Week 52: Crazy Adventures!

Hi, everybody!  I hope you all had a fun Pioneer Day! W e didn't really celebrate at all here, but I did eat some cookies that day, so I guess we can count that ;)

We had some crazy adventures this last week!

We had a member appointment on Thursday this last week with a older lady in the ward.  Everybody calls her Oma, which means, "Grandma."  She is such a sweetheart.  But, her German is a little hard to understand at times, so when she told us that she wanted us to come over for dinner at 17:00 (5 o'clock), we thought she said 7 o'clock, because they use military time here.  So, we had just gotten back from an appointment at 5:00 and got a call a half hour later asking where we were?  So, we flew out the door hoping we didn't forget anything, and we started running for the trains.  We showed up a good hour late, which with Germans is a huge 'no no'!  But, luckily she still let us in and fed us, and we had a really great appointment.

When we left, however, it was a little past nine, and we realized that there were absolutely no trains coming through for the rest of the night, and we were a 3 hour walk from home ...  So, we started walking and hoping to find a random bus (while all this was happening a crazy man was following us, so we got a little nervous.)  When all the sudden a car comes up behind us and honks their horn!  We jumped and turned to look who it was, and I've never been so glad to see a member pull over and tell us to get in.  We quickly hopped in and they were the children from this Oma we had just visited.  They went by after work to just say hello to their mom.  So, they took us back to their house for a quick ice cream, even though it was late, and we got home right in time.  It was quite the adventure and we laughed a lot later about it.

We had a district meeting this week, too, and it was an Elder's birthday and we decided we were going to cook lunch for him.  We brought all the materials and started to head to the church, which takes a good 45 minutes to get to.   But, we didn't pack well because everything was spilling in our bags.  So, that was unfortunate, but the meal turned out alright.  President Stoddard even showed up, so that was fun to have him join in on the discussions in district meeting.

We had another street display this week, as well, and we chalked the Plan of Salvation.  It was really cool to explain to people the basic questions of:  Why we are here, where did we come from, and where are we going.  I got into really good discussions with some people that were really strong in their faith.  I think they were shocked that when they said something about who God is and what they believe, that I agreed with them a lot.  I showed them that our church believes there is a lot of truth in other churches.  What they do is great, and to believe in God is so important.  But, what we share in the mission is our church has the proper authority of the priesthood to give blessings and to baptize people, and to bless the sacrament.  But, the biggest thing is modern day revelation; the fact that we believe and know that God speaks to us through his prophets is incredible.

The last thing I'll add for this week was that I was studying a talk by Dallin H Oaks and it talked about testing our sources.  He said, "It is OK to doubt your source (like what the scriptures or prophets or teachers say), but take it to God the original and get an answer for yourself that what the prophets and Book of Mormon state truth."  I really liked that because sometimes it says that it is alright if we don't understand or fully believe every little thing that is taught to us.  But, if we study it out and take it to the Lord, He can confirm what we know and have learned to be the truth.  So, I encourage you all, if you have a current doubt in your mind, study it out and then take it to your Heavenly Father, and I can promise that you'll receive an answer.  It may not be right away or how you expect an answer to come, but be patient and keep your eyes open, and He will make it known.

I hope you all have a fantastic week.  Enjoy the last bit of summer!  It is going quick!

Liebe große

Sister Jordan Brown 

Week 51: Happy Pioneer Day!!

This week was quite an adventure for us ...  On Monday we had our preparation day and just did the basic shopping and sightseeing, so that was fun.  On Tuesday we had a split with the sister training leaders.  That was an adventure because there was a funeral for a less active in the ward that nobody knew.  So, we went to that and while I was sitting there in the ceremony, I was wondering where the body was because in all the funerals I've been in, there is normally a casket in front where you can say "goodbyes".  Well, after the funeral a man walked over and lifted up some flowers off a little wooden container and then lifted 'her' up and I was like, "Oh, there she is!" :(  I've never actually seen a cremated person before, so that was a little weird.  But, the funeral was sweet.  We followed the man that carried her outside and he buried her in a hole, and that was it.  But, the sister of this less active was so grateful for us to be there.  She talked our ears off.  It was really funny because her daughter had to come and drag her out and she said, "Mom always has to be the very last one out of the building."  It was sweet experience, though.

This week we tried to contact people in the park a few times.  Believe it or not, I had not tried to do that one before.  It went pretty well ...   We had some good discussions and handed out a few cards, so that was fun. 

My favorite experience this week was probably when we were heading to a street display on Thursday ...  We were sitting on a train when these two people got on, and she was clearly speaking English.  She just so happened to sit down right by me, so I was thinking, "Quick, what am I gonna say to her?" when she beat me to the punch by reading my name tag.  I then said, "Yea, I'm a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ."  She was like, "Yea, 'the Mormons' ... I know your church; some of my friends are Mormon."  She also told me how she had seen The Book of Mormon musical and knew that there was no way that was from our church, because we don't swear like that.  I told her that was true, and told her to look up Meet the Mormons on Netflix, and that was from our church.  She was way cool.  I talked to her friend, as well.  He was from Finland and they were traveling around for the month.  He said he had been to our church and they gave him a Book of Mormon in Finish.  I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and then she surprisingly said, "No, but I would totally read it if I had one."  So, because I was inspired to bring an English Book of Mormon that day, I said to her, "Well, it just so happens that I have one that you can have, if you'd like."  She was super excited and took it, and was shocked that it was free.  I thought that was a way cool experience, and I am lucky I had an English Book of Mormon with me because normally I don't carry those around with me.

After that cool experience, we got off the train and were waiting for the Elders, and another man walked up to us because he heard us speaking English.  He was German, but had talked to a couple missionaries before and knew that we all spoke English, so we had a fun chat with him.  After the Elders came, we decided the street display wasn't going to work so we decided to correlate.  As we were heading out to find a place to sit, another guy came up and talked to us in English and said his friend was teaching him about our church, and he was wondering if he could get an English Mormon Bible that was written from that "Joe Smith guy", is how he worded it.  The Elders said, "Of course ..." and that they could come explain more about our church to him.   He was way excited; as were we.  This was like the best hour of our day that day, I think.

Sister Megli and Sister Brown "selfie"

Anyways, this week was really quite a good week.  Saturday the ward got together for breakfast and lunch for basically a day of ward counsel and how we can work better together.  I thought it was cool. One of the members showed a really cool film about a man who ran a race and got hurt, but still limped to the finish line and it said, "When you don't give up, you can never loose."  I really liked that.

I will leave you with a quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf:  "My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down.  Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the head of this church.   It is His gospel.  He wants you to succeed.  He gave his life for just this purpose."

I hope you all have a happy 24th of July this week.  Take care!

Sister Jordan Brown 

 P-day ... Yummo!

 Mannheim Fountain

Week 50: Endure to the End

Man, this week was a week of endurance, if ever I've seen one! (haha)  We had a lot of appointments that fell out, so we knocked A LOT of doors and talked to as many people as we could on the streets. We ran into a lot of ... interesting people (haha), but it makes for good stories later in life, ya? 

 

The blessing this week was that we did hand out a few Books of Mormon to people, so maybe those people will call us later with interest.  I'm not sure, but we are planting seeds and that's what's important.

 

Tuesday night we were supposed to have an appointment with an investigator, which fell out, so we decided to go by a referral that we received and see if they were home.  At last she finally was.  She let us in, which is not a common thing to do here in Germany, and we sat and talked with her for about 2 solid hours.  She has been studying religion and wanted to know about our church.  I thought it was really cool that she already had questions in her mind to ask us, and she was basically already prepared to meet us.  She took a Book of Mormon and said she would study it, and let us know if she had any questions.  I pray that she will find the truth in it and come to know more of God. 

 

Anyways, that was our really cool experience for the week.  Other than that, we felt like the pioneers as we, "... walked and walked and walked and walked AAANNNDDD walked!" (haha) 

 

We did have an awesome zone training with other missionaries this last week, too, and we got to watch The Restoration movie, which is on the LDS website.  I think this movie is such a great resource to get people excited and ready to get back to work.  I know that is how I felt after I watched it. 

 

Well, I think that's all for this week.  I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

 

Liebe große

 

Sister Jordan Brown 

 Making lasagna dinner ... yummo!

 District friends ...

Neighbors ... Lindsay and me!

Week 49: Humidity!

Man, it has been about 100 degrees this whole week over here.  It's a lot different here, too, because they have humidity that Utah does not have (haha).  But we survived it!  Now we will hope we can get through the rest of this hot summer.   I hope that all of you are finding ways to stay cool in this summer heat! 

So, this week I read a talk I really enjoyed by Jeffery R Holland called, 'Stay Within the Lines.'  I think his talks are kinda humorous because they are right up in your face and honest, with no sugar coating.  He said something that really stood out to me:

"Just as athletes must stay within lines to compete in sports, those who are called to labor in the Lord's work must stay within the lines of worthiness."

I think it's really interesting, because to be completely honest, some rules in the white handbook drive me crazy.  Like when we are stranded in the middle of nowhere, far from our appointment, and a member offers to come pick us up; and we have to say, "No," because he is a male and wouldn't be bringing his wife.  I have just been struggling a little with why we have the rules, and some of them just reluctantly following.  But, this talk kinda put me in my place.  It wasn't talking about missionary rules, exactly, but it definitely related. 

Here are some scriptures that go with it:  Joshua 24:15, John 14:15, 2 Nephi 2:16 & 27, Helaman 14:30-31, Moroni 7:14-15.

Anyways, this week it was Sister Megli's birthday on Friday, so I stayed up a little later to decorate our study room.  I'm surprised she didn't walk in, because I was making so much noise (haha). We had a fun day.  I made buttermilk syrup and pancakes, and we had lunch with a member at a fancy Italian place.  Then after that we did weekly planning, and then went to a members for dinner.  So, it was a fun birthday for Sister Megli ;)

Well, other than that, there isn't too much more to report on ... Our ward here is wonderful.  We had a few member appointments, which were really fun, and we even had a member bring 2 non-member friends along.  It was great! 

I hope you all have a great week.  Take care ... Liebe große 

Sister Brown

 Happy 4th of July

 Ward Members ...

 Happy Birthday, Sister Megli!!