Erin's Exceptional Errand: Wow!

Wow this week! This week has really been such an adventure. So last
Monday after we emailed, we had familie home evening. We had lots of
people show up to say good bye. I hadn't told Andre yet that I was
leaving, because I honestly thought he wouldn't care. He walks in we
are talking and he asks what is new. I say I am leaving. He yelled in
shock and told me I wasn't allowed to leave until July. Poor Andre.
Later that night, Shahira wanted to throw cake at elder Crossley and I
because we were leaving. Well she got elder Crossley, but Samson had
the other cake for me and decided sister Baker needed it more than I
did. That was hilarious.
Tuesday we traveled to Frankfurt. Since sister Baker is training she
had to be in Frankfurt to pick up her new missionary. And since the
only one who knows where our apartment was at in Coburg was Elder
Hudson who was also training, me and sister Peterson got to hang out
in Frankfurt for a day. We got there just in time to eat dinner with
the new missionaries. It was really fun! I saw elder Fisher only it
was really hard to call him elder fisher. And we didn't get a picture
because we were dumb. Oops. We were able to be there for when the new
missionaries got paired with their trainers, so I got to see who
sister baker was training. Then they all left and me and sister
Peterson awkwardly sat alone in the Frankfurt church building until
the Frankfurt STLs came to save us. Then we spend the night with them
and the next morning went to catch our train. We got to Bahnhof and
had lots of time. Next thing we know we have 4 min before our train
leaves. So we run to the train which happened to get moved gleises. We
asked the train lady if it was the right one. She told us yes then
slammed the door in our faces and the train drove away. So our trip to
Coburg was already off to a good start. After forever of traveling
with 8 suitcases and one box of treats from Australia ( elder Hudson
is training elder Williams who is from Australia and who got a package
for his first week in Germany) we finally made it out to the middle of
nowhere aka Coburg. Then we walked to our apartment, dropped
everything off, and helped the elders get to their apartment.
Something really cool about Coburg is that is isn't flat like Herne.
That is really cool except for the fact that when you are carrying 3
suitcases and a heavy box, it is not fun. We finally made it to their
apartment then they had an appointment so they ditched us. We found
our way back to the city center where the busses where. Elder Hudson
told us just to get on a bus to Bahnhof and walk from there, because I
could remember that. We saw that we had to wait 10 min for a bus, so
we decided to walk. Bad idea. After wandering around Coburg for like
30 min we finally found Bahnhof and headed home, except we had nothing
in our apartment so we went shopping. ( elder Hudson told us that they
got the essentials for us.... Toilet paper. ) then we finally made it
home and started unpacking and checking out the apartment. We finally
remembered we needed dinner at like 8:30.
Thursday we had district meeting in Bamburg. Well the train lines
between a part of our area and Bamburg are being repaired, so we took
a 20 train and then a 30 min bus to Bamburg. Then we had district
meeting and had to get back and still had had no studies. We ended up
doing a hour of contacting because we were so done just sitting.
Really the rest of the week was just contacting. Miracle of the week:
we had an appointment yesterday after church! His number was in our
phone and when we Called him he answered with, sister watkins!!!!! It
was still an appointment so...
Other miracle of the week! We had someone at church! We met this guy
on the street. The conversation was literally 2 seconds, but we got
his number and called him about church and he came! It was awesome!
Now we just need to meet with him...
Other cool things about Coburg:
We have bikes!
      Problem: they are big bikes.
      Solution: we lowered the seats
     Problem: we don't know German bike laws
      Solution: we have a split with the sister training leaders this
week who know Coburg better
than we do and can show us how to use bikes and buses

There are castles everywhere! And because it is summer they are open
on Mondays!
It looks like a miniature Bonn! It is so cool
The washer is in the apartment! I don't need to have my companion with
me when i want to wash my clothes.

Basically this week has just been an adventure. Lots of contacting.
Lots of finding. Lots of getting lost. We haven't really been much
farther than the church yet so I'm sure we will get even more lost
this next week!
This week I read the talk by elder Oaks about opposition. It was
really good. It is amazing how much we need opposition in order to be
able to use our agency. I think my favorite part thought was not
something in his actual talk. It was in the foot notes. A quote.
"Learning how to lose gracefully is not only a civil duty; it is a
religious imperative. God designed mortality to ensure opposition in
all things. Setbacks and defeats are part of his plan for our
perfection.... Defeat plays an integral role in our 'quest for
perfection'"
I thought it was such a cool though. We need to to have defeat in
order for us to reach perfection. I thought that was such a cool idea.

Well this week was a really long email. Weird not normal. Ich liebe euch!
Sister Carroll