Whitewashing in Stadthagen (Week 25)

Malia and Alana at the church in Altona

Sister Koch (Mariah's new greenie)

Hallo Familie!!

This week was so crazy! We had my last Persian Pals on Monday. I love Farshid, Hadi and Korush. Afterwards, there was a stake YSA barbecue for the 4th and Elder and Sister Johnson, who are going home.. We had to bring a less-active or an investigator in order to stay. No one we had invited showed up, so we were a little bummed, but the wife of a member in our ward was there, so we got to stay and talk to her! Also, we were just sitting down to eat and the Fullmers/Malia walked in... The church circle is pretty small. It was fun to talk to them a little about their trip.

On Tuesday, we were getting everything ready to leave, and we ran into Leslie Hansen, which was another tender mercy because I got to say goodbye to her! We traveled to Leipzig and overnighted there with Sister Hammer, my MTC comp, and Sister Gines. Then we left early Wednesday morning to go to Freiberg and picked up our new "goldens". Sister Mckinsey Koch is my new companion. She's from Chicago, she was studying business at BYU, and she is super sweet. We had a 7 minute window between Elder Barboza's train getting in and our leaving, in which to get the keys and phone for our new area. Traveling with all of our stuff was not fun. But we made it! A member picked us up at the bahnhof and drove us to our apartment. It is very nice and significantly bigger than my last one. I was pleasantly suprised by how well the elders cleaned it. The member took a picture of us and put it on facebook, and 20 minutes later we got a dinner invitation for the next day.  Our apartment is right across the street from the church, so that is super nice.

The rest of this week was a lot of trying to figure out the area and everything. This area covers Stadthagen and 2 bigger towns, which you can only get to by a very long and out of the way bahn ride. We do have bikes, so this week I will be teaching Sister Koch how to ride it. We live right across the street from the church. We are one of four sister companionships who are whitewashing (I think). A big group of Elders just went home and not so many came in, so that's why. The Elders here left 3 investigators, one of which was baptized on Saturday. We got to meet with Frau Heumann the day before, and we will be teaching her to new member lessons and helping her integrate into the ward. We still haven't met the other investigators, but we will hopefully this week! (We had an apponitment with one family, but we got on the wrong train and so we didn't make it.. but our Bishop and his wife were our joint teach and they went anyways.)

Church was the highlight of my week. This ward is HUGE and we felt very welcomed by the ward. Also, I can now understand basically everything that is going on in german, which is a huge blessing, because I would be feeling very lost otherwise. There are young men and young women, and some returned missionaries. The members are super willing to come teaching with us, which is awesome. Our GML (ward mission leader) is super nice and excited about missionary work. I am excited to be here!

I was reading Alma 37:6 this week, which says 'that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.'  I know that the small things we do often have the greatest impact on us in the long run. Things like meaningful scripture study, heartfelt prayer, and keeping the Sabbath day holy keep our spiritual bucket full. It is so easy to forget these things because they are so simple, but when we do these things, our faith grows and our foundation solidifies until we have a solid foundation that will be able to withstand the storm. 'And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty stormshall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.' (Helaman 5:12)

I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve my God, to represent my Savior, Jesus Christ, and to love these people here. Thank heavens God is willing to work with small and simple people like me.

Until next time. I love you! I hope you have a great week!

Sister Simpson

My address:

Jahnstraße 17
 31655 Stadthagen, Deutschland

Farshid

Hadi

Leipzig at 5:15

Phillipa

Stadthagen Countryside