You Bitter Believe It!

This week I've learned:

*that broccoli can go bitter, which is something I never knew...also bitter broccoli is incredibly disgusting.
*that The Gospel of Jesus Christ is best described as a loaf of bread:
Yeast: Faith
Sugar: Repentance
Water: Baptism
Salt: Holy Ghost
Flour: Works/endure to the End
Mix well, and add some heat!
*that I really only know "missionary" German. My companion had some medication she needed to take, and I was in charge of reading the instructions to her. Well...I'm clearly a missionary as I read
'Erbrechen" (throw-up) as "Ehebrechen" (adultery)
and "Vorbeugung" (prevention) as "Vergebung" (forgiveness).
Whoops.



My favorite thing about faith is that you don't have to always feel it to use it.
That is something that I will be eternally grateful for.
God promises us through Alma that if we "only desire to believe" that He can work miracles through us.
If we desire to believe enough to act on what we'd like to feel, it's enough.
I guess this is what you'd call "FAITH it 'till you make it".
For example:
Maybe one day 'I' don't feel like contacting someone on the bus. I can think of 1000 reason NOT to talk to that person across the aisle. But, I know that the promise is if I try to lose myself in His work, I will feel joy. I don't necessarily feel excited, or particularly hopeful, but I decide to try.
And the joy comes pouring in.
Or...
Maybe 'I' want so badly for such-and-such to happen, but it doesn't. In fact, I feel like it shouldn't. I have no desire to change what I want, and don't feel a huge excitement in what the Lord has promised me, but I choose to keep going anyway, because at some point, I hope it will change.
And it does.
One day at a time.

Sometimes, it just takes the act of trying, and the belief comes.
I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes doing good things won't be your natural or initial reaction, but if you try anyway, it works out on the end.
Waiting for all the complicated squishy mess that is your insides to find its way out of its emotional "human knot" before you act is like waiting for chickens to fly. They very rarely do, and if they do, they don't get very far.
Terrible analogy, I know, but I'm short on time.

Anyway,

God lives.
He's really there.
He's worth following.
He's worth trusting.

Love you all!

Sister Roderer

Hallo!

The Jazz Man

Highlights:

*Two splits, one Düsseldorf zone training, and one MLC make for one
very busy and wonderful week!
*Met a man in Essen who is about 89 years old, and is a Jazz
accordion/piano player. He had met with missionaries decades ago, and
told us about being 18 at the end of the war, and playing classic
American Jazz for the troops in Heidelberg. He told us how a
missionary's father sent him the most wonderful tie with an American
flag on it, and how he loved it, but wasn't sure where to wear it.
We told him to wear it to church. Haha
*We were standing by a bus stop in Köln and we saw this man who looked
at us briefly. The feeling to talk to him was pretty direct, so we
chose to do so.
1.5 hours later, we had traveled into the city on the same bus, and
taught him the ENTIRE lesson about the Restoration of the church in
McDonalds, given him a Book of Mormon, and committed him to read it
and pray about it.
He lives in Hamburg, and was cautious about giving his info out, but
the Spirit in the lesson was super strong.
So cool!
*The "Spider" gave his first talk in German yesterday in Sacrament
Meeting! He did such a wonderful job!!

They are Elders!!

*We had a "Persian only" class, where two newly baptized members taught two other interested people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the importance of being baptized. They shared their baptism experience, and the Spirit was there! So cool to be able to watch
their interaction (even though we didn't understand everything/anything that was being said hahaha) and share their newfound love for the Savior, His Gospel, and His church.


                                                                 

                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                
I was studying Preach My Gospel about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Under the first point it says:

"Becoming clean from sin is being healed spiritually"

That struck me like a jolt.
I was like
"Wait a second...that means that when we don't feel "healthy" or
"healed" or when we feel listless, lost, frustrated, forgotten, alone,
or confused, the solution literally is repentance."

At first I was not so comforted by this idea.
"Great"
I thought
"Yet another way we can fail.
Fail while you're failing...
Beautiful."
But then I realized that my understanding of Repentance was
fundamentally flawed.
It reminds me of another quote from Preach My Gospel:

"Repentance includes forming a fresh view of God, ourselves, and the
world. When we repent, we feel godly sorrow, then we stop doing things
that are wrong and continue doing things that are right. Bringing our
lives in line with God’s will through repentance is a central purpose
of our lives."

So, repentance is a beautiful thing, and it works.

That's all!

Love always,

Sister Roderer

It's true

Muenster - the Land of Bikes

 Highlights:

Last Saturday...round the world Book of Mormon tour

*We had Dortmund Zone Training this week, which is always fun.
*We met some incredible people who are willing to give literally everything up to hear more about Jesus Christ.
*Our new converts are thriving and progressing, and it just warms my heart! Their conversion strengthens mine.
*We got to go to a medieval fair for pday today, which was super fun!




I was studying the Restoration this morning, and I read a sentence that really hit me.

It's either true or it's not.

It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard, convenient or inconvenient, or fun or boring.
It comes down to six simple words.



It's either true or it's not.

And folks...it's true.


Love you!

Sister Roderer

Small Moments

It's funny how the smallest of moments can change everything, 

and that one single thought can change an entire life, 
and redirect the course of generations. 
It's sobering.
and wonderful. 
And rather terrifying.

So, once upon a time in Duisburg, two sisters were on a split. 
We were on our way somewhere on the Bahn 903, and I saw two men standing in the belly section of the Bahn, in-between the two cars. I knew immediately that they were not from Germany, and I knew that I could get their number. 
Still I hesitated talking to them. #fearlohntsichnicht
The urge to talk to them didn't leave, so I went for it.
They weren't standing super close, but their body language told me that they were traveling together. I looked from one to the other, and then picked one. 
Before "Hallo! ich bin Missionarinnen für der Kirche..." was out of my mouth, I knew he couldn't speak a lick of German. 
Luckily for me, his friend saved us both from the awkwardness of speaking troll. 
With the little German his friend knew, we established that they were from Iran, that they had been in Germany for about 4 months, and that he had two weeks of German.
Oh, and that they were Christian. :)
With my non-existent Persian and limited German, and various hand signals, I tried explaining that we were missionaries, and had something about Jesus Christ that we wanted to share with them.
We exchanged info, and hopped off the Bahn.

To be honest, I didn't think anything would come of the contact. 
But, thankfully we had a "call all the potentials" day thanks to Sister Markl, and felt the need to call them.
So we did.
They were surprisingly willing to meet, which confused me. 
I don't know why.
So, exactly one week to the day they were contacted, I was on another split, and we headed to the Bahnhof for our appointment. We told them to meet us at Bahnhof, but somehow their Bahnhof was not our Bahnhof, and we wandered around our Bahnhof for about 10 minutes, calling them over and over again, until I finally figured out where they were.
They kept saying
"Targo Bank, Bahnhof, Bus Station." Over and over again, and I was frantically looking Targo Bank up on the mapsme app, and all the while, my poor split partner just had to follow the whole circus around. 
We finally located them, clear on the other side and outside of our Bahnhof. They gestured emphatically to the buildings around them.
The SUBWAY Bahnhof
The Bus stop
And Targo Bank...
Which was basically a skyscraper
P gestured at it, and then looked at me, showing me with his hands how HUGE it was.
TARGO. BANK.
Alles Klar
We then had the funniest, most hilarious Restoration lesson over google translate. 
Interspersed with:
"Translate, bad...but understand". 
We laughed and testified, tried to teach...and set up another appointment.

Fast forward, and now they're baptized! 

When I think about how subtle and seemingly irrelevant those gentle urges were, I feel very small. Small because I can feel the fragility of split seconds, and how easily it could have gone the other way; how Philip and Sairos could have gotten lost on the list of "potentials", because I, in my weakness did not clearly see theirs.
But it also brings me joy, because I know that God can work through who we are RIGHT NOW, and we should never be afraid to give what we have. 
With God, it will always be enough.

Pday in Muenster

All my love,

Sister Roderer

Really Real

Last week's pday adventures - football/catch in the rain!

Grötzie 

Highlights:

*We drove the CAR for the first time!! Now that was an adventure. I've learned that I 'back-seat' drive just as well as I actually drive. haha Just kidding

*We had Dusseldorf Zone Training where we were able to talk about stress, and do a variety of stress-relieving activities, that included eating edible paper and facing our stresses with a broom handle and a mattress.

MLC

*We were able to go to MLC in Frankfurt this week, which is always wonderful.

*All the buses and bahns were on strike on Tuesday in Duisburg...made it hard for our investigators to meet with us, but they tried to come! One stood at the Bahn station for 30 minutes in hopes one would come.

"That one time when..."

*Your investigator is trying to express what believing in Jesus Christ means to him, and through google translate he describes it as "honey for his heart".

*You watch a new member pay his Fast Offering for the first time, and you see the joy that just lights up his face. Church is true!

*Your investigator class on Sunday has to be translated into three different languages, because they all want to hear it in German so that they can learn...luckily the Spirit can speak all languages!

*An investigator comes up to you in the bus and tells you he wants to be baptized...and your jaw hits the floor, and you forget for a moment to promise blessings, because it was the last thing you thought he'd say.

I was thinking about what was said in General Konferenz, by Elder Rendlund.

The concept—“the greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement”—also has profound spiritual applications. Our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are the ultimate Givers. The more we distance ourselves from Them, the more entitled we feel. We begin to think that we deserve grace and are owed blessings. We are more prone to look around, identify inequities, and feel aggrieved—even offended—by the unfairness we perceive. While the unfairness can range from trivial to gut-wrenching, when we are distant from God, even small inequities loom large. We feel that God has an obligation to fix things—and fix them right now!

 

...and I was thinking how that applies to goals, desires, and reality in general. In a world that seems to hinge on the latest newsflash, headline, Instagram post, or 'satisfying' moment, I think that this quote becomes incredibly relevant.

And there are several different variations of it:

*The longer we wait to act on the things we know to be right, the more fears we will experience.

*The more we 'consider' what we think we need to be happy, the less we will be able to recognize what we already have, and that it is actually enough to fulfill us totally.

*The longer we wait to turn to God, the more we will assume that He is not there.

*The more we consider what reality we would prefer, the less we will feel connected to our actual reality.

It's a good life!

love always,

Sister Roderer