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