Week 70: DECEMBER IS HERE!!!!

Man, I cannot believe that November has already come and gone.  It went so dang fast!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  All the missionaries in Dortmund came together for a  big thanksgiving lunch, so that was a blast!  We had our mission couple and then 8 missionaries.  I will have to say, though, cooking in Germany with American recipes is really hard!  But, I managed to make my very first pumpkin pie from scratch, and Sister Brey made delicious rolls! :)  We were very proud of ourselves!

This week's miracle was so cool!  We made a game plan to go by less actives and potential investigators and members.  We wrote down where everyone lived so that when we were at a stop, we could see who else was there that we could 'go by' on, as well, and not miss anyone we needed to visit.  So, Saturday we had zero appointments, so we busted out this list and were able to go by 15 people in only a few hours.  Although we found that a lot of people had moved and some weren't home, we decided we would 'door out' the buildings, as well.  As we were at the first building 'dooring', I don't know how it happened, but we were able to find three families that were super interested and made appointments for two of them for this week to go back on them!  It was incredible.  We now call that building "the miracle building"!  We will just baptize the whole thing (haha).

Something I studied this week that I thought was cool was Faith.  I was reading in my personal studies to plan for an appointment, and as I studied faith the word "trust" came into mind and that made me think ...  How do we come to trust people ...?  How do you trust your friends and family so much?  You talk to them, get to know them, tell them things, hear about them, etc.  You are familiar with them.  So, if we trust people here, how do you think we can come to trust God?  We have to talk to Him, get to know Him, follow His advice and see how it goes, and have faith in Him.  I also found a Mormon Message that was amazing about a woman who lost her husband in the war.  At first she was so mad and didn't understand how that could happen.  But, she took it to God and He was able to comfort her; and she said in the end, "Now I know that God has my back."  I thought that was so cool.  I know for myself that God has my back, too, and I do trust Him with my life.  I hope you all can find trust in God because He will never let you down.  Life won't always be perfect, but He will always be there.

I hope you all are excited for the Christmas season that is here.  If you have the chance go to the Church website and find the new Christmas movie A Savior is Born, watch it and share it, and have an awesome week! :)

Sister Jordan Brown

Week 69: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It is crazy that it is already Christmas time again.  I know for you guys you still have Thanksgiving, but since they don't celebrate that here, they jump right to Christmas.  I am so excited to see the Christmas market here.  Apparently they have the third biggest Christmas tree in the world here.  I'll make sure to send pictures next week!

This week we did many "go bys" on people we didn't know, and we fought sickness like a boss!  And ... we made snowmen out of socks (haha).  I love Christmas time.  We, of course did many other things, but I'm assuming you don't want a play-by-play of my week, so I'll tell you the best parts.

We had a crazy day on Tuesday because we were teaching a new member German and while we were doing that, the Elders were teaching a man that we handed over to them to teach.  He brought his two sisters and they were having a difficulty teaching all of them, so they asked if we could teach the sisters and they would teach the man.  So, Sister Brey taught German, and I sat out in the hall and was able go through The Restoration with them.  Man, I have to say I've never missed my companion so much in my life.  I have a testimony now that there is a reason why we have companions.  The lesson went great, and I was able to share my testimony and answer their questions to the best of my
ability.  But, that second testimony really does make the difference ...  We were able to survive this crazy hour and it went surprisingly ok ;)

I'll close out with a short scripture today.  It is from Matthew 5:16:  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Remember that you are a child of God.  Make God proud this week and go keep being awesome ;)

Have a great week ... and a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Liebe große

Sister Jordan Brown

Week 68: Awesome Miracles Happened This Week

Hey, Everyone!

I hope you all had an awesome Friday the 13th this last week (haha).  I hope nothing unlucky happened to you guys; I think it all fell my way that day (haha).

We had some awesome miracles happen this week that just reconfirmed how true this church is to me.  Last week we were 'dooring' random less-active members to try and get to know them, and one totally gave us her number and invited us to come back!  So we did, and we seriously had the best appointment like ever.  She has such a testimony that God is there and that she needs Him, and just needs help to jump back into the church.  It was such a cool lesson.  It was one where we had one lesson planned, and then the Spirit took us in a completely different direction.  It was amazing!

Also, as you can see from the pictures, we got to carve pumpkins!  It was a little past Halloween, but it was still great :)  If you can't tell what I carved it ... was supposed to be a minion (haha).

Something else that was really cool was that on Sunday, one of our more interesting investigators brought two of his sisters to church, and they are so legit :)  They were so sweet and wonderful.  There was also an investigator from the Elders that spoke Persian and very very little German and English, and they were able to translate for him.  It was a miracle that they were both at church for the first time on the exact same day.  I love seeing how God works miracles and we just get to see them.

Well, I will keep this short because I have a bit of a head cold ... again (haha).  Struggles of being a missionary (lol)  But, I found a great quote in my studies that I would like to share:

"When we are busy serving the church, we can expect God to bless us with miracles when we go and do the things He commands (see 1 Nephi 3:7).  In this equation God's role is constant, not a variable.  He always keeps His promises.  The only variable is whether we have the faith to commit, obey, and expect miracles." -Elder Clayton M. Christensen.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!  Take care! 

Sister Jordan Brown

Week 67: This Week Has Been An Adventure!

Hey ya'll!

This week has been an adventure!  We did a lot of 'finding' because our appointments kept falling out.  But, it wasn't too shabby.

We had a really fun service project on Wednesday for a member in the church.  We helped them paint a bit, and then I got to build a shelf all by myself because they couldn't figure out how to put it together (haha).  I felt pretty pro.  What was funny was that when we walked in, I guess Kevin (the husband) had taped up a line across the middle of the wall so that we could paint a solid brown line across the walls.  But, he used a small 10 inch ruler stick to measure out the lines so they were "a little off ..." (haha)  When I say a little, I actually mean ... a LOT.  It was hilarious.  So, we fixed that and then put the shelf together and had some pizza.  I love service projects.  They are way fun sometimes :)

 Service Project ...!

We had a really sketchy experience with week.  We got a call from a man who said we had contacted him on a train one day, and he wanted help moving because he got an apartment.  He spoke very pore German, and threw in a bit of English and some other language.  Well, he text us his address and I told him we would bring the Elders with us, because we weren't aloud to be alone with him.  Then he said, "Okay ... but it would be better if we came alone."  But, we still brought the Elders and I am sure grateful we did because this guy didn't actually need help moving.  He did have a new apartment, but turns out he was looking for a new wife (haha)  Awkward ...  So, he kept looking to me, telling me he was alone and lonely, and all I could say was, "Sorry ..."  We got out of there pretty quick, thanks to the Elders.  The craziest part is that I don't ever remember talking to this man, but somehow he had our card ... weird.  Well, we survived that and we will not be going back there (haha).

Well, now onto a more spiritual side of things ...  I read this scripture, which is a pretty popular scripture, but I really needed to hear it this week.  It was in Isaiah 41:10 ... "Fear though not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

I just love how in so many different scriptures, and in so many examples in the scriptures, God has promised us that He is with us and that we shouldn't fear.  I have seen so many times, God take away the fear and doubt in my life.  He doesn't want us to be afraid; He doesn't want us to feel alone; He wants to help us and strengthen us.  How amazing is this knowledge that we have to know that we can ask Him for help and He will be there for us.

Well, I will keep this entry shorter and end here.  But, I hope you all have a fabulous week!  Think Positive!  Look up! ... and be Happy :)

Liebe

Sister Jordan Brown

 The gang's all here!

 

Autumn in Germany ... "fall" is here!

Week 66: Sister Brey is Fantastic!

Man, what an awesome week we had here.  I have a new companion and her name is Sister Brey ... she is fantastic!  She is American, but has lived in Singapore for the last four years, which is super cool.  We are going have a great transfer here, I think.  We have only been together for five days, and already she has tried to  burn down the kitchen (hahaha jk jk)  So, the story behind that is that Sister Brey was cooking fish, and just put a frozen one on some cooking paper and put it in the oven.  While she was doing this, I was putting on my makeup, when I hear, "Fire!  Fire!"  So I run in, (lucky I didn't stab my eye with my mascara ... haha)  So ya, I run in and the baking paper is on fire, and she is blowing it and it is getting bigger!  (haha)  So I tell her to stop and I run and grab our fire blanket, and rip it out and put the fire out. (haha)  I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.  It was super funny.

We had some really great appointments this week, as well ...  It's all kinda a blur, though, so I'll do my best to remember some of it.  Sister Nielson got transferred, so we had a few farewell appointments and she packed lots, so that was fun. 

On Wednesday we had six sisters stay in our apartment because transfers were the next day.  Which meant we had to lug 6 suitcases up two flights of stairs ... (hah)  Good thing I'm buff .. Not! :)  But, we survived.

This week in my studies I found something I had put in my studies probably during institute or seminary way back when.  But, I wrote something in there that I really liked.  It was in 2 Nephi chapter 5 and it is the story when Nephi's brothers were really bad and wanted to kill him because of his obedience to follow God ...  So Nephi took his family to a different place for safety.  While there, it says they had:  #1 their family, #2 they kept the commandments, #3 read their scriptures and studied the gospel, #4 built a temple, #5 they did work and labored (not lazy), and #6 held the priesthood.  Then in verse 27 it says:  "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."  I thought that was really cool; the proof that if we can follow these 6 principles, we can find happiness in our lives.  And no, it won't be perfect ... there will still be "war" from time to time, but that is because we are living in an imperfect world.  But, you can still find reasons to be happy. So, think about what makes you happy in your lives and find reason to be grateful :)

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Liebe,

Sister Jordan Brown

 Sister Brey is fantastic!!