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!"