HOLY COW IT'S HOT. We're melting. Well, Sister Berry is melting. Poor thing. Alaska did not prepare her for this. Also, Germany doesn't really do air conditioning. We've just kind of accepted the fact that we eat and contact and sleep and study in a state of somewhat-wet. Oh well. I can't wait to talk to my friends who served in Taiwan and Ghana who will NOT be impressed at the heat of Deutschland.
We've been trying to do some finding this past week, but it's been difficult just because of the heat. Luckily we live close enough to the city center that we can coordinate breaking up our day so that we don't die of heatstroke. (2 hours of studies at home - 2 hours in the heat - German study and lunch - 3 hours in the heat - dinner - back outside for the cooler(ish) evening.) It's been working out so far. We did have a nice moment this week when we talked to this lady in front of her house who totally wasn't interested - but she still went inside and brought us a bottle of Sprüdel (bubbly water) since our water bottles were empty. So that was nice. Yay Germans!
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| Not Passau, but a cute little town in their area |
I had my first District Meeting with my new district this week. We had to take a train for an hour and a half to get to Landshut. This district definitely feels different than any of my others because it doesn't have an Ehepaar, and has 3 sets of Elders. So it's just the Elders and us. But it was still a really good meeting.
There was this really memorable section prepared by the Elders in Neuötting that I wanted to share with you. They showed us this beautiful video about how we are all children of God and therefore have worth - and then talked about finding. It's universal that finding is difficult sometimes - it takes a lot of faith and a lot of work and sweat and rejection before you even find the potential of someone wanting to learn more about the Gospel of Christ - so it can be discouraging. I even like finding, and I still get burnt out after a while. So they talked about the movie "Cool Runnings," when one of the main characters gives a pump-up talk to another character after they were smack-talked by someone else. (I've never seen the movie, can you tell?) And apparently the first guy brings the second to a mirror and is like "what do you see?" And the second guy doesn't say much. And then the first guy says, "I see PRIDE! I see POWER!"
And the Elders wrote up on the board:
I see PRIDE!
I see POWER!
I see a MISSIONARY of GOD who preaches the Gospel to EVERYBODY!
And then they started YELLING the little pump-up chant and didn't stop until everyone in the district was yelling along. It was actually a really refreshing pep-talk. We underestimate ourselves so much. When I've had moments of discouragement this week, I've tried to start yelling that to myself. :)
Sister Berry also found an incredibly beautiful scripture this week, which has become my current motto: Doctrine and Covenants, 64:33-34.
Go read it; it's lovely.
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| Sister Berry |
I love you! Have a lovely week!
My cousin Elder Silver in the Idaho Twin Falls mission challeneged everyone in his email a few weeks ago to try and think of one way that they could come closer to Christ that week. So I'd like to extend that to all of you. I'm going to try and spend more quiet moments just reflecting on the Savior.
Alles Liebe! Schöne Woche!
Sister Bushman
Shelley's Mom here: This week she and Sister Berry came upon a statue called "The Book of Wisdom ("Buch der Weisheit"). I like the pictorial analogy!
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