Thursday, July 21, 2016

Week 26!





Liebe Familie!

What a week! The only actual appointment we had this week was with our new convert, Schwester Heumann. She is doing well and it is fun getting to know her and teaching her. She has a lot of faith and she is a really neat lady. Other than that, we went by on a lot of contacts and met some interesting people. We met a woman from Sri Lanka, and we found a Book of Mormon in her language, Tamil, and brought it by. Also, we talked to a german man on the street. Well, actually, he talked to us but I'm not quite sure what about. The only things I picked up were: horse, our shoes, meat, kids, gloves, war and church.. Ich habe kein Ahnung. 

We have been getting to know the members. There are lots of returned and future missionaries and overall, the members are pretty open to sharing the gospel and coming with us to appointments. We had an eating appointment on Wednesday, and we were going by on contacts before it and it started raining. We waited under an umbrella, hoping it would ease up. Eventually, we had to leave and then it really started pouring. We arrived at their house 10 minutes later, COMPLETELY drenched. Haha. They gave us dry clothes to wear so we didn't drip water all over their house. Yesterday, at out eating appointment, the members took us in the backyard and we all picked berries. (They told us they hunt for berries because the words for bear - Bäre - and the word for berries - beere - sound the same :) I was in heaven. Then she heated up some of the raspberries and we ate it with ice cream. YUM. 

Our area is super spread out and there's a lot of travel time required to get out to the other two main cities, so that makes it difficult to get a lot done. We were also on Tausch this week in Hannover, with our STL Sister Baird and her companion, Sister Harger, who was in my last district. Sister Harger and I got to visit two cool Italian members and talk to them about the temple. They also fed us dinner and it was delicious. Then the next day, Sister Baird and I (and the elders) helped a woman move. He non-member mother, sister and brother-in-law were there, and we got to invite them to the temple open house too. I am super excited for the temple! I've been studying how the Freiberg temple was built and the history of the church in Germany, and it is so cool. The Deutsch members are strong, and they have a great heritage. 

On Sunday, I gave a talk in church on missionary work. I studied and talked about how missionary service is our responsibility as members, not just for the set-apart missionaries. It's not really missionary work: it is simply being open and sharing the things that bring us the most joy and happiness in our lives. What a blessing the gospel is! God has a plan for us. We are not here by mistake, and He wants to bless us. He wants us to be happy. His gospel shows us the way to be happiest and if we follow His commandments, we will receive eternal life, which is the greatest of all God's blessings. Because we have been given this knowledge, we HAVE to share it. We should want to share it. So I invite you to share part of your testimony this week with someone and help them come closer to Christ. Sharing the gospel is a commandment, we learn in 1 Nephi that 'the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.' That is why we can do hard things. God is our strength, and with Him as our foundation, we cannot fail. 

Well, I hope you have a great week. I love you! Take care! Eat lots of raspberries and blackberries for me! And good luck with swim champs!

Sister Simpson

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