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
