A Most Productive and Successful Week

Hey Mom!

 

I am glad that you guys got a chance to hear Elder Rasband speak. I am pretty sure he spoke while I was in the MTC as well, and it was really good. I wish he would come to Germany and share the same message to the members here. There are so many German LDS youth that fall away from the gospel because all of the parents are too afraid of being too strict on their kids and restricting their agency. It also sounds like it has been busy with all of the activities and work going on at home. Also, to let you know, I got the packages from both you/Mat and Ryan within the last few days, thanks a bunch!! I am wearing the tie Ryan sent me right now, and I was super happy to get the picture book from the church from Mat, I have been wanting one of those to use in lessons. I don´t have a ton of time to email today, Elder Colson and I are heading to Duisburg to hang with Elders Hutchings and Hathaway for the day.

Anyway, I can start off by saying that this was one of the most productive weeks of my mission, if not the most productive. We got to go to Dortmund on Tuesday for our zone conference. On Wednesday, we traveled to Monheim, where we were going to drop an investigator because he never kept his commitments when we invited him to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We went in there and he told us that he had read the whole book of Moroni and the whole book of 1 Nephi! He said he had the urge to read something and that was the only book he had, so he has been reading for an hour in the Book of Mormon every night for the last week or so. He was much happier than he usually is at our appointments, and he finally prayed at the end of the lesson and asked God to help him learn that the Book of Mormon was true. Then on Thursday, we traveled down to Frankfurt for the golden/trainer meeting, where I learned a ton. I got to give my thema about finding and teaching being related activities, and related it to how Abish did that in the book of Alma. I also focused a lot on the power statement, which is another word for testimony. After some guidance from Präsident Schwartz during the thema, we talked about building a relationship with people in friendly conversation and then when the time is right, bearing powerful testimony. It went super well, and I learned a lot on the way.

 

On Friday we had a split with the Wuppertal Elders. I stayed in Solingen with Elder Brown, and we headed back to Monheim to go by on a former investigator and a less active. We were let in by the former investigator.  We found out he had almost been baptized two times in the past, his problems are just smoking and getting to church in the morning. After the lesson, he invited us back for Wednesday this week. The less active sister also came to church yesterday, which was really awesome. On Saturday, we had an appointment with this lady from Kenya that happened to be a former investigator but was refound on the street by Elders Hall and Colson two weeks ago on a split. She was there with her best friend, a woman who is half German, half Italian, who was super interested in how the gospel can help her family. Our ward mission leader was also there and he helped us out a ton. We have a return appointment with them on Thursday this week. Later that night, we also met with Bruder Köster, which is always really good, and also called another investigator who seemed super promising, but his phone number stopped working and he wouldn´t open the door. I was going through our contact list on the phone and saw his name, and figured I would try calling him one more time. He picked up and said he was so glad that we called because his phone had broken and he was sick the last few weeks, and had wanted to call us back but didn´t have our number on his new phone. We are meeting with him on Saturday with Christian Helzer, a YSA from our ward. Then yesterday, we had church and then ate at the bishop´s house in Remscheid. Overall, it was probably the most successful week of my mission.
 

We have a bunch of appointments this week with former investigators and various people we contacted when I was with Elder Fowler, so it is definitely going to be a busy week, which I am looking forward to. Other than that, all is going really well and me and Elder Colson are getting along really well. I hope you have a great week, and thanks to everyone who has included me in their prayers, it is helping a ton!! Love you!

Liebe Grüße, Daniel

 

 

Daniel being Daniel, standing next to a Michael Jordan statue at the place they went bowling.
 

Bowling Scores

 

Daniel and Elder Colson in their comp ties.

 

Daniel and Elder Fowler at Zoko (zone conference).

 

Klosse (potato dumplings) that Daniel made.