December 7th, 2015
Transfers: Crazy, crazy, crazy. Sister Roderer has been called to be a
Sister Training Leader in Duisburg...in a dritt! She will be working
with Sisters Terry and Johnson, my previous Sister Training Leaders
who I LOVED. Sooo excited for them all! And I have been called to
train. So on Wednesday, I will be traveling to Frankfurt where all the
trainers and new missionaries come together, and then Wednesday
evening we will be paired with our fresh new Missionaries from the
MTC! We will then stay at a hotel that evening and Thursday we will
have a Trainers Meeting before heading back out to our individual
areas. Exciting, and overwhelming.
Here is the exciting part: The work in Mannheim is progressing, in all
aspects. Yesterday at Church, we had ALL of the less-active families
and individual members that we have been working with come to Church.
One woman who we have worked with consistently with family history,
bore her testimony during Fast and Testimony meeting about how she
knows we are truly called of God to preach the Gospel and help others.
It brought so much peace and gratitude to me, to know that God was
able to work through us. She is making so much progress in her life,
it is incredible to watch that and to be a part of it.
We also have seen miracles with our investigator work. Sandra is
unbelievable. I have never met someone so ready and prepared and
faithful in my entire life! She is working towards being baptized...
But the thing is, baptism is just a beginning. And she knows that. We
have been teaching her the commandments and last week we taught the
Word of Wisdom, which is about a revelation that the Prophet Joseph
Smith received about certain beverages and substances that are harmful
to us. (i.e. Drugs, alcohol, coffee, etc.) It is a law of health as
well, encouraging us to eat healthy foods and treating our bodies as
the gifts that they are. Well, Sandra had mentioned that coffee was
hard for her to give up, as she is so accustomed to drinking it. But
she made the goal to slowly get off it by the end of January...well,
at our last appointment this week, she told us that after our lesson
she drank a cup of coffee and then couldn't sleep at all that night.
When she woke up the next morning, she had absolutely no desire to
drink a cup of coffee ever again. With tears, she told us that she
knew it was a sign that Heavenly Father gave her telling her that this
is right. I have never felt so happy for someone!
In addition to that, we have made significant progress in the
member-missionary work. We met a new investigator family last week -
Dorcas and Yinka. Dorcas is 14 and she just moved in with her Mom. She
is brand new to Germany and is so overwhelmed with the culture shock
and trying to learn the German language all at once. We met with her
and her Mom and taught them twice last week. This week, we brought
Dorcas along with us to the Young Women's activity where she
befriended another one of the young girls. Dorcas is a very reserved
girl at first, but after the activity and after they attended Church
yesterday for the first time, she is blossoming. There has been a huge
change in her since the first time we met her.
To make it even better - we are working on inspiring the Members with
their Missionary Work. On Sunday, we heard two success stories from
members who had accepted our invitation to give away a copy of the
Book of Mormon to a friend, neighbor or colleague. The ward is really
starting to trust the Missionaries, and we are working towards
supporting them and hopefully meeting with their friends in the
future. I feel like I am finally understanding how I can integrate the
ward into our Missionary work, and how to support them in theirs. It
is a team effort, and we should ALWAYS be working side by side.
Sooo, here we are. So much work to do, so many good things ahead. So
much progress this last week! I am so grateful for it. I feel like the
Lord is really blessing us for our efforts. And here comes the
overwhelming part: training. The thought of training exhausts me. I am
so tired on so many levels. But I know that I am exactly where I need
to be. There are never comfortable zones in a Mission. Once I start to
feel like I can do things with more ease, something bigger and more
challenging comes along. I guess that is why people say that your
Mission prepares you for your whole life.
Ich habe euch lieb! Das größte Wunder kommt von meiner Familie und
Freunde. Die Unterstützung die ich von euch bekomme, bedeutet mir
alles. Danke, danke, danke!
Sister Kristyn Helmick
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