Baptisms!!! And Sister Blake returns home

Guten Morgen!

Wow I can't believe that this transfer is come and gone... Mom dad get ready you got 8 more months to prepare for two more awkward people sitting at home not knowing what to do with themselves...ha-ha.

Well can I just say what a week it was? It was absolutely fantastic. To start off Sister Blake and I got to the Deutsche Museum last week... it was super cool... I really want to go back in a few pdays and spend some more time there! Germany is awesome... Then we had exchanges with Cottbus... That was so crazy... so I went there and that city is tinnnnyyyy... when we went out side there was no one so we had to just do doors the hole day... it was good though we had some good conversations and made out a few appointments... now I know how the missionaries feel in Gainesville haha. I am so grateful to be serving in Berlin... never don't have anything to do. 
Then on Thursday we had a mission Tour with Elder Kopischke from the 70. It was really great and I learned a lot... another huge plus about being on a mission... just get general authorities coming a going and wanting to spend time with the missionaries... haha On Saturday we had another mission leadership meeting and he came and spoke to us.. It was also really good.

One thing that she shared with us was this scripture... D&C 43 8-9 he made us read it over and over and over again then we broke it down. Maybe as you read it this week think about what it means, and then how you can apply the message into your meeting as you go to church, meetings and other spiritual things. It’s super powerful...

Another thing that I just love is really exercise your agency. When we receive knowledge or information act on it..

So there is this sister that we are teaching now her name is Agnis... She is 22 years old and comes from Latvia... this week she has been such an example to me... I would like to just share a little bit about her with you all...
Agnis met the missionaries when she was 12 years old, she was playing soccer on day and they invited her to activities.. She got to know the church and became good friends with everyone... she didn't receive an answer that the church was true until about a year later. She used to be catholic and was doing a ritual for the Catholic Church when she had an overwhelming experience that the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints was the only true church. She wanted to get baptized however couldn't because of her parents... then there was a senior couple that invited her to come back to America with them... she lived there for a few years and went back to Latvia and joined the church, however she met a boy and then soon became inactive! Her boyfriend was not a very good guy and wouldn't let her do anything eventually they both moved to Germany and she lived with him for about 2 years before finding something out leading her to get on her knees again asking Heavenly Father for help to get out of her situation.. Soon after her boyfriend came home and she told him she was leaving and he actually let her go, she had found an apartment and job... which was good because those are hard to find here and then while running one day found our church house... She was so excited to contact us, however sadly our building didn't have any contact information on it, so she didn't know when do come or who to get a hold of. A few months later she was able to finally get some information and that is when we started teaching her. Which has been one of the most uplifting and spiritual experience for me... as she started off with big questions and concerns it has been just so amazing seeing the progress she has made in this little amount of time. She has really just been a huge example to me of the atonement and how it is for everyone no matter how long you haven't come to church you can always come back... As we met with her the other day we were teaching her about the plan of salvation... we asked her where she would like to go next... and she told us all my questions that I had before are gone and last Sunday after coming to church I felt the spirit so strong that I just wanted to come home and read in my scriptures.. And as I was reading I got the overwhelming feeling I need to start preparing to go to the temple! So amazing! So we are working and helping her get ready to go through the temple sometime this year... For all those missionaries whose members have gone inactive, never give up they have felt the spirit before and I know that God prepares ways for them to come back... Agnis is such a testimony to me of true repentance and true desire to change and come back... The atonement is real... and the Church is true.

Sister Blake completes her mission

Ok well here is the juicy stuff you have been waiting for ha-ha...

This week Bucky and Anar were both baptized it was wonderful\the most stress full baptism ever however Total miracle. They are both wonderful, I am so grateful for their example to me... I know they will be really stellar members of the Church... Heavenly Father really helps us find those people and teach them! Buck and Anar just said afterwards how amazing they felt and the wonderful spirit that overcame them... Special moments.

Sister Blake is going on Tuesday... I am so sad I can't believe it she was an amazing missionary and taught me so much I will miss her tons and tons! However last minute surprise president gave her permission to go the Freiburg temple before she goes home... so tomorrow we will be heading down to do a session! I am so excited! =)

I will be staying in Dahlem and I will be getting Sister Wibornie she is German and from Frankfurt... I am super excited to get her, she was my STL when I was in Osnabruck!

Well that is all the juicy news here in Germany... I love you all and miss you tons! Have a wonderful week,

Sister Toma

 

So many miracles

Hello 2015, welcome to the New Year!!

It is amazing as I look back that 1 year ago I was opening up my mission call to Berlin Germany and now I am hear, learning growing and helping Gods Children come closer to him. I don't even want to think about time... Sister Blake is going home in 1 week and she is freaking out ha-ha. I have a feeling that I will be the same way... The mission is so wonderful and sometimes we just are not ready to go home... however there is a time for mission and a time for a family... She will for sure get married in the next 3 months I can feel it in my bones ha-ha.

Well this might be a longer email this week just so you can get the full effect of how absolutely crazy it was so let’s start with Monday... ha-ha









Monday: Well it was a normal pday and we just did normal pday stuff nothing special... until... Bucky wanted to go to Family home evening in Tiergarten! Well as we were sitting there the senior couples were talking about pictures and what they represent, as we were reading in the scriptures he turns to Sister Blake and tells her he wants to be baptized on the 11! WHATT?? we were so excited for him because honestly it is about time... lol well I mean he knows everything he needs to get baptized... so that was Monday and we had exchanges with the Langwitz sisters that was good too, Sister miller came here and Sister Blake went to Langwitz.
Tuesday: It snowed all day... however it was fun, minus the part where we were slipping everywhere. Then we exchanged back and had a lesson with Anar... who at that point was really unsure of what he wanted to do, plus Sister Blake and I were getting some not so good feeling with him! Even thinking about giving him to the elders,

Wednesday: we had a great new year’s eve... we spent most of the day going by on contacts and less actives and even got a new investigator... then we got to party with the office. The two senior couples, langwitz sisters. APs office elders, our elders and us... it was good we had tacos and played werewolf... I rocked the game and won! It was pretty sweet... now Elder Schaal one of the Ap makes jokes all the time... and well lets just say no one wants to trust me anymore.. ;) Then we came home went to bed and were woken up at 12 by the sound of a million fireworks and screaming people... it was crazy it looked like and explosion of pink and green coming out of our window.. New Year’s is crazy here in Germany.
Thursday: we were wiped out, but endless to say it was the start of a new year so we started out right with running... however I won't lie it was the scariest run that I have ever been on ... everyone was still out partying however it was 6:30 in the morning which means they were all totally drunk.. mentch... when we came back we had to stay in most of the morning because no one will come out on the streets or answer their doors because they are all hungover. But then we got to go to a baptism for our ward mission leader’s son it was so great and cool that he could do it on the 1st of the year, we also found out that this girl Agnes from Latvia wanted to be reactivated and the bishop wants us to work with her! We got to talk and meet with her for a little and she is really sweet she is our age as well, then we had a Mock baptism interview with Bucky... Elder Rasband our district leader came and let’s just say it was not that good... all the problems came out of the bag and bucky totally broke down and elder rasband called us later and said he needs more time... by that point though we already new.

Friday: We had MLC exciting news we found out I know who my new mission president will be in 6 months! That was pretty cool... other news... we still don't know when we are getting i padss... running joke in the mission. We then we met with Anar it was soo soo powerful! Wow we taught him tithing and he said he wanted to get baptized on the 11 as well... he even said he had been thinking about how he could pay tithing for the last year or so... it was so great and we just new he had been really prepared for this.

Saturday: We met with Agnes the new less active for the first time. It was a super great lesson we taught her the restoration and she is so sincere and wanted to learn and grow... We are so excited to meet with her... then we met with Punita... she is this super negative lady from Inda... However for whatever reason we finally saw some light in her on Saturday we taught her about recognizing the Holy Ghost and also read with her D&C 121 about joseph smith in Liberty Jail. She finally said I am just looking for hope... so I think Sister Blake and I can work with that... Then we met with Bucky and had a lesson about the Fear and Faith, it was really good but again we just couldn't help him get over his problems... we were just so sad about it because we know he really knows its true... just afraid.. We then had 2 baptism we went to one from the AP's and another from the Potsdam elders it was so wonderful and we could feel the spirit so much, Bucky even came which was the best part. Then we met with Anar and that was also just so horrible... sister Blake and I walked into our appointment with him and the spirit was just completely gone... we couldn't put our finger on it but everything was just really off and we just felt like he doesn't understand it enough and that we need to wait a few more weeks before he gets baptized.. We came home just absolutely devastated

Sunday: well we woke up went to church and we just hoping that both our investigators would show up and they both did along with 3 other people in our teaching pool! It was a miracle 5 people at church that is the most we have had here ever!! Then our ward mission leader gave a lesson about the Book of Mormon in class... and poof Bucky's concerns about the book of Mormon were gone... and Agnis our new less active also just soaked it up and loved it..! What a miracle... then later that night we had a lesson with Bucky about tithing... and it was so good and so powerful that again at the end of the night it was like i will do it I know this is a commandment now and poof again questions gone and now he said I am ready to be baptized this weekend.. WHOO HOO.. Right after that we had another lesson with Anar and again we talked about plan of salvation and some other things and POOF all his questions and concerns were gone! He then said... I will get baptized on the 11 as well!! What the heck we have two baptisms this weekend... We are so excited but please please please pray for them to be able to make it... They are being worked on hard and I know they are both ready and willing we know that they can do it.
This week has been absolutely crazy wonderful and amazing! I am so grateful that I get to see all the wonders here on a mission! I can't believe we are at the end of another transfer... here we go sister Blake goes home and I will be getting a new companion... I will let you know who she is next week... for other news... the Zone leaders got moved into our district...there must be something about Dahlem because now we are all in leadership... Office Elders, Assistants to press, Sister Training leaders and Zone leaders... well will see what happens ha-ha.
I love you all so much! Miracles happen we are starting the New Year off right!

Sorry for no pictures this week I forgot to take them! You are all wonderful,

Liebe,

Sister Toma

Helilige Nacht

How was your Christmas? I so enjoyed skyping with you on Wednesday. It was a great first skype. Everyone looked so great. When do you go home and when does school start back up?

 I will have to check out moms LDS search thing. Ya I got to get that done before next week because we have a mission tour and he has asked us to have them done in GERMAN! Ahh ok I can do it. Really all I need is good stories as well.

Well to start off thanks so much for the Christmas cards and packages. They meant a lot... It was perfect.

I am so grateful that I got to spend this Christmas here in Germany, even though it was away from home it just felt right and perfect. Christmas here in Germany is so great. They have 3 days instead of 1 though... I haven't decided if I liked it or not... I don't think I could sit in the house for 3 days strait and not doing anything though so I am leaning towards the American tradition, however I really enjoyed this experience...

So on Monday we had a great time going and doing our last minute Christmas shopping, we hit up some of the Christmas markets and mom and dad I hope that you like what I got you! Ha-ha. Then on Tuesday we had some appointments with our investigators. It was really good! They are both doing so great! I have a feeling Bucky will be getting baptized here in the next two weeks and hopefully anar as well! They are super star investigators.
On Wednesday our day was packed. We went from appointment to appointment. We had a wonderful Christmas program and the church and sister Blake and I sang in the choir, then we went to the Family Gruse's house for Christmas Eve dinner and a program... Here their Christmas is on the 24 so they make that day big. They open their presents on that night too. Our ward was great and got all the missionaries a little something, as well.

On Christmas we got to eat breakfast with our district and also the Langwitz district! That was really fun, then we went to a family’s house afterwards with all the missionaries and played games for a little while, we then had our final appointment at the Specks and Bucky came as well it was really cool. Then I got to Skye with you and that was really great.

Then on Friday we had some more appointments to finish off our Christmas and it SNOWED!!

Saturday we got back to work and ended up going finding and door to door for 4 hours in the freezing cold! It was good though to get back in the normal groove of missionary work, however Sunday was absolutely crazy. So our eating appointment canceled on us and then our bishop announced in church that the missionaries needed a place to eat... well everyone and their dog invited us so we finally decided on one because but it wasn't going to be till later in the evening, that was ok though because we were going to go eat at Anar's place because his mom was there and wanted to cook for us.. Well as we were waiting for the bust one of the ward members came up and asked us if we had a place to eat. We told her we did and then she asked us when and we told her and she freaked out and said that we had to come to here because she didn't want us to wait that long, so then we had three eating appointments back to back! AHH it was absolutely crazy. I am pretty sure sister Blake had to roll me out of our last one! After I first eating appointment I was forcing down the dessert! Ya that was one heck of a day... And I could go a few days without eating. Ha-ha

This week was wonderful though I really felt like I got to have a better knowledge and testimony of why really really celebrate Christmas.

Jesus Christ really is our greatest gift. It has been such a great experience teaching about him and learning about him though the last 8 months. I am really so grateful for him and all that he has done for me, and the example he has set for me. As I have been studying in the New Testament I have just really felt the love and the perfectness of the savior.

I am excited for the New Year and the new adventures. I am so grateful for all the wonderful blessing that I have had this year! As we move into the New Year I realize how much more there needs to me done... there always will be...

So I will share one of my favorite scriptures my new moto for his year,

Omni 26
 26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

This gospel is true, I am so grateful for this mission and what it has taught me, I am so grateful for my family and your support,

I am so grateful for all that you do.

I hope you all have a wonderful new year’s!

I love you tons,

Sister Toma