Hello everyone, Guten morgen,

Well Can I just say this week was pretty good? To start off it was a busy week, I always love those ha-ha.

Lake Wansee, where my Ward mission leader lives 

One of the best parts was that we had a sister conference this week and I got to see Sister Egbert! She has grown so much as a missionary it was so good to see her, I have missed her tons.

We also had 6 sisters staying overnight with us CRAZY!! It was fun though, just getting a bunch of girls together. In the sisters conference we talked about so many wonderful and good things and I learned so much. We can always become better missionaries. There is never a time in our mission that we should be content with what we are doing, however we should always feel at the end of the day we have done all the LORD wants us to do. I love this quote I learned last week in mission leadership training. Don’t set goals to your performance, preform to your goals. Our main goal in life is strive to become like God, so if we want to do that we need to set the goals to get there and preform to them. If we just set the goals to make it easy we will never learn.

Olga left this week it was so so sad we will miss her so much, we found out too the church in Azerbaijan is illegal. However we hope that she finds some friends there at are members. We have heard there are about 30 people. And we pray that she can come back to Germany soon.

Olga and Anar

This week I finally got to go on exchanges with one of my favorite sisters, Sister hill. She is a super start missionary, awesome finding. I learned so much from her this week. It is so cool to watch her in action as she talks to people on the streets, buses in the trains. So cool! She was such a great teacher for me... ha-ha Sometimes I feel like I learn more from the sisters than they from me! That is okay though.

We had stake conference in a HOTEL this week. It was super good though, Elder Adler came a spoke, and it was a really good talk, her really just emphasized that the members here need to be involved in the missionary work... It was good though, and a ton of people that we teach came as well it was AWEOME!!

Have you read the ensign for this month? Ah there was such a good article in there about weaknesses and sin, I challenge all of you to read it this week if you can, it is so good! 

Sister Egbert and Sister Toma

This week we just had some really great lessons with our investigators and the people we teach. Aw one of my favorites was with one of our new members Bucky, first off last week we talked about missionary work with him! It was so good, he even said that he will talk to some of his friends on Facebook about it. Then this week while we were on exchanges we read Alma 5 with him it was also really really good, we followed up though on whether he talked to any of his friends and he DID! So cool he shared his experience with us and wow, he will be one powerful member in Ethiopia. Ha-ha he even said once he goes back he wants to be branch president. Lol or we are hoping he goes on a mission. Even cooler. But we also read Alma 5 with him that was such a cool experience to see his testimony. Wow I love love love hearing the testimonies of the new members or reactivated members. They are so strong and powerful.

Sister Toma and Sister Hill

Yesterday we got invited to go to our ward mission leader’s home for a new member discussion. It was so cool, we were doing a review of the restoration and man, our ward mission leader is so cool, and he has so much knowledge about the gospel. So blessed here to serve in Dahlem, we see so many miracles and so many wonderful blessing I just know that the Lord really takes care of his missionaries. The restoration of the Gospel is such a good topic! I love learning about it and every time I study it I just learn so many new things! We really are so blessed to have this restored gospel in our lives.

Well There isn't really too much from this week. Kind of boring too ha-ha,

I love you all and Hope you have a great week,




Sister Toma

Berliner bears.. they are everywhere super funn.. first man I huged in 1 year 

Ups and Downs

I know I am blessed. I but I never take it for granted. I know there are a million more people out there to be found and taught and baptized we just have to work hard and be obedient!! Talk to everyone.

Leadership Training

I am still working on becoming all those things though... Missions are hard... but I am enjoying the fruits of success!! Not just baptisms.

This week has been a little rougher.. I am starting to feel the real stress of a mission. Just the people you love going and coming and you just wanted to to move forward but they wont...

 

Yesterday we were at an eating appointment and it was so hard I almost started breaking down and crying in the middle of our lesson... Luckily I made it out of the house and around the corner before I did start crying...

I really am trying so hard... just praying everyday so long to my Father in Heaven for help and guidance...

Special Sister Leader Training

I honestly am in love with Berlin.. REALLY TRULY.. I think I will be transferred here in the next two weeks, I really don't want to say goodbye to everyone it will be so hard.. I love my ward, investigators, new converts and everyone so much It will be so hard to say goodbye.. but I think I have to start preparing myself for it.

Olga played a piano piece in sacrament this week it was beautiful.. the ward loved it. They are all really sad that she has to leave. And she is really sad that she has to go. I feel bad that she has to go back.. She loves it here so much..



Zone Training

You have to start preparing for some RMS too mom hunter comes home in less that 6 months that is not long at all.. You are now on the countdown days.. really! I hit my year mark in 8 weeks. I can't believe it has been that long, I feel like I just got here. I feel like I am still new, trying to get the hang of everything and figure it all out.. however I think honestly that is how God wants us to feel as missionaries.. If we felt like we got it down, that we knew everything there was to know about how to be a good missionary then we wouldn't grow..

I love you lots,

Kinzie

 

Hello everyone!

March 9, 2015

Well this week was full of wonderful miracles.

We had a busy week full of finding, doing doors and that normal missionary work stuff. It was great.

The other day we went out to contact a referral when there was a man standing at the door. He got mad at us and told us to go away, and the lady that had asked for the book of Mormon was standing right there. She had this frightened look on her face and the man was being extra mean to us, however finally he let us in and we gave the book of Mormon to the lady. She was so scared and we felt so bad, the man was also saying whoever asked for it was crazy so I think that also affected her. Ah it just made our day so sad, but I hope she reads in the Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday we had a ward activity and we got to watch MEET THE MORMONS. It was a really good film I enjoyed it a lot. I cried a lot... man the Candy bomber... well you know it just touches my heart now because of my love for Germany at its people.

We had a zone training meeting this week. It was really good, president came and we had lots of talks about just focusing on the important things of our mission. So many people get focused on how to do it differently and more interesting, they forget the basics of why we are here and what we are teaching. It is really sad how many missionaries haven't even read the Book of Mormon yet. So we are focusing on that and getting back down to the basics the next few months. I think it, is a wonderful idea... plus I have just been getting the feeling the last few weeks the best way I can improve my missionary skills my teaching skills and confidence in the language is going back to preach my gospel.

Sometimes as missionaries we just get comfortable with it, we have taught the lessons so much that we just rely on what we already know. But I really think that preach my gospel is a lot like the scriptures. It was written from the Apostles, and I know that it is revelation from God for our day on how we can be missionaries and do missionary work. In other words, we can always learn something new from preach my gospel. So my new goal for the next few months is to really study it out and learn how to become a better preach my gospel missionary, and I need your help to keep me on track.

Well enough with the boring stuff, I am sure all of you are wondering about our weekend and what happened with Olga, so first off she got to be interviewed by our mission president, just because he can speak Russian! That was so cool, now he is coming next week to church to hear her play a musical number... did I tell you she is AMAZING at the piano. Anyways it was so cool and she was just so happy to meet him. Then he even gave us permission to teach her the new member lesson by Skye when she goes home.

So I guess that gave it away... yes she got baptized yesterday. It was seriously wonderful, the spirit was so strong and she was crying the whole time!! The best part was is almost the whole ward showed up to support her! That never happens here, but she is just loved so much by our ward here, it will be really sad when she goes home everyone will miss her so much! It was also so beautiful yesterday, spring is here in Germany it was almost 60 yesterday! So warm and the leaves and flowers are blooming everywhere. Sorry for those of you that are still having bad weather back in VA!

Anar also received the priesthood yesterday also was really cool, and everyone was crying... except for Sister Wiborny and I... ha-ha I think it was just cause most of the people just love him so much.

Well to be 100% honest nothing else is really cool this week. I can just share a little bit about what I studies this week in my personal study.

I was reading Mosiah 21 and comparing it with Mosiah 24. Good stuff there... I just love these three things that I learn from these chapters. When we exercise our faith, our patient, and our obedient god will make our burdens lighter. There our times in our life where we just feel like our enemies our coming in (Satan) and he keeps putting everything bad in our path and so many other burdens and trials that we might have come our way... then trust in the lord pray to him for help and exercise these three things in your life and I know that our burdens and trails will feel lighter because there is always someone there to help us carry them.. Maybe they will not go away all at once or when we think, but we no and our promised that we will be freed from them one day...

Well I guess I just leave you all with that! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Toma

Ein Wunderbares Werk ist in Begriff.

Wow I can't believe that it is a new week. Crazy. It was great hearing from everyone this week.

There was some pretty cool things that happened this week I can't wait to give you the run down.

Well to start off we had another lesson with Nathalie and Massimilliano... They are two interesting ducks... Cool but interesting. I hope that we can continue to teach them... She is one crazy busy lady... now that we found out how rich and Famous she actually is. You wouldn't even believe me if I told you... Anyways it was cool this time we ate lentil soup out of coconuts. I also get the experience of a missionary in South America too here... just kidding...

We then taught one of our less actives this week Sister Rinke... she is a hoot... This time her 81 year old husband who is totally blind and CRAZY... ran away from home... again... anyways she gave us the lesson this time about having faith and putting on the armor of God... Funny Funny day.

Bucky our new member got the priesthood today! It was so cool! He is the 1st of all the people I have taught to get the priesthood! Next week Anar is up... and with that he will be baptizing his MOM! Olga is getting baptized next Sunday... we are so excited! Just pray for her that she will have to continual comfort that she is doing the right thing. She goes home in two weeks and she will be one of the only members of the church in her Entire country.

Missions are just amazing. We are stretched to our limits on a mission... Something sister Wiborny always tells me is that when we feel comfortable that is when we are not growing. Well on a mission I don't think I ever feel comfortable. At least I hope if I do start feeling comfortable that I snap out of it and start working harder or something.

It has been amazing working with Sister Wiborny. We have just seen so many miracles here... one of them being the people we find and the growth we are seeing in the people we teach. Berlin is very interesting... we can find find find but it doesn't mean we keep... We can get 100 peoples phone numbers in one week but none of them will meet with us. However this week and the weeks past I have really come to know that God always preparers the people... and they mostly come in the most unexpected ways. Part of the mission life... I love it though it always keeps you on your feet...

I have been reading the story about Abinadi this week... What a cool Prophet. He was a true example to me of a diligent missionary... He personally didn't see any success in his efforts... however through is diligence he was able to bring thousands unto Christ!

The challenge is for us is to overcome our fear... share our testimonies about what we believe... even if we don't see an imitate effect, we never know the impact that we had on that person...

I love you all and Hope you have a great week!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Toma

Sorry no pictures this week I forgot my camera. 

eine neue amfang!! :)

Guten Morgen all ya alls..

How are you doing?  Wow I can't believe winter is almost over... even if it doesn't really feel like it for you in the east ha-ha... little cold I have heard... Sorry, I can't complain it hasn't been bad here in Germany a very mild winter... we had a little snow for a few days but that was it! I have heard though that the west is already in summer pretty much... Crazy!!!

Wow sorry for last week and not sending a good email! I haven't been very good the last few weeks about managing my Internet time..Ha but I have a lot to do this week so I will be better at sending out a good letter.

Well to start off a new transfer today... I will be staying with sister Wiborny, at least for one more... President has said that one of us will be for sure leaving the next transfer, we will see who it is... Sister Wiborny thinks it will be her, so I just hope so because I am not ready to leave this beautiful and wonderful city. We had some crazy changes though in the mission... a ton of the STL's were realized and the Berlin zones was made into one Big zone... so we lost the other elders in our ward and now we are just down to 4 missionaries here. Because they have opened up the new missions there will not be as many missionaries coming to the Berlin mission, it is a little sad but will be good, especially because we will be getting a new mission president here in the next few months. Big changes coming our way, we were also informed that there will be I pads coming in April... It is going to be so weird... little bitter sweet because I enjoy there missionary work we do now... however I know that there is need for change and that technology is a good thing to spread the gospel.

So enough with the boring stuff... here are some cool and funny things that happened this week.

We had some great lessons with our new members... Olga is doing great she informed us she does not want to get baptized though so that was a little sad and broke our hearts... however she came to church on Sunday and was asking about the baptismal clothing and so we know she is thinking about it, I think she can still do it but please pray for her because she only has 3 more weeks left here in Germany. Anar gave an awesome testimony about baptism though and our goal is that he can baptize here before she goes... What a cool experience. He also was talking about how excited he is to go to America this year and do baptism for the dead in the temples there... We have some amazing new members!!

Bucky and Dong are doing wonderful... It was so cool this week because they both taught there first lessons in church this week. Dong was called as the Sunday school teacher and Bucky taught priesthood... all I heard from the ward was how amazing they both did. We are so proud of our new members... and the amazing progress they have made the last few months.

The ward just freaks out about how amazing Dong is because of his diligence... Let me tell you a little bit about Dong, So Dong is from China he is 31 and has come to Germany to continue his studies about cardiology. He is a heart surgeon in China and has a family there a little boy about 1 years old... So for 90% of the year he doesn't actually get to be with his family... so sad, but it is such a blessing that he is here because he learned about the church. When he was 8 he had a dream about God and ever since he has been listening to voice to tell him what is right and what is wrong and to find the truth. When he came here he was in the Lab one day and cut his figure when his boss told him to go home and take a week off... One of his friends who was staying with him ran into the missionaries and they gave him a card, his friend then passed the card on to Dong and he heard the voice again tell him that this was his chance to find a church! He then came to church met with the missionaries and was baptized... Dong is an amazing member of the church... He is so busy studying and working us never can see him, but he makes time for church every Sunday and magnifies all his callings as a priesthood holder... He loves going to the temple too and when he went back to china for Christmas he asked if he could baptize his wife and child ha-ha... Dong is such an amazing example to me of someone who is dedicated and truly converted to the Gospel.

We had another really cool miracle this week as we were doing our weekly planning a lady who was referred to us called us. We actually received the referral for here about 2 months ago but she said she was very busy and couldn't meet. But this week when she called she wanted to meet right away! We hurried over and taught an amazing lesson with her and her man! A family... they have no children but they are both really great people... Super busy but have so much potential, and they are prepared and would be a great and wonderful help to the ward!! We have been praying for and investigator like this for this whole transfer! Please pray for Natilie and Maximilono that they can make progress... We are so excited!!

So some funny stories of the week... We left our apartment this week and were about 30 minutes out when I realized I had totally left my backpack with all my stuff in it at home, the only things I had were an umbrella and my planner, it was so embarrassing, however sister Wiborny could not stop laughing the rest of the day... by the end of the day I was laughing about it too.. But I felt so naked without it... haha... Another funny story is as we were leaving our apartment I had grab a huge trash bag to through away... haha when I realized we were almost to the bus stop and that I was still caring the trash bag.. AWKWARD... I have been pretty bad about forgetting things this week.na ja!

I had some really good personal studies this week. I am in Mosiah now just started it so I have been reading from King Benjamin’s talk... as I was thinking about how he was able to change the hearts of his people and that he was able to bring them unto baptism I though and pondered a lot about what is one thing that really needs to be talked about more here.. I thought about it for a while and I was talking to brother Speck our ward mission leader about the activity in the church here... it is only 30%... so sad then I was thinking about how there is only 14% home and visiting teaching done in the wards here in Germany.. It breaks my heart. I have such a strong testimony of Visiting and home teaching and doing it right. Really caring for and about the people we teach... and how much it really does work! I really think if the people here would understand the significance of it there would be so much more activity in the church!! I just hope that I can influence people through my testimony of it really does have an influence... we can't change Germany all at once... but I think it really does start with us missionaries and members who know and have a testimony about it..

Well family and friends that is all for this week!

Liebe Gruße,

Sister Toma