Happy New Year Everyone!

Heilig Abend! (Christmas Eve)
Christmas Eve was just fantastic!  Can't ask for anything more perfect than to celebrate your only German Christmas Eve with a wonderful German Family!  We spent it with the wonderful Petzold Family.  The dad, Bruder Petzold was just recently baptized this summer and is an amazing father and husband and is thriving in the Gospel.  We began the evening by sitting around the table eating German Stollbrot which contains of suger on top but the bread is baked with raisins in it or plums or anything else delicious and we talked about Christmas!  And then the kids were dismissed to get ready for the "Weihnactsraum" or also known as the "Christmas Room."  As they go to the other room that's when the Wiehnachtsmann/Santa Claus comes and brings presents for everyone!  So they wait patiently until the mom or dad rings a bell and then once she rings it, we all go into the Christmas Room.   We felt like part of the family, more like the children experiencing Christmas for the first time!  And when the door opened, the aroma of insense filled the air and and the enitre room was lit by candle light.  It was magical.  And of course, under the tree there laid all the presents.  And the children were allowed to open them all on Christmas Eve so the rest of the Christmas Celebration would entail putting the toys together and playing with them :)  It was really special to be a part of the celebration and tradition.   
Weihnacten! (Christmas!!)
Christmas was awesome!!  I thought that Heilig Abend was exciting, Christmas morning was the even better.  It was a mix of America and Germany thanks to my lovely companion Sister Sprouse.  She decided to mix both!  I don't know when she found time to do it but she was able to sneak in the Christmas Room (our living room) and wrap my package that I got from my momma and then put fruit and other gifts we recieved earlier in the week from people into her wool socks to make stockings.  And I guess right when we woke up, she told me not to go into the Weihnactsraum but being so early and not really being awake, what did Sister Tuschling do??  She went in and I was instantly awake!  What a wonderful surprise!  Not to mention we had to wear ugly sweaters while unwrapping our Christmas gifts from home.  It was a wonderful Christmas morning.  Then we headed off to a wonderful member's house for lunch which included Knoedel, Turkey, and Rotkohl.  I don't know how to descibe Knoedel all that well but all I know is that after two of them, I was done for!  Then we made our way back to the wonderful missionary couple's house to talk with our families!!  I was able to Skype with Mom, Ash, and Jimmy for 1 hour and then talked on the phone with my Dad for another hour :)  I am so blessed!!!  I was so wonderful to see everyone's faces and hear their voices!! we all just stayed at the McPherson's house and played card games, like Golf (that was way fun!), and dominoes (also very fun!) and other games at the table.  It felt like I was still in America :) We had a combination of giving spiritual thoughts to uplift the members and bring the spirit, and we were able just to sing in a circle all of our favorite Christmas Songs or Hymns in the church.  I love the Spirit of Christmas!!  And a lot of members love using real candles on trees to light them up.  They are so old fashioned here its beautiful!  We have gotten a lot of chocolate and oranges.  Everyone gives everyone oranges its cute.  And Germans love Christmas so much, we celebrate it for 3 days!  And by the end of the 3rd day, you are ready to take down all your decorations!  And then before you know it, they are getting ready to celebrate the new year!  Firecrackers are definitely legal here no matter where you are.  I have had a heartattack about 50 times in like 1 hour because all we here are "BOOM BOOM BOOM" and then all we see is smoke.  Everytime I think I am getting shot but really 'tis the season!
Transfer Call!
As you predicted and as I predicted, I am now leaving Dortmund...  Yes they are finally giving me the boot!  But Heavenly Father has a nice boot because he kicked me to a wonderful, magical place called Friedrichsdorf!  It is a small town outside Frankfurt and it is kind of in the "mountains" and it also has a wonderful building that is very valuable to us called THE TEMPLE!!!  I am now a Temple Sister!  I will be in a drit with Sister Kreth and Sister Mosher who are both older than me on the mission if you can believe that!  I am so sad to leave Dortmund.  I love this place and even more the people with my whole heart, but if there is a place to go, Friedrichsdorf is the place!  Since there the temple is there, the members come to me instead of going to their houses :)  My last Sunday was the hardest of all.  Goodbyes have never been my favorite but I am grateful for the word for goodbye in German = Aufwiedersehn!  Which means, "Again See."
'Tis the Season!
The Spirit of Christmas is still in the air and so while we were in an appointment with a lady we had the idea to go out on the streets and give people begging for money food for their bellies.  I am so excited to do this before I leave Dortmund.  I love serving other people.  I love looking at the faces of those you just helped and you see their thankfulness and love for you right back.  I truly know that charity is the pure love of Christ.  As we do as He does, our lives are better.  We feel better, and those we touch with those acts of love feel better as well.  I am grateful to be a servant for Him :)  I feel His love in my life everyday and because of that feeling I want people to feel it as well.  That is the fuel that keeps me running.  Happy New Year everyone :)  And again, Merry Christmas!
Liebe,
Sister Tuschling

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!!!!!!!!  I love the Spirit of Christmas here in Germany!!  Everyone is so busy trying to serve one another I love it!!  And that is exactly what we love to see, but it also is hard for us to serve people because they are already busy serving!!  What a problem to have nuh?  Well this week went by certainly fast!  We really do not know where the time went but all I know is that I have learned so much since I have been out here.  We were able to go on a split with the Sisters in the Offenbach area, which is in the area of Frankfurt and it was really eye opening.  Sister Sprouse and I were able to travel down to Frankfurt and Sister Christensen joined me to go back to Dortmund and then Sister Sprouse stayed in Offenbach.  Sister Christensen is in her 2nd transfer in the mission and man does she know the language already!  The new missionaries that keep coming in are just amazing and are so ready to work.  I was able to talk with Sister Christensen about the mission life and what helped me in the beginning and what is helping me now.  I am so grateful for all that I have learned.  Like her, I have struggled with homesickness on my mission but I am grateful that through Jesus Christ and through putting my shoulder to the wheel that feeling is barely there.  I bore testimony about our dear Savior and how He is always there, but we are the ones that need to go to Him first.  He always blesses us, and he always comforts us.  I love going on splits too because I love getting to know new people.  I love finding out why these strong faithful sisters came out on a mission.  And of course the question comes up, "Sister Tuschling, how did you decide to come on a mission?"  And my response of, "I always felt like I needed too ever since I was baptized."  And then the story rolls on :)  I love telling how Hermana Avery never gave up on me and always lead me to the right sources and helped me every step of the way.  I am grateful for the gospel and I want everyone to know.  We had quite the crowd in church yesterday!  Man people really love the missionaries here.  We have Christmas dinners every night this coming week and I received so many gifts from people we have never seen before!  I love Germans!!  The spirit was so strong during Sacrament meeting too.  The talk was on Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christmas.  It was perfect for our dear Polish couple, the Pelcs.  The night before we were over talking about how all of us can receive a personal witness that Jesus Christ is OUR Savior.  After much discussion, our commitment to them was to ask Heavenly Father how can they receive that witness for them personally.  And low and behold, Sacrament was perfect for them  :)  Also we witnessed another baptism of a young 32 year old man.  He has so much faith, again no one from his family came to his baptism but he did it anyways because he knew it was what Heavenly Father wanted for him.  I was talking to him afterwards and I asked him how he felt and he just got a simple smile on his face, and said in a quiet tone, "It is not explainable."  And I said, "I know" with a smile and tears in my eyes because the feelings of my own baptism rushed over me.  I love the promises that Heavenly Father gives us.  When we come towards Him, and make promises with Him, He always always always blesses us even more than we can imagine.  I know that to be true.  I love Him, and His Son Jesus Christ.  And I am so grateful for what they have done for me personally.  I love Christmas!!  I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!  Liebe, Sister Tuschling  PS - I went caroling for the first time and it was amazing and so much fun!  I cannot believe I have never done it before!! PPS - And also, thank you everyone for the Christmas cards and letters!!  Will write back!!***

Almost Christmas!!

One man oh man were we in for a ride this week!!  Lately we have been hearing about the Romanians that the Elders were working with.  It all started when two members of the church moved to Dortmund from Romania.  They started talking with their friends at work about the church and long story short, we are now teaching 25+ Romanians, which include their families that just moved to Dortmund a couple weeks ago.  They didn't have enough time to find an appartment for each family so they are all living in ONE APPARTMENT!!!  And we got to go over and see it with our own eyes!!  We walked in, and we literally walked into Romania.  It was awesome!!  Everyone just stared at us but yet gave us warm smiles.  They don't speak a lick of German or English, only Romanian and Spanish.  Oh Hermana Avery I wish you were here to help us teach these wonderful humble people!!!  We need your Spanish more that ever :)  They barely have enough to eat, they barely have enough clothes to wear, but they sat us down and fed us with the only things they had.  The love I felt that night was the only way I could have gotten that food down haha.  I am grateful for German food!!  If we could combine Germans and Romanians into one culture it would be heaven on Earth!!  And they even came to the Christmas party we had on Saturday even if it took them 3 trips there and back to get all of them there.  Santa Claus gave all the children in the ward a present and even our Romanian guests :)  I love the church!  Even more, I love the people in the church that reflect the image of Christ!  Speaking of the Christmas Party, the ward brought so many of their dear friends and we had so many guests it was awesome!!  Our members are rock stars :)  To start off the party, we sang in the choir.  We have been have choir practice every sunday and more for about a month now and man was it worth it.  We all came together and brought the Spirit like crazy.  I even got choked up during a couple of them because the words and the music were so beautiful :)  I am a sucker for music, anyone back home could tell you that.  And also aside from practicing those songs, we have been practicing a secret song for Elder Garlick.  He wrote the music and the lyrics and Schwester Roth (Bishop's wife) decided we should surprise him with it.  It is called, "If Stars and Sheep could Speak" and it is the most beautiful Duet I have ever heard.  So got up and sang it.  He is going home in two weeks, and all to those who have been following my blogs, Elder Garlick has been in the same ward as me for my whole mission!!  He was there when I was in Mainz and Wiesbaden as my District Leader, and now we've been working side by side in Dortmund since I've been here and now he is going home in two weeks..  So to see the tears in his eyes and his bottom lip quivering was the best going away present :)  It was really touching.  Last night before we went home to retire for the week, we decided to go over to Schwester Böning's place to give her some love.  She has been side by side with us and the Romanians since she knows Spanish.  She is just a powerhouse and we decided to serve her with some scripture praise!  And right when we got there her less active son came out and said hello and surprisingly stayed for the lesson.  So we started off with a scripture and I don't know what it was but he and his mom started batting at one another.  They just were arguing about what the scriptures mean and then out of no where Schwester Böning asked if we fight with our families like that about the gospel.  Sister Sprouse replied no, but maybe sometimes, and I answered no.  I told him that I was the only member in my family.  And then he asked how I got to get to know the church and so I explained how it went in simple detail and it ended up having him explain what he has been going through and what means the most to him and how he wants to come back.  He wants to be happier, and he wants to live the commandments, and wants to come with us to teach the gospel.  I promised him that everything in his life will start being put in order when he draws closer to God.  I had my scriputres randomly opened to a section in Doctrine and Covenants and it said that exactly.  We read it, we asked for the closing prayer and who should say it, and he said, "Me, I need to.."  And he thanked Heavenly Father for all that he had, and he thanked Him for his mom who was so patient through out his time outside the church.  I am so grateful for the tears in his eyes when I promised him all that I knew, and that was our lives are better when we have Heavenly Father right there with us.  I am grateful that my story of getting to know the church opened up his heart and now is wanting to find answers from our loving Heavenly Father.  I love the gospel and I know that when we need the words to touch others' lives the Holy Ghost will help us in the very hour and the very minute that we need it.  Liebe, Sister Tuschling

Its officially Christmas time people!!

Its officially Christmas time people!! Frohe Weinachten!!!  We had our first snow fall yesterday that actually stuck to the ground and it was gorgeous!!! I am really getting excited for Christmas!!  The smell of everyone using their wooden stoves to heat up their houses, smelling the chesnuts roasting (literally they have that at the Christmas Market downtown!!), and the white on the ground just makes it more Christmasy!  I love it!!  On our way to the church the elders started throwing snowballs at each other haha some things you just can't change in boys haha but it was the perfect snow to build a snowman!  Wait... Check the elders did that too outside the church building before the members came :)  What brings so much joy when when this time of year rolls around?  It comes everytime Decemeber begins and I never could put my finger on it.  The sound of the Christmas Hymns and Carols are music to the ears and makes us just want to sing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" or "Jingle Bells."  Which reminds me!  We had a Family Home Evening with a member family in the ward and since her husband works late every night she usually has to do it without him, so she asked us to come and join them.  We get to her house, which is the cutest thing in the world because she has basically built it and designed it herself, and she had laid out pillows and blankets on the ground because we were having a picnic right next to her wood burning stove :)  And not only that but she had all kinds of musical instruments scattered around too that included a guitar, tamberines, maracas, and drums.  We opened singing "Little Town of Bethlehem" and we gave a spirital thought about how important it is to have a sturdy foundation and testimony of Jesus Christ or else whirlwinds of stress and unknown events could bring us down :) Helaman 5:12!  Then we sang Jingle Bells using the instruments around us and had a prayer by her little daughter that melted my heart :)  We then ate abend Brot and chatted a little bit before she kicked us out so she could put the little ones in bed.  It was amazing to be a part of that family just for one night.  It was so simple but yet so powerful and we really felt like we helped them feel the spirit, but I am so grateful for their love for us and willingness to have us over.  I felt like part of the family and for that, I am grateful :)  I can't believe how fast time goes.  On Friday I passed my 1 year marker!! I am pretty sure I was stretching on the floor before attempting Yoga since it was way too cold to go outside to exercise, and Sister Sprouse came in and yelled, "Happy 1 Year!!" Later that day I read my journal entry from a year ago, my first day in the MTC and it was inspiring to see how excited I was about being a missionary.  Everything was so new and I had no idea what awaited for me in the future!  I still can't believe that I have been out for that long and I still have those moments of "Wow, I can't believe that I am in Germany.  Wow, I can't believe that I am a missionary."  I am so grateful for it and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me for the next 6 months :)  Tschüß!  Liebe, Sister Tuschling!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow :)

Sisters Conference was so much fun!!  One, we got to ride on a train all the way to Frankfurt and I love watching the countrysides of Germany pass by.  I was really proud of myself because one, I didn't really get sick on the way down.  And two, I sat backwards on the train the whole way without getting sick or dizzy!!  It was awesome.  We arrived at Friedrichsdorf (where the temple is, about 30 minutes away from Frankfurt) at 6:30pm and it was already dark outside so we got to see the temple lightened up :)  It is so beautiful!!  There is such peace when you walk onto temple grounds that just heals your soul and I definitely felt that.  One by one the companionships were coming into our gathering room and my heart rejoiced everytime I saw a familiar face and my oh my we have gorgeous sisters.  They look so happy and so full of life.  And then the group of people separated and then I saw my previous companion Sister Garlick :)  It was so good to see her and to hug her and to see how she was.  She was so happy she had tears in her eyes :)  And Sister Garlick never really cries, so that really meant alot.  To begin the Conference we had a testimony meeting that lasted about 2 hours.  It was amazing to hear the powerful and strong testimonies that these sisters have.  They are so strong in faith and truly believe in the work they are doing.  I was able to bear my testimony and of course I was a ball baby like I am normaly when I feel the spirit, but it was amazing.  It was also funny to hear all the comments the sisters told to me and Sister Sprouse.  "How long have you two been together??"  And we would look at each other and just smile and say, "Oh just awhile :)"  I have been in Dortmund so long I literally saw so many new faces!!  And I loved getting to know them as well!  And that is just the beginning.  The Conference was for us to prepare ourselves on what is going to happen in the future in the Frankfurt Germany Mission.  In March, every single sister will be training and will be opening up new areas.  So it basically was a "Get Ready" Conference which I am grateful for :) The train ride back was kind of a doozie!  We thought going down there was going to be like vacation, but really it just made us even more tired.  I basically was delirious when we got home and so we just literally plopped in bed!  Since we missed Monday and Tuesday, we had alot of work to catch up on.  We had to meet with people and make appointmetns and just try to catch up on life.  I am grateful for a busy life, I will never ever take advantage of not being busy enough.  I guess I have always been that way though.  We went to the Christmas Market again to meet the Elders for lunch.  We were able to eat 1/2 meter Wurst!!  It was so long, but so delicious!!  Hope you enjoy the picture :)  It is one of my favorites this week as well.  We also ate roasted nuts as well.  There is just so much beautiful magical Christmas things that is going on right now I can barely handle it!!  Did I mention the Christmas Tree in Dortmund is over 40 Meters high??  I don't know how high that is but its a pretty huge tree!!  On Saturday night, the first of Dezember, we were able to go to Choir Practice and sing beautiful Christmas songs and that made me happy, but man oh man is Alto hard this Christmas, aber wir schaffen das :)  And when we went outside to go home, and snowflakes were getting stuck in my eyelashes!!  SNOW!!! Finally!! Welcome snow welcome :)  What a great first of Dezember :)  And actually it snowed on Sunday and today as well.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow :)  Tschao!!  Liebe, Sister Tuschling**