I am doing really great.

Thing #1: I BOUGHT A GUITAR. Life is good.

It was another incredible miracle filled week. I

never wanted to sound like a basic sister missionary, but here I am. I

actually asked a teenager how they would say basic in German, if they

had slang for it too, but he was kind of your druggy rebel kid so he

just stared at me, silently. It was great. So I just kind of walked

away. Yeah.

Biggest news this week is that we set a baptismal date with Elizabeth.

She is so funny. She has a bedazzled tooth, she "puts her hair on"

when she goes out, the walls in her wohnung are all red and then she

has what would seem like ironic, but are not, self portraits of

herself on the walls. It's lovely. She has been baptized twice before,

but as we were talking about baptism, she quickly said that she knew

both of them weren't done correctly. She could tell right after the

baptism. We explained why this time would be different. She is eager

to be baptized because she has 7 different types of cancer. She has

the cutest relationship with God. We set the date for October 22nd so

we could be sure she understands everything. The problem is her illness

makes her sleep in, so we don't know how we will get her to church by

9:30.... But everything is possible through God, yeah?

We visited two member families this week so now we finally know some

members! Yesterday was our second Sunday in the ward haha:). Schwester

Shumacher made us legit German food. It was so good. She is literally

the cutest old lady ever. She is like grandma Farner but German. Her

husband passed away last year and her daughter is inactive, but she

has a testimony strong enough to literally move mountains. We taught

Pierre a lesson with her, and she testified to baptism, relief

society, the life after this, including a very powerful and spiritual

story of when she had a vision of her husband after he had passed. She

got up on Sunday and bore her testimony about missionary work and us

as missionaries. Seriously the cutest lady in the whole world. I love

her. She has strengthened my testimony of hope. Hope is all she has,

but she thrives off of the promises that God has given her, and it has

transformed her into an amazing person who is continuously giving when

she doesn't have much herself.

Funny story of the week: I was standing on the Gleis when two 24 year

olds walk up to me.they had already passed and had walked back. One of

them says something to me in German, and I just look at sister Riser,

who's smiling, because I had never heard those words in German before.

I thought she would translate, but she just said to him "she's new to

Germany, she can't understand". So, he breaks out his English and

says, "I think you're cuss word sexy". I kind of died inside. I didn't

know what to do. I just said "als missionarinen wir haben kein Mann

für 18 Monaten". He then went on a spiel about how Jesus was going to

smite him because he hit on me. It was really funny, but awkward, and

uncomfortable. Side note: there is no word for awkward in German.

Traurig.

Teaching Pierre was really fun this week. We picked him up at his

house and took him to the church (40 minutes away). By the time we got

there he was exhausted (he has 5 different types of cancer), so when

we asked him to say the opening prayer..... he fell asleep. At first

it was really spiritual because he had been taking pauses and praying

for really cool things, but then a minute and half went by with

nothing. It's okay though, we woke him up and continued teaching him.

It did take him 4 times to understand that we were inviting him to be

baptized. Oh Pierre.

On our way home, sister Riser and I walked across the Rhine because it

was our dinner hour. We were taking pictures when Mike walks by. Mike

is from Ghana. He literally talked the whole walk over the bridge, but

we convinced him to give us his number and to meet with us.

Wunders.

Last cool story. We were walking home from a dinner appointment

through the park by our wohnung. We saw a man playing basketball.

Sister Riser dared me to go ask if I could try one. So I did. And lo

and behold I made the shot. (Basketball in the MTC wasn't for

nothing.) so, he threw it back to me... And I made it again! Which

made him think I was cool (granted) so we ended up sitting down and

talking about what I'm doing in Germany. The crazy thing was that I

had just been thinking about how cool it would be to recite the first

vision in a finding experience. I had run through it in German in my

head, and realized I had forgotten a part, so I figured it all out and

rememorized it. When I was talking with him (his names Roman, he's

thirty works in finance and is from southern Germany) I was prompted

to recite the first vision. It was so cool! He is atheist, but for

some reason, even after saying it would be hard to convince him to

meet with us, he gave me his number and said we could call him

tonight! The spirit is strong. God works miracles by small things,

like giving me a companion in the MTC who made me play basketball with

her despite my protests.

Lastly, there is Honore. He is from the Ivory Coast. We met him

sitting by the Rhein at sunset just drinking a beer, doing his thing.

We ended up teaching him that night, and then coming back a few nights

later to do it again. He knows what's good and what's bad, but he says

he lacks the desire to do good. He is a huge party-er and it has

destroyed his marriage and his relationship with his daughter. He said

he would take our help. I really hope and pray that he keeps his

commitments so we won't have to drop him. He is good, he's just

constantly drunk so he can never think quite straight. I love him.

This week has been hectic but amazing. I was continuously brought back

to this scripture in Mormon 9:31 "Condemn me not because of mine

imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither

them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that

he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to

be more wise than we have been." I made about a million mistakes this

week, but I witnessed God strengthening me in my weakness to help his

children draw nearer unto him. I'm grateful to God for showing me

where I am weak so that I can be made strong. My challenge for you

this week is to take this scripture and to apply it to your scripture

study and your life. Trust in God.

I love you all! (Also Christmas in Germany is another week closer!!)

Sister Johnson