Cruising through my iPod

I'll be home for Christmas..

Click

Please bring snow and mistletoe..

Click

I'll have a blue Christmas without you..

Click
Baby please come home..

Click

All I want for Christmas is

Click

So please just fall in love with me this Christmas

Click 

Baby it's cold out..

Click
Click

CLICK
-_-

Thanks for nothing Mr.Buble' but the most clever alone awareness CD ever made.. Ahhh

I've got Rudolph on re-play... he didn't let Santa or me down with that one!

This week to celebrate my companions birthday/ my inner Asian inside of me decided to make us some Chinese food for lunch!

We were at the Chinese Costco like Store where they sell all sorts of wild oriental treats and I bought some soy sauce.

(impossible to find here). liquid gold. 
Right after we checked out I somehow tripped....on air and dropped the Soy Sauce which shattered everywhere.

Every single Asian was panicking and freaking out as if someone died. Everyone was speaking and shouting in Chinese...

I didn't need a translator to know what they were saying bout me.

Ya ya ya take a picture. 
I had to buy a whole new bottle and had glass in my finger and was just not a happy camper.

Right as we walked out Sister Warncke goes.....

Haha you ate it!!

I just started dyyyyying of laughter. She is catching on

Making me proud. 

This week I also taught her the words:
Steez
Swag
Aiiight
Bra
Yolo

it amuses me

My companion got super sick with an epidemic that's been going around not only our mission but for sister missionaries world wide..

The " I don't need to shave because it's winter and I'm a sister missionary" epidemic.

This is NOT A DRILL and I simply will NOT tolerate this behavior. Pray for my fellow sisters that their minds may be made right.


This week was similar to last week but getting easier

Sister Kosak (the mission President's wife) randomly called to check in on me. (Talk about a prompting).
And we talked about life and I got some good advice. She is such an amazing lady.

Normally in life when i got bad news or had a trial. I could go to my mom, get a large vanilla diet coke, go shopping with Chloe and Madds. Or just lay in bed for a day...or two.

But being away from everything familiar especially diet coke and without anyone to turn to. 

My relationship with the Lord has never been stronger.

My only outlet is prayer.

Never before have I felt soooo much peace and comfort.

Through him i find strength to carry forward and trust he will lead me to where I need to be. To help me find what I deserve.

I realized this week that finding yourself shouldn't need to involve someone else. 

Sometimes it means picking up the pieces and starting over. Constantly refining and better myself.

Drawing nearer to the one person who knows you better. 

This week I heard a quote from Joseph Smith talking about how he is like a rock rolling down a hill and becoming smooth and perfected through all the bumps and trials the Lord gives him.

I'm going to be a diamond here pretty soon now if that's the case!!

I officially declare Leipzig as the Christmas capital of the world. You don't know Christmas till you have come here and seen it!

The streets are filled with toy makers, food, gifts and bells and music ahhh it's heaven. 

The work is great and hard at Christmas time. I love it that way. It keeps you on your toes.

People are hustling about shopping to celebrate CHRISTmas and when asked if they believe in CHRIST they gawk at you and walk away. If everyone could just truly reflect on the true meaning or Christmas it would change hearts.

Being away from gifts and family has really left me with only the birth of Christ to celebrate. And that is the greatest gift I could receive. Money cannot buy this happiness.

I am ok
I am taken care of
I am comforted
I am where I've always wanted to be.
I am happy

Missions are amazing things. Your called to help others around you.. 

But in reality your mission changes YOU. It shapes you into what your capable of becoming. Into what God needs you to be.

It's bittersweet to not wake up to Christmas. 

However, the happiness I feel is one you cannot find anywhere else but here in the field. 

This work is hastening. God is preparing people. This is the fullness of times and I thank my father in heaven for giving me the opportunity to give him 18 months and in return gain so much more.


Merry merry Christmas everyone! Big thank you to everyone that sent a sweet note or a gift! You don't know how much that means to a missionary. I'll never forget those of you :)

Hug your loved ones and drink a nice big American diet coke to celebrate for me. 

I love you all and my gift to you is working my absolute hardest to make sure you all will be blessed at home.


Line of the week:

Me: hallo we are speaking with people about the true meaning of Christmas

Man: you mean Jesus...?

Me: yes! We know he loves you and we would love to go give you this book that..

Man: Jesus hates me and hates you

oh........k

Merrrrryyyyy chrriiiissstttmmas everyone!!

Frohe Weihnachten. 

Liebe Grüße 

xxx sister d

Pictures attached:

winter temple trip

EXTREME makeover Bella fashion.. Francesco addition!! we took him shopping and got him swagggged out ready for his baptism this Saturday!!

NAJA- German Slang for "What Will Be, Will Be"

Well.... this week was rough lesssssss be honest

Just about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g fell apart. 

I think there is a secret facebook fan club that decided this week...

HEYYYYYY its the national give bella a hard week time... Even the mail man #haterade

My motto i write all over my planner and say to myself daily is 

REFUSE TO SINK

But naja

Somedays i have no idea how i will make it through.. But i do know that when i do come out of it that i will not be the same person that walked in..

He provides a way..

I know he has a plan for me. He is constantly testing me, pushing me to my limits, making me rebuild..

AND HE DOESNT MAKE ME DO IT ALONE

I know i have a purpose. I am grateful for every stumble that has brought me here. 

Learning to rely on no one else but the Lord has brought me more happiness that i knew possible..

I KNOW he has a life prepared for me

" .. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.." Romans 12:12

This week a member in our ward called us panicking from the hospital begging us to quickly come visit..

WE DROPPED EVERYTHING and rushed to the hospital.. Checked in at the front desk and they point us to the...

mental institution.....

TRIPPIEST PLACE IVE EVER BEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE...

People in white straight jackets and pacing around. Right when we walked through the doors some man just followed us breathing into my ear.. 

Some walked in circles and others shouted things..

THIS IS NOT A DRILL PEOPLE

I didn't know what to do i was in shock.. total disbelief that we were in the right place... but sure enough..

I saw the member..

We stayed for an hour or so and tried to give her some comfort.. She just found out she is being sent back to Vietnam and had a meltdown and wanted to take her life.. 

While we were sitting there reading some scriptures to try to give her comfort, in walks her roommate RAMONA...

Ramona has huge slashes up and down her whole body and walks up to me and asks me for money.....

girlllllllllllll i am a broke missionary. I cant give you jack! She wasn't too stoked..

We went on a small walk with the member ( keeping name private) and attended the small Christmas market the mental institution set up for the patients.. Ramona bought me a small paper mache christmas star she made.. and it even had a littlebitsy blood on it.. yay

Well

Seeing as how my week just gradually progressed negatively i decided to fast last weekend in hopes to gain new direction and comfort.. 

Friday we had an appointment with Francesco's father to discuss baptism.. a topic he hasn't been too excited about for his son.

I was just praying and praying and praying his heart would be touched and let Francesco get baptized...

I don't know how it happened and cannot remember what i told him when i bore my testimony about how IMPORTANT this was..

But i am sooooooo happy and relieved and blessed to announce...

FRANCESCO ASSISI WILL BE BAPTIZED ON THE 29th OF DECEMBER

WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!!!! IN TWO WEEKS 

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hopefully the Mayans failed miserable and ill talk to you all next week

Line of the Week:

Me: ahhhhhhahaha sister warncke did you see that! That man just ATE it so hard

Warncke: ate what??

Me: No like ATE it.. he atttteeeee it

Warncke: what did he eat!?!?!

Just a glimpse of the struggles trying to understand German vs. English slang translation :)

-_-

byeeee

xx B

Please keep Sister Nancy Frank in your prayers. She greeted me my first day in Germany and we

served together in Germany for 3 months together. She was the wife in the senior couple companionship.

Thursday she found out she has Leukemia and 

went home only a few hours later.

I only had a few seconds to say goodbye before she left..

She has been my ANCHOR on my mission and like a mother to me.

I know god answers our prayers

Danke

P.S I am overwhelmed at how many emails i am getting informing me about all the girls that are STEPPING UP and getting ready to serve missions! You are in for the craziest, most amazing spiritually exhausting ride of your life! The world NEEDS good sisters. There are homes ONLY you will be let into.. there are people that will only hear it from YOU! 18months seriously flies by! It is not easy but it is soooo worth it! #swaginthesisterhood

advent time

this week began ADVENTS

You know those chocolate calenders where you take turns with your siblings eating one everyday until Christmas?? ( or in my case eat all of Olivia's when she wasn't looking.) WELL that came from GERMANY! Who knew?

This week it all began. Every week until Christmas there is a fun tradition! Which usually involves eating.. so im loving it

The members here take good care of us. This week was St. Nikolaus! Which is when the children clean their boots and set them outside overnight and in the morning find oranges and candy! The cleaning part sure sounds familiar... cough dad..... but not the candy part.

During our study in the morning we heard our doorbell ring and sure enough... in my cute cheetah ballet flats was a bag full of candy and oranges!

This week the WEINACHTSMAN ( more complicated name for Santa ) came to our ward party..

Lets just say Francesco was FREAKKKKIN OUT

All of the parents gave Santa prior a present for their kids and one by one they got called on stage..

Francesco looked at me and said '' ahhhh i hope he has one for me too!!''

Crap.

We quickly found candy and pulled a few strings and last but not least Francesco went on stage!!

He read Santa a note that said '' Liebe Weinachtsman this year i want to be BAPTIZED!!!

Ahh sweet thing.. we even set a baptism date for him in January!! 

I was such a proud mother..

Perhaps the most wild experience on my mission so far also occurred that night..

Shortly before we left for the party the missionaries all met up with some people to ride together. Well much to our surprise a new member was a 

littlebitsytipsy...

Accidentally drank alcohol at the weinachtsmark not knowing it was in the apple cider..

We were all dying of laughter because we had no clue what to do.

I wish you could have seen us all rolling up to the church together trying to keep it cool and pep talk the person into laying llowwwwww

Perhaps the most stressful part was when the bishop grabbed me and said QUICK we need background music go play the piano..

ok... confession time.... I would always go to Ian Gillettes house instead of piano lessons growing up....

well i remembered a few things and threw some fancy Christmas songs in and it sounded goooood!

They loved it..

This week all that seemed to happen was hear about people that are struggling, or about investigators and members whose lives seemed

to become more difficult ever since meeting with us... Some have trials i cant even imagine facing!

I promised everyone so many blessings that would come from the gospel.. I was just speechless when an investigator asked why he only has harder times these days...

I had no answer... there is NO answer why we struggle and face the things we do..

All i knew to do was bear my personal testimony that i KNOW without a doubt in my mind that god lives.

That in my life I've seen some of the strongest most amazing people i know face the hardest trials..

WHY?

Because God KNOWS you will prevail.. 

He knows you will become better from it.

The adversary knows your potential as well and will do anything in his power to keep you from this truth and the difference YOU will make.

God knows trials will come, but i also know he would never let us face a challenge that he knew we couldn't overcome.

He will NOT set us up to fail...

`` Some Blessings come soon, some come later. But for those who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.. they come.´´-  Jeffrey R. Holland

For all you missionaries serving in them tropical states eye.n.v.u...( I envy you) its hitting the negative degrees over here.. Count your blessings peeps

I'm too busy trying to count my toes to make sure i still have them all from the freaking freezing frost bite..

Line of the week:

( while baking brownies for the elders for District Meeting)

Me: Hey Sister Warncke.. im gonna hop in the shower watch the brownies for me!!

Sister Warncke: Yup they look good there is smoke coming out of the oven so their cooking GREAT!

Me.. OK sounds gooo

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS SMOKE

Sure enough... black flames...

Turns out Celsius is alooooooooooooot different than Fahrenheit over here.. cooked them at a good 300 degrees Fahrenheit.. whoops

Scrape off a little dust, cut off the burnt parts

The elders loved em... they will eat anything

until next time...

Sister D

It's Christmas Time!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hallefreakinlujah
It's Christmas time!!! Finally my comp/district is letting me play Christmas music without getting mad at me!!

Ok granted September was a biiiiit early to begin it all but punctuality is better in the eyes of the lord than slothfulness. 

This week we had a mission conference with half the missionaries in the Berlin mission. 
We heard lots of good talks, good laughs and even got to do a white elephant gift exchange........ 

you better belie-dat I went all out. 

I brought a HUGE box and filled it with packing peanuts and inside at the bottom I had a life size movie quality.... 

mr.bean mask. 

I know what your thinking..

Well while helping some random guy move this week I spotted the treasure and used my bartering skills I've acquired from street markets in Mexico to get the mask!!!!
The elder that won it crept around wearing it the remainder of the party haha excited was an understatement. 
And in turn for bringing the greatest gift ever in turn I got....

A rubix's cube. 

The only thing in this world that is about as fun as lint. 

Ugh... I gave it away to the first elder I saw and just walked away haha

But my companion however won a banjolin

Banjolin: a mix between a banjo, and a mandolin. Sounds like nails

Towards the end of the meeting they opened it up for testimonies.. 

You know the feeling when it seems like a super good idea to go up there on the stand??
 then you get up there and just panic contemplating how to go sit back down not awkwardly.... or is that just me???
Well..... I was stuck an bore my testimony.  I was so nervous I was shaking. I think it went well!

What's great about a mission conference is the friends you make!! For example Sister Linford.
She and I are like twins!!! She kills me. Ahhh I hope one day we can work together. We wouldkill it. We made a goal together..
She has to baptize a little person and I have to baptize someone with an eye patch... 
This just gave " finding" a whole new purpose. 

First week with my new companion went well. I'm not quite sure I've ever met anyone more serious than my comp. 
I'm all about being serious when working.. I just wish she would get my jokes! Hahaha some of my best ones..... silence...nothing....no reaction...

There is nothing more awkward than explaining a joke.

She is VERY blunt too. But it's a good thing. 

I'm just use to the American
 " hey does this look good?"

O_o....... Looks great!!!!

Nope not with Sister Warncke hahaha she tells you straight up what she doesn't like or what doesn't taste good.

It's refreshing just sometimes catches me off guard. 

She is sweet and shy which is different for me but i couldn't do it without her! I love her!


For the last 6 months of my mission. I've done about 2 hours of finding each day. 
Giving away 15 cards perhaps in that 2 hours. In the last 6 months I have given away about....
(insert math answer that I can't do)

All of which NOT one person called or showed up to an appointment....

Until Friday. 

We were sitting at our centrum getting ready to pack up to go back out finding since our appointment hadn't come (we usually give up after waiting 10 min....)

PAUSE &Rewind....

On Monday we did a few hours of finding. I'm use to speaking with every single person I see. 
But one man in particular I just KNEW I needed to talk to. He was a BIG buff guy. Kinda like a Viking..

I had soooo much angst but I talked to him anyway and gave him a card. 

Fastforward :

Our centrum doorbell rang and my companion and I looked at each other in disbelief..... "NoOoOoOoOoOo" we both said... There is NO way he came!

But sure enough. Standing at the door. Florian

We had an amazing first lesson and he loved it! He is sooooo prepared. I was overwhelmed the entire lesson I was soooo happy my heart was racing. 
Finally someone showed up.. FINALLY all those hours in the cold and rain and first 6 months of rejection finally paid off!!!!

I found someone!!!!

There are Germans out there that are prepared for the gospel!!!!!! Their just better at hiding....

I learned a good lesson about not judging by the way someone looks this week.

Deutschland is bitter cold. It's that kindof cold where you have to move your face around and look weird just to make sure it's not frozen. 
I've been shoving hand warmers everywhere to try and keep warm!

Still waiting on a snuggie mom.. They don't have em here........

Line of the week:
(teaching new members son)

Me: Christophe are you excited to be baptized in February!?

Christophe: I'm not going to make it..

Me:  your 8...... What else could you possibly have planned!?...

Christophe: the world ends in 23 days.. The mayans said so plus I learned it in school. 



Speechless. 
Kids got a point. 

Happpppppy birthday shoutout to my besssttfriend Madeline! 
Ahhh I hate that I'm not there to give you a birthday party but I love you my dear!! 
Zum geburtstag viel gluck and happy 7 year anniversary boo!!