My Familyyyyyy,

IT’S TAUFE TIME

Everyone says a mission is hard--but no one ever says exactly why that is. I'll tell you why. As a missionary, there’s a constant need for improvement. A "great job" could have always been a better one and even your very best is never perfect. As I shared in a couple emails last week, I’ve been so overwhelmed over the past week and a half or o as I’ve thought about all the areas I fall short in, all the progress I need to make, the attributes I need to acquire and skills I need to develop in order to be a missionary the Lord is proud of, one he can count on, one he can trust. It’s so discouraging. I was feeling incredibly downtrodden earlier this week, and knelt in prayer asking heavenly father to somehow let me know how He feels I am doing...the next morning, I read Alma 38 during personal study. Verses 3-5 say:

"I have had great joy in thee already because of thy faithfulness and thy diligence, and thy patience and thy long suffering among the people of the Zoramites (Germany)...Remember that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles and your afflictions."

To all who have had or currently have thoughts similar to mine, who feel like a disappointment or a failure, remember this: Heavenly Father is loving. He is patient. He is understanding. I don’t know why that is so hard for me to get through my head! 

Anywho, let me tell you a little about our week!

We had two lessons with Bertrand--one about faith and repentance, the other about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. He understands the magnitude and significance of baptism, which is wonderful...but also SUPER FRUSTRATING because he won’t commit to a date! He's also been really hesitant about coming to church. At the end of our appointment on Saturday, we invited him to come and he said "maybe" and I was like "no dude, you’re coming and I’m going to call you 1000 times tomorrow morning so get ready". I called him once, and he didn’t answer...but he called back about 20 minutes later and said he'd come...AND HE DID! I turned to him after sacrament meeting and asked him if it was as horrible as he thought it was going to be, and he turned to me, wide eyed and smiling and said "no! It was amazing!" I ALMOST CRIED. MY BERTRAND IS MAKING SO MUCH PROGRESS.

We had another miracle on Sunday! We've been working with this less active named Sister Freitag. The sisters have been meeting with her for a while and were about to tchues (drop) her right before I got here because she wasn’t making any progress. But all of the sudden, she’s turned into a total rockstar and keeps the commitments we give her, agrees to live the commandments and EVERYTHING. She even agreed to come to church! We went to go pick her up Sunday morning (we can get people on buses/trains for free on the weekends) and she was running late! The bus was scheduled to leave at 9:58...but oddly, it just sat there for an extra three minutes! Because of that, Sister Freitag was able to make it in time and came to church for the first time in who knows how long! 

You want to hear another awesome story? So I’m the "young women’s" missionary. Meaning, on Sundays, Sister Knuston and I split and she helps with relief society and I help with the teenagers (I think we all know who got the better end of that deal). Anyway, one of my girls, Shirley is not a member! Her parents have been less active for 20 something years, but the elders have been working with them a lot, and the whole family is starting to come back to church! We went over to their place for lunch (and to give them the snicker doodle recipe--thanks Sara!) and the dad was basically like "the elders have done a great job...butttttt we want the two of you to teach our daughter." The elders are currently refusing to hand her over...but I’ll definitely keep you posted! I have high hopes for that girl! She’s pretty great!

As for Edison...I have 3 words for you: ITS *TAUFE TIME. My arch nemesis, Satan, is doing EVERYTHING he can to prevent it from happening (surprise, surprise), so its' been an incredibly stressful week....but a great one nonetheless.

Anyway, I’m going to go hike up to a castle now. No worries. I’ll send y’all some pics next week.

Love you lots!!!

Wish me luck with transfers next weekend!!!!

- Brookie

*Taufe= BAPTISM WOHOOOOOO