Something I love about Germany:
- Fresh food. We buy straight fruits and vegetables and basically just eat those the entire week, which is SO good and I feel so good. The last two weeks, we have eaten every last bit of fruit that we bought earlier in the week. :) And it's so clean and so healthy.
-Wearing scarves. (Again.) I feel so German. I have to have a scarf before I leave the house. (Ironically, though.....I forgot a scarf today. But it's the first day in a week that I haven't had one.)
Liebe Mutter und Vater,
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We had a district brunch this morning, and so we're all wearing green, so no one can pinch me! But they don't really celebrate that here in Germany. Oh, well. Too bad. This week was crazy! And crazy good, too.
Sister Gilmour and I found a wonderful Lösung to life last week. We decided that every week after emails (as time permits), we're just going to stay at the church, and she will dance while I play piano. AH! We were going to play soccer with our district last week, but they showed up pretty late, so during the time that we were waiting, we just went into the Relief Society room and did just that---I wiederholed some of my pieces, while she just leaped around the room to her heart's content. It was therapeutic. :)
Tuesday, we had Zone Training, which was good! I really love this zone. We have some good zone leaders (and in our ward, sogar!) and in our zone. Afterwards, we just sat and talked with E (at the Zentrum). She's going through a rough time. She doesn't feel like she's doing much, she's just having a hard time really knowing what to do. So we talked about prayer and God answers prayers, but sometimes we need to take a step forward. She's starting to see Heavenly Father so much more in her life, which is so good. I love her SO MUCH. She's so fun and so cool and we're all just best friends.
Afterwards, we went to the Ds (a family in the international ward) for dinner. Which was good....until we were there a little bit long. We got back onto the Gleis, waiting for the S-Bahn to come, it was about 9:00, and Sister Gilmour looks at me and says, "I don't have the phone." Uh-oh. That's bad. We checked all over the place, but the Bahn was coming three minutes later, so we couldn't do anything about it. We got onto the Bahn and prayed so hard and so much that the elders would find it in the Ds' car (that's where it was left). We couldn't get in touch with anyone. We need our phone. That's reeeeeally important. And plötzlich, it was gone. So we prayed and prayed and prayed that night.
The next day was surreal. I got up and felt so disconnected. We had essentially no way of getting in touch with anyone, but Heavenly Father knew exactly where we were and what was going on. :) It was a funny but good feeling. We were riding the train to go to the Grills (WA), and it was gorgeous, and I turned to Sister Gilmour and said, "We are in the middle of Germany, no one knows where we are except Heavenly Father," and she smiled. Just funny. So at the Gs, we called the Zone Leaders, who told us the international elders have the phone, and so we got their number, and called them, and they said that they would leave it at the church.
Well! We met with Sister G, who is really sweet. We talked about the tripod (church attendance, scripture study, and prayer) and the importance of each one. We picked up our phone at the church. The rest of the day, we had Sport Abend, email time, and Gemeinderat, which was good. I'm learning more how this ward functions.
Thursday, we spent our morning in Gerlingen! We met A, this girl from Africa, who was super nice. We visited the R Familie, then went by on Sr. N, the Fs, and the Bs and left them all notes. :) We saw L F, which was cool. He's 23 and getting ready to go on a mission. He's so cool. But it was fun. This nice old man gave us ice cream! Once the sun shines here, everyone is eating ice cream. Goodness! It's only March! But I love it. :)
That afternoon, we met with H (a JAE) and a couple of women he knows (both sisters, from Russia, and the older one was trying to set Harold up with her younger sister....), M and C. Friday, we went to Föhrich to find some missing members. A lot of the rest of the day was planning, but in the evening, we had correlation with the elders, then went to the Fs (Italian, speak English, Bruder F is our GML). So much fun. I love them. And Sister F is just wonderful. :)
Miracle. In the morning, during comp study. Sister Gilmour looked up at me and said, "We need to do family history." And all of a sudden, the Spirit felt so strong. That's it. And I'm so excited. But that is something that I love to do and I want to get back into, and that both of us a.) feel like that's what the ward needs and b.) have been told that we should use that in our missionary work. AH! I'm so excited. It's going to be good. :)
Sunday, we saw a lot of miracles. We talked to a number of people when we got to church. We were actually talking with Bruder L about a woman in our ward who needed visiting, and I had a very clear and very direct prompting to ask him about the family history work that goes on in the ward and if he knew anything about it. And he said, "Of course, I'm one of the consultants for family history." Tender mercy.....or huge miracle. We found out a lot of things about it and we are TOTALLY going to do a bunch of family history here in Stuttgart! We saw a lot of tender mercies in talking with a bunch of people and Sister B, to whom we dropped a note by. It was so good. And Heavenly Father is answering our prayers and taking care of us here.
We went over to S's last night. She is our investigator. She's awesome. She has two little kids who are so full of energy. We talked a lot last night about the Atonement and about lots of things. It was so good.
And today we had a district brunch, plus E. It was wonderful.
Okay. My study this week. I learned a lot about healing. I read the talk, "Teaching, Preaching, Healing," by Elder Holland, which was reeeeally good. I thought a lot this week about faith, about how faith ties in to making us whole. So much about the Atonement. The thing I loved from that talk was the line towards the beginning, which talks about how Christ calls His apostles, and He sees the people around Him fainting, wandering as sheep with no shepherd. (I think.) And He was filled with compassion, and said to His apostles that the field is ready for harvest, but there are few laborers. Pray that the Lord of the vineyard will sendv more laborers. Then right afterwards, He commands them to go out, heal the sick, cast out devils, and to cure all manner of sicknesses. Elder Holland says that when we think of vineyards, we think of the missionaries and those who are called to teach. But, he says, it is for a special kind of teacher, "a teacher who heals in the process." And I love that. That's what I want to accomplish with my teaching---healing. There are so many people who need to be healed---the ward, our investigators, the people we meet with. And I think that is a big part of why I'm here is to help others heal.
Another thing I felt this week was how much love Christ and Heavenly Father have for us by letting Christ go through the Atonement for us, that we may be healed. It is becoming so much more real and so much more personal. I understand the Atonement and a completely different level than before.
I am so blessed to be part of this work, to help heal, to help others become free from their sins and be healed of their spiritual infirmities.......and then to have the incredible blessing of continuing that after my mission. :) It is so right and so good and so spiritual and so precious. I love it so much. I honestly don't think I would've figured this out except by coming on a mission. It's beautiful.
Love,
Sister Elizabeth Jill Winters
She is one busy missionary! I love how inspired that companionship is and how mature her spirituality is! Beautiful photo too!
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