Meine Mission nach Deutschland: Montag, Juni 20, 2011

Guten Tag auch (Good day, too).

Things are good here. This past week was really busy, kind of, for Elder Szvoboda and I. We had P-Day on Monday, of course, and I went to my first castle! It was in a village called Oberkirch! It was so metal. Then Tuesday, we went to Stuttgart for a farewell meeting with the Condie’s, and that was really awesome. We didn't go to the ward building where Harley and Jenny use to go. We went to the YSA building in Stuttgart, and it was super nice. So it’s like a 2 1/2 hour train ride from Offenburg nach Stuttgart (Offenburg to Stuttgart).

Then on Wednesday, we got up and we were doing our studies and at 8:30 we got a call from the Assistants asking if we could go to München (Munich) that day. Because they wanted an Elder, named Elder Adams, to come to Offenburg for a couple of days and work with us. He has 4 weeks left and his comp (i.e.: companion) went home - so for the rest of his mission he will be going to every area almost in the mission and staying there for a couple of days. But anyways, we spent 10 hours on the train on Wednesday. It's 5 hours nach München (to Munich) and back. I got to go to Stuttgart again on Wednesday too, because we have to go through Stuttgart to go to München (Munich). But Thursday was a full day with Elder Adams being with us, and we had a lot of appointments and stuff. Then Friday, also, we had a lot of appointments.

We have a ton of appointments all the time. Like, I'm emailing a little bit late today because we had 2 appointments already. But Friday night, we met with a lady named Lucia who we have been meeting with, and she has been having problems with the Book of Mormon. And she actually tried to give it back to us and told us she has everything she needs in the Bible, and all that usual stuff. So we started to loose hope, almost, in her after our last meeting with her. She told us she was not going to read in the Book of Mormon. So we asked her if she would read it one more time and pray about it, and she said she wouldn't even do that. Then we asked her if she would just read 3 verses in the Book of Mormon, and she promised us she would (She really likes the missionaries). She promised she would pray one more time about it, too. So we told her we would call her the next day and ask her how it went. And when we did, she said she couldn't stop reading from the Book of Mormon! So that was sweet.

But on Saturday, I went to Switzerland for the first time! It was sweet. We had to take to Elder Adams to Zürich (Zurich). It's about 3 hrs to Zürich. So we did that and when we got back in Offenburg, we had appointments for the rest of the day. One with Frau Schulze and she still thinks she isn't ready for baptism or won’t be ready by 2nd of July. So she said she doesn't think she will be ready till the 15th of December! Crazy eh?

Sunday we went to church and we had 3 investigators come to church. It was a man named Herr Lucas, and then Reimund and Frau Schulze. Herr Lucas left right after Sacrament meeting - he is a really cool dude. Then Reimund and Frau Schulze stayed. They both really enjoyed church. Right after church, while we were eating lunch, President Ehret called us and gave us a referral for a man who lives in Lahr (a village that is, like, a 15 minute train ride north of us). He said the man called the church right when he was walking out the door and told him that he wants to be a member of our church and be baptized! His name is Matthew, and he's from Nigeria. We met with him after lunch and he brought two other friends with him who want to learn about the church, as well. Matthew came to Germany about 6 months ago from Nigeria. His sister joined the church there after he left and she told him that he needs to check out the LDS church and so she sent the links to church websites and stuff, and he has read all the stuff on them. So we taught them Lesson 1 - The Restoration - and it went really awesome. We taught them in English. They were really excited to meet with us. We are meeting with them again today. That was really cool. We committed them to baptism. We also committed another guy this past week to baptism which was sweet. He read the Book of Mormon in 2 months, and he knows it to be the word of God. His name is Michael. He's, like, 23 and he's super cool. So this past week was crazy! Then today we were outside the church waiting on an appointment there, just talking to people, and I talked to a lady about the Book of Mormon and she wants to know more! So we're meeting with her on Wednesday. I have no idea whats going on (lol). It’s just crazy.

I hope everything is going good back home. Love ya. Peace.

[ Elder Caraway ]

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