The One Where God Did A Good Job Choosing the Weak

Hey my lovely little Family!

This week has been FILLED with finding! Just hour upon hour of hitting the streets to go talk to people and share the Good News of the gospel! Sometimes that can be hard, but it is also pretty exciting! Most days are great, but every once and a while, when I wake up in the morning, I KNOW it is going to be a rough one. I had one of those this week and it was not fun, so the next morning I decided that I had to do something to make sure I didn’t have a repeat of the day before so I dedicated my personal study to it and I found a quote that I loved so much! It said, "Cheerfully do what you can, and let God make up the difference. Sometimes we feel useless or ashamed when others look more successful. If Satan tempts you to doubt yourself or compare yourself to others, remember that this is God’s work, and He chooses the weak and simple to do it. He has chosen you! Trust Him. He trusts you!" We just have to keep going forward, trusting that we are enough in the Lord's eyes! He has called us to his work and he trusts us to do what we can.

Love you guys and have a great week!

Randoms:

- I will never get used to how beautiful this little town is. By far my prettiest area!

- I attached a picture of my Currywurst und Pommes lunch. It was delish! 

- Honestly, trio life is not too bad. We are all pretty relaxed people, so we are having a great time together!

The One with My Surprise Friend at Church

Well Fam, I am loving my new area! 

Tübingen is gorgeous and it is so interesting to be in a college town! My other two areas were bursting at the seams with old Catholic women.  I was pretty nervous for a trio, but I think our little trio will do just swimmingly! Today Sister Jensen and I got settled into our apartment because it was a MESS. It was packed with junk and there was not a ton of room for three people. So today was a cleaning P-day! I know to most people that does not sound fun, but we enjoyed ourselves so much and now our little apartment feels like home (and we fit a little better!)

I think the hardest thing about getting transferred is that you have no idea what these investigators need before you go into an appointment, but that does allow for new inspiration for stagnant people. 

I had a cool experience on Sunday, a 20-year-old guy named Boris randomly showed up in our building right before church started and even though I wanted to go introduce myself to my new ward, I felt like I should go sit with him. I explained sacrament meeting to him and he asked about another book of scripture that he heard we believe in, then he was really quiet as Testimony meeting started. He only spoke to me once during the meeting and he asked, "So Baptism, is that something that you do when you want to join this church?" I could see the wheels turning in his head. After, while we were walking to Sunday school, he asked me, "So you believe in a Prophet... is he uh, still living?" I taught him about living prophets and I could see that his interest was very spiked by these three doctrines we had talked about. I asked him what his feelings were about the meeting and he said that he was confused because the people were so nice and welcoming, and we believe in a similar gospel as most other churches. (I think he read about plural marriages and cults and was expecting to find some creepy people, so he was surprised to find joyful, normal, followers of Christ!) I finally asked him what had brought him to our building and he said, "I didn't even know this religion existed two weeks ago, but I was reading the biography of my favorite play writer and she said she was a member of this church, that it brought her peace, and that their doors were open to visitors. So, I googled the church and found this building not to too far from me and I figured I could come see it for myself." I am pretty sure that he will be coming next week. I could feel the potential radiating from him and I know God has directed his path to the church. 

Yesterday, we had a lesson with an investigator and he pulled out every piece of Anti-Mormon literature you could think of. He just blew us over with all of these ideas and accusations and then he asked, "How could you possibly believe in a book riddled with so many mistakes within its pages or in a man who lived such an imperfect life? Do you just follow blindly and don’t ask any questions?" He paused after that question and I was able to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith. I said, "I do not have to follow blindly because I have received a witness for myself that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power and authority of God. He was not a perfect man, but he was called of God. So, no, I do not follow blindly. I follow trusting that my Savior would not lead me down a wrong path." I am pretty sure he was far past feeling to hear my words, but I was just so grateful that his questions and doubts were not able to penetrate my testimony. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the fact that we do not have to walk blindly.

This was a bit long, but I hope you guys liked it! I love you and I pray for you daily!

Love, JJ May

Randoms:

- We were actually a group of 4 missionaries for the first couple of days this week because this sweet Sister named Sister Becker did a "mini-mission" with us so she could see what missionary life is like. We got pretty close and I am going to miss her!

- MY COMPANIONS! Left: Sister Jensen from Utah - loves cleaning ad organizing more than me Right: Sister Spratt from Georgia - such a spitfire and a dedicated missionary. Her German is basically already better that mine! 

The One with Tubingen

Well Fam,

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I got some Yummy American Peanut Butter and some Chocolate chips! Even though I couldn’t get a call from you guys when I woke up, I did get a special birthday call from the Dzierzon family! They harmonized and everything! I also got our transfer call, so that made the whole day feel different! 

I AM BEING TRANSFERRED! Crazy stuff! I have been here since March so to say I have roots here would be an understatement. Rosenheim has been my home, these members have been my family, and some of these investigators have been my best friends. My mission has taught me that change is hard, but it is good. I HATED change before my mission. Now, I see the beautiful opportunities that come along with it! 

I am going to Tubingen, Germany! I will be in a trio next transfer! I will head over to Tubingen with Sister Jensen (a SUPER sweet girl that came out two transfers after me and who is actually in my district right now) and we will go meet Sister Spratt! Sister Spratt just finished her training so Sister Jensen and I will help greenie-bust her! I am really excited, but also a bit nervous! I was in a trio before, but it was only for 2 weeks so it wasn't too hard. From what I have heard from other missionaries, Trios can be REALLY fun, but the work can kind of suffer because it is a little hard to teach with 3, but we are just going to have to get creative!

These past couple days have been filled with some pretty hard goodbyes, but it was SOOOOO nice to feel the love from the ward. What I did not realize before my mission was that to members, missionaries are just a small portion of their lives, but the ward members are the missionaries everything. We talk about members by name 24/7. We talk about their attributes, how we can help them, how they can help us, and soooo much more. But it was amazing to feel like I did mean more to them than I imagined. The hardest goodbye was with the Dzierzon’s and Fred, but I know that they are going to keep doing amazing things! 

I will let you guys know how everything goes!

Love, JJ

Randoms 

- Herbstfest (Fall Festival/Basically an early version of Oktoberfest) is literally RIGHT OUTSIDE our apartment... so we have had absolutely no parking the entire week, but it has been worth it because I have never seen so many Dirnlds and Liederhosen in my life and I probably never will again #Bavarianlife 

- We have been teaching this man named Hans, who is an old German man. We have been helping a less active Woman and she invited her friend Hans and us over for a meal but didn’t tell him he would be taught. Then, she invited us, but didn’t tell us we were going to be teaching! So, both parties showed up and Sister Kissler was like "Missionaries! This is Hans! Do you want to tell him something? Should we start with a prayer?" It was legendary. They are so funny in our lessons! Honestly member magic!

- A member in our ward gave us this INSANELY LARGE zucchini last week, which is a little terrifying, and we have been making jokes that we are going to put it in the other persons bed while they are sleeping. Well, after I got out of the shower on my birthday I walked out to see this!