Last Week's Email

Hey Mom!

I am glad that you and Ryan had a good trip to DC and that his interview went well. I don´t have a ton of time to write today; we are heading to Darmstadt to play soccer. Oh yeah, and we did not go to the temple yet; there were too many missionaries going on that day, so we are probably going next week. 

Well, we had a pretty good week. On Monday, we had a relaxed Pday and then had another appointment with the investigator, Sis. von Stauß. It went really well. We brought her a Book of Mormon in Cebuano, and she was really, really happy. We taught about the Restoration, and she seemed to understand it all and see why it was important. We unfortunately will not be having another appointment with her soon because she is going on a vacation for a week or so. 

On Tuesday, we made a big blow-up of a QR code that leads to a Mormon Message when you take a picture of it with a smart phone with the scanning app. We used it for contacting and were able to stop a younger guy and get him to scan it. We watched the video with him right there on the street and he was really interested. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon, and we got his email address. He hasn´t responded yet, but it hopefully will happen soon. Later on, we headed to the Mühlmann´s for dinner and for FHE. The daughter, Zinnah, who had invited her friend, invited that same friend and another friend, and we gave a lesson about making good decisions. She told us afterwards that her friends really liked it, so hopefully that will go somewhere. 

Wednesday was a slower day. We went to Neu-Isenburg to contact, but didn´t see success. We later went by on some people and were able to make out a new appointment with an old investigator, but the lesson will probably be more of a goodbye since she doesn´t make progress or pay much attention in the lessons. We ended the night with a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. 

Thursday was way cool. We had a joint-district meeting with the Darmstadt district in Darmstadt. When we came back to Langen, we were walking toward the apartment and a couple girls sitting on a bench called out to us, one of them saying it was her birthday. We wished her a happy birthday, and then they started asking us questions. We taught them about the Book of Mormon, and later the one opened up to us, explaining her life and how she wanted to make some changes. We got her phone number and gave her a Book of Mormon. We are now trying to make contact with her, seeing as she wanted to call us the next day, but ended up sending a text saying she didn´t have time to call. She hasn´t answered since then, but hopefully we can get a hold of her. 

On Friday, we had a lunch appointment with an older couple in the branch, and later on had an appointment with a less-active woman. We had our bible study course as well, and not many people showed up, but at least it didn´t fall out this week. 

On Saturday, we went to Götzenhain to try and invite a potential investigator to an activity, but no one was home. It is getting harder to talk to people on the street because now it is getting dark and cold really early, and there are hardly any people on the street here anyways. We ended the night with a dinner appointment with the Dietsches, and that was really good. They had made some goals for missionary work, and we bore testimony about asking the Lord to assist us and promising we will do our best to reach our goals, and they really liked that. 

Sunday was great. We had church, and I got up and bore my testimony towards the beginning of the meeting. A lot of the members talk about how important it is to sew seeds, and I bore my testimony of the importance of that, but also how important it is to know that "the field is all white, ready to harvest" and that there are seeds that were sewn that are now ready to be harvested. It was awesome because after that, one of my favorite members got up and set that that impacted him and he bore testimony of the importance of following the Spirit because he knows who is already prepared. It was good to know that my testimony affected someone. We went to the Kempener´s for lunch, and then to Peter Rojas for dinner. We talked with them about genealogy, and helped him do his work. 

Well, that is about it. I hope you have a great week!

LG, Daniel

A Lot of Good Things Happening

Hey Mom! 

I got the package you sent. Thanks a bunch! It is a huge sugar overload, so I have been sharing it with the elders in my district haha. Elder Ryser in Michelstadt is from Switzerland, so he got to taste some American candy for the first time, and wanted me to tell you thanks from him. 

This week was an interesting one. We had a lot of good things happen, but it was also pretty slow. On Monday, we got our first new investigator for the transfer (for me it was the first new investigator for over 3 months). We went to Bruder von Stauß´s apartment and his wife became a little more interested in learning about the gospel. She said at the end, "I will try my best to learn and love Mormon." That was pretty cool to hear, and I hope she makes real progress. We got a Book of Mormon for her in Cebuano (she is from the Phillipines), and we have another lesson with her tonight. It might be a challenge though because she doesn´t like the cold and goes every winter to the Phillipines for a few months, and she leaves in November. We will have to wait and see how that goes. 

On Tuesday, we went by on an older couple in Mörfelden-Walldorf who were an old referral from an area seventy apparently. President Schwartz told us that the seventy wanted to know how things were going and wanted us to try again. We went over and tried to invite them to do genealogy work, but they were not too excited about it. Later on, we headed to Götzenhain and stopped by on Frank, the man who was at Sister Mühlmann´s birthday a while ago. He let us in and we answered questions and taught a bit about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He told us that he would like to learn more but can guarantee that he will never convert. Hopefully the gospel will soften his heart. We weren´t able to make a return appointment; he said he was too busy to set one. 

I traveled down to Heidelberg with Elder Standring on Wednesday. We had interviews with President and then had a leadership training meeting for a few hours. We learned a lot about setting inspired goals and priorities, and making covenants with the Lord to achieve those goals. When I got back to Langen, Elder Brown and I went to the Grassman´s for an appointment. Their little baby chewed up some apple, spit it out, and threw it across the table, landing on my tie. It was kind of funny, and I wasn´t upset about it since it is a machine washable tie haha. We talked with them about the Book of Mormon and the church´s media efforts. 

On Thursday, we had district meeting in Langen. I gave a theme about setting inspired priorities and goals, and Elder Phelps (one of the Michelstadt Elders) gave one about the importance of finding with the Spirit. It was really good. At first, I was a little apprehensive about having only a 4-man district, but I actually kind of like it. It is easier to council together that way. After district meeting, I went on a split with Elder Ryser in Michelstadt. We met with their new ward mission leader and helped get the planning of a fireside underway. It was pretty cool. I also tried to learn a little bit of Swiss-German from Elder Ryser, but that stuff is crazy. 

Friday and Saturday mostly consisted of helping people move. On Friday, the Piotrowskis in our ward moved from one city to another within our boundaries, and on Saturday, a new family from Wetterau moved in. We also tried to go by on a potential investigator on Saturday evening, but we couldn´t find his apartment. 

We got to drive down to Kaiserslautern for stake conference yesterday. It was awesome. I got to see some of the Idar-Oberstein members for the first time in about a year, and that was really fun. President Schwartz gave a really good talk as well as President Cziesla, the stake president. He talked about how we need to take all of our old mindsets (for example, "I have tried that before and nothing came of it" or "it´s Germany and missionary work is just too hard"), pack them up in a box, and forget about them. There is so much emphasis lately on missionary work, I just hope these things also get applied. 

Well, that was about how the week went. I know I said I was going to write a letter last week and never did; we were just relaxing last Pday and had about enough time left for me to write a letter when I remembered that I forgot to send my email to Pres. Schwartz, so we had to race to the church so I could send that off. I will try to write one this week. 

Also, next week, we might be going to the temple, which isn´t open on Mondays, so we will probably push our Pday to Tuesday or Wednesday. That means that it is possible that I won´t send my email on Monday, but on Tuesday or Wednesday. Just thought I would let you know. 

I hope you have a great week and a great Halloween!

LG, Daniel