Week 7 -- Now I Guess I Don't Like Any Water

Sorry I have to be quick. This week has been crazy. So much had happened. The language still feels so foreign and whenever I try to talk to people in German they said huh? I don't understand I only speak German. Lol the funny thing is I am speaking German but I guess it's not good enough haha. But the people are awesome. They are just 100% straight up. Which is great. Its so funny tho like some people are just so rude. And some people just flat out ignore you. Language is hard. I have no idea what is happening most the time but it's okay.

The food is amazing. I have had so much ice cream. I literally love it. And all the pastries. Even like just the cereal is so dang good. But is just unreal hot. Like in the 90s and so so humid and there is no AC anywhere. So everyone is just sweating and we have to ride the buses and trains everywhere and it's even worse. Like everyone smells bad and is sweating and at night you're just on fire. Lol it's just crazy.

My trainer is really cool and I like her a lot. We got to this area and had no information. It was like we were opening it basically cuz we have like nothing. So it's sometimes really hard. And like I can't do a whole lot because I can't speak the language and you can't really find ways to serve that much.  But we have found some crazy cool people to teach. And I have seen so many miracles already. It's just a lot different than I imagined. I really hope I cant plant some good seeds and that we can make this area come alive. But it's good. It is just so different than I imagined 

On my first Sunday everyone was trying to get to know us and I had no idea what was happening. I just literally sat there in the lessons and it just went right over my head. I couldn't even get the topic we were talking about. Then all the sudden in sacrament we were going up to hear our testimonies. Also, we already got assigned 15-minute talks. So I really need this thing they call the gift of tongues. Not quite sure where it is.

But we have seen so many miracles this week. We went on splits with our sister training leaders on Monday. We just went finding for like 4 hours straight and found 20 people! We also set up 10 appointments.

Someone we met with gave us some water and it was finally normal water. When I drank it, it was so weird. It just slipped right down my throat. Now I guess I don't like any water.

We have the coolest girl we are teaching and her name is T---and she is 21. She prayed about getting baptized and she got the answer that she knows she should she just needs to better herself more first. She is seriously the cutest and is from China but grew up here. We were so excited and we love teaching her.

Thank you for the prayers. Sorry for the short email. Love you all.

Week 6 -- Bubbling Water in Germany

My MP and his wife, the Boyers

My trainer Sister Linebaugh from Lindon, UT

So many hours of traveling. When we finally got here it was like 8:30 am in Frankfurt. I was only able to sleep 6 hours in the last 48 hours before I got here. So by the time I actually got to Germany I was falling asleep everywhere. First thing we did was meet the mission president and his wife and kids. They are great. Then went out and street contacted. Lol people here are so funny. Like me and my comp Sister Linebaugh were trying to talk to some guy and he straight up ignored us. Pretended like we weren't there hahaha. Then other people just say why are you taking to me. It's okay though because I can't understand anything that is going on.

So the night of when we got here I got companions with sister Linebaugh. She is from Lindon. I am going to be her last companion before she leaves. She is really sweet. We got our area Solingen. We are white washing the area. So there has always been elders here but there were having no success so they decided to send us here lol. So that means that my trainer knows nothing here either. The elders didn't tell us anything or even know the address of our church. They didn't even tell the people they were teaching that they were leaving and that sisters were coming. So we called our investigator and we said we were So excited to meet her and she said uh I am kind of excited, I was not expecting this. Hahaha So hopefully she still wants to be taught.

So yesterday after we hauled our 4 suitcases that weighed like 1000 pounds each across germany, we finally made it to our apartment. We found out it was on the 5 floor lol. Once we finally got to the apartment we just started chugging the water because there are like no places to fill up your water bottle here. Then after we read the notes from the elders and apparently we are not suppose to drink the water in our apartment lol. So Then today we went to the store and got groceries and water. When we got home I was so excited to finally have water again and we opened one of them from the big case we bought and it was bubbly water. Literally the grossest thing ever. The Germans love it and I have no idea why. Not only is it gross every time I open my water bottle it like explodes everywhere hahaha.

Germany is crazy tho. The people are always honking and driving crazy. We've been on some roads that don't even have speed limits. In our area we just take busses and trains everywhere. Idk how my companion knows how to go but she is great. I hope that everything will work out and it will get better. The food is amazing though. The chocolate is heaven. Thank you for all the prayers! They are needed. Hope you all have a great week!

Sister Clegg

Saying Goodbye to Ellie, she has 3 more weeks learning Chinese in MTC

Week 5 - 5 DAYS TILL A LOT OF THINGS....

5 DAYS TILL I LEAVE TO GERMANY! So that means 5 days till a lot of things. 5 days till I understand absolutely nothing. 5 days till I have to live with no AC. 5 days till I have the best chocolate of my life. 5 days till I live in a different country for a year and a half. 5 days till my mission actually starts. 

The 4th of July was probably not my favorite one of my life. We got to watch the fireworks from a building. The only thing the fireworks did for the missionaries was make us homesick. Although it was better than laying in our room and hearing them.

We taught some pretty good lessons to our investigator Bjerke. He finally said he would be baptized and it was seriously so cool. We were all so happy and we remembered this might be the only time this happens in our whole mission and it was fake lol. But it was still bittersweet. So sometimes I have a problem with laughing. And always at the worst times. So in our last lesson with Bjerke we were going over the baptismal interview questions with him so if he had any questions we could help him to understand and felt comfortable before his actual interview. I would suggest reading the questions before hand to prepare yourself before you actually ask them. In our lesson we were reading a bunch of german words that we didn't understand then all the sudden I was reading "homosexuelle beziehung." Beziehung means relationship. So I just burst out laughing so hard I started crying. My companions kept apologizing over and over for me and hitting me and telling me to stop with a german accent. 

This week after we sent our companion off to Hungary, we decided to make a groß bed because now we wouldn't have anyone to tell us that was not allowed. We took all our mattresses and put them together on the floor. Even though we are on missions we still find ways to have a good time. The only problem with our bed is that I guess it is normal for people to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. So there is no way to slip out quietly when there is 2 people and beds to jump over. 

My favorite thing I came to realize this week was the power of faith. I was reading the amazing miracles of Christ in the New Testament. All of them were able to work because of the person he was healing had faith. I think it is so important that if we have faith nothing is impossible and I just love that. 

Hope you all are having a good week.

Sister Clegg

Week 4 -- Fireworks (July 4th)

A couple times a week we see missionaries with all their luggage leaving the MTC. It always blows my mind that people actually get out of this place. It is crazy that it will be me in less than 2 weeks. We get our flight plans this in 2 days. So I will keep you updated to see if they actually let us out.

Last night we were so excited for the 4th we decorated our room in streamers and lots of balloons. Then we figured out that there are little windows in our rooms. Well at least I did. I had never even seen one in our room before. So we all went in the Albanian sisters room because they have a window that faces away from the MTC. We were all so excited when for every single firework. It was like we had never seen them before. We talked about what it was like to actually have a summer and get to watch the fireworks and have a bbq. 

Our branch president got released on Sunday. Everyone was all sad. Everyone stood up in testimony meeting and said how loving they are and all this great stuff. Everyone moved up in the presidency so we did not actually get anyone new. So right after they were released, they re called everyone.

Despite all of the fun things we do work hard. The language is coming, it really is. But it still feels slow. I can get through a whole lesson now and say what I need to and talk the whole time. It is still caveman german but I can get by. I understand so much more now. The gift of tongues is real. And the Spirit is so strong here. 

Happy 4th everyone.

Sister Clegg