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

Yellow Rose of Texas

The Yellow Rose of Texas by a beautiful worn down door.

*Summer was having computer issues this week so she asked that I share on her blog her spiritual thought to me.

Here is my spiritual thought to you Mom….. 

This week, a general authority came to speak to all of the missionaries in this mission. His name is Elder Johnson. He talked to all of the missionaries about a section in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 12: 12-21. He talked a lot about how each part of the body are important and how without one part of the body, something else would fail. He related that to us and that each one of us is important, not only in this mission but in the church. We each have a special part that needs to be fulfilled. The only one that can do your specific job is you he said.  Although that is a nice thought, we will never fully understand our function and the capacity of what we can do until we understand completely who we are.

Elder Johnson continued to say that we need to understand what it really means to be a daughter (or son) of God. Once we understand this, we will understand what it means to align our will with His will. I told you a few weeks ago while talking about this same topic, that once we really learn how to accomplish that, life will become so much easier.

That is something that I would like to work on. I want to better understand what it means to be a daughter of God.

President Uchtdorf said, "He (God) wants you to achieve your destiny-- to return to you Heavenly home in honor....It is my prayer that you will experience a renewed and an expanded measure of the beautiful love of God in your lives, that you will find the faith, determination, and commitment to learn God's commandments, treasure them in your hearts, and live the gospel joyfully. I promise that as you do so, you will discover your best self---- your real self. You will discover what it truly means to be a daughter of the everlasting God, the Lord of all righteousness."

I love it! This is my new goal!

Love her so!

Have a lovely week! 

Service

Hallo everyone! 

 

This week was crazy! I feel like we had so much going on the whole week.  This week, one of the other sisters that we work with got really sick and couldn't really go out. We were able to do a few "mini" exchanges so that the sisters would be able to attend their appointments but still get the rest that they needed. 

 

Sister Mittleman and I had some good service opportunities this week. One of them is something that we do every week. We serve at the Ronald McDonald house here in Leipzig. It is a cool opportunity for us because we get to be able to help these families that have sick children in the hospital. We clean around the house and do garden work to make sure that the house is a nice place for them to come home and sleep at night. 

 

We also were able to help a bunch of students this weekend. There were a group of guys and a girl that all wanted to move into this apartment together. None of them are members, but the girl is friends with a member here in Leipzig. She called us on Friday and asked us if we could help clean their apartment before they moved in. We quickly found out that the people that lived there before completely trashed the place. It was so dirty. The front door was actually bashed in from the police last week so pretty much anyone could walk inside. But, it was a beautiful apartment. It was very big. It just needed a little help and fixing up. In about a month, we would like to help the girl move in and hopefully have the opportunity to see everyone again, they were all super awesome! 

 

So aside from all of the service projects this week, we were also able to have some really good appointments with the members. One of them was with our primary president. She got home from her mission just a year ago, so she knows what it is like to be in our shoes. It was really nice to talk to her though because she really opened my eyes to the reality of what it means to live in the now. I always enjoy what I am doing, but I don't think I realized how often I think and try to prepare myself for the future. Not that that is a bad thing. But she helped me understand that it is good to have a goal for the future in mind and maybe some ideas with how you want to reach that goal, but take the time now to really enjoy now. I love the quote "learn from the past, study in the present, to prepare for the future." Taking the time to enjoy where we are at no matter what will help us be able to live a more fulfilled life. 

 

I haven't really had to eat that much weird food on the mission, but this week definitely tops it off. We get to this eating appointment this week and the member told us that she made a fish casserole thing. At first we thought it was normal until she started to plop some onto a plate. The whole fish was dangling and plopped onto my plate. Siste Mittleman and I kind of just laughed and started to eat the fish. It tasted kinda funny when we first started to eat it. I made the mistake of asking how she made it. Little did we know, we were eating raw herring with mayonnaise and pickles.... Yes! That was new. I am grateful though that I am serving in Germany where weird food is not so common :) 

 

Other than that, it was a really awesome week. I love the opportunity that we have as missionaries to just go outside everyday and talk with random people on the street. Although many people are not interested, there are many people who just enjoy talking about what they believe in. We really learn a lot about different cultures and different people. I feel so blessed to have this experience. 

 

I want to leave you all with an awesome quote that I found this week from Präsident Packer. He said, "prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil." 

 

I think that is so cool and so true. So many people are looking for some source of peace and hope. Little do they know that often times it is just a sincere prayer away. God, our Heavenly Father, is there for all of us wanted to help us. Most of the time, he is just waiting for us to come to him. 

 

I hope you all have a lovely week this week! 

 

Sister Reed 

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

This sweet street musician!

I love the street musicians here in Leipzig!

 

Hallo everyone! 

This week went by so fast! It was the last week in the transfer. But I am excited that I will be staying in Leipzig another transfer with the wonderful, Sister Mittleman. I also hit my year mark this week! It is crazy how fast a mission goes by! But, I am determined to make the most out of these last few months. 

This week, I wanted to share a quote. It says, 

     "When adversity comes, do not let something you don't fully understand unravel everything you do know." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Although we might not know everything, we do know a lot. Sometimes people let the little doubts take control over what they do know. For example, some people think that they cannot be forgiven and have no hope for a good future. I can honestly say that that is not true. There is a God that loves each one of us and is always there to pick us up when we fall. 

But sometimes these doubts really bug us. When I think about this, I think about the story of Jesus walking on the water from the New Testament. Jesus approaches the apostles on the boat when Peter calls to him asking if he can come to him on the water. Peter fearlessly stepped off the boat. Soon after, he started to become afraid and he began to sink. Christ was there the second he needed him. 

I love this story. It is so true. I can have so much faith and then begin to feel like I am falling. Right before I sink He catches me and lifts me back up. If there are doubts that are bothering you, I encourage you to follow the counsel of Präsident Dieter F. Uchtdorf. "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." 

You are all wonderful and I hope you have a lovely week! :) 

Sister Reed 

 P.S. WE WENT TO THE ZOO!!!  I love Giraff's ;)