April 7, 2014

Family and friends!

The group at the castle...

My split with Sister McMurray and Fuller

It was good to hear from all of you this week! I am excited for next week.  I can’t wait to hear where Matt is going on his mission! And yes, I agree with all of you.  General Conference was amazing and much needed!  I got to watch it in English, which I am really grateful for.  All of the Young Single Adults speak English, and they prefer watching it in the native speakers language (I don’t blame them...  translations are hard) and so we all watched it at the church.  The time change makes things really weird though.  On Saturday at six p.m., we watched the morning Saturday session (it was live).  The afternoon session was played the next day at two, with the Sunday morning session at 6 p.m..  So we didn’t get to watch the Sunday afternoon session yet, but we will watch it at some point.  Sadly, Kristin was 

busy this weekend, so we didn’t get to watch it with her, but we have an appointment for this week (finally!).  We will probably show her one of our favorites. 

Our goodbye with Danielle

As for my life, I am back in Heidelberg, and it seems like a completely different area now.  It is amazing how just changing your companion in an area changes everything.  Sister Petersen and I worked flawless together, and we had the exact same personality, so everything was great.  Time flew by and now I really miss her.  Sister Wrathall is really nice, but she is more like my trainer was, and is just really different from me.  It has been a little hard adjusting from the huge change in personalities.  But all of the talks on charity and love and gratitude in General Conference have helped .  Es war genau was ich brauchte.  I know that things will be great here in Heidelberg.  We are together for a reason.  I know that she will teach me a lot, and that we will do work together.  Really, I just want to see Kristin get baptized.  I will do everything to see that. 

This was a good week though.  I kind of feel like it was a dream, and now I feel like I am just on a really long split—haha.  The beginning of the week, our week was packed with appointments so that Sister Petersen could see everyone before she left.  I thought it was really funny because most of the members she wanted to say bye to were the Spanish members.  She just loved them so much.  We were able to see the Paulinos and Damien’s family.  The appointment with Damien’s family was just hilarious.  Damien shared the Reeses with all of them, and when we were there, they were all just raving about how good they were.  And then they all just starting chanting "QUEREMOS MAS!"  Oh man, I was just dying laughing.  We also met with Carmen and Danielle.  That appointment with Danielle was really hard for both of them.  Sister Petersen was the one that originally starting working with Danielle to bring her back to church.  They were both crying, and it was really touching.  As Daniele drove us home, she turned to Sister Petersen and said "I think you need to teach me how to pray again.  They aren’t working.  I prayed for you to stay, but you are leaving.”  We all just starting laughing.  

Here are our "Friendship Cats" from
Kinderegg Toys.  Precious, huh :)



Sister Wrathall is my new companion.

On Wednesday, we went up to Frankfurt, and I was on a split in Friedrichdorf while Sister Petersen went to all of her fancy trainer meetings.  It was great.  I got to be with Sister McMurray and Sister Fuller, two of the girls from the MTC.  It was crazy to be with them because I felt like I was a golden again, but I have to keep reminded myself that I have been out almost half my mission.  That is just weird to me.  Thursday, I came back with Sister Wrathall and then it was General Conference.  And now, it is all on me to fill up the week, and I am freaking out.  I really want to make this a good area, and I am nervous that things will just fall apart.  Honestly, I am a little stressed, but I know that Heavenly Father wouldn’t set me up to fail.  I started the Book of Mormon over this week, and I read about Nephi’s story.  I have never been able to relate to him as much as I do now.  I read the story where he and his brothers went back to Jerusalem to get the plates and I have realized two things (well, more than two, but two main things).  1.  I need to stop being like Laman.  Laman went and did what he had to do.  When he had to go ask Laban for the plates, he went and asked, and then when he got afraid, he ran.  That is what I do sometimes.  I do what I know I need to, but when I get afraid, or nervous, I back down.  I start talking to someone, and then think, "Oh, they won’t be interested.  They never are.”  Then I get nervous to ask them again, and just back off.  But I can’t do that.  I need to be more like Nephi,   because….2.  After Laman came back and told what happened, Nephi simply responded, "Okay, we will try again, just in another way.”  Even when that failed, he didn’t give up.  He kept trying.  I have realized from this story that the Lord expects us to keep trying.  Only when we try, and try again, and really show Him that we are working, THEN He will come and show us the way.  He won’t just hand us things if we haven’t first proven that we will work and he can trust us. 



So this week, I am going to stop being Laman.  I have a goal where I am not going to back down.  If one person tells me they are not interested, I am not going to just throw in the towel and call it good.  I have prayed and pleaded and during Conference, I have felt that this week, I will find someone that is ready to be baptized.  There is someone out there waiting to hear what I have to tell them.  I am going to try, try, and try again, and I am going to find this person.  If there is one thing I learned from Sister Petersen, it is how to talk to people.  Last week was much, much needed and now that she is gone, I can’t forget it. 



I love the Book of Mormon.  The more I read it, and the more I try to apply the stories to my life, the more relatable it is.  I know that it was written for our time, and I know that it can give us the guidance, peace, and help that we need.  I am grateful for General Conference, where we can hear from our latter-day prophet and apostles, and have new modern day scripture.  Heavenly Father is a living God, and He loves us now just as much as He loved the people in Christ’s time and since the world began.  It just makes sense that He would give us a prophet again to lead and guide us and help us find our way back home.  I am so, so grateful.

I love this gospel, and I am grateful for the joy that it brings into my life. 

I hope that you all have a great week!!  I am excited for next week’s emails.  I really hope that I have a cool one from Matt!!  :)

Love you all! 

Savannah 

Also, I found a family that might be able to help us with the German letters that you sent me forever ago.  They got super excited about it, and I sent it to them.  They want to sit together and translate it!  So that is cool.  Schauen wir mal!