Monday, July 13, 2015

Immer Unterwegs

(Title Translation:  "Always on the Move")

First things first, what did you do to come closer to Christ this week? I tried to spend my quiet moments reflecting on the Savior instead of having my mind wander here and there and everywhere. It was actually really nice. I found myself having some nice reflectory revelation-y moments. 

So, this week, I think I spent more time on buses than I did not on buses. I seriously spent more time on buses this past week than I have my whole mission put together. So the way the public transit works here. We have bus passes for the Passau buses, and then if we want to go outside of the city we have to order a "Bayern" ticket. (Ticket for the state.) It's actually pretty cool though, because that little daily ticket will get you on ANY public transit (buses, trains, etc.) in all of Bayern that day. Pretty nifty. So we ordered 2 for this week from the office so we could truck out into the boonies to visit some less active members. From that, we ended up having all of these incredibly charming bus rides through the German countrysides, looking at fields and fields of corn as we drove. Often times, there wasn't even anyone else on the bus besides us, crazily enough!

Sisters Bushman and Berry on the bus

Charming view outside the bus

The corn that is "high as an elephant's eye"

One of these days when we had a Bayern ticket, we were trying to track down this lady from our ward so we could visit her. Because of how the bus lines were set up it was kind of complicated - and required taking a train, and then a bus, and then another bus...you get the picture. Also, we didn't have very good schedules or any maps of said dorfs (villages) that we were planning on visiting - so it was really a leap of faith to go all the way out there. We just had to hope that the next bus that we needed would come. NOT only did it come, but as we were trying to figure out where to go, we just started asking the locals around us for help. And we ended up talking about the Gospel with two of them, and it was incredible! We have an appointment with one of them for this week, and the other one has a Book of Mormon and is super excited to learn more.

It was really cool with the second lady, because she had a "great quesiton of the soul" as we would call it, and we were able to answer it with The Book of Mormon. That's my favorite when we can answer questions SO easily with The Book of Mormon. She asked if it was possible for people to become perfect, and we shared Moroni 10:32 and she just LOVED it. It was so great. Those are the moments that make all of the "keine Interesses" worth it. 

Church this Sunday was also bonkers! I had prepared a talk for that day, (and was a little nervous,) when all of a sudden TONS of visitors started pouring in! Sacrament meeting was like, twice as full as normal. There were many people who were on river cruises. I suppose a lot of cruises stop in Passau on Sunday. FIne with me - we get to see more people! But not only that, FOUR children showed up! And there normally aren't children at all! So we grabbed a member and did impromptu Primary. I was so freaked out at first, but it ended up being super fun. I've learned that I want to treat children like small adults, but I'm getting better at teaching them on their level. Thank heavens that Sister Berry is SO good with kids!



And I think my talk went well. I talked about Alma 37:6 and how it pertains to missionary work - how we never know what impact we can have by just being examples of a disciple of Jesus Christ, and how members are incredibly important in missionary work. I think it was well received! 

Here are some other things that I want to share but don't fit anywhere else:

- I think I'm turning into a German. Seriously. Because I used to beat around the bush for everything but now if I want to say something I'm gonna SAY it because there's no sense in talking around it. It's refreshing. Yay Germany! :) 

- I have been reading in the New Testament, but didn't feel like I was getting AS much out of it as I could have been. So I started using the Institute manual I had downloaded on my iPad...it was SO GOOD. Helped my studies leaps and bounds. I understood a lot more of the historical and gospel contexts of things, which was really beautiful. Go use the manuals!

- Holy cow, I cannot speak Bayerisch.

When people told me that I would be learning a new language here, they weren't kidding. Except I probably won't even be able to learn it. Most of the time people speak Hoch Deutsch, but if I'm speaking with an elderly person I don't even get my hopes up that I'll understand. :) We ate with a really cool family this week and at one point they were all talking together about something - and they spoke SO fast and with such an accent, I could not really make out much. Crazy!

- Also a funny thing we learned. So in German, you say "Gesundheit" when somebody sneezes. Like "bless you", but not, because it literally translates to the noun for "health". I found that pretty funny in the MTC.

A member told us this week how in the "olden days" (during the plague or something?) If people sneezed they would say "Gesundheit"/"health" to mean like "I'm healthy and you are not so therefore get away from me so that you don't make me sick."

So technically it's not very nice to say that if you look at the history books. Isn't that funny?

This week should be great fun. I'm tausching with Sister Arnold here in Passau, and we have Zone Training in München. I got a call from the Zone Leaders last night asking if I would sing "Be Still my Soul" with Elder Pingel at Zone Training. So that will be fun!

Ich habe euch Lieb! Sei stark!  (I love you!  Very much!)

Alles Liebe,

Sister Bushman

1 comment:

  1. She sounds awesome--and I am cracking up at her "becoming German" statement it was one of Sherry's favorite things too haha. Now watch out if she meets a German guy when she gets home ;)

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