Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The one time we went to Stuttgart four days in a row



Hi everybody! 

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference! Here in Germany we got to watch three of the four sessions, two of them live! It was awesome and I enjoyed every minute. We even had one of our investigators come! Our ward mission leader drove her in to Stuttgart and she watched the Sunday Morning Session (broadcast on Sunday evening) with us!

So, we went to Stuttgart both Saturday and Sunday for Conference, and we will be going again today for P-Day and then on Tuesday for Zone Training. It's crazy, we get to see the other missionaries in the Zone a lot!

This past week we had lots of things fall through, which was unfortunate, but we also had some pretty awesome days and miracles. One of the best days was Thursday, and so I will tell you the story of Thursday. 
So, we had an appointment set for Thursday afternoon with J, but we hadn't been able to confirm with him and the member that was going to be able to come couldn't do it until later anyway. We woke up Thursday morning with that appointment completely up in the air. I remember thinking in the shower "What in the world are we going to do?" Of course, all normal people who aren't missionaries are at work during the day, so it was super hard to get a hold of anyone. We planned our day very tentatively (written in pencil) and decided to try our hardest to make the appointment work. Around 12 we went out to take some Books of Mormon to some people we had contacted last week in a little town about 20 minutes by bus outside Göppingen. While there, we got a text from J saying he couldn't meet, BUT THEN we got a phone call from one of our potential investigators saying he had time to meet that evening! So we scrambled to pull together a joint teaching appointment (the member who was going to come help with J was able to meet with us at the church) and went about our way. We were able to give a Book of Mormon in Albanian to this awesome family and hopefully we can go by again this week and start teaching them! Then we went to a different town and rang some doorbells and were able to give away another Book of Mormon. Then we went home quickly so Sister Clark could use the bathroom (no public restrooms in Germany) and guess what was in our mailbox! A media referral from Mormon.org! We almost never get those! (It’s the third one I have gotten on my whole mission) 

Then Thursday evening we taught D, the potential investigator who called us. He is from Nigeria. When we met him, I asked him where he was from, and he told me to guess. I said "Nigeria?" And he said "How did you know? Most African people here aren't from Nigeria, they are from other places!" Which is funny, because almost all the Africans I have met on my mission are from Nigeria :) Since coming to Germany, he feels like he hasn't really found a church to worship in, so he wants to come and see how we do it. He is a little apprehensive about reading the Book of Mormon, but we just encouraged him to pray about it.

All in all, Thursday was great. What I learned: sometimes, you try your hardest, but you still need a little extra help. It was amazing how all the pieces seem to fall into place that day. The timing of our appointment worked out perfectly. We were able to find buses that left at good times (sometimes that can be a problem) and we were able to reach lots of our goals for the day! I know it would not have been possible without the Lord's help. I am not saying that every day is as awesome as Thursday (because there are lots of days that are pretty discouraging, I am not going to lie) but when a day like Thursday comes around you just have to treasure it. 

Ich liebe es, auf Mission zu sein. Ich freue mich, meine Familie zu sehen, wenn ich nach Hause komme, aber ich werde meine Mission vermissen. Ich bin gespannt zu sehen, was in den nächsten Paar Monate passieren wird!
(I love being on a mission. I will be happy to see my family when I get home, but I will miss my mission. I'm curious to see what will happen in the next couple months!) 

Lots of love,
Sister Stewart

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