March 5

Hello dearest family,

So this week has been great. We contacted a lot and we had an exchange
with two other sisters this week. On Tuesday night, Pres Miles called
and asked if it would be possible to have a "visa waiter" to join our
companionship. We said that in the contract we have, we arent allowed
to have a third person live here but that we would talk to the
landlord and see what he says. I was stoked out of my mind when he
called. We immediately started making preparation including praying
for the new sister and for our landlord's heart to be softened. The
next day, we went and spoke with Herr Brunner and he said that he
would talk with his wife about it, but he was almost positive that she
would say no. We were a little disheartened but we then said a prayer
to have the heart of Frau Brunner to be softened as well. We really
wanted the new sister to come. We then went about our day and met an
80 year old man who we made an appointment and then went to take
cookies to a 7 year old we have been teaching for this 8th birthday.
Well they weren't home so we left them in the mailbox and then headed
back home. On our way, we met a family from Iran and they were muslim
and have recently turned Christian. We asked them if we could come and
teach them a little more about Christ, and they were thrilled. We are
really hoping to meet with them this week. They are so cute. Its a
husband, wife, and a 16 month old. Awesome. After that, we got home
and made our famous Chicken Salad and were able to eat outside it was
so nice. While we were eating, Herr Brunner came and spoke with us and
said that they would allow the third sister to come but this was the
VERY last time. We said okay, and immediately called President to let
him know that we got the Okay. He said that he would call us that
night and let us know if she would be coming to us or going somewhere
else. We prayed hard for her to come to Richterswil.

We then headed to St Gallen to exchange Sister Phillips for Sister
McBride. We had just enough time to go home, eat, and plan and play
the guitar and head to bed. It was a great day to say the least. :) By
the way, dad, you should send me the lyrics to your "all night long"
song. I have become quite good at playing the guitar and am excited to
play it for you all when I come home. It is probably one of my
favorite past times now. Anyway, around 10:15, Pres Miles had called
and said that we would be getting a new sister and we needed to pick
her up the next day in Zürich at 18:48. I was so excited.

So the next day was really busy. We were contacting, going to
appointments, dropping off more cookies to less actives all up until
the time we could go pick up the new sister. We got to Zürich and got
to the platform where she would be coming in and then we suddenly
realized she probably wouldnt have a tag, we have no idea what she
looks like, I didnt know how to say her name....and this train is
really long..... well, luckily we have the spirit and since
missionaries have to carry their whole life with them, she wasnt too
hard to find. Her name is Sister Uhlig. I still dont know how to say
it correctly... its kind of like that Brian Regan skit..."it's
caroLINE Brian...Well it's not Brian it's BRIIIIOOOOOOONNNNNNNEEE --
7-- Q" But, its okay she is still nice to me. :)

She is from Frankfurt and is just awesome. She is 26 years old and
just super sweet. She has her mission call to St George Utah Temple
Visitor Center. She is really cool. Has a really cool story but I cant
tell you all of it because I just dont have the time. I was really
excited for Sr Phillips to come back and to meet her. I realized
during this exchange just how much I love Sister Phillips. She is
seriously one of the biggest blessings in my life and has really
helped me through a lot of hard things. I cant wait for you to meet
her. She loves you all, by the way. She has to hear me tell her all
about how awesome you are each week. :) But she thinks that you are
some of the most amazing people in the world. Anyway, it has been nice
to be in a dritt again. I really like it. Especially with Sister
Phillips. Now its REALL just like the MTC.

Well, I better get going. I just want to let you all know that I know
that our Savior lives. He loves each of you so much and is very aware
of all that you are trying to do in your life. He will consecrate
every righteous desire that we have. I am so grateful for the
Atonement that he suffered for each of us that we may repent daily and
feel his presence in our life each day of our lives. I know that this
church is true. I have a little notebook of reasons why I am on my
mission. A lot of them are people. A lot of them are also the things
that I have learned so far. And the rest are things that I know I will
learn before my mission is complete. I love Elder Bednars quote of, "A
release from a full-time mission is a call to a LIFE time mission."
May the Lord bless you with even MORE missionary opportunities that we
may all be life Ammon and Alma that each time we come together, we can
rejoice in one anothers success in bringing souls unto Christ. Thank
you again for all that you have done for me. I love you more than you
could possibly imagine. I cant wait to hear about all your exciting
adventures, funny moments, and gospel findings next week. I wish you
all a blessed week filled with all the happiness you deserve.

Love for always,
Sister Fokken

February 27

This week was 10 times busier than the last but I had many wonderful experiences as well. Have I told you how wonderful our ward is here? Well, they are basically like our family in missionary work, but there are like 5 or 6 "Fokken" families so to speak. This last week we went to teach a friend of our ward mission leader's wife, who also cleans their home. Her name is Jasmine. She reminds me a lot of my roommate Amber. Very much a free spirit but believes that there is a higher power. She spoke of how Sister Gysler (the wife of our WML) is an angel in her life and how she feels like there is a reason why she met Sister Gysler and how she feels just really good about herself and about life when she is in their home. We had an amazing lesson with her but it was Sister Gyslers testimony that really got her engaged in the discussion. I cannot express the importance of a friends testimony when meeting with the missionaries. Today I was reading in Alma 19 verse 31 and this is right after Ammon explained the plan of Salvation to the King and then he collapsed and then he arose and testified, collapsed again and all that were in the house, save it be Abish, collapse in the Spirit. The whole town came running, and were contending one with another and thought the nephite, Ammon, had brought an evil into the home. Then, the King arose and testified of the things that Ammon had taught him and all that heard his testimony were converted. The same type of thing happens with King Lamoni's father and his household (Alma 22:23) It was once again just saying to me just how important it is to have members in our lessons with their friends so that they can testify of what we are saying. Just think about it. If you had a stranger come and tell you to change something and bear their soul to you, it wouldnt mean nearly as much to you as if you were to hear it from someone you loved, and admired. (Sorry my english is horrible... i cant speak either language very well right now...) But think about that the next time you go out with the missionaries or you look for friends that you feel you need to share the gospel with. Keep up the Good work. The Lord is so proud of all of you. I love you all so much.

Oh by the way, the success continued as we concluded with meeting with Jasmine, she took the Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. She prayed at the end of our discussion and was really happy. After that, we headed to the church to see if our investigators had made it to the dance course that a member couple was teaching that night. THEY CAME++++ and they found the church all by themselves. And after we spoke with them for a few minutes, we had to leave but the members are awesome and took care of them and invited them to come to church and to a baptism and they said that they were excited to come and excited for the next dance course. It was awesome. We actually missed our bus and walked 40 min back to our Apartment... but, we were so excited, it didnt matter. But we were burnt out the next day.

Oh something else cool that I keep forgetting to tell you... I totally slept through a 4.2 earthquake about three weeks ago... Ha, and I wasnt even burned out then+ It was just a normal missionary exhaustion that night... ha, yeah, best sleep I've ever gotten has been on my mission... thats for sure. Okay well that was like a novel and a half. but I hope that you enjoyed it nonetheless. We are going to the Zoo today. and guess what???????? THEY HAVE PENGUINS ON PARADE. I am so excited. I love penguins.... love. them. :)

I hope your weeks are filled with joy and happiness and gratitude for the blessings we receive for being a covenant people in these latter days. May the Lord continue to bless you and all that you are trying to achieve in your lives. He Lives. I know He lives. This IS HIS church on the earth today. I know that with my whole heart. This work is so important, and I am so grateful for a family that supports me and this work not only in words but also in actions. Being missionaries themselves. It has been wonderful to see just how many blessings my family has received because of my decision to serve a mission and give my whole life to him for 18 months. I love Him and will do anything for him. I hope you can do the same. So that one day we can dwell in the Celestial Kingdom together and say as a FAMILY that we have done all that we could do in this mortal life to prepare ourselves and others to enter, with confidence, into His presence and dwell with him forever. My heart swells with joy at the very thought of this day. Continue to be great and I will talk to you next week.

Liebe,
Sister Fokken

Best Course on Life.... My Mission

Hello there,

Man this is killing me not to be able to make an exclamation point.
Anyways, this week has been a tougher one on the mission. Last monday
was probably the hardest day of my mission thus far. Have I told you
about our neighbor man? He is really cool but really opinionated and
I am still as stubborn and strong willed as he is. Or at least I was
last Monday. We had a blast playing soccer/basketball with our
district last monday and when we were on the train to go home, we
noticed that "neighborman" had called about 3 hours earlier. We sent
him a text because figured that he was just at work on Lunch break
when he called and we didnt want to disturb him at work. Well, we got
home and didnt hear from him. He then came and knocked on our front
door and we asked why he had called earlier and he said it was a test
to see if we were true to our word as in that he could call us
anytime. Well, we failed his little "test" but I wasnt really
bothered. I thought it was stupid. So we told him that we had an
appointment and that we would be back later and we can talk some more.
So after we had FHE with our ward mission leader we headed back to
talk to Neighborman. We talked for nearly two hours. He was mad about
something and I wasnt sure what. He didnt like that I was really
serious when I talked about the Gospel and he said and did some other
things that made my blood boil a little. And Sr Phillips even got mad
and she NEVER gets mad... I truly felt like Christ at times during the
conversation where I would try to teach a gospel principle and he
would interupt and change topics and tell us that we dont know
anything and that all religions are the same. He spoke to us as if he
thought he knew everything about us and that we knew nothing about
what it meant to live a hard life. That was probably the hardest thing
for me to hear. My life hasnt been as bad as his I am sure, but he
knows absolutely nothing about my past. Things that I had to struggle
with. People I've lost. Friends that have betrayed me. He knew nothing
yet he told me all about his life and how hard it is and how it is
more important to be happy than anything. There came a point that I
just stopped talking and stood there in wonder as to why he was the
way he was? At that point in the conversation he started making fun of
me for looking tired and told me to stop drinking so much and to get
some sleep. I know he was just joking but still, I was just astounded
as to how he could act the way he did. He then put a rolled up news
paper in my face and said something that I cant remember. I grabbed
the paper and pushed it calmly out of my face but he again put it in
my face. That is the point that Sister Phillips was about to deck him
in the face. After that, I said he was right I need to go get some
sleep. Sister Phillips prayed and we went back up to our apartment. I
walked in and collapsed by my bed and sobbed. I felt the love the Lord
has for Neighborman so powerfully and yet he still denied everything I
said. I felt the heartache the Lord feels when he sees one of his
children reject his beautiful perfect plan, and refuse to change and
grow. I have never felt such a great desire for the salvation of men
as I did that evening. I know now exactly how the prophets in the Book
of Mormon felt when they wept for their brethern who didnt know the
gospel or who just denied it and rebelled openly against them. I
learned so much in these two hours. I wish I could tell you all that I
learned. But I think the thing that I learned the most is how to love.
I LOVE these people. Now I just need to learn how to show it.

The week was pretty slow after that. We had a few appointments but
mostly we were going by former investigators or potential
investigators. We had no luck. It may be because I kinda sort of
prayed for more humility. Whoops. But I have learned a lot about
myself and that I cant do this work alone. I love my mission. I love
my companion. The Lord definately knows what he is doing. I love the
gospel more than words can express and I cant deny the power of God
and the power of the Atonement and this gospel. On Saturday, we went
out to dinner with Neighborman because he doesnt want to meet at a
members home and we cant meet with his in his apartment so we went to
a pizzeria and he told us about a lot of things. Probably one of the
funniest days of my mission. He told us about how you cant just go and
talk to someone about the gospel. You have to show your love first and
then they will feel that love and be more open to the gospel. He has a
point, but missionaries have superpowers that he doesnt even know
about. That may be how he will come to the gospel is just by us
showing him the love of Christ and then he'll be more open about
talking about Christ. But I know that there are several other children
that are just waiting for the gospel, looking for a hole that needs to
be filled and will do anything to be happy in this life. TRULY HAPPY.
This really is a wonderful life. Something that is so short. I am
doing all I can to give my all and find the lost sheep I promised the
Lord before I came to this earth that I would find.

There is a song called, "Fire of God" by Kenneth Cope and it has
become one of my favorites. It expresses exactly how I feel. Well the
first verse and chorus. I'll get to the other verses later. But I have
had too many miracles happen in my life to deny that this IS the
Lord's church. Another song that really struck me this week was one
that the young men sang yesterday at church. It's called, "I'll Find
You My Friend". Look that one up too. Ahh, they are just sooo good.
They make me feel excited to be a missionary.

On a happier more uplifting note, I want you to STOP reading this
right now and go to YouTube and type in "Tribute to Relief Society" by
Alex Boye. Right now.... Go..... I am not going to start typing
anymore until you listen to it.........

.....

..............

......

Okay so I obviously cant wait forever, but this song is HILARIOUS. We
heard it at an Relief Society activity earlier this week and I about
jumped to the moon because it was so awesome. I love relief society.
This last week we had an activity where it was a film night where you
had to have your ticket and they tore your ticket just like at the
theaters, they had posters of other movies all around the church
house, they had a snack stand, previews, and everything. I really want
to do this when I go home. It is so cool. We stayed for the previews
because they were mostly mormon ads and stuff and then this song. It
was really cool.

Yesterday on our way to church, we were getting ready to walk out the
door and Sister Phillips prayed. I dont remember much about her prayed
except that she asked for an opportunity to participate at church. I
was a little worried at first but then didnt think anything of it.
Well, while we were greeting everyone in the foyer, the sunday school
president asked us if we could give a 5 min overview of the Plan of
Salvation. I hestitated slightly but said that we could do it. I was
way nervous but Sister Phillips kept her cool. (Really weird because
usually its the other way around...) We got up and taught about the
plan of salvation and bore powerful testimony. Sister Phillips told me
after church that the parents of some very active members were NOT
members of the church. It was awesome. I absolutely love Sister
Phillips and seeing her working through the spirit. She is truly such
an amazing example to me.

Bis Nächste Mal,
Sister Fokken

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

One more time...

So I am staying in Richterswil for another transfer with the same best companion in the whole world. I love my life.

Yesterday, we had an amazing testimony meeting. I love this ward so much. They remind me a lot of the Ralston Lavista ward actually. Everyone is so friendly and just so missionary minded. The bishops wife got up yesterday and told of her experience in sharing the Book of Mormon with her neighbor and how she gave it as a "going away present." When the neighbor took the wrapped book, not knowing for SURE what it was, she held it close to her heart and with deepest sincerity thanked the member for such a wonderful gift. This neighbor knew that this book was special even before she read it. This is the power of the Book of Mormon. Several others followed her and shared all their missionary moments and they nearly brought me to tears. During the third hour, we had a combined RS and Priesthood lesson about the Book of Mormon and modern technilogical missionary tools that we could use. It was a powerful lesson. A member of our mission presidency came and talked about the goal of the mission and how the members could get involved. It was marvelous. Then our GML (aka ward mission leader) invited each family there to take two Books of Mormon. One they would take and write their testimony there in and then return it to us missionaries to give to someone else. The second book would be for them to give away to someone else this year. We had brought nearly 35 books to the church that day and only walked away with 8. After the meeting, a member came to us and said that she was going to invite our investigator over for dinner soon and she wanted us to be there as well. This morning, another member called us and invited us to help a friend move (interestingly enough, it is the neighbor to the bishop, who received a Book of Mormon last week). The Work is going forward.

I have seen many miracles come this week. Once again, I got pretty sick again and Sister Phillips got sick as well... We spent a lot of time studying while each other were trying to sleep off this sickness we had. On Saturday, we were going to go play floor hockey with our ward and a less active in the ward, and then go to a dinner appointment that evening. Well, we were both pretty sick on Saturday and couldnt go play hockey (which was okay because the less active couldnt come after all) and we cancelled our dinner appointment. We felt bad but at peace at the same time. We were planning and filing out the Progress Record for Sunday, and I felt that we needed to call our neighbor, Rocco, and invite him to church. I called him and he said no, but he said that he would come talk to us after he got home. We spoke with him for nearly an hour and he is such an amazing person. He said he was planning on coming to church all week but then today, there was just too much, and he didnt feel like facing 80 random people. I asked him if we could pray with him and he said certainly. I prayed and the spirit was so strong. After the prayer, his whole countanance had changed. He still didnt feel like coming to church, but he was touched that we would pray for him like we did. It was so cool.

Another little miracle happened yesterday. We were on our way home from our GML's house and I felt that we needed to take a train that left earlier and so we did. We went to go see Maria and luckily she was home. She let us in, we taught her and set up another appointment for Wednesday. Had we taken the train an hour later like we were planning on, we wouldn't have been able to sit down and meet with her because her friend was calling from Brasil around the time that we would have gotten there.

This week, I have received more spiritual promptings as I ever have in my entire life. I feel so blessed to be worthy to receive such spiritual promptings. I have been praying hard this last week to be a better tool in the Lords hands and to be able to recognize his will and have the courage to follow the spirit. Especially when I had to sleep longer than usual and I felt like an awful missionary for sleeping during valuable time. As I pleaded with the Lord to know what more I could do, I read Mosiah 4:27. What a comfort that was to know that the Lord is still pleased with me and knows me individually.

May the Lord bless you with all the righteous desires of your heart.

Liebe,
Sister Fokken

PS I have gotten several compliments on my german lately. Woot. More evidence that the gospel is true. :)

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

SCHAAAAWEEEET

So this week has been crazy awesome. It is seriously such a good time to be a missionary here in Richterswil. Let me just explain to you some of the little tender mercies we have seen, aka evidences from the Lord that we are doing EXACTLY what we are supposed to be doing.

We got a referral from the Luzern Elders the other day and we didn't really think much of it. We traveled about an hour and a half by train to contact two referrals that we had. Gotta love missionary work in Switzerland. On our way to a little place called Steinen, we got on this train and we were talking in english about something, I can't remember now what it was, but then a lady just looks at me with a curious look on her face and I can't help but smile back. She asked where we were from (in English) and what we were doing exactly. We told her we were here to invite people to come to Christ. She told us about how her faith in Christ has helped her in her marriage. She has been married for 28 years and I said congratulations, and she said it was only through the grace of God that it was possible. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she said, "I know that book, and I will never read it." Not surprising, thats what a lot of people say. So I began to inquire why she would never read it. She gave the typical answer that no one should add to the Bible. We talked a little bit more and I just bore my testimony that it IS true and it IS the word of God and that everyone can know if it is true if they just read it and pray about it. She didn't accept what I said, but that was the first time in my life that I wasn't really hurt or offended or mad at someone for doubting my beliefs. I know what I believe and I am just here to invite and find those whom he has prepared. She just isnt ready yet.

After we finally got to Steinen, we found the potential and they told us that they weren't interested but I have no doubt that someday they will be very interested. They were very sweet people. After that we took another train to Schwyz to meet with the other referral that we received. His name is Nikolaus and he is from Greece and he is awesome. Very interested in what we believe. We were able to teach him the introduction lesson and it was so awesome. He has a strong desire to change his life around. And I have a feeling that as he reads the Book of Mormon he will feel the power there of and have a desire to come unto Christ. He is just so wonderful. After this awesome appointment we started the journey home. We found a train that went passed where we needed but we knew that we could take a train from there to our little city. So, we boarded the train. Then about half way through the ride, I saw another train that I thought would be faster, so we hurried up and got off the train and boarded the other train. Well to make a long story short, this train went in the wrong direction and we ended up waiting for 20 min for another train that took us to another stop that we waited another 20 mins for and ahh, I felt so bad. Instead of getting home at 9:29pm we got home at 9:50pm ish.... So schlimm. But we had a lot of fun, playing in the snow waiting for the trains. Ha, I challenged Sister Phillips to a slidding contest and she totally biffed it and was soaking wet... SOOOO funny.

The miracles geht weider. Just yesterday we were on our way to an appointment and there is a small train that comes right by our house that we like to take. We were waiting for the train and enjoying the sunset when the train came and was slowing down. Suddenly, Sister Phillips says, "There's Momo." Momo is a former investigator that we have been trying to contact for the last 3 months. We had a good chat with him and he asked US if we had time to meet on Thursday. We said of course and continued on our way to our appointment. We got to Familie Koch and made a sad attempt at teaching their 7 year old son in german about the Laws and Ordinances of the Gospel. The children here don't speak high german very well and they REALLY don't understand broken high german. Thank goodness his parents are there to interperate what we say. Afterwards we had dinner. I cannot tell you how many times I have had cake or cookies for dinner. It is crazy. But its alway so good. Finally we made our way to the door once more, (after talking about Mitt Romney for a few minutes or so...) then we walked back to the train station. We missed the train that left at 18:03 and thus missed our connecting train that only comes once an hour. So we had to take the 18:35 train and take a bus back to our house. Not a big deal just a little less convenient. Well it turns out that our neighbor, Rocco, whom we gave a Book of Mormon to last Sunday, took the same bus. We talked to him from the bus station all the way to our apartment and talked to him for another 20 min or so. He said that he was starting a new diet where he is only drinking juice and tea for the next 21 days with no food. Talk about will power. But he said that he wants to change his life and it is so nice that he also has "our" book to read while he is making these changes. He has read about 136 pages thus far in the Book of Mormon and he said that everything he's read is in line with what he believes. I again bore my testimony of the many wonderful examples in the Book of Mormon and we invited him to come to church and he sounded like he would really like to come. We were thrilled. We exchanged numbers and we hope to hear from him soon.

I know that this work is the work of the Lord. There is no way that all of these things should have happened the way they did. Missing trains, buses, being late to appointments is all in the hand of the Lord. He knows who we need to see and how we can meet with them. Life is so cool as a missionary. I wouldnt want to be doing anything else in the world right now. The church is true. Our Savior lives. The Book of Mormon is the key to the knowledge we need to be happy in THIS life and to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven.

Take care this week,
Liebe, Sister Fokken

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

RICHTERSWIL

So I am now in a place called Richterswil and I love it. The best part about it is that I am with my MTC companion again, Sister Phillips. She is still one of the best people I have ever met. Now to be companions with her once more is a total blessing. We have had fun reminissing about the good times we had together in the MTC and also talking about what we have learned about ourselves, missionary work, and the people so far on our missions. We also found out that Sister Taysom is training. Sister Marquard (not sure about the spelling) is her new Golden. We are so excited for Sister Taysom. She is one of the best missionaries ever. We also recieved Sister Cannon in our Zone. She is awesome and grew up with one of my roommates. The world is sooooooo small. Life is so good as a missionary. We have such a great mission President as well. He has set the goal of doubling our baptisms for the next year. We are doing a special fast for our mission this coming Sunday so that we can not only build unity in the mission but also so that we can achieve the goal of having 300+ baptisms next year. I received a personal witness that this goal can and will be achieved if we do what the president has asked which is to 1) hand out a book of mormon everyday to someone who we feel inspired to give it to and who commits to read it 2) are exactly obedient 3) and if we read two chapters in the Book of Mormon each day. I am so proud to be a missionary in the Alpenländische Mission. I love seeing miracles each and everyday of my life. We met a woman on the train the other day and she was amazed at the book of mormon and that we would give our lives to the Lord for 18 months. She took the Book of Mormon and promised to read it. It was such a spiritual experience to hear her talk about Jesus Christ and about a dream that she had in which she can NEVER deny that Jesus is the Christ. We also met with a part-member family the other day and they are amazing. They read the Book of Mormon each evening as a family and pray together  daily. They are the sweetest people ever. I love my Savior. I know he LIVES. He loves each of his children. Especially YOU. May the Lord Bless you and may you continue to be missionary minded and seek out those that are straying from the fold. The only way that missionaries can have true success is if you get involved. I would invite you to pray for the Lord to show you someone in your path that you could share the beautiful message of the Restoration with them. I promise you as you do so, you will find a peace come into your life and a new friend throughout all eternity.

With all the Love I can muster,
Sister Fokken

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hello There!

Well life is going pretty good her in der Schweiz! I don't have too much to complain about! We have two baptisms in the month of December! I couldn't be happier for both of them! I pray that they will be able to follow through with their commitments and enter to this covenant with our Heavenly Father and feel that instant peace and joy that comes from the remission of sins. I have learned a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ on my mission (crazy I know) but it has been interesting to see just how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so much a part of who I am. Living the gospel is not simple something I do. I want to live it because of the blessings it brings! I have learned a lot about the GIFT of the Holy Ghost and just how awesome it really is to be able to have the CONSTANT companionship of the Holy Ghost. That means we are promised that if we keep the commandments, always remember him, and take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, we are PROMISED that we can partake of the fruits of the Spirit which are found in Galatians 5:22-23; "But the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.." How great of a blessing that is to us as children of God on this Earth, learning through trial and err, to be able to find peace, faith, goodness, etc in our lives as the turmoil and chaos seem to swirl in the world around us. May we call strive to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion especially as this wonderful time of Christmas Season is fast approaching. May we seek after these things in righteousness that the Lord may grant us the desires of our heart!

The church is still true. I know that more now than ever! I am thoroughly convinced I had to serve a mission to realize just how much I am committed to this gospel. I have had several experiences where people tell me flat out that I am wrong and that no one can know what will happen after this life or that we have no purpose here. I am been told that I don't know my own religion and I should study other religions. We have been asked to never come back. We have been scolded for knocking on doors trying to bring people to Christ. We have had people say they don't know if the gospel is true anymore. People who have lost their sense of hope, and think that life is not worth living any longer. 

After all this, I still cannot deny my testimony. I cannot deny the peace I feel in the temple. The joy that comes through daily repentance. The love I feel of my Heavenly Father on a daily basis. My testimony that the Book of Mormon IS everything that it claims to be. I know with out a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that I am a daughter of God and have been placed on this earth by a loving Heavenly Father of whom I have the potential to have all that he has, and to become all that He is. I would invite all of you this Christmas season to write your testimony frequently in a daily journal of yours and continue to count the many blessings that the Lord has given YOU!  Here in Basel, we are asking members to write a simple testimony of which we will place on the inside cover of a Book of Mormon and hand them out to those who are being prepared to accept the gospel. I would invite you to do the same. Write your testimony in a copy of the Book of Mormon, and give it to someone that your really care about. This gospel is the best gift anyone could ever give. 

May the Lord bless you in all that you are in need of.

Liebe, 

Sister Fokken

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.