Deutsche Ducks

Guten Morgen!

Transfer calls came this past Saturday. I almost completely forgot that they were coming. When Elder Smith called at 7 am Saturday morning, I was like "What on earth?" but then it was transfer calls, so I suppose it was fine. (haha.) Everything is staying exactly the same - Sister Threlkeld and I will continue working together as Sister Training Leaders in Stuttgart. This is actually the first time I've ever had a transfer where everything stayed exactly the same as the last - I've always had some companionship or area change. It will be nice; there's always an adjustment period in the beginning when stuff changes. So it'll be nice to avoid that and just keep truckin'. 

Sister Bushman remains in Stuttgart!

We had Zone Training this past week, and it was the first time I had to present there. I counted - we have 32 Elders, 4 Sisters, and an Ehepaar in Stuttgart Zone. Just fun facts? Anyway. I was a little nervous about it because for the first time it was COMPLETELY AUF DEUTSCH. President wants us to work harder to improve our German, so he made a new rule that we should try and speak 9-9 as much German as possible - and then District Meetings and stuff are also auf deutsch. Sister Threlkeld and I talked about the Character of Christ and diligence (like I talked about last week,) and since we presented near the beginning I stumbled a bit, but it went pretty well! What was really fun was that by the end of the day I felt myself chatting with everyone in German without too many problems...of course, I'm sure I made tons of mistakes and my vocab isn't huge, but it wasn't painful to just talk to everyone. I guess your brain has to just get going with it. I've already made progress even in the last week or 2 with my language, which was really fun. 

Also, cool little story from last week. Remember the cute lady I talked to on the Bahn on the way home from the MLC? We went to the lesson and taught the Plan of Salvation. I think probably one of my favorite things about teaching is when you see that they really get the significance of what you're talking about. The Spirit is there and touches them - and they feel that love from Heavenly Father. She was like " we can really live with our families forever?" Her mind was totally blown. It was so cool to watch her. 

It's been fun/totally weird to get back into normal contacting, because for like a month we really focused our contacting on Christmas. We've been trying to find different and interesting ways to strike up converstions with people. People ALWAYS talk about using family history as a finding tool - but we had never really done it because it seemed like an odd way to strike up a converstion. WRONG. This past week Stuttgart was really confused as to what season it was and therefore it was strangely nice last Saturday afternoon, and we went to try our hand at family history contacting in the park. It was so great! I literally would just go up to people and be like "where are you from?" and they were sometimes like, "Uh, what?" But it opened up this great conversation about their heritage, and we got to tell them about our purpose as missionaries with the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ - and invite them to learn about their heritage. We're totally making it a regular part of our work, it was so cool.

So yesterday we had a member appoinment where Sister Threlkeld and I were supposed to give the spiritual thought - but we weren't actually able to, and I was sad, so I'll share it with you. HA. Okay. So imagine that I have a 20 Euro schein (or 20 dollar bill...or Chinese Yen...whatever floats your boat.) It's really crisp, and nice. What if I were to tell you that I'll give you the 20? Would you want it? Probably. What if I folded it and crumpled it and it looked all dingy? Would you still want it? OF course. 

And why is that?

Because the value is the same. Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 talks about how the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. Nobody is perfect, but as we try to follow the Savior, we can become better. (And straighten out some of those folds and wrinkles. :)) 

Have a good week!

Sister Bushman

P.S.  Sister Bushman's Mom here:  Here is the explanation for the "Deutsche Ducks" title of this blog.  Sister Bushman is sharing the gospel with everyone she comes in contact with...even the German ducks!