OH, I BELIEVE!!!

 Meine Familie, People always say that miracles happen...but you do not always see them. Before my mission I would say I saw miracles, but never have I looked at them as miracles. Maybe just really cool things that happened. Ever since I came out on the mission, since day one I havae been told that miracles happen and not only do they happen, they happen every day. I can honestly say that I have seen a miracle every day...some days the miracle of the day is just the fact that I survived. haha. But ever since the Advent of Miracles at Christmas time where we had to write down one miracle every day of the month of December...I have been more open and aware of the many miracles that do happen and I take the time to write them down at the end of the day. Well, this week was for sure filled with miracles and I look forward to sharing them with you. . .

Sister Noyes and me

 Well, Monday started out great. We had a good p-day and went to this place called The American Diner...It was very good and very American! That evening we met with this guy named Marko. He was a previous investigator we found in the Area Book and decided to call him up. We met him and well, he is so wanting the truth. We talked about everything and how he does not get along with his parents and so he left home for college and ended up here in Cottbus studying Economics. He now has stopped studying because he cannot get into it and originally got into it because he knew he would get lots of money from it. He has a goal to have a future family and be the best parent that his parents never were and find a good way of living..such as a religion. He also hates Soccer and Beer...haha...after he said that we looked at him and asked, "Are you sure you are even German?". He was a miracle find and we have met with him since then and he is totally ready for the gospel. We are seeing him tonight and look forward to teaching him the Plan of Salvation ...most of his questions are towards the plan.

Along with this week, on Tuesday we went and had lunch with Schwester Leuchner. Before going to her home though, we went around the whole neighborhood and put cards in all the mail boxes and had a plan to go back this week to do doors there. Well, as Sister Noyes was on one side of the street doing cards, I was on the other side and this dog like came out of nowhere and scared me so bad. Well, I can say the longer I am on my mission, the more and more I am becoming a non animal person. They just scare me.

We went and visited with Bruder Gröschke that day as well, and once again I drank my cup of caro coffee...(with gladness) and we gave him a spiritual thought. We are taking the opportunity to only share spiritual thoughts out of Preach my Gospel to get the members more involved with it and more into missionary work. The members seem to really enjoy it alot and you always feel the spirit so much. Preach my Gospel has so much to offer and so much to teach. I love that Book.

On Thursday we visited with Frau Chahin and brought Sissi with us, she is the wife of our ward mission leader. The appointment went really well and the spirit was strong. Frau Chahin loved having a member there and still has a goal to be baptized. We pushed the date back to March, but she has for the first time committed to coming to church this coming Sunday. We are holding her to that. She even asked Sissi to come back with us next time we go over. YAY For Joint teaches!!! They really do make a great difference in the lesson.

Statue of Karl G Maeser at Dresden Stake Center

That evening we went to Tom and Sissi's home for dinner and I think I told you about our ward mission leader. Tom is a college student here and is American. Tom and Sissi both served their mission in Switzerland and she is from Germany. And now they are married and have a cute little baby named Sammi and are so awesome. It was a good appointment and always great when we can talk to them about all of our investigators and what they need or how the ward can help.

On Friday we had Zone Conference in Dresden. Always really good. The focus was on teaching and joint teaches. We have a goal this week to get 4 joint teaches...that is a pretty high goal for this area, but we are being more focused on trying to get the members more involved. After Zone Conference we traveled back to Cottbus and walked home to talk to people and this really big guy was walking down the street...I stopped him and talked to him and he was going somewhere and so he told us to walk with him. I walked with him for a long time...and Sister Noyes was like running to keep up, and we talked about God and how he has a plan for us...He would not tell us his name or where he was from...but I could tell that he was Russian because of his German accent. His biggest question to me was, "If God exists, then why would he kill all the Jews?" So, from that question, I can also maybe say that he is Jew. We talked about the Book of Mormon and receiving answers. He really wants to know the answer, and says he already has a Book of Mormon at home. He told us he will call us at the end of this week. We are really praying for it. He would not tell us his number or his name because he told us that it does not matter. I kind of laughed and told him that it sure does because he is a child of God. But we are really praying for this phone call...that would be a miracle. Afterwards, Sister Noyes told me that the thing that she has learned most from me is that I am not afraid to challenge people. She said that as we were walking down the street in the dark and saw that big man walking towards us was that he was big and scary and yet I stopped and talked to him. HaHa. Sister Noyes is doing great and she is getting to be more open to the work and doing a great job.

On Saturday we met with Chiyu and it was a great appointment. It was a freezing cold day and all of our appointments had falling out. So we were outside all day just finding...and being frozen...luckily for me I had those hand warmers that you sent me...my goodness...I wish you sent more...those things were miracle workers! But luckily that evening Chiyu did not fall out. We read one more chapter in the Book of Mormon and I then asked him if he has ever prayed about the Book of Mormon. He has been meeting with missionaries for a little over a year now and he told me that he has never prayed about the book. The part that Chiyu is struggling most with is Joseph Smith being a prophet. I then had us read the last two paragraphs of the introduction and told him that until he gets an answer and knows that the Book of Mormon is true, he will never know if Joseph Smith is a prophet of this church is true. I challenged him right then to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. At the end the spirit was so strong and Chiyu said the closing prayer and asked for the first time if the Book is true. He is progressing so much more and has a desire to come to church more..It is a miracle!!!

We then had church on Sunday and during Sunday School met with Katrin and Jeff. Bishop explained the organizations in the church to Katrin about primary, relief society, priesthood and so forth. It was really good and she seemed to really enjoy it. Next week we are going to officially start teaching her the lessons!!! I am so excited and she is totally going to be baptized!!!! I love it.

Sister Noyes -- We call her the Arizona cactus because she is always so cold!

What a great week and a miraculous one at that! I love this work so much and I could just keep going and going and going and going!! I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, because I have read the Book of Mormon in two different langauages and have asked God to know if it is true, and I cannot deny it. I know and OH, I BELIEVE in MIRACLES!!!

Love Sister Britt

I am not creative at the moment

Meine Familie,

So a big happy birthday goes out to Lindsay and Grandma Matthews!!! Hope it is a great one!!!

This week was a great week... I know I say every week but I will say that some weeks are not as good as others. We did have a great week as far as setting baptism dates up though!! That is always a plus to a week.

We started out the week playing ping pong with the Elders in our district for p-day and it was really fun. That day it also snowed and it was the first snow that I have seen in Cottbus all winter...It only stayed for like half of the day though and so we are back to having no snow, but it still is pretty cold.

On Tuesday we saw Monika. We went over to Schwester Schmidt's home for lunch and Monika came as well. It was a really good appointment. Monika is friends with a couple members in our ward and is just curious about what we believe. We started meeting with her back in November or December and she is athiest, but when we meet we give spiritual thoughts for the members but they are alway focused on things that we want Monika to hear and learn. So we are teaching Monika, without her even really knowing it, but it is really good because it turns into a discussion and the members get really involved in teaching Monika. We are taking it slow, but we have a good relationship with her.

Frau Baruk is kind of getting on my nerves though. She has been investigating this church for 6 years and has a new baptism date every year...this time it is for Easter, but I do not really know how much of a desire she really has. She keeps saying, oh well, I still need to talk to my husband about it. And well, I just keep thinking that pretty soon if she does not talk to him, I will just ask him. So it is just the same old story with her that I believe every set of missionaries for the past 6 years has had with her.

We did go to choir practice that night and I wish I knew her name exactly...but Katrin's mom comes to choir all the time. Katrin is a young mother who is married to a member in our ward and she and her mom are not members. Her mom drove us home after choir practice and just started showing interest in what we do as missionaries. . . we are going to start taking advantage of these weekly rides home from her to get to know her better and take the opportunity to teach her. She is super awesome and comes to Sacrament meeting every week now...she says she loves how the people are so friendly in our church and actually talk to you...whereas in her church you just go and leave and nobody talks to you.

We taught German class this week and AB, DJ, Chrys, and Sean all came. The class went really good and we are going to start doing a weekly German class with them. AB, DJ, and Sean are going to come all the time...although it was kind of funny when I asked what day works best for everyone...we all agreed on Wednesday and when I asked Chrys if that works for him as well, he looked at me and said, "Actually, I decided to take a break from y'all for awhile." So I guess now I really do not have to worry about Chrys because me and Sister Noyes call it the break up...haha... and that he is no longer coming. So right now the class is just AB, DJ, and Sean. It is alot of fun though to teach this German class.

We vistied Anna this week and had a good appointment with her. We taught the third lesson about baptism and so on, but she said that she does not believe there is only one way to return back to God. She does not come to our church because she cannot understand and so really, she wants to come to our church, but is willing to wait until she is back in Hungary to find out. She is really awesome though and wants to learn and find out more.

We met with Soloman this week as well. I have met with him once before, but it was back in the beginning of December. We taught him the third lesson and he says he will think about baptism. We set a time in March and he says he will pray about it. He is so cool and so golden. He has a great testimony on Jesus Christ...he just always says that he does not have faith. But he wants to learn and find out. He is really awesome.

We also met with Chiyu this week of course. He is doing really good and we were so close to getting him to commit to a baptism date. But he says he will talk about it next time with us. We played a game with the baptism interview questions and had him teach us..so we can see where he is at and what to help him with...right now he says he knows there is some kind of greater power and spirit, but he cannot say for sure right now if it is God and he also has a hard time with Joseph Smith. So now we know and we know where to put more of our focus on.

We also had a Relief Society activity and it was white elephant activity. It was a lot of fun and since I do not need anything I gave the gift I ended up with to someone else. It was some kind of book. We went and visited with Bruder Gröschke this week as well. He made us pancakes...but it is really funny because Germans make them really thin and so I told him that Americans make them thicker...he says that next time he is going to make them thicker since I am American. It was actually pretty funny converstaion while we were there.

Now Sunday was an awesome day. . . Every Sunday during Sunday School we go into a different room with the Bishop and teach Katrin (who I mentioned earlier) and her husband (a member). This time we went into the normal class with Jeff (the husband) and Katrin went into the bishops office to talk with him...I knew that the subject would be on baptism because bishop was planning on talking to her about it and sure enough after church, bishop pulled me aside and told me that Katrin has agreed to baptism, but wants to have all the lessons before she makes her final decision and so we are going to start teaching her the lessons...I am so excited!!!

So, I am looking forward to another great week and well we have zone conference on Friday in Dresden and so I can see if I can get a picture by that statue you mentioned Mom. Also I was wondering if it would be possible to mail me one or two more things of deodorant...One should be fine...I have one full one, but maybe one more just in case to last me to the end.

Anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome week and I am just trying to get over a cold right now, but things are going great!

love Sister Britt

A wonderous work and a glory

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 2:04 AM
Subject: A wonderous work and a glory

Meine Familie,

Well, no crazy stories like last week but, it was a great week and I love and love missionary work more and more everyday. I could do this for a life time!!! haha.
So this week we did teach a German class..but this time we had more students than just Chrys. It was really fun and I look forward to this class becoming more of a finding tool!!! Chiyu also came to this class. He is doing awesome and he reminds me every time he sees me that he has not yet got an email from Eric...lol...I keep telling him it is coming.

We also went and visited Bruder Gröschke this week. He is so funny. I will say that one of the most disgusting drinks I have every drunk is Karo Koffee which, I think in English, is spelled Caro Coffee. It is coffee that is ok to drink and a lot of members here in Germany drink it. Well, when someone gives you something you drink it with happiness, even if you do not like it. I do not know how many cups of caro coffee I have drunk at his house...but he always seems to refill my cup. How nice of him.

Wednesday was a really awesome day. We had an appointment with this guy named DJ. His roommates were all home and so we taught them all. It was a lot of fun and they are all going to be coming to our German class. We also went back yesterday to bring more Books of Mormon because they all wanted one. The work of the Lord is awesome!! There names are DJ, AB, and Sean.

We also have contact once again with Bezhan. He is doing awesome. Still a big communication problem...but I think his German is gettting better and not so much of his english. We were just happy to see him again because it has been over a month since we had contact.

We also saw Frau Chahin this week. We had to push her baptism date to Feb. 26th. We are really just working with her to have a desire to come to church and not her other church. She has a big desire to be baptized with the authority of God, but not to come to the church in which the authority belongs to. It is a bit fustrating at times. Later we did doors and door and door and after door of every one rejecting us...seeing someone in their boxers and interrupting someone from breaking the law of chastity (I think that explains it good enough) we finally said a prayer and made two new appointments - One with this cool guy from Yemen. He is muslim, but was interested in a Book of Mormon. We brought it to him, but unfortuantly he is super busy with exams and will be moving to Switerland for an internship in a month. We then had an appointment with a girl named Josephine who is from Africa. We were teaching her the Joseph Smith story and she was like, "I was just talking to my friend earlier today about how there are just so many churches!" She is so gold and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she will read in it...sadly she said that she will just call us when she has a question. I really pray she calls us.

Friday, I went to Dresden for a Leadership training. It was a meeting for Trainers, District Leaders and Zone Leaders. It was a lot of fun and we are going to start putting more of a push on Preach my Gospel and it is going to be awesome!! Sister Noyes went out with the other Goldens during that time and did finding. She said she had a lot of fun and was really proud of herself because she talked to some people and said that she had no idea what they were saying to her, but had fun with it anyways. I am proud of her too! Though Friday was pretty funny because we had to get up at 6 in the morning to catch our train to Dresden, about a 2 hour train ride, we got onto the bus to get to the train and our bus breaks down so, we had to run about a fourth of a mile or more to catch our train at 6:30 in the morning. Then coming back home from Dresden, our train breaks down and we had an appointment that night so once we got back to Cottbus, we had to run to our appointment...lots of running. Sister Noyes says she is so exhausted and looked at me and said, "How are you so awake and still smiling?" I just kind of laugh because deep down I am so exhausted as welll...but I just do not really show it.

On Saturday we went to see if we can get in contact with some less actives... I looked up their address and we walked to where the address said. Well, the address led us straight to a Catholic Church..interesting. I wonder if our Bishop knows that the address on the ward list is a Catholic Church. Well...I do not think we will be finding those less actives...on to the next ones.

Church was really fun and one of the members came up to me and said, "I think it is so funny watching you and your companion because when you walk really fast, she has to run". It is because Sister Noyes is really short and so when I walk fast she has to run to keep up with me and the ward members think it is funny to watch us walking with each other. lol.

Well, the last thing on the week was really cool. Sunday morning I felt the impression that I needed to put a Russian Book of Mormon in my backpack and so I did. . . well, we had an eating appointment with Sch. Lehman and at the end she asked me if we were able to get a hold of a Russian Book of Mormon because she had a friend that wanted one. I smiled and was like...well, I actually have one in my backpack and she was so excited! Yesterday was great because we gave away four Book of Mormons!! how exciting!

I will say that life as a trainer is exhausting, but it is a lot of fun. We have this booklet that is called "The first 12 weeks" and it is an outline of what we want to focus on each week that she is a Golden. So, every week we have different things that I teach her during study time and then she does it that week. It is kind of nice to have some kind of outline. The goal is to turn the goldens into master teachers and be able to train by their 3rd transfer. Ahh..scary.

Umm...to mom, I do not know about apartment. Sister Risenmay told me that she was going to be taking care of that stuff her first two weeks that she got back. I do not know. I will see her in a couple weeks and I could ask her about it. Maybe I can get her mom's email address and you can get in contact with her.
And as far as extending goes...I have thought about it and I would really love to, I just do not know how it will work with regeristering for classes because we figured I would be back in time for that and so I did not leave the information with y'all. Plus, I do not even remember how many credits I already have and so I have no idea when I would be able to regester. So I would love to extend, I just do not know how it will work out. That is why I have not said anything about it. And I could be a missionary for another year...and I would too..if I was able to.haha.

I was not planning on going back and working at Six Flags...and I would like to be an EFY counselor. I know that Scott Cobabe did it once and at the moment I cannot think of any one else. Thank you for the scarf and head thing...I like them. That is cool that you made them, I had no idea!

I think the boots I bought are actually pretty good...they were on sale and that is why I got them and they will still work in Rexburg. I am taking good care of them.

Any ways, we have a great week planned and I am excited for more miracles and more adventures!!! I love y'all and hope y'all have a fantastic week!!!

Sister Britt

I think God has a sense of humor

Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 3:46 AM
Subject: I think God has a sense of humor!

Meine Familie,

Wowsers....have not used that word in a long time, but hey, that is the word that comes to mind when I look back on this week. I am glad to hear that everybody had an awesome Christmas and New Years...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NEIL!! wow, you are 19 years old!!! That is so crazy...in a little selfish way I am glad you cannot go on a mission because that means that it would be another 2 years before I get to be with you again. . . but we all know that you already served your mission before you came here to the earth!!!

Anyways, I was debating if I wanted to tell y'all a story from this week...and well, I figured I would because that is highlight news of the week. I have had alot of crazy stories on my mission and things that I never thought would happen... some I have written home and well, some that y'all will just have to wait until I get home. But I think it is all good if I were to tell you this story and to let you know...that everything is just dandy and taken care of.

 

The story began last Sunday. I think I have written home about Chrys. He is an African that we teach German. He comes to the church every once in awhile and we teach him. Well, he invited us over to his place last Sunday for the New Year, but he would not tell us why...only that it was a surprise. Well, I got a really bad feeling about that and so I called him up on that day and told him that we could not make it. Well, I then later felt bad and told him that we would be able to drop by Monday night for a little while to see how he is doing and maybe try teaching him something from the Book of Mormon. Well, we went and he made us some yummy African food. We had a good visit and then he told us that he was sad that we were not able to make it to his place yesterday because he had a party with dancing and music and so on. Then he said that he wished that his best friend was there and indicated that I was his best friend...now, first of all, I have no idea how I became this guy's best friend because I only teach him German at the church like once a week. Well, it then became kind of weird and we ate and then said we had to leave. As we were leaving he handed Sister Noyes and I each a little bag of Haribo candy and underneath my bag was a note of some sort..oh no. I we went home so we could finish weekly planning and well, I read the note...the only thing was, it was more than just a little note..it was like a little stapled together flip book and well...I think that this has become one of my funniest stories of the mission and well, when I get home you will just have to see the flip book yourself. In this little book though he asked me if I would like to be in a relationship with him...and then he said that if I were to say no, to just give him an answer because he is mature enough to hear it. . . well, the Elders in our district helped me with some advice on what to do because Chrys was going to be coming to the church on Wednesday so we could teach him German. We for sure wanted someone else to be in the building on Wednesday and so the Forst Elders were going to come with us. I called President on Tuesday and told him about the situation and he gave me some advice on what to say and we talked about it would be a good idea to build up the German class so it is not just us teaching Chrys and to try and get more students. Well, Wednesday came and the Elders showed up...we all went to the church together and Sister Noyes and I went into the class room with Chrys and the Elders just hung out in another room. Well, one of my most awkward moments on the mission was about to come to pass and I told Chrys that I am going to have to say no and that the reason is that I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and that means that when I decided to come on a mission I made the choice not to think about a relationship and not to be in one and not to get into one...also that my time here as a missionary is very special for me and I am here to help and serve people and to teach them and so forth. I cannot remember everything I said, but then Chrys said, "but your mission is almost over..what about after?" At that point I kind of had to lie...I told him that somebody was waiting for me. Which is not completely a lie because someone somewhere is, right? ha. . . So at this point Chrys's eyes started to water up a bit and we ended up having a good talk about how God has a plan for everybody and sometimes things do not work out the way we hope, but that does not mean that the plan God has for us will not get better and better. After German class I did call President and tell him that everything was taken care of and that there was no longer a problem. Presdient was excited and said, "yay, no emergency transfers" That makes me happy to because I do not feel it is my time to leave Cottbus...especially since I am only in my second week of training...Things are so awesome and the problem is taken care of. I never thought in a million years that I would break an African man's heart on my mission...but hey I think it makes a pretty funny story for my mission...I just kind of laugh about it and well, I hope you are also able to see that it is actually a funny story and well, everything is ok and dandy and well, I was debating if I should even tell it. Ha... it is a lot funnier than it may seem. . . and I am really relieved that the situation turned out good in the end.

Ok, well...other things that happened this week. We went and visited Bruder Gröschke, He is so funny and we played Rummikub with him. He was not winning and so we had to play until he won. It was really funny. But it was great. One of the biggest joys I have on my mission is building relationships with the members and sharing thoughts and experiences with them and encouraging them to do missionary work. I love the work so much. We visted with Sch. Raddewagen this week and also Sch. Schmidt. These members are great lights to the gospel. I encourage all members to show your friends your own excitment for the gospel and invite them to church and to a game night where the missionaries are there. . . last week we randomly dropped by a members house and she had friends there and invited us in to join them and play games. It was a great way to get to know her friends in a chill, fun environment.

We met with Chaoke this week....that was cool. I have only met with him once before and he is from China...well, he had a friend over and so we taught both of them. They are both so curious about finding out what the truth is and about prayer. I look forward to continue seeing them progress.

We also met with Talent...it has been along time and so I was glad to see him again. At the beginning it was funny because he apologized for what happened earlier this week. You see our African investigators all know each other and so Talent knew about what happened with Chrys. Talent was like...he should not have done that anyways...I quickly changed the topic though and we had a good discussion about the Proclamation to the Family. He is so golden and he is progressing so fast!!!

We went to Tom and Sissi's this week too. Tom is our ward mission leader. They have been in America these last few weeks. Tom is actually from America and Sissi is German and they both met on their missions in Switzerland. They made us homemade corn dogs. I loved it...I have not had one of those for over a year!! They were great.

We also got a new investigator named Chitta this week. He is from India and well, he is going back to India for 3 weeks and so it is a bummer we will not see him for a while. But we had a great appointment with him last night and he really wants to read the Book of Mormon!!!

This week...was full of craziness....we did doors and those are always fun...I am trying to get Sister Noyes more so excited about talking to people...she is very scared to speak to people. And well...we had a lot of rain this week. I got really cheap 10 euro boots to last me the rest of the winter because my other boots have holes in them and broke, so my feet were wet and frozen in those boots.

But the work is so great and I really do love every minute of being a missionary. I know that this is the True Church of Christ. There is so much power in the message we share and our belief. I know miracles happen every day... I know that when we yield to the prompting of the spirit he will guide us to where we need to be and also protect us from situations. The spirit testifies of truth and I know that to be true. I am just here as a servant of God and wanting to help his children come closer to him.

I hope everyone has a great week and that Blake and Garrett have fun in Texas... I mailed packages last Monday...so let me know when they come....and did y'all get my message about Sister Risenmay?

I love y'all!!!
Sister Anderson

Happy New Year!

Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 3:12 AM
Subject: Happy New Year

Meine Familie,

Wowsers...where to even start. I know I seem to say that every week, but it seems like each week just keeps speeding up and I have to reflect back on the many things that happened. I feel like I have not even been here in Cottbus for the whole week...which part of that is very true.

On Monday we spent the day with Schwester Leuchner for the 2nd day of Christmas. It ws fun and we ate once again super yummy food and just visited forever with her and her Granddaughter and Grandson. It was super fun and guess what she gave us for Christmas...Tights!!! hahah...I think it is funny that alot of members have given us tights or nylons for Christmas..well...it will help me get through one more winter here. Although...so far this winter has not been bad...not like last year. We do not have snow yet here in Cottbus...it has been rainy and some days are very, very cold and some days are alright.
That evening we went to the church and met with Chiyu. He is doing good...continued reading in the Book of Mormon with him and he is almost done with the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi. I think he is happy to get done with those chapters because they are difficult to understand.

Tuesday was a bit crazy...we did a lot of cleaning and Sister Olsen finished up her packing. We went and visited Chrys and taught him some German and then came back and just relaxed for a moment and did last minute things and then got on the train to go to Eisenhüttenstadt. Sister Olsen was very sad to be leaving Cottbus, her first city, but I told her it only gets better from here on out. I would for sure say that my time here as a missionary..there are, for sure, hard days and difficult things to do, but I know that this is the Lord's and I am always ready and willing to go to where he needs me to be.

 

We arrived and Sister Neukomm and Lanctot were there to wait for us and we went to their apartment. I slept at their apartment that evening and then the next day we went to Berlin for District meeting. All of us went to the Tiergarten sisters' apartment for lunch and just some chillin out time before we went more into the city of Berlin where we all met the Goldens and took them out to do some street contacting for the first time. The Golden who came with me was Sister Noyes. Little did we know that the next day I would be taking her back to Cottbus with me. It was fun and I would be honest to say I was overwhelmed at the amount of people in Berlin that you could talk to. I would say that it was too many people and I could not serve in a huge city like that...wow! But it was fun...later that night Sister Risenmay, Stewart, and me went and met President at the hotel and took the Sisters who did not get the chance earlier to do street contacting. We then headed back to the Tiergarten apartment and 5 of us trainers were going to be sleeping there that night. It was fun.

Well, the next day was Thursday and we all headed over to one of the church buildings in Berlin and we had a little training meeting. The training program is different and they just changed it. At first I was a little overwhelmed with it, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. After our little training meeting, the Goldens came and we had a little Golden Conference and they announced who would be with who. So I am serving with Sister Noyes. She is from a military family and so she has moved around alot. She is from Arizona as of right now though. I would say that I am starting to figure out this training thing. In some ways I still feel like I am golden and that it was just yesterday that I arrived in Germany, but I am getting it figured out. After Golden Conference we went to the train station and headed back to Cottbus. I am happy to be back. We went home and I let her unpack a little bit and then we went and visited Schwester Lehman. It was a surprise and her friend, Annett was there with her family (they are not members) and so we stayed awhile and played some games and got to know Schwester Lehman's friends a little better. It was really fun. We then talked to people on the way home and made an appointment with this guy from India. He is cool. Sister Noyes is scared to talk to people right now...but I will get her started with that.

On Friday we went to Görlitz for district meeting and then, when we came back, we went and visited Frau Baruk and then taught Chrys German later that night. On Saturday we met with Talent. It has been forever since we have met with some of these people because of the Christmas break and so I am happy to start meeting with some of them more regularly now. Talent is doing awesome and he is so Gold. We are going to get him on a bapismal date soon. YAY! That evening we went over to the Weilert family's home for a New Years Eve get together..some other ward members came. It was fun. No different traditions than in America. They sit and visit, eat food, set off fireworks, play games - just like here. It was fun, they drove us home at 9:30 and then we were so tired so we went straight to bed. ...yes I slept through the new year and it was wonderful!!!

But Happy New Year to everyone...so much is going to be going on..Not ready for this...But I wish a happy late Birthday to Blake, and then a happy early Birthday to Mom!!!! and also I am actually mailing those packages today...and I am not mailing the book one yet and so Mom and Dad you should only expect one in the mail.

Also, I talked with Sister Risenmay and it turns out that she extended and so she is flying home the same time I am flying home and so we are going to be arriving in the San Antonio airport the same time...so we figured we would probably be released at the same time and we would not mind a nice Texas BBQ either..lol. You should somehow get in contact with her family. lol. But any ways....I am also saying this because she is going to be going up to BYU Idaho and so I can room with her...that means do not do anything with housing yet. Because I will be getting that with her and her sister and some of her cousins will be rooming with us too. But yeah...Just letting you know!!

Anyways, I love y'all and hope you have a fantastic week and Happy New Year!!!

love Sister Britt

Frohe Weihnacten!!!

Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 3:44 AM
Subject: Frohe Weihnacten!!!

Meine Familie,

Tis the Season!!! It really has been a great one!!! So many wonderful things happened this week and I want to share them all, but they are just jumping around my head and so I need to get them sorted. First of all...Last Monday was really fun..We went to visit Sch. Lehman, she is the Relief Society President. We spent the evening with her and also watched the Nativity movie. It is the one that is not made by the church and I think it came out a few years ago. Anyways, it was very good and it was my first time seeing it...and we watched it in German and so I am glad I can understand German..haha. It was a very nice evening and she gave us a gift...We have receieved a bit of gifts from members...I think it is funny though because usually it is chocolate and nylons/tights or it is chocolate and body wash. I think I am supplied now for the rest of my mission. lol.

Anyways, Tuesday was a really fun day...we got up early and traveled to Frieberg so we could go to the temple. There was snow in Freiberg...I was kind of thinking I would get away from seeing snow this year, but at least there is no snow in Cottbus. It was very wonderful and I love going to the temple. It is for sure a special opportunity as a missionary. I decided to do the session in German this time and it was a spiritual experience for me. In fact, everything for me is German because I feel my English getting worse every day. That evening we got back to Cottbus and visited Chrys, he is the one that we are teaching German to. He invited us over for dinner and made us yummy african food...kind of spicy, but it was so good. I am not used to hot and spicy food any more because Germans do not eat spicy food.

 

Wednesday we went and visited Anne. She is the one from Hungary. She is so wonderful and she feels the spirit so strong...in fact her kids do not speak English or German and we speak English to Anne because she does not really know German. The last time we were there we watched the Restoration with Anne, but they do not have it in Hungarian, and so Anne was translating some for her two little children..they are 5 and 3 years old...and her little girl was so curious about what was going on and Anne told us that after we had watched that film her little girl kept asking her, as she was going to bed, to tell her the story again about what happened in the film and so, Anne got to tell her the story of Joseph Smith again. It is really cool. We also met with Ram, the Russian guy. It was really good because when we showed up, the man's son was there and he spoke German and so we talked to him some and we found out a little bit more about Ram. The son had to leave though and so we called Sch. Lehman because her son-in-law was in town for Christmas and had served a mission in Russia and so he came over and we had a good appointment.

Thursday we visited Monika. She is a friend of a couple members in our ward and is atheist...we met with her once before and she is interested to learn more...mainly because she is curious about what her friends believe. She is really sweet and we gave her the Joy to the World DVD last time and so she waited for us to watch it and so that is what we did on Thursday...we also cooked lunch together and made a cake..it was really fun. We also gave her the Book of Mormon and told her the real way to find out what her friends believe and live for is through this book. She agreed to take it. She does not have a real interest in the church, but we are still going to drop by and see her every once in awhile. We also went to visit David, he is like 17. I was sad though because he told me that he is moving after New Years. He is an atheist,but has so much potential. He is moving a little more down south and I asked him if he would like the missionaries there to visit him..he seemed still interested with it. I will miss that kid. Also, on Thursday, we had an appointment with Chi-yu. We are just reading through the Book of Mormon because he wants to try to put it all together before he finds out if it really is true. . . it was funny though because I ask Chi-yu almost every time to be baptized. Well, we had a little bit of time left and I asked him if he wanted to play Hang man and he guessed it....I wrote "Be Baptized." He laughed, but at least he knows our intentions as missionaries.

Friday...oh my. We traveled to Görlitz for District meeting and while together we listened to transfer calls as a district...there I found out that I would be training a Golden. . . ahhh...I am training this transfer. I am nervous, but excited at the same time. It is funny because exactly a year ago I left the MTC and flew into Germany and now I am the one picking up my Golden. I am traveling to Berlin tomorrow and then on Wednesday I will do some Finding with the new missionaries. Then, Thursday we will have Golden Conference and I will find out who my companion is. I am really nervous to train, but I know that the Lord is with me and I am going to do my best to help this new missionary. I know that being a missionary is a lot of fun...it is hard, but totally worth it.
Anyways, afterwards we headed back to Cottbus and visited Frau Baruk. Sister Olsen was sad to say goodbye because she is getting transferred. This was Sister Olsen's very first city and so I know that it is hard leaving your first area, but the mission only gets better once you move on to new things. I feel myself progress the most when a change happens. We watched Joy to the World with Frau Baruk and then we went and caught a train to Forst because we were going to join the Elders there and the young single adults and go caroling at a Nursing home. It was a lot of fun.

Yeah, and then finally!!! Christmas Eve..or in German, Heilige Abend which means... Holy Night. It was was fun day. We went to church because here in Germany every religion has a thing called Weihnactandacht...which means Christmas thought..It is an hour long and our ward put on a program of some musical numbers and a Chrismtas thought.Then we went with a couple members to visit Sch. Lehman because she had to work. She works at this care home for really old people with disabilities (like Neil). We sang a song and it was so special to me because I was brought back to thinking about Neil and that I got to spend a moment with these very special spirits on this Holy night. We then headed to the Ritter's home where I got to skype y'all (my family). It was fun seeing y'all and talking to y'all. It was also weird at the same time..I have not seen y'all for over a year. But while I was talking to you, Santa came and visited the little Ritter Boys, who are 2 and 4. I wish I got to see it, but in Germany I found out that it is tradition that Santa Clause comes and delivers the presents on Christmas eve and you get to open them. So while I was talking to y'all in the other room I guess Santa dropped by and brought the boys their presents and they opened them and then Santa left. Br. Seidl is the grandpa of these boys and he was the one that dressed up like Santa Clause and came and brought them the presents...So someone literally shows up dressed like Santa and brings the presents on Christmas Eve while the children are still awake and they open them that night. That is fun...afterwards...I went over to the Seidls home where we got our presents from them and Sch. Münch and we had a traditional Christmas eve dinner... which is brotwurst, potatoes, and saur kraut...that is typically what Germans eat on Christmas eve and then we had a dessert.

On Christmas day ....we woke up and opened our presents from our family and...thank you very much for the gifts. I like them and the clothes fit great. We then went to church for one hour and to the Schults and Bruder Gröschke came as well. It was wonderful. It is tradition on Christmas in Germany to go to church and then have a Christmas meal. It is traditional for the majority of German families to have goose and so I ate goose for the very first time and it was really good. We also had rot cole and potatoes and then a dessert. It was very yummy and delicious. On this day you are just with your families and it is a relaxing day and you have your big Christmas meal.

German actually has three days of Christmas...Christmas eve, and then day one, and two...Today is actually day two and we are going over to a members home for that. . . which is another big German Christmas meal and just relaxing. It is nice. I am excited!!! Anyways... I wish everyone a very merry christmas and I really do know that Christ was born of the virgin Mary and that he is the Son of God. I know that Christ is my Saviour and older brother...he sacrificed for me and for all the children on the earth. I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time and serve my Lord. This is His church and the way. I am grateful to bring God's children unto him. I love y'all and I will be getting my packages mailed tomorrow...I have one that is just books and the other one is some random things....so be watching for them...

I love y'all!

Ssiter Britt

Miracles are from God

Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 4:29 AM
Subject: Miracles are from God

Meine Familie,

What a week.... So much happened and so much I would love to say! On Monday we went to Dresden with our District to go to the Christmas Market there because it is the oldest and first Christmas Market in Germany. It was lots of fun! We also saw the Frauen Kirche while there...This is a famous church here because during the war this church was bombed and one wall was left standing...If you notice from the pictures I sent that the wall that is black was the wall left standing. They rebuilt the church leaving the standing wall in it's rightful spot. It is so amazing inside, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside..Amazing though. The Church has some awesome history.
While in Dresden I tried some Kinder Punsch..which is a drink that is super yummy and is for the holidays. It is called children punch translated...which pretty much means...it is a drink with no alcohol.

On Tuesday we had District meeting in Görlitz and then did District Finding...Sister Olsen and I talked to alot of people and then finally the last lady we talked to had interest in meeting!!! God loves us!!! We then headed back to Cottbus and ended up having some falling out appointments and then met with Chrys. He is one of the African people we are meeting with and we are teaching him German. It is always fun because I get to learn more as well...or improve more! Alot of our student investigators are not able to go home for the holidays. It is sad, but we hope they are still doing something fun!!

On Wednesday we met with Schwester Leuchner. She is an older lady in the ward and super nice. We had lunch with her and she is super excited to have us come over on the 2nd day of Christmas. Germany has 3 days of Christmas...the first day is December 24 which is called Heiligabend (Holy Evening), the second day is Dec. 25 which is 1st day of Christmas and the third day is Dec. 26th which is the 2nd day of Christmas. This weekend is going to be fun.

The rest of Wednesday was a great day. We went to visit Frau Chahin. We read in 2nd Nephi 31 and talked about being baptized by authority. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God...she said yes. ...Sister Olsen and I were both in shock and were seriously speechless. Well, one of us had to say something, so I bore my testimony and continued to set a date with her for January 29th. We are really happy, but were not expecting that answer!!! We sure were surprised.

 

Later that day we had an appointment with Ram. He is the Russian man that came to church and does not speak any Engish or German. Before we went to the appointment I went and bought a german to russian dictionary...not really knowing how much that would help. We got there and he let us in and signaled for us to sit down. We were all sitting on the couch when I noticed he did not have a DVD player. Since we can not talk to him, our plan was to give him the Book of Mormon and watch the Restoration in Russian...that plan fell out. We pulled out the Book of Mormon in Russian, but he would not take it...he then walked to the cupboard and pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon. At this point we really needed someone who could speak russian. No one in our ward speaks russian and so we could not call any of them. I then thought about Irakli...this member in Leipzig. I immediately called the Leipzig sisters to get his number...a miracle. It turned out that Irakli was there with the sisters at that very moment and we got Irakli to talk to the man on the phone and than Irakli told me that this man was super interested. After I got off the phone my heart sank because this man is so interested and wanting to learn and we could not talk to him. We then opened up his russian Book of Mormon to some baptism scriptures and showed him pictures that we had of baptism and Jesus. As Sister Olsen was showing him scriptures and pictures...I was sitting on the other side of the couch with the german to russian dictionary...I then wrote the word Baptism in Russian and then Febuary 26th in Russian. We then wrote, based on what we found in the dictionary, will you be baptized? As soon as I showed him the paper his eyes lit up and he smiled so big and shook his head yes!!! At that moment joy filled my body and I knew that the spirit was there speaking to this man. I feel so bad though because he came to church yesterday and he sat there for the first two hours and he does not understand anything and then for Sacrament meeting they were watching a film and so I took him out to a different room and had him watch Joy to the World in Russian so he can understand something. He then came to the Christmas concert yesterday at the church too. We are working on trying to find somebody who can help us teach him in Russian...or at least help us understand what he is feeling or thinking. But I am so excited for him!!!

We then met with Arinze (another one of our african investigators). We were having a great appointment with him and were leading us up to asking him to be baptized. We were at the point of talking about recieving answers to prayers and Arinze had some questions about that. He then asked us how long he as to wait for his answer because he has asked God for something but has not yet got it...we asked him what he is wanting...he then said, "A woman". We had a discussion on maybe he needs to change his question a little bit or something...and other stuff. But it was an interesting appointment.

We met with Frau Baruk on Thursday and she is doing really good. She came to the ward Christmas party on Saturday with her daughter-in-law and grandson, Alex. It went really good.
We than met with Jennyl...the guy from the Philipines. He is cool..but he is an awkward guy. He always does a weird laugh..kind of like a nervous laugh or something and so it makes lessons with him weird.

Friday was alot of fun...we went to Leipzig for Zone Conference and I got to eat a vanille donut...they are what Leipzig is like famous for!!! I was happy to be back for one day. We went to Zone Conference and I got to see Sister Chase ...she is flying home now. We did a Christmas exchange...every missionary had to bring a gift that was 2.50 or less and we set them on the chairs and played musical chairs and when the music stops you sit in the chair and open the gift that you have there. To my surprise...I got a piggy bank...out of all the gifts...I ended up with a pig...who would have thought. I am not complaining though. It was very fun and I got to see a couple of the members from Leipig who came to make lunch for all the missionaries!!! It was fun! And yes, I did get your packages and the presents are sitting under the Christmas tree in our apartment.

 

On Saturday we had a Ward Christmas Party which was fun. In Germany, fairy tales play a big role with Christmas. People act out the Grimm Brother tales for the children and so our ward put on a play and did Sleeping Beauty. We also enjoyed hearing some Christmas songs and poems and stories that people read. After the play..Santa Claus came and visited. But the fun thing about the tradition in Germany is that the children have to have a small christmas story or poem memorized or a song...or they can play an instrument. It is tradition that when Santa calls your name, instead of telling Santa what you want he will ask you if you have prepared something for him and then you recite a poem or sing a song for him and then he will give you a gift. Santa even called us up there and Sister Olsen and I sang Rudolph the Red nose raindeer. It was really fun.

On Sunday we had church and then that night we had the Christmas Concert. It was so amazing because so many people came. I wish I could have talked to all the nonmembers that came,but it was awesome, plus some of our investigators came. It was a great evening.

So things are going so well, and I wish y'all a merry christmas!!!!!!

love Sister Britt

 

 

Tis the Season

Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 1:42 AM
Subject: tis the season

Meine Familie,

Alright, So taking care of business first! Mom asked for the Begemann's address (the ones with the postcards) it is
Frieden str. 22
24148 Kiel
Deutschland (Germany)
It is ok if you write English on it...they understand it sometimes and they have a dictionary as well. But they would really like that. (If anyone else would like to send them a postcard, I am SURE they would love it!)

As far as Christmas goes. If I were to do skype it would have to be on Christmas Eve because the people we are spending Christmas day with do not have skype. If we were to talk on the phone I could do Christmas and you would have to call me. The options are at like 1:00 p.m. my time ( not sure what the hour difference is) and I would be at this member's home or later that evening....6:00 p.m my time maybe at this members home or maybe at the church. . . or 7:00 p.m my time. Or Monday can also be an option any time of day I believe at the church. I do not have the phone numbers with me, but next week I will. If you do want to skype I will need your skype name. We will just need to talk to the member and I do not know what time we are going to be at her place yet and it will be on Christmas Eve. So options....Christmas Eve=Skype, Christmas Day= Phone, or Dec 26= Phone. Let me know next week and I will give you the time that we can for sure talk.

Just thought I would answer some questions Mom had about Christmas time here in Germany. I honestly do not know or hear anything about the pickle tradition. It if is a German tradition, it might be more of southern Germany, not up here, but I can still ask. St Nicks day is on December 6th and it is a tradition where the night before the children leave their shoes out and in the morning they have toys or candy in their shoes from St. Nick. So yeah, those are some of the tradition that you asked about...they are really fun.

Speaking of Christmas, I will be pulling out some money today because we are going to Dresden for p-day to the Christmas Market. The market there is the oldest one in Germany and one of the biggest. Christmas was pratically "invented" there. So I am excited!! Also, Christmas Zone Conference is this Friday and we are going to Leipzig for it. . . I will not get to see the Larkins or Sister Rasmussen because they are flying home tomorrow. But I did talk to Sister Rasmussen on the phone last night and I found out that Sister McCall is engaged! Crazy.

Now onto this week...My goodness, I feel like this past week happened like a month ago. Every thing is awesome. On Monday we met with Arinze, he is the guy from Africa that just showed up to church one day. He is very interested in our church and we gave him the Book of Mormon. I look forward to keep seeing him!

On Tuesday we had District Meeting in Cottbus and it was fun...we recited our Purpose and D&C 4 while playing around the world ping-pong. It was fun and then we went out and did District Finding on the streets and ended up making four new appointments that are all scheduled for this week. It is going to be great! We also met with Frau Baruk that day. She is doing really good. Still shooting for Easter day for her baptism and she came to the Relief Society Christmas Party this week and to Church. This week we have been giving out the Joy to the World DVD and watching it with people. It is a really good film and I recommend it to watch with non-member friends. That is what we have been doing this whole week with members, giving them the DVD and inviting them to think of a friend they can share it with. It talks about the birth of Christ...the story in the bible and book of mormon and then a little about Joseph Smith..really good film.
We than met with Chrys on Tuesday he is also from Africa, but we are just teaching him German. It is fun because as I teach him German I learn it as well..Love it.

On Wednesday, we went and visited Sch. Schmidt in the Senior/Nursing home. She is really funny. She has a roommate who is like 94 and Sch. Schmidt always ask us if we have a baptism yet...and we say every time...we are working on it. And then she turns to her roommate and says...time is a ticking...you are losing your chance to be baptized on the earth. Oh, Sch. Schmidt.
We later met with a new guy named Bodo. He is very interesting and talks alot. We did not even get the chance to really talk about the church, but we enjoyed some cake and tea. But he is not one that we will visit as often, but every once in awhile.
That day was so cold, we went to do some doors and we were freezing...we were like, ok if we make out an appointment we can go inside and work on the area book and do german study...a few minutes later we made an appointment and then went home and enjoyed the warmth. It has not yet snowed...everyone is surprised by that, but I am perfectly happy with it. Apparently Kiel and the most northern part of Germany has snow right now, but not us...praying to stay that way.

Thursday was a very interesting day. We had an appointment with Christine and taught her the word of wisdom. We are probably going to make this coming week's appointment the last one, because she does not make any progress and does not read. She lies to us everytime we see her and always changes her story. . . and flat out won't stop smoking. So we are thinking about letting her have a break from us and us a break from her. We will see how this week goes. We then met with Sch. Lehman afterwards and had lunch with her and she is the Relief Society president and she is wanting us to come over next Monday night and watch the Nativity movie and she is going to invite a friend over as well. We are really excited, and I never have seen the nativity movie, I remember when it was in theatres though.
Later we had an appointment with a kid named David, who is still in high school. He met the Sister Missionaries in the summer. We went by his home and his Mom answered and sent us away. We were walking away when some boy started chasing us down the street...yelling, "You are from the Church of Christ, right?" The boy was David and we went back in his home with him and his mom came in and out of the room during our appointment. It was interesting and the kid smokes. He is interested in us keep meeting though. So we will see what happens.

Week almost done...Friday was awesome. We met with Anne, who I met for the first time, but apparently she went back to visit her family in Hungary for awhile. She is really cool and golden, is married and has two little kids and is here in Germany for the next 18 months for her husband's work. She does not want to go back to Hungary though because it is not a religious place. She totally believes our message and wants an eternal family so bad. Her husband is atheist. She wants to get the Family A Proclamation to the World in Hungarian and frame it and hang it on the wall. She has a book of Mormon that her Grandmother gave her. And I look forward to continue meeting with her.

After her we had a lady named Monica. Monica is atheist and is best friends with a couple members in our ward. She invited us over for lunch with one of the members and she wants to learn more...we did not have that much time, but we gave her the Joy to the World DVD. We thought the time went really well and are so excited to visit again. But than on Sunday the member who was at the appointment with us came up to me and said, "After you left Monica showed me a document she found that was anti mormon stuff and said that we were a sect and that we do weird stuff with tithing and money and we have many wives." The member is concerned and told us we need to clear that up next time" I was a little annoyed because this member is best friends with Monica and could not clear it up herself. But we will see what happens.
Later on we had the Relief Society Christmas Party and it was very nice. We than met with this guy Henry who is from Africa and interested in our Church, but wants to read the book of mormon on his on right now and than call us. We will see what happens.

Saturday...seems forever ago, but we met with Talent, who is also from Africa and it went really good. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation and he had some questions that Elders had never given him an answer too and he is happy that we are actually giving him answers. He is really golden and so ready to hear the gospel. We then met with Jennyl, this guy from the Phillipines. He is cool, and thinks it is important for us to find out for ourselves if something is true. And then of course, later we met with Chi-yu. I got him his answer about what is in Black tea and why we should not drink it, but he is still not fully convinced. . . too big of a tradition for him.

Sunday was really good. In Sacrament this guy from Russia showed up...he is an older man...probably in his 70s. The problem is that he does not speak English or German. He only speaks Russian. But he showed up for all three hours without knowing what was being said. After the meeting...he showed us a piece of paper and kept speaking Russian to us. On the paper it was written in German that somebody else wrote that said, "The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ" We were able to understand that he wanted the book of mormon in Russian and he pulled out his visa to show us his address and name. We are going to bring him the book this week, but it will be interesting since we can not communicate with him and nobody in our ward speaks Russian. But we are going to watch the Restoration in Russian with him. It is kind of cool though that he showed up like that.

This was a crazy busy week...and this coming one is as well..this week for the Advent of Miracles we are to invite all investigators to be baptized...that means we are inviting 19 people..or more to be baptized this week...please pray that all goes well.

Any ways, I need to go, but I love y'all.

Sister Britt

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

: Monday, December 5, 2011 3:52 AM
Subject: It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Meine Familie,

Wow...it is Monday and I woke up like three times this week thinking it was Monday. This week seemed to never end, but it was a good one!

Last Monday we went to the Christmas Market here in Cottbus. It was fun and we took lots of pictures and you will find out because I am working on getting those loaded right now and sending them to you. We are planning on going to Dresden next Monday with our District for the Christmas Market there...Everyone says it is like the best! I am excited!

On Tuesday we went to Dresden for President Interviews. I feel like that happened like a month ago, but it was this week. It was really good. President went over our goals for the Advent Season that I wrote about last week to y'all. It was really good and I had a really good interview with President. I get a package from the Activity Day girls, but I do not know who to mail a letter to because it was sent by Sister Hansen and y'all said that she moved. I would like to write a thank you letter to the girls, but I need an address to send it to. After interviews we were rushing to get to the train station to catch our train back to Cottbus. The Forst Elders were with us because they were going to be on the same train as us and it was funny because we missed our train to go to the train station and so we took a detour on a tram to get there, but we did not know if we were going to make it. Well, as we were on the tram it was really crowded and we were standing. All the others had a pole to hold on to, but where I was standing I had nothing. The tram turned and I started to fall backwards and the closest thing I could grab to try to not fall was Elder Hadfield's coat sleeve. Well, as a result, he ended up falling and we ended up pulling Sister Olsen with us and so we all fell to the side of the tram and I landed on this old man sitting there and I was so sorry. He said it was ok and Elder Hadfield and I pushed Sister Olsen off of us and we all just started laughing because it was actually funny and in like slow motion. Well, every one on the tram was looking at us weird, but once they saw us all laughing they began to smile too. It is hard to really describe this moment on paper.

Well, the rest of the week was pretty awesome and full of miracles!!! Wednesday morning we had an appointment with this one guy named Chaoke. He is from China and he lives in the student housing. . . which alot of our investigators do. It was our first appointment with him and so we brought him the Book of Mormon in Chinese. I will say that how many times I have taught Chinese investigators or Arabic investigators, I have gotten really good at reading numbers in their languages because I am having to find the scriptures that I want them to read. Any ways, it was a really good appointment and we watched the Restoration in Chinese and during the film he would lean over and ask me..."That is the boy who prayed to God, right?" or "That is the book that you gave me, right?" He was very curious and though he does not believe in God, he really commited to praying and said he wants to find out if it all is true!! We are so excited! He is really busy this week though, so we will meet with him next week!

We also met with Frau Chahin on Wednesday. This time her granddaughter stayed in the other room and so the appointment went much better. We taught the third lesson and she does want to come to our church, but her husband has the car and so it depends on him if she is able to come. It was good though and she seems to enjoy our visits. She won't pray with us because she says she only knows the Lord's prayer, but we do not see how hard it is to switch over to just saying what you are grateful for and saying what is in your heart, but we are working on it.

So what else happened this week?? Well, we visited Tom and Sissi. Tom is our ward mission leader. We ate dinner with them and it was really good. They are awesome. Tom is from Utah and Sissi is from Germany. They both met on their mission in Münich and now he is a student here in Cottbus! Before the appointment with them though, we did some doors and made three new appointments...that was awesome because that rarely ever happens!!

Then of course, December 1st came around. We are asked that every day of December up to Christmas we write down a miracle on our calender that President mailed us. Well, this was a pretty good day. We met with Sch. Reddewagen. She is an older lady, probably in her 80s. She is so funny though and for our spiritual thought with her we talked about joy and what brings us joy. I mentioned how my family and friends bring me joy and then out of nowhere she asks, "And your boyfriend, right? Don't you have a boyfriend?" She totally caught me off guard and she was just getting a kick out of it. Oh, it was funny though. We never leave her place without having to take a plate of goodies with us. She bakes alot.

Then later...we say our miracle for the day. . . we met with Frau Baruk who is the 6 year long investigator and we set a baptismal date with her. We wanted to set the date for in January and at our appointment she told us that she wants so bad to be baptized, but she wants it for Easter and so that is when her date is. The problem is that she can not come to church unless her husband drives her and she really wants to come. She asked us to pray that her husband's heart can be more open and that he will listen to her. That is the main reason she has not been able to get baptized yet. But for us it was a miracle that she set her own baptism date and when she wants to be baptized.

We went and visted Sch. Münch this week. She is actually the member we will be spending Christmas eve with. And I will go ahead and mention this now. I do not know what phone I will be using to call yet. It will either be at Sch. Münch's home on Christmas Eve or it will be at the Schult family's home on Christmas day. I will find out this week and let y'all know. I know Sister Olsen is going to be using Skype at Sister Münch's home on Christmas Eve. But any ways, our appointment was really good with Sister Münch. We ordered pizza and the problem right now is that she is having a hard time with her testimony. She was baptized about 8 years ago and she thinks that she was baptized too fast and is now struggling with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It is difficult sometimes because she has a testimony but she is just doubting it. We actually call her every night to tell her a miracle from the day and to try and help her.

Our miracle that day was that this contact that I have never met, but Sister Olsen had met, texted us and said that he is in town for the weekend and wants to meet. He then came to church on Sunday because that was the only time we could see him. He is really busy and travels alot for work. He is going to be leaving for Australia in January for two months.

Saturday was a pretty good day as well. We met with this former investigator named Soloman. He is a student here and is from Ghana. He is super quiet and so we have to ask him really good questions to actually get him talking. He does want to find out though and we had a big discussion on how we can know if we have an answer from God. He says that he does not pray that often and so he does not know what he would feel for an answer. We had a pretty good discussion.

We than met with Chi-yu. He is the investigator from Tawian that has been investigating for about a year. He asked us alot of questions about the commandments. One question was mostly focused on tea becuase we cannot drink Black tea and he says that is a huge Tawain thing...that when you go and visit your grandparents and stuff that you dring black tea. So that is the problem at the moment. He says he is going to email Eric, but he does not know what to say to break the ice...at least that is what he said. I just said to tell him you know his sister and blah blah blah. We will see if he actually does it.

Our miracle that day was this muslim guy from Sudan that we met on the street. We were really busy that day and did not really have time to talk to people on the street or do finding, but on our way home we stopped this guy and he pretty much made the appointment with us.It was funny because he was like, "I am tired, you guys look tired and so let us meet next week again". It was a miracle. The first and last person we got a chance to speak to that day made out an appointment with us.

Sunday was then a great day. At church we had a lesson in Relief Society about overcoming doubt and stuff. I really hope Sister Münch was listening. And then in Sacrament we were sitting there and about 15 minutes after it started Soloman walked in and I signaled for him to come sit by us. That was our miracle that day because out of all people we were not expecting him to come to church. It was awesome and we are so excited to continue meeting with him.

We than had a great eating appointment with another Schröder family in our ward. Everyone is the ward is like related to each other...which how it is in most German wards and branches. But it was awesome and they are a great couple. Those Christmas pyramids with the spinny thing on top - y'all have one. But any ways, he hand makes those and they are really cool, the ones that he makes.

We than had an appointment later with Achim. That was not a good appointment at all. It ended on a bad note. He has been meeting with the sisters for about 8 or 9 months and my first appointment we had with him he said that he meets with the sisters because it is fun and he loves to just talk about random stuff with them. I told him that our purpose is to either teach him the gospel or English. He says he likes Eenglish. Well today he brought a post card that he wanted Sister Olsen to write a letter to his ex girlfriend on it and he would tell her what to write. This girl speaks lots of languages and we thought he would want us to write it in English for him, but he wanted it in German. He is perfectly able to write a letter in German himself. .. and i asked him if he was interested in learning the gospel or English because if he does not have interest in any of those things then we can not meet him every week..we could possibly visit him every two or three weeks just to see how he is doing....well, he started yelling at me and telling me that all the other sisters met with him every week and blah blah blah. And he got really mad. I was not trying to get an argument or make him mad...I was just trying to see what he wanted us to do as far as teaching him. Well, he is not interested in either one of those things and so he pretty much said bye to us. It was not a good appointment...and I do not like being yelled at, especially in German, because they sound more mad and angry. But he pulled the age card on me and said that I do not know anything and he is much older in his 50s or 60s and after he left me and Sister Olsen were like...well at least we were the ones acting our age and not like a little child. He are actually pretty happy about having this break from him.

But on a good note Chrys, this guy from Nigera showed up to the church for our appointment and he is cool. . . he has lived in German as a student for a year and does not know any german and so we are going to help teach him German. Sister Olsen told him I played soccer and so now he wants to play...I told him I will think about it...I am not a fan of playing in the freezing cold. We have not gotten snow yet and everyone says that is unusual, but I am pretty happy about it!!.

To answer some questions from Mom...the church in Cottbus is a ward and we use public transportation here...buses, trams, trains.

I was wondering if y'all ever got my package I mailed...the one I mailed either end of October or beginning of November. Also, your Christmas packages I will get at Christmas Zone Conference. President says they will hand out all of our family Christmas packages there.

Besides our appointment with Achim...this was a great week and so much happened. I love the work so much and it really is a wonderful time to teach people the gospel of Jesus Christ. I look forward to this coming week and I know that this is the true church of Christ. He lives and he is the Son of God.

I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week...

p.s. I did take money out of my account. .. dad was wanting to know.

Der Advent der Wunder!!!

Message body

Meine Familie,

So normally I write a list of what I want to talk about in my letter...but I totally spaced on that this week. So much was going on...but never the less it was a great week and we saw miracles. As far as my address goes. If you sent me a letter and wrote Zirchow, I will still get it because I have already recieved letters that have said that, but the actual name of the street is Virchow. So write me to that address...Virchow..not Zirchow. Sorry, I did the same thing with the address in Kiel.

Last Monday we were suppose to have an appointment with this guy we met on the street, but he called us and said that he was in Berlin, but would be able to meet with us next Monday...so we are hopefully going to be seeing him tonight. So instead of having him, we went over to Schwester Zander's apartment. She is one of my most favorite people here in Cottbus. She is so fun and we were all just lauging and having a good time. Yesterday was her birthday and we brought her some cookies and a card. She was like "How did you know?"...we just laughed and said, "Missionaries know everything." But I look forward to keep visiting her and getting to know her.

Tuesday was a great day...except for the fact all of our appointments fell out. We had a mission conference call with President Pimentel. And as a result we are super exicted for what we will be doing this Christmas season as a mission. So it is tradition in Germany to have Advent. We are all familiar with Advent Calenders and how they are used to count down to Christmas....and wow..they sure do sell alot of Advent Calenders here. Well, every Sunday leading up to Christmas is an Advent. Germany has these Advent wreaths and in the wreath there are four read candles and a white candle in the middle. Yesterday was the 1st Advent and so they light the first candle.

1st Advent means Hope...it is the Prophets candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Faith and Finding and this week we will have a perfect appointment week, meaning we will be make out a new appointment every day
2nd Advent means Peace...it is the Bethlehem Candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Repentance and Teaching and this wek we will have a focas on Joint teaches and get as many as we can
3rd Advent means Joy...it is the Shepherds candle
as a mission we are using this candle as baptism and baptism and this week we will have a focas on inviting all of our investigators to be baptized
4th Advent means Love...it is the Angles candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Holy Ghost and Keeping and this week we will focas on getting a keeper Sucess with a member
And then the last candle is the Christ candle which is lit on Christmas day in celebration of Christ's birth

I know you can read more about this German tradition on the mission blog. We are really excited for this and the name of this mission goal for Advent is The Advent of Miracles or in German Der Advent Der Wunder. So we know that we are going to see many miracles and President as asked us to announce to are wards that we invite them to invite someone to church for every Advent sunday and our focas this month is increasing church attendence!!! I know we will see miracles this Christmas season here in Germany!!!!!!!!!!

Later on Tuesday we had Choir practice that night. The ward is doing a Christmas concert and as asked us to sing with them. But during the practice I stepped out for a moment to make some phone calls and made out a pretty awesome appointment with some one who was a previous appointment. Too bad he did not show up because we were suppose to have that appointment yesterday. We tried calling him again, but he did not answer..that is ok...Life as a missionary. . . lots of waiting.

Wednesday was a good day ...and very funny. So we had District Meeting in Görlitz that morning and then took the train back to Cottbus... we then had lunch and made cookies for members birthdays that were that week. .. we have a goal to bring something by to every member that has a birthday that week so we can get to know the ward better. Really funny though because on Wednesday our ward list said that it was Samuel Ritters birthday and so we made cookies and a card for him. The thing I do not like about the ward list here is that they do not have people divided into familes and says who belongs to who and for birthdays it does not say how old or what year they were born in. So we made this card and wrote Brother Ritter on it...thinking it was an older man. Welll, we got to there apartments and they let us in. Turned out it was little Ritters birthday...he just turned 2 years old. Every one laughed though and we thought it was funny too because we thought it was the dad.But we had fun and got cake out of it too.. . and we for sure know every member in that family!! But we are not going to make that mistake again..so now we just write Happy Birthday on the cards with no names. lol.

After that we started doing doors at the Student housing. It was fun, we made out an appointment with this guy from the Philippians and he said that he had a friend back in high school who went on a mission for our church. We met with him a couple days ago and it was funny because he told us his mother language was Tagalog and we had a Book of Mormon at our appartment that had a sticky note on it and said that. We brought him that Book of Mormon and he looked at it and said he had no idea what it said. We are going to bring him the right book next time...he even said English will work to. It was fun to talk with him though and he seems very intrested in what we believe. The only problem is that he goes to Berlin every sunday to go to Mass at the Catholic church. The other appointment we made out was with this Chinese guy, but that appointment fell out.
Doing doors there was fun...but while in the building this guy walked in and I felt prompted to talk to him and we were just about to make out an appointment when this girl from Poland comes out of her room holding our card. We put cards on the doors that did not answer and she comes out kind of mad and asks us what we are doing and why I put this card on her door...as I was trying to explain to her that we invite people to look at the website and then if they would like to meet withus they can. As this was happening the other guy disappeared and we were not able to make out an appointment with him. So that was a little disappointing, but we still had some pretty awesome miralces this week.

Thursday...was Thanksgiving....and I just would like to say that I am really grateful for everything I have. I am grateful to be part of a wonderful family who I know I can be with forever with. I am grateful for the church and that it is really the true church on earth and the more and more I teach it the more and more it makes since and there can really be no other true church on the earth like it. I am grateful for the teachings of the Bible and Book of Mormon and for the opprotunity that every one has to come until Christ and be baptized.
this day was a good day. We met with Christine. It is kind of hard with her because she really does want to be baptized, but she is letting her daughter hold her back. He little girl is about 5 years old and Christine say that she wants to wait to be baptized with her daughter. As nice as that sounds. She needs to understand that we should not wait. I also met here daughter and she does not have down syndrome, but she does have a disablity that is related in a way. But I don't seem to have the courage to tell her that her daughter really does not have to be baptized. It is a bit difficult, but hopefully she will realize soon that she needs to be baptized sooner than later.
We than visited this member, Schwester Raddewagen. She is in her 80s and is just so funny. . . and well, we never leave her home without taking home a plate of cookies or candy...my goodness. We than just spent the rest of the day talking to people on the street because all of our other appointments fell out. But we did decide to get something for Thanksgiving and so we went to the trainstation and I got some McDonalds and Sister Olsen got a Döner..It was fun!

Friday I would say was for sure a miracle day. Our appointment that morning with Frau Baruk fell out and so we went to go talk to people in the park because it was a nice day. As we were walking in the park there was one guy walking in our direction and than another guy right behind him. I looked at Sister Olsen and said...you talk to this guy and I will go talk to the other guy. Normally in these situations one of us gets rejected or both of us get rejected, but this time we both were having long conversations. Sister Olsen said that she ended up teaching this guy the 2nd lesson and I ended up teaching the other guy the 1st lesson. It was really cool and as a result we made out an appointment with the guy I was talking to, but the other guy did not know when he would have time. But we thought that was for sure a miracle. The rest of the day went good. We had an appointment with Bezhan and it is difficult some times because he speaks Arabic and very little English and German. But we read in the Book of Mormon and I know how to read numbers in Arabic and so I am able to find the chapters and verses that we want him to read.

Than onto Saturday....We met with this previous investigator named Talent. He is from Zwimbawa and is really cool. We had a really good appointment and is really intrested in us meeting more!! I can not wait to continue meeting with him. We also met with Chiyu and I gave him Eric's email address. He is the one from Taiwan. I hope he emails you, Eric, because that would be cool.

On Sunday we had church and it was really cool because towards the end of Sacrament this guy walks in and I sat with him and translated the talk into english for him. After Sacrament I was talking to him and he said that he was from Nigeria and that this was his first time coming to our church. I asked him how he found out about our church and he told us that he was hanging out at his friends apartment and he saw are card on the floor with our church address and our number on it. He than decided to come. And we found out also that he is friends with a couple of our investigators, Evidence and Talent, but where he found our card was not with those friends it was some where else. I than told him about the Book of Mormon and he is intrested in getting one and so this week we are going to bring him one. I am so excited and he was for sure a miracle.
We than had an eating appointment with the Schröder family and it was fun. We had a traditional german meal....meat, red cabbage, potatoes and gravy. Very delicious and than they gave me and Sister Olsen each a bag of Christmas candy and chocolate...oh dear....here comes the chocolate.
Later we had an appointment with this guy Achim. There is really no reason for us meeting with him because he just likes to sit and chat and so we will see what happens, but we are hoping he develops more of a desire to learn from us. We than had an appointment with Evidence and he is from Nigeria and way cool. I got to know him some and I am excited to keep teaching him.

So yeah, what a week, but it was a good one. Sister Olsen's family lives in Kansas City at the moment....she has moved around alot though because her dad was a doctor in the airforce. And we are really excited because we are going to go explore the Christmas market today because we have been walking past it all week and seeing the lights..I took some pictures already of some of the lights, but we are happy that we can go explore it more today!!! Um. . . Tomorrow is President Interviews and so I should get the package thing from the acheivment girls tomorrow...normally if things are sent to the mission office I get them at Interviews or Zone Conference.

I do not know if I mentioned it, but for christmas packages I will be sending them after Christmas, because post will go faster than. Also Have fun in Arruba Hansen family!!! Goodluck with everything!!

Love y'all
Sister britt

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