New Beginnings

Dear Family and friends, 

Well another transfer in Germany has come and gone. I can't believe it. So I have some really sad news. Sister Walker is being transferred. :( Ugh it was one of the saddest moments on my mission. I will miss her so dearly, she has been such a wonderful companion and we have just thrived here together in Hannover.  She is going to Hamburg though, and I am so excited for her to go there just because it is so beautiful and full of echt German culture. 

My new companions name is Sister Stacey. She is just coming from Hamburg. Funny thing about Sister Stacey is, that she worked at the MTC while I was there. She checked me in on my first day. I don't know her super well though, but I have seen her here and there at MLC and zone conferences :) I am excited to get to work with her and get to know her better. It makes it even better that we are here in Hannover, we have so many wonderful things that will happen this transfer :) plus 4th of July, that will be a blast. 

 This week was so insane. To be honest I don't really remember too much of what we did. We had another African eating appointment, rice and noodles. It was so much though I literally had a small mountain on my plate. Don't be disgusted to know that yes I ate the whole thing. It was painful, but I just love the Africans so much I can't disappoint them. We were just full to our ears with appointments and things to do. So it really was a great week. I went to Bielefeld this week as well and had a nice time getting to know Sister Patterson :) 

  I have been thinking so much about the purpose of a missionary. What are roles are and really what it means to give our best. I got this email from my best friend Kirstin the other day. She just returned from her mission and wrote something that just helped me so much. She said, 

"Don’t worry about going home. I absolutely hate missionary culture around going home. You’re allowed to be excited, that doesn’t make you a bad missionary. And it’s not the end. That is the biggest load of bologna vie ever heard. It’s a beginning. You are now more equipped and ready to do exactly what the lord needs you to do, where it counts. You don’t lose any of your missionary powers, the responsibilities you have just change. You can still feel the spirit, you just have to work a little harder. Everyone says its hard going back and it is if you try to go back. We weren’t meant to return to normal. We are supposed to continue moving up and forward and progressing. People have a hard time cuss they try to return to being who they were before the mission. That’s the wrong way to do it. Yeah we need to make some adjustments but not a lot. The world would have us think we need to make a lot. Everyone says missionaries have so much power but really, we were called to teach. It’s the members who have the power. They are normal people and when they share the gospel nobody thinks it is out of obligation. Return missionaries are the ultimate power houses. We know what we need to do, but we don’t have a little name tag scaring people away ha-ha"

This was so powerful to me as I have been pondering over the fact that time is running out, and whether I should be excited for the next part, and of course we should be, however we can’t let thoughts of home or coming home over power our time here. Our time here is so precious and short. We need to live in the moment and enjoy every minute of it. Like Kirstin said we need learn the skills here to become amazing member missionaries when we return. 

It ties in so excellent with a talk that I was reading from the last General Conference. It is called "The Greatest Generation of Young Adults" by Elder Ballard. Ah this talk was so good, but here are just some amazing things that stuck out to me, 

"I remind you returned missionaries that your preparation for life and for a family should be continuous. “RM” doesn’t mean “retired Mormon”! As a returned missionary, you “should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [your] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.”

Please use the skills you learned on your mission to bless the lives of people around you every day. Do not shift your focus from serving others to focusing exclusively on school, work, or social activities. Instead, balance your life with spiritual experiences that remind and prepare you for continued, daily ministering to others.

 I really love this quote from Elder Ballard because there is a balance we need to find in our lives, we need to make sure the spiritual part stay and that we keep that as a regular activity in our daily lives, that even if we have served missions or not, we should always be engaged in a good cause, or in other words like Alma said "look to God and live" 

I have been thinking so much about some of those Characteristics that we learn on a mission as well. Something that sister walker talked to me about on Saturday was the love that we receive for these people. It is unbelievable how much I love the people that I am with. I know that that would not have been something that I would have been able to develop without the help of a Mission. Just that I have can love all sorts and ages and cultures, it is just a small taste of how much our savior and Heavenly father love us. I remember before I left on my mission I was so nervous about being able to really Love everyone I meet and teach and just all the people in general. It makes me appreciate those I love at home even more, to understand the amazing gift of love that God has given to us. 

I hope that everyone will have a safe, wonderful week. I love you all, 

Sister Toma   
 
 
 
 

End of transfer. What?

Dear Family, 

Well another transfer has come and gone! We are hoping that sister Walker will stay one more here in Hannover. I am actually pretty sure she will stay so it will be fun if she can, it would be my first time having a companion longer that 2 transfers. I will let you all know though next Monday, 

However, that said it means that we only have 2 more weeks with president and sister Kosak. :( It will be a bitter sweet change. 

Well this week was insanely full of Crazy Miracles 😄 To star off we had an awesome exchange with Braunschweig this week. I finally got to go down there, even if it was only for an hour. Next time I am up to go :)

 We went to Hamburg on Wednesday for a leadership meeting. Ah I really love the city Hamburg, one of the most beautiful I have visited here in Germany. I will be for sure sending you a lot of pictures this week. We said our last and official goodbyes to president and sister Kosak. It was sad I cried. On our way home we had some time to go check out the city before our train left, we were standing in this park, when a guy just came up and asked us how we were. At first it was really creepy, however after a few minutes we found out he was a member. However one of the coolest members that I have met on my mission. So he was just here in Germany for a business trip, but he is actually from America, however he served his mission in Norway, and then married a Norwegian girl and moved there with his family. So cool he was telling us all about his mission and what it was like. What I have come to find after talking to people about their missions in Europe (excluding) England, is that most of them all have the same struggles. It is really interesting to me. 

 Anyways some other awesome things that happened this week we taught Allen about temples and eternal families this week and he was so excited and ready for more, we also taught Gaure the same thing, such a great lesson to teach, people here in Germany really actually love this topic! Me too :) 

 We started meeting with a girl name Therisa this week, she is so excited about the church and just loves and believes everything :)  she said she wants to get baptized soon as well so we are so excited for her, she is really so prepared and ready :) 

There is a lady our ward Named Dehnte and she is such a great missionary, she just brings all her friends to church and it is so wonderful, she brought a new friend to church this week and already said when and where we need to meet so we can teach her about the church, I love Hannover, missionary work, works :) 

 Also please pray for our friend Nala, she is so cool and awesome, we want to start meeting with her, but she is scared... I know that the gospel can bless these people’s lives so much, all it takes is a little courage to stand up for what you want, who you are and what you believe :) 

 Courage

 



Hope you all have a great week, 

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Toma 

June!

Liebe Familie. Wie geht es euch? 

I hope you have had all had a good week :) this week was pretty good for me :) We are finally starting to get summer weather rolling in. It has been so amazing!!! And of course as always this week has been filled with miracles. 

 It was pretty funny at church on Sunday, we had a new investigator there for his first time. He is from South Sudan, and just a super energetic and happy man. Ha-ha however as sacrament started he stood up during the announcements and started to pray. I kind of just sat there and didn't really know what to say or do. I looked back at sister walker for help but everything I tried didn't work he just kept on praying for a good 3 mines. Finally he sat down, ha-ha but it was definitely a new experience lol. 

Hamburg Zone Meeting with Elder Adiler

So here is a cool story. A few weeks ago we went by on a new investigator, who happened to be living with three other guys. We invited all of them to come to church, to find out one of them was already a Member. So cool. And he said that his family is members and are living in another city about an hour away, but just wait it gets even better. A few days later we get a text from the zone leaders about a baptism in this city that the elders will have there. When we went back we talked to Emanuel and found out that is wife and children are this family that will be baptized, but they are, moving here to Hannover before her baptismal date so we will be able the teach them a little and see them be baptized :) We haven't seen Emanuel at church ever and have invited him a few times and the. Randomly this week he came with one of his friends and it was so cool, we have been also teaching his friend Justice, and he decided he wanted to be baptized on July 12 so we are so excited, please pray for him :) 

 On Tuesday we went to go see Emma. She again decided to give us a huge plate of food at 10 in the morning it was a huge plate of African rice. Mm. Yummy ha-ha but it was good to see her, because right before we started the lesson she said she had a friend coming. When her friend came we started talking to him, and it seemed like he knew a lot about the church, after a few minutes of talking with him I just got the feeling to ask him if he was already a baptized member of the church. And he was!! Come to find out he was baptized in Italy a few years ago. So we were really excited, and Emma totally threw down and told him he needed to come back to church better than we ever could ha-ha. 

 On Wednesday I got to go to Hamburg for my first time, it was really really cool. We were there for our last zone conference with President Kosak. :( It was really really sad but good at the same time. Elder Adiler came to be part of it, and it was really cool to hear from a member of the seventy. I learned a tough, and received a ton of answers to my prayers that I have been having of how we can help more investigators and new members make better friends with the ward. It was so awesome. 

We were asked to sing a song for the meeting too, so we decided to do a goodbye song for the Kosaks it was so good. We decided to sing "God Be with You Till We Meet Again" but in crescendo.  It started off with just sister walker and I and then in the 3rd vs we had all the missionaries start to slowly join in, it turned out really cool. And president and sister Kosak started crying. It might be on the blog but if not I can send you our practice video. 

 On Saturday it was sister walkers birthday. Yaya it was tons of fun I tried to throw her a surprise party ha-ha however you know how that goes with having to be together 24/7 and all.  We still had a great day though. We got her family to send her cute little birthday videos and a bunch of members came. We went a visited out investigator Gaure right after, and she threw Sister Walker a little birthday surprise as well, and invited some of her friends to come and celebrate. It was so cute and so fun, also Gaure and Angela (she is a member) gave sister Walker a little gift and hula danced for us :) it was so fun, 

 Birthdays on missions are just the best, just so fun because you don’t even really think once about what you want to do on your birthday, we are serving the Lord, however people still think about you and love you, and what to do something nice for you :) so cool. 

 So this weeks I was studying a lot about marriage.... 

Ok don't worry I am not getting trunky, I just started reading through all the April General Conference talks. Even though most of them are about marriage, I have been learning a ton. One of the most favorite things this weeks I learned about was in the talk from Elder D Todd Christofferson. 

Knowing why we left the presence of our Heavenly Father and what it takes to return and be exalted with Him, it becomes very clear that nothing relative to our time on earth can be more important than physical birth and spiritual rebirth, the two prerequisites of eternal life. This is, to use the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the “office” of marriage, the “post of responsibility towards … mankind,” that this divine institution “from above, from God” occupies. It is the “link in the chain of the generations” both here and hereafter--the order of heaven.

 Ok here was my thoughts in it, I was thinking about the covenant of marriage how this quote really helped me to understand why the covenant of marriage is so important, ya it is nice have a spouse, but ultimately the purpose of marriage is to be provided a safe spiritual environment for his spirit children, and more but I won't go into that in my missionary email ha-ha. 

 Well I will just wanted to say Dad and Mom you are amazing thanks for being so spiritual and amazing, Dad you are so great it was so cool to see all your amazing experience from EFY how cool, I am a little bit jealous hopefully I can be a councilor next year at a session with you, Hunter too ha-ha :) that was such a cool story about the young man you met on the plane. Truly inspired and sister walker and I are both so stoked to meet him. :) 

 
I love you all, 

Sister Toma 

Its summer time, time of our lives

Liebe Familie, wie war eurer Woche? Ich vermisse euch alle :) 

Well this week was absolutely incredible! I cannot even describe how blessed I feel to be in this place. Sometimes I feel like I have moved into the promise land because it really is so wonderful. 

Ukrainian bosch soup :) 

Thanks for all your prayers this week. I just want to say that because Joanna and Flavia finally made it to church this week. It was really a miracle. We were having such a hard time trying to get people to come to church the last few weeks and finally this week all your prayers and our hard work paid off and we had 5 investigators and three less actives come to church. Whoo hoo.. Jacob and Opheylia were also confirmed this week and it was a little crazy but wonderful all at the same time. Ha it was so crazy right as they were doing the confirmations both Jacob and Opheylia were really really late so we were running around like mad people, but we did it... Or in other words, (Wir haben es geschafft) 

It is really almost mind blowing how much the mission has changed my perspective on life and people. It is interesting, we were at a member’s home on Saturday evening and as we were talking he asked us, do you think you have changed on your mission. As I pondered that question, I came to the realization that I don't think I could even actually begin to explain how much I have changed on my mission. The experiences I have had here in Germany have forever changed my life. The people that I have met here have forever entered into my heart. 

We were at a less actives home her name is Yulia and she is so wonderful and fun, we gave her Ether 12 to read last week and she only had one question about the chapter and it was about vs 32 

Found my name we doored them no answer yet though 

32 And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared.

She asked us what does this mean? In the German translation it says Wohnung, which means apartment. So she was just wondering why God was preparing an apartment for us. But really we know that it will be so much more than an apartment. That really it means everything that is important to us and to God, will be with us there. These people we love so much will be there with us, they are part of our eternal happiness. They are family! 

Email at Starbucks

Yesterday we met up with Lisa again. She was the 19 year old we talk to when we met with all those people from the Christian church a few weeks ago. We met her in a Burger King and she invited her cousins to come along, as we were teaching I just had the coolest feeling in the world come over me. And here is what I am saying when I can’t even describe the amazing feeling and changes a mission brings. I just thought, Here I am sitting in a Burger King with three young African kids bearing my testimony about the restoration of the Gospel, and how they can find out for themselves if it is true or not.. Or that I am best friends with so many people from around the world, or that people are so excited to see us and, people think we are just so cool because we are brave enough to even speak about what we believe...When else do we have the time in our life to just spend time with so many amazing people every day? There really is nothing better than experiencing a mission and the blessing that come with.  

This week we had some super great experience too. On Thursday we went and finally visited our investigator Gaure, who we haven’t seen in two weeks. One of our goals recently were to have more joint teaches. However we are not the best at it. We really wanted a good one for Guare this week but totally blew it and forgot to get someone. So on Thursday we were feeling bad about not getting a joint teach, but when we got off the train stop for Gaure we ran into a Member named Nicole. We asked how she was doing and what she was up to, when she told us she was headed to Gaure's... WHAT?!?! It was just a total miracle, and because she came the lesson was just so powerful and amazing. It really just reminded me of how important joint teaches really are, for all of you that are dragging your feet to go out with the missionaries. I snap out of it... You are key to these people’s conversions. Because Nicole came Gaure felt the spirit so strong and committed herself to finally come to church. So go, help the missionaries and make friends with their investigators. You will never regret it :) 

There is so much more I could talk about in my letter this week but I will just leave you with one of my favorite quotes from general conference :) 

Every day each of us faces a test. It is the test of our lifetimes: will we choose to believe in Him and allow the light of His gospel to grow within us, or will we refuse to believe and insist on traveling alone in the dark? The Savior provides His gospel as a light to guide those who choose to believe in and follow Him. (Choose to Believe)

Sister Walker and I decided to do a double exchange this week in Hildesheim, it was amazing however we really had to go there and work some problems out. The Sisters there are so wonderful, however so scared to find. It has been interesting to see them grow though and as we were there this quote kept on coming to me. 

Choose to do, choose to fallow him and choose to believe, doesn't matter what problems we face or what weakness we have, when we choose to believe his light and grace and help us overcome it all.. 

Just choose to believe and have Faith it really works, 

I love you all hope you have a good week, 

Sister Toma 

Froh Phingston

Dear family, 

   

President Kosak and Sister Toma

Well this week was absolutely crazy hectic, like you wouldn't image. To start off on Tuesday we were informed that we would be traveling to Berlin to have a last min MLC. We had to be there an hour earlier though and we needed to use a car to get there. So the next day us and the zone leaders all packed up in the car for a 4 hour drive to Berlin. We got to stay with the Dahlem sisters. It was fun being back in my old apartment kind of made me a little sad to see everything again. Brings back sweet memories. The next we went to our very last MLC with president Kosak :( it was bitter sweet for sure, however I learned so much this time around. 

Here was one of my favorite president Kosak quotes this time. He said, "Remember my missionaries, don't worry so much about the outcome or having faith on the outcome of our prayers, we need to stay focused on Jesus Christ. When we first have Faith in Jesus Christ, then the outcome will just come." That hit me so hard this time around because I know that I have been really struggling with that this last transfer and in trying to reach our goals as a companionship. We have been too focused on numbers and too focused on our outcomes instead of just focusing on our purpose and having faith in Jesus Christ. 

I will really miss President Kosak and sister Kosak. They really are just amazing amazing examples to me and have taught me so so much. 

And the big reason we had MLC was because our IPad finally came. Hurray!! We are officially and I pad mission. It has been an interesting experience trying to adjust to using them. Not feeling guilty for going on the internet for dinner hour to download a video we can use for a lesson. But I think we are finally started to get settled into them. We will need to start finding some new ways to go finding. 

So this week we have completely fallen out of contact with Joanna and Flavia. It is really sad we have been pretty upset because we haven't been able to meet with Joanna in a few weeks. I would have never thought I would ever be able to say this here in Germany however we really do have to be picky who we meet with often here in Hannover. We teach a lot, and they all want to meet with us and they all love meeting with us but we just don't have time and we have to prioritize. I honestly never thought I would face that problem here in Germany but we are. So today we kneeled down and prayed to see who we should prioritize in our week because our time really is so important. We had five names come to our minds and Joanna is still one of them so please please pray for her that she can get better and that we can still meet with her.

This week has been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission. I just wanted to share some of my personal experience that I had this week. At or mission leadership training meeting this week we talked a lot about prayer and how we need to be one with God. I really than pondered about my personal and daily prayers, whether they were remaining sincere or become routine. One of the sisters commented in the meeting about how she keeps a prayer book. How she really ponders what she wants to tell the Lord before she kneels down to prayer. What this sister said just hit me like a bag of bricks. That I really do need to have a better relationship with my heavenly father that I need to have more deep sincere prayers in all my prayers. 

We had a ZTM this week again emphasized becoming one with God and what that really means. It really just made me think about my purpose and why I am here, what are my focuses and priorities. All leading up to these last two talks that really topped it off. 

On Saturday night we had the sisters over for the night because of stake conference. There was this talk that I had started to listen to called conversion of a catholic. It is so good. When you have the chance just listen to it. The very last part is all that I would like to touch on today. So his name is Elder Carpenter and he was asked to extend his mission 6 months and it was during the time elders only served 18 month missions. So in those last 6 months of his mission he met an old woman who they gave the Book of Mormon to. They came back and started teaching her and asking about what she read. Come to find out she had read the entire Book of Mormon, and knew that it was true. After she was baptized she received her patriarchal blessing. When she received it in the mail she had asked Elder Carpenter to come and read it to her. He refused at first, this woman then went on to explain how her eyes were so bad that she could not see the words on a page for 15 years and that she knew the Book of Mormon was true because she was able to read it. That it was a blessing from God. Right after she read it once she was never able to read it again. So that is why he had to read her blessing. As he was reading it to her, he came across a part that said “you would have joined the church 25 years ago if the missionary that was called here would have accepted his call." She died that night. What a touching story. It really gave me the sense that me being here is so important, and that I need to be doing what the Lord needs me to do here. Not every question why I am here or whether I should be obedient to a rule or talk to a person on a street or in a train. There are people here to be found and there is a certain time and place that the Lord has a waiting for them. 

 

I was also reading in a talk from the newest ensign. It talks about a young girl who served her mission in California. She was put into an area where there wasn't a lot of success, she was tired and ready to be transferred after 4 months. However she ended up staying 1 more transfer. She was so upset about, but a week later she received a phone call from her mission president, telling her she was in the right place. After that she moved forward in faith and ended up seeing so many miracles and getting into people’s home that previously didn't want to meet with them, also she had a baptism there. Really and truly there are so many reasons that we are where we are. On a mission or not we have opportunities ahead of us when we act on faith. Another great quote from president Kosak is... "Faith is a choice you must choose to fallow." It’s true we have the choice to believe or not. Doesn't matter how we are raised or where we come from, we can always choose. 

I am so grateful to be here in the beautiful country and to be able to serve in the beautiful city of Hannover. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week. 

Alles Liebe, 

Sister Toma

Ps. A new perk with the I pads. I can't write emails expect for Monday, however I can read emails throughout the weeks. So when ever you feel like sending a little uplifting message or wanting to tell me any exiting news or what ever you can send it to me anytime and can read it during the weeks. So please send your love more frequently now.