One Month Down!

Hello family and all!!

This week has been amazing and difficult at the same time. There have been some really low points, but I've seen so many blessings and miracles too. I truly believe that the Lord allows us to be brought low so that He can bring us higher. And thank you all for your Dear Elders, those are seriously the highlights of my days!! Thank you lots!

On Wednesday last week, we had an excellent plan to take advantage of the ice cream bar they have every Wednesday for the new missionaries involving some ziploc bags... let's just say some of us benefited while one of our sisters' ziploc bags failed on her at the most inopportune time... haha. It made a mess, but also made many memories for us. We are geniuses. :)

We had an amazing lesson that night, where both me and Sister Medley could feel we were being led to say certain things to our investigator. My favorite scripture as of late is in Helaman 7:29 "All things are possible through Him- I know this things not of myself but because of Him". That sums up all of my feelings for this week. Truly. He is doing this work, it is not about me, nor is it done by me alone. 

I keep having this quote come to my mind this week too, Dad has shared it with me and I forget who has said it. But it says: "Don't limit what the Lord can do through you and for you." It has truly helped me this last week, as I've been able to teach lessons, and understand others when I by myself wouldn't have been able to. So never limit what He can do!

Thurdsay and Friday were stressful, as we had TRC again, and a couple lessons. Friday night was probably one of our hardest lessons yet. Our investigator, (who is our teacher) gave us all of the hard questions. She really got into our faces about some things, and let us know exactly what she thought, holding nothing back. It was tough! After that lesson, I asked Sister Medley, "Can we take a little cool-off lap around the building real quick?" Haha, and we did. But it was really good practice, it was tough, but I think it made us both more determined to teach her again and be bold the next time.

Then it was GENERAL CONFERENCE!! Ahhh, exactly what I needed! Ah, it was the best. We all gathered into the gymnasium and watched it on the big screen. It was so relaxing and uplifting! I loved Jorg Klebingat's talk, about ways to increase our spiritual confidence. So bold and to the point! I loved his first point about taking responsibility for our spiritual levels. To not blame circumstances, and make the choice. I definitely needed a reminder that despite bad lessons, or classes, that I still have the choice to seek the spirit and become uplifted. I cannot wait for it to just come to me.

Did you see the Priesthood session? See those wonderful elders?? We had quite a few from our German zone there, and 2 from our district. They said that they felt angels surrounding them as they sang. What a cool opportunity.

Then Sunday session, beautiful again! I loved M. Russel Ballard, about our mortal journey and "staying in the boat!" I loved the thought about keeping things simple. To not focus on our doubts or questions, but to see what matters most! I love the thought about keeping the life jacket on- stay true to what you know is right. Stay true to the witnesses that we've been given. Focus on the blessings! Back to basics, love it! Oh, I wish General Conference lasted for much longer.

That night we had a devotional from Vai Sikahema, he's a NFL talk host I think, from Philadelphia. He shared lots of great stories from his mission, just reminding us that it's not about numbers, but just about touching lives.

Then Monday and Tuesday came- two days of miracles!! We had a lesson with our investigator Gunther, and our teacher had asked us to go in without any notes. Nothing. I was so intimidated, I just prayed and prayed, and knew that the only way this would work is if the Lord helped me out. So I brought one note card into the lesson that had 4 bullet points on it: Repentance, Baptism, Gift of Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. The four points we wanted to discuss for a half hour. That was all. And we ended up talking to our Gunther for 35 minutes, with the best discussion we've had in any of our lessons so far! We got laughing, and felt super connected, and felt that he became closer to Christ because of our lesson. Can you say a miracle?? Now, I couldn't understand every word that Gunther said, nor could I understand what I, myself was saying sometimes, but it felt amazing. Our lesson just flowed!  I know that there was no way I could have done that by myself. The Lord truly does work miracles through us, if we just go forward, having faith that He will guide us. Wow. Me and Sister Medley had soooo many high-fives after that lesson. Haha.

Tuesday night we had a devotional from Brent Nielson of the 70. He was amazing. One point I loved is that he said he has sat in on the apostles assigning mission calls, and often he says the missionaries are assigned to mission presidents first, not necessarily by the name of the country. That they feel often, "Oh, this missionary needs to go with.. Sister and President so- and so." That rang true to me, because of certain things I have felt and known about my mission. Either way a missionary is assigned, it's inspired!

Guess what, we've been here for a month now!! What? Bring it on! We're so happy! We have only 2 and a half weeks left, and we're off to Germany!  Also, tomorrow is the last day of all new material with the German language.. so supposedly we've learned it all! Like, 4 years worth of German language study. I have a lot of reviewing to do. :)It does seem to be confirmed that we're staying the 7 weeks, but we're done with our normal classes and such on the 20th. So they'll find some way to keep us busy, like giving us an investigator to each each day, is the rumor. We already have some fun plans of what to do with the new Germans in that last week too. It's gonna be good!

Tomorrow we skype with members in Germany, we're really excited. Everyday things just get better and better as I come to love the work more and more. And each Tuesday and Thursday are "Nur Deutsch" days, where we only speak German. It's pretty hilarious as we get to translating our American phrases, like, "Bring it on!" Or "I'll take you down!". Good practice for us, that's for sure.

I have been so blessed this week, as I have felt that my stresses, or burdens have been lifted from me. It's an amazing thing to be a part of this work, because my Father in Heaven is truly looking out for me. It's like I'm given this constant emotional, and spiritual renewal throughout the week, despite the hard things we go through.

Funnies:

-In class we had this demonstration to illustrate how the gospel needs to be taught to individual needs, that like a shoe, it needs to fit to each person differently. And therefore we need to change how we teach to each person. So to show us this, our teacher had us take off our right shoe, and closing our eyes, gave us someone elses. So then we put them on, and all start laughing as we look around the room at how big or small they are on each other. Well we get to one elder, Elder Gunther, and he slips my little ballet flat on, size 7, and it's a perfect fit!!! Haha, we were dyyying. Like, he just slips it on, and his face. "Oh." haha. Good thing to know that me and Elder Gunther have the same shoe size, just in case he needs some new shoes. :)

I love you all, thanks for your support. I can truly feel it here. I didn't really understand that until I became a missionary myself. Thank you all, I love you!

Liebe Immer,

Sister Titensor