Dearest Family and Friends,
What a whirlwind of a week........it was also kind of a weird week. Sister Pentz and I just can't seem to have one normal day!! But it definitely makes for a lot of way hilarious conversations with people on the bus and trains, and we feel so blessed to see even the smallest of miracles in our every day lives.
This week was one of the more exhausting ones on my mission......and you would think we get used to the fast paced life of missionary work? Noooope! Sister Pentz and I were everywhere and anywhere this week. We were able to meet with another "miracle-that-we-have-contact" less active by the name of Valeria. She is from Hungary, and it's kind of sad that Sister Wunderli and I could never make contact, but our prayers and attempts to get in touch with Valeria payed off. She called Sister Pentz and I and asked that we meet. We headed out to a little dorf called Sirchingen and had a wonderful appointment with Valeria. Yesterday she called us (she thought it was fast sunday) and bore her testimony to us because she felt bad she wasn't at church! Valeria even gave us a referral for a family of 5 that we will got with her next week to visit. Miracles, and God's perfect timing. That's all I gotta say :)
This week we also had cleaning day and spent our day from 9 am to 9:30 pm DEEP CLEANING Tübingen apartment. (Deep cleaning day in the mission) We were SO EXHAUSTED! We scrubbed, dusted, scrubbed again, threw out, and did some more scrubbing until we collapsed with fatigue. Our goal was "Sanitize, Organize, Reorganize, and Feminize" our apartment. It felt so good and I am grateful to have learned wonderful cleaning habits from my mom....And it worked! There is a noticeable difference in the Spirit when our surrounding area is clean and tidy as opposed to disorganized and messy. Our apartment was never super bad, but even in the reorganizing and throwing old furniture out has made the biggest difference in the Spirit in our apartment.
Thursday was exciting!! We have permission to watch 2 World Cup games, and as a district we were invited by a member to watch the USA-Germany game. It was AWESOME. We had so much fun!!!! Although the US lost (I must also admit I was cheering for Germany..........everyone called me Sister Benedict Arnold) I am happy that both Germany and the US can play forward in the tournament.
We had wonderful Finding Day this week as well. We spent our time in nearby Reutlingen-Betzingen, a really cute and family oriented village from neighboring Reutlingen. Sister Pentz and I had prayed to find one new investigator that day, and it happened! We will be getting to know Marion a little bit better on Tuesday this week. We left with her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she was eager to begin reading in 1 Nephi 1. As a district we had the goal of 25 potentials and to give away 16 copies of the Book of Mormon, and we surpassed that with 28 potentials and 25 copies of the Book of Mormon. We are BLESSED!
Yesterday at church we met a really cute and hilarious lady named Simona, a friend of our Relief Society President's. I went to introduce myself and we began to talk, and then I realized she had super funny German. Come to found out she is true blue, through and through from Saxony, and spoke with the craziest Sächsisch accent!! Mom....I wish you were there to hear her. Her dialect was super, super thick. I understood her fine, but I must admit that I prefer the flowy, lazy speech of Schwäbisch compared to that of the long vowel-led Sächsisch dialect. Naja :)
This week at District Meeting we had a wonderful conversation on Accountability, and how accountability is an attribute that is a catalyst for all others. Accountability is something that I have really been trying to develop more on my mission. It is an important skill to have, and what no better place than a mission to learn it? When we hold ourselves accountable to the Lord each day for the work we did, we become more obedient and focused on the work. Developing the attribute of accountability (most importantly accountability to the LORD) is what our missionaries this month in particular will be focusing on.
When I go out each day after I pray and tell the Lord exactly what I am going to do, I feel more obligated to hold to that responsibility. It pains me at the end of the day sometimes when I recount to the Lord my works, and if I fulfilled exactly what He asked me to do. My heart only hurts and aches because of the guilt I feel, and through the Atonement that hurt is taken away. It's in those moments that we apologize and promise to be better when the Spirit encouragingly whispers, "Get off of your knees and get to work." My Father in Heaven expects me to communicate regularly through efficient prayer, recount to Him my works, and then to get off my knees and work harder to be a little better. And it makes all the difference. No matter where we are in the world, what stage of life we are in, or whether we be full time missionary or not.....I KNOW that being accountable to the Lord brings thousands more blessings than we could imagine.
Sorry this is short...gotta run, work, find, teach and preach!
I love you all and am so grateful for you!! Thank you for your support and encouragement and words of advice :) Have a marvelous week my loved ones, and know that you are in my heart and prayers!
Your little Alpine Missionary,
Sister Natalie Motto
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