Sister Adrienne Luymes

Mannheim District
We have crazy-fun together!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I enjoyed a lovely bowl of Müsli und Banane as my feast.

First off WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH MANUELA! Woooo! She's super excited to get baptized on January 7th 😊 She's been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying everyday. We taught her about repentance and how we have to repent before we are baptized. Sister Weiler and I had felt prompted to teach her about repentance and she had so many questions about HOW we repent. She loved that we believe that repentance requires change on our part and it's not just confessing our sins to a church leader. We used 2 Nephi 31 as our lesson plan. We read the whole thing and asked her what she thought and she said "Glauben an Jesus Christus, Umkehr, sich taufen lassen, die Gabe des Heiligen Geistes empfangen, und bis ans Ende ausharren." She learned and understood the entire doctrine of Christ after reading one chapter in the Book of Mormon! She's so sweet and so prepared to accept the restored gospel.

One of Mannheim's beautiful churches.

We had a lot of time to go finding this week. Of course when you're going door to door all day long it's pretty hard, but there's always some kind of adventure that ensues. We doored into this woman named Selam. She barely spoke any German (basically ja, nein, und ich spreche kein Deutsch). However she invited us in anyway. We shared a video about Christ and she got excited and she got her bible. The letters look like noodles (picture below)! I asked if we could say a prayer and she caught on and started kneeling. As we kneeled together in her humble apartment I said the prayer in German. I knew she couldn't understand what I was saying. However, the Spirit was so strong and after I ended she looked at us and said "ich verstehe" (Ich understand). Sister Weiler had a scripture come to mind during the prayer and we were able to find it in her bible! John 3:16 "God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son." I didn't do a good job describing this experience, but I just don't have the words to describe what I felt praying for that woman. All I can say is that God loves Selam very much and I was able to feel that.

SO. I HAVE A CHALLENGE! If someone can PLEASE find out what language this woman speaks, I will forever be grateful! I want to see if we can find anyone who can translate so we can teach her.

Please tell me what this mystery language is?

Speaking of translators we found a Bulgarian potential and we got permission to skype with the missionaries in Bulgaria to teach him! So cool!

We also had a woman give us a tour of her house because she just finished remodeling her bathroom. Of course we said yes! She ended up giving us 20 things of mini shampoos, conditioners, and soap. She's way cool and took a Book of Mormon and said to come back.

We had Pfahlkonferenz in Kaiserslautern and Heidelberg so we traveled a lot too. However on Thursday we were trying to get to Hüttenfeld and took the wrong bus and ended up in Worms (not in my area). We got stuck there for 40 minutes and got stuck in Lampertheim because our train was verspätet 25 minutes. It was pretty frustrating.

This week had it's ups and downs, but we chose to focus on the positive side! I was reading in Alma 26 and it says:

5 Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.

6 Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.
7 But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day.

Sometimes it's pretty exhausting and difficult out here. But it makes the good experience (like Selam and Manuela) all the more special and we appreciate them a lot more than if we hadn't worked for them. And even if we don't have a baptism every weekend, who says our reward is in this life?

I love being a missionary so much! The last 6 months have been a blast. There will never be another time in my life that I have the opportunity to talk to so many people and share something so important to me. The biggest thing I've learned in the last 6 months is how much God loves his children. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he gave his Beloved Son. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and overcome death so that we can return to live with God.

Liebe Grüße!

Sister Luymes