Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Hello Family!
I love you all so much! And I hope everything is going well. We just had Zone Conference and talked about how our numbers need to increase and how the people are more prepared to hear now because of the economy. I only know what my mission president has said, but it sounds like the economy is still just dropping everyday and in pretty bad shape. A man we met on the bus said he thinks America is still OK, but other countries are really suffering. Anyway, I pray for you that will God will bless you. Thanks so much for the support and sacrafices you give to me. I really appreciate it. Um, I decided you probably would like to hear more stories than I share about Germany and the people. So we are teaching quite a few people (Elder Oaks and other leaders have said that Europe is on the verge of exploding with baptisms again) and they all are so wonderful. We met another family from Sri Lanka, and they are so wonderful. We have only taught them once, but when we go to visit to see how they are doing, you can just tell what a strong family they are. It really is impressive, I am so grateful for those parents. They are a good family. We are really excited to teach them again next week. We got an awesome referral last week from one of the members in our ward and we taught them on Sunday and it went really well. The lesson went really long, because they had a lot of questions, but it was really neat. We will be teaching them again next week. That was a blessing I would like to share with you actually. So the referral we received, they spoke English. Well, I had not taught a lesson in English since like almost two months ago, and I was pretty nervous to teach in English. (That probably sounds funny because I know English much better than I know German, but I knew because I knew English more would be expected of me because I would know what they were saying completely. Anyway, so I prayed for help. That day in church no investigators ended up coming (which was sad) but that gave us the time to go to the English Sunday School class taught by a Senior Sister for those wanting to learn English instead of going to the Gospel Principles class. Then in Sacrament meeting two of the speakers were Americans and they spoke a little German but mostly in English. During church it hit me that that was such a blessing. It probably seems small, but the Lord blesses us in little ways, and hearing the gospel and talking about the gospel in English during church helped me be prepared for the English lesson we would teach that referral after church. It was really neat for me.
Well, that is so exciting that Dad sold the business! Oh, that makes me so happy. I guess thats the first step to more finances. :) It does amaze me, being in a foreign country. Germany is still modern and has a lot of convienences, but I am amazed with what the average American has. It equals what a very wealthy person has here. We did some doors in a very wealthy area yesterday and it hit me that those houses (they were houses!) were pretty normal for an American. So what I am trying to say is, we have a lot of comforts that most people do not have. So when times get tough and we give up certain things, know that we might be living the life of someone outside America.
I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well and is happy though. Chris I am sorry you are sick, I hope Jr. Miss is fun to escort for. Jason good job on the grades and basketball, Crozier you too. Well that goes for all of you. Ritchie howe far along are your papers? I am getting so excited for you! Dad thanks for all you do for our family! I am so grateful for you. And Mom thanks for always writing to me. :) And for being the greatest mom ever. I could not ask for a better family. I love you all!
Love,Sister Fitzgerald
Friday, March 20, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Blessings, and everything
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Hello Family!
This week has been really good. I think I forgot to mention last time that Elder Oaks came and spoke to us at our mission conference two Fridays ago. It was really good. The spirit was really strong and he shook everyones hand and that was such a blessing. It´s funny being out here in the field is different than being in the MTC preparing. :) When you´re in the world Satan tries really hard to distract you and to pull you down. But being in places where the Spirit is so strong, at church, or your house\apartment (hopefully), or with other people that have the spirit with them, that gives you strength to carry on. Hearing from Elder Oaks and his cousin President Oaks was so powerful and gave me a lot of strength. Focusing on the gospel does bring happiness. This world is very discouraging and depressing, so to have the gospel brings so much peace and happiness that the world cannot give. I am convinced of that more and more. There is also happiness in obedience. Actually happiness comes from obedience, the gospel brings us happiness only in so far that we obey the commandments that it teaches us. Well the Atonement brings us happiness because we are not perfect and cannot always keep all the commandments, so to have the Atonement where we can be forgiven brings happiness that only the Savior can give to us. Mosiah 2:41 is true true true and Alma 36:27, and a whole bunch of others. :) I am just grateful God has shown us the way to how we can be happy. MY companion and I were talking about it today. We have an investigator that struggles with the idea that if God loves all His children why would He let them perish, why will He destroy the wicked if they are His children and He loves them. And today in companion study we were trying to think how we could explain it to her. And it occured to me how closely related spiritual and physical laws are. I thought of this analogy. You hear of this wonderful place the most beautiful place you´ve ever seen and you really want to go. It´s a pretty intense hike though, so you have to be in really good physical shape to get there. There is only one guide who has seen it who can take you there. And he will take the last group up in a few months. So you kind of prepare, but not really and the time comes to go on this journey, this hike. But you are just plain not ready to go, because it is too intense for you. It´s not that the guide doesn´t want you there, he does, but you yourself are just not ready take on such a vigorous phyically exhausting journey so you can´t go. Well, this analogy is faulty, because the Lord does help us, we don´t have to do it alone. But I also think there are certain spiritual laws that work like that. We have to be prepared to live a high spiritual law. God has prepared a palace for us, Eternal life. But we have to exercise our spiritual strength in order to make the journey. It is worth it, and it does feel good. Just like when people are in really good physical shape they feel good. But we also have to do our part. Thankfully the Lord is there to help us. May be if we have faith that our guide can carry us my analogy wouldn´t be as faulty. :) Anyway, yeah, so that is what I have been thinking about. :) The mission life is good though. I really enjoy Germany. MY German is coming along. I am understanding more and more. My companion is amazing. She watches me struggle, and the other day I said, "well if it were just like math I think I could remember it better. Linguistics just confuses me." So what did she do? She came up with verb equations like this: passive(present perfect tense(verb))=present(sein)+past participle(verb)+worden. That may look confusing, but it totally helped me understand Passive Perfect Present tense with werden. Those that speak German will appreciate this equation or at least laugh. :) She has come up with many other equations with different verb rules that have also helped me understand so much better. I told her she should get a double masters in math and linguistics and write a book about all this and get rich and famous. She is so cool. I am so blessed to have her as my companion. She even has the scripture scouts CD´s. :) It´s really fun.
Well I better go. But I love you all family and I´m glad that Analee is officially Analee. :) That is so wonderful you went to the Draper Temple open house. I heard it is really pretty.
Love,
Sister Fitzgerald
Hello Family!
This week has been really good. I think I forgot to mention last time that Elder Oaks came and spoke to us at our mission conference two Fridays ago. It was really good. The spirit was really strong and he shook everyones hand and that was such a blessing. It´s funny being out here in the field is different than being in the MTC preparing. :) When you´re in the world Satan tries really hard to distract you and to pull you down. But being in places where the Spirit is so strong, at church, or your house\apartment (hopefully), or with other people that have the spirit with them, that gives you strength to carry on. Hearing from Elder Oaks and his cousin President Oaks was so powerful and gave me a lot of strength. Focusing on the gospel does bring happiness. This world is very discouraging and depressing, so to have the gospel brings so much peace and happiness that the world cannot give. I am convinced of that more and more. There is also happiness in obedience. Actually happiness comes from obedience, the gospel brings us happiness only in so far that we obey the commandments that it teaches us. Well the Atonement brings us happiness because we are not perfect and cannot always keep all the commandments, so to have the Atonement where we can be forgiven brings happiness that only the Savior can give to us. Mosiah 2:41 is true true true and Alma 36:27, and a whole bunch of others. :) I am just grateful God has shown us the way to how we can be happy. MY companion and I were talking about it today. We have an investigator that struggles with the idea that if God loves all His children why would He let them perish, why will He destroy the wicked if they are His children and He loves them. And today in companion study we were trying to think how we could explain it to her. And it occured to me how closely related spiritual and physical laws are. I thought of this analogy. You hear of this wonderful place the most beautiful place you´ve ever seen and you really want to go. It´s a pretty intense hike though, so you have to be in really good physical shape to get there. There is only one guide who has seen it who can take you there. And he will take the last group up in a few months. So you kind of prepare, but not really and the time comes to go on this journey, this hike. But you are just plain not ready to go, because it is too intense for you. It´s not that the guide doesn´t want you there, he does, but you yourself are just not ready take on such a vigorous phyically exhausting journey so you can´t go. Well, this analogy is faulty, because the Lord does help us, we don´t have to do it alone. But I also think there are certain spiritual laws that work like that. We have to be prepared to live a high spiritual law. God has prepared a palace for us, Eternal life. But we have to exercise our spiritual strength in order to make the journey. It is worth it, and it does feel good. Just like when people are in really good physical shape they feel good. But we also have to do our part. Thankfully the Lord is there to help us. May be if we have faith that our guide can carry us my analogy wouldn´t be as faulty. :) Anyway, yeah, so that is what I have been thinking about. :) The mission life is good though. I really enjoy Germany. MY German is coming along. I am understanding more and more. My companion is amazing. She watches me struggle, and the other day I said, "well if it were just like math I think I could remember it better. Linguistics just confuses me." So what did she do? She came up with verb equations like this: passive(present perfect tense(verb))=present(sein)+past participle(verb)+worden. That may look confusing, but it totally helped me understand Passive Perfect Present tense with werden. Those that speak German will appreciate this equation or at least laugh. :) She has come up with many other equations with different verb rules that have also helped me understand so much better. I told her she should get a double masters in math and linguistics and write a book about all this and get rich and famous. She is so cool. I am so blessed to have her as my companion. She even has the scripture scouts CD´s. :) It´s really fun.
Well I better go. But I love you all family and I´m glad that Analee is officially Analee. :) That is so wonderful you went to the Draper Temple open house. I heard it is really pretty.
Love,
Sister Fitzgerald
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Germany!
Date: March 3, 2009
Hello Family!
If there are typos just know that the keyboards are different here in Germany. :) Well first off, Oh meine güte, ich bin in Deutschland!It has been a wonderful first week. So, it was so good to talk with you family. I wish I could've talked to you dad the second time, and I'm sorry that my phone calls were all mixed up. But I was glad to get in touch with as many family memebers as I could. I'm glad you all are doing well.
Well Germany! It's great. We are teaching a lady from Burma, and we are about the same in our German language skills. :) Actually hers is better than mine, but I appreciate the fact that she talks slowly so I can understand. :) (mostly) It's been really interesting teaching her because there is no Book of Mormon in Mian Mahr which is her language that she speaks. So between the German she knows and the English she knows a lot of the lesson is just spent in translating it so she can understand the reading assignments we give her. But she is has a desire to learn more about the gospel and she is really patient with the language barrier. Her name is Nang. We are teaching another lady Anja and her daughter Tara. They are part Indian part German. We taught them the Plan of Salvation on Sunday and the mom Anja I think really felt the Spirit. Or maybe she was just looking at me that way trying to figure out what I was saying. :) But I think she felt the spirit and we have another appointment next week. We are also teaching a Family from Sri Lanka. Do remember Jey's (Anglea's husbands) full name? They probably don't know eachother, but it still would be fun to try to make a connection. I actually haven't met them yet, but we teach them on Sunday too. We are teaching a lady in English today I think she's from England. So I am excited for that. :)
So um, yeah, I arrived in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning. The flight was good. I slept a lot of the way and it was dark when we left Texas and it was just early morning light when we flew into Frankfurt so I didn't see the ocean ever. But it was fun. I met my President Ninnow and his wife. They are super nice and super fun, and very engaged in missionarz work. I love them. We weren't able to do a Street Preach when we arrived (which I was secretly grateful for), but we did talk to people on the bus. Well, tried to talk to people. The people I talked to always ended up speaking English better than German. Um, that night we stayed at the hotel where I met my trainer, Sister Van den Berg! I prayed for the Lord to give me the best trainer He could, one that was nice and patient, but also one could really push me to learn the language and be a good missionary. Well, he did just that. He blessed me with the best trainer I couldäve ever asked for. She is from Connecticut and 23. She is so friendly, positive, happy, hard working all the time. She is an excellent missionary, always focusing on others, always. She amazes me. I am truly so blessed to have her as my trainer. I don't know the other sisters very well yet, but I've heard good things about them all, so I look forward to good things.
Germany! It's definitely European. :) I love all the buildings and I love riding trains, I love the gospel, and if I could just speak German I think it would almost be perfect. The weather reminds me of Idaho, but more humid. IT's actually turning into Spring which is really beautiful. Well it will be, the buds are just barely starting to appear. Um, I imagined a lot less cars, just because everyone always talked about how good the public transportation was, but there are still a lot of cars and streets are really small so the cars park on the side walk. That was kind of funny. Also there are sidewalks, then red bike lanes in the sidewalks. They are not to be mixed up. :) Rot ganger, Tot ganger. Kind of like Red goer, dead goer. Don't walk on the red. :) The sidewalks are cobble stones, and a lot of the roads are to which I like a lot. The people are verz polite. We were on the bus the other day and this old lady got on and all the seats were taken so this teenager got up from his seat and let the old lady have it. I was really impressed, but that's just how Germans are. Also, in Germany because they are proper the speak very properly and it's not a snooty thing to do kind of like it is in America. If someone talks really well it's almost funny to us. But here, no, they speak well, everyone, and you are respected when you can speak well. I think that is why it's so scary to talk to people. They are also very blunt. A few people have told me my German is bad, but that it will get better. I try to take that as encouragement. I know that's how they mean it. I do enjoy talking with people. I love even more teaching lessons. Oh yes, my first Sunday here they announced that I was new and would bear my testimony first. I was glad the Bishop said "Danke" after I was done. That was scary, but good. I am grateful for all the blessings I received saying that I would be blessed with the gift of tounges. I didnät really worry about learning a language before my mission, and wondered why it said that so much in the blessings I recieved. I definitely know why now, and I am glad the Lord knows all and prepared me and knows what I need to be blessed with. I love being a missionary. There is so much to learn, but everyday gives you time. Oh, I almost forgot. I am in Dusseldorf. It's in the north and the way up here along the Rhein River was so beautiful. There were castels on every hilltop i saw like 10 at least. It was really cool.
Well I better go, but I love you family! And I love being a missionary!
Tschuss!
Sister Fitzgerald
Hello Family!
If there are typos just know that the keyboards are different here in Germany. :) Well first off, Oh meine güte, ich bin in Deutschland!It has been a wonderful first week. So, it was so good to talk with you family. I wish I could've talked to you dad the second time, and I'm sorry that my phone calls were all mixed up. But I was glad to get in touch with as many family memebers as I could. I'm glad you all are doing well.
Well Germany! It's great. We are teaching a lady from Burma, and we are about the same in our German language skills. :) Actually hers is better than mine, but I appreciate the fact that she talks slowly so I can understand. :) (mostly) It's been really interesting teaching her because there is no Book of Mormon in Mian Mahr which is her language that she speaks. So between the German she knows and the English she knows a lot of the lesson is just spent in translating it so she can understand the reading assignments we give her. But she is has a desire to learn more about the gospel and she is really patient with the language barrier. Her name is Nang. We are teaching another lady Anja and her daughter Tara. They are part Indian part German. We taught them the Plan of Salvation on Sunday and the mom Anja I think really felt the Spirit. Or maybe she was just looking at me that way trying to figure out what I was saying. :) But I think she felt the spirit and we have another appointment next week. We are also teaching a Family from Sri Lanka. Do remember Jey's (Anglea's husbands) full name? They probably don't know eachother, but it still would be fun to try to make a connection. I actually haven't met them yet, but we teach them on Sunday too. We are teaching a lady in English today I think she's from England. So I am excited for that. :)
So um, yeah, I arrived in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning. The flight was good. I slept a lot of the way and it was dark when we left Texas and it was just early morning light when we flew into Frankfurt so I didn't see the ocean ever. But it was fun. I met my President Ninnow and his wife. They are super nice and super fun, and very engaged in missionarz work. I love them. We weren't able to do a Street Preach when we arrived (which I was secretly grateful for), but we did talk to people on the bus. Well, tried to talk to people. The people I talked to always ended up speaking English better than German. Um, that night we stayed at the hotel where I met my trainer, Sister Van den Berg! I prayed for the Lord to give me the best trainer He could, one that was nice and patient, but also one could really push me to learn the language and be a good missionary. Well, he did just that. He blessed me with the best trainer I couldäve ever asked for. She is from Connecticut and 23. She is so friendly, positive, happy, hard working all the time. She is an excellent missionary, always focusing on others, always. She amazes me. I am truly so blessed to have her as my trainer. I don't know the other sisters very well yet, but I've heard good things about them all, so I look forward to good things.
Germany! It's definitely European. :) I love all the buildings and I love riding trains, I love the gospel, and if I could just speak German I think it would almost be perfect. The weather reminds me of Idaho, but more humid. IT's actually turning into Spring which is really beautiful. Well it will be, the buds are just barely starting to appear. Um, I imagined a lot less cars, just because everyone always talked about how good the public transportation was, but there are still a lot of cars and streets are really small so the cars park on the side walk. That was kind of funny. Also there are sidewalks, then red bike lanes in the sidewalks. They are not to be mixed up. :) Rot ganger, Tot ganger. Kind of like Red goer, dead goer. Don't walk on the red. :) The sidewalks are cobble stones, and a lot of the roads are to which I like a lot. The people are verz polite. We were on the bus the other day and this old lady got on and all the seats were taken so this teenager got up from his seat and let the old lady have it. I was really impressed, but that's just how Germans are. Also, in Germany because they are proper the speak very properly and it's not a snooty thing to do kind of like it is in America. If someone talks really well it's almost funny to us. But here, no, they speak well, everyone, and you are respected when you can speak well. I think that is why it's so scary to talk to people. They are also very blunt. A few people have told me my German is bad, but that it will get better. I try to take that as encouragement. I know that's how they mean it. I do enjoy talking with people. I love even more teaching lessons. Oh yes, my first Sunday here they announced that I was new and would bear my testimony first. I was glad the Bishop said "Danke" after I was done. That was scary, but good. I am grateful for all the blessings I received saying that I would be blessed with the gift of tounges. I didnät really worry about learning a language before my mission, and wondered why it said that so much in the blessings I recieved. I definitely know why now, and I am glad the Lord knows all and prepared me and knows what I need to be blessed with. I love being a missionary. There is so much to learn, but everyday gives you time. Oh, I almost forgot. I am in Dusseldorf. It's in the north and the way up here along the Rhein River was so beautiful. There were castels on every hilltop i saw like 10 at least. It was really cool.
Well I better go, but I love you family! And I love being a missionary!
Tschuss!
Sister Fitzgerald
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