Monday, June 11, 2012

June 11, 2012

Hello Family!
    Basically we pretty much had an amazing week =)  So, President Schwartz has given us all the goal to teach 20 lessons a week, find 10 new invstigators a week, and to Baptized one Young Single adult before the end of the year.  This week we worked our tails off and almost did it!  We ended up teaching 17 lessons and finding 9 new investigators.  I put a picture of 8 of them, I forgot to get a picture with the last one.  The picture of the huge family was a miracle.  They are the Y Family.  It was on Transfer day, and we had another Elder with us who was waiting for his companion to come in from Frankfurt.  We were walking down the street, my companion was on the phone, the other Elder was talking to some guy on the corner, and I was just kinda sitting there lookin around.  A car drove by, and then stopped and backed up to me.  This guy rolled down his window and asked if we had a bible.  I told him we didn´t but we had something better, more scripture.  He said that he wanted it, and gave us his address.  The next day, we went by and he let us in instanstly.  His name is E, his wifes name is D, and then he has a 15 year old son, A, and a 10 year old son M.  They come from Turkey.  They say they are muslim... but, they don´t beleive it at all haha.  He is really interested in learning about Christians, he asked for a Bible, because the only bibles they have in Turkey have been messed with.  The people have added verses in them that prophecy about Mohammed (Their Last Prophet that received the revelation for the Koran).  He wanted to know what we really believe.  We told them everything and he was way super excited and invited us back.  We came back the next time, and he told us he had already read about 40 pages in the Book of Mormon, and he really likes it!  Then before we started, the wife said she was going to cook us dinner before we shared anything.  So we ate this amazing Turkish meal.  Right as we finished eating, he had called his Brother to come and learn more.  His brother came and brought his wife and his 16 year old son.  We got to teach all of them about the Restoration, and we are meeting with them again this next week!  So, now we have another huge family we get to help =)
    The picture of the black guy is also a cool story.  I talked to him in the bus about 2 months ago and gave him a Book of Mormon.  He gave me his phone number, and I had called him a couple of times, but we could never really make anything out.  I kinda forgot about him..... but then he just randomly called us up this last week.  He said he really wanted to meet with us.  We met with him on the street, and he brought a friend with him.  We taught both of them and they were way super excited and said they want to meet again.  The friend actually knows the bible REALLY good.  He kept pulling out all of these random scriptures to strengthen his point on things while we were talking.  We´re way excited to keep meeting with them too!
    This week we also got a new zone!   9 missionaries left, and 10 came in.  There was a Sister here, Sister B, I was actually in the MTC with her.  She served here in Düsseldorf her first  6 months, then left, and came back her last six months, so I´ve seen her basically my whole mission.  She had served in Düsseldorf for over a year so it will be a huge change with her being gone. And then all of the new Elders are super legit so we´re expecting miracles haha.
    One of the areas was white washed, meaning both of the elders were taken out, and 2 new elders were put in.  The 2 Elders that were put in, were sent to Krefeld, my first area, and one of the Elders was Elder J, my second companion that taught me German.  He has 2 more transfers left on his mission, and President asked him to come down here and be a District Leader.  I´m way excited to get to work with him again.  He is pretty worried with the work; his first day there, he said TONS of people just yelled at them and told them to leave, and 6 people actually ran them out of the apartment buildings they were in.  Sounds like things haven´t really changed since I left haha.  They are going to do way good down there.  Transfers were actually way crazy, 4 Elders ended up sending their bags to another city on accident haha.  We also managed to make a train 45 minutes late because it took so long to transfer all of the bags, but, at least they got here =) 
    Today the Family B (Macedonian Family) is going with a member to see what they can do to get married!  They should actually be there right now!  I hope they figure something out.  They all still want to be baptized, and they tell everybody  about it haha.  This last week we went over with a member to teach about prayer.  We taught about it and at the end we asked if anyone had any questions.  The husband said he prays many times every day; before reading, after reading, when he wakes up, with his wife and for the food, but that he was missing something.  I was pretty nervous what he was going to say, and then he said that every now and then he gets a warm feeling when he prays.  When he gets that, he knows that the Holy Ghost is comforting him, but, he doesn´t always get that when he prays.  He then said, "I need to be baptized so that I can always have the Holy Ghost to comfort me and tell me what to do."  We haven´t even taught him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, but he already knows he needs to be baptized to be able to experience his influence every time he prays.  He then bore his testimony to us and the member that he wanted to get baptized.  This family is legit haha.
    Anyway, things are going great, thanks for everything you do for me!
Elder Collings
 



 

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