Okay so I've had a huge change of plans for pday today! First, we saw on our mission facebook group that the volunteer missionaries in Turkey (a total of 20 elders, 4 sisters and 5 couples) were being reassigned because of the growing political tension. It also said that quite a few would come to our mission (basically all of them are now that we know more info). THEN we got a call from the AP asking us to prepare our apartment to have TWO MORE SISTERS living there! HAHAHAHAHHA we were like jumping for joy and panicking at the same time, our apartment is bigger than most, but definitely meant for 2 people! So, we spent like 4 hours this morning rearranging and cleaning and preparing, it was actually super, super fun! I LOVE cleaning missionary apartments and throwing away junk. Actually, more of the latter. I did a lot at the beginning of the transfer thank goodness, but it was good to have us both doing it today. We threw out so much stuff! I found an old toilet seat in a closet! Yes, that's how weird apartments can be. Seriously, our apartment looks huge now, too bad we didn't do this earlier! We completely transformed this junk room into a bedroom! It's small, but they'll get a bunk bed and I'm super proud of our work! So tomorrow we pick them up at noon. We didn't think about this at first, but they will probably split Sister Hansen and me up :( these sisters know absolutely no german so I guess that'd be pretty hard to just send them into Berlin together and expect it to work. I kept just getting little bursts of joy this morning, I'm so excited for this and just want them to love it here and feel comfortable as soon as possible! That must be so hard to spend a year of your mission in Turkey then suddenly have to leave those people... but hey, they can actually proselyte here so it will be really good! Funny, they wore just normal clothes and no name tags there! That'd be very different.
We had some really cool experiences with our investigators this week! We had powerful, meaningful spiritual experiences with all 3 of our top ladies this week. Oh I was seriously just overjoyed, its crazy how much I am able to just love these people, Mom! That's a side note, but one evidence of God's existence to me is the love beyond my own ability I'm able to feel. I love them and I just want them to find joy in loving Him and following His commandments.
So starting with Sabrina. Sabrina introduces herself to people saying that she is searching for the truth. She had a really powerful experience a couple years back and knows God exists, and is just trying to do what He wants her to do. Right now, she's trying to figure out why we need Jesus Christ in our lives. Hard question to answer sometimes when He is literally integrated into every aspect of your life! But Jenny, a member who is also in her later 20s who converted a couple years back invited her over with us to tell her conversion story. I was actually on exchanges so I brought Sister Oliphant with me! We planned on also teaching her the 3rd lesson through a really cool little activity (I've gotten really into object lessons lately!) as well. So as Jenny is showing baptismal pictures, it was good, but the turning point was when she showed a picture of her in front of the temple with a picture of her dad in a frame. She told us that he'd passed away and then the super touching story of doing his work in the temple and knowing that he accepted it. Super cool. I had no idea any of that happened, all I knew was that Sabrina actually lost her dad as well. I could really tell that she was touched. The Spirit of Elijah, I'm telling you! She loved it so much. We taught the lesson too and it was super good because it showed her the path and how she can prepare to go to the temple. At the end, I invited her to be baptized, AND baptized for relatives in the temple and she said YES once she gains her own testimony! I'm praying so hard for her! I just want this so bad for her, I know she will find the truth here, I'm not even worried. She meets with the JWs pretty regularly, but I know she finds truth and love and joy here. She is just so special and God loves her so much! Ah and I love her so much! I was so happy, she came to cburch this week and it was AMAZING! Basically tailored to her! Our bro, Jonas Jödicke (assistant ward mission leader) gave the lesson about the Atonement. He laid it out SO well, I wish to teach like that some day. It was amazing! And Jonas' brother, Robert returned home from his mission last week from Japan and gave his homecoming talk! It was so good, practically the whole gemeinde was in tears. Its powerful how the spirit wants to be with the members and influence them to want to do missionary work. Also, it was especially good for Sabrina, because he talked about how much he loves the people he served and how he wanted the best for them. I feel the same and I just hugged her so hard after the meeting and told her that I really want her to find the truth, and I know that she will find it. It was really special. She is really so ready, we just need a small miracle with a few obstacles.
Katheryn. Oh I love that girl. She is the daughter of a less active and was actually found by one of my MTC teachers! Cool, na? She's been meeting with the sisters for quite awhile but I felt that she wasn't making a lot of progress. Last week, I was pretty bold with her and just asked her what she expected from meeting with us and yeah, she just really wants to know how to lead a happy good life. Well, this week we were really prepared with questions and actually to talk about the restoration. Something really cool happened before that, though. That morning, while I was studying my scriptures, I realized that I could honestly say that I believed that God existed. I didn't know. I was fine with that for 19 years of my life, but to really know that God exists is something that I really wanted. I felt that this was the time to ask. I've gained such a love for closets and quiet places and hardwood floors to kneel on. I prayed, and I prayed sincerely. I asked God if He was really there, and I really expected an answer. I felt the spirit so strong. He wanted to give me an answer too. In a voice that was not my own, but the quiet whisper of the spirit, God spoke to me. Sister Ingalls. This girl in a closet of a 4th floor apartment on the edge of the edge of Berlin, Germany. He answered me. He said, "I am with you, child. I am always with you. I am your Father." It was so strong, mom. I thanked Him profusely for the personal revelation and connection I receive from him. I have that testimony of personal revelation. I don't get answers simply and readily like that all of the time, but I know that God is concious of me and wants to care of me. Isn't He loving? Isn't He kind? I can hardly wait for the day I can walk up to Him and see His smiling face, and arms open ready to embrace me. I truly pray for the wonderful day. So, now back to Katheryn, I totally am the type to ask a billion questions. So naturally, we prepared some questions, and the spirit prepared some questions to give us when we were together, but we had an amazing lesson. We didn't even touch the restoration lesson! It was completely about the plan of salvation. She said she didn't believe in an afterlife, and then I asked her if she had lost someone in her family. She'd lost her grandma. I asked her were she thought her grandma was. She said, hopefully with God. I said, hey exactly, physical death isn't the end! So we went through that whole thing, and she was just wracking her brain. The spirit was so strong. She even said it was the same feeling she got when she read in the Book of Mormon and when she went to the temple open house! Ahh! We explained that, and explained that the Spirit testifies of truth and wants her to act on it. She knows this gospel is true, but she's trying to find every reason to not say it because that means change. She's super social in the catholic church and that would mean giving up some things if she chose this. It was completely not by chance that I had this spiritual experience that same morning. As I bore my testimony of the Plan of Salvation, I bore my testimony of my knowledge of God's divinity. It is a completely different feeling to say you know something and to really know it if that makes any sense. It was an even more spiritual experience. I want Katheryn to know that God loves her, and that He will carry her through change if she just takes a step of faith. I see her being married in the temple and being so grateful to God for leading her that way. She'll get there, I know it, and hope for that day.
Melica. I will never be able to describe my absolute LOVE for Melica completely. She is so spiritual, and so driven to do exactly what God wants her to do. She actually found God through meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses. For about 40 years, but she never joined. Well, her whole family has converted over the years to the Church of Jesus Christ and all have amazing testimonies and crazy conversion stories. She was very hard against it for years. Her family is so loving (3 of the daughters and their families are in our ward, the oldest son isn't active and the youngest son is not a member) and have worked so diligently on her, bearing their testimonies and always talking about the gospel. She opened her heart just at the beginning of this year and agreed to meet with the missionaries. She set a baptismal date right before I got here, but passed it because she hasn't been able to stop smoking completely. The sisters before said that she made tremendous progress in just a couple months. I've even seen that in just the time I've been here! She really wants to develop a solid testimony, which I think she already has. She just has up and down phases in life. But this week, we had the AMAZING opportunity to skype in her granddaughter for a lesson. Her granddaughter, Maya, is serving in the Baltic mission right now, speaking Serbian, her grandma's mother language! That is absolutely no coincidence. That is God's hand. It fulfills the prophecy that everyone needs to hear the gospel in their mother tongue! That lesson was so special. You could really see the love they have for each other, and especially Maya while teaching her grandma in her mother language. That will be regularly now, and I know that we will make so much progress with this! I can see her getting baptized in May if she would open her heart and just take it. But other really cool things happened with her this week. She asked us if we could come over Saturday and help her clean her little apartment, so we did but it was already clean! We sat down for a spontaneous lesson, then the doorbell rings and its Maya's parents! Aka, awesome joint teaches! Miracles, am I right?! The lesson was very good even though we prepared nothing. Her family is so bold with her haha! I guess they are all bold. Melica ALWAYS roasts our German, even though its her 2nd language as well! At first I was like, what?! A little offended but its fine, now I just laugh and take it, because actually, even though we are older missionaries we still need to keep learning the language! It's really near impossible to get every sentence perfect, there are so many rules, aber es geht, alles gut. But anyway, she came to church as well on Sunday, and it also felt like it was tailored for her!! Sunday school was, yes amazing. But the missionary that returned home gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was emotional for all, but seriously to have Melica cry was unheard of! She associates crying with pain or sadness, and thinks that if people cry in church then it must not be true. But she was so deeply touched, she cried! That was a break through point for her, and now she will see that with a different perspective. Slowly but surely, my adopted grandma will accept the gospel, schritt für schritt. :)
I hope you can feel my love for these people through my emails. It's an honor and blessing to serve them every day, and I just want to keep working harder and harder (even though body is taking a serious toll haha its so tired) and trying my best. Serving a mission has been the best decision of my life so far, and I'm not letting it get away from me too fast (even though I really miss you and your hugs)!
Seriously so proud of you for figuring out the Google Drive thing (to send pictures)! You're like a tech prophie! I don't expect that many pictures every week, but that was sure a treat! My family is so awesome. Haha I laughed out loud when you and dad both said you needed a vacation from that vacation! I know how it is to just jam pack your day full of stuff and its awesome. I love being busy. If I'm not, I always kinda feel guilty like a lazy missionary. Don't worry, we are working hard!
Yeah about the Ritter Sport, I 100% believe the people ate it haha. It's been like 2 months. But that's okay I'll send them some more! And I'm sending you something next week and hopefully it gets there for Mother's day! Besides a name tag do you have any other requests?
Oh my goodness your graduation chaos stories were really funny. Gotta love the fam. I'd love to hear more of what you did next week, that'd be pretty cool!
Awhhh I'm excited to get the package! I'll be at the mission office 2 times this week, so hopefully it comes by then!
Thanks for the quote at the end :) I've been drawing and watercoloring a lot of my favorite quotes during my freetime lately (it keeps me sane) and my favorite one at the moment is from Joseph Smith in a letter to Emma, "We are in good spirits and rejoice that we are counted worthy to be persecuted for Christ’s sake.” we face so much opposition, but the moments of change and finding truth are worth it!
I love you a million clean apartments! I testify that the spirit dwells in clean places! 😉
Love, Sister Macey Ingalls
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