Twinners! More like we coordinate.

We went to McDonald's and saw an advertisement for chicken nuggets and it said "Huhnglaublich!" (Chicken unbelievable) We had a good laugh. German advertising is one of my favorite things and it gets even better when you directly translate it into English.

This week felt (and still feels like) a marathon. You're probably all wondering if that baptism is going to happen. The answer to that is YES! Bright is on fire. He's been doing so well and is really excited to be baptized this Saturday. Every time we meet with him it makes our day. I feel like I've learned more from him than he has from me! If you read my last email I had said that that evening we were going to the Tiebings and would have dinner and teach a lesson. It was pretty stressful because we were also going on splits so I was leading the area and we were getting a ride to the Tiebings. Well our ride never came and no one was answering our phone so poor Bright and Sister Harouny were waiting for me as I made 1,000 calls to see what was going on.

The awesome thing was it ended up being perfect. We still taught Bright AND we got to teach his sister! We taught them the 10 commandments and about keeping the Sabbath day holy. What I thought would be a pretty generic short lesson turned into a very spiritual and uplifting experience. It was cool because every time we talked about a new commandment Bright would bring up a scriptural example. It was even cooler was that sometimes they would be from the Book of Mormon that he had recently read. He asked a lot of questions so that he could make sure he was living each of the commandments. The second cool thing was that he has been offered a job, but he would have to work on Sunday. He told us that he had prayed and had decided that it wasn't worth it to take the job because he knew he shouldn't work on the Sabbath. His interview is tomorrow 😊

Today is my year mark for being on a mission. It's pretty unbelievable how fast that went. At the same time I feel like I've had more than a years experience packed into this last year. It's been challenging and wonderful all at the same time. (Cheesy cheesy I know) I could tell you all the things I've learned, but I'll just learn more so it's better to just wait until the end.

3 Nephi 15:13 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

Here's to the next 6 months!
Sister Luymes

African Rice and mystery gray meat that Bright made us.
I fear what the mystery meat was.

My buddy Joshua!

This is UNBELIEVABLY German -- on public transportation.

Today is Christi Himmelfahrt (holiday of the Ascension) so everything
 is closed but we did find a cool flea market.

St Elizabeth's Russian Orthodox Church in Wiesbaden

Peek-a-boo St. Elizabeth's

 "Hell" means bright auf Deutsch in case your wondering.  Bright is our investigator who's getting baptized NEXT WEEK! We set his date last Thursday after PDAY so we'll only have 2 weeks to prepare him and one has already flew by. We prayed before our second appointment with him about what date we should invite him to be baptized on, the Spirit told us 27 Mai. We prayed again and asked ARE YOU SURE???!!! And we got the same answer. The appointment went super well but Sister K and I were too scared to say it. After struggling against the Spirit a little bit He finally won and I kind of just blurted it out "Bright, do you want to get baptized? How about May 27th?" Not my best baptismal invitation, but he accepted it no questions asked! We've been meeting with him almost every day to prepare him in time. He also went to Ashkan's (the investigator of the Elders) baptism on Saturday and stayed for all of church on Sunday. He's been a rock star! Yesterday we met with him and talked about what he thought about the Book of Mormon. He said that he woke up that morning with a really bad feeling and was uneasy, so he read in the Book of Mormon and he described it as if someone had taken those feeling away and replaced them with something warm and loving. We asked him what he thought of Ashkan's baptism and he said Ashkan looked super happy and clean inside and out. When we asked him about his own baptism he said, "I want look and feel like that too." We're having dinner with Bright and the Tiebings tonight. Basically, all of my favorite people in the same room. ❤️

Our Persian members (L-R) Sajad, E Wiley, Javad, Ashkan, E Smith

The rest of our week was BUSY. On Saturday, we helped the Kopischke family move and it went way longer than expected. We had helped them finish packing the night before and they served us "dinner" which consisted of cherries and vanilla ice cream. We sat on the couch with the dinner table balancing on 2 chairs and my knees. It was a very delicious and I ate it out of a lid to a pan because that's what they had. There was a picture taken but I don't know who has it.

Sunday was eventful as well. I got to Skype my family which is always the beeeeeest (although it was at 7 AM so I was pretty tired).  I'm not even a year into my mission yet and I've already had my last Skype! We had church and afterwards we had dinner with the Snapps while the rest of missionaries skyped. Sister Snapp made us a burrito casserole and homemade cheesecake as comfort food as we all said goodbye to our families again. She's the best too.

Sorry for last email, I still don't know what happened. The big burger was from Waldgeist a restaurant known for its XXL portions. Did I eat it? My comp and I shared it and it lasted a few days. The pretty view was our walk from Assmanshausen to Rüdesheim along the Rhein. Today we saw a castle and a Russion Orthodox Church in the middle of the Forrest. I sometimes wonder what other missionaries do for PDAY...

The weather is warming up! Yay!

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Joshua 3:5

"Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

Now is the time to prepare ourselves, repent, do whatever we need to do so when tomorrow comes we can be a part of the Lord's blessings and miracles. This scripture also give me hope through my trials because I know the Lord is preparing me for the wonders that are ahead.

Vielen Dank für euerer Unterstützung und Liebe. Ich bete für euch jeden Tag. Schönen Muttertag zu alle die liebe Fraun, die ich kenne. Ihr seid wunderbar! (Thank you for your support and love. I pray for you every day. Happy Mother's Day to all the dear women I know. You are wonderful!)

Liebe Grüße!
Sister Luymes

One of many field o' flowers we pass by daily. Beautiful!

Idstein - we go dooring in the most quaint places.

Best companion ever! Cleaning bird poop off our windows.
All German apartments have these cool windows that rotate.

Shout out to my friends serving in Chile!

Adrienne wrote a really great letter this week...that unfortunately got deleted by accident before she sent it.  Here are a bunch of pics to make up for that.

Pretty field of flowers

Ward Mission Leader took us to dinner.

World's Biggest Burger -- we took some home for lunch.

Ringkirche -- A protestant church and landmark in Wiesbaden

Quaint and charming!

Wiesbaden District playing BANG!

Rhine River

P-day hike with the district, Rhine River in the back.

Dooring in the cutest street in the world (in the rain)

 It rained the whole week. It's supposed to be warmer and sunnier this weekend which will make the Germans happier.

Of course, the weather doesn't affect our ability to have adventures and make new friends! On Monday, we had an eating appointment with my favorite family the Tiebings. Monday was also a Feiertag (holiday) Tag der Arbeit (basically German Labor Day) which means literally everything is closed, the busses are reduced to once an hour, and everyone is out of town! The Tiebings also live in a Dorf about a 30-minute bus ride away. We had had a finding activity with the Elders and were sprinting to get our bus. We made it. However, we had an Umstieg (lay over...?) and then needed to catch another bus in Bad Schwalbach to go to Tanausstein. It was complicated. So our Haltestelle (bus stop) is coming and we press the STOP button and stand up and our bus driver doesn't stop. So we press the button again and he passes the next stop. THREE TIMES he misses our bus stop! Which means we're now in the next Dorf and 6 km away from where we needed to be. We go up to him when he finally stops and we're a little frustrated. He apologized and said he could take us exactly where we needed to go because it turns out the bus we were on (275) turns into the 273 which goes right in front of the Tiebings house. So it actually worked in our favor that he messed up because then we didn't need to pay twice or walk!

Dinner wasn't what we expected it to be either. The parents were with the 9 year old watching a movie so it was just the teenagers at home. They also have an exchange student from America, Ben, who's hilarious. When we got to the house Ben answered the door and stood in the doorway. We said hi and then just stood there waiting for someone else to come (namely a woman) so we could go in. It was awkward for a couple long seconds standing in the rain. And then Ben said "uhh I'm not alone, let me get Jens." We told him to get Lisa first so we could go inside. Hahaha

We all speak German and English so we spoke Denglish and took whatever parts of whatever language we wanted and everyone could understand! So fun! They told us about the drama at school and funny stories of stuff they've done together. We made popcorn and basically hung out until the parents got home. Then we had an awesome spiritual thought and committed them to bear their testimony to a nonmember. This family is ganz Lieb (very kind)!

The other funny part of our week was last night we had a sort of appointment with this Iranian guy. When we got there his wife and daughter were home, but he wasn't. They still let us in though! While we were waiting for him we talked to the daughter (14 years old). She had perfect German and the mom was trying. I love Iranian people because they're super friendly and they always offer you tea and finger food. When the man came home we gave him a Farsi Book of Mormon and ended up having a great discussion. He couldn't stay long so he left after 20 minutes. We felt like maybe we should leave so we wouldn't over stay our welcome. Then the daughter and mom said "bitte bleib! Es macht Spaß!" (Please stay! It's fun) So we became best friends and set up another appointment so we could teach them.

My favorite part of missionary work is just meeting people. Everyone is so different--different culture, different background, different needs. What's cool in Germany is that everyone is learning German so I can have a conversation over tea with an Iranian family, or make a German joke to an Eritrean woman, or share the gospel to a group of Koreans. We all are so unique and yet we all need the same thing. Everyone needs love. God's love penetrates borders, cultures, and our personal walls if we let him. He loves us not because we've done
anything spectacular to earn it, but simply because we are His children.

Ich hab euch lieb! Schöne Woche (Love you, have a great week)!

Sister Luymes

Marketplace in Mainz -- the spire has a figure on top
that looks alot like the Angel Moroni on top of the temple.

Genesis in Latin from a Gutenberg Bible replica;
we went to the Gutenberg Museum.