A Baptism and a Guitar

Hey Mom!

This has been a pretty good week. I went on a split with the elders in the city called Kaiserslautern (most people who don't speak German usually just call it K-town because they don't say it right, it is said more like Kizers loutern, but most Americans say kizer slaughtern). I was with an Elder called Elder Nuila, and he is pretty cool. It was kind of a bummer though because I had only packed for a one day split, which it was supposed to be, but it turned into a 2 1/2 day split and we were on bikes and walking the whole time in a very humid heat. Fortunately, I was able to wash my clothes at the other apartment I stayed in, so it turned out alright. 

We do so much work with Americans so even though my German is not terrible, I know mostly only gospel words and I have to get used to real Germans speaking German instead of MTC German. It is really fast and a lot of words that I don't know are used a ton, and I am just not hearing it as often as I need to. It is pretty discouraging at times, especially thinking that I might have to train right after I am trained because I might not be good enough at German yet to get around if we keep working with the Americans so much. We did some good work this week and I pray for help with the language all the time. Sara Davis, an American investigator that Elder Gautreaux and his previous companion had been teaching, was baptized on Saturday and I got to confirm her on Sunday. After she was baptized, Elder Gautreaux, Petersen, and myself sang "Nearer My God to Thee" a capella, which was really cool. I was really nervous on Sunday because that is the first confirmation that I had ever done, but it turned out good.   We have been trying to teach other people that are German, a guy called Hans Jürgen, and a girl Sabrina.

Things are going well with Elder Gautreaux. He is a really good teacher and trainer, and he said he appreciates me trying to keep us always obedient because he has had disobedient comps before that got mad at him when he was obedient. Well, I got a chance to get a guitar today, which is really cool. The zone leaders gave us permission to get one, and last week the store was closed. It was 100€, hopefully that is OK. I just bought kind of a beginner guitar, because it will probably get banged up a lot here and I won't take it home with me later. We are going to use it to find, I'll play and Elder Gautreaux will sing.

Yesterday we did accidentally park in someone's spot for their house because we didn't see the plate that usually identifies that, and they came out and got mad at us and we turned it around and just gave them pass along cards and left. It was pretty cool.  I hope all is well at home, have a good week!

Liebe, Daniel