My Mission Family & Miracles

Hallo Friends & Family,

     I have to say, the first week of this new transfer has been a pretty amazing one. Sister Erdenetsogt and I have seen so many miracles, had so much fun, and grown so much closer as a companionship now that we are back to just two of us.  

     We were looking forward to having a nice, relaxing week in Linz, dropping Sister Wunderli off at the Linz Bahnhof on transfer day, and continuing on with lovely missionary work. But one thing I have learned on my mission is just when you think things are going as planned, a tricky little gremlin likes to slip the rug out from underneath your feet. I guess that is a lot like life- one minute you think you have a plan for the week and one phone call or text changes the whole game. Well that is how this week ended up. 

     By far, this week has probably been one of the craziest weeks of my entire mission:

Monday was p-day, so we had a lot of running around getting last minute needs and preparation for the upcoming transfer. 

Tuesday-We got to go to Salzburg again for Zone Training. Of course everyone was excited, pretty much everything for us was going to be staying the same except Sister Wunderli was going away and Sister Henry was going to be our new Sister Training Leader.So we weren't really preparing ourselves for anything out of the ordinary.

Elder Stilger- our new Zone Leader

Wednesday- this was also supposed to be a normal day. We had a lot of appointments with members and investigators to say goodbye to Sister Wunderli before she left. 

     However all of these plans came to a screeching halt on Monday night when we got a text from the office saying the Sister Erdenetsogt and I were going to come into Munich on Wednesday night and come back into Linz Thursday night. 

     We couldn't move our appointments to Tuesday because we were in Salzburg. So we had to cancel a few, move all of them to early Wednesday morning, and then rush to get Sister Wunderli packed. But on Tuesday night, we got another text with our train times, and we ended up leaving Wednesday morning for Munich instead of in the afternoon. Whoops, Sister Wunderli was put in extra rush to get ready to go and she didn't get to say good bye to all the people she wanted to, so that was a little sad for her.

At the Banhof dropping Sister Wunderli off for her new adventure

      To make sure Sister Wunderli wasn't left alone, we dropped her off in Salzburg on Wednesday afternoon. Sister Erdenetsogt and I proceeded to Munich for the Trainer/Golden meeting. It was actually really fun. All of the new Golden's (new arriving missionaries) came in and had some training. The trainers talked for a little bit, shared some ideas and stories and then we had a fun dinner with President Miles and the Assistants to the Presidents. After that, the Golden's found out where they would be going and who would be training them. Sister Erdenetsogt came up to me during dinner and whispered 'Sister Peterson, this is really boring.' I looked at her shocked and asked why. She said 'because I already know where I am going and that you are training me!'

     There wasn't enough room for the Sisters to sleep in the mission home, so we ended up sleeping in a hotel for a night :)  It was exciting at first, but then it was just weird. It actually felt more like I was on vacation in Munich with a really good friend than on a mission serving the Lord.

Our night in the hotel

     Needless to say, by the time Sister Erdenetsogt and I finally got back into Linz Thursday night, we both wanted to kiss the street, sing a song about being home and get our feet sopping we with missionary work again!

     But the exciting thing for me this transfer is that Sister Jenson (my trainer and first companion in the mission field) was last minute transferred to Wels! So that means that she is in my district!
This means that my mission 'mom' is in my district, my first 'daughter' is my Sister Training leader, and my third daughter is still with me! Almost all of my previous companions are in my same Zone! We took a 'family picture' in Munich on transfer day.

A happy reunion with Sister Henry

Sister Wunderlii, Sister Erdenetsogt, Me, Sister Jenson, Sister Henry

  

My three beautiful daughters

   Sister Jenson about died with pride that I was training again. A few Elders that came in with me told me they placed 'bets' on how long I would stay in the training program. Honestly, I am wondering the same thing! I love being able to look back and see the growth in the sister's that I have trained, but I know that their growth and progress has more to do with them than it does with me. I love seeing them so happy and doing so well.

     I don't know if it is just timing or that Sister Erdenetsogt has a magic map, but we have found so many people with Mongolian heritage lately. These are people who have been very prepared to receive the gospel, to be taught and hopefully even to accept our message!!  Sister Erdenetsogt was making a few phone calls the other night to some of these potential investigators, when she was done on the phone she started talking to me really fast in Mongolian. I definitely think that my "deer in the headlights" look on my face startled her back to the moment as she realized I speak English and German- but definitely NOT Mongolian! She started laughing so hard and had to start all over telling me the happenings in English.  

     I definitely have learned how to say a few sentences in Mongolian! We taught a Mongolian family on Sunday and I was able to ask them what their religious background was and then bear my testimony that God loves them. As fun as it is to speak Mongolian, I think I will stick with English and German as my preferred means of communication> Any bets on how many languages I will come in contact with on my mission!

     I mentioned that this week has been full of miracles for the two of us! It all started with our weekly planning session this week when Sister Erdenetsogt and I took a lot of extra time in our planning and goal setting for this transfer. We prayed a lot, and decided that we could baptize 3 people this transfer, which is crazy, because I haven't even had one baptism yet this whole 10 months. We each wrote down the names of three investigators that we think could get baptized within this next 6 weeks, and made plans to help them progress.

Sometimes we learn as much from our investigators as they learn from us- my forever friend

      I can not even explain all of the miracles we have been seeing ever since we set that goal. 'O', one of our Muslim investigators who doesn't speak much German, has finally accepted that Jesus Christ is our Savior. 'R' wants to overcome her obstacles. 'M' has a lot more time to meet with us. 'L' asked us how baptism works and said he is willing to live all of our commandments to find out if he wants to be a member.  

     We have been running into potentials that we haven't been able to get in contact with for weeks, and we have been seeing them again on the street or on the bus and setting up appointments with them. We are so excited for this transfer!

Two missionaries at the Munich Banhoff

A church in Salzburg

I spy a castle on top of that hill

      I love you all so much and thanks again for your prayers, we receive so much help and strength from your support!  Have a good week :)

Sister Peterson