Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Surreal!

     This week has been............Mind-blowing to say the least. I have no idea where to even start with this. So much has happened this week. Trying to figure out the best way to approach this email has been.....exhausting. I have always promised to be honest and real in my mission experience. Yet, there is so much that I cant share at this time. Where to begin....I just don't know, so I will start with last Monday and give quick tidbits of what has happened.
     The week started out normal. In fact incredible miracles were happening! I felt so much joy as I watched so much progress. I said goodbye to a companion that became extremely close to me; Sister Müller and I will be friends for a long time I know it. I was able to meet the new sisters that have entered to our mission. In a very very short time frame of 6 weeks, we have gone from 25 sisters to 45.......craziness. All of which are ready to work hard.
      Mission prep with Della who leaves in May for france continues to be a highlight of my week. It reminds me of all the blessings and lessons that I have experienced throughout my service as a missionary.
     I helped Ola translate important documents from German into fancy English haha, it made me grateful for my "little break" I have from school. Lots has happened with the Steinhorst family. Lea-Sophie wants to get baptized in the next few weeks :). Plus, the entire family came to church on Sunday! Claudia, continues to amaze me. We have developed a really strong friendship. She smoked her last cigarette last week! So proud of her.....she is working hard towards baptism and has changed sooo much to prepare herself.
      We got elders in our area! Both are stellar missionaries. Elder Coleman comes from London and elder Matthews is from South Jordon. It has really fun having them around. I had a big miracle. One that I will always cherish. It was in a lesson with a man names Detlev Schmidt. His wife is a very active member of our ward. She has been a member for 20 years and has been begging her husband to be baptized. He expressed a few weeks ago that his main problem is with Joseph Schmidt. We had a lessons and when we got there I had the feeling we needed to change things from our plan. We instead watched the talk from Holland abut the Book of Mormon. I experienced the gift of tongues so strong that night. I bore testimony is near perfect Germany for 15 minutes to Detlev that night. The feeling was sheer intensity. Spiritually intensity. Heavenly Father has a lot of things he needed Detlev to know that night. I spoke and he sat there with tears streaming down his face. His wife was as well. I don't know what happened that night......but it was truly special. Detlev WILL be baptized one day.......I know that.
      I had to eat weird things like raw fish on bread, and my companions lactose free milk.... We had 7 investigators come to church......to match the 9 members :). Ola and Ahmed made me pancakes.....sheer joy. But the real craziness cant be avoided any longer. I cant go into detail as to the why, but events have made it so I have chosen to switch to a new mission. I find out most likely in the next 24 hours where I will be. The next time I will email, I will no longer be in this mission. Its been a crazy ride, but one that I am grateful for. I truly am at peace with everything and have never been more aware of my Heavenly Fathers love for me. Life is full of surprises and that's what makes it so darn fun :). I know that this is part of my plan and has been all along. There are people in another place whether that is in Austria, China, or the US that need me these last 4 months I have left. I am excited for this!!! I will give more details in my next email!! Sorry this is the shortest on date, and the weirdest......but there is more to come later!! I wish you all the best.
Sister Linford

Please do not send any letters to the Berlin Mission anymore. I will update me new location next week!

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