Erin's Exceptional Errand: Wow!

Wow so much happened this week! Hopefully I can remember everything!
And share it the way it happened because so much awesomeness happened!
This week was long, but not in a bad way. Just so much happened! I
don't really remember what happened at the beginning of the week.
Everything happened more in the second half of the week. We finished
watching conference for our district meeting. I love conference!
Wednesday was just a normal day. Every Wednesday night we sing at the
church with a member who is active only because he likes to play the
organ and that is his calling. As we were singing, we got a call from
the sister training leaders. It was probably almost 8. We had zone
training the next day at 12 in Dortmund. I was talking on the phone
and Sis Terry asked, "are you giving a Thema tomorrow in zone
training?" I replied, " not that I know of." Well turned out we were
giving a Thema in zone training! Let's just say sister Helmick was
slightly upset I agreed so quickly to do it. But then she was ok with
it. We were speaking on keeping the sabbath day holy. It ended up
being an ok Thema. It was just really funny how it got assigned. Then
after zone training we had interviews with president and we were last
so we got to hang out with Sister Stoddard all day! Then president was
like, "your Thema today was really good." I told him the story behind
it and he just laughed. It was super funny!
Friday morning we were supposed to go get flu shots in Dortmund, but
the appointment ended up being cancelled as we were on a train to
Dortmund, but the events leading up to that were just funny. Sister
Helmick was having a bad morning and as we went to leave, we realized
we accidentally had left our door slightly open all night. As we
walked out sister Helmick yelled, "Great! I might have cancer and we
could have been murdered!" No worries, sister Helmick does not have
cancer and we were not murdered. That has just been our quote for the
week, because it was so funny as we left that morning.
As we waited for our train to Dortmund, this guy from Tebet came and
talked to me because he heard us speak English. He was atheist and
pretty set with that so I didn't push too much that we wanted to talk
about God. We kept talking and finally he was like," ok tell me about
Christ." He ended up with a restoration pamphlet and we had a way
awesome conversation about God and prayer. He was so amazed that we
had only been in Germany for 7 months and could speak such good
German. He has been here for 3 years and still struggles. Every time
he commented on my German I told him," well God helps us" . That is
what finally got him to ask more. It is so cool how just little things
we say can spark intereste in people who would otherwise not care.
Saturday we met with a less active who is really struggling with
taking care of her family. She has 5 kids and no money and is having
problems with her Mann. It was so cool to just tell her that the
little things she does are a great example to her children. It was
cool to speak for experience and say that I had 5 siblings and the
little things may parents did made a huge difference for us, even when
it was so chaotisch. That was a super spiritual lesson.
Sonnday after church we had an appointment with a member who also
invited a couple other guys from the ward. One is a recent convert and
he is from Kenya, which was funny because he doesn't speak German and
this couple doesn't have the best English. We were talking with him
and the other member was asking about snakes in AZ. This guy from
Kenya kept asking if I ate snakes and frogs. I was really confused but
kept telling him no. Later he turned to me and said," I am just so
thankful to see a missionary from Asia. There aren't very many of you
and i think it is really cool." At this point me and sister Helmick
couldn't contain our laughter. I told him I was from Arizona not Asia
to which he responded, " are you sure? Maybe your dad is Chinese?"
Still laughing uncontrollably I told him no. He then said, " well if
you ever go there you will fit right in. All the people will think you
live there and will be asking where your house is." The laughing just
continued. Apparently I am Chinese.
After that appointment we traveled out into the middle of nowhere to
meet with this guy. He is really cool. He has 4 daughters and they all
sat and listened as well. When I found him he told me he was already
meeting with people from our church, but that we could come too. We
found out they are meeting with Jehovah's Witness. But they were super
willing to listen. They got really excited when we told them they
could have the Buch Mormon and that we would bring more for the other
daughters. They are pretty cool. That was also a way spiritual lesson.
Wow long email, but there was just so much good! I love it! Something
I have really been thinking about this week was the talk from
conference about ponderizing a scripture a week. I need to re read the
talk, but I really liked that. This week I have been working on making
sure I have our scripture of the month memorized. LuB 59:9-10 und
damit du dich selbst noch mehr von der Welt unbefleckt halten mögest,
sollst du an meinem heiligen Tag ins Haus des Betens gehen und deine
heiligen Handlungen darbringen; denn wahrlich dies ist der Tag der dir
bestimmt ist von deiner Arbeit zu ruhen und dem Allerhöchsten deine
Gottesverehrung zu entrichten.
I think it is just really cool that Sunday is really the day for us to
rest from our arbeit! God wants us to use it to praise Him and stop
worrying about whatever we worry about the rest of the week. The
scriptures are true. The sabbath was made for man. Use it for what it
was made for.
I love you all! Sorry Arizona is still so hot. It is freezing here!
Almost literally so........ Ja this winter will be interesting. I
can't wait!
I have liebe euch
Liebe
Sister Carroll