Heidelberg in the Fall

I had my 3rd split with the STL's in Heidelberg this week! So that was fun! Meanwhile Sister Harris and Sister Clifford taught another family. Our goals are a little verrückt (crazy) compared to 2 weeks ago, but that's what happens when you find families. Sister Williams and I found Frau Stanke awhile ago, but her daughter has been in the hospital so we were never able to teach her. Turns out she has a son too! And they all committed to reading in the Book of Mormon! Our Syrian family is also progressing very nicely. We hope to get all 8 (Stanke family and Syrian family) on baptismal date this week so please pray us and them!

 

Frau Stanke, Sis Krysanski and me

We had a miracle day on Thursday. We actually forgot to plan Thursday (we usually plan in the evenings for the next day) so we were winging it all day. We had another awesome lesson with Toni. We were dooring in Morlautern and asked someone if we could help them rake leaves and they ACTUALLY accepted! So it was cool to serve someone. We felt like we should go by on an old investigator and it ended up that they had moved. Coincidentally, their neighbor was on our active members list, but I hadn't seen her for a really long time. So we klingled and she told us that if we had klingled any sooner we would have missed her. We were able to answer some questions for her and she came to church on Sunday!  Then we had a Besuchs Gemeinderat (town visits) in the evening. So we all make appointments with as many members as we can and we break up as a whole ward council and meet with as many people as we could. We ended up meeting with 3 families in our ward! It was a really awesome missionary opportunity. 

The 3 American military wards had their trunk- or- treat at the church on Friday. So I can't say I missed Halloween too much. 

 

Fall Leaf big enough to hide behind

As Sister Harris and I were setting our goals for the last week of this transfer we were a little scared to set such high goals. Neither of us had ever planned double digit numbers before. However, on our Frankfurt Mission website (frankfurtmission.com) there are quotes about the missionary work in Europe. And this one in particular came to our minds:

"Maybe we have not stepped forward enough where miracles happen. Move forward to the edge of the cliff. Demand these blessings and call them down from heaven. This work is urgent. The gifts of heaven are here. That we are to receive miracles, revelations, help from the Lord is known to us intellectually, but practiced too little and forgotten too often. We need a sharp turn in our path or a raising of our platform. See things the way God sees them. Lift your eyes. Look at the fields already ready for the harvest."

So our goals seem a bit ridiculous, however we have gone forward with them. We are demanding blessings and I know we will see miracles! Stay tuned!

- Sister Luymes 

More Fall (and blue sky)

Snail Mail letter home.....

Hey FAM!                                                                                                        October 29, 2016

Wow! So I just had my 5 month mark this week and it’s a month until my 20^th birthday. I suddenly feel very old because I’m no longer a new missionary and I’ll soon no longer be a teenager either….WEIRD!  Why does time go so fast?!

Anyway, this week was a turning point for my German (because I know you’re all wondering). I had 3 different people compliment my German and looked astonished when I told them I’d only been learning/speaking it for 5 months.  Another turning point was that I’m finally feeling more like myself in German. There seems to be a point where you’re not so focused on what you’re saying is grammatically perfect so it allows your personality to seep through finally.  I reached that point with Sis Krysanski (my STL) while we had a lunch appointment and I felt just like myself as if I was speaking English, but it was all auf Deutsch.  Ich kann eigentlich Deutsch! (I can actually speak German). Wooo!

The thing is I can’t even compare myself to any other missionary learning a language because 80% of my investigators know English better than German or they only know English. So it’s not exactly the full emersion everyone expects. But sis Harris and I do our best to only speak Deutsch to each other and of course wir reden mit leute an die strasse auf Deutsch (We talk to people on the street in German).

Anyway, German is fun and its spelling and grammar rules are far superior to English. Words like “weird”  should be spelled “wierd”; “sea” should be spelled sae, also people don’t “breakup” they “haben ein schlieb gemacht” or “they have made an end”. It’s nicer and it sounds like more feelings were spared.

The funny story of this week was Sister Krysanski and I doored into a man who was wearing a HUGE fur coat – floor length.  It was as if he was wearing a grizzly bear for and he’d’ just cut it and sewed it so it had sleeves and a collar.  He was also wearing a fur hat, AND 2 huge gold bejeweled rings on each finger. He looked absolutely ridiculous and also very into himself.  He gave us a copy of “Mein Glaube” (my beliefs) and explained how he believes on a great white spirit and if you’re a Jew or a Muslim you will be damned.  I had to use my self control to NOT start petting him during his rant.   I secretly wanted to because it might have made him stop talking. But alas, I did not pet the bear and endured his hate rant.

I’ve been super good this week and I’ve betted a dog every day this week. But it doesn’t make up for my time lost with Dixie.

Miss you guys! Hope all is well.

Sis Luymes

Street display and street contacting.

This week was the biggest struggle to get people to make appointments and actually come to them. We probably had a record amount of fallen out appointments. However, it allowed us to have a ton of finding time which has become one of my favorite things to do as a missionary. So lucky me! We found some good people and of course had some interesting experiences, but I want to skip to the really good part of this week! 

Oma Giselle - such a sweetheart

On Thursday we had another street display! And I ran into my German Oma, Giselle again!!! She held my hands again and gave me chocolate again! She's so cute! 

Also on Thursday we went by on a potential from Syria that I had talked to 2 weeks ago at our last street display. When we klingled the door a woman very timidly answered. I introduced us and said we had given her an Arabic Book of Mormon. Suddenly 2 other girls show up behind her and they all had super wide eyes and got REALLY excited. They pulled us into their home and sat us down. We noticed the Book of Mormon as the center piece of their living room. They told us that they'd been reading it together as a family and even fighting over whose turn it was to read it for the past 2 weeks! So we talked to them about what the Book of Mormon was and we invited the whole family (mom, dad, 2 daughters, 1 son) to church. On Saturday we called them to see when we could meet them to walk to the church from Hauptbahnhof and they were way excited and said the whole family was going to come. On Sunday we go to pick them up and we see only the mom and the oldest daughter was there. They apologized that they were 5 minutes late because they had ridden their bikes for an hour to a train station and took a 25 minute train ride to Kaiserslautern. They explained that when they had left at 8 AM (for 10:30 church!!) that it was too cold for the brother to ride his bike and so the younger daughter had to stay with him at home..... 

Our jaws dropped! They loved church even though they couldn't understand most of it. We found scriptures and more materials in Armenian (the family's second mother sprache). Sister Harris and I were running back and forth trying to introduce them to the ward and simultaneously trying to do our normal Sunday responsibilities. It was insane! After our investigators left the ward was asking us left and right how they can help us get this family to church and what they can do to help. We were overwhelmed with gratitude for our small Gemeinde! We have 2 appointments lined up with this family this week AND a dinner appointment at a members house for next Sunday. The ward is also looking for a way so we can communicate better with them. The family starts a sprach course this week so their German will get loads better and they already speak ok-ish English so we can speak that in the time being. We're finding translators for our lessons too. I love this family with all my heart and I am so astonished at their sacrifice to be followers of Christ. 

They told me that 3 years ago they began to get death threats because they were Christian. The daughters would get their homework back with notes on them that said they would get killed if they came to school. The oldest daughter told us she had many close friends that were killed. They decided to escape to Germany. They lived in a friend's home for 7 days and together they lived off of a couple of bananas and a half loaf of bread. Eventually they escaped in the night and with just the clothes on their backs they walked 6 days to the coast and took a boat with 100 other people. They arrived here just over a year ago. They were so excited to meet me and my companion because we are young and Christian.

On top of it all the German elders baptized Said from Iran on Saturday! After his baptism, he bore one of the sweetest most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. Many years ago he had come in contact with a friend who was a member of the church in England. He read the entire Book of Mormon and very quickly had the desire to be baptized. He couldn't be baptized in Iran so he moved to Afghanistan with the hope to escape to somewhere with religious freedom. While he was there he was kidnapped by the Taliban. He told us that he said his first prayer out loud while he was in the prison. He said that he prayed that if Jesus Christ was our Savior and the Book of Mormon was true that he knew God would help him find a way to be baptized. 5 days later the Taliban released him. That is pretty much unheard of. He dedicated the next 8 years of his life to get his family out to a safe country. He finally made it to Germany where he found the missionaries and they taught him. His 14 year long wait came to an end this weekend. Many tears were shed. 

Kind of an emotional email, but these people are such amazing examples of sacrifice. They relate to Christ so easily because he sacrificed for the world. Sacrifice is essential because salvation was never easy. The Atonement was never easy for Christ so why should life be easy? Here is a quote from Elder Holland that has given me a lot of strength:  "When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions." 

Ich weiß dass mein Erlöser lebt. Ich weiß dass nur durch Christus und sein 

Sühnopfer wir Errettung haben können. Ich weiß, dass wenn wir für ihm opfern, er wird uns segnen. Ich bin so dankbar für die Beispiele von dieser Leute und für ihrer Opfern. 

Bis nächste Woche!

- Sister Luymes 

Squirrel Family Crest -- so random

Ted and I went to Paris and told Adrienne we might hop on a train to go visit her; this was her reply...

So today is a Herbstmarkt (fall fest) and apparently it is tradition here to eat horse meat. My district is feeling adventurous—despite the cold and rainy weather-- and we've made a pact to try it out. Super excited! Also I have to admit it's kind of weird for me to know you guys (sorry Andrew not you) are on the other side of the border of my area..... I will however very lovingly tell you to stay on your side of the border. Anyway other than the fest my Pday will probs be pretty chill.

Sketchy roller coaster at the Herbstmarkt Festival

Horsemeat anyone? We were brave and gave it a try.

Kaiserslautern district at the Herbstmarkt Festival.

The following is a snail mail letter home.                                                            Oct 20, 2016

Hey Fam!

So it got way cold this week, as in it was 12pm in Steinbach and we could see our breath as we hiked the hill up to our investigator’s home.  We ich muss einkaufen gehen (I must to shopping).  My Oma friend Giselle even told me so.

I met Giselle at our strassenaustellung (street display). It was SO cold and I was feeling a little discouraged because people weren’t even stopping or slowing down before they said “no”. So I approached Giselle and asked her how God had helped her in her life.  She was wearing a corss so I safely assumed she believed in God.  Her answer was not what I expected either. 

She told me she had married her husband at 18 and their first year of marriage they had to flee from Hitler and the Nazi party. They slept on streets and ate from garbage cans that year. She knew they only survived because of the strength God gave them.

They were married for 64 years before he died 5 years ago. She is 88 now .  She’s the cutest old German Oma I’ve ever met! She kept taking my hands and holding them to warm them up and then gave me 2 schokolade bars.  I LOVE HER!! She took a Book of Mormon and told me my parents raised me right. So there you go, you get the Giselle stamp of approval!

In other news, Ich kann Deutsch (I can speak German)! I know the whole learn a language things is a thing, but it continues to surprise me how much I can understand AND speak . To my surprise I’m on of the few missionaries who had never taken German before the mission. Someone the other day asked how many years of German I had before and was floored when I said none. They told me I had better German then he did and he was a transfer ahead of me (6 weeks) and he had 7 years of German.  Yeah! That makes me feel a lot better about my German. Buuuut, it’s all because Heavenly Father helps me a ton.

Thanks for being awesome parents! Thanks for the emails and updates and pictures, they all mean a lot to me!!

Ich bin dankbar dass euch mein Eltern sind. Und Ich hoffe die Dixie dog vermisst mich nicht so viel.  Die Deutsche leute hat viele ifonde und so ich sene honde sehr oft. Es freut mich so sehr. 

I am thankful that you are my parents. And I hope the Dixie dog does not miss me so much. The german people has many honed (?) and so i sene honed (?) very often. I am so happy.

Liebe,
Sister Luymes

Sister Harris and I and one of many cute little churches we see.

Hey everyone!

This week flew by! We had zone training and I got my VISA so there was a lot going on. I don't have too much time to write so I'll tell you about Toni. We taught Toni on Friday. Sister Harris and I felt all week long that we needed to talk about Christ and his atonement. It became clear that Toni hadn't been understanding the why of why he needed to read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. Sister Harris and I hadn't had a lot of time to plan what we were going to teach, but we knew the center of it had to be Christ. We ended up teaching one of the best lessons that she or I had ever taught. We used scriptures and quotes from conference and the spirit was a strong as you could have it in the back of a Back Werk. We also got contact with Edith the woman who rode her bike up to us who wanted to go to church. She had only given us her address so we could only hope she'd be home when we went by and she finally was! Woooo!

Sorry for a short email!
- Sister Luymes

BILDER

Randon forest trail we walked through.

Panoramic of Steinbech

This week was freezing. I broke out my tights and borrowed a heavy sweater until I bought REAL winter clothes. Good thing Sister Harris was much more prepared than I was. 

Steinbech Selfie

This week definitely had its ups and downs. We got tchüssed by 1 ½ (half because we got permission from our GML to continue to keep contact) of our investigators. Kind of heart breaking.... BUT we continue to have faith and we worked really hard to find new people!

We went out to Steinbach again (I keep getting comments about the pictures from last time and we gave our 2 Book of Mormons! Wooooo! I said this last time to Sister Williams and I said it again to Sister Harris that I didn't think we really needed more investigators in Steinbach, but apparently that's where all the prepared people are! Who knew!? I encourage you all to try to find a map of Steinbach. It's super tiny and waaaaaaay in the middle of nowhere!

Geschichte: I have a new German Oma named Giselle. I met her at the street display on Thursday and she talked to me for 25 minutes. I had asked her how she had seen God's hand in her life and she replied with basically her life story. When she was 18 she got married and almost immediately her and her husband had to flee Germany because of Hitler. Their entire first year of marriage they slept on the street, homeless, eating scraps found in the trash. She told me she had no doubt that there is a God because she knew she would've never survived that without the strength and determination He gave them that year. After 64 years of marriage her husband died. She cried as she spoke about him, but assured me she had faith that she would see him again and that he was with our Heavenly Father. I was able to share with her a little bit of the Plan of Happiness and bore my testimony of it. I told her that she would be able to see her husband again. She didn't take a Book of Mormon, but she gave me two pieces of chocolate to keep warm and hoped we would see each other on the street again.

Sneak pic of my buddy Giselle

Every person I talk to has a story especially in today's times. Either someone is a refugee at the age of 16 who's family were killed by the Taliban or someone is 86 who has a story similar to Giselle. There are people who have lived comfortable lives all their life and wonder why they aren't happy. But what they all have in common is that they are all God's children and He loves them so much. I know this because I get to feel part of that love as I talk to them or serve
them. If you're not sure that God loves you, get on your knees and ask him.

Wenn wir beten zu Gott, ich weiß er hört und er wird unser Gebeten antworten. Ich weiß dass Jesus Christus unser Erretter ist. Er hat für uns gelitten, damit wir Sündenvergebung haben können. Ich weiß durch der Macht Gottes Joseph Smith hat den Buch Mormon übergesetzt. Weil wir Das Buch Mormon haben, wir wissen über die plan Gottes. Es bringt mir Freude und Friede zu mein Leben. Es ist so einfach dass die Kinder verstehen kann. Was ein großer Segnung! Es freut mich!

Schönen Woche noch!
- Sister Luymes

Sister Harris and I with Hochspyer in the back.

Church Street (left), To the Church (right).

Panoramic of Steinbech

This week was freezing. I broke out my tights and borrowed a heavy sweater until I bought REAL winter clothes. Good thing Sister Harris was much more prepared than I was. 

Steinbech Selfie

This week definitely had its ups and downs. We got tchüssed by 1 ½ (half because we got permission from our GML to continue to keep contact) of our investigators. Kind of heart breaking.... BUT we continue to have faith and we worked really hard to find new people!

We went out to Steinbach again (I keep getting comments about the pictures from last time and we gave our 2 Book of Mormons! Wooooo! I said this last time to Sister Williams and I said it again to Sister Harris that I didn't think we really needed more investigators in Steinbach, but apparently that's where all the prepared people are! Who knew!? I encourage you all to try to find a map of Steinbach. It's super tiny and waaaaaaay in the middle of nowhere!

Geschichte: I have a new German Oma named Giselle. I met her at the street display on Thursday and she talked to me for 25 minutes. I had asked her how she had seen God's hand in her life and she replied with basically her life story. When she was 18 she got married and almost immediately her and her husband had to flee Germany because of Hitler. Their entire first year of marriage they slept on the street, homeless, eating scraps found in the trash. She told me she had no doubt that there is a God because she knew she would've never survived that without the strength and determination He gave them that year. After 64 years of marriage her husband died. She cried as she spoke about him, but assured me she had faith that she would see him again and that he was with our Heavenly Father. I was able to share with her a little bit of the Plan of Happiness and bore my testimony of it. I told her that she would be able to see her husband again. She didn't take a Book of Mormon, but she gave me two pieces of chocolate to keep warm and hoped we would see each other on the street again.

Sneak pic of my buddy Giselle

Every person I talk to has a story especially in today's times. Either someone is a refugee at the age of 16 who's family were killed by the Taliban or someone is 86 who has a story similar to Giselle. There are people who have lived comfortable lives all their life and wonder why they aren't happy. But what they all have in common is that they are all God's children and He loves them so much. I know this because I get to feel part of that love as I talk to them or serve
them. If you're not sure that God loves you, get on your knees and ask him.

Wenn wir beten zu Gott, ich weiß er hört und er wird unser Gebeten antworten. Ich weiß dass Jesus Christus unser Erretter ist. Er hat für uns gelitten, damit wir Sündenvergebung haben können. Ich weiß durch der Macht Gottes Joseph Smith hat den Buch Mormon übergesetzt. Weil wir Das Buch Mormon haben, wir wissen über die plan Gottes. Es bringt mir Freude und Friede zu mein Leben. Es ist so einfach dass die Kinder verstehen kann. Was ein großer Segnung! Es freut mich!

Schönen Woche noch!
- Sister Luymes

Sister Harris and I with Hochspyer in the back.

Church Street (left), To the Church (right).

Goodbye Sis. Williams.  We had good times together.

So yesterday was the German thanksgiving and today is unity day (the Berlin Wall came down)! I pretty much haven't seen a soul on the street the entire day. Everything is shut down and we almost got stuck in Ramstein because the busses and trains are barely working.

Anyway! I have a new companion now! Sie heißt Sister Harris. Sie kommt aus Elko, Nevada. Sie hat 3 Geschwistern. She's the second oldest. She came out on her mission right out of high school and has been on her mission for 9 months. She's been in Essen her entire time in the
field. She's super talkative and very loving and I'm way excited to serve with her!

It was an interesting week because it got thrown off by the stress of transfers, but now almost everything is in Ordnung. It's a little weird to be the one trying to update Sister Harris about who were teaching, where we're going, and how we're getting there. I definitely know Kaiserslautern and the surrounding areas way better than I ever knew Pasadena.

My favorite lesson of the week was with Silka. She's a less active we've just started to meet with regularly. I've taught her about 2 other times and this was the 3rd. We showed her a video called Berge Bezwingen (Mountains to Climb). We talked to her about how important it was to have hope. We ended up showing 2 other people the same video this week. There were so many people who said they didn't have hope and didn't see the point in having hope. It also happened to be Conference weekend! In Elder Nelson's talk he quoted 2 Nephi 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." We are meant to have JOY in this life! When we are hopeless we are unable to experience joy. Yes bad things will happen. Life gets hard. However, the Savior suffered for us so that we can have joy. Even in the hard times!

This gospel brings so much hope to my life and I've experienced joy because of it. Diese Evangelium bringt so viele Hoffnung zu meine Laben und ich habe Freude erfahren.

Bis nächste Montag!
- Sister Luymes

Hello Sis. Harris from Elko Nevada.  The next adventure begins!