Monday, March 12, 2012

Spring has Sprung

I am quite jealous to hear about all the warm weather. It is still cold here, lots of wind last night and today. We haven't had transfers yet, transfer call will be this Saturday. Transfer call is when all the missionaries call in to a conference call and President lists every area and who will be serving in it for the next transfer and then everyone moves on Tuesday which is the first day of the new transfer. I am still with Sister Openshaw and will most likely stay in Halberstadt with her but you never know, the Lord always has the bigger picture in mind. This past weeks we only had exchanges, where we spend the day with another Sister from some other part of the mission. I stayed in Halberstadt and a Sister from Bielefeld came to me. So that was just for a day, not a transfer. It's possible to be with a companion twice. There is one Sister in our mission who has served with the same Sister in two different cities at two different times. President leaves in July and the church released the name of our new mission president maybe two weeks ago? His wife actually has family in Cottbus and Sister Openshaw knows them!
   All of our members are very different from people from home, they don't really remind me of anyone from home but if you can imagine the breakfast club group, thats what I think of, except that they're all over 50.They're a fun group and I love working with them. Questions that people ask regularly? There aren't really that are normal, everyone asks different questions. The hardest hurdle to jump over is that there is a God. If people have already jumped that one then it's that God has a body. Thats one of the frist principles of this gospel to be lost, the nature of God and Jesus Christ. I am super proud of Eli for finding such a neat scripture about that in the new testament! 
   Sister Openshaw loves to wear fun colors because when she was student teaching she found that the students were a lot more receptive to her when she looked more inviting and friendly. The way she dresses here really makes a difference and people take us seriously. I think color is a very good thing for the easterners.
   So stories for this week :) Sister Openshaw and I teach a lady from the ward every Tuesday morning. She put this strange looking drink in front of us and Sister Openshaw and I planned on not drinking it - 1, cause it looked scary and 2, because its really frustrating having no control over what you put in your body since the members force us to eat so much. At the end of our visit the member said, ''Why haven't you tried your drink? You think I gave you something bad like tea.'' We immidiately said no and began drinking quickly. We stopped and asked her what it was because it tasted funny. She went to the kitchen to bring back the container it came from. Then she read it to us and we found out it was black tea. GREAT!!! Drink your drinks, it's not tea.....oh wait, it is! That was super annoying. We told her to not drink it anymore and she got frustrated and asked, ''Well then what else is there to drink?'' I told her water.
   We received the fine for my parking ticket this past week, are you ready? It was a whopping 5 euros! That was certainly a tender mercy! We had zone conference on Wednesday and that was wonderful! President talked about how as people on earth we see things as past, present, and future but because God has a higher vantage point he sees everything as the present. That's why we need to trust in the Lord because he has a better view of everything! President explained that God gave us the gifts of time, agency, and the atonement. Agency and the Atonement become building blocks because of the time we use. He refenced a talk by Robert D. Hales from last conference called ''Waiting of the Lord''. Sister Openshaw and I have actually used it recently in teaching an investigator. I really loved what Elder Hales had to say about the patience we need to have on the Lords time. Maybe you all should check it out! :)
   Well, I love you all and hope you've had a wonderful week. Be good! Oh, and let Auntie Jean know I got her package! Thanks for the face wash! My face loves me now :) Love ya'll
-Ariel Nell

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