Bis spater Graz (March 31)

Meine Liebe,

Well this week shot by but it’s been so, so great.

I want to talk about a lesson with a less active, Sister L____.  Well this time, we were on splits so I was with the Relief Society president. Let me tell you, she’s the best companion ever. We worked in really good unity, it was really cool for me to see how she does things. But the best part was when I asked if we could pray together, and the Relief Society president whispered to me that we should kneel. We all gathered around in a circle, and the 9 year old daughter said the most sincere prayer I’ve ever heard. It was amazing! The Spirit swooped down on us like a wave crashing on the beach. I cant even describe how cool it was because their are many children, and its pretty much chaos. But for those 5 minutes, the house was still and there were tears in everyone’s eyes. It was beautiful.

This week, we had Mission leadership council again and Sister Allman and I were asked to teach a topic and do a role-play, in front of President, all the leaders in the mission. It was dang scary. But I think it went great. I learned something HUGE. The topic was teaching to the investigators needs. As we prepared for our role play, we stupidly tried to figure out what points we wanted to hit to make sure we were 100 percent following Preach My Gospel. So yes, we pretty much planned out and role-played for a role-play. Well that was stupid. Because we are teaching the topic "teach people not lessons." I feel like an idiot. As Soon as we started the role-play, we took it in a completely opposite direction and were really able to meet the needs of the person we were teaching, not the things we "wanted to say." I just want to say I’m so grateful for the Spirit and that he can lead me even through my arrogance. I hope that made sense, but it was a huge eye opener to me.

I really have just seen the Spirit really play a big role in my life. It’s unbelievable. I want to testify, that we really can know the truth of all things. And the Spirit will always guide and protect us when we live worthy of his presence.

Since we returned to Graz, we haven’t had a second to breath. We have had a ton of appointments, and I’m loving it. We were able to teach Pa__ more about the Priesthood. He will be receiving the priesthood next Sunday. He is so excited to bless and pass the sacrament and be a home teacher. His excitedness for the Gospel is really a testimony builder for me!

A cool miracle that happened in the city of Graz this week:

There is this video blog from an American family. They video a couple minutes of every day. They call them selves something with tards at the end. Well there was this young adult who loved watching these, she says she’s addicted to them :) Well they occasionally speak about the church. One thing they said led her to have a big interest about the church. She searched online and found the time and location of our church. She came for all 3 hours and loved it and will be attending FHE tonight. HOW COOL IS THAT. I am so grateful for everyone that shares their testimony with others, these people don’t even know what they did, but all the way in Graz Austria, there are two people investigating the church because of them..... so dang cool.

We have really seen so many miracles this month tied to the youth. The whole mission fasted this month for youth, and Graz is seeing a ton of rewards. We have 3 new people coming to young adult activities and I haven’t seen any my whole time here. It’s amazing how simple it is to ask Heavenly Father for something and how he rewards us.

We were able to meet with a lot of people this week. And I can say, I love them all so much. I can't even imagine the Love our Heavenly Father feels for each of them. It’s been hard to say goodbye, and these next couple days are going to be crazy. But I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve here.

Bis spater Graz (Until Later Graz)

Hallo Augsburg

Sister Regnier

Another Tender Mercy (March 24)

This week has been craziness! But isn’t it always so?

Monday, we soaked up the sun at schloßberg. Then had a Family Home Evening with a family in our ward. It was really fun. We talked about Prophets. We played telephone to show how distorted information can get, esp. when two Americans are playing. So funny :) But I think they really enjoyed it. I love working with the youth in the ward!

Tuesday, we had a great district meeting about my favorite topic, being organized :) then the week of tausches (splits) began!!!

My first tausch was with Sister Packer, we had a blast. She serves in an English ward. It was really weird to have ward council in English. It just feels so different. Sometimes I forget at home, we don’t speak German in church..... weird. haha. I met my BEST FRIEND on this tausch. We were sitting in a straßenbahn (tram) and a girl is reading a Nicolas Sparks book. Easy conversations starter :) I tell her he’s my favorite author and she tells me a bit about the book. Well I tell her I’m from California and she says she’s going there for her vet training. Then turns out she does hunter/jumper. We clicked so fast. We were having the best conversation saying we should stay in contact.... and then she had to hop out and I didn’t hop out with her since I was in Wien..... it was so sad. But yeah, Sister Packer and I had fun.

The next day began my tausch with Sister Garrett. What more do I even need to say? :)

Well, it started off stressful because since we had tausches back to back, we may have forgotten to switch train tickets AND keys...... yeah it was an adventure!! We were going to have a camping tausch at a members house, when a member called us saying the got some keys. So luckily, we got to sleep in our own beds. The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful day contacting and finding. It was so great to be with her! We just contact really well together. I am so lucky I got to spend the day with her. We contacted at a castle and ended up meeting a young adult. He just moved to Graz and is looking for a church......... :) He came and played Frisbee with us and the JAEs (Ward Missionaries?) the next day. Anyway, wonderful tausch with Sister Garrett!

After the whole week of having different companions, Sister Allman and I got to do some weekly planning together. Well, I was really sad because we have not made contact with my favorite (that’s probably not allowed, but I have a favorite) less active. During the opening prayer, I prayed that we would be able to make contact with her. 3 minutes into the prayer, she called!!!!! I answered, and before I could say anything else, "MEINE LIEBEN, KÖNNEN WIR DIESE WOCHE TREFFEN?? (MY DEAR, WE CAN MEET THIS WEEK)" We only had one time slot open, and that was the day she didn’t have work..... It was a miracle.... a serious tender mercy.

Then we had finding day in Bruck. It was so good. Before we started, we stopped to get a dönner. The guy working there was asking why we are here in Austria. We were telling him what we were doing here and then we bore testimony of how the Book of Mormon changed our life. He looked us straight in the eye and said really? and then "DO you happen to have lots of those books, cause if you do, I would really love one." Well luckily, that’s exactly what we do! So we gave him a book and he was just so excited to read and then meet with the elders. We then were freaking out because we didn’t have someone to come with us for our lesson that night. You think I would learn never to freak out when you are doing the Lords work... But we called what seemed like everyone in the whole ward. We were debating what we should do and how we could still meet with this family, we were debating whether it would be okay because the 12-year-old girl would be home and decided to pray about it. We still felt like we needed to go, but didn’t feel good about going without a member to help us. Then out of nowhere, a member’s name popped into both of our heads, and she was able to come with only 45 minutes of notice. It was A MIRACLE. I love this work!

After the appointment, I got a call that I have been dreading for my whole mission.... It was the bishop, informing me that the speaker fell out for sacrament tomorrow and he would love to hear from me. By the time we got home, it was time to go to bed, so I prepared my talk the morning of. That is NOT something Sister Regnier likes to do. But I hope it went okay, when I get nervous, my German goes out the window... but it happens :) It didn’t really matter, because Pa__ WAS CONFIRMED A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST and now has the gift of the Holy Ghost! What a beautiful day.

I love this work.

This is the work of the Lord.

Have a great week!

Love ya

--

Sister Regnier

If that wasn't enough.....we got an email/photos from Sister Garrett:

Hey Sister Regnier, 

This is Sister Garrett, Sister Regnier's old companion. I just wanted to tell you how awesome of a missionary your daughter is. Last week I had the wonderful opportunity of having an exchange with her and worked with her in Graz. She is such a hard working missionary and she really takes what she is doing seriously and serves the Lord with all her heart. I have been able to learn so much from her. She is one of the most Charitable people that I know and shares her love with everyone that she meets. I know that she has blessed a lot of people’s lives with her example here and with her testimony. She has truly blessed my life! Just wanted to write real quick and send you a picture of last week, we were able to celebrate her yearmark together at a mexican restaraunt which was perfect! Well I hope you have a great week!

Alles Gute!

Sister Garrett

We had a beautiful baptism (March 17)

Well, this week was quite an interesting one. Most everything fell threw, except the baptism!!

So luckily, after a really hard week, we still saw blessings of the labor.

This week, Pa__ was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. and he was BEAMING. The baptism was beautiful.

This week we had zone training. It was a really cool zone training because I was so passionate about the topics. We talked about virtue, organization, not wasting time, and old investigators. It was really a great meeting. I feel that everyone truly gained something from it, I sure did. Esp. virtue, Sister Allman and I were in charge of presenting it and wow. I have never been so surprised with a Christ-like attribute and how little I know. I learned A TON.

This week I had a tausch (splits) with Sister Green. The tausch was fun, except that literally everything fell out. But we finally had some time to get some of the stuff that’s been put off done. That included going by on a referral from mormon.org "Some of my Christian friends and I would like some bibles.” So we went to the outskirts of Graz and brought some Books of Mormon :) So, his House ended up being a church. The owner, I guess you would call it, has dedicated his life to Africans. He calls himself a missionary and is just way cool! So asylum seekers can come live there and have a happy life. Its pretty dang cool. He had a lot of questions for us. One of the members of the household asked us if the book we were holding was the word of God. And then asked if we could come preach to him sometime. Man, I know I say this every week. But if I serve another mission, I gotta go to Africa!!!!

When Sister Allman and I were reunited, everything still fell threw..... sadly. but it gave us time to go back to the basics of finding. We had some great lessons on the Atonement and the Sacrament this week. So many members of the church don’t understand how important and how big the Sacrament is. I’m guilty of it before my mission. But I am just so grateful that we have the chance to partake of it every week!

Saturday was so stinken fun!

It started off with some fußball with a less active. It was pretty fun. Then a member picked us up in town and took us to their House. It’s so magical. I LOVE AUSTRIA. Well, we got to help them work on their house that they are building. I LOVE IT. I want to live out in the land of Austria, and build my own wood house. It’s the best thing. We got to work a bit with some animals, and when I say animals, I mean sheep and goats. It was so much fun. The little girls fell in love with us and we just felt like part of the family. Also, power tools are always fun :)

Then came SUNDAY. Sunday was obviously amazing. We had a beautiful baptism and then a great time with bishop then did our weekly planning on a castle overlooking Graz. no big deal :)

-- love ya!

Have a great week!

Sister Regnier