The Dish on the Mish: Tender Mercies

Family!!

I want to start by sharing a Scripture.

I was reading in first Nephi 1 and in the last verse of the chapter Nephi says, "The tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen."

This week has been a testimony builder of that.

I have been noticing all the little mini miracles that happen all around me every day. Here are some that made my list this week:

* I had multiple warm showers with adequate water pressure. This does not always happen. Sometimes a nice warm shower solves all your problems!

* The chicken salad sandwiches here don't have nuts in them! Hooray because they are absolutely delicious.

* Come Thou Fount is in the German hymn book! Who knew!?! We discovered it the other day. # 74. We sing it quite often because it is such a good one.

* One of our progressing investigators accepted our invitation to come to church. (This made the list not only because it was a great experience but also because I forgot the investigator's name while extending the commitment... I get so so nervous when I invite people to do things like be baptized or come to church. It is the most nerve racking thing ever! Luckily he was kind enough to disregard the fact that I forgot his name. So that was kind of a 2 in 1.)

* We also had wonderful experiences teaching in the TRC. We were nervous to teach people who we didn't know but it was such a fun activity. We were able to have the Spirit with us and find the necessary German words to communicate.

* They brought cranberries back to the salad bar! What is a salad without craisins!?!

* I also was able to memorize the First Vision auf deutsch this week. That amazing feat is the result of a good 100 laps on that indoor track :)

* We went to a wonderful devotional on Sunday night. The night before I had a bunch of questions. I kid you not, every one of my concerns and questions were brought up and answered in that fireside. It was amazing. I know that the Lord hears my prayers!

Ok, so there are those. Some sound silly but all of them are just evidence that my Heavenly Father loves me!

The church has a language learning program that is similar to Rosetta Stone. We get to spend an hour a day on it learning German. A few days ago the Elders were using it to learn how to make a phone call. The fictitious person they were trying to get a hold of was named Sister Brown. So when our teachers showed up later in the day and asked what they had learned they all said, "We learned how to call Sister Brown and find out if she is available." So there's that. Great things you learn in the MTC.

We've had some other great discoveries this week.

1. German is the language of the Celestial Kingdom. That discovery comes from a talk we watched from President Uchtdorf. I'm fairly sure he was kidding, but still...

2. The name tags that elders use on their suit coats can be played like kazoos. They have two sides because they clip in their pockets. If you put your lips in between the clips and blow it buzzes. We have been working on arranging hymns. I will keep you posted.

3. The prayer works! This discovery came from a lot of sources but this is one of those primary talk prayer stories. We came back from gym to find the other sister's locked out of our room. They had forgot the room key. This shouldn't have been a problem because I showed up with a key. The problem was that before Sister Hansen and I got there, another sister had tired to help by sticking a bobby pin in the lock. The top of the bobby pin broke and was now stuck in the lock. So my key wouldn't work. We all tried it and then decided to pray. So we did and the very next time we put the key in, the door unlocked. So prayer really works!

Love you all!

Thanks for everything.

Have an amazing week!!!

Love,
Sister Brown

PS I also got to watch the Joseph Smith movie in German. It was pretty cool even if the German voice overs didn't match up with the actors' lips :)