taufe taufe taufe taufe

Taufe means BAPTISM in German....did you know that?

GUESS WHAT!?!?! FRAU ZIMMER IS GETTING BAPTIZED!! on February 18th!! Happy Birthday Kara!! She was so excited after we had shown her the Restoration video and the next time we met with her we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it all and said she likes the ending much better than the JWs ending :) She loves the Book of Mormon and was also giving biblical referances that support the plan and she has such a strong testimony of Christ. She is HILARIOUS and I feel like I have known her a lot longer than I have. As we focused back on earth life and what we need to do here, we invited her to be baptized and told her we had prayed about the date and then formally asked her 'Frau Zimmer will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized with the priesthood authority on February 18th?' and she smiled and said yes and we were so excited! We kept it in control, but bore strong testimony and told her how excited we are for her! We went and saw her a couple days later and taught her the 3rd lesson, and she talked more of how Heavenly Father had answered her prayer and she is excited she has finally found the right church. She has gone through so much in her life and she has been searching for the truth, she was excited to come to church and asked what time she had to wake up and if she had to wear a skirt. Haha, when we showed up Sunday morning she looked so cute and so excited to come. She loved it and said she was comparing it to her meetings she had gone to before and it was much better, she said she didnt feel scared, just loved. She is a little shy but so sweet and the ward was so excited she was there. They definitely werent overwhelming though and she was talking a little bit about her baptism to her daughter so we are SO EXCITED! I feel so blessed to be the missionary who gets to teach her and see her change and feel Heavenly Fathers love for her. Thats next weekend!!! BAHHH! I am so excited. These feelings of excitement and JOY make the mission. She is so funny, loves cocacola bears, and the color purple. She has been cancer free for almost a year and is finding a lot of physical strength from the gospel too! She was so funny talking to us about Avatar, I said I loved it, and Sister Forsyth hasnt seen it, we told her we dont watch movies on our missions so we can stay focused, and she said, well Sister Rasmussen and I can talk about the gospel and you can watch it in the other room Sister Forsyth! haha, it was a good laugh and Sister Forsyth and I told her we would watch it together after our missions.

We got our transfer calls on Saturday and of course Sister Forsyth and I are staying together here for the next 6 weeks. We are so stoked and feel we have had a good three weeks together to learn how each other work and teach. We feel how we can make progress with this program and of course having Frau Zimmer's baptism is a GREAT start :) There are a couple other invesigators we have who are making big progress and we both feel there are many people here ready for baptism. Its so neat working in a small branch because one more person makes a huge difference to the branch, especially in Frau Zimmer's case, her daughter is now coming back to church and her grand daughter as well. Her granddaughter Katherina hasnt been baptized either so we are hoping to help her as well get closer to baptism. Ther is so much potential here and we are so busy...there is nothing better than busy missionaries :)

Its definitely a blessing to be in Germany, many people talk to us about the war and DDR times and its so interesting to see who takes those experiences and learns from them or is bitter because of them. We related it to eggs and carrots. I think I have written about this before, but its still true and so im going to repeat myself :) When you boil eggs and carrots, they go through the exact same experience, but one gets harder and one gets softer. We are searching for the hearts that are softened. Its a rough assignment in East Germany, but so possible and there are many prepared people in this little city laying on the Polish border. 

The soft carrots are the golden ones and we are following the spirit to find them. There isnt a cooler calling. I recommend it.

Oh it is hilaroius the rejection that we get, I just love it, there is nothing like a little rejection in the morning to get you going :) Its crazy the physical reaction people have when you mention the words 'God, Church or Religion' they physically react with a 'nein nein nein' or some sort of hand wave, I especially love klingling the klingel boxes...thats how we do doors here and its really a cool challenge trying to touch them with the spirit through the speaker of the klingle box and some people's responses are hilarious. Something insane always happens. Last night wasnt too exciting but I still laughed when we got buzzed in and the husband opened the door and we said we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ and all you hear is the wife saying 'mach zu, mach zu! (shut it, shut the door!) haha, naja, so is the mission and then the moments that someone lets us in and has sincere interest make all the rejections worth it. 

Haha, it was hilarious we were teaching Herr Klinke, our 75 yr old friend, and he is grasping the concepts a lot quicker than before. . . but then he always backs down and says 'daß glaub ich nicht' meaning 'I dont believe that' and we ask him do you have a desire to believe? and he says no...and then 2 minutes later he goes into a monologue and he starts saying...well I just want to know and I stopped him and said 'HA! so you DO want to believe!' and he stopped and then cracked a little smile and we all laughed.. He is so great. Our silly friend who was so 'put out' that his washer wouldnt fit in his bathroom it was an inch too wide and he had to get another one and wow, it was a huge deal. The things you sympathize for on a mission....

We taught a lesson in the rain the other night! We have a new investigator named Nicko and Sister Forsyth spotted him on the gleis (the bus platform) and we went over to him and asked how he was doing and he just started asking us questions about baptism and the Book of Mormon and how we should follow Christ and then his bahn pulled up like 20 ft away and he was like, well I gtg, but yeah call me or bah and was still asking a question and then he missed his bahn and came back and just said, oh well, I really want to know the answer to this question, so we stood there in the rain and got soaked but also really excited for him and the quick progress he is making :)

We got to eat some EGYPTIAN food yesterday, and Irena made Ukrainian Borscht..delicious soup. I highly reccommend getting some Egyptian food as soon as you can, wow was it delicious. I decided its my new favorite food. Ola and Ahmed are so hilarious and their story of how they met each other and got to know the gospel is incredible, they sadly cant write it or blog it or make a mormon.orgdealio because their lives are threatened because of it.Did you remember what a blessing it was to be able to live your religion openly? Sometimes I forget to count that blessing.....

Welp I hope you have a lovely lovely week and know how grateful I am for you and your support. There is nothing like the support of family and friends back home to keep you motivated and working hard :)

Just going to go party in Berlin now! What a blessing. . . who wants to come back here with me? Lets start planning now :)

Liebe, Sister Rasmussen