January 6, 2013

Winter in Numemberg

Thanks for all of the emails this week, family!  Dad, it sounds like the service went  nicely, and ich bin dankbar dafür.  The blessing that Grandma got sounds amazing, and I know the things you shared with me are true.  Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, and so he will give us every chance to be happy and choose to follow Him.  I know that Oma and Opa are together again, and that we can be an ewige Familie für the eternities.  How lucky are we to have that knowledge.  Troy, I agree with you.  The Plan of Salvation is always my favorite lesson to teach.  We had the opportunity to teach it this week, and seeing the light go off in our investigators eyes just makes it all worth it.  I love this gospel because it all just makes sense.  Everything just fits together.

Taryn, tell Merrilyn hi for me!  And everyone else.  I am so glad to hear that you think I am going to be awkward when I get home.  I will not!  Just a little weirder...  also thanks for breaking my computer.  Now I can get a Mac—haha. 



The Igbinobas...what a great family!

Well, this week was CRAZY!!  Transfer calls were on Saturday and I AM GOING TO HEIDELBERG.  That one was a shocker.  We were at the church with our district when we received our transfer information.  When we heard that Sister Weber was staying in Nürnberg again, we all just died laughing.  Poor Sister Weber.  This is transfer number 6 here...which means at least 8 months here.  That is half of her mission pretty much.  We did not see that one coming.  My new companion's name is Sister Pederson.  Transfers are on Thursday and so I will be going up to Frankfurt and then being schickt to Heidelberg.  I am so excited that it is ridiculous.  I am sad to leave Nürnberg and the missionaries und die Gemeinde hier, but Heidelberg is going to be amazing.  I called Sister Pederson to tell me about the ward there, and she said that there is a women there from Spain that gives a ton of referrals.  Tons of their investigators only speak Spanish, and so they cannot communicate with any of them.  They also have a Spanish Sunday School class and are trying to start a Spanish branch there...which would be the first Spanish branch in our mission.  I am so excited, and I really think this is one of the reasons that I was sent to Germany.  
Heavenly Father uses our talents to help build up his kingdom and I get to go do that.  I just need to learn gospel words in Spanish now...  but watch out Heidelberg...I’M COMING TO BAPTIZE YOU.  Man, I am so excited for this next transfer.  Sister Pederson sounds super nice.  Also, Heidelberg is bistimmt the prettiest place in the entire mission.  It is the one place I really wanted to go to.  I am living the dream right now.
 
As for this week, it has been a great last week in Nürnberg, and I really will miss this place.  The ward, my district, and the investigators here are just so amazing.  They will always have a special place in my heart. 



Germany after New Year's Eve
...a ghost town

So…this week, was just verrückt.  On New Year’s Eve, all of the missionaries had to be home by 6 pm…for good reason, too.  People were getting CRAZY already.  That night was something I will NEVER forget.  New Year’s Eve is the coolest thing ever here in Germany.  The entire place gets drunk, and then everyone lights off fireworks at midnight.  I mean EVERYONE.  There are no restrictions on who can light off fireworks, so people just go and buy hundreds of fireworks and light them off.  At midnight, it was so loud that we were woken up.  We ran to the window and saw the most spectacular view of my life.  We live on the sixth floor and can see the entire city...  well at about 11:55, the town just exploded with fireworks.  For about an hour straight, thousands of fireworks were shot into the air.  Thousands went off, for miles and miles.  Pictures could never do it justice.  I have never seen so many fireworks in my life...Fourth of July will never compare anymore.

Our Young Women...Kathrin is to the right
of me.  She is one of our investigators.

As for New Year’s day, it looked like an apocalypse happened.  It was a complete ghost town.  No one was outside, and there were fireworks trash littered everywhere.  We were able to go to the Frankens that day and that was great.  They are as crazy as ever, but they really do have a good spirit.
On Thursday, I was on a split with Sister Fuller.  She is my favorite.  She has so much energy, and she is such a good missionary.  That morning, we taught our ten-year-old investigator, Aniyah, about prophets.  It is so weird teaching little kids, but they just soak up everything you say, and it also forces you to teach simply.  That night, we had a miracle.  I had been praying for a miracle, and we really wanted to find more people to teach.  We had talked with EVERYONE but nobody was interested.  We were going to a less active for an appointment and it ended up falling through.  We were disappointed, but said a prayer to see what we should do.  We ended up taking out our Navi (GPS) and felt like we should go by a potential in the area.  We spent forever looking for the address, but it didn’t exist.  We started walking back to the UBahn.  On the way there, we saw a giant 61, which was the number we had been looking for.  It ended up being the address and we klingled.  She let us in, and ended up being so interested!  We went back on Saturday, and she said that she just found out that her aunt passed away, and was really sad.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she just found it amazing.  She is so prepared, and I wish I could be here to see her grow, but I know that Sister Weber will do an amazing job.  



Sister Hertel

On Friday, we had the coolest lesson ever with our member, Sister Hertel.  We found a really cool analogy in the scriptures that morning.  It was in the story of Ammon and King Lamoni.  Everyone always focuses on Ammon and how great of a missionary he was, but they always overlook Abish.  In the story, while everyone was fallen to the ground, she remained, because she had a firm testimony.  She saw an opportunity to share that testimony with others and ran from house to house, asking everyone to "come and see" what had happened.  They all came, and because of her invitation to all of those people to come, so many people were converted and baptized.  We told Sister Hertel that this was like us with the members.  The members are the ones that invite people to come and see, and we as the missionaries, are the ones that teach once the people are there.  We can have so much more success, and so many people can learn and hear the gospel when people invite their friends and neighbors to find out.  It was such a cool lesson, and the spirit was really strong.  I have great hopes for member missionary work here in Nürnberg.

 

New Year's Resolutions of Nuremberg

Saturday, we did a huge chalk activity with all of the missionaries here in Nürnberg.  We went to the Altstadt and wrote down "2014!  Was haben Sie für Vorsätze?" which means pretty much what is your New Year’s resolution?  People stopped and wrote down their goals for the new year with the chalk, and we talked to them and related it back to the gospel.  By the end of the two hours, we got a bunch of potentials, and the street had so many New Year’s resolutions written on it.  It was so cool! 

I love the Fosters...they are a strength to me.

Sunday was bittersweet.  It was Fast and Testimony meeting, and that was amazing.  Brother Foster, our recently reactivated member, got up and bore his testimony and it was so strong.  The spirit was so fest there.  Sister Hertel got up and bore her testimony on member missionary work.  Meine gute, it was so cool to hear.  This ward is really amazing, and I am going to miss them all so much, but I am excited to go to Heidelberg and meet even more amazing people.  I hope you all get the chance to meet these people (maybe even this year...haha), because they really are wonderful.  Today, we really didn’t have a P-Day because we were saying by to everyone.  We did service at the Haids again with all of the missionaries, but tomorrow we are taking time to play games, and so that will be great.

I truly love this work.  January 4th marked my four-month mark here in Germany.  I cannot believe it has already been four months.  I have learned so much, yet at the same time, I have so much more to learn!  These months have flown by.  Meine gute.

I love you all, and I hope that your first week back to school / work / alles ist wunderbar.  Viel spaß mit alles, und frohe neues jahre!  Ich liebe euch so viel, und ich bin so sehr dankbar für alles daß euch für mich getan habt.  Danke euch! 

Love you all!! 

Savannah