It's been an extremely eventful week! Since all of the new mission presidents are getting trained this week we've had all sorts of changes happening. On Thursday the new mission president and his wife to the Lima Peru North mission came and taught us a lesson. Before he had started we heard a voice outside the door say "I think I'll sit in this room" and on the other side was Dallin H. Oaks (an Apostle of the church). He sat down and listened the lesson and didn't say much except to introduce the mission president. My district had been complaining the day before that we would be stuck in the class room all day and that we would be missing our sport time. It was an extremely pleasant surprise to have an Apostle sit in on your class.

WE GO OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!! I leave the MTC at 7:30 AM on Monday July 4th! My plane leaves SLC at 11 AM and I have a connecting flight in Atlanta, Georgia and arrive in Frankfurt at 8:45 AM the next day! It's starting to settle in that I'll be in Germany in 1 1/2. I'm either super nervous or super excited. I felt that my German has finally taken a turn and I can't wait to be surrounded in it because I know that's the best way for me to learn. I've also figured out that my English spelling has gone downhill because I want to spell it the way you would spell it in German. German is just too easy to guess the spelling because it's pretty much all phonetic and you pronounce every letter. So I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. 

I've been able to see a lot of family this week. My cousin Karen started working in the MTC so I get to see her pretty often at meals. Earlier today I ran into my other cousin and his wife who will be the new mission president in the California Long Beach mission. Shout out to them! It's always fun to run into family! 

Last Sunday during our temple walk I ran into a couple who had 2 puppies and I had to keep myself from stealing them! It made my day :)

The MTC is still awesome and I feel like I still have a lot to learn before now and July 4th, but I'm starting to feel antsy and ready to get to work.

This week I've really been focusing on how to study the scriptures and really feast upon the word of God. The scriptures have real power during lessons and in our lives if you let them. There is so much to know about the gospel and it's important that if you have any questions to pray AND search the scriptures. My favorite scripture this week is in D&C 12:7-9 "Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work; and no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care. Behold, I am the light and the life of the world, that speak these words, therefore give heed with your might, and then you are called. Amen" All those who have a desire to serve Him and to establish this work ARE called. I can feel the power of my calling everyday and I have such a testimony that I am called of God to serve those in Germany. 

10 days left!!!

Liebe,

Sister Luymes

Sis Catherall and I have flight plans to Germany. YAY!!!

My MTC Zone (6 districts) -- Germany, Armenia, and Republic of Georgia.

We had an entertaining week! On Monday we had another lesson with Frederic (our cat loving investigator)and it was AWESOME! The Spirit was SO STRONG and I really felt as if we'd made a huge break through. We were so excited to teach him again on Wednesday but when we walked in he seemed EXTRA distracted. When we started to talk about repentance he said he was perfect and never made mistakes. To make it more difficult, when we invited him to church he said he wanted to, but he couldn't leave his cats alone and asked if he could bring them to church. It was very interesting trying to reason with him. 

 

MTC District -- Our German Flag!

On Tuesday the MTC choir sang Praise to the Man for the devotional. The arrangement was beautiful and having 700 missionaries singing it all at the same time was one of my favorite experiences since being in the MTC. The choir director had as many languages as he could fine recite different parts of the first vision. It was amazing to hear those familiar words said in so many different tongues.  

 

No Fair! They all ganged up on me and Elder Myers in class.

On Friday we did a really cool exercise to practice finding peoples needs. We all thought of someone that we know personally and something that they need. Then we sat in 2 lines and one line was the investigator and the other was the missionary. The missionary had 5 minutes to teach a mini-lesson and through the spirit and some guided questions determine what they needed to teach to cater to what the investigator needed to hear. It was very interesting being the investigator and the missionary. As the missionary we all had very different experiences with how we went about teaching and asking the right questions. And as the investigator it was interesting how the help you got from the missionary wasn't at all the help you thought you'd get. 

 

Sis Catherall and I mimicking the statue of Samuel Adams
(the LDS missionary -- not the beer).

My zone has probably doubled this past week with the addition of the new Armenian Districts and Georgian District.  We discovered that the other Districts like to spy on us so we decided to put a post it note on our peep hole and wrote I C U. Afterwards, people kept coming in to see what we had put on the door which told us WHO kept spying on us. 

I can't believe it's been more that 3 weeks already! I leave for Germany 2 weeks from Monday! 

Tchüsse!

 Sister Luymes

 

Those who try to spy through our peep hole see this instead.  tee hee!

My awesome "Miterbeiterin" (companion) Sister Catherall and I

On Tuesday Sister carpenter (she sleeps below me) started sleep talking in German. On Friday Sister Catherall told me that I was trying to say Himmlischer Vater in my sleep, but I ended up giving up and said OH WHATEVER really loudly. My companion was the only witness though haha! So it seems I can't escape German even in my sleep.

I've learned to love this language so much! it might not sound like a beautiful language, but the meaning of each word is so specific and almost poetic. For example. The word for "we rely on" is "sich verlassen" which directly translates to leave ourselves. We rely on the Lord when we leave ourselves and our trials on Him.

My MTC Zone on White Shirt Wednesday

This week was a weird mix of super spiritual highs and a lot of feelings of discouragement. We taught 4 more lessons this week to our Untersucher Emanuela. I joined the MTC choir and it lived up to my very high expectations. My entire zone matched our clothes wednesday-friday (white shirt Wednesday, Deutch colors Thursday, and Stripes Friday). 

The highlight of this week was running into "Emanuela" on our way to play sand volleyball. She's actually our new teacher Sister Robison. She told me and Sister Catherall that our lesson on prayer was the best first lesson she's ever had from her MTC students! Die Gabe die Zegunwater (Gift of Tongues) is so amazing! When I'm teaching or really paying attention to the spirit, speaking German becomes so much easier, words come faster, and I'm finally able to say what I want to say even if it's more simple than how I'd say it in English.

On the map -- Frankfurt Germany!

My favorite quote from last Tuesday's devotional is this "The Lord will use every bit of who you are to make the work go forward."

I love that I get to read and study scriptures for hours everyday. It takes on a new meaning when you have the Lord's work in mind. Wann wir seid fleißig, hilfreich, gehorsam, und die Geist Zuhören, wir können Schwäche über winden.

Liebe,

Sister Luymes

Sister Adrienne Melissa Luymes
JUL05  GER-FRA
2005 N 900 E Unit 159
Provo UT 84602

My District from left to right Sister Deim, Sister Carpenter, Sister Haynie, Sister Hammer, ME!,
SIster Catherall, Elder Thiriot, and Elder Myers