Missed the bahn (Train)

This week we had alot of 'suprise' appointments with people. One of them was with Phillip from Ghana. We were heading to an appointment with him and ended up passing by him on the U-Bahn (underground train). He had completely forgotten about our appointment and was heading up to the main city of Hamburg. We ended up hopping on the train with him and teaching him about the Restoration of the Gospel, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Although the Bahn was very loud and filled with lots of people, we could still feel the spirit and the love that Heavenly Father has for all of his children.

 

This past Sunday, we had an appointment with Persian Phillipp. He was really open and had so many questions about life and what happens when we die. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and talked about our purpose here on Earth. He was so excited because he said that he has had these questions for so long and he now has an answer to them. He said "it all makes sense. It must be true." At the end of our lesson, we gave him a Book of Mormon in Persian. He told me and Sister Garcia that we need to learn Persian. So guess who is learning Persian now?
:D

This week was really great. I can`t wait to see what will happen this next week. This gospel really does bring so much joy. Sister Garcia and I walked down the street asking people what brings them joy. Every time we got a different answer, but a huge grin on everyone’s face. I love sharing this message that has brought me joy and peace to others.

The amount of hope that people get from this truth is amazing.

Although we are human, we really can do amazing things.

 

Have a lovely week!

Sister Reed

(We can do amazing things. But that doesn't mean we will not hit speedbumps along the way. So here is a picture of Sister Garcia and I missing our Bahn or train)

Phillip or Phillipp?

It's super cold, but super cute here!

Moin Moin! 

This week was another week filled of interesting adventures here in Bergedorf. We started the week off with Tausch. I stayed here in Bergedorf with our Sister Training Leader named Sister Terhorst. She is super sweet. We had a very interesting experience though. Tuesday morning, we were going to have an appointment in Mümmelmansberg with an investigator named Phillip, an African man from Ghana. We called him when we got there and he said that he was in a German class and would be able to meet in a few hours. While we were waiting, we decided to go by on another investigator. We ended up teaching her about the plan of salvation and why we are hear on the earth. Phillip never called us back though. So we continued through our day and went back to Bergedorf to have some lunch and do some finding. While we were talking with this man on the street, we got a phone call from an unknown number. When we answered, it was Phillip telling us that he wanted to meet up in Bergedorf. So we walked over to McDonalds to wait. After about 5minutes he called saying that he had arrived. We were looking all over for Phillip. Then a white man walked out on the phone saying "There you are!". This was not African Phillip. When we started talking to him, he also said his name was Phillipp. (with two p's). He said that he had had contact with the church once before. He is a born again Christian and used to be Muslim. We ended up giving him the first lesson and he wants to start coming to our church. We have yet to figure out how the numbers switched in our phones from Phillip to Phillipp... but now we have a new investigator! And we lost contactwith our other investigator. haha! Win lose situation?

Sister Garcia and I are also starting to work with the young woman here...there is only one. But, she is super sweet. :)

I am running out of time, but I hope that you have a lovely week! :) 

"Use the atonement every morning till the end of every day." 

(If you don`t know what the Atonement is, email me and I will tell you. :) )

Sister Reed 

This is Helma - One of our sweet investigators & her puppy

Music to my ears!

This week was amazing! The sun came out for about 2 days! But of course I will start with the Hamburg Philharmonic. Last Monday, Sister Garcia and I had the opportunity to listen to them play. The violinist, Pinchas Zukerman, was a soloist. It was really an amazing experience. Sister Garcia and I felt a little out of place! It felt like we were in a castle. But, the music they played filled my heart.

I got my German driver’s license this week! For now, I will still be riding bikes and walking, but one day I might get sent to an area with a car. The only sad part of it was that they took my old (Texas) driver’s license to get my German one... So I will have to go get another Texas one when I get home. Crazy stuff, (oh... and the German driver’s license don`t look as cool as Texas)

Sister Garcia and I had the opportunity to teach one of our investigators this week. She ended up bringing her boyfriend along so we decided to teach him as well. We ended up teaching them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever, and about Temples and why they are so important to us. They are both super sweet, come to church and English course, and started reading in the Book of Mormon. They rock!

Sister Garcia and I went to a city called Mummelmansberg to try to find an old investigator that I used to teach. We haven't had contact with her in a few months and I missed her... so we decided to go by. She was there! We talked to her for a little bit, but she had to go so we made an appointment to meet this week. On our way out, we met a man named Phillip. He lives right next to this other investigator. We started talking to him and invited him to the German class that we teach. The next day we ended up on the same train. We started talking about what we do as missionaries. He has so many questions about life and the Bible. So we also started meeting with him. :)

This week, Sister Garcia and I used our new way of finding. The reactions from people were completely different from before and way more respectful. We started talking to this man about the gospel and missionary work. He lives alone and has no religious background. He was really sweet and got really excited about what we do as missionaries. He had us go to his neighbor’s house and show him what we do. (even though we did it to him about 10 minutes before) haha! He asked if we could meet up again and offered us a smoke, coffee, beer and then finally tea, pretty much everything that we don`t do like drink... or smoke.  He is super kind! I am really excited to meet with him again this week.

To end such an awesome week, our district leader read us a story over the phone the other night in Swiss German. He is from Switzerland (Swiss German kind of sounds like German with a Scottish accent) It was so funny! I didn't understand any of it.

I will leave you all with a quote from the piano guys.

"Don't stay where you are right now in life. Push yourself beyond where you are at right now."

If you do this, you will truly be able to do amazing things! I love you all and I hope that you have a lovely week!

Sister Reed 

Visit from Elder Erich W. Kopischke of the Seventy

 

This week was really great. Sister Garcia and I bought new backpacks at the beginning of the week. Our backs feel sooo much better now.

We had Mission Tour this week where Elder Erich W. Kopischke, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy came to speak to us. I learned so much from him I wish I could tell you all about it! But... there were a few major points that I would like to share with you that I learned. I learned that the more dedicated you are to something, the more joy you will find by doing it. I learned that we really have to have full knowledge of something before we can teach it. I need to really study and learn German before I can teach it, and I really have to make sure I know that this gospel is true before I testify to people that it is. Because if we know with complete certainty that something is true, we will be able to testify with the spirit. And I learned about how important it is to be truly converted in your heart and to really humble yourself to your Savior. When we submit our full will to him, he will be there to guide us on exactly the right path we are supposed to be on.

Sister Garcia and I learned some new ways to do dooring and finding. So when we go door to door and talk to people, normally they say that they have no interest or no time. So this week, we tried going to peoples doors and asking them if they would like to say a prayer with us. Many people were a little bit confused at the question which allowed us to explain a little bit more about who we are and what we do, and we actually ended up praying for a random family right at their front door. It was a really cool experience. We also tried a new approach for when we talk to people on the street. We approached this person on the street and asked him if he wanted to participate in an experiment. We then explained that this experiment would last about 5 weeks and that during this experiment, we would have to meet with them regularly and we would invite them to try a few things and tell us how they felt about it afterwards. We explained that we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and that this experiment changed our lives. We then went into discussing the first lesson. It was really cool to see the different reactions from people. We ended up talking to this man for about 45 minutes in the freezing rain! Sister Garcia and I decided to celebrate our new found way of finding with some sushi :)

The weather this past week has been absolutely crazy!!! A few of the trees in the woods by our house have fallen over. The wind has been blowing crazy hard and it has been hailing, sleeting, snowing and raining like crazy. Sister Garcia and I are wondering how we haven’t gotten sick yet.

This week, Sister Garcia and I did a ton of walking. We ended up walking to one of our members home. It took us about 2 hours in the rain. It was a very beautiful walk, we past a ton of fields and even a "Heathen" grave, or a Viking grave. It was super cool! The amount of history that lies in these lands is fantastic. 

I love you all! I hope you have a lovely week! Go find something that you enjoy doing and go do it!

Sister Reed

Sister Jefferies is leaving - I'll miss her.... love her!!!!

Next to my MTC Companion!! Love these missionaries!

 

Happy New Year!!!!

Hallo!!!

Sorry for not writing last week. This week was really awesome. Germans celebrate three days of Christmas. The first one is the biggest celebration and that is on Christmas Eve. It is called Heilige Abend. Sister Garcia and I spent this day with our branch präsidents family. We had a very typical German Christmas. Duck, potatoes, soup... We sang songs and the kids opened their presents. The ward got Sister Garcia and I matching gloves. It was a very classy and fun experience. At the end of the night, I played some songs on my violin with the branch präsidents daughter on the piano.

Christmas day was spent getting things organized and the Elders making us curry for lunch. We then went to a members house to skype my amazing family. It was awesome! I miss them so much! But! I love doing this work too :)

Sister Garcia and I saw many amazing miracles this weekend. We had a new investigator (Arnest) come to church on Sunday. We went to Muemmelmannsberg (one of the areas that we work in) an we saw a investigator that we lost contact with a few months ago, his name is Kevin, he missed us so much so he gave us his Mom's phone number and we are going to try and to start visiting them again.

Another thing we do as missionaries is teach a English classes at the church on Tuesday nights and a German class on Wednesday night each week. We are hoping that our new investigator Arnest will start attending the German class. (Prayers please for Arnest!) :)

Another miracle these past few weeks is we have seen a dramatic change in the Branch. The people are becoming so inviting and loving. They embraced our new investigator like he was already a part of the family.

We have a lot to get done this week! Sorry the email is so short! But I hope you all have a happy new year!! I hear the Germans get a little crazy with celebrating so we have been instructed to be in by 6pm and leave at the earliest 1pm the next day. haha! Love you all!!!


Sister Reed

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Today was extra special as a family we were able to Skype with Summer on Christmas!
Best Christmas EVER!!!
She is doing amazing and loves serving the Lord!
You are the BEST Sister Reed!!! We love you!
Keep loving and teaching the people of Germany, your smile will brighten their world!

Pictures!!!

One very HAPPY Missionary!!! I love Germany!

It's been raining all week

This sweet German music vendor!

More rain!!! Love laughing with my companion!

No watching movies here....but when I get home....smiles!