Springtime

** Hello all!! This week has been so schön und herrlich out!!!!! Spring is definitely here and I love it because one, Germans are happier :) Good for contacting and talking with happy people!! And two, everything is bright and reminds me of the great joy it is to be one this Earth. Heavenly Father blesses us so much with wonderful things. On Saturday the German Wiesbaden Ward signed up to help out with a service project = sisters were definitely there. Our duty was to walk around the park under the freeway/autobahn and the Rhine River and clean up trash. Let me just tell you, Hermana Avery would have been gagging at some of the stuff we were picking up. It was pretty tough for me not to gag haha but I loved every minute of it because when we serve, we forget ourselves. When we serve, we are in the service of our God and He then blesses us with His beautiful Spirit. It truly is a blessing to see the progress in someone who is looking into the church. Yesterday during fasting testimony meeting at church, Reza (who is 15 and has decided to be baptized within the next few weeks!) got up and bore his testimony!! How wonderful it is to witness someone to learn of God's love. How wonderful it is to witness a miracle every single day. There are miracles everywhere, we just have to open our eyes a little bit more to truly recognize them. The Lord has a hand in everything we do if we notice it or not. How wonderful it is of Him to continue to bless us when sometimes we neglect to notice it in our lives. That is how much He loves us and I am so grateful for it in my life. The work here in Germany is wonderful. I find something more that I love about Germany everyday. May many blessing be upon all you all :) I love you and think of you often. Bis dann!! Tschüss!! PS - Sorella Teichert you are wonderful keep up the good work!! Hermana Avery, I am sure you are doing wonderful and also keep up your hard work and dedication! Love, Sister Tuschling PSS- A miracle that happened this week was that an older lady named Frau Weirich. She ended up cancelling our appointment that we had set up, but we then found out later that she has been speaking with a Sister Missionary from Salt Lake City serving at Temple Square. That same Sister Missionary is the sister to a member we have in our Wiesbaden Ward and she invited her to be baptized, and she accepted!!! Note: I have not yet met this Frau Weirich! The Lord works in mysterious ways :) **

1st Transfer

I survived my first transfer and I am not moving anywhere for at least another 5 weeks!! I am blessed to be here in Mainz during this time because miracles are happening everywhere and we are barely a part of it. We are just witnesses of Heavenly Father's work. This month we have 3 baptisms set up :) One is our dear sweet Luisa's :) She is 17 and is a rockstar. She has been looking into the church for more than a year and a half (my kinda girl!) and decided to be baptized on March 30th :) The other day the Elders we work with set a baptism date with a 19 year old named Amo. He comes from a foreign foreign land that I can't even pronounce it in English haha but in September or so he had a dream of many people in white and that a couple of those people's names were Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson. He went up to the missionaries and started talking to them and from then on his faith has grown and his love for the Gospel has escalated. He is awesome :) The people are prepared whether we noticed it or not. They continue to come to us and we welcome them with open arms!! Germany in the spring time is GORGEOUS!! Flowers are popping out of nowhere and I love it!! I've never experienced this kind of Spring before and I am lovin' every minute of it! To my branch back home, keep up the good work with missionary work! Rachael who has been going to church with you works with my mom!! Small world! I love and miss you all!!
~Sister Tuschling

Family Home Evening/Lesson

Montag was quite the day. We did our usual cleaning and laundry and writing to the family and after all that is said and done, we meet with the Wilson family every Monday night to have Family Home Evening/Lesson!! Two or three weeks ago we made Julien, the son, do 100 push ups to represent the Savior and His Atonement and I thought that would really loosen him up! But the last couple times he really hasn't changed so Monday morning I had a feeling of just down right arm wrestling the kid so he understands that we mean business haha and you can guess what happened that night at 7 o'clock pm in the Wilson's home on the Military Base. Sister Tuschling VS Julien Wilson dual, arm wrestling match to decide on the next lesson. If I won, he had to teach us, and if he won he got to choose what we would teach. Sister Tuschling was already red in the face before the match even started but she got through. Brother Wilson said, "On the count of 3, Go for it! 1...2...3...!!!!" Let me tell you that 17 year old kid did not look as strong as he did. I was down within 20 seconds. I know I know shame... shame... shame... But being myself = stubborn I requested 2 out of 3!! And we were off again battling for FHE lessons and I was down faster than the first time haha. Dangit! Julien looking proud I still couldn't give it up and so I battled him again but LEFT handed haha. He was up for it again so we were off and oh boy howdy I had him struggling and wiggling like a little worm on the stool haha. I won the left handed challenge and he won the right so we had to come to an agreement. Sister Nieman and I still teach but he chose the lesson :) I love missionary work. Sometimes you just got to do what you can to win over people's hearts AKA lose :) This work is amazing!! I love and miss you all :) Tchüss!

Glowing!!

We had 2 baptisms this weekend!! One was Alicia, 16, and was GLOWINGduring the after party. And it was super spiritual. That was myfirst German baptism that I was able to witness. It sounds cool inGerman :) Then last night we had a baptism of little Megan, 9, andwas also glowing like sunshine. It always brings me back to mine andhow much joy, peace, and love I felt on that beautiful day and I willadmit I get a little teary eyed every time I see them hit the waterand come back out. It truly is a sacred ordinance :) Yesterday wasfast Sunday and it was amazing. All of the hardships and trials thatwe have had, yesterday made it completely worth it all. Sister Niemanand I began our fast around 2 pm on Saturday (for various reasons).Everything that we fasted for I think came true!! Heavenly Fatherknows us and knows what to do in the exact moment. We specificallyfasted and prayed for new people to come to church. We arrive thereand we see 2 people we have heard about and always wanted them theshow up and they were there so of course we sat by them :) Omega(from Los Angeles) and Sue Ellen (who has been living in Germany thepast 11 years but is from the states). The Spirit was so strongduring the testimony meeting and then I recognized someone get up thatwe haven't seen or heard of for awhile. Sister Parris!! An inactivewhos husband is looking into the church (we've taught before too)!!She got up and bore her testimony and talked about if it wasn't forthe missionaries her testimony wouldn't be as strong. AHH!!! Myinsides and heart were bursting with love :) We were able to teachthem during church one of the lessons and we asked Hunter Parris to bebaptized with proper authority from someone holding the priesthood andhe agreed :) The Spirit was so strong!!! AHHH!!! I love this workand I love helping people. I love my Savior and I love HeavenlyFather because without either of them, we couldn't do this work..Omega is going through a divorce right now and she has two little onesand is just a hoot to be around!! She is so much fun and loves tolaugh. She has been friends with one of the families in the ward, theRobinsons (BTW= their house is pretty much a castle!!) and she hasbeen to church twice. She needs help right now so yesterday duringour appointment I was able to tell her my testimony of how the gospelhelped me. She was crying, I was crying, and the Spirit was sostrong.. She agreed to accept the Book of Mormon and to read and prayabout it. I know that book is true with my whole heart. It can helpyou in everyway possible. I asked her to give it a chance and I askanyone reading this to give it a chance too. I truly saved my lifeand I love every word. This week we (Sister Nieman and I, ElderGarlick, and Elder Crosby) are going to the temple on Tuesday!! Andthen I got on a spilt with Sister Römer for a day in a half. I don'tknow if I am ready for that one but we'll see how it goes!! Tschüss!!
~Sister Tuschling