August 26, 2013

Family!

This week flew by.  I can't believe it is already Monday again!  We kept so busy this week with our missionary work. I just love weeks like that.  Lots of work to be done here in Osnabrück!

So we had an appointment with Frau K*******.  We made her a little baptismal plan with goals she can work towards. She has expressed the desire to be baptized but has a harder time keeping commitments or taking the steps.  We talked about all of that with her and she told us she wanted to come to church one of the Sundays she has off in September.  I think we can classify that as progress!

Earlier in the day we had practiced our crazy uke and violin musical number for Relief Society on Sunday. We mentioned that to her, just trying to make small talk.  She freaked out and went on a slight rampage of her hatred for the violin.  It was quite startling.  She ended it by telling us that if we were trying to convert her with the violin she would have to say "tschüß!"  

That is most definitely NOT what we are trying to do Frau K*******!  :)

I had no idea such a disdain for violins existed.  It was quite the funny twist in the appointment.

Just after that, though, we had a really cool experience.  She answered our prayers.  We had been asked to give a Thema in district meeting on how to use your time wisely.  We didn't really know what to do.  She started talking about why we are here and basically just bore her testimony to us of the work that we are doing and how we focus on bringing others to Christ.
It just clicked in our heads.  Both Sister O. and I turned and looked at each other.  We had little light bulbs going off in our brains.  There was our themal!  You know you are using your time wisely when you are fulfilling your purpose which, as a missionary, is to invite others to come unto Christ.

We had a ping pong night this week.  It was a really fun activity.  Nothing better than sharing the gospel and playing ping pong.  The Bad Bentheim elders came with one of their investigators.  He had crazy ping pong skills.  I did not.  They did start to slowly develop, though, and by the end of the night I made it into the finals of a few around the world rounds! 

This week was Schwester S*******'s birthday.  The problem was that we didn't know it.  We have been taking around little cards for all of our relief society sisters on their birthdays.  Then this week we went toward council and everyone was all excited to go take treats and balloons over to her house.  Sister O and I were a little confused.  We have been meeting with Schwester S****** and we didn't know how we could have missed her birthday.  We must have just overlooked it on the list or something.  We felt pretty lame. 

The next morning we made her a card and took it over to her house.  We ended up on a different bus and got off at a different stop than we normally do.  We were planning to just leave the card in her mailbox but before we got to her house she came riding up on her bike.  

She told us she had gone shpping and had seen us getting off the bus.  So she turned around and came to meet us.  We gave her the card and were able to talk for a minute.  She told us how much it meant to her that we had brought the card.  She had a really good birthday but was feeling so lonely today.  She had had a rough morning and was dealing with some big problems.  She was so happy we had come by to help her talk it all out.

  

That was such a good experience for Sister Brown.  I am a huge planner.  You all know that :)  It was good for me to have another reminder that this is the Lord's work and he is the ultimate planner.  He knows where we need to be to help who we need to be helping.  I was frustrated that we had forgotten her birthday and then frustrated again when we ended up on a different bus.  But then that was all part of the plan.  We needed to be there at that bus stop the morning after her birthday. 

Just a good reminder for me this week.  

We have transfer calls this weekend and then I will find out what the next 6 weeks have in store for me!

That is pretty much all for this week.  I hope everyone has a great week!
Love you all so much.

Love,
Sister Brown

August 19, 2013

"And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; Then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even  that he hath heard my prayer, yea then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

~Alma 29:10

So I found that scripture when Sister O. and I were doing comp study.  It is such a good scripture and explains perfectly why I love missionary work.  When I see people changing and see Christ working in their lives, it reminds me of the times that has happened in my own life. When I see our investigators keeping their commitments, I remember all the answers I have found in the scriptures, all the answered prayers I have prayed, and all of the uplifting meetings I have been to.  Helping someone else strengthen their testimony is the best way I am finding to strengthen my own.

So there is my little spiritual thought...

We had a really awesome ausstellung in Rheine. 

Before we had even set up the table and signs all the way we had given out three Book of Mormons because people were just coming up to us.  The Bad Bentheim elders had invited a cute little family from their ward.  The son was so excited about missionary work.  His name was Jonas and he was probably about 10.  He was a pro at handing stuff out to the people the elders would stop.  Then he would run back to the table and pick up the next pamphlet or card he would hand out.  He even gave out some Finding Faith in Christ DVDs.  It was really cool to see his excitement  for missionary work.

We met with Schwester M***** again this week.  She is our little Rice Krispy Canadian friend with the kittens.  We had a really good appointment.  She asked us all kinds of questions about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. We started answering her questions and she marked the things we showed her in her copy.  She told us she would start reading some more on her own.  She also has a Sunday off of work in a few weeks and has it marked on her calendar.  She wants to come to church.  She also told us she wants to stop smoking. She has tried everything and doesn't know what will work.  We mentioned the Stop Smoking Workshop and she was really interested.  We told her we could bring it by next time we came.  She told us she would make us something from home like pancakes with maple syrup.  We are both very excited!!

We also had Zone Konference this week.  There were some really good themas on being in missionary mode all hte time, study, and asking questions. We also performed our District Musical number.  It ended up being a mix of guitar, violin, piano, and a three part choir singing "How Great Thou Art".  It was most definitely the most creative and unique musical number I have ever been a part of.  I am still not quite sure what it was... No none left though and it didn't sound too bad when we watched the recording one of the Elders had made.

One of my favorite parts of ZOKO is the post!!  Thanks for all of the fun letters and packages that I found there waiting for me.  I have the best family ever!!  We also were able to restock our shelves with some Book of Mormons.  We had ran completely out of German ones.  So yes ZOKO was a success, I would say.

This week A****** came to Church again, I started reading Jesus the Christ, we walked around Bramsche in the pouring rain, the lights went out in our bedroom so it is seriously like a cave, and we walked from Ibbenbüren to Ledde for an appointment.  We also talked to a girl whose bag said "I Hate People."  It didn't go to well.  I think we are definitely included in the group of people that she hates...

Yesterday in the hallway at church one of the old men was showing me how he can tap dance and then did a heel click.  He just pulled it out of nowhere.   He is the same member who always greets me every week with his English "Hello.  How are you today?  It is so nice to see you."  and then makes the same joke about Sister Brownie liking Brownies.  I love him!  A different member gave us the name and address of someone they wanted us to go by on.  They then suggested that we show them love.  It was a good suggestion but it made us both laugh so hard!  We will be sure to show this person love, as opposed to all of the other referrals that we go by on and show hate...

So that was my week.

I wish you all a great week full of sunny days, back to school success, sweet dreams, giggling moments, ice cream cones, and dance parties!

Love,
Sister Brown

This statue looks like a little girl counting her tithing. We call it the tithing statue.

Another Week

 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

 Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of truth;"

-D&C 6:14-15

Family,

***Caution: this is the longest email ever!  Consider yourself warned!!!*****

So we had some really cool experiences following the Spirit and we saw success.

We met on Monday with Frau K*******.  

Our last appointment had fallen out and we hadn't had contact since.  We were nervous and not sure what to do.  Then we had a feeling to ask if she wanted a priesthood blessing.  We called and asked and she told us she thought that would be a good idea.  So we got it all arranged with some men in the ward.  We went and taught her a little about the priesthood and blessings and then they gave her a blessing.

  

It was one of the sweetest moments I have had with an investigator on my mission so far.  The Spirit was definitely there.  After, we talked with her and asked how she was feeling. 

She told us that she felt really good and knew she was loved. Then she said that she knew she needed to be baptized.  She knows she will need time (we have a couple Word of Wisdom habits to kick) but she said she wants to start preparing.  That is enormous progress for Frau K*******.  

We almost tschußed her like 4 times because we just weren't sure it would ever go anywhere.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon with her boyfriend (yeah, we need to cover Law of Chastity too :)  and even prayed with us.  These are huge steps.  I had never heard her pray.  The Spirit is slowly working on our little R***** and it is amazing to watch!

We also made progress with Frau H*********.  She called us this week and told us she loved our church and enjoyed coming and even finds truth in the Book of Mormon but she didn't want to meet with us anymore.  

It was pretty crushing news.  

We felt prompted to ask if we could come and help her with some projects she had mentioned.  She agreed and we made out an appointment but she told us we couldn't talk about the Gospel.

We went and she fed us and then we started talking.  Then she brought up religion and we started talking about Jesus Christ.  I was so nervous she would realize we were talking about the forbidden subject and freak out but she never did.  We were able to explain what we believe and then testify of how the Book of Mormon can strengthen our testimonies of Christ.  

It was a really good conversation.  

She is very open to the gospel and has a lot of questions.  She just is very timid and we have to take baby steps.  She loves the branch and the Book of Mormon though. As we are talking she always reference Book of Mormon prophets and stories and verses.  I have never had an investigator who can just whip out Book of Mormon tid bits like that.  She reads almost every day.  If she keeps that up she will have a testimony in no time!

We didn't even end up helping with the projects.  She told us she would start getting things together and next week we could come over and help her out.

And then there is A******.  Our dear sweet A******. 

We had a genealogy fireside as a branch activity this week.  We had actually forgot about it and then were reminded (by a prompting) about it.  We had a feeling to call and invite A******.  At first we were really skeptical.  What 17 year old girl likes doing family history work? 

But we called and invited her.  

She sounded really excited and then handed the phone to her sister, J*****.  J***** had just returned from a trip to visit her grandma in England.  She came back with family history charts and journals and pictures and is really interested in family history.  It was so crazy to hear!

So they both came to the genealogy fireside.

It was the coolest family history thing I have ever been to.  A few members showed pictures and told stories about their ancestors.  I heard some super amazing stories about the war times.  It was such a cool evening.

A****** also came to church again and we are planning to drop by later this week for a spontaneous ice cream trip.  It should be fun!

We also had interviews this week.  President Kosak came to our district meeting and started it off with a few thoughts.  Then he abruptly closed and turned to me and said "Sister Brown follow me."  I grabbed my stuff and stood up to follow him and then he turned and said, "If you hear a  scream it won't be from me..."  That did absolutely nothing to ease my nerves :)

It was really good though.  He told me a lot of good things, things I needed to hear.  The man scares me to death but I know he really loves me.

I asked him how he knew I needed to be the one to come here and why he transferred me to Onsabrück. I had a super hard time with the blitz here.  I love and miss Berlin tons.  So that was my question.  He said, "Figure it out!"  He looked at my knees and said, "They aren't swollen yet.  You spend some serious time on your knees and figure this out."

  

So that I will. 

DM Bad Bentheim

Today for Pday we went with Frau K******* to the hugest second hand store I have ever seen.  It was like an enormous German D.I.  They weighed your stuff and you paid by the kilo.  It was so cheap.  They had a whole wall full of traditional German clothes.  We found some skirts and dresses for us and some lederhosen.  We couldn't resist.  It was quite the fun Pday activity.  

Dirndl

Have a great week!
Love you all!

Love,

Sister Brown

Zipline!

Finding

"He that dilligently seeketh shall find."

~ 1 Nephi 10:19

Hallo again meine Familie,

So this week we did a lot of finding and we found a lot of things. 

The first thing we found was summer!  

I was seriously convinced that we would never see the sun.  It is now summer in Germany.  The sun has hit us with super hot days.  This week it got up to 36°!!  

That can create some problems for missionaries walking around all day seeing as drinking fountains and public restrooms aren't a German thing.  It has been fun to have summer though.

We turned our Dienstag (Tuesday) into a Dienst tag (service day) and we did random service projects all day.  

We made rice krispy treats and notes for some members.  We also took some to Schwester M******, our rice krispy treat inspiration, but she wasn't home so we just left them with her son.

We also cleaned up some parks.  We found gloves and garbage bags in the church and headed out.  

We had some serious finds there too.  

We found a shoe, a key, 10 cents, a million cigarette butts and bottle caps, and panties.  That was the best find of the day.  Sister O. got those and picked them up with big long sticks :)

  

While cleaning these parks and paths we also found a zipline.

We did district finding all day on Saturday.  It was a fun twist on a white day.  

My favorite people we talked to were two street musicians. It was two girls and one was singing and playing guitar and the other one was playing the cello.  They sounded really good and we sat and listened for a minute.  She was singing in English and it was all about loving each other and believing hard things will work out. 

We talked to them after a few songs. We gave them our card and they gave us theirs.  So that was cool.

The rest of the day we didn't have a ton of success.  We were doing doors later that night and the best we got was a few people saying we could try to come back alter.  So try we will! 

Finding can be a tricky game but I really like being able to go to sleep at the end of the day and know that I gave a good effort.  I like knowing that I invited even if those invitations were answered with closed doors, hung up klingels, and people walking away.

We also found the beauty of Bramsche.  Usually when we go explore the little dorfs weird stuff happens or they just feel eerie.  

This week we tried Bramsche and loved it.  

It was really pretty and we saw some success.  We also ate some really yummy eis so that helped too! 

Then on Sunday in Relief Society the teacher spoke about trusting God and the miracles he can work.  She shared the story of the children of Israel wandering and God providing manna for them.  Then she reached into her bag and pulled out little chunks of manna for each of us.  It was crazy.  She told us she got it at an Israel store.  So there you have it.  We also found manna.

That was pretty much my week.

I hope everyone is enjoying the  start of AUGUST!!

Have a great sunny happy summer day.

Thanks for all the letters you have no idea how excited I get when I find mail in the mailbox.    

There is always a dance party!  

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Brown

The pipes are fixed!

Best.Familiy.Ever

I got the other one from Sister O's happy meal.

Editors note: I need to photoshop Sister O's photo to make the booth blue- a proper TARDIS

"Oh no! I am being attacked by a giant snail..."

This was hilarious to us.  Gotta love missionary humor :)