May
6, 2013
Servus
Zusammen!
Well we had
another baptism in our ward this week! The International Elders had an
investigator named Ralf who was to get baptized on Thursday. He was born in
Frankfurt, Germany, but lived a long time in New Mexico and was planning on
returning there in a few months so that's why the International Elders were in
charge of the teaching because they figured he would be in the American ward
until he moved back. It was originally planned this way for awhile, but then
two days before his baptism Ralf decided it might be better that he should be
in the German ward until he moves back to America so that he could help his own
people who he could relate to better for the time being. We were kind of
surprised by the announcement, but we were deeply impressed by his commitment
to serve the Lord as best as he could and the ward was excited to have another
new member. The international elders still went through with finishing all the
teaching and performing the baptism, and will continue to meet with him with us
as well. Ralf is a very spiritual in tune man who has been searching for the
true church for a long time. He found the International Elders on the street
one day and somehow just knew he had to talk with them. Since then he has been
making quick progress. We weren't able to see his baptism because of some
unexpected events which I will explain later, but it apparently went really
well and he was confirmed on Sunday. They were originally going to have the
Stake President confirm him with the Holy Ghost, but the International elders
had not been able to get a hold of him so about five minutes before sacrament
meeting started they asked if I could do the confirming. I was really glad to
do it and it was a really spiritual experience. After the ward confirmed him he
teared up and said how he felt like part of a big family. He had grown up as an
orphan not knowing his family and so such an experience for him was something
really touching to see.
You couldn't
help but feel the spirit through it all. The ward has been really excited about
missionary work as of late. They have been able to see three baptisms back to
back these last three weeks, when they normally see two a year or so. You can't
help but feel the spirit of the Lord touching the people in Stuttgart. Great
miracles have been happening here.
This
Thursday was transfer day. There weren't a whole lot of changes in our zone,
but we had to be at the main train station to help send people off and help
people get coordinated to their next destination. However, there were some unexpected
problems with the mission secretary's computers and the train time schedule
wasn't given to us until the morning of travel, so we didn't know what to plan
for. Also in the rush of everything it was hard to proofread so we had a few
wrong train times. Also a number of trains got delayed. It was little confusing
and stressful, but it worked out in the end. However, we had to miss Ralf's
baptism because of it since it takes awhile to get from the train station to
the church and we never knew what to expect, and when the final people came in
the baptism was over. But the sisters from our ward were there as well as a few
members, and of course the international elders were in charge of the baptism.
The important thing was that Ralf got baptized.
This week
we had a really cool experience. We went on kind of a search and rescue mission
to figure out where Luis had gone. No one had had contact with him, but we had
his address. The directions to his house though were terribly confusing and we
spent about an hour and half walking all around to figure out how to get to his
apartment. It had been a little difficult because I had eaten something wrong
that day and was feeling really sick. We called Luis's friend to get
reclarification on the directions, but we ended up more lost than before.
Finally, I had the feeling we should say a prayer to find him. I offered the
prayer and after I closed Elder Davies said he had the feeling we needed to
talk to the first person we saw no matter what. I thought he meant for
directions, but he had meant about the gospel. Thirty seconds later a young man
was walking down the street. We went up to him and as soon we said something,
there was a huge smile on his face. I can't remember everything that we
discussed, but he ended up being one of the most amazing people I have met. He
was a college student at the local university, named Julian, studying architecture,
but swalloped up everything we talked about. We even got to read a lot of the
Book of Mormon right there on the street with him. I can't really put it into
words, but after we finished talking with him Elder Davies and I knew that that
was the whole reason why we had been there that night. It was Heavenly Father's
plan that we would run into him. We also had a strong feeling that the perfect
member to bring on a joint teach, who would be a really good friend for him in
the church was Sebastian. He has only been a member for two weeks, but he is
already going to play a big role in missionary work. We have an appointment
with Julian this week. We are still looking for Luis, but we have hope for him
and in the mean time we found another person ready for the gospel.
On Friday
we had our transfer meeting with the district leaders. We have two new district
leaders in our zone now. One of them being Elder Moon, and the other being
Elder Chapman's companion which means I will get to work with both of them on
austausches (since we get to choose who works where for the austausches). I am
excited and this week I will be going on Tuesday to Ludwigsburg to work with
Elder Chapman - so it will be like old times in St. Pölten.
On Saturday
we had a stake youth activity that many of the stake missionaries were invited
to since it was based on missionary work. Half of the youth in our stake is
from the International ward so they needed us to translate from English to German
or vice versa. We also got to teach the youth how to do various missionary
tasks such as teaching lessons and contacting. They called the youth to mini
missions in various countries and they would go to classes where they would
learn about the country from members who had served in those countries (mostly
international ward members since most German members tend to serve in either
Germany or England). Elder Davies and I got to translate for Brother Wells from
our ward who had served in Mexico. I learned from it that Cinco de Mayo is only
celebrated in America, so in honor of a Mexican-American holiday yesterday we
went to Taco Bell on the American base today. Anyways, it was a really fun
activity to do with the youth that I hope they enjoyed as much as we did.
Speaking of
the Wells. . . I will be calling home from their house on Sunday at 8:00 Utah
time. Just thought you'd like to know. I think we will be skyping, but if not I
will call from their Utah line number. I
love you both. I hope you never worry about how much you did for me as parents,
because you have both done more than enough
I hope you
have a great week. I am excited to see some of you on Sunday. Hope you have a great Mother's Day Mom! Love
ya'll.
Elder Bodily
Gott sei
mit euch bis aufs Wiedersehen
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