First full week in Germany!

So sorry about last week and my crazy all over the place email. It was so overwhelming! This week has been really good. It is really starting to warm up. yesterday we didnt wear jackets and today we could have gone without a jacket, but we didnt and now we regret it. THis week I hadmy first dinner appointments. They were so good! Actually I think we only had one schedualed eating appointment. All the others were just appointments that we happened to get food at. Every time we go to a members house, we get a full meal. It is insane! But it actually is good because we often forget to schedual in our dinner time. We are so busy here in Bonn. Sister Bunderson says that the average number of lessons in a day for our mission is 1. Today alone we have 2 planed plus one other will will stop by on so we will probably end up with 3. And today is P day! 

This week we found a family that the wife barely speaks English or German. It was really interesting when we found her. She is super nice though. We will go back and see them later this week. We also ran into an old investigator who they lost contact with and she was really happy to see us. She set up her own return appointment! Then one investigator we had brought a friend and his friend is really interested. Unfortunatly this investigator is leaving for Kenya until Mai, but we will teach his friend until he comes back. This investigator is really ready for baptism though. He was  begging us friday night to get him baptised saterday morning because he left sunday morning. It was really funny!

This week was hard though because Ahti, one of the recent converts freaked out at us. She decided she didnt want to tald to us ever again. We have kind of just let her be alone, but we will check up on her this week. 

We also had Pfahl Konferenz or stake conference this week in Düsseldorf. Apperently the speakers were great! I didnt understand any of it though so I will just take Sister Bundersons word for it. I got to see Sister Heywood and sing in the missionary chor. The cor wouldnt have been so bad, except the elders really wanted to make it complicated so they had all these parts and when there are only 8 sisters there is only so much you can do. It was good though. President Stoddard spoke at the conference and I understood his talk. Sis Bunderson said it was because he has an american accent and that is what I learned at the MTC was German with an american accent. His talk was really good though. Since Düsseldorf is so far from Bonn, we stayed overnight in Köln with the sisters there. That was really fun. They have a really nice appartment. 

Today Sister Bunderson went shopping. I watched and laughed at her obsession with clothes. She said we wont do that again until April. The Köln sisters also came so we hung out with them. We say a really cool big church and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was so awesome!

I guess since I was so overwhelmed last week I forgot to tell about my first impressions of Bonn. It is such a cool city. Very international. I have taught more lessons in English than in German. Before every lesson Sister Bunderson has to remind me of what language we are speaking. At one point this week we had an English/ Spanish investigator and a German / not-russian-but-close investigator at the church at the same time and we had to switch between English and German. It was funny. Everyone in German has a dog. I am sure of it. I see dogs everywhere! Even the homeless people have dogs!!!! Also the majority of people here smoke. Never have I smelled so much smoke! it is crazy! Bonn is so pretty though. The Rhine is amazing and the chuch members are so nice. All of them ask if I understand German, then proceed to speak really fast. I think I would understand so much more if they all spoke with American accents :)

Yesterday we visited a sister in the ward who is old and can´t leave here house. She was super nice. Her brother was there too and I just listened to the conversation. At the end they had me say the prayer and the brother was really impressed with my German. I feel like I can speak it, but just cant understand it, and when I understand it, I dont know how to respond. It is really frustrating. During the lesson was really funny, because the brother wanted to know my first name. I decieded since he was a member and really just curious to tell him. Both him and his sister had never heard of it as a girls name before and they couldnt even say it right! It was so funny them trying to say it! No one can say Carroll either. The first week here we had one investigator, Vicki, who couldnt say Carroll and the member teaching with us told her in America Carol meant song so she started calling me Sister Lied or Sister Song. She also calls me Sister Süß and Ahti calls me baby because I am so small. It has been really interesting to hear my name said in so many ways.

Have an amazing week! I love you!

Liebe,

Sister Carroll