Liebe GruBe from Graz

Liebe Grüße from Graz! 

I hope everyone is doing great this week!

Juliette and Endurance are doing good! The Gospel is still really new to them...so we have to go slow...we will meet with them tonight and a few more times this week. 

One cool thing that happened was with an appointment with Juliette. We taught her about the Restoration and watched the DVD about Joseph Smith.

After we watched the DVD, before I could ask her what she felt, she said "I felt God`s presence during that movie"....awesome!

I love teaching people about the Restoration because it is through the Restoration that we have access to the Atonement. What a huge blessing. 

Charles really struggled this week. He fought hard with the Devil. The Atonement is real and Charles is finding that out for himself. I think I have experienced every emotion possible with Charles. 

After him, i think i can handle any investigator. :) haha I am grateful to be able to work with people like Charles and to learn from them.

This week we did an exchange with the Vienna sisters again. This time, Sister Drury, who actually studied with me at BYU, came to Graz!

Me being able to navigate around the city and everything without Sister Holmstead was a miracle within itself. 

We didnt even get lost and we were on time to our appointments!

Missions are really crazy. They are so unique. Somedays I still cant believe I am on a mission! haha 

Missions - just like any experience in life - are only what we make them.

It is not enough to just "go through" an experience. It is how that experience affects us...or how we allow it to affect us. 

"The final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts....what we have done."

"It is an acknowledgment of the final effects of our acts and thoughts...what we have become."

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to BECOME what our Heavenly Father desires us to become!" - Elder Oaks

I love this concept. This life is a time to learn, progress, struggle, grow, be happy, and ultimately become as He is. 

It is super easy to take the easy way out. It is easy to just go through the motions. It is easy to mix up our priorities...But Growth cannot come by taking the easy way. 

I am grateful that we have the plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become - the Gospel!

As I have seen the change the Gospel brings to people, I am more and more grateful and aware of the goodness of God. 

He loves us and wants nothing but the best for us. 

May we take the good and bad in every situation and become better versions of ourselves.

Ich liebe euch!

XoXoXo

Schwester Jaynes

p.s. Quote for Elder Jaynes: "Many are Cold, but Few are Frozen" Watch out Russia, Elder Jaynes is coming to TOWN!!!!! ;)