Munich = Miracles

Meine Freunde et Familie,

Wow, oh wow!! I have a lot of things written down to talk to you about today (I have to keep notes all week too mom, so don't feel like it's old age that you can't remember what happens in a week). I will try to keep it all short- but you know us Americans, we love being long winded and flowery about everything, at least that's what I have hear  is our reputation!!

Mariensdome church in Munich

Is it really raining?

Now we are just being silly

"Sister Peterson, can this be the last picture?"

This week was a really BUSY week. We had another Austausch with our sister training leaders in Passau, and they pulled one of their favorite tricks and made me take over Munich after only 3 weeks of being here!!  Sister Erdenetsogt went to Passau and I stayed with Sister Holman. We didn't get lost (luckily) but we did spend a lot of time on wrong trams, subways, and trains, and doing A LOT of backtracking. 

In my defense, the map of all of the Ubahns (subways) and Sbahns (regional train type things) are color coordinated, and since there are so many of them, they have to use a lot of different shades of colors.  

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I have trouble differentiating between colors sometimes. 

So I would see a color and think it meant we needed to take one Sbahn- it wasn't until we realized we were headed in the opposite direction that we realized I had misjudged the color!  

Oh goodness, luckily Sister Holman was patient with me and my blondness (or my color illiteracy). 

Sister Regnier & I- I haven't seen in her in 13 months

We had an AMAZING musical fireside on Saturday! It was organized by the Augsburg sisters, and put on by the members and missionaries in Munich. The Sisters took all of the points from the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ out of Preach My Gospel, found either videos, songs, or explanations to go along with each of them, and put together a musical evening in order to teach the first lesson. It was so amazing! We were at the church for 6 hours on Saturday to practice, and then we performed that night. It made for a long day, but the spirit was definitely felt and hearts were touched..it was absolutely unforgettable!

 

Fireside luncheon

A beautiful driit

At the end, I kind of got a little surprise. I walked into the church bathroom on Saturday during the fireside and saw...Sister Jenson! She is serving in Wels in Austria right now, which is next door neighbors to Linz!  She and her companion had come to Munich this weekend for an interview with President Miles and then she was put in an dritt with us for a few days- I didn't know until I saw her at the church.  

Our apartment is too tiny for just us two, it was crazy to fit 3 of us in there for a few days- but it was so worth it to squeeze us all together!

Missionary Genealogy: Grandma, mom and daughter

She had had a few hard days, so it was good for her. She had served in Munich 2 (which is where I am now) before, so she was surrounded by people she loves and people who love her- a little bit of home away from home for her! 

It was cool to see how the Lord grants us tender mercies when He knows that we need them. There are some days that having enough money to buy an ice cream cone is the only thing that gets me through the day or where finding an old letter from a friend renews confidence and strength to keep going. We can trust that if things are feeling a little hard, a tender mercy is on it's way exactly when we need it most- of that I can testify with all my heart!

 

We don't really play the guitar, I guess some things are only true in our dreams

We had another really cool experience this week. Our Italian family, the one who are going to get married and baptized, have been kind of hard to get a hold of the past week. 'F's mom is really sick and so they have spent a lot of time visiting her and figuring things out. Most of our appointments have fallen through this week. Sister Erdenetsogt and I were on our way home from an eating appointment, and we had some extra time before we were supposed to be home, so we decided to hop out of the Sbahn early and visit the 'A' family.  They were just having dinner and watching a movie together as a family, and invited us to join them for dinner. 
They were too stressed for a lesson, but we were able to simply be there, listen to them, get to know them better, and just laugh and have a good time. 'M', the 8 year old daughter, wanted to show us her room. As we walked in, she said 'I cleaned my room today so that I could show you around. I knew you were coming to visit us today!'  Sister Erdenetsogt and I look at each other a little confused, and asked ''but we didnt have an appointment for today, and we didn't call beforehand. How did you know we were coming?''   
Maria just looked at us, shrugged her shoulders and said ''I don't know, but all day I felt like someone was whispering in my ear 'The sisters are coming today!' and I felt all good when I heard the voice so I decided to clean my room!''  
It was such a tender moment, to see how 'M', this young 8 year old girl, who is still learning and growing in the gospel, can already recognize promptings of the spirit. The scriptures teach us that angels speak, even through the mouths of babes and children, and we saw that in truth with her .  
I think that children are more spiritually in tune than we think they are. Sister Erdenetsogt and I both have the feeling that 'M' will be a huge example and driving force behind her entire family being baptized and sealed together. I'm just...speechless.  I am constantly being humbled and on my knees praising God for all of the miracles that I am allowed to experience every day. 

A personal touch gift- we have some creative missionaries in our zone!

We watched some clips of an awesome movie in Relief Society on Sunday. It is called Ephraim's Rescue- if you haven't seen it, I recommend you watch it, it is so amazing. Sister Erdenetsogt and I are trying to devise a plan to watch it with investigators or members...we'll see!

I cannot believe it is June already. I have to say how lucky I am to be with sister Erdenetsogt at this point in my mission. It is just absolutely impossible to be stressed out with her, she is just so calm and composed. She helps me remember what is really important in life and what is not worth my time, energy and thoughts.  Which is good, because normally the 3rd to last transfer is supposed to be the most stressful and emotionally difficult transfer for missionaries! Even a phone call from Salt Lake telling me travel plans are in process couldn't distract me too much with Sister E- I know this is another one of God's tender mercies. He knows what we need even before we do. Trust in this always because He WILL provide! 

Yummy treats for so

My love to you all and much gratitude for all your prayers,

Sister Peterson