May 7, 2012 Servüß zusammen!

Well first of all Mom and Dad I will be calling next week for sure at (Utah time) 8:00 or 9:00 am. Thank you for sending the packages, I really appreciate it.  Thank you so much for allowing Elder Field to stay the night when he gets there in Utah next month.  It would just be one night and he is a really great guy, you'll like him.  I am going to give him your email so he can contact you. The keyboard in our apartment doesn't work unfortunately, so we put it in the cellar and yes we have a broken washing machine in our kitchen, but we have one that works in our bathroom!

So this week went really good with the work. We were able to find more new investigators than we had set for our goal and we did really well with street contacting and dooring. On Saturday in 1 hour we were able to give out 3 Book of Mormons with follow up appointments (which just doesn't happen in our mission area) and then gave out another later on. One of these came in a really cool experience. We had 2 appointments fall out in a row and we didn't have a very good back up plan, so we decided to walk home to make some phone calls (we temporarily fixed my bike but it's very finiky, the Ward Mission Leader is going to talk about it at Ward council first to see what we should do). It began raining really hard, so we had no one to talk to on the street. It took us about 30 minutes of walking in the downpour before we could see our apartment. We were wet and really hungry and ready to get in, but for some reason the path to our left that lead to about 5 more minutes longer of walking before we got home looked enticing. I told Elder Field we should walk that way to change things up. It seemed really stupid at the time, but we turned the corner and we ran into a guy who was getting ready to get into his car and drive off. Elder Field quickly started talking to him and when he found out we had the Book of Mormon he got really excited because he had wanted to read it. We gave it to him and he said that after he had finished it he would call us and tell us what he thought. It was so incredible to see that happen, we hadn't seen anyone up to that point that had ever been so excited about the Book of Mormon. Hopefully all goes well for him as he reads and that he will be able to feel the spirit during that time. I know it was the spirit who lead us to him.

This week Familie Bobi invited us to this Holiday celebration for the Greek Orthodox church where they grill a lamb. They aren't active in the Orthodox church but it doesn't stop them from wanting to grill a lamb. It was super good and so filling. We had our first reading lesson with Evisha this last week and though Elder Field and I didn't really have any idea what to do, she still seemedo ver excited throughout it.

Stefan is currently having a rough period at the moment. He still comes to church, but he is not sure how reading the Book of Mormon would help him gain a testimony. We found out he had only really read a page so we bore testimony that it is Holy Scripture, that through it man can learn and feel the Holy Ghost, that it helps to know that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives, and then recommitted him to making that a priority. Hopefully this week goes well for him and that he will follow the committment and feel the spirit.

After a long time having scheduling conflicts, we were finally able to meet again with Jackie Dos Santos this week and were able to have a good appointment. Even though she doesn't speak a lot of German she is fairly good at understanding it and her husband and Manuel Cruz (ward member who speaks Spanish, but apparently fluent Spanish and Portguese speakers can understand each other really well) have been really good about translating. Jake, we might need you here soon so if you could get a week break to fly up from Brazil and help us that would be great! She is thinking over baptism, but she feels a little stressed out at the moment and is a little nervous about commitment. She believes the message, but just needs a little time and for us to keep praying for her.

Mohammed and Ali are still here in Germany so we're still teaching them until they here otherwise, about whether they need to move back to Italy or not. Which leads me to my next point...

Congratulations to Walker Johnson and Brandon Nichols who got their mission calls to Italy, Milan and Russia, Novosibirsk. Walker if Mohammed and Ali have to move to Italy I would feel fine knowing that you can help them out. Plus you are in the nieghboring mission of my mission so we will need to go by the border at some point and trade chocolate or something. Brandon have fun in Russia. That sounds really awesome. Cold, but awesome. You are both going to do really well out in the field. By the way, thank you Sister Pearce for the updates on all the mission calls. I got your letter this morning and it was good to see where the people from my class are all going. And yes if you or Jake could add my name to that group page on facebook that would be fantastic.

A couple of cool things about Germany this week. Apparently May 1, or May Day is a holiday that the people actually get off from work. I found that rather odd. They had a big celebration in town where they had a number of bands playing and everything. I finally bought myself a Bayerisch Dictionary. I don't plan on learning Bayerisch German anytime soon, but I've at least been able to figure out a few principles that have helped me to understand the dialect better. We went to do some service for a single sister in our ward and she has pretty much fed us all-you-can-eat Bayerischschnitzel (different but not too different from Wienerschnitzel) which might have been my favorite meal so far here. Something that has been really interesting, but surprisingly good is apparently the Bayerisch love to put maple syrup on their ice cream. We've had it a few times and it works rather well.

Mom and Dad thanks again as always for keeping me updated on the family, ward, etc. I am glad to hear that everything is going well still for the most part. Amber did tell me about the Behlings and that is really sad to hear what has happened. I'll be praying for them.

Hey Bekah and Buddy, I heard you are doing really good with soccer. That's way cool! Keep up the good work and having fun. You'd both like it here in Germany because everyone absolutely loves soccer.

I'll close with a scripture I found this week that I thought was really cool for my mission specifically, but first I just want to reiterate how excited I am for next Sunday Mom and Dad when I can call. I have lots to tell you thats better to say in person and mostly just to really talk to you guys. I hope all continues to go well.

"Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work. Let thy feet be shod also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among many nations." D&C 112:7 I thought the Alpine German-Speaking mission fit that well being named after the mountains themselves and then having 5 countries in the mission.

Elder Bodily

Gott sei mit euch bis auf wiedersehen