Morgen!

(Excerpts from Ariel's email to Andre)

I love reading you emails and just getting caught up on all the things you all are doing! I can't believe Ellen got LASIK! Sorry LSU was an epic fail :( I hope when I come home that we'll have an awesome season. And Les Miles has a habbit of leaving one quarter back in that no one likes. Jefferson is the one he favors but isn't as good as Lee. I miss going fishing with you and riding aroudn in the car listening to Jack Johnson with you. Some of my favorite memories from growing up was just running around doing stuff with you.
So this week went flying by for me. Mission time is really weird! I think its because we just work hard each day to find people to teach and do the Lords work and we're not focused on numbers or anything like that. Last night as we did our weekly planning we reallized that we got 5 new investigators and 14 ''other lessons'' which is like unheard of in our mission. The Lord really does bless us as we just do our best to work hard. My mission president told us when we got here to start right, work hard, and finish strong. He said it in the context of our missions but I've really been focusing that on everyday. I have it written on a piece of paper on my desk and its something I look at to remind me of what kind of missionary i am. Its hard going out into the rain everyday, knowing that I'm going to get soaked and have to come home to change only to go back out again. Something I think about a lot is something you told me. You said you knew you had to love the work and have a desire to be on a mission when you had to walk two miles in the pouring rain and were just soaked. I think about you experience a lot and I try to follow your example of having a positive attitude and not care about getting wet.
Sister Stewart and I are friends with all the crazies here in Celle :) One is a Russian lady who speaks a mixture of Russian and German to us. On Thursday all our appointments were falling through and we were going by investigators to see how they were doing but we were having no success. After trying to check up on one investigator we came out of the building and there was the Russian lady. She was so excited to see us. She asked where our bikes were and put her bags that she carries around in our basket and told us to walk with her to her house. It was so hilarious. She was telling us how we need to walk on the grass cause its so much lighter and out of the mud. And she felt my calf because i told her i was wearing three pairs of tights and she didn't believe me. She thinks sister stewart and i are crazy for wearing tights and skirts when its freezing outside ( andso do we). I definitely think the Lord put her in our path that day to give us a good laugh. We stopped by a monument and she started crying and we had no idea why and then she stopped and we kept going. You'd love to talk to her.