Week 30: I'M TRAINING!!!!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!  Nothing better than waking up to it snowing thick snow ... NOT! (haha) Yesterday was so nice and I even thought to myself, "Hmmm ... tomorrow I'm going to wear my smaller coat because it's starting to warm up."  Well, I guess not!  I hope you guys are seeing some snow/rain in Utah so that itis not a total drought this summer.

 

Castle

 

So, the most exciting news this week is that I have been called as a Trainer for one of the new sister missionaries coming in!  And even crazier news ... so has Sister Eschenmann.  AND we will be training in the SAME apartment, so that means 4 girls and 1 bathroom ... wish us luck! (haha)  But I am so excited.  Sister Eschenmann will be taking over the German ward, and I will be fully opening the American Military Ward.  HELLO, AMERICAN FOOD!  Man, I am so dang excited.  You guys in America don't realize what you have.  I didn't either until I was placed in Germany.  But I am so blessed for this opportunity.  I will be picking up my new 'Golden' on Wednesday ;) YAY!!! 

 

I have no words to describe this alien fruit ... ?

Not a fish ... Ha ha!

Sister Eschenmann and I were talking the other night and laughing because sometimes I like to sing in the shower.  But, she would try to record me singing, "Let it Go!" and every time she would come by the door, I would pause and stop singing (haha).  So when I found this out I said, "I guess I feel the Spirit because I know when you're going to try to record me singing in the shower." (haha)  We had a good laugh with that.  

 

This last Sunday was my last week with the German ward and it was such a great day.  I love that ward so much!  I got to bear my testimony again, and it was fun to see the difference compared to the first time I bore testimony in the church (haha).  Good times!  But, the ward here is truly amazing! They have been my home away from home and I'm sad to no longer work with them, but I am glad Sister Eschenmann will stay here.

 

My awesome friend, Nick, from Tafel :)

  

The Elders held a beautiful baptism for their investigator/new member, Sister Butler; it was so amazing!  You could cut the Spirit with a knife, it was so strong!  And Speaking of "strong", Elder Strong and I got to do a musical number for it.  We sang and I played the piano, and it went pretty awesome for only having 1 day to prepare (haha).

 

We got to go on base to an American member's house this last week and it was so happy!  It was like being in Spanish Fork!  It was really fun!  They had 4 big dogs, which weren't Sister Eschenmanns favorite, but I loved them!  (haha)  While we were eating, the mom was talking and she commented on something and said, "Yup, that's the story of my life."  Then both her husband and I, at the same time, started to sing, 'The Story of My Life' by One Direction (haha)  It was so funny and he said, "Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that."  It was way funny!

 

There is a talk from President Uchdorf that I love.  It is called:  Continue in Patience.  That is a characteristic of Christ that I could practice better.  I would encourage all of you to look it up; it was great.  Some small inserts were these: 

 

"Without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect.  Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace ..."

"I learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort ..."

 

"There is an important concept here:  patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears.  Patience means active waiting and enduring.  It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed.  Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well ..." 

 

"The children of Israel waited 40 years in the wilderness before they could enter the promised land. Jacob waited 7 long years for Rachel.  The Jews waited 70 years in Babylon before they could return to rebuild the temple. The Nephites waited for a sign of Christ’s birth, even knowing that if the sign did not come, they would perish.  Joseph Smith's trials in Liberty Jail caused even the prophet of God to wonder, “How long?"  In each case, Heavenly Father had a purpose in requiring that His children wait.  Every one of us is called to wait in our own way.  We wait for answers to prayers. We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and so good to us that we can’t possibly imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer ..."

Well, I hope you all can have a great week!  I am so grateful for this Gospel and I am so grateful to be a missionary.  I love you all!  Have a fantabulous week!!!

 

Sister Brown

 

We found a playground!

 

Week 29: World War II Bombs

So, Sister Eschenmann and I were taking a bus through town coming home from an appointment when we saw 12, or so, police and ambulance cars drive by and stop a couple blocks from our apartment.  We didn't think much of it until we were waiting for another bus that after 30 minutes, 3 of the same bus that normally come through never came ...  And, that was when a lady said the buses were shut down for the night because they found a bomb in a construction zone and needed to get it out of there.  But what was funny was when we were talking to her, we thought she said, "A bomber/terrorist ..." and that was pretty scary.  Later everything was cleared up to us, but yup, crazy adventures here in Wiesbaden!

Oh, how we love waiting for trains!

This week we had a Zone Training; it was really great!  Sister Eschenmann and I got to be in charge of the 'finding activity' for the day, which means find a place in Wiesbaden where about 36 people can go talk to people about the Gospel.  So, we thought of different contacting ideas that were fun like 'Compliment Contacting' - say something you like about someone; 'Lost Contacting' - trying to find the kuhrhaus; 'Weather Contacting' and a few other contacting ideas.  It went pretty well, I think.  :)

This week we were able to have a bunch of less active 'go by's' to stop in on, and that went pretty well.  In an attempt trying to find a less active, Sister Eschenmann rang the doorbell of a Russian lady who didn't know our less active, but she gave us some sweet rolls and she was so sweet!  Her German was not too good, so she couldn't really understand us when Sister Eschenmann tried to speak to her, but it was still way sweet :)  Probably the nicest 'go by' of my life!

​Sister Eschenmann an awesome Russian Lady
 

​Pretty Church we saw on 'go by's'

We went by another less active, too, who was 75 and out of all the less actives, this was the first one that actually let me/us into her house!  It was great!  She was a little interesting (haha) ...  She had so many dolls around her house and would pet their hair and stroke their cheeks ... so that was a little Komisch (weird).  But it was great.  We had a great conversation and invited her to church, and she actually came!  It was such a blessing!  We were very excited to have her there.

Sister Taylor and I had a split this last week and it was a blast!  I told her I was reading the Isaiah section in 2 Nephi and she told me a story:  So, a man was in the war and he got shot but survived when the bullet hit his chest.  People ran over and asked, "How did you survive that!?" He pulled out his Book of Mormon where the bullet hit, and flipped through the pages.  The bullet had stopped in 2 Nephi and he said, "Nothing gets past 2 Nephi!" (haha)  I laughed so hard with that story and thought, "True dat!"

Well, as I said, I am in 2 Nephi and was reading in chapter 28 this morning, and the last verse in the chapter I really enjoyed.  It says:  "Nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts."  In this chapter it talked a lot the people believing in false churches and thinking that they didn't need God, and all the wickedness.  But I really love that even after that, God is still there and He will take our hand and help us out of the holes that we dig ourselves into.

Well, I really hope that you all have a great week!  Stay safe! 

Ich Liebe Dich

Sister Brown

Clock Shop
 

​Temple Trip (above)  ... Our District (below)
 

Week 28: Frosty Week!

Man, the sun finally came out in Wiesbaden, but I guess that is a not such a good thing ... With the sun came the frostiest week I've seen in a while!  Who knew that clouds could act as a sort of 'blanket' from the cold ...?  Well, it is finally starting to warm up, but I am so ready for summer to come.  BRING IT ON! (haha)

Anyways, I hope you all had an amazing week!  We stayed busy here for sure.  The Wiesbaden wards here are so great and willing to help out in any way they can, which is awesome.  We met with two different investigators this week, one of which I'm proud to say I found.  There is going to be a baptism in the next week or so, hopefully for a married couple, the Butlers, who will join the Wiesbaden German ward.  It is so great to see the blessings of missionary work in peoples' lives, and how it helps them come closer to God with the changes they make to improve their lives.

This week I studied a lot on 'diligence' and found a couple cool scriptures on in Alma 32: 42-43 ... It talks about the rewards of our faith and diligence.  There are times in our lives where we don't see a purpose to keep fighting and pushing through, but with every trial, I believe, comes blessings; whether it is physical blessings that you can see, or blessings of gratitude and strength to overcome those trials.  Also, in Mosiah 4:27 it says, "... and again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize."  I hope we can all be diligent as we reach our goals and exercise faith in Christ in our lives, so that we can endure to the end and win our prize. :)

We had a funny moment this week when we brought by some cake to a less active member's house to be nice and friendly, and when we were there we ended up leaving with pizza and 2 boxes of cookies (haha).  FAIL ...  It's kinda funny when you leave with more than you brought!

I've also decided it is a good thing to check bus books to know exactly when buses come, and not think, "Oh, it'll be here soon ... (15 minutes later) yup, any minute now ... (half hour later) any time ... haha (45 minutes later ....) SEE, TOLD YA! (haha)  Yeah ... fail. 

Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys at home.  Know that I pray for you and hope you have a fantastic week! Happy Valentine’s Day!  (National Eat Chocolate Day ... haha).

Tschuss!

Sister Brown

Castles!

 I made mittens for Elder Hales!

Going for a swim ...

Week 27: SUGAR AT LAST!

So, I made it the whole month of January without eating sugar!  Wow, what a struggle (haha).  Nice to know I can survive without it, though!  This week has been so great for Wiesbaden.  There are 3 whole baptisms happening in the next two weeks!  It should be amazing!  I am way excited! 

We have had some really great appointments this last week.  We met with an investigator, Suzie, and that is going really well.  In the past she had a baptismal date, but didn’t understand all of the requirements, so decided she wasn’t ready.  But, we asked her if she would like to take the lessons again, and more in depth, and she said, "Yes!"  So, I gave her the first lesson this last week and it was so beyond incredible.  We watched the restoration video with her and it was just such a great discussion.  The Spirit was there so strong, testifying what we were saying was true, and I could tell she felt the Spirit by the look in her eyes.  I truly have a testimony that it is impossible to bring people to the gospel without the help of the Spirit. 

Let it snow!

We also got to have the Elders come and give an investigator of ours a blessing because she had a knee surgery.  It was really cool to see her experience that, and also funny.  The Elders were trying to explain in German how a Priesthood Blessing works and they told her they would put their hands on her head.  But, she thought they wanted her to put her hands on her own head, so she did and sat there with her hands on her head.  The Elders rephrased it and explained it better, but that made me laugh.  She was so sweet. 

Street Display!

  

On Friday we planned out a whole day to take buses and trains to go by some less-actives and this turned out to be the weirdest day I’ve had in a while.  We had quite the adventure.  We left sunny Wiesbaden (first off, crazy that it was sunny ... the first day in 3 weeks) but ya, it was beautiful.  We then took a 30 minute bus ride out of town to find 4 inches of snow (haha).  Later we took a 2 hour train out to one person, and it was in the middle of nowhere.  We then took a 30 minute bus ride even further into the middle of nowhere, and I’m pretty sure this was the most sketchy bus I have ever been on in my ENTIRE life!  The bus driver would grab his speaker and shout crazy things over the intercom.  There was also a 15 year old boy running around the bus shouting things in German that I couldn’t understand.  Then lastly a crazy, old man trying to flirt with Sister Eshenman ...  Crazy things happening here.  The thoughts in my mind were, "Shoot, we are going to get stranded out here in the middle of nowhere ... we are gonna die!"  But, after we got off the bus in the middle of nowhere, we found the less-active who wasn’t home.  Then we were trying to find the bus stop, but once we did, the bus didn’t look like it was going to come.  We had been standing outside already for 45 minutes and the bus was 10 minutes late.  It looked like we were not going to make our train connection home, so I said a quick prayer in my head to get us home safely and as soon as I said, "Amen," Sister Eshenman was like. "THERE’S THE BUS!"  Man, what a blessing!

So many castles on the river ... saw at least 5 castles within 10 minutes! 

It was a crazy week, but we were able to stay safe and accomplish everything that we needed to.  I am so grateful to be in Germany!  We handed out a Book of Mormon on the bus already this morning.  It is going to be a great day!  I hope all of you have a wonderful week!  Stay safe and stay warm!  (For those in Utah, I'm so dang jealous of the weather there right now ... haha.)

I read a really great scripture in 2 Nephi the other day I'd like to share ... don't worry, it is only like 2 sentences.  It was in 2 Nephi, Chapter 15 verse 25 and in this chapter it talks about all the destruction of the evil people.  But what I loved was that it says, "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still."  No matter how bad things get, no matter how much we mess up in our lives and God 'face Palms' and thinks, "Man, what are you guys doing?",  He will always have His hand reached out for us, ready to take our hand and help us come back to Him.  I know this to be true :) 

Take Care Everyone ... Ich Liebe Dich ... Tschuss!!
  

Sister Brown

Made it one month without sugar!  PARTY TIME!! (Don't worry, I didn't eat this all in one day!)

What the ...?  Oh, American movies ... they get stranger and stranger, I guess.