September 23, 2013

A View I See Everyday...

Hallo Familie!  It was so great to get your emails this week.  I also got a letter from Grandma so that was awesome!  I am so glad her sheep are doing well—especially Katherine and Patty.  They are the cool ones.  Mom, that is crazy about Ethan.  I am glad that he decided to switch rooms, because that definitely would not have been a good experience, and I am glad that Elliott and Matt are doing well.  You should tell them all to write me!  By the way, my first package never came.  I have no clue why, but it was not at Frankfurt...  I hope that it shows up eventually!  To answer your questions about my Christmas package, the things I would like are anything peanut butter (you cannot find peanut butter here), and deodorant.  Germans are weird sometimes, but naja.  Can you please send me some fat pictures, also?  My district wants to see them—especially the one of me with cornrows, and one of my whole

Part of My District at Doku Zentrum

body.  Send them out today through email so you do not forget!  I want to show everyone.  I love my district.  They are awesome— especially Elder Hathaway and Baker.  If they are not married by the time I get home, we will be great friends.  I also love my companion.  Even through the hard times, we find a way to laugh it off.  It has been hard but everyday gets better.  Dad, I am glad that there are so many service opportunities!  Take advantage of that!  I am also glad that you tried out the Book of Mormon activity.  Isn't it awesome?  Troy, I am so sad I missed the family dinner!  I am so glad that Alex is still weird as ever.  I cannot wait to see whom he marries.  That will be great.  He is a strange kid.  Taryn, that story was awesome.  That is something I am trying to do.  It is so important to always follow the Spirit because you never know who needs you the most at that moment.  Congrats on your test.  That is awesome!  Don't worry, your ward will get better.  My ward was super lame last year, but I made a few friends and that was enough to make my year awesome!  Just give it time. 

So this week…Man.  Last Monday seems like an eternity ago, but at the same time, I cannot believe I am already emailing you again.  We went to the Berg on Monday and that was awesome.  The woman that brought us took us to eat Bratwursts and then took us to the Berg.  The view was gorgeous.  I will send pictures.  Sometimes I still cannot believe that this is my life now. 

Inside View at the Berg

Tuesday was Golden Trainer Meeting.  SO FUN.  We took a train down to Frankfurt and I was able to see all of my friends…so great!  I also learned so much.  I was able to ride down with Elder Maine, Elder Dean, and Sister Lyons since they are all in my zone.  I talked with them the whole ride there and back, which was awesome.  Everyone has so many great stories, and it was so great to hear how everyone was doing.  It is amazing how close I have become to some of these people after only a couple weeks in Germany.

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday were probably the most upsetting, hard days I have had yet.  Remember how I said that we had a ton of appointments?  Every.  Single.  One.  Fell through.  Every one.  We spent the whole day trying to find new people and doing drop byes—with not much luck.  Two cool things happened, though.  First, we went all the way out to this less active woman with a nonmember husband, and we taught them about genealogy.  We showed them new family search and they got super excited about it.  Our church has a genealogy center so we told them to stop by and someone could teach them more about it. 
We also had zone training meeting on Friday, which was good, because I really needed it.  We talked a lot about being unified—unified as a zone, as a district, as a companionship, and with God.  It is something I am going to really work on, because when we are unified, so much more can happen.  It is no longer "me" or "I" but its "us" and "we.”  We talked about ways to accomplish the goals that our President has put forth.  We are going to try to make a huge genealogy street display and advertise for the fireside that we are going to have soon.  We are also trying to get a booth for the Christmas Market here in Nürnberg.  It is the biggest market in the world, and so if we were able to get one, thousands of people would see us.  We would have Christmas music playing, Mormon messages showing, and hand out Book of Mormons.  It would be so awesome; I really hope it happens. 

After the slump, we had an awesome Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday, we started doing service for a family in our ward.  They were moving, so Elders Hathaway, Elder Baker, my companion, and I went over and helped them move.  When Germans move, they really move.  They take everything!  Moreover, they lived on the second floor so we were carrying everything down a tiny stairway.  I think my favorite was watching the elder carry the kitchen sink (the entire thing) down.  They took the shelves and all.  Good thing German furniture is so light.  They rewarded us after helping them move...gotta love Butterkaks! And their water bottles are huge here!

We then had an appointment with Lisa, one of our investigators.  She is awesome.  She said that while she was in Berlin, she went to church three times.  When she went to church, she received answers to her prayers.  She knows that God is there now.  She just needs to be baptized.  She is so sweet and when we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, she just started crying.  She has had a hard life.  She is legally blind, and her parents do not have much to do with her.  We talked a lot about the power of the Atonement, and I could see it really touch her.  How awesome is it to know the purpose of life?  It is something I have always taken for granted.
 

We also met with Kathrin and her family.  That was a frustrating lesson.  The grandma just talked forever and we did not really get anywhere.  The hardest part is that she and her mom both know it is true.  They both have taken all of the lessons, but neither will set a date.  They will not do it.  Germans will not do it.  We do not know where to go from here.  We have focused so much on the why, but they just do not seem to understand!  We are fasting for that this next week and hopefully we will receive answers on how to help them make this commitment.

Sunday.  Oh Sunday.  I had the best time ever.  Before Church, my companion had a meeting, so I sat outside greeting people, still having no clue what they were saying to me.  Then Sister Loritzs came and I started talking to her.  Best day of my life.  She has lived in Germany for about a year and came from PERU.  I found someone to speak Spanish with.  She was so excited!  She has felt so alone and so it made her day to talk with me.  We seriously talked for half an hour and she wanted me to come over today so that she could cook for me, but it is P-Day.  We are going by next Sunday and she is going to show me pictures of Peru and cook for us.  I am so excited.  For once, my companion will be the lost one!  Haha!  You seriously cannot understand how excited I am right now to be friends with her.

Oh that reminds me…last Monday we had dinner with Caroline Rupp, a newly wed and newly converted.  Cutest couple ever.  She went to Utah State last year and was baptized, and wants her husband to be baptized so badly.  We are going to become good friends with them.  I have also become a huge fan of soccer.  We play every P-Day and Friday for sport abend, and it is so fun.  I am awful, but I am getting better. 

It is probably the best feeling in the world when an investigator comes to church.  Crazy Franke showed up yesterday.  She cracks me up.  Apparently, her and her boyfriend had a fight the other day and she wanted him out so she called the cops on him.  Oh, Franke…that is such a grandpa Keyser move.  She told us that she wants to go to America and have an American baby…of course the Relief Society lesson was on chastity.  Of course, she asked about plural marriages and our stance on that and the Relief Society went crazy.  I really have no clue what exactly went down, but Caroline, (my favorite person ever), told me I should be a bit embarrassed...  naja.  Franke cracks me up.

I just finished doing something awesome.  We went to the Doku Zentrum, which is a big historical documentation of Hitler's part in the war.  Nürnberg was one of the biggest spots for his campaign, and the most bombed city.  The history was very interesting.  Mom, you would love it. 

So spiritual thought of the day.  The best thing that I learned this week was how to know that I am enough for the Lord.  Sometimes, I feel like I am not living up to my full potential, which I am not, but that does not mean that the Lord is not proud of me.  I read the talk 'Being Accepted of the Lord" this morning, and it was really powerful for me.  In it, it said, that "having the Holy Ghost as our constant companion is the ultimate indicator of being accepted of God.”  For me, I just need to live in a way that I can always have the Holy Ghost with me.  When I do that, I can have confidence that God is proud of me and the progress I am making.  Along with that, I read in Matthew 25:14-29.  It is the story where the master gives the talents to his servants.  They go and multiply them, and one does not.  What I found interesting was that he says the same things to the person that ended up with four talents as he did to the one that ended up with ten.  He told them both "well done, my good and faithful servant.”  To me, this means that I really cannot compare myself to others.  We all start in different places in life.  We may begin with five talents, twenty talents, or even just one.  I may not be the best at street contacting, or German, but as long as I am improving every day, as long as I am working hard to increase my talents, God will be proud of me.  He will be proud of all of us, as long as we are trying, and improving, step by step.

I am thankful for trials.  Although they are hard at the moment, they make the small successes seem like miracles.  I will be forever grateful that the Lord humbles me enough that I can then live in a way where I must have the Holy Ghost with me, and recognize Christ’s hand in all that I do.
I love you all so much.  Alles gutte.  Immer. 

Ich liebe euch so fiel.

Tschüß!   

Savannah (Nanners)