A Miracle Packed Week (September 2)

WOW. This week was, once again, miracle PACKED.

It started off to a rough start. First off, we played Soccer with this guy from Peru, I was sore for 3 days. haha, that doesn't really matter. But we finally were able to meet with the Atheist who said he would pray for a week. Our meeting was great. We taught the Plan of Salvation. He was asking so many "stimmt" questions. We focused a lot on the doctrine from the scriptures. he would say things like "Oh yeah, this is totally true, except the God part." It was kinda funny, because he totally was into it. However, near the very end of the lesson, we encouraged him to continue praying (He didn't really end up praying, more like meditating, still good, but not a prayer) with words and questions. He then answered with "Absolutely not." (Germans don't use that word as harshly as we do. He is German, but our lessons are in English. It was still harsh though.) My heart broke. He was so interested and really wanted to know everything and asked questions that proved he was really pondering it. I have never been so sad in my life. All three of us went home, and were like zombies. It makes me so sad. I can't imagine my life without this gospel. He needs it, I believe he even wants it. But he won’t allow himself to open up to the idea of it. It honestly breaks my heart. I have never, ever felt like I did that night.

Lets get to some miracles, shall we!?

Our lesson with the newly baptized S___ was amazing. My favorite quote from him is by far, " I knew the church was true, but after reading this chapter, I REALLY know the church was true." It cracks me up because it was some Isaiah chapter that I sadly skimmed over, to get back to the Nephi stuff. Luckily, S___ is helping me with this. He digs into the scriptures and always wants us to reread them with him and explain them. He seriously is the coolest. He also told us a story how he saw a Book Of Mormon in someone’s apartment that was just "shoved away." He picked it up, cleaned if off, and put it somewhere where the person would see it and remember it. We went on to teach him about member missionary work, when we tried to give him a Book Of Mormon to give out, he told us his soft cover one is laying on his desk not being used and he feels awful that a book, amazing as it was, is not being read. So then he told us he plans to give that one away. He was very particular on these Book Of Mormons should not be lying around unused. Pretty sure he is the coolest member of our church.

We were able to teach a lot of people this week, we totally surpassed our goal this week! It was amazing!

There is this one guy. He hasn’t met with us for a very long time. He doesn't believe in God, but will read the Book Of Mormon and ask for more "reading assignments." We have been trying really hard to get him to pray. He always replies that he can't with no reason attached. So this week, we had a miracle. He prayed. It was amazing! It was very simple, he just asked if God was there. Afterwards, he was beaming! It was so wonderful. We sang the whole way home. haha. It was also funny, because a day earlier. I told Sister Garrett if he prays after she is transferred, I would let her know via email. She then said she would fall over on the floor..... she didn't even have to wait for that :)

This week we were able to teach an investigator and her sister. It was SO COOL! She is from Africa, and had a really hard time understanding us. It’s funny how different their accents are. She loved the lesson. We read Alma 32 and talked a lot about it. The most interesting part of the lesson was when she gave a VERY ENERGETIC/ loudly voiced prayer. It is so interesting how different cultures pray. She blessed us a lot. Seriously she is so cool. If I ever serve another mission, I would LOVE to go to Africa. I’d love to come back here, but that would definitely be my second choice.

Sunday was wonderful. An experience that was really cool was when one of the members in our ward got up. She told us a spiritual experience she had through getting her sisters name prepared for the temple. Wow. I couldn't contain my excitement. We had talked about it in a lesson and it just made me so happy to see her work so hard to accomplish it. Her temple work is being done today. :))) It makes me so, so happy. As if that wasn't the best moment in testimony meeting. S__  got up! He said in German he would like to give it in English, the ward was beaming at his efforts to speak German. He then gave the purest best testimony ever. Wow, last Sunday, I thought I would never have such a great Sacrament, well this one was better. I loved it. It was Sister Garrett's last Sunday here in Passau. It is going to be very hard to say goodbye on Thursday. Passau and Sister Garrett has always been a big part of my mission so far. It is going to be really weird not having her around. She is a wonderful missionary and has really helped Passau.

I love Passau so much. Everyone I teach, all the members, everyone. I don't know if I will ever be able to leave. My heart is in the heart of Bayern (okay, well Munchen is the heart of Bayern, but lets be honest. That is not real Bayern, just a bunch of wannabes that don't even speak the language ;) )

Love,

Schwester Regnier

Wow, what a wonderful week in the mission field (Aug 26)

Wow, what a wonderful week in the mission field.

I was able to witness someone I have come to love enter the waters of baptism and be confirmed as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. S___ is now a member of the church and has the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so proud of him. I have seen him come a long way from when I first met him. His baptism was beautiful. I can't imagine it any other way. The next day, he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a great blessing, everything that was needed was said. A highlight of the weekend was definitely seeing the branch president give S___ the biggest welcoming hug I have ever seen. The spirit was so strong for the whole meeting. The members, who do not understand English, told me multiple times how strong the spirit was. It was a wonderful experience. I will never forget this day for the rest of my life. I wouldn't be surprised if I think about it every day.

A highlight for me this week was Zone Conference. It was seriously a pump up . I am just so happy and excited to be a missionary!!!

An interesting experience we had was while tracting. We came across this man who let us in. The second we sat on the couch he was firing off questions and before we could answer, telling us we were wrong. His questions were directed so he could loudly respond on what he believed. It was frustrating. After a while, we started to talk about prayer and how he could talk to God. He immediately started asking questions with a purpose. His voice changed. He really wanted to get the Book of Mormon in his native language. At the end of the meeting, the spirit was there, he invited us to come over again, and he had said a prayer. It was a miracle. It is so fun to watch the spirit change people.

This week we were able to teach the Chinese family again. This really resulted in us sitting there, while the Chinese-speaking member taught the lesson. The lady said a beautiful prayer asking Heavenly Father for his help so she could know the truth. She told us she felt really good about everything that was said and wants to keep meeting (of course, I found this out after the fact). The member that helped us is so cool! On the train ride back, we were sitting on the train and got to know a Japanese exchange student who now wants to get a Book of Mormon. This member blows me away. This member really shows me how I want to be when I return home.  I want to encourage every member to really help the missionaries!

Okay, I am so blessed this week. But I have one more thing that really blows me away. A man, who was less active when I first got here, passed the sacrament yesterday. The combination of S___ receiving the Holy Ghost and then seeing that, you better believe I felt like I never have before.

Although this week, my mission has been everything but hard, hard times come. But missionaries do see results from their hard work! I was able to experience that this week. Being a missionary is the best thing I have ever done. I love it. It is also the hardest thing I have ever done. The rewards are great and the hard times are worth it! Here is a quote from my Mission President's email this week.

“Anyone who does any kind on missionary work will have occasion to ask, why is it so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

“You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ this is the truth and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.”

-Jeffery R. Holland MTC talk @ Provo MTC June 20, 2000

Sister Regnier

I can't imagine going through life without the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation (August 19)

My mind is a little frazzled with the big news! (I just received an email informing me of my admittance into my desired college program, BYU’s Marriott School of Management) Also, it was quite an adventure to find this internet shop here in Munich. So let’s see if this email will make any sense. ;)

Well, it is always good to start with last Monday (a week ago). Monday evening we went out with the Branch President and his wife as well as Schwester L____ and her son. Brother H____ is the branch president in Passau. It was really enjoyable. We were very excited because they were taking us to a Mexican Restaurant in Austria! It was amazing food, however, not Mexican. It was really cool though. We would go to the bar, pick the meat we wanted (Zebra being an option) and they would cook it and bring it to us. It was really fun and I got to know the Branch President a lot better!

On Mittwoch (Wednesday), we were a little embarrassed because our Zone Leader was in Passau on AusTauch (exchanges) and no one showed up to our English class. However, miracles came from it. We were able to meet this family on the bus, who happened to get off at the same stop allowing us to chat. They are very excited to come to church next week and they seem so friendly! I love it when we meet families! :)

Friday, we went to go visit Frau M___, but she was unterwegs (on the go) again! We never catch her at home even when we make appointments. I can't even imagine how hard it would be if all of our untersuchers (investigators) didn't have cellphones.... Dad, I don't know how you did it! When we got home, we started being mothers... haha. So President Miles had this great idea to say thank you to the Branch President’s family for preparing the new apartment and all many things they do for us. So we invited them over for a “fancy” dinner. Fancy for us… , meaning Lasagna. But it was way more work than I ever expected! It went wonderfully though! We had a couple of courses. The Nachspiese (dessert) being Apfel Kuchen (Apple Pie) that I made. Let's just say the Branch President’s wife gave me permission to get married because it was so good. Haha. But it was really fun and it gave us an opportunity to use all the dishes we have in our apartment! Their family was so grateful. They said some really nice things. There was a lot of love that night, and that is just what we needed. The members here are great!

Saturday was tracking day in Landshut.

Then that brings me to Sunday, my favorite day of the week! Church was wonderful! We had a höhe rat ( haha I just think the German word for High councilman is funny). Don't be fooled, they have the same role here. We got out of sacrament late, and we only had a youth speaker.... haha. We taught S___, and that went GREAT. We went over the Baptismal questions with S____, and his testimony and understanding of the gospel SHINED. Then we decided to stop by on an Untersucher (investigator), Germans don't like it if you stop by unexpectedly.... but we couldn't get ahold of him. But he loved it, let us come in and we were able to teach him. He still thinks he "can’t pray." But I learned something from that lesson. He is usually confused and asks us all kinds of interesting questions. We decided to teach the restoration. It was so much better! I think the previous missionaries must have skimmed over that teaching. But it really shows there is order and the restoration is really the message we are sharing! It went well.

Today, we hopped on a train to Munchen (Munich). I want to tell you about the lady Sister Smith and I sat next to. She was visiting her son in Passau. We talked about EVERYTHING- Backpacking, hiking, canoeing, travel. Everything I love (but it gets better!) When she asked what I was doing here, I told her about the mission a bit and then I asked her if she had ever heard of the Mormons. She has not only heard of us, but she told me a great story of something that happened to her friend. She recounted that her friend's family was driving in the states, roughly translated, "This middle of no where place in the west, I believe it was called Utah." Anyway, the car of her friend’s family broke down while driving through Utah. They were very worried, but a Mormon family came, picked them up, let them stay at their house while their car was being fixed. If I understood correctly, they even went to church with them. So that is all that this lady had heard about our church, but she described the impression that the experience left not only on her friend’s family, but also on her! Anyway, we started talking about my personal history, aka, why my name is French. I asked her where her parents came from. She said she didn't know. BAM. PERFECT. I told her about my experiences with Genealogy and she excitingly asked me to write the internet address down (familysearch.org). She is so excited! I was excited! I finally contacted with family history! But it was awesome!!! What a wonderful experience. It was really nice and fun. I realized how nice and patient she had been with me, when a man sat down next to her and she started speaking, real/fast German... and I could no longer understand... Anyways, it was a really cool experience.

We had Mexican food for dinner, got to love big cities, well really, I don't like München that much, but, I love that it had Mexican food. I just had to wait to get Mexican food a couple days longer than I expected. :)

We then visited the Dachau concentration camp. It was interesting, but quite gloomy. It really ties into something my companions and I have been talking a lot about lately--- Life is so different with having the understanding of the Plan of Salvation. We actually spent companion study this morning talking about funerals and death and how sad it would be to not have the understanding and knowledge of The Plan of Salvation. Where is the drive? Where is the love? Where is the purpose? Seriously, it helps a lot! I can't imagine life without it.

I love being a missionary. I hope that I am able to help people see this light found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tomorrow is Zone Conference! I am really excited!

Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Regnier

Upper Austria

Me and my companions

Dachau

Ahhhhh, Mexican food....Finally!

We learn so much from the spirit (Aug 12)

We met a couple people on the street this week, and that is always fun. We did a lot of tracting this week, a LOT. I am getting excited for the "better way." 

Something that was really cool this week was Zone Training. We talked about the scriptures and how we can be using them in Personal Study. It wasn't the typical focus-on-the-investigators role play. Instead we got into groups and all wrote down a personal question we had. Then read a chapter in the Book of Mormon together. It was the coolest thing. 1- the spirit was so strong. 2- every single person in my group got answers. It was seriously the best and something I really needed. It really made me think about how important it is to make our scripture study really personal. The Book of Mormon helps everyone with everything. The cool thing though is what the spirit teaches you when you read it. We were talking to S___ about scripture study yesterday. It was cool because we got him a journal and marking pencils, and he was SO excited to start using them. Then he brought up how it is hard he doesn't understand everything in church, because he speaks English. We were able to talk about learning by the spirit, and that really is a miracle. Because we learn so much more from the spirit. It reminded me of a week where in Relief Society, I didn't understand what was being said. But I knew the topic was family. The spirit taught me many things, including things I want to do with my future family. It is experiences like that that amaze me. This gospel is true, it is wonderful. 

So, I knew I would be eating new.... 'meat substances' on my mission, but I never would have guessed crocodile and kangaroo. Yeah, pretty crazy, I would recommend Kangaroo. Unfortunately, all three of us got food poising from the restaurant. So, I never want to eat Chinese food again. Ever. 

So I had the prettiest night sky of my life this week, its really hot during the day, but lightning storms at night. I have never seen it like this, every second new lightning was going off, making the sky a beautiful shade of purple the whole night. We have a large window above our beds, we slept with the window open all night. Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It just made the whole city a silhouette and it was just so beautiful.

English class was really fun this week. We had one member student so we taught cooking terms, and then talked him through making cookies. It was really fun and a cool way to test him on the vocabulary.

Here is a funny story. On Friday, the Elders had tracted into this guy, who opened the door in his underwear (it happens a lot) and let them in. They taught a wonderful lesson and were really excited about this guy. Anyway, they were really excited and called us after and told us about it. 

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The next day, we are tracting and a guy opens the door in his whitey tighties. He was embarrassed and said he would be right back. Thinking he was going to put pants on, we were very confused when he returned to the door in the same condition. We were even more surprised when he showed us a Book of Mormon, and then started laughing when he opened the book and we saw Elder M___'s and Elder B___'s names written in it. He said, they were faster. It made me laugh. That's never happened before. 

This week we had a very cool experience. Saturday night, we met this man. We talked for a while, but he didn't have interest in the Book of Mormon or to meet with us. However, he was a very pleasant man and he said he might stop by for church sometime. The next day, we were reading with Frau M_____, and our Branch President said we have another visitor. Excited, I went out to go see and there he was sitting on a chair! He had a lot of questions in the beginning and was a bit confused by our meeting and branch. But during the opening song, he was singing the song with all his heart. President A____, our stake President, was there to give the lesson. I kid you not, he answered every single one of this guy's questions. It was awesome. I am so glad the President is so in tune with the spirit! When this man was leaving, he told us that he would really enjoy to come back again next week! I am hoping and praying his interest increases and will become an investigator soon.

Alles im Butter

Sister Regnier

English Class

view of where we teach S___

Frau M­­­______