March 16, 2015

Hallo Liebe Familie!!!

Wow, how to describe this week- I have had to have lots of patience with myself and in turn have felt a lot of gratitude for this area, and for what I am able to do here. I feel like I have been getting a better vision lately of who I am as a missionary and what the Lord sees my potential is.

Montag- For p-day we went to another aquarium in central Berlin! Jake, you would have loved it! They had a huge cylindrical tank, that we got to ride an elevator in! Super cool stuff here in Berlin. Got some ice cream, and soaked up the sun as it was about 60 degrees fahrenheit!! Woop woop! Spring is here, and I seriously could not be more excited!

Dienstag- we went running, (brownie points for us) and did a lot of finding and visits. Because it was my 6 month mark, we made brownies that night! Thanks mom for the recipe! We also anmelded- or like... what is that word in english.. haha, registered in our area. So now I am officially living in Germany. Yahoo! That night was our English class with our favorite investigator, Achim! He is out of the hospital, he had some heart surgery, and is miraculously back and playing his harmonica for us with more energy than before!! Haha, he is so cool! He knows it is all from God that he still has his health. He and Elder Morton really connected with his favorite song, "Five o' clock, Six o' clock, seven o' clock, ROCK!" haha. During class, I was writing some sentences on the board, and Achim says to the elders, "Sister Titenseee, she is so great. I like her a little bit." Ha, he has a pure heart, really though. And he reads in the BOM, and we are hoping to invite him to baptism this week!

Mittwoch- first thing Sister Montierth says in the morning, "So... you were talking in your sleep last night, ha, and it sounded like you were bearing your testimony in German to the ward!" Haha, success! Dreaming in German now, folks. Ha, I apologized to Sister Montierth for waking her up with my mumblings. Haha. We had an awesome distrikt meeting, and a lesson with our new investigator! His name is "Laut" which means "loud", and he is seriously the opposite of loud, haha. He is super hard to hear, but seems like a promising investigator! We will also invite him to baptism this week, if all works out! And that night we met with Wichian, and he told us he wasn't ready for baptism because of his wife. Man, I was seriously so devastated. We had been working toward this weekend since November last year! The only real hang up is his wife, and we haven't gotten her acceptance yet. And Wichian fears she would look badly upon the church if he were to be baptized right now. So we kept our faith, and made a new datum for April 25th. It just means the Lord has more in store for Wichian's timing!! I'll be real though, I cried for a little bit after because I want this baptism so much for him!! But I have confidence and the assurance that it will all work out.

Donnerstag- That morning the firefighters freaked out across our street because a man had hit the street lamp with his truck- they blocked off the whole street, had police cars, the whole 10 yards. Then came a man with a ladder, hit the broken lamp with his hammer 3 times, and they all left...ha, don't understand Germans sometimes. haha

Met with an adorable Russian, named Lubow, she is awesome! Gave her the BOM, she is so excited to read it. We love her, and she seems super ready to hear this gospel! As we went finding that day, I had a guy ask me, "Are you from Switzerland, or Austria? Because your accent is a little different?" Ha, nope!! But that's good, not sounding super duper American anymore.

Freitag- Planning, and some appointments fell through, but we enjoyed our FHV, relief society activity! We shared spiritual experiences, and we have some amazing spiritual giants in our ward.

Samstag- Dienst! We hammered at a wall for about 2 hours, ha, to get the plaster off. And the elders got covered in plaster as they drilled a hole in the cieling, until they found out they were drilling into concrete, not plaster... so their efforts were in vain, ha, but we got a kick out of how dirty they got after!

OH! And we got a new investigator!! She is sooo awesome. She was a kontakt that other sisters before us had left- and we have been going by her for a long time- and she let us in! She is 17, and says she has not found her religion yet, but is very open to learning all about us! She has a sweet heart, and is seriously so amazing! We are so blessed!!

Sonntag- Had wonderful meetings, got a new family in our ward! And had a lesson with our favorite 7th day adventists! We strive to really bring the spirit but it is hard when they don't want to accept anything other than the Bible. And then the arguments they bring against us are pointless, because we say, look, it's in the BOM, we really want you to have a testimony of it for yourself! But no luck yet.

Sorry, this email was crazy long- but good things are happening! The sun is shining, and we are loving our new investigators, and the potential that is here. I feel like the Lord has been helping me become more patient as I continue to learn that it is His will to be done, not mine. And despite all that I think is best, He truly knows the best. I am so grateful to be here, and learning the things I am. It's crazy to think that after we get rejected from people right and left, even flipped off sometimes... haha, that I still LOVE going out and doing this work, day after day. It is the best thing ever. Seriously.

I love you all, and thanks so much for your support! Erinnern Sie sich dass den Herrn immer bei Sie ist. Manchmal haben wir schwerigkeiten das passieren und wir wissen nicht warum. Aber wissen Sie dass Er ein plan hat. Und es ist perfekt! Ich weiss dass mit mienem ganzem herzen!

Liebe Immer,

Sister Titensor

Funnies:

- a lady dropped her precious chocolate cake on the way off the bus one day... and it got smeared all along the bottom of the bus- after we got off we just died of laughter. haha, that poor lady!

-A man was carring this unimaginably large tree branch down the street the other day, and we had no clue what his plan was... Tree house anyone?

-Achim at English Class: After I had written some more words to practice he says, "wow, she is always making sure we are learning, huh? Titenseee is like a mom." hahaha