Good Times! (March 6, 2017)

March 06, 2017

Good Times! (March 6, 2017)

My dear friends and family,

Words can't describe how much love I have for my mission! You wouldn't believe the kind of adventures I've had, and the people I have met and come to love. It's been absolutely wonderful! And each day though I may be tired, and though the day sometimes is long... I am happy! I am incredibly happy! And so grateful for each and every day!

This week was absolutely nuts! But glorious of course! :) It started with tausch with the Chemnitz Sisters from Tues-Wed! I was with the one and only Sister Kohlert! It was so much fun! We had a good time together!

Wednesday night Sister Jackson and I had to head to Dresden to stay with the Sisters there so we could catch our train to Berlin early the next morning! So at four in the morning Thursday morning we all got up and got ready to leave! Luckily we caught all of our trains... we cut it pretty close a couple times haha!

Thursday was absolutely wonderful! We had Mission Tour with Elder Sabin of the Quorum of the Seventy! It was so awesome to have him here! The entire meeting was awesome. Every single thing we talked about in that meeting was something that I needed to hear! And I was so incredibly grateful for that!

We were given time to ask him questions and a good friend of mine raised his hand and asked Elder Sabin a question... Elder Sabin stood there in silence for a moment and then responded, "If you can wait until General Conference... I will answer your question then!" We are now all very excited to hear the answer to his question at this upcoming general conference! Haha!

Also, at one point Elder Sabin wanted to do some sort of role play and he asked for Sister volunteers... no one volunteered... and it got to the point where it was awkward... and the next thing I knew my hand was in the air and I was walking towards the front of the room haha! And my poor companion had to do it with me! But it turned out being really fun! Plus it was in English so then it really wasn't too bad! ;) Elder and Sister Lund two of our office missionaries had to do it with us and it was so funny because Elder Lund was kind of goofing off the whole time just saying silly things and Sister Lund was really trying to be serious the whole time... and as we finished the role play Sister Lund turns to Elder Lund and says, "You know... you're not very good at this..." haha!! All the missionaries who heard, and Elder Sabin laughed pretty hard at that for a while! ;)

After the meeting all of the missionaries are scrambling trying to take pictures with each other and trying to catch up with close friends. It gets a little crazy! And amidst all the crazyness our AP comes up to me and says, "Hey you're up next for interviews with Elder Sabin." Uhhh... what?? I had no idea! So I had the cool opportunity of being interviewed by Elder Sabin! He just talked about my mission and the things I have learned. It was really awesome!

That night... Sisters Porter and Garrett took Sister Jackson and I to my dream restaurant in Berlin... El Bandito! Oh my gosh. It was everything I had hoped for! Months ago Sister Kemsley and a Sister Porter found this restaurant together. And Sister Kemsley, being a fellow lover of Mexican food, informed me that it was the best Mexican food she had ever had in Germany! So it had been a dream of mine to taste of such Mexican food in this country of sweet ketchup-like salsa. It did not disappoint! Tears of pure joy came to my eyes as the waiter placed a bowl of chips and salsa in front of me... with real chips! And REAL salsa! I was blown away. #miracleshappen

We spent the night in Dahlem with Sister Porter and Garrett and the Halle Sisters Baldwin and Earl! Because the next day we had MLC in Berlin with Elder Sabin! And boy was that meeting also incredible! Let me tell ya... the man knows his scriptures! Just about every other word was him quoting scripture! I was amazed! MLC was so great and we were able to share with him our impressions from the day before and we had a discussion about them. Such a great day!

Just a cool side note... a year ago this past week I was in Berlin for my very first time... just the day after I had landed in Germany! And I just happened to be in Berlin again for the anniversary of my one year in Germany Mark! That was kind of exciting for me... and eye opening. It was cool things came full circle and I got to be in Berlin again.

Everyone was at the temple on Saturday! And Sister Jackson got to see the Ward from her first area in Cottbus! It was super fun! I also got to see youth I know from Hohenstein, Leipzig, and Halle! Haha it is cool to work at the temple because you always see so many people you know! We also gave a temple tour on Saturday to some new converts who did baptisms for the first time that day! Sister Sommerfeld and a Sister Wacker brought them down from Spandau (Berlin)! It was awesome!

Anyway, that was basically our week! Sorry this was a long email... but we had a good week! :) This week is the last week of the transfer... so we receive transfer calls this Saturday! Anything can happen... so stay tuned!

Love you all! Have a great week! :)

-Sister Darton