i'm NOT getting transferred!! (sobs) i'm going to stay in mönchengladbach for the rest of my mission. when lisa sharp comes home ask her about MGB - she'll tell you it's ghetto. btw she came to visit! it was great! i loved it!!!!
i'm in düsseldorf today in a drit because sister olson is going to frankfurt for a training meeting. my new comp is sister dexheimer. she's in heidelberg right now. all i've heard about her is that she's really nice.
i don't know what else to say. things have been crazy getting sister olson ready to go and my brain has been everywhere. i don't even remember what has happened lately. sister olson has been sick with the flu so that's no fun and i think i'm starting to get sick too. not good!!
Brother Murphy from our ward travelled to Germany on business and sent Rachel a letter. Here is her reply: Thanks for the letter you sent! I'm so jealous that you got to go to Heidelberg! That was my first area! I love it there! It's so beautiful!! I'm jealous you got to go to Frankfurt too. I used to go to Frankfurt every couple weeks but now I'm too far up north! I totally understand what you mean when you said that a lot of companies say that they don't have time or need what you have to offer. Welcome to missionary work in Deutschland! Interesting thing - I actually didn't think that I would find anyone who would get baptized on my mission. Most of my areas have been slow, not a lot of investigators... or at least ones that are progressing. BUT Heavenly Father IS preparing people! Even here in the Frankfurt Mission! I've even been blessed to find, teach and baptize one of them! About 6 weeks ago we found a woman named Yvonne - she is so prepared for the gospel! It's been so amazing to see God's hand throughout her life. She recongizes the difference between God and Satan. She loves Heavenly Father and Jesus SO much and she wants to follow Christ's example. I feel so blessed to have had a part in all of this. I know many wonderful missionaries who haven't had an opportunity to find, teach and baptize someone. I`m so grateful! Thanks again for your letter! I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends at home who are thinking and praying for me!
All missionary mothers look forward to that Mother's Day phone call! She sounds great.She sounds happy. Yesterday Yvonne got baptized! Rachel said it was wonderful. I found a cute photo of Rachel and Sister Olson that I thought I'd post. ♥ Happy Mother's Day!♥
so sunday was stake conference and like the craziest morning of my life. but it actually started on saturday evening....
so first of all our zone leaders had asked us as a district to speak ONLY german on saturday as an experiement. so saturday was already hard because for some reason my german was poop and sister olson was getting mad at me because she couldn't understand me and then i got sad because she was mad and i felt stupid. but then i called the bishop because he was suppose to give Yvonne a ride to stake conference on sunday and he said that he couldn't give her a ride anymore! i was like - were you going to call and tell us this??? so its like 7pm on saturday evening - no ride for Yvonne. and the whole ward is at stake conference and not answering phones! so english words are flying out of my mouth because i am mad. i finally get a hold of someone in the ward who said that they'd take her. so that was nice.
now its sunday morning. we take the train to düsseldorf for stake conference and we get to the düsseldorf train station to find out that there is a marathon this day and none of the buses or street cars that take us to the church are running. and it's a long way to walk there plus we don't have a map. so we call the zone leaders and meet them up and so we get to stake conference like 20 minutes late. then there is only like 30 minutes left and Yvonne's daughter starts losing it and is running around. Yvonne like never says no to her daughter so it was a little frustrating. anyway after conference i go find President Ninow because he has to give Yvonne a baptismal interview. but he's talking to someone and so i`m waiting and waiting so then sister olson comes and says that she`ll get president and i need to go find Yvonne. so i`m like running through the crowds of people trying to find yvonne and our district leader because he has the baptismal record that needed to be filled out. while i`m running around i see Pierre who i haven't seen since october and he wanted to say hi but i didn't have time. anyway finally found everyone and Yvonne got her baptismal interview. got to talk to Pierre for a minute too. and Yvonne passed the interview!!!! she's getting baptized on saturday at 7pm!!!!
Well this has been a good week actually. I’ve had some spiritual experiences that i have been needing for a long time:
We were at zoko (zone conference) on Thursday and some things had happened that made me very upset and made me feel not so good about myself personally. At the end of each zoko we have the opportunity to bear our testimonies and share success stories. I felt like i should get up and bear my testimony but i wasn't sure what i should say. Of course i was at the end of the line and the elders kept sharing the longest most boring stories ever. One of the zone leaders caught my attention and told me that i needed to keep mine short because we were out of time. So then i was thinking that maybe i shouldn't even bear my testimony because of time. But i really felt like i should get up so i did anyway. Here's what i remember me saying:
"I don't know about any of you, but sometimes i have feelings of inadequecy. I like who I am and I am very proud of the person I`ve become. But sometimes i wonder if i`m good enough. Am i good enough for my Heavenly Father, my parents, my leaders? It's actually something i’ve been praying about my entire mission. I’m grateful to know that i am good enough. With all my flaws, the fact that i’m not perfect, i’m not a perfect missionary. I make mistakes. Like sister van den berg said, i’m this big --- But despite all of that Jesus atoned for my sins so that someday i can be perfect and live with my Heavenly Father and family forever. I`m so grateful to know that Heavenly Father does answer prayers. Even though we are only this big --- He still hears us. And i’m grateful that He has heard and answered my prayers."
Anyway that's pretty much what said. And if you could imagine me crying as i said this then that's pretty much what happened.
Well the sules didn't come to church. And they weren't home when we went there for our appointment. So i have no idea what's going on with them.
Yvonne came to church and stayed for all 3 hours! And she fasted! (next week is stake conference) she had a really not so good experience after church when she was home though and called us. We got really worried and told her that she needed to pray and read in the scriptures. As soon as we got off the phone with her we knelt down and prayed that Heavenly Father would help her know what to do. We then felt that we needed to bring the Elders with us to our appointment the next day to give her a blessing. So yesterday we went over with the elders and Elder McCurdy gave her a blessing. It was really spiritual and wonderful and just what she needed. What was even more amazing is that her daughter was spending the night at her grandmas house and wasn't there for our appointment. That was a miracle itself because her daughter is always a distraction and is always loud! So that was wonderful we had a lesson without the child and Yvonne got a blessing. Everything is better now however Satan is trying REALLY hard to get Yvonne. Please keep praying for her!
Anyway that's whats been happening here. Can't wait till mothers day!!!!
