Dritt!

This week I was in a dritt (a companionship with three sisters in it) for four days! Sister Harouny joined us this week in Leipzig. Together we saw many appointments fall out and many appointments take their place. Sister Harouny is a wonderful missionary that helped us find people that are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of the time as missionaries, we walk around on the streets talking to people about what they believe and about Christ. This week, we decided to do something a little different as well. We went out onto the street and did something we called "Music Finding". Elder Clarke and Elder Williams brought the piano downstairs from the institute building and we played in the city center of Leipzig. I never would have thought that I would go out in the middle of Leipzig in Germany and play my violin for people on the street. It was quite fun. It sparked a lot of cool conversations as well. 

It was a real blessing having Sister Harouny stay with us for a few days. I had completely forgotten what it felt like to be a new missionary. Having her here really helped me to remember the "Why". A while back, our old mission president’s wife talked to the missionaries about the "why". Why is knowing the "why" so important? If we really understand why we do something, we won't have to look for motivation to get something done. For example, if we are struggling to eat healthier, then we don't completely understand the why. We want to lose weight or feel better.  Sometimes on a mission, it is really easy to get discouraged and tired. Having Sister Harouny here helped me remember the "why". The reason I am here is the same as President Uchtdorf.

     "I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master, Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great cause. (sharing the gospel as a missionary) I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God as he speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to be a better [woman],... In short, I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ."

I love you all. Every day is a new day to remember the "WHY". I hope that you have a lovely week.

Sister Reed 

 

Baptism

Beautiful Baptism Day

Practicing for the Baptism



This is my new Dirndl

This week was a good week! Sister Mittleman and I met with a lady this week. She told us about her experience of receiving a priesthood blessing. She is not a member, but wants to be. She comes to church all the time and decided a few weeks ago that she needed some extra support. She went up to the bishop at church and asked him for a blessing. She said that there were things in the blessing that were said that no one knew about but her. She said that she could really feel God's love for her. I love hearing stories about priesthood blessings and the comfort and peace that they can really give, even people who do not believe in the same faith.

This week I was also able to participate in a baptism! A man the Elders have been working with decided to get baptized. He is a really cool guy. He decided to turn his whole life around. He wanted to make things right again. After meeting with the Elders for a few months and learning more about the doctrine of Christ, he made the decision to get baptized. Elder Clarke and I played music at his baptism. Baptism is something that I think gets a little overlooked in today’s society. Baptism is truly a new beginning. It is a promise to God that one is willing to change them and turn their life into what God would want it to be. It is the first step to helping us achieve eternal life. Through baptism, we can live with our families forever :)

Sorry the letter is a little short today! But I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Sister Reed 

*Mom’s note: I asked Summer to tell me a little bit more about Manuel’s conversion story and here is what she wrote…(It’s a beautiful story)

The Elders found Manuel on the street a few months ago. They started meeting with him. When they found him, he had nothing. He had been trying to find work for the last five years and was really struggling to get by. He has also experienced a lot of tragedy in his family. He lost his brother (due to alcohol poisoning... I think) but he said that he felt something different when he started meeting with the elders. When they taught him about prayer, he decided to put it to the test. He prayed that he would be able to find work... the next day; he went out searching and found work. A few days later, the elders asked him to stop smoking... his only concern was the money that he spent on the pack that he had. Our GML bought the whole pack from him (it is expensive here) and he hasn’t smoked since that day... he was sooo excited for his baptism. :) 

Dirndl Dress & New Mission Pres!!!

Pres. & Sister Kosak - Pres. & Sister fingerle (right)
 

This week was crazy busy, crazy fast and crazy awesome! We had the opportunity to have a meeting with our new mission president! President Fingerle is wonderful! It is interesting having a mission president with children though. There was a whole different atmosphere to our meeting. I will always love my first mission President, Brother and Sister Kosak. But I am excited to see what President Fingerle will do for this mission.

We talked a lot in the meeting about making one percent changes. President Fingerle talked about a biking team in England that wanted to win this competition. He spoke about how the team together made small minor corrections in their daily life that ended up helping them to improve their final results. They changed very minor things like the pillows they used to sleep, when they ate their food, what the wore when they rode their bikes, if there was creases in their clothing that could keep them from going faster. Eventually all of these minor corrections ended up helping them win. He related that to us, not only on the mission, but also in our everyday lives. If we really take the time to improve the small things, the bigger things that we need to correct will eventually fall into place. The little things are less intimidating too. One of the things I want to start improving on is breakfast... I think that if I really take the time to make a good healthy breakfast, I will have more energy to work longer and harder throughout the day. I am going to start this week!!! If y'all decide to try making the one percent change in your life, email me :) I would love to hear how it works for you!

This week, we decided to try something new while contacting people on the street. We decided that we wanted to take a member with us and split up talking with people. I love my little black name tag... it gives me an excuse to talk with random people on the street about joy and happiness. It was also cool to see how the Elders work with people on the street and how they talk to people. Elder Williams and I met a woman on the street that is very fascinated in other religious cultures and was really excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon.

I also wanted to write a quick thought about the priesthood. If you don’t know what the priesthood is, feel free to send me an email. But, this week, I had the opportunity to receive a blessing from my District Leader. It is amazing to me that someone as young as Elder Clarke can still receive revelation from Heavenly Father to help people. The priesthood is such an amazing power and I am so grateful that we can enjoy the blessings of it today. Without the priesthood, I think I would be lost. Although I do not hold the priesthood myself, I still get to enjoy the blessings that come from it. Everything said in that blessing gave me comfort, but also council. I know what I need to do now and how I can be better. I also felt so close to my Heavenly Father. I know that he loves each one of us and he really does watch out for us.

Last but not least... I am sure you are wondering why the subject says Bach and a Dirndl. For P-Day today, Sister Mittleman and I went shopping and tried on some German Dirndls and visited the ‘Thomas Kirche’ (church) where Bach is buried. Cool huh?

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!!!

Sister Reed

 

Happy July 4th from Leipzig Germany!

The only way to cool off!

View from our apartment in Leipzig

The locals think I'm Italian!! Why? ;)

I am sorry for slacking off the past few weeks! I am in Leipzig! This place is so amazing and beautiful. I love working in the city just as much as I love working in small towns. Sister Mittleman and I get ourselves into the most interesting conversations. It is cool to hear all of the different opinions that people have on religion here. A popular question that we have been asking recently is "What motivated you to wake up this morning?" It really sparks up some interesting conversations. When I started asking this question so much, I realized that every day, everyone has a cool reason to wake up in the mornings. There is something special to be found in every day.

It is sooo crazy hot here. It was almost 100 degrees the other day and it was crazy humid. Germans don’t believe in air conditioning. There was absolutely no escape from the heat.... So that’s a good reason to buy ice cream right? *see picture below

A small miracle that we saw this week was on Friday. Sister Mittleman and I went to some student housing to talk to the students about the Book of Mormon. We went from door to door getting their opinions and insights on the book. After a while, the heat really started getting to us, and we were thinking about going home early. One of the students that we had talked to earlier that day ran down the stairs and brought us some watermelon and told us that she thought what we were doing was really great. We talked a little bit about life, and then she left to go study. But I am grateful for her for bringing us some watermelon... cause it was crazy hot and also for giving us the little boost of motivation to just keep going.

Friday afternoon, we went to a member’s house that are from America. They decided to have a BBQ with all of their neighbors and invite the missionaries. This was a really awesome experience for us to be able to talk and get to know some people and just talk about what we do in a more natural setting. We also got to eat some really awesome pulled pork, American style. It was so good!

Saturday was really cool. Sister Mittleman and I brought one of our investigators to a baptism that was held in the church. The baptismal service was held in three different languages! (French, English and German) It was really cool for us, but also our investigator to see this man make his first covenant or promise to Heavenly Father.

The week came to an end by partaking of the sacrament on Sunday... It was literally so hot and because Germany doesn’t have air conditioning, we only had one hour of church. Although it was one hour, we were able to partake of the sacrament, and also listen to many of the members bear their testimony of the doctrine of Christ. Some of the members got up this week and talked about prayer and how powerful prayer can really be when we are sincere and pray with our whole hearts. If we show God that we are willing to trust him and show him what we are willing to do, he will show us the way.

I wanted to end this email today with a hymn that has really helped me get through my mission. This one verse is my favorite

     If we do what’s right, we have no need to fear

     For the Lord our helper will ever be near

     In the days of trial his Saints he will cheer

     And prosper the cause of truth.

     Fear not, though the enemy deride,

     Courage for the Lord is on our side.

     We will head no what the wicked may say,

     But the Lord alone we will obey.

He really is there to help each of us take those small steps to becoming the best that we can be. We shouldn’t ever have to fear for what is ahead of us. When we put our complete trust in the Lord and follow the guidance that he provides us, he will always cheer us on.

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

Sister Reed

Leipzig LDS Meetinghouse
 

Leipzig Week #1

Sister Summer Reed

Gerberstrasse 18 #916

04105 Leipzig

Germany 

 

Leipzig is super awesome, I love it!  My companion is Sister Mittleman and she’s from California.  She talks like a Valley girl and she is an amazing missionary.  It is going to be a blast to work with her and the people of Leipzig. I’m feeling the best that I ever have so far health wise, so yea!  There are soooooooo many people here in Leipzig, it’s BEAUTIFUL.  There is always something going on.  It’s crazy!  The University of Leipzig is right here and it’s such a cool building and the students are everywhere, I would totally consider studying here.

We are working with someone who may be ready for baptism soon and we’ll be working hard to build up more people to teach.  Our ward mission leader is kind and intense but he is good for us.  On Sunday I played my violin in church with some of the other missionaries who played and it was really fun.  Because there are so many people in the city of Leipzig, it’s fun to stop and talk about the church to anyone and everyone.  We ran into these cute girls the other day (in the picture I’m sending, girls with pink bows).  When a girl is about to get married, they take all of their girlfriends (or bro  date for guys..) and do a little raffle thing to raise money for the wedding.  We were able to talk to these girls a little bit about the church!

Love,

Sister Reed

Me on my last day 'dooring' in Hohenstein!

 

My Dist. Ldr attempting to play my violin! ;)

Me and Sister Hann

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Building

Leipzig University

 

Transfers! I'm off to Leipzig, Germany!!!

I am so excited to be able to serve now in Leipzig Germany.  It's a big city with a couple of wards and a lot of members.  I can't wait to get to know them and my new companion.

I'll have my address next week but I wanted to leave you all with a quote:

"Have faith. Faith in the Lord, faith in yourself and faith in the future."

President Hinckley

We have the capacity to move mountains with our faith. It doesn't mean that we can just walk up to it and push it, it means we will have to take a hammer and a chisel and go at it. If that is what the lord wants us to do, we can make it happen. As long as we have faith, we can trust that everything will be alright :)

Happy Birthday!!!

Hello,

On my birthday, president and sister kosak called and sang happy birthday to me :)

Sister Barlow made me a cake and we had ice cream and we went to work... haha! We actually got stuck in a city because we missed the last bus to come home. But a bus drove by going in the opposite direction and said that when he finished his shift he would come back and pick us up and take us back to Hohenstein. He was our little guardian angel for the day. :) 

 
Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes! A birthday on the mission is really something else. You work hard yet you still have more fun than you ever think you would have before. :)

This week I learned what it really means to trust in God. Trusting in God is one of those concepts that you always grow up hearing and learning about, but I think this week really helped me understand better what that really means. I know that sometimes in life, we don't do things because we "don't have time" or because "I don't feel like it" or even because "I can't". I know that God really is there to help push us like a coach. If we just trust Him and keep the commandments that he has set out for us, life becomes easier and more enjoyable. He, like a coach, knows what we need to do to be able to play our best game.

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan set out for each one of us individually. We each have a duty to fulfill. He wants each of us to return to him as his faithful sons and daughters. He gives us many opportunities in life to learn and grow to be amazing people. The more we fight these experiences and try not to change, the harder it gets. If we just put our faith and trust that God knows what is best for us and he really wants us to accomplish great things, he will take us by the hand and guide us on the path of life.

At the end of my mission, school and whatever else crosses my path in the future, I want to be able to say that I can keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy.  I can honestly say that when we try hard to keep the most important things in our life at the top of our to-do list, we will find that we can finish our course with joy.

You are all so wonderful and I am grateful for you all. I hope that you have a wonderful week! 

"Stay strong and Smile on"

Love;

Sister Reed