Bianca in Berlin: Welcome to the Grind (week 9)

This week was way awesome to say the least. Sorry if this email is scattered though, I'm in the process of EMAILING JOSH BACK AND FORTH. YEP, YOU HEARD RIGHT.

We did enough biking on Monday and Tuesday for the entire week. We rode our bikes to do service for a Sister in a dorf (village) outside of Hildesheim. It stopped raining literally just enough so that we could work in her garden and then started pouring as we left. We began riding back in the rain and then all of a sudden a HAIL STORM FROM HADES came upon us. We were basically riding blind and it was nuts. Then the next day, we rode 12 miles to another dorf for FHE with a member family and a few investigators. We dyed Easter eggs. We rode the whole way home against some of the strongest winds I've ever experienced, I kid you not. Then on Wednesday we did service for the Meyer family in the backyard for 9 hours, trimming bushes and trees and stuff, so the next day our hands and arms were so sore, haha. Yeah, we didn't ride our bikes for the next few days and took it easy.

OH, so miracle this week. Last Saturday while we were doing some finding, we talked to this nice Muslim man and we almost got an appointment with him, until he basically bore his testimony about the Qur'an and how he received an answer that it was true. Well, like they say, no one can disprove or argue with testimony so we parted ways. Then, a few days later, while we were riding our bikes to FHE, he was getting into his car when he saw us and called to us, told us he wanted us to come back, and we got a return appointment!!! NOT a coincidence. The Lord's hand is in this work. So we had this appointment on Saturday and we brought Isabel (an AWESOME YW in our ward, I love her so much) with us. Walking to the appointment I had this bad/weird feeling about it but we still had to go. The lesson started out good but he basically took over and talked about Islam for 95% of the remaining time. The only thing I said in the whole time we were there was to say I have a boyfriend, haha. Then, for some reason, we allowed him to show us how Muslims pray, and after that the Spirit was so far gone. It was the worst lesson I've had on my mission by far. We all walked out of there shell-shocked because it was so rough and there was just a bad spirit. He agreed to read in the Book of Mormon though, but we think it's more out of curiosity than real interest. We'll see. [Ed. note: Still looking for the miracle here, must have forgotten part of the story.]

Last night, for Easter, we went to the Meyer's house with "E" and Hoang. We basically just hung out and had some dinner before heading over to what's called an Osterfeuer (translated: Easter fire). When we did service the other day for them, we took all of the wood and stuff to a huge pile of other people's wood in preparation for this fire. Then, on Easter, it's lit. I thought it was big but "E" said it was teeny, haha. Pictures to follow.

Saturday was my 2 month mark as a missionary.

We had a joint teach with "K. L. S." and Isabel this past week. He was so nice and brought us a box of chocolates to share. My companion, Isabel, and I all had a piece of this chocolate, which started to burn our mouths, and all Isabel had to say was, "Alkohol." We found out later that the filling had 13% liquor in it... hahahahaha, yep. Alcohol. As a missionary. Good stuff. [Ed. note: She's kidding, I hope!] Welcome to Germany.

In other news, I bore my testimony finally in sacrament yesterday and it went well. There's about 50 members in our ward. This ward rocks. Even though there's a language barrier, they're so loving and patient and welcoming to me. I could serve my whole mission here in Hildesheim. I love being a missionary.

until later,

sisbiaseam