Exchanges With Old Companions (Week 56)

sister Fulton.. reunited at last

Valentine's Day pancakes

Leaving notes by less actives

Well, it has been another week, and a bit of a crazy one at that. 

We did a lot of finding this week. Luckily, the weather got really nice and so it was basically spring. I told Sister Wilson that we had no termines because God knew that the sun would shine on Tuesday and Wednesday and it would be glorius. God loves us. :) 

We got to meet with the Hansen family for FHE on Monday. It's super cool because I taught them in Altona in my first three transfers there, and they moved to Berlin before I went back! Since then, they had a baby girl. I'm pretty sure I wrote about them before: Leslie isn't a member, her husband Mark is, they have two adorable children, one of which really likes me and the other just stared at me across the table all through dinner. They're from Austrailia. It was so fun to catch up with them. I love the Hansens! 

In all of our finding, we got a couple return appointments for this week, so that's good. We stopped by on one old lady. She's technically already a member, but she's really old, so she doesn't really know she's a member. But she does still know that Jesus is important and was really excited to see us. So we are going back to meet with her this week.

We went on Tausch twice this week, with the sisters in Greifswald and Prenzlau, Sisters Fulton, Thompson, Daines and Koch.. all my old companions, except Sister Thompson, but she basically is now, lol.  We met the P sisters on Thursday and Sister Koch and I went to Prenzlau. We visited a nice old lady in their ward and did some finding in their area. We all planned on meeting in Prenzlau (its between Berlin and Greifswald) and exchanging back with Prenzlau and starting our tausch with Greifswald. Unfortunately, the sisters coming in from Berlin (Wilson and Daines) got in one minute before my train left from the other platform. So sister Koch and Fulton waited on the gleis that Sis Fulton and I needed, and I waited on the gleis where Sister Daines would get off, Sister Thompsen would get on and go with Sister Wilson to Greifswald. Sister Wilson would give me the ticket I needed, the keys and the phone, and then Sister Daines and I would run to my gleis and try and make our train. Sound complicated? It was. Thankfully it all worked out, although I definitely lost Sister Daines in the crowd of people as I was weaving through them like a mad(wo)man to make my train. Oops, sucks to suck Sister Daines. :) In Marzahn, Sister Fulton and I went by on lots of people, all of which had moved/weren't home. It was fun to be with two of my old companions. I love them a lot. We exchanged back on Saturday in Prenzlau again, and all ate together at McDonald's. Precious. 

Church was good, as always. I was asked to share a spiritual thought in sacrament meeting because they needed someone to speak, so I did. I said that I've been here for 3 weeks, and I think everyone took that to mean that I just got to Germany. The lady who taught relief society told me she tried to speak slowly and clearly so I could understand. Lol. We sing in the ward choir, which is nice, and this week we joined the Stake choir, because they want the missionaries' help. The stake choir director is american and a little crazy, but it's fun.

For my 'spiritual thought' in sacrament meeting, I shared the story in Matthew about Christ feeding the 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. I love it, because sometimes what we can do (our best efforts) do not seem like much, but the miracle of Christ and the Atonement is that Christ makes our best infinitely enough. I've learned that as a missionary, I am not perfect. As a person, I'm not perfect, and sometimes that really gets me down. But Christ sees our honest efforts to do good, and He can and will make up the difference as long as we do our best and rely on Him. And that is why I love Ether 12:4: 'Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.' That hope comes from God in Jesus Christ, His Only-Begotten Son. I love the gospel and I love sharing it.

Love you! Have a great week!

Sister Simpson

Tracting in sun

Tracting in sun

Street art

driving in Prenzlau

Berlin

our Gemeindehaus

me after 60 minutes of learning The Farsi alphabet and learning that
every letter changes form depending on where you write it. #sodone