Stuff I Love...: Generalkonferenz

Hello everyone!!

Another crazy week here in Germany has come and gone! So yes, my birthday at Oktoberfest was literally one of the best birthdays I have ever had :) basically the whole zone was there, and we all kept running into each other and having such a great time! The real Oktoberfest is not exactly what I expected it to be, but trotzdem super fun :)

Wednesday was transfer day, and we got elders here in Augsburg!

So most of the week has been spent showing them around, bringing them to our appointments with members and investigators, and updating them on all the important stuff they need to know! (z.B. Don't go finding in the park with all the weirdies in it. You might get kidnapped).

Wednesday evening we went to our favorite Peruvian family's house and ate some really yummy Peruvian food! Then we played some games and answered some of their questions about temple marriage! Sister Howsmon and I showed her pictures of our parents, and she was like "did they get married in the temple?" And we said yes, and then she said, "yeah I can tell. They look happier!" So hopefully now we can teach her husband about temples, too and they will have the desire to eventually be sealed together as a family!! Thanks mommy and daddy for being sealed in the temple so I can show my investigators and teach them how their families can be together forever like mine will be! :)

Thursday we went to a member's house with the elders for lunch. We were playing some games with the little girls to keep them occupied while the food was being made, and at one point one of them asked me if I was good at math because she knew a really fun math game! I figured that a 9 year old math game couldn't be too hard, so I said yes!

Livvi: "okay what is 1+1?"

Me: (psh I've totally got this) "2"

Livvi: "2+2?"

Me: (wow this is an easy game) "4"

Livvi: "10 times 10?"

Me: (wow I'm so good at math) "20"

Livvi: "umm no. Well I guess you're not very good at math so we are gonna find a simpler game for you to play okay?"

I guess I'm not as good at math as I thought! But it was a fun appointment :)

Friday we had an awesome lesson with our awesome newly baptized member! We were trying to read The Book of Mormon with him and teach him a few things, but he's already read the chapter we chose apparently like 50 times, so he ended up just giving us a pep talk the whole time about how we are such great people for giving away a piece of the prime of our lives to basically be scorned and ridiculed in the name of Jesus! Imagine a tall black man who just got converted to the gospel preaching to the missionaries about how they can be better missionaries and how they are doing a good thing and to be proud of what they're doing and to not let anyone pass them by without the name of Christ coming out of their lips! And that's what was happening. It was intense but I sooo needed that! Such a pump up :)

...and speaking of pump-ups, GENERAL CONFERENCE! Because of the time difference here, we watch the Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday afternoon, and the Saturday Morning Session live on Saturday night, and then we watch the Priesthood Session, Saturday Afternoon Session, and Sunday Morning Session all day on Sunday, and then we are just left up to ourselves to find and watch the Sunday Morning Session later. But man, it was such a great weekend. The whole time, I was just thinking that this is literally how the Nephites felt when King Benjamin was giving his really long speech to them! My eyes were glued to the speakers, and I didn't want to get up to go to the bathroom or even whisper anything to Sister Howsmon because I was afraid I would miss something! Every single thing I heard in General Conference was exactly what I needed, and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows ALL of His children perfectly :)

I was a little worried as General Conference started because I didn't have any specific questions that I needed/wanted to be answered! I had been thinking all week and nothing was coming! So I just sat and listened with faith, and questions that I forgot I had from a couple transfers ago, or questions that I didn't even know I had, were just answered like jelly beans falling from the sky! One after another! I just sat in awe, with my mouth wide open to catch all these jelly beans, and thanked Heavenly Father the whole time for his love and mercy :)

One question in particular I remember being answered was from a few transfers ago back in Graz. I wanted to know why we are commanded to have the faith to move mountains, and how I could keep trying to convince myself that I have faith to move mountains, when we weren't even getting anywhere with the progress of our investigators, and we had no baptismal dates! I remember going into multiple lessons and praying soo hard, "okay Heavenly Father. Here I am, your official mountain-mover. Let's get this thing rolling." And then NOTHING would happen, or the lesson would go awful, or the investigator wouldn't even be home. I was always so frustrated with the concept of that kind of faith, because it never seemed to work for me!

And then yesterday, President Uchtdorf gave the greatest talk ever about faith :) "There are two things faith CANNOT do. It cannot violate another person's agency, and it cannot force our will upon God." WELL, THAT'S GOOD TO KNOW!

I am just so grateful for answers to prayers, for the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, and for General Conference.

I love you all, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Thunell