HEY Y'ALL!

     Where to begin, where to begin? Saturday. Let’s begin with Saturday. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We had a really rockin' street display planned...but it ended up being a total flop (we were chalking in markplatz...but LAME- it started to snow). Then we went to contact some referrals we got dooring...but no one was home! So we got back to Kaiserslautern with an hour and a half before we planned on heading home for dinner. Neither Sister Knutson nor I were feeling too enthusiastic--our whole day had been one big letdown--but we put on our big girl skirts and walked to a neighborhood to do some street contacting. Surprise, surprise, though...no one was on the streets because IT WAS STILL SNOWING. So doors it was.

      We knocked and knocked and knocked and no one was interested! After about 10 houses or so, we doored into a member in the Ktown ward! We chatted with her for a bit and asked if she knew anyone in the area we could visit...AND THAT ANGEL LADY GAVE US LIKE 5 REFERRALS. One of which was named Max.

      We knocked on his door and he greeted us with a warm welcome. We introduced ourselves and explained that his neighbor thought he might be interested in meeting with us...AND GUESS WHAT HE SAID?! "Yeah, actually. I am!" then I curled up into fetal position and CRIED TEARS OF JOY. Not really. But you can bet your bottom that if curling up into fetal position and crying were a socially-acceptable thing to do...I would have. Anyway, he didn’t have time to meet right then, but he said "come back any day after 5:00 and I’ll be here!" BOOOYAAAA.

      The next story requires a little background. We went street contacting the other day (we do lots of that). We stopped these two men from Africa, neither of which had any interest. After talking for a minute or two, we asked them if they knew anyone who WOULD be interested. Then, something beautiful happened. They turned and pointed at a strip of stores across the street and said "There’s an afro shop over there. I think the guys who work in it would be open to talking with you." So. Off we went to said afro shop. Sadly, everyone was on lunch break, but the owner told us we could come back on Friday because there would be lots of people working then. So we went back Friday afternoon...and no one was there! The owner said "nigh! You gotta come in the evening! That’s when everyone is here! Come back tomorrow night!" Well, we had an appointment scheduled already, but we didn’t want to leave our afro shop hanging, so we told the Elders to go over there with copies of the Book of Mormon and to call us afterwards so we knew how it went!

     They called us, alright. Stoked outta their minds because they found THREE new investigators at the afro shop. OUR afro shop!! THE ELDERS STOLE OUR INVESTIGATORS. Oh my gosh I’m so happy for my afro friends BUT SO UPSET AT THE SAME TIME.

      And as for my third miracle story of the week: we decided to go to the Fuss to contact for a while before correlation with the Elders last Wednesday. We got out the door...and missed our bus by a millisecond. As we watched the bus drive away, a voice entered my head saying "there’s a reason you missed that bus" and I had the impression that we NEEDED to contact people as we walked to the Fuss. And? That’s how we met Imen!!! She’s an incredibly sweet 20-something-year old who’s been living in Germany for 3 months! She had never heard to the Church or the Book of Mormon, but she gladly accepted one and agreed to meet with us to learn more!

     Missed buses and miserable snowy days. These are the things miracles are made of.

     I love y’all so much!!
     Talk to you next week! (:

- Brookie

PS. can you believe I’m already down to single digits in regards to the number of transfers I have left?! Time flies. It really does!

KAISERSLAUTERN!

Dear family,

     I’m so happy, I think I might explode. Seriously. I LOVE Kaiserslautern. I LOVE my branch. I LOVE my district and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, my companion (WHOOOHOOOO) 

     Now. Allow me to expound.

     1. Kaiserslautern. Ktown. Lautern. You can call it whatever you want...but I call it heaven. It’s BEAUTIFUL. Gosh I wish you could see what sights grace my eyeballs every day. The city is pretty big (a lot bigger than Coburg, at least) but it’s still very German looking...and the dorfs (I can’t remember the English word...google translate it) are POSTCARD PERFECT. Like, I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it. The people are super sweet here, too!! I was worried having spent the last 2 months learning Byrish, I wouldn’t be able to understand Felsish...but the language hasn’t been a problem at all! As of right now, we have no solid investigators, but the area seems pretty promising!
     2. My branch. We have about 250 members...only 40 of which are active. Nuts, right? Everyone I met on Sunday was awesome, though! It’s a pretty different atmosphere than Coburg. First off, we share a building with 3 American military wards, so we hear English a lot and I don’t like it at all. Secondly, there were lots of older people in Coburg...but Kaiserslautern has a bunch of young families.
     3. My district. Full of DILIGENT, ENERGETIC, FOCUSED elders and sisters. IT’S SO WONDERFUL. We set some really ambitions goals and everyone is working really, really hard to achieve them!
     4. My companion. Her name is sister Knutson...and she is AMAZINGGGGG. SO hard working, but super fun at the same time! She’s only been out a transfer longer than I have and we work together EXTREMELY well. We've been companions for 3&1/2 days and have found 8 potential investigators and are already running out of copies of the Book of Mormon to give out!! 

      Needless to say, I am beyond excited for this transfer! (-:

     Other than that...I don’t have too much more to tell y’all. I got my visa....aka I don’t have to worry about getting kicked out of the country! So booyah to that!!!

     I got to party at Bahnhoff with some of my favorite missionaries of all time! I saw Sister Johnson (she’s training now), Elder Crittenden (deep breaths, Chupie) and a bunch of other rockin' people from the MTC. I took some pictures, but I can’t find camera cord :( hopefully I didn’t leave it in Coburg!!!

     Anywayyyy, I love y’all like crazy!!! I can’t wait to write again next week and fill y’all in on all the wonderful things that are happening here in heaventown.

- Brookie

An Unexpected Email

We received a fun email from some members in Kaiserslautern who took in Brooke and her companion for dinner!

Dear Br. and Sis. Knutson and Br. and Sis. Terry,

     I hope you don't think this so strange, but my wife and I invited your daughters to our home for dinner today after church and during their visit, I took a few pictures-I always enjoy doing that. I have included two of them in this email and will send the others along two at a time. Unfortunately they are too large being sent raw to send more than two at a time. If I do that, they are returned as undeliverable because of their size. I think that there are 18 pictures in all so there will be 7 more emails with two pics each after this unless I counted wrong.

     I apologize for the red eyes on Sis. Terry but her blue eyes make it very difficult to get anything more w/o some sort of filter which I obviously do not have. At first I thought she was wearing contacts until she explained her blue eyes to me. 

     We brought them home with us after church today-we live about 25 minutes driving time from the church and when they arrived here, they checked the train schedule on line and determined that they would have about 45 min to one hour with us. So, we made the best of it, had a nice visit around the dinner table, had a little message from them, fed them an ice cream cone for dessert, and then took them to the train station where they caught their train back to Kaiserslautern where their apartment is. Their train left Bruchmuhlbach Station at 5:28 p.m. Central European Time or 9:28 a.m. Utah time and 10:28 a.m. Texas time. Funny, one sister from Provo (our daughter [an English professor at BYU] and son [a Student at BYU] are living there) and another from San Antonio and our son lives there or just south in Lytle but works in SA. Small world.

     We hope that all is well with you and your families. Thank you very much for sharing your daughters with us here in Germany. We love having the missionaries in our home and thank you very much for the way your have raised them to be who and what they are at this time in their lives. They are a blessing to have in our home and a blessing to your and your families as well.

Have a wonderful Sunday and an enjoyable week ahead. :-)

V/r

Dave

Dear Family

I’VE BEEN TRANSFERRED.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW UPSET I AM RIGHT NOW?
REALLY UPSET.
LIKE, I WANT TO HULK SMASH EVERYONE IN THE FACE.

Why, you ask? Please. Allow me to list the reasons.

1. Maria is getting baptized. BAPTIZED. And I’m missing it!!

 
2. Coborg is a gold mine. A GOLD MINE, I SAY. I talk to people every day who are interested in learning more about the gospel. No joke. The people here are amazing.
3. Bayern is to Germany as Texas is to America. AKA I’m living in a very prideful place and I LOVE IT.
4. My branch. Oh my gosh. I miss them already! They’re the greatest!

5. Also, I’ll miss my bike :( I named him Bruce.
6. Nuremburg is the most desirable zone in the Germany Frankfurt mission...and I’m leaving it! Boo!
7. COBURG IS SO PRETTYYYYYYYYY

My branch decided to be a bunch of stink heads and rub salt in my wounds and sang "God be with you ‘til we meet again" and "I’ll go where you want me to go" at church yesterday. Rude, right?

NOW.

I know what you’re thinking:
"Calm down and tell us where you’re going."
     a. don’t tell me to calm down. Thank you.
     And b....
     I'M GOING TO KAISERSLAUTERN.
     AND NO I CANNOT PRONOUNCE THAT FOR YOU.

     I’m actually really excited, though. Elder Shively (who replaced Elder Burger last transfer) just came from there and he LOVED it. He says he thinks me and my companion are going to hit it off, too (BOTH FINGERS CROSSED). Anyway, it’s on the complete opposite side of the mission. Coburg is about as Far East as you can go and Kaiserslautern is right by France!! So whoop whoop to that.

Also whoop whoop to the following miracle stories.

     First one. Sister Hamner and I went on a split to fuecht and had a really crazy neat experience on the way over. We sat down on the zug and I noticed the man in the seat across the aisle from us kept looking over. I turned to Sister Hamner and whispered "I’m going to go talk to him!"...but he beat me to it!!! Right as I was about to get up, he looked at me and asked "are you from America?" Then, he proceeded to tell me about a vacation he took there (HES BEEN TO TEXAS). At one point in the conversation, a big group of people got on the train. He offered them his seat and then moved to the one right next to Sister Hamner and me! I thought Man, he’s making our job really easy. We ended up talking the whole train ride and invited him to meet with us and learn more about the church.
     We have an appointment with him tomorrow!
     Hurrah!

     Second one: I felt impressed that Sister Hamner and I should go dooring down a certain street here in Coburg. We'd been at it for about an hour when we klingeled a house and young woman named Dolka greeted us at the door. We introduced ourselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and said that we were here to share a special book of scripture with the German people. Then we held out a book of Mormon. Her eyes LIT UP and she literally ripped the book from my hands. She stared at it, wide eyed and smiling as she exclaimed "I KNOW THIS BOOK!! I KNOW THIS BOOK!!" With bewildered expressions, Sister Hamner and I looked at each other, then back at her, then back at each other and then back at her. She continued "I watch this guy on YouTube and he’s a Mormon!!!" She asked us if we recognized the name. Sadly, we didn’t, but then we listed off a bunch of other famous Mormons (i.e. Lindsey Sterling, imagine dragons etc.) and she said "wow! All the coolest people are Mormon!" AND I WAS LIKE, UMM FETCH YES, FINALLY SOMEONE REALIZES THIS, THANK YOU SO MUCH, P.S. BE MY BEST FRIEND.

     She didn’t have time to meet right then, but we went back and had a lesson with her the next day! It went so well!!! At the end of the lesson, we asked her if she knew anyone else who would be interested in meeting with us and she said "yeah, actually! I have a friend who I think would be very interested. I'll invite her over next time we have a lesson!"

     DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M LEAVING?
     OH MY HEAVENS.
     MY HEART IS BREAKING.

Can I just say...I love being a missionary. I love Germany. I love these people.
And...I love y’all!!!
Can’t wait to talk to you next week and tell you all about my new area!

Its adventure time!!!!!!

-Brookieee

Dear family

A few weeks ago on the train, I sat by a lady who had lots of questions about who I was/what I do as a missionary. As my stop approached and I was getting my stuff together to go, she turned to me and said "dear, you’re not going to be successful as a missionary here in Germany, but I hope you enjoy your time, anyway".

WELLLLL I have some exciting news for that sweet lady (and for the rest of y’all, too!)...

MARIA IS GETTING BAPTIZEDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1&1/2 years of lessons and she FINALLY set a date!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Cool Maria story: When Herr Fink (the man who was living with her) left, he took EVERYTHING with him. Sister Hamner and I went over there with a couple ward members to take inventory/see what all she needed. Sadly, we got there...and she wasn’t home! We waited around for about 10 minutes, but hopped back in the car to head home after that. As we got in the car, I KNEW Maria was nearby (the spirit let me know—I love it when he does that), so I kept my eyes peeled as we drove away. Sure enough, we passed by the bus stop and there she was! Sister Hamner and I jumped out of the car, shouted her name and walked with her and Janik (her 2 year old son) home.

As we were at her place making a list of everything she needed, someone made a comment about how empty her apartment was. She immediately gestured to her son and said, “yes, but now Janik has more room to play!"

I couldn’t believe it!

Maria is a 20-year-old mom with no family, no money and now no furniture and she’s able to maintain an attitude like THAT?!

She’s such an example to me!

Gosh I love her so much!

Another rockin’ story: Our Monday-Wednesday appointments all fell out and as we were planning for Thursday, we realized we wouldn’t have time for a lesson. Boo. However, we set the goal to get at least one person’s contact information while traveling to and from district meeting. We knelt down for companionship prayer and I said something along the lines of:

“Heavenly Father, we promise we'll talk with those around us on the train tomorrow. Please put someone in our path who would be willing to learn more about thy gospel.”

Well, we got on the train...and there was like, no one on it. So I just kind of sat down and thought "oh well, maybe on the way back." But then I thought about the prayer I had said the night before. I PROMISED Heavenly Father I’d talk to people! So I looked around me. A couple rows back was a man sleeping and on the complete opposite side of the train was a woman. Sister Hamner had no idea what we were going to say to her, but we got up to talk to her, anyway. And? IT WAS INCREDIBLE. She had never heard about the church before, but was super interested and asked tons of questions. We briefly talked about the restoration and invited her to meet with us and learn more...and she agreed!! It was a really neat experience.

That's not all though! I have another story! Don’t worry! We were waiting at the bus station before Maria’s appointment (you know, the one who COMMITTED TO BAPTISM, AHH WOOHOO) and this lady came up and asked us which bus she needed to take to get to the clinic. We told her, and then she was on her way.

Later that day, as we were getting on the train taking us to Nurenberg, I saw her getting on, too! Once she sat down, I walked up and asked her if she found the clinic. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes. Turns out, she just had a baby who has been in the hospital because he was born with lots of health issues. That’s why she needed to know where the clinic was—so she could visit her little guy! She has two other kids, too!! We talked about family, about the plan on salvation, about how we can be with our families forever and she gave me her number so we could talk more! Ahhh she was so awesome!! Hopefully we can set up a time to meet soon!!

In other news, the Frankfurt temple is BEAUTIFUL. I’m glad I had the opportunity to go—it’s been rumored that it’ll be closing for renovations sometime soon! After our little trip, Bruder Wunderlich took us to his store. He is OBSESSED with America and owns a store that sells American brands.

I was in lalaland.

I miss my jiff and my captain crunch and my reeces and my take 5s and my IBC and my Cheetos, OKAY?! I LOVE FOOD PLEASE STOP JUDGING ME.

            Anyway, gotta go write president now!! Love y’all so much!! Miss you like CRAZY.

Love, Brookie