Stretching

August 30th, 2015

Family and friends,

Wow. What a...last two weeks. I feel like it has been an eternity -
sorry I missed last weeks general email. I have been struggling with
time management, clearly. Haha.

Today Sister Taylor and I woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to
Friedrichsdorf with a member. We are in the Church doing emails on our
IPads (yay for free wifi) and then we will be attending the Temple.
Best Pday!

Here is an insight into what I been up to in Herne:
Every Monday evenings we have a Family Home Evening that several
members have organized, specifically for those who do not a family at
home. We invite and involve a lot of less-active members and we have
several investigators who attend. It is a highlight of the week.
Typically, we, the Elders or a member shares a spiritual thought, we
eat dinner together and then we have some sort of activity.

On Thursdays, we visit a place called Lebens Hilfe for adults with
physical and mental disabilities. We sit and talk with them and we
also sing songs every two weeks with a fabulous member, Sister Farker.
I really enjoy it! It reminds me of my Buddy Club and Special Olympics
days. It is a little different because it is all in German - it is
harder for me to understand them. But I'll get the hang of it.

Every Friday we take part of a free German class held at the Church.
We just organized it when I came to Herne. We have two Native German
YSAs who teach it - but sometimes Sister Taylor and I also teach it.
We have a lot of invesigators and non-members who attend. There are so
many foreigners here in Herne! I am learning different phrases from
Albanian, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, French and Italian. Oh and some
African language as well.

I speak a lot of German here, but I also speak a lot of English and
use a lot of...google translate, Skype, and pictures. It takes
teaching simply to whole different level. For example, this week we
taught two of our investigators with a lovely language twist:
--Izar is from Pakistan and he speaks Urdo. We teach him using his
Urdo Book of Mormon and in English. But his English is very limited.
So we skype with a member in Wiesbaden who is also from Pakistan. We
talk to this member and then he translates to Izar.
--Adela is from Albania. We had our first teaching appointment with
her on Friday! She has been coming to German class and also Family
Home Evening. She speaks 5 languages - English, Albanian, Italian,
Spanish, and another language as well. She met a member Cecilia at
FHE. Cecilia is from Chile and she speaks German Italian and Spanish.
So they spoke in Italian mostly.

Well, we met with Cecilia and Adela together. We spoke with Adela in
English. We spoke to Cecilia in German. They spoke to each other in
Italian AND Spanish, and Adela read from a Church pamphlet in
Albanian. Does your head hurt yet? Because mine does.
---

Okay, time is once again in short supply. I hope that my thoughts come
across clearly. I am very sleep deprived at the moment. Family and
friends, I love being a Missionary. But I won't lie to you, being out
here is hard. There is so much responsibility that the Lord has
entrusted us with. I am preparing to take over Herne in two weeks and
I am a little overwhelmed by it. About half of our investigators are
Muslim or have never before heard of Jesus Christ.

These last two weeks I taught people His name. I have taught
investigators Christ's story - even the simple Easter and Christmas
events that most all Americans grow up with or have heard of. Teaching
who Jesus Christ is and who God is...it is a very special privilege. I
feel very humbled to be here.

Heavenly Father uses weak instruments to bring about His good. I think
that in itself is a testimony to how much he loves us individually.
When Heavenly Father sent Angels to spread the good news of Christ's
birth in Bethlehem, He sent them to the humble Shepherds, not the rich
men. Our worth to Him is the same. As I thought about that this last
week, I thought about my personal worth and value to God as a
Missionary...specifically about taking over Herne. I read in Jacob 4:7
from the Book of Mormon:

“The Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by
his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that
we have power to do these things.”

That gave me a lot of comfort this week. When people ask me how I am
doing, the answer that seems the most honest and the most fitting is:
"Good, just experiencing some stretching pains." I am simply trying to
give my all to Heavenly Father and this work. And that process
requires a lot of stretching pains as He refines me. But I know that
He is magnifying my abilities and it is incredible to experience.

I love each of you dearly,
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Helmick