New Place.... Chemnitz! New Comp.... Sister Nielson

I think this must have been her birthday "cake"  Sure wonder what it really is.

She says it is getting colder and even her toes look cold!  But she looks happy.

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been a very exciting week!  Leaving Bielefeld was really really hard.  And Sister Peltier, but it is ok because I know that we will be friends forever :) and she lives in Utah!  I didn't get to say goodbye to a lot of people in Bielefeld and I think that was the hardest part.  I miss it a lot, and it is a strange feeling being in a new city and being absolutely clueless all over again :)  but I am glad to say that I am loving it!  My new companion is Sister Nielson, she is from New York and she is in her third transfer in Germany.  She is absolutely wonderful!  She loves to laugh and we have lots and lots of good laughing moments.  She never studied German before the MTC but her German is already really good.  She is excited not to be Golden any more, and she says she is a "real missionary" now.  She is enjoying taking more part in the lessons and she does a really good job!  Chemnitz is wonderful!  I think it is a little bigger than Bielefeld but there are Elders and a Senior couple in our ward as well.  It is really different to be so close to other missionaries and to see them in the city but it has been fun:).  Chemnitz is the heart of the church during the war and was the biggest population of members besides Utah.  Now there is only one ward with about 120 active members but it is still pretty big.  There is a ton of history in the city and it isn't too far from the Freiberg temple and Dresden, which both have lots and lots of history from the war and the church.  We even get to visit the Temple next week and I can hardly wait!!!  I have missed the temple so much!  I know we are doing work for the living and that is wonderful, but I am very grateful that the Lord sent me here so I can visit the temple too. 
As for the work here in Chemnitz, it is going forward and we have already seen many miracles!!  There was a young man baptized last week from China and I was able to see him be confirmed this week.  He is really cool and he was my first appointment here in Chemnitz.  The people here are wonderful!  The accent is really different :) and some people are really hard to understand, but luckily I can understand most of them :) they just sounds funny to me.  Miracles this week:  We started teaching an investigator that Tschüssed us again.  He is so awesome and when he stops smoking he will be ready to be baptized.  We have done some work at the University here and met some cool students looking for answers.  This week we talked to someone on the street and gave him a card because he didn't have much time.  The next morning he called and said he didn't sleep very well because he couldn't stop thinking about what we had said.  So we made an appointment with him.  Then on Sunday he showed up to church!  It was awesome!!  We didn't even get to mention church he just saw it on the card.  Another investigator that we taught for the first time this week came to church as well.  Then a member who was visiting from Texas brought her niece with her, who isn't a member...yet...but she asked us for a Book of Mormon and said she would be there again next week.  Another young man showed up at church as well and said that he got to know the church in the states as he was an exchanged student and lost contact when he came back to Germany.  He came to Chemnitz to study and looked up the church and came to church!  YAHOO!  The Elders are going to start teaching him this week!  The miracles are continuing and I can't wait for Chemnitz to be on fire just like Bielefeld was!  We are finding new people and have lots of goals to see more baptisms and many more miracles!  I know with all my heart that the Lord is in charge of this work.  I have seen it time and time again that when I am willing to give my will to the Father and do hard things that blessings are poured out!  I don't like to think about how many times I have already missed out on blessings for myself and more importantly for others as I was to selfish or embarrassed to open my mouth or go somewhere.  I loved hearing from the prophet and apostles and I know as we follow Pres. Monson's example and follow the promptings of the Spirit we will be able to do miracles through Him!  I love being a missionary and everything is going absolutely wonderful here in a new city.  I feel at home already and I know I am supposed to be here.  This time is so short and I never want a day to go by without giving my best! 
I love you all and my prayers are with you.  I know the Lord is watching over us.  I love listening to the song "We are Clay in His Hands."  I know he is shaping us through this process of life to be an amazing masterpiece!  It is challenging but it wouldn't make any sense if it was too easy.  I hope you have a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

Transfer date

 

 

 October 3, 2011

 

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

It has been another wonderful week here in Bielefeld and unfortunately my last... I am being transfered to a city called Chemnitz.  It is in the heart of East Germany and has a lot of history from the war and the church during the war.  It will be an amazing experience and I will get the opportunity to go to the Freiberg Temple :) I am really excited about that.  Along with that excitement is lots and lots of sadness to have to leave Beilefeld... this is definitely the hardest part about being on a mission.  Once you get comfortable being somewhere and get used to doing things in a city or with a companion then everything changes.  Not to mention you are taken from the people you have learned to love so much!  But I know the Lord is in charge of the work and He is sending me where I can do the most good in His work.  I am excited to meet new people and serve in another city of Germany.  Today is a holiday in Germany, it is the day the wall was taken down 22 years ago.  It is neet that tomorrow I will be traveling from West Germany to East Germany to share the gospel!  There is still a really big difference between east and west Germany but the gospel is the same and going forward all over Germany! 

As for this week, we had our Tausch (exchanges) and I was able to go back to Halberstadt!!!  It was so fun...extremely weird...but so fun!  I felt like I had just taken a break and I went back home.  But then I came back to my home in Bielefeld...and now I am writing home...hehehe the missionary mindset is so strange.  I was able to see Br. Lau in Halberstadt and the Ward missionary leader as well!  It was absolutely wonderful :) and they said my German has improved too, I was relieved! I worked with a brand new Golden there, her name is Sister Laubaugh, she is from Ohio.  It was fun to work with a Golden and to see how far I have come since then.  As for Bielefeld the work is rushing forward!  The investigators are making progress and we set a new baptismal date with one of our investigators.  Sister Peltier and I are really sad to have to part ways and she is super nervous to take over, but she is getting a wonderful experienced missionary and they will do wonderful!  I have no doubt in my mind.  My new companion is Sister Nielson (I don't know how to spell it right yet).  She has been in Germany for about four months, and that is all I know about her :).  I will tell you more next week. 

General Conference was absolutely amazing!!! I had lots of questions that I wanted answers to and I am thrilled to say that I received all of the answers I wanted and more!  I know exactly what I need to do to be a more consecrated servant :) now I just have to do it.  It will be good to get out of this comfort zone and into something new to give me a fresh start and I can start off really strong in Chemnitz. I don't want to write to much more about the work in Bielefeld because it makes me too sad :) and I am convinced to stay excited about the change as long as possible. (I told myselft I can be sad on the five hour train ride to Chemnitz).

Things are going great here!  I love you all and you are all in my prayers!  I am so glad that we are a family for all eternity!  

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Smith 

Letter fromthe MTC

I found this in my draft section.  Don't know if I already published this, but I am putting it in here anyway.

Hello my wonderful family :)

All is going very well this week!!  I have been learning a lot and getting better at planning and sticking to the plan.  I forgot to tell you an experience last week, so I wanted to update you on probably the most dramatic thing that has happened thus far.  So one day we were sitting in class and my companion was complaining of the heat (like she does every day :)) so I didn't think much of it.  But during a role play she started to get really shakey and pale...and she sat down and pretty much went into shock.  She could barely hold herself up and she was sweating.  We tried to lay her down but she said a blessing would be nice.  So we helped her stay in the chair as the Elders read off of their cheat card to know how to give a blessing.  It was a wonderful blessing though!  Elder Bartholomew (my district leader) gave her a beautiful blessing even though it was his first time and he was really nervous.  The spirit was so strong in the room.  So then we tried to help her walk down to the sick bay, but she collapsed almost immediately.  So we sent for a wheelchair and the Elders carried her in the wheelchair down three flights of stairs (there is no elevator in my building).  She got to sick bay and was put on oxygen, I was sent back to class companionless after she had settled down.  But I did get a pager (I felt kind of worldly) in case she needed me.  After a few hours I went back and she was much better.  Apparently the shock of the climate change mixed with some of her prior health problems and nutrion deficiancies got to her body and it didn't want to work right :) how is that for a doctors report? :) but she is doing much better now!  Still complains about the heat, except outside at seven in the morning and in the snow, but she is healthy and well :)  So that was an adventure!

New news for this week:  I was asked last Sunday to the the Coordinating Sister for my branch.  So pretty much I watch over all the sisters in my zone.  I was pretty overwhelmed with the assignment, for a feel there are many sisters more qualified than I, but I am very excited to get to know the sisters better and be a help when they need it.  Besides watching over the girls I just get to go to more meetings, work with the zone leaders, and make my schedule just a little more crazy :)  It is a good opportunity though. 

This week in the TRC we were able to "Pick up" an investigator and bring them to church on "a bus."  We had to talk to them for fifteen minutes in German and explain church and ask about their reading in the Book of Mormon and their prayers.  It was tough!  But a wonderful experience!  It helped me make new goals with the language and know where I need to go.  And then we were able to teach the second lesson in English.  Oh wow...it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had thus far.  I had to plan most of the lesson alone, because my companion was in interviews when we had time to plan, so we got to talk for about ten minutes on what we wanted to teach.  But when we got in there I was praying so hard that the Spirit would take control, and boy did He ever!  We both taught and the lessson flowed, we turned to scriptures in a timely manner that supported and strengthened the lesson.  We explained clearly and were able to bear beautiful testimony of the Savior and His atonement.  And guess what else?!  I felt like I should extend an invitation to be baptized and they both said that would be a goal they want to work toward!!! :) ok it was just acting but it feels so real when you are in the TRC and the spirit is still there so strongly!  And I was still prompted to know when the right time to say things was.  Role playing truly is how the missionaries are supposed to learn at this time!  We left with grateful hearts and the two sisters we taught said they felt blessed by our message as well.  Afterwards I had that feeling after you give a lesson in Relief Society and you put everything into it and you feel like He did all the work for you, but you are physically and emotionally exhausted but on top of the world!  Ya...that is how I felt :) if the mission is like that all the time, I am gonna be so warn out every day!!! But SO HAPPY!!!!

As you can see I am still loving the experience so much!  It is so rewarding to be a missionary!  I have so much fun with my comp and the girls in my room.  Sister Browne hid in Sister Andersens closet the other day and they came in and I was trying to act natural.  Sister Andersen opened her closet and just saw the head of Sister Browne :) she screamed and slammed the closet door and ran away :) it was very funny!  We aren't supposed to prank...but things like that can't be passed up sometimes :) 

Well that is my update for the week!  We are continuing to learn a lot from the speakers, teachers, each other, and most importantly the Spirit.

I have an undeniable testimony of my Father in Heaven.  I know He loves me so much and He truly has called me to His work.  I am His disciple and I am willing to do His will.  I know my Savior lives and is my advocate with the Father.  He has made it possible for me to have Eternity with Him and my wonderful family!   I know the church was restored throught a prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon was translated by Him through the Power of God.  The Book of Mormon brings so much strenght and comfort.  The answers found in it are undeniable!  I love the Gospel!!! And I love being a missionary!!! Die Kirche ist WAHR!!!!!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Smith

Our God Is An Awesome God

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been an absolutely amazing week :) they just keep getting better and better!!!  I wish I could just send a movie clip of my week :) but we'll just have to watch it in heaven together.  I will try to give a few highlights for now :)
Finding:  We have been so busy with appointments that we are having a hard time keeping finding time planned, but somehow, with the Lord's help we are able to do enough finding to make out at least one new appointment every day!  It is absolutely incredible! 
Teaching/Baptizing:  This week we have taught some of the most amazing lessons I have ever been a part of!  I have noticed this week that people have different smiles :) and there is a distinct spiritual smile that almost everyone has as they learn about spiritual truths!  I have seen it so many times this week and it is one of the most rewarding things in the world!!  Sister Peltier and I have been teaching better together and getting to know the scriptures better and we are feeling more and more prepared to follow the Spirit as we teach.  We still have SO much work to do but it is nice to notice improvement. 
We met with the absolutely Golden investigator this week :) and...she is a Gold mine!!!  As we were teaching her she couldn't hold still because she was so excited!!!  We taught her about the restoration of the gospel and it was then that she realized how much of a miracle it was that she found the only two missionaries in Bielefeld for the only church with the fulness of the gospel!  She was so happy that she stood up and gave us a hug in the middle of the lesson!!!  She had already read through Alma in a week!  She told us about the stories in the Book of Mormon and how they apply to her :) it was absolutely AMAZING!!! Then we told her that she could set a date to get baptized right now :) she got so excited!!! So we set a date for 11-11-2011.  :) the date fits her personality so well.  She is the most loving amazing happy-go-lucky girl I have ever met :).  We consider ourselves SO blessed to be able to be here when she was so ready to hear the gospel! 
We have also had many many more wonderful lessons this week!  One investigator has been preparing for baptism and with a full time job he has been reading for an hour every day in the Book of Mormon!  9 investigators were at church again :) and our bishop was astonished, it was fun to see!  The blessings have been poured out, so much that we really don't have room enough to receive them :) we are going to have to be better planners to accomidate (I think I slaughtered the spelling on that one). 
Keep:  Our newest member has been a great help!  He is always willing to come on joint teaches and bears wonderful testimony.  He has been called as the President of the investigator class and he has been loving it :) he is our best member at greeting and getting to know the investigators. 
Other: We had Präsident Interviews this week and it was absolutely amazing!  We learned more about the Atonement from Präsident Pimentel and it was absolutely amazing! Every time I study the Atonement I realize just how much I don't know.  We can rely on the Savior to do things that "normal" beings can't do!  When things get hard and we don't think we can give more, we need to rely on the Savior to help us go above and beyond the boundaries of normality!  I want to challenge you all to study the Atonement again and how to let it be more a part of your life!  (with every lesson comes a commitment).
The work of the Lord is going on unstopped by Satans puny arm!  There are many many hard things that are happening in the world, but there are many many miracles happening every day!  I know with all of my heart that this is the church of Jesus Christ again on the earth in its fulness!  We are so blessed to know of the things that we need to do to be with our Heavenly Father again, and oh how grateful I am that He has made it possible throught Jesus Christ that I can have my wonderful family for all ETERNITY!!! I love you all!  Thank you so much for your love and support!  I pray for you all and I know Heavenly Father has you in His sight, He can take care of us better than anyone on this Earth.  I love you! 
Until next week,
Leibe Grüße,
Sister Smith     

Sep 12th and 19th Happy Birthday Sister Smith

September 19th  Happy Birthday Tonya Sister Smith!


Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been an absolutely miraculous week!  Heavenly Father has been sending us so many wonderful blessings every day!  Bielefeld is a wonderful place to be and I feel so blessed to be serving the Lord here at this time!  A few events from this week:
Finding:  We were in the main part of town looking for an investigator that we were supposed to meet at the park.  We weren't exactly sure where he would be so we were walking around a little lost and a lady walked past us and stopped because she saw our name tags.  She got really really excited and explained to us that she had just moved into town and came into town looking for representatives of Jesus Christ.  We were a little surprised and didn't quite know what to say (you would think we would be a little more used to this now) she asked how she could come to church and get a hold of us, so we gave her a card and told her where the church was, she thanked us and walked away.  We just stood there for a second...looked at each other and then we realized we didn't even get her name!  Let alone set up an appointment or get a telephone number....oh bother!!  You would think after nine months of missionary work in Germany we would get the hang of a few things... so feeling kind of sheepish we found our investigator and had a wonderful Termin!  At the end of the day, after having three more wonderful Termine we were feelings like nothing could possibly be better!  And then...we received a text.  It was from the woman we had seen in the park!!!  I wish I could quote the text exactly but it is in German :) so I will sum up.  She said that she was so grateful that she had met us in the city, she had gone especially to find someone so that she would know how she could come closer to God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost.  She said that she knew the Holy Ghost had led us to each other and she would like to become a follower of Christ as well.  She said that we should give her a call and included her name and phone number!!! WOW!!!!! We couldn't believe it!  We were practically dancing home that night!!!  It was one of the most amazing days of my life!!!  Then on Sunday she came to church with her boyfriend and absolutely LOVED IT!!! She is the sweetest girl ever!!  I am so excited to get to know her more to help her discover the gospel! 
Teaching:  We had so many wonderful lessons this week!!  We still have the wonderful problem that we don't have enough time in the week to meet with everyone that would like to meet with us :) We are trying to plan some splits this next week so that we can double some of the time we have!  We had nine investigators at church and the members were a little bit shocked :) our poor mission leader had to teach the investigator class and he was a little overwhelmed!  We are so blessed!!!!  And it is really comforting to the investigators to know that there are others who are learning just like they are!  The Lord is DEFINITELY in charge of his work!  This is only possible through his power!  He is so wonderful to let us witness so many miracles! 
Baptize:  We were able to make out another Baptismal date!!  He is a really cool guy from Russia and he is excited about learning the gospel!  He has already read through 2 nephi and come to church once.  We have only met with him twice and we asked him both times if he would like to be baptized, the first time he said he would pray about it and the second time he said yes!!!  We are so excited!  We are also making progess with the others who have baptismal dates and working on making Calenders so they can see their goals. 
Keep:  We met with a couple inactive members this week and had some really good conversations about the truths of the gospel.  We are hoping and praying that one in particular will make it back to church.  He is so confused because of his own thoughts and ideas, we are meeting with him again and hope to help him rely on Heavenly Father for the answers.
All in all it has been a simply wonderful week!  We are so blessed to be here and I am loving every moment!  Thank you for all of the love and support that you give to me :) and thank you for the birthday wishes!  My companion won't let me forget that I am old :) She is so awesome, I love her!  And I love you all! I have the best family in the whole world!  Thank you for all that you do for me!  Have a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith


September 12 Letter,

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been an absolutely extraordinary experience here in Germany this week!  The Lord has shown His hand in the work and aloud us to be a part of Him working miracles in many peoples lives.  The week actually started off a little slow and we had many appointments that fell out.  Sister Peltier and I were feeling a little down for now reason at all, and trying to get out of that silly slump.  I realized that there was absolutely no reason for us to be down about anything, and as soon as we turned our hearts to gratitude the work exploded!  We were able to make out new appointments every day with someone new and we had wonderful appointments and many with members present!  Our investigators continue to make a lot of progess and we were able to make out another baptism date this week!   We are so extremely blessed to be here!  I think the highlight of my week...was Saturday and Sunday :) they were two of the best days of my life!  On Saturday we had four appointments, and they were amazing!  One was with a woman preparing for baptism and we just stopped in on her without calling and she was thrilled.  She had been having a really hard time and was relieved to see us and to talk about the gospel.  She thanked us over and over for our spiritual thought and we encouraged her to pray for strength.  Then we met with someone new and he was really cool.  He was really shy but he was excited to learn about the gospel and agreed to pray to find out if he should be baptized :) Then we ate lunch with a member and it was a wonderful German lunch with potatoes, meat, and saurkraut!  yum :) then we went and met another new person and he is athiest...but he wants to find out if he is there so he is interested in learning about religion.  He has had a hard life and I hope that we can bring him some comfort in his hardships.  He is so strong for all that he is been through and the gospel could help him so much!  Then we met with another investigator preparing for baptism and it was AMAZING!!!  He said that he still didn't know for sure if the church was the only true church but he said that he felt a "magnet" to the church more than all the other churches!  A MAGNET!! That is the coolest thing I have ever heard :)  The Holy Ghost could definitely feel like a magnet to the truth! 
Then on Sunday we were able to experience another miracle (Isaac, maybe you can share this story for your talk in Primary)
Last month my companion and I prayed and fasted very earnestly that we would have 8 investigators at church.  We made it our focus and worked the whole week to get 8 people there.  We met some wonderful new people in our efforts (including the investigator that said the church was like a magnet) and called a lot of former investigators to invite them to church.  Then it came time for church and I just knew that there would be 8 people there!  Well church started and we had one investigator at church.  I was convinced that there would be 7 people that would come for Sacrament meeting the last hour.  As sacrament meeting came nobody new came...I was sad and felt like maybe I didn't work hard enough or have enough faith that it would happen.  Then in the last ten minutes of sacrament meeting an investigator walked in.  We were so excited that he was there!  Even for ten minutes of church.  We worked with this investigator and that very week he chose a baptismal date.  We have been working diligently since then and yesterday at church, a month and a half later, we had 8 investigators there!!!  We knew that it was an answer to our prayers, faith, and diligent work and we were so excited that so many people had chosen to take a step to come closer to Christ.  Heavenly Father did hear our prayers but he chose to bless us in His time.  He helped us to not only have 8 people at church but to find peopel ready to be baptized and take that wonderful step closer to Him.  As we work with Heavenly Father and make high goals, we can find those who are waiting to come to Him. 
I have been overwhelmed with gratitude this week for the many miracles that we are able to see.  We are having a hard time finding time to meet with everyone that would like to meet with us and feeling a little overwhelmed, but these are definitely problems we will gladly deal with as missionaries!!!  The work of the Lord is going forth leaps and bounds and no puny arm of Satan could stop this work from going forward!  Our Heavenly Father loves us and he loves all of His children!  He will give us the opportunity to help if we are willing to.  I am so eternally grateful for this opportunity and I know that we have angels helping us.  Thank you for your prayers and support.  Keep looking for opportunities to share the gospel :) missionary work should come from the members, that is when it is most effective!  Let us all be missionaries in the Lord's hands!  I love you all!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith    

I am sorry if I am confusing everyone, but I was just doing some editing on this site and saw there were a couple of posts that I had saved as drafts, but not sure that I published them.  So they are put here as if they were just made, but they are old letters, so there are 5 letters here that you may not have read, but they are out of order.  If I was better at this I would be able to figure out how to put them in the right order. 

Hello Everyone!
I'm sorry I didn't write very much last week, it was a crazy P-day!  We're trying to have more of a relaxing P-day today and actually get what we need to done!  And I'll try to be a little more descriptive about some of the major events that happened this week. 
Well...we had a huge week planned with 23 tremins!  It was great!  But then on wednesday we had 7 tremins planned!....and...6 out of the seven fell out...ouch...so that was a rough day!  We had quite a few on the other days fall out as well.  But so is the missionary life.  I related missionary work to dating this week (I'm working on my analogies because my companion is amazing at them).  So here's my analogy:  With dating if you get in a relationship and it doesn't work out it is actually for the better.  You shouldn't feel down for very long because it wasn't the right person, and now that it is over you have the opportunity to find the right one.  Well...so is it with missionary work.  Everyone needs the gospel but not everyone is ready for it just yet.  She when an appoinment falls out we can look at it like a blessing, because maybe they weren't ready and we have time to go find someone who is!  ..........ok I'll keep working on the analogies........ Just trying to keep a positive attitude :) and that made us laugh. 
But with along with the disappointments this week came many amazing experiences!  We decided on Thursday that we were going to be better at planning.  So during out OYMing time (open your mouth) we planned out exactly the streets we would walk down.  We did this so the Lord could lead his prepared children into our path.  So we prayed that he would and had faith that it would happen.  Then we started down the street.  We didn't have as much time as we had planned but we decided to try to go as far as we could on the path planned.  So we started down the street with not much success.  Then it was time to turn around and head back.  As we did so we met a man.  We introduced ourselves and didn't even say much about the church.  Almost immediately he asked us if we were Jehova's witnesses, we said no and said who we were again. He said he didn't have a lot of time at the moment but he had a concern that he wanted to talk about, and we might be able to help him.  We told him we would love to and we made out a tremin for this coming week!!! WOW!!!  Contacts like that are few and far between!  So we're praying that the tremin will go through and we'll be able to help him out.  But that is not where our story ends.  We kept walking and Sister Jensen glansed up at a former investigators apartment and saw him waving to us.  So we decided to go by real quick.  He came down to the front door and told us that we were an answer to his prayer.  His mother had passed away the day before and he needed some sort of solace, he needed someone that understood that he was a child of God.  Then he looked out the window and saw us!  So we were able to comfort him a little by telling him that he truly would be with his mother again and that she was very happy right now.  He told us to come back in a few days when he is not so sad and we can talk more!  We headed back to our car and needless to say we were very happy!  I'm very grateful Heavenly Father is in control of this work! 
Another cool experiences this week was with a progressive investigator!  He is SO close to baptism but wasn't sure about the whole thing.  So we planned a lesson about the steps to baptism and why we need it.  We meet in the church so we planned out a little course.  We started in one room and put der Glaube (Faith) on the door.  Then we talked about faith in Jesus Christ and we it was so necessary.  We asked him if he had faith in Jesus Christ and he said yes, so we moved into the next room.  In the next room there was another door that said Umkehr (Repentance) and we talked about repentance and why it is necessary.  We asked him if he would try his best to repent every day.  He said yes and we went into the next room.  Then on the next door was die Taufe und die Gabe des Heiligen Geistes (baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost).  We then went over the rest of the baptismal interview questions with him and asked him if he was willing to obey them.  He said yes and so we said that he could see what was in the next room.  So we went in and we had set up on the table a picture of Christ.  We explained how we prepare to take His name upon us.  We make sacred covenants with him and he promises to always be with us through the Holy Ghost.  He told us that he would like to be baptized!  YAHOO!!!!  We didn't get to set a date because he has a few more concerns that we are going to cover tomorrow but hopefully we'll be able to set a date tomorrow!  He is so awesome!  And then he said before he left, I always feel so great when I leave here.  I said me too!!! 
Being a missionary is absolutely amazing!  I have a lot of help from Heavenly Father!  I have progressed greatly with the language!  Sister Jensen has helped me a whole lot!  But I can understand almost everything now.  There are many words I don't know but I can usually get the meaning from the context.  I have been able to help a lot more with lessons and express what I mean a lot more! 
I was teaching an investigator about the atonement the other day and about the process of repentance and what it is.  As I was describing the pain that our Savior went through for us I felt the spirit flood over me it seemed.  It witnessed to me again how much our Savior loves us and how much we need his everlasting Atonement!  It is so wonderful to be able to teach such wonderful truths!
I also had a fun first this week!  We had a Fasching Party this week with the branch!  Fasching is huge in Germany.  It during the whole month of February and you have parties and everyone dresses up, kind of like Halloween but its not gory and creepy, more funny costumes.  Then we play fun games and there was a choir of old ladies here that sang some fun songs for us!  Then we just ate and ate and ate!  It was really funny.  I'll send pictures.
Ok...well I hope that was sufficient for this week and maybe some of last week!  I love you all and I pray for you all the time!  The church is so true!  We are so blessed to know through the Book of Mormon his marvelous plan for us!  I'm so grateful that Joseph Smith had the faith to pray with his whole soul to find out the truth!  I know he restored the gospel and translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God.  We can return to our Heavenly Father and live together as eternal families!  It is a PERFECT plan!
I love you have hope to hear from you soon!
Viele Dank und Alles Gute!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

March 11 and March 19th

Liebe Familie und Freunden,
Hello everyone!  I hope you are all happy and healthy!  It has been an
absolutely amazing week full of miracles here in Halberstadt.  Me and
Sister Jensen have been working a lot on having more faith that the
Lord will lead us to the people who have been prepared for us.  We
have started making goals for our finding time every 20-30 minutes and
it has made an amazing difference!  Almost everytime we accomplish
what we set as a goal through prayer and diligent work!  So here is an
overview of our week.
Monday:  We had a fun P-day and we went running in the mountains.  We
found a cool tree house and climbed up and looked over a cool green
valley.  Then we got lost and spent about a half an hour finding our
way back to the car.  It was really good to get out into nature
though, Heavenly Fathers creations are so spectacular! We did some
doors on Monday night and we found a really cool guy.  He let us in
and we talked to him a little about that Book of Mormon.  He is a
little handicap but he still does a lot on his own!  We saw him two
more times this week and he came to church!  He is really cool and we
are excited that we found him!
Tuesday:  We met with our investigator who has a baptismal date and he
is still going strong!  We are so excited for him and excited to see
him baptized this upcoming week!!! YAHOO!  We also went to another
investigators house and he is also really friendly.  But he thinks way
too much...he has a lot of theories about why people believe in God
and that he isn't real.  He told us that he doesn't think he is ready
to open his heart to believe, he enjoys the time with us but has no
interest in the church.  But he is a musician and he showed us some of
the stuff that he has composed.  It was really cool!  He let us take
the cds he has made to copy them.  So I will have some fun music as
souveneirs (?) after my mission!  We were also doing some OYMing and
we saw a black lady and Sister Jensen knows I LOVE black people!  She
she grinned at me and we went to talk to her.  Of course she is
AWESOME!!!!!  He name is Sandra and she agreed to meet with us!  She
said she had three kids!  YAHOO BLACK KIDS!!!!!!!!
Wednesday:We went to Braunschweig for DCM and me and Sister Jensen
made an amazing lunch for everyone!  Then we came back and we had a
Geneology evening with the Branch.  It was really cool!  We learned
how to read old German script...which is nothing like it is now.  It
is a whole nother language!  I was really excited about it!  I know I
have ancestors from Germany and I can practice and maybe be able to do
more work for my ancestors from Germany!  During the meeting I felt
like this was one of the reasons I was sent to Germany to learn the
language and become acquainted with their writing, so I can do work
for my German ancestors!  I love when the spirit lets you in on little
secrets like that :).
Thursday:  It was Sister Jensens one year in German celebration!  So
we got ice cream of course!!  We also had five appointments!  AWESOME!
 We met with Sandra again and it was just as amazing as I expected!
She has three ADORABLE black children and they were EVERYWHERE during
our lesson.  So I took it upon myself to keep them a little
entertained so Sister Jensen could try to teach Sandra about the Plan
of Salvation.  The kids ever gave us kisses on the cheeks!  It was
wonderful!   Sandra absolutely loved the lesson!
Friday: We did our Service project at the old folks home and had some
fun with the old people!  Did our weekly planning and met with
Schwester Munke for dinner!  We had a wonderful Abendbrot together!
(In German the main meal is lunch and in the evening they just have
Abendbrot or Evening Bread.  They eat bread, cheese, hard boiled eggs,
meat, and stuff like that, but not a ton like Americans for dinner.
Although we still seem to eat way to much when we have Abendbrot with
members!)
Saturday(normally a little slower day):  We had 5 appointments!!! 7
planned but two fell out.  We met Sandra again :)  her kids were
asleep this time and she had read through the Plan of Salvation
pamphlet and for half an hour SHE TAUGHT US THE PLAN!!  It was so
cool!  She even told us about the Celestial Kingdom and how she wanted
to go there.  She also told us about how she had received revelations
from God and when we are close enough to him and pure in heart that he
can speak to us and tell us things we didn't know she also said that
with enough faith we can see God and His angels!  We taught her about
the Restoration a little bit and how Joseph saw God and Jesus Christ.
It wasn't hard for her to believe because her faith was already so
strong!  We left feeling like our faith was nothing compared to hers
and we needed to go repent for our lack of faith!  It was AMAZING!!!!
Besides 5 wonderful appoinments we had amazing finding time in
between!  We made our FOUR APPOINTMENTS!  We were so blessed and
miracles are coming from left and right!
Sunday:  I gave a talk in church about Faith.  I didn't have to write
it all out word for word this time!  I felt like I was helped a lot to
say what I needed to say and Sister Jensen said I did well!  I was
glad!  (I was asked to speak again at the baptism this week)  We had
four members at church this week, the other half of the branch was
traveling or sick.  But we had four investigators and three visitors,
so still a good turn out!  We were struggling to figure out who would
sit with the investigators :)  But we figured it out!  We had another
eating appointment with Schwester Munke and she had a friend over.  We
talk for a while and then we gave a spiritual thought which lead to a
discussion about the church.  Before we left Schwester Munke was able
to give her a Book of Mormon. It was a great experience!
Well that is a long but brief overview of a week of so many miracles!
I feel so so blessed to be a part of this work!  I feel like Ammom in
Alma 26 when he boasts of Heavenly Father.  I know too that as of my
strength I am nothing, but I do boast in my God, for with Him all I
can do all things!  The church is true!  I know that without a doubt.
It is so perfect in every aspect except the imperfect people who are
trying every day to be more like Him!  I am grateful He is patient
with me and helping me in my weaknesses.  I am so grateful for the
opportunity to be a missionary!  I love the work and there is nothing
like seeing the lives of people around me change because of their love
for the Savior!  I hope you are all happy and healthy!  Keep looking
for the miracles in your life and I know you will find them!  Heavenly
Father blesses us with His tender mercies every day!  I love you all
and hope to hear from you soon!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

Aug 22 to Sep 5th

Aug 22,

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

It has been a fabulous week of Wunder (miracles)!  We have seen the hand of the Lord abundantly in the work, this week perhaps more than at any other week in my life.  This week we had a mission finding goal to make out 21 Ballards for the week for the last time that we use Ballards.  It proved to be very very amazing for us!  I haven't heard what it was like for the whole mission yet.  I would like to share a miracle from every day this week:

Monday:  We had a wonderful FHE and I was able to give the lesson about the Atonemtent, in preperation for the lesson I have learned so much more about the Atonement and how it can be a part of my life daily!  After that our next appointment fell out and we went to do finding.  We didn't have a new Termin at eight o'clock so we asked the Elders to pray for us and we continued talking to people in the main part of the city.  In one hour we made out four new appts!!!  It was spectacular! 

Tuesday:  We had a full day of Termine but we still needed to get our finding in.  We talked to people in between appointments but we weren't able to make out a Termin.  So we prayed with our member who fed us dinner that night and set out to walk home.  We started walking (in the wrong direction without knowing) and we talked to a man and his son.  We had a good little chat and he said we could come by another time :) so we made out a Termin!  Then we found the right way home :)

Wednesday:  We met with an investigator and invited him to baptism!  He said YES!  So we were able to make a baptismal date with him.  Then we moved another investigators date ealier and he will be baptized next week!  Now Sister Peltier and I can both be here before transfers :)

Thursday: We had to tell an investigator that wasn't making progress that we couldn't come any more, but we had a wonderful lesson together and we bore testimony and the spirit was very strong!  Although it is never easy to do, we were blessed and we were able to leave with challenging him to experience more.  It was a blessing/miracle for us that we had peace with the decision that we made. 

Friday:  Nothing extremely extraordinary happened, but we were able to have a few good Termine, planning time, and make out a Termin :) definitely a successful day!

Saturday:  We went to a ward missionary day in Minden and got to work with a fun member there.  But when we came back, once again we hadn't made out a Termin yet and we called the Elders to pray for us.  We talked to so many different people, we gave a Book of Mormon to someone, we helped clear up confusions about the church, we talked to a lady searching for a new church, but no body made out a Termin with us!  It was almost 9:30 and we were still in the city so we needed to head home.  We went down to take the Tram and talked to a man who made out a Termin with us!!! We were so exhausted spiritually but so grateful that the Lord answered our prayers and helped us to talk to so many people that needed to talk to us.

Sunday:  We had six people at church!  We had a fun birthday party for one of the new converts and then we went to a Termin with someone new.  We talk to him about the Restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said yes :) so we were able to make out a baptismal date with him too :) wow wow wow!  So many blessings!  Then we prayed to make out a Termin on the way home and we did :) The Lord is willing to bless us when we ask and know that he will answer!  My testimony has been strengthened that He is in charge of this work!  He loves us so much and he loves all of His children.  It is a wonderful opportunity to be here and serve the Lord!  Thank you for all that you do for me!  I love you all and you are in my prayers!  I hope you can see the hand of the Lord in your lives and ask for miracles and have faith that they will come!  I love you!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Smith  

Aug 29th

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

It has been another miraculous week here in Bielefeld!  It was also the end of another transfer and I can't believe it!  But fortunately Sister Peltier and I are both staying here together in Bielefeld for another transfer :) we are both excited about that.  We did rearrange the furniture in our apartment today so we could feel like we are getting a fresh start into the new transfer and leaving behind any bad habits or weaknesses that we have had in the last transfer :) it was a fun project.  As for the missionary work this week it was absolutely amazing! 

Finding: We started a new program in the mission with finding and we call it New Apps.  Every day we try to make out a new appoinment, it isn't a lot different than our last program with Ballards but it helps us to focus more on making out Appointments.  It has been great for us so far!  We made out a new appointment every day this week! 

Teaching:  It has been a great teaching day this week and we are doing better at getting the members to come on Joint Teaches with us.  We have had so many wonderful appointments and our investigators are making progress :)  We had one Termin this week with a man from Iran and our other investigator who is also from Iran agreed to come along to help him understand what we have already taught him :) he's not even a member yet and he is already a joint teach!  It was really awesome!  We did lose one investigator this week with whom we had a baptismal date :( he called  us and told us he had talked to his pastor and of course he told him not to meet with us any more.  We were really sad, but at least he knows where he can find the truth when he is ready. 

Baptizing!:  We had an AMAZING baptism this week!!  After three years of investigating the church Thomas was able to get baptized!  He has worked with so many missionaries and I feel so lucky to be able to see the fruits of all of their labors and watch a son of our Heavenly Father enter the waters of baptism.  It was also the baptism of an eight year old girl in the ward and it was really fun to see the differences between them but the same importance of the covenant they have made.  There was a wonderful spirit there!  He will continue to progress as he accepts callings in the ward and works with our Heavenly Father to accomplish wonderful things in his life!  This is such a great work!

Keeping:  We didn't do as much keeping as we had hoped this week, and we haven't had a lot of appointments with the members because nobody is in charge of setting up eating appointments and it doesn't seem right for us to invite ourselves to eat :)  So we are going to try to get more short power visits in this week and visit some less or inactive members. 

Other stories for this week...

A member came to town that lives in Frankfurt-oder and she changed my view of a lot of things!  She told us right when she got here that she would love to come with us on Joint teaches, so we asked her to come on monday.  I went with her and Sister Peltier went with another member.  Our appointment fell out...but as we were waiting she told me her amazing conversion story!  She is from Egypt and she was raised Muslim.  She explained the challenges of changing everything you have ever known to be true and accepting Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.  She is so AWESOME!!!  She taught me that I need to try to step into the shoes of the people I teach and really understand where they come from.  She said the missionaries were always upset that she wouldn't pray to find out if it was true, and they didn't understand that she wasn't ready to give up everything she has ever known (even though it was only two months between the time that she met the missionaries and her baptism).  Sometimes as a missionary it is easy to get into habits of thinking and teaching because so many people have similar concerns and questions, but she reminded me that nobody is the same and we all have specific needs and desires in this life.  So that is my goal to really have charity for every single person we meet and try to feel what they need through the power of the Holy Ghost and teach them accordingly. 

I know with all of my heart that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ.  Being on a mission has given me an opportunity to see what is in the world and the different ways of thinking.  A lot of people think that we are wrong (we were even called to repentance twice this week) but I can always stand strong and know that I have asked my Heavenly Father what is true and received an answer directly from him.  What a wonderful blessing it is to know of the truthfulness of His gospel and how we can return to live with them again.  Thank you for each of you and the examples that you have been to me in my life.  My family is the main reason why I am what I am today, and I want to be and do more for you and for my Heavenly Father.  I hope you are all doing well!  Thank you for your love and support!  I love you!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Smith

Sep 5th
Liebe Familie und Freunde,
I have missed you all very much this week!  It has been the first time on my mission that I feel like I have had a little homesickness, but it doesn't last for long when I remember why I am here and get back to work!  But I do love you and I am so happy we can be together for all eternity if we all make the right choices in this life!  It has been another wonderful week in Bielefeld!  The work of the Lord continues to go forth!  Our newest member of the ward was confirmed yesterday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost :) he has made so much progress and he is glowing already!  I am excited to see him make more progress in the gospel!  What a life we have as missionaries :) we get to watch miracles take place in peoples lives and watch the light begin to illuminate their countenances!  It sure is fun to see the fruits of our labors when we get to see a baptism, even though there were probable more than 20 missionaries that have worked with him. 
Some highlights from this week:
We found an investigator again that went on vacation and we couldn't reach him when he got back.  We were so sad because he had made so much progress and found out that there is a God and loved reading the Book of Mormon and learning from the stories.  So we tried to go by a few times and he wasn't there, but we tried again this week and he was there!  He said his cell phone is broken and he was sad that he couldn't get a hold of us either.  We were so relieved!  We figured he was avoiding us (because that is very common :)) so we were very glad to hear that he still wanted to meet with us and we made out a Termin for this next week! YAHOO!!! 
We found a new investigator this week and he came to church as well!  He is really confused about which church is right and we are trying to explain to him that he can find out!  It is so wonderful when people understand that we can talk to Heavenly Father and he answers! 
We were talking to people in the city the other day and we talked to an older man that said he doesn't know where the truth is.  He knows that the other churches are missing something and that some of their teachings are not right.  He has been visiting one church where he feels like most of the things are right but not all.  We told him that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth and that he could find the truth!  He didn't want to make out a Termin but he said he would come to church sometime.  After we talked to him a thousand things flooded into my head of what I could have said better...I can only pray that he felt the Holy Ghost and will do something to find the truth that he is searching for!  There are people searching! 
The members are starting to notice that we haven't had any eating appointments and the are starting to invite us without anyone organizing the appointments :) we are excited because we don't have a lot of contact with the members when we don't have eating appointments!  For a while it was nice not to be stuffed every other day :) but after two transfers we are ready to see the members again! 
We had a fun experience last night...we rode the Bahn (tram) and Buses out to a little part of the city and it takes about an hour to get there.  After having a Termin with a man who drank and smoke the whole time and trying to avoid the Porn on the walls (the Spirit wasn't very strong) we left and went to get back on the bus around eight o'clock.  We waited for the bus and it only comes every half an hour.  We waited....and it didn't come...weird.... So we double checked the plan...it was right... So we waited for the next one...to see if one just fell out...well if you do the math we had been waiting about an hour now...so we did our planning and talked to a couple people walking by...but there wasn't much to do.  In the meantime we were trying to figure out a back up plan in case it didn't come.  We saw another bus stop across the street and there was a bus that ran in the other direction case ours didn't come.  And it didn't come...so we went to other side of the rode and realized that that bus didn't run later than eight o'clock...so we walked around the neighborhood trying to find something that could give us a hint as to where we could go.  (Our district leader was aware of our dilemma).  Then we looked down the road and saw the bus that we wanted turning in the other direction!  We couldn't catch it so we walked toward where he turned and there was a temporary bus stop there where the bus was running a detour!  Oh man!  There were no signs whatsoever to tell us that unless we walked past the new bus stop.  So we waited there another half an hour and finally took the bus!  We were so exhausted and sick of smelling like cigarette smoke and we had already told each other all of our favorite things :) to keep ourselves positive, and we rode the hour back to our apartment and finally got home a little after 10:30!  Wowee!  We were so glad to be home!  It was definitely a fun adventure!  But the lesson of the day for all of you is to be very very grateful that you have a car :) and you can jump in when you want and get out when you want! 
Ok that is quite the novel for this week!  I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

Aug 15, 2011

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been another wonderful week!  A little slower this week...a lot of people are on vacation for the next month, and probably due as well to my lack of experience :) I feel very very inadequate to do this job for the Lord, but I am learning every day and Sister Peltier is a wonderful example to me!  I know I can learn and do better with the help of the Lord.  Even though it was a little slower (meaning mostly that a lot of Termine fell out), we still saw many many miracles!  In our mission we have four main points of concentration for our work they are find, teach, baptize, and keep.  So I think what I want to start doing is writing a little bit about each of those every week.  So first Finding!  This week was a good finding week...in that the people were finding us :) we were walking down the street to visit an investigator and we saw a man outside of his shop across the street.  We waved and said hello and he waved back.  Our investigator wasn't there so we went to visit someone else and came back about an hour later to see if she was home.  We saw the man again and he came to us to talk to us!  He asked us about what we were doing and he wanted to know more!  So he asked if he could meet with us at our church on wednesday :) of course we agreed!!!  Another time we had a Termin but our investigator wasn't at home, so we were waiting outside of the door to see if she would come a little late.  As we were waiting someone opened up the bottom door of the apartment so we could come in.  We went in and saw a man and started to talk to him.  He had interest in learning about the church and we made out a Termin!  We didn't even have to ring the doorbell!  We just started laughing after that :) the Lord is so funny in how He blesses us sometimes, it is just too easy!  Now for teaching!  We didn't have as many Termine as planned this week but we did have some awesome ones!  The young man who came to church last week was able to meet with us again during the week.  We taught him about the restoration of the gospel and told him that he needed to pray for himself to know if it was true.  So he said to us, "ok so this week I need to pray to know three things!  If the Book of Mormon is true, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if President Monson is the prophet today!"  WOW WOW WOW!  So of course we said yes :) and promised him that he would know for himself if he asked in faith!  He was really excited to find out!  Now for Baptizing!  We made out another baptismal date this week!!!  Elder Caussè challenged us to challenge everyone at every lesson to baptism and we have seen a very rapid growth in the number of baptisms in the mission!  This week we challenged an investigator who has been investigating the church off and on for 3 years.  She just got back from traveling and we were able to meet with her.  We challenged her to follow the example of Christ and be baptized through the Power of the Priesthood and she said yes!!  She is going out of town again but we were able to set a date for Nov. 13th.  The members have been wonderful to her as well!  We had a member pick her up to bring her to church and bring her home and another member invited her over for lunch this week :) members are wonderful!  So she is being taken care of!  We are also getting excited for a baptism in three weeks!  It is looking like he is going to schaff(accomplish) it! And now keeping!  Keeping means strengthening the new members or bringing less active members back, and this week we did both at the same time.  The newest member in this ward was called as a ward missionary and we were able to take her to visit one of her friends that is less active.  We had a wonderful time and they were both more excited about the gospel by the end of our time together :) So even though our numbers this week weren't what we wanted them to be, we still consider it a very successful week!  We also had Zone Conference this week and it was absolutely amazing!  We have wonderful leaders in this mission and we are really excited for the new things that President Pimentel has in store for us!  I know he is called of God to lead and guide the missionaries in this mission.  This is truly the work of our Heavenly Father.  He is leading more and more people to this gospel every day and His work is going forth!  I am so grateful that He has called me to be a missionary here in Germany.  This church is his church and the key to building Zion here on the Earth and to gain exhaltation in the life to come.  I am so grateful for my wonderful family with whom I can spend all of eternity with!  Thank you for all of your love and support!  I hope you are all safe, happy, and healthy!  The church is true :) now we just need to tell others about it!
Have a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith     

And from the Germany Berlin Website

Zone Conference Week in Summary

We return from zone conferences uplifted by our interactions with the 202 missionaries.

President Pimentel taught about the "Vision of our Mission." He quoted President Monson, "Vision with out effort is daydreaming; effort without vision is drudgery; but vision, coupled with effort, will win the prize." We were challenged as a mission to raise our vision. New standards of excellence were introduced and the missionaries are excited.

8-8-11

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been another spectacular week here in Bielefeld!  I am finally over that silly cold :) and it is such a relief!  Sister Peltier is healthy as well!  I have a few highlights from this week to tell you about. 
Wednesday:
We had an appointment with one of our "Eternal Investigators" who has been an investigator for almost 4 years now.  He has had a few basptismal dates but he has had troubles quitting smoking.  But this week marked eight weeks of not smoking for him!!! So we made a new baptismal date for September 3rd!  We are really excited and praying really hard that he will stay strong!  He is has been coming to church every week for four years and is a non-baptized member already :).
We also met with our Bishop this week as Elder Caussè said that we should and it was great!!!  Luckily he is from England so we can speak English together and understand each other perfectly (except when he says things like the weather is close....hmmm...that is supposed to mean humid).  But we got his "vision" of the missionary work in the Bielefeld ward and we are excited to work more closely with him and help achieve some of the goals that he has had for a long time!  He also wants to help us out more often as well, so we are really grateful for that! He is so awesome!
Friday:
We were doing some OYMing before an appointment and we were both kind of in another world...we don't like when that happens.  So we had to regroup and we decided that we wanted to have a really good conversation with someone :) be careful what you pray for.  We talk to a really old lady and she stopped for a minute to talk to us.  We told her a little bit about the church and she realized that we were mormons, she asked us if we were from Utah.  We said yes and she pulled out a book about a plant that has been curing all sorts of diseases.  I told her my mom was also really interested in those sorts of things and probably knew about it. (Mom the plant is called Golden Yacca). She offered to give us a book about it but we had to come by her house (that is naturally not a problem for missionaries :)).  We noticed she was also carrying a harmonica and she asked us if she could play us a song :) we agreed of course.  So in the middle of Bielefeld she played us an old German Folk song and then sang the words for us as she danced around a little :) haha oh it was so awesome!  Only on a mission... she is the cutest little old lady! and a fun experience! 
After that we went to our appointment with another eternal investigator but we brought a new member of three years with us.  She is the mother of the little italian girl who was baptized last transfer.  When we got there our investigator had a friend over! (Funny fact, our member was the only German in the room, her friend was Russian, our member was Italian, and we are Americans :) all trying to communicate in German).  The friend was going through some really really challenging times in life and we were able to talk to her about prayer and how much our heavenly father loves her.  It wasn't the lesson we planned but it was definitely what she needed.  And our member was AMAZING!!!  It was her first time teaching with the missionaries and she told some very personal stories and had us all crying :) her testimony is so powerful!  The members are KEY to missionary work.  I really hope both of the women felt of our testimonies and had a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel! 
Saturday:
We met with the Jehova's witnesses that doored into us last week.  We met at there Kings Hall and it was definitely an interesting experience!  They believe that there was an absence of the truth during the dark ages as well.  As we talked about that and shared scriptures about it I could feel the spirit witness of the truth.  And then they started explaining about the many "intelligent" people who had studied the Bible and started their church and it was a sudden change in feeling.  I no longer felt the witness of the Holy Ghost of the truth of the things they were saying.  They explained many things and in many ways they are so close to the truth!  And every time they tried to tell us some way that our church wasn't 100% correct my thoughts were lead to another aspect of the gospel such as the Temple and baptism that made me believe even more that this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth today!  They gave us 15 minutes at the end of the lesson and we explained the Book of Mormon briefly and gave simple testimony that we had prayed about it and we know through the power of the Holy Ghost that is is true.  It was SO interesting to see their style of teaching with books and facts in contrast to ours!  The spirit was strong once again at the end as we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon.  They were really friendly men and they wanted to meet with us again in three weeks.  We will try to get a little more in next time :) one of them was really intrigued that we said that we talk to Heavenly Father and recieve answers. 
Sunday:
We had a goal to have 8 investigators at church this week and we prayed really hard for it and believed that it was going to happen.  Unfortunately we only had three investigators at church but I learned a lot!  As we were in church at first I was confused as to why there weren't more people there when we had believed so strongly that they would be there.  Then I was reminded that everyone is given the gift of free agency and we can't take that away, then I was extremely grateful for the investigators that were there!  Then I became really sad that the other people didn't choose to come to church and I wanted to badly to share the joy that I felt with them.  Later in the day we had a lot of appointments right after each other.  We met with four different people/families and all four appointments went through!!! And they all made new appointments out with us! (Which is the definition of a new investigator).  So instead of having 8 people at church we found 8 new investigators this week!  We felt very blessed and Heavenly Father answered our prayers in a way that we weren't expecting!  The church is true! I know it with all my heart!  I have already written a novel this week so I will close quickly by saying that I love being a missionary and I know with all my heart that the Lord is in this work!  It is HIS work!  This is the true church of Jesus Christ and we can return to our Heavenly Father only in and through His gospel!  I love you all and wish you the best in the week to come! Thank you for all of your prayers, love, support, and emails :)
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

Two for One this week

Because I forgot to post Tonya's letter last week, you get both of the letters today!  She is now just past her hump day!  Less than 9 months left now!  Her release date is the end of April 2012!  So exciting!

July 25 letter:

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been another WONDERFUL week here in Bielefeld!  We continue to see miracles every day!  Sadly another transfer has come to an end, and Präsident Pimentel told us that Sister Hamblin is headed to HALBERSTADT!  I am SO excited for her!  I miss Halberstadt and she will love it so much there.  As for Sister Peltier and me, we will be staying here in Bielefeld trying to take over as two younger missionaries in this big city...good thing the Lord is on our side and the legions of angels doing the work before we find the people to teach!  I am excited to continue to work with Sister Peltier and to see more miracles here in Bielefeld. 
As for this week we have seen some wonderful success!  We have found some new investigators who are praying about baptism!  So hopefully we will be setting some new baptismal dates here shortly.  My testimony of prayer has also been strengthened this week.  As a district we have a prayer list every week, and it is SO spectacular to see that every week almost all of the people we have been praying for receive what we have hoped for!  For example, these last two week we have been praying for the Elders in Stadthagen.  Their program has been a little slower lately and they haven't seen much success.  But we prayed that two of their investigators would accept baptismal dates and work toward baptism and in the last two weeks they have both said they would like to be baptized!!!  It is so wonderful!  And on Saturday we did a finding activity in the Stadthagen area and my companions and I made a goal to make our 5 appointment or get contact information in about an hour and a half.  We got to work and we made out three new appointments and got contact information for someone as well!  To put that into perspective a little, usually when we are doing finding on a good day we might get one or two appointments in that amount of time.  But we were greatly blessed and we learned that we need to prayer for higher goals :) then we will accomplish them!    
My perspective has been changed this week on a lot of different levels, but definitely for the better.  We were able to visit the grave of the wonderful Sister in the ward who took care of us so well.  We went with her son and husband and it was a very interesting experience.  They talked about death like it was a natural part of life, like it is, but it plays such a tole on the lives of so many people.  Many people don't believe in God because He took someone very close to them off of this Earth.  But being with this family just made me realize how much of a natural part of life death is.  It is definitely not the end for this family and definitely not the end for any of us.  Those who's bodies are buried live on in spirit with a wonderful responsibilities in the next life!  How wonderful it is that we know of these truths! 
I noticed something else this week.  I noticed how much spiritual experiences affect the body :) we have been absolutely exhausted!  :) but when we push through and work harder then we see even more blessings!  Yesterday we had a really really wonderful appointment with a girl about our age.  She didn't know how to find joy in life, and we sincerely wanted to help her.  We were trying to follow the spirit very carefully in what we said.  After the appointment we were all exhausted!  I would rather be exhausted and feel like we are following the spirit than to do it alone :).
Well I always feel like I can't express the least of what happens here in the emails, but I hope you can feel of the joy that is in this work and I know that our Heavenly Father leads and guides His servants, whether full time missionaries or member missionaries!  We can't do it alone!  When we are humble enough to know we can't do it alone, that is when He can step in and take over, and do a much better job!  I love you all!  And I hope you all have a wonderful week! 
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

August 2nd 2011 letter:

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
I'm happy to say that I am getting to the point that I would rather write this letter in German! :) but I won't do that. It is fun to think though!  And only nine months! No no...my German is not perfect at all, but I do love speaking it!  The Lord is so wonderful to help me learn a language so quickly to do His work here in Germany. It really is a miracle that we can learn to communicate with the people here so quickly! 
Well this week has been wonderful, but difficult.  We said goodbye to Sister Hamblin on Tuesday as she headed for Halberstadt.  Since then we are realizing more and more every day how much she did for us!  It is sad that it works like that, we should appreciate the people in our lives more while they are still there.  I feel very inadequate to be in charge of teaching all of the people the gospel in this wonderful city.  But that is ok, because I am inadequate, but with the Lord, we can move mountains!  And hopefully some mountains of doubt, fear, unbelief, and sadness in this wonderful city! 
The events this week were...interesting...we had a lot of appointments fall out and almost as soon as Sister Hamblin left I started to get sick.  It was just a bad cold, fluey thing so it wasn't terrible, but I didn't have the strength to walk around and talk to people for very long before I needed to sit down.  So that was another factor that made it more difficult.  But with every trial comes many more blessings!  As I was struggling through the first few days, wanting to do more, but not knowing if I could handle it, I was reminded of Alma 7:11-13 and all that our Savior suffered for us.  I remembered then that He suffered for our sicknesses.  I was thinking about what this really meant, because surely it didn't mean that we would never have to be sick in life.  So after pondering and praying I discovered that he took the burden of the sicknesses from us.  So I began to pray and have faith that the burden of the sickness would be taken from me through the Atonement so that I would be able to do that work as I needed to. I wish I would have discovered that sooner because the next day I felt so much better!  The symptoms were still there and I was still blowing my nose every other minute (which is a necessity in Germany because it is really inpolite to sniffle, it is much more polite to blow your nose in front of somebody or at the dinner table than to sniffle anyways...) but I was much more optomistic and I had the strength to do what I needed to do.  (don't worry mom I was taking my MMS as often as possible..enough of the weird parenthesis side notes...).  I have learned how much I need the power of the Atonement every day in my life.  I know I have much more to learn about the Atonement and about what is possible with the Lord but I have learned a great lesson this week! 
Sister Peltier and I have been having a lot of fun together :) our personalities and sense of humor are almost identical and we don't go very long without laughing.  We have lots and lots and lots of great ideas and goals for this transfer!  It is fun to see them getting started and watching things change.  We are going to be working much more with the members and it has already been a wonderful blessing!  We had a member at church yesterday who has come for three weeks in a row.  Without us saying anything a member invited him over to lunch and then told us that we should come too :) we gladly accepted.  This investigator has already given Books of Mormon to his sister and roommate and invited them to church!  We also have 7 new ward missionaries who are excited to help us and just waiting for the word.  All we have to do is make phone calls! (I'm so grateful that we have cellphones, even though I don't like using them!) We are so blessed with such a wonderful ward!!! 
Other blessings of this week: people continue to come to us!  This week we were on the bus and a cute young woman sat down across from us and almost immediately started talking to US!  She asked us a little bit about who we were and we got to know her a little more, and then she said, "Ich würde gerne mit euch unterhalten."  Which means I would really like to talk to you more!  We were like...hey...that is our line :) but fair enough!  So we made out an appointment for tomorrow!  We are so excited!  She is so wonderful!  That is another blessing I have seen, I have been praying for much more charity for the people and my love for the people of Germany has flourished!  I have a great desire for everyone we talk to to accept the gospel.  It also makes it harder to hear them say no, but I think having a better attitude makes them also a little more likely to say yes. 
Well it has been a wonderfully hard week and I have grown a lot.  We are excited to get a new healthier start this week (Sister Peltier is also getting sick now), that is why we are writing so late, we wanted to have a nice relaxing P-day today so we chose not to come into town until a little later.  I feel better already and Sister Peltier just said she does too :)
I love being a missionary and I know with all of my heart that this is the work of our Heavenly Father.  He leads us and guides us when we let him.  We just have to open our hearts and show him that we are willing to do what He says, then follow the promptings He gives us!  Easier said than done but the blessings are unimaginable every time we follow a prompting for good!  I love you all, thank you so much for the love and support that you give to me!  You are my inspiration! 
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

July 18, 2011

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

Find Tonya....  This was at a conference with

Elder Caussé, First Quorum of the Seventy

Well...first of all, we just found out that USA lost in shoot outs...schade (that means sad).  I am glad it is finally over though, so I can stop thinking about what I am missing out on just around the corner!  We went today to get some Germany souveniers in the sports store and I ran into the goalie gloves and cleats...I thought I was going to cry!  But it is ok :) I got to play a little last week and it felt so good!  It is a small "sacrifice" which is really no sacrifice at all because of everything that I receive in return.  You really can't say a mission is a sacrafice in any way! 
Ok, back to the mission :) I'm only aloud to think about those other things for a little bit on Pday :). 
We had a really good week!  It was hard because more Termine fell out than usual.  But..so is life as a missionary sometimes.  We had our exchanges this week and me and Sister Hamblin stayed here in Bielefeld and Sister Peltier went to Hamburg.  Sister Singer came to work with us, she is from Texas and has one week left on her mission!!!  It was really good to be able to work with a missionary that is so experienced.  She still has so much desire to do the work and she definitely knows what she is doing.  I got some good tips from her and some new ways of doing finding!  We are trying to use our cards a lot more and so she showed us that we can stand in a very busy part of the city, for example the train station, and just pass out cards and say hello.  When someone stops to look at the card take the opportunity to talk a little more with them.  It is a GREAT method!  We get the cards to more people and the people who have time and/or interest usually stop and talk with us!   It is fun to do something new.  So that was a really fun experience! 

This is a little old, probably about 3 weeks, but it shows Tonya's tri companionship  with Sister Hamblin on the left and Tonya in the middle (of course) and Sister Peltier on the right.  This was during their mission president interviews. 

We also had a good time last Pday, we went and ate Döners, which are a turkish food.  It is lamb meat with vegtables and sauce in a bread shell thing.  They are really good!  But the Elders decided to eat the giant Döner...which is about the size of a medium watermellon.  It was pretty...hmmm interesting.  They didn't feel very well after and I was glad I didn't take part.  Why does the Lord let these missionaries do His work :)?  But they sure do a good job!  Anyways then, like I said, we got to play soccer after seeing a castle in the city Bückeburg!  It was WONDERFUL!!!  Sister Peltier is also a soccer player so it was a huge relief for both of us! 
We went to visit the newest member in our ward and she had two little friends over when we came.  The friends decided that they wanted to listen in on the lesson and it was about missionary work.  They were really excited to learn more about Christ and Ines (the new member) had the opportunity to do some missionary work right then!  She is so awesome! 
We also had the opportunity to have our first appointment with the man who came to church and told us that he wanted to be baptized.  The whole family was there and we started from the beginning with talking about our Heavenly Father.  Then we started talking about the family and the spirit flowed into the room!  They have the goal of being sealed in the temple and you could tell that it meant a lot to them.  It was another witness to me of how important families are and how much stronger the spirit can be in the family.  I am very grateful for my family!  I am so blessed to be in a family that is already sealed together!  I hope we can all do our parts to make sure every single one of us can take part in our family for all eternity! 
We saw another miracle yesterday.  We talked to a man on the train on Saturday and we invited him to church.  Then at church, he was there!!!  It was wonderful!  We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and he enjoyed a wonderful program during Sacrament meeting from the young single adults!  It was so wonderful! 
It is a harder time for missionary work right now because all of our investigators are going on vacation.  People in Europe definitely know how to make the best of their vacations in the summer and everyone gets at least three weeks off of work. 
I am continuing to learn more and more every day.  In my studying of the Book of Mormon I just reached 3 Nephi and I am learning more and more of the love our Savior has for us and how important it is to treat others as he would treat them.  I also know more and more than this church is His church.  It is exactly as he established the church while he was personally on the Earth!  I am so grateful to know of the truthfulness of these things and I am so grateful to have scriptures and a prophet to lead and guide us today! 
I love you all very much.  I hope you have a wonderful week! 
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith

P.S. Coach Bergholm!  I heard that you ran into my dad this last week!  I hope everything is going well for you!  I would love to hear from you!  

July 11, 2011 An Amazing Week! So wonderful to be a missionary!

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
This week was absolutely fabulous!!!!  We saw SO MANY miracles!!!! Wow...where should I start...how about at the beginning :)
On monday we were able to go to Berlin and have a sleep over with my trainer :) it was so fun to see her!  She goes home next transfer so it was fun to see how she is doing, she is still working so hard!  Then on Tuesday we had a Mission Tour with Elder Caussé from the Seventy.  It was absolutely fantastic!!!  He talked about the exact things that we needed in our area and personally and gave us really solid suggestions on what we can do!  One of the things he said is that we should invite EVERYONE to baptism in EVERY appointment!  We have been doing that and it has been so wonderful!!  No new baptismal appointment yet :) but every single person we have asked has said that once they find out it is true they will be baptized :)!  It lets the people know what our goal is from the very beginning and it makes talking about baptism very casual and not scary!  It is great!  He also talked about working with the ward members a lot better and we have a lot of work to do there!  We now have five new ward missionaries to help us out as well, so we have a lot of delegating to do!  And then he talked about how to overcome our fears and replace them with faith.  He shared a scripture with us in 2 Cor 12:9-10.  He told us that it is really good that we have weaknesses.  It is good that we don't feel good enough for the work.  The Lord could send the most educated and intelligent people in the church out to preach the gospel, but it wouldn't be effective!  The Lord needs servants who are humble and need to rely on him to see success.  He suggested every morning we plead to have the spirit with us and to have enough courage to do what we need to do.  Then during the day when we feel scared, just pause and take a minute to say a prayer for courage, then get back to work!  It has been exactly what I have needed!  It sounds so obvious, but it was just what I needed to hear.  And we have already seen many blessings!

Let me tell you about one day this week that will sum up how wonderful our week was! 
On Saturday we had two splits in one day!  It was great!  For our second split Sister Peltier stayed with a member and taught a lesson and Sister Hamblin and I went by on a contact.  As we were walking to their house we talked to a lady.  She didn't speak very much German but I told her we were talking about families.  She said oh ya families!  You can come over tomorrow, and my family will be at home!  So we made out a Termin for the next day!  Then we walked for..about five seconds and met a young man.  We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and he said he would like to read it.  So we gave him a copy of it.  We kept going and as we were waiting at the door of the contact the young man walked by on the other side of the road and he was reading in the Book of Mormon.  It made me so happy!!  Just to think that we brought someone the chance to read in the Book of Mormon and find the joy and peace that can come from it!  Unfortunately the contact wasn't home, so we left a note and met back up with Sister Peltier.  It was Saturday evening so the buses don't run as often, so we walked for about a half an hour to do doors before our next Termin.  On the way we saw a man on a bike, he slowed down and said to us, "Where are you from." (in English with a strong German accent.  Lots of people like to say short English phrases to us when they see us.)  So we told him and he explained that he knows about the Mormons. He had met with the missionaries 6 years ago.  We had a really good conversation with him and he said he would like to come to church.  So we gave him the address of the church :)  Then we went to do doors.  We talked to some really nice people but we didn't make out any appoinments.  But as we were doing them somebody called us.  He said that we had talked to him on the street a couple weeks ago.  He is Baptist but he is not happy with his church and he has been looking for another church.  He looked at our website and was really impressed and wants to know more!!  So he is going to come to church next week then we can set up appointments!!! WOWEE!!!!  We were SO EXCITED!!!!  That is three people in three weeks that have come to us and told us they want to learn more!!! But its not over yet :)  Then we had an appointment with a man from China.  We talked to him a lot and he said that China could use the gospel.  He said that there are a lot of people that believe in God now.  I felt the Spirit very strong as he said that.  I really hope and pray that the missionaries will be let into China very soon!  We invited him to read the Book of Mormon.  He said that he doesn't believe in God for now, but he could be converted :) and we asked him if he was if he would be baptized and he said yes :)!  It was a wonderful lesson!  Then on the way home we were on cloud...14!!! Way past cloud nine!  We just couldn't believe how many miracles we had seen within the space of a just a few hours.  Then someone said,"Hello Sisters!"  It was a woman and she came up to us and shook our hands.  She said that she was inactive but that she would like to make time to meet with us and come to our family home evenings!  So we set up a Termin to meet with her later and invited her to come back to church!  She gave her address and phone number so that we could get a hold of her!!!!!!!  WOW WOW WOW!!!!  So we walked home and saw a BEAUTIFUL Sunset!!! Then to top the day off when we got home a member called and asked us if we could bring a DVD about Christ to church so he could give it to a friend!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!  It was such a wonderful day!!!  My companions and I couldn't stop laughing and talking about how wonderful it was!!!  It was one of the best days of my whole life!!!  I love being a missionary!!! 

That is an example of how this week went :) it was absolutely amazing!  We are seeing miracles constantly!! 
We are going to meet up with the Elders today and PLAY SOCCER!!!! I am so excited :) it will be my first time in 8 months!!!  So I need to wrap this up so we can get going!  I love you all! Thank you for your love and support!  I know the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds the fullness of the truth!  Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!  I love him so much and I know we can never repay him for what he has done for us.  But we can follow his example and Come to him and then Follow Him to sit with our Heavenly Father for all eternity!  (Although I don't think there is a lot of just sitting around up there!)  I love the gospel and I am so grateful for this opportunity to help others come to him! 
Thank you again, I love you all!
Until next week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith