And A Happy New Year!

So how does a sister missionary spend her Christmas week in Osnabrück??

Christmas just kind of sneaks up on you as a missionary.  We don't really have the build up of anticipation. The whole pre-Christmas season was kind of anticlimactic.  It was pretty much just normal work days.  We just changed our approaches to focus on Christ's  birth.  

We spent some time writing Christmas cards for the members and wrapping gifts for our investigators.  We just turned on some Christmas tunes and wrapped away.  It brought some normalcy to our Christmas activities.  That was nice.  After we were done we planned out some delivery routes.  We almost got to all of them, but we still have a few lingering gifts on our table...

We started our Christmas eve afternoon at a devotional with our ward.  There were some great musical numbers and some fun Christmas stories and poems.  It was fun to see all the members and wish everyone a merry Christmas.  Our members are so generous and we left the devotional with so many thoughtful sweet gifts.

We spent our Christmas eve with a member eating potato salad and wurst.  That is typical German Heiligabend food. 

The 24th is the day when Germans open up all the presents.  We wanted to participate in the fun tradition, but we also wanted to have presents to open on Christmas morning.  So we compromised.  We opened all of our Deutscher presents on Christmas Eve and then we saved our packages from home for our Christmas Day. 

We spent our Christmas with Gossels.  We ate really yummy food, played Settlers of Catan, and had a tiny jam sesh.  It was absolutely perfect!

 A Christmas Tree with Candles!

The best part of the day was most definitely Skyping home!   It was so fun to talk to my family and to see all of their faces.  Pearl's hair is so long and she looks so grown up. Maddie was wearing a fuzzy purple jumpsuit with pom poms. Gracie updated me on the latest drama in the 5th grade.  Kai showed me the boxes for all of his lego sets at least 5 times each.  The little girls got dolls for Christmas too.  It was so fun to see what everyone got.  It made me feel like I was right there with them.  

Here's a funny Skyping story!   

While I was skyping, Präsident Gossel came up to check and make sure the computer and skype and everything was working ok. At the time only Kai, Grace, and Pearl were on the screen.  I thought I had told him about my siblings, but I am pretty sure I haven't.  He walked in and looked at the screen and then asked me in a super puzzled voice who I was skyping.  I told him that it was my family and then the whole family quickly gathered around the screen to say hi. He said hi and wished them a merry Christmas and then went back downstairs.  Sister Hayden told me that he came back down and asked her more about it.  

The whole thing was just super funny.  He was just taken by surprise to walk in and find Sister Brown skyping with Asians :) 

As a mission, we just finished reading the Book of Mormon.  I had also made it a goal to finish Jesus the Christ. I started awhile ago, but it is a serious pursuit for someone who doesn't particularly like to read.  I was able to finish them both on Christmas Eve.  I learned a lot and my testimony of the Savior and His Atonement was definitely strengthened.  

I want all of you to know that I have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that He lives and that He loves me and all of you and all of the people here in Germany.  I know that He wants the best for us.  He wants to help us.  I know that He suffered for everything I will ever go through so He knows exactly how I feel.  That means I am never alone. 

I am so thankful for Jesus Christ.  I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be here in Germany and serving Him.  I am grateful for the chance to put on a name tag every day with my name right next to His.  

I wish you all a great week and a happy new year!!

Love,

Sister Brown

This weekend is transfer calls.  I am getting pretty nervous.  I have been here in Osnabrück since May so it might be time for a new area.  I have some places I would love to go and then also a few that I have black listed.  President Kosak told us all to stop submitting transfer wishes so this time it is all up to revelation :)  We will see...

During the Christmas holidays we are allowed to have longer member visits.  We used this extra time to  learn how to knit.  B K is a knitting master.  She attempted to teach me this week.  Sister Hayden is also pretty pro.  She just needed a few reminders and then she was off!

I was not.

I think B realized that she had her work cut out for her when it took me like 15 minutes and 500 tries to get the first knot made.  It was tying a string around a stick!!  It should not have been so hard.  I would like to blame it on the fact that I am a leftie and had to figure it all out backwards or on the fact that I was being taught in German, but those are weak excuses.  I just can't knit.  B should win an award for her patience and teaching skills.

At the end of the knitting sesh Sister Hayden held up her creation and B commended her for her efforts.  The stitches looked so even and her rows lined up.  She had done great!  Then we all looked at my mess of knots and twists with a gaping hole in the middle...

I was told that it just takes practice so I have been working on it.  It is kind of hard to develop new skills like knitting with all this nonexistent free time that I have, but I will work on it.  One day I will send B a picture of a knitted creation and she will know her efforts were not completely wasted.   

Christmas Eve Devotional

 O Holy Night 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

But it is just a dream. We have blue skies and sun!  

No complaints from this missionary!!!!

We had a lot of appointments fall out.  A LOT!  Like record setting numbers.  We are thinking it was just because of the holidays.  We are thinking things will pick back up in a week or so.  

I had an awesome tausch with Sister Sykes. She is the sister who took me finding on my first day in Berlin.  We just had a blast.  

We had an appointment with B.  Her transition has gone so smoothly.  The members have taken over her new member lessons.  This week her home teachers taught her the first lesson.  They asked her what a prophet was. She explained using examples from the Book of Mormon.  Then later when they asked her about Joseph Smith she told them the whole Joseph Smith story and her testimony.  It was so powerful.  Nothing strengthens your testimony more than hearing the testimony of someone you have taught!  It was amazing.  It is moments like that, that make the craziness of a mission so worth it.

We got a referral from the office this week.  It was a lady who was in Berlin and just walked into one of the buildings.  The missionaries just happened to be there and talked with her for a minute.  They got her information and sent it to us because she lives in our area. We tried to contact it this week.  We were in a rural area with lots of little cottages and farm land.  We found the street but we couldn't find the number for the address they gave us.  It was tricky too because some of the houses didn't have numbers. We got to the end of the street and we looked up to see a huge house. It was seriously a mansion.  It had a courtyard and fountains and was so beautiful.  Sister Hayden and I both kind of joked that we had found the house.  

We walked up to it and were just in awe of how beautiful it was.  We decided we would do a door approach just to see if we could get let in. The outside was so amazing and we both wanted to see the inside of it.  So we klingeled.  

A lady came and answered the door.  We gave her our Book of Mormon door approach.  She told us that the head of the house wasn't home. Then a man came around the corner.  He asked what we were doing.  We gave him our card and he saw that we were Mormons.  He told us how he had just been reading the Book of Mormon upstairs.  

Sister Hayden and I both just looked at each other. We were shocked!  This was officially the craziest door approach ever!

He let us in and we had a good talk.  We found out that his girlfriend was the lady in Berlin.  We had found the referral!  It was a crazy crazy day!

(and the inside of the mansion is even better than the outside!!)

This Sunday was the farewell from L.  Zweig Osnabrück now has three Elders out on missions.  It has been quite a fun experience to watch them all prepare for their missions and to now see them go out all over the world to serve the Lord.  It has brought the missionary spirit to this branch. The members are so excited to do missionary work.  After church on Sunday a member came up and gave us a Christmas card.  Inside were the names of 4 of his friends and family members who he wants us to help him share the gospel with.  When the members and the missionaries work together like this the work just flies!  

We did finding this week.  Klar.  We do finding every week.  This week we tried to use Christmas approaches.  We thought it would be a good idea to talk to people about Christ and Christmas seeing as it is in just a few days.  We found so many Christmas haters.  

I wish you all a very merry Christmas!  Open lots of presents and drink lots of hot chocolate and build a snow man for me!! 

Love,

Sister Brown

Hamburg Zone Konference

Birthdays, Broken teeth, and Baptisms

Family,

So much good news this week!

First of all, I got my tooth fixed!  Awhile ago I was eating chocolate in a bus. Everything was fine until I heard a crunch.  After a quick investigation I discovered the "crunch" was my tooth.  I was chewing my own tooth.  A massive chunk of my front tooth was gone.  

So for the past while I have been wandering around Osnabrück with a pirate tooth.  The Elders gave me a theme song:

Hey, I just met you

Yes, my tooth is crazy

But here's our number

Get baptized maybe?!

It was kind of funny at first, but then it was just my life....

It took some time to get everything worked out, but this week we were finally able to go to the dentist and get it fixed. I was so scared!  I hate going to the dentist at home.  I was super worrieed about my German too. They didn't teach us Dentist vocab at the MTC...

Everything went alright.  After an hour, a few x ray pictures, a shot, and a visit from the blue blinking light all was well!  

Still a little numb.....

I also had a birthday!!!!!!

The members were all so sweet.  It was fun to get hugs and hand shakes all day long.  We had an eating appointment with the G's. We ate raclette.  We used this fancy stove thing where you cook meat on the top.  Then everyone has a shovel that they fill with veggies and cheese and sauces.  Then you put it under the meat girll and it gets all melty.  When it is all done you throw it together on potatoes and eat it!  It was super yummy!!

After we ate, we had a small sing along of Christmas tunes.  

Then we all voyaged back to church for the First Presidency Christmas devotional.  It was really great and I was thankful we got to see that.

Then Sister Hayden and I went home and partied it up Elder Dallin Solomon style.  We hurried and finished our planning so we could enjoy a The Testaments movie night. We baked the pumpkin mix my family sent too becuase what is a movie night without treats?!?

We also had the ward Christmas party.  There were almost as many nonmembers there as members.  It was super impressive.  We had a lot of our investigators come but the members also did a lot of their own missionary work.  They brought neighbors, coworkers, and friends.  It was a great night.

We weren't quite sure what to expect. It was most defnintely the fanciest ward christmas party I have ever been to.  There was a large program of classical musical numbers, poetry, and scripture reading.  We all sat and watched by candle light and drank tea and ate cookies. 

{We met with Herr W this week.  We played something at the ward Christmas party together so we set up a time to practice.  As part of the practice jam sesh we played Bach double and Pachelbel Canon.  All I can say is that it made my soul happy. I was seriously smiling the whole rest of the day.  

We also taught him about prayer.  He seemed to really listen and take it in.  Maybe he will have gospel interest after all!

I sure hope so, because the jam sesh friendship is blossoming :)

Oh and G's gave me a violin shoulder rest for my birthday!  Best.Gift.Ever!  I have totally upgraded from the sponge :)}

 Herr W and his wife

Then der Weihnachtsmann came with his list and his bag of treats.  He also came with Sklave Rupret.  It was so fun to watch.  The kids all went up one at a time and had to sing or recite a poem in order to get their gift. 

The Bad Bentheim Elders have a baptism this weekend and one scheduled for next weekend.  Our Osnabrück Elders have one scheduled for the week after that.   Sister Hayden and I found the man our Elders are working with. We were so excited to get the news this week that he had set a baptismal date!  White Christmas!!!!!

I have no more time!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Brown

And I send my apologies for the lack of spell check...Good luck!

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof Döner

Warning! This is a LONG one :)

President Kosak has a quote that he loves to share with us:

"God will put prepared people in the way of his prepared servants who want to share the Gospel."

~President Eyring

I have gained a testimony of this on my mission.  Especially while working with B.  I want to share her story with you all.

B's mom had a coworker who was a member of the church, Bruder  B.  They built a friendship and did a lot together.  He would occasionally talk about the church, but she wasn't ever really interested, but they remained friends.  About a year ago B's mom died.  Bruder B helped out with funeral arrangements and took time to explain to B that he knew where she could find peace and that he would tell her more when she was ready.  They stayed in good contact and recently she began to ask questions.  So Bruder B decided she was ready for the missionaries.  So he called our GML (ward mission leader) Bruder H and asked if there were sisters in Osnabrück.

[Enter Sister Brown and Sister Hayden]

One morning we got a call from Bruder H.  He told us that he had a referal for us and that he had already made out an appointment with her.  He gave us what limited information he had and then said, "Sisters, we have one shot with her.  Don't mess this up!"

 I can honestly say I have never been so nervous for an appointment.  It was hard to plan what to share when we knew so little about her.  We weren't even sure if she would let us in!  Sister Hayden and I prayed and prayed to know what to say.  Referrals are tricky. The members are trusting us with people they love.  We want to do our best to be trustworthy.  It is a hefty thing!  With B we all felt an added pressure.

The day of the appointment came.  She lives just around the corner from us, but it was quite the nerve wracking walk! We klingeled and she let us in and then invited us in.  She had seats all set up and tea ready for us to drink.  We got to know her and introduced ourselves. We explained why we are here in Deutschland and what we do as missionaries.  We briefly introduced the Book of Mormon and then read with her Alma 7:11-13.  We bore our testimonies of Jesus Christ and how we know that this is His church.  We invited her to come to church.  She said she would come.

And she did.

It was a fast Sunday and we all just prayed that the testimonies would stay focused on the gospel...  Our prayers were answered and it was an uplifting meeting.

We set up appointments to go by in the week.  She was always so eager to learn.  Every time we came, we would start out by answering her prepared list of questions.  She was really pondering about what we were teaching.  She was also ready to apply it.   She kept  ever commitment we gave her. Every. Single. One.  She was so open and willing to try.  Her faith was a great example to me.

We invited her to baptism when we explained Moroni's promise at the end of the Book of Mormon.   We asked her if she would be baptized when she received her answer that these things were true.  She said yes.  We knew the answer would come soon enough.

At the next appointment, she talked about a spring baptism.   We discussed baptism a little more and why it is important and why she wanted to be baptized.  At the end of our talk we invited her to a specific date.  We had really prayed to know when she would be ready.  The answer we got was the 7 of  December.  When we invited her to this date it tested our faith too.  It was only two weeks away and just a few minutes before she was planning a baptism in 3 or 4 months.

We invited and then waited.  She looked at us and thought about it for a minute.  Then she said, "The 7th is a Saturday.  I have to work all day because of our Christmas sale.  Do you think we could do it on the 6th?"

There is B for you :)

So we continued meeting and planned a baptism.

What really impressed me through this whole experience was just how prepared she was.  Her whole teaching process, from our first visit to her baptism, was just 35 days.  She was prepared a little by Bruder B through the past year and also the years before that.  He was a great example of what a member of the Church is. He also shared the Gospel with her and invited her, when she was ready, to learn more.

She had also, in a way, prepared herself.   She has done a lot of research of other religions.  She was baptized Evangelisch as a baby, but when it was time for her Konfirmirung she decided not to go through with it because she knew that some of the doctrines weren't right.  She visited a lot of different Christian churches and even tried out Buddhism.  She was on a search for the truth.  She had also chosen a lifestyle that prepared her for the Gospel.  She doesn't smoke or drink alcohol and she lives the Law of Chastity.  She was a self proclaimed "coffee junkie"  but gave that up a week before our first appointment.

Crazy timing right?!?!?......  ;)

She was just ready for baptism.  Planning the whole thing probably gave me grey hair.  There was so much to organise and a huge to do list.  We encountered problems with the water heater.  Sister Hayden and I spent our afternoon heating water in the kitchen to fill up the font.  We got a system going with the stove, microwave, and water cookers.  Somehow we ended up with a font full of warm water!  It may have been a little hectic but things worked out, as they always do.  By the time she got there in her beautiful white dress, the chaos was passed.

The meeting was so great!  My favorite part was being able to stand at the top of the stairs leading to the font with my cute companion and watch someone we have grown to love be baptized.  She looked so bright and happy as she walked up the stairs out of the water.  We asked her how it was and she said, with an enormous smile, "Herrlich!
" 

That, it was!

On Sunday, she received the Holy Ghost.  The blessing was so wonderful.  The spirit was there so strong.  I attempted to write pieces down so that she could have it.  I ended up with a stack of sticky notes and a mess of shorthand denglish to decipher...

My favorite part of  Sunday was when our branch president stood up after the confirmation and welcomed her to the ward.  Then we all raised our hands to show our love and support.  It was cool to see the whole ward ready to support their newest member.  I am just so excited for B and I know she will be such a solid member!  (She invited her nonmember friends to her baptism and is already planning what she will do for the ward Christmas talent show :)

She called us this morning, but we didn't quite get to the phone fast enough.  She left us a message that starts out, "Hallo Sisters!  Hier ist Schwester B K..."

That melted our little hearts.  We will be sure not to delete that anytime soon.

I am so thankful for the opportunity I have had to get to know B K.  She is amazing and a great example to me.  Helping her gain a testimony has strengthened mine.  It has been quite the humbling experience to see how the Lord can use a 19 year old crazy who pretends to speak German, to bring His children the Gospel.  I just have to try my best and somehow He helps fill in the holes so that my best is good enough.

I am doing missionary work and seeing miracles everyday!

And that is that!

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Brown

This was our taufe (baptism) gift

Ritter Sport- she loves really really dark chocolate

Tea- we drink all of her tea everytime we go over there

Towel- we got her a nice new white towel for her baptism

Note- we both wrote down our testimonies for her

Friday!

Friday Friday Bap-Ti-Sm on Friday

Everybodys lookin' forward to the weekend weekend :)

B****** will be baptized on Friday!!!

We are really planning a baptism!  Sunday after church we tried on the clothing.  This morning we filled out the recommend.  We have the program set.  We learned how to turn on the water AND the water heaters.  After email time we are going to find the perfect taufe gift!  I am so excited!  

We had a great experience this week with planning by the Spirit.  We have been working with a less active member named Schwester B******.  We were planning one night and both had the idea to go by on her.  The problem was that the time slot we were trying to fill was 12-2 in the afternoon and she works until 7:30 at night.  There was no way she would be home.  We both just really felt like we needed to be there.  So we planned it in.  

Then the next morning we got a call from a member.  He  gave us the names of two of his friends that he wanted us to go by on.  He wanted us to do it ASAP and asked if we could get it done that day.  We said we would try, but weren't sure, because of our other appointments, if we would make it.  Then we hung up the phone and looked up the two addresses.

Where did they live?

Around the corner from Schwester B******!

We were able to contact them both that day.  It is always a cool experience to realize that God has a plan.  It happens so often on a mission, but it is still so powerful. It is also cool to learn that when we just act on the promptings He gives us, that we will be able to find out what His plan is.   We knew we needed to be in Sonnen Hügel that afternoon, we just didn't know why.  So we put ourselves in a position to be there and He showed us what we needed to do.

The church is true!

So this week was Thanksgiving!  Happy Thanksgiving, family!!
We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Osnabrück.  There is one American family in our ward and they invited us over.  We had a perfect American thanksgiving dinner.  Sister Frehner had made cranberry stuffing,  fruit salad, potatoes, turkey, roasted vegetables, sweet potato cupcakes, and even lion house rolls.  The rolls were probably my favorite because they reminded me of my cute mom!  

It was a really nice lunch and we were all so thankful for the invite.  It was fun to be with a family eating turkey on thanksgiving, even if it isn't your own family...  

We aren't allowed to play card games but we played a few rounds of Catch Phrase because they have the electronic game.  It was fun but I think the Cobabe/Brown Catch Phrase battles still win ;)

Christmas has hit Germany in full force! 

It is now Dezember so we are officially in the advents time. So pretty much every day is a holiday.  And Osnabrück got a weihnachtsmarkt!  Germany at Christmas time is awesome!  I am a huge fan of the winter teas and also lebkuchen (soft gingerbread covered in chocolate).  Pretty much a match made in heaven!

Enjoy your Christmas preparations in America!

I love you all!!

Love,
Sister Brown

Oh and this week I saw polizei on horses.  

Mind Blown!

More photos from the Zoo

District Bad Bentheim

The Weihnachtsmarkt came to Osnabrück!! It is basically a bunch of little stands that sell food and Christmas decorations and toys.  There are lights and Christmas music all over. There are even carnival rides.  it is so magical!!

Post!  My favorite thing to see :)