News from Offenbach

First, some pictures. 

One of them is a picture of every companion I have had until Elder H, he wasn´t there for the picture

    The other is a picture of our old MTC group, we´re just missing the 2 Elders that went to Berlin
     It took a while, but, I found a place in Offenbach that actually looked pretty, so that´s the only pretty side of Offenbach haha

Hey Family!
    This week was way awesome, and I don´t really know where to begin, so, I´ll just start.  So, I wasn´t exactly sure what to do with Offenbach for a while.  Elder H. knew what he wanted to do, our Ward Mission Leader knew what he wanted to do, and I was really wondering what the Lord wanted done haha.  So, I decided to fast about it.  While I was fasting, we had a mission conference, and Elder Bednar showed up.  One of the Elders asked him what he did on his mission to become a disciple of Christ.  He told us that he already knew what he had to do, just like we already know what we have to do, he just decided to ask our Father in Heaven for the Strength to do it, and then he did it, and by doing it, he became a disciple of Christ.  As he told his little story to go along with it, I realized I already knew what had to be done with Offenbach; everything that I had already done in the 3 places I had already served.  So, that´s what I did.  I know that Elder H. is a good guy and everything... but he has some really weird ideas about missionary work, I was willing to try them at first.... but, now I'm leading him in another direction.  Sometimes Elder H. gets kinda upset, he hates finding time, but, I like it, and we don´t really have a lot of time to work with, so we did a LOT of it.  The week before, he always found something else to do, but, this time I told him it can all wait until P-Day, and we did end up finding time.  We ended up teaching over twice as many lessons as we did the week before, we found some way cool investigators, and I have a way cool story to go along with that.
    So, our District Leader told me a story of this other Elder that used to be in the mission.  Apparently his entire mission was spent going to areas that were not having success, turning them around, and then getting sent to a new place with no success, haha.  This Elder didn´t know what to do at first, and then President Ninnow told him to make phone calls, because making phone calls is still finding time and just as important as everything else.  When he said that, I couldn´t stop thinking about it.  I had our cell phone, I had organized the numbers into different categories, Investigators, Former Investigators, Members, Inactive members, Potential investigators, and then there were about 60 Numbers that we had no idea who they were.  So, that night when we ended the split, we still had about an hour and a half before the day ended, I decided we were going to start making phone calls.  Elder H. started cooking something, and I started going through the list of names.  We ended up calling 7 people that said they would still like to meet with us, and one lady that wants to get baptized =)  Her story is that 3 years ago, she met with the missionaries.  She already had member friends living in Sacramento, so she kinda knew a little of the Church, but not a lot.  The Missionaries met with her 2 times before she got sick and went to the hospital, and then the missionaries didn´t keep in contact.  Another set of missionaries decided to call her 2 years later, they met with her once, and at this time she had learned enough about the Church from her friends and the 2 visits from the other missionaries that she had started to think about being baptized, but then she had to move.  She lost contact with the missionaries again, but 2 weeks ago, she moved back.  When I called her, she was so happy, she told me right on the phone that she had wanted to call us, but didn´t know what our phone number was anymore.  She also told me that she had made up her mind and she wants to be baptized.  We still haven´t met with her, but we have an appointment with her in one week.  Pretty cool right!?
    The work is still going good in Offenbach =)  I will not lie, I am having trouble with my companion, he is a cool guy and everything, but, he is just really distracted with other things, and I really have to push to get him to do the more effective work, and make the better decisions.  I also am kinda afraid to be in lessons with him sometimes, I have no idea what he is going to say, he is very unpredictable.  We were visiting with a less active member, her husband and her son are both non members, Elder H. said that he wanted to give the spiritual thought.  I thought that was cool, so I let him do it.  He ended up reading the last bit of the last chapter in Psalms (I think it´s Psalms, whichever comes second, Psalms or Proverbs) this scripture talks about a Virtuous Woman, and what she is.  As he read it, Sister K looked so confused, and she looked like she didn´t know what to think, her husband looked about the same way... and I was wondering how I was going to bring the spirit back to a spiritual thought haha.  After he read it, he looked at Sister Klitz and said, "Sister K., you are a Virtuous woman."  There was an awkward moment in the room for like 15 seconds haha.  So, yeah, I could tell A LOT more stories, but, he really is a good guy, I just haven´t worked with anyone like him before, so I have to make some changes.
    Anyway, things are going great, thanks for everything that you do.  I´m happy and enjoying the work!
Elder Collings