Happy September First! Can you believe that fall is just
around the corner.. well for you all, to be completely honest fall has been
here for the last 3 and half weeks! The leaves are changing color. It is so
crazy however really exciting because I love fall. I have pulled out all my
winter Cloths and already started wearing tights. I don't know what the temperature
is except that it has been around 15-17 degrees C here in Deutschland. Sorry
for everyone that lives in America and I don't know how to convert it. ha-ha.
Well this week is that last week of the transfer so next
week I could be telling you who my new companion will be. We should be getting
our calls on Friday or Saturday, however president told Sister Blake she would
be leaving so I am sad to lose my trainer. I pray every day that Heavenly Father
will give me the strength to understand German or when I get a new companion
she can speak it really well so that way I don't totally mess up the area. Ha-ha.
It is good though I love Osnabrück, And today I am really excited because I get
to go to a little town about 7 kilometers away where my family is from! Have I
said how amazing my ward is? Seriously they are so great! They really do care
about us missionaries here. We had an amazing lesson with here on Tuesday
afternoon about the plan of salvation then we got everything ready for her
baptism this weekend. We even went through all the baptismal questions and she
answered them all with such a strong testimony. She seemed so ready and so
excited. We were so excited for her. Then we came back on Wednesday afternoon
and she came running out to meet us and the first words that came out of her
mouth were I don't want to get baptized anymore. WHAT???? We had worked so long
and so hard with Martina and it was heart dropping. I just kept rewinding
things in my head lessons with her anything what could we have missed what were
the signs that she wasn't ready. As we talked to her we came to find out that
she was really really scared about going back to China and what her family
would think and about what her friends would think and whether or not she would
get a job. We just couldn't believe it. After all this time this was what was
holding her back. As we thought about what to do about how to listen to her and
teach her we prayed and fasted and just had hope that things could turn around.
We planned a really great lesson and even had our Bishop come with us on
Friday. I can't even explain how spiritual the lesson was and how we just
taught her about faith and the important principles of having a testimony. We
tried to comfort her that everything would be okay. By the end of the lesson
she said she would pray about it and let us know by Sunday if she still wanted
to get baptized or not. We then went by on Saturday and talked with her when
she told us she was set on not getting baptized. We talked to her for a little
while about what she believed and it was the saddest thing for me to hear that
Someone who has a testimony of the Gospel and knows that it is true let fear
overtake their faith. Martina is Wonderful and we love her so much we still
have her in our prayers every day. I don't know if she will ever get baptized
however I do know one thing. As I was riding this bus home from our last lesson
with Martina I had a quote from Elder D. Todd Christofferson's Talk (As many as
I love I rebuke and chasten) keep coming into my head
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful
growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look
down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener
here.”
President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am
the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be
a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday,
little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say,
‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
As I sat there and thought about it I realized Heavenly Father knows everything. He has given us our agency to choose what we want to
do however he knows us better than we know ourselves. He knew Martina and her
fears and I don't have all the answers as to why but I do know that for whatever
reason Sister Blake and I needed this experience and Martina needed to meet us.
What an amazing Father we have what an amazing care taker.
I am so excited this week however because we have Samuel who
is getting baptized. He is an amazing person and really hearing his stories
makes me remember there are people out there who really need this gospel and
that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. So here is a cool story from Samuel
this week. So a few weeks ago we were talking to him about Church and he
started telling us that when he first moved here 5 months ago he went to an
African Church with some of his roommates and hated it. As they were walking
home he passed our church building as told his friends he wanted to come here
however his friends told him not to because it was a (White Man's Church) ha-ha.
It was only a few months later and then he met Sister Blake and I, We invited
him to come into the church however he had to leave because he was getting his
phone fixed. It was a few hours later and he came back to the church. We were
really surprised and didn't really know what to think. However come to find out
he said to us yesterday that when he is here he feels the spirit so strong and
knows that it is a house of God. It is really cool as well because The first
day we met him he to us he didn't like church, that he didn't believe in going
to church, however since we have been meeting with him he hasn't missed a day
of church. He comes here with a Giant smile on his face and stays just to watch
talks from the Apostles and Prophets. Super COOL. The best part is he can't understand
a lick of German, yet he still comes. What an example to me of someone who
truly is becoming converted unto Christ.
What an amazing thing a mission is! I love it here in
Germany and I am so grateful to be a missionary for Christ Church. I love you all
and Hope that You have an amazing week!
Aufwiedersehen
Liebe
Sister Toma
