The following is a letter to Ted that he shared...

All the weird German phrases as my subject lines are idioms. The shadow one means get out of your comfort zone. As for my Wohnung it's pretty large compared to the other missionaries. We also have two coaches and two beds. We have a closet room with three closets and a chest of drawers and mirror. Then we have a good sized living room with a magnificent view of Kaiserslautern. I'll make a video of it after Sister Williams moves out because it will be a lot cleaner. 

Your security videos of Kaiserslautern crack me up. That's Stadtmitte and I'm there every day and know it like the back of my hand. I'm already making a list of places we need to go when we come back. A mix of visiting people and places/ places I can't go as a missionary, but everyone tells me I have to go. SO EXCITED! Trierer, Triffels, Dorfs, I have yet to experience Christmas here, but everyone says it will be legendary! 

The weather turned cold pretty quick and so many people got sick. I'm already thinking of wearing tights under my skirt! Not cool! I'm pretty jealous of your beach pictures, we rode by the pool on a super hot day and I missed swimming so bad. Only 14 more months.... ugh yesterday was my 4 month mark. Time flies by waaaaaaaaay too fast here. Anyway I'm super tired because we stayed up late packing up Sister Williams life. 

Love you! 

A

The following is a letter to Ted that he shared...

All the weird German phrases as my subject lines are idioms. The shadow one means get out of your comfort zone. As for my Wohnung it's pretty large compared to the other missionaries. We also have two coaches and two beds. We have a closet room with three closets and a chest of drawers and mirror. Then we have a good sized living room with a magnificent view of Kaiserslautern. I'll make a video of it after Sister Williams moves out because it will be a lot cleaner. 

Your security videos of Kaiserslautern crack me up. That's Stadtmitte and I'm there every day and know it like the back of my hand. I'm already making a list of places we need to go when we come back. A mix of visiting people and places/ places I can't go as a missionary, but everyone tells me I have to go. SO EXCITED! Trierer, Triffels, Dorfs, I have yet to experience Christmas here, but everyone says it will be legendary! 

The weather turned cold pretty quick and so many people got sick. I'm already thinking of wearing tights under my skirt! Not cool! I'm pretty jealous of your beach pictures, we rode by the pool on a super hot day and I missed swimming so bad. Only 14 more months.... ugh yesterday was my 4 month mark. Time flies by waaaaaaaaay too fast here. Anyway I'm super tired because we stayed up late packing up Sister Williams life. 

Love you! 

A

Who knew Steinbach was so gorgeous!

Can't resist a field of flowers!

City view of Steinbach -- and the wild flowers of course!

Sister Williams is being transferred to Bonn to be with Sister Deim (she was in my MTC district) and I will be joined by Sister Harris here in Kaiserslautern! All I know is she's nice and has been serving in Essen for a long time. We make the switch tomorrow so I haven't met her yet. In other news I'm no longer a trainee! Look Mom no hands!

This week was truly the week of miracles. I can't even describe how amazing they were so I'll just get to telling you what happened.

DIENSTAG: We had Nakita -- who recently returned from the CA Oakland mission Spanish speaking-- with us all day. We went to go contact a referral in Matzenbach with a woman from our branch. We got there and the referral wasn't home so we decided to go on a split and go dooring. So Nakita and I went together and Sister Gardner (with her 4 month old baby Caleb) and Sister Williams went together. The first door we knocked a woman answered the door. I started speaking German to her and she says "I don't speak German. I only speak English and Spanish." So Nakita says, "Great! Me too!", and starts speaking to her in Spanish. Unfortunately, my Spanish skills are sub-par and they switched back into English. She invited us in and we quickly learned both her brothers are converts and have served missions. She had read some of the Book of Mormon before, but no one had explained to her what it was. We taught her about the restoration and explained what the Book of Mormon was and how to find out if it's true or not. When we read the promise in Moroni 10:3-5 she stopped us and said she'd never read a more powerful scripture and had never felt the spirit that strongly before. She even said she wanted to join the church except she looooooooves coffee. So we explained why we don't drink coffee and the Word of Wisdom and she said "ohhhhhhhh! That makes so much more sense!" We were speechless when we left. She's having surgery this week so she told us to come back next week when she's out of the hospital. Pray everything goes well!

Still on Tuesday, we met with Toni at a cafe. Our waiter was someone we had just met last week and had impromptu taught on the street and we'd forgotten to get contact info so we were able to get that and set up another appointment. Then in the middle of our lesson with Toni (about God's plan of happiness) another waiter who was on break over heard us and sat down and started asking Sister Williams questions. So Nakita kept teaching Toni the plan of salvation (in English) and sister Williams jumped into restoration (in German) and I was jumping back in forth in both languages. It was the most spiritually and mentally intense lesson we've ever had! Then at the end the two lessons merged and the three of us all got to bear our testimonies. SO AWESOME!

MITTWOCH: we ran into someone we had doored earlier this week and we had a lesson. To make it short he said he had been searching for some kind of Gemeinde to join and had felt like he really needed to meet with us when we had seen him earlier, but was too nervous. So when we ran into him AGAIN he said he knew God wouldn't give him another chance so he basically asked for us to start teaching him on the spot. He had some great questions and had already read the Book of Mormon about 10 years ago. We gave him one in Polish (his mother sprache) and he's reading already!

FREITAG: We had an appointment aaaaaaaall the way in Steinbach (45 min train ride + 35 min bike ride NOT FUN!), but we got a ride! We knew there was a high likelihood of our appointment falling out, but we both felt prompted to go there still. So as soon as we got dropped off our appointment fell out. Instead of calling our ride back we decided to door for an hour. I USED to hate Steinbach, but turns out I just needed to walk down the street a block and we ended up in the most gorgeous field. See the pictures. We knocked on a random door and a woman   answered. After talking a little bit we asked her if she had interest in learning more. She said that she was VERY interested, but never had time because of her 2 year old. So we asked if she had 10 minutes right then. She said yeah and sat down on the stairs to her doorway. We taught her a 10 min restoration. When we got to explaining Joseph Smith I happened to have the Joseph Smith History in Romanian (her mother sprache) on my iPad (we almost never use straight from JSH especially in omanian, but again we felt prompted). She read some of it and looked up and said "I read this 2 weeks ago on the Internet. And now you two are on my doorstep. God did this. When can we meet again? And what time is church?" We had to keep ourselves from looking too excited. Again we were speechless afterwards.

SONNTAG: YES there's more! We were walking to pick something up from the other sister's apartment and a woman stopped us. She had heard us speaking English and saw us just walking out of the church. She said she'd been given a card with the address to church 10 months ago. She could never shake the feeling that she needed to go to it. So today on a whim she rode her bike and happened to run into us right outside the church. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'd wanted one for so long and was SO EXCITED to finally have one. She invited us to come teach her this week and promised she'd make it to church next Sunday. When we said goodbye she told us she knew God had put us in her way and that she felt this was the right thing for her to do.

Anyway, so that was the type of week I had! I cannot stress how important it is to RECOGNIZE and ACT on the promptings God gives us. He works in mysterious ways, and sometimes he'll even include you in on it. Ether 12:12 "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." If we don't have faith miracles won't happen. And trust me you want miracles to happen! So have faith my friends and I know Heavenly Father will bless you because of it.

Love you all and have a good week!
- Sister Luymes

Dan - our recent convert (he just went to Argentina for a wedding)
Nakita on the right (just returned from the Oakland mission - Spanish)

Brother Jeremiah -- he's a character!

Dan (on my right) got baptized.  He was the Elder's investigator.

Visiting with Edith - a member.

Dan and Nakita.

This week was full of extra stuff that made our week a bit interesting. On Tuesday we had zone conference in Heidelberg. It took an hour to drive there then the whole thing was 6 hours and it took another hour to drive back. So basically we didn't get to meet with anyone all day which was a bummer. BUT, zone conference was great! I got to see President Stoddard and everyone in the Kaiserslautern zone and Heidelberg zone. We probably had 40-50 missionaries all together so that was fun! We learned all sorts of stuff from how to clean our apartment properly to how to be better missionaries. 

My favorite theme was given by the Sister Training Leaders (STL’s). They quoted a letter that a mission president wrote to his son called "The Lord's Kind of Missionary." It says "Finally, while the Lord’s kind of missionaries are progressing, they’re definitely not perfect. They make mistakes, stumble, and sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. They certainly have not already mastered all there is to learn or do or become. But despite the ups and downs of missionary life, they are trying to be a little better each day, with God’s help. And because they’re trying, God is delighted with them, even as He simultaneously will show them how to climb to the next rung of the ladder."

As this transfer rapidly comes to an end (transfer calls are this Saturday!) it means I will no longer be a trainee and my trainer will be transferred to a different area leaving me in charge. I've been praying for comfort that I'll know what to do with this new responsibility. On Wednesday we also had a split with the STL's and this time I stayed in Kaiserslautern and led our split. It also happened to be one of our craziest days. Usually I'd be stressed out having to figure out transportation and re-planning with someone who doesn't know the area or the people. But I was very calm and comfortable making decisions. I believe this was Heavenly Father showing me that I was ready and prepared to take over my area and I look forward to more responsibility. He was showing me my next step to be a better more capable missionary. 

Another note worthy thing was that we committed our Eritrean Untersucher (investigator), Mhreteab, to baptism!!!!!!! He's reading in the Book of Mormon slowly but surely and he's excited to learn more. * It's difficult because English is his second language (and German is his 3rd), but they don't have the Book of Mormon in Tigrinya -- his mother tongue. 

Another noteworthy event was that on Friday we had a dinner appointment with an Afghan family. They made a huge dinner for us and we had a wonderful visit. Then the father said he knew another family who wanted to talk with us. So we went over there around 8:30 and soon enough they too had made us dinner!!! We ended up running home stomachs STUFFED with food. It was funny but it hurt to laugh. Unfortunately we can't teach any of them because the mission has rules about teaching refugees, but we might be able to teach them German! 

Anyway! Love you all and love hearing from you all! 

- Sister Luymes 

Sister Adrienne Luymes

Germany Frankfurt Mission

Kirche Jesu Christi 

Corneliustrasse 18

60325 Frankfurt am Main 

Germany 

BILDER!

Dinner with our Afghani friends.

Sooo süß! (sweet)

Ziehen Sie nicht die Vögel
Do Not Feed the Birds!

This week was full of extra stuff that made our week a bit interesting. On Tuesday we had zone conference in Heidelberg. It took an hour to drive there then the whole thing was 6 hours and it took another hour to drive back. So basically we didn't get to meet with anyone all day which was a bummer. BUT, zone conference was great! I got to see President Stoddard and everyone in the Kaiserslautern zone and Heidelberg zone. We probably had 40-50 missionaries all together so that was fun! We learned all sorts of stuff from how to clean our apartment properly to how to be better missionaries. 

My favorite theme was given by the Sister Training Leaders (STL’s). They quoted a letter that a mission president wrote to his son called "The Lord's Kind of Missionary." It says "Finally, while the Lord’s kind of missionaries are progressing, they’re definitely not perfect. They make mistakes, stumble, and sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. They certainly have not already mastered all there is to learn or do or become. But despite the ups and downs of missionary life, they are trying to be a little better each day, with God’s help. And because they’re trying, God is delighted with them, even as He simultaneously will show them how to climb to the next rung of the ladder."

As this transfer rapidly comes to an end (transfer calls are this Saturday!) it means I will no longer be a trainee and my trainer will be transferred to a different area leaving me in charge. I've been praying for comfort that I'll know what to do with this new responsibility. On Wednesday we also had a split with the STL's and this time I stayed in Kaiserslautern and led our split. It also happened to be one of our craziest days. Usually I'd be stressed out having to figure out transportation and re-planning with someone who doesn't know the area or the people. But I was very calm and comfortable making decisions. I believe this was Heavenly Father showing me that I was ready and prepared to take over my area and I look forward to more responsibility. He was showing me my next step to be a better more capable missionary. 

Another note worthy thing was that we committed our Eritrean Untersucher (investigator), Mhreteab, to baptism!!!!!!! He's reading in the Book of Mormon slowly but surely and he's excited to learn more. * It's difficult because English is his second language (and German is his 3rd), but they don't have the Book of Mormon in Tigrinya -- his mother tongue. 

Another noteworthy event was that on Friday we had a dinner appointment with an Afghan family. They made a huge dinner for us and we had a wonderful visit. Then the father said he knew another family who wanted to talk with us. So we went over there around 8:30 and soon enough they too had made us dinner!!! We ended up running home stomachs STUFFED with food. It was funny but it hurt to laugh. Unfortunately we can't teach any of them because the mission has rules about teaching refugees, but we might be able to teach them German! 

Anyway! Love you all and love hearing from you all! 

- Sister Luymes 

Sister Adrienne Luymes

Germany Frankfurt Mission

Kirche Jesu Christi 

Corneliustrasse 18

60325 Frankfurt am Main 

Germany 

BILDER!

Dinner with our Afghani friends.

Sooo süß! (sweet)

Ziehen Sie nicht die Vögel
Do Not Feed the Birds!

Relaxing at a lake on Prep-day.

This week was even better than last week! We got 7 new investigators in 7 days! We taught more than double the amount of lessons than we did last week too. We've been walking and riding our bikes almost everywhere and have been staying on top of everything.

My favorite thing that happened this week was on Saturday we went to an Eritrean Orthodox Church service. We were by far the whitest people in there, but everyone else was wearing all white and we were in a whole bunch of other classes. We covered our hair with some scarves we found randomly in our apartment. The service was all in Eritrean and very different to what I'm used to, but we're glad we went! Then on Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful Romanian dinner!

This week I gave the lesson in Sunday's such  on service. In Luke 9:24 it says "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” A quote from Thomas S. Monson in references to this scripture he says “I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and … lose their lives, while
those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.” There are so many ways to serve – big, small, and everything in between. The more

we serve others the more we become like Christ. So go out and serve someone!

Love you all!

- Sister Luymes

Trifels Castle interior

View of Trifels Castle

Hey everyone!

This week was one for the books! We were all over the place again (Trippstadt, Geiselberg, Annweiler am Triffels, Saarbrücken, Piermasines, Erlenbach) and the more I see of this beautiful country the more I fall in love!

On Montag (Monday) night while we were planning we got a phone call from the Elders in another zone who had TWO referrals for us! This was a huge miracle because we never get referrals let alone two in one evening. We were able to get a ride with our Ehepaar (Elder and Sister Tarbot) and together we trekked out to Trippstadt and Geiselberg. Another miracle happened when we were able to see both referrals! Usually people who live in Dorfs work in the Stadt and aren't home in the middle of the day on a Dienstag (Tuesday). Between contacting them, making return appointments for both, AND the most beautiful drive I've ever experienced  Sister Williams and I were super pumped about the rest of the week. And it kept getting better too!

On Mittwoch (Wednesday) we met with Hans a neubekehrt (new convert) and he invited a friend Angelo. Angelo speaks Bairisch (a German dialect) and had a super funny accent. Sister Williams and I had to really rely on the spirit for this lesson, but it worked out! He had a lot of questions and it was super cool to see Hans bearing his testimony to his friend. Unfortunately we aren't able to keep teaching Angelo because he lives in Nürnberg. However that makes THREE referrals in one week! Whaaaaaaaat!

Donnerstag (Thursday) we went to Piermasines (an hour train ride from Kaiserslautern) to go see 2 Wenigeractives (less active). Unfortunately they both fell through (double unfortunately because it's really hard to get out there and expensive). But while we were there we ran into one of the Elders old investigators. Adam had a baptismal date and sacrificed a lot to prepare himself for baptism, but for whatever reason he decided that he needed more time and the elders lost contact. But now we have an appointment with him on Wednesday!

Then on Sonntag (Sunday) we had the opportunity to go to Saarbrücken to watch the broadcast of the Freiburg temple dedication auf Deutsch and then the second session in Kaiserslautern auf English. President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar both spoke (both auf Deutsch). I cannot express how amazing it was to hear AND UNDERSTAND what President Uchtdorf was saying! Everything he said was exactly what the German people needed to hear and the words could only come from him. He basically read all of the missionaries minds.

And to top it all off we had a second lesson with one of our new investigator Helge and it was hands down one of the best lessons we've ever had.

Here's to next week!

Love you all!
-Sister Luymes

Attach of the Gnomes!!!!
If these were at my house they would all be zombie gnomes.

We find Jesus in the oddest of places sometimes.