I have super exciting news to share!!!

G will be baptized next Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He told Sister Nilson yesterday in sacrament meeting that he thought he got his answer. He was ready and so excited so after church we had the interview and everything is set for the 1st of February! 

I should probably back up and tell you the whole story.

  

So the sisters found G while doing doors in a student apartment building.  They were dooring with a new member.  They weren't seeing any success and the recent convert was thinking that missionary work was a fail.  So they stopped and prayed that they could find someone.  The next door they knocked on was an African man who wasn't super interested either, but he told them to stop by his friends to see if they were.

So they did and they found G and his friend R.  They are from Rwanda and were here studying sports medicine at the university.  They were both excited to learn more about Jesus Christ.  They said they had been looking for a church, but none of the German ones they had been visiting made them feel good.  

So they started coming to church, family home evening, institute, and lessons with the sisters. R was a little more hesitant, but G was always so eager to learn.  We knew that he had a testimony.  We had watched it grow.  He just didn't recognize it.  He was totally ready for baptism.  We were just waiting and praying for him to recognize his answer. 

So that takes us to yesterday when he told us he wanted to be baptized.  We met with him during Sunday school and asked him what had made the difference. We had given him a list of scriptures in the Book of Mormon.   He told us that he had read all the scriptures and then even more.  He really wanted to know if the book was true.  Then he prayed and prayed for his answer.  He still wasn't sure, but he kept reading and then he told us that it came.  He said that he felt it.  He just knew it was true.  By the time he was done with this testimony there was not a dry eye in the room.

The two things we still needed to go over were tithing and the word of wisdom.  Tithing was the topic in sacrament meeting and the Sunday school teacher had prepared a lesson on the word of wisdom.  The Lord has a plan!!   So we met and briefly went over both and then he had his interview.  

He flies back to Rwanda on Sunday.  We are working hard this week to get in contact with the missionaries there. We  knew it was coming because he is just a student here.  Once the semester is over, he will go back home.  We had heard the church is still really small in Rwanda so we were nervous about the move for him.  He found the church and it is less than a 10 minute walk from his house. 

 

We are so excited for him to go back and share the gospel with his family and friends.  We know he will be a great asset to the growing Church in Rwanda.  He told us that his program here at the university hadn't really worked out.  It wasn't what he thought it would be at all.  He told us that he thinks the whole reason he came to Germany was to meet us and join the church.  

It is always so crazy to sit back and watch how the Lord's plans work out!!!!

So there is G and his miraculous story.  

I am so thankful that I have got to play a tiny role in his journey to find the gospel.  He is an amazing guy and has definitely strengthened my testimony. 

 

There is my news for the week!  

We also went to the temple.  We were running super late because we got stuck behind a slow truck and the roads were slow and icy.  We pulled into the parking lot with 6 minutes until the session started.  We ran into the temple and the sweet temple workers helped us get everything ready.  

It was one of the coolest experiences I have had in the temple and on my mission.  That building is just a special place. It was amazing!

It has been a good (freezing cold) week.  

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Brown

Liebe Familie,

This week President Kosak came out with our new Standards of Excellence.  (These are our mission wide goals for things like monthly baptisms and progressing investigators.)  There are some pretty daunting numbers in the mix.

To be completely honest, I wasn't totally on board.  

I believe President is an inspired man and I know we can see miracles here in Germany.  It was just super overwhelming to hear these new numbers.  They are two, three, four times as big!  We were struggling to hit the old numbers!

So I tried to be as open minded as I possibly could.  I came to a conclusion that I need to change two things:

1. the way I work

2. my faith

The first one is easy.  Sister Nilson sat down and looked at where we need to improve.  Then we set goals and made plans.  One area we want to do better is our finding.  We were promised in General Conference that if we want to teach more, we need to talk to more people.  So we recommitted ourselves to talk to everyone.  

Then the second one....Faith...I need more faith.  What does that even mean?!?

Faith is so abstract.  I am a list maker and a box checker.  I needed a concrete plan so I studied everything on faith that I could find.  We have quite a bit of study time on the mish.  I won't share everything that I found.  That would eat up all my email time!  

Basically what I got was that God has a plan for each one of us.  As part of this plan we will be required to do things.  Sometimes we will not want to do them and sometimes we will not totally understand the reasons why.  And sometimes we may not think the things asked of us are possible.  We need to just do them anyway.  

That is where the faith comes in.  We obey and do something because we know God is there and he loves us and it is what He wants us to do.  This is that "experimenting" in Alma 32 that I have shared with every investigator ever.  It all clicked in my head as I studied this week.  Mega light bulb moment!

During this studying I came across a talk that I just loved. 

A Time for Faith not Fear

In it I found a quote from Boyd K Packer

 “Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness.”

So what will we do this week in Leipzig?

We will take that step into the dark.  We will write bigger goals in our planners.  We will give out more cards and books.  We will talk to more people.  And we will most definitely pray a lot more.  

I wish you all a happy last week in January!

Love,

Sister Brown

We made Pizza and had sprach studium with an investigator A on Friday night.

Goodbyes and Hellos

So I left Osnabrück.  

It was really hard to say goodbye.  I took the long train ride to Leipzig and basically just remembered all my fun memories in Osnabrück and cried.  And then cried some more.  I was glad it was a long train ride!  

And then somewhere between Melle and Halle I came to terms with it all.  Transfers happen.  That is part of missionary work.  I am now working with  Sister Nilson in Leipzig because that is where the Lord needs me to be.

I learned so much in Osnabrück and I am so thankful for the people there and everything they have taught me.  

Schwester A taught me to endure trials with faith.  I remember sitting at her table on Christmas Eve.  There were no Christmas decorations and no tree.  She is going through some really hard things Right now.  She sat with us and just smiled and told us that she knew that God loved her and had a plan.  I asked her how she could have such a strong testimony even when she was going through so many difficult challenges.   She just looked at me and smiled again and said, "That is the test of a 'test'imony."  

Bruder H taught me how to always be a good example and how to be a missionary for life.  He is probably the best member missionary I have ever met.

Schwester B taught me how to be a good friend.  She was always there for anyone that needed her regardless of the time of day or how busy she was or her own personal struggles.  

Schwester W taught me how to serve.  That is all she does.  I learned so much through watching her serve others so selflessly.

And sweet B.  She taught me the most of all.  She taught me how to act on our faith.  She taught me how to just choose the right.  Once you know that it is true, there is no other option.  She is a great example to me of having a desire to be like our Savior.  

I learned so much in Onsabrück.  I learned to do things I didn't necessarily want to do.  I learned to work with the members.  I learned to be obedient.  I learned to trust in the Lord.

And now I am in Leipzig.

It is fun to be in a big city again.  I love riding the bahns and seeing the enormous buildings.  There are always people to talk to and so much going on.  It reminds me of my fun days in Berlin.  I am working with Sister Nilson.  She is so sweet and we are having so much fun! There are 10 missionaries in Leipzig so it is super fun to all owrk together.

We had two investigators at church on Sunday and after they were invited to a member's house for lunch.  We had a good member appointment and they thought of some friends to invite over for dinner with us.  We also met with a less active who came to church this Sunday too.  We gave a birthday card to one of the "sterner" ward members.  He smiled so big and then talked to us about his son who lives in Provo.  I don't know this man very well but Sister Nilson said that is mega progress!!

So the work goes on here in the east as well :)

I love you all

Love,

Sister Brown

Oh and a PS

Transfer calls are inspired!!

My tooth chipped again right before I had to leave.  I called the dentist I went to in Osnabrück but they couldnt get me in for weeks.  I called Sister Kosak becuase I didnt know what to do.  She told me that there is a member dentist in one of the Leipzig wards.  So I came here and found him and got my tooth fixed.  

Pirate tooth is gone...again!

The little girl is Lucie. 

She is Bruder F's granddaughter and got to help out holding the blue light and the suction tube!

I'll go where you want me to go

I have been transfered.  I'm headed to Leipzig!  Goin' deep east...

I will let you know how it goes!

Love,

Sister Brown

PS Goodbyes are NO fun!

T and P. T bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday that she wants to prepare to go on a mission so that one day she can be a Sister too.  I will miss these two.  Even if they did always steal my name tags... :)

 Saying goodbye to B

Sister Hayden and Sister Brown

Heiligabend (Christmas Eve)

Osnabrück on New Years Eve

Bruder Habermann, the ward mission leader (GML) in Osnabrück, emailed these photos to give us an idea of the party that happened there on New Years!