Miracles Never Cease

Hallo!! 

I cannot believe it is already Monday again. Crazy! I hope the 4th of July was wonderful and that everyone enjoyed being in the good ol' US of A. I spent my 4th in Germany! We had our Leadership Conference at the mission home this last week. It just happened to be on the 4th this month! President and Sister Miles had a BBQ for us and one of the hymns we sang for our meeting was the national anthem! There was something special about being in a room full of great missionaries, our mission President and his wife, in Germany - singing the American national anthem. It literally brought tears to my eyes and the Spirit was super strong. I was overcome with emotions. Yes, I love America, but also I was grateful for our loving, Heavenly Father who prepared a land so the gospel could be restored! Really neat. 

The Leadership Conference was great. Sister and President Miles talked about Faith for a large part of the meeting which was really inspirational. It is crazy to me how much you can learn about these simple, first principles of the Gospel. Faith is where we build our foundation. Faith in Christ and His Atonement. Faith that when we rely on Him, we will not fail. 

Speaking of Faith...remember the miracle of Constance? The lady we met on the bus my first weekend here in Linz. Ya, the one who ordered the Book of Mormon? Well after one month of just craziness and schedules lining up...Sister Schonherr and I finally decided to just go by and talk to her about the Book of Mormon. We have always had the feeling that her boyfriend is against religion and we were right. We stopped by on Wednesday - and Constance's boyfriend was not home. Constance invited us in and we chatted for a little while. We explained a little bit about the Book of Mormon and I shared one of my favorite stories from  Mosiah 24. She loved it. At the end we prayed, as we said amen, i turned to Constance and there were just tears rolling down her cheeks. She was overcome with the Spirit. As I sat there in her Austrian apartment, the Spirit was super strong. We had prayed that Constance would have the desire to learn more about the Gospel after simply talking with her on the bus that rainy, Saturday night. After several weeks, we were then praying and reading in the Book of Mormon together. Such a miracle. God's timing is perfect because after a few minutes, Peter her boyfriend came home. As we left, Constance whispered out the door - thank you for the visit and the beautiful prayer. It was music to our ears. Connecting people to heaven and helping others feel the love, peace, and joy that our Father in Heaven is anxious to give us is something special. The next day, Constance sent us a text thanking us again and asking if we could come to dinner this week. The miracle of Constance goes on! 

I am so grateful for the Plan God has for each of us. I am grateful that he allows us to be instruments in His hands and to learn and grow. He knows us and love us. Although we sometimes do not understand His plan or would like it our way, His ways are always better. I am also grateful for prayer this week. I have met several people who are afraid to pray or are uncomfortable to pray. I am grateful for the knowledge that we can talk with the Creator of the universe, the Almighty God, and of all the names and titles, we call Him Father. 

Life is oh, so good. Miracles never cease. Goodness and hope is around every corner. 

XOXOXOXO

Schwester Jaynes