March 5, 2012

              This week was super awesomely good. We will start with the super awesomeness first. P........, our baptismal candidate, is making progress at light speed. He has now stopped drinking and smoking completely, nothing for the last 9 days, and he is totally going to be ready for his baptism on the 25 of March. We are excited.  We watched part of a talk from President Monson yesterday with him, and after it was done he turned to us and said "Isn`t it great to be part of the living church of the living God?" he also watched the CES fireside yesterday all on his own. He is such a stud. 

                We also did the stop smoking workshop with a man named R........... He is from Serbia, is about 60 years old, and has been smoking since he was 9. He came to the workshop but as we were going through the steps he kept saying that he would start doing them tomorrow, that he just needed to smoke one more time. Finally I just closed the book and told him that the steps wouldn`t work at all unless he committed to living them right now. He did so, and today is the seventh day he has gone without smoking. ( Well at least hopefully, I talked to him yesterday, and he had not smoked yet) The other cool things are that we had 7 less active members come to church yesterday!!!! Yeah! And two of them bore really great testimony. It was so cool. 
                About the C......... well we aren`t really sure what happened. We called to make out an appointment and they said they were busy for the next 2 weeks. Then we went by to invite them to church and the mom wasn`t home and the kids told us to just call her, which is not normal. So we did that and L........, the daughter, told us that they had to go to their church this week. It is definitely a sticky situation. So please keep praying for them. Something is definitely weird, but we trust in the Lord, and know that he is the True Shepherd, and he will keep watch over all of his sheep. But of course, prayers are both encouraged and desperately needed. 

                 Anyways, another exciting thing, we had an austausch with Ebnat, and I was going to work with Elder Bauerfeind in Ebnats area, but then Elder Sullivan called me. Unfortunately Elder Alston had a really bad fever, and they were supposed to go to zone leader council in München. They called Pres. Miles and he told Elder Sullivan to come alone, but that Elder Alston needed people to take care of him. So we ended up spending the day with Elder Alston. My first day inside because of sickness :( oh well, Elder Alston definitely needed some help, and it was a good opportunity to serve him. Elder Bauerfeind was pretty sick as well, so it was good that he also had the opportunity to rest. 

                      But another cool story, so Saturday we  were cleaning the church, and all of the sudden a car pulls up and an old man gets out and walks towards the building, I went and started talking to him, and another member came with me. Turns out that he is a member, but hasn`t been active in the last 40 years. He isn`t on our ward list. His name is Bru. S..............., and he is 76 years old. He joined the church when he was about 20, but after 8 years went inactive because of tithing. But he came back to the church because his wife had a stroke a year before, and since then she can`t speak, and has stopped believing on God. It was really sad to see how much this was hurting this Brother, so we offered to come visit him right after we were done cleaning. Which we did. We had a really great appointment, and it just really showed me how everyone has that need for the gospel, and sooner or later they will come back. Like the prodigal son they will remember the blessing of their former life and seek to return. I am so grateful for a Loving Heavenly Father who is always willing to take us back, if we will but confess our sins and forsake them. I know that it is possible to find that perfect brightness of hope that we all seek through the atonement of Jesus Christ. He truly can give us the beauty of eternal life for the ashes of our mortal experiences. I love Him!

Liebe
Elder Terry