Yes Im back in Sachsen! The accent is s o o o different here, and it reminds me of my golden days in Freiberg. I love it and can here my own accent changing a bit the more I am here. They say 'Leipsch instead of Leipzig.' Where to start!? Theres too much to say! Leipzig is huge and its crazy realizing all the cool missionaries who have served here, as I flip through the area book and see pictures of old missionaries (the less actives we visit show us pictures) Ive seen such incredible people who have served the Lord here, even my MTC teacher Bruder Orton served here! So im feeling some sort of a poetic fulfillment of something as im here. Its cool because Sister Singer was golden here, and Sister Forsyth served here as well. Its such a different program than Frankfurt Oder. Its huge, we have so many more resourses! We have an incredible institute center in the middle of the city, for the jae (young single adults) where we also meet and teach people, have family home evening and hold our district meetings etc. Its beautiful, and so refreshing having such a central place to meet and teach people.
We've already seen some miracles this past week. We made out a few appointments earlier in the week for this past weekend, one of them with Frau Stein and the other with Maik. Both of them have no real belief but both showed up to their appointment and we taugth them about their heavenly father and his plan for us. The spirit was so strong and we talked about Christ and how he asked us to follow him and the joy that comes from the restored gospel. Both of them set baptisimal dates!! I dont know what Ive been doing for the first part of my mission, but since Elder Causee' came from the 70 and told us to be inviting people from the very first appointment to baptism we've been doing it and seeing miracles. Its really an honor to get to be the sister missionaries of Leipzig and to get to teach people in this pretty building. We also have a huge gemiendehaus (ward building) and there are two wards here in Leipzig. There are 6 missionaries here and a senior couple. It was odd being in a big ward again, where the sunday school class was already bigger than the last branch i was serving in. . but so amazing to me to see the church is true everywhere you go. I bore my testimony and introduced myself to the ward. Our bishop is really cool, as he was saying I was going to give my testimony he said 'and she'll tell us what she has planned for us here' BIG miracles coming. I talked about Ammon and the way he glories in the Lord.....he said :
he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
We've already seen some miracles this past week. We made out a few appointments earlier in the week for this past weekend, one of them with Frau Stein and the other with Maik. Both of them have no real belief but both showed up to their appointment and we taugth them about their heavenly father and his plan for us. The spirit was so strong and we talked about Christ and how he asked us to follow him and the joy that comes from the restored gospel. Both of them set baptisimal dates!! I dont know what Ive been doing for the first part of my mission, but since Elder Causee' came from the 70 and told us to be inviting people from the very first appointment to baptism we've been doing it and seeing miracles. Its really an honor to get to be the sister missionaries of Leipzig and to get to teach people in this pretty building. We also have a huge gemiendehaus (ward building) and there are two wards here in Leipzig. There are 6 missionaries here and a senior couple. It was odd being in a big ward again, where the sunday school class was already bigger than the last branch i was serving in. . but so amazing to me to see the church is true everywhere you go. I bore my testimony and introduced myself to the ward. Our bishop is really cool, as he was saying I was going to give my testimony he said 'and she'll tell us what she has planned for us here' BIG miracles coming. I talked about Ammon and the way he glories in the Lord.....he said :
he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
16Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.
And thats the same with me. I cant express the smallest part of what I feel, I feel so blessed and am so excited to be serving with Sister Anderson. She is from Texas as well (like Sister Singer) and is the second youngest of 5. She is a soccer goalie, loves being a missionary and is super organized. I thought I was organized....no, you should see her desk haha. Ill send a pic next week. Yeah our apartment is sweet, super crazy finally living in a new place, I mean I was in the last apartment from Dec to July so its fun to have change. Favorite part of the new apartment is the huge balcony, it connects the two rooms of the apartment and ive already had lunch out there as well as looked at the stars. The beds here are a dream, the comforter is like sleeping with a cloud...we have a pretty good sized kitchen, smaller than the one in Frankfurt, but still cute, the bathroom is huge, with a shower and a tub....probably use that in the winter (if im still here) its feeling like winter lately. Today I have a sweater and a scarf, its rainy and misty, i love it, but its definitely not feeling like beginning of August.....AUGUST!?!?! Can you believe its August? Me either, we've got to take advantage of this time oder? Yeah. I agree.
So we also had a miralce this week when we visited Trinh a really sweet less active lady from Vietnam... she has been dying for the missionaries to talk to her son....for years, no one has talked to him, they've seen him but nothing, anyway when we were there visiting her, he came home and was getting some tea and we started joking around with him about how many languages he spoke (perfect, viantamese, german and english...as well as learning russian and somethnig else) anyway he was such a stud and we totally got into a gospel discussion with him about who God is, what his plan is for us, why someone would believe in him and how we can feel his love and guidance. He said he wasnt ready to change and believe but the spirit was so strong and Trinh was so happy her son had a spiritual conversation with us. I felt blessed to be there at the right time to talk to this 26 year old intelligent guy about how the gospel could bless his life.
It was also neat on our first Sunday (yesterday) to meet the new ward, sooo many people, definitely will take awhile to get to know them all, but we had Frau Stein come and she loved it, yes the lady we met in the park on Wednesday and committed her to baptism on Thursday! She came and really enjoyed it. It was so neat to see her excitement of feeling the spirit and to see her desired to read the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. Another cool miracle is coming our way....a sweet 20 year old girl named Nadine got baptized last month and just brought her friend to meet with us to get the lessons. His name is Michael and we've now taught him the first two. We set his baptismal date for September 4th and the spirit has been really strong in our lessons with him, he is now reading in the Book of Mormon and he said his first prayer at the end of our lesson on Saturday. He has a small stutter and it was sweet to hear his simple small prayer to the Lord and to see the satisfaction on his face after he said it. I fell so blessed to know these people and to get to be the msisionary leading the discussion to teach him. Its really interstiing learnig out to teach with a new companion, we are borth so excited about the work and its a new experience for me being the one to be in charge of where the lesson goes, well of course following what the spirit says.
Its really beautilful here, huge old gorgous German buildings, old rathauses, a HUGE trainstation, and gorgous parks all over the place, its really a dream I need to stop being so grateful or some big trial is going to come our way ;) The Christlike attribute Sister Anderson and I have chosen to work on is FAITH. WE have some pretty faith-filled goals for this next week...hoping to have 10 investigators at church and teach 32 lessons...:WOOT.
I love this work and love being here in Leipzig, I miss Frankfurt and the people there, but feel so blessed to meet and get to love new people here. (another perk I am SO stoked for...we get to go to the temple this Freitag!!) I havent been since last year! It will be a dream to get to go back to Freiberg....so if anyone is going to the temple Friday...well we'll be there at the same time hahaha, ah isnt the gospel just incredible? It was so amazing to teach Maik last night about who Christ is and what he sacrificed and did for all of us, just because he loved us. It was amazing to talk about the plan our Heavenly Father has for us and to see a child of God realizing the potential of what that sentance means....this life has a purpose and there are things we can do to take away the guilt and pain from past mistakes to clean them away and become a new person committed to following the Lord and living following his commandments....and then to receive his blessings our whole lives long.
Okay ill get off my soap box, I just love this gospel and know that it is true. I love sharing that knowledge and joy with others and to get to feel the spirit so often...hope you are feeling the constant feeling of the spirit as well. If not, I challenge you to find out what is blocking you from that and as soon as possible get rid of it, because the constant flow of comfort, love, peace, security, joy and happiness is einfach herrlich (simply glorious) have a super great day and know a sister missionary in Germany loves you!
Love, Sister Rasmussen
Pics: Me and Sister Anderson at a Hansel and Gretel statue in Leipzig, awww cute.
The whole branch was so sweet and took a picture together when I was leaving.....a lot of people there ja? Love them.
Sister Madsen and I right before I left the apartment, love that place, that girl, that apartment. Oh transferssss.
Hello Sister Rasmussen, ..Are You in Lepzig now.. Wie geht's dir... I hope you happy...I just see your blog.. wooww it's interesting and nice...Great...You are dilligent to write down ...God bless you..Gluck Auf...(slamet widodo family in Freiberg)
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