May 5, 2014

Sister Lyons....our nine month mark!

So, transfer calls were this Saturday, and I got the best news of my life!  I am staying in Heidelberg again!  Sister Wrathall and I are staying together.  The elders are staying together too.  This is the first time my entire area has staying the same...weird.  But, thank you for all of the prayers that I would stay—haha.  My dream came true.

There are these free give away book shelves
 everywhere in Germany.

That being said, it was great to hear from all of you!  I am glad that Taryn remembered to write to her only sister before she left on her cruise.  I was a little jealous of her, and then I remembered, "Oh yeah, I live in Heidelberg." Now everything is good.  Dad, that garden planter that you built looks really cool.  I hope that your "carets" turn out well.  Hahahah.  Glad to see that your spelling is still the same!  Troy, I am praying for you to do well on the MCAT.  I know you will do just find.  Also Mom, my shoes are completely worn...I might go buy some today, so don’t worry about that. 

As for next week, WE GET TO SKYPE.  Yay.  Four o'clock my time should work just fine.  We are going up to the senior couple’s house to do it.  They love having us over, so anytime will work pretty much.  So unless you hear otherwise, plan on that. 

As for this week, it was SICK.  Seriously.  I've found that in missionary work, things just go in waves.  One week, you will be so busy that you think your head will fall off from spinning so much, and other weeks, it feels like you are walking through mud.  Well, I guess that Heavenly Father decided we had had enough mud, because we saw so many miracles this week.  I can easily say that Tuesday was one of my favorite days on the mission.  We started out having a really great district meeting, and then we went to meet with a potential investigator, named Yue.

You can just put in books and
take them as you please, so
we but a nice book in.
Can you see it?

Yue is awesome!  She is a university student from China, and she is here getting her PhD.  The missionaries found her at a street display a year ago, and then the just lost contact.  But she wanted to meet again, and so we went over.  The entire time we were there, she was just smiling and eating up what we were saying.  She told us she was taking this really seriously, so she wanted to meet frequently, and she wanted things she could read from the Book of Mormon in between visits so that she could write down questions she had.  Can I just say GOLDEN?  I am so excited. 

We then had an appointment fall through, so we tried stopping by a less active’s house that the bishop asked us to visit, because no one knew who she was.  Well, we had tried many times before, but this time, she was home and let us in!  As we met, she said she usually didn’t let people in, but she felt like she should this time.  She told us that at one point in her life, she had a really strong testimony, but then she did things and it just went away.  But she wanted it back.  So, we are going to be meeting with her again.  Success. 

And then, we met with another potential, Jennifer.  She was also a previous investigator.  While we were there, she told us that a year ago, she was in a "baptismal course" and wanted to be baptized and then got sick and really busy with work.  She kept saying over and over how much she loved our church and then asked if she could start the course again to be baptized.  We were a little dumb founded—haha.  But of course, we said yes, and so now she is on her way! 

We had another good appointment with Kristin, and also Cynthia.  Cynthia came to church, so I had an excuse to go to the Spanish Sunday School, which is always great. 

Could you find this poem in English?
It would be something called
Jesus Wept or Jesus Cried.

Oh, remember that Greek girl that we found on the bus a couple of weeks ago?  We called her up, and she was like "Oh hello!  We can meet soon, right?" Uh, yes.  She said that she had a friend that wanted to come also, so she had to double check with her, but I think we are meeting with them on Friday, which I am excited for. 

Our Young Women doing missionary work...

The rest of the week continued on with miracles.  We found four new investigators, a few solid potentials, and met with a ton of members.  The members are great here, and the longer I am here, and the more that I meet with them, the more I love and respect them.  They are always excited to hear our success and to help us out in any way we need it.  It is great.  And to make it even better, there are twelve BYU students that are doing a study abroad / internship thing here in Heidelberg.  They will be here for three months!  We met them yesterday, and it was so weird being around so many Americans my age.

Tonight is going to be sweet.  Our ward mission leader and us planned a huge volleyball activity for a FHE type of thing tonight, and I think it will be a huge success.  A ton of people said they are coming, and a lot have invited friends, so we are so excited.  It is going to be a good day! 

Maria and her new baby...

Well, before I know it, this week will be over and I will be skyping all of you!  That is crazy.  I feel like I was just talking to you, but that was five months ago.  Time is weird.  Well Troy, thank you for sacrificing two hours of sleep to talk to me.  That means a lot to me. 

I love you all!  I pray for you every day.  Thank you for your prayers too.  I can see them in the work.  We have really been so blessed recently!  And I am excited to start this week.  I have a feeling it is going to be really good.

Love you all! 

Savannah