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!