Sleepovers, Raw Meat, and Pioneer Day

Meine Familie,

So happy Pioneer Day everyone!  The German celebrations were lacking but the missionaries worked hard to keep the spirit alive :)

So guess what today is?? It is July 29,2013.  That is my year-to-go mark.  Yup!  I will be flying home on this day in 2014.  I have exactly 365 days left as Sister Brown in Germany.  There's a crazy thought for you!

Adventures, Adventures this week!

Yesterday we found out we couldn't use the water in our apartment for the weekend because the pipes are clogged.  The repair man is coming sometime later today but that meant no toilet or showers or sinks. 

So we spent the night at the church.  It was a little Sister sleepover in the primary room.  

It got kind of spooky when we turned out all of the lights.  Especially because the Elders had called to tell us scary ghost stories to freak us out.  We survived the night though and hopefully will have water in our apartment soon!

This week A**** came back to church.  It was so fun to see her again.  She had a great time at the youth camp.  Our branch president told us that she even got up and said some things at the closing testimony meeting.  I think that was a really great experience for her.  She has really started opening up to us and I think she trusts us. Sometimes we just talk about her cat or her boyfriend but other times we talk about her mom who recently passed away or her relationship with God.  We are making progress there.  My hope is that we can help her realize how much the gospel can help her.  She is having a hard time right now but things like prayer, scripture study, priesthood blessings, and knowledge of the Plan of Salvation could really help her a lot.  So that's our sweet A****!

We also met again with Frau H******.  She is solid.  She has been reading in the Book of Mormon almost every day.  Her problem is she likes to do the whole "flip open to a random page and begin" method and then she gets confused on what is going on.  She has really good questions though and she is really interested to learn more.  When we went over this week she fed us and then showed us her Siamese cats and Guinea pigs.  Sister O. was all over that.  She also has artwork all over from her late husband.  He was an amazing artist.  She mentioned wanting to photograph all of the paintings and put them into some kind of album but she wasn't sure how to do it.  We offered to help and I am pretty excited.  There are few things I like more than a good project!

We also had an appointment with Frau K******.  It was after district meeting and we were so pumped.  We brought along a member because she wanted to receive a blessing.  She had even called us earlier in the week and told us she had been reading.  She NEVER reads! Ever. So that was really good news.  We were seriously ready to set a baptism date.  And guess what?!?  She wasn't home.  No answer on the klingel, no answer at the door, and no answer on the phone.  We still haven't been able to have contact.  It is crazy.  She never falls out of appointments.  So this week we are hoping to catch back up with her.  She is getting so close!

I went on Tausch this week with Sister Fugal in Hannover.  That was full of adventures too.  There was a huge storm while we were on the train going to Hannover.  

A tree ended up falling on the road and bahn tracks right outside their apartment.  

The workers had the sidewalks and everything totally blocked off.  We couldn't even get in the building.  So we had to be super sneaky and walk all the way around a few blocks and creep in a back way.  

Then in the morning we helped a less active family move.  I have helped a lot of moves so far on my mission. It is always amazing that no members ever live on the first floor.  We ended up hauling stuff down to the cars and sweating our little faces off.  Within the first 5 minutes we were all dripping.  There's German humidity for you.  When we were done though they gave us some breakfast.  It was just all laid out on the table.  The Elders gave me a bread with some pink stuff on the top.  I started eating it and was informed that it was like raw hamburger meat spread stuff.  It didn't really taste too bad but the texture was nice and slimy and just knowing what it was didn't help.  Thanks Elders!!  They all just laughed and took pictures.  We totally schaffed it though. Pray 'n Chew!!!

I had a cool experience this week with German.  We were just talking with a member and it just hit me that I could understand what they were saying and then say stuff back.  It was one of those weird moments where I was there but it felt like I was just watching it.  I flashed back to the MTC when I walked in those doors speaking NO German at all.  It is so amazing to think how far I have come and what miracles the Lord can work with his missionaries.  

So that was this week!

Hope everyone has another fun summer week as we head into August.  Crazy!!!!

Love you all!

Love,
Sister Brown

Krank (sick)

 Recording weekly numbers

July 22, 2013

Family!

This week we had district Pday in Bad Bentheim.  We visited a castle and cooked a bunch of German food with the Ehepaar (senior couple) there.  It was a lot of fun.

 I also bought a violin this week.  It has been so much fun to have.  I love being able to play again!

We saw a lot of  miracles this week.  

The first was with Schwester B****.  We have been trying to make contact with her ever since I have gotten here.  It has been entirely unsuccessful.  Then this week we went by and her old husband was there (pausing the story to tell you how awesome it is to hear a German man say "Ich bin ihr X Mann"  I almost died right then and there.  It was so funny.  I need to be more mature.... Resuming story)  He told us when she would be home and that we could come back.  

Then next miracle was with a contact we had tried to find for weeks.  We couldn't ever find the house.  We looked and looked like 5 times.  Then this week we went by and looked behind and under the place we had looked before and found Frau B***********. 

We also went by a less active named Schwester M*****.  She hasn't been to church in 7 years.  We knocked and nobody answered.  Then we had a feeling to look around back.  We felt like hooligans but we did and found her asleep on the swing out back.  She woke up and met with us and invited us back.  We even read with her in the Book of Mormon.  She still knew where hers was :)

We also went by on Frau H**********.  We had been by before and she didn't really have too much interest.  This week she told us she was reading in the Book of Mormon.  So we talked about what she had read and then invited her to church.  She told us that she just bought a new skirt and that was a sign that she must come to church with us.  She did and loved it too!

Our little A****** came too. She is headed off to the youth EFY-type camp today and we are praying for the Spirit to touch her this week!

So yes miracles and more miracles here in Osnabrück.  

And then President Kosak showed up on our doorstep Saturday night.  

Thank goodness the beds were made and the apartment was clean!  Surprise of a life time.  He came to our branch on Sunday too.  It made me so nervous and scared me half to death but it was fun to have both him and Sister Kosak there.

That is all for this week.

Thanks for the love, letters, and prayers.

I need them all!!

Love,

Sister Brown

Osnabrück Ausstellung

Missionary Work

Family,

This week I felt like we were all over Germany.  

 

We spent a lot of time on trains.  

 

We had district Pday in Bremen where we played games and sports.  

 

Then we had some lessons to teach in Rheine from the Bad Bentheim elders.  

 

Then we had ZTM in Oldenburg.  

Then we had an Ausstellung in Nordhorn.  That was one of my favorite parts of the week.  Nordhorn is right on the Dutch border too so that was cool.  

 

Speaking of borders.... There's a member in our branch who wants us to meet with her and teach her 13 year old daughter who isn't a member.  The problem is that they live in the Frankfurt mission. So we've got to check on that.

 

We had a funny this week.  We were walking around Saturn (which is like an enormous multi level electronics store) and a man asked if we were Amish.  It was a good teaching moment and it gave us a good laugh.

 

I feel like that is pretty much it.  We had a long successful week.  Nothing super exciting happened. Just sharing and teaching  the Gospel.  

 

Transfer calls are on Friday so next time I will write I will let you all know where the next 6 weeks will take me!

 

Have a great week!
Love,

Sister Brown

Missionary Work!

 

 

Just preaching the Gospel

 

Getting lost in German mazes...

 

Holy Ghost Place... Someone WILL  be converted here!

 

Happy Happy Fourth

 

Meine Familie,

"Wherefore this land is consecrated and it shall be a land of liberty unto them.  It shall be blessed forever."
-2 Nephi 1:7
 

So how was the 4th??
 

I hope everyone had a great celebration filled day. 

Mine was pretty awesome here in Deutschland.  I had no idea you could have such a fun America day without parades, fireworks, the national anthem, or a BBQ.  

 

So how does one spend the fourth of July in Deutschland???
 

We went to KFC for lunch and ate some fried chicken and coleslaw. 

 

 

Then we went about our missionary activities for the day. 

 

Then we went to our America party at our GML's (ward mission leader) house.  We had some members and their nonmember friends and a new convert there.  It was a lot of fun.  We played some games and ate a bunch of yummy food and red white and blue treats.

  

 

We tried to make cream to go on some red jello we had made for our party.  We put some cream into an old yogurt container and shook it around.  Apparently we got a little too excited in the shaking because when we pulled off the lid we had yellow clumps.  We didn't know what we had done wrong.  We called up the Elders and they laughed and laughed and then informed us that we had made butter.  Who knew?!? So we had to buy some spray cream in a can and go with that, but we do have a big bowl of homemade butter now!

 

 

We also had a funny thing going with the Elders.  All day long we would text them inspirational patriotic quotes on the hour.  The best part was, that we were making them up.  We would string some fancy old words together and throw in something about America and then attribute it to a president.  It may have been my favorite part of the whole day.
 

"The taller a man's hat, the more love for his country he has in his heart." -Abraham Lincoln
 

"I was counting stars in the heavens above and got to 50 and stopped and put them on the flag." -Thomas Jefferson

So that was pretty much the adventures from the 4th. 
 

We actually did missionary work too :)
 

We visited a member in the Old Folks Home and took her to singing time. 

 

 

A picture of one of the songs we sang.  They are all super sad and depressing. 

"Oh how lonely beats my chest
My father doesn't know me
My mother doesn't love me
I don't want to die because I am so young."

Gotta love German folk songs!!

 

We also had another Ausstellung in Rheine.  It was so successful.  The elders there got 5 new investigators.  It was so cool to see.  They put Sister O and I in charge of singing hymns.  It was really fun to be singing something like "I know that my redeemer lives" and then look up and see the Elders teaching people the gospel.   Ah!  So cool!!
 

We got a new investigator from the Elders too.  We actually kind of did a tradsies.  They were teaching a sweet young mom who said she would feel more comfortable with Sisters teaching her.  So they swapped her for that really cool new investigator who found us and knocked on our door last week.  It turns out that he is definitely someone who needs to be taught by Elders...

So that is that. 

We had two investigators at church this week.  A***** is 17 and L*** is 12.  They are both such sweet girls and I am so excited for them to be making such big steps. 

The work is movin' on in Osnabrück!

Die Kirche ist wahr!!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Brown

 

This was me just singing to the countryside of Germany as we waited for our bus. 

My little mitarbeiterinchen just happened to pull out the camera :)

 

MISSIONARY WORK: Walking dogs and holding chickens!

 

The temptation was almost too great!

 

July 1, 2013

This week we had an ausstellung (street display) in Oldenburg.  We sang a lot of songs and talked to a lot of people.

 

Yesterday we taught German primary and we watched the World Wide Leadership Training broadcast.  It was really cool and I hope everyone at home got to see it. 

 

This week we also tausched with the Hannover sisters and an investigator found us.  He literally knocked on our door.  It was reverse tracting!  He is really interested in learning more about our church and came to church yesterday.
 

I hope you all have a great week and an amazing Fourth!  Watch some fireworks and eat some hot dogs for me!
 

Alles Gute,
Sister Brown