It's a Great Day to be alive

Today, the sun is shining!

This is quite an accomplishment for Dreary ol' Dresden. 

The past few weeks have been snowy, rainy, cold, slushy, gray... Everything that comes with winter in Germany, but the last two days have been exceptionally beautiful. I've been singing sunny songs all day. Hence the title. It's been stuck in my head all morning. 

I can't believe it's been a month since I left. This Wednesday is my four week mark, and I have spent most of that time in Germany. Wow, I feel so blessed. 

It's crazy though, because we are constantly doing things, and sometimes it feels like an hour turns into a year (some lessons...) but then I look back and realize that I went to bed on Monday and woke up on Thursday. If I didn't have a planner, I wouldn't know where the time goes...

So last week, the drivers of Dresden decided to make a strike. So, none of the busses, strassenbahns, trains... were running. That was unfortunate, because it was p day and since all the cool things we can do on p day require some sort of public transportation, we were confined to the small part of the city that we lived by. But, it gave us a lot of time to walk, and talk and laugh because of extremely funny people... 

There's a trend here, with women's hair... More than half of all the women I see have hair that is one of the colors of the rainbow... And half of it is shaved. And it never ceases to catch my stare... Sometimes they look back at me and I just smile at them. Which is weird in Germany. People don't smile at eachother. Well, I'm wearing a name badge, that basically gives me permission to be weird ;)

Anyway, I don't think I will be getting my hair cut anytime soon.

We had an appointment later that day, however, so we caught a ride with the Ehepaar. 

Something else that is different is that we are not allowed to proselyte in, at, or around public transportation. Which is actually quite unfortunate because I would guess that a third of our day is spent riding the bahns from one appointment to the next. We can, however, talk with people if they ask us first. So we have to be sly in figuring out how to get them to talk first.. Usually if we talk in English about random stuff, then switch to German when we talk about appointments and what we will be teaching, then switch back to English, it gets a lot of people in the bahn looking at us... Which is what we want. But a lot of the time, people keep to themselves. 

You would be amazed at how quiet the public transportation is here. 

Actually, everywhere is quiet. 

And then the Americans show up ;) 

I'm just kidding. We are not loud, but we talk with eachother, and even talking quietly in public is a little unusual..

This week we tracted into a man from Uganda. He is super spiritual and LOVES the bible. It was interesting though, because when we went and visited with him and taught him about the Book of Mormon, he was open to the idea that God does still speak to man now and that if the Book of Mormon helped him understand better what God wants for and from us, then he is willing to read it.

I thought that went well.

And he speaks English, so I knew exactly what was going on.

That went well, too.

I gave my testimony at church yesterday! It went something like this:

"I know God loves us. I love Jesus. I love Germany. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet. Amen."

Boy I am looking forward to the day when my Deutsch doesn't sound like a 2 year old. 
Progress. I am making progress.

But one of our untersuchers came to church! He is the bomb. He has diabetes, and has had one of his legs amputated, and is scheduled to get his other foot amputated. He also has really bad eyesight. 
And he runs around in a motorized chair. Actually, he CRUISES in that chair. We have to run to keep up with him. 

Anyway, he bore his testimony in class and it was really cool! (I didn't understand what he said... But the Spirit is the most important thing, and it was there) He said that he would never consider being baptized, but I don't think he really means it. He loves the missionaries, the members, the lessons, church... I think once he understands the importance of being baptized by the proper authority, he will change his mind. 

That's one of the hard things about talking with people here. If we stop someone and ask if they believe in God, they say, "Ich bin Christ." Which means "I am Christian" and then they walk away. 

But you don't know what you're missing!!

Every day I learn something new. 

Actually, I learn a LOT of things that are new. 

But something I read the other day really stuck out to me. 

"Please notice in these scriptural instructions the important sequence of first acting in faith ("open your mouths" or "lift up your voices") before receiving a promised blessing ("they shall be filled", "you will not be confounded"). Interestingly, many of us routinely seek for precisely the opposite; we pray and ask for the blessing so we can act in faith (first fill our mouths so we can open them). But that is not the Lord's way or pattern. Faith precedes the miracle, and ye receive no witness until after the trail of your faith. (Ether 12:6)"

So simple. Yes, of course we know that! We have been taught that we must have faith, and then the miracle will come. But how many times do we say in our prayers, "please let me know what to do and what to say so that I can.... (fill in the rest)". Although, that is good, we might want to change a little and say, "please help me look for opportunities to open my mouth. I want to do this thing, and I know that you will be with me."

I think to myself a lot, "am I making this decision because of laziness or fear?" 

If the answer if yes in any way, then I know that I need to change my decision. 

This has come especially with speaking in German. 

I have a companion that has been here for 14 months, and one that is a native speaker. It is so much easier to allow both of them to talk in the lessons because they know what they are saying and how to say it. However, although I know that every time I open my mouth I will butcher the word order and pronounciation, the words come. 

This is absolutely and completely His work. He wants everyone in the world to hear His gospel, and even if you can't open your mouth, you can bet that you can be a disciple of Christ by what you do.

He lives! He loves us! And the greatest feeling is knowing that you helped someone else know the plan that God has for us. 

And in the words of my companion, Sister Tidwell:

"The Word is true, the book is blue, You are WELCOME!"

Sister Babbitt's Mission President and Companions

Willkommen zu Deutschland

Hey family!

I arrived safe and sound yesterday in Deutschland :)

The plane ride was LOOONG, but good. I sat with Sister Sykes and Elder Rasband for the most part and we just chatted it up. I got their entire life stories and slept a total of 1.5 hours! Wahoo!

On the plane from Amsterdam to Berlin I sat next to a sweet lady from Tanzania and her one year old daughter. Oh my word she was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They slept the whole time so I talked with this man from Toronto for 2 hours. 

He was a professor and had the deepest mind I have ever probed. Okay that sounds weird.

But Im serious. 
We were talking about Germany and how excited I was to be there and he was telling me all the places I should go. Most of which I can't remember. And then we talked about religion.

Obviously.

I am a missionary.

It was interesting to talk with him, because as he was telling me what he believed, I realized that almost everything he was saying fit in to the gospel! He talked about how everything is connected to God in some way. Like how all the animals have consciousnesses, and how he believes in parallel universes. Then he said, "I believe that we go to a parallel universe when we die."

BINGO!

So I talked to him about the Plan of Salvation a little bit and how we believe in "life after death" where we are resurrected with perfect and immortal bodies. 

Cool, right?

And then I gave him a mormon.org card.

Feeling all pumped up, we met our president at the airport (pictures on germanyberlinmission2012-15.blogspot.com) and rode back to the mission office where we were to have a new missionary conference and receive our companions.

And I got the best ones ;)

Haha. Sister Tidwell is from St. George and has been out for 13 months. Sister Avanesjan is from Frankfurt and is waiting on her visa so she can attend the MTC and go to Mesa, Arizona! 
So yes, I am in a drit. 

And we are serving in DRESDEN!!

Okay, so if there was any place in Germany I wanted to serve, it is Dresden. I may only be here for 4 weeks, but naja. It's good.

We haven't done any lessons today, but tonight we are going to a less active family for FHE and that will be great. 

I don't know how to teach yet, so this will be interesting. But good. 

I am excited :)

Anyway, when we got to the Bahnhof to catch our train to Dresden, we found out that it was closed. 

Someone had jumped in front of the train. We don't know if someone was just down there and wouldn't come up, or they actually went through with it, but none of the trains were running and about 20 firemen ran past us up the stairs. Apparantly this isn't unusual. The people around were more upset that they were going to miss their train..

Willkommen zu Deutschland.

We wondered what would have happened if we had been there earlier and talked to whoever it was that decided their life wasn't worth it anymore. 

This work is so important. I don't know how to speak German, especially when I listen to natives, I realize how much there is to learn, BUT, I'm here for a reason. People need to know the restored gospel. They need to know that they are loved.

We finally caught a full train south, and I was out. So I remember very little of the train ride. Jetlag...

Anyway, the food is wonderful, I had a ton of joghurt this morning (that's German for yogurt. It's pronounced the same) and am looking forward to exploring later!

Next week, I'm sure I will have more meat to my email. Tomorrow, the real work starts. ;)

And I am going to learn German fluently if it kills me.

Liebe alles!

Sister Babbitt

Rubber Bands and Dr. Pepper

Time here in the MTC is like a rubber band. The days go by SO SLOWLY, but as soon as you look back on the week, you realize how fast it flew and how far you've come.

 

I don't know if I can even try to explain everything I've learned this week because I feel like I've gained a lifetime of knowledge in a few short days, but there are a few things that stuck out to me.

 

1) For the MTC devotional on Tuesday, Gregory A. Schwitzer of the 70 came and spoke to us. We talked about conversion and love and how love literally makes the world go round.

I feel like all the talks and what we learn about center on love! Even before I left for the MTC, I felt like that was something the world needed more than anything. As I was thinking about why the world needs love, I thought about the perfect example of love. Christ. So what the world is really telling us, when it says that it needs love, is that the world more than anything needs Jesus Christ.

Brother Schwitzer also talked a lot about how we aren't only trying to gain a testimony - we are striving for conversion.

A testimony is when you know what is right. Conversion is when you do what is right.

 

2) Teaching is hard.

I know I know this, but when I try to formulate sentences (in German, nonetheless) it all comes out as a jumbled mess.

Something I've learned about the MTC though, is that every single person here will tell you the honest truth. Not in a mean way (because we do that sometimes) but in ways that are constructive and loving.

There have been times where I have said something and the person I am teaching looks at me like, "You are so cute, but I don't know what you're saying!"

And other times I have definitely felt the power of the Spirit take over my words and even though my German isn't perfect, they understand what is being taught because there are two teachers that accompany a lesson - an imperfect one and a perfect one.

 

3) The BEST part of the day is personal study.

You talk to return missionaries and they say that you rarely ever study as much as you do in the MTC. I can absolutely testify that that statement is true. However, I don't get enough studying done! Personal study every day is an hour, but as soon as the hour is up, I feel like I am on a roll and don't want to stop!

Seriously, try it! Ask for guidance for something to study and do it for an hour. The beginning of the hour might be slow, but as soon as you dig into the scriptures you don't want to stop.

The scriptures are a GOLDMINE!!! Seriously. Try it.

4) A member of our branch presidency came and talked with us after the devotional and he said something that was interesting to me.

He said that the MTC was one of the top 5 most sacred places in the world.

As I thought about it, I found that he was ABSOLUTELY right! Where else in the world will you find worthy young women and Priesthood holders so concentrated on studying and proclaiming the gospel?!

I counted the other day, and found that on average, I give/participate in a vocal prayer at least 15 times per day.

Crazy, right?

But let me tell you, praying continually, aloud and silently is the SUREST way to have the Spirit with you.

Satan cringes when you pray. SO DO IT OFTEN!

 

5) the Lord doesn't show you point Z when you are only on point A or B. He shows you the NEXT step, because this life is a process and you are supposed to learn! Be patient and trust that He will take care of you! He's promised that He will.

 

 

Thank you so much for the wonderful letters, notes, and packages! I know it's only been a week, but receiving a letter is seriously like Christmas. Sister Sykes and I basically run around and jump for joy every time one of us gets mail. It's wonderful!

 

I wish I could express more thoughts about the MTC, but I honestly don't feel like I have a lot of experience! But it was SOOO fun to see the new missionaries that came in this Wednesday and wish them a warm welcome to the MTC! It's so fun to see them so excited. I almost felt old ;) The only down part is that the lines for lunch and dinner are INSANELY LONG. So Sister Sykes and I shovel our food every day in order to get back to class on time.

 

Fun fact: The day my district came into the MTC, there were 815 missionaries that reported. The BIGGEST in history. So far.

That same day, 92 of the 815 are going GERMAN SPEAKING!!!!!

 

What what!?! Represent!

 

Everyone keeps telling us that Germany is going to become the "new Brazil".

I guess that a few years ago, President Uchtdorf came and spoke to every single member in Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Lichtenstein and told them that they needed to be bold in opening their mouths and proclaiming the gospel to their friends and neighbors. And guess what? It's happening.

 

I'm so excited to leave! Nervous, but excited!

There is obviously a reason that God needs all 15 of us in Germany right away.

 

I have a commission for you all. Every eye that reads this.

I NEED OBJECT LESSONS!!!! The number one thing I need to work on is involving investigators in lessons. What better way, right?! So, if you have one, or can think of one (simple, nothing with fire/bleach stuff like that... I wanted to do a fire one, but apparantly missionaries are NOT allowed to play with fire. Bummer.) please write me and let me know! I will love you forever and be indebted to you indefinitely.

 

I LOVE THIS WORK! Okay, so I haven't even taught a real investigator yet, but the gospel is SO true!

Open your mouths! And don't be afraid! Why?!

BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

And He will help you if you try. I promise you.

 

Liebe ihnen alles!!!

 

Sister Babbitt