Liebe Familie,

Yet again, we had a week with many things to keep us on our toes!

Last Monday, we had our last Austausch of the transfer. We tausched with Linz, and it was really great! Sister Smith went to Linz, and Sister Schönherr came here. Sister Schönherr is from the near of Dresden, and speaks beautiful German. It was so beautiful to speak to her:] We mostly did finding, and we found a lot of awesome people! 

Wednesday, Sister Smith and I went to Munich for Zone Leader Council, and it was definitely a meeting to remember. The Wednesday night portion was normal and lovely. President did a really powerful presentation, and a lot of other missionaries were crying at the end. Sister Smith commented to me, ''I felt the spirit, but is it bad I didn't cry? I just don't cry...'' I agreed and told her I really didn't know how to cry. How ironic... The next morning, we had the business part of the meeting, and everything was normal and good until the assistants turned the time over to President at the end. That was not what was unusual. He usually wraps up these meetings with words of wisdom. What WAS unusual was what he said. We were to receive our transfer calls the next morning, but President said, ''Do you know what we are going to do now, Elders and Sisters? We are going to get our transfer news!'' He then proceeded to hand out the papers with where everyone was going/if they were staying. He told us not to read ahead, as we were going to find out together. The last people, of course, to receive their news was my comp and me. We will be leaving Neumarkt, and will be opening a new area in Ludwigsburg (a suburb of Stuttgart)! Then it was time to sing the closing song, and, let's just say, there wasn't a lot of singing coming from Sister Smith or me. She started crying, and that made me cry. I was very frustrated because I inherited quite a mess when I got to Neumarkt. They had not had an investigator in Sacrament Meeting for at least three months, for example. I had five weeks to get to know the area (we happened to have a five week transfer), and then I got my golden. It has taken us the last two transfers, but we now have an investigator with a baptismal date, and two more who are really close! We have also had excellent sacrament meeting attendance, and we just got a few really cool families found. I was super frustrated because I felt like President was not pleased wtih my work (our numbers were very low for the first little bit. Although we were working hard, it wasn'T showing, becasue we were practically building from ground zero) and, hence, a whitewash was necessary. However, it is elders who are coming in, for one thing. And this ward has been screaming for elders. We also have a few investigators who really will do better with elders. And, why would he have us open a new area together if he was disappointed with our work in Neumarkt? He obviously saw our capabilities, and wants us to do it again. So, I am a lot more accepting of the idea now. This week has been stressful getting everything set up for that, but all will be well! It was just embarrassing crying in front of so many other missionaries. They just caught us in the shock of the news moment!  

We have been having a lot of problems with flooding around here lately, and our original plan was to go to Passau on Saturday (they got hit pretty badly) and help with the clean-up. But, with our news of transfers, we had to stay in town to get things ready so the transition is as smoothe as possible. These have been a stressful last few days, as the preparation necessary for the this transfer is not like most. But it will be good. And I'm glad Sister Smith and I are staying together. We get along and work really well together. 

We go back to Munich tomorrow to meet Elder Nelson and learn from him, and then we have one more day to get everything ready! 

Alles Liebe and viel Erfolg! 

Liebe,

Sister Stephanie Reid

P.S. We were kind of in a flash flood yesterday! But we were safe:] The hail and rain were huge and coming down so fast! Full-on rivers were coming down the road after only a few minutes! We took cover under a bridge and waited it out. It was so crazy, and neither of us had cameras with us!! (I had one, but my battery was dead, and Sister Smith didn't have hers with her) But, I took a video in my head.