Distrikt Bad Bentheim

So family, transfer calls came and went.  

I am still in Osnabrück.  

I am thrilled!!!!  I am so grateful for a little more time to work here.  I feel like we are seeing a lot of progress and are right on the edge with a lot of our investigators.  We have really worked hard to build up relationships and trust and are now seeing the results.

Miracles for days!

That is all!

Have a great week.
Love,
Sister Brown

Keep on Rolling :)

Mormon 8:218:22

Fam

This week I found a new favorite word:

Ausflippen

It means to freak out.  

I'm going to use that a lot!

I also got going 120 mph in a super sweet car on the autobahn.

I have been on a wurst kick.  I eat it multiple times a day.  That is quite something considering how I didn't eat anything closely resembling sausage before this mish adventure.
Look at me go, Germany!

We talked to so many people this week.  We found and found and found.  We got quite a few new contacts so we are praying something will come of that.

We just went to work.  

We would load our pockets full of cards in the morning and then talk to people and give them out all day long.

We also got to watch the last session of General Conference.  President Monson rockin' the purple tie!  It was quite the sesh.

Fall is under way here in Germany.  The leaves are all changing and we crunch them as we walk around all day.  We have made some fun plans for Halloween.  We are hoping to find pumpkins big enough to carve.  Germans aren't so big on the pumpkin thing.  We can only find baby ones.  And there is not a can of pumpkin in sight :)

There is already Christmas stuff in the stores. It seems pretty early, but when you don't have Halloween or Thanksgiving getting in the way then there is really nothing stopping you!   I am getting so excited.  I hope I get to stay here in Osnabrück.  I have heard they have one of the best weinachtsmarkts in northern Germany.

Well that is all for this week.

I am wishing you happy autumn wishes from Osnabrück!
Love you all

Love,
Sister Brown

Spreading Sunshine!

GeneralKonferenz

So this weekend was conference.  It was absolutely amazing.  I am so thankful for the crazy technology that makes it all possible.  We were able to watch a few of the sessions live.   We  haven't seen Sunday Afternoon yet but hopefully we will soon.  Sometimes the translations are a little funny.  Especially when someone makes a pun or when President Monson quotes a poem but overall it is pretty impressive.

We witnessed a few General Conference miracles this weekend as well.

We started the Stop Smoking workshop with Schwester M*****.  We found a new investigator named N*****.  We had an appointment fall out with G**** but then through a miraculous case of being at the right place at the right time we made contact again.  It turns out she missed our appointment because she had a crazy day of things out of her control and not simply because she blew us off. 

But I saved the best for last. 

Frau K******* and Bruder J***** came to conference!! 

 

I repeat Frau K******* came to conference!  

We were sitting and talking with some members when our sweet elders poked thier heads in and said "Sisters you need to get out here.  Frau K******* is here!"  My heart seriously jumped.  I flew out of my chair and down the hallway.  And yes.  There she was.  Just standing there all dressed up with Bruder J*****.  It was a conference miracle! 

 

We watched the Saturday morning session with them (which was really our Saturday night).  President Uchtdorf's talk at the end about joining the church or coming back was seriously an answer to our prayers.  

After we had a chance to talk with them and it went really well.  They both said how good they felt and that they had really enjoyed it.  Then we continued to talk with Frau K******* and I watched Bruder J***** walk over to the wall and grab a tithing slip and envelope and put them in his pocket.  Later I also found out that he talked to the Elders Quorum president and would like to get a home teaching assignment.

 

It is such an amazing feeling to watch people change their lives to follow Christ. 

I love it.

That is all

Love,

Sister Brown

We had another district Pday at the Bad Bentheim castle.

It was awesome.

Maybe more pics next week?

Skills

Familie!

So we got a new GML (ward mission leader) last week and so this week we met on Thursday to talk about our investigators and goals and missionary stuff like that.  We left the meeting and were heading home when we got a text from out GML informing us that he found a joint teach for one of our appointments for the next day.  We hadn't even made it to the bus stop yet!  He is so on top of things.  GML Skills!

We met with a lot of our new investigators this week.  

It is always fun to be able to meet with new people and refreshing to add some new names to the teaching pool.

  

We met with A** again and after a crazy long intense discussion about God he committed to pray.  That is a huge step!  We also met with Frau R*****.  Her uncle is a member and lives in Utah.  She knew so much about the church and had a lot of questions about the Restoration.  She said she would read in the Book of Mormon so progress there too. 

My favorite (If I am allowed to have favorites) was probably our appointment with G****.  She is so cool.  We just found her walking down the street with her stroller.  She is a single mom and her son is 3. She has a really strong Christian background and has had some hard trials recently.  I am so excited for the chance we have to help show her how the Gospel can help her and her son.

One thing I have learned on my mission is that sometimes it takes hard times or trials for people to be ready for the gospel.  A lot of the conversion stories I hear happened after the person lost everything.  It takes that humbling experience sometimes to realize that we do need something else.  When everything is all good we hear "I have no time" or "I don't need that."  But when the people need help they are much more likely to listen to us.

 

This week was just a good one.  

We had a bus adventure to Hagen and everything actually went well.  We took the right bus to the right stop and found the house we needed.  Bus Skills!  

I also dreamed my first dream in German.  I was on a train talking to people.  It sounds boring but it wasn't because WE WERE SPEAKING GERMAN!!

I also cut my own hair.  Never thought I'd be brave enough for that one.  Look what this mish thing is doing for me!  :)  Sister Hayden and I both needed trims so bad but I was way too scared because all of the other sisters have told us so many horror stories.  So we just sat on the kitchen floor and did it ourselves.  Hair Skills! 

I am so excited for General Conference.  It was so fun to hear everyone's letters about the Relief Society session.  They are rebroadcasting it here on Saturday.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to hear the words of our prophets!  A member in our ward made us pretty awesome invitations that we have been giving out to pretty much everyone we see.  You all better watch it too!!

Talk to you all next week!

Love,

Sister Brown

(I can't find the little flag to go at the end of my email today...Apologies for the lack of computer skills :)

We were standing at a bus stop after a crazy long day and I pulled out a ritter sport from my bag and offered Sister Hayden a square.

Sister Hayden: "Danke"

Sister Brown: "Bitte"

Sister Hayden: "Bitter!"

Both of Us: dying of laughter at the clever chocolate pun.

I think we were both super tired....

Familie,

We had a great week this week.   It is almost Oktoberfest time so all week we have been seeing plenty of people walking around in their lederhosen and dirndls.  What more could we ask for?!?!

This week was Zone Konferenz in Hannover.  It was great and I learned a lot.  President Kosak set a goal for our mission to help 150 people come unto Christ through baptism before the end of hte year.  It is a pretty hefty goal.  I know he set it in faith though and I believe we can make it. We will most definitely be having a white Christmas!  

We also focused on a different way to find.  Often when we go door to door or do street contacting we get in the mode of simply handing out cards.  We call it OYMs.  (Open your mouth)  We just try to talk to people.  That is great but we don't always see success from that. The people aren't super likely to even call us.  Sister Kosak asked us to switch our focus from that of simply handing our cards out, to inviting these people to learn more.  Now they are called ITLs (invitation to learn)  I like that and it works.  

We got a new GML (ward mission leader) this week.  He is super excited for missionary work and already does so much.  I am looking forward to the chance to work with him.  I think with us, him, and the elders all working together we can really start to see some miracles here in Osnabrück.

I am gaining a strong testimony of obedience.  When we obey we are blessed.  Simple as that.  We have seen so much success in the past week and I really think it is because we have been striving for obedience.  Some times I don't want to and it is almost always easier to break rules than to follow them but i know that when we obey we see blessings.

We have seen a lot this week.  

We got lots of teaching in this week.  People we went by on were home.  People picked up the phone when we called.  People we stopped on the street actually had interest in talking with us.  We got a few new investigators and also a growing list of contacts.  We have a busy week of appointments ahead of us.  

One of our biggest miracles came after our termin with D***** fell out.  We were kind of bummed because she has been pretty fest lately.  We decided we could spend the time finding.  So we hit the streets for awhile.  Then we were just standing at a bus stop and a woman comes up and asks "Since when have there been sisters here in Osnabrück?"  After recovering from a temporary shock we responded "How do you know the Sisters?" 

It turns out that she was an investigator like 7 years ago and was almost baptized and then her husband died.  It was really hard for her and she took some time to figure things out.  In the process, she loss contact with the  missionaries.  Then today she found us at the bus stop. She told us that she would always meet with the missionaries with her daughter and just the other day they were talking and her daughter mentioned how fun that was. 

We have an appointment with them both for this week!

We also met with Frau K******* this week.  We really got some stuff cleared up.  I was a little nervous going into the lesson because we didn't have as solid of a plan as I would have liked.  But it went well.  We asked a lot of questions and then just really listened.  I felt like by listening to her and the Holy Ghost both me and my companion were able to know what to say. 

She has told us she wants to be baptized but there are still a lot of obstacles in the way.

  

Sometimes it is easy to see those and get a little frustrated or overwhelmed.  In this appointment she told us she still wants to be baptized and in that moment, looking into her eyes I totally felt it.  It was like a little confirmation that it is possible.  It was such a cool experience.  

We just had good week!

Thanks for all the ZOKO post that I found waiting for me. 

I really do have the best family ever!

I love you all so much.

Make it a great week!

Love,

Sister Brown

 Zone Konferenz September 2013

 The Benavidez Family pillowcase arrived!!!

This is the bakery next door. She thinks they mean baking with friends and not actually

 Hansel and Gretel-style baking friends ;)

 "We made cookies. It was an adventure in conversions.  

We also made our own brown sugar so just call us little German Betty Crockers!"

When it rains, it pours

Meine Leibe Familie,

I realized how lame last week's email was so I will try to do better this week...

First of all Happy Birthday shout out to Kai Man.  Sister Hayden and I totally sang to him.  I sure hope he heard it :)

We also experienced probably my biggest mission mess up so far.  

We were on our lunch break and were just in the kitchen getting some food made.  Then the power went out.  Sometimes it happens when we have too much going on so we went to the little box and pushed the normal buttons.  Nothing happened.  We called our hausmeister who happened to be on vacation.  So he sent his son over to help us.  His son is 19 and loves to practice his English with us.  He came and got it working again.  So we went back to cooking.  Then seriously like 30 seconds later the power was off again.  We dashed out the door to catch him.  We ran out to the street but he was gone.  

We thought it was a bummer that we had missed him but decided we could just call him.  It was then that we turned around and realized that, in our flustered dash out the door, we had locked ourselves out.  Our keys, phones, bus passes, wallets, and even our shoes were still inside.  We klingled the whole building hoping someone could let us in but no one was home.
We knew the spare key was at the church so after waiting for awhile we decided just to walk there.  So we did.  We walked ourselves all the way to the church in the pouring rain without shoes on.  We looked like crazies!!!   It was the first time in my mission that we have looked for streets WITHOUT people on them.  

We finally got to the church but needed a key to get in to get the spare.  We ended up just stopping people and asking to use their phones.  We found one lady who let us use hers.  The mission numbers are all the same and then the last 4 digits change.  Luckily I knew the elders number and luckily they picked up.  

They were pretty surprised that it was us calling from the unknown number and even more surprised to hear about our predicament.  They came and unlocked the building for us and we got the key.  

I was grateful for their help but I am positive I will never live this one down!

We also did some missionary work this week :)

We did a lot of finding.  A LOT of finding.  

We had an appointment with D******.  Earlier we had tried to make contact but it was hard and then our appointments always fell out.  Last week we had one scheduled and she called to cancel on us.  It was bad news that it was canceled but good news that she was actually letting us know and scheduling another one.  

We went this week and gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read in it.  She is such a loving lady and serves so many people.  I think she is really ready to hear the Gospel.

We also had a member call us and ask if we would go by on a less active member.   The crazy thing was that earlier in the day we had rearranged our plans to go by the very same member.  I think she really needed us to go by.  Sometimes we just feel like we need to do something different and it is always cool to have it confirmed that it was a prompting.  It is nice to know that our thoughts are inspired and not always just crazy last minute ideas.  

We ended our week with a missionary farewell.  Jonas G****** is headed to the Provo, MTC today.  He is called to serve in France.  It was a great meeting.  I loved hearing his testimony.  I think he will be an excellent missionary.  The other speakers were his seminary teacher, young mens leader, and the branch president, and then his parents.  

So many sweet testimonies were shared and good advice was given.  This is a really tight ward and you could tell that everyone really loves Jonas.  

It is a really interesting experience to go to a missionary farewell on your mission.  After the meeting the member sitting next to me asked if I could remember my farewell.  I turned to tell him "Ja!" and got all watery eyed.  (the mish has turned me into such a cry baby.  The day isn't complete without Sister Brown just losing it)

It is fun to think about my farewell.  There were so many fun people there who I love.  SO much has happened since then. I have learned so much about myself, about the Gospel, the Spirit, and just life.  I have met so many amazing people and now can even pretend I speak German.  I feel like a totally different person than when I got up and gave that little talk.  

Enough self reflection time :)

There was my week.  I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Love,
Sister Brown

Oh and we have gotten SO much rain!

Meine Familie,

We have new elders here in Osnabrück, Elder Mitchell and Elder Rasband.
I have a new companion and her name is Sister Hayden.

We laugh a lot, we do missionary work, and we take lots of wrong busses!

Bis nächste woche!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Brown


Oh and I also forgot my msd card reader thingie so pictures next week for sure!
Sorry.

Transfer calls, stolen bikes, and a jam sesh

Familie,

So first thing is first.  We got transfer calls.  One of President Kosak's favorite quotes is "Expect the unexpected!"  That is definitely accurate.  

So I will be staying here in Osnabrück.  

Sister O is getting transferred to Celle and my new companion is coming from Celle.  

So basically there we are just making a big switch.  The Elders are both leaving Osnabrück and two new ones will come tomorrow to white wash the place.

I know I will miss Sister Odenwalder.  We have spent our entire summer together here in Osnabrück having adventures.  We have had so many good times. I am also a little nervous to be the only one staying.  I need to show three other missionaries around the city and I'm not even sure I can make it to Bahnhof...

Just another adventure I guess.  

We have spent our weekend saying goodbyes and going through the maps and area book.  Hopefully I can get it all down by tomorrow.  

We saw lots of miracles this week with setting up appointments. As we were going through the area book we found some contact sheets from the old elders.  We felt like we should check some of them out.  We picked a few streets and then went out.  Most of the addresses were still good and we got a few return appointments from that.  

One night we had some time after planning and we decided to make a few calls.  We started with A****** and Frau C*****.  We were able to get solid appointments with both.  This never happens.  We were pretty excited so we decided to keep calling.  We continued calling less actives and contacts and some investigators and made appointments out with every single one.   

Every.Single.One.  It was crazy.  

Some of these people have never picked up their phone when we have called in the past and some of these less actives neither of us have ever met. It was a crazy magical appointment making week!

Our Relief Society president, Scwester W****, was in the hospital this week.  She was the one who asked us to put together the uke/violin musical number for Relief Society this week but then she had to go in for stomach surgery so she wasn't going to be able to see it.  So we brought it to her.  It was good to have a practice run through.  We weren't quite sure how it would go, just busting out the hymns in a German hospital, but no one seemed to mind.  It was fun to visit her and we had a good chat.  As we were leaving Lady Gaga came over the speakers in the hallway.  We both just turned and looked at each other and then burst out into a dance party. What else can you do when you hear Bad Romance?!?

Our GML (ward mission leader) and his wife moved this week.  We went over to help them get everything out and do some cleaning.  They were in the "everything just needs to go" mood so we inherited so much awesome stuff.  We got make up and lotions, a huge craft box of stickers and scrapbook paper, half the food in their fridge, a rug, a sandwich maker, and microwave popcorn.  We left with an enormous box of wonders!  I will miss them both so much.  They were super helpful and did so much for us.  The good news is that they are headed to Lehi so we will definitely see each other after the mish!

We played the long awaited musical number in Relief Society yesterday.  It actually went pretty well.  It was better than anything I imagined when we first got the assignment.  Who knows, maybe uke and violin will be the next big thing?!?

And then my bike got stolen.  We rode them home from English class Tuesday night and then in the morning went to get them and mine was gone.  They were locked behind the gate in a shed type thing behind our building.  The little thief left the helmet though.  Maybe karma will catch up with him and he will fall and crack his unhelmeted little head.  I should probably repent...

That is all for this week.

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Brown

PS: Oh and I forgot one of the coolest stories I have from this week.  We were at Bruder A******'s last night eating dinner.  Then he pulled out some old photo albums of him growing up.  Some of the pictures at the end were of him playing the violin.  I asked him about it and told him that I also played.  Then he went back into the closet and came out with a violin.  It was the one he learned to play on.  It was so cool!  It looked a little beat up becuase it was so old and he got it second hand because his family didn't have a lot of money after the war.  We took turns playing it.  I was amazed at how good it sounded.  It had such a great tone.  It was such a fun thing and probably one of my favorite mission memories yet!

This is where the bike was supposed to be:

**Bike Update: Oh and don't worry about the stolen bike.  The GML's (ward mission leader's) wife left us hers so we have had one to use and the office was really cool about it when we called them.  It should be totally fine.  

She loves her unicorn cat!

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.