Claire said that she got to go outside and run in circles around the garden this week and that made her very happy. Now if only warmer weather would come and stay in Colorado (it's snowing sideways again today).
I seem to start every email home with a comment
about the weather, so for consistency's sake, this one shall as well. I LOVE
SPRING TIME IN GERMANY! Winter made Leipzig's inhabitants appear mainly gray,
forlorn, and empty. Warm weather has given Leipzig a Renaissance, a
rebirth of smiles, color, and joy. This ends this email's weather portion.
We gonna find you...
Missionaries find things.
We find new people to teach. We find people who used to meet with us. We find
things out about ourselves. Occasionally, we find snails on the
sidewalk (that only happened once actually). BUT people find answers when they
meet with us and learn about Christ. Missionary work is just a great game of
hide-and-go-seek and come to think of it, we are all either hiders or seekers
in this life. I experienced my first tausch (companion exchange) this week,
where I got to spend a day with the German Sister Warncke and it was really
great. We stepped up our seeking skills, and though most of our MIA peeps
stepped up their game as well, we started a couple new games with others too.
We're determined at this game though because this game is no child's play. It
is about eternal happiness!
Das Wunder der Woche
I saw my first baptism in
Germany on Saturday! A pair of elders in our district found 50 year-old Peter a
couple months ago (my second week here) and have been teaching him since then.
Peter is one of those prepared people who is so ready for the Gospel. He called
the elders after their first meeting and said there was something in their eyes
that he couldn't get out of his head (we get a lot of eye comments apparently
because of our natural twinkle of truth). And here he is, two months later and
a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints. His baptism was really
special and he looked so happy about making that covenant to follow Christ.
Hobbits come from Germany
There are bunches of
garden plots that look not-so-coincidentally similar to hobbit houses. My new
BFF, our aged neighbor Frau Kühler, tends to one of these in our backyard.
Remember her from last week? Kindred spirit right there. Now that I know about
World War II and all. This week I got to talk to her about why I'm here in
Germany as a missionary and she told me...stories J. I invited her to
Peter's baptism and though she declined, she cut some flowers from her hobbit
lawn for the "kranke Schwester" (sick sister Diederich). She is so
precious.
Quote of the week
"You can only get
answers by asking questions." -Sister Diederich
Words of wisdom from my
still ill companion. I know that sometimes people don't answer our questions,
but God can answer all of our questions. Sometimes we have to wait. A long
time. Or maybe the answer is endurance. But for reals, He has heard all of my
prayers and has answered them somehow. I know He listens to Francesco's simple
heartfelt prayers. I know He listens to our investigator Sandra, who has so
many questions about the Gospel and feels like she's not getting answers. I
know we get answers when we ask questions. Just like we'll find if we don't
give up on the game of hide-and-go-seek.
We find out about
transfer calls this week, but my guess is I'll be staying in Leipzig and
training a new sister. Time shall tell.
Sister
Claire Michelle Woodward
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