Bright's baptism with Bro Jens Tiebing (our ward mission leader)

Bright is baptized! He was so excited and so prepared! We've had a heck of a time the past two weeks trying to teach him and getting him prepared, but he basically came prepared all by himself. Last Thursday was a mission dream come true. We taught our golden investigator in a member's home and then we all ate a delicious German meal. Best thing that could ever happen on my year mark.

Bright was shining in white and Jens Tiebing baptized him. Then on Sunday Bruder Van der Put confirmed him and did it in English so Bright could even understand. It was one of the most beautiful confirmation blessings I'd ever heard. Basically all of Saturday evening and Sunday I couldn't stop smiling because I was so happy. I was so impressed with how the ward took care of him and didn't need extra prodding to talk to him and introduce themselves.  I wish you could all meet Bright because he's basically the coolest person ever.

On Tuesday we went finding and had a really awesome day and found a lot of new people with some awesome potential. At the end of the day we were feeling SUPER blessed. We were tired, exhausted, my feet hurt really bad, and we were starving. Trotzdem incredibly happy. Then our dear friend Sister Lourido called us up and said that a friend of hers started talking about this church they had started going to in Ecuador right before they had moved to Germany. It ended up being our church! And they'd even met with sister missionaries while they were in Spain for a couple weeks! She set an appointment up for us for yesterday.

We met with them and were able to help teach the mom and their daughter German. It was a little interesting because they only speak Spanish.  SIster lourido speaks Spanish and helped during the tutoring part, but then she she left the room to distract the kids while we (attempted) to teach her about the Book of Mormon in Spanish........................ it went better than I expected. Sister K had taken one year of Spanish and couldn't understand anything she was saying. I took 3 years of Spanish and could understand surprisingly well. However, speaking was the real hard part. German was so easy to speak, but if I thought really hard I could remember the Spanish words I used to know. We used the Book of Mormon a lot to clarify what I was trying to say and I tried (desperately) to bear my testimony in Spanish. She started crying and I could feel the Spirit.... so I think it worked. OR I offended her horribly mal schauen. The family will be coming to church on Sunday. JAWOHL!

Miracles are real. No doubt about it. Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve what the Lord has blessed me with.

I've made a goal to read the Book of Mormon front to back again so I've been reading in 1 Nephi. In chapter 15 Nephi had just finished having this awesome experience where the Lord basically answers all of his questions. Afterwards, Nephi's older brothers are giving him a hard time because they still have the same questions and don't understand how Nephi knows the answers. I like this part because then Nephi gets sassy with them he says: "And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?" He then explains to his brothers that he had simply prayed and ASKED God his questions. And God answered. His brothers get pretty humble after that. This passage really stuck out to me this week because I feel like people ask the same questions over and over again and when we give them an answer they give us a hard time. Then when I ask them if they've ever asked God, their answer is always no. God loves it when we sincerely ask Him questions. He hears us and He will answer our prayers when we are obedient to His commandments and in His timing. (James 1:5-6)

Liebe Grüße
Sister Luymes

Niedernhausen -- The Center of the World!!!

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.

With Sis Krasynski at the Biebrich Palace

I really don't know how to describe this week. To start off our ward missionary Sister Lourido sat us down and went through her contacts and wrote down numbers of her friends and family for us to contact. She basically gave us 25 referrals in 30 minutes. We've been working closely with her so that she can introduce us to them/ set up appointments. It's been cool! She even went street contacting with us! Love this woman.

We met our new Gemeinde (ward) on Sunday and they were SO EXCITED to see us. The whole relief society (woman's organization) hugged us at least 2-3 times each. Which is so different because usually when you get to a new area their excitement is pretty mild. We met our GML (ward mission leader) for 5 minutes and then 10 minutes later during sacrament meeting he was released and we got a new GML Brüder Tiebing! It's ok because I didn't really know either of them.

Brüder Tiebing invited all of the most over to his home for a mini Gemiko for Monday evening. That was so much fun! We got to meet his whole family and they are so amazing and so nice! They have 4 children; a daughter whose name I have not yet learned but she's married and has a baby, Jens (19 and waiting for his mission call), Lisa (16 and dances ballet), and Kris (9 and super energetic). We ate and had a great time and Brüder Tiebing shared with us his ideas of what we could do differently and they were all super inspired!

We've been able to meet with quite a few less actives and we've been finding a lot. We were in Bad Schwalbach, Taunusstein, and Hattersheim (Frankfurt areas) for appointments and finding this whole week. It was a lot of time on busses and trains.

Dooring in Bad Schwalbach
aka Langenschwalbach area

We had 3 or so appointments with potentials, but they either fell out or the person didn't understand what we were saying. Oh well das passiert manchmal (this happens).

Something that I really came to appreciate this week and understand more deeply is the knowledge that we are all God's children and that we are created in His image. In John 14:9 it says "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Christ had a body of flesh and blood and so do we because our Heavenly Father has a body just like ours. We also have the ability to have children, families, and relationships. These are abilities we've inherited from our Heavenly Parents. This is seriously just the beginning of a wonderful wealth of knowledge that we have and thankfully for the restored gospel we have even more knowledge now!

I love Wiesbaden! I love being a missionary! I love you all!
Sister Luymes

Wiesbaden town center (Fussganger - shoppers)

Kurhaus - this area is known for its spas and resorts.

Best looking casino you've ever seen!

Sunday School - found while dooring

Wiesbaden distriact in front of Biebrich Palace (the Schloss)
l-r: Sis K, E. Holyoak, E. Smith, E. Wiley, E.Jukes, ME

Meet Sister Krysanski from Connecticut.
We plan to have a lot of fun together.

So transfer calls came on Saturday and the first thing they tell me is that my new companion will be Sister Krysanski. I was super excited because she's been my STL for 5 transfers and I know her super well. The next thing they tell me is that we're going to open the German sisters area in WIESBADEN!!!! I pretty much started freaking out because I was super excited. The sister's area has been closed since the end of last year so we're pretty much starting from square one.

The next couple days we're just full of excitement, nervousness, packing, and goodbyes. It was probably the longest 3 days of my life. I was so sad to say goodbye to the members in Mannheim and to Sister López, but at the same time I felt super pumped to dig in and get started. The only instructions we got were train tickets to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and that we would meet "someone" who had our keys and tickets to Wiesbaden. That was all we knew about getting here. We had no idea how we would get to our apartment or if there was food.

Day of transfers came and it was a huge struggle to get my 3 suitcases on a bus to the train station, down 6 escalators to get to the right Gleis (train platform) all by myself. When I arrived in Frankfurt I got to see my trainer Sister Williams and my MTC comp Sister Catherall! The "someone" ended up being my new district leader Elder Smith and his comp Elder Wiley. They gave us the keys and our Fahrkarten and the Tech Elders gave us a new phone. The only bad thing is the the SIM card isn't active until another couple days so it doesn't work yet. Also the number will change so we can't really use it yet. YAY! The elders were super helpful and helped us with our luggage and guided us to our apartment. A train,  2-3 buses,  10 minutes walk, and 6 flights of stairs later we arrived to our new home. It's ginormous and SUPER nice inside. We met our new Ehepaar (senior couple) the Snapps who live on our street and the American Elders helped us because they too live on our street.

Yesterday morning someone knocked on our door and it ended up being a member inviting us to have lunch with her right then. We'd bought some basic necessities the first night, but it was so nice to have a big home cooked meal. Sister Loretta is also a ward missionary and she's from Columbia. She lives around the corner from us.

We had district meeting afterwards and the Elders kept staring at us as if they couldn't believe that we were actually there and they were SO excited to have us there. It was funny and slightly uncomfortable.

Afterwards we decided to get lost and go finding. The first person we talked to gave us their number so we could set up an appointment! MIRACLES! We found 4-5 people last night and set up our first appointment for this evening. YES! It feels as if we're trying to run a race with both of our feet chopped off though. We don't have a phone technically and we don't know how to describe how to get to the church very well. But it's been so much fun so far! There are 0 expectations and we both feel pretty calm and peaceful about it.

I've been studying in 1 Nephi when Lehi and his family leave Jerusalem and travel in the wilderness. They had no idea where they were going or what to do really, so they were forced to do either 1 of 2 things: 1) doubt and succumb to their fears and probably die or 2) trust in the Lord and what he instructed them to do. Later Nephi is commanded to build a ship. These are both examples of things that none of them have ever had to do before and had no experience or previous knowledge. I feel a bit like Nephi right now. When he Lord instructs him "Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee." Nephi doesn't say " uhhhh what? Ok send me down a ship please" he asks "whither shall go that I may find ore...that I may make tools." He asks the Lord what the first step is of a long series of steps. Faith moves mountains and builds ships. I know our faith can make this area prosperous.

Love you all!
Sister Luymes

Bumped into Sis Williams on my way to Wiesbaden

St. Bonifatius church - Catholic, Gothic revival style.

Dorcas was one of the members I had to say farewell to.