Another week of miracles

Dear family

Regarding when I get home . . . ok sounds good... Ya I think I will work two jobs I’ll pick back up at BJs maybe and then hopefully find something else... when I get home and I am planning on applying for the MTC to work there as well... and if I work I work at any retail stores in VA I can just transfer to another store in Provo.. Also maybe you can ask around and see if anyone needs a receptionist or even someone to help with their webpages or business cards... whatever brings in the cash. I wish that I wouldn't have to do financial aid are there any scholarships that I can apply for to help instead.

For roommates and housing I have no idea... literally... Sister Blake is already graduated... and all my other companions are going to school there... um I have to think about it... there are not a lot of sisters that I would enjoy rooming with at the moment on the mission ha-ha they are all pretty young.. But I will let you know... there is a less active that I am working with who wants to apply there so maybe I will room with her... but I don't know if she is going or not yet.. Or my current companion might want to go... I can ask a few of the sisters that are already home too if they have room or want roommates... we will have to see... I don't even know where to live to be honest... I don't know what places are good either...

Mission Leadership Council

Crazy... dad met Elder Bendixon ya... Super COOL... he is a nice guy... and was a zone leader here... so that is good
 
Thanks for sharing the missionary experience, dad... ya member work is amazing... I know the power in it... I have seen the power in it in another areas who have really been struggling... Our ward is amazing with it though... well for as Germans go... the only problem with Germans is helping them get the courage to actually refer their friends... Religion is kind of a taboo topic... but Sister Blake and I taught a lesson to a family once and 2 Sundays ago he got up and bore his testimony about how it changed his heart and now he shares the gospel with all his friends. It’s pretty cool... Thanks for the story it helps a lot... I learn so much from yours and mom’s mission experience... tell mom she should share more of them... ha-ha... You two are great examples to me.  I love you both...

Anar’s mom is doing great... she is still progressing but I we are having to push the date back to march because she just needs a little more time..

Zone Interviews Berlin South

Everything is great though and the work is going good... I went on a super crazy exchange this week with one of the sisters from my MTC group... it was nuts she had applied some of those crazy sister rumor rules that you only hear about sisters or elders doing... ya It was nuts and I was freaking out a little but we got it all sorted out with the help of the mission president and his wife.. The sad thing was she is an STL and had been teaching the other sisters to do these things...

We had some crazy good miracle this week...

Sister Wiborny's Birthday

As I have said in some of my other letters we have been looking for a family in Wansee... well last week we went and searched but didn't find anything, but we walked my a house and felt that we needed to door it.. However it was very late and we needed to get home so we decided we would come back this week. Well we did and after about 2 hours of dooring we finally came back to this house when a young mother and her two children were walking from her car to the door... we stopped and talk to her had a good conversation and we even gave he a book of Mormon... we will be going back this week to check up on them family and see if they read.. Miracles really do happen... I will have to tell it to you in more detail when I have more time to write...

Another really great one is at church a couple from china came in a sat down. The bishop came and got us and wanted us to talk to them... when I did we took them to the English Sunday school class and found out that the girl was a member for about 6 years and her bf wasn't but they were hear filming a movie and would be here for about a month. We then found out that her friend wants to be baptized... So cool... miracles all around this week...

Well I could go on and on about this week and everything we did and saw but I am running out of time.

It was also sister Wiborny's bday so we did some fun stuff yesterday as well.

Love,

Kinzie

Dresden and more. . .

Guten Morgen!

 Well sorry this might be another short email this week... I know they are getting lamer and lamer by the week, however I am getting worse and worse at writing because I run out of things to talk about sometimes... ha-ha

But to start off I went to Dresden this week, Have you heard of it?  Wow if you haven't look it up because it is beautiful. The prettiest place in our mission. The sisters there are Sister Hill and Bills they are both wonderful and such examples to me! I had a good time, except when I had to talk to people. I thought that I was pretty good and understanding German however the accent down there is like a whole other language. I felt horrible...

It also snowed a ton this week. Still hasn't melted yet! NAH JA! I will live through it. Hopefully it will start warming up here soon!

We had a great lesson with Olga this week. Two members came who spoke Russian. It helped so much... except for the part where we didn't know what was going on or being said... made me think a little bit more about the begining of my mission and what that was like. Ha-ha we were hoping that Olga would be ready for baptism this weekend however, she just needs a little more time. She is amazing though and we really do pray for her every week... We hope next week or the next.

So miracle of the week, so last week we were on our way to the internet cafe to do emails but we past it because I was on the phone with someone... well we walked the street 3 times thinking it was farther... than coming back because we though we were too far.. Finally we found it but it took us 30 minutes... as we finished our emails a man walked in and sat down. I said something to sister Wiborny and he turned around and started asking us questions about where we are from... long story short we ended up teaching him in the internet cafe for about and hour and a half just answering his questions and talking about the gospel! It was pretty cool, he wants to come to church now and meet with us... God puts his prepared people in our paths I know it... everything happens for a reason and we just have to be ready to use our time the s´way he has asked us.

The Freiburg temple closed for renovations this week... so some of the members went down before it closed. It was so cool to see one of our new members go down this week. He has already been there once! But wow does he love the temple... Our ward mission leader said he just loved it so much he kept going with the baptism... How cool! New members are the best...

Missions are so wonderful... So many miracles and blessings I am so grateful for I know that this church is true and that God has is hand in everything...

I hope everyone has a great week,

Love Sister Toma

Life in crescendo. . . that's what President alwasy says!

Guten Morgen everyone,

Well another week another month. I feel like my mission is now flashing before my eyes and as I was talking to sister Wiborny today and thinking about all the memories that I had from Osnabrück it all just seems like a giant blur... Thank goodness for pictures right? Then I was thinking about how different each area I serve in is, missions are just something else. I love them.

 Sister Hoshimoto and Sister Toma

Well this week is a little boring so I will just share some little spiritual highlights. One was on Saturday sister Wiborny got sick so we had to stay home the whole day... That is a first on my mission I felt so useless and I didn't know what to do so I just studied, watched some bible videos, and did some organizing in the area book. The studying part was sooo good though, I honestly couldn't even stop. I studied a lot from the New Testament and Jesus the Christ... Deep stuff... lol however soooo good. Something that I just loved was something dad mentioned in his email this week about John the Baptist and his role in preparing the people for Christ ministry. Wow, I never ever realized the importance of John the Baptist and how amazing he really was, it really opened my eyes to what (true conversion is). I read and look at all the amazing examples on the Bible and the Book of Mormon. There were so many prophets and leaders who just were so converted unto the Lord...  then I just think what I need to do to teach this conversion or be this converted myself. I still haven't figured it out yet, but when I do wow how much more will be able to see the grace on mercy of the Lord.

I had a great exchange with my Asian Sister... Sister Hoshimoto... she is awesome and we had fun talking about how much we love Japan even though neither of us have been there or can speak the language... nah ja.. It is still cool to have another Japanese sister in the mission... then I don't have to stick out so much... lol

Another cool experience of the week was, Sister Wiborny and I have just been praying that we could find someone to translate for Olga, Anars Mom. Well on Sunday she came to church and one of the members invited an old companion from his mission to stay with him, answer to our prayers because he could speak fluent Russian... It totally changed everything and Olga just expressed how she could feel the spirit even stronger, and that she believes everything. She is golden just keep praying that she will be able to get baptized on the 15 of Feb.

Well family and friends I know this letter was boring this week, however I don't have a lot of time! I

love you all,
Sister Toma

Febuar!

Guten Morgen Liebe Brudern und Schwestern,

 As they would say while giving a talking in church. Boy these last few weeks have been eventful and I didn't have any time to write last week so I will have to update you all on the last two weeks.

To start off today marks my half way point! Ummm scary, I think yes I can't believe it so I just don't think about it.

Sister Wiborny and Sister Toma

But less about me and more about Germany. To start off it is still cold but with hopeful chance that in the next 7 months we might have some sunshine. I love my new companion Sister Wiborny is Sooooo cool, so sister Wiborny is from Frankfurt and has been one for 10 months. She teaches me so much about how to be a good missionary and rely upon the spirit. It is cool to watch her go down the streets as we talk to people with no map or plan just knowing where we need to go to find a new investigator.

We have set some big goals for this transfer, one of them being to find a family. We already have received a few referrals for two families that fit the description... meaning a dream that Sister Wiborny had a few weeks ago. Pretty cool how miracles work. I also read Dad's letter with her about his miracle and the little umbrella store owner. We took their 4 step plan into action,

1. Be 100% obedient to all the mission rules

2. Work hard and work smart

3. Sacrifice something

4. Pray in every prayer for our desires. 

It is amazing to see how much my faith has grown as a missionary working with sister Wiborny. Just go and the Lord with Provide...

It just really shows me why the Lord sticks us with specific people. I can honestly say that with Every Companion I just have learned so much and I just have such a special love for them... I am so lucky to have served with such amazing and wonderful people my whole mission.

Sister Bowinklle and I on exchanges

This week we started teaching Anar's mom. She is awesome, she has come to church 2 times already and is really starting to take off. We talked last week about the priesthood though and we hit a few rough spots on why women cannot have the priesthood, but I think everything will be ok. She is super sweet and just like Anar so ready for the Gospel.

All of our new members are doing so great! We just love seeing how much their lives have changed in the last 2 weeks since being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. They are new people. Bucky even says he wants to serve a mission now!

We met with Punita a few weeks ago to, she is the one that is from India, and is a little negative. However, she expressed her desire this last week about how she wants her daughter and how her daughter wants to be baptized! So we are very excited about teaching her daughter Ose who is 11. I have never taught children before so I am so excited to learn, it will be an awesome experience.

These last few weeks have just been full of miracles, I know that Heavenly Father is helping us every step of the way, without his help it could not be possible.

I have been also really focusing on repentance the last few weeks. I just want to know more about it and what it means. This Sunday Brother Speck our ward mission leader gave an amazing lesson on it from Mosiah chapter 27. It was so good about the steps in order to repent and then as I was reading in 2 Nephi chapter 9 I just thought about it more and more. I don't remember if we said we were reading the book of Mormon again recently but we are and Wow am I learning so much about the doctrine of Christ. However I just thought so much about the temple and the covenants we make there as I was reading in Chapter 9 of 2nd Nephi. Then it just got me thinking about the repentance process again... Something that that really stuck out to me though is that I have so long to go before I really know who my savior is... the difference between Kennen (to know) and Erkennen (to recognize) our Savior you can look those words up but it is just something that has been sticking with me the past few weeks.

Well that is all the time I have today, I love you all and Wish you a wonderful week!

Love Sister Toma