Selfie with beautiful Taunusstein in the background

What a wonderful and slightly weird week we've had! After ending PDAY last week we had our first Gemiko (ward missionary correlation meeting) with the American Military Ward! I am super excited to start working with them. They are pretty excited to have sisters again, even if it means they have to share us. It was really weird to be having meetings in English-- praying in English was a struggle. They have a really positive outlook on missionary work and everyone thinks it's genius to have the missionaries over both wards. I do too.

We've already gotten 3 referrals because of it. One is a new investigator now for the German Ward and we set a baptismal date with her during our first visit. Another requested sister missionaries to come visit her in her rehab center (she had a stroke!), and just as she had requested that we got put into the ward. Another is a good friend of the bishop's wife. She has major interest and has wanted the discussions, but because they only had Elders it never worked out since she's home alone. MIRACLES!

On a slightly sad side Salman didn't make it to church and we felt like he needed some more time so that he could understand a few commandments so we pushed his baptism back a week. After church we called him to ask what was up and told him about how we felt like we should move his baptism. He felt so bad and said he felt the same way. He was grateful that we had followed the Spirit even though it was hard. In a way we called him to repentance, but it was very very very gentle and he took it way better than we thought.

On Wednesday we met with our new investigator Florence! She's from Ghana, but speaks flawless German with an African accent. It's awesome! She's accepted to be baptized on Oktober 7th! She's super sweet and loves that the church has tons of programs in place to help other people - locally and internationally. She was blown away to discover that we pay for ourselves to come out here so that we can serve people. We are really excited to start working with her! 

Sis. Tait -- our fellow Brit

We ended the week with a dinner appointment with our American bishop and got to talk to him about his vision for the missionary work in Wiesbaden.

I've been thinking about repentance lately and I've felt a sense of relief knowing that when I make a mistake it's not the end. As a missionary we have a lot of extra rules that we have to follow, but at the same time we are constantly striving to be "exactly" obedient. I've struggled a lot with this concept and have often beat myself up when I'm not "exactly" obedient and even worse when I don't feel like it (honestly said- sometimes I don't feel like it!). BUT I also
understand how many more blessings will come from being obedient and that "exactness" allows me to be worthy to receive miracles. In the beginning I was obedient because that's what you are expected to be as a missionary. When I wasn't, I felt awful and guilty. So the repentance process starts. I try again and I'm better at being obedient. However, after awhile of making mistakes and repenting, I realized how much I came to rely on the Savior. Soon, I WANTED to be obedient, not just because it's what was expected of me, but what I wanted to do to please my Savior. This change of heart took some time; but learning to love obedience and loving to be "exactly" obedient helped me to learn the importance of using His Atonement to repent.

Schöne Woche!
Sister Luymes

Taunusstein after a rainstorm

Yup! Still having fun.