For those of you who don't know what transfer calls are..

Let's just say the author of the HUNGER GAMES Series MUST have been a Mormon Misssionary.

Because she modeled " The Reaping" identically off of transfer calls.

gulp.


I knew I was destined to leave Leipzig eventually seeing as how I've served here half my mission.

I had just finished training Sister Woodward and lived through what some say to be " the hardest part about a mission.. training".

Doch, Ja training was hard but super rewarding and I loved Sister Woodward.
She came ready sooo that made it easier.

And she liked to bake... lots of baking

Sweetest part of our 12 weeks together

get it? sweetest Ahh I kill myself


Well after what seemed to be like the lonnngessst morning ever waiting for the call with our names..

Finally our A.P Elder Bangerter called and told me..

Sister Diederich.... do you have a map?

All that's going through my mind is
" mmmmk shooot im going to need a Large DC after this one. If the city is one I need a map for!! "

Which snow-white dorf am I being shipped off to???

Well... Turns out the reason I needed a map is not because it's a dorf.

It's because..

I'M OPENING A BRAND NEW PROGRAM IN THE CITY OF BREMEN!!

Bremen is the 3rd largest city in our mission and has yet to have Sisters there!!! Presidents dream is to get a Stake there.


I couldn't believe it! I am being trusted to open up a brand new program in such a city like Bremen.

I'm goin goin back back to WEST DUETSCHLAND 


THERE IS ALSO PIRATE SHIPS THERE I HEARD!!!!!!!

eeeekkkk I'm so happy I could die

Elder Bangerter let me calm down for a second then told me

and your also going to be TRAINING again

o_O
wait say what?

That brings us to the Second thought that went through my head

1. Silly Elder Bangerter he has the wrong number
2. mmk nope he's serious Where's Ashton Kutcher at?


Ashton NEVER pops out. Never punk'd just real life of a missionary.
oh dear.

Cannot wait to go to Berlin and pick up my greenie and get to our city and say

" mmk first things first... we gotta buy a map and find out where we live!!"

bless our hearts


saying tschüß to all the people who've become my family here is going to be sooo hard.

WHO WILL LOVE FRANCESCO!?
ugh. i hate goodbyes

first it was saying goodbye to my new best friend Francesco

then it was all of the farewell eating appointments I had in a period of 4 days..

American Barbeques are always a laid back chill summer time event.

German barbecues are kinda the same. But with mysterious meats, alot more courses and alot more items being forcefully fed to you. The German accent makes it all ALOT more dramatic if I do say so myself..

I was forcefully fed the following in a matter of an hour..

Ready, GO

Bread
Asparagus
Greek Spread
2 steaks
2 bratwursts
Potato Salad
Bockwurst
Boiled Potatoes
Blooming Onion
Apple strudel ( pie )
4 cupcakes
A piece of strawberry shortcake
A ice cream sundae with ALL toppings
a box of chocolates

so much for weight watchers

when I'm home it'll be more like whale watchers

not to fear running from trains, to trains, from hobos, to appointments sure gets my sweat on

This week marks my year mark for entering the temple. Ohh was I nervous!

I remember how hesitant I was to serve a mission.
I'm no gospel whiz, or poster child for LDS living magazine. 
I'm not a " typical" sister missionary.

But then again. Noone asked me to be

Missions are NOT scary, hair pulling, sacrifices.

They are hard, but so rewarding. They do not run you into the ground or frustrate you..

The sisters and elders believe it or not.. are NORMAL people..

Not all sisters enjoy wearing shades of gray and orthopedic shoes and not smiling..

The quicker i learned to be myself, wear cute bows on my shoes and to love the work..... it made all the difference.

6 am may never get easier, weekly planning may never be fun, doors may never open..

but God doesn't ask us to be perfect or to move mountains, he just asks us to push.

I know with all of my heart that God lives now more than ever before. 

He answers our prayers, but not how we want them to be, but how we need them to be answered.

How lucky we are to know that the church has been once again restored in these latter days.

The world is CHANGING and the work is moving forward

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL

Line of the week:

Elder: Sister Diederich oh.my.gosh your bags are soooo heavy what do you have in here!?

Me: hahaha 15 pairs of shoes

Elder: hahahaha good one no really

Me: no really... 15 pairs of shoes

Elder: your kidding me

Me: nope.. If you'd like I can tell you how many boots I have on top of that too


well like I said before. The shoes come with or we ain't comin 

real quick. i just want to thank every person whose taken time to write me and say hello! Even if you are complete strangers who follow my blog and have written me.

I love hearing your stories, testimonies and mission calls. I hope I've managed to respond to all of you. 

I've never been a blogger and have no idea how it works.. I am thankful for my mom and sister OLIVIA who post each week for me.

Your all forever in my heart and i am so thankful for the LOVE you have shown

Saying that i gotta give a quick shoutout to Family Mohler from Nevada.. they found my blog and I look forward to meeting you all someday!
Your letter couldn't of arrived at a better time and your a beautiful family!
like too beautiful.. like a vampire clan beautiful! be on the lookout for a letter soon!

also Courtney Howie from helamen halls at BYU i have misplaced your address and believe since the
semester has ended it may be different! please email it to me!

Danke Danke Danke

isabelle.diederich@myldsmail.net

Got to go see if my suitcase will zip shut.

Here i Come Bremen..... serving the Lord!

Ready to play hide and stalk?! I will find you!

Sister D

The drinks are called Waldmesiter

Winter days in Germany.

Fransesco and Isabelle on the last day at church together! BFF!

just an average day on the train in Germany!

return of the J-dubbz

                                                            Preaching to Karl Marx

Just a few minutes ago i was walking over to our centrum to do emails a man walks up to me with some change in his
hand and hands it to me and says.. MARRY ME NOW and grabs my hand..

I ignored the offer, dropped the change on the ground and turned around and walked away!

WHICH TICKED HIM OFF
He then chases after us yelling at us!!!
COME BACK AND MARRY MEEEEEEE ( insert a few expletives )

Everyone on the street just stopped and stared and rather conveniently did nothing..
Sister Woodward reached into my purse and grabbed the phone and called the Elders to hurry down
to the street. Two elders walked out and came running towards us..

WHICH MADE HIM EVEN MORE MAD

" ahhhhhh who are they!!!!!!?????"
We finally made it to our centrum and the man yells

YOU'VE NEVER KNOWN A REAL MAN
thank.... goodness.....for...elders...

I now am emailing and watching as the Italian/german man is pacing in front of our door..
ill give him 5 then we will place a nice little phone call


moving on.
This week I got to go on exchanges to CHEMNITZ
(also known as the home to the founder of communism. The poster city for typical EAST GERMANY DDR)

It's reputation matched it's looks.

.eek
Upon arrival we headed straight to the center of town and set up as our street display stand.
- A nice big picture of Jesus, some multi-colored pamphlets, and a sign that says FREE BOOKS
( seeing as how 9 out of 10 times the reason people refuse them is they think they cost money.)

Sounds beautiful and successful right?

Well..

It was either lack of planning on the city councils part, or someone there had a sick twisted sense of humor..
..... but they conveniently booked another street display to take place the same day..

in the same location..

The j-Dubbz (Jehovah's Witnesses)

dundundunnnnn

Most. Awkward. Standoff. Ever

We were in a big group of missionaries about 10 or so, and all sat there nudging each other to go over and talk to them and ask them to scoot over or compromise.

I was the tribute chosen to make a peace offering
I don't need to explain what happened or how it went......
But needless to say.. They scooted over, they gave me one of their bibles, called me their " sister",
I gave them a Book of Mormon, and made lifelong friends.

Well not for too long...they all were well over 80. That encounter was easier then the time I managed to plead with my school counselor to allow me to graduate high school taking NO math credits.


Today i had my follow up doctor appointment I've been waiting for..
Speaking German is one thing.. but medical vocabulary in German is another..
My doctor told me he wants to do a colonoscopy and i have to
counsel with you guys and choose when i want to do it.. He
recommends doing it soon and not waiting but,, i just cant let
anything slow down my mission anymore! ugh

Ill be praying and fasting this week for an answer for the right thing to do!

After we finished our session he told me that this last week he
visited America for a medical conference in Washington. He was
reviewing my history with a colleague getting advice, and his colleague
noticed the small side note that says year and a half missionary service
for LDS church..

And along their road-trip they stopped and took a tour of a temple in Washington!
He said it was BEAUTIFUL and he wished he could have gone inside.

Such a tender mercy.. It makes me realize that not only as missionaries but
as MEMBERS... Everyone notices us.. Their becoming more aware of who
we are and what we believe..

WERE MAKING A DIFFERENCE

ALL WILL BE WELL i just know it..



Line of the Week:

Me: were talking to people about modern day prophets
Man: they cannot help me
Me: I know they can.. they lead and bless us in our lives and provide spiritual guidance
Man: the only guidance i need is my dog
Me: ooookk.. well i can promise you that by reading this book you too can find more guidance and peace
Man: I cannot read... i don't need any other guidance besides my dog.. because I'm BLIND


oh.... shoot
photos:
me converting Karl Marx.. the father of communism

 

Shark Week

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh My younger sister Olivia is engaged...WHAT IN THE WORLD?!

my world is upside down
Who am I?
I'm hyperventilating

I can't say I'm surprised they've been dating since they were squirteen years old

annnnnd she did beat me to everything..walking..finding which knob is hot water..dating..graduating college..and now marriage..

bless my heart god love me

can't wait to be that weird unmarried RM fresh off the plane in those wedding married couple photos s.o.l.o dolo

You can find me sitting at the kids table at the wedding telling some classic mission stories
" so kids.. this onnnne time we were dooring this old building when all of the sudden..."

-_-

but seriously I'm so happy I could die

MR AND MRS GOCHNOUR
I'm the last person to know aren't I?
Awesome

Please hold off the comments and pathetic line-ups nana joyce.
I love you..I promise I don't like girls like you suspect in us 22 year old unmarried women but I will come through one day and put a ring on it.

maybe later

this week was perhaps the hardest on my mission but one I will never forget.

This weeks success was not measured by numbers

The joy did not come from a lesson in perfect German

Satisfaction did not come from achieving every goal we set

Exhaustion did not come from pounding the cobblestone

.......

It was the phone call from Francesco just wanting to read me a cool new verse he found in his early morning Book of Mormon study, and his perfect understanding and love of it. 

It was at our weekly appointment with a small closed-off war widow telling me she loved me as I gave her a photo framed of us together

It was Xin being interviewed and found worthy to receive the priesthood

It was the back to back rainy days

It was watching my daughter Sister Woodward overcome her fears and talk to every person in our path

It was the overwhelming comfort I felt despite spending 4 days in the hospital

My mission has made me the happiest person in the world. 

Its the most spiritually,mentally,physically,emotionally exhausting thing I've ever done.

Take Sundays for example: Normally the most restful peaceful day of the week.

EEHHHHH WRONG
Wake up
Eat breakfast..with NO comics
Study
Go to Ward Mission Council
Track down investigators
Quickly haul to less active member houses to get their bums out of bed
Translate the meeting into English for the senior missionaries
Attend all 3 meetings vicariously at the same time using super sneaky methods
Give a random lesson when someone is sick
Ooopps you forgot your giving another talk today/no one told you?!
After church eat heavy heavy German food
Fight to stay awake
Give a spiritual thought
Be attacked by German children and laugh playfully when your really going to cry if they yank out your bun one more time
Try and fail miserably to retrieve a referral #teamgermany
Play hide and stalk with everyone that didn't show up at Church
Teach a few lessons
Plan for 3 hours
Go to bed

L.O.V.E IT

excitement all around
From the looks of where we live, it's an old folks neighborhood.
Small gardens, rickety people with lots of lacey curtains and couch covers.

I beg to differ

This week our companionship study was not only interrupted by ACDC from the apartment above us...

but rather the shocking/realization/confusion whether or not our neighbor in the apartment across the street from us was watching shark week or adult film. 

Well much to my dismay it was not shark week nor are there any sharks for miles and miles from Deutschland.

Naja needless to say our curtains will NEVER be opened again


it can only go up from here..

Line of the week:
Nurse: would you like to go get fluid?

Me: nope thank you I always carry some in my water bottle in my purse

the nurse then breaks out laughing uncontrollably as I just sit there weirded out and confused.

Only to find out she was asking me to come with her to go give a urine sample

And i mistakenly/confidently told her I always kept some in my purse.

gotta love the reputation us American missionaries now have over here

My bad

god bless america

lost in translation.

Liebe Grüße
the last standing Diederich daughter

sister Olivia is engaged!!!?!!!!!

MY 25

gotta love conference season as a missionary

You'd think it were Superbowl Sunday the way us missionaries gather round the television

In our defense seeing something on the tv screen other than the restoration film (now have memorized), Finding Faith in Christ or The district is quite rare.

ahhhhhh sweet freedom

The most exciting part for all the elders and sisters this conference was watching the BYU choir sing and all the missionaries chiming in
 " oh hey it's Anna! I know him!! She was in my bio-chem class!! Hey he was my home teacher"

As I just sat there -_-

Ehhhhhh ya ya ya 
Does the University of Utah have home teachers? mmk.

I also loved the small moment for DEUTSCHLAND
Specifically East Germany which just happens to be where yours truly is and has been for the last 6 months.  
eassstttsidee. 
famous for it's cold hearts, mystery meats and old ladies that randomly yell at me on the street for not wearing tights..

General Conference truly inspired me

An ongoing theme consisted of the word light.

Light is the one word that I highlight every time it's mentioned in my scripture study.
It's a word I have heard in multiple blessings I have received, and always loved the definition of the word
Its a word with SO many different definitions. I always try to model my life in a way that i can be a light to others.
Light is often used to describe Christ and the gospel.. Pure happiness is described with light
and something worth a little thought this week



Perhaps the one thing that touched me most was the story of the Vietnam Pilot who was shot down during the War.
Assuming he would never see his family again, he was allowed to write home a small note using 25 words or less.

Aside from the fact that it sounded like a VERY challenging # tweet.

It got me thinking.

What would I say? What do I want to be remembered for? Whether it be my mission of my life?

Is 25 words enough?

I remember growing up the phrases I remember most are the ones I heard the most from my parents. 

Every. Single. Day. while driving us to school my mother would say this small simple phrase.
I never realized till I was older the significant of those 5 words

be nice to someone today
The idea of what I would say or want to be remembered for kept me up all night last night.

So I took on the challenge of writing down the 25 words I want to leave behind.

I was informed my blog has reached just about every continent over the world and my number of thousands of readers nearly doubled.
Members or Non- members i encourage every reader to do the same and write down your 25 words.

Leave you mark somewhere
25 words or less, whether it be a post, tweet, blog, pin it, text or whatever crazy new technology the world has developed while I've been away.

Share it. 
I'll be sure to check back in next week to post my 25 and would love to hear the replies and what you all have come up with.

We will call it "my 25"

The work is truly hastening. More than ever people are approaching US!
They know who we are and what were here for. (swimmminn lessons)

One of them being our most progressing investigator Sandra.
Every time I meet with her I see that LIGHT in her eyes brighten.
The love I have for her and her son is indescribable.
It truly feels like home every week when we go to teach them.



Line of the week:
Elder who will not be named..
While discussing pre-mission life

Elder: yaaaaa not to brag but I use to have X-ray vision before my mission
Me: so what happened?
Elder: Well when I got set apart it just wasn't in the Lords will

Imagine that

bieber fever.

Why does it take me seeing a little girls backpack at church for me to find out Justin Bieber has a tattoo!?!?!!?!!

And you call yourself family 

Disappointed.


This week seemed to be easily categorized with the letter Bb

Blistered feet
Baggy eyes
Bleeding noses
Broken shoes
Big portions
Blocks of dooring
Belated birthday
Bomb joint teaches
Black tags
Bunny hunts
Blizzards
Bieber broke my heart
Blue bruises

Blessed

This week we had the annual dun dun dun zone conference

For those of you that don't know what it is ill break break break it down missionary style for ya..
It normally consists of the following:

Starts off with singing " called to serve"

A poor young soul selected to say the prayer in German (normally been here a week or two, or when in doubt I seem to allllllways be selected)

A quick to do list and new rule list read by the AP's

An uplifting amazing message from
President

A comedy segment ( bike or driving safety video )

A lesson from some elders about obedience

Awkward mingling and lunch (German sauerkraut meat and potatoes)

A lesson about planning or crazy random messages somehow tied into the gospel ( personal favorite- when elders tried to relate the movie inception to missionary work)

Testimony meeting given by all different kinds of missionaries
( the teary ones, the new ones, the dying ones, the jokesters, the ones campaigning to be the next AP, the spiritual giants, the
next apostles)

Gotta love em all
Closing song " hope of Israel"

After conference we were hurrying to the train-station to catch our train from Dresden back to Leipzig.
We had 1 minute to catch it and we were haullllinnnnn

Seeing as how i cannot breathe right now, I just yelled " go onnnn without me"...
No really I was hungry too and wanted to catch lunch.

Well the Elders were PRO "no man left behind" and helped me get there.
They helped load my companion and my things onto the harry potter train and as I turned around BAM.

Doors shut.

The train began pulling away and sure enough our elders didn't make it on the train. Hahashooooooot 

That was the most peaceful train ride Ive ever had!!

As for the work it's just wonderful 
Missions are just so full of the spirit and surprises

Spirit:
Sandra our newest investigator had us over for dinner and an awesome lesson with a joint teach.
She still is studying with the JDubbz (Jehovah's witnesses) but told me that studying with us isTOTALLY different and she believes what we say!
She is attending church regularly and I can see her life changing.
I absolutely love her and her son sooo much and cannot wait to help prepare them for baptism.


Surprises:
There is nothing quite like uplifting companion study until your neighbor decides to blast the song "highway to hell"

Well. It looks like we've got traffic on that highway to stop


This week although a week late my birthday package arrived!!
thank you soooo much to everyone that wrote or sent something here!
 It means alot to a missionary and I'll never forget it

Photos:
(Please don't mind the red peeling nose.. Dang allergies I look like Rudolph. )

My crazy birthday bash.. party of one

My birthday cake celebration... Special guests of honor.. first presidency
( please don't mind the missionary budget flower vase )

yes... im ashamed to admit im 22.. ew. tried removing a 2 from the cake.. it looked better that way

G L A M O R O U S

Line of the week:

( Elder Huebach impersonating the typical bad joint teach )

"sooooo Kolob is this place...."

So many good things happening out here!

Sister D.