Difficult but not impossible

This week has been the most exhausting week I have ever gone through here on the mission.  It has been go go go right from the start!!  This week was our week to find 10 new people to teach in one week!  I have only seen this done one other time on my mission but other than that, it is extremely difficult to accomplish!  Difficult but not impossible.  On Sunday we asked the ward to pray with us everyday at 8 o'clock to help open people's hearts for the Word of God.  I love our ward :)  They are so excited about missionary work and we truly felt their prayers.  So Sister Sprouse and I made a plan on how to achieve this goal and one by one we started finding people, but not the old fashioned door to door technique.  We went through our records in our Area Book in our apartment.  We prayed and wrote down names of people who other missionaries for some reason or another stopped teaching.  We were able to teach, and make another appointment with at least 3 of those people we found in the book!!!  We are so excited to start bringing these people closer to Christ :)  And I love hearing the stories of how they met the missionaries or how they got to know the church.  As we were going around trying to find these people, we also thought we could teach all of our other people that we teach.  Holy tired Sisters at the end of the day!  We literally dropped every night into bed haha.  As we saw miracles happen with these newbies, we also saw miracles happen with those who we have been working with for a long time.  There is an amazing woman who has not been active in the church since she was 15 and she is half Australian and half German, so when she speaks German it has an Australian accent and it is beautiful to my ears :)  Anyhoo, she was always saying - Until I get an answer from God to not drink coffee and alcohol anymore, I am going to do it.  She has zazz and I like it!!  And the only thing we could do was to pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him to send her a sign or thought or something because she was not going to listen to us haha.  One morning we were running to catch our U-Bahn we get a call from her and she starts the conversation with, "I have something to tell you" and because we can't stop running we eagerly awaited her next comment.  She began to tell us that she was reading that morning in the Book of Mormon and while she was reading she had a feeling and a thought come to her mind that she should not drink any coffee or alcohol anymore.  She said that she couldn't describe what it was exactly but something good came over her and told her, "no, you know you don't need that."  I love Heavenly Father.  I love the Book of Mormon because just by reading it, it changes our thoughts, habits, and us to something better.  I know that the Book of Mormon has a power in it, and that it comes from God and as we read in it is gives us the power to overcome anything :)  As Sunday rolled around we still had 4 people to find!!  Not only that but we had 3 hours at church, one eating appointment, and 2 other appointments that day = not much time to find those who need the Gospel!!  So as we begin thinking about what we need to do, Sister Sprouse and I notice that we didn't count a woman we made an appointment with earlier in the week, and so really we had 3 to find!  We go to an appartment building where we have not been to in awhile and as we got there we felt like we shouldn't go there.  We then stopped and prayed to know where to go and who to talk to.  We then left to go to another building right down the road.  On the road we talked with everyone we saw and as we were talking with one lady who didn't have time, we turned around and there was a girl that we were going to visit and try to get an appointment with.  She was right there!!  Heavenly Father just placed her there for us to talk with her!  We exchange numbers and set up an appointment!!  Great!!  2 more to go!!  But then it was time for our appointment at the church.  So we get there and we wait and wait and wait for him to so show up, and he doesn't :(  So now we only have 1 hour left before our next appointment and the end of our day!  So we make a plan, get on the bus, and for some reason or another we get off at the first station to find a street.  Well right when we saw the bus drive off, we regretted it because there were no people, not one single soul, it was dark, and cold.  We started to lose faith until we saw some runners.  I asked Sister Sprouse if she had ever stopped a runner at full speed, with headphones in to talk to them and she said no, and I hadn't either but we both couldn't find the courage to do it.  So here we are in the middle of no where on a dark, cold street almost to our next appointment until I hear a "bounce."  And I looked to the left and stopped walking.  And then I tried to listen again, and there the sound was again, "bounce bounce bounce" like something rubber was hitting the ground.  I look at Sister Sprouse on my face and I saw, you know what I think that is.  And then the next sound confirmed my theory, "cling clang clang."  I say to her, "That is a basketball!"  The next thing I knew we were walking over to a dark park with barely no light and we saw two figures in the distance.  I don't know what took over my body but the next thing I knew I was taking off my coat and started shooting with two guys in the dark.  They invited us to play a little bit and so we agreed!  After playing a German version of HORSE we were able to talk a little bit about faith, exchange numbers, and set up an appointment!!  Meine Gute!! Not only does Heavenly Father help us with our goals and our wants and needs, but he does it in style!!!!!  I can't tell you the last time I touched a basketball and man did it feel good :)  I hope your week was as good as ours here in Dortmund :)  I pray for you all and I want to let you know that Heavenly Father does care and love us so much.  He knows everything what we are going through, everything and He wants to help, all we have to do is ask!! Liebe, Sister Tuschling