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