Today I reach the point where I have two transferrs left.
And guess how I get to spend them?
By TRAINING AND OPENING UP A SISTERS PROGRAM IN DRESDEN!!
Dreams of seeing the west? Tschüß
But whatevs. I am a deep east missionary through and through.
Also, I get to go back to my roots. Back to my birth city. Back to Sachsen! With a brand new missionary! Oh poor girl. The German they speak in Dresden is probably the hardest German to understand... I find out on Thursday who it is - I guess you can keep tabs on the blog to see her when I go pick her up. Pictures should be posted.
Yesterday when I had to tell the ward that I was leaving, our bishop came up to me and gave me this extremely stern face...
"Sister Babbitt. What are you doing? Why are you leaving?"
"Bishop... Dresden is calling me. Besides, you will love the new sister!"
"Um. Yeah, but she isn't part of the Dream Team. You and Sister Sykes will come to my house tonight at 8. Stay cool, Sister Babbitt."
We have the best bishop ever. Haha.
I am sad to leave, again, like last time, but excited to start this over. I mean, I only had 4 weeks in Dresden at the very beginning of my mission. And Dresden is probably the top coolest city in Eastern Germany. No lie.
I was also well taken care of for my birthday. Our GML and his wife had Sister Sykes and I over for dinner last night where they gifted me a mountain of chocolate. (This is like Christmas all over again!) And tonight, we are going to a member's house for FHE - We have been teaching the lessons with their 17 year old daughter to her family and one of her friends. So we are going further with that.
The last few days were a blur and full of excitement... Actually, it's been the entire week. Let me back up and try to go in chronological order starting with Monday.
When I think of summer, I think of ice cream, sunglasses, fairs, and friends. Well, we got a taste of it last p day!
There is this random festival called Baumblutenfest in this random po dunk town called Werder where we met a district from our zone and went to the fest. We rode a ferris wheel and this really random ride that looked like a pendulum, but the pendulum part spun as it was swinging. Talk about motion sickness... I don't think I have had that much high excitement for a loooong time.
It was really great!
We FINALLY accomplished watching the last session of General Conference (after repeated attempts from our Bishop to hook his laptop up to the television, then his iPad, then the playstation... No worries. He's a handyman.) and it was AWESOME. I especially liked the talk by D. Todd Christofferson about our resurrected Savior.
How grateful I am for Him. And that He IS, in fact, resurrected.
It means that I have someone living to rely on. Someone who never changes, but interacts with you, gives you feedback, shows love. A LIVING Father and Son. A LIVING family.
A member called us last week and wanted to take us out to eat with her.
I don't really know how I can explain this woman... She is SUPER sweet, but totally crazy. It's a good crazy. But she is 82 and continues to do all her housework, haul water from her house to her garden and visa versa and acts like she is 30.
She is great.
We also had some really awesome miracles that happened this week!
First of all, the Elders referred us to a family from Serbia who are always hin und her and the only people who are usually home are the daughters, so it is hard for the Elders to teach them...
Well, we went over there and as soon as she recognized we were from the church, she let us in, fed us this HUUUGE meal and talked with us about life, God, and the scriptures.
Their family is Orthodox, and it makes sense... Because as soon as we started talking about the bible she asked if we had one with us. So I took out mine and she told us that she had never touched a bible before. Apparantly in the Orthodox church, the only person allowed to read from the Bible is the priests, and they read it in Latin or Greek or something to a congregation who has NO IDEA what they are saying.
But in their way, they are honoring God and keeping their commitments to Him.
We asked her about learning more and she was SUUUUPER excited to be able to finally know what is going on with God.
There are prepared people. She is wonderful.
Yesterday, Frau Janus came to church!!!
This is, in and of itself, a miracle for us.
In the 11 weeks I have been here, We have had an investigator at church a total of 2 times. And it is not like we don't try. Believe me... We are trying. Most of the people we meet end up falling off the face of the earth a week later. But NOT Frau Janus. She LOVED church and wants to come every week. She is making super progress and I believe she will be baptized at the end of this month. Pray for her!!
Also yesterday, we were coming home from our eating appointment and met this cute 17 year old Pakistani kid who has been living in Germany by himself for the last 7 months, working and trying to bring his family over here.
What?
He is a such a stud and wants to learn about Christ. We are bringing him to Soccer first, to see if we can actually teach him (he is Muslim) and go from there.
Also, when he found out that it was going to be my birthday, he gave me this huge bear hug and told me he would call today to wish me happy birthday.
Cute, huh?
We FINALLY got in contact with Ibrahim again. He has been MIA for the last 2 months, and because of some really hard things that have been going on in his life, he hasn't been able to make contact with us or the church.
You know what is great though?
He has been reading often in the Book of Mormon and praying daily.
It's interesting, that in the deepest points of his life, he is really realizing how important it is to rely on God. Sometimes it takes a truly humbling experience to get you back on board. I hope that doesn't happen too often. He wants to come to church with us this upcoming week.
It's been quite a week here in Neukölln. I get to stay with Sister Sykes and Sister Meyer until Thursday when I go pick up my new companion (oh heavens, I am so excited...) and leave to Dresden.
Have a good week! I know I will :)
Love you!
Sister Babbitt
P. S. This is my German face. As we were walking down to the U-Bahn, there was this man who yelled at us because it was not Halloween...
Oh silly man... Don't you know it is perfectly okay to wear a party hat on your birthday?
Don't worry. I will take better pictures today. This is just the beginning....
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