Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It's another late email from a train, and I'm going to try and keep it short because I am exhausted and have a headache.
We went to Frankfurt (again) to try and figure out my visa. We went on Sunday evening, arrived in Frankfurt, went to the STL's apartment, realized we forgot to tell them we were staying over, then went to bed. Today, we woke up at 4:30 and went over to the visa office. We waited in line for two hours and froze, and were then told that yes, I should theoretically be able to get a visa, but they had no waiting numbers for that day and were only accepting people with appointments and I should try again on Wednesday.
Yay.
So, we went to the Mission Office and had a chat with Elder Markle and decided we're just going to try and sort this whole mess out in Erlangen now. Which should hopefully work out. The proximity to Nürnberg has me a little bit worried, but I think it will work out okay. I'm pretty convinced at this point that there is someone in the Erlangen visa office who has been so prepared for the Gospel and has just been waiting for Sister Quain and I to come and introduce it to them. There's no other logical explanation. So yeah. I guess we'll just have to find them and baptize them. I think that's not too bad a trade-off for all the problems I've had.
As far as the week goes, THE CHRISTMAS INITIATIVE CAME OUT!!!!!!!! Oh my GOODNESS!!!!! I love it so much. It is SO good. If you haven't seen it yet, you can find it on Mormon.org. It's called Light the World, and it's great. It's all about service and helping others and really just doing what Christ would have done and being even more Christ-like in our day-to-day activities. It is so lovely, and I feel the Spirit so strongly every time I see it. I highly recommend that you all go and watch it. :)
So.... Yeah. That was kind of the week. Well, not all of it, but the theme of the week was definitely Christmas. We saw our first Christmas Miracle! We had stopped by the church house to download the new video and do some other things, and then we walked outside and the first person we see see's us and smiles and then walks over to us. He said, "I know you! You were at my house about 3 or 4 weeks ago and you talked about Jesus Christ and then left me a card and told me to look at the website. But I don't have internet, and you never came back! Do you have time when we can meet and talk more about Christ?"
MIRACLE.
So we're going to meet with him on Tuesday morning and talk about Christ and it's going to be great. I am super pumped. :)
Also, the Christmas Markets opened this week!!!!
This is Frankfurt, but it was the first one we went to, seeing as we were in Frankfurt for the whole p-day. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. Especially seeing as our plans for basically the whole day fell out at like, 8 in the morning. So yeah. We did studies! We took a nap! We went to a Christmas Market and bought Kinderpunsch! Seriously, my favorite thing about Christmas is Kinderpunsch and the special mugs it comes in. It's great.
After walking around the Weihnachtsmarkt in Frankfurt for a bit, we headed back to Hauptbahnhof, and now we are on another train that will take us home.
I'd just like to say that I really appreciate all of the prayers that you all say for the missionaries. I know some of them are meant for me, and some of them are for missionaries in general, but I appreciate all of them just the same. Prayer is a powerful thing. With it, we can ask the Creator of the Universe for help with problems that to Him, probably seem incredibly small and inconsequential. But He helps us anyways because it's important to us, and we asked.
Through prayer, we can literally call down miracles and angels and the powers of heaven to help us here on our earthly journey. Prayer is Iggy and powerful and I am so grateful for the chance that I have to speak with my Creator, and tell Him how thankful I am for all of the many blessings He has given me, and the many prayers He has answered for me, and for the investigators I've been privileged to teach.
My challenge to each of you this week, is to make your prayers more meaningful. If you're struggling to say your prayers every day (because I know there are always some who are), start by saying just one prayer a day. Just talk to your Father in Heaven. He wants to hear from you, and He is waiting for you to just ask Him for help. You just have to start the conversation.
For those who already say your prayers regularly, evaluate how much time and real intent you have when you pray. Do you take time to talk to you Heavenly Father? Or are you rushing through just to be able to say that you said your prayers? Think of your personal prayers as personal interviews with God, and speak to Him as you would speak to Him if He were sitting across from you. God wants to hear from us. He wants to help us. He knows us perfectly, but He wants to hear from us how we're doing. Don't hold that back from Him.
I love you all. I hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving, and that you remembered to make a list of five things to Thank God for in prayer. If you haven't done it yet, there's always time, and there's always repentance. ;)
Have a fantastic day, and a wunderbare Woche!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister John
P.S. I hope y'all are staying warm. Frankfurt was FREEZING today. Both in the morning, and in the evening. We napped for part of the day, so that was warmer.
P.P.S. I am not writing any other emails today. I am too tired. But thank you to everyone who did write. You are amazing, and incredible, and I am grateful for your friendship/familyship/Teil in meinem Leben. I'm just going to be a bit selfish and sleep for a bit before we get to Erlangen.
My Zeil. It's a mall in Frankfurt, and the glass makes a tube thing through the whole building. It's the perfect size for lighted reindeer to go flying through. :)
Christmas lights in Germany. I love how much light there is. It makes a perfect introduction for talking about the Light of Christ. :)
The MASSIVE Christmas tree at the Frankfurt Christmas Market. It's gigantic!
We made Adventskranze for a Relief Society activity this week! Sister Quain and I aren't too good at it yet.... But once we get some candles it will look a little better. :)
A cool tower we found in a random little city in our area. Oh! We totally had a member appointment for Thanksgiving! With an American family!!! It was so good, and they had baked yams with marshmallows on top! They were way kind, and we had a great talk about the Gospel and some of the things they've experienced. I'm excited to meet with them again sometime soonish. :)
P.P.S. I bought a hat and gloves today. It was too cold without them. While trying on hats, the lady at the shop was trying to help me put it on correctly. Apparently I don't know how to do that, and she helped me out. Then the other woman at the stand came and helped her because I have, "So much hair!" And they didn't know what to do with it all. In the end, it was super cute of them to teach me how to put my hat on correctly, even though I still don't do it right, and they told me to come back tomorrow and they would see if I actually managed it without them. Probably not, but it was cute of them all the same. :)
Also, we learned that when your hands get really cold, you can't grip things properly. Which is a problem when you're holding a cone of pommes and you don't want to spill them all over. Everything worked out though, and life should be a bit warmer from now on. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment