Wonderful!

Well, this past week has been great!

After a weekend and PDay full of tough goodbyes and packing like a  madwoman, I found myself once again making the trip back down to Freiberg. The familiar scenes of rundown DDR buildings, open fields, weathered steeples piercing the overcast German sky, and my out-of-date  journal laying open on the little desk next to me made the hours of travel slip away as quickly as it  feels like my mission has. In that good ol' Freiberg chapel, I was paired up with Sister Brooke Darton - a Sandy, Utah native with a big smile and a desire to talk to everyone. I'm a lucky girl. ''Hannover, here we come!'' 

Walking into the Metzig's 4th floor apartment that first rainy day in Hannover felt like a big hug: crowded bookshelves, games, seashells, a green umbrella stand full of funky walking canes, framed little kid scribbles and paintings of the Savior on the walls, carefully-folded owl paper napkins on the table, the way that Bruder Metzig had his wife try the Asian noodles to make sure they were exactly to her taste, heavily marked copies of the Book of Mormon open on the table ... everything.

"We have two rules for missionaries in this house," announced Bruder Metzig. "Number one: here is home. You can feel totally comfortable here and with us. Number two: Eat as much as you want - not one bite less and not one bite more." With a smile and a wink, he asked his wife to bless the food and I bowed my head, grateful for this new family in my life.

On Sunday, our investigator, Marina, sat on the stand in Fast and Testimony meeting nervously and excitedly waiting for her chance to speak. ''This is my first testimony I will ever share,'' she said as she held her 7 year-old daughter Mariella's hand. ''I just wanted to say thank you to the Metzig family  or introducing me to this circle of faith and friends. I am so grateful for the missionaries and for how sweet they are to our little family. We both have been given priesthood blessings by Stefan Metzig and each time, we felt so much more strength and support and love from God. We are really grateful to be a part of this and I am grateful to learn about this church.''

I was in shock. What investigator does that in front of a huge crowd of strangers?  Wonderful!

Truly here in Hannover, I am among ''many of the noble and great ones.''

All of my love, 

Sister Grace