January 24, 2011

Hello my wonderful family and friends! 
I cannot believe I have been in Germany for almost a month already!!!  And we only have two more weeks left in the transfer.  As my companion explained very well, every day feels like a week and every week feels like a day.  Some days go by really fast, but you accomplish so much some days that it feels like it has been a weeks worth of work!  Thank you for all of your love and support and I love getting emails and letters so thank you thank you! 
I do have a few stories to tell from this week.  It has been a wonderful week!  First of all I forgot to tell a story last week that I can't believe I forgot!  So last week we were visiting contacts from past missionaries and we went to a man's house named Herr Hichfang.  He didn't answer but as we were walking away we saw him get out of his car.  He told us to come in so we did.  He was a very pleasant old man and we talked for a little while.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and he felt bad so he gave us some chocolates to eat and a book about Halberstadt. (Germans don't like you to leave their homes empty handed and sometimes they can go way overboard.)  So we were chatting for a little longer and munching on chocolates (German chocolate is amazing!!)  And then there were two that we hadn't tried and he told us that we had to try them.  We asked him what they were and he said they're really good you just need to try them.  They had a picture of a cherry on them, so we figured they were just cherry filled chocolates.  So we opened it but I was a little weary so I took a little bite of the chocolate and saw the filling was a little more runny than most cherry filled chocolates I had seen.  Well my companion wasn't so careful and she bit into it and when the filling started to come out she just put the whole thing in her mouth.  Then I realized that it tasted a little...hot.  And thats when she said (with her mouth full)  Is it Alcohol?  He smiled and nodded.  She said we don't drink alcohol.  He said I know, that is why I didn't tell you.  What do you have to do now that you have eaten it?  She said, we must repent.  And she spit it all out into the wrapper.  He seemed pretty worried and a little...confused.  Luckily I didn't eat enough of the chocolate to make a seen, I just left the rest of the chocolate.  Sister Jensen was a little bugged that he had tried to trick us and she said that we should probably go.  But he said that he would read in the Book of Mormon and we could come back and he would make us dinner.  I think he just felt bad :)  But it made for a fun story to tell!  We have been around many smokers so we feel like we're smoking sometimes, we've had green tea set in front of us to drink, but that was the first time that we had actually eaten something!  We know to be a little more careful now! 
The next story is wonderful!  Last week we had an investigator come to church for the first time and he LOVED IT!  I think he is a different person now!  Our appointment this week was amazing!  He studied that Book of Mormon more than ever and he came to church again this week!  AND he participated in Sunday school and had a lot to say!  It was absolutely wonderful! 
Our other investigator who was struggling with prayer is doing amazing!  He is praying on his own now and we are really hoping for a baptismal date this week!  It is so fun to teach him!  He loves the gospel! 
We found two new investigators this week!  Our other new investigator wasn't there for our Tremine (appt) so hopefully we'll be able to track him down again. 
Ok one more story before I close up.  Yesterday we were doing doors in a city called Blankenburg.  There hasn't been a lot of work done there so we decided to give it a try, and its not too far from Halberstadt.  We were dooring some old DDR apartments with not too much success.  Not many people home and there was no intercom, so every time someone would let us in we would trek up about 1-8 flights of stairs to get to them.  Well one man wasn't very happy.  He opened it and we told him we were missionaries and talking about faith.  We asked him what he believed in.  He then told us that we should go out of the building, he said he was also glaübig (which means you have a belief, usually in God).  He didn't give us a chance to say anything else he just told us to get out.  So we went back down and klingled some more people in the building.  His neighbor actually took a Book of Mormon and said he really likes to read so he would read it and he gave us his phone number!  But then after I rang the last klingel I saw someone come to the outside door (and sometimes the people that live on the lower floors will come to the outside door to see who it is.  She I was expecting to talk to them.  Then the mean man opened the door and told us to go away and shewed us like dogs.  I said, "Wir sind fertig, danke.  Schöne Tag!"  (We are finished, thank you.  Have a good day!)  He wasn't too happy and said "Ich auch." (which means me too) so I guess he was finished too.  But he watched us walk away.  Honestly I feel really bad for him.  It was an interesting experience, but I hope he finds out how to practice his faith a little better.  Maybe we'll run into him again when we're teaching his neighbor and we can tell him a little more! 
Ok, I better go.  I hope all is well on the other side of the pond!  The Church is true, and we should be too!  What a wonderful blessing we have to know of the wonderful truths of these latter days!  Please never hold back a prompting from the spirit to tell somebody about it, or to call someone in need.  The Lord truly does use us in Him work!  And when we follow those promptings, we find the most rewarding circumstances on Earth!  2 Ne 9:51 and D&C 33:8!
I love you all!  Ich wunsche ihnen eine wunderbare Woche!  Vielen dank und alle Gute!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith