BOMBS AWAY!

May 25 (written and sent; not posted till June 1)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week wasn't too exciting, what with me recovering from being sick, then my companion getting sick and also recovering, but I do have some fun stories for you!

Early on in the week,m we met with our friend Nancy.  She is also African, and lives in a refugee home.  She has a fiance who lives up near Frankfurt, and she spends half her time living up there with him and the other half living down here with everyone else.  They've been working to get all the papers they need from Africa in order to get married in Germany for a really long time, and they're finally getting really close to having everything they need.  BUT, since she really wants to get baptized, and she also wants her fiance to get baptized, and with all the traveling she does back and forth, we got permission to contact the missionaries where her fiance lives, so that she can still meet with missionaries when she's traveling, and her fiance can start meeting with them too.  They're not part of my mission - I'm Alpine German Speaking and they're Frankfurt Germany, so it's exciting in itself to be able to talk with people outside the mission once or twice a week.  So progress i being made there and it's all wonderful and dandy.

The story I want to tell you however is this:

We go into Nancy's room.  She looks at us, goes "We've received some very bad news! You read German, right??" and hands us this official looking letter that's completely in German.  This letter was sent to all the people living within a 500 meter radius of a World War II BOMB that had been discovered in the vicinity.  So the Africans, recognizing the word "bombe" had called the police and asked them to translate! So we have about 3 people in this refugee home that we visit, and all of them have until the beginning of July to find a new place to live, because this live bomb that has been sitting under the building for how many years now, will need to be excavated, and it might blow up.  The possibilities of it going off are really very slim, but the whole refugee home is making a huge joke about it and it's absolutely hilarious.  Things got loud in the hallway and Nancy steps out and yells "WE NEED TO BE QUIET OR WE WILL ALL DIE!" and everyone just cracks up and goes back to their rooms.

So, essentially, we've been visiting thi splace for quite awhile now, and there's been a bomb underneath it the entire time, and the government has just figured it out.  It's just one of those situations that's unique to the area and that will probably never happen to us again, so we're just kind of laughing at how normal everyone in Germany knows this is, because it definitely isn't normal to the missionaries!!

Other than that, not much happened this week.  It's gone by pretty fast, and I'm a little freaked out by how fast time is flying.  I'm having fun though, making progress.  I've been reading a lot of Jesus the Christ this week. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a book written by an apostle of the church, analyzing and explaining the works and teachings of Jesus Christ as they appear in the scriptures, along with historical records backing it all up.  It's an interesting read, and I"m learning a lot from it.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures this week! Some were taken, but not on my camera, so I don't have them quite yet.  I'll make sure to take some this week though. :)

Liebe Grusse,
Sister Sally Priest

May 18
(This is the date it was actually written and sent.)

Alright, so this week has been:

Crazy
Fun
Exhausting
Rewarding
I'm  out of adjectives.

K, so I'm actually a bit sick today, so my thoughts are totally organized and I'm a bit out of it, but here's my shot at this weeks email:

So the crazy part of other week: Planning another baptism - one for an older lady who cannot walk unassisted, which makes getting her into baptismal clothes, getting into the font, completely under the water, out of the font, and then changed into dry clothes a little bit of a challenge.  Lucky for us, the member who referred her to us works at her nursing home and is qualified to help her with basically everything she needs.  She proved to be a HUGE help in figuring out how this baptism was going to work.  We had 3 people in the font with her.  They helped lower her under the water and raise her back up.  Then we got a stool in the water for her to sit on while we worked on closing off the baptismal area so we could get her privately and safely back up the stairs and into the bathroom, where we helped her get dressed.

Fun: I've been back in a drit all week, which has been interesting.  We made cookies with the American brown sugar that was sent my way (sorry, Germany, you win on chocolate, but the brown sugar prize goes to America) and that was a fun process in itself because our oven is super weird and each batch turned out completely different from the others! Tasted just fine (tasted like home...) but I wish I had thought to take pictures because the differences in appearance was comical.

Exhausting: I got sick!!! GAAHHH.  I ended up staying home and sleeping most of the day yesterday, and I'll probably end up sleeping most of this afternoon as well.  I'm slowly but surely getting better, but dang, it took a chunk out of me!

Rewarding: This week! Dang!  The baptism on Saturday was lovely. Frau Blasche has been waiting for this for over 50 years.  The relief and joy on her face was so --I can't even put a word to it --beautiful, so perfect, slightly tear-jerking, rewarding...I was so happy for her! We also have two new people who we are teaching, both of whom have some serious potential,.  We've only met with one of them once, but he already had a list of questions for us, all of which we were able to answer, and he seems to really understand what we teach and why it's important to know.  We have high hopes. :)

Sorry this week is a bit shorter than most.  This week will be the end of the transfer.  I'll be staying in Singen with Sister Smith. :)

Oh also , you guys, my mission is actually 1/4 of the way through already, which is totally crazy an weird to think about.

Here's a picture of the three of us (myself, Frau Blasche, and Sister Smith) on Saturday.

And here's a picture of a huge fly swatter (Thank you Elder and Sister Lee) that promptly shattered the first time I tried to use it on the huge mosquitoes that get in our house because we have no screens.

Ha ha ha have a great week guys! Feel free to respond :)

Liebe Grusse,

Sister Sally Priest

Heutzutage ist Deutschland ein 'Streik'land

Here is Sister Smith, Beauty, Elder Lee, and I on the day of the baptism. 

Guten Tag!

So all this week, all the trains of Germany have been on strike, making it nearly impossible to get places!  This is like, the 3rd bahn strike that's happened since I've been here!  I saw the headline "Heutzutage ist Deutschland ein 'Streik'land" meaning, "These days, Deutschland (Germany) is a Strikeland" and I thought it was pretty funny.

Seriously though, this strike was so stressful.  We've got a woman who lives about an hour by train away, on this really obscure train, that wasn't running.  Some of the more necessary trains were running, meaning we could get to Beauty, who was baptized on Friday (I'll touch on that more later) but Frau Bl., who lives off this obscure train route, was nearly impossible to get to.  We ended up leaving in the morning one day this week and taking a good 2-3 hour bus ride there instead.  Then we took another 2-3 hour bus ride home.  But hey, we did it, and our lesson went really well.  She's seriously on of the most adorable people I've ever met.  She asks incredibly intelligent and relevant questions.  She's already read the Book of Mormon at least three times through, and she's also read the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, so that's pretty dang spiffy.  She's been wanting to be baptized since she was younger.  She grew up on the East side of the Berlin Wall, and a member of the Church taught her how to pray as a child.  She's been trying to find connections back to the church her whole life.  She lives in a nursing home, and we think it's because she's had at least one stroke.  We met her through a ward member who works there, and once we started teaching her, she just started flying through all the lessons.  She has trouble walking, and needed permission to be baptized from her caretaker, who made it a little difficult to get to that point.  Coincidentally, however, the branch president owns the nursing home.  He will baptize her this Saturday, with the help of a selected ward member.  She can't make it into the font by herself, so there will be 2 or 3 other people in the font with her, helping her get baptized safely.  It's been a bit of a hassle getting this organized and approved, but the day is quickly approaching and I'm so excited!

So since I promised I'd touch on it, Beauty's baptism was very sweet. As a single mom of two young children, living in a country where she doesn't understand the language, along with being a refugee, Beauty can get stressed out fairly easily.  When Beauty walked into the chapel in her white baptismal clothing, however, a spirit of peace and relaxation entered with her, and she was able to enjoy the prelude music with very few interruptions from her children.

There was one interruption, however, and it was hilarious.  Victory, Beauty's 5 year old son, was sitting quietly in the chapel when Elder Lee walked in.  Elder Lee was also wearing white baptismal clothing, because he was the one baptizing Beauty.  So Elder Lee walks in and this happened:

Victory: "Mom....is that God?"
Beauty *without hesitation* "Yup."
Victory: "...Wow..."

and then it got cute.

Victory walks up to Elder Lee: "Are you God?"
Elder Lee: "No, but I'm His son, and so are you."
Victory: "Really?"
Elder Lee: "Yes."
Victory: "...Wow...."

Hahaha it honestly probably isn't as funny without the vocal inflections from Beauty, but it was definitely a memorable moment.

Other than that, Mother's Day was lovely.  We have a woman with Down's Syndrome in our ward, and she sang a Mother's Day song from the Children's songbook.  She only made it a couple of lines in before she got a bit of stage fright and became overwhelmed with emotion, but her performance, along with the hugs she gave the branch president and his wife afterward (They have basically adopted her as their child) was really touching.  And the ward applauded!  For those of you who haven't attended a Mormon church service, applauding isn't something that happens during them.  But it happened yesterday as a positive reinforcement, and it was just adorable.  Felt completely natural.

Lastly, (before pictures,) there's been a bit of a switch up, and I am back in a "drit".  A sister in our zone needed to go home early due to a family emergency, so her companion will be staying with Sister Smith and I until the end of this transfer, which is next Thursday, so that will be fun.  I'll finish my second transfer in the field having had four companions.

Okay, pictures:

A crooked shot of the Alps (or what I could see of them) From Slipplingen today:

A big old Catholic church in Radolfzell.  We went inside today. It was really pretty  -beautiful artwork and just filled with history, but it didn't seem right to take pictures inside, so I took this one outside.

And me, on the edge of the Bodensee, wishing I could get on one of the many boats there and go sailing for a bit.

It's been a good week, guys! Keep on keeping on, I'll talk to you next week :)

Sister Sally Priest

Salasaurous macht Spaß.

Guten Tag, meine lieben Freunde :) In diese Woche habe ich viele getan! Ich habe Hohentweil besucht, ein Deckefestung mit meine Mitarbeiterin gemacht, und auch viele Fotos gemacht! Ich habe so viele Spaß diese Woche gemacht :)

Alright, so last Monday, we climbed this big old hill to this big old 1100 year old castle and I took a whole bunch of photos and was very happy. I also met my old friend Humidity. I haven't seen Humidity for nearly 3 years now, and I didn't really miss it. BUT, this is Germany, and I'm teaching people about the most favorite thing in my life, so how much can I really complain?

Honestly, so much happened this week that I'm not entirely sure what to tell you. Nothing really exciting happened, I've just been really busy. Our area is pretty big, and sometimes it takes us a couple hours of buses and trains to get to a lesson.

Let me think.... On Monday-- I already told you what I did. Tuesday was a big travel day. We had a lot of lessons and probably spent about half our days on trains. Wednesday, we helped a lady in our ward move to her new apartment. It was a lot of work, but honestly, the physical labor was really relieving. I only get 30 minutes of exercise each day. That's right when I wake up, and, since I've had a cold all this week, a lot of my morning sport ended up being me wrapped in a blanket lying on the floor.... starting tomorrow, it should be more productive :)

Thursday was another long day of traveling and teaching.... Friday was pretty fun though! The Ward Mission Leader is in a band. Two, actually.... but one of them is made up of LDS people, so for May 1st (which is a holiday over here), we had this big Ward Dance night and he and his band played for us. It was way fun, and also a nice stress relief! Saturday and Sunday were also filled with lessons and travel.

This Friday, we'll be having a baptism for one of our investigators. Her name (which is fabulous) is Beauty Sunday! She comes from Nigeria and has been such an inspiration to me. She's had a really hard life and lives in a refugee home. She's very excited for this baptism (and so am I! She's the first person I've taught that I get to see get baptized!), and I'll make sure to send you guys pictures next week!

Speaking of pictures.....

I had some more fun with my manual focus. Sister Smith:

And Elder Jensen

Elders Caldwell and Jensen had the wonderful idea of climbing this 12 ft turret. Sister Smith and I walked away. 10 minutes later, we returned and they go "Uh, could you help us? We've been stuck up here for 10 minutes. Our phones and everything are on the ground and we can't get down." It made for a really great picture though. We love our Zone Leaders!

Lastly, both my companion and I were a bit sick this week. Neither of us were looking forward to weekly planning, so we decided to build a blanket fort. It definitely made a difference!

That's all I've got for this week! Tune in next week for baptism photos, more stories, and, of course, the thoughts of yours truly, Sister Priest.

OH, and I loved reading your replies :) I'm sorry if I don't have time to reply to you each individually, but seriously-- thanks for the support and kindness!

Bis nächste Woche!

Sister Sally Priest

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I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Hello! I really need to come up with different ways to greet all of you.

First things first: If anyone on the email list no longer wants to get the weekly email, let me know and I'll take you off. I promise I won't be offended!

Next, keep in mind that I can't actually see the comments you post on this, or on the links my mom posts on facebook. Feel free to send me a reply! I'd love to hear your feedback :)

Alright, this week... Well, Monday, I went to this American Themed Restaurant, called "Steak and Ribs" with some people from my ward here. The plates were ridiculously huge, but the serving sizes were actually spot on... Americans eat a lot.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal. I went up to Tübingen on Thursday to pick up my visa, and I got to spend some time with Sister Baugh and Sister Ahlm again. It was great to see them :)

Friday, I rode up to Munich with the Senior Missionaries, Elder and Sister Lee, and we spent our afternoon going on a walking tour of some historical sites in Munich from the Nazi time period. It was really cool to be able to walk around Munich and have someone tell me what the old buildings actually are.

(Only, Sally doesn't tell US what old building this is.... - Her Mom.)

Now, I'm putting pictures in early, because the rest of the email gets a little serious and I don't want to detract from my message with silly pictures.

That being said, here is a silly picture: 

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We had a mini MTC reunion (missing a few)! Very back (the ones that aren't looking) are (from left to right) Elders Bates, McLean, and Faux. Next row: Elders Neilson, Kilgore, Bowers, and Carter. Front: Sisters Kramer, Abram, and me (duh).

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Continuing...

Friday night, all the missionaries from this mission came to Munich. We all spent the night in a Hostel in preparation for our conference with Elder Bednar (which a few of us have nicknamed the "Bednar Concert") the following morning. And man, was that amazing!!

First off, every time I've heard someone talk about a meeting they had with an apostle, they mentioned this overwhelming presence of the Holy Ghost. They talk of the power they felt and the testimony they gained. This meeting wasn't at all what I was expecting. Yes, the Spirit was there. No, it wasn't this big WHOOSH of overwhelming Godly power filling the chapel. It was very calm, very quiet, but so piercingly true that I don't think I'll look at this gospel the same way after that meeting. I felt as if I was in the presence of an old good friend, someone who loves me more than I can imagine, someone who understands and accepts me, someone I can be open and myself with, someone I can trust, someone I could speak with for hours and hours on end, never tiring of their presence.

Something Elder Bednar likes to do is tell us NOT to write down anything he says, which makes perfect sense. In meetings like these, where the purpose is to learn through the Holy Ghost, we don't want to write down word for word what someone else says. We want to listen for the things that aren't said, feel the things that are not being felt by everyone else, and we want to focus on those, because those things come from the Holy Ghost, and He speaks nothing but truth.

So what did I get out of this meeting, you ask? What did I learn that changed my view on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? Well, that's a really tough question to answer. So instead of answering, I'm going to ask YOU some questions, and hope that I can relay my feelings and knowledge to you through that.

Why do you think this church has endured so much scrutiny and abuse? And actually, I really want to ask someone who isn't a member that question. Why? There are SO many religions on this earth. I could name off several that have very strange beliefs and practices. So why so much hate on the Mormon Church? I can't tell you how many times I've encountered people who (in essence) say the following: "Oh, I don't care what other people do. If you want to get married to a cat, go for it. If you want to worship popcorn, be my guest. It's not affecting me! But those Mormons!" and then they continue to rip and bash and attack the Mormon Church.

WHY?

This church has been ripped apart and made fun of and attacked than any other church on this earth.

WHY?

I have been discriminated against, laughed at, spat at, yelled at, because of my beliefs, in a world where everyone is so quick to claim that they do not care what other people believe, because it's not affecting them.

WHY?

Because this church IS true, and it IS affecting you, whether you accept it or not.

The plain fact is, the reason this church gets attacked so much is because that is exactly what Satan wants to happen. Think about it: If you're in a battle, you want to take the most powerful, influential person OUT of play. You don't want to have to fight them. If you're playing a sport and there's one person on the other team that keeps them together, you want to take them OUT. If you are a murderer and you want to get away with it, but there is ONE witness against you, you want to take them OUT. Right? Right! These biblical wars between God and Satan don't just magically stay in biblical times.

It makes sense, you guys.

Alright. I don't want to come across as pushy or annoying, so I'll leave the ranting at that. I know this church is true. I know that we have the authority of God and Jesus Christ. I know that Christ lives. The tomb is empty.

God has not died. God has not left us alone without guidance in this world where horror is becoming normal and normalcy is becoming horrific.

There is a lot more I learned from the Bednar Concert. I received a lot of personal revelation, along with a reaffirmed knowledge that this church is true. So go ahead and brush off what I've said. I know I've got a whole lot of people on Facebook (and some even getting this email directly) that aren't members of the church. Think what you will. But know that I know I am in the right church, doing the right things, for the right reasons, and anyone who knows me knows that when I know I'm right, there's no backing down. This gospel is the reason as to why I am what I am. I can walk because of the faith I've had in Christ. I can continue my life with very little, if any guilt because I know how and have used the Atonement for what it has been designed for.

I leave these things with you.

Have a wonderful week :)

Sister Sally Priest

Salasaurous Meets the Kitchen!

Hello everyone!

This week has been fairly uneventful. Sister Smith and I continue to get along, and (as the subject indicates) we had some fun in the kitchen this week. I've been dying to cook more since I've gotten out of the MTC, and we finally had time to really look through our cupboards to see what we could make. The following photos contain our masterpieces:

Okay, this one was actually just me. I remembered seeing the egg thing on Pinterest forever ago and decided to try it. It was super easy and tasted good.

(Please note that I tried to make it a nice photo, but didn't entirely succeed... I've been playing around with camera settings this week in preparation for next P-Days castle hike).

This was the REAL masterpiece. It tasted SO good.

Actually, I take it back. THIS is the TRUE masterpiece. We made ghetto smoothies. We don't have a blender, but we had frozen fruit, yogurt, milk, a bowl, and an electric hand-mixer. I'm humbling myself and sending the most goofy looking photo we've got (we took like, 5) for your entertainment. Enjoy.

So, aside from that, as I was looking through my photos, I found one that reminded me of something I wanted to tell you guys.

Setup: Sister Smith and I were on a train, heading to an appointment. The train stops and a man gets on. We're not sitting in the biggest part of the train-- we're almost in the very front section, which is kind of secluded and lifted higher than the rest. So this guy come up and sits a few rows in front of us on the opposite side. He's wearing jeans, a denim jacket, a black and white striped shirt, and his hair is slicked back. In one hand, he's got a duffel bag with something sticking out of it. In the other, he's got a knife and a cleaning rag.

Pause. Sister Smith and I exchange glances. My mind is going "WHOA this guy looks like a serial killer!" I'm trying not to laugh. Neither of us are really alarmed by the guy.

Continue: The guy puts his duffel bag on the shelf above him and I see that the thing sticking out of it is an AXE. He sits down, wipes his knife off a little, then pits it in his belt. This dude just walked onto a train with an AXE and a KNIFE. At this point, I'm internally cracking up. Externally I'm very calm, just in case this dude IS a serial killer.

The train hasn't left the station yet. There's an announcement saying that there's a mechanical difficulty and we won't be leaving for at least 10 minutes. Axe Man walks out to take a smoke. Sister Smith and I start communicating through glances, small hand signals, and short whispers. We laugh it off and I sneak a photo of the bag:

Hahahahaa, nothing at all happened, Sister Smith and I just laughed about it for the day. I had completely forgotten it had happened until I saw the photo. Looking back, I was probably a little more nervous than I remember, but now it's just really funny.

Ahhh, anyway, moving on to more missionary things:

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I had a neat experience yesterday. Long story short (I'm running out of time (again)), Sister Smith and I went to visit someone, but they weren't home. We ended up talking to another lady instead. As soon as we started talking about how Jesus Christ can help us, she started crying. She was obviously going through something. We offered our comfort, gave her hugs, read some scriptures, gave her our number, told us to call us if she needs anything at all, got her number so that we can call and check up on her, and left her with a Book of Mormon. It was so touching. We reassured her that God knows and loves her. He wants to help her through her pain and that we can help her as well. Even if we never see her again, I think we really helped her yesterday, and I'm thankful for that experience. It was really neat.

Well, I'm out of time and I've got to go! I hope you all have a good week! I'll be in Munich this weekend for the Elder Bednar Concert, where he'll be announcing the usage of iPads in this mission. I don't know if we'll actually get them this weekend, but still! It's exciting!!!

God be with you all!!

Love you!

Sister Priest

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I'm not a German Robot!!

Sister Priest and my new companion/trainer, Sister Smith!

Guten Tag, alles! Greetings from Singen!

Alright, so this week has also been fairly uneventful. I've got a new companion, Sister Smith, and she's really nice. Singen in itself is really industrial and not too scenic, but when we take the train to Radolfzell, we get off and immediately see the Bodensee (Lake Constance). It's adorable and I love it. I've taken some pictures and will either attach them or have my mom post them on Facebook again.

My last P-Day in Tübingen was fun! We watched the remainder of General Conference and we also played this game called Bang. It's a Western Cowboy themed card game and Elder Weston got into it and had us tie dish towels around our faces like bandit masks. Saying goodbye was a little sad, but I was honestly too excited about the new things waiting for me to be too upset about it.

Ummm, yeah. Seriously, this week hasn't been that exciting. I've been out for 3 months, I've got 15 more to go! Time is flying. It seems both forever and not that long ago that I was sitting in the MTC hating life. K, not hating it, but certainly not enjoying it as well as I would have liked. Seriously though, I want you to know that the support and kind words I received from you really made my MTC experience survivable. Also, if you're a future missionary and you're reading this going "Jeez, what do they DO to people in the MTC?" have no fear. Almost everyone has a bit of a rough time in the MTC. I was a little worse than most, but now that I'm out in the field and I'm actually seeing the progress I've made, I'm SO happy. I looked back to my MTC journal entries and compared them to my more recent ones. The difference is crazy! I literally went from "I hate this" to "I LOVE this!" Never let fear get you down. It's not worth it.

All in all, I think I'm improving in all aspects. My German is better, my concentration is better, my people skills are better, my teaching is better, my cooking is better, my life is better. I'm able to actually incorporate my personality into German now, which makes everything a lot more fun. I actually was called up to give a short talk during church yesterday and I was able to joke around a bit in German. Made me way more comfortable and hopefully made me seem more like a human too xD Sometimes, I have to revert to memorized phrases and I feel like I'm a robot or something, just spitting out German sentences about Jesus and God and Missionaries and nothing else.

Haha alright, well, I've got to keep going. I'm unapologetic for my titles. I do not know what to title my emails and I don't want to do generic "Monday, April 13" or something, so today you get to know that I am not a German Robot. I can speak German well enough to be a human. Go me.

Until next week!

God be with you!
Sister Sally Priest

Playing "Bang": Clockwise from Top: Elder Weston, Sister Ahlm, me, Elder Smith, and Sister Baugh

Farewell to Tubingen: Elders Weston and Smith, me, and Sisters Ahlm and Baugh.

Goodies from Sister Berry, who left as I arrived!