December 23: Twas the Week Before Christmas

I know I know, I will be talking with you tomorrow, but I'm planning on printing out all my emails and putting them in a book when I get home. Between my journal, pictures, study journal, planners and emails, I think most of the mission is covered. 

Besides, there were definitely some noteworthy things that happened this week. 

I want to tell you about a sweet old lady in our ward. She is less active and claims not to come to church because of her disabled son (but he is totally coherent. I just don't have the heart to call her out on her excuse) but loves to have the missionaries over. We are working with her on recognizing the Holy Ghost to tell her what to do with her life (aka, once she reads and prays every day, the Holy Ghost will tell her she needs to come to church. We want her to get to that point, and not explain until we're blue in the face the importance of church... Oh the joys!) but every time we come over, she feeds us. It's probably been at least 2 months since we saw her last and I had forgotten, so when we found her, she had prepared this HUGE lunch. 
Fail on my part. We had literally just eaten lunch. What was I supposed to say to her? So we ate it. And then layed down in the grass for like 15 minutes because we couldn't move. But later this week, we went by to drop off "Joy to the World" - the Christmas story that includes the Book of Mormon and what had she prepared for us? Abendbrot. Germans don't do dinner. They do Abendbrot. And it's literally what it means. Evening Bread. Unfortunately, this bread was slathered with.... butter and raw meat. 

Call me carnivore. I shoved it down without thinking about it. Then later... Sister Wallin says, "Sister Babbitt, I think we just ate raw cow tongue." You know what Sister Wallin, I think my stomache agrees with you.

No... just... No... I didn't eat anything else the rest of the day because I was worried that if I got salmonella poisoning and died, the autopsy wouldn't be able to figure out what caused it. 

We did have a wonderful appointment with Xiao and her son Shenzhi though! They promised they would read daily in the Book of Mormon and notice the things they feel as they do so. She also promised us that she would show us how to make real Chinese potstickers. That's not what they are called. But that's what they look like. 

We went to the temple this week! And did the session they have in English! I have TONS of questions, especially because the new movie (okay so it's probably not new anymore for you. But it was for me.) was so different. I'll ask you later. Sister Wallin and I tried but weren't able to discuss everything. I loved it.

Also. Lisa. I told you about Lisa before, the 15 year old girl that snuck out to come to church? Well. She is AMAZING. I already knew this, but now I know it more. She used to be taught by the Elders, but they thought it might be better if we were to teach her, since she is a 15 year old girl. But we went over to the Young Woman President's house yesterday to meet her and teach her, and we drew blanks. So we just discussed the entire hour. Lisa has basically converted herself. In school here, they have a religion section, and then a sect section. Guess where Mormonism falls? Anyway, she said that as she was learning about the big religions like Catholocism, Christianity, Islam, Judiasm, she thought it was boring. Then they got to the mysterious sects and somehow something didn't click quite right when they were talking. So she went home, looked up everything about Mormons on the internet, found only bad stuff but wanted two sides, so she looked up a lot of good stuff and found that there was a temple in Freiberg. So the next week or so, she hopped on a train to Freiberg to go see the temple. She talked with the missionaries there, received a Book of Mormon, and came back to Chemnitz. A few days later she was on the streetcar discussing the "Mormon Temple" with one of her friends, and who walks in? The Elders. Since then, she has integrated herself in with the Young Women, the ward, everything. She is solid. The only thing holding her back from making more progress is her parents. They also looked up mormonism online... They told her that she needed to "clear her head" and stop going to church until after the new year. Fortunately, she has an opinion of her own and has been meeting with the Young Women's president working on "My Progress" every week. She is a spoge for learning and absolutely loves it. When you think of a dream member, you think of Lisa. She jokes with us and says that she considers herself a member already. Even though she's not baptized. 

Christmas is WEDNESDAY!!! I am excited. I love Christmas. Everyone here loves Christmas. It's been such a wonderful time to share our testimonies about the divinity of the Savior! We got to sing in church 3 times yesterday. I can't think of a better way to share my testimony. 

Something I learned this week has to do with the way we feel the Spirit. I was thinking about it last week, and I read an article in the Ensign about teaching your children to feel the spirit and how there are lots of different kinds of learners. Then I read this verse:  3 For my soul delighteth in ^aplainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the^bunderstanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their ^clanguage, unto their understanding.

I thought about this verse before, and I thought, "Klar. The Lord speaks all languages. Of course he could speak to someone in Arabic, Dutch, English, Spanish..." but this time I thought of it differently. I thought of how I feel the spirit the most. Through music. Through someone explaining life experiences and what they learned to draw them closer the Savior. Things that are plain and simple for me to understand may not be plain and simple for someone else to understand. But they understand something way better than I do. Some people understand physics - and can see the evidence of God in the perfect mathmatical equations in the world. Some people understand animals - and can see God in the natural instincts and personality that develops within family units. Some people understand history - and can see God in the rise and fall of nations, the decisions of rulers and kings... And as one sees Him in these things, others see Him and His hand in different but equally beautiful things. 

How thankful I am for God and a loving Savior that know us perfectly. That know exactly what we need and exactly how we will understand it best. I am thankful for the calling I have right now and the promise that the Spirit will fill my mouth with those things that are simple and plain for others to understand. 

I love you! I'm excited to see you tomorrow!

Love, Sister Babbitt