Familyyyy

OH MEINE GUTE...MY GOLDEN IS GERMAN.

We went up to Frankfurt for the train the trainers meeting on Thursday night. I was talking to the Spendlove’s niece while all the newbies were in orientation and she was like "dude, did you see that super cute German golden?" and I thought super cute German golden? Dang. Whoever gets her is so lucky! ...and you can bet your bottom that all the other trainers were thinking the same thing.

Then, the paring meeting rolled around. Let me explain how such meetings work.

We have a couple themas by the APs, the mission president and his wife....which no one really listens to because we're all too busy FREAKING OUT about who our new companion is going to be. After the themas, the APs bring out 2 stacks of paper. One stack contains pictures of the goldens--the other, pictures of the trainers. The APs then hold up a picture of a golden, ask them to stand, then hold up the picture of their trainer. INTENSE RIGHT?!

When they held up our pictures, Sister Hallman and I FREAKED (she told me afterwards that the night before, she had prayed and asked Heavenly Father to give her one of three trainers and I was one of them). It was funny, though...the APs are both buddies of mine and Elder Allen, after having called Sister Hallman’s name, looked RIGHT AT ME with a huge grin on his face...aka he COMPLETELY SPOILED THE SURPRISE...but that’s okay. 

Anyway, everyone pretty much hates me (hehehe). It’s a dream come true to get a native as a comp when you’re serving foreign! Sad to say, though, I don’t think we'll be together for too long! Sister Hallman is serving in the St. George visitor’s center mission and just here on visa wait...so she'll probably be outta here in about 6 weeks or so. She's never been to the MTC, so she’s really unfamiliar with Preach My Gospel/the discussions and has no idea what the rules are. In other words, the Lord has given me the responsibly of teaching her literally EVERYTHING she needs to know. No pressure. Luckily for me, she’s a little SPONGE. Just soaks everything right in!!

We've already seen bunches of miracles together! We had dinner with a member scheduled at 17:00 on Saturday...and food didn’t end up being ready until 18:00. After about 20 minutes of waiting, I asked the mom if it’d be okay if we went and did some doors in the area then come back. As we were dooring, I saw a yellow house (people who live in yellow houses are ALWAYS nice)...so we klingled it! A young lady greeted us at the door. We introduced ourselves, and her response took us both by surprise! She explained that she was raised a member of the church, but had fallen away as she got older. We asked her if she still believes the church is true...and she said yes! She said that she moved to the village where we were over the summer with her husband and had no idea where a church building even was or how to get there...to which I responded "WE CAN HOOK YOU UP WITH PEOPLE WHO KNOW". She had no idea that her neighbors were members...and her neighbors had no idea about her, either! Crazy, huh!?

Later that night, we were walking home from the church, contacting unterwegs. We got to our apartment about 6 minutes early. We looked up and down the street, but there was absolutely no one out. We hesitated, debating whether we should just go inside, but decided to keep walking up the empty road. Then, out of nowhere, a lady comes walking our way with her dog. We stopped her, introduced the Book of Mormon and not only did she accept it, but gave us her address so we could come by and share more!!!

This week wasn’t all dandelions and roses, though. Bertrand dropped us. We had a lesson with him last Tuesday. As we sat down to begin, I could tell that something was very clearly wrong. After the prayer I asked him what was up. He said "I was going to say yes to the question you’ve been asking me about getting baptized, so I decided to research your church more" ...and it all went downhill from there. He accused us of lying to him. Accused us of hiding stuff from him. We did our best to address his concerns, but it was no use. He was hearing us, but he wasn’t listening. We bore testimony, we shared scriptures, I even explained that because he was SO CLOSE to accepting the invitation to be baptized, Satan was pulling out all the stops to prevent him from doing so. It was all in vain, though. He left us saying that he was going to back to praying and asking God to lead him to the truth. We promised him that God had already done so--but he was convinced otherwise.

I spent the rest of the day in tears. I thought, “Why does Satan get to be so loud, while the spirit remains so soft? Why does he get to have so much power? And why, why, why, is he so accessible?” The next morning, I was reading in D&C. Chapter 75 verses 3-4 say:

"It is my will that you should go forth and...labor with your might--lifting up your voices with the sound of a trump"

And I thought, wow. How frustrating must it be to be God? He’s probably up there thinking "Yes. The adversary is loud...so I’ve asked you to be louder. How many people have you stood by in silence? How many people have you sat next to without saying a word? How many people have you ignored in passing? Speak up! Don’t just match the adversary’s noise--MASK IT. Lift up your voice with the sound of a trump! Preach my Gospel! And preach it loud!"

And, rest assured, Sister Hallman and I have been doing just that.

Love y’all lots!!!!
Talk to you next week!!!
PS: HAPPY 6 MONTHS TO ME. See y’all in a year!! <3

- Brookie


PS: SHOUT OUT TO MY BRILLIANT, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFULLY WONDERFUL SISTER FRIEND EMMA TERRY FOR GETTING ACCEPTED INTO BYU. Yes world, I know. I know it’s not fair that she is drop dead gorgeous AND intelligent...but you’re just going to have to get over it. And for all you BYU boys who are planning on snagging a piece of Emma pie--BACK THE HECK OFF. She’s my squishy. Get your own. LOVE YOU, WHITE CHOCOLATE. SO PROUD OF YOU <3