Two for One

Two letters in the mailbox today!

First this:

Family!

I made it to another P-day! Sundays and p-days are great.  It is almost like our weekend but Monday just got thrown in there too.

Anyways, we’ve continued to have teaching adventures. Currently we are teaching 2 progressing investigators, Marcus and Thorsten.  They are both in very different places with the gospel.  A few days ago we got a lesson planned for Thorsten.  We felt good about it and prayed about it and felt ready to go.  Then on the way out to dinner our teacher told us they had made a mistake and after dinner, in 50 minutes, we would be teaching Marcus.

It would be safe to say we didn’t do much eating at dinner.  We prayed and planned and prayed come more. We really have to prepare for these lessons because we don’t know a lot of German.

We usually plan lessons by picking the commitment we want to extend and then deciding what doctrine would best help the investigator accept our commitment.  Then we make an outline in English.  Then we find all the German words we might need and don’t know and write those on index cards.  So we go in with an English outline and a card full of German vocab.

Anyways, we put together a lesson about faith in Christ for Marcus. We were both so nervous going into it.  We stood outside the door for a good 5 minutes before we got the courage to knock.

The lesson went so well.  The spirit was there the minute we started testifying of Christ. I was so grateful for that because we definitely needed the help.  In the end, Marcus was bearing his testimony to us about his Savior. It was so amazing. He accepted our invitation to come to church too.

One thing that has really surprised me is how real the teaching experiences feel. When our "investigators" accept our invitations, I am so happy. I seriously can’t stop smiling.  Usually I get so excited I switch to English or even sneak in some limb flailing. And then sometimes when we follow up and find out they didn’t keep commitments I feel so crushed.  It really makes us feel so sad.

Our teaching is getting better and better.  We keep learning every day new approaches and how to be more successful.  I was so naïve in thinking German was all I needed to learn.

Oh how I have been humbled!!

Sister Hansen and I have learned so much. Maybe the most important has been the importance of having the spirit. We’ve learned from experience it doesn’t matter how much we study our German words, if we walk in the door without the spirit, no one will learn.  On the flip side if we do have the spirit we are able to touch hearts with even the most slaughtered German known to man.  It has been amazing to watch.

Have a great week!

Thanks for all the dearelder.com letters!!

Sister Brown

And the adventure continues here:

Family!

We had another good teaching experience last night. We were teaching Marcus about baptism and trying to clear up some of his concerns. It wasn’t going well.

He wasn’t quite understanding why he needed to be baptized again. We tried the authority route, Christ’s example and immersion route, and even agency and the age of accountability.  Nothing.\

He was asking us question after question too. After floundering for a while we switched to testifying.  Sister Hansen did a great job and turned it to me.

I started bearing my testimony about baptism. I got like 5 words into it and then got stuck. I couldn’t remember my German words. I felt so flustered.

I stopped for a minute and then said, in German, “Marcus, I can’t answer your questions and I can’t even speak German but I know that our Heavenly Father knows you and loves you” I went on to finish up with my testimony.

After that we were able to get through. Both Sister Hansen and I were just crying. The lesson finished with him accepting our invitations and saying the prayer.

It was just one more testimony builder about the power of the spirit. I’ve honestly never felt what I feel when I’m teaching someone the gospel. I feel the spirit but it’s in a different way. I just feel so much love for these people we are teaching. They aren’t even real! They are just German RM’s acting out a bio they made up. I can’t wait until it is real people I’m teaching.

I just know these truths we teach are true! So that’s why I stick it out when we have long hard days.

The end.

Sister Brown

P.S. The MTC is almost a prison compound and we have no idea what is going on in the outside world. So… a few questions:

1. Did they really just open like 300 new missions?

2. What’s up with the Pope?

3. Did Jim and Pam (The Office) get a divorce?

4. Did a meteor kill a bunch of people in Russia?

We can never tell if the Elders are faking us out or sharing real current events.

Thanks!
Sister Brown