Letter from President Stoddard

 We received the following email from Brooke's Mission President:

Greetings from the Germany Frankfurt Mission! We are happy to inform you that Sister Terry has arrived safely in Frankfurt! We have a number of activities planned for the arriving missionaries today and tomorrow, the 30th of October, they will be paired with their new trainer and first companion in the mission field and depart for their new areas throughout the mission. You can expect to hear from your missionary on Monday, the 3rd of November.

 Welcome to the Frankfurt Germany Mission!

 President and Sister Stoddard

Last Day in MTC

Today is Brooke's last day in the MTC! I want to make sure that everyone has her Germany address for writing future letters:

     Sister Brooke Ann Terry
     Kirche Jesu ChristiCorneliusstrasse 18
     Frankfurt am Main, Hessen 60325
     DEU

 

Last MTC Letter!

Dear favorite people on earth ever,

  

     WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!! Guess where our layover is? Texas. Dallas, Texas. Don't go breaking my heart, MTC travel office....OH WAIT. TOO LATE. Here's the schedule for Tuesday:

           -Report to the travel office at 3:30 am (woohoo!)
           -Fly out of Salt Lake at 8:10 am
           -Arrive in Dallas at 11:45 am & leave at 3:55 pm 

                    (hurrah for 4 hour layovers!)
           -ARRIVE IN FRANKFURT GERMANY AT 7:30 AM
           -get off the plane and BAPTIZE EVERYONE.

     Ummm yup. That pretty much sums it all up. We got an email from our mission president laying out our schedule for Wednesday and Thursday...we're hitting the ground running!! We have teaching appointments and street contacting scheduled for our first day. I want to throw up due to nerves and pass out from excitement at the same time. I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING.
 

Okay. Super cool experience time:
      I was reading in D&C during personal study the other day & found loads of really great scriptures about God being in our midst & helping us through hard times. Later that day, we ran into an investigator (yes, this one is real) whose son died of cancer & whose wife is currently going through chemotherapy. He's really struggling to believe God loves & is aware of him. To make matters worse, the pastor of his church keeps telling him that, because his son wasn't baptized, he's lost. His soul is stuck in a state of limbo. There's no hope for him.
So? I prayed. I said "Heavenly father, I'm a nineteen year old girl with NO life experience...I have no idea what to say to this man, but you do. Please let me know what he needs to hear." And then, one of the scriptures I read during personal study came to mind. D&C 50: 41-44. I couldn't remember exactly what it said, but I turned to it anyway & read aloud:

   41. Fear not little children, for you are mine, and i have overcome the world, and you are of them that my father hath given me
   42. And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.
   44. Wherefore...I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd...

Could that scripture have been any more perfect? Answer: NO. IT WAS BEYOND PERFECT.

We are His.

No one is lost. Or forgotten. Ever.

He is in our midst.

      Yeah, I may be a nineteen year old girl with no life experience & yeah, I may not know what these people need to hear, but I’m on the Savior's team...and he bled each & every one of our life experiences from his pores. He knows. He understands. He knows what His children need to hear....and I am so grateful to know that, as his servant, He'll let me know EXACTLY what that is as long as I remain humble & willing to listen. 

     Allow me to end with an embarrassing story. We Skype called a Deutscher last Thursday & planned a lesson about eternal families...So naturally, we sang "families can be together forever." Before we started, we asked him if he knew it & he said yes....but when we started to sing, he didn't join in...But I was like oh, whateves no big deal. Companion duet. Hurrah. When we finished, he said "ummm, is your companion with you?" AND THEN WE REALIZED SISTER GODWINS MIKE WAS OFF THE WHOLE TIME MEANING I SANG AN AWKWARD SOLO TO SOME RANDOM GUY IN GERMANY. To make matters worse, I've had a sore throat for the past 3 weeks so my voice was cracking like crazy. Like, okay. Excuse me while I crawl into a hole AND DIE.

        Just kidding.
        I won’t crawl into a whole &/ or die.
        Don’t worry.

        But I DO have to go.

        I love ya'll SO MUCH <3
        Talk to ya next week (:

        -Love, Sister Terry (:

Dear Beautiful Family!

Dear beautiful family,

   I AM SO PUMPED TO BE A MISSIONARY RIGHT NOW. Brother Droubay, who works in the church media department, came to speak on Sunday. He filled us in on all the awesome things the church has done & is currently doing to "flood the earth" with the gospel. He said "Heavenly Father is doing more now to prepare people for you missionaries to teach than ever before"...and after listening to him, you'd have to be CRAZY to disagree. The lord really is hastening his work. Websites, movies, billboards, commercials, adds, videos (the list goes on and on and on). Basically, if you're not bumping into the restored gospel of Jesus Christ....YOU'RE LIVING UNDER A ROCK. LITERALLY. YOU'RE PATRICK THE STAR AND YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK. It's SUCH an exciting time to be a missionary!!!! 

PS: We may or may not have gotten a sneak peak of the Christmas video the church is releasing later this year. Its top secret. Hush hush stuff, ya know? They asked us not to give anything away...but I can tell you this much: IT’S AWESOME. Prepare yourself.

   Guess what? I met a Deutscher this week...& we spoke to one another...in German. Guess what else? SHE COULD UNDERSTAND ME! Guess what else?! I COULD UNDERSTAND HER. HALLELUJAHHHHHHHHH. We talked about how ballin' Deutschland is. It was a really beautiful conversation. I got to speak to someone in German last week, too…but the conversation was a lot less glorious because it took place over Skype & Skype stinks. I couldn't hear like, anything she was saying. Bummer.

   All is well with the untersuchers (investigators). We've been teaching lesson 4 (the commandments) and two things have really stood out to me as we've prepared and taught these discussions: 1. HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES US SO MUCH. AND 2. HE WANTS TO BLESS US LIKE CRAZY. Take the word of wisdom, for example. Abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, coffee and other substances does nothing but enrich and bless our lives, right? We're shielded from addiction, we're kept healthy, and are much more receptive to the spirit. AS IF THOSE BLESSINGS WEREN'T ENOUGH, God gives us ADDITIONAL blessings for being obedient...to something that already blesses us so much. It's like a parent who gives their child a super awesome toy and says "Now Jimmy, if you play with this toy, I'll give you 10 more!" WOW OKAY UMM YES. Seriously. Heavenly Father rocks. He loves us so much.
PS: I guess I forgot to mention in letter #1...these untersuchers aren’t real. Sorry to burst everyone's bubbles, but no one is actually getting baptized. The people we teach are just RM's acting like people they taught on their missions. Sorry if this news ruined your life. Please accept my sincere apologies. 

   We had interviews with our teacher, Brother Janis, the other day. What a rockin' experience that was!! Basically, he just wanted to see how we were doing, address any concerns we had and then point out our strengths as missionaries. He told me that my energy is contagious and that the couple times I’ve come to class all down or whatever, everyone else in my district seems to be down, too AND THEN HE SAID THIS TO ME: "Sister Terry, your personality is going to work miracles over in Germany" LIKE OKAY OH MY GOSH WOW I FREAKING LOVE YOU FOR SAYING THAT THANK YOU SO MUCH EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY MY EYES OUT BECAUSE YOU'RE THE GREATEST PERSON EVER, BROTHER JANIS PLEASE TAKE ONE OF MY SISTERS FOR WIFE BECAUSE THAT WAS JUST SO NICE AND I LOVE YOU. But really. Super sweet of him.

   Hey, here's another list of bomb MTC things:
1. Choir. Holy moly. MTC choir is the best...and I’ve never liked choir. Ever. Our director, Brother Eggot, is a man beast. He can make you cry spiritual tears & laughter tears AT THE SAME TIME. Love him.
2. Sister Johnson. We're going to be best friends for the rest of our lives. I'm callin' it right now. We're obsessed with each other. It’s great.

3. Once again...my district. IT’S THE BEST. We have such a blast together.

4. Devotionals. We have them twice a week...and they’re WONDERFUL. They get the best speakers on planet earth to come give us advice & pump us up. Yes, yes & yes.

   That’s all for this week. I love ya'll so much. Mom, I’m encouraging everyone to ditch school on the 28th so I can hear their beautiful voices...even if it's just for a couple seconds. Can't wait to talk to ya'll!!

Love you <3
see you soon (:

-Sister Brooke Terry

PS: NO ONE TOLD ME HOW MEET THE MORMONS WAS!! DETAILS, I NEED DETAILS!!