Mut

I HAVE BEEN IN THE FIELD FOR ONE TRANSFER! Or 6 weeks for those not familiar with mission lingo. But still wow! It's kind of sad though because that means Elder Coombs is going home and Elder Olson got transferred but I'm also excited to meet the new missionaries coming into Dortmund aka the best place ever! 

People

Sven got baptized this Saturday! He was one of the elders investigators that we've gotten to be good friends with and we got to be in the baptismal program, I prayed and Sis T sang and gave a talk. Pretty funny thing though was when he went into the water it happened to be ice cold so he let out kind of a yelp hahaha the Elders filled up the font a little too early...

We were on the bahn one night and I saw a guy I felt like I should talk to, he got off the stop before ours so we decided why not and we followed him out, just so happens that he was with two of his friends and Sis T and I were like, okay, that's a little intimidating to go up to a group of people and share the gospel, but I was set on sharing. So I go up to them, mind you that they all are around 25, and start talking to the three of them hahaha and Sis T chimes in after I asked if they were religious. Two of them actually seemed pretty interested! Though what I continue to learn is that God will help you if you make the first step. It's really scary at times to share what you believe because you're afraid of messing up or of them rejecting you. But when you have God on your side there is no need for fear.

 

Food

WE FOUND A TACO TRUCK!

Casual P-day walk through town and I spot this oldish food truck with burritos written on the side.....whattttttt I stopped in my tracks. I haven't had a burrito since July 6th so minor heart attack. The truck was called California Dreaming and the owner was just there testing out some new recipes before opening on Friday. But he made us chicken tacos with SALSA! And they were amazing. Seriously best thing of my life. His motto is eat tacos, be happy. So we are best friends now. 

The word of the week:

...is Mut which is courage because that is what missionary work is. Having enough courage to share your beliefs, something very personal, with others. I know God watches out for us and is mindful of our shortcomings. One of my favorite scriptures, my mission scripture, 2 Nephi 22:2 says "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation". Trusting that God with be there when you make that courageous step is all you need because you often feel worse for not making that step than you do when you make that step and get rejected.

Well Deutsch is awesome, das Evangelium ist wahr, what can I say more?

Mit liebe,

Sister Farner

Demut

Wow another week gone by and I still can't believe I'm here in Deutschland!

People

Super cool experience with two of our untersuchers. One has been meeting with missionaries for a few months, so before I was in Dortmund and we extended a baptismal date and he accepted! So excited for him, he's really come a long way and he is more than halfway done in the Book of Mormon than we are! Crazy!

Another untersucher we had our first lesson with and Sister T and I had role played and everything and it was the smoothest lesson ever, I spoke German more than ever and he understood it! So amazing! Definitely had a lot of help from God because wow. When you put all your effort into something and do everything you can to be the best, great things result in it, but I mean that's kind of a given hahaha. He was such a cool man and he understood everything we taught to him, super into every detail.

I went to Duisburg and switched companions for a day, so I was with Sister B! When we were on the bahn to Duisburg (us and two other Elders) a woman came up to us and started talking to us in English and began crying. She said she had the worst day of her life and had just prayed to God for something to lift her spirits and then she saw us come on smiling and talking in English and that made her so much happier seeing something familiar. She isn't even our same faith but she has the same faith we do that God answers our prayers. Seriously the coolest experience ever.

 

Sister B and lady on the bahn

P-Day
Today we went to a castle! I mean kind of, it's more ruins than castle but it was so cool! Before we stopped at a place called "road stop" and well I had the biggest burger I've ever had in my entire life! Let's just say I won't be eating a burger any time soon hahaha. My piece was the size of my head and it was super funny to eat because all the sauce ran down my arms, the Elders didn't have as much luck either eating it hahaha. Back to the Castle, we overlooked Hagen and Deutschland is seriously so beautiful and green and wow. Blessed every single day to walk out into the streets of this country!

Road Stop

Castle ruins and view

Food

So my 2nd experience with Eis was even better! We went to this place called Kubar and they have some pretty bomb ice cream, I had some oatmeal flavored, funfetti tasting one, and then cookie flavored. Heaven in my mouth. Luckily we did a lot of walking after that hahaha. I also had my 2nd Döner which was even more Heavenly!

Word of the week: Demut

Which means humble! Without being humble I wouldn't be able to speak Deutsch. It's easy now for me to be humble because my Deutsch isn't that good but there are times when I'm like "oh ya I'm so good at German" and next thing ya know a person is telling you they don't understand English right after you said something in German to them. God has a sense of humor for sure and knows how to remind me that I can't do any of this without Him hahaha so grateful to be able to pray for help and know God listens and helps me to see what He wants me to learn from experiences.

Hope all is well in the USA!

Lieb,

Sister Farner

Bahn

This was the weirdest week so far! There were so many miracles and funny things that happened I don't have enough time to write it all. But I've decided it's easier to break it up
People
So there were several instances of great people we met this week and also interesting things that we witnessed.  So on Montag we were on a bahn and Sister T thought that we should move to a four seater next to a college-aged guy. So we moved and started talking to him about the Church which he knew a little bit about from South Park...so we went off of that and talked about the Book of Mormon and then another man across the aisle, leaned in and asked if he could join the conversation. Hahaha we said sure! And he comes and sits, shakes the other guys hand and our hands and we all introduce ourselves then start talking about the Book of Mormon again. Too bad we had to leave the bahn before we could talk more, but we gave them each one and they were so surprised to get a free book!

We saw a woman get hit by a van. So ya. I mean the van was on the sidewalk(cars park there) and was backing super slowly and this woman was facing us as we were walking up the hill and the van slowly hits her, knocks her over, and thud she's on the ground.....we didn't really fully process the situation until like 5 sec after and we hurried to help her. She was fine, but wow, weird.

So there are some interesting men here. One man winked at me as the bahn left and that was cool I guess. But the weirdest thing ever was when I sat down next to this girl and was talking to her about the Church, by myself! Auf Deutsch! But as I'm talking I feel something on my arm, I thought it was my hair, but I look and the man next to me is stroking my arm, I was so engaged in this conversation that I brushed his hand off and kept talking to this girl about the church and find out she's already met with the missionaries! So I give her a card and get up, grab Sister T and leave real fast and tell her what happened. So it was 8:30 at night, the man was old and drunk and ya hahah I didn't really process what happened until we left and ya gross.

Miracles
So in other news Sis T and I had a cool experience during companionship study. We were talking about one of our investigators that we wanted to invite to baptism and were trying to decided what day. Well we prayed and I said October 8 was what I felt was the right date but Sister T said October 15 so we decided to pray again. This time we prayed more intently and I prayed specifically for the right date to invite our investigator to be baptized. The 22nd came up and we hadn't talked about it but I felt like it was right, so when Sister T and I came back together we decided to write our dates on the sticky notes and counted to three and showed them. WE BOTH GOT THE 22nd AS THE DATE! Wow overwhelmed with happiness and joy! The coolest experience ever with personal revelation! God hears your prayers when you have intent and have a desire to listen to what He says!
I handled a German phone call all by myself! I set a date with a member to meet and everything! It was 5 min long at least! Whoop whoop!
We taught two 11th grade classes on Tuesday and the teenagers here are so respectful! We made it through both and I said maybe two sentences but it was super cool because one of the teachers was interested in what we were saying. But what was even crazier was the next day Sis T and I were in the Church bahn planning and I look out the window and I saw the teacher ride his bike through the church parking lot and look at the church and ride back out again. HE CAME TO THE CHURCH! What!!?? So cool! Haven't heard from him since but wow he's definitely thinking about the Church.



Food
I ate something gross this week, I don't even know what it was but ya I gagged. It was meant to be this dessert thing. White and clumpy with chips of chocolate and the worst was that there was a lot of it.....hahaha but I ate it all!
But I also ate the best Nutella crepe ever!!! Heaven in my mouth. No joke.
Chocolate continues to impress me everyday and I will never get sick of it!

Okay that is all for this week! Deutschland is awesome and grateful every day to be here! Ich weiss Gott uns hören. Ich weiss dass we wenn wir zu Gott beten, wir werden ein besser tag haben.

Lieb,
Sister Farner

PS  Word of the month: Komisch meaning weird because ya that creepy guy for sure

We went to the BVB stadium today unfortunately tours weren't going on so we chilled around the team store for preparation day with the other elders and sisters from Duisburg

Lecker

Tomorrow is my 2 month mark on the mission! Crazy how fast it has gone and a little bit sad too, it keeps going by quicker and quicker each week! Definitely learning lots each day and getting more and more confident with my German! I even spoke on the intercom things they have on apartment building 3 times in a row and sure they all said something mean, but I could understand it!

We had a lot of lessons with investigators fall out again so that meant we had more opportunities to go out to other places and share the Gospel. We were visiting this one less-active who happened to not be home, and as we were walking back we stopped a man and started talking to him about the Book of Mormon and he accepted one from us and said he'd read it!

 

FOOD

So the word of the week is Lecker which means delicious!

One of our Investigators gave us a duck to cook and we decided to make it....never have cooked a duck or even eaten one so that was quite the adventure, smelled like Thanksgiving in the apartment, but ya so duck is pretty good! Tastes like turkey, but I recommend not eating it at 10pm at night...

We stopped by a member's home to share a spiritual thought and they always have these little pastries and cakes out for us to eat, well there was one that tasted like the bear claws you can get at Costco with the other strudels, but it was the real thing so 10x better, another was lemon filled, and the last thing had plums on top. Let's just say they let us eat as much as we wanted and I ate 10 pieces....I don't know why I did or how I did and the Schwester said I could be in the Guiness book of world records. So first impressions are fun. I couldn't say much in German to let her know that I'm usually not this way..but I kind of am so I guess it's good I didn't say anything.

I had my first Eis(Ice Cream)too! We did a district finding activity in Grevel and took a break and ate the most heavenly thing ever. It was made to look like spaghetti actually so I was hesitant to eat it, but oh boy so good!

 

TEMPLE DEDICATION/Cultural Celebration

                                             Friday was the Culture Celebration for the Frieburg temple which had the youth of several countries come together and perform and sing. We got to see a lot of German dances and hear the History of the church starting in Germany. It was so amazing to see how strong in the faith members were back in the 1940s and how they pressed through the war and the religious persecution and were able to have a Temple built nearby them. Seeing and hearing about of that was a really testament to me that there are Germans here waiting for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we just need to find them. I don't like when people tell me that no German will be baptize, only the rogues, because I have gotten to know so many German people here that are truly amazing and will one day know how the Church will make their lives happier!

The temple was dedicated on Saturday which got all of the missionaries in our Zone to the church to see it broadcasted. It was so cool to hear it in German, President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar spoke in Deutsch and wow the Spirit was so strong. I'm grateful that I was able to live by a Temple and go to it often and feel closer to my Heavenly Father in it. I'm grateful that the people of Germany get to experience the temple more now too.

 

Ich habe  für Ihnen lieben und ich hofe alles es gut in ihre leben.

Sister Farner