Happy Easter Socks (thanks mom). Sister Lopez and I
can go out with a bang and looking amazing (our feet at least).

So you don't freak out about me not talking about my companion. She's from Trumbull, Connecticut. She's 20 years old. She studied at BYU for 1 semester she hasn't decided on a major yet. She has 3 siblings Kaitlyn (14), Alyssa(16), Henry(18). She played field hockey in high school. She can kind of play the flute. She was also my STL (sister training leader) for the past 5 transfers in Heidelberg and we've gone on splits together and hung out during PDAY a lot. She's super cool and I'm really excited to serve with her. She goes home in 2 transfers (including this one) so I'll send her home. She's a really hard worker and has a lot of fun so it makes this whole opening thing a lot better. I'm really excited to be in Wiesbaden. I loved Mannheim and I love Sister López but I really needed a change and a new challenge. Sister López was terrified that i was leaving and that she'd take over the area. She cried 4-5 times a day between the transfer call and me getting on the train. It was time though. Her new companion is super sweet so she'll do great.

Love you!

Laughing with President Uchtdorf, and
chatting in the "Celestial German language"

 Last Thursday was one of the most joyful experiences of my mission. When we traveled from Frankfurt to Friedrichsdorf there were probably about 60 missionaries all on the same train. We all got off and walked through Friedrichsdorf together towards the temple. I got to see so many friends and almost all of my companions. Then we got to the chapel and I got to see some members from Kaiserslautern! They couldn't believe that 6 months later I was still in the same stake. Then President Uchtdorf came in and we all sang Sehet, ihr Völker (Behold, A Royal Army). We heard testimonies from President Stoddard (my mission President), the daughter of Uchtdorf, and then Harriet Uchtdorf (his wife). Then he spoke to us for the rest of the time. He told us that we needed to develop a Gemeinschaft (community) based upon love, charity, and service. He compared it to a Heavenly community and prophesied that when we develop this the missionary work in Germany will take off. He had a lot of questions about when the Frankfurt temple will re-open and he couldn't tell us. However, he made the point that we should be preparing ourselves constantly to be able to enter the temple. We should be preparing ourselves individually, as a family, and as a community to partake of the temple blessings. He's amazing.

Beautiful building in Frankfurt

We had zone training the next day and we had interviews with President Stoddard. He asked me how I had come closer to my Savior while on my mission. My answer was through scripture study. This week is Holy Week and I've focused all of my studies on what He did during His last week. I also recently studied the booklet Teaching in the Savior's Way. He was the Master Teacher, in word and in example. He stood up for what was right, even in times of extreme adversity. He suffered, was crucified, and arose for mankind so that we can have peace in suffering, hope in adversity, and forgiveness from our sins. He is the Light and the Way to our Father in Heaven. I encourage you all to read the New Testament with Jesus the Christ side by side.

Lovely Frankfurt home

The rest of our week was pretty adventurous. Yesterday we took a train to Lampertheim and then to Neckarau and went by all of the less-actives in both of those areas. It was a TON of walking though. Also on Monday night we felt like we should go contacting in the evening time and we met 2 students (a guy and a girl) and in the middle of our conversation a drunk guy came up to us saying some weird stuff about his boyfriend being in my iPad. The guy student just said "Oh, I see." And the drunk guy walked away saying "I'm glad someone understands me!" The 4 of us just died laughing and it totally broke the ice to have a really awesome conversation. They're both Muslim, but felt like they wanted to explore Christianity and asked when they could come to church! So, we're picking them up on Sunday and we'll take the bus together! Unfortunately, I don't remember their names because one is like Abahlada and the other is Adalhaba. However, we're all BFF's because of the drunk guy! Thanks, drunk guy!

Transfer calls are this Saturday again. Time is flying by way too quickly! I guess that's what happens when you're having fun.

Frohe Ostern (Happy Easter)! 🐣
- Sister Luymes

Reunion w/ Sis Catherall (my MTC companion)

Reunion with Sister Elowitt from my K-town district.

Sister Harris (last K-town companion)

Sis Lopez being an Uchtdorf creaper!

Crappy picture but I got to see the Frankfurt Temple at last!

Frankfurt Station

So, I'm currently on a train to Frankfurt and later today I'll get on another going to Friedrichsdorf because tonight President Uchtdorf has invited all the full-time missionaries and Gemeinderat (members) of the Heidelberg, Frankfurt, and Friedrichsdorf stakes to meet with him and talk about missionary work! We're all meeting in the Friedrichsdorf Gemeindehaus (chapel) which happens to be across the street from the Frankfurt temple! Basically, every missionary’s dream.

This week seemed to bounce back and forth between highs and lows with not much time in between. By Wednesday (a.k.a P-Day eve) we were just emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. It felt really good to just clean our apartment really well this morning and take a break.

Last weekend was General Conference and (from what I've seen so far) it was AMAZING! I made a list of some questions for investigators and not only did it answer all of those questions, but it answered my personal questions that I didn't even know I had. Unfortunately, we've only seen the schwesternversammlung (sisters’ session) and a part of Saturday morning session. We were supposed to watch the other sessions with our neubekehrt (new convert) and her family, but when we got there they weren't home.... that was kind of part one of the lows. We've had to travel between Heidelberg and Mannheim 10 times in the past week because of Conference and splits.

Jennifer, one of my investigators.

Speaking of splits I just had my 7th split and my 5th in Heidelberg! I was with the lovely Sister Jones and we had the best split ever. We got to teach a young Chinese guy named Blues Lee. It was awesome! He didn't know anything about Christianity but believed in God. We taught him the very basics -- God, Jesus Christ, Holy Ghost. We talked about how the Spirit is there to make us act (baptism) and he asked, "what are the requirements of baptism?"  He was super excited to read in the Bible for the first time too. We gave him a Book of Mormon in Chinese and German. The best part of the lesson was teaching him how to pray. He prayed for the first time EVER! And in Chinese! Blues Lee is basically my favorite person right now. Leider (unfortunately) he's not my investigator. He wrote our names in Chinese with a super fancy Chinese pen picture below.

Apparently, I get really distracted when I'm on a train so writing isn't so easy right now. Love you all and hope you have a good week! I'll try to talk with President Uchtdorf in the celestial language!

Sister Luymes

Frankfurt!

Frankfurt Train Station

Leave it to Adrienne to find a "zipline" somewhere and take a ride or two in spite of the skirt she is wearing.  Thank goodness her beautiful blonde locks are long again. The rest are pics of the Morgensport in Heidelberg (a really cool building that she liked).

Thank you East Pasadena Ward Primary for the care package and banners you sent to Sister Lopez.  She loves you and says she wants to work harder now! 😍

Thank you East Pasadena Primary for
the box of fun things for Sister Lopez
She cried like 5 times.

 Frühling ist gekommen (spring has come)! It has been in the high teens low 20's (Celsius of course) for a solid week now! Es freut mich so sehr (I’m so happy)! My beautiful green Deutschland has returned.

Jumping for joy cause SPRING is here!

Beautiful Forsythia bushes everywhere!

We had zone conference this week and it was in Kaiserslautern. I'm back to my old hood for the second time since leaving. It felt so weird to be walking to the huge church again and eating American food prepared by American moms! We finally got to see the video for the Easter Initiative "Fürst des Friedens" (Prince of Peace). It's way good and I recommend watching it. We really focused our training on how to share the initiative and how to teach in the Savior's way.


This week was all over the place. On Saturday, we had a ton of appointments that ended up being moved to later in the week. We also hung out with the women in our ward and had cake and tea together. We also played Taboo and I did surprisingly well in German. The woman in this Gemeinde (ward) are all awesome!

On Tuesday all of our appointments again got pushed back to the weekend (funny how that always seems to happen). We were dooring and I saw an older man carrying a huge painting. I offered to help him and he ended up just showing off his painting he had finished. He was talking and at some point, he noticed our name tags and he stopped mid-sentence and started going on a rant about how he was an atheist and that we had no chance with him. We talked for about 45 minutes on the sidewalk and he decided that he did want to meet with us for rum-coffee with chocolate sprinkles. When we parted ways, he complemented my German and couldn't believe I was American. Then he started to try setting us up with his 23-year-old grandson. He called me a ”stellar Frau" and wished us both good husbands. Haha! I love old Germans sometimes!


Today we went to the Technosium here and saw the 200 Räder exhibition. We even got to ride the "Laufräder" (walk bike) and the old bikes with the huge front wheel. Sadly, no pictures were allowed. I'll say this: we've come a long way since the original.

Spiritual highlights we met some crabby people yesterday and instead of moving on or even skipping them, we were able to help them out. We felt really guided as we explained part of the plan of salvation to a man who had just lost his wife. We were able to share a scripture with a woman who felt like she had lost her faith in her Christ.

It's been a good week 😊
- Sister Luymes

We want: nothing to buy, nothing to donate,
our religion won't change,we are safe and our
bills are paid, so bye.

Sunset in some picturesque dorff.

Our new friends -- Laura (7) and Alanna (1).

Missionary work is the coolest guys. I'm so happy here in Germany and I absolutely love the work that I'm doing. I love my mission, I love this language, but most of all I love these people! I feel like the whole world is in Germany right now and it's so amazing to talk to them and get to know their culture and their stories.

Last week we met this woman from Syria who's learning German. We offered to meet with her to help her out and also give her a Book of Mormon. We came back on Monday as we had planned. When we got in we saw an older German woman sitting there. I immediately thought "ok she either really understands what we do and has invited her German friend to hear the gospel OR she doesn't understand what we're doing at all." The second part was correct. The German woman was her German tutor and she thought we were here to read with her daughter and help her with homework. So we taught Laura (7) how to write in cursive, Alanna(1) how to high 5, and gave the mom the Book of Mormon. The girls are adorable and we were laughing pretty hard after we left.

We've been finding and teaching people all week too! Just on Monday alone we found 4 potentials and have appointments with all of them. We had a street display last Saturday and have appointments with 2 people. One of them is named Vanessa. We met with her on Tuesday and she's so awesome! She's 16 and grew up Christian, but no specific church. She's German and Polish, but grew up in Mexico and in California (Lancaster). She speaks English, German, Spanish, Korean, and is learning Japanese. She's pretty shy, but she really warmed up to us. We taught her the restoration and she really liked it and was very open to it. We invited her to be baptized and she said YES! No specific date yet, but she's really excited to learn more. She even asked us how she can get to church on Sunday before we even asked her. Woo!

Another cool person is Sylvia. We doored into her on Monday and it was super confusing. She looked really mad and she sounded really mad, but everything she said was positive. Sister López just froze in the stairwell and didn't come closer, but the Spirit told me to just start talking to her and asking questions. IT WORKED! She ended up being very interested and invited us in! She gave us Sprudel Wasser in champagne glasses. We will meet with her again tomorrow 😊

We also taught the Mark Family! Sister Weiler and I found them back in December, but they never had time to meet with us. Then the elders contacted the husband and he invited them over. The wife said she'd already had our number and set up an appointment with us and we taught them last night. They're very catholic but love listening to the word of God. They had a hard time understanding that the Book of Mormon was not the Bible and that we believe in both. The Spirit was really strong and definitely helped me and Sister López answer their questions. We were able to share a lot of scriptures with them from the Bible and the Book of Mormon to show that they support each other. It was cool and they finally agreed to read and pray. Victory!

Other cool people of the week Xinia, Nadia, Jennifer, Stefen, and a less active Sabrina. We've been running around like crazy trying to get to all of our appointments and find new people at the same time.

Heavenly Father answers prayers. There was a while where we really didn't have anyone to teach and we weren't finding people. It was hard and frustrating at times. I've been fasting and praying for months for these miracles. I've learned a lot and we've been preparing ourselves to teach people and now Heavenly Father is pouring down blessings!

Love you all!
Sister Luymes

German math

Wasser Turn und Eis
(Wasser Tower and ice cream)

Spring has sprung and the swans freuen sich (are happy).