Sunday, September 28, 2014

September 22, 2014


Our most successful display yet :)
Hallo everyone!  Well, before I tell you about my AWESOME week, thanks for all of the emails.  Sounds like life is going well down there.  Mom and Dad…as cool as it would be to have you come to Germany, don’t worry about it.  It will be sweet just to fly home with all of my friends in January and to see you at the airport.  We will just have to plan a family trip to come to Germany next summer so that I can see everyone :) Or if that doesn’t work, Taryn and I will come out here.  She always seems to find a way to do crazy trips, so I think it would work out.  So Taryn, next summer, Germany?  I want to see everyone again.  Mom, I have absolutely no idea what my BYU user name or password is...  I’m sorry.  I am freaking out enough knowing I’m going home on the 16th.  I thought it was the 21st!  5 days less than thought.  Shoot. 

Anyways, let me tell you about one of the coolest weeks on my mission. 

Aiyana's fashion show 
So first, there’s Aiyana.  She is getting baptized this Saturday!  I literally cannot contain my excitement.  Last P-Day, she wanted to go shopping with us to try to find some modest skirts, because…well in Germany, that’s pretty dang hard.   So we went to just about every store possible, and she either didn’t like them or they were a millions euros (okay, exaggerations, but expensive).  Finally, we told her to go sit down, and Sister Heywood and I just went crazy and got every skirt in the store and had her try them on for us in a little fashion show.  FINALLY we found one that was just too cute.  We ended up buying it for her, (It was only 10 Euro!) and telling her that she couldn’t wear it until her baptism.  You should have seen her beam after that.  We met with her again on Tuesday, finished all of the lessons, and then went over the baptismal interview questions with her, because she was way nervous.  After we were done, she was just like "Wait, is that all?" Yup!  She is so ready.  Her testimony is so strong, and she is just bereit.  She has her final interview tomorrow with our district leader and then on Saturday, AIYANA IS GETTING BAPTIZED.  I couldn’t be more excited. 

Second, Raphael finally came back!  He was at church yesterday, and watching him walk in in his fancy little suit just made me beam from ear to ear.  He was just smiling and saying that he had missed us and was happy to be here again.  Turns out his little trip was a job interview at a University down somewhere, but he rejected it because he just started getting to know us and the branch here and he didn’t want to leave it.  SERIOUSLY.  How much cooler could this guy get?  And he wants to go to the baptism on Saturday.  I really hope he can, because if he feels the spirit there, well then, fill that font back up and let Raphael get in! 

We also had a way fun FHE with Anna’s family.  We played Bananagrams and did a mix of English and German.  Good stuff, and yours truly won. 

I love working with Sister Heywood.  Days just seemed jammed packed with greatness.  We had two street displays this week, and through them, we were able to find a couple of potentials, and we were able to give out 12 Books of Mormon this week.  That’s really good for us.  We had a couple of first appointments with a couple people, which sadly didn’t go anywhere, but we also found this way awesome girl named Ola from Nigeria, who is amazed by the three kingdoms and the Plan of Salvation.  We are meeting with a woman from Brazil tomorrow with the cutest little boy ever.  Yesterday, we were walking and a guy from Nigeria came up to us, asked us if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ and we said yes.  He said he had heard a lot about us from a friend of his that we talked to on the bus a few weeks ago.  He also said that his dad was a member of our church in Nigeria for the past 15 years, and that he has been bugging his son to find this church in Germany and join it.  So we got his number and are meeting with him this week!  SICK.  People just seem to be crawling out of the cracks.  It is great.  We have a goal to find some Germans, though...because for some reason, none of them are ha-ha. 

But I think that the coolest story by far is from Elkin.  So flash back to my email from August 18th...  Over a month ago... 

We had a really cool miracle this week.  So we were trying to find this potentia’ls house, and we just couldn’t find it.  Well, we didn’t want to just go all the way out here, get frustrated that it wasn’t there and then give up and leave, so we decided to go dooring in the area.  Well, like usual, nobody had interest, and it was getting late, so we decided to head to the bus stop to go home.  At the bus stop, there was a guy, who kept looking at us, and he had way broken German, but he kept saying awkward little comments to us, and smiling.  We were a little weirded out, but felt like we should talk with him.  The bus came, and so we got on, and he sat down across the isle, and didn’t really look at us.  Well, behind us in the bus was this black lady breast-feeding her baby, which was completely awkward, but then the bus hit a bump and her stuff went everywhere.  So Sister Heywood went and helped her, and came back and sat closer to the guy.  Then, she just started talking to him.  Within a minute, we learn that he is from Spain, so I practically jump out of my seat, and start speaking to him.  Turns out he is living here, but has seen our church everywhere in Spain, and wanted a Book of Mormon.  He told us all about his life, and we ended up getting off the bus with him, taking him to the church, and giving him a tour, and setting up an appointment for tomorrow night.  Thank you, Sister Heywood.  We now have a potential Spanish investigator, and I am so excited!

Well, my letter the next week, I never told you what happened to this guy, because I was just so disappointed.  That day that we were suppose to meet him, he gave us a call and asked to reschedule the appointment for the next day.  Well, I missed the phone call, and for some dumb reason I had forgotten to ask for his number that last week.  When he called, the number showed up as private, so we had no way to respond to him.  I was crushed, and just prayed and prayed that he would call back again, because I didn’t want him to think that we just ignored him and didn’t care.  Well, flash forward to last Wednesday.  Over a month later.  We were on our way to an appointment, when all of a sudden, we were getting onto a bus about to leave and Sister Heywood grabbed my elbow and pulled me out of my seat yelling, "That’s Elkin!"  We shouted to the bus driver to let us out of the bus, ran out and jumped onto the bus that he got on right before it left.  Sister Heywood ran up to Elkin screaming his name and I just laughed out of surprise.  We talked to him and cleared up the issue of the call.  He said that he still wanted to learn more and asked to meet the next day.  We met on Thursday and had the most amazing lesson ever.  We introduced the Book of Mormon and he just ate it up, sitting there asking what more we could tell him.  We ended up meet with him Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and we are meeting with him again tonight.  I just love teaching Elkin, AND I teach him in Spanish.  Sister Heywood just tells me what she wants to say, and I translate it.  It is amazing.  And at the end of every lesson, when we start to wrap it up, he just asks us, " I have 10 more minutes, what more do you have to tell me?" I still can’t believe our luck.  He is so prepared, and he loves the Mormons.  He always says that we have this special glow to us, and he wants to know more about why we are so different.  He just asks us questions about everything and eats it up.  The only sad part about it is that he is going back to Spain this week, and he doesn’t know for how long.  It could be a week, or two or two months.  He has no idea.  He has to get documentation stuff cleared up for Germany, but Spain isn’t in the best spot right now.  I am going to be crushed when he is gone.  But until then, he is just soaking everything up, and hopefully he can continue to meet with missionaries there and will be back in a week!  I have no idea though.  All I know is that Elkin is awesome, and that I am so glad that Sister Heywood say him on the bus last Wednesday. 

Lucky took us out to a Chinese buffet.
I think I ate enough for 10  people!
There’s always so much more that happens, so many more miracles, but right now, I am just counting my blessings.  Sister Heywood and I work awesome together, and we are just seeing miracle after miracle up here in Münster.  I feel like I just crawl into bed at the end of every night.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I even stayed up till 10:30.  We always seem to crash after planning when we should be writing in our journals.  But that’s just how I would have it. 

It’s going to be another busy week, and definitely one that I will remember.  Get excited for pictures from the baptism!  Just 5 days!!! 

I love you all.  You’re all great.  I hope that you have a fantastic week, and I will see you around January 16th.  Ahh, weird.  But until then...bis nächste Woche! 

Love you!

Savannah 

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