The One with Two Überraschungen

HI-lo

What a wonderful and absolutely bonkers week!!!

We had Zone Conference!!! Wahoo! I think one of my favorite quotes was, "Your weaknesses were not just given to you; they were hand -picked and prepared for you". I think why I love that is because I have seen a lot of my weaknesses lately, but I have also been able to see my strengths. We are all SOOOO different (thank heavens) and I am just learning day by day what makes me- ME!

We have been focusing a ton on Returning Members and it is going really well! Last week we just got a random text from a random woman on our member list saying. "Hello. Can you come and visit me?" OF COURSE, WE CAN!!! It was so wonderful to visit her because she loves the church, but she is too sick to come to church. We had the opportunity to bring her a Come Follow Me manual and my heart jus soar as I got to tell this woman who has felt so disconnected to the church that she gets to study the SAME THINGS that the ENTIRE WOLD is studying! How totally awesome is that?!? She is so excited!

I officially had the best Sunday ever this week! Evelyn texted us and told us that she was bringing two surprises to church! We saw her coming up to the bus stop holding surprise number one, a dish for the ward potluck, and walking beside her was surprise number two, her boyfriend JÜRGEN came!!! We were stoked because he is so cool, and we have a great relationship with him, but he has not shown very much interest in the church! 

In the relief society portion of Ward Conference, the woman teaching taught about temples. At the end of the class she showed the video of the open house of the Italy temple and tears just streamed down my face because it almost felt like Evelyn and I were walking down the halls together and my heart was so full, and I just had the most overwhelming desire to help her reach that point! 

- I twinned with the CUTEST LITTLE GIRL ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET! She ran up to me at church and said, "Sister Reay! Sister Reay! Our jackets are matching!!!" My heart almost exploded. 

- Sister Magleby turned 20 this week! We had a party (well kind of... as much of a party as mission life allows!) I bought her a minion’s cake and I threw balloons at her

- It got wicked cold this week, so I had to bundle up in my warmest scarf that was knit by the one and only Sadie Connolly  

- I got my little Christmas package full of letters from the Young Women and the seminary class this week! It made me so happy!!!

The One with Schloß Hohenzollern

Well HELLO! 

This is going to be a quick one! 

Evelyn is doing good! We taught her temples and family history work at a member’s house and she loved it! She said, "Oh my goodness. I could baptize my whole family!" Then she just about fell out of her chair when we showed her pictures of the temple that just opened in Italy. We also had a lesson on the word of wisdom and she is planning a 16-day fasting cleanse to help her make some changes as she prepares for baptism!  

This week we had our district p day and we went to Castle Hohenzollern.mit was BEAUTIFUL! 

I didn't get the picture of the entire castle from the elders yet so just look up a picture. It is magical. 

The One Where Her Question Changed

Wow. Okay People. God is Good.

This week has been one for the books!

Evelyn made GROUND BREAKING PROGRESS! We had a crazy spiritual lesson at the church. We had i directly in front of the Baptismal font. We discussed the reading assignment that we gave her (Lehi's Dream). We drew out the scene and then just let the spirit guide us by asking inspired questions. Honestly, I could talk about the lesson for hours, but to sum it up, before I could ask her to pray about a date to be baptized, she said, "You know when I first started learning about this church and baptism, I was asking God the question, 'Is this right or is this wrong', but my prayers have changed. I know that this is true, and I want to be baptized. Now my question is simply, 'How and when'". She was so concerned though because she feels like she will not be ready for a couple of months and she knows that I will probably be leaving in the next 5 or 6 weeks. That made my heart grow a THOUSAND sizes!!!

Badam stared school and is still working full time so she has not had time to meet so we had to get a bit creative! We have been teaching her through What's App! We have been sending her little pieces of information about the commandments in Mongolian and she really likes it! 

This week Sister Magleby and I had the opportunity of attending a leadership conference. There were a lot of cool experiences, but my favorite part was when President Brown discussed with us how Jesus Christ enables us to change. I cannot explain the feeling that was in that room when we all thought about our Savior Jesus Christ and shared how he has helped us change our lives. I am so grateful for him. He is my everything.

Have a happy week!

Love, Sis Reay

- Our Conference was in Munich and let me tell you what, this Arizonian could not wipe the look of amazement off of her face as she saw a 3 1/2-foot blanket of snow on the ground everywhere!!!

- The days are getting lighter. BLESS UP! the sun actually came out today and I almost cried.

- My companion got revenge for the snow fight last week by throwing a bunch of Snow Powder at my face as I was inhaling, and it went up my nose.