Let it snow let it snow let it snow..... and snow and snow and snow

December 13, 2010
What an incredible week, such a rollercoaster of emotions here on a mission. Sister Scruggs and I have had some amazing experiences and I wish you all just could have been here to experience them too, its a little difficult to describe them through email! Let me just paint the picture for you..... everything is white, trees, streets, cars, US (3 members really LAUGHED OUT LOUD, when we walked into the church last night, because we were absolutely white-competely covered in snow) haha, the houses, street lights, the temple, everything. 

We find it hilarious trying to walk straight through the snow and its a constant snowball fight, Sister Scruggs usually wins, its super tempting to push each other into the snowdrifts....so fun walking through this winter wonderland.. there are lit 'schwipbogens' in almost every window and walking through the innenstadt, past the Christmas market with the music and lights and smells, it makes it almost impossible to forget its the Christmas season.  The people seem to have a little softer edge and the goal is to talk to even more people then before, we got a new recommitment and motivation this week after we went to BERLIN for a mission TOUR, from Elder Texiera from the 70!

He and his wife came to visit the mission and met with half the mission in Berlin and the other half in Hamburg. You could feel the spirit so strong when he came in the room and when he spoke to us. He gave us his precious pearls on how to get more baptisms in our mission. We are recommitted and know we will be seeing miracles in the next year, we are talking about baptism more, INVITING EVERYONE to come to the knowledge of the restored gospel and to be baptized.. We have the faith to make it happen and faith is a principle of power and action, so we are asking the lord and acting upon the guidance we recieve. A cool few thoughts he said, that I drew strength from: 'we are going to change Germany, it starts right here, it starts with the servants of the Lord. We must be the first ones, We cannot yield to that spirit of unbelief.' I testify the Lord has prepared people and the Lord will guide me to them. It was so motivating and so great to see so many other missionaries, there were about 80 of us (did you know the Berlin mission is the biggest in Europe? Yay) and I got to see my trainer and some other sisters I still hadnt seen since the MTC. So it was a sweet reunion. It was neat to go up to Berlin too, so HUGE! So many people! After being in Freiberg so long, it was almost overwhelming how big and how many people there was, but very exciting. I loved it. We had a cool conversation with a guy on the train on the way back, and it just blows my mind how the Lord just sets people in our path when we are willing and ready to talk to them about his gospel.

We had some cool experiences teaching this week...I told you we are teaching Schwester Gehrisch's mother! She was very against the church and against her daughter being baptized about 5 years ago, but now looks forward to us coming over and she came to the Christmas concert! She enjoyed it, and so did I, the ward choir sang, the young women performed to miley cirus' christmas song hahaha and the primary children sang some German christmas songs. It was so beautiful, I told you Christmas in Germany is a dream! So Schwester Gehrisch came to that with her mother and then when we went by for our appointment she had read in the Book of Mormon and was applying it. She was teaching us about the seed and our faith and she said she would love to meet with us Friday because the ward Christmas party is on Saturday and she was talking about coming to church on Sunday as well! Yay Frau Gehrisch! She is definitely prepared and we are so excited to keep teaching her!

XIANG XIANG XIANG. Yes, yesterday we taught him 3 times. hahaha, dont worry we didnt overwhelm him, let me explain. :) So ever since we have taught him the Word of Wisdom he has had a problem....no he doesnt smoke, doesnt drink black tea, he stopped drinking coffee, and he doesnt choose to drink alcohol.... but he will if a friend or collegue offers. That his problem, he doesnt want to have to say no if he gets offered some tea from a business man or his friends offer him a drink. Thats his ONLY PROBLEM. We have a baptismal interview lined up for Thursday and his baptism is scheduled for Saturday. So last week we told him about the interview and told him the questions that would be asked....example...Do you believe that God is our Heavenly Father, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world? Do you believe that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored throught the Prophet Joseph Smith?  What does repentance mean to you? Have you repented of past sins? and there are a few more, will you keep the Commandments of chastity, tithing and Sabbath day and the word of wisdom... When you are baptized are you willing to take upon you the name of Christ...etc etc. He proceeded to bear his testimony to us and said I could say yes and I believe all of those things execpt the alcohol one. . . SO THAT was last week.

Yesterday, Sunday he came to Sunday School and Sister Scruggs and I taught about Prophets. We had cool pictures up and read some sweet scriptures, and then watched a video of Thomas S. Monson speaking to us about the Book of Mormon, so that was the first out of three times we taught him. He then said he wanted to talk to us after sacrament meeting. . . it was a heartbreaking conversation the second of our three times, basically said, I cant go through with the baptism, I want to keep meeting with you and come to church and do everything else but this is too hard and not possible with the alcohol thing. *sound of my heart breaking* we then bore testimony and told him to keep praying, and invited him to come to the Christmas broadcast that was being shown yesterday night. He said he would come....So he did! and he LOVED IT. (I loved it too, especially the Prophets words of Christmas, recommitting ourselves our minds, feelings and actions towards the savior. To put light in the eyes of children, laugher on their lips and call families together. We need to have the song of angels, gladness of the shepards and the gratitude of the wisemen this christmas season.) We then taught him again after the broadcast (3/3). He said he 'received revelation about christmas' and felt so different and so peaceful when he heard the prophet and the counselors voices. He then brought up baptism and he said, it really is a leap of faith isnt it. It isnt a logical thing, and we got talking again and he said he still wants to have the interview and Manuel is coming to our lesson with him on Tuesday, we know that he is going to revieve an answer of what he should do, he knows it is all true and has been so faithful. We made him a reading calendar and he loves it, he reads in the Book of Mormon every night and told us he prayed on his knees in his bed because it was too cold to get all the way out...haha, he his hilarious, you all would love him. So he said instead of praying for a sign he would pray to say yes until we meet with him Tuesday night, and he will tell us...so we decided its going to be 'a shot gun baptism' but we are having faith and are grateful for your prayers and faith too! Haha, even as we were walking home he said, 'but sometimes its just hard, like I have this huge project due (his thesis for his PhD) and I had to work on it today after church, and it says in the bible we shouldnt do that'...and we said, 'yeah sometimes we have to plan ahead to keep the commandments', and he said, well 'yeah I guess, I guess I could have done that better, that really is a good thing huh?'

He is such a great, prepared son of God and I am just so blessed to have been the missionary that talked to him on the street and to have had the honor to teach him this much! Let alone bring him so close to baptism... MISSIONARY WORK IS SO INCREDIBLE!

Thanks for listening and for your prayers for Xiang, I believe he is going to make it and I would be so honored if I got to be here when he did! But either way I know it will happen soon, and if im not here then ther is someone else that needs me somewhere else......yes we get transfer calls on DECEMBER 24th. So Ill tell the family on the phone where I will be going! I cant believe we are starting the 5th week of this transfer, but we are planning to work hard and also have some fun. We have the 'HOHO ZOKO' on wednesday in Leipzig, Saturday is Xiangs baptism and the ward christmas party (which they have been preparing for since October!) and next week is Christmas! We have some incredible families who have invited us over, luckily all three have an American involved so we have some of home conversation during this Christmas time. I have absolutely LOVED the advent calendar with the TOP 10s from all of you and had no idea some of the people who wrote me were still thinking of me, especially enough to send me their top ten, i have laughed out loud and some of your responses and also some have kept me going through the snow all day long, so thank you for your prayers and strength youve sent from so far! I really feel so blessed to have such a support system back home, thank you for your letters and love, I am so stoked for my brother who is hoping to go be a service missionary in Navoo! Yeah Toph! We are all so blessed to have the gospel and to know the truth of why we are here and where we are going, if you have the opportunity to share that knowledge with someone else, dont pass it up! It sure takes a lot of courage (try it in German haha) but you will be blessed, and your family too!

Oh come let us adore him-

Sister Rasmussen