To Stuttgart!

So, the past few weeks it seems like we have spent a lot of time in Stuttgart. We have gone twice for P-Day, once for Stake Conference, once for Zone Conference, and we will be going again tomorrow for another training meeting. It has been fun to be back in the "big city." 

The past week was pretty great. The weather was WARM. There were some days we didn't even need jackets! I am certain that March will get cold again, but it was nice to have a little break from winter over the past week. 

Tuesday was Zone Conference. We learned a LOT about member missionary work. We practiced a lot helping members to do missionary work, so hopefully we will be able to implement our new skills here in Göppingen. 

On Wednesday we were able to meet with J again! He had read in the Book of Mormon! He talked about how important his family is to him. When we asked him why he decided to meet with us, one of the first things he said was "Well, you're American!" Fair enough :) I think he misses home. His family, especially his grandma, gave him a really solid religious foundation in his life, but I think he has lost sight of that a little bit. He loves baseball and spends a lot of time playing/reffing in various places, so when spring comes I am sure we will have a harder time nailing him down for appointments. 

Saturday was the big cleaning day in the mission. All the missionaries were instructed to not schedule appointments and to just spend the day cleaning out their apartments. Sister Ackerman and I scrubbed and scrubbed, and now the place is sparkling clean. The one thing we have left is the basement storage unit, basically anything we didn't know what to do with we stuck down there... Hopefully though some of the members will be able to help us cart things away. At least for now everything is out of sight :) 

On Sunday we went over to a nursing home to visit some of the older sisters that live there. That was a very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I think we will try and get over there about once a month or so. 

This past week Sister Ackerman really helped me to understand something. Hopefully I can express it well without it getting too muddled. It is something that I have heard a lot, but that I have never really understood with my heart. In this life, we are all given trials and problems. Some of us have the tendency to lean towards committing certain sins, some of us never have a problem with those things. Sometimes I feel like my testimony came "too easy." Because I have watched others struggle with things that I never really had a problem with, I wonder sometimes if I really "worked hard enough" to gain my testimony. But you know what? That's false! As mom wrote me recently "Fair does not always mean equal." God is perfectly fair. He gives us the experiences we need in our lives to learn and grow. Because we are all different, those experiences will be vastly different and may look unequal to our mortal eyes, but it doesn't mean that we don't learn as much as others. God treats us all with fairness, because He loves us! 

Ich weiß, dass ich an der richtige Ort bin, wo Gott mich haben will. Ich weiß, dass wenn wir einfach auf Gott vertrauen, wenn wir beten und in den Schriften lesen, können wir nicht fallen.

(I know that I am where God wants me to be. I know that if we simply trust in God when we pray and read the scriptures we can’t fail.) 

Ich hab euch lieb! (I love you!)

--Sister Stewart