Apparently I [MOM] forgot to post this message from back in January so here it is:
Happy Monday!! (Because of the fiasco of going to Hamburg to return the camera I bought that isn't very good, I have 30 minutes to write... unfortunately I'm just going to write one and try to make personal things to both of you [Meaning both parents]!)
I didn't realize the boys/brothers were going to stay so long, that's awesome! I just realized that they start school again today hahaha. I'm glad you got to spend some good time with them there :)
This week was crazy long and busy, it was suddenly Friday and I even asked what the heck did we even do this week?! It was a lot, and we found good small successes during the week that I've been really excited to tell you about!
We have some awesome investigators that we work with, but we wanted to focus a bit of time this week on following up with some contacts. Only Heavenly Father knows who will listen to His call and follow! Well, one particularly rainy day, we decided to go contact some of the people the elders had started to work with in Sankt Margarethen a.k.a. the boonies north of Glückstadt. We found out it would take 2 hours just to get there by bus, and then the same back! That's 4 hours of travel just to see if someone is home! We just felt it was really important, so we started traveling up to Itzehoe. It was pouring by now. I had the idea to call some members that lived there, and ask them for a ride! I figured itd probably be a long shot and they'd want to enjoy their evening but they were more than happy to help us! It was so sweet, I'm so grateful for the wonderful members here.
So they drove us, and I guess the guy misunderstood us when we said they could just drop us off and we wanted to tract a bit. He showed us where one of the contacts named Hazem lived, and came up with us! Apparently the elders have had a hard time getting in contact in the past, but we got right in and Hazem expected a lesson! Ohhhh boy, yeah we were not prepared for that. We just wanted to get in contact and set up a lesson. The thing was, he hardly speaks German! He and his family just came here from Syria about 2 years ago, so they are all learning. His sister usually translated for the missionaries because she young and just picked up the language, but she wasn't there! So we were sitting there, with this member and Hazem and his mom, just trying to make simple conversation! We tried following up with last lesson, yeah that didn't work. I was starting to get a bit nervous, I didn't want them to think we didn't have anything to teach them!
That's when I got the idea to call all of my friends that I knew that speak Arabic. None of them picked up for at least 10 minutes. Finally, one elder saved the day, and we were very lucky he said they weren't busy, and we had an awesome lesson! Well, he clarified and followed up with Hazem for 10ish minutes, then we just decided to read Alma 22 together (that was funny, we followed along in German while he read it aloud to us and his mom in Arabic, its a beautiful language!), and then called the elder back up to get his understanding of it, and give him a commitment and a return appt the next week. It somehow just went and it was a tiny miracle. I am so SO grateful for those language missionaries that make it possible for EVERYONE to hear the gospel! Of course it is wondrrful to speak English and German, I just love that we are reaching out to all of God's children, and that includes the melting pot of Germany :)
Thursday we had interviews with President! Man, I love that guy. He is so wise and really motivates me to do my job. I actually had a dream the night before about online proselyting. I've been a bit frustrated with it lately, because it seems like all we ever do is make nice pretty posts that just build our own profile up.. I've tried doing what everyone else has been doing and I haven't found 1 single new person out of it (just a couple half hearted discussions, but no interest). Well, I was just bugged that we would be given this and told billions of times it would turn "the trickle into the flood" if I'm not finding any success in it yet?! So yes, this was my vision; I wanted to think of 10 completely different ideas, ones I've never used before, to start a conversation on facebook messenger. Its great to put things on the internet whatever for people to find, but I thought of the idea of online tracting. Like online ringing doorbells, but probably get better results!
By the time I had my interview, I had thought of 10 new ideas, and I was ready to try them out. Oh man, I had so much to say but so little time. I was ready for my interview, and showed President my plan of action and how I was really going to put my effort into really find people online. Among that, I had a very, very good chat with President. He loved the ideas and wanted to hear how they would go!
We have only tried out a couple of ideas (such as joining groups in Elmshorn and running an online survey) and I got amazing good feedback! I ended up finding 4 people that were very interested in just a little under 2 hours! Granted only one of them is in my area, but we are building the whole kingdom of God (but I am still trying to focus on my area!) But the one in our area said he would come to church on Sunday, and we were just so thrilled! It was such a blessing to see how technology is now a medium in which we can bring people to Christ. Messenger especially, the contact and questions and sharing of resources is what's important, not necessary posting pretty things or friending everyone and their grandma!
By the end of the week, I was so exhausted. Saturday was brutally hard because we were trying to find a ride for Hazem who lives in the boonies and trying to connect with a couple of other contacts that showed interest in coming to church. We were thrilled at the prospect of having the 4 regular investigators (Joseph, Andre, Jacob and Lenard) come to church, along with new (Hazem, marcel, Filiz and Inga!) Well trying to figure out these crazy things happened like 10 minutes before an important correlation meeting for the wards 2018 missionary goals. I still had an hour of phone calls to do after the meeting to check up on our district because I "keep the flame" for our district. (That basically means I check up with them on goals and help them make new ones for the next week. I love it but sometimes it takes awhile when they aren't prepared) well our meeting went for over two hours and we got home after 9:30. I was just beyond tired and just about broke down haha. Oh Sister Ingalls, don't you know it always ends up being okay?! :)
It did end up being okay, but didn't turn out the way I thought it would. Nobody new came to church and Joseph couldn't come because he was sick! (He is really sunshine on a cloudy northern germany day!) So I was just sitting in sacrament meeting just feeling sad and tired. Sometimes it's hard when you feel like you gave more than you even thought you could for the week, and it just feels like nothing came of it. Well, the Lord blessed us for showing him He that we are willing to work hard. 2 former investigators showed up to church because they felt they should come, and they want to meet with the missionaries! Also, a woman wants her daughters family to learn! I am thrilled to work with them this week! I was at loss for words on Sunday just watching God's work go on as members greeted them, explained the class we teach, took care of them bringing them to class and such. It almost brings tears to my eyes now knowing that I get the chance to see these people decide to make changes in their lives and then follow through with it. It humbles me to see that God answered my prayer through someone coming to church that I had never even met before. He really loves and takes care of his children, even the sister missionaries that are just trying their best.
P.S. Could you possibly tell Pam Morgan thanks a million for doing that beaker backpulver und essig thing when I was a kid?! I have never forgotten that, and we had such a fun time doing that in church on Sunday! The kids really got into it and the leaders loved it! What a joy to grow up in the ward I did with the people I knew!
I love you! Sorry about the mishap with having to run to Hamburg. Luckily I can just return it after zone conference on the 23rd when we are waiting for our train!
I love you a million African lunches (Jan 19th cannot come soon enough! We are having it again!) I love love love you! I'm so proud of who you both individually are, and how wonderful of a team you make together!
Sister Macey Ingalls
