You always say that nothing much changes from week
to week, but compared to how things were when I left, things are WAY
different. Taryn's probably going to
Ecuador, Troy's been married for an Ewigkeit and is is applying for medical
schools, Moms building a high school, and Dad is looking for his next great
job. That’s a lot of changes. But life moves on. Its going to be weird going home to
that. I tend to think everything is on
still while I'm gone...oh well.
Also, I got the Halloween box! Holy Reeses, that’s a lot of food. Thank you so much. My district is rather excited about it. We are going to have a pumpkin carving /
Reeses eating party next P-day.
Dad, as for your talk, oh gosh I have no idea. All I can say is that the only real success
we have here is through the members...but that is a worn out theme. Honestly though, that’s hard, because most of
my mission, we have been trying to find investigators to get the members
excited, and right now our branch is so tiny that I need all the help I can get
to help them do missionary work, too. If
you get any brain blasts from my past experiences...let me know ha-ha. But look into Heidelberg...that’s where we
did our most work with members, and cool things happened.
Matt emailed me this week; well him and Ethan have
been emailing me every week. It’s been
really nice and cool to hear about all their experiences! Matt needs a reality check. His email contradicted himself. How can he not have many investigators and
need more when he had 20 MEMBER PRESENT LESSONS? That is UNHEARD of here. We are happy when we can put a 3 in that
column. It’s a dream to have even 10
lessons with investigators in a week...or just 10 lessons total. I can’t even imagine having 20 member present
lessons in one week. That boy, he needs
to count his blessings. 
But, reality check here in Germany. Sorry, I didn’t have 20 lessons, but I sure
worked hard, so that’s okay. Sister
McMurray and I had a split on Tuesday.
It was the best split I've been on on my whole mission. Sister McMurray and I just did work, but she
was able to answer so many of my questions that I have been having lately, and
so it was much needed. I also happened
to be there on the day that they got bikes, so naturally we switched around our
plans a little so that we could ride the bikes.
It was such a blast. We got lost,
and ended up in the middle of nowhere and our GPS died. We were just biking through these back roads
in gorgeous green fields. And then we
finally found this less active that we were trying to go by on. Let me just say, I have never been treated
more like scum on my mission. I've dealt
with a lot (A LOT) of rude people, but never someone like this. This guy answered and we asked him if he was
Herr so and so. He answered who’s
asking, and then we said we were from his church and wanted to introduce
ourselves. He blew up at us and started
yelling and cursing us out and shoving us, telling us to get out and that we
knew the way out. We tried asking him if
he just wanted us to remove his name from the church rolls, but he wouldn’t
give us the time of day and just shoved us off his property. Goodness gracious man, I’m still a
human! But that’s okay. We just got back on our bikes and road
through some more gorgeous fields and laughed it off because we felt very
missionary. Bikes, dooring, rude people,
getting lost...what could make for a better day? But I loved every single second of it. Maybe its just Sister McMurray, but it was a
good day.  |
| This week's fruit experiment |
Our investigators are doing well. Ruano, our investigator from Mexico, is just
solid. He’s reading a ton in the Book of
Mormon, wants to come to church all the time, and just soaks up everything we
say, asking a ton of questions. I wish I
could understand and communicate with him better, because obviously my Spanish
has gotten pretty bad, and his accent is totally different and hard for me to
understand. But I count my blessings for
how much I do get, and that we can communicate enough to allow for the spirit
to take over. Teaching in Spanish really
makes me feel like a golden again, where I mainly have to just sit there and
insert my little comments and hope that the spirit can help me out during the
silence. But clearly its working,
because he is progressing and all. Ruano
is solid.
 |
| We always find all the random fruits and test them out. Provides for entertainment, but they don't always taste the best. |
Ola is doing well too. We watched President Uchtdorf’s talk about
light and truth with her, and she loved it.
She said that she needed to change her thought process and read the Book
of Mormon with the intent to prove that it was right. She finally kept her commitment and read in
the Book of Mormon this week. 2 Nephi
2. She said that as she read it, she
realized that it did teach what the Bible taught. She’s finally making progress, and it’s all
because she is giving the Book of Mormon the time of day. That book is powerful, and really is the only
way that people can gain a testimony. If
they don’t read inside, then they can never come to know if this is God’s
church. If they do, and most importantly
do it with the intent to discover if its right, then miracles will happen. Slowly but surely, Ola is making
progress!
We got a referral from Osnabrück this week, for a
girl named Darlene. She has been
investigating the church for years, and moved down to Münster area to live with
her mom. We went to go meet with her, to
find out that she lives 1.5 hours away...waayyy toward the end of our
area. WHY ARE THESE AREAS SO BIG? We get there and had a great meeting, and she
said that she believes that the Book of Mormon is true, and loves the feeling
when she is at church, and just sounded like she is just ready to be
baptized. So I asked her way bluntly,
"Why aren’t you baptized yet?"
Turns out she is lesbian. We
don’t really know where to go with that one, but I am just praying for some
inspiration. She is one of the nicest
girls, though, and so we are going to work through this with her and just
continue strengthening her testimony.
 |
| We made cookies and a card for Raphael's birthday. |
Raphael. I
realized something this week. I’ve
worked with a lot of people for a really long time on my mission. I have been working with Raphael about three
months, not nearly as long as other people, but it seems like I have known him
so much longer, and that he just needs to get baptized. He seems like he is a member already. Everything just clicks with him; I just don’t
realize what the missing link is. Last
time he was talking about how he likes it when members live what they
believe. We are hoping as we continue to
teach the commandments, something will strike him and he will suddenly stop us
and say, “LET’S GO GET BAPTIZED.” Some
day I'll see a miracle like that.
We haven’t been able to meet with Elkin this
week. He has been stressed out of his
mind with problems with his Ex-wife and everything. Dumb.
But hopefully soon.
 |
| Lost on bikes in beautiful Germany |
Other than that, just lots and lots of contacting. Fun stuff.
But its always worth it when you find that one woman sitting lonely on a
park bench and you end up having a 30 minute discussion about the purpose of
life and pouring your heart out about the Book of Mormon. It doesn’t even matter when you find out that
she doesn’t live in your area, because she gives you her information, and a hug
and tells you thank you for the talk and that she wants to meet with
missionaries where she lives. That’s
what it is all about. I’ll get shoved
out of mean less active doors and told nein a million times if I can have one
nice discussion with one nice lady on one nice bench and maybe change her
life. I'll never know what happens, but
that’s okay. I like getting to share my
testimony with others.
Transfers calls are this week. No matter what Dad says, I’m pretty sure
Sister Heywood and I will be staying together.
But we will see.
But until then, Ill go share the gospel with some
more people and try to make a difference in someone’s life.
I hope that you all have a good week! See ya later.
Savannah
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