Sister Downing Does Deutschland

KIRCHE JESU CHRISTI DER HEILIGEN DER LETZTEN TAGE 30 Nov 2022 Dear Sister Siobhán Downing, We are happy to report that  Sister   Downing   arrived safely in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. Sister Hammon and I met all the new missionaries at the Frankfurt airport, and your  daughter   looked good and was happy to be here. We are always grateful to have new missionaries come into the field as they bring a sense of excitement and a spirit of great faith. It inspires and energizes the whole mission. After their arrival in Frankfurt, the missionaries were transported to the Frankfurt Stake Center, where they completed paperwork so they could register and obtain their residency permits to stay in Germany. They also learned about mission transportation and apartments. Later, Sister Hammon and I both spent some time getting acquainted with your daughter . I also took a few minutes to conduct a brief interview with  her .  She   is a won...

Y'all I'm done with the MTC and on my way to Germany now! We checked out at 4 this morning after a solid hour of sleep and I'm writing this on the plane to New York (we just landed so I can send this now lol) Thanksgiving was so amazing! It was my first holiday without family which was hard but I still had such a great time. We heard an awesome devotional from Elder Cook, had a pretty decent Thanksgiving lunch, participated in a service project, watched a movie, listened to a performance by a member of the Piano Guys, and then got to go look at the Christmas lights!  Elder Cook talked about gratitude (duh lol) and the 4 loves of missionary work. The service project was a total blast!! We packaged mac'n'cheese meals and our district was a total machine. Shoutout to Elder Sears who sacrificed his thumbs to seal them all. We watched Ephraim's Rescue which was so good and made me realize just how entertainment and drama starved missionaries are, haha!  At the end of...

Heyyyy I can't believe it's already been another week!! The days are sooo long here but the weeks fly by. I know I said basically the same thing last week but it's so trippy! Last week we did baptisms at the temple and went to the gym for two hours. I played so much basketball and, not gonna lie, I kinda killed it haha. We went to the temple again this morning to do an endowment session as a district. But now I'm writing y'all from the laundry room so super exciting stuff happening rn lol We had two more lessons with Tanner (the guy we taught last week) and they went waaaay better. I know the bar was like so low but they were actually good! I was even able to understand and answer one of his questions all in German and I didn't use any notes! We also had another English fast and it wasn't as bad, but still not super great.  We had a workshop called "Preparing for the Field" this week which definitely made the whole Germany thing way more real! The ...

Hey everyone!!  Wanna hear something crazy? I'm already halfway down with my time here at the MTC 🤯 It's literally so crazy cause I simultaneously feel like I just got here and like I've been hear for a year haha Like I mentioned in my email last week, I was able to go to the temple with the sisters in my district on Wednesday. We did proxy initiatories, which might just be my favorite ordinance. Don't get me wrong, all ordinances are great and everything, but I just think there's something so special about initiatories. After we finished, we went into the celestial room, literal heaven on earth, for a while. It was so nice to just sit with Sister Herring and be together in such a peaceful place, especially after such a hard and crazy week. Sister Herring and I had to teach our first lesson in German on Thursday and it was roughhhh to say the least. The person we taught was atheist and did not use any English, so it was hard for me to understand, let alone answer, ...

Hello everyone!! Welp I've been at the Provo MTC for a week now and it is crazyyyy! Things have simultaneously gotten so much better and so much harder lol.  I absolutely love my district and my companion is basically the greatest! It's kinda weird to think that I only met these people a week ago and yet I already feel so close to all of them. We have plenty of inside jokes and have had some pretty deep conversations too! Sister Herring is pretty much my favorite person at this point which is good since we have to be together literally 24/7 😂 We're the same person and it's so nice to be able to look at her and know that we're thinking the same exact thing! We also have way too much fun together and are quite giggling in class, oops! She is also so talented!! One of my highlights everyday is listening to her play the piano. It's so peaceful to just sit with my eyes closed and listen to her hymn arrangements, especially after a long class or day. She's also a...