Liebevoll Familie und Freunde,
So! This week, I think Sister Schulze and I learned the danger of
having a full schedule. Apparently, the more appointments you have
scheduled=the more appointments that can...fall through. We had a lot
of ausgefallen Terminen in der Woche. But! It was nonetheless a super
week:)
We have a new investigator! Frau Hausmann, the lady who stopped us at
the train station and asked us for a Book of Mormon! She is super
great. She reminds me of somebody I know..but I can't quite put my
finger on it. Anywho, we met with her last Friday in the church, and
she walked around looking at all the pictures, reading all the wall
quotes, asking lots of questions, etc. We had a great lesson, and we
are hoping to have her in church this coming Sunday. She's great, and,
so far as we can tell, prepared. :)
We also have another progressing investigator, Sarah. She's from
Nigeria. Unfortunately, she lives in Heidenheim..which is an hour and
a half by train..but! We met with her twice last week. Now all we need
to do is find a way to get her to church...
Umm! Other adventures from the week? We helped an inactive schwester
move? Actually we've been helping with it the last month. But last
Thursday she said the old apartment needed to be completely emptied
out. She's a single mom, and had nobody to help. Sisters to the
rescue! We emptied out her 5th floor apartment and carried all the
stuff to her new apartment. We were so kaputt by the end of the
day..and I was SO sore the day after. It was great:)
Annd Saturday morning we...planted flowers! We were assigned by our
Ward Mission Leader a service project, namely, to take care of a
couple of graves in a cemetery here in town. Well the Elders
apparently didn't find that very interesting. They looked awful. But!
We bought some flowers and planted them and now they look lovely:) It
was really fun to do some gardening:)
Und jetzt a little shout out for music! So yesterday we met with one
of our cute little old Sisters in the ward. She lives in an old folks
home..sort of. At any rate, we walked with her to the park and found
ourselves a bench. We could see she wasn't doing very well. We started
having our little lesson, and a couple minutes in, she asked if we
could just sing her a hymn. Then another. And another. Then an old man
came out of nowhere and joined our bench, and requested yet another.
At any rate, it was almost like I could feel the peace distilling upon
her as we sang. It was a neat feeling. I love music.
Scripture time! So one of the questions we hear a lot out on the
streets here is "why does God let good people suffer?" I thought about
that a bit this week. I was reading in Nephi-where Laman and Lemuel
have Nephi all bound up and "treated him with much harshness"-and
found a scripture in 1 Nephi 18:11. Nephi didn't ask why he had to
suffer. He said simply, "Nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he
might show forth his power..." I like that wording "the Lord did
suffer it" because, in very deed in Gethsemane, the Lord did suffer
that very experience. Whenever the Lord "suffers" us to suffer
something, He too once suffered for those very things. He is very much
aware of our sufferings. He knows what is best for us.He knows
perfectly how to give us aid. We need only to ask Him. The Atonement
is amazing.
I was also reading in Mosiah this week (I am reading the book of
Mormon "twice" right now..in English, and also in German..but not in
the same place..it's a little confusing..) Anywho! Mosiah 27:25-26
"And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and
women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again;
yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a
state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and
daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do
this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God." I read that in
my German reading this week, and instead of the word "changed" it
reads "umgewandelt", which means "transformed". For me, when something
merely changes, it can always go back to what it was. When I change my
clothes, I can change them again. But when something TRANSFORMS, it
never goes back. When a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, it
can and will never again be a caterpillar. We must not only become
changed from our fallen state, we must be transformed. We must become
so converted to Christ, that we can and will never go back. There was
a talk in the April Liahona by Elder Bednar that talked about how the
atonement is there to "make bad men good, and good men better." The
Atonement makes it possible to receive forgiveness of sins, but we
often overlook, as Elder Bednar points out, its enabling power. I
testify that while the process of becoming transformed is not always
easy, it is very much possible through the enabling power of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ. There
Well! I am out of wind and out of time. I love you all! Thanks for
your wonderful examples and never ending support and prayers:)
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Bice
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