Hallo family and friends! I hope all is well on the homefront and that this past week treated you well. We had another solid week here in Magdeburg. Between the two Magdeburg companionships, I think we found over 15 new investigators this week!
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Shuei. He is the Chinese student that we met with the week before Christmas. The first two times that we met with him were really tough. His English isn't terrible but there is definitely a language barrier. For example, when we met last time, we asked him to say the closing prayer. He refused and he wouldn't even let us say a closing prayer. Eventually, we figured out that he had confused the words prayer and baptism. However, this time we were smarter and brought Qi along. Qi is also a Chinese student. He was baptized here in Magdeburg a year ago. He is a super young man and actually knows Shuei from a couple of classes at school. Right off the bat we cleared up the difference between prayer and baptism. Then our lesson on prayer flowed really nicely. Qi helped overcome the language barrier. And I was really proud of him because he bore really powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. In the end, Shuei said he wanted to find faith and he said the closing prayer. That's a step in the right direction. Tuesday night we had English class per usual and our meeting with the branch mission leader followed.
Wednesday morning we had district meeting. Following district meeting we did some street contacting and then went to Johanna's. We were supposed to do some family history and prepare some names for her to take to the temple but we ended up teaching a lesson on the fruits of the Spirit. Since her baptism, she said she had been feeling really down, to the point where she had come home early from school that day. We explained that her baptism was a spiritual high, but then when she went back to school, that same Spirit was not as easily recognized. We read together Galatians 5:22-23 and talked about how we can more easily recognize the Spirit. We encouraged her to always have a prayer in her heart, simply asking for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. So yeah, that was a pretty cool lesson. We were definitely able to provide some comfort and now she is doing better.
Thursday we had an appointmennt with two Greek men we had met on the street. I had run into one during my month with Elder Sagmeister so I knew their address already, but let me tell you, that building is a blackhole. We never found him the first time nor another investigator, simply because the klinglebox is broken, and no one knows who their neighbors are. It was a wild goose chase again to find their apartment but I think we narrowed it down. They weren't home for their appointment nor for the second time but we'll see them soon. Fortunately, I do know where another investigator lives in that same building so we went to see her. We had a pretty good half-hour long conversation at her doorstep. She was the one Elder Sagmeister and I met with once and she refused to even take a Book of Mormon before God told her that she should read it. She was telling me about how she's waiting for a sign. I tried to explain to her that we must try and then ask God, just like it says in the Bible. I bore testimony and asked her again to take a copy and read it. She almost gave in but wouldn't quite say yes. We will continue to follow up there. We did more street contacting and then we were supposed to have an appointment with a guy we had met the day before but he gave us an address to a steak house.... I hope that wasn't him trying to play a joke.
Friday was the 70th anniversary of the Madgeburg bombing during WWII. Every year on that day, Neo-Nazis come out and have a memorial. The problem apparently isn't the Neo-Nazis—it's the people who come to demonstrate against the Neo-Nazis. Apparently last year more than 1,000 showed up and riots broke out and the bridges were shut off by the police. So we were told to stay inside as much as possible Friday and Saturday because the next day after the anniversary has historically been a response memorial and riot. We didn't really see anything. We avoided the center of the city both days. But apparently this year it was kind of a dud. Only 300 Neo-Nazis showed up and they only congregated in the north part of the city. But let me tell you, there was not a lack of police, that is for sure. I don't think I've seen so many police in my life. Groups just stood on the corners of the street with their riot gear on. Fortunately nothing really happened.
Saturday we had a really good day. In the morning we had a great lesson with an Indian student we met two days before. He is Muslim but he said he's been looking for a book that contains the full gospel. BOOM. Book of Mormon. He liked the first lesson on the Restoration and we are going to meet early this week. We also went over to Marian and Galia's house. Their friend Flor came too! We had a really good lesson on keeping the Sabbath day holy. We also set a new goal for baptism. We had to make sure they're working towards Galia's official divorce and getting officially married. They are going this week to start the divorce paper work. This could be fast or this could potentially be years. Marian said, 'Hey if the rules say we have to be married for me to be baptized, then let's do it so that I can be baptized.' That's the perfect response. Galia then extended an invitation to Flor to be baptized! She said she would be baptized once she hears all of the lessons and comes to church more. Yes!
Yesterday we had a really good sacrament meeting. Marian, Galia, Rafael, and Daniel were all there. It was our big member missionary work Sunday. Sis. Gehrke gave a super good talk, Elders Oldroyd and Gibbs gave nice testimonies, and then Elder Morton and I both took 13 minutes each to bring it home. Giving a talk in another language was really intimidating to me but it flowed. Mom sent me some of her thoughts last week and I was able to use those. I talked about 1 Nephi 8:12. This is Lehi's dream. In this verse he eats of the fruit (the gospel) of the tree of life and his first desire is to share with his family (other people). I said, 'Imagine your life without the gospel. All of your problems and stuggles without any help. We want others to have that same help.' Then I read and talked about Alma 32:27 and how all we need to have is simply a disire to believe. Elder Morton read Moses 1:39 and talked about different ways we can share the gospel. The Spirit really put our words together. We got lots of compliments afterwards. My piano playing went well this week. I played some more familiar hymns—Choose the Right and Do What is Right. Fitting for a sacrament meeting about sharing the gospel with your friends. ;) We went to the Staigers for lunch again and then had study pretty much the rest of the day.
We are looking forward to another busy but successful week. We have an activity at the church on Friday—hopefully we can get our investigators and friends of members there.
Take care this week.
Elder Tanner Germann
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