So last week on Monday we went to the East Side Gallery.
Now if you aren't familiar with Berlin, the East Side Gallery is the longest stretch of the Berlin wall left standing. Probably a mile or so. Anyway, someone (government, some rich guy... I don't really know) hired a bunch of artists to take a section of the wall and paint it. Most of the paintings have to do with Berlin, the DDR, Germany, stuff like that... But some of them are TOTALLY random. Like Easter Island heads?
Needless to say, it was basically the coolest thing I have seen in Berlin thus far. I mean, ya, cool, all of the cool Berlin landmarks are also really neat, but I felt like a decade of history was packed into a real-life-representation of an aspect of what made Germany Germany.
Google it. You will find some real cool stuff. It's probably my favorite place in Berlin.
People watching moment: As we were coming back from the East Side Gallery, we were in the U Bahn when a man and his dog get in. Normal.
This man unwraps a werthers original and gives it to his dog. Not normal. He then looked around to see if anyone noticed... Not to be awkward, I avoided eye contact. Which probably made it more awkward.
For a few days this week we had Sister Stuart with us because she was going to go on Thursday and pick up her brand new missionary!!! It was really fun though, because I have served my entire mission so far in East Germany and the west is like some foreign fantasy land that I know nothing about. So here Sister Stuart is from the west and her and Sister Sykes got to chat about west-ness stuff and I was totally clueless. Yeah, we're in the same mission, but it seems like a completely different world. Maybe one day I will make it over there...
We had two AWESOME finding experiences this week.
There is a street in our area called Karl Marx Straße, which seems to be the best place to OYM. Okay lets get real. It IS the best place to OYM because it's totally GHETTO. And there are lots of people.
Anyway, we talked with a bunch of people, gave out a bunch of cards and were about ready to leave so we could go to our appointment when Sister Sykes goes out of the way and starts talking with this man from Nigeria.
Long story short, this man's name is MOSES and he was so excited to hear about a prophet, he came to General Conference yesterday and is stoked to learn more. Can you say baptism? Yeah, he will probably get baptized the end of the month. He loved it. I loved it.
Next story. There is a family in the ward that we have been trying to visit for the past 3 weeks. Every time we make out an appointment, she has to cancel or we have to cancel (or we get stranded in Königs Wüsterhausen and miss the train which would put us 2 hours late...) stuff like that.
But this week it ACTUALLY happened. We got there ON TIME and were just about to start our spiritual thought when the doorbell rang.
Their neighbor came in, and because we were already there, the mother of the family explained to the neighbor who we were and that we were going to teach them a little more about the gospel. He stayed and listened intently to the Plan of Salvation and then started asking a lot of questions.
Long story short, we have another appointment with him and the family this week.
And I thought HOW COOL. Members have already told their friends about the gospel. Probably. I mean, they live it (hopefully). We know SO MANY people who have asked us questions about why we do what we do... But sometimes we are nervous to invite them to take the discussions.
Well, that's what the missionaries are there for!!
All that needs to happen is for the members, friends, and missionaries to be in the same room. We do the asking.
This email wouldn't be complete without a little snippit about General Conference.
I could tell you every single talk I liked (which would take all day) but there were two general themes that stuck out to me this time.
I feel like the speakers of this general conference were issuing a call for deep rooted members. There were a lot of speakers who talked about, or mentioned, defending the truth... how the truth doesn't change... God doesn't change and is not a "convenient god"... sometimes we are going to need to stand alone... The consequences of obedience are always good... When our faith is centered on Jesus Christ we won't be shaken and everything will work out.
This was good for me because recently I have been thinking about the things I have learned on my mission so far and how the number one theme I always come back to is that my mission has taught me how to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. WHY it is so important.
But to complement this call to discipleship, another theme that stuck out to me was love. I feel like I have learned a decent amount about what love is, and one aspect is when you truly love someone, you continually give them an opportunity to change for the better. You see their potential and are patient as you do what you can to help them reach it. You love them as they are, but look forward to what they can BECOME.
Now that this turned into a novel... I hope you have a good week!!Love you!!
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