Today I started my third course of German. That seems to be all I do now. Study German, listen to German, hear German, write German, try to speak German. My mom studied German in high school. When she told me that years ago when I was trying to decide what language I wanted to study in high school I remember thinking, “Oh, definitely NOT German!” I still learn everything that I know from Elisa. I have also noticed that all the couples in the church who end up serving missions in other countries always go where the husband served or at least they go somewhere where the husband knows the language. That means my German is going to have to be supplemented by a great deal of Portuguese study!
I have decided that I just cannot keep putting off my degree no matter how fried my brain is after four hours of German class a day. So I have put myself to work on my courses and hope my brain can absorb everything. I love studying the information so that should help it not seem so taxing.
We had a holiday on Tuesday so the Mascaro’s and we went to Höllgrotten, or Hell Caves. We were able to hike around inside a hill through all sorts of drippy tunnels and caves. There were all kinds of stalagmites and stalactites. It was very interesting and a little like something you would expect to see on some alien planet or else the fabrication of someone’s kooky imagination.
This weekend was our stake conference. We went of course, though I must admit I was a bit unwilling. I just hate wearing those headphones for translation for very long, they make your ears hurt and give me a headache. Also they organized a new stake in Switzerland! That is always a bitter-sweet thing for people. Some people had to travel a few hours to get there, from Bern and Germany and Austria. The visiting General Authority told a story about missionary work that he had had. I remember hearing it before so it was pretty exciting to meet the people involved. I believe he had served in Germany. He had sent his new missionary companion out to knock on doors. They met back together later and his companion said, “I found a lady and the Spirit told me she is going to be baptized.” He didn’t think much of it. They went back soon after, however the missionary had forgotten to write down the woman’s name and address–all he remembered was that she lived on the 5th floor. So they looked for hours on many a fifth floor. After about three hours the senior companion was ready to move on but the junior protested. He thought that if they did that for a few more hours then at least the junior companion would remember to write the info down next time. After about another hour he recognized the name of the woman. She and her family were taught and baptized. The senior missionary companion was the authority speaking at our conference and he introduced us to a member of our stake, the son of the women he had gone up and down stairs looking for many years ago. I thought that was pretty neat.