Hello everyone,
I would just like to give a special thanks to all of the extra support and love the past couple weeks. I have definitely appreciated every effort you all have made to show love. Thank you. Because of all the love shown, I haven't been able to send a weekly out! I've never received so many emails from family, I didn't know what to do! 
This year started off rocky. For the first time in my mission I felt homesick, the desire to be home with my family to be there for them. There were a few days (luckily it was really only two, one of which was a pday) where it was so hard to put my heart into the work because my heart ached for those at home. Fortunately, God let's us learn so much in the hard times. Trials are such a blessing because we can always learn. (NOT saying I love trials... but I do love becoming a stronger person through Christ, and coming to know my Savior just that much better.) These last few weeks have led me to just that...coming closer to my Savior Jesus Christ. Which has helped my heart and myself be in the work more than ever.
Have you ever had a hard day? Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt that you're the only one who has ever felt the way you feel? Have you ever felt that nobody understands you? Have you ever had someone try to comfort and relate to you but they're obviously stretching to find an experience to compare? If you answered yes to any of those... YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Which is WHY WE ALL NEED CHRIST. Jesus Christ is the only one who will ever understand EXACTLY how you feel, He is the only one who has felt exactly what you feel, who has experienced exactly what you are experiencing. Whether it is the pain of being an outsider, the guilt of making a mistake, the feeling of being betrayed, the burden of knowing you hurt someone, the jolting pain from stubbing your toe, the exhaustion from being overworked, the weakness that comes from sickness, the joy from being in love, the happiness from being with family, the enjoyment of a good meal...He has felt it all. He knows how you feel- happy or sad. And if you turn to Him, He will comfort you, He will celebrate with you, He will give you peace, He will be with you. He will help us through, He will give us strength, He will, help us when we ask. I can't imagine any thing that could bring me more peace, or more joy. I know that Jesus suffered for us, He died for us, and He lives again. He knows us. He loves us. And I am so grateful. That is my why- that is why I am on a mission. It brings me so much joy to teach people about Jesus and to help them realize that He is their Savior and they are not alone. I am so grateful to have the gospel and the knowledge of my Savior. It's brought me so far, it's given me so much strength, and it's made me who I am today. 
I said this year started off rocky, but it has also been so incredible. I am grateful to have Sister Cliett by my side and to be doing the work of the Lord. Nothing makes me happier, or brings me more peace than doing missionary work. Here's some miracles and fun stories from the last few weeks. :)
-we had a very dangerous storm. However, we just thought we were being babies looking out so I told sister Cliett we would go finding because people need the gospel. (Apparently warnings were going out, the autobahn was shut down, trains were cancelled, trees were falling on cars, all the good things, but nobody told us...so...we went out.) We had no luck on the few trains that were still going- nobody was out! (Hahah I wonder why...) When the weather had called a little we went dooring, and then went to catch our train. And barely missed it. So we went to the other side of the track and doored. There was a man who spoke to us out his window, as I was looking up and trying to talk a giant piece of hail hit me smack in the eye. He felt bad because I lost my words for a minute and so he came down and talked to us. We've met with him 4 times now and he's sooo cool. (Sometimes things seem to go wrong but it's all a part of God's plan. Also I'd let hail come into my eye every day if it meant getting an opportunity to teach someone the gospel.) His name is John and he's originally from Michigan. He's here as a preacher, so we've been learning a lot about the bible, and we've been sharing about the book of Mormon. His daughter, Joy, made us a lot of cute drawings the last time we were there.
-We had tausch last week, and I got to work with Sister Call -she was my first tausch and now we are old missionaries together...crazy...and now our friend Richard is on date to be baptized in March.
-We went street contacting in Freiburg yesterday after district meeting (just because I love street contacting.) The weather was TERRIBLE. None of us missionaries were having any good conversations because nobody wanted to talk. We had 5 minutes left before we needed to go, so we set a goal that every missionary would talk to 2 people. The first man I talked to was sooo nice. We talked for about 20 minutes, he wants a book of Mormon in English and Arabic, and he wants to take all of the lessons with us. We told him we could meet with him next Monday when we are in Freiburg again and he was overjoyed, and then said very softly "please don't forget about me." WHAT. MIRACLE. We are so excited to meet with him next week!
-This week as a zone we are having a "Deutsche Woche" and that means every missionary in our zone has committed to speaking only German this week unless we have to teach or talk to someone in English. It's so fun. We all have been capable of more than we thought.
There are so many more incredible things that have happened but this email is very long so I'll stop it for the sake of those who have had the time and patience to read it. Thank you, I sure love ya. Two weeks ago while dooring we saw a sign next to a door, it was a very hard day for me but it struck me. It said, "trotz alldem, das Leben ist schön." In spite of everything, life is beautiful. It's true. Life is hard, but if it wasn't hard we wouldn't grow. We wouldn't have opportunities to test our faith or come to really know our Father in Heaven or our Savior Jesus Christ. I testify that I know They live, They know us, and They love us. Jesus Christ died for us, and He rose again on the third day, and we can too. Joseph Smith was called by God to be a prophet and restore His church on the earth today. And I will be forever grateful for that.
I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic week!
(My pictures last time apparently didn't go through so here's an overload:))
[I broke Sister Clietts bed by sitting on it- I knew I should have stopped after the 12th cookie-but also don't worry I pulled out my redneck knowledge and fixed it; the map our member drew us; dooring probs; streeting in a small town on a Saturday afternoon probs; Sister Marsha, Sister Cliett and I; followed a certain Elder Farnworths advice to wear lots of clothes, and turned out to be inspired advice because we had crazy storms that week; Sister Call and I on tausch.]
Sister Carley Lundskog
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Uhlandstraße 24
79713 Bad Säckingen
Deutschland
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Uhlandstraße 24
79713 Bad Säckingen
Deutschland
No comments:
Post a Comment