Week 39: HALFWAY!

Wow, it is crazy to think that I have been out here for 9 months already!  Time flies when you're having fun and serving the Lord :)

 

It has been a great week; lots of laughs and lots of great spiritual experiences.  Elder Bednar came to talk to us on iPads because we will be receiving them sometime soon.  I thought it was interesting about how little he actually talked about using the actual iPads.  But, something that he did say that got me thinking was staying "in the light" with our technology, and I thought of the analogy of going into a dark room ... if you go right in, you won't be able to see.  It will be uncomfortable and you will want out (at least that is how I am).  That is how sin is.  If you jump right into the darkest and scariest sin, you will want to get out of there and Satan knows that.  So, he works on you little by little, slowly dimming the light and before you know it, you're used to that dark room, when you could have just turned on the light and had a bright and happy room.  We have a choice to stay in the light.  We have technology these days that can be used for SO MUCH GOOD!  We have family history and Facebook to keep up with friends across the world.  We have so much good, and just as much bad.  I can't remember where I studied this, but it talked about how doing nothing is almost as bad as actually doing bad things.  Wasting our time on endless hours of computer games, and such, is not what we are supposed to be doing.  We should be expanding our minds and talents.  I thought that was really neat, and it makes me want to work harder to use all of my time as wisely as possible.

 

Funny story for the week ...  I almost baptized myself (haha).  We had an 8 year old baptism in the ward on Saturday, and Sister Peterson and I went three hours early to fill the font because it takes forever! (haha)  But, we didn't check it for a while and came back and it was almost full, and the water was very hot.  So, we decided we had enough time to drain just a little and add more cold water.  So, I unplugged the drain for like 5 minutes, and we left and came back to check, and literally like 3 feet of water had disappeared!!!!  So, I ran in to plug the drain again and totally slipped down the stairs and caught myself.  Luckily, our new Bishop and family got to see me fall (haha).  Just perfect ...  Luckily I didn't actually go into the water, so all is well.  We had to hurry to and fill the font back up in time for the baptism, and made a lot of water bucket runs from the bathroom sinks to the font and back to get extra water in faster.  But, we did it :)  Lesson learned for next time, I guess (haha).

 

We have had a really great week ... We have had so many eating appointments that we basically never need to buy food for our apartment, so that is awesome!  We got the elders' apartment cleaned up to liveable standards now, so that is great.  In case I forgot to say, we moved into the old elders' apartment because they got transferred out and it was in the middle of town, close to everything :) 

 

I hope that all of you had a great week!  Also, I wanted to bear testimony how important family history work is, and how much of a difference it can be to someone who doesn't know about the church.  We have so many resources and it is way cool; it is a great way to do missionary work at home, if you need ideas ;)  Well, I hope you all have a great week! 

 

Liebe Große!

 

Sister Brown

Split in Hanau with Sister Taylor

 

 Football P-day

 

Mission Conference with some of the old MTC group ... 

everyone that is still in their FIRST area after 9 months!

I found him ... Elder Ashton!!! (from home)

 

 

Week 38: Hallo! :)

Hallo! :)

Well, I hope you all had an awesome week!  We had a busy week here ... We had a lot of appointments and "go bys" that kept us super busy through the week, so that was fun.

 

It is exciting times for the mission here in Frankfurt because on Friday, we will be blessed to have the opportunity to have a Mission Conference with Elder Bednar.  We will be receiving iPads to help with our mission work here.  So, this week should be wonderful. 

 

The ward here is so awesome and basically every appointment we have, the members are talking about families they could invite to church activities and how they can be missionaries.  It is so great to see how hard they are working to help, because without them, we missionaries wouldn't have really any work to do in the Military Ward.  We can't exactly go door to door here with the Military ward. 

 

We had a neat experience with a member ...  She invited her friend over because she heard she was looking for a new religion.  So, she came late and just for a second, but we told her a little about what we do and what we believe, and we gave her a Book of Mormon.  The next day she text the member and said how grateful she was for everything she was doing for her ... How it may just seem like talking and handing her books, but how much it meant to her.  It was really neat and I hope that we can continue to talk to her, and hopefully teach her the lessons :)

 

I am excited that it is warming up here.  Maybe I can get a little tan and not look as white as the walls (haha).  Sister Peterson and I also had a challenge to memorize (for a box of Chips Ahoy cookies) the order of how long each apostle has been in the presidency!  That was fun! 

 

It goes like this:

Thomas S. Monson

Boyd K. Packard

L Tom Perry

Russel M Neilson

Dallan H Oaks

M Russel Ballard

Richard G Scott

Robert D Hales

Jeffery R Holland

Henry B Eyering

Dieter F. Uchdorf

David A Bednar

Quintin L Cook

D Todd Christopherson

Neil L Anderson

Woo hoo :)  Sorry if I spelled them wrong, but for those who are seeking a challenge ... there you go.  Have fun! (haha)  Well I hope all of you have a great week.  I hear it keeps snowing, so that's good that you wont be in a total drought (haha).

 

Take care!

 

Sister Brown

 

Week 37: Our Entire Ward Had Spring Break ...

Hey, Ya'll!

This last week was a little less busy because our entire ward had Spring Break.  Now, for me Spring Break meant a whole week of pajamas and relaxing, but here it means a whole week of traveling the country! (haha)  People went all over the place, which is awesome and I am way jealous.  But, it was a good week.

 

They have decided to close down the elders in the American area for a little bit due to lack of elders at the moment, so there was an open apartment, which Sister Peterson and I decided to take!  It took a couple days to scrub it down top to bottom, but now it is starting to look like a real Sisters' apartment (haha)!

 

I am way excited for this week, though, because now that everyone is back, they all want to meet.  So, we might have one of the craziest weeks I've had in a while ...  We shall see how that goes, because we have at least 8 appointments already set up and many "go bys" to do.  It should be an awesome week :)

 

I'm starting to read the New Testaments, as well as the Book of Mormon, because honestly, I've never done it before ...  I know, "GASP!  You're a missionary!" (lol)  I'm not perfect, but I am gonna get through it, and I am pretty dang excited.  I think it is so interesting that we hear the Bible stories, and I always assumed what everyone told me was just about everything I needed to know about it; kinda like hearing the preview to a movie and thinking, "Oh okay, I don't need to see it then ... I think I get the gist of what it is about."  That's kinda a silly thought, I know ...  But, man when I have started to read it for myself, the Book has just come to life.  I am so grateful for the time I have as a missionary to read the scriptures daily and to focus on the Lord twenty-four seven!  It is such a blessing!

 

Well, I don't have too much to report for this week, so hopefully I will have more next week for you guys :)  I hope you have a great week ... and don't forget that Mother's Day is coming up, so get working on ways to tell your mom you love her.  I LOVE YOU, MOM!!!! :)

 

Take Care,

 

Sister Brown

 

 Good bye, Elder Anderson ...

 P-day ... Ropes Course!!

Week 36: Happy Easter!

Man, what an awesome Conference Weekend!  I sure hope you all had as great a weekend as I did.  It was such a blessing to not only have Conference, but to also have Easter; to remember our Savior, and then to have Apostles and prophets of the Lord speak about our Savior.  We were lucky to go to awesome members' houses in the American Ward to watch Conference, which was really nice.  It was almost the same as being home with people falling asleep, eating junk food 'til you wanna barf and just having fun ... and feeling the Spirit; I am grateful for that.

Something I noticed this time that I normally don't was not only what the speakers said, but the music that they selected and how it related to the talks and conversations.  I thought that was really neat.  I have to say I loved every single talk I heard.  I felt the Spirit was with me because every single talk I listened to, I found things that pertained to myself and people here that I am teaching.  It was really special.  I really loved the talk by D. Todd Christofferson when he said something along the lines of, "Many things are good, many things are important, but FEW things are ESSENTIAL ..."  Kinda gives you a new outtake on things.

It is amazing that we will have 3 more temples, too!  I can't believe how much the church has grown, and is growing.  It is a true blessing how the work is moving forward.

The other day Sister Peterson and I got stopped by two Jehovah Witnesses, and they thought we were one of them and we laughed.  They were really kind and we were able to bear testimony to them about what we believe, as did they.  We gave them a card and told them to look up the new video 'Because He Lives' and they did an Austausch (trade) and gave us a pamphlet.  It was kinda funny, but it was nice to be civil and have a decent conversation with them because sometimes that doesn't happen with people.  

One of our members of the ward introduced us to their neighbors this last week.  Also, and they have been taking the lessons and investigating the Church for the last 13 years.  It was so fun to meet them and I hope that we can help them commit to baptism and coming to church.  So, keep us in your prayers with that family.

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend and found some talks that can help you in your lives to be the best that you can.  Have a great week!

Liebe Große

Sister Brown

Conference Weekend!

Happy Easter!

How Germans decorate for Easter ... (above)

Nerf Wars ... (below)