So this may be short because I am using a keyboard that is from the stone age...
This week was another roller coaster week. I need to stop saying that because every week is like that, and yet, somehow I forget that it just doesn't ever calm down!!
We had a lot of lessons lined up this week and on Tuesday, I definitely thought we would make it!
We left the house early because we had an appointment at the church, but she ended up moving it to later that day... And we realized that in order to teach one of our investigators that day, we needed a joint teach - which we hadn't thought about. So it was about 11 and our appointment was at 1... Short notice usually isn't the best, but we remembered a sweet girl in our ward named Jenny (I am still trying to get to know the names of everyone. Two weeks doesn't allow you a ton of time to know a big ward. However, I am getting there and even got a compliment yesterday about remembering names... It's worth it!!) who told us that she would be willing to come to lessons. So we called her, not sure if she was working or not and she basically jumped out of her skin with joy when we invited her to come to a lesson with us. Huh?? Why wasn't she used before?!?!?
Anyway, we meet Jenny and get a little of her background story. She has had problems with her legs basically since her childhood and has had to get several surgeries to be able to walk. She wobbles a little bit, but that aside, it is an absolute miracle that she doesn't need a wheelchair. Miracle 1. Finding a last minute joint teach. Miracle 2. Jenny is a PERFECT joint teach for our friend Paulin. Paulin had a severe accident about a year ago where he had to be in the hospital for 9 months and they told him he would never walk again. He has been working on it since then and still walks slow with a little roller crutch thing, but he can walk. We get there with Jenny and there is a woman with Paulin that basically told us to leave and that he doesn't want to learn about God. We found out that this woman is his cleaning help and has no responsibility for Paulin... So we set up a new lesson with him for later in the week. Jenny came and it was absolutely stellar and he is so excited to learn more. And Jenny is now our best friend ;)
That same day we also taught several different people, One of the women we taught works on cruise ships as a nurse and is a huge believer in God. She said she will get baptized when she finds out it is true. The other is an Italian that has studied philosophy and came to Berlin for a 4 day vacation, liked it so much that he decided to stay. And our ex-drug dealer was an hour and a half late because he was lost, but he is looking to turn his life around.
What miracles. It may be hard sometimes, but the people you meet outweigh any bad experience.
Since our day was so crazy, we didn't have time to make lunch, or go back home for lunch, so we decided to eat out at a Greek restaurant. I introduced Sister Sykes to souvalaki and it was goooooood... Ha, but while we were ordering, there was this waiter that kept coming over and seeing if we were okay, asking if he could get us anything, etc... I realized that that is SO STRANGE. I guess it comes with the culture. You are probably reading this and thinking, "so what?" because that is how it is in America! Well, here in Deutschland there is no such thing as customer service. Nobody checks up on you, nobody asks if they can do anything for you... So the missionaries are the weird ones, always offering help. Anyway, we liked him so much we bought a bunch of Greek olives to take with us. And get this. His name was Christus. Which is the German version of "Christ". So we bought olives from Christus and talked with him about how it was so ironic that his name was Christus and we talk about Jesus Christus!! He took a card. We will go back and buy more olives.
Wednesday after zone training meeting we decided we needed to meet some of the less actives the sisters before us were working with. So we hopped on a train off to a little place called Königs Wusterhausen. If you didn't think Berlin had boonies, think again. This place was WAYYYYY out there!
We met one of the less actives who is from Kenya and a total sweetheart, and her friend that was visiting from Hamburg who is not a member. We started teaching and her friend received a phone call... When she takes her phone and says, "I wish they would stop bothering me when I am trying to learn about God!! You always need to make time for him."
That was cute :)
Then... Thursday and Friday came and of the 10ish lessons we had planned, they all fell out except for 1. (When Jenny came with us to Paulin)
So the rollercoaster of emotions went from feeling on top of the world, helping everyone make progress, to waiting in the church all day for someone to show up. Oh missionary life.
We exchanged with the Sisters in Dresden and on our train ride there we saw a field of yaks!!! Like, the long haired, horned ones you only see in movies. That was cool.
In church yesterday we learned about Abraham and Isaac (which was taught to us by a 17 year old!! Best lesson I have had in church, ever. This kid is legit.) and about how the sacrafices in our lives help us remember how merciful the Lord has been. It reminded me on the The Law of Sacrafice and how it talks about how Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham. How sacrafice helps us learn things about ourselves and how this principle is stated so often in the scriptures but so often we forget. "aFor whosoever will save his life shall blose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the sameshall save it."
As I have been thinking about where I want my life to go, what is going to happen and how I can best help the people I work with, I realize that I learn something more about these things the more I focus on doing the will of the Lord.
I love you!! Hope you have a wonderful week!
Sister Babbitt
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