Woche 18: Happiness is...

Whoever you are and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can now imagine. Every day and every hour you can choose to make or keep a covenant with God. - President Henry B. Eyring 

🎶Gotta find to teach

Gotta teach to find 

Tell you all about when I got the time 🎶

Saturday was my miracle day this week. We had lunch with Schwester Harder and her 'sister'. They eat together every Saturday at 12pm.  Her friend is Catholic and with Schwester Harder as a friend, has had lots of contact with the church. She believes that we all have the same goal and however we get there with our individual faith is our personal choice. We shared about how the Bible and Book of Mormon work together. We read about Christ being baptized in the Bible and why He did in the Book of Mormon. Afterwards she asked us the difference that we see in us now versus before becoming a full time missionary. That was one of the sweetest moments I've had. I hadn't really thought about the difference, mostly because the changes come in the everyday and aren't always something you notice. Being able to not just bear testimony of the importance of the Atonement but how it's changed my life was a testimony builder for me. I feel Heavenly Father changing me to be who I need to be. Listening to my companion talk about how a mission was something that was completely new for her helps me understand her better too. 

Desiree got a calling this week!! She's the secretary in FHV! And her daughter turned 7 last week :) 

We found an old record of someone in our member book that wasn't even on our Ward list and decided to go by. Cleide Dias' family is all active in Brazil but she hasn't been to church since moving to Germany. She has two children-Nicole just turned 8! She wants to understand baptism and we hope that her uncle will be able to baptism her later this year :)

Talking with Cleide was so interesting. Everything she said had a gospel answer. I felt like it was an MTC role play transcript haha But she recognizes that without the church, she's not happy. She worries about her family and what she should do to teach her children what's right. They're a golden family and I'm so excited to see the ways that loving and living gospel will change them for the better. 

There have been days where the whole day seems unproductive and slow and just bad. I come home expecting to feel discouraged and less than excited for the coming day. But as I write about the things that have happened, it seems easier and easier to find the miracles, blessings, and good things each day. EVERY single time I'm happy and excited to do this work, were blessed. No exceptions. The Lord measures our success by how quickly and willingly we do His will. 

We were grateful for the challenge given to us by the Assistants this past week to find three new potentials. A few days were a little slow for finding and Sunday morning, though we'd had some great conversations and met interested people, we weren't able to get any contact information. After church we were contacting-streets and doors. People were either uninterested or were irritated that we were interrupting their Sunday. But just as we were about to be done and head home, we stopped to talk to one more person. It's funny how much time we spend practicing new approaches and questions and then end up using the simple ones we normally do haha We asked her if she had heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Not only were we able to get her information and set a new appointment but she committed herself to church and we taught a full lesson on the street! We are ridiculously excited about our newest investigator and have been seeing the blessings of using all the time we're given. 

Last PDay our district went to Oppenheim. Google it, beautiful beautiful place. There's a cathedral and ruins with a view over the whole town. On some days the organ player is there and you can hear it played streets away. They also have a series of tunnels underneath all of Oppenheim. They give tours and lead you with torches, super excited for next time! And today we were apple picking with the Hirsch and Fugal families and Denise. It was such a great day! I love the mix of fall colors in the leaves and how open it is in Sitters. 

Discovering true happiness. Happiness is finding someone willing to talk to you when it's freezing outside. Happiness is homemade applesauce. Happiness is smiling kids that are excited that missionaries are here to play kicker with them. Happiness is 'Our Search For Happiness' ;). Happiness is finding an outfit that isn't dorky and still keeps you warm-score. Happiness is having a companion that makes you laugh with mustaches her family sent her and never stops taking pictures. Ever. Happiness can be found every single day and I'm pretty dang happy here in Mainz :) 

I come to you with a question about eternal memories you are building in your lives. Are they followed by the comment “I wish I had,” or can you say, “I’m glad I did”? - Elder L. Tom Perry

My scripture to ponderize this week is D&C 84:88 

Transfer calls on Saturday!! Can't believe we're on the last week of the transfer! 

Liebe Grüße, 

Sister Riser