Cottbus!!!

Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 3:32 AM
Subject: Cottbus!!!
 
Meine Familie,

Well...it is a new city and a new start and it is fantastic!!!! To be honest I was ready to leave Kiel. The people there are amazing and I love them and will keep in touch with them, but I did have a hard time there as well. It is really nice to get a fresh new start in a new place.

My last day in Kiel was a lot of fun though. We went bowling with the Elders and then later I got to teach my last English Class. It was sad to say goodbye, but at the end of the class everyone was handing me their email addresses and wanting to keep in contact with me. I will miss them. We then had FHE and I got to say goodbye to some of the young single adults here.

Well, Tuesday morning came and the Elders picked us up to help me get my luggage to the train station and I was able to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Marks, who have really been like my mission parents here. I love them!!! and watch out mom and dad...they made me write down my home address and phone number so they can contact you and maybe visit y'all after the mission. lol. Then I got on the train and was ready for my long journey to Cottbus. I had to switch trains in Hamburg to take a train to Berlin. There was an Elder who was getting transferred to Berlin who was on the same train. So luckily for me, there were about 6 Elders waiting in Berlin for this Elder and so I had plenty of help with my luggage to get me to the next train, which was nice because the train station in Berlin is huge and I do not know if I would have found where I was supposed to go without them. I then waited there for my last train to Cottbus. After a long travel I made it to Cottbus and Sister Allan and Sister Olsen were there waiting for me. Sister Allan was ending her mission and traveling to Berlin on Wednesday so we all spent Tuesday together. We went over to Schwester Lehman's home. She is the Relief Society president in the ward and is so nice. She fed us pancakes and we visited for a while. She is way cool. She joined the church about 8 years ago and is so excited because her daughter joined the church 3 years ago and married in the temple and just recently had a baby. Schwester Lehman is so excited because she is telling every one that her grandson was born in the church and will be raised in the church. We then went and visited Tom and Sissi. They are really young...in their 20s and Tom is our ward mission leader and from Utah. He and Sissi met on their missions in Switzerland and she is from Germany. They got married and now he is studying at the university here.

Sorry, so much has happened this week...to answer some of Mom's questions....I am in the Dresden Zone, which means I get to go back to the Temple and I will get to go back to Leipzig for Christmas Zone Conference because Dresden Zone and Leipzig Zone come together for that. It is a smaller city...It covers more area than Rostock but has less people. I love it though and cannot wait for more adventures here. We have a lot of awesome investigators and an awesome ward. Although they have not had a baptism for 4 years, the ward is so excited about missionary work. We are praying for a miracle this Christmas and it will be a white one for sure....(baptism white)!!

We visited this member, Bruder Gröschke, one day this week...he is an older man, probably in his 70s or 80s, but he is so funny. Sister Olsen has only been in Germany for like a month and a half and so she is getting to experience a whole lot of new things. Well, Bruder Gröschke made us some cheese wurst and we ate sliced bread with it. Well, he pulled out of his refrigerator some liver wurst and he squeezed a whole bunch on Sister Olsen's plate for her to spread on her bread and then he just set it next to me to help myself to what I would like. It was really funny because I am not a big fan of liver wurst but I've learned that I still should take some, but spread it on very thin so I can rarely taste it and have it with some cheese spread as well..This was Sister Olsen's first time eating liver wurst and she had a ton on her plate and so she had it spread thick on her bread. Poor girl...her face looked like she just wanted to die. But she lived through it!!!!

We also met with an eternal investigator that night, Berzahn. He does not really speak any German or English and so we speak very simple and he brings his computer to help with translation. We taught him the third lesson and he seemed to understand it for the most part and we asked him about baptism...he never said no, but his biggest problem is the fact that we call God...Heavenly Father. He says that fathers are not perfect, but God is. So he has a hard time seeing God as his father. So that is what his biggest concern is at the moment.

We have met alot of cool people on the street too. Sister Olsen is only in her 2nd transfer and so she is still a golden and so President had said that I am going to finish training her. . . which is different for me because now I am the companion that understands all the German and can do most of the speaking. But she is rockin'! We stopped this one guy on the street named Hagan. It was funny because I told him we were talking to people about Jesus Christ and he replied with the typical German answer, that he was atheist. . . but I asked him if he would at least pray to God and ask him if he was there. He agreed...so I went into shock and then I asked if he wanted to meet with us and once again he agreed and suggested to meet us at our church. So now we are supposed to have an appointment with him tonight and I really pray that he does show up. He seems so cool!!! So that was a little miracle in the day.

Other people that we have met this week was Christine...who I guess has been investigating the church for a long time. She is a mother of a daughter with disabilities...not sure what it is, but it is some sort of mental retardation. We had a reallly good appointment and well, I was trying to get to know her and see what her testimony on the church was. I asked her to be baptized and she said that she would want to wait until her daughter can be baptized as well. He daughter is 5 years old. . . They came to church yesterday and I loved it. I met her daughter for the first time and her daughter was sitting next to me and holding my hand and stuff....reminded me of spending time with Neil. The primary program was yesterday and the last song that was sung was a baptism song and it talked about Jesus Christ getting baptized and then the chorus was "Come into the water, Come and be baptized, Come and follow Jesus Christ into a better life, Come and take the first step, leave the world behind in the water." During this song and the words that were said during the primary program you could tell that Christine was about to cry. She knows this church is true and she knows she needs to be baptized. We just need her to realize that waiting three years to be baptized with her daughter is not the best answer.

Anyways, we also met with this really weird family this week. The Chahin family. They are an older couple and their 16 year old grand daughter was there which took away alot of spirit. The granddaughter is atheist, but the grandparents know this church is true and we would have been able to set a baptism date with the Grandma, but when we asked the Grandma, the granddaughter said, "my grandmother is evangalist and she will stay that way." It was a bit fustrating and we are hoping that if the granddaughter is there next time to at least have her soften her heart a little. The granddaughter just does not know that we have actually been meeting with her Grandparents for over two months and they are actually very interested in our message.

Wow, alot really did happen this week and I want to talk about it all...it just takes to long...but I will try my best. We ran into this really cool guy on the street one night this week. His name was John K. He had a suit case and I felt prompted to speak to him, but when I was about to say something he stopped us and asked us for directions. It was all in English and this guy was really cool. He then asked us about our name tags and said that he has seen guys around where he lives with the same tags. He is from New Zealand and is traveling around Germany for a month on business. He said that he had a Book of Mormon at home and we gave him our card and said that if he needs anything he is welcome to call us and also to look on the internet site to find the missionaries by where he is from. He seemed very interested and happy to do that. I really pray that he does continue his curiosity in the church. We taught him a quick 1st lesson on the street and he asked us why the Mormons had to leave New York and how they settled in Utah...so we gave him a little bit of church history too. It was really cool and awesome!!

Another really cool miracle from this week was when we ran into Krishna on the street. We met this guy on Wednesday night and we were not having any luck with finding people who wanted to listen to us and so we were making our way home and Krishna was the last person we talked to and he set up an appointment with us and so forth. We met him on Friday night and he was really cool. He is from India and is not religious at all and his family is Hindu. He was interested in the Book of Mormon and said he will read it. We were not able to set up a return appointment because he did not know when he could met again, but we have his phone number and he has ours, so we will see what happens.

Wow...a few more things to say, Frau Baruk is this eternal intestigator for like 6 years and apparently has a baptism date every year. She knows the church is true and she loves it so much. And so we set another baptism date with her for January 18th and she said she will pray about it. Sister Olsen and I are making it a goal to make this the final date!!!! It was a really short appointment, but we are going to see her again this Thursday.

We also met with Schwester Münch this week. We actually call her ever night because she is a member who is struggling with her testimony and so we call her every night to tell her what miracle we have seen that day and we sing her a song. We went and visited her this week. She was asking me why I came on a mission and how I came to know that this church is true...It was a great chance for me to refocus my mind on thinking how I have truly been converted to the church. Any though, I have been a member my whole life...I told her I did have to pray to know for myself and the more I learned the more I knew. I bore my testimony that I know it is true and I cannot even come close to denying it. The spirit was really strong and last night when we talked to her on the phone she told us that she saw her mom that day and that her mom is atheist and she was never able to be open about what she believes and she bore her testimony to her mom that she knows that God is there. That made us so happy to hear and I am so grateful that she really has more of testimony than she thinks.

Ok almost done....we also met with this investigator Chi-yu who is also like this eternal investigator...He is from Taiwan and has been here for 3 years studying. He reads in the Book of Mormon and says that he really is searching for the truth and I asked him that if he found out that this church was true if he would be baptized. He then talked about how his family would not be too happy about that and that there are some Taiwan traditions that are against christianity. He also thinks too logically about things...he is studying philosphy and everything. I told him that Eric served his mission in Taiwan and so he really is interested in talking to Eric. I told him I will give him Eric's email address, if that is ok with you Eric? I am not sure what his email address is though. But he does seem interested in talking to you.

Last of all...Sunday was a really good day. The ward is so great. After church we had a Gemeinde Essen...can not remember what you call it in english, but it is when after church every one brings food and you eat as a ward. It was Schwester Kallie's 90th birthday and so we celebrated for that. After church an appointment fell out and so we went home and did some area book stuff and then went out to find people. We talked to so many people and finally made an appointment with this guy named Lorence. He pretty much set up the appointment for us...he was like "ok, I will meet you on Friday at your church and here is my phone number." So that was pretty cool. We then later made our way home and did some weekly planning. It was a great week and I look forward to this coming week.

Any though, I will not get a Thanksgiving this year because I am here in Germany...I just want to say that I am thankful for my family and the many examples I have had in my life. I am so grateful to be the fourth out of my siblilings to serve a mission for the Lord. I am grateful for the church and the little miracles I get to see every day. I know this to be the true church of God!!!

I love y'all and wish y'all a happy holiday and also Happy anniversary to Mom and Dad...wow..33 years!

love, Sister Britt