Gratitude

Sister Kronwitter & I on exchanges!

Mama misses me alot.......

Hello Everyone!

 

This week was rough at the beginning, but had a wonderful ending. The beginning of this week was difficult because one of our investigators came across anti Mormon literature. This was hard to listen to because everything that our investigator was talking about and the things that were making her the most upset were things that are not true. I love what God promises us about situations like this. Sometimes it is hard to truly know what is true. He promises us that if we come to him, the source, and ask Him what is true having faith, he will reveal it to us. If we ask Heavenly Father with an open heart and an opened mind what the truth is, He will let us know.

On the bright side, we had an investigator send us a text before church on Sunday and asked us if he could join the Sunday service. Of course we told him he could. After sacrament, he told us that he had been reading in The Book of Mormon and that he has a lot of questions and wants to learn more about Joseph Smith.

For my little thought today, I would like to use a talk written by Richard G Scott, a beloved apostle who passed away this past week. In his talk he said, "make the excercise of faith your first priority.”  He talks about challenges and how our faith can take a role in that. 

Elder Scott also said, "We were taught in the premortal world that our purpose in coming here is to be tested, tried and stretched. We knew we would face the evils of the adversary. Sometimes we may feel more aware of the negative things of mortality than we are of the positive. The prophet Lehi taught, “for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.”  Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to actively excercise our faith. Such exercise invites the positive, faith-filled power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives."

Some of you may have noticed that the more trials we go through, the more we understand what happiness and peace means. When we put our faith in what we know to be true and try our best to be our best, we will experience more joy and understanding even in times of hard trial. Life can get hard, but I am grateful for my Savior and this knowledge of the Atonement. I am able to look at things with a more eternal perspective.

I love you all and hope that you have a lovely week!

Sister Reed 

Freiberg Temple!!!

 

Freiberg Temple!

This week was really filled with so many miracles! During district meeting this week, a lady called the Elders here asking if some missionaries would be willing to come and visit her. She told them that she had read a little bit about the church and its doctrine online. Of course we volunteered and made our way over. We came to find out that she met with the missionaries over six years ago and had an accident which led her to be in a wheelchair. She is super sweet and has a very strong faith in God. This week were able to meet with her a few times and talk a little bit more about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. She was not born into any particular faith, but she said through life experiences, she has learned that there is a God who really is there and watches over us and also a Savior who made it possible for us to return to him. I think that is so amazing how much peace, hope and support we can get from faith.

We also had a really spiritual experience this week. We had the opportunity to visit the temple in Freiberg. The temple, in the moment, is closed. They are enlarging it. But, it will be opened again in June of next year. It was cool because we invited one of the people we are teaching and he ended up bringing a friend with him. It was a super amazing experience. There are two sister missionaries there that give a little thought to people that come and visit. They told us a little about the history of the temple and talked to us about what we do in temples and why they are so important. Our Prophet Präsident Thomas S, Monsson once said,

"I think there is no place in the world where I feel closer to the Lord than in one of His holy temples."

I agree! It has been over a year since I have had the opportunity to go inside one of these Holy buildings. I miss the spiritual atmosphere that not only is inside, but also on the grounds.

The last thought I want to say is about my mission. I am so grateful for the year and a half that I have to serve my Heavenly Father. I am also grateful that I have been able to learn the language and speak with people every single day. "Thank you black missionary name tag for giving me license to have intimate experiences with complete strangers."

I love the people here in Germany and I love all of you! I hope that you all have an amazing week!


Sister Reed 

A Cool Promise...

Sister Hahn & I out on exchages!

Highlights from the week!

 

This week we had interviews with our mission president. President Fingerle took the time to get to know us a little bit and we were able to ask him some questions. I feel so blessed to be able to work under the direction of someone who was truly called of God. At the end of our talk, he gave me a blessing. This blessing wasn't because I was sick or anything, it was for guidance. I am grateful that we are able to receive this personal direction from our Heavenly Father.

 

This week, we also went on "tausch" (exchanges) with our Sister Training Leaders. They are both so wonderful, but this week in particular, I was able to spend a day with Sister Hahn. We spent some time talking about goals and what kind of goals are important and which ones aren’t. We also talked a little about perfectionism. One of our main goals in life is to become perfect like our Savior, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, we are human and that will not come easily. But, we should not be discouraged! That is why we are on Earth! We are all here to learn and to grow and to make mistakes and to improve so that one day we can really become like our redeemer. I know that sometimes life gets difficult and it is embarrassing to make mistakes, but that is also the only way we will grow and through the Atonement and the love of Christ, we can all be made perfect in him. Isn't that a cool promise?

 

I wanted to share a poem this week that describes our Savior. I hope that you enjoy it!

 

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,

One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

 

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,

I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,

Especially at the very lowest and saddest times,

There was only one set of footprints.

 

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,

You'd walk with me all the way.

But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,

There was only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why, when I needed you the most, you would leave me."

 

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you

Never, ever, during your trials and testing’s.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you."

 

I love you all and I hope that you have a lovely week!

 

Sister Reed

The walk home at the end of the day......

 

The Savior & Service



This is the Ronald McDonald House in Leipzig - We do service there each week... 

We saw the Gewandhouse (Leipzig) orchestra play the other night. They did an outdoor concert to kind of start off their season! It was AHMAZING!!!!!! 

This week I learned a lot about the love of Christ. This weekend, at church, the primary children all did a little program. The theme for the program was "Ich weiß dass mein Erlöser lebt". ( I know that my redeemer lives. The children all sang songs and told stories of Jesus. They told stories of the many miracles that he performed and the many lessons that he taught. The one common theme in all of the stories that the children found is how much Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father really love us. The whole reason that we exist is because they love us enough to help us have this experience here on Earth.

Another cool experience that we had this week was with a less active member. She was baptized a few years ago with her son. We were talking with her and got to learn more about how she came to know about the church when her son walked in. They started talking about the experiences that they had had with the missionaries and also at church. We ended up asking her what her next goal for her family is. She said that she wants to go to the temple and be sealed for all eternity. I think that is a great goal. We talked about how through the small things that we do, we can be able to achieve great things. The temple seems really out of her reach right now, but she knows that it is possible. That goes for us all as well. If you have personal goals that you want to reach, but right now they just kind of seem too out of reach, take the time to make some smaller goals to help you achieve those goals. You can do it! With the help and strength of our Savior, we can do all things. I learned German! ;)

I love you all and I hope that you have a lovely week!

Sister Reed

-Spiritual thought for Mama!

So yesterday, we had an eating appointment with  a familie. Sister Mittleman and I decided to share a thought about a cake. We talked about how this cake looked super good. It was a chocolate cake with German chocolate frosting. It had all of these little perfectly cut strawberries placed all over the top to make it look like a rose and a few extra strawberries on the bottom to finish it off. Looks good right? I want to eat it.... But what if we found out that the cake was baked with bad eggs, onions and too much salt? Would we still want to eat it? haha! Well, maybe just the outside. We compared this to our thoughts. In D&C it says,

"... let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God..."

We talked about how sometimes we may think that our actions are more important than our thoughts, but for God, it is quite different. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we think and also what we do. When we were talking to this familie, they made a good point that the more our thoughts are in line with our actions, the easier life will be because we won’t be having a constant inner battle.

A while ago, Lindsey Stirling did a little Q&A with the youth. She told them that in order to change your thoughts, you have to retrain your brain. She used to be anorexic. She said that for a while, she would look at her food and cry saying that she was grateful for it even though she didn’t believe it. But, after a while, she said that her brain and her thoughts started to believe it. She talked about how sometimes it takes time to train our brain. It won’t happen all at once. But through time, when we catch ourselves having not so good thoughts, and try to correct them, we will be able to accomplish this difficult task. If you haven’t, I would totally invite you to watch this video... it is long. But she gives so much good advice that I think is helpful for everyone.

It’s called Face to Face with Lindsey Stirling. It is like... one of my favorite clips to watch when I am really feeling down. :) I hope you have a lovely week! :) 

Gewandhouse (Leipzig) Orchestra