It’s officially half-way time on my
mission. Which is a dang good place to be if you ask me. To celebrate, the
Rostock sisters came in for two days for a tausch and then for our annual
Mission Tour, which is where an apostle or seventy (leaders in our church)
comes to visit and speak with us! We were graced the presence of Elder Patrick
Kearon from England and Elder Fingerla from Germany. Because the former is from
England, our meeting was in English! Hurray! Not that I don't love German. But
English is just my mother tongue.
Jumping back to the pre-celebrations of
this week:
Transportation Tales
Okay, so you all know I struggled greatly
with transportation at the beginning of my mission. I want to let you know that
since coming to Berlin, I have not gotten lost or taken a wrong bahn or bus (thanks to Sister Kriser’s extended stay here), nor have I actually even used a
map. Except I loved labeling my maps in my other cities with investigators,
members, and less actives because it was good to know if we were in the area
and had time to stop by someone, so we took our neglected map last week and
went to work labeling (yay for 3-hour trips to Greifswald!). I was pretty
satisfied; Monday we got to use our handy work to go by a less active before an
appointment and somehow after checking and finding the address...the map
disappeared. Forever. Sucked into oblivion or stolen by a stray cat or picked
up by a homeless person who is now stalking all of the people’s names thereon.
It just somehow disappeared. Which resulted in me lying on the ground during
nightly planning with the weight of a lost map on my shoulders (and the massive
amounts of people we saw at Primarck, a cheap and insanely large and crowded
store here, still clogging my head with too-many-people-in-one-place syndrome).
But then as it turns out, a lost map is just a lost map. Maybe the stray cat
can now find a home with its help. Sister Meisenfelder was still sick this
week, so I spent a day at home tending to her and relabeled another map and
problem solved minus the sick sister, but more good news, that problem is now
solved too and she is healthy again! Hurray for her German red-light incubator
that heals ears and throats!
stats: Amount of German jokes in apartment?
Increased by 243%
Halloween Eve
So that was Monday and Tuesday-day. Tuesday
night the Rostock sisters came and we had six sisters in our apartment that
night and the next! I served with Sister Stuart, who is so so great J. She has hipster glasses and beautiful big hair and we had
some good appointments, especially with the Binaj family, who has been getting
taught off and on for the past several months (Alba, their 21 year old daughter
got baptized last year). Theyre from Albania (I forgot if I already talked
about them so sorry) and strongly cultural Muslim, but the mom has read almost
the whole Book of Mormon and knows its true. Except she can’t speak German and
we can’t speak Albanian and her husband isn't really onboard for another member
of his family getting baptized in our church. But I love the Binaj family; they
are so passionate and ardent in all their conversation and they kind of just
yell during our lessons when we talk about normal things because that’s just
how they express themselves. That is a good way to live life though--heart and
soul. I think it kind of intimidated Sister Stuart, but she loved it too and it
was another successful tausch. Especially because all six of us celebrated
Halloween Eve together by making caramel apples that night. ‘Twas wonderful.
Spiritual Explosions
Thursday: Mission Tour! The whole east half
of our mission (about 140 missionaries) gathered together to be uplifted and
edified so we can be better missionaries. Sadly, Sister Darrington and Sister
Schwantes are on the other side of the mission so they met in Hamburg, but it
was cool to see and feel the power of so many exceptional young people who are
giving all that they can to help build God's kingdom. The visits of Elder
Kearon and Elder Fingerla just put the day over the top. The next day we went back
to Tiergarten (the ward building in central Berlin) for our leadership training
meeting (all the zone and sister training leaders from all over the mission) to
be double-uplifted from these two servants of God and pumped for life. I
developed a nasty cough that threatened to de-pump me for life, but my
mother-sent essential oils and Sister-Kosak-sent-mini-pharmacy enabled me to
attend and learn and then keep working. Exploding with joy and the Spirit and
only occasional fits of coughing.
Christmas Companions
In case you forgot, I love Christmas. More
than a lot. But I want you to know that my ardor for Christmas probably falls
beneath both Sister Kriser’s and Sister Ricks’s love for Christmas, both of
whom insist on singing Christmas songs to start companion study, gasp in
excitement whenever we see something that slightly relates to Christmas, and
consistently end the day by telling me how many days we have until Christmas.
Tis the season J.
Teaching
Times
We had some good appointments this weekend
with Frau Kleine and Nga (a 13-year-old Vietnamese girl), who we help with
English every week and teach a little bit too. We got them to come to the
church to make brownies and have a church tour and it was the bomb (stats:
using the word "bomb" since serving with Sister Kriser? Increased by
372%). Frau Kleine doesn’t haven’t any legs and we always thought it was
because of a car accident, but we found out that she tried to commit suicide
when she was 23 by jumping in front of a train after her husband left her. She
survived, so obviously she is still needed! I’ve seen her heart soften a lot
towards the church since coming here a couple of months ago and she loved our
church and all the beautiful pictures of Christ, so she just needs to feel His
healing. We taught Presence again (who astounded us with the amount of research
he’d done on our church and how much he’d already read in the Book of Mormon)
and invited him to get baptized and guess what? After weeks of everyone saying
no, he said yes! No date yet, and he wants to do a lot of research before,
but...he has the desire! Woot!
Stop, Drop and Roll
Sr. Kriser and I have found a boatload of
new investigators while serving together. Unfortunately, almost all of them
stop after our first lesson and they drop us and roll away, despite our
continued efforts to master how effectively we teach. Even Frau Möbius, our
ever diligent eternal investigator who didn't recognize an answer about getting
baptized, doesn’t really have a desire to meet and learn more from us; she just
wants to continue going to church in her normal life. Except normal life is
normal life and it won’t get any better until you make a change! We are
therefore overly pumped for Presence and hope he won’t pull the stop, drop, and
roll drill like the others.
To conclude.
I had one of those rare moments of perfect
contentment yesterday.
During sacrament meeting at church.
After singing Nearer My God to Thee.
Which is one of my favorites.
And sitting and feeling full.
Full of peace that only the Holy Ghost
gives.
And simply content.
Before returning to the crazy but great missionary
world in which I live J
I love you all.
-- Sister Claire
Michelle Woodward
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