Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been an absolutely miraculous week! Heavenly Father has been sending us so many wonderful blessings every day! Bielefeld is a wonderful place to be and I feel so blessed to be serving the Lord here at this time! A few events from this week:
Finding: We were in the main part of town looking for an investigator that we were supposed to meet at the park. We weren't exactly sure where he would be so we were walking around a little lost and a lady walked past us and stopped because she saw our name tags. She got really really excited and explained to us that she had just moved into town and came into town looking for representatives of Jesus Christ. We were a little surprised and didn't quite know what to say (you would think we would be a little more used to this now) she asked how she could come to church and get a hold of us, so we gave her a card and told her where the church was, she thanked us and walked away. We just stood there for a second...looked at each other and then we realized we didn't even get her name! Let alone set up an appointment or get a telephone number....oh bother!! You would think after nine months of missionary work in Germany we would get the hang of a few things... so feeling kind of sheepish we found our investigator and had a wonderful Termin! At the end of the day, after having three more wonderful Termine we were feelings like nothing could possibly be better! And then...we received a text. It was from the woman we had seen in the park!!! I wish I could quote the text exactly but it is in German :) so I will sum up. She said that she was so grateful that she had met us in the city, she had gone especially to find someone so that she would know how she could come closer to God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost. She said that she knew the Holy Ghost had led us to each other and she would like to become a follower of Christ as well. She said that we should give her a call and included her name and phone number!!! WOW!!!!! We couldn't believe it! We were practically dancing home that night!!! It was one of the most amazing days of my life!!! Then on Sunday she came to church with her boyfriend and absolutely LOVED IT!!! She is the sweetest girl ever!! I am so excited to get to know her more to help her discover the gospel!
Teaching: We had so many wonderful lessons this week!! We still have the wonderful problem that we don't have enough time in the week to meet with everyone that would like to meet with us :) We are trying to plan some splits this next week so that we can double some of the time we have! We had nine investigators at church and the members were a little bit shocked :) our poor mission leader had to teach the investigator class and he was a little overwhelmed! We are so blessed!!!! And it is really comforting to the investigators to know that there are others who are learning just like they are! The Lord is DEFINITELY in charge of his work! This is only possible through his power! He is so wonderful to let us witness so many miracles!
Baptize: We were able to make out another Baptismal date!! He is a really cool guy from Russia and he is excited about learning the gospel! He has already read through 2 nephi and come to church once. We have only met with him twice and we asked him both times if he would like to be baptized, the first time he said he would pray about it and the second time he said yes!!! We are so excited! We are also making progess with the others who have baptismal dates and working on making Calenders so they can see their goals.
Keep: We met with a couple inactive members this week and had some really good conversations about the truths of the gospel. We are hoping and praying that one in particular will make it back to church. He is so confused because of his own thoughts and ideas, we are meeting with him again and hope to help him rely on Heavenly Father for the answers.
All in all it has been a simply wonderful week! We are so blessed to be here and I am loving every moment! Thank you for all of the love and support that you give to me :) and thank you for the birthday wishes! My companion won't let me forget that I am old :) She is so awesome, I love her! And I love you all! I have the best family in the whole world! Thank you for all that you do for me! Have a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith
September 12 Letter,
Liebe Familie und Freunde,
It has been an absolutely extraordinary experience here in Germany this week! The Lord has shown His hand in the work and aloud us to be a part of Him working miracles in many peoples lives. The week actually started off a little slow and we had many appointments that fell out. Sister Peltier and I were feeling a little down for now reason at all, and trying to get out of that silly slump. I realized that there was absolutely no reason for us to be down about anything, and as soon as we turned our hearts to gratitude the work exploded! We were able to make out new appointments every day with someone new and we had wonderful appointments and many with members present! Our investigators continue to make a lot of progess and we were able to make out another baptism date this week! We are so extremely blessed to be here! I think the highlight of my week...was Saturday and Sunday :) they were two of the best days of my life! On Saturday we had four appointments, and they were amazing! One was with a woman preparing for baptism and we just stopped in on her without calling and she was thrilled. She had been having a really hard time and was relieved to see us and to talk about the gospel. She thanked us over and over for our spiritual thought and we encouraged her to pray for strength. Then we met with someone new and he was really cool. He was really shy but he was excited to learn about the gospel and agreed to pray to find out if he should be baptized :) Then we ate lunch with a member and it was a wonderful German lunch with potatoes, meat, and saurkraut! yum :) then we went and met another new person and he is athiest...but he wants to find out if he is there so he is interested in learning about religion. He has had a hard life and I hope that we can bring him some comfort in his hardships. He is so strong for all that he is been through and the gospel could help him so much! Then we met with another investigator preparing for baptism and it was AMAZING!!! He said that he still didn't know for sure if the church was the only true church but he said that he felt a "magnet" to the church more than all the other churches! A MAGNET!! That is the coolest thing I have ever heard :) The Holy Ghost could definitely feel like a magnet to the truth!
Then on Sunday we were able to experience another miracle (Isaac, maybe you can share this story for your talk in Primary)
Last month my companion and I prayed and fasted very earnestly that we would have 8 investigators at church. We made it our focus and worked the whole week to get 8 people there. We met some wonderful new people in our efforts (including the investigator that said the church was like a magnet) and called a lot of former investigators to invite them to church. Then it came time for church and I just knew that there would be 8 people there! Well church started and we had one investigator at church. I was convinced that there would be 7 people that would come for Sacrament meeting the last hour. As sacrament meeting came nobody new came...I was sad and felt like maybe I didn't work hard enough or have enough faith that it would happen. Then in the last ten minutes of sacrament meeting an investigator walked in. We were so excited that he was there! Even for ten minutes of church. We worked with this investigator and that very week he chose a baptismal date. We have been working diligently since then and yesterday at church, a month and a half later, we had 8 investigators there!!! We knew that it was an answer to our prayers, faith, and diligent work and we were so excited that so many people had chosen to take a step to come closer to Christ. Heavenly Father did hear our prayers but he chose to bless us in His time. He helped us to not only have 8 people at church but to find peopel ready to be baptized and take that wonderful step closer to Him. As we work with Heavenly Father and make high goals, we can find those who are waiting to come to Him.
I have been overwhelmed with gratitude this week for the many miracles that we are able to see. We are having a hard time finding time to meet with everyone that would like to meet with us and feeling a little overwhelmed, but these are definitely problems we will gladly deal with as missionaries!!! The work of the Lord is going forth leaps and bounds and no puny arm of Satan could stop this work from going forward! Our Heavenly Father loves us and he loves all of His children! He will give us the opportunity to help if we are willing to. I am so eternally grateful for this opportunity and I know that we have angels helping us. Thank you for your prayers and support. Keep looking for opportunities to share the gospel :) missionary work should come from the members, that is when it is most effective! Let us all be missionaries in the Lord's hands! I love you all!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister Smith
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