June 24th

Where do I even START this week?!

I wish I could write a fantastic story that would encompass every single thing that happened, but maybe it would be better to go day by day...

Monday:

HOW I HAVE MISSED AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

We got together as a district and played football together. (Every time I told someone this week that we played football, they get really excited until they find out we played AMERICAN football. Then they say something to the effect of "Oh, that rubbish sport that Americans made up?" ouch.)

I didn't realize how much I miss just playing outside.
Oh Summer.

THEN. We get to Gemiko and one thing leads to another, and we end up deciding to rewrite our entire ward mission plan! (If you don't know what that is, shame on you. Kidding! Ask your bishop to see it and how you can help accomplish it! THESE ARE GREAT.)

Our mission plan was for the year 2013 and it was already completely finished. So we made a new one. That is ongoing. That will never be finished! In the sense that there will now be a missionary fireside once every 3 months, we will have FHE as a ward once a month, etc... that members can invite friends!

Tuesday:

I found out I have an obsession with paper supplies?

We had to make flyers for a ping pong finding night that we were doing at the church... So we made stacks on stacks of copies (hence the paper supply store) so we could distribute them. We were only in the store for a half hour, but I probably could have stayed in there all day. It was like a staples on steroids. 

Wednesday we went over to Bruder Graf's house because it was his birthday. 

Anyway, we walked up to his house and he is BLASTING music, dancing around his yard, using his cane as an electric guitar, and just being his crazy self. He was happier than normal because his son surprised him and just showed up at his door to see him. 

He always recognizes the hand of the Lord in his day to day life and is SO grateful for the blessings the restored gospel has brought him so far. 

He inspires me.

Thursday:

Zone Conference. 

50 plus missionaries.

One tiny chapel.

No air conditioning.

Close to 40°C. 

I'm pretty sure my face was melting 5 minutes into it. 

NEVERTHELESS, distinctly, I heard "A mission is not SUPPOSED to be comfortable". 

Then I got over myself and was happy that I wasn't in a Zone Conference like that in Brazil, where it is the same hot temperature all year round. 

Zone Conference is like a super spiritual recharge, despite the heat, and I learned so much.

Then, Sister Miller and I tausched with Sisters Petick and Schmidt. So I went to Chemnitz with Sister Petick and the other sisters went back to Cottbus.

I imagined that driving on the German Autobahn would be a little more exciting especially because there are no speed limits on some stretches... Unfortunatelyslashfortunately we are not allowed to go over 120 kph. So we stayed in the far right lane, watching everyone else go fast. 

Gehorsam, gehorsam.

Friday:

While in Chemnitz, we had a service project at the ZOO!!! Cool, eh?

Well, we accidentally took the bus the wrong direction, and ended up being an hour late. Which was okay because we were able to meet some really cool people on the bus. 

We still got to work with some of the other missionaries in Chemnitz and almost got to pet an emu... 

Then we had to go because I had to be back in Cottbus at 18:00 for the ping pong tournament.

As soon as we walk in, Sister Miller runs up to me and yells, "Sister Babbitt, we are going to an OPERA tomorrow!!!"

I guess that while Sisters Miller and Schmidt were out working, they met this man named Charles, who comes from the states, isn't the tad bit interested in the church, but loves people, so when they were talking with him, he took them out to ice cream for his birthday, and invited us to go see a musical that he plays the french horn in the pit orchestra for. So, we got permission from President to go to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

We also had a lot of people show up to ping pong, including our investigators from the university here. Bishop kindof kidnapped them and made them play with him for an hour straight. Which was really fun, they enjoyed it. And then these same investigators invited us to stop by at a cultural night they were having for the university. Na Klar. Of course we will stop by! 

Saturday:

So there was this Stadtfest thing going on in Cottbus this week, so on Saturday, during lunch, we stopped by. Imagine a carnival. Now imagine the carnival spread out throughout the streets of a city. For like... 6 blocks. It was huge. I had no idea Cottbus did anything this cool!!

Anyway, we did some finding there, and while we were finding, we found an AMERICAN RESTAURANT!

No one does cheesburgers like the Americans.

Then, we went to the play. 

Charles's play!

This was especially neat because the Cottbus Stadttheater is over 100 years old. Charles took us on a tour of the theater, and then took us to our seats where we watched the play (all in German. That definitely tested the language skills...) and afterward, Charles invited us to have juice with him and some friends before we had to be home. We felt like we needed to stay, so we did, and it was the COOLEST FINDING EXPERIENCE I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE.

Charles loves and knows everyone, and he introduced us to every single person he met. Better yet, he introduced us as, "his friends, the Mormon Missionaries". Which was really neat because every single person we talked to was completely open to listening to why we were here, what we believed, and we were able to have some really good discussions with some of his friends about the gospel. Charles is basically our new best friend. And even though he has no interest, he is completely willing and open to introduce us to his friends that have interest. 

Interesting how sometimes the best missionaries are non members? Haha

Sunday:

After church, we went to eat at one of the members homes. 

The wife has the coolest conversion story. 

So she had been married for 32 years. Her husband was a member of the church, but she didn't believe in God, and really wanted nothing to do with it. 

Anyway, she had an experience that she was tempted to do something that was beyond her control, and realized that it was definitely not her that wanted to do this thing. So, she concluded that if Satan existed, so did God. 

She was baptized 3 weeks later. 

After 32 years!!!

Anyway, that's one of my favorite things. To ask people their conversions. And they love talking about it :)
We were also able to stop by at the cultural night the university was having, and we tried some food from Ghana and Pakistan (where our investigators are from), and meet some of their friends. It's been really neat to be able to gain relationships with some of our investigators where they feel completely comfortable introducing us to their friends.

Something I have been really thinking about this week is journal writing.
I read the book of Omni and was actually pretty disappointed that none of the writers gave anything more than, "There were lots of wars... I am passing this book down to my son because my father told me to".
Don't get me wrong, there are things to learn from them. But something I learned is, How are we supposed to learn from our forefathers if they didn't keep records??! Thank goodness Nephi was a writer, because now we have this GOLDMINE of spiritual power in 1st and 2nd Nephi.
Mormon goes on to say, that he hopes that people will read what he wrote "that perhaps some day it may profit them". I can't help but be thankful for the writers of the Book of Mormon that kept a record of the experiences they had. I learn every day from them, and it definitely makes me reflect on the records I am keeping. Will they be good enough for future generations?
Renewed determination to be better at writing in my journal.

Anyway, I love you! I pray for you daily!

Love,

Sister Babbitt