We had another great week. We had an awesome lesson on Tuesday! We met with Johanna, Brother Titigue's daughter. She gave that awesome testimony on Sunday about how she wanted to start coming to church every week because she knows that is where she should be. We had a great lesson on the Restoration. Br. Titigue was super excited that his daughter was finally meeting with the missionaries and he was more than willing to contribute to the lesson. Johanna asked a lot of good questions but since she has been to church a couple of times throughout her life, she has a general understanding of things. Elder Oldroyd asked her if she would be willing to prepare herself to be baptized on the 3rd of January and she said yes! All of us are super excited for her!
Wednesday morning we had an appointment with Vinod. He had been taught some of the commandments in Lesson 4 of Preach My Gospel in the past but we recapped those and taught him about the rest. He happily committed to living the commandments. He does have a small smoking addiction--he smokes about five cigarettes a day. We are now working with him to stop that completely. He knows it is bad and wants to stop. He has become more comfortable with being baptized sooner rather than later. He even set a new goal for himself--he knew he would not be prepared to be baptized this Saturday so he is now working toward Jan. 24th. Vinod is an awesome guy and we are going to help him reach his goal of being baptized on the 24th. Wednesday afternoon we went to Char-Ly's house and had a short lesson with him. In the end we told him that we could not keep coming by because he is not willing to keep commitments and make progress toward finding out for himself if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is sad but we need to focus all of our efforts on the people who truly want to progress. We found two new investigators Wednesday night while street contacting! We had an exciting conversation with one girl--she said she doesn't believe in God but she has always believed in a guardian angel of some sort. That reminds me of King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon. But she is willing to meet with us and give it a try! Wednesday was Elder Morton's 19th birthday. We decorated his apartment while he and his companion were out that day. :)
Thursday morning we were up at 0430 to catch a 0600 train to Dresden for Zone Conference. Here is a picture of a brand new train we rode on:
Zone Conference was really good. The theme was Christmas and the new ad campaign the church is doing for this Christmas season--#HeistheGift. If you haven't seen the video, go look it up on YouTube! Elder Morton sang O, Holy Night as a special musical number and killed it. At the end there was a little testimony meeting--you could feel the Spirit strongly. We rode the train back and by the time we got home, it was bedtime.
On Friday, we had a really good lesson with Marian, Galia, and Rafael. Marian has been a little skeptical about prayer since it is such a new concept for him. We talked to him about praying with real intent and we bore testimony that we know that when you combine reading the scriptures, praying for specific things, and going to church, it's like a catalyst in a reaction--the reaction is faster and stronger, or in other words, you receive a stronger answer in less time. He committed to reading and praying often. With the help of Galia, we are helping Rafael to gain his own testimony. Marian wants to meet more often so that he can tell us more of his background in order for us to know how to better help him. We are going to hold an English-German class on Tuesday night for both of them and then we have another lesson on Wednesday. Making progress there! The Romneys took us to dinner to celebrate Elder Morton's birthday that night. :)
Saturday morning we had another really great lesson with Johanna. Her dad was there again and the Romneys came along, too. We taught the Plan of Salvation. We were able to answer all of the questions she had. It's nice though that she has somewhat of a church background. She is making good progress. She is reading in the Book of Mormon, praying for specific things, and she is coming to church. We are meeting with her again on Wednesday this week. Saturday afternoon we had an appointment fall through with a woman who called us back last week. She gave us a bad address. Saturday night we visited with the Le Roys--a less-active couple. They are super nice and are always willing to invite us over and hear a spiritual thought. Saturday night we found two more investigators! Here is a neighborhood in Schönebeck which is almost completely preserved from the days of the Cold War:
We had a good day at church yesterday. Johanna, Galia, and Rafael came. Marian has the flu. Elder Morton and I taught the Church's code of health, the Word of Wisdom, in our Sunday School class. We went to the Staigers for lunch after church and then rushed to the Köthen choir concert which Elder Morton and I sang in; Elder Pilling accompanied on the piano. Elder Pilling was awesome as was Elder Morton who had a couple of solos. A lot of people showed up and filled the chapel--I'd say over 200.
We are looking forward to another great week here in Magdeburg!
Take care, everyone!
Elder Tanner Germann
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