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!