Hello Family,

How is everyone doing?

Well I can't say that there is too much to report on this week except I can't wait to hear about Elder Toma's new assignment, and I can't believe that Grandma and Grandpa May are officially done with their assignment in Seattle. Wow does time fly by fast or what? Or in other new I found out that my best friend Sister Molinari is training  a new missionary. How cool, I am so proud of her. So things are slowing down and speeding up here in Berlin. To start off we are losing all our investigators due to Christmas, they are all going to their home cities and leaving for a month.. LAME. Luckily Buck and Anar are staying. Our most promising investigators at the moment. We actually invited Anar to baptism this week.. It was a great lesson and he is making so much progress.. however just needs a little more time, but he will get there I am sure he will get baptized before the end of the Transfer! Just keep him and Bucky in your prayers.

Leadership Training

 
 

Mission Leadership Council Berlin

 


Berlin Zone Conference

I am so glad to hear the family is doing good. I do have a small few favors from you. So President Kosak has asked us to fill out our My family booklets. I have nothing. So if mom or dad or someone could send me this information...

Names, Birth dates and places of birth, wedding dates, if their temple work was done, pictures a short story, and the children of All my grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents. That would be wonderful. I also need a picture of Mom and Dad as well.

Also Times for My Christmas Skype. I don't have too much information now however, I know I will be calling sometime in the morning your time. It will be later afternoon here so just keep that in mind.

So I went on my first office Sister Training Leader exchange this week, it was good but I felt so weird to be the one having to ask the questions. I would have to say exchanges are not my favorite things but I do have to do one every week so I better get used to it haha. It was good though I went with Sister Davis to NeuKölln she is super cute sister and I am glad to have her and her companion in my group.

This week we had our Ho Ho Zone Conference. It was really good, we talked about Jesus Christ and is life here on this earth. It was a really spiritual conference and It really does make me think about this time of year and how wonderful it really is. It is really sad as we have been asking people on the streets why they celebrate Christmas, most of them don't even know the reason behind the Holiday anymore. It has been good though that we have had this opportunity to share He is the Gift with these people.

By the way have any of you shared it yet?? haha

Well I don't have too much time this week to write but I wish you all luck and Love you lots. I am deff enjoying myself here in Germany.. I can't wait till next week to Skype and see your Beautiful faces..

Love you lots,

Sister Toma

First week in Berlin

Guten Morgen!!

Wow can't believe it is already another week! It was a crazy week let me tell you. So to start off Monday our district got to go to the Christmas Market! That was so cool! Have I already said how much I love Christmas in Germany? anyways we it was cool the One in Osnabrück is really cool one of the best I have heard.

The next morning I got up super early and headed out to my new area. Sister Egbert got to stay in Bremen for the week.. or so I thought and I headed out to Berlin. When we got to Berlin there was a big group of girls there to pick us up however and come to find out two of them were my companions... YUP, I am in a Threesome. haha Sister Stuer is my other companion she is actually from Berlin and is just waiting for her Visa to come before she goes to Ukraine on her mission. I don't know how long it will be, but can I just say how awesome it is to have a German Companion..it is really cool.

Anyways then we found out that Sister Egbert would be staying with us the night before she came to pick up her new trainee. so I got to see her one more time and that was pretty cool. I did find out on Friday at MLC that her new companion is a German! So cool.

Berlin Mission Lead Conference

This week has been crazy busy. It is interesting to me because we had a ton more investigators in Osnabrück than in Berlin, however there are so many people here. It is really hard however I know there are Miracles waiting for us here. Actually it is really cool so we have two investigators that we want on a baptismal date by the end of this week.  One is named Bucky, he is from Ethiopia and is just here for one year but a stellar Golden investigator. He is a nerd just like me and we talk about coding and web making all the time.. it is fun,

The other investigator that we have that is just stellar is Anar. He is from Azerbaijan.. if any of you know where that is haha however also just total Golden. We actually just had our first lesson with him this week and he has already agreed to live the Word of Wisdom and he came to church on Sunday.  I am just so excited to be here and to be working with Sister Blake again and Sister Stuer. They are just such good missionaries and push me to always want to do better. Berlin is such a cool city and I love love love serving here. My ward is HUGE.. it is so cool it is almost like being back home.. plus everyone is American.. haha it is kind of funny. However Our ward is awesome and they really just care so much about the missionaries. I am excited to get working with them and really get to know them! Also about 90% are from DC area.. how cool?

Well family I don't really have any other cool things to talk about or to say.. We went new missionary finding last week that was fun I always love seeing the new missionaries and their excitement to Share the Gospel, they really do just have a great energy and light about them.

I wish you all a wonderful week

Love,

Sister Toma

P.S. by the way we are really promoting this video from the church called He is the Gift.. I challenge you all to do something this week to really share this video whether it be through email or through facebook, instagram, twitter It is a great short clip and I know it will help people remember the real meaning of Christmas.

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Guten Morgen!

It looks like my Ward Mission Leader broke the news... Dang I really wanted to let you know myself... Na Ja I guess there is nothing I can do about it now! Anyways for those of you that don't know I GOT TRANSFERRED!!

I will be serving in Dahlem Berlin! apparently it is the old American sector really pretty really big and really rich, so I have heard.

I am not going to lie I when we got our calls I broke down in tears. I just love my little town of Onsabrück, It is really wonderful. I will miss it so much and My wonderful companion Sister Egbert. She will make such a good little trainer though! I am so excited for her and her new adventures as well.

Another Surprise that came with my new area is that I will be serving again with Sister Blake.. haha What are the odds. I am really excited it will be a great time I hope. She is such a hard working and obedient missionary and I really hope that we get some good work done in Berlin before she goes home in 6 weeks!

It was a great week though. Thanksgiving was probably my highlight next to Miguel of course.. haha. However It was such a hoot getting a video from my parents!! The BYU Provo news was pretty great too! However everyone is getting so big! Conner, Lauren, Morgen Dillon. Aww I miss them so much. And Braden is getting Buff.. haha way to go. Thanks so much family for the wonderful video it was such a blessing and I am so grateful for you as well.

So this week we have just been trying to get everyone in and see as much people as we can.. We weren't really sure If I would be leaving or not so just to be safe I wanted to say goodbye to everyone. It was hard but we had a lot of good lessons.

To start off we had a great lesson with Tony this week. We did a review of the Restoration that was pretty good he is finally starting to make a little progress.

We also had a great lesson with Miguel this week. He still hasn't committed to a date leider.. however he will get there, I think he just needs some time. He knows it is true and he loves almost everything about this gospel, he even wants to come on joint teaches with us! Pretty cool!

Well I can't think of any other cool or exciting news for the week! I love you all we are seeing and expecting miracles everyday..

Große Liebe,

Sister Toma

Oh ha P.S. Miguel is the one in the blue and green plaid Shirt!!

Miracle after miracle this month

Haha so funny story, sister Egbert and I realized that last week wasn't Thanks Giving sadly. However it is kind of funny because we still ended up having a thanks giving dinner with the YSA's on Thursday night and we brought our investigator Francisco.. it was pretty fun we seriously have such a great ward.

Ah mentsch time is just flying by here in Germany.. I am so excited for Christmas time and they have started decorating our innenstat (center city) with Christmas decorations.. How wonderful, it is seriously beautiful.. I think most of me really does want to stay here for one more transfer.. That would be wonderful however When I think about it that is 8 months in one city haha.. Holy Moly.

Wow can I just say we have been having Miracle after Miracle this month.. Everyone in our Mission just can't keep up with all the wonderful blessings we are receiving..  So this week I thought I would share a few of ours with you..

So the first one that we had was on Friday.. We again invited Migeul to Baptism....we got him to pray about a date.. He knows that he needs to be baptized now and all that he needs to do is get the courage to tell his girlfriend.. We are planning on the 12 of December so everyone pray that he can tell her and receive and answer that this date is good! What a blessing! Migeul is so great..

Another blessing that we saw this week was on Saturday. So our bus to our appointment came about 2 minutes early to the stop and we missed it.. It was not good though because Saturday was not a day that we could afford to be late.. We had a ton of things going on.. however I think it was needed that we missed our bus because then another man got on the bus. He was sitting across from us and was staring at our name tags, when then out of the blue he asked us if we knew and Elder Rasband. Ha it was so random but totally cool. Elder Rasband used to serve in Onsabrück about a year ago and now is our Zone leader in Oldenburg.. We found out that his man used to be an investigator of theirs and they had lost contact with him... He wanted to talk to Elder Rasband so we gave him his number and then also set up an appointment to meet with him later this week. Another amazing Miracle..

Ok so my last miracle for the week actually happened today..

As we were heading to do our grocery shopping we got a call from a lady in our ward. She said that someone had called this morning from Romania and that they count speak German so she gave them our number.. They called us right away and said they have been living here for about 4 weeks and want to come to our church, however want a visit first.. How cool! So we set up an appointment to meet with them tonight We are so excited.. Blessing and Miracles every were! I am seriously so lucky to be in such a wonderful area.

Sorry this letter is so short this week! I just can't think about anything else to right.. sadly I got a cold this week and the medicine makes me a little sleepy.. haha So if it doesn't make any sense I am apologizing now. =)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Enjoy thanksgiving with your family and friends..

Love Sister Toma

Fun Thanksgiving videos!!

The mission leader in Osnabruuk invited us to send a brief video to Sister Toma for Thanksgiving.  We sent this video with a special surprise announcement!

Here is her reaction!

And Schwester Toma's testimony in German.

What to send a missionary for Christmas:   If you do send a package send it to the office and you don't have to send a big one.   I don't need cloths or anything like that.. Missionary stickers are always fun, Mexican spices haha or small things maybe you can stick in a padded envelope.. If anyone else wants to send me packages that is probably the best way-

Leiber Vater,

Es Geht Mir Gut Danke. Und Dir?

Meine (Untersucher) investigators, sind aller Gut.. Ich Hoffe! Frage an dich, Warum nutzten sie "voran" haha? aber ja ich kann dir eine Paare Worte lehren.. (Hast du alles verstanden?) (was sind eine Paare Worte dass du willst lernen?)

Es tut mir Leid dass ich eine kleines email heute geschrieben haben, aber ich habe jetzt keine zeit.. Bitte weiter die Information zu Mama geben.. Danke.

I think I will be getting changed, I am really sad I love love love Osnabrück and I don't want to leave one bit.

Germany is doing great though, investigators are hopefully doing well like I said. I miss you all and love you

Have a great week

Große Liebe

Sister Toma

This week was full of Wunders

Morgen Familie.

Sounds like the kidos are doing great and you had a fun Halloween. I can't believe that it is already November.. transfer calls are in 3 weeks It is making me sad because I have a feeling that this will be my last transfer in Onsabrück! We just have so many new missionaries coming in to the mission. It is really young mission now and I am sure Sister Egbert will be needed as a trainer this next transfer. It makes me sad the thought of leaving her however knowing that it is possible it just makes me want to work harder to make sure that she has a great area and foundation for a brand new missionary.

This week really was full of Wunders (miracles). We just keep finding and finding more people to teach! It just is wonderful. This week we are struggling trying to fit everything in. We even are giving up a little of our pday just to make it all work. Wow.. I am not complaining I love being busy and having lessons! Working hard is the Best!!

So we were doing some street contacting this week and we met a girl from Texas. I think Sister Egbert is really excited to teach her just because it will all be in English. We also went and did some door to doors and this one lady invited us in but she didn't have any pants on... haha! Oh how I love Germans. However she wants to keep meeting with us let's just hope she remembers her pants next time!! ;)

We were really scared for our appointment with Miguel this week. If I have not already mentioned he is moving in with his girlfriend in February and we hadn't taught him the law of Chastity yet. The lesson wasn't perfect mostly because it is really hard to speak German when you are nervous and on top of that our joint teach would not stop smiling.. oh the best part was Miguel (remember that name mom haha) brought us like 20 lbs of Healthy sugar that day too.. He is seriously so sweet and so nice and cares so much about others... The lesson was awkward however good! The Lord really did answer our prayers this past week and prepare him for what we needed to teach him. It was really cool because the first thing he asked us before we even started was what humility meant! Perfect lead into the lesson. He really is ready  for baptism so just pray for him this week that he will feel that too. It was actually pretty funny on Monday because he tried to give sister Egbert a hug after family home evening.. You could just image the scene Everyone telling him no, Sister Egbert's face turning bright red and not knowing what to do. He just kept going until I put my hand between him and sister Egbert then he really realized something was wrong haha. Our ward mission leader had to explain everything to him, however He is I think forever embraced. poor Miguel.

We had a great week though full of other fun events! One of them being able to watch a film I am not sure what it is called however it is about a sister serving her mission in Austria.. haha it was the best! 

When you have the chance you should totally see if you can find it! It is a Mormon movie I am not sure what it is called however If you ever what to know what my mission is like watch it.. it explains it to the T!!!

For other fun events of the week Sister Egbert and I were egged on the bus on Halloween.. That was pretty eventful considering we were heading to an appointment.. haha! YUMMY!

I can't really remember anything else for the week, like I said lots of finding and lots of Miracles.. I love it! Just keeps getting better and better everyday..

I hope that you all have a great week

Große Liebe

Sister Toma

Testimony of 100% obedience

Hallo Familie.

How are you doing? Are sure do miss you. How is the weather there in Virginia? It is freezing here in Germany. I get to wear my winter coat though it is really nice. And no more bike riding for me YES. haha I don't know if that is necessarily a good thing considering How much weight I have gained!

Well to start off I have learned SOOOO much this week. Can I just say one thing that I have learned is how much you learn about yourself from your companion. I never realized how critical I am of others.. Not even that I want to be mean however I just sometimes say things really bluntly.. I guess the Lord really did send me to the right place. So anyways enough about myself and what I need to work on.. haha We saw some pretty cool things happen this week. For the fun part we went and saw some monkeys on Monday. They were really fun, until one of them bit me then I was pretty much done playing with the monkeys for the rest of the time that we were there. Don't worry it didn't break any skin and I didn't turn into a monkey I am still me, maybe just a little more harry jk!

We had a great week though packed with Miracles one right after the other. One of the best experience we had was with Migeul. On Friday we were planning on teaching him about the organization of the church. When we got there though things quickly changed. However before we went Sister Egbert and I had really prayed for help and guidance on what to do because these moments are now crucial with Miguel. We have been teaching him for almost 3 months now and he really does have a testimony of the gospel. We are almost done with all the lessons and we are just not 100% sure what we need to do to get him to commit to baptism. Sister Egbert had some great Ideas and when we got there the spirit just guided the whole lesson it was great. We talked about the atonement and what it really means. He has been struggling with letting someone else take the blame for him. However at the end of the lesson he said the prayer and even asked for forgiveness. It was so amazing and the spirit was so strong. We later got a message that day from Brother Habermann our Ward mission leader saying Miguel sent him a message telling him how strong that he felt the spirit in our lesson that day. What a testimony to me that we are here to teach people and NOT lessons. That as we strive to be obedient and really listen to the needs of the people we teach the spirit will testify to them of truth. Sometimes as humans we get carried away it talking about all we know to try to convince someone that we are right. However we never are the ones convincing.. it is always the Lord helping is Children come closer to him. The spirit is the true teacher in lessons, We as missionaries and members just need to remain worthy to have it.

This week in District meeting we discussed what members can do to help missionaries. I have to admit I hate this topic. I love the members here in Germany they are great, but we are few.. I can't ask the same one person to come to teach lessons with us ever day.. They have a life. However they really do have a desire to help us with missionary work! How great is that. I have such a testimony of member missionary work. I know that is really the best way for us to find those who are ready to hear the Gospel. That when they already have that connection with a member they are more willing and comfortable to meet with the missionaries. It is hard to open up your mouth, however all it takes is a little invitation to a ward activity making sure the missionaries know who they are and we will take over from there. Or maybe just sharing a spiritual thought or even the proclamation to the world with a family next door. It really works I have a testimony of that. People do see us and notice the good. We do have a light about us and people Do see that. (When you are in the service of your fellow being you are in the service of your God). When you really have FAITH on Christ we can do all.

This weekend we had our District conference. Or Stake conference. It was so great. President Kosak and his wife were there and they are just two amazing people. One thing that I noticed was at the very beginning of our meeting we were singing and all the sudden President Kosak got up and walked down the steps and gave his hymnbook to a little old mad in the front who didn't have one. I have so much respect for him. He truly is an example to me of someone who understands Christ. I am so grateful to have a Wonderful mission president who knows how to lead his missionaries to hasten the work. Who isn't afraid to chasten us when we are doing wrong or comfort us when we need comfort.. The messages that were talked about at district conference were so strong and powerful. I am seriously surrounded by spiritual giants here in Germany. They really do have to stand for what they believe in, and they stand with all their mind might and strength. What a blessing it is for me to learn from them...

I have really just come to have such a testimony of EXACT OBEDIENCE. how important it really is. I am so grateful for my wonderful brother Elder Toma and his example for me of being Exactly Obedient. I really do see the miracles that he has in his work every week. I know that when we strive to be exactly obedient the Lords really does bless us. For me that is fallowing the white hand book For you that is fallowing the council of the prophets, scriptures and leaders in the church. It isn't easy, however I know that has we keep the commandments we really are showing our Heavenly Father that we Love him.

Well Family I hope that you have a great week I miss and Love you. I enjoy our sweet messages every week. Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN. (p.s. mom they do celebrate it here but it isn't very big and not everyone does) Thanks for everything you do to support me..

Große Liebe

Sister Toma

I love being a missionary

Guten Morgen Lieber Familie.

Well another week another Transfer. Can you believe it? This weekend is transfer calls so who knows next week I could be writing from another city. I don't think I will be though thank goodness. I love it here in Onsabrück so much It will be really hard for me to leave it one day.

So I don't have a lot of good stuff this week sadly, and I am writing from an Internet cafe this week so I can't send Pictures Leider.. However I will try to make this email as interesting as possible. :)

To start off sister Egbert and I are doing great. She is so wonderful and teaches me so much. We have a goal in our mission to receive 125 baptism before the end of the year.. (that is a lot for Germany) that means every companionship will have at least 1 baptism. I love that our mission made that a goal!

Sister Egbert and I have been making little goals to help contribute. I think this transfer will be great and we are hoping to see at least 2 or 3 baptism here in Osnabrück as well.

This week we met with Francisco again that was a great lesson. He really has a lot of questions and the best part is we teach him in English.. Really it is so crazy how much more you can teach when you can speak in your mother language. However I love German and I hope that one day I will just be able to say everything that I want to in order to teach a lesson. Francisco is pretty cool though. He came to our lesson with a little note book and brought notes and questions from what he had read the week before. It was so cool! Sister Egbert and I were just so excited.

Meeting with Migeul this week was also so cool. He is just such an awesome person. It was the best because the first thing that he said to us when we started the lesson was that he has been praying every morning and night for the past week. That was such a miracle to me! He is also praying about things that he said he would never pray about when we first started meeting with him.

This weekend we were so blessed that so many of our investigators and less active members showed up to church. It was pretty cool. Such a blessing. So this last Sunday we showed the last 2 hours of General Conference. It was great except for the part where they didn't provide the English version this time around.. um ya 2 hours all in German (lets just say that I had a great sleep last night) haha. However I just loved Elder Bednar's talk. It was just so great and So many of our investigators really felt the Spirit as well.. What a cool Experience. The one thing that just broke our hearts later was come to find out one of our investigators just signed the papers to move in with his Girl Friend.. AHH NOO. He just makes so much progress "5 steps forward and then takes 4 steps back" He is so great and we love him and just pray that when we teach the Law of Chastity that all goes well.. haha.

One cool experience that we had this week, was that we were invited to go to a Frau Versammelung (Women's Meeting) in Oldenburg on Saturday. The Relief Society needed help in an activity that they were doing. Our job was to be flight attendance. HAHA it was a hoot while I was reading the Flight safety instructions and sister Egbert was trying to fallow a long having no idea what I was saying but showing all the women how to use the oxygen mask but really I was saying fasten your seat belts... All the women were laughing and having a great time watching us two struggle. However the experience was great. The whole point was being prepared and doing everything we can now so that one day we will be ready to meet God. 

So after we struggled giving instructions we took our seats and the plane crashed.. Everyone died and then an angel came and told us that we needed to prepare ourselves to be judged today? It just made me think am I doing everything I can to stand before God and feel like I really strive to live my life more like the savior? When you think about it there is always more that we can do, more that we can work on. I really took it as a challenge to study more from preach my gospel about the Christ Like attributes. I challenge us all to do that. That is our goal here on earth to repent through Christ and try to become more like him.

Well anyways yesterday was pretty funny when we went to church the word had gotten around that we were the flight attendance for the FHV Meeting. So everyone in the ward started calling us to help them with silly things or would ask us silly air plane questions. it was funny.

Well I think that is all for this week. I love being a missionary. Thank you all for your amazing examples. I hope you all have a great week.

Große Liebe

Sister Toma

Listening and teaching by the Spirit

Guten Morgen Familie.

So sad news again we have to wait till next Sunday to watch the last session of General Conference! Schada!! I was really looking forward to it this Sunday, however it was fast and testimony meeting and that is always good as well.  So the weather is turning cold their huh? well here in Germany it has been cold since August.. hasn't really changed a whole lot since then maybe gotten a little colder or more consistently cold.

Oh I also wanted to say how proud I am of mom for using a German Word in her letter to me today!! So cool! =) "Zeal" I love it.

Well this week was pretty great I am not going to lie I can't believe that it has already been another transfer.. Ahh like I said time is flying by and DAD you are so right I have to make everyday count.. It is so important. I would have to say though I am really looking forward to Christmas time. =)

So to start off for the week Monday Miguel came to Familie Heim Abend. (Family Home Evening). That was great and I think that he really enjoyed himself as well.. we are hoping he comes with his girlfriend tonight as well. Miguel is making great progress however He just needs a little push to move towards baptism.. I am pretty sure that he will get baptized though before the end of the year. 

We taught him the Word of Wisdom on Friday and come to find out he already lives it!! SCORE. It was a great lesson and also he taught us a few things about how we could live healthier lives.. haha I need it because come to find out I have gained about 20 lbs since I have been here.. If you were wondering why I have some new cloths in my closet it is because I literally can't fit into anything anymore.. I can only fit into 4 or my skirts I brought and I was lucky to inherit one from another sister while I was in Berlin.. however because I wear them so much they are getting a little worn!! Don't worry I am trying to eat healthier however it is hard when we go to an eating appointment and the women here won't let us leave without having seconds lol..

We found a new investigator this week his name is Francisco and he comes from Mexico.. He is pretty cook he served a mission here in Germany for the Catholic church however he is showing so much excitement in learning more about the gospel.. I really hope that we are able to keep working with him that will be so awesome..

This week we had zone training meeting which was great I learned so much about overcoming our fears and working with the members. Two really important things to remember. We also had interviews with president on Friday which was great.. I love our interviews he teaches me so much and helps me become the missionary I want to be..

Well I Don't think that we really have anything else that is exciting. or new haha and No really funny stories for this week. Honestly We did a lot of traveling..

However I just love share something cool I have learned in Personal Study this week. I was reading in Alma 11 12 and 13 and just thought about how amazing Alma and Amulek's testimonies were.. How they were really amazing at listening and teaching by the Spirit.. I think that is something that we can all work on. Me as a missionary and others members as Friends, Home and Visiting teachers. When we teach and listen by the spirit Heavenly father will help us to know what their needs are and helps us to say what they really need to hear.. It is  something that isn't easy but possible!

Well that is all for this week. I love you all and Hope that you all have a great week!!

Love Sister Toma.

Here is a list of some of the investigators we are teaching and our New Members..Some of our new converts are really struggling so keep them in your prayers...

Investigators

Miguel

Francisco

Ginda

Mala

Herr and Frau Westphal

New Converts

Janina

Samuel

Dong Dong

First German Holiday

Guten Morgen Freunde und Familie.

Wow another week just flew by. I can't believe it is already October. Um... parents do you know what that means.... I come home in exactly a year from now! I am crying a little bit in side. I can't believe how fast it is flying by. It just makes me think about how grateful I am to be here.. To hasten the work. Plus did you just love how much the apostles were talking about me in General Conference this weekend. Missionaries this and Missionaries that.. Just kidding however I just feel so privileged to be called of God to hasten his work. And WOW did I learn so much. I am really sad though that we have to wait till NEXT SUNDAY to watch this last session of General Conference. Schada, aber.. That just means more great guidance for the next week. I am glad to hear though that everyone had a great conference weekend.. and I really was missing those Cinnamon rolls.. especially because we weren't allowed to eat anything during conference.. The Germans take it pretty seriously here. They even stand up at the end of conference when the prophet leaves.. Super serious. Us (Americans apparently are too casual for conference.) however we can all learn a little something more especially because Germany hasn't always had the opportunity to watch General Conference.

I was so surprised to hear about Elder Toma's transfer calls. Holy Moly. That is so crazy. I am excited for him though, maybe he will get called as a district leader somewhere.. :) Speaking about that we had exchanges again this week. They went so well and I am so proud of Sister Egbert. She got around and to all of the appointments by herself.. So proud of her. I learned a lot too while I was in Hannover with Sister Wigbournei. She taught me a lot about myself and how to turn my weaknesses into strengths. One thing that I just Loved that She said was how sometimes our weaknesses are weaknesses because the Devil knows that when and if you overcome that weakness than it can turn into your biggest strength.. that there is obviously a reason why he doesn't want you to have  that one specific thing. WOW that made me think really hard about what I NEED TO DO. However then she kept telling me that President is going to call me to be a Sister Training leader... I hope not.. SCARY thoughts and even President told me that in my first interview.. maybe I will just start doing a bad job here in Osnabrück.. Ok just kidding I would never do that there are too many other important things to worry about than myself.

Plan of Salvation Chalk Drawings

Ok so I am sure all of you are bored now with my going on about dull and unimportant things... I know you only want to hear about the Miracles that we see here in Germany right? So here are a few that I just love,

So This week we met with Miguel and invited him to baptism.. He said no.. That is okay though because we found something else out, He believes the Gospel is true.. the next step in helping him accept the gospel is to help him apply it in his life, However easier said than done. I know he will get baptized though, it just might take so time. We are praying and working to help him really gain the desire to continue to progress. We also taught him about temples and eternal families and he just soaked that up and loved it especially because he is thinking about getting married to his girlfriend that he has been dating for 8 years. :)

Another Miracle for the week was GINDA. So it was about 20 minutes before our lesson with Ginda and I remembered something that I learned from Sister Wigbournei.. about these little caps to help you teach the first lesson.. or the Restoration of the Gospel. I just felt like we needed to use them for Ginda and so we hurried and made this little crappy paper ones.. Haha they were really Schilm However as we were teaching I just knew that it was the right thing. As we bore testimony and taught her the lesson she started to cry again knowing now that it was no coincidence that she met us on the street. So the sisters in the past have been trying to get her to pray about joining the Church for the last 6 months and Finally Saturday she said she would pray about it.. What a Miracle/ blessing.. She is so great and has a little son about 3 years old.. She loves him so much, it is such a testimony to me of the Family and how we need our parents. How we need a family here in this life and that is really is a blessing from our savior.

Matching outfits!

Ok so for my insights on General Conference. I Loved it.. so many wonderful talks.. One thing about Conference on your mission is you just soak everything up. So I went with a bunch of questions and I didn't get the answers I was expecting.. However they are some pretty good ones. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was preparing myself to be a Mom. I loved how Elder Anderson talked about securing our own mask before helping others with theirs.. Even though the answers I received were maybe not exactly what I was expecting I know that they are what I needed right now. I know that this mission will help me gain the testimony (secure my own mask) to set the foundation to help my children build their foundation upon the Savior. (they quoted Hel 5:12 a ton) also to help them gain a testimony of the prophet and to really understand the importance of the sacrament and to continually help the poor and to follow the footsteps of Christ. One last thing my favorite quote from conference was from Elder Uchtdorf, The gathering of spiritual light is the quest of a life time.. as we live in this life and grown we need to continual do the five fundamental things to reach exaltation 1. Build our faith in the Savior Jesus Christ  2. Continually use the Atonement in our life and Repent. 3. Be baptized and partake of the sacrament in renewing that covenant with the Lord every Sunday. 4 Receive and remain worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and 4. Endure to the End. I know that this gospel is true.. It has brought me so much happiness in my life. This is the way to true and everlasting happiness. Our Father in Heaven really does love us and our Jesus Christ loves us so much as well.. As we strive to become more like him we WILL become happier everyday.. I love IT!!

Ok so for some of the funny things of the week.

I played Ping Pong and did horrible and Friday was my first German Holiday.. It was very.. very interesting. We had a few drunk men hit on us and then one that was walking into our apartment complex even dropped his pants in front of us... So awkward we just ran away and tried to avoid talking to any men for the rest of the day

haha..

Also the bus schedules change for Holidays. I forgot about that and we ended up waiting for a bus for 40 minutes that never came.... Oh Sister Toma me and my blond moments as hunter would say..

Well that is it for this week I am so grateful to be a missionary!

Love you all so much hope you have a great week! Can't wait to hear the news from Elder Toma

Große Liebe

Sister Toma

Sharing a copy of the Book of Mormon

Hello Family,

How is everyone doing? I sure do miss all of you, and I am sure going to miss the yummy cinnamon rolls this coming General Conference.

Well sadly this week I don't remember anything we did ha ha. I think all my days are starting to blur together and weeks and months; however, we did something a little risky. . . all thanks to Dad's letter a few weeks ago.

So to start off Monday was so much fun.  We got to go to this castle in Badbentheim, a little town on the border of the Netherlands. It was seriously beautiful and don't worry I took lots of pictures, you know me. Then from there it all kind of seemed like one day.

One thing that is kind of sad is we never got to meet with Eve the investigator from Bulgaria. That was sad, however hopefully we get to meet with her this week sometime. Also wish us luck it will be Sister Egberts first austausch this week.

On Wednesday we went up to this little town on the out skirts of Onsabrück called Hollage. There we were doing some doors when it started to poor rain. Neither one of us had and umbrella so we decided to find some shelter for a little while until we could go back out.. there was a little ice cream shop down the street and sister Egbert and I hurried in. The lady was so nice to us and just told us we could stay as long as we wanted  because the rain outside. As soon as we finished our ice cream we realized what a perfect opportunity it was to hand out a book of Mormon. So I hurried and wrote down my testimony and then a few scriptures that she could look up. I could tell family was important to her since she had her children there and a few of her other relatives so I wrote down scriptures that testified of eternal families. We then got up and she told us to sit and stay a little longer, it had stopped raining though and we needed to get back to work so we thanked her so much for her generosity to us and gave her the Book of Mormon. It was really cool, I don't know how much interest she has however she took it and seemed really thankful.

We just had a lot of time this week to really talk to people and bear our testimonies.

One thing that was so wonderful this week was our lesson with Migeul. We went it planning to teach him about Prophets, however when we got there it I just knew and felt that there was something deeper we needed to find out. I am so thankful that I listened to that prompting. He finally came to church for the first time too on Sunday which was amazing and he even said that he received answers to his questions. YES!!

I have to say that I really enjoyed Hunter's email from last week. It was so good. The last thing that just really stuck out to me was what he said about how this is the Lords time.. It got me thinking about all the things that I can do to see more miracles here. I know as missionaries there are always ways to improve and always more that you can do in the service of God. It just narrows down to again being diligent in all that we do.

Today we spent the whole time helping Bruder Altmanns move. It was hard work, I actually broke a sweat hahah.. however it just was so rewarding.  The biggest reason was because I know Bruder Altmann doesn't have a lot of money, yet he gives and gives and gives and gives. The man never rest. He is truly and example to me of someone who has charity. He just does so much for us and yesterday as i was contemplating spending my p day working I just couldn't get the thought out of my head about how much he does for me and how I could make this little sacrifice for him... He even brought us little sack lunches and everything. I just love the people here in Germany and our ward and am so thankful. I really am so blessed to be here in Osnabrück.

I am so excited for General Conference as well. We get to watch it however they are at funky times and we don't get to see the last session till next Sunday.

My mission president and his wife are amazing. I love them both so much. They teach me so much and I just know how much they care about me.  However he really is such a great mission president and just pushes us to do our best. Sister Kosak is so sweet and really is just like a mom to all us little missionaries out here in Germany.

Haha my German. I have been told I have pretty good German, however I don't know about that, I do try really hard to speak it every day 9 to 9. That is one thing that has helped me, as well as reading from my scriptures everyday out loud in German. I write down words I don't know and look them up later, and I also work from this little book called German and Review sometimes. When I have the chance I also really like to listen to talks in German, it helps me to understand things. I do have goals every week right now we are working on learning scriptures from memory. I have 10 that I chose myself that I am working on right now and then after that I need to learn the articles of faith. It is pretty cool. I also really want to have the book of Mormon in German finished by Christmas.

Well that is really all for this week, hope everyone has a great week,

Große Liebe,

Sister Toma

It is amazing how much the Lord prepares His children

Hallo meine leibevoller Geschwestern.

How is everyone doing this wonderful fall week?

Is it starting to get cold there. Mom loved your email this week about the fireside and props to the Sisters for getting investigators to come that is amazing. Also holy moly I can't believe Braden is a full blown driver now. It makes me feel so old. Actually the other day we were coming home from an eating appointment with the Elders and we got on that topic. Ok I am 3 years older than everyone in my district.... unbelievable haha. Anyways I am glad for the emails this week and I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I love getting your inspiring messages and thoughts. They fill my spiritual bucket. Oh ya and to answer Elder Toma's question about me training, I am training and it is sooooo fun. :) I love it.  Seriously Sister Egbert is soo much fun. I think we laugh too much and probably have too much fun. However it really is helping us stay motivated to find new investigators.

This week we have see miracles. It's so cool.

This week we have been going through the area book because I haven't met with most people that are in the area book. So we decided to call a few. I remember Sister Blake telling me a story about a woman they were meeting with back in February. Her name is Eva and she is from Bulgaria. She came to church one day with her uncle and then started meeting a little with the sisters. She started reading in the Book of Mormon and the sisters even got her on a baptismal date. Then they lost contact with her because she went back to Bulgaria. About a month later they saw her on a bus and had a good talk when Eva told them that she had read the entire Book of Mormon and still wanted to get baptized. However after that she went back to Bulgaria again and they were never able to get in contact with her. That was back in March. Since then they would call her every few weeks and unfortunately they never met with her at her house so they had no idea where she lived. Sister Blake talked about her all the time and said it was sad she was leaving because even if I saw her I wouldn't recognize her.

Well the other day like I said we were looking through our former investigators and I just got a feeling I Should try to call Eva. So I did, she didn't answer, however I was expecting that the sisters haven't been able to get a hold of her for over 6 months.  Sister Egbert and I were heading out to an appointment when all the sudden the phone started ringing. I looked at it and it was EVA!!! what so I answered it and talked to her and she remembered us and everything thing. She explained everything and said that she is living in another town but fortunately that town in still in our area. YES we set up an appointment and we will be meeting with her this week. So pray that it goes through.

So many other little miracles happened this week as well and I just feel so blessed. It is amazing to me how much the Lord prepares is children.

We did some fun activities this week as well. One thing that we started doing is drawing on the sidewalks with chalk.. the plan of salvation and other cool stories and lessons from the Book of Mormon. It is really fun and we are going to start doing it with our investigators and new members. So many people come by and just wonder what we are drawing. Great way to find investigators.

Ok so here is my funny/don't freak out mom story of the week.

So sister Egbert loves the ice cream here. It is actually pretty funny. So she had been begging me all week to get some ice cream, so finally on Friday night I caved and we went and got some ice cream on our way home. As we were walking and laughing and talking I turned around and saw this really creepy dude in a trench coat walking behind us. I thought to myself.. hmm that guy looks pretty scary I hope he isn't fallowing us. So we kept going. Sister Egbert then turned to me and said um sister Toma I think someone is fallowing us... sure enough I turn around and the guy was still behind us. we then started to walk a little faster and caught up with some boys who looked like they could be 17 or 18 and asked if we could walk with them for a little bit. So we walked with them for about five minutes to see if the guy would leave. We turned around one more time and he was gone... We totally thought we were in the clear. We said goodbye to the boys that let us walk with them for a few minutes and kept on walking home. About 2 minutes later sister Egbert turned around and saw the guy again fallowing us. Finally we started booking it..I wish that I could of had a video of us running with a bucket of ice cream in skirts in the dark.. hahaha... People on the street were probably laughing their heads off. Now that I think about it was soo funny. however at the time sister Egbert and I were freaking out. P.S. mom don't worry this is my first scary experience.. and we were safe about it and made it home safely. We actually lost him after about 10 minutes of running.  I know that heavenly father protects his missionaries. I am grateful for the protection and I am grateful that we were able to make it home safely.

Well family that is all for this week.

I love you so much I love being a missionary and I love Germany.

Liebe

Sister Toma

WOW! What a week!

Hallo Jedes dass meine emails bekommen. ;)

Sister Toma and Sister Blake

WOW! What a week. Well I hope everyone is doing well, I really want to thank everyone for the encouragement that you give me. It is amazing how much a little email can help. Well Last Monday sister Blake and said goodbye to everyone and we had a really fun Essens Termin with Schwester Wenke and Bruder Altmann. They made us Yummy Traditional Deutsch Essen. And Rotkhol! haha not my favorite however not too bad. Then On Tuesday Sister Blake and I woke up early and headed out to Berlin. When we got there I only had a few mins to say goodbye :( however we knew that it would only be till the next day. HAHA. Then I went and stayed in Langfitz (Berlin). That is the area and ward where President Kosak lives. It was fun and the sister there were really cool I learned so much from them.  And I got the wonderful experience of eating Liver!! YUM!!!! I would say it was a once in a life time experience because I don't think I want to ever eat it again. However we had a great lesson with her about the restoration. :)

On Wednesday I got to meet all the new missionaries. . . even though I wouldn't get my new missionary till the next day. However I got to go new missionary finding with Sister Reed and that was really fun. I did get to see sister Blake that day too haha. I also got to spend the whole day with sister Larte. Love her.   I'll miss her as my STL. The next day we got up early and went to go get our new companions. As we waited and waited finally they called Sister Egbert, you will be serving with sister Toma and Osnabrück!! YA!! It was so great I ran up and gave her a big hug! The anxiety was over! We took our picture said goodbye to everyone and headed to Haupt Bahnhof. However we got on the wrong train and become lost! Because I have no idea where I am going in Berlin haha. Luckily we made it to Haupt Bahnhof just in the nick of time to catch our train back to Onsabrück, where we would stay for the next 10 hours.  lol

When we got back we finally got in contact again with Familie Kareem. We haven't been able to see them in a little over a month! Sad, however it was good and hopefully we will get to meet with them this week.

The next morning we got up and had district meeting. It was great and we got to meet our new district Leader. Then we had a lesson with Miguel however I can't really understand him so it was interesting. The coolest thing about Miguel though is that he really is progressing. He has a lot of questions and come to each lesson with is questions.

Elder and Sister Bednar and the Berlin Germany Mission

Right after Miguel we got back on a train and headed back to Berlin for the Weekend! YAY haha it was really fun however lots of travel. I got to stay in Martzahn with Sister Tolman and Sister Jensen. It was fun however our train ended up being an hour and a half late so we got in really late that night. Mentsch! The next morning we all got up and headed to Tiergarten (Central Berlin)! Everyone from our entire mission was there it was So cool! The best part was of course that Elder Bednar came and spoke to us. He had asked us to do a few things first before he came though. One of them was to read a few talks he had given in the past. As we read them and prepared I really felt prepared to learn with him. He taught us so much, well in his words the spirit taught us so much. It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to listen to an apostle of the Lord. This Church is true and the Apostles really are men called of God to lead and Guide us. Something that really stuck out to me was, as we Exercise our faith in acting instead of being acted upon we really teach our selves. We really can for ourselves find the answers to our questions. We just need to be prepared to learn, act and listen to the spirit. What a cool experience. It cracks me up  because Elder Bednar every time I have been in a meeting with him he does a question answer session. Every time he says the same thing and every time he says You will never have an opportunity like this again.. lol I have had 3. I guess that doesn't happen very often though! I can just count my many blessings!!! =D

Sister Egbert and Sister Toma

Well I am sure you all want to know a little more about my new companion. Her name is Sister Egbert! She come from Fernley Nevada.. really close to Reno!! She was adopted and sealed to her family she has now two years ago! Pretty cool huh? She is also a convert to the Church for only 5 years. Seriously I am so blessed to have her as my new companion fresh from the MTC. She is seriously training me! She came so ready and has such a strong testimony. She is an amazing missionary and I am learning so much from her! We have lots of goals and plans for Onsabrück these next few months. What a blessing it is to train, I really feel there is just something special that comes from those missionaries who have just left the MTC. really truly. Plus she can help me with my German.. lol!

Well I love and miss all of you and wish you a WUNDERBARE WOCHE!!

Tschussie!!

Große Liebe

Sister Toma