Getting Transfered!

This weekend Sister Nieman and I were able to do a temple tour with the Elders and our dear sweet Sue Ellen.  She drove all the way from Mainz to Frankfurt to pick us up and then to Friedrichsdorf where the temple is :)  The entire time she was asking about what the temple represents and why we have them and what is so special.  It wasn't until we saw it when she finally knew.  She was in tears because the spirit was so strong and she was moved about what we do, as far as baptism for the dead so we can live with Heavenly Father and our families forever :)  I was able to bear testimony about doing baptismal work for my ancestors while I was in the MTC and I couldn't help but get choked up about the fact that someday I will be able to live with them and see them and they will know me, as I them because of the work I was able to do.  I am grateful for the plan that Heavenly Father has for us so that we can see and live with our families again after this life.  And I find comfort in that it is not the end when someone close to us passes away, because it truly is not the end; not even close.  I'm Getting Transferred!! I love the people here and sadly I am leaving Mainz and Wiesbaden and the beautiful people here.they are kicking me out and sending me to Dortmund, Deutschland!!  I have no idea what it is like up there, but all I hear is that it is more industrial and flat.  My new companion will be Sister Garlick.  And if that sounds familiar it is because Elder Garlick is her cousin!!  And he is also being called to serve in Dortmund too!!  So not only do I get to work with the two Garlick cousins but they get to serve together too!! How cool would it be to serve with family!?!?  He keeps saying that they are adopting me haha and he told me that she knows how to break dance, so not only are we going to be teaching together, but she will be teaching Sister Tuschling how to break dance as well :)  I am kinda super stoked about it actually!!  I will miss the people here but I am excited for a new beginning!!  I love you all!!  Keep up the good work!! Bis dann, Tschüß!

Trying to find Wisdom...

Sue Ellen and Omega, are people we are teaching right now and I am loving them so much.  Omega is going through a really hard time right now.  Her husband left.She and him still stay in contact because of their little ones so they switch off every other weekend on who has them.  Before she met her husband and had her kids, she was down somewhere in Spain and prayed to God to help her find a husband, have a home, job, and have children.  Within 2 years she had all that..  And now 5 years later she has everything taken away.  And now she is about to lose her children and is trying to find a job somewhere else because she thinks Germany is not the place for her.  She is from LA, Cali so she is American and has a really good head on her shoulders.  But now she is trying to find wisdom.  She asked us yesterday in church why God gives us things and then takes them away when we are the weakest.  I didn't know what to say or do.  We were able to read from the Book of Mormon a little bit and she said that they really helped and that they really spoke to her!!  Which is good but I still wanted to help.  So I told her my experience with my ACLs and I could never understand why Heavenly Father would let me be on my dream basketball team and loving life and then take it all away again when I tore my second ACL.  Sometimes we don't know why things happen and we probably won't know why until later.  I believe I tore mine the second time because He knew I would be a stronger person mentally and to exercise my faith in Him.  So I hope I helped her but I really do want to help more.  Sue Ellen is the one lady who we are cleaning her house for and she is amazing too and she is the other one where I just want to help with everything I have.  She suffers from Burn Out where she can't do a ton of activities because then she can't function or think later and it takes her days to recover.  Saturday we were able to go over and help her clean more but then I realized she didn't need much.  Her house was brighter, cleaner, and just healthier I guess you could say.  It wasn't so chaotic and which is awesome!!  It is amazing what happens when people start to make progress and you physically see the progress in someone.  She is just so much more smiley and happy and less stressed.  She has thought about baptism and she was even joking about it with me the other day and my insides were all anxious!  I hope I will be able to witness her be baptized.  She is just so wonderful.  And the Gospel can really fix everything she is having problems with.  I just wish there was something I can do to help her realize that.We had a baptism last night!!  Amo was baptized last night and it was really great :)  We had it right after church and he looked so good in white :)  Everyone does to be honest!  Amo and his mother are refugees from Assyria.  I didn't know that their country was in a civil war right now but apparently there are a lot of Assyrian refugees here in Mainz.  His father and brother were killed recently in the war and it is only him and his mother now.  Like I said before I love seeing the change you see in people.  He started as a 19 year old with trying to find something, and when he found the gospel he started to have so many more ideas about missionary work and ready to spread it like fire!  He is going to be a wonderful missionary in a year!!  And hopefully his mother can follow in his footsteps into baptism because it would bring her so much peace because of all the things she has been through.  If only she knew that life does not end after this life and that she can see her husband and son again and be able to live with them again.  She is in my prayers :)  But I am so proud of Amo for the steps he is taking!!

Mein Scheckt!!

So we have been helping this lady Lila move and I think I wrote about her last week. But we were able to have a normal sit down lesson with her endlich!! It was wonderful!! But before that, the day was quite interesting!! We had our usual Thursday afternoon meal with Schwester Meinecke. She made this delicious casserole thingy and because I still can't understand anything that she says I just eat and listen. Well the first portion she gave me was quite hefty. So I ate is as slow as I could, but before I knew it I was out of food already and so I tried to act like I was done, putting my utensils across my plate that states, "I'm done" but it didn't work! Before I knew it she dished me out another huge plate of food. So I ate it.. Holy cow did my poor stomach want to burst. But the funny thing was that she gave us the rest of the leftovers which was a ton too!! So I shoved it in my backpack and we sprinted out the door to catch our bus. We safely made it, took our seats, and caught our breath. I looked inside to see if the food was still contained and intact and it was!! Perfect!! Right when we were arriving in Wiesbaden (20 minuten später) something felt wet on my lap. I removed my backpack from my lap and saw a HUGE WET SPOT!!! What the heck?! My backpack was soaked and it was a brown liquid... So on the bus I am realizing this and I am pretty sure my facial expressions said everything because no words came out but Sister Nieman knew exactly what I felt. The bus got to the Bahnhof and we had about 2 minuten to catch our train so with the huge wet spot on my skirt, my backback in my hands sprinting to catch our train, reaching our destination in time I looked at the damage inside. There was a swimming pool or brown liquid. What the heck could it be?? I then remembered I put in an A&W Rootbeer for Lila because it is her favorite drink and she hadn't had in years. Thankfully my scriptures and everything were okay!! Heavenly Father knows what truly is important :) No worries I got to wash the pack, change the skirt, and make it to the appointment :) We ended up getting another Rootbeer and giving all the food to Lila because she lives alone, only gets one meal a day, and is hungry all the time. I am very blessed for the opportunities I have to give and bless other people's lives. We gave her her Easter meal and it melted my heart after she hugged us with tears in her eyes...This week we had another baptism. His name is Reza and he knows how to speak German and Persian!! How cool is that?! There are so many beautiful languages out in the world today! And I have the Gelegenheit (opportunity) to hear them :) His baptism was very spiritual and of course Sister Tuschling was also in tears. But before that, I also had the immense privilege to speak about baptism before he was baptism. It was my first talk in full German with a crowd and the Spirit helped me out and was so strong. The look in Reza's eyes were watery and had the light of Christ in them. It was truly magnificent. The other night we had dinner with an older couple named the Marx's. They were previously Temple President of the Friedrichdorf's Temple and they are so cute. They feel like grandparents to us and made out first schnitzel!! It is basically chicken fried steak but way way way better. Super lecker!! And the table we sat I guess that they had Pres. Uchtdorf over for dinner because they are good friends and I was sitting in the seat that he sat!! AHH!!! Love you and keep up the good work Sister Avery and I will try and do what you asked me to do!! Where do our P-Days go?!?
Liebe, Sister Tuschling

Great Week!

Wednesday morning we were able to help out this older gal named Lila. Lila is from somewhere northwest of Europe so she speaks Norwegian, German, and English :) English is my favorite because not only can I understand her but she has a southern Mississippi accent somehow haha. She spent some time in the U.S. in the south and I am guessing that is how she learned her English haha. But we were able to help her move some of her things from her old place to her new place of living. Mind you, we do not have a car and neither does she so all we have is roller suitcases, and duffel bags! And all we have for transportation are Strassebahns (trolleys) and buses. So all 3 of us are rolling down the streets with both hands full going on and off buses and Strassebahns!! It is amazing how wonderful the feeling overwhelms you when you are helping someone when they need your help. She is a doll and loves us to death which is a bonus and we hope to meet with her this week :) Moving Lila took longer than expected too so we ended up missing our train and taking the long way to a 74 year old lady named Frau Weirich. Frau Weirich was snapping off dead branches off of a bush in a yard when I first met her. I knew it was love at first sight :) Then I really fell in love when she put us to work on the yard :) Watering the trees, snapping off old branches, and picking up twigs. It felt like home working with good old Mike!! Minus the skirt and dress shoes :) We ended up talking inside with her husband about the gospel and we asked her to be baptized if she found that our church is true and she said......."Oh ich weiss, nicht." Ja Wohl!! That certainly wasn't a no!! We then sprinted out of there and ended up missing our other train to visit our dear sweet Jenna who lives on the American base. We had a great lesson about testimonies and we have the opportunity to spend FHE with her and her 2 children who are both under the age of 4. She wants to learn more about the Priesthood so we made a sidewalk chalk game about the Aaronic Priesthood for the little ones while we teach her more :) Okay so we had a baptism this weekend of our dear sweet Luisa and it was amazing. It reminded me of my baptism because of how strong the spirit was. Also because she is the only one in her family who is now a member and the only person from her family that showed up was her sister Fatima. It was so spiritual. Also, Luisa's friend Lara gave a talk at her baptism and started crying at the end of it like Sister Avery did at mine and so that means Sister Tuschling was a goner. She was just glowing afterwards :) I love this work and I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.