Broken Things

Hello everyone!

How are you doing? How has the week been? Even if you're telling your answers to your computer screens, I still appreciate the little time you took to do that :)

This week there isn't too much of an update to give but that's all good. You need to travel through some valleys in order to enjoy the views from mountaintops:

-Ivan: Still going strong.

-Updates with Elisabeth and Marcel

-Dinner with the Ivanov family

-Tobias: Awesome.

-Thursday: Miracles in the space of 30 minutes.

-Splits with the Sister Training Leaders

-SOMEONE GOT BAPTIZED!!!

-Spiritual Thought: Broken Things

We got to meet with Ivan and our ward mission leader, Ben, came with. We talked about repentence and sin. In short, we talked about the different types/levels of sin and how Christ made it possible to overcome all sin. It is not an easy process, but it is a possible process. Ivan is just a sweet man who is struggling to forgive himself, but he's going on strong.

With Elisabeth we haven't been able to meet with her for two weeks now. She's been super sick and is not allowed to work. She sends us a few messages to let us know how she's doing but I just miss seeing her. She's so fantastic and is having a hard time realizing that. 

Marcel, it's clicking with him about the priesthood authority. He'll be moving to Italy in about 3 months and was telling us he would have to be baptized again. We showed him all the different church buildings thorughout the world and just hit it hard with how this church is Christ's unified church throughout the world. It's taking a bit more time with him for things to click, but hey we all have our own learning speeds.

We had dinner with the Ivanov family and they are SO WONDERFUL. Nick and Sharon are from England and both served missions. Their kids are super funny and sweet. I was just super entertained listening to British accents while eating curry for dinner and rice crispy treats for dessert. WHo knew you could travel around the world in the space of an hour?

Tobias is just awesome. He tried praying for the first time and began reading in the Book of Mormon. He said he hasn't felt anything life changing but he did feel OK with it all. We went through the plan of salvation with him and again, he mentioned how having a belief in God would help him feel more comfort in his life. He'll be gone next week because of høstferie (fall vacation) but he did ask us for several chapters to read while he's away. Awesome. Need I say more?

Thursday morning was pretty great. We had a teach with Tony at the bus station which ended up being a 15 minute lesson. He brought a friend who was just straight up rude (laughing at Tony while he prayed, not looking at us, using horrible diction), but they both had to run to catch a bus.  SInce we had time before our bus came, we did some contacting. We met a kid named Frederik and ending up teaching him about the Book of Mormon, giving him one, and got his number. We also met a woman named Maria from Brazil, taught about the Book of Mormon and Prophets and getting an appointment this week. So in the space of thirty minutes we had 3 other lessons, 1 contacted referral, and 1 new investigator. Legen...(wait for it).. DARY.

On Friday we went on splits with the Sister training leaders, Sister Ausen and Sister Harrison. I spent most of the day with Sister Ausen in her area. I got to meet some of their wonderful investigators and an adorable less active lady named Astrid. It was amazing how I had just met these people and I instantly just loved them. The essence of the gospel really is love!

And on Saturday, Elder Edwards and Elder Nilson's investigator Elin was baptized! I've had the lovely opportunity to chat with her at church and at the institute center often and she is just wonderful! I've only heard small parts of how much Elin has changed but it truly was incredible to see how far she's come because of the power of the Atonement.

To close, I would like to share with you the chorus of a song that Sister Chapman shared with me:

"Broken souls that need His mending, broken hearts for offering, could it be that God loves broken things?"

As I listened to this song, I started reflecting about how there are so many examples from nature that are testimonies of this. Broken clouds let the light in. Soil has to be broken to plant a seed. A caterpillar has to break it's cocoon in order to for it's transformation into a butterfly to be complete. I'm sure you can think of more, but I am convinced that God loves broken things. I'll be hitting my year mark this week and as I have reflected on the past year, I have seen how broken things do become beautiful things.

I love you all and I wish you the best!

Love,
Søster Buhler

1- ALice in Wonderland apartment we found!

2- Autumn leaves, aren't they pretty??

3- The B-E-A-U-TIFUL sunset we saw last night while out tracting