. It was very different. I still used to people more coming to me and asking questions them me pouncing on them to get their attention, then speaking quickly to keep their attention.

After Thursday was a whirlwind of contacting, tracking and teaching appointments ending with Sunday and Church, trying to get people to church, and ‘cottage meeting’ which is where recent and not-so-recent converts give their conversion story and the way missionaries are able to go is if they have an investigator with them. It’s once a transfer. After that meeting, one of our investigators, a 13 year old named Nikki stated that she was going to bet baptized on the way back Nikki told us all that she learned. Sister Holladay and I were surprised at how much she had learned because she kept chitchatting through the whole thing.

O, I’m going to get a tape recorder. Sister Halladay says she sends on, a tape, back and forth wither family because there is too much to tell just in a letter and I agree wholeheartedly. I’m not sure whether to get a mini-tape one or a regular sized tape. Does anyone have a mini-tape? And we just went shopping and tape recorders are/seem expensive! $25! I don’t know if that normal or not…

Anyway, lots of love to you all! Hope you’re having a great season so far.

Love y’all lots!

Love Sister of the share of the Durtschi sort.

No Email Until...

I'm just emailing to let ya'll know that I won't be able to email you again until after march 31st when I get back to Temple Square. It's a mission rule in the Everett Washington Mission, but just know that I'm doing well. My companion is Sister Halladay, who is awesome, and we're teaching a messload of families and individuals. Some of which are really close to baptism, one said she wants to be baptized, and just let us know tonight. I'm over two wards, a hearing ward and a deaf branch, we live with the deaf branch president, so you can write me at that address for at least the next 4 weeks.

233 19 Cedar Way K201
Mountlake Terrace, Washington, 98043

But, after that... you may want to just write to the mission address.

16124 35th Avenue NE
Mill Creek, Washington 98012

I love you all, and hopefully I'll be good at writing individual letters so all ya'all can hear from me. I'll probably write Amy so she can post stuff on the Blog, whether by scanning it in and forcing you all to read my horrible writing, or by typing it up. Hope to get letters from you all, and I love you all. Email you in 4 months!

Be happy and all that!

LOVE!!!!

~Sister Durtschi of the Sarah Sort (AKA Sister 'D' People have a hard time with my name for some reason here... :P)

Important Announcement!

Hi fellow friends of Sister Sarah.



Tonight Sarah's companion called me to follow up on a referral and told me that transfers had been announced and Sarah will be.....drum roll please....

Going outbound, heading to the Everett Washington Mission for 3 transfers (about 4.5 months).

I'm very excited for her! More information to follow I'm sure :)

Halfway there and still kicking

My dearest family peoples!

I tell you what, wow!  Time flies!!!  I’ve been on my mission 9 months minus 5 days! I’m half way! That’s SO crazy!!!  I can’t believe how fast it’s gone, and yet I can.  It keeps on flying in my face every time I think about it that I’ve changed SO much and that I’ve been here for so long.  I can hardly imagine how it would be to not be on a mission…  Kind of weird to think about.   Someone said that at one point in time on your mission you’re afraid that people will answer the door (Or in my case, that they answer the phone or come to take a tour)  At another point in the mission, you’re afraid that they WON’T answer.  I’ve gotten to t hat point.  I still don’t really like calling, but I do it because I want to talk to people and want them to have the gospel.  Same with talking to people around Temple Square.

SO many miracles have happened this week.  I was on exchanges for some of the time, but when I wasn’t things seemed to fall into place.
On Saturday  we went to family search for a while and almost everyone we talked to wanted to talk to us, which doesn’t normally happen.  Usually people just kind of breeze by and ignore us, so it was a very nice change.  Especially since I ran into several people who served missions.
On Sunday, sister Fellmann was announcing German and wasn’t horribly excited about it.  She’s much more confident speaking French or English than she is at German.  So the time came around that Music and the Spoken Word was supposed to get out, and a few people trickled out… but they continued singing.  We waited and tried talking to people (I and sister Quist who is from CA as well, and actually went to the same ward I did during the summer… she’s the first sister from CA I’ve known before we were on missions.  We were going around and trying to find people that spoke Chinese and German, since her companion speaks Chinese and mine speaks German) but it was kind of awkward since the program was going late.    Finally It let out and sister Quist and I were able to find a ton of Chinese speaking people, but no Germans.  Since being with sister Droege I’m more or less able to tell when  people are from Europe by their dress, so I noticed a couple that was dressed differently and we went to talk to them.  They were from Oregon.  Bummer.  They left so she could “Powder her nose” and Sister Quist went back to her companion and I went back to sister Fellmann.   We looked around hoping to find someone who spoke German.   No such luck, but the couple came back and searched me out, they wanted to take a tour, so we took them around.  It was amazing!    They both had really good questions, and asked about Joseph Smith in basically the first stop, we were able to explain things to them, and in between stops, sister Fellmann talked with the man (who is a country singer, hence the different clothes.) and I talked with the woman (they work together, and I think that’s it) She asked many questions, and  had a hard time with the Bible because it had been translated so many times, so I explained the book of Mormon.  In the end I invited her and she accepted to have the missionaries and the Book of Mormon.  It’s pretty amazing.
On Tuesday I was on exchanges with my district leader’s companion. We were in Family Search for about 2 hours and we were able to talk to many different people who were going into the MTC and coming back from their missions.  One who was going to the MTC was going to California, Signing!  She was signing with a deaf man and we were able to chat for a bit.

On Wednesday (which happened to be Sister Fellmann’s birthday)  We didn’t get any of the language tours that we had planned for, but we did find people to take around.  Two of which both came in through the south Gate.  One was trying to figure out the map,  looking confused, so we started talking to him.  Sister felllmann noticed a young woman that walked in and went to talk with her too while I talked with the young man.  The young woman was from England, so she and sister fellmann hit it off, and the young man was from Texas.  They had never met before.  We asked them if they wanted us to show them around and they agreed, so we did.  They both were interested and asked a lot of questions, and both of them wanted to learn more about family and how they could be together with them forever.  It was really neat to see people so excited to learn.

We’ve been having a Preach My Gospel Marathon as a mission where every day but Sunday we go at different times and either the Assistants, President or one of the groups of Zone leaders will teach from Preach my gospel, and we’ll all participate.  I love it so far! We’re learning so much!  And it helps make it so we’re not just bored trying to contact the same guest  50 different times…

Any ways, love you all lots!!!  Be happy and all that jazz type stuffs.
~The sister of the Sarah of the Durtschi sort

Apartments and Frozen Eggs

Dearest Family type peoples-

So this is the second p-day and it’s been an interesting week. As we were getting settled in our new apartment, up the hill from the old one where I’d lived all my other transfers, we get news that we get to move… again. Day before yesterday sister Fellmann and I had our president interviews and while sister Fellmann was in hers, one of the Assistants pulled me aside and informed me that we would be moving, and so would our roommates, and the sisters next door, because the porch needed to be renovated. Exciting, no? So yesterday we worked hard at moving our things, and got mostly everything moved, we just need to do some last minute cleaning things so that the next people to inhabit the place don’t have to. Where do we move then? Even further up the hill! Plus stairs! Whee! Kinda.

The apartment is nice. It’s MUCH bigger than the one we had just been living in. Both the rooms are good sized, unlike the one we were in, and the kitchen living room, etc, are larger as well. Thank heavens. The only down side is that the sisters who were living downstairs last transfer, when the apartment we moved into was empty, had had a scary experience with hearing someone upstairs. When we got to the apartment, we went to all the different windows and made sure they were all locked. Our roommates slept over in the new apartment before us, and one of them swore that she heard something in the apartment, and was thoroughly freaked out by it. Last night we had a roommate prayer before going to sleep, and I don’t know about the other sisters but I didn’t hear a thing. Then again, we’ve only been there one night.

I mentioned to sister Fellmann more than once that I get my imagination from my dad, and that sometimes, like my dad, that imagination is used to worry. I try not to let it overtake things, so I prayed and relaxed, and everything worked out fine, and will work out fine.

Earlier in the week we were introduced to Mission/Guest services, where people call to schedule tours, or anything else under the sun. We get some interesting questions in there, most of which we’re able to answer… one of the most unique that I got was a man calling in and asking what the nutritional facts were for a product called Atmit that we talk about on Welfare square (and probably the Humanitarian center too.) . I told him to call Welfare Square since they have some there in little packets with the information on the back of it. It’s something that is given to countries that are starving, or who’s people are struggling etc, to make it so their bodies can accept real food when they get into t he advanced stages of starvation. It was started in Ethiopia, and it’s an Ethiopian word that means Nourishing Porage. The government over there wasn’t able to make enough for the people who needed it, so they turned to the Church and asked us to help, we accepted. The original stuff was made of oatmeal, honey, and goats milk, or something like that, and they took some over to BYU and they fixed it up so that it could be a dry product and got it back over to Ethiopia within a month or two. It’s pretty amazing how the work of God goes.

Another fun experience in Mission/Guest services was due to a mix up. People are able to call in and reserve theaters for special occasions, etc, and I was reserving one for a leader to work out a ward youth activity. I wrote down all the information he gave me, but since some of it was missing (my first time doing it, so I didn’t know what questions to ask) I had to take it over to some other sisters while I waited for him to call back later.

He did call back, and I thought the sisters had the paper still, so I didn’t take down his phone number again, but unbeknownst to me, they had thrown it away because normally you’d take down their number again if everything wasn’t there, etc. So I hung up. Then I asked them for the paper… then we all started scrambling trying to find it. We searched using the information I had remembered, to find his bishop, but I had remembered the ward name incorrectly. Eventually we did find his number and all was well, but it was crazy for a few hours. Kind of like Grace. We are given it after all we can do. I’d done all I could do, so I turned it over to the lord and he provided. Thank Heavens. By the way, that was during the same time I found out we were moving, so it was exciting in more than one way.

Something also fun is to see how God answers prayers, especially when we plan prayerfully. On Monday we had planned for 2 language tours, one French one German. We had 2 French and 1 German, and both of the French tours had 2 people, the German had 4, and one of the French Couples referred. A tender mercy and a blessing. Since things are slowing down, and we are in Mission/Guest services, and the Referral (Call) center a lot, we don’t have much time to contact people on the square. So it’s really good to have those experiences when we do.

It's amazing how the Lord takes us and stretches us in ways that we never thought we could stretch. I mentioned to Sister Fellmann one of the first days we had together that I felt like being on a mission and with different companions was like being thrown into a mold with another person for 6 weeks, and then after the 6 weeks you pop out, and look a little different, but still the same, only to be thrown into the same mold, but with a differently shaped person for another 6 weeks. Some of the people you fit well in together, but some, you have to make room for, or make room for yourself so that you two can stand to be together in the mold of Christ for that amount of time. By the end of it all, everyone changes at least a little bit, and hopefully you keep the mold of Christ more than anything else out of it.

One funny experience in the RC(Referral Center) This morning. In Mission/Guest services, we normally answer the phone, "Temple Square visitor’s Center" and then our name (for me, Sister Durtschi) So when I had my first call in the RC, I had to stop and think about what to say, and I’m sure the guy on the other end thought I wasn’t quite all there. Normally when someone calls us in the RC I say something like, "This is Sarah with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how can I help you?" or something like that. It was funny. After that I made the calls instead of having people call me.

Another funny thing earlier t his week- In our old apartment our fridge liked to… well you could say; pretend it was a freezer. So occasionally when I would cook something, I’d have frozen eggs. My companion took pictures for me. I’ll just send one. It was quite a unique experience. I always wondered what would happen if you froze eggs… now I know! They kind of have a funny texture after the fact, but they’re fine in baking.

Something about my companion that’s kind of fun is that she loves to Role play. Meaning with the dice and Table top and things like that, so we discussed when we last had our weekly planning on how to use that to figure out how to improve what we do on temple square… it’s kind of funny, and we’re going to have fun with it I think…

Any way, I love ya all!

Be happy and all that fun stuffs!

Transfers are completed

OKAY!!

So guess what? I’m still on Temple Square. I’m not training, though a lot of sisters that I know are. Like sister Tew, she’s training someone from Japan. And sister Williams, my trainer, she’s also training someone from japan. Fun eh? I’m with Sister Fellmann who’s in the same class as sister Droege whom I trained, and you may recognize her name because she, I, sister Droege and sister Shugart always did things together the transfer I trained. If you don’t remember, I’ll try and send pictures.

It’s funny because when I found out I was training I looked at the pictures of t he sisters who were coming and said that I either wanted the German or the Swiss, and now I have both!
To tell a bit about sister Fellmann, she’s only been a member for about 4 years. We’re about the same age, I’m a few months older, she’s a little taller than me, blond hair, glasses, etc. Before she joined, she was partway between Agnostic and Atheist, and her parents raised her that way. Since Christmas is coming up, president sent a letter to all the parents and I’m not so sure that hers reacted so well to it.
It must be getting to that time of the year. A lot of sisters have been getting sick, and this morning my chest started getting that feeling of weight, so I’m going to try and rest today and kick the cold while it’s down. Being sick is not so fun.

Some of our senior couples are going to surrounding wards and trying to help people come back to church. We’re going to miss them, especially since some of them won’t be coming back to temple square before they come home, but they are needed else where. From what I understand, fewer senior couples are going on missions and so that means that the ones that do have to do more, at least in the more proselyting missions. Some are going to where Becky is! It’s pretty neat!

This transfer, a lot of things are different. Usually I live in a big apartment with other sisters, but there are also houses nearby that are divided up into apartments that the sisters live in as well, and this transfer is the first time I’ve been in the houses. It’s pretty nice, but it takes time to get used to. The room is tiny, but not any smaller than the one I was in last transfer. Good thing sister Fellmann and I get along, otherwise it might be a bit interesting… Especially with both of us knowing some form of Karate.

Something really cool is last night, sister Fellmann and I were walking around the tabernacle trying to find some people to talk to just before we went home, when we saw a cute little family. We walked over to them, and I recognized the mother, it was Becca, Becky’s friend from High School (Lortscher… or however it was spelled.) We talked for a bit, and I was able to meet her husband. I had met one of her little girls, but the other one hadn’t been born yet when I last saw her in Orem. They were here for a wedding of a friend and to find work.

Any ways, I love you all lots and lots and lots!!! Thank you so much for your letters and emails and so on, they help a lot! :D

Last P-day

Dearest family peoples

So what was everyone’s thoughts on conference? I was able to watch the Saturday Afternoon session, and portions of Sunday morning, but other than that I’m mostly in the dark. I heard that Elder Holland’s talk was amazing and I’m working on printing it out as we speak, and my companion and I intend to listen to it before we go to the rest of our p-day.

As usual Conference weekend was a bit insane, but it seemed less insane than last conference. On Saturday sister Tew and I were a bit bummed because we talked to and invited 50 different people, but only one of them gave us their friend to call. Some gave us the name of a friend, but no number because it was at home, but it was a bit discouraging. Sunday was a LOT better. We talked to one less person, but got 7 or 8 people to call. Today 2 of those people accepted the missionaries, and yesterday one of them did. I’m excited to see how it all works out!

On Sunday I was announcing ASL and standing up on some steps at the conference center, fingerspelling "ASL" and doing the ‘I-Love-You’ sign so people would know that I did ASL and was waiting to give a tour when one of my friends ran up to me. Becca Riches is a mutual friend of mine and Clarissa’s and we have been serving in neighboring missions for the better part of half our missions, but had never met until that day. She’s going home soon, finishing up with her mission in Salt Lake City South, so we were both super excited to see each other :D

On Monday, we took some people on the tour, two of them were identical twins, traveling around to celebrate their 60th birthday. They were sweet ladies and both referred, which was amazing. They were so much fun to have on the tour, both southern bells and very happy about everything.

Tuesday I ran into Catherine, who recognized my last name and apparently knew Amy when she went to BYU. I don’t know much more about her because her friend, (also went to BYU) showed up and they went to do what they had come to do.

Wednesday was exciting but kind of sad at the same time. We had found out earlier in the week that the group that does Joseph-A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet were going to perform Wednesday night… and we weren’t able to go. I was able to informally meet some of the people, like the piano player who also plays for Diamond Rio (if you know that) and Jason, I think his name is. Sister Tew worked with them before because she’s a sound tech and they came and played over at BYU-I which is where she went to school, so she was explaining things to me and some senior couples that were there for a while, and pointed out who different people were. I also found out that in addition to Trek and Joseph, the band is also doing a tribute to Missionaries and It’s coming out in 2010 :D hehe.

I was also able to meet some people who I’m pretty sure are ready for the gospel, but they just need to realize that they’re ready. They came into the tabernacle in the afternoon sometime and started asking me questions, first it was just about the building, then it was about our beliefs, and in the end, after I had explained about spirit Prison and Paradise(which was one of the woman’s questions), the woman who had asked the question mentioned that she was a fan of heaven. Then I started explaining the three degrees of glory and told her that God and Jesus Christ wanted her to be with them in the highest degree and the missionaries could help her learn how to get there. They left without filling out the card, but that woman was crying on the way out. I hope she learns more.

Thursday we had a referral in the Beehive House. It’s the first one this transfer for me, and the first one ever for sister Tew. It was a husband and wife who both referred, but since they live in the same house, etc, it counts as one. The husband wanted more info and history, the wife wanted a Book of Mormon, so I’m excited to see how that goes :D

This morning sister Tew and I took pictures around temple square while it was dead and deserted and posed like we were taking a tour. It was fun. I’ll try and send some pictures to amy so she can post them.

Any ways, loves all ya’lls. Be happy and all that fun stuff.

I’ll find out on Monday whether or not I’m going outbound. I’ll try to have someone email you on Monday or Tuesday to say if I’ve gone outbound… but if I do, I’ll be able to call in the airport :D So if you get a random phone call, you’ll know why :) Love n stuffs!!!

Day before General Conference

Dear Family type peoples-

So last week I was able to do some family research on our p-day, that was nice. It felt weird to be on the computer for more than a half hour or so. I watched the time go by and realized that I’m no longer used to being on the computer for hours on end. Kind of amazing what happens over just a few months, eh?

It’s also kind of funny the different things that happen in the temple. Last week I ran into the Lindseys as we were leaving, this week, a man stopped us and gave us someone to call to invite to learn more. That has not happened to us while we’ve been companions, and I can’t remember any other time that has happened since the beginning of my mission. He just walked up to us and said he had someone on his mind that he wanted us to call. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted us to call his friend.

Saturday all us sister missionaries, old and young, were able to go to the Relief Society general session because the elders(the husbands of the senior sisters) took care of Temple Square while we were gone. We really appreciated it and they said that it wasn’t too bad at all, that everything went just hunky dory. After the session, we (sister Tew, myself, Sister Guenter and Rios) were asked to sing and give our testimonies to a small group of women from a near by stake. We did so, but they forgot to let us sing. It all worked out, but it was a little surprising at first.
One of the senior sisters in our mission had a heart attack and has had several heart surgeries. She’s doing fine, but it’s always something that is hard, so we’re trying to pray for her as a mission so that she can get better soon and can have our support.

Thursday I ran into Darren Kortzen’s sister and her husband. Actually my companion started talking to them first, then I joined in the conversation and found all that out. It was kind of interesting. I found out Cassie is on her mission in Tampa Florida, but I think that Elisabeth left just as she was going into the mission.

Also yesterday, one of the sisters in my class- who had to go home for foot surgery- is finally on Temple Square. She had to go home from the MTC and she just got here. Every one in our class is so excited to have her here, and she’s excited too, but also a little overwhelmed I think.
We’ve been preparing for General Conference tomorrow! Have you? It’s amazing to see the blessings that come from having a prophet for our time today. Do you all have questions that you need answered that you can take with you to conference?

Love ya all lots!

Be happy etc!

September 25th

Hello all my family type peoples!

This week has been a bit crazy, but I think that’s normal now! There’s always change in everything in this mission, and the Assistants and president call it, “Always improving.” One change wasn’t really announced, but apparently they’re not doing South Gate tours any more, just west gate, which has kind of confused some guests who haven’t been here for a while and are getting their information from dated books. Thankfully we’re usually able to help them out, whether it’s us giving them an unscheduled tour, or helping them find the West Gate w here they can get a tour all their own.

I’m currently in the Library instead of the Family search center because sister Tew and I are planning on doing family research after this which will be quite fun I’m sure. She’s going to try and find some of her Native American Ancestors. It’ll be quite fun. While she’s doing that, I’ll either help her or try to play around with New FamilySearch more. Has anyone tried to use it before? It’s pretty neat. I was able to get all the way back to Adam on Mom’s line one time in my third transfer. I just followed the lines that looked like they had kings.

This morning in the temple, as sister Tew and I were on our way out, we ran into the Lindseys that were in our ward in Hollister. I think their first names are Tim and Ara, or something like that. I think I remember babysitting their daughter whose name was a combination of their names, Timara. We walked past them and we recognized each other. Brother Lindsey looked at my name tag and said, “Hey! Durtschi! We were in your ward back in Hollister!” and I knew I recognized them too, so we talked for just a second before we went our separate ways.

One fun thing about Temple square is that we get to see some of the international missionaries before they go to their respective missions. Today I met a sister who’s going to Germany on her mission who is best friends with sister Rogers, who was my roommate my second transfer.
Last P-day was exciting. We went to Ensign Peak as a zone activity and nearly got blown off the top. A storm was coming in and so it was very windy. On the way up we sometimes had to stop because the wind was so bad and dust was making it hard to see, besides most of us were wearing shorts or kapris / short sleeved shirts, and the dust hurt the exposed skin. When we got to the top, some sisters had to hold onto the rail to keep up, and it was quite fun. A little scary in some ways, but I was excited the whole time and tried to make sure no one fell off. It was a time I didn’t mind weighing what I weigh. After we all made it back down safely, we decided to eat the sack lunches we had brought to exchange at our Zone Leader’s apartment instead of at the top of Ensign peak. It was fun. We did a White Elephant gift and had a spiritual thought about pioneers as we ate.

During our district/zone meeting on Wednesday we talked a lot about preparing for Conference, and part of that is being able to talk to Members. After the meeting, sister Tew and I ran into a young man who was preparing to go on a mission. We talked a bit and he gave us someone to call. Later he was trying to track us down so he could give us another of his friends to call. And this morning when we called to let him know how one friend went and to get the number of his other friend again, he said he wanted to have us call more people, but he had to think of their names. It really helped me see that many of Heavenly Father’s children are ready so long as we’re ready to listen, ask questions, etc.I also ran into Aunt Janet while she was on a layover on Wednesday. More like other sisters met her and chased after me as I was on the way to lunch to let me know she was there. We chatted for a bit then she went to her hotel and we went and ate.Yesterday, Thursday, we went on exchanges, I went with sister Lara, and sister Tew went with our district leader, sister Warner (in my class) Sister Lara and I were basically in the RC all day. I came out relatively unscathed, but I’m still working on liking the Referral Center. Calling total strangers is not my idea of fun… but someone has to do it.

It was good to hear from both mom and dad! I’m glad you both got to Georgia safely! It’s also pretty neat that you were able to go and visit so many people! Did you have fun along the way?
So tomorrow we get to go to the General Relief society meeting, and I’m excited for it! Normally we need to be outside and contacting people, etc, but the Senior elders are making it so we can all go to the meeting. Directly after sister Tew and I are putting something on for a stake along with our Zone leaders… we just found out about it as we were leaving to email. Sister Tew does not like speaking in front of big groups, so she was not very happy. Oh well. It’ll be good :D

Any ways, lots of love to you all!!!

Be happy and all that jazz!

Visiting Sister Sarah!!!

with many of our family members already in UT and several others coming to town to pack up the Orem, help Becky move and go to Jared's baptism we decided to take advantage of the Temple Square mission's policy that family members can make arrangements to visit the sisters.

I called the mission service line and told them I wanted to set up a tour with Sister Sarah...the poor sisters were obviously new and a little unsure of what they were doing...I got disconnected. But don't worry :) After working with sometimes difficult people I've learned how to be persistent as well as polite...so I called them back. We made arrangements for tour for Sunday, Sept 6th and 4:30pm.

Later that week we found out that Grandpa passed away. We called the same number to try to talk to someone who could let Sister Sarah know the news. Blessings happen in unexpected ways. Mom talked to one of the counselors in the mission presidency and he said that he would let Sister Sarah know and then mom told him that we had request to have a tour with Sarah on Sunday so if needed we could tell her then. He commented that he remembered that request and had approved it. Mom asked him if he remembers the exact time that had been approved (we had said anytime after 4:30 pm according to Sister Sarah's schedule). He couldn't remember and transferred us to his wife to find out. The sister couldn't find the approval in the system, but because of our call we were able to get that resolved and see Sister Sarah...a definite blessing in an unexpected way!

Here a few pictures. Sarah looks great! I loved being able to see her :)


A great take-it-yourself picture while we were waiting for David and Melissa :)

The Family :)

Pictures from Last weeks letter :)

Unfortunately the other pictures from the dinner and such didn't make it...but here are the 'blackmail' pictures of Sarah's companion, Sister Tew and a few of Sister Sarah last p-day in front of an old building (her explanation not mine :P)

Reasons I love my Companion

So, here I was, minding my own business chatting with our roommates at the table, when all the sudden I look to one side and see my companion... flopped on the couch in what may or may not be a comfortable position... I did my best not to laugh as I took a picture of her. You can probably tell I wasn't very successful. Especially in one of the pictures. She's trying not to smile because just as I was taking the pictures, I said that she'd probably try and kill me for this. Thankfully she hasn't yet. Just asked for a copy of the pictures so she could send them to her family.


The other picture is sister Tew and sister Jakobson (from Denmark) just a random picture taken when we were eating dinner after all ya lovely family type people came to take a tour n stuffs. When sister Tew was outbound and I knew she would be my companion, people who didn’t know her would ask me about her. I would say that she kind of looks like sister Jakobson… but not. You can see for yourself what she looks like now.


Any way, this week has been good. Sister Tew and I are getting used to each other and all that other fun stuff. For the first while we were both basket cases. She was having a hard time adjusting from outbound back to Temple Square, and I was having an interesting time with things like Grandpa Durtschi passing away and Dad loosing his job. Needless to say it was an interesting first week or so. Now we’re able to work things a bit better n stuffs.


Something that I’ve been learning from sister Tew is to write down the names of everyone we teach if at all possible. It’s really helped. Though there are still a lot of people, and sometimes we miss a few, I feel like we really helped someone instead of just talking at a wall. And I’m very thankful for companions. There have been so many times where the situation could have turned out bad (or at least me not being able to make any sense to the guests, etc) if I hadn’t had a companion to pass things off to. YAY companions!


Umm… I’m not sure what else to write about. Any questions? Things you’re dieing to know about things that go on here?


Any ways, loves ya all lots! I’m going to jet for now, but know that I love you all!



***Editor's note: For some reason the pictures didn't come through, but hopefully sister Sarah will be able to send them to me later.

Celebrating Life

Our Grandpa Durtschi passed away earlier this month, on Sept 5th. We were able to get most of us together for the funeral. Sister Sarah asked me to let you all know so that her following letters would make sense.



We love and will miss Grandpa Durtschi. We are very blessed to have a knowledge of the gospel and the Plan of Salvation. It gives meaning to life and understanding to death.

Transfers, take 5...4?

My dearest people of the family sort…

Today I found out, as did every one else, what all is going to happen next transfer, which starts on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, sister Dröge and I didn’t get to stay together, like we hoped. But I’m not going outbound yet. I’m going to be with a sister who has been outbound for the last 3 transfers and helping her get readjusted to all the multitudes of changes that have been going on in our lovely mission. Her name is Sister Tew. I don’t remember where she went on her outbound, but I’ll know that by next p-day, which will either be Thursday or Friday. I’m in Cover Zone, which means that I get to cover anything… well almost anything. My district covers Family Search, which is cool. I get to be in Family Search at least once a week, probably more than that!

Ooohhh my goodness, things are changing a lot, which I think is pretty cool. This coming transfer, there will be very few assignments that we HAVE to be at, so it will be a lot like a regular mission, where we’re able to plan most of our day, then go and do what we planned. This will take a lot more diligence on our part, and more planning, but I think it will work out for the better.

I am going to miss German tours though.

Oh, and I’m living in the same apartment as the Assistants to the President. It’s pretty interesting. It’s a good thing that I get along with them, eh? Sister Dröge and I will be moving the majority of our stuff today so we don’t have to worry about it later.

*deep breath*

Outbound calls and transfer conference was a bit crazy, but fun, this morning. Sister Cox is going outbound, (to Colorado, I think. Mom, where do our cousins in Colorado live?) and sister Salazar is going home. She’s finished her 18 months. It’s so crazy.

Sister Dröge and I have decided (so long as the Lord agrees) that she’s going to “Kill” me. Meaning that she’ll be my companion my last transfer, especially since we’re not able to be companions this coming transfer. She’ll be companions with sister Brunsvik who was in my district my third transfer. Pretty neat.

Thank you every one who’s written me, and all that other fun stuff. I’m thankful for all the support you all give me, and really appreciate it.

Any way, love you all VERY much! Be happy n all, and I’ll be writing you again either Thursday or Friday!



Loves!

Stuff n' Stuff

So, Family, How is everything going this week?

Good?

Wonderful!

I find out, a week from today, where I’m going, who I’m going with, and so on and so forth. I don’t want this Transfer to end! Both Sister Dröge and I are praying that we get to stay companions, but… we’ll see how it goes. I may go outbound, I may not. We shall see.
Since today is our second to last p-day, we’re having a zone activity and going Bowling. Sister Shugart, Dröge and Fellmann and I are all going to gateway after words and getting ice cream to celebrate our times together. It’ll be fun. I’ll be the only American in the group! Canada, Germany, and Switzerland/England/France. Fun, no?

Anyway… this week was good, kind of merged into the other week.On Wednesday we had 5 German tours. I think we both had an overdose of German. The first 3 were fine, then we contacted a German motor coach and after that we both had headaches, but it worked out. The first family that we gave a tour to that day referred. We were soooo excited because that was the first German family that had ever wanted to learn more, aside from what we told them, enough to fill out the card.A little later in the week, we had a tour with a husband and wife, the wife wanted to learn more, but the husband didn’t want to. We’re praying for her and really hope that she gets more information.

I’m sure something funny happened this week, but I just can’t remember a specific thing.
We did go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication. That was really good. We went to the last session and got to hear President Monson talk on a somewhat less formal level than he normally does with conference. He talked about how he met M. Russell Ballard, and a lot of stories, one where he was visiting the people in East Germany before the wall went down, and they really wanted a temple, one family had at least 12 pictures of temples in their front room. When a request was put in to the government to build a temple, the government replied, “We’ve watched you all these years, and we trust you. Permission is granted for everything you’ve requested.” It was made even more special because my companion is from Germany, even if she is from the West side rather than the East.He also really emphasized making sure we have room for Christ. He said we have rooms for Eating, rooms for sleeping, rooms for entertainment, but do we have room for Christ? Even though I’m on my mission, it still hit home, because sometimes we get so busy with things here that we forget to really focus on the important things, even though most of what we’re doing is important.

So, are you all going to take a picture when you come for Jared’s baptism? And are you going to send said picture to a certain someone? :D

Any ways, much love to you all!

Be happy and all that!

L
O
V
E!

~sister of the Sarah sort

August 17, 2009

I’m very glad that we write our president’s letters before we have p-day now (for my zone any way) because I had to go back over the things that happened so I could write it in that letter before I wrote it here. A lot of things happened, but some of them I already told you about since they happened last Monday before I came to do emails.

So ever since sister Droege(Dröge, the dots above the ‘o’ replace the e that would be there…) passed off German, we’ve taken at least one German tour a day. I’ve loved it! One day we prayed to have three, and though we only had two official ones, we talked to a bunch of people who spoke German to make up for it.

On Wednesday I think it was, we had a motor coach that we were supposed to be contacting for, but they called and said that they would be late, so we contacted around the tabernacle (the motor coaches all pull up at the West Gate behind the Tabernacle) and on occasion I like asking other sister missionaries if they have someone we can call to invite them to learn more about the gospel, and the sister from Sweden, sister Hollesen, said that she did have someone. This someone was basically her best friend, but I have to make sure and call at a certain time so I don’t wake her up, etc, since the time difference is so big. I called once, and it went, I think, right to voice mail, but since it was in Swedish, I couldn’t tell… But that was rather cool.

We get to contact for a lot of Mandarin motor coaches, one day we had three. Just imagine trying to get 20-60 people, who want to take lots of pictures, to follow the sister who’s giving the tour in their language, without speaking their language… it’s interesting. I feel like I’m on a big deaf tour and I have to wave my arms around a lot. It’s a lot of fun. One of the sisters who I’ve helped before with the Mandarin motor coaches gave me a card to use as an example to show how to fill it out, so that even though I don’t speak their language, I’m able to help them get more information by indicating what they may be missing. Three people, so far, have been able to get more information by me looking at their cards, then pointing at the information they’re missing, like a phone number, and them filling it in.

My second companion, sister Salazar, is going home in a couple of weeks. It’s kind of sad to see her go, but I’m glad that I was able to be her companion.

So… I think I’m out of things to say… does any one have any questions about anything I’ve written for the past 6 months?... Can any one believe that I’ve been gone for that long?

And Carolyn mentioned in her email that David and Melissa are having twins! My goodness!
That’s exciting!! Do you know if they’re both boys, both girls, or one of each?

And Belated Happy Birthday to Jared! Happy 8th!

And Happy Birthday to Becky! :D I’m excited for you and all the stuffs

And Happy Birthday to Dad early, just in case ;)

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

August 10, 2009

My companion is typing away, and has been while I read your emails. Usually I print them out then read them later when I have more time through the day, but since we’re not tooo strict on a time limit because we’re not driving any where and so don’t have to worry about making other sisters late, we’re kind of taking our time, meaning that we actually ate lunch, and did a few things before coming and doing emails. One of the things we did was go to the top of the Church Office Building (COB) and took pictures. It’s kind of weird to be able to look at my whole mission from the top of a building, all but the Beehive house which was behind us. I think we could even see Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center, which are both parts of our mission.

So this week… um… I’m very glad we have planners, otherwise I’d forget half of what I want to type at you all, if not more than half.

I’ve been working harder on eating healthily. I don’t know if I’ve really mentioned that I’ve been working on that much, but it’s been something that I’ve been doing for the past month and a half. In that time I’ve gotten rid of about 12-15 lbs, and my companions have been very supportive. I’ve noticed, now that I have very little sugar in my diet, that when I eat sugar, like a small piece of cake, that I get a mild headache, so that has been helping me not eat sugar in large doses. Graham crackers are some of my best friends, because they taste sweet but have very little sugar compared to a lot of things.

I had my first ASL tour this transfer on Wednesday, with two people who didn’t really need it, but since they had requested the tour the day before or earlier, I gave it to them. It was fine, but directly after, sister Droege and I contacted a motor coach(huge tour).I also am starting to fill in my responsibility as the American Sign Language coordinator by talking to one of the new sisters who wants to pass off Sign Language. It will be interesting, but good.

I’m continuing to learn German, and have used it, especially on Friday when I was on exchanges because sister Dröge needed to pass off English so she could pass off German, so I welcomed some people from Germany using German and mentioned where I was from, and they said something in German that I didn’t understand until I heard Sacramento or something like that and realized they were talking about visiting California. It was pretty neat. But I still have a LONG way to go. >.>

Also on Friday we had our Zone Conference, which was excellent, we had two gentlemen who are in charge of Visitors Centers all over come and talk to us about things we can do to be better missionaries here, which was mainly by not being rote and following the spirit, plus making it personally applied to them. Meaning not being Tour Guides as some of the guests call us. We don’t say the same thing over and over again because every one is different, so we need to apply it to them personally as much as possible.

We also got to see a video that’s going to be/is in buses when people come to see temple square in big groups, and from the air port so they have an idea of what they’re getting into when they arrive so they can go and find a sister missionary when they arrive if they’re not already going to take a tour. It’s going to be a lot of fun. :D I’m kind of happy that I’ll be staying another summer, just because I’ll be able to see a portion of the effects that this video will have on how guests interact with us, and so on. You all probably won’t be able to see it just now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were on youtube in a few months…

On Sunday I got to announce ASL for the first time. Meaning that after Music and the Spoken word, we go out side of the Conference Center and speak (sign) a message saying that we have tours that they can have here on temple square in about 15 different languages at that time. So basically the English sister says, “Good morning!” and every one (meaning the other sisters) responds, “Good morning!” and she continues, “Welcome to Temple Square, we’d like to invite you to join one of our complementary tours which explains the Grounds history and Basic Beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. Please meet your Missionary Guide after the presentation.” And I’d translate it into Sign. My last Companion, sister Cox was the one announcing in English and it was her first time too, and she was a bit nervous, so she changed it a time or two, but it’s all good.

Today we went to the temple and a thought came to mind that all the big things in life are just a bunch of little things put together. Little things make big things, so don’t let the little things that don’t matter get in the way of the little things that do matter, because if one takes over the other, then it becomes a big bad thing.
And if that doesn’t make sense… it’s okay, that’s just how my mind works sometimes :P.

Sister Droege can usually understand me when I’m joking, or when I say something in a funny way, because she has a similar sense of humor/way of speaking, which is nice, so even when we can’t communicate as well just speaking, we can normally get our point across with the tone or what naught.

Right after the temple we had to go to a Safety Training meeting, where a woman, Tracy, came and talked to us about being mindful about our surroundings, not being naïve, try to be/look confident and listen to the spirit. Basically if we feel uncomfortable, that’s when we take action, not after words. After words it’s too late. And when we listen to the spirit, we need to remember that the spirit gives Guidance, not explanation in the majority of the time.

So just as soon as we got out of the meeting, we had a tour with three gentlemen. One of them, both sister Dröge and I didn’t feel comfortable about, so we mentioned it to the elder there and the security guy there, and had someone shadow us. Two sisters kept an eye on him and helped us in our first stop when he kept on interrupting us. He wasn’t malicious as near as I could tell, just couldn’t control himself from saying what was on his mind in the moment it was exactly on his mind. He said we were both good girls before the tour started, and during the tour he interrupted a time or two, mostly talking to sister Dröge, saying, “It’s okay, you can just say what you want to say.” Etc. It was a bit weird, but we did our best to give the information and keep the spirit there, and be polite to the man. We started on to our next stop, and normally we would intermingle with the people, but because we were both feeling a bit uncomfortable, we stuck together. When we got to our second stop, the Tabernacle, we went one way, and he didn’t follow, so the sisters that were following us went to him and made sure everything would be alright (apparently when the organist started playing, he bolted towards the organ, and one of the sisters went after him.) then had the security guys help him out.

Sister Droege and I continued our tour and it was very good overall, because the two gentlemen saw how patient we were with the other guy, they wanted to learn more, so they referred themselves. It was rather nice.

Directly after that, sister Droege passed off German, so now she can take German tours! YAY!

Lots of love to you all!

Thank you so much for your emails! I'd love to get pictures of all ya'all in the mail so I can carry you around with me ;)

Love youuuu!!!

Pictures from the end of Last Transfer

Sister Sarah sent me these few pictures from the end of last transfer. She didn't give me much to go on in terms of labeling, but enjoy!

Yay missionary Work :D

OOOOOOOOKaaaaaaaay!

I can’t believe it’s already our second p-day! It doesn’t seem like it’s been all that long, and yet at the same time it’s like it’s been 3 or 4 weeks instead of just 2 and a half.

So Just today we had a lot of crazy things, but cool things, happen. We had a tour, which we thought was at 10:00, but it was really at 10:15. The 10:00 tour got 4 people, and we got 16 people for our 10:15 tour, it was crazy! But it was so much fun! We had the Zone Leaders following our tour to see how we’d progressed as a companionship, and they found a lot of good things about our tour, and had a hard time finding things for us to improve! YAY companionship unity!

So the second thing, after giving a tour to a couple of grandparents, and their 8 year old Baptist grand daughter, we (sister Dröge and I) walked past a man that we both recognized. We looked back and both said at the same time, “I know him” Then we looked at each other and asked how the other knew him. We come to find out, after he recognized us and came back to talk to us, that he taught my good friend David Byars back in California when he was on a mission, and that currently, he was dating one of sister Dröge’s friends back in Germany. It was entirely insane. But cool at the same time. It’s a small world in Temple Square…

Okay, so now going back through the rest of my week. On Tuesday, we (north and south Zones) went to Big Cottonwood Canyon and had a game time and BBQ. It was a lot of fun. Extended and Cover zones went on Thursday, which was fun for us who stayed on Temple Square. And that was tons of fun, minus the sunburn that I got on the back of my pasty white legs, and neck. It wasn’t too bad, and it was all a ton of fun. Unfortunately, it made both sister Dröge and I a little out of it for a while since it was so hot and we didn’t drink as much as we should have… bad sister missionaries… :P

The next day, Wednesday, President Holmes put on a breakfast which consisted of Cinnamon Rolls and juice, which was good, but I was glad I ate before hand so I didn’t over do it on the sugar.I also had my president’s Interview, and after words I went and talked to the Assistants to figure out what on earth I’m supposed to be doing as ASL language coordinator, so that helped get things more or less organized in my brain.We also had our first Zone/ District meeting, which was good. This transfer they’re combining the two just because there are a LOT of people on Temple Square and we’re all needed on the square as much as possible.

So since Extended and Cover zones were at Big Cottonwoood Canyon on Thursday, We had a fun schedule. We had family search for 4 hours in the morning, just like my old schedule used to be, but then sister Dröge wasn’t feeling well, so she had to go rest, then after she rested and felt better we had an hour or so together before we went on half-day district leader exchanges.
On Friday, we went on full day exchanges, but this time sister Dröge was with the district leader, and I was with the district leader’s companion, and we had 3 tours, one right after the other. It was a little insane. Our first one was fairly big, but the last two only had two people each in them.
That was also the day I ran into one of Stephen’s old neighbors from Syracuse. Coleen Davis. She recognized the name and we got talking, and found out that they had lived just down the street. Do you remember her, Stephen or Carolyn?

On Saturday I learned a little Dutch, how to say Thank You (Dankavel) and you’re welcome (Alstublieft) Wich kind of means ‘there you go’ or ‘here you go’ or something like that.I’m also trying to learn German still…

On Sunday, we had a tour which didn’t happen since everyone was going to Music and the Spoken Word, but we did get a German Tour because none of the other German sisters were available, and we were right there, so sister Dröge gave her 2nd german tour. Her first was when I was on half day exchanges with our district leader. It was cool. We also started figuring out some of the more funny things about temple square that we’re going to write about after our missions, like how the plant next to the buttons in the Tabernacle likes to try and eat us whenever we go to assist in the Acoustic Demonstration (you all will have to come and hear that if you haven’t already, and it will make more sense if it doesn’t now), and how when contacting a Chinese Motorcoach (huge tour) we feel like we’re herding Cats. (they like to stop and take pictures about every 5 steps… and one tour group we contacted was rude and made the sister giving the Mandarin tour cry. She’s a great sister, so she’s okay now.)

Sister Dröge and I have been getting to know each other better, and we’re finding even more things that are alike than we had before. We are very similar in a lot of ways, in addition to what I said last week, she also likes to write ( I think I mention that she likes to draw people, etc) and… yeah. It’s fun. :D

Thank you all for your emails, and stuffs, and thank you Amy for the package, I did get it, and I wrote you… but I haven’t sent that letter yet, so I’ll have to try and send it today, along with a few other things : )

Oh, and if any one has an extra cord that connects from the camera to the computer it would be greatly appreciated… I’m pretty sure there are some in the house in Orem, but… yeah. :D
I’m excited for Jared’s baptism coming up! Who’s going to Baptize him? You’ll have to let me know how all of this goes with the moving and packing and stuff like that!

Lots of love n stuff n stuff!

~sister of the Sarah Sort.

Traiiinnniiinnngg!

Take two.

And the computer just ate my letter ‘cause I had to restart! Oh vell.

Any way, so like the last title says, I’m training! Wheee!!! It’s been so much fun, I’ve loved it, and as you can also probably see, my p-day has changed to Monday, so that’s when I’ll be emailing and all that.

So on Monday I found out that I’d be training, and Tuesday, up until the middle of Wednesday were both REALLY slow. I wanted to know who I was training and where she was from and everything, but like all the other trainers and trainees I had to wait and find out.

We all gathered in Theater 1 and looked at each other, wondering who was going to be with who and what they’d be like. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long because I was the second one called up and told who my new companion would be.

Sister Dröge is from Germany, about two hours from Frankfort, and we are very similar personality wise. I just sent you a picture of the two of us taken this morning on the way to our assignment, which happened to be a tour that one of the Assistants and one of our Zone leaders joined in on. It was good. They helped us find ways to practice better.

She likes hugs, bread, being crazy with good friends (but they have to be good friends, otherwise we’re not comfortable being crazy…) and laughing at me, which is good because I try to make her laugh :P

Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to give more details next week, because we need to head off to Walmart, I may be able to email a bit more later because she forgot her email address and she needs to get it again.

Love ya all!!! :D

changes, changes, changes

Lots and lots of changes. Like transfers happening this week... and so I may not be emailing next Saturday, but we shall see....

So... I'm hearing a lot of moving things, but not anything definite.... what's going on? Becky mentioned she's moving closer to her store, Amy mentioned something about packing, is the Orem House being sold?And I just got an email from Amy saying it is. Where will I be going after my mission? So I can tell my mission president, etc. I’m guessing Georgia, but nothing’s definite, eh?

That’s the one thing that is constant in this mission: change. Like yesterday, we all were informed that there was a meeting that we all had to go to at 8:30 last night. None of us had been informed of it beforehand, except those in it, and all of us were wondering what it was going to be about, but President Holmes made a rule about no speculating, so not tooo many rumors were flying around.It turned out just to be a movie night, where we watched a movie about a young man who went through a huge trial (being really good at athletic stuff, then becoming a quadriplegic) yet he always had a good attitude. It was a good thing to watch. Then we saw a clip of Elder Worthlin’s last talk, Come What May and Love it, and both movies were really about attitude and how to have a positive/good attitude, no matter what happened. It was something that many of the sisters needed, including me to some extent. I think we all have times when we have a bad attitude and just need a little uplifting so we can see things better.

President Holmes likes throwing curve balls at us so we don’t get complacent and we are able to rely more on the spirit. Like this last transfer he called one of the sisters who’s more or less in the middle of her mission to be an Assistant to the President, which had never happened before.
So the last two days, sister Cox and I have been working on a manual for the new Zone leaders for next transfer about family search district, since both of them will be brand new… or at least new as zone leaders. I’m a little anxious to hear what will be happening and so on, and part of me can’t wait until Monday to hear what’s going on, but at the same time, I don’t want to say goodbye to the friends I have that are going home. Sister Kreiczer is going back to Hungary, and sister Ward is going back to Australia. I’m planning, sometime after my mission, to do a world trip to see all the sisters that I met and became good friends with on my mission. So far on my list I have Hungary, Australia and Switzerland, we’ll see how much it grows… I’m planning on learning at least a little of all the languages that are here on temple square… about 50ish all together.
Oh… my book of mormon broke earlier today. It was sad. The binding was already starting to give way, but now it’s really sad. I gave it to one of the senior elders to fix, so hopefully it will be all happy by tomorrow… if not I have an extra one I can use. Poor thing.

OH! I need pictures! I have ones from David and Melissa’s wedding, but I haven’t had any pictures from any one from that time, other than one from Amy. So pretty please with sugar on top?

Umm.,.. and if I haven’t answered any of your questions, please email them again, chances are I thought I answered them and didn’t realize I hadn’t.

Love ya all! I’m prayin’ for ya’ll!

Love the sister of the Durtschi of the Sarah Sort.

July 11 2009, Second to last P'Day

OOOooookkkaaaayyyy!

This week, I have realized that it’s almost the end of the transfer… again. Had things been normal, we would have found out who’s going out bound yesterday… but since they’re not, and we’re finding out during transfer conference… well a lot of people are speculating and figuring t hat not a lot of people are leaving especially since only 2 or 3 are coming back from outbound (my trainer included) and fewer are coming from the MTC than are going home… I’m kinda sad because my zone leaders are going home, so sister Cox and I have been spending as much time with them as we can, which has been kinda crazy but fun at the same time.

Just some things that I forgot to mention last time, Thank you Grandma Maren for the card and check, I did get them! I’m not sure where I put the check just now, but… I’ll find it when I clean today. Sorry I didn’t mention it with the other email…

And mom and dad asked if we ever went on exchanges with the ward members here, and we don’t. There isn’t a single ward that we belong to that we could exchange with. We’re in our own ward, all us missionaries, etc… it’s kinda cool.

Umm…Oh, I was actually able to be with my companion for the majority of the week, rather than on exchanges, it was pretty cool. But yesterday one of the sisters in our district got sick, so she had to go on exchanges, and while we were on exchanges, she planned the district meeting, and usually she’ll tell me everything, but this one she wants to be a surprise for everyone. Even the Zone leaders… It will be exciting I’m sure : )

While we were on exchanges, I was in family search, and one of the senior sisters said, “I’m the Floor Monitor(or manager)” and her husband said, “Would a slight bow be sufficient?”And one of my zone leaders said, “no, you need to kneel on the floor!”So he got down on one knee in front of his wife and said, “oh omnipotent floor manager!” It was one of the times in Family Search that make me want to stay there next transfer…

And yes, I still enjoy being the District Leader’s companion, it’s a lot of fun, and I get to learn different sister’s teaching styles a bit better than I would otherwise. It’s really cool and helping me be more flexable.

Oh mom, I ran into Dwayne Webber, he’s a director of institutes and Seminary in northern Atlanta Georgia area, and so you’ll probably run into him in August for the big thing that’s going on.

And dad… I told the ‘Sick bird’ joke that you told me one day on the way to school to my companion and she laughed and thought it was horrible. She usually writes a corny joke to the mission president in her weekly letter, and she’s planning on putting that one in the letter this week. And if every one else wants to know what the sick bird joke is… ask dad, has something to do with sick eagles… or ill eagles. :P

And I got my 'I love you' asl pin that shows that I can do ASL, but I haven't drilled a hole in my tag yet to put it there... so... I have to wait until monday to wear it

Thank you all so much for writing me when you do, I'm sorry I don't have time to reply to individual letters/emails all the time, but I do love reading them, and I try to answer specific questions as much as possible, and if I forget one week I try to write it down so I remember the week after :)

LOVE YA'll!!!

Be happy n all that!

July 6, The Forth and so on

So this week has been craaaazy. Currently I'm on my lunch break, so hopefully I can write everything that I want to write, because time is short.

As is usual for me this transfer, this week was full of exchanges, one of which was with sister Leota, and while we were giving a tour in the beehive house, two people appeared at the end of our tour that we weren't expecting. Normally the people who want a tour are told to wait for 10 minutes after a tour has started so they're not too huge and us poor sisters have a chance to actually teach something, so we were both confused as to why they were there. i was in front at that time and sister Leota was in the back, we went upstairs to the Long Hall (which can be seen from two different doors) and sister Leota was the one in front and talking. I noticed the two going to the other side of the long hall and went to ask if they were on our tour. They said no. So I informed them, very kindly, that they needed to either be on our tour, or on a tour with another set of sister missionaries, because they are not allowed in the house alone.

Not only is it a big house and confusing at times, but it also has a ton of old things that are rather priceless that we don't want to have disappear.I found out later that she was a returned missionary who had gone to temple square, and wanted to show her boy around (I'm not sure if he was her boyfriend, fiancé or what.) and she should have known better, especially in the summer when there are so many people who come.In any case, that was kind of cool because I could tell I was getting comfortable enough with the rules, etc, that I was able to get a back bone and tell them that it wasn’t okay.

I went to my first ASL language meeting… it was interesting. One of t he sisters, who’s the youngest (in mission terms) here that knows ASL, seems to not like working with sisters whom she thinks don’t know ASL as well as she does… so I’m not really looking forward to working with her, but I’ll survive, especially with a lot of prayer and patience. I’m very thankful, however, that another sister passed off ASL. She’s really nice and hopefully all will work out 

On Saturday (my p-day) we weren’t able to email, so we went home and did some random things while we waited for other sisters to get ready, and so on. Sister Cox, the zone leaders and another district leader and her companion and I all went to a farm “wheeler farm” I think is what it’s called, and wandered around for a bit taking pictures, etc (which I don’t personally have because I accidentally erased them from my sd card… long story ) Then we went to walmart, where sister Cox bought a huge bubble wand in the form of a sword, and some water balloons, while sisters Ward and Kreiczer bought red and blue paint… and I bought an outfit for 6 dollars.We went home and I changed into the outfit and put our groceries away while sister Cox filled up the water balloons, then we went to the grassy area between the apartments, and met with a portion of our zone and had a mini-water fight accompanied by a paint fight. It was SO much fun. Our arms were covered with paint, and basically everywhere else. After that we rinsed off (kept the paint on our shirts etc, because that was the point of it.) and went to a park where we played some more games and had a picknick.

Today, just before I got on to do emails, I had my first Temple Square ASL tour. It was looong… about an hour and a half. It was mostly members, which made it interesting because they were mostly there for their one friend who was investigating. So they’d fall behind and I’d have to go back and get their attention, then continue the tour. They wanted to see everything they could, when I thought I was done with the tour, I took them to two more buildings, which was fine, but I was running out of things to say and didn’t want to overload the poor guy, especially since ASL was his second language, and he knew mainly BSL (British Sign Language, which is COMPLETELY different.) so a few of his friends had to interpret for me and vice versa so we could understand one another better.

Overall it’s been good :) But now I need to eat something before we go to the beehive house for several hours.

Love ya all!!

Be good n all that! I'll try to write more next week :)

June 27th 2009 Quail, 'herding cats', and horses

Oh goodness, where to start… hmm…

This week has been interesting, but I think that’s normal, eh? It doesn’t seem like I just talked to you all on Sunday. It’s kind of weird.

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges, it was pretty fun, but exchanges can get quite hectic, especially when we have to figure out how to do everything that we need to do when we need to do it, so on Wednesday we were on exchanges in the morning and in the evening and actually together in the afternoon.Thursday we had Zone Conference at ‘This is the Place’ Heritage park, and it was a lot of fun. The training part was really good and about how to get more of the stories from the pioneers (and I’m getting distracted by the sisters talking about what to do for the rest of p-day so if I sound a bit less coherent than usual, that’s why. :P) Then after words we had an hour and twenty minutes to wander around and do what we wanted. It was quite fun, I was somewhat reminded of Renaissance fair, except it was cleaner, and more free (meaning that people weren’t walking around with revealing clothing and every little thing didn’t cost an arm and a leg)It was a lot of fun, and they had animals there, like horses, peacocks, lambs (one of which had just been born that morning.) tiny goats, etc. They had several houses that were made up to look like the cabins that

I’m now officially passed off in ASL. I almost forgot to meet up with sister Shawcross (who’s the coordinator of that language), but she paged me and reminded me.

Several times this week, I had tours where I felt like I was herding cats… meaning that people would wander off in a different direction while we were talking and trying to lead them to the next stop. It was rather entertaining at times, and somewhat more annoying at others. I had to let people know, several times, that because they were only half hour, or 20 minute tours that we couldn’t see everything, but they could come back. That made it a little easier.Hurrah for summer… >.>

Oh, and my companion just reminded me of some other exciting things about summer time. Namely birds. More specifically baby quail. We were walking along, heading from the south to the north when all the sudden my companion made a squak, ‘hey watch out!’ or something like that. I stopped in my tracks and about 4 inches from my foot was a tiny puffball of a baby quail. It was about an inch and a half big, and like a round little ball of fluff. They’re really cute. The poor little thing also stopped in its’ tracks and hunkered down, which made it look even more like a little ball. The momma or the papa bird called for all the little birds, and all 15 or 20 of them ran. We waited until they went so it wasn’t likely that I’d scare another one.

And one of the sisters just said this:“that’s the other part of being a temple square missionary, we judge wedding dresses.”Because we see so many wedding dresses here. Sometimes that’s a subject of conversation when things are slow, “What do you want your wedding dress to look like?” “Would you take wedding pictures before or after the actual wedding?” “Have the wedding reception the night before, or after?” etc. It’s kind of funny.

Something else that was somewhat funny is that when I was on exchanges with sister Shugart, she asked me what I had learned from Sister Cox so far, I answered by making an animal noise. Sister Cox tends to make animal noises at random times, especially when she’s stressed or annoyed at something. After I gave that answer I gave her a real one, and that was to always be working/moving, etc.

It’s kind of funny, I’ve lost track of the last time I got a physical letter from someone… I take that back, I think it was when dad and sister Senator sent me cards for my birthday. I think it’s funny the different reactions sisters give depending on if they get letters or not. Some sisters get a lot of mail, some don’t. Some who do get mail, don’t want it because it distracts them, while others complain that they never get anything. I think that mainly the new sisters get most of the mail, especially so they are less likely to get homesick, then it kind of pitters off after a few transfers.

Speaking of transfers, earlier today I almost called a Quarter or a Semester a Transfer, because we were talking about school. Twas kind of interesting.

It was really great talking to everyone on Sunday! I was excited to hear from everyone and get a small update by voice rather than email. I’m glad that everyone’s alive and kicking!

And my zone leaders are goofs. I love them to bits, and to some extent because they remind me of sisters. They tease each other and have wrestling fights, and sometimes even food fights (they have photo evidence… oatmeal in hair is rather messy.) They work so well together, and I’m not sure if it’s because of their playing around, or in spite of it…

Any ways, loves ya alls!

Be happy n all that!

June 20 2009 P-day take two

Whoooohooo!!! Okay, this transfer has been crazyyy so far. The weather here has just been adding to it. I’m not complaining one bit, I love the rain and cooler weather, but I know it’s not really normal…

But first off, Stephen, I’m SO sorry that I forgot to send you something for your birthday! I remembered the day before… which wasn’t p-day, so I couldn’t send you anything! So Here’s a Belated Birthday Hug via the Internet!

Elisabeth, it’s so good to hear from you! I’m glad that you’re able to be in Texas now and somewhat settled, and that the kids are able to adjust to the different things that are going on and all that! I’d still like some pictures, particularly ones that are snail mailed to me, so I don’t have to be attached to a computer in order to see them :D

That goes for the rest of the family! I’d love to get more pictures :D

Mom mentioned that it’s my 4 month anniversary, on Stephen’s B-day, and it’s kind of funny, because today when I was exercising with some of the other sisters, we were trying to figure out how long I’d been out in months, because I’m starting to think of time in terms of Transfers, which is kind of funny. My companion, sister Cox mentioned this morning as well that mission life is starting to feel normal (She’s just a transfer ahead of me.) So it’s been fun adjusting to things and just getting into it.

And as for the figuring out when I’m calling, Chances are I’ll be calling around 5:30 my time, but it may be 6 or 6:30 depending on the other sisters who are on the same phone line, I haven’t had a chance to talk with any of them but my companion and roommates, and there are 3 other rooms full of 4 sisters that are attached to the same phone line… but yeah, sisters who are calling to another country can just call from the Referral Center.

Amy, I think my companion, sister Cox knows how you feel. I think I mentioned last time that she’s a district leader, and currently, there are only solo district leaders, so I can’t help her much, so she’s a bit stressed, but she’s not able to talk to me about it since she’s the district leader, and I’m not. She’s doing a really good job though, and making sure that all the sisters are doing well.

We just had a Zone meeting this morning, and as always it was fun. Our zone leaders, sisters Ward, and Krietzer are very creative. I kind of feel sorry for the sisters who will be zone leaders next transfer, since both are at the end of their missions. Today we went to some grass that’s between where most of the sisters live, and had breakfast in a picnic like fashion, then had some ‘games’ My group first had a fast companionship study, and we were given points depending on how good it was going, then we were asked some random questions about our companions (since it was ran by the district and zone leaders, I was in a tri-companionship, and didn’t know the other two sisters very well, so we asked each other questions just before we got to this part)Then we had a three legged race (in our case, 4) The three of us were saying together, “One two one two …” etc until we got up the hill, then we had to feed each other pudding, and paint one of the sister’s toe nails, before giving one of the sisters a piggy back ride back down the hill. It was quite an experience. Then we had to choose an item and bridge from it to the gospel and the restoration. We got some Ibuprophen, and so talked about how Christ takes away our pains and afflictions, etc. It was a lot of fun.

Then later, sister Cox and I had a huge tour. Normally Gate tours (tours that we take from either the West or North Gate) are just a few people, but we had 17-22 people on our tour. It fluctuated because people would join us, then they’d leave, but it was the best tour that we’d taken together so far, and I’m really excited for the rest of the transfer.

I told Amy that I’d tell her a little bit about my birthday. It was a lot of fun, and I’ll be sending pictures soon enough.In the morning the first thing out of my companion’s mouth was, “Happy Birthday” and she did a lot of things for me. We all went to the Oquirrh mountain Temple Open house, and walked through. It was my first time through a temple like that before and it was fun.
After we got back, I got a page in the middle of making lunch, and was the only one available to take an ASL tour at the Beehive house. It was my first one, and they were all very sweet. It was to couples, and they loved the tour and would have referred had they not already done so on temple square.

The day before I talked with the Doctor that volunteers for us, and figured out what I needed to cut out of my diet so I can get rid of some weight, so I didn’t have many sweets on my birthday.

As I went through the day, a lot of people wished me happy birthday, and I was sung to at least 5 times, and people left things in my mail box, and I was wearing the green shirt that mom and Amy sent to me.I got several cards, etc, from sisters who were on the square, etc. Then that night, when we got home, sister Cox said, “Oh, we’re going to sister Shugart’s apartment at 9, just so you know.” I didn’t think anything of it, because I thought it had something to do with district stuff. I only got slightly suspicious, when she said some sisters who were visiting me could come with us.

The door opened to the apartment that I had moved out of, and sister Shugart had moved into, and was surprised by no less than about 25-50 sisters, who all hollered, “Happy Birthday!” and started singing to me.

My companion had gone behind my back and planned it with the sisters at Mission Services (which is where we call to when we don’t have anything to do and see where we’re needed) and so on. It was a lot of fun!

Any way, must go! Love you all LOTS and LOTS!

Talk to you tomorrow!

HUG!Byes!

June 16th Transfer #3

Crazy how time is flying!
As you can tell, my p-day is still on Saturday! Which means I'm in the same zone, Extended. But guess what? I'm still in the same District! Family Search. And guess who my companion is? The District Leader! So I'm kind of the unofficial official District Leader Helper person.

I'm with Sister Cox, Who is also from Southern California (oh the irony. Heavenly father has a sense of humor. But she also has lived most of her life in New Mexico, so she's claiming that place this transfer)She's a pitite blondeish young woman. It's been fun to get to know her. I've seen her around, but I never knew her very well. That's something I've loved so far, I've been able to be friends with some sisters even though they're not my companions, and then when I have companions, I don't really have any set expectations of them, because i know sometimes when we get to be with our really good friends, things don't always turn out the way we plan, so I'm glad I get to find out about my new companions the way I do. :) At least I'm able to know what she looks like before I knew she was my companion, unlike it was with sister Salazar.So Sister Salazar is Training! She didn't want to but I had the feeling that she would. Her Trainee is from... Samoa? someplace like that. It's been so much fun seeing the new sisters and remembering that I had that look of 'Where am I? What am I doing here?' on my face when I first arrived. It has been fun.

I don't know if I mentioned in any of my letters that there was a sister Carlisle and Martin that looked a lot alike especially since they were both new. Sister Martin went home early, and this transfer another sister Martin came. It was kind of funny, and neat at the same time.

Shoot, I was going to bring my old planner... oh well.

So On Thursday I went on Exchanges with a sister from Hawaii, because her companion and my companion are both district leaders and they had to go to training. As they were at training, we were at Family Search. Since Sister Levai is newish, she had never been to Family Search, so I was showing her around, and as we worked together we started seeing so many miracles.Now something you have to know about sister Levai, when she smiles, it’s not just her face that smiles, everything about her smiles. She’s very expressive. One of the things I mentioned to her is that when she smiles at someone, she makes them feel like they’re a child of God. She is also very enthusiastic, so the combination of me knowing a bit more about Family Search, and her enthusiasm for everything made it so we were able to help people in ways that I’d not helped them before. We had at least 3 people refer their friends to receive a DVD, etc, and possibly the missionaries. One couple in particular comes to mind. Sister Levai was engaging them in conversation and I was just off to the side, somewhat listening. They included me in the conversation, and as we talked, the woman spoke about her mother who wasn’t against the church, but her mother didn’t really agree with her daughter joining it. She (the mother) already has basically every movie, and book, we offer, but as we were talking a new movie came to mind, Finding Happiness, it’s one that is brand new and pretty neat, really short. So IMentioned that to her(the daughter), and she responded something like, “You know what, that’s probably just what they need, my father has been out of work for a while and they need that.”It’s wonderful how the spirit works.

So You might have noticed I haven’t talked much about my experiences with sister Cox. That’s because even though we’re companions, we haven’t done much together since she is the district leader. It’s kind of funny, but we get along well. She also likes Harry Potter, so on the first night, when she found out that I liked the books, etc, she enthusiastically suggested, “We should have a Harry Potter moment every day!” in addition to our “Faith Thoughts” that we decided to have daily. Hehe. So it’s been fun.

One of my zone leaders is the same as last transfer, but the other is new… kind of. She was a district leader last transfer, in this zone, just not my district leader. So today we had our Zone Meeting, and last transfer, they had a demonstration where sister Ward shoved cake in the faces of some of the sisters to demonstrate a point, that we need to present things in a way that people want to have them. Today, they did a demonstration of how we need to have Balance in everything we do by putting WAY too much salt into some brownies they gave to us. One of the sisters noticed that you could actually see the salt crystals it was so salty. So they’re good at giving memorable demonstrations.

We also had District meeting, and that was excellent. Sister Cox is going to be an excellent District Leader.

I LOVE you all!

Be happy and so on and so forth!