October 15, 2014
Guten Tag, meine Familie und jederman!!
This past week has been a good one, a quick one with lots of
things going on to keep us busy! Lots of hard days, but lots of good ones too.
First off, the MTC feels so empty! There have been lots of
girls leaving in our building, especially. Just Monday morning we had almost
our entire hallway leave to Russia. So evenings are really quiet now, ha.
And shout out to Katie Rowe for sending me a really fun
package last week, thanks girl!!
Whew, where to start! Last Wednesday evening, our teachers
commented on how me and Sister Medley have had a huge improvement in our
lessons, teaching methods, and everything. I don't know exactly how that
happened, but I know it was not by me! :) I've been really blessed to be able
to learn quickly. Not that I'm actually a good teacher by any means, but that
I'm making improvements!
Thursday was a hard day, but good! We got to Skype with a
lady named Mia in Germany! Wow they talk fast. She is a member, along with her
17 year old daughter. We tried to teach a lesson, but mostly ended up talking
about Germany in general. She says it's really common for families to be split
with activity in the church- like some will be members while the parents or
other children could be inactive. She said that Germans don't have small talk,
and get straight to the point. And you can't just walk past someone in the
street and say, "How are you doing?" like we do here, because they'll
take that as an insult. If you say that, you have to expect to actually talk to
them for a good amount of time. Ha, and saying it to a random stranger is also
a no-go, it's mostly used for people you actually know well. Ha, I'm so
excited! And she was very gracious and said our German sounded good. Ha, good
joke, but I'll take it.
The elders and I had some bonding moments over the
"Lego Movie" that day too, always important. Then we had a lesson
Thursday with Gunther. Not my best, I think I got too self-conscious about my
German, and about sounding good that I didn't quite speak from the heart. So
I'm working on that.
Friday, I received a beautiful box of doughnuts from the one
and only Jake!! Haha, with lovely drawings all over the box. Thanks bro!!!
Everyone, including the mail room staff enjoyed them. So I'm glad we could make
a few people's day in the meantime. That
day we had a lesson with Andrea, it was really good. I could feel the Holy
Ghost bringing words to my remembrance that I had studied that day. What a
blessing!
Like the title, we have had a wonderful infestation of bugs
appear in our building, they're the little box elder beetles. Ha, it all started
on Saturday, as we started our service for the morning. When we do service here
in the MTC, it's mostly cleaning bathrooms, taking out garbage, and lately,
cleaning lots and lots of empty rooms. And we cleaned a few, just the floor
above us by wiping out drawers and desktops. We walk into one room, and
immediately we see these black blobs, all around the window, crawling onto the
ceiling and side walls, just everywhere! Haha, I got the huge floor vacuum and
tried to suck them off the walls but to no avail. And there were several rooms
on that same side of the building with the same problem. We're blaming the
construction that's right outside our window, for opening up some hidden nest
of them. And the room next to us on the second floor has found quite a few
already. And we recently found some making their little journey into our room.
It keeps us on our toes, you know? Haha, oh the MTC. We don't know what they'll
do, because they're expecting to move all the sisters from west campus, and all
the new ones, into this new building. So, let's hope they are all smitten with
some virus.
Also, we had another lesson with Gunther, and I used so much
Spanish for some reason. Haha, I tried to explain how God will give us so much
more, when we give him all that we can do. And I say, "God will give us
swan-hunderrd... percent." yeah, none of that was German, or even Spanish.
Oh mensch. But a funny thing was that evening class we had a demo with our
other teacher as we taught her in front of the class. And she stopped us a few
times, to get feedback from class, or to answer our questions. And I told her,
sometimes I'm just hesitant because I don't ever want to hurt anyone's
feelings! Like I don't want to force them into what I'm saying. And our teacher
looked at me, then to the class and said, "Has Sister Titensor EVER said
anything that could even sound offensive or harsh?" Haha, and everyone was
like, never! One elder: "She could say something to try to give me an
insult, and I would take it as a compliment" Haha, ok. So that was
comforting to hear that I'm not a meany when I teach. Haha.
Sundays- the best ever. We had one of the main directors for
media in the church come. He gave us a sneak peak for the new Mormon Message
thing for this Christmas! Get excited! It's really similar to the "Because
of Him", but it's Christmas themed. He shared just how successful
Mormon.org is, and LDS.org. The work is definitely moving along!
On Monday we taught Andy about the commandments, and she had
lots of questions, as always. But I could really feel the spirit, and in
bearing my testimony to her, I just had ideas of things to say to her, come to
my mind. I love this work, this is definitely not me! It's like a pump-up
whenever that happens. Then Tuesday we taught Gunther, almost our last time
teaching him! We taught him the Law of Tithing using gummy bears- home run
people!! And he's like a 53 year old investigator. Haha, he said he wasn't
having a good day before our lesson, and we're pretty sure it made his week.
Candy fixes about everything! Then that night we had an awesome devotional from
Larry Lawrence of the 70, about Satan’s tactics, and about the ways to overcome
him. He talked a lot about angels, and I truly believe that we have angels on
both sides of the veil, cheering us on. I have felt my Grandma Baum near for
sure. I know that may sound weird, but I just know I've had lots of help
already. None of this is me!
Tomorrow or Friday we get our flight plans!!! The rumor is
that we fly into Chicago or Houston, then to Frankfurt. Apparently there's not
a working airport in Berlin, so all of us Berliners will take a train for a few
hours up north. Can you say sweeeeet? And this coming Saturday is the last day
with our German teachers! After that they're getting ready for the new Germans,
and we'll be assigned to an English teacher. We're all so nervous that we'll
lose our little bit of German as we won't have someone speaking it to us for
over a week. But it's all good. We don't quite know what we'll be doing that
last week, but they'll keep us busy. And we'll find ways to make it fun, that's
for sure.
Funnies:
-I've discovered I have an irrational fear of men wearing
trench coats. As it's gotten colder, more and more have been appearing. I don't
really know why I'm afraid, but it's there.
-Our teacher was talking about how the number one is written
like an upside down "V", and one elder commented on how it looked
like a mountain. Now this elder is really really tall, like at least 6 foot 8,
somewhere around there. And my teacher turns around from the whiteboard and
chucks the eraser as him, yelling: "Sie sind ein berg!!!" Which
means, "you're a mountain!" Hahaha, it fit so perfectly.
-The elders have found rat evidence in their ceilings. Haha,
the candy they stuck up there, to "save" has now been shredded with
little bite marks in everything. Good thing their building is going to be
decommissioned after they leave!
-One night, we returned to our room, and one of our sisters,
Sister Sibley had dressed up like a
ninja, putting a black shirt up around her head so only her eyes were showing,
and wearing all black. So we placed her on top of the cabinets, right by the
door, and waited. Sister Henrie and Barlow in our district walk in, and all the
lights are off. Sister Henrie screams as she sees Sis. Sibley up on top. Haha,
we were dying of laughter. We almost wet our pants, including Sister Henrie and
Barlow. Haha, we've got plans for the new Germans, I think.
Thanks for all of your support, it truly means the world. I
know that I have had lots of help and that the Lord is there! We just have to
put Him and His will first.
The gospel is true!
Love you all!
Liebe immer, Sister Titensor
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