WEEK 27 8-2-11 - 8-8-11

Hello Everyone,

WOW what a week here in the Bad Bentheim area we are tearing it up and it feels AWESOME! We really see the blessings from the Lord every day and we are seeing people get closer and closer! I said last week that it was the best numbers I had had my whole mission well they just got better! We got 20 lessons this week!! That is the standard for our mission here so that was cool to be able to do that. We actually got 22 lessons but thats not important haha we had two days this week where we had 6 lessons each that was so cool! We also found 5 new investigators this week and they are all pretty cool. A couple are way solid so that is nice one of them actually came to church on sunday. We had 3 investigators to church and it was awesome. I want to start though by talking about Peter he is the one who just showed up at church a couple of weeks ago and so we have been meeting with him regularly. We met with him on Thursday and we usually meet him in a cafe just by our house cause his office is here in rheine and he doesnt like to meet at his office. So he gets to the cafe about 5 minutes late and he says have you guys eaten lunch? and it was about 4 o clock and we said ya we ate about noon and he said well I didnt so lets go haha. He took us to a Mexican resturant here in Rheine it was way nice its definately not real Mexican food but it was pretty good he bought us both like 13 euro meals and also dessert! We had a great lesson with him as well in the Resturant. We wanted to talk to him about the restoration of the priesthood and it was good cause he had a question about the Sabbath and since he studied theology he knows lots about religion and he said why is the Sabbath not on saturday and we explained it to him that it was revealed to the prophet and that could only happen through the restoration of the priesthood and it was so great he is still reading in the Book of Mormon and he says he really enjoys it. He really studies it because he has so many books from his studies. In the middle of our conversation he looked at us and said I prayed last week! And we both dropped our jaws like WHAT! So what I told him the week before must have got him to think a little bit! It was so great! He is the coolest guy! He took a few pictures of us missionaries cause he wanted to send them to a friend of his in Peru who is a member of our church. He than came to church on sunday and enjoyed it alot. After the meetings we took him upstairs in the church to watch the restoration movie. That went really well after the spirit was so strong we talked about it. I asked what he thought and he said I must be honest and we were thinking oh no he is gonna find something wrong with it. Than he said you can notice that people who diligently seek always get answers and Joseph Smith really did that. He said we can see it in the bible all the time with the people who get the answers like that are really trying to figure it out. Than I gave him the big baptism question!! He didnt give me an answer I think he may not of fully understood what I was asking cause we teach him in English because he is Dutch so its a language barrier for sure but I said when you know this is true will you be baptized? and he said I believe it is true already I just want to study it a little bit more! He told us you can really tell a tree by its fruits and that the fruits of our tree have been good so he really believes it is true! We are going to keep working with him but he is progressing so much!! Its amazing! Oh I almost forgot so when we were eating on Thursday we told him about fast and testimony meeting cause we didnt want him to be freaked out on Sunday at church so than he said should I fast too? and we said well you could if you want and he said ok I will!! So he is definately going to get his answer soon!! He also told us he had been smoking 90 to 100 cigarettes per day and just this last week cut down to 5!! He is planning on being completely finished by next Sunday which is awesome cause we never talked to him about the Word of Wisdom he is just doing it cause he knows its right and he says he has never drank alchohal so thats not a problem at all he is being prepared!! Anyways we also had a couple walk in appointments doing doors this week and we met with Shaney Luckys roommate and he has met with the missionaries before and has been so close to baptism but his family who lives in India they are muslim and dont want him to join the church so thats been hard and he has always had a hard time with smoking so we met with him and asked him if he wanted to quit and he said ya and that he needs our help and I also asked him if he would talk to his family again and have them look into what the church teaches so they know its not some crazy church and he said he would so he is getting on the right track again!! Its so crazy how busy we are and how many awesome people we are finding! Its like we had hit a wall and finally broke through its so great! 3 more weeks of the transfer that means we need to get a baptism fast cause I will prob be transferred since this is my 3rd transfer here but maybe President will leave me here cause the work is EXPLOADING! We have had such a great week and I know we can continue to keep the work going forwards here. It seems like recently people have just been so much nicer to us even the ones that dont have interest! We were walking to our car on Saturday and we walk pass this bar on the way everyday cause its by our house and this guy in the bar stopped me and said what are you guys doing I see you walking around all the time and so I told him we are from our church and we teach people about our church and there were crazy drunk people in this bar coming up to us and saying have a drink and stuff it was kinda funny this one guy asked if we were the Anti Christ and we said no and he said where are you from and we said America and they all started freakin out saying we have some real americans here and all this stuff than this one drunk guy was like you have that black man as president and we said yup and he said he is screwing up the world with all the debt and the other guy was like well these boys cant do anything about that it was really funny and than he somehow found out we were mormon and he said we have mormons from america here haha it was funny. But the guy who we were talking to in the first place kept talking to us he wasnt drunk and he said he would love to meet with us his parents were Jehovas witness he is a little bit older his parents are prob dead but he said he wants to learn about what we are teaching and we made out an appointment to meet him at the bar haha crazy things are happening and its awesome the Lord is blessing us with miracles!! We are working hard and its been great! This next week we will be going to Hannover for zone conference that will be fun I will be able to tell Elder Hardman that we are tearing it up here! Haha. Oh also I was asked to teach priesthood this next week! SO pray for me that I will be able to speak good enough German to teach a good lesson!! Oh I think I forgot to tell you last week we taught Primary and that was really good we taught them about the Plan of Happiness and had them draw there own worlds and told them Gods plan it went really well!! So everything is good here with me! Thanks for all you do!! Love you all!!

WEEK 26 7-26-11 - 8-1-11

Hello Everyone,

Wow this week has been awesome! The best week number wise that I have had since I have been here! We finally got 15 lessons and 7 of them were with non members!! We also got 2 new investigators this week its been way good! Its good to see your hard work pay off finally! And I know it will get better and better as the time goes! We will see the prepared people come out of the wood work! We also were able to meet with the man who came to church last week his name is Peter and that was way cool. It was a little unfunctional because he didnt want us meeting in his office so he took us to a cafe and bought us some drinks and we talked there! I think he is really progressing he has a really hard time with prayer and doesnt want to do it. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and since he studied theology he has a couple other books he is reading with it to see if its valid haha like dates and stuff and he hasnt found any problems thus far! And we all know that he wont find any problems with it! So he was talking about prayer and how he doesnt think he should cause he knows that his prayers would be answered and he is scared of that or something? But near the end of the time we had together I bore my testimony on prayer and said thats my challenge for you to try it again and to feel the spirit and he said you know your right I need to do it but I dont know if I am ready! So he is getting there we are meeting with him again this week so I will let you know how that goes. We also got a refferal from Lucky and we went by on him and we said so we heard that you would be interested in talking more about Jesus Christ and he said of course! I am a child of God why wouldnt I  want to talk about Jesus Christ so he let us in and we talked a little on where he stood as far as religion it was pretty funny we walked in and sat down and the bible was open on his table so he is a religious guy. He said the Elders had met with him before but it had been quite a while and the Elders didnt really explain much about our religion or the Book of Mormon he said he hadnt read the Book of Mormon but he thought he had one but wasnt quite sure. So we got to talking and he is kinda against religion because he believes he can get answers to his prayers at home and what not and every church he has gone to just doesnt seem right! So we started talking about the Book of Mormon and I started talking about 3rd Nephi 11 and how Jesus Christ visits the people and he got all excited and said really?? Jesus came to those people? And I said yes and he taught his gospel to them and he asked why it doesnt say anything about Jesus coming to these people in the Bible and we showed him the scripture that says other sheep I have which are not of this fold! And it all clicked for him and he said next time you come we will read this together and so he is pretty excited to meet with us again! We also met with a lady from Africa this week and she really seemed to enjoy our first lesson we are planning on showing her the Restoration DvD things are really starting to fall into place here. So my new companion his name is Elder Ririe he is from Ogden Utah and he has been here about as long as Elder Hardman like 3 weeks less or so. He is a nice guy but like I said before definately different than me I dont think he has watched a sports game in his life! I have been 0 for 3 on comps that like sports haha but I am sure one day I will get one! I will have to send a picture of him and you will be able to tell the kind of person he is. He is really goofy but he knows he is goofy so that makes it all the better haha he is just this little short guy and its seriously like a 24-7 comedy show for me so its been good so far haha. He is a terrible driver though so I had to take over with that I thought I was about to die about 3 or 4 times yesterday when I let him drive for the first time! He is a good missionary though and likes to work so him and I have had a lot of success this first week and success really brings happiness and nothing to complain about! I really cant believe the first week of the transfer is done and that it is alread AUGUST time goes by way fast when you dont want it too but way slow when you do haha I have learned that when you really forget yourself and get to work the time goes by and you end up wanting more time cause you dont feel like you have accomplished everything! The only thing that is a problem with this comp is he is not German and I have found that the Americans even if they do know German are not the best with teaching it because they dont know why it is the way it is and they screw up sometimes too so its hard but I guess I just need to keep working on it! I don't have a whole lot to say this week so sorry my e mail is a little bit boring! But we have been working hard and seeing success and baptisms will come soon! We met some crazy russian people last night and gave them a Book of Mormon so that was interesting the guy was a little bit drunk and was amazed that we were Americans he said I am really talking to real Americans right now!! We came accross them trying to find a refferal from Lucky haha and we taught them a first lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon they said they would read it. They are Orthadox catholic there is quite a bit of Auslanders here so people from other countries and its cool to meet them and hear about their backgrounds. Anyways thats all for this week!! Thanks for all you do and all the prayers!! I Love you all!!

WEEK 25 7-19-11 - 7-25-11

Hello Everyone!!

So this week was pretty good we had a lot going on with transfers and everything!! I guess I will start off with the news on transfers.. So we decided to do transfer calls with Lucky because he wanted to see how it works so we were walking from our apartment to the car at about 9 30 the transfer call started at 10. So we were at the cross walk and the phone rings I look at Elder Hardman who has the phone and say oh great its Lucky bailing on us huh? He than gave me a face of shock and said its President!! So he answered and President told him he likes to call all the new zone leaders before transfer calls so they arent so surprised and said that he had seen the INCREASE in work the last transfer and would like to ask Elder Hardman to be ZL in Hannover so he's a gonner! I will stay for at least another 5 weeks cause this transfer is a week shorter due to timing with the elders coming from the mtc! My new comp is coming from Meißen which is on the other side of the country kinda by where I was before in Annaberg. He has been District Leader there for a while so I think he is a good missionary! I have met him once my first transfer at president interviews he seems nice but I can tell you we are different! haha but those seem to be the people I get along with best! I am excited his name is Elder Ririe he comes in tommorrow at 2 o clock and Elder Hardman leaves at 9 so I will be hanging out with the Thom couple I am pretty excited cause they are such awesome people! And they have an eating appointment with my favorite members! The Weels! So that will be way cool. I chuckled a little bit when Elder Hardman told me that Pres said he had seen the numbers increase and that he had been workin harder the last couple weeks! Ever since my exchange with the Zone Leader we have gotten an appointment everyday and achieved what is called 21 ballards every week so thats been pretty cool! I am excited to stay another I know there is alot of work here to do! Thats the news for transfers!!

So other news. Seriously a miracle happened to us yesterday it was the coolest thing ever! The coolest thing that has happened to me on my mission thus far! So we were at the church and this guy walks in and Elder Hardman talks to him for a bit cause I was playing with the kids before church! Haha but anyways nobody knew who this guy was it was way crazy so we asked why he was there and he said he didn't know why he was there! And we were like hmm that doesnt make a lot of sense! So he stayed for both hours of church and after we got his information and stuff and said ya we will give you a call this week! He said ok thats great. So he left and about 10 minutes later his car pulls back into the church parking lot. Elder Hardman looks at me and says well he must have forgot something! So he walks in and we were like hey your back and he said ya I was on my way back and I realized I still didn't know why I was here today and I want to figure that out can we go talk!! It was so cool so we went upstairs and he really opened up to us and told him he hadn't been to any church for 5 years. When he was younger he went with his parents to the Salvation army than something happened with his family so he had to go to foster parents and his foster father was a protestant preacher so he went to church all the time. He said he had done some bad things and chose not to believe in God and Jesus Christ. He also studied Theology in the University. He has been married before and has 4 kids he is now divorced and I think that may have something to do with it! Than he told us how he ended up at our church which is even a cooler story! He said he was on his way to Dusseldorf for a fashion show because some of his clients were there and he needed to meet with them. But before he could go he had to go to his office which is in Rheine where we live he had to go to his office to get his invitation and also directions off the internet he said he got this feeling that he needed to go to church and he said he hadnt felt that in many years and he didnt like it so he called some friends and asked them to pray for him that this feeling or the spirit! Would go away but it never did so he was just planning on going down to dusseldorf he left his office and got to the train station and realized he forgot the invitation! So he had to run back to his office and when he was there he noticed he had an e mail from a friend in Peru who is a member of OUR church so he is like thats where I need to be and googled the church and ended up at ours cause it was closest to Rheine. Man it was so crazy and he than continued to tell us the last 6 to 7 months crazy things had happened that he couldnt explain. He said he was on a train with a colleague of his and the train was full and a random guy walked up to him and said I got a strong feeling I need to tell you God Loves You. And the same thing happened when he was sitting on a bench in Amsterdam a lady came up to him and said the same thing! So crazy we tried to explain the spirit and he said ya I know thats what the feeling was I am just scared cause I dont think I am worthy to go to church cause I have done bad things and we explained a little about that. He said he knows God has a plan for him but he scared to go back and fallow that plan cause he has chosen a different direction in his life! We than gave him a Book of Mormon and commited him to read it and he said he had tried to buy one before but couldnt find out where to buy it we said well thats cause its FREE! SO he will read it and we asked if we could pray and he said he doesnt pray cause he doesnt want to ask for forgiveness if he cant forgive himself! The talks in sacrament were about forgiveness that day! So we both bore testimony about how he was supposed to be there and how God lead him back to where he is supposed to be! We set another appointment oh man it was the coolest thing ever! That was the highlight of my week!! Nothing really else went on we found some other cool people. We got a few refferals from Lucky he is like the only one who gives us referals and they are all black guys his friends haha so its interesting the think of us more as friends but love talking about Jesus Christ its fun!! Anyways the week was good! I hope you all had a great week and have a great week this week! Happy Birthday HUNTER Du Bist Der Chef! Thats all for this week. Happy Birthday Mom! Have a great week! Love you all

WEEK 24 7-12-11 - 7-18-11

Hello Everyone!

Man this week has flown by! I can hardly keep up with everything thats going on!! I have been out for 6 months thats so crazy tomorrow I will be burning a tie of mine as tradition! I will record it and send it with my next sd card! July is almost over thats so crazy! SO to clear everything up transfers are this coming week so this Saturday we have our transfer call so next e mail I will let you all know what happened! I am sure I will stay but I guess you never really know! As far as the week goes. On Monday we had a pretty good P Day we got to play american football with Lucky and Sanga and 2 other younger kids it was probably the most ridiculous game of 2 touch football I have ever played because nobody knew what they were doing! Of course my team won haha! We were also able to make some food for them that was fun too. On Tuesday we had a pretty long day we did a lot of finding and didnt find much of anything haha but it was ok. We were on our way to our eating appointment but my comp had to go to the bathroom so we stopped by the church and I hopped out of the car and this older guy on his bike came up and started talking to me and asked if we had anything to do with the church haha and I was thinking of saying no we have nothing to do with this church we just dress up like this and have a key to the church! But we said yes we are missionaries and started talking to him taught him a first lesson. He was pretty crazy though and believes in reincarnation and that the animals on the bottom of the sea that we dont know about will reign when the humans die off so that was interesting. And he kept asking us what was so important about the last 3 days we had no idea what he was saying but than he said the name of your church says of the last days and he just figured it was the last 3 days! We have had quite a few people ask us about that! He also told us that Jesus didnt do that many special things. He told us that he took upon himself like 2000 souls or something cause he was the last member of is soul family?? He was nuts! But we gave him a book of mormon and challenged him to read it. We also invited him to church so that was good. On Wednesday we had a pretty good day. We went by on Lucky and gave him a lesson and his roommate shaney was there as well and we were able to read second nephi 31 its a great chapter about the gospel of Jesus Christ! Than after he gave us a referral and we went and contacted him that same day and got a first lesson set another appointment and a new investigator! So that was way cool! Than on Thursday we got another new investigator! So the work is picking up it just takes a lot of work! The lady who is our other new investigator meets with the Zeugen Jehovas as well So in english the Jehovas witness. But I think she has a different view on life than the Jehovas witnesses she is a way cool lady so that was good I think when she reads the book of mormon she will be able to become converted! Thats basically the weekly run down of the new people we found and what not. I gave a talk yesterday in church about Faith. I think it went pretty well. I got a couple compliments but I dont know if thats cause it was good or if thats cause I am a missionary! I usually hate talking in front of a group of people but it went really well and I think my German was pretty good as well! A couple of crazy things have happened this week as well! We were going by on a contact to see if we could make out an appointment with him but he wasnt home so we started walking the other way and there was three younger kids sitting on this bench 2 black kids and one Turk and they were probably 12 14 age group and they looked at us and we said high to them and kept walking than we hear this can of some liquid hit the top of the bus stop we were right next to! And some of it got in my mouth! I dont exactly know what the liquid was but could have been beer if so I have now tried beer! But I wasnt very happy about it and we went back and my comp was like what was that and the Turk was like it was a can! And we were like ya no crap and than my comp said did you throw it and he said ya and oh man he was the stupidest little kid! But whatever we just kept walking haha its funny how stupid people can be and its sad at the same time! We just said hi to them but because we are walkin around wearing white shirts and ties we get crap thrown at us haha classic! Its going to be interesting to see how transfers turn out cause if I stay here I may have to drive the car that will be interesting! My comp suggested that I suggest to pres that I would like a german comp to help with my German cause he says thats the best way to learn! I will probably after next transfer if I dont get a German comp! To prepare me to train and what not! But I know Pres knows what he is doing so ya! So thats about it for my week! Thanks for all you guys do for me! Thanks for the prayers they really help me everyday! I love you all! Have a great week!!