Unterwegs Writing!

Lieber Familie und Freunde,

It might be Tuesday or Wednesday by the time you read this. Rest assured, I am actually writing this on Monday. I'll send it as soon as I'm done writing, but it won't actually send until I have wi-fi and I don't know when that will be. We just have a super full week with appointments and splits and getting two investigators ready for baptism, so we ended up with no P-Day. It's fine. It just means we'll be a bit more tired and have more motivation to get to bed on time. :)

As far as the last week goes, it was super great! We started meeting with one of the Assistant's investigators and she is so cute! She has already read a lot in the Book of Mormon and told us she re-reads everything at least twice to make sure she understands it. The coolest thing is she is completely converted to Christianity because of the Book of Mormon. Our first meeting with her was literally one of the most spiritually powerful moments of my mission. She bore her testimony to us about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and then taught us why baptism is important. She wants to be baptized so badly!!!! She has the most real intent I have ever seen. She wants a new life after baptism so badly that she was almost crying. So we set a baptismal date with her! She's going to be baptized on 5 November, which is the last Saturday of the transfer. To say that Sister Jameson and Sister Siems and I are excited is an understatement, and I don't even have the words to explain how excited our investigator is. It's going to be a great day in Frankfurt. :)

We met with a potential investigator that Sister Siems found on a split with the International Sisters this week. She is a bit older, but way sweet and kind. Sister Siems had made out an appointment for Sunday evening, and we were able to meet and teach the whole Restoration! It was really cool, because when we talked about how there were so many churches she said, "Yeah, why are there so many churches? We all believe in Christ and call ourselves Christians so why do we have so many different ways to do that?" So we talked about priesthood authority and what that means for churches and us as children of God. When we told her about Joseph Smith and how he had the same question she had and had gotten an answer she said, "I want to know what his answer was! I felt like I should go to church, so I did. But I feel like something is missing there and in all churches. I'm on the search, and I don't know what I'm looking for or where to find it." Well, ma'am, it's called the Restored Gospel and we have it. ;) We'll be meeting with her hopefully again this week, so mal schauen. We're pretty pumped, though. :)

As of yesterday, I have officially been in Germany for one year. And I don't mean to freak any of you out or anything, but I need a bit of your help. The city of Nürnberg is being super slow with sending my papers for getting a visa (yeah, I STILL don't have one) to my current city of residence, which is Frankfurt. I've been talking with the mission office and some of the church's lawyers and I have a paper that says it is not my fault that I don't have a visa, it's the city's fault, and I will be notified as soon as my papers have been sent to Frankfurt. So I'm technically legal, but it's kind of an almost-illegal status in which I am living. So here's the bit where you can help: I would really appreciate some extra prayers that Nürnberg will send my papers up to Frankfurt or wherever they need to go so that I can finally get a visa before I go home. I just don't want that process to be any more complicated than it has to, so if you have a few extra seconds in your prayers I would really appreciate it. And I know, I'm not supposed to ask for y'all back home to pray or fast or whatever for special causes but I think we can make an exception for this case. I'm not getting kicked out of the country, but I really don't want to have the risk be any higher than it has to. So yeah. Your help would be appreciated.

We had a street display in Frankfurt this week, and it was really weird. Everything was going super great and we were all talking to people and getting some great contacts with people, and then this random man dressed all in black showed up. Everyone tried to talk to him at one point or another and he was COMPLETELY SILENT. He just walked around super slowly and stared at you super creepily and would literally WALK INTO you if you didn't move. He would go out of his way to walk through conversations we had with people and stare at them and scare them away. Now, I am trying very hard not to judge this man. But he was doing it ON PURPOSE. He was LITERALLY doing his best to make our street display a failure. He would have conversations with other people like a normal person just fine. But when it came to the missionaries and us contacting, he did everything in his power to be as annoying as possible. It was super frustrating. I'm sorry. I'm done now. He is a child of God who needs extra love and help. It's just another weird mission experience. It's fine, it's fine. :P

Anyways, all-in-all, it was a great week. Right now we have two investigators with baptismal dates who will hopefully be getting baptized in two weeks. It's a bit stressful to plan everything, but they're ready to be baptized so we're going to make sure that if it doesn't go through, it will not be because we failed to do something we ought to have done.

This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon and thinking about how powerful it is. We literally have an investigator who has been converted because of the Book of Mormon. I have never met anyone like that, and I was thinking of all the important things that are in the Book of Mormon, namely, all the parts that talk about Christ. I read Moroni chapter 10 this morning, and the verse that stuck out to me was verse 32.

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

I've been thinking a lot about going home lately (don't worry, not in a distracting way) and the kind of person that I wanted to be by the end of my mission and the kind of person I've become now. This scripture gives me hope that even though I haven't accomplished the goal of becoming who I wanted to be by the end of my mission, I can keep working on it. All I have to do is deny myself of all ungodliness. That's it. Sometimes that's a lot, but really I just have to follow the commandments and do my best to live like the Savior. Then grace makes up the rest. That is a beautiful thing. :)

I love you all! Have a great day, and a fantastic week!!!!

Liebe Grüße,
Sister John

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos this week. What with the now wi-fi or time to write emails really, it's just easier this way. I'll make up for it next week.

P.P.S. Along with the time constraint, I'm just going to answer he questions I've received here. Hopefully you all can figure out where your answer belongs.
1. I am fine. I am following the Spirit (at least trying to) and that is a great thing, b I am fine. Really tired, but that probably has something to do with how busy today has been and how late call-ins went last night.
2. No, I had no idea who that is but it's way cool that you might get to work with him. I really hope everything works out well.
3. The weather has been typical for a German fall. So, cold, wet, and humid. I am very grateful my companion had me invest in a good pair of boots. They have been life-savers.

Sir if I didn't answer your question/didn't have time. Hope you all have a great day!