The Beginning of the End (week 70)

It's my last transfer and it's officially official—I'm dying in Halle! but I'm getting a new companion (number 10!) and her name is Sister Ballard. I met her last year as I was serving in Berlin when she came with her friend for a trip and visited my ward in Neukölln for church, before she ever got her mission call and found out she was coming to this mission! Nuts huh! It hit me yesterday as I was thinking about it... I only have 6 weeks left. That is such a short amount of time. And I've still got so much to do. No more kiddin' around. ;)

For some reason this week was full of awkward moments and cancelled appointments. By Thursday we had had 4 out of 5 appointments for the week cancelled just hours before they were supposed to take place. That was weird. The one appointment that did go through was our appointment with our less active, "C". She was laying in her bed as we were teaching her and she asked me to come over and help her sit up, so she stuck her arm out to me to pull her up. So I grab her arm and pull and she lets out this horrible scream as if I had ripped out her arm!!! You probably should have seen my face because my heart dropped right into the floor. I was horrified. Pretty sure I just killed her. Then she just giggles as if it had tickled or something. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, haha, really. Then another awkward moment was when we were out talking to people on the street. I was talking to this middle aged man and said, "can we ask you a question?" "Depends on the question..." "Do you believe you're a child of God?" Then he takes literally FIVE seconds and CHECKS ME OUT. Eyes to toes and back again. Then said that he doesn't answer such deep questions. And walks away. And then this other time... We went by on a less active and she wasn't there again so we looked in our phone and found out that we had her number. So we called her. Sister Egbert was talking to her and they were having a pleasant conversation and then she asks, "are you in (this part of the city) right now?" "yeah." "Have you come by my house a few times lately?" "...yeah..." "...are you at my house right now?" "..........yeah." Caught red-handed. Aaaaawkward.

But enough of the weird stuff. I do like telling stories so you all have something interesting to read, but there's definitely some normal missionary stuff going on here. ;) "D"'s still going to be baptized, we've just got to review the restoration (again) and make sure everything's solid. And "J". He's doing great. But he didn't come to church, even though he promised! And we still don't know why. We're bummed. But he really connected with Enrico at English class and when we taught him afterwards. As we were talking to Enrico after the appointment, he mentioned how he felt as we were meeting that "J" just belongs here, and I had the same impression. I imagined him in 5 years being our ward mission leader (which he very well could be and what we desperately need) and doing a killer job. This guy is going somewhere. I am so so excited for the next transfer and I can't wait to see how everything unfolds.

If any of you have advice on how to serve a killer last transfer, I would totally appreciate it!

Until then, I know without a shadow of a doubt that God loves me. This was proven to me again in a very clear way this past week. He loves me, and I humbly try to do my best to love Him.

6 weeks.

Sister Seamons

In wonderful memory of Elder Josh Nilsson
who returns home from his mission in Japan TOMORROW.
I love him. And can't wait to see him.