The One with Irish Whiskey

Hollie Hallo! 

We got transfer calls and I am staying in Tubingen!!! Wahoo! I really love this area and I was NOT ready to go! I will be with a Sister Magleby next transfer and I am excited to meet her. Transfers just seem to open up worlds of opportunities! I will miss Sister Jensen though. She has been a joy to work with. We work really well together because she is so ready and willing to work hard, even when we are tired!

This week had its ups and downs! The big down was that Melanni messaged us and told us that she is unsure about the commitment of baptism and that she does not want to go forward with it. That just about tore me in two, but we have a lesson tonight, so we will get to talk to her in person. She deserves all the love and patience in the world and that is exactly what we are going to give her and then, the ball is in her court. 

The big up from the week was our friend of the church named Evelyn made some great progress this week! Evelyn was born in the Catholic church and let me tell you, she is the most faithful woman I have ever met. Her faith can literally move mountains. Anyways, we had taught her a couple times before, but we knew that until she learned about the fact that there really was an apostasy and that no church (including the catholic church) had the Priesthood from God, she would not be able to progress. We were a bit nervous to how she was going to react. We had our Ward Mission leaders as a joint teach and it was amazing! We re-taught her the restoration, focusing in on the apostacy and restoration and then she said, "Wait a second, if what you are telling me is true, that mean that my baptism as an infant...." and then she couldn’t finish her sentence. Then she said, "And that would mean the entire Catholic church..." (another silent pause as we saw the wheels turning in her head) and then the most amazing thing happened. A huge smile broke out on her face. The spirit was there, and she was not feeling confusion and sadness for her new realization, but she was happy, and things started to click. Wow. I cannot even write everything from the lesson. It was just so cool. She loves coming to church and I cannot wait to see how she progresses over this next transfer! 

Oh, what a joy to have a testimony of this gospel and to share it with others. 

Love you!

Sister Reay

Randoms:

- Evelyn brought Sister Jensen and I a surprise. We went into the church kitchen and she pulled out shot glasses. Sister Jensen and I shared a nervous look. Then she pulled out a bottle that said, "Irish Whiskey"! We said, "Oh, thank you! Thant is so.... nice! What is it?" Apparently, it was just a homemade vegetable juice. We laughed so hard when she realized we thought she was giving us Whiskey in the church kitchen!

- I tried making pumpkin soup this week and it was not half bad. 

- Happy thanksgiving!

The One with the Night Ausstellung

Sorry no time!

- Last p day we played tennis

- This P day we went to the Lindt stir and I was in heaven

- We were on our way to interviews with President and Elder Laidlaw and I got left behind because the doors shut before we could get on so we had a mini exchange - he was mortified, but we got reunited with the other missionaries within like 10 min.

 - Two of our members from Africa got transferred to a different refugee camp this week so we had to say good bye!

- We had a night ausstellung (because it gets dark SUPER EARLY and it was actually pretty good! 

- Transfers are next week and we will see what happens!

LOVE YOU!

The One Where We Found A Member

Hey Familie!

Wow has this week gone by fast! I blinked, and it was p-day again!

Let's see what happened this week? We had one last lesson with Melanni before she left for Mexico. It went pretty well. We taught the Law of Chastity and she had quite a few questions. We brought our returned missionary friend from Columbia with us and she was great. There really is power in the testimony of members. 

We started teaching a super cute girl from France this week.  She really liked the Restoration and it was just so fun to hear German with a French accent and to use all the great tools that the church has to accommodate so many languages. 

We had another week full of finding! My favorite part of finding is seeing The Lords hand. We were talking with people on the street one day and we stopped this young Asian girl in the middle of a busy street. We asked her what she thought about Faith and she just stopped, pointed at our tags, and said, "Ich weiss, ich weiss" (I know, I know). Then she darted away from us to the side of the street. We were confused and figured she was probably trying to get away from us, but as she got to where it was not too busy she said, "Come, we can have a conversation". Her German was pretty limited, but she told us that missionaries had come to her home in Mongolia when she was a child and that she had been looking for a church building here in Germany. She asked for the church address and time. She came to church with us on Sunday and the ward was so warm and welcoming. As we showed her around the church, we explained the baptismal font and she said, "I did that when I was 8"! SHE IS A MEMBER! That was really cool. She told us that she has kind of gone in and out of activity in the church, but that she knew it was time to come back. We introduced her to the YSA group and she is excited to do Institute with them! 

Another one of our friends of the church that was at church on Sunday was a German woman named Evelyn. She is such a spiritual person and feels everything so deeply. Our Stake President was talking with her and I between two of the meetings and he just started teaching her about temples, baptisms for the dead, and sealings. With any other friend if the church, I would have been so nervous because that is a lot of information your first time at church! But Evelyn just drank up every word he said, and it made sense to her. I know that the Stake President felt impressed to share what he did and I am so grateful that he was brave enough to open his mouth to testify.

As I have been writing this, I have noticed a pattern of joy throughout the week. Member participation in the work. Every time a new person enters the Tubingen church building, they are met with love, warmth, and a sincere welcoming. It makes 1000x difference in their church experience. 

Love you guys!

 JJ May

Randoms:

- A little culture for Ya!

There are a lot of street performers, but there are also a lot of different types of beggars. A common one is for a mom to make a Sand Castle Dog and then have their child sit by it.

 Germans do not really celebrate Halloween, but you can find random weird Halloween things occasionally. We did not buy these.

 You know how fun it is to find your name on a key chain? Well, Sister Jensen and I DIED looking at how German all of these names were.

 The Elders came to help us take stuff for our Street Display, but we were not ready yet! So Elder Laidlaw decided to keep himself busy...