February 24: Welcome to Berlin!!!!!!

How much do I love my life right now?

Okay so being a missionary is great all the time, don't get me wrong, but imagine being a missionary with one of your greatest friends in the greatest city on earth.

I'm pretty sure the exponential intensity of that can't really be described, but I am going to try to explain some awesome things that happened this week.

So Monday was last week. I swear. I wake up on P day and remember that I was just barely at emails... Even though it was a week ago. But we spent the rest of the day packing, getting everything ready to go, and visiting Elder Brereton in the hospital. (He's out now! And doing good.)

Tuesday though.... Was rough slash awesome slash suuuuuper tiring.

The majority of the day I was shuttling sisters around the Leipzig hauptbahnhof getting them to their different destinations, picked up a sister who was going to stay in Berlin with me and Sister Sykes until she picked up her golden and went back to Zwickau with her and got on what was basically the longest train ride of my life.

Sister Meyer made it super enjoyable, though. She's a doll.

So we pull into the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and get off the train...

Because our train was late, Sister Sykes was already there with our district leader, Elder Breitenstein and his new comp. Elder Miller.

You should have seen our embrace. Seriously though. It was so violent and awesome that Sister Sykes walked away with a battle scar. Haha her earring ended up stabbing her and she was bleeding for a good while afterwards. All is good in Zion, however. She lives, her ear is not mutilated and we got to our apartment safely.

Thank goodness for Elder Breitenstein, that saint. He carried basically half of our luggage up 5 flights of stairs by himself..

The next few days we ended up getting everything ready with the apartment - cleaning, reorganizing, stuff like that.

A whitewash is not necessarily opening a program. There was an existing program there, but it just means that both of the missionaries are brand new in the area. So there is no one there to show us the ropes... Which is really exciting actually because we get to explore all over the place.

And have some really cool and awkward experiences!

So, we had a few lessons lined up at the church the other day... And as we were on the way back to the Ubahn station, there was a lady that stopped us in the middle of the street.

"SISTERS!!" ... I thought "Oh, this must be a member!" So we stopped and the first thing she does is go in for a kiss.

WHAT?!?

Yeah, you read that right. I wasn't feeling it, so I saved myself just in time and she only got my cheek but seriously woman?!

I knew I was going to run into some weird things in Berlin... Didn't know how weird...

Totally confused and invaded, we found out she was a Jehovah's Witness (they are EVERYWHERE.) and tried to get out ASAP... Yeah. She wouldn't let us go. We heard all about how we would be damned and there was no way out unless we joined her religion. We invited her to church and then. She went in for it again. Quite literally my palm may or may not have hit her face...

She called us to repentance again and then we left.

Welcome to Berlin!! Hahaha

Probably the funniest and most awkward experience of my life.

This weekend we had Stake Conference... Which was a bummer because we didn't get to meet the ward AT ALL. Okay we met with a few members, but the whole ward? No clue. I kept getting introduced to people who were in wards that were NOT Neukölln. It's okay though because this Stake Conference was SO good.

It was broadcast from Salt Lake to all the German saints and guess who spoke?

Elder Bedar.

In GERMAN.

Probably the highlight of my week. What a boss though! After serving in Germany 41 years ago, he used all the German he had and spoke with all the members in their native language. It was really good, too. All the talks were about hastening the work in Germany and how the members and the missionaries need to work together. What a beautiful message :)

This morning I was reading further in Preach my Gospel and there was a "personal study idea" that said to write a Book of Mormon scripture in your study journal that has changed your life and why. I thought it might be kindof fun, but ended up basically writing a talk, so I will see if I can summarize and still have it make sense. 
Start with 1 Ne. 20:10 and 1 Ne. 21: 2-3.
10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;
3 And said unto me: Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
I was thinking about how we have two choices to react to everything we go through. We can either choose to let Christ change us or not. But once the day comes that he needs you to be a sharp sword or a polished shaft and if you aren't ready, then he can't use you. The phrase "waiting on the Lord" is for us. We wait and trust his timing. He cannot wait on us to take our time to be ready and prepared.
Now let's go to Doctrine and Covenants 123:16-17
16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.
17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.
This is how we let the Lord refine us. To cheerfully do everything that lies in our power. And be it a helm of a boat, a sword, or an arrow, he refines us and makes us strong IF we allow him to.
Ether 2:25
25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea...
This is the why. Bigger picture - we cannot do it alone. Christ is the only one that can prepare us to "cross the great deep" aka school, missions, life... etc...
And it's all part of the biggest picture of all!
Moses 1:39
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
What we do matters. In the grand scheme of things! How grateful I am for repentance to fix something when I mess up, but how grateful also I am for the fact that this time we have here is not to be wasted! It's to become refined so that we can help with the main goal - immortality and eternal life.
When I put it in this context, it helps me realize the part I play and how the things I do right NOW are important.
Love you!
Sister Babbitt

February 17: Neukölln - The Little Istanbul

First things first. 

This is a bittersweet moment - I am being transferred out of Chemnitz and it is tearing my heart out. Have you ever been somewhere where you just... planted your heart and then all of the sudden you are removed from all you ever loved? That's kindof how I feel. 

Saying goodbye was difficult. I love these people. 

The only thing that made it okay was the fact that I am coming back in November. (I am coming back in November right? I can't have lied to all of these people!!!)

So on Friday evening, all of us were at ward choir when President calls. Our dear friend Elder Jex is being released as a zone leader and going to Hannover to whitewash. 

So, the rest of us waited on our calls as well. Sister Wallin and I were in the car when we realized that we had missed two calls from him... whoops... so we called him back. He was on speakerphone when he says, "I need to talk to Sister Babbitt..." 

uh oh.

"Sister Babbitt you are being transferred. That is all. I need to talk to Sister Wallin.."

What??!

Um okay. He hangs up the phone.

Thanks?

President calls again. "Sister Babbitt. I am going to conference call. Stay on the phone."

...a few seconds later...

"Okay Sisters. Say who you are...." "Sister Sykes?" "SISTER SYKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And that is how my favorite person in the world, my dear MTC companion and I got transferred to whitewash and become the new STLs in Neukölln. FYI - if you don't know where Neukölln is, it is in Berlin. Supposedly it's the section of Berlin with the most Turkish people? That's just from hearsay. I am excited :)
That is also the same place where Linus's aunt and uncle live!! Close to family. 

So when I say it is a bittersweet moment to leave Chemnitz, that is what I mean.

Other than that, which is already a lot, this week was probably the most.... opposition filled week in my entire life. No joke. I hope I can make sense of all of it.

We gave Anas to the Elders to teach. He is such an awesome guy, but we just didn't have time to teach him as much as he needed to be taught. And we think he relates better with the elders anyway. He is still on track for baptism :)

Let me brag a little bit about one of our members. Carla.

Carla is from Chile and is basically the most wonderful woman you have ever met. She studies fitness and is just the sweetest, spiciest Latina ever. 

She invited all of the missionaries over for lunch one time and made basically the best corn casserole in the world.

Anyway. That's beside the point. We have been teaching Deysi - and have been trying to get a friendship started between the two (missionaries are probably the best matchmakers in the entire world... just sayin') and we were able to finally organize a lunch with both of them. 

Deysi got there before we did. And left after we did.

And now they are like besties. Wuhoo!!!!!!

Now let's talk about our elders. Well. One in particular. Elder Brereton.

We were at district meeting and were going to go eat lunch when he decided it would be a good idea to jump off the stairs. Well... Things didn't go exactly according to his plan and we ended up having to call the ambulance. 

This was Thursday. He is still in the hospital. I am praying that he gets better quickly. He's doing fine and can walk and stuff but just has a major concussion and some internal bleeding.

This experience solidified my decision to NEVER be a doctor. 

We're going to spend the rest of p day with him there. Poor kid, he's probably bored out of his mind.

On the bright side, Hildegard and Clarissa both agreed to prepare for baptism! They don't want to set a date yet, but this is MAJOR progress since the last time we asked. 

My guess is March.

Xiao tschüßed us. She found a bunch of stuff on the internet about polygamy and decided that the church wasn't true. 
She still wants to be friends, but she's never read the Book of Mormon and never wants to read it. 
We'll keep contact, but we won't be teaching her anymore.

I was thinking about Jesus the other day. 

Well, okay. I think about Jesus a lot, but this particular train of thought had to do with faith on him.

As I was reading the parables in Matthew 13 about the field with treasure and stuff, I was realizing that in all of these parables is Christ pleading with us to trust him. 

He talks about how wonderful the kingdom of God is, how we would sell everything we owned to go there. Well, sure, it's a wonderful thought, but we don't KNOW exactly what it is going to be like. We can get an idea of what it may be like - just like I can sit here for one and a half years writing every single week what happened, what I felt, what Germany is like in these places... but you won't know exactly what I mean until you have experienced it for yourself. You just have to believe that it's the most amazing place in the world! ;) 

I feel like that is what Christ is doing with us. He gives us a feel for what the kingdom of God might feel like, what it might look like and we can picture it in our minds. We want to be there because the more we hear about it, the more we believe in Christ - that He really is telling us the truth. And the closer we get, the more we realize that we want it. 

I can't imagine going back to where I was before I really knew Christ. I mean, I know I have a long way to go, but what I do know I am so thankful for. 

He really is our Savior. And no matter what we have done, his arms are still wide open. 

I love you! 

Sister Babbitt

February 10: Public Etiquette?

As I was finishing emails last week, there was a man that looked at me, looked at my nametag and said, "Sister Jardine!"

Uhhh.... Sister Jardine is in Hamburg. How do you know her? 

The conversation went on, and realizing that this man doesn't speak very much German, his friend stepped in to help. 

We chatted, I invited them to Heim Abend at the church and since then, we have met with one of them (Anas - the friend that speaks German and English) about 4 times now. 

We've been explaining to him who God is, who Christ is, and why that matters and he catches on pretty quickly. I am super impressed because this man is from Morocco and has no background in Christianity whatsoever. 

Yesterday, during the sacrament, he turns to me and asks "Is this baptism?". I explained the sacrament to him quickly, he looks down, then back to me and asks, "When can I be baptized?"

Who said that if people knew what we had, they would come to us and ask to be baptized? 

All Anas knows about baptism is that he can be forgiven of his sins from God. That alone has driven him to seriously investigate what we believe. 

I think about the wife of King Lamoni in Alma 19 - Her husband is basically in a coma and she tells Ammon that all she has is his word and the word of her servants... And yet she believes. What a beautiful example of faith!

We had another awesome experience with Hildegard this week! Her birthday is on the 6th of February, and she invited us to eat lunch with her. 

We have been trying to figure out how we can help her the best with the things she wants to know and the things she needs to know before baptism. We brought a Liahona about the temple and gave it to her. 

You should have heard her squeal!

Man, you would have thunk she won the lottery, or something! 

What else was really funny was that she was having a tea party or something later that day, and as her guests were chatting and eating, she was reading about the temple. 

We went over there on Saturday and she explained that she had received a pamphlet in the mail about "bible study" with the Jdubs. She looked at it for a minute and then thought to herself, "This isn't from the Sisters. They would have just come in!" and then she tore it up and threw it away. 

Haha she is the funniest. She will most likely be baptized in March. Pray for her, that she will be able to forgive herself?

I came to a realization this week. 

It's cold season, and Sister Wallin and I are both extremely congested.

Instead of excusing ourselves every five minutes to blow our noses, in Germany, it is perfectly and completely kosher to clean your nose in public. In fact, this bodily function seems to disturb no one - even if you are in the middle of a conversation. 

Thank GOODNESS.

I feel like I am going to make a fool of myself in America. Some cultural things just don't overlap.

I finally caved.
I bought a pyramid.

There is this store in Leipzig Hauptbahnhof that sells Christmas things year round and every single time I go in there, there is one wooden pyramid that I adore. And every time I tell myself, "I can get it next time" or "I can find it cheaper somewhere else". 

How much time do you have as a missionary to shop? Little to none.

So, I purchased this spectacular "souvineer" - the only one that I have so far.
I will send it home in the next few weeks. I need to pack it up nice and safely. 

Also, mom, in this same store, I found cucoo clocks. Handcarved Erzgebirge. Just thought you'd want to know :)

Cool insight into Alma 15 - 

You know how Zeezrom is like the vile sinner of this story? And then he is cast out of the city and Alma and Amulek are left to watch the saints burn?

Well, here. Something cool. Zeezrom goes to the land of Sidon and there he is on his bed, ridden with guilt and sick to the point of death when Alma comes in and Zeezrom asks for him to heal. What does Alma do? He takes him by the hand and says, "You will be healed according to your faith in Christ" and Zeezrom LEAPS from his bed and praises the Lord.

Zeezrom is the cause of all of the pain and suffering that Alma just endured... But as soon as Zeezrom asks for forgiveness, Alma gives it to him and turns him towards the Lord.

In that very instant, Alma knew exactly what Zeezrom felt like. Both of them were just swimming in their sins - sure, at different times - but the relief and the sweet peace that comes from repentance... Alma wanted Zeezrom to have it! Now I don't know if they became besties afterwards, but that is a perfect example of Christ like love. 

Can we forgive like that?

Sorry this is super random. We had a super random week.

Love you!!

February 3: BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!

First things first.

KARIM IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!

So, last week was really crazy because of Masoud not feeling well and needing to go to the hospital, and the fact that we were in Berlin for 2 days, so we weren't able to meet with them until Sunday. Well, Sunday morning rolls around and we get to the central bahn station to go to church... And Karim isn't there. 
Strange... He is usually waiting for us...

So we text him to see if he was coming to church and he informed us that he slept in, but will try to make it for the last hour.. 

We were sad he wasn't there yet but Karim is good on his word and he showed up for the last two hours. 

This man is amazing.

Later that day, we were trying to organize a joint teach so we could go see Karim and Masoud, but it was getting really close to the lesson time and no one could come. We had called our ward mission leader and he wasn't sure if he would make it, so Sister Wallin and I debated on whether or not it was even worth it to run by there if we couldn't go in without a joint teach. 
We left anyway, praying that somehow it would work.

5 minutes before we get there, our ward mission leader calls and says he can come but he will be a few minutes late.

Thank you Heavenly Father.

There was that point in the lesson where suddenly, I was asking them if they would be baptized for the 22nd of Februaryand suddenly, Karim said yes! 

We just sat there.

For a good 5 minutes. 

Feeling the spirit, when Karim says, "This feeling I have.... it's indescribable."

And now he is getting baptized!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

On Monday we had a wonderful Family Home Evening with Hildegard and Clarissa and the bishop's family. 

We talked about the temple and later in the week, Hildegard explained that her greatest wish is to be sealed with Clarissa in the temple. 

She is still not quite ready for baptism, but she doesn't shy away from it anymore. 

As she has set her sights on the temple, she's realized that her life has a specific purpose, and that god's blessings extend throughout eternity. 
It was a sweet moment to hear her explain the Atonement of Christ to us.

Another miracle! So last week I told you about Dirk. The one we met on the bus with Reeses?
Well, we saw him this week! And he brought a friend, Connie!

The lesson went well, and as we explained all the things the church has to offer, he got more and more excited saying that he is going to have to try everything!

He even asked if we had something that could help him stop smoking. We told him we could make a course and then he offered all of his friends to come and take it with him. So next week we will be starting a stop smoking workshop and I'm guessing about 20 people will be there.

Miracle after miracle!

I was reading this week about Tolerance and Truth in the Ensign, and here's what Elder Oaks has to say about tolerance.

President Boyd K. Packer gave an inspired introduction to this subject. Speaking to an audience of institute students three years ago, he said: “The word tolerance does not stand alone. It requires an object and a response to qualify it as a virtue. … Tolerance is often demanded but seldom returned. Beware of the word tolerance. It is a very unstable virtue.”¹²
This inspired caution reminds us that for persons who believe in absolute truth, tolerance for behavior is like a two-sided coin. Tolerance, or respect, is on one side of the coin, but truth is always on the other. You cannot possess or use the coin of tolerance without being conscious of both sides.
Our Savior applied this principle. When He faced the woman taken in adultery, Jesus spoke the comforting words of tolerance: “Neither do I condemn thee.” Then, as He sent her away, He spoke the commanding words of truth: “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). We should all be edified and strengthened by this example of speaking both tolerance and truth: kindness in the communication, but firmness in the truth.
I have been thinking a lot about being bold in commitments, in what I believe, in standing my ground. But there's a difference in standing up for what you believe in, and telling someone thery are wrong. I see this a lot. Unfortunately, we fall into the trap as missionaries as well. We get so caught up in proclaiming the truth, we see everyone else's opinions as falsehoods, when what we SHOULD be doing is loving the person no matter what they believe. 
I don't know about you, but the people I love most in this world have helped me change. They've seen potential in me that I didn't see in myself, and they treated me as if I were already there.
I love our Savior. His gentle correction is evident in every aspect of my life. I am so grateful that through His grace, He has made it possible to repent and align my will with His.
Have a great week!!!
Love you!

Goals

 I really need to start taking notes of what I want to write, becasue as soon as I get to emails, I forget the things that happen that I wanted to tell you, and end up kicking myself on Tuesday because I forgot something. Oh well, you get this today ;)
 We had an AWESOME meeting in Berlin this week. We talked a lot about goals and faith. How the point of goals are not to set them just to achieve them. They should stretch you and challenge you to achieve more than you think you can. There was an analogy that was used with archery. In order to reach the center of the target, you have to aim above the target. Not at the center. But if you aim too high, it will still fall short.
 With that said, the goals have been upped. And we are SO EXCITED. Sister Wallin and I have set some seemingly high goals for the upcoming week. But we looked at our plans and all of them are completely reachable. We're praying to find people that the Lord has prepared!
 So, with that mindset, we set out. The very first person we talked with was a young mother that is interested in religion. We got her number and are working on setting up an appointment. It was really neat that as we set our goals a little higher that day, we ended up working better. Just a little example.
 We were able to tausch twice this last week and it went really well! I absolutely love these sisters. Every one of them has such a unique dynamic they add and are all wonderful. I am so thankful to be able to work with them :)
 Sister Wallin and I have stolen the guitars from the Elders for a week or so. Which was a blessing for her, because last week I ended up being sick and she wrote a song! And later added a second part which we will be singing at Zone Conference later this month. I have also started... something. My first attempts at song writing are turning out to be not too shabby... I just don't have any lyrics yet. Maybe it will be called the "ba dum da" song. Since that's all I have been able to come up with so far. I will see if there's a way I can send it over. If not... Well, you will just have to wait until I get home to listen to it.
 As I was reading this morning, I stumbled across a verse in Alma that made me think of a whole bunch of different scriptures. In chapter 8, Alma is preaching to the people and they basically cast him out. He's about to return home when the Lord tells him that he needs to go back. This time he goes in the back way and meets Amulek who feeds him and ends up coming with him on his endeavor to call the people to repentance. Anyway, it says in the scriptures that the PEOPLE hardened their hearts. Not the outside circumstances, not anyone else. Themselves. Then I thought back to all the examples I could where the people's hearts were softened. The Lord did it. Not themselves. I thought how interesting it was that it is our choice to reject the Savior. But it is not our choice to save ourselves. It is our choice whether or not we ALLOW the Savior to change us for the better.
 I am so thankful for Christ. I am thankful for the infinate Atonement and the impossible made possible through Him.
 I love you!
Sister Babbitt

January 27: Snow, Reeses, and Bollywood?

**Sorry for the lack of true order here! Blogspot only allows me to do so much.-Jeanette**

This week I think I caught a glimpse of what Adam and Eve must have felt as they were cast out of the Garden of Eden... AKA every single morning getting out of bed. 

Mostly because of the fact that IT FINALLY SNOWED!!!!!!!!!

Sister Wallin and I listened to Christmas music. It was like having two Christmases this year! Now we just get to tract, teach, and run for busses in the snow until about.... May. 

Haha funny story with the snow. 

We were walking to the bahn after district meeting and naturally, having a snowball fight, when I see this branch. Hanging above the sidewalk. COVERED in snow. 

Oh man, it was SO perfect!

Elder Brereton was walking next to me, and unfortunately saw me look at the branch, look at him, and look back at the branch... Well, he moved out of the way as soon as I hit the branch and was saved. We started laughing about how perfect that would have been had it actually hit the target when we looked back and see poor Sister Wallin covered head to foot in white.

What makes it even better is that she tells me every single day that she wishes it would snow and how much she loves it and how much she wants a snowball fight and to build a snowman... Oh the irony. I love this woman.

I learned about a food this week that I never want to eat. It's called Tote Oma. AKA Dead Grandma.

You know how sometimes the food name doesn't match the taste. Like it can be really tasty but have an awful name, or have a really awesome name and taste like sewage? Well, this one (never tasted it.. Hopefully never have to) sounds like it would taste exactly how it sounds.

You take some potatoes.... Cook em and mash em.

Then, you take the blood of a cow, fry it for a little bit, and pour it over your mashed potatoes.

Then, you eat it.

So, when you ever come to Germany, stay away from anything that has the word "dead" in it's name.

Sister Wallin is a Bollywood star!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though. 

The Elders have this friend of the church from India and he has been working and working to make music and get it published. This past week he called us and asked if we could help him. I told him that Sister Wallin played the flute and he said that is exactly what he needed. So we got permission from President to have a recording sesh in his apartment. 

Well, to have Sister Wallin have a recording sesh. I played with the cat and talked with a member the entire time.

Anyway, the song is finished and will be published as part of a commercial in the coming year is Bollywood!

Who knew, right?

We had some pretty amazing moments with our investigators this week.

I gained a testimony of the promise in Preach My Gospel that says when the missionaries act under the influence of the Spirit, the investigators act under that same influence. 
We taught Hildegard and Clarissa again about the Plan of Salvation and it was probably the best discussion we have ever had. They were understanding everything, and when they had a question, THEY went to the scriptures. We didn't have to find it for them. Explain a little, maybe, but it was wonderful to see that they understood the first place you go when you have a question is the scriptures. 

They had planned on coming to the temple this week with the ward, but weren't able to make it. Hildegard works for an old folks home and they called her in last minute. She was pretty upset she wasn't able to come this time, but is planning on it for next month.

We are having FHE with them and the Bishop tonight in his home. We are excited :) 

Karim and Masoud are wonderful as always. Masoud hasn't been feeling well the last few weeks, and is in the hospital now. Please pray for him?

It was really sweet though, at church yesterday, President and Sister Kosak were there and in our gospel principles class, we were talking about repentance. We were listing the steps to repentance and the question was asked, "What's the next step to repentance after stopping the bad action?" and Karim raises his hand. "I think it's baptism!" President liked that. Haha

We visited Deysi this past week as well and she was trying to explain her attachment to the Book of Mormon:

"It's like... I don't know exactly how to describe it. I need it. I can't leave the house without it. I don't know why, but somehow I feel like it protects me. I don't have time to read all the time, but it has to be on my nightstand next to my bed or I can't sleep. If I have a bad day, all I need to do is touch it and things are a little better!"

Man, I wish EVERYONE felt that way about the Book of Mormon. She is coming to church this week and we will have lunch together at a member's home. 

The ward is really picking up. They are so excited to open up their homes. 

I was thinking this week about the types of conversion. Spiritual and Social.

Helping someone become converted to the gospel is hard. Helping someone become converted to the gospel AND the ward is even harder. Right now, Sister Wallin and I are arranging everything from contact to investigators through members to appointments, to activities... And realized that it would be so much easier if we didn't have to worry about the social conversion so much. That's what we have members for! To invite people to come to activities! To keep in contact! To be a friend :)

We have been working to help the members build friendships with the investigators. It's working seemingly well! And I realized that all it takes is an invitation. 

For example: This week I received a package from the Taylors and inside were some little reeses candies :) Sister Wallin and I were chatting on the bus coming back from church yesterday, and loving the reeses, when I noticed a man looking at our nametags. We made eye contact and he looked away really fast. I asked him if he knew the church and he immediately opened up and explained that he had been to Canada and America, that it was the best time of his life and that he knows the church from Canada. I gave him a reeses and he was really excited to have a blast from the past. We have an appointment with him tomorrow. Pray that Dirk will be baptized!!

Now that this has been the longest letter of life...

I love you! 

Until next week!!

Sister Babbitt

January 13: New Song, New Stomache?

Hey, remember how the stomache flu is usually a one time thing?

Guess not.

Despite the fact that I was out all day on Wednesday and part of the day on Thursday, we had an amazing week! But I say that every week. I guess that is the territory that comes with being a missionary ;) I'll take it. 

Sister Wallin was able to compose a song, and now we are working on one together.

We had some stellar lessons with Karim and MaSood. I don't even know how to explain much of it, but if you have ever seen the district and the seemingly perfect lessons they teach, that's usually what happens with Karim and MaSood. They are just... dream investigators. We invited them to baptism for the end of the month, but they said they need to think about it. They both want it, but everything is really new. I mean, we've only had 3 lessons with them. And yet, they have come to church for the past 3 weeks. They're solid. We had an AWESOME joint teach with a member in our ward, Patrick, and they all hit it off really well. They are just so sincere in everything they do. MaSood even made us traditional Persian food. Never had that before. But it was really good :) Maybe someday when the government isn't trying to destroy everything, I would like to go to Iran. They are sweet people.

Hildegard and Clarissa are doing well, as well! Hildegard is set on going to the temple. She still thinks that baptism is "standing in her way" but we will jump that hurdle eventually. 

We had a lot of success this week with joint teaches. The members are becoming more and more involved in helping us with our appointments, and bearing testimony. It's so neat to hear and see them become excited about the people we are teaching. We get asked now, all the time about who we are teaching, how they are progressing, and it gives us a chance to invite the members to fellowship. I am excited for them, and for the ward. 

We had a really neat experience this week, finding. 

Okay, so nothing against the University, and finding there, but it seems like every time we go, we collect a bajillion numbers and then nothing comes of it. Needless to say, we have about 5 contact sheets front and back of contacts on the university. We have called most of them, but some of them we need to go by on and see if they still live there. Well, we were getting ready to leave the campus, but something told us we should spend the last few minutes of the day going by and finding the rest of them. We knocked on a door of one of the contacts and met a guy that was wearing a crucifix. He was not a contact of ours, but we started chatting and as soon as we told him we were missionaries, his hand shot to his cross and tucked it into his shirt. Touchy subject? However, he told us he would gladly take a Book of Mormon. So the next few days we tried to reach him, but every time he wasn't home. Saturday we were on our way to the University again and I made eye contact with someone on the strassenbahn, and thought that may be Max, but wasn't sure. We didn't go the same way, so I figured it wasn't. Naturally, he wasn't home, and as we were going back to the bahn stop, we passed the same man from the strassenbahn. Of course, we went back and he was expecting us. We gave him the Book of Mormon, and he asked if there was anything more he could do, anything more he could come to, like a church service. He is not sure what god means because he has not had any experience, but he wants some. 

Finding Max was another testimony to me that there ARE prepared people. Even in Germany ;)

Something I was thinking about this week has to do with the story about the 3 men that are in the interview, and the first two go on and tell everything they know about Christ and are let go afterwards. The third man goes in, and falls on his face in recognition of his Savior. 

It got me thinking why. The first two men knew about the Savior, knew what He did what He means to humanity, but they didn't KNOW him. It's cool in German because there are two types of "to know" one, wissen, is to know things, facts. The other, kennen, is to be familiar with usually referring to places and people. The first two men fall into the first category. It is important to know about Christ, about God, who they are and what they did, but it's even more important to be familiar with them. To RECOGNIZE them when they see them. 

One of my favorite scriptures tells us how to do this. 

Doctrine and Covenants 93:1  
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who ^aforsaketh his ^bsins and cometh unto me, and ^ccalleth on my name, and ^dobeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall ^esee my ^ffaceand ^gknow that I am;

We will all come before the Lord one day. We will all see his face. But only those who have lived the gospel of Jesus Christ will see him and KNOW who he is. 

I am so thankful for the simplicity of the way. We know exactly what we need to do to recognize Christ and "kennen" him when we see him. 

I love you!

Sister Babbitt