What to say!?? As a missionary....feeling the spirit is usually a constant thing, and then when you have a really spiritual moment the JOY is even that much greater, Sister Roberts-Jones and I had SO MANY spiritually high times, see I cant even write in words that make sense, its just been incredible here in Eisenhüttenstadt with her. She is leaving next week so during weekly planning last Friday we sat and wrote down all the investgators and less actives and planned to teach and meet all of them....we had 34 lessons planned (the missions average is 15) and of course planned to get 21 ballards (meaning talking to 10 extra people each and make out an appointment with someone new daily) so we made the plan with a lot of faith and a lot of drive. We new it was a long shot, like wishing for a pony, but we worked and kept working and didnt go home til the work was done and WE GOT OUR PONY! We actually got 35 lessons so we got a pony and a saddle.
But it isnt about numbers is it. Its about the miracles and the people, so thats what I NEED to tell you about, these people here living in a little city on the border of Poland, an hour and a half outside of Berlin living in their DDR apartment buildings, and our ward of about 25 people, there have been so many life changing miracles, hope you can get a taste of it....
So . . . there is a sweet less active lady in our ward named Katrin with a 6 year old son named Alex who has autism, they are the sweetest and need a lot of love and attention. We had a really cool lesson with them about building our bridges to Christ and what we need to do to build our bridge to him, being níce to mom, cleaning up our toys, praying and being nice...Alex really got it and apparently told the people at school 'I built bridges with the sisters yesterday'....the people at school didnt get it :)
Lesjia is a lady from the Ukraine with a little 11 month old son named Denny, she was thrown off that I was new and was a little shy and standoffish at the beginning of the lesson, it was hard because haha she (and I) have not so incredible German, but we got to know each other and laughed and ended up sharing a really cool moment talking about eternal families and about the peace we feel when we pray, she said she would try praying daily this next week and we said a prayer together when we left, she immediately responded, 'wow, yeah I really feel peace.' I am excited to see how she progresses!! Shes the sweetest.
Manfred is an old man about 73 years old in our ward who was baptized 2 years ago, he is a little crazy and super nice. He comes with us to teach Herr Klinke, and we visit him to review what he knows, he has such a desire to follow Christ, and being a big contributer to the ward, He just got the m. priesthood and he blesses or passes the sacrament. Yes we only have one person bless and the other person pass because the ward is so wittle! So cool! Manfred is already becoming a good friend and I feel so blessed to get to know him, on the train on the way to church yesterday I taught him what I was going to teach the new convert in our ward, to practice, it was a good lesson and he says my German is good, getting better, he is helping me improve...so I talked about Herr Klinke. Hes like 80 or something old and wears the same addias jacket and pants everytime we go, I have no clue if hes changed his clothes or if they are just his favorite haha but he was found like 3 months ago and just barely said he now believes in God. We have been talking to him about prayer and the reasons we pray and how we can be blessed, we sang count your blessings to him and he then asked what a blessing was, he wanting a good definition so its just an incredible thing to be sitting here in a little dorf in Germany telling an 80 year old man that he has a Heavenly Father, that he can pray to him and tell him what A BLESSING IS! what a cool experience. Arent you jealous? His house smells like burnt saurkraut and he talks to his plants, haha but you can see him feeling the spirit and he said he would try to say a prayer this week, so....pray Herr Klinke says a prayer :) Did you ever realize how big of a deal praying was? If we can get an investigator to pray, then they are set! PRAYER is the key to all of it, who knew? I thought it was a cool reminder not to take prayer for grantide or the knowledge of blessings....
Bianka and Roman. Wow. What to say. Roman is the 13 year old who was baptized two weeks ago. He greets everyone in the ward when he comes and says he is sleeping better since hes had the Holy Ghost. He makes great comments and says beautiful prayers. I feel so blessed to be here, because HIS MOTHER BIANKA is GOLDEN. She has read the Book of Mormon twice and wants desperately to be baptized. She has 3 children, two sons with her ex and now a daughter with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend Denny doesnt want her to get baptized so thats the challenge. She and Roman and their daughter come to church every week. She said she wanted to go up and bear her testimony but she didnt know if she was allowed, She fasted on fast sunday and she comes to English class. . . she is pretty much a member and is such a strong incredible hilarious lady, I need to send a picture home, I already feel like we will be bf for life, but the important thing, this tuesday we are fasting for her that her boyfriends heart will be softened and he will give her permission to be baptized (and get married of course) so, Im not allowed to ask you to fast for things going on here, cause then you all wouldnt ever eat, but if you could add Bianka in your prayers . . . many people would appreciate it. :) She is the miracle here and I am so blessed to be here to teach her!
SO two of the most incredible people in our ward are.....da da da da aaaah - OLA and Ahmed! Ahmed is newly called GML (ward mission leader) so we are stoked as the missionaries. They are both from Egypt and are SO incredible. They we both baptized in the summer of 2009. They live the gospel with so much joy and so fully. They are getting their ph.d s here are hilarious. They speak English and German so that is refreshing too :) Ahmed is stoked to be the new GML and weve already had some cool meetings planning what members can come help and teach and who needs help in the ward and he is so committed to his calling and to helping us! Its such a blessing being around committed members of the gospel, Ive been so blessed to have incredible GMLs and companions...bah! Too many blessings with this work.
Theres a couple in our ward named the Scharfs, and when I went to first meet them we were planning to teach the word of wisdom (well review it) because the husband wants to receive the m. preisthood but needs to stop smoking. We had a really great visit, hilarious cause the dog liked me more than sister RJ who has been here for 6 months...woops. and laughed a lot, we then talked about the Word of Wisdom and talked about what things we can do to really treat our bodies like temples because they are hoping to be sealed in the temple when he receives the priesthood.....so we got talking about how to keep our body a place where the spirit can live clean and holy inside and out...well as we did we found out he had quit smoking a long time ago! He is worthy and prepared to get the preisthood! Wahooo! So he just has to have some interviews and he and his wife can be sealed for time and all eternity!
There are like 8 woman in our ward and the relief society president is Schwester Lassmann, She is an older lady, shes a doctor and she is incredible, She has never been married and her best friend Schwester Urlaubs husband died a long time ago so they now live together roommates and both incredible members of our ward, Schwester Urlaub is a dentist and has 5 kids, on Sunday they had us over for an eating appointment and Schw. Urlaubs two daughters were there with their families, they made a big feast with mashed potatoes because thats Sis RJs favorite food and its her last time eating there. So we had an blast just laughing together and then talked about Joy, one of the daughters isnt a member so it was cool to share our testimonies and talk about the gospel...cool miracle seen there.
A really cool ending to this really cool week was our appt with Maik last night at 8. We showed up and there was a lot of people there, playing wii, drinking beer and cigarettes....then some beer spilt when we first got there and we didnt know what to really do....we were just friendly and they were friendly too, Maik is around 40 and is now going through a divorce, he has 4 kids with his wife and is going through a really hard time, so we had planned to teach him, but he had like 5 people over....well we got to talking and the louder people just went into the kitchen and his friend with a tattoo, buzzed head and pretty good english stayed, we didnt know what would come of it but as we got talking Maiks friend asked questions like 'well how do you know which chuch is true??? there are so many' and how do you pray? and Miak asked how he could find more joy and hope in his hard time....I ended up talking to Miak and Sis RJ talked to the other guy and Miak said he would come to church and the other guy agreed to meet with the missionaries with his wife! It was so cool to tell the Joseph Smith story and to then pray before we left with these two men and to feel the spirit and to have brought such a special spirit to what wasnt really the ideal teaching situation :)
Those are just some of the people and I apologize youll have to read this email in sections because its so long, but I am just loving the work and learning this new city, its an odd thing helping Sis RJ get ready to go home, really bittersweet and I feel lucky we were both working with fiath and committed to our goal. We have seen so many blessings and miracles and I feel this last week will be one I try to achieve the rest of my mission, This next week should be great too! We have president interviews on Tuesday and Im tausching with Sister Singer in Berlin on Wednesday!! Wahooo! We are trying to get everything caught up and updated before Sister RJ leaves and someone else new comes, so your prayers are greatly felt and appreciated!!! I hope you all are having a FANTASTIC WEEK and are feeling blessings and seeing miracles as well! Talk to you soon! If you are just dying to write me a letter......
Sister Kimberly Rasmussen
Kirche Jesu Christi
Heilbornring 11
15234 Frankfurt-Oder
Germany
Love you!
Ihre liebe, Sister Rasmussen
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