Stay out of the kitchen Mariah. Love, your Mom (Week 18)

Flour and Water Pancakes

Homemade bread using baking powder instead of yeast

Hallo Liebe Familie (und Freunden)

Basic Summary:
We did an "open your mouth" day on Tuesday, which is actually stupid because we're supposed to always open our mouth. We tried extra hard and talked to a TON of people and it was awesome. We definitely saw miracles and it affected the rest of our week. We didn't meet with any of our normal people this week (they were busy), so that was schade but we did meet some cool new people. We found a man named Abraham in a park. He came to Deutschland from Afghanistan 50 years ago to study chemistry. I'm excited to teach and get to know him more. We taught Relief Society in church about President Monson's talk "Choices". It is a great one. We also met an old woman and she talked to us (mostly at us) for 45 minutes. But we are going back to talk about the Book of Mormon and she has read a little in it. We gave a super brief church tour to a guy who called us and wanted to meet with us. We went finding in a park and a guy started yelling at us because he had a headache and we were talking (like 20 feet away), but we went and had a nice conversation with him. He wasn't interested, but ended up being really nice and we shared our testimonies with him.

Honestly, every week is hard, but I have seen how God has answered my prayers. Sometimes it is by someone leaving money in a vending machine so you can buy Toblerone, and other times it is by getting to know a family in your ward that you can still be friends with Germans even though your German sucks. :) And sometimes it is just the feeling that you are not alone and that God sees what is in your heart.

This week I heard a parable that I really love. (See bottom to read it).

I was raised by eagles and always taught that I was an eagle and that I could fly. It is because of wonderful parents and leaders and
through the gospel of Jesus Christ that I am here. We are all truly Eagles in God's eyes. He knows our potential and He wants us to fly.
He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, so we can learn to fly. We (every human being) have a divine heritage: God is the Father of our spirits. He
knows what we can become and He knows who we really are.

The scripture that I chose for my mission was Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, which says, "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round
about you, to bear you up." I know that I am not alone. God is with me here, and this is His work. He wants us to be happy! I know that it is
through Jesus Christ that we can be happiest. It is through Jesus Christ that we can realize and reach our full potential as Eagles.

Love you all! I hope your week is Wunderbar!!
Grüße liebe!
Sister Simpson

P.S. GOOFS for the week. On Saturday night I decided to make bread. A lady in our ward gave us a recipe a while back. I didn't know what
yeast was in German nor could I find anything that looked like it, so I just used a packet of something I found in our pantry. (Sister
Porter had used it for something before.. Maybe brownies?) It was baking powder. Unfortunately, I think the yeast was important because
it became a nice dense dough ball instead of bread. (We still ate it..It's kind of like thicker hard tack). After that didn't work, I decided to make pancakes. We had flour and sugar, so I figured if the pioneers could eat it, I could. It was certainly something. Do I feel closer to my pioneer heritage? No. Did I still eat it because my other option was a dough ball? Of course. Let it be known, I am not a baker
and I should not experiment in the kitchen. Lesson learned.

Parable of the Chicken Eagle (title written by your truly; everything else written by anonymous)
There was a farmer who found a baby eagle in the wild and brought it home and placed it on his farm in his chicken coop. It soon learned to eat chicken feed and behave as chickens do. One day, a naturalist who was passing by inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. “Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly.” replied the owner. “It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.” “Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”
After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their feed, he jumped down to be with them again.
Patiently, the naturalist took the eagle, on the following day, up on the roof of the house and urged him again, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the comfort and familiarity of the chicken coop. 
On the third day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of ALL birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.”  The eagle looked around, back toward the barnyard and up to the sky. Still he did not fly. Then the naturalist lifted him straight toward the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble and slowly he stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens. It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens longingly; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. He was an eagle even though he had been kept and trained as a chicken.

Pretty buildings