I just got back from the Mercedes-Benz museum. Neither Sister Bishop nor I actually care about cars all that much, but it seems like one of those things that you just have to do if you're living in Stuttgart. (And it took me 6 months to get there - despicable!) It was pretty cool, though.
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| Sisters Bushman and Bishop with Mercedes-Benz test dummies |
I remember before coming on a mission feeling kind of stressed about the idea of teaching. I think it's kind of a universal fear - simply because I felt (and feel, to be completely honest) like I don't know the Bible and the Book of Mormon well enough to just pull out scriptures to casually answer the questions of people who we would be meeting with. I guess an underlying fear to everything is the prospect of getting caught up in a Bible bash--and losing.
But that fear went away pretty fast coming into the field. Like, you share scriptures that help teach people about Christ and the Plan of Happiness and answer questions, but we had a really cool District Meeting this week when Elder Ringger pointed out something really beautifully obvious. When we, 20-year-old punk American kids approach people on the street and tell people that we have a message that can lighten their burdens and make their lives better, because it has made our lives better, it doesn't seem super credible. ("It helped you through what, high school?") Like, we don't have 50 years of life experience under our belts, or know all of the Bible well enough to bash if we even wanted to. But it doesn't even matter. Because that's not why we're here. We're here to present this message that we believe is true, and then it's their job to read the Book of Mormon as well and to pray about it and decide whether they think it's legit or not. It's not our job to "bash" with them or to "prove" that what we have to say is true.
That takes a lot of stress out of teaching.
We had to mention all of this and read 3 Nephi 11:29 with someone this week when he wanted to Bible bash us...luckily it remained pretty cool, but at the end of our talk he said he would pray for our souls so that we would repent and follow Jesus Christ. (Uh?) We left a "Gospel of Jesus Christ" pamphlet with him when we left.
Transfer day was also this week...I was SO SAD because we didn't get to be part of it (you get to meet new faces when the mission is being shuffled, so I always look forward to that,) but since we were both staying here, we weren't going to be able to go to Bahnhof. Dangit. BUT THEN we got a call in the middle of the day that Sister Earnshaw (who's working in Freiburg) needed to be with some sisters while she waited for her new companions...and lo and behold, we got to not only work with her that day, but go to Bahnhof to greet the missionaries! Man, I was so stoked. There was this hilarious situation when we found out last minute (after all of the transfers were scheduled) that Deutsche Bahn was actually going to be striking -- so last minute everyone was put on buses! (3 cheers for the mission office.) And then they had too much luggage so they were put on a train anyway...but came in a while later. Anyway, long story short it was crazy. But luckily everyone made it home safely. (eventually.) :)
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| The Stuttgart District before transfers |
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| With Sister Earnshaw at the Bahnhof |
Sister Bishop and I did some great goal setting this week. I love Stuttgart and was very happy to stay, but I was kind of worried that I would get "Stuttgart-trunky" from being here for so long. I reeeeeeeeeeeally don't want to get lazy or stagnant or run out of ideas while I'm still here in Stuttgart. But then, at the same time, I know the members and the people we are meeting with really well, so it's much easier to do the work here. Dilemma. But I'm here for the next month either way, and am going to try my best to do some good things here with the beautiful Sister Bishop while I'm still here.
Frohe Pfingstenmontag!
Sister Bushman
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