The following is a snail mail letter home.                                                            Oct 20, 2016

Hey Fam!

So it got way cold this week, as in it was 12pm in Steinbach and we could see our breath as we hiked the hill up to our investigator’s home.  We ich muss einkaufen gehen (I must to shopping).  My Oma friend Giselle even told me so.

I met Giselle at our strassenaustellung (street display). It was SO cold and I was feeling a little discouraged because people weren’t even stopping or slowing down before they said “no”. So I approached Giselle and asked her how God had helped her in her life.  She was wearing a corss so I safely assumed she believed in God.  Her answer was not what I expected either. 

She told me she had married her husband at 18 and their first year of marriage they had to flee from Hitler and the Nazi party. They slept on streets and ate from garbage cans that year. She knew they only survived because of the strength God gave them.

They were married for 64 years before he died 5 years ago. She is 88 now .  She’s the cutest old German Oma I’ve ever met! She kept taking my hands and holding them to warm them up and then gave me 2 schokolade bars.  I LOVE HER!! She took a Book of Mormon and told me my parents raised me right. So there you go, you get the Giselle stamp of approval!

In other news, Ich kann Deutsch (I can speak German)! I know the whole learn a language things is a thing, but it continues to surprise me how much I can understand AND speak . To my surprise I’m on of the few missionaries who had never taken German before the mission. Someone the other day asked how many years of German I had before and was floored when I said none. They told me I had better German then he did and he was a transfer ahead of me (6 weeks) and he had 7 years of German.  Yeah! That makes me feel a lot better about my German. Buuuut, it’s all because Heavenly Father helps me a ton.

Thanks for being awesome parents! Thanks for the emails and updates and pictures, they all mean a lot to me!!

Ich bin dankbar dass euch mein Eltern sind. Und Ich hoffe die Dixie dog vermisst mich nicht so viel.  Die Deutsche leute hat viele ifonde und so ich sene honde sehr oft. Es freut mich so sehr. 

I am thankful that you are my parents. And I hope the Dixie dog does not miss me so much. The german people has many honed (?) and so i sene honed (?) very often. I am so happy.

Liebe,
Sister Luymes