2-10-14: Trunky for Heaven

Trunky: (adj), wanting to go home, a strong desire to pack one's bags and leave

sl. missionary lingo

There's your dictionary definition in case the title was confusing. I'll come back to that.

Now for your German weather report.

The sun shone this week and it was a marvelous time to be doing missionary work! Not that there's ever a bad time, but it's kind of ridiculous how much of an impact the weather makes on missionary life.

Anyways. Enough talk about the weather. Except I think I talk about the weather every week. whatevs.

Smiley people

I have met some of the most smiley people ever in the past few weeks. I thought I'd give an overview of their smiles.

1. Frenchie Salal from Algeria--who speaks no English and approximately 8 words in German. We chased him down last week and through various gesticulations and props made an appointment. This week we showed up with a French Book of Mormon and a list of points about our church that Eric from Cameroon helped us write. J Except we still couldn't understand him so we called another sister who can speak French and she talked to him and apparently he wanted instructions to the church. So we gave them to him. And awkwardly tried to carry on a conversation using the 8 words that we both understand. He is such a smiley man though and brought us glasses of Coke to drink at his doorstep during this language struggle and continued to grin.

2. Samuel from Cameroon--who we had that awesome lesson with in December but haven't met with since. Except we ran into him walking this week and he was SO happy to see us. I have never seen a happier African and I've met a lot of happy Africans here. He just grinned and grinned that he had run into us and though he hasn't read in the Book of Mormon, his face describes the joy therein.

3. Adrian, also from Cameroon--who happens to Samuel's brother. Except in Cameroon they call everyone "brother" so he is actually his cousin. But he is also a happy soul who speaks perfect German and met with us outside even though it was mildly chilly.

4. ANNIE from China. Ohmygosh she is so funny and cute. She's 21 and is only here for a year on an exchange but she has been making a lot of progress with us and is pretty much just a hoot. I thought I'd make an extra section for things she's said:

·  "Yes, I prayed to the God and I felt a feeling of peace. How often do you guys pray to the God?"

·  "Oh no, do I look old? I need to put on some makeups!"

·  "Careful you don't eat so late because otherwise you'll get fat."

·  (to the members who came with us to teach her) "Oh, that makes sense that you are siblings because you are so beautiful and he is so handsome!"

·  "I feel like my faith in God is growing. I mean, when you guys are here I just see this light in your eyes and I want to keep learning!"

She's just darling. So blessed to have found her. On a bus. Because that's where we find pretty much all of our investigators.

The United Nations...all in one building

So we are often in the area of a special, slightly ghetto building that contains representatives from every country ever. Okay, not every country, but a lot. Somehow we ended up having contact from lots of people who live here and I just thought I'd list off the countries so you can get a sample: Algeria (our smiley Frenchie!), Cuba, Chile, Cameroon, Romania, Spain, Mozambique, Libya, and (surprise) Germany! Woot woot. We go all around the world in a ten minute rotation.

The Lost

Our dear Serbians have had some troubles and have been unable to meet with us and our last phone conversation was short and curt, namely that it was super crazy at their house and with their family and...it was kind of like a goodbye L. But hopefully just a break! We went by a lot and it was too crazy every time for them to let us in. So goes it sometimes L.

Companion Reunion!

I got to go on exchanges this week with Sister Schwantes, my companion from Altona! Ahh it was so cool to serve with and see her again. She's a bomb missionary and though still somewhat reserved, has no qualms about talking to everyone, just like it was when we were in Hamburg together.

The Missionary Purpose...

is to help people come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It is also our job to be ready to give themas (spiritual thoughts) and play the piano at a moment's notice (the lovely Sister Rasmussen played a lovely spontaneous musical number during sacrament meeting yesterday). Despite all of our focus on planning, we must simply always be ready to do an assortment of random tasks.

Real Life Fairy Tales

is where my companion comes from. Sister Ricks (the other sister in our apartment) made the astute observation of Sister Rasmussen's similarity to Giselle from Enchanted. Singing, cleaning, crafty, constant joy and all, she deserves to have a Disney movie made about her. Everything about her emanates light, frivolity, and energy. J

Trunky for Heaven

We (my fairy tale companion and I) gave a thema at a Zone Training Meeting this week about families. Weird for a missionary audience, eh? You would think that would make the thirty missionaries in our zone trunky (aka, feeling like they want to go home and be with their own families). Instead we helped them get trunky for heaven. Because that's what we do as missionaries: we help people get trunky for heaven, where they can be with their families forever!  To that I'd like to add two quotes, the first from Elder Nelson: "Priesthood authority has been restored so that families can be sealed eternally."

POW

Then from President Monson, "A mission is a family affair."

My mission is about my family, but it is also about the families of so many others. I am so grateful for the support of my family and for their love and I want other families to have the same joy and stability and hope that I have from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pack our bags together.

Also I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Herr Taylor, Jenny, and Caleb, for giving me opportunities in high school to share my beliefs (sogar auf Deutsch!), which really helped me with the desire to go on a mission. You are all great.

That is all. Be a smiley person this week. J

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

I can't believe I've been out a year!

2-3-14: Year One‏

And now a musical intro:

Iiiiit's been one year since I left my house

took a plane and said "I'll come back later"

One year since I got my tag

The one that says my name is Sister Woodward….

Okay, that was a (very) rough attempt at what should have been read (or rather sung) to the tune of "One Week," but it's probably okay if you just read it. The goal was to recognize that I've been a missionary for a year. Goal achieved, if you are still reading these emails you signed up to get forever ago.

It has been a glorious, exhausting, rewarding, and incredibly awkward adventure that I have loved and am glad it keeps going (though I have started having bad dreams about coming home, like I usually do before school starts--not that I dread school, but it is something new and unknown every year). I learned from the office elders that my name now has a little sticker with the expiration date of July 8th on it, so I will officially be home for my brother's wedding three days later. Give me a few months and I'll probably start having nightmares about a wedding that isn't my own.

Moving right along past bad dreams and into the goodness of real life! Though sometimes good dreams are interrupted by bad life. But I am fortunate enough to experience the former.

The final exchange. and thoughts on Cameroon

I had the privilege of serving with Sister Hinkle on our exchange this week for the last exchange of her mission, for she is homeward bound in a couple of weeks. It was cool to hear about her mission experiences as a whole and her plans for ever-onward-progression, plus we experience the regular dose of miracles we see when we go on exchanges.

Like finding Eric from Cameroon.

Not to be confused with Eric from Cameroon who is already a member of our church.

But rather Eric from Cameroon who attended a baptism with us yesterday (it was actually Christian's baptism--the one I talked to on the phone in the ghetto apartment complex! Bed and Alex couldn't make it, but we also met with them and had a sweet lesson.).

Between us and the other sisters in Marzahn, we have between 15-20 Cameroonian investigators/contacts. So we are trying to organize a great party where Eric From Cameroon who is already a member can talk with them all about how the Gospel changed his life.

Except most all of our Africans have crazy work schedules where they don't make that much money or get to sleep ever and it's hard to coordinate one appointment, let alone gather them all together. We'll see.

Serbian update

Well, our Serbians are still wonderful, especially the women who are so humble and have so much love. They didn't make it to church again, even with a member coming with us to offer a ride to all of them AND their children, so we might end up pushing their baptismal date back, but hopefully it works out. They have hard lives. Like pretty much every single person I've met on my mission. I know the Gospel doesn't make things easier, but that it does make us stronger. That is sometimes hard for people to accept.

Annie

Our lovely Annie from China is doing awesome. She is so sharp and so attentive. We asked her why Christ needed to suffer for us after reading in the Book of Mormon together and even though she's never heard about the Atonement of Christ before, she told us it was probably so he could know exactly how we are feeling and so he can help and comfort us better.

Moment of awed silence followed by the strong desire to clap for her.

I love it when people make connections and discover truth for themselves.

Of many meetings

We also had zone conference and a leadership training this week, which were both excellent, as usual. Because how can the gathering of so many valiant missionaries not be wonderful? And I got to see Elder Lyon from Leipzig again and the Andrus Ehepaar right before they go home. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Also I love President and Sister Kosak. I think I say that a lot, but they are so wonderful and simply beam with goodness and love for us, for others, and for the work.

Seize the day

We tell a lot of people that they need to act now. Because faith leads us to action and applied knowledge is the best kind and if you know something is good, you should do something about it immediately. So I just wanted to end with an old proverb quoted in last general conference: "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

That means NOW! President Uchtdorf sums up my thoughts better than my brain does:

"There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word NOW. The is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide NOW, we can move forward this very moment. NOW is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be."

So do it now.

Whatever it is.

And seize the day.

(Cue music and dancing from Newsies…)

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

1-27-14: Special Types of Missionary Coldness and Miracles

If I was one of those people who named crayon colors and those crayons were actually weather types, I would call this week "missionary cold" or "permanently frozen." Granted I'm not serving a mission in Russia, Finland, or Norway and maybe I'm just wimpy, but it was so so cold this week. Piercing missionary cold that comes from being outside for extended periods of time. I think that's how Hell will feel: cold. And away from God. Fortunately we don't have to bear the latter. We just shuffle through the icy streets and find all the food we've taken with us for the day to be frozen in our backpacks. The good news about that: frozen granola bars taste faintly of ice cream. Despite the chilling frost, it was an awesome week. The special missionary coldness came with special missionary miracles.

Miracle Number One: aka “The District” day

We have these training videos that we watch as missionaries that give examples of how to be better teachers, planners, etc and it's called "The District." Most of the time, I feel like American missionary work is totally different from Germany missionary work and I feel like no missionary work is as perfect as on these films. Until Tuesday, when I think someone from "The District" producing team set up two perfect appointments for us. So if we're on the next "District," that was Tuesday. We met with the Müllerstein couple and their baby (ps-they are GERMAN) and Herr Müllerstein (who is actually only 20, but I don't know his first name) was so interested in what we believed. When we promised him he could know if the Book of Mormon is true by reading it and asking God, he asked how long it would take to get an answer. We explained it was different for every person, and then he gave us this equation:

"So if I have a lot of faith, I'll get an answer really quickly and if I don't believe, then it will take a long time."

We went with the "um. kinda. maybe?" answer, because sometimes even really faithful people wait a long time. But he wants to find faith again and it was so brilliant! Unfortunately, he's leaving for work for two weeks, so we're hoping we'll keep in contact. And that he'll get his answer. J

Part two of our district day was our appointment with Jenny, who got baptized last June but hasn't really been coming to church. We brought her home teacher with us for support and Jenny also brought a guest; she wanted us to teach a friend of hers about the Plan of Salvation and he wanted to learn from us. Except the best part was that we didn't even teach; we just provided visuals, scriptures, and transitional phrases. We're good at those. Meanwhile, Jenny and her home teacher just had this master joint teach appointment and Jenny's friend Heiko was so interested and deep in thought. It was the bomb! Plus Jenny invited him to get baptized. He said he'd think about it. Then she commanded him to get baptized. What do you say to that?

Miracle Number Two: related to the first

On our lovely “The District” day, we also found a guy named Ben from Cameroon. He showed us the building where he lived and told us to come by on Saturday so we did. Except the name he gave us wasn't on the building. Which happens sometimes when people give you false information. But instead of deciding he was lost, we decided to go inside and knock on every door on the eighth floor, where he said he lived. We were delayed because of this particular way of finding him again, but we found where he lives by meeting his brother Alex! Ben had apparently left because he thought we weren't coming (curse you, invisible names), but Alex proceeded to tell us he wanted to give his life to Christ. And when I say he told us, I mean he told Sister Rasmussen that because while he was talking to her, he gave me the phone and told me to talk to his friend. Slightly confused, I said,

"Hi, this is Sister Woodward. Who is this?"

He responded,

"Hey, this is Christian. I meet with your people in Eisenhütenstadt and I've been going to church for a month and I'm getting baptized on Sunday!"

Then came the awkward pause where I tried to figure out what was going on and then we were just excited and Alex told us he wanted to get baptized too and it was just a party on the eighth floor of a ghetto building. Hurray!

Miracle Number Three

Remember our Serbians from last week? Ah they are great! We had a crazy appointment with them with week that started out kinda rough. As in, all six of their children under the age of four were a wee bit hyper and giving their best impressions of angry birds (the animal, not the game) and Yorshka started talking to me and asking for money from us or the church because they have a niece who needs an operation and they can't afford and I awkwardly tried to explain we weren't allowed to give out money. So I was feeling kind of uncomfortable with the whole environment but we somehow got to the point that we wanted to watch a movie about Joseph Smith with them in Serbian. They were thrilled (demonstrated by vigorous nodding). They all gathered around the couch to watch the movie on the tiny DVD player we had brought with us and it was such a picture-perfect moment, aside from the occasional screaming of angry-bird children. Then we invited them to be baptized on the second of March and Yorshka and Yasmin said yes! The others have to think about it. I think it will take a while to teach everything, but they have a goal and are super excited for it!

Miracle Number Four

Because all good things come in sets of three, I thought I'd add another one. Because Annie from China is also a miracle! Sister Kriser and I actually found her forever ago but didn't get to meet with her until Saturday. She was also so attentive and tried really hard to understand everything we were talking about. She doesn't have any background with God but wanted to learn about him and she prayed for us at the end in Chinese! She is really open and told us she really respects our passion for our faith :)

My favorite parts of appointments?

When investigators pray for the first time.

Northern trips

We went up to Greifswald for our exchange with Sisters Schmidt and Bronson and it was also lovely, though we definitely had our fair share of feeling "missionary cold."

Special types of heart breakage

We see oodles of miracles, make no doubt about it. I think there is also a special type of missionary disappointment, where our hearts just break when people don't keep their commitments. We were expecting so many people at church on Sunday, many of whom were mentioned above, and approximately zero came. Even faithful Frau Möbius who comes every Sunday stayed inside because of the cold. Even those that we tried to pick up before church but then weren't ready. Such deep disappointment after you saw how excited these people were when they were with you. That's why we pray and read the scriptures every day--so we don't forget!

Random side notes that don't fit with anything else

You know what I miss in English? Adverbs. Just saying.

Also people here often pray for "the missionaries and the sisters." Because apparently missionaries aren't sisters.

Also I love apple tea.

Also....that is all.

Except that I love you all.

As usual. J

God lives and loves us; this is His special work.

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

1-20-14: A few of my favorite things

1-20-14: A few of my favorite things

(I think I already used that title in the past year. Forgive me for my re-use of ideas.)

One of my favorite things about missionary work?

My life revolving around other people and not having to plan out the details of my own life and future and worry about trivial things that seem to matter and yet don't. I have met so many people on my mission and it is crazy how much time I have spent thinking about them. These poor people have no idea that their lives are copied into journals, discussed with my companion, and then emailed home for a score of others to read. We gleefully look forward to our first appointments with them and are heartbroken every time they aren't there. Random people from Leipzig, Hamburg, and Berlin (plus some from cities we have served in during exchanges) are always in my thoughts and prayers. That is one of my favorite parts about mission work: the important people we meet.

Important People #1: our Serbians

Once upon a time, Sister Kriser and I had a long and dark week in November but found two guys from Serbia at the end of the week that brought hope to our lives. Until that hope was cut short when appointments never worked out. But once upon a time this week, we went by on our Serbian friends after another attempted appointment fell out and although the two men we originally met weren't there, a handful of other Serbians lived there and they were happy to talk to us. There is a huge language barrier because all of the women (two young, cute moms with a bunch of kids and then the older mom/grandma) can't speak very much German. But the husband of one of the women understands pretty well so we speak slowly and go through him. Not only did they let us in for a nice lesson once this week, but they said we could come back and then we did and they were still there.

It's been a long time since one of our new investigators has met with us more than once.

Our second lesson was also lovely and their family has had some hard times but they are so humble and listen so intently when we talk, even though I'm pretty sure they don't even understand. Yorshka, the only man who is there when we've gone, asked us if he could be baptized when we showed him a picture of it. Our conversation went like this:

Yorshka: "I want to be baptized.

(speaking to the women and children) Do any of you want to be baptized?

No? Okay, just me. When can we meet this week to do it?”

We explained it takes some time to be ready to make this special promise with God, but that we were here to help him prepare.

We are so excited for this family we get to help. J

Random though still important other people

We got a call from the Greifswald sisters this week asking if we could meet with someone they made an appointment with but somehow they didn't realize it was in Berlin. We ran to the place where we were supposed to meet this guy and got his phone number to call and...surprise! He was already a contact from us--a Jewish man Sister Kriser found on exchanges who we had kinda given up on. But we met him and explained our purpose and he fell off the earth the rest of this week, but....crazy things made that first appointment happen.

Another surprise: we found another less active African church member from Congo on a bahn who said he got baptized 20 years ago by an Elder Smith. The man’s name is Mike and Mike is the loudest man I have ever met. Our conversation went like this (I shall use all caps for imagination's sake):

Mike: HAHAHA YOU ARE MORMONS!!!

Us: Yes, have you heard of our church before?

Mike: HAHAHA YES I WAS BAPTIZED! BY ELDER SMITH HAHAHA

Us (confused): In our church?

Mike: YES THEY DRESSED ME IN WHITE AND PUT ME UNDER THE WATER HAHAHA

He also thought everything was absolutely hilarious. People moved away from us on the bahn because they felt uncomfortable, but it was so funny. We're giving him to the elders to take care of, but....it was another missionary moment.

And then the bug came....

That all was just at the beginning of the week. Because in the dark of the night of Wednesday, evil found me and I threw up approximately 15 times in five hours and had a fever to boot (is that a real expression?). I know you all wanted to know that. And I had no brother to serenade me with his hits from last year's Stomach Flu Album, including "You've got a puke in you" and "Hey Mrs. Pukeface." So I was pretty miserable. Actually I probably would have been miserable regardless of the singing or lack thereof. We had a leadership meeting on Thursday though and I really wanted to be there and because I am stupid, I thought I could still go late. After surviving the longest bahn ride of my life (one hour stretches interminably when your stomach wants to die) across the city to Tiergarten, I realized I was dumb. I made it approximately 15 minutes in a classroom before being moved to a couch. I was then moved from that couch to another couch after Sister Kosak came up to tend to this not-so-wise, whimpering sister. President Kosak gave me a blessing actually and then I passed out in a room for a few hours until the meeting was over and then the Kosaks drove us home rather than sending us back on the bahn. I love them so much!

Neubrandenburg!

Because I was still kind of dumb, we went on an exchange to Neubrandenburg (a couple hours north of Berlin) on Friday afternoon to work with Sister Miller and Tolman, who are awesome. They have so much energy and are so positive. I was kinda dead on Friday night and they actually just toted (is that also a word?) me around in the back of their car (yes, they have a car! ahh!!!) as they visited people. So it worked out okay and Saturday I was feeling mostly better.

And today I am feeling even more better.

Huzzah for Israel and scattered emails!

Keep the faith.

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

Happy companions:

1-13-14: Farewells and Hellos

Because that's what we do when transfer calls come. Despite trying to live on a month-to-month schedule like the rest of the world, we missionaries are helplessly locked into six week periods of time when everything changes.

And it's weird getting a new companion. Your companion is like a combination of every relationship ever--your best friend, your sibling, your coworker, your roommate, and your spouse. So transfers are kinda like a traumatic divorce sometimes.

Sister Rasmussen is great though; her sweetness and craft skills are well needed. Plus she makes the world cleaner by picking up trash when we walk places. She leaves traces of pixie dust, sings beautifully, and is very thoughtful.

End of comp section.

In case you wanted a warning before a change of content.

We gonna find you...

We sing that song a lot in case you were wondering. Yes, the song from that YouTube video of that black guy threatening to find someone who broke into his house and then someone made it into a song. We are always looking for people and when appointments fall out, like they often do, we just get to talk with strangers who want to learn more about Christ and happiness and then they forget that they want to be happy so they forget about our appointment but then we keep calling and trying to share joy and sometimes it works out. I wish people would just tell us no if they don't want to learn more about Christ and happiness though, instead of us stalking them for months to try to make an appointment they don't really want. We kind of have a weird program where we have just a bunch of floaters all the time. Maybe Sister Rasmussen's pixie dust will help them stay though.

One of our new investigators this week was a 13-year-old who we actually ended up praying with on the street because she asked us how to pray. Which sounds weird but I think she actually loved it. Our appointment fell through later (probably because of parental concerns), but she knows how to pray now, so...success.

We also found a couple who said they wanted their daughter to grow up with religion and the man asked if we were like holy beings that came to serve people. Alas, we are just people, but we are representatives of Christ and help people to come unto to Him!

Plan B

Because appointments fall through quite a bit, it's important to have backup plans. I read an article in the Liahona [a magazine published by the LDS church] this week that I've been thinking about a lot. It was about what we do when good plans don't work out and I’ve been thinking about it mostly because we've had to use a lot of plan B's lately. But sometimes those plans are better than our original plans and we are able to help or touch people we normally wouldn't have come in contact with. Stephanie J. Burns, the author of the article, said, "Regardless of the turns life's journey may take, the final destination of eternal life is what Heavenly Father plans for His children. We may find that 'plan B' was simply a way of making His 'plan A' a reality."

I know God has a better plan than I have for everything, because, well, God is God and I am not (God, that is). That's always good to remember J.

I thought I'd include a list this week of things I want to do as member missionary when I get home because there are so many things members can do that missionaries can't. Therefore I shall title it:

Member Missionary To-do's

• say hello to everyone at church and look for visitors
• invite investigators to eat at my house with the missionaries
• invite missionaries over when I have friends over to eat. not awkward style though.
• tell the missionaries I want to be a joint-teach [go with them on teaching appointments] and it's okay if the appointment falls through
• tell the missionaries I can give rides to investigators or less actives for church and activities
• have FHE [Family Home Evening] with missionaries and investigators and friends
• give missionaries specific ways they can help/let them know about visiting friends
• write missionaries letters. with stickers.
• pray for missionaries and ask for names of investigators I can pray for

I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! J

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

1-6-14: Happy New Year!

A.k.a....the week after Christmas.

This last week of transfer blew by as we ran around the city finding people to teach, gathering with other missionaries, and meeting with people of all sorts and sizes. Transfer calls came yesterday and and my beloved Sister Kriser is finally leaving Marzahn after ten months, heading north to Kiel tomorrow to bless the people there. Expected and needed, but still sad for us. The good news: I met my new companion on Friday at our Leadership Council and she is super sweet--Sister Cassandra Rasmussen from Sandy, Utah. And guess what else? She runs! How I lucked out for my last four companions that I can run with I will never know.

Other good news about transfer calls? Sister Schwantes, the one I trained for a transfer in Altona, is coming to Berlin which means I will get to go on exchanges with her! Woot woot!

How to start a new year in Germany...

The start of a new year in Germany sounds similar to the start of a small war. It was insane! We had to be home early that night and still went to bed at 10:30pm, but were awakened by deafening explosions at midnight that lasted for a couple of hours. Somehow I felt like I was at Hogwarts. Minus the part that I do magic. But it was so insanely bright and loud and there is surely nothing like it in America.

How else did we start the new year?

Denying more proposals for marriage of course!

We found a Muslim guy named Adam from Mali in Africa a couple of months ago, but only met with him twice because he wasn't really interested in changing his beliefs/learning more about Christ. We ran into him last week though and he said he'd love to meet with us again and he had a friend who wanted to learn too. So we took them up on the offer and set a time for New Year's day. His friend only spoke French and I made the mistake of pretending I could speak French at the beginning (the only time I will curse Pimsleur language programs), so he continued to smile and try to talk to me in French. During our meeting in a restaurant, because everywhere else was closed. Which meeting also turned out to be an attempt to convince us that God sent us here to meet them. And to marry them. We repeatedly explained what we do and don't do as missionaries and the poor French guy just happily grinned at us the whole time while we managed to reach past language barriers and get our message across.

Poor saps.

We told them to pray to know if Christ is the Son of God, and then maybe we'd talk again.

But by "we," we meant the elders.

The Magic of Bahn Talk

On exchanges last week in Tiergarten, I talked briefly with a guy from Camaroon on the bahn and gave him our card as he got off. We got a text later that day from this guy, whose name is Samuel, and he gave us his address. Not knowing exactly if he knew what we were doing in Germany and not wanting another Adam-repeat, we were slightly weary when we called to make an appointment. We didn't have a joint teach so we couldn't meet in his apartment and the place we thought we could go was closed, so we ended up meeting with him just on a bench outside. In the dark winter. Which is a miracle in itself for an African to bear the cold with us. Despite these humble circumstances (or perhaps because of them), we somehow had one of the best lessons we've had in a long time. Mostly because Samuel was great and asked so many questions and was interested in our experiences with this Gospel and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! The Spirit was so strong there and it was definitely a tender mercy from God. The only problem will be finding time--because students study a lot and making follow-up appointments are so hard. But we have faith!

Now contrast that with...

a guy we found this week named Reinhard. Who I thought was mildly crazy when we were talking to him on the street. He learned English from the BBC so has a voice like British actors but he was really smart too and has studied a lot. We did have a joint teach for his appointment, but he didn't want to meet at his house and instead took us to a pub, and then we asked if we could go somewhere else, so we found a different restaurant (with less smoke) where he could order a beer but we had already started our fast for Sunday so we didn't eat anything and then he just kinda nailed us with a billion questions without really listening to our answers. It was kinda rough.

Let’s just say I am grateful for the many humble souls I have met with who are excited to learn, who know they don't know everything and know that we don't know everything either, but that God does.

Bike Wipeout Number 2

Despite it being winter, I refuse to give up the freedom of riding a bike. But sometimes I feel like a six-year-old that keeps crashing and then getting up and going again. This morning the streets were pretty icy and I braked at an intersection and my bike promptly slipped out from under me and then I ended up sideways on the ground with cars coming at me.

But I didn't die, nor even spill any blood. Just got a few good bruises. J

Quote of the week…

comes from Elder Holland, in talking about the new year and choosing to move forward with faith, confident in a bright future:

"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from, but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. FAITH IS ALWAYS POINTED TO THE FUTURE."

I'm excited for this new year, for the time I have left on my mission in Germany and for the many adventures that will come.

-- Sister Claire Michelle Woodward

Berlin Mission Leadership Council