Week 22 "A Mission Is A Family Affair"

Servus liebe Familie und Freunde!!

This week was wonderful, but a little long because I was sick for about 3 days with a sore throat and a fever.  I hate being sick:(  So you can imagine how hard it was for me to slow down in any way. Tis the sick season! With my companion's recommendation I had to rest a little and I took some medicine and drank lots of water to speed up the healing process. The other sisters have been healthy, which is good, and we are all taking extra precaution to stay healthy.  It's really hard being sick on the mission, I hate the feeling of not being able to go out and work, so I'm grateful that I am now on the mend and on the way back to my healthy self!

This week was stake conference in Vienna, as well as interviews with President Miles!  We were able to have a sleep over for stake conference: the Graz sisters came and stayed in our apartment Saturday night because of the long train ride to Vienna. It was really fun getting to know Sisters Kervinen (from Finland. She is hilarious and is a very good missionary) and Sister Reginer (from San Fransisco, California, we rode the train together to Vienna. She is so sweet and is a great example of expressing true, genuine charity for everyone.) We had 6 sisters crammed into a small apartment -- needless to say it was a little hectic in the morning getting ready for stake conference, but it all worked out. Yeah for some more sunlight! It helps that it is now the end of daylight savings here....so strange that we start a week before you-- that means we are only 7 hours apart, for one week! :)  (Can you believe that we forgot about the extra hour of sleep....so I woke up at 5:30 instead of 6:30. Naja....OH WELL...Sleep is overrated, right? :)

Wonderful weekend!  President and Sister Miles spoke at our stake conference, and so we were able to be with them for about 2 days. I love when the Miles' come and visit and spend time with us: they have a really busy schedule but I am very grateful for the time they do take to visit each one of us and remind us of their love.  They told us how much they appreciate our optimism, hard work ethic and desire to be the best missionaries we can be.  I. Love.Them!

The big theme for this stake conference was the temple. It was a little hard, because I became homesick for the temple, but the messages shared were beautiful and definitely something I needed to hear. President Souceck, one of the counselors and Dad's former missionary companion, spoke about the importance of remaining pure and chaste so we can worthily enter the Lord's house. I never really understood the importance of this until I was able to go through the temple last February and recieve my endowment. (What a special experience that was! Sometimes I wish I could go do it all over again.) An outpouring of love from the Spirit testified to my heart the great importance for me to one day marry in the temple, to search after that goal of being sealed to my future eternal companion. I have always been amazed the way the Lord teaches me and gives me revelation, because sometimes it is in ways I least expect it.  President Nally in the MTC once said that "A mission experience is the MTC for the rest of your life, as well as the next."  Now I recognize how serving a mission, when served with full purpose of heart, might, mind, and strength, is a blessing for my future family, and I am forever grateful that I have chosen to serve.

This week we had the opportunity to meet with our investigator "Dory", a mother of 6 with her 2 youngest being 1 year old twins, "P and L."  Dory's husband will not allow her to be baptized at this time, and so we are teaching her continually more and more about the Gospel as we wait in faith for her husband's permission. Dory is a woman of solid faith and firm understanding, just as the Book of Mormon describes we should be. She really wants to be baptized so we are praying that her husbands heart will be softened.  She purchased a kindle to download all the standard works, so she can read them wherever she goes. We just gave her a copy of "Jesus der Christus" and are meeting with her on Wednesday. As I entered her home and began talking with her, I felt such an overhwhelming love for Dory, and I could not deny the impression that I have come to Vienna to meet her.

Interviews were fantastic! President Miles is such an inspired man. My interview was actually quite brief, maybe only 5 or 6 minutes, but President Miles challenged me to do something. He said, "Sister Motto, I want you to find out why you are here in Vienna. By doing so, I want you to study the scriptures. I know you do each and every day, but tonight kneel in prayer and plea to the Lord to see what He expects out of your scripture study, and how you can be better." I have always thought I was really good at my scripture study, but I did exactly what President Miles asked. And the answer came! I need to be studying more and utilizing it in my every day proselyting, the words of modern day prophets. Together with the standard works, talks from the Ensign/Liahona and General Conference are JUST AS POWERFUL in every day missionary work.In my studies I have made the goal to read 15 minutes in the Book of Mormon, 15 from the standard works, 15 from Verkünet mein Evangelium!, and 15 from a conference talk.  

In regards to my language and this new Viennese dialect...es geht gut!  I am having fewer times of misunderstandings and more confident moments of total understanding-- yay yay YAY! :)   German is not the easiest language to comprehend but my love for it grows every day.  Yet another blessing which comes from serving a foreign speaking mission!  I did have a small "oops" when in visiting with a member family who have 6 kids....I encouraged them to be "fruitful" rather than to say how "terribly" important it is to be a good member missionary.....they reminded me kindly of my "obvious" mistake..."Sister Motto...we are fruitful...we have 6 kids!"

In relation to my new resolution in studies, the impression came to me the other day to read a talk from April 2013 conference by President Monson. In there I found a quote that I could not help but weep as I read. It says,

"A mission is a family affair. Though the expanse of continents or oceans may separate,
hearts are as one."

Simpler truth could not have been better stated. I am so grateful for the mountains of support and love I feel each and every day from home. Sometimes I get homesick, mostly because I wish to share my experiences here on the mission with you at home. I wish you were right beside me! This work is too beautiful and wonderful. It was exactly one year ago this week I  wrestled whether or not I should serve. How clearly I remember the soothing peace of the Holy Ghost as I knelt in prayer and begged for an answer. I remember the feelings of fear and inadequacy I felt as I thought about serving a mission, but there was such a sweet spirit as the Spirit testified to me that the Lord doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies The called. This mission truly has been the greatest blessing to me. No kidding, it has been the most difficult thing I have done, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, but there are so many blessings that come when we simply turn ourselves over to the Lord and let Him take care of the rest. I'm simply striving to be a Werkzeuge, a work tool, in His hands, to help Him bring to pass the great and marvelous work of proclaming the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How grateful I am to be here! I love being a missionary in Austria at this time of this marvelous dispensation!  "Geh immer Vorwärts", and press on until the work of the Lord is finished!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Natalie Motto

Elder Pugmire, our DL and Me with Sister Woods at our last district meeting in Göppingen

…..On the Blue Danube!

My awesome Göppingen District…miss them! Elders Rodgers, Durrant, Chapman, Garett, Oviatt, Philips, Pugmire, Carlson and Me and Sister Woods

Me with my new companion, Sister Judd!

The magnificent Stephens Dom Cathedral in WIEN

Week 21 -- Servus von Wien!

Servus von WIEN!!!!

Meine liebe Familie und Freunden,

Goodbyes to Göppingen were so hard! It was really sad leaving the branch I "grew up" in. The members were actually really sad to be getting 4 Elders....they love the Sisters!  And why wouldn't they?:)  We are wunderbar!   We had so many eating appointments last week, we really only needed to buy groceries so the Elders could have food when they got to Göppingen. Yup, we are nice...we made them "Welcome to Göppingen" treats!  I know Göppingen is in good hands with Elders Bartholemew, Thompson, and their goldens.  I'm really excited to see the success there!  But I will miss it.

Transfer day was......crazy and stressful!  Probably the craziest travel experience I've had, ever. Welcome to mission life, right? We left Göppingen at about 10 am Thursday morning to get to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof by 11, and our train to Munich left at 11:40. I traveled as a "solo sister" with 5 elders to Munich. My posse consisted of Elders Fuchs, Mohn, Morey, Philips, Smith, Christensen and a few angels to boot.  You didn't need to worry one bit Mom, I was in excellent hands.  Elder Philips, coming from my district in Stuttgart, is in St. Pölten and we traveled the whole way to Vienna together. Elder Smith also traveled with us the whole way, headed to Klagenfurt. Our train got into Munich 15 minutes later than scheduled -- yikes! -- and as a result we had a 1 minute Umsteig (disembark) to get to our train headed to Salzburg. We BARELY schaffed that train; it was a tender mercy from the Lord we did, otherwise we would have had to wait for another 3 hours for the next train to Salzburg connecting to Vienna. Strong and capable missionaries waiting in Munich Bahnhof rushed to help us get our luggage onto the next train, and thankfully none of our luggage was left behind. Whew.  It was a minute and a half of pure chaos! The ride to Salzburg was breathtaking, but we weren't able to enjoy the scenery for long. When we umsteiged in Salzburg, which our steig was supposed to be for a half hour, we found out our train getting to Salzburg was late, and as a result of that we had only a 3 minute Umsteig to get to our train to Vienna.  I did get to see 30 seconds worth of beautiful Salzburg, and my heart kind of ached that I wasn't able to see more.  As I looked at the Hohensalzburg castle, I remembered how great our trip was there last year and fun it was to climb that with you Mom and Dad.  

The trian ride to Vienna was absolutely gorgeous!!! Seeing the Alps was like coming home. :) From Munich I was able to travel with Sister Reignier, headed to Graz, and we talked about the incredible beauty of our mission. I cant get enough of it!  After 9 hours of travel across 2 countries, we safely arrived, a little exhausted and travel weary, in Vienna around 6:30 PM, where we were greeted by the missionaries and my cute companion. Sister Judd is amazing!  She is from Las Vegas, and is in her 9th transfer. Her German is spectacular, and she knows how to work hard. We get along very well: our personalities are extremely similar, but different enough that we compliment eachother. She has an impressive drive to do missionary work, and I'm excited to learn from her this next transfer.

We had just enough time to drop off my luggage at the apartment and then head off to an appointment with our investigator Andie.  Andie is about 29 years old and is just about the sweetest most genuine person I know. She loves the Gospel and we are preparing to set a baptismal date with her!  Even though I was so tired that night, I was very happy to get right to work in our new area and meet our investigators.  A happy missionary is a busy missionary! Stimmt.

We also met with Nicole this week, another incredible investigator. She is a mother of 4, and her kids are all under age 11. Remind you of someone Mom? Little 4 year old Davin is my new favorite person, and he is convinced we are now boyfriend-girlfriend:)  Nicole is preparing to be baptized, after we recieve permission from her husband who is often times not home. Nicole loves the New Testament stories, particularly the illustrated children`s book version made by the church, and so we read and explain them to her. We read about "The Widow's Mite" and she was very intent about it. As we had a 5 minute Pause and talked with Davin about Star Wars, we noticed Nicole reading the Bible story book alone. Following our Spiel with Davin, Nicole asked us questions about the ministery and miracles of Christ. It was really neat! We are planning on using this story book not only for Nicole's kids, but also for Nicole, because of her childlike knowledge about Christ and His Gospel. Childlike faith is beautiful.

Every Friday night we have Waffle Night at the insitute, and we attend when our investigators are there, to help them feel welcome and help incorporate them into the ward and JAE (young adult) group. We went with Andie, and were able to introduce her to some of the JAE'`s in our stake. Funny thing about going to the JAE Center: I met the BYU Vienna Study Abroad Group!  Ha..can you believe the coincidence?! ((Sidenote...Natalie was seriously considering Vienna Study Abroad right before the age change for missionaries was announced.  She would have been studying there right now!) Needless to say it was somewhat surreal for me to be among them, talking with them, when I could be standing among them and talking with a different Sister missionary who could have been in my shoes, in my current position. My heart swelled with gratitude and love as I realized that the Lord has blessed me by sending me here to Vienna. Ever since I got off the train, I have had a constant sense of peace, love, and happiness to be here in Vienna. Perhaps it is because I have always dreamed of coming here, but on a deeper sense I know it is where I need to be. I KNOW there is a great purpose for me here in Vienna and that purpose is to preach the true and everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ, to share the joy, to tell people where they can find happiness, and to assist in His work and help these precious souls find their way back to our Heavenly Father.

Yesterday, Sunday, was awesome. I felt right at home in my ward. I LOVE this ward!! And I met President Soucek Dad! In Sacrament Meeting he had me stand and then told about how you and he were companions and what an amazing missionary you were.  (He was Kevin's missionary companion in Hamburg) The Vienna 1st ward has incredible members of the Church with a zest and fire for missionary work. Our GML Perry is fun and hilarious and dedicated to us.  He and his wife Teresa are newlyweds of about a year, and they LOVE the missionaries.  Both are RM's and are so helpful to us. Serving in a ward will be much different than my little branch in Göppingen, and I am excited to see what things I learn here. 

No biggie but last night on the way to an appointment, I got proposed to by a guy from Yugoslavia. His German wasn't very good, but he knew enough to say "Du, mich, heiraten?" It was quite funny, and I made up the excuse I had a boyfriend back home in the states (thanks Jameson!). Sister Judd laughed and then we talked to him about the Book of Mormon. We are going to pass him over to the  Elders (Elders Richman and Worthen) tomorrow to reden more about THE CHURCH and not how to marry one of us.

Short week this week and these past few days have flown. I LOVE being in a big city!! (You were right mom!) I'm excited to see what new things I will learn, more than I could from my time in Göppingen. I gained so much in my time in Göppingen, and in many ways I am "homesick" for it. Serving in Stuttgart Zone was something that helped me grow and develop as a missionary and into a better "myself", and to better learn German and "figure things out". Although I am still doing both those things (Wienerisch seems like a whole different language-- very different than Schwäbisch and very sing-songy --it sounds beautiful), I feel right at home in Vienna. Yes, it's of course an adjustment, but it has been much much easier than I thought it would be. I know that there will be hard days, those are unavoidable. How I go about tackling those hard days, and learning the experiences from them, is what matters most. I need to always remember this wonderful feeling of being here, this peace and love and joy, and reflect on that when times get tough.

My heart is so full!  I LOVE this Gospel with my whole heart, and for the chance to be in the Alpine German speaking mission. This Church is true, and there is nothing that can stop this Work of Salvation.

Til next week! (I PROMISE I will put pictures up next week....with transfers and getting settled taking pictures slipped my mind....es tut mir leid! Sorry. )

Alles gute!
Liebe
Sister Natalie Motto   

Week 20 -- VIenna here I come!!!

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

Diese Woche, werde Ich  "Auf's Wiedersehen" zu Göppingen wünschen. Ich werde nach Wien transferiert werden! Ich bin dankbar dass Ich in der Wien I Gemeinde dienen dürfen!! Ich bin ganz glücklich darüber, und Ich freue mich auf der Gelegenheit in Österreich zu wohnen und dort die wunderschönen WIener das Evangelium zu bringen. Unglaublich!!

This news pertaining to transfers is very bittersweet. I am so very, very excited to serve in Vienna and experience new things, but also so sad to leave Göppingen. I have made wonderful friendships with the members here and have put my best foot forward to build the Church in this branch.  But I understand and feel that the Lord needs me elsewhere. I can only progress so far as a missionary here in Göppingen, and I am excited/nervous/happy/all of the above to go to Vienna and work with Sister Judd, and see what kind of missionary I will become there. In relation to Göppingen.... President Miles has decided to WHITEWASH and place 4 Elders here instead of 4 Sisters. Definitely a big change, but nevertheless exciting and wonderful. Transfers will be on Thursday, and I get to take a beautiful train ride with 6 other missionaries headed to Wien Zone. (I am also happy to see a little of my mission via a beautiful train ride through the Alps and Salzburg!! I will be going from one end of the Alpine Mission to the complete opposite end!...) Sister Woods will be going to Freiburg, in the Schwarzwald, to work with Sister Henry. They will be great together!

With this news with transfers, we have spent much of our week prepping the apartment and getting things ready for the Elders. With repainting the apartment, getting furniture put together, organizing everything, starting our packing, it's been pretty busy. Needless to say we have had quite the farewell/eating appointment schedule with members, but it's been wonderful spending time with the families and saying goodbye.  Ahhh.....goodbyes are tender but I know that I will meet these wonderful saints again and I am so humbled to have had the opportunity to love and serve them.  I will forever be grateful for my little Göppingen branch. How can I ever thank them for serving and loving me?

Last week we had the opportunity to head to Stuttgart and attend ZONE TRAINING! I felt this zone training to be particularly good, especially after General Conference. We talked about the importance of diligence, "Eifer" in German, and how that pertains to missionary work. I love the Christlike attributes! I would admonish everyone to read in Preach My Gospel with the Christlike attributes and think about how to apply them into your lives as members. Diligence as a missionary is KEY, and sometimes I feel like I am not very diligent. However, diligence is something that is built and strengthened through experience and time, and it is an attribute I will be striving to obtain throughout my mission, and even after! I am excited to see how serving in Vienna will strengthen my diligence and help me build the other Christlike attributes.

We had an awesome appointment this week with "I", our Iraqi investigator. He is devouring the Book of Mormon and loves reading in it. He read all the way to Jacob in 2 nights! Because there is kind of a language barrier, "I" will write down questions for us in Arabic, have his German instructor translate them, and then bring them to our appointments. "I" wants to make sure he is understanding as much as he can about the Gospel, so that's why he writes down questions. We will write down answers, so if he does need to understand better, he can have them translated. The Spirit is so strong during our meetings, and "I" feels it. He also came to church yesterday!! He loved our fast and testimony meeting. He was a little confused about the Sacrament, but we have a lesson for tomorrow to explain more about Latter-day Saint services and some commandments (Word of Wisdom). Sadly "I" has a smoking problem, but really tries hard to not smoke around us. There was once a quote (President Kimball?) that said there is no better sight and smell in Sacrament meeting than ripped jeans and cigarette smoke. I love it! It's so true! "I" is working so hard to turn his life around and to be happy. And the Gospel can bring that to him!  I will continue to pray for this sweet, humble man.

Our other investigators are doing well! Jan, the referral we contacted, is loving the Book of Mormon as well. I think he will work really, really well with the Elders. Same with Destiny: although he has been flaky and wishy-washy sometimes when it comes to meeting up with us, Destiny has a testimony of this Gospel and will do great things in the Church one day. He is still wanting to be baptized, and has set the goal to be baptized at the end of November. Barbara is doing great as well. Her father is very old and lives with her, and she has had work and doctor's appointments every day. We are praying to be able to meet once more before transfers, and give her one last lesson. I think she will do well with the Elders and she does have the strong desire to find happiness, to find truth, to be at peace about what this life is all about.  Uncle Tony laid a beautiful foundation for her and I hope we continued to build and strengthen her testimony and teach her that there is only one true Gospel of Jesus Christ upon the earth that will answer all her questions.

My mind is spinning and my heart is tender and full...... Right now I am realizing more and more the importance of giving the Lord MY ALL!  Each day is truly precious. gel?  Just as Herr Embley taught me in German class that "long time ago" in high school, life is all about EHRE und GENAUIGKEIT: honor and exactness. Although I initally thought this mission to be a small payback to the Lord, it in fact has ended up being the greatest blessing of my life. I love my Heavenly Father too deeply to express in words.....How grateful I am for the opportunity to serve our Almighty God, and His Son, even Jesus the Christ.

Have a wonderful week!!! Next time I email I will be in VIENNA! 

I love you all.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Alles gute,

Sister Natalie Hannah Motto

Letter from Sister Motto Week 19 "Glorious and Grand"

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

This week was such an amazing week!!! We have 2 new investigators and were able to enjoy a very fulfilling session of General Conference. We had super fun cleaning day, and completely de-junked our whole basement keller and apartment in preparation for 4 missionaries (we found some pretty neat treasures!) It's also the last week of this transfer-- didn't transfer 3 just start? We will find out Friday if the 2 new sisters come this next transfer or not. I feel like time is slipping through my fingers!

Our two new investigators are "I' from Iraq and Jan who is German. We found "I" during our Ausstellung (street display) on the 28 of September. "I"  is a refugee from Iraq, having fled the country under the safety of the American soldiers because of his Christian beliefs. He has been reading th Book of Mormon in both German and Arabic, and absolutely loves it. He loves Joseph Smith and has a beautiful testimony that Christ's church is restored to the earth. He has a problem with smoking, but he said he is willing to give up everything (because in many ways he already has) for Jesus Christ. During our meetings in a nearby park, "I" is very concious to not smoke while we meet, even though sometimes it's hard. He's making so much progress and will be coming to church next Sunday! He watched General Conference online, and we are very excited to meet and talk´about his thoughts of a living prophet! (He would have come to Stuttgart with us, but as a refugee he cannot leave the state of Baden-Württemburg.)

Our other investigator, Jan, is 28 years old and lives in nearby Göppingen. He first became aquainted with the church at age 17 when he met with the elders once. For some reason, we do not have record of his meeting. Jan recieved a Book of Mormon at that first meeting, and has read it pretty regularly since 2002. Jan lost contact with the missionaries and the church, and just a short while ago befriended a member of the Church on Facebook. We will call the member "Brother Fox".  Brother Fox and Jan have communicated and talked about the Church. Brother Fox guided Jan to lds.org to request a missionary visit, so Jan did! He referred himself to the Church (so awesome, let me just say!) and asked for a new Book of Mormon, because he lost his old one.

We were let in by Jan's mother when we went to drop off the Book of Mormon, and talked with the two of them about their familiarity and ´knowledge of the Church. Jan expressed to us his desire to find the truth, "just like Joseph Smith", he said. Jan told us that he knows the other churches aren't true, and he has a really good feeling about this church. He loves the way he feels the spirit when he chats with Brother Fox on Facebook about the Church, and wants to know how he can always have that feeling. We talked about baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Jan asked "where can I go to be baptized?" Sister Woods and I explained that it was through us! We told him we need to continue teaching him some things, but that if he already has that goal for baptism, it is something he can begin to work towards. Jan already lives the Word of Wisdom, the law of chastity, and keeps the sabbath day holy. He LOVES the Family Proclamation, and expressed that he wants to marry someone of "his own faith" and would like to live in Salt Lake City one day. Jan is AWESOME! He is so friendly, very open, and asks fantastic questions. His mom is meeting with the Zeuge Jehova's.....but sits in and listens to us anyway. Jan says he knows the Zeuge Jehova's aren't the "right church" because he doesn't have a good feeling when he listens to them. We have another meeting with Jan and his mom this week! Follow up: Book of Mormon reading Challenge: BAPTISMAL DATE!

We also met with "Destiny" this week for the first time since August! He still has the goal to be baptized, and has been reading in the Book of Mormon more than ever, but he says that life is really stressful and he is trying to find time for God. He expressed he still has a desire to be baptized because the Holy Spirit told him that is what he needs to do, and he always keeps his promises. Destiny said that he feels the adversary pulling him, and he is doing all he can to fight against Satan's attacks on distracting Destiny from coming to church. Destiny always very honest with us, and told us straight up he felt rushed into his baptismal date (which is understandable), and he just needs more time to prepare for such a big step. We asked him to set his own baptismal date, and Destiny said sometime in early November. Our meeting Tuesday we will talk about his self-set baptismal date and ways we can better help him prepare. I know the prayers in Destiny's behalf are blessing his life so abundantly!

General Conference......OH MEINE GUTE!!! Absolutely FANTASTIC!! Saturday we drove to Stuttgart with Sister Fingerle (Our Göppingen members are the BEST!) for the Relief Society Broadcast and Saturday morning (live) session of conference, and then overnighted with the Stuttgart sisters. Yesterday, Sunday, we watched Saturday Afternoon re-broadcast and then Sunday morning live. Today for studies we watched Sunday afternoon. Those 9,5 hours were the fastest I can remember. When the Saturday morning was over, I thought we were only at the halfway mark through the session! I DEVOURED conference, and I hope you did too. It was a glorious weekend and I was spiritually fed to the brim!!

There were many moments during conference that the Spirit overcame me, and I knew that you, my loving family, was thinking of me. It is my hope that you felt an outpouring of the Spirit as well, knowing that I was thinking of you through each second of conference. I have a testimony that the Lord answers prayers. Even the "silly ones". Each one of my questions I took to the Lord was answered during conference. There were some pertaining to missionary work, to my personal life, and to life at home next year. Each and every question was answered. They were answered in quotes, in impressions I wrote down, or in beautiful, still, warm, calm feelings of the Spirit. That is why taking notes is so important!!! As far as picking a favorite talk goes....how could I do that?  They were all amazing!!!   Some of my absolute favorites moments were:

1. Elder Hale's promise that as we heed to the word's of prophets from conference would protect us from the fiery darts of the advesary
2. Elder Ulisses Soares' talk on meekness, and the importance of this divine, refining Christlike trait
3. Elder Bednar's promise of paying a full tithe being a sanctifying and precious process expressing perfect faith.
4. President Uchtdorf's call "Come, Join With Us". He said "Heed the call of the gentle Christ, here you will find the message beyond price." Also, probably my favorite quote, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."
5. Elder D Todd Christofferson "We need women who are tender....faithful....good....virtuous....pure....and refined." Also, "it is your relationship with your Heavenly Father that matters most."
6 Elder S Gifford Nielsen's talk about exclamation point.The thought came, "Be an EXCLAMATION POINT MISSIONARY!!!!!!"
7. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Cherish Priesthood blessings, take advantage of the Sacrament, believe in miracles." I wept through his whole story about Stephanie Nielsen, having had the priviledge of meeting her (coaching her kids swim team!) and talking with her. We must truly cherish the priesthood, take advantage of the weekly process of repentance, and believe in miracles!
8. Elder M Russell Ballard on missionary work "Fear will be replaced with faith and courage, then seek for the opportunity to teach." His promise that if we reach out to just ONE by Christmas that many will come unto Christ was BEAUTIFUL. We truly must talk with EVERYONE!!! :)
 

There is never a boring week as a missionary IF you work diligently, faithfully, steadfast, and honestly.  "Be an EXCLAMATION POINT MISSIONARY!!!"" LOVE LOVE LOVE THAT!  There is so much work to be done and this week promises to be a glorious one...because, after all, the Lord is in charge of His perfect, eternal, most important work of bringing souls unto Christ!

I love you all so much!! Have a WONDERFUL week full of gratitude, hope, and faith. Always rely on our Savior Jesus Christ, for He is always there, "in sunshine and in sorrow."

Liebe Grüße,
Sister Natalie Motto

In front of a horse meat packing company…disgusting!!

Cleaning out the basement storage in our apartment and found this beauty!

We rewarded ourself after "cleaning day" with Gelato! 

Sometimes you just need a good ol' American PB&J