Villwock family

 I love the experience here to bond with so many people too.  I am grateful to have gotten so close to people here in the Dortmund Ward.  The members are great and they really do appreciate the hard work that the missionaries put in, and they are normal people too.  I had a wonderful experience with the Villwock family this week.  I was pretty down in the dumps in my thoughts and I just couldn't get happy.  I just felt like I wasn't doing any good, not helping anybody in coming closer to Christ or even helping people with daily things.  With this mindset I went into the house to do some service.  The Villwock family has 1 boy and 1 girl, and the boy (Jonas) was turning 3.  And they are one of my favorite families in the Ward so I decided to make them a birthday card, give a stuffed animal, along with a little story book about the animal.  They live a good distance away and we didn't know if they were even home or not but we went anyways out of pure faith and hope.  We knocked on the door and we heard movement and this is always a good sign.  They open the door and the look of their faces just melted my heart.  They were so happy to have missionaries at their home.  They let us in and I was then greeted with the warmest, loving hug from the mom.  It melted my heart so much that I was almost in tears.  We sit down and are handed birthday cake :)  The whole time we were there we just talked about how they were doing, and they asked about the work in Dortmund.  It was just really nice and then they opened up their house to us to have a Family Night with one of the people we are teaching.  I love them :)  Then while talking a little bit more about something else, I felt a burning desire in my heart that I should bear my testimony.  It wasn't even on the topic of what was being said, but I felt like I just needed to.  I bore my testimony on how my life will never be the same since I was invited to come to church by my best friend.  And that she showed me the way to a better, happier life by coming to church and by reading the scriptures.  And I bore my testimony on how I want my own family to have that as well.  That joy and that peace that the gospel brings and that I want it for my future family too.  I thanked them for their example as an amazing, strong family in the gospel and told them I hope to have that for my future family as well.  I got a little choked up and looked down to wipe a tear, and as I looked up the mom had tears in her eyes too.  I love this gospel and I love the Spirit.  I am so grateful for it.  I am so grateful that Sister Avery introduced me to it, and asked and brought me to church.  My life and my heart is changed forever.  Thanks best friend :) And as we left the mom again gave me a long hug and held on longer than normal, which melted my heart even more :)  This week we found out that Präsident Thomas S. Monson is coming to Germany!!!  He'll be in Frankfurt sometime in Oktober and we are so excited!  Even if we don't get to go, it is a wonderful feeling to have him here in the country where I am serving and in the mission that I love!!  This Saturday Christian Saal is getting baptized!!  Woo!!!  We met him at the church to find him his white clothing.  He is so ready :)  He came to Stake Conference with us and sang with us in the choir and he knows all he needs to to get baptized.  Again, I am excited for him to live this new life.  To feel more of Heavenly Father's love as he continues to keep the commandments and continues to increase his faith.  One thing that I learned from my baptism is that after I entered into a life long promise to serve Him and to continue to walk on the path of righteousness, I learned that it was only the beginning.  I have learned so much more as I have come to church, read the Book of Mormon, and lived the principles of the Gospel, and I am excited for Christian to experience that as well!  You all are in my prayers and I am so glad to be a part of this great and marvelous work.  Love you all  :) Liebe, Sister Tuschling

Präsident Schwartz has made it okay for us to make a blog for the mission!!  So the mission blog is frankfurtmission.blogspot.com.  It has pictures, videos, and a letter from him himself about the mission just for parents and readers.

I love surprises!!!

This week was quite busy right from the start!!  Monday night we had our usual Family Home Evening at the church and SO MANY people came when we thought only one person was going to  come.  I love surprises!!!  There were more people that were interested in the church then members and missionaries!  It was wonderful!!  On Tuesday we were able to bake cookies for a 83 less active who is just a sweet heart.  She loves us and loved the cookies too!  She also said that she likes Sister Missionaries more than Elders because we talk about life with a smile on our faces, and we read out of the scriptures :)  Oh and we bring treats!  Sorry Elders, better get your baking on!  I love reading out of the Book of Mormon with people.  It truly has been our focus lately.  Everyday when we leave the house, we always have a Book of Mormon in our hand.  It makes me feel more important when I am walking down the streets of Deutschland, but I cannot tell why exactly.  It also arouses a lot of people's eye balls which we then act upon the starring haha.  I am grateful to have that beautiful Book of scripture that fills my heart with peace and joy that I only feel when I read that book.  It truly comes from God and the only way to find out, is by reading it yourself.  Anyhooo!!  Sister Tuschling had another moment of stress and she didn't handle it very well haha while waiting for a bus, we decided to make some phone calls.  We called a contact that has been missing for a long time, but then he answers the phone!! So I am super excited but then the bus comes, and you always need to show your bus card before you get on, so I am on the phone, searching my backpack for my wallet to get out my bus card while the bus driver is waiting ever so impatiently because I am holding up the rest of the line, but then I finally get it, show it, and get on the bus.  I end the phone call after making a miracle appointment to meet later in the week, and take in a deep breath haha.  We then get off the bus to get on our UBahn to get to our appointment.  We get on and then I notice that the ticket checkers are checking people's tickets (reminder: if you get caught riding Schwarz [black = without a ticket] it means that you pay 40 Euro right away) and I am chuckling because they always try to do it undercover but I totally noticed them right away.  He then comes to me and I reach in my backpack for my wallet and I reach again, and again, and again and its not there.....  Yup I got a ticket for 40 Euro because I didn't have my ticket on me, and I lost my wallet again...  But after pleading with Heavenly Father for help again, a half hour later it was found and it is back in my care.  I tell you what, sometimes we put stress on ourselves more than we have to!!  Other than losing the wallet for the second time in the month, teaching was amazing this week!!  We were able to teach Anna Emeka twice (who previously had a baptismal date) and she is doing really good.  We were having a lesson with her yesterday and she had the coolest Ah Ha moment I have ever seen.  Most of the time when we teach her, she agrees with everything and just nods.  This is nice but then for some reason the lesson of faith turns into the fall of the Adam and Eve.  We then found out what she had learned from that experience and what her beliefs were.  She thought that all of us are sinners because of what Eve did and that we wouldn't be forgiven until the judgement day.  Well we simply opened up the scriptures to 2 Nephi 2 and read about how Adam and Eve had to fall in order for us to have joy.  We explained it very simply that we know good from evil because we have experienced both.  We know something is good because we know that at one point we experienced something bad.  After we explained this, her eyes were opened, literally.  I have never seen the whites of her eyes before!  I am grateful that we have the Book of Mormon to explain these little truths that have been lost or confused over time.  It was by the influence of the Holy Ghost that led us to her concerns and her questions.  I am grateful to be an intstrument for Heavenly Father. Liebe, Sister Tuschling

Time flies when you are having fun :)

It really is amazing to meet so many people from all over the world while you are on a mission.  And you get to meet so many more people with different stories, backgrounds, personalities, and characteristics.  The other day Sister Sprouse and I were able to teach a new young guy in a park and he was really cool.  We actually met him about a month or so ago but when I tried calling him one day, his number didn't work..... But Heavenly Father knows the people who needs to hear the gospel because randomly in the middle of the city (tons of people) we see him!!! I stop him and ask if he remembered us and he said yes of course and so we got the real number and told him we would like to meet with him about our beliefs, and he said yes if he could try and convince us on converting to Veganism.  Hmmm.... I wasn't sure how he would persuade two girls from the West, who love meat, to be converted to a whole different life, but we were asking for the same for him.  We ended up meeting in a park, and talked about God and his beliefs.  He doesn't believe in God, but he believes something is out there but just isn't quite sure.  And after having Zone Conference being about the Book of Mormon, SIster Sprouse and I really concentrated on it.  He promised to read 10 pages of it, if we ate Bio Vegan sausage, and we said, "deal" with smiles on our faces :)  We can't wait to meet with him again and we have nevered prayed so hard to have the Book of Mormon to win his heart from the first 10 pages.  But I know that Heavenly Father will open up his heart and continue to read past the first 10 pages.  Our miracle man Christian is doing great!! We actually will be holding his baptismal date sooner than expected.  He asked if we would be able to baptize him sooner and we said, "Gerne" with smiles on our faces :)  I cannot wait to have him experience the love and joy that comes from baptism.  It just seems like yesterday that I entered them too and I still get tears in my eyes and a warm in my feeling when I think about it.  I can't wait for him to experience that too.  I love the promise that we make when we enter the water.  We promise to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ.  And what does that actually mean?  The more I think about it the more I try and do everything I can in my power to be a light in the darkness.  I try to show my testimony along with telling it by doing what Christ would do.  It has helped me feel better, think better, and I feel more of the Spirit when I do it :)  One thing Sister Sprouse and I are doing this week is:  Every time we leave the apartment, we have a Book of Mormon in our hands.  It will always be in our hands so we will naturally talk about it and have the people see it that it matters alot to us.  In one day, (we started it on Friday) we had 3 and 2 had already been given out to people that will for sure read it.  There is something beautiful about bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon while holding it in your hands  :)  If you haven't done it yet, I will ask you do to it.  It doesn't matter if you do it in church or with your family at home, I promise it becomes more special :)  I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength that we receive from it to keep us moving when our bodies cannot take it physically.  I am grateful to experience everything I have since I have been out, and it has changed my heart and touched my soul more than I can even describe.  I am grateful for the support I get from home, and here on the mission from my companion Sister Sprouse.  God is great :)  Tschüß!! Liebe, Sister Tuschling PS-  Sister Sprouse says, "You're old" before every sentence she says to me since I am over half way on my mission!!  How does 9 months go by so fast?!?  Time flies when you are having fun :)

I love uplifting members...

One random thing that we did was go to a less active, her name is Hua Chen-Hagt.  Yup, she is Chinese.  I am sure that I have written about her before.  She is speaks English, German, and Chinese all at once.  It makes my mind explode sometimes haha but anyways she took us on an adventure, when really all we want to do is teach her the gospel haha.  But she took us to a park, Westfalenpark, which is absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking!  So it made up for the headache :)  We went to Köln to pick up my wallet finally because silly me lost it on the train!!  So off we went early to Köln, Germany and it was beautiful and fun!  I got my wallet back with everything in it!!  And then we had an hour to spare before our train left.  So we decided to look for a grocery store or produce markt to eat some food.  So we started traveling towards a group of people to ask and then all of a sudden a man in an "UnderArmor" hat (= American) says, "Hey Sisters!"  We looked at him and said hello!  And he introduced us to his 3 friends and they ended up being from America, and from Utah.  I am pretty sure Heavenly Father led us right to the place where the only 4 members of His church were in a city of a million people and it was awesome to talk with them and to bear testimony about the work that is rolling forth in Germany.  One of the guy asked me, "So is the work here in Germany hard?"  With a smile on my face I said, "No, there are prepared everywhere!" as I spread out my arms and showed him all the faces in the square where we were at.  Then we were able to talk to them about some of our miracle stories about people being prepared by the Lord.  I love uplifting members :)  And before we left, they asks us if we had a Book of Mormon in German because they have a friend that they want to give it to while they were in Deutschland.  I love members!! Keep up the missionary work :)  It is the best way!!  Later when we got back to Dortmund, we went to an appointment with Frau Angermann.  She is so cute and is the one that reminds me of my grandma so much.  We started talking about prayer and started bearing testimony that we can know all the answers to our questions through it, when we talk to Him.  So we opened up the scriptures and had her read 3 Nephi 14:7-11.  She loved it so much and said that it was fun, so she kept on reading and reading and reading.  We asked her what she thought and she said, "I have never thought of it that way before."  With smiles on our faces, we explained why the Book of Mormon is important for us in our day and how it gives us more answers to our questions.  And then we committed her to read a chapter before we meet again and she said, "Gerne."  Which means, gladly :)  After we then had our first prayer with her, and she prayed beautifully :)  At church also, it was fasting testimony meeting and Christian got up and bore his testimony and it was really good.  He surprised all the members because they think he is a member already, hmm that sounds familiar :)  And he is in the scriptures everyday, studying from them, and learning from them.  I love his determination and will to learn God's word and will.  I love this work and I know that only Heavenly Father places us where we need to be.  Thank you all for what you do for me :)  Liebe, Sister Tuschling