JA's

Hey there!

This week was pretty great!

Last night was especially cool. So we have quite a few cool young

people that aren't super interested in the gospel or having us

teach them but they are just good friends. For a while we've been trying to

figure out an activity or something for all the young adults that we

can invite our friends to, but there's really nothing like that here.

There used to be, but for whatever reason, the group here just kind of

fell apart and there's no real strong bond in the young adult group.

There was actually a kind of messy falling apart and it's a touchy

subject here. Wellll, luckily, Sister Frenkel comes from a ward in

Germany with a really strong young adult group. They have family home

evening together every Monday and organize it all themselves!

Like I said, this whole time, we've been trying to push for just a

family home evening night, just one, but different people here haven't

been all too helpful or supportive so finally Sister Frenkel and I

decided to just do it! We had a week to plan it all, since Sister

Frenkel is leaving soon and because of some other scheduling conflicts. I tell

you what, we never prayed so hard in our life. There were just a lot of

delicate things involved, like inactive young adults, who surprisingly

came, or the fact that almost none of the active young adults wanted

to come, or there was no real adult leader support for the evening, and also the

fact that we were inviting a lot of non-member friends of ours for whom

we wanted to have a great first experience in the church!

It went wonderfully though. Really. I don't know how to describe to

you all the little things that almost went wrong or could have gone

wrong, but it went great! I know God really helped us out on this one.

Everyone pitched in with food, everyone had a friend, or someone to

talk to. The game/spiritual thought/lesson Sister Frenkel and I had

been praying about and planned went really well and invited the

Spirit, everyone helped set up and clean up, and by the time it was

time for us to go home, everyone (seriously, this random group of the

most different personalities and backgrounds, who had almost all only

just met that night) stayed longer in the church playing games

together.

Sister Frenkel and I were skipping home. The best was this morning

when we read a text from one of the young adults here, Jakob, who had

kind of been skeptical about the whole thing, thanked us and said that

they will totally do a family home evening again. And that was really

our biggest goal, not the missionaries plan this one time thing, but

rather get the young adults excited and united again, and have them

take it from here, which they totally will.

Our friends also really had a great time and started showing more

interest in what we do as missionaries and "what makes our church

different anyway.." --which is my favorite question to answer :)

Sister Frenkel is actually leaving next week to Temple Square, which

makes me so sad, but I really know that she was sent here for a

reason. A couple reasons actually. And this was one of them, a chill

and friendly evening with friends who share your beliefs and where you

can invite your friends to also take part in the church. I know

activities aren't what this church is all about or should be based on,

but I do know that love, charity, uplifting surroundings and

supporting one another in our beliefs and lives are essential factors

to Christ's church :)

Have a great week!

Our fun mish-mosh family home evening group ❤️

So much spaghetti.... haha we sort of went a little crazy there with the spaghetti. About 8 packages I believe...

Dinner...

This is Sister North and Schwester Friedrich. Schwester Friedrich invited us and the Norths to lunch on Sunday and then took us on a walk around her home to see Schneeblümchen, cute little February flowers. So pretty :) haha she was so excited to show us the flowers! She'd planned the day for weeks, so sweet.

Tree hugger.

Our little picnic

Die Schneeblümchen (snow blossoms)