Hello again, family and friends. Another week here in Germany has completely flown by. Before we know it, it will be March already! Elder Oldroyd and I had a frustrating week of work.
Monday afternoon following emails the four of us missionaries went to the barber shop and got haircuts. It always feels good to be clean cut. That evening we had an appointment with a Brazilian man that we met last week. The address he had given to us was false. That has pretty much been the story for most of the new investigators we and the other companionship have found the last few weeks. It is so frustrating.
Tuesday we had a jam packed day. Following study we had an appointment with Patrick. The last time we had met with him was two weeks ago. He had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we had assigned him to read (2 Nephi 31) and he had many questions about it. He began with, "I am a bit critical about what it says here." Which is totally fine because that means he really studied it. We had an awesome lesson, probably my best with Elder Oldroyd. I thought we really asked inspired questions and allowed Patrick to answer with his heart. By the end we had conveyed to him the Plan of Salvation and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ fits into that. It was really cool. At the end he said that it had all made sense and he committed to pray about the Book of Mormon. He prayed to be open to receiving the gospel. We then were supposed to go and have a lesson with Daniel. We got to Schönebeck but they never showed up. I called and they said their family was going to the movies instead. I stayed calm. But something is holding Daniel back and we don't know what it is. More to come later on that. We came back and taught German and English class and had a meeting with our branch mission leader to discuss current investigators. We finally got material to teach an English class! Now we don't have to make it up anymore. Still making up German class as we go though.
Wednesday we had a really good day of contacting. The night before in our meeting with our branch mission leader, he gave us a ward list and asked us to go through at our own pace and try to find the whereabouts of each person—wheather the address is still good, etc. The other two missionaries had started that last week and we even tried it last Saturday too but this week we really hit it hard and it turned out to be successful. We had picked an area of the city to go to and then we went through and plotted where every less-active member lived in that area as well as all of the former investigators in our area book. With that, we found three new investigators Wednesday. The three were found by street contacting between addresses. It was really quite effective and we were able to get a read on several less-active members and former investigators in order to update our records. We then had a lesson with Fadi, who brought his roommate into the lesson which was awesome. (The problem was, they lit up a massive hooka thing and smoked that the entire lesson.) Fadi is the one we found a couple of weeks ago that was a former investigator of Elder Morton. He is from Syria and because of the wars there, doesn't believe in God but wants to. That is the key. We taught the Restoration. It was very interesting to him and he had so many questions. We committed him to reading and praying but he refused to say a prayer in front of his friend. He also requested that Elder Morton come to the next lesson. Elder Morton had a profound impact on Fadi when he met him the first time and talked about what we believe. We are all going over there on Thursday for a lesson.
Thursday we tried the same type of plotting/contacting but not with as much success. The areas we went to had fewer people on the streets and half of the people we visited didn't live at those addresses anymore. We were supposed to have a lesson with a Russian that we met on the street the other day but guess what—false address. So then we went to our appointment with Johanna; we covered half of the commandments. Elder Oldroyd did a fine job leading that lesson.
Friday morning we were up early to catch a train to Leipzig. I thought zone training meeting went very well. Kind of the theme for the meeting was Galatians 5:22-23 which has become one of my favorite scriptures to use in lessons to talk about the Spirit. The Zone Leaders had assigned a couple of companionships to take some time to teach how a companionship should prepare for a lesson, plan/role play, and then execute. We also had interview with President Kosak. My interview was low stress. He had me teach him a five minute version of the Plan of Salvation. I am sad that his time as mission president ends in June. At the end of the meeting President quoted Joseph Smith History 1:29 and encouraged us to find out where we stand before God and what we can do better. Zone Training Meeting went longer than we expected so we missed our train. Finally we got back into town and fortunately Marion, Galia, and Rafael were still willing to have us over. They said they have been receiving some ridicule from there friends about the church and had tough questions about Joseph Smith and polygamy. Really, though, I thought we answered them exactly how Preach My Gospel and the prophets today tell us. Elder Bednar used polygomy as an example in a talk. He said simply, quote the eighth article of faith and explain that polygamy was a revelation given to a prophet and then was taken away by a revelation through a prophet. As it says in Preach My Gospel, help your investigators see that the real question is, is the Book of Mormon true? Because if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet. That is why the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. And that is how you teach DOCTRINE.
Saturday no one was able to play soccer so we did our weekly planning instead. We went to the way northwest part of the city that morning, where I had never been, and the address that we were given for our appointment was false. We then went to go contact less-actives/former investigators in the area and found that the address on the branch list for one of the members didn't exist. A real shame. That evening we went with the Romneys to the less-active woman we got in contact with a week or so ago—she wasn't home for our appointment. We consoled ourselves by going to dinner with the Romneys and the other two. Here's the soccer field we play on sometimes:
Yesterday in church I taught the lesson in our Sunday School class. Marion bore his testimony again in there which was super cool. My piano playing in Sacrament meeting went alright. Elder Morton was asked to speak last minute but he did a super job. Gotta always be ready! Daniel and his mother came to church. I had a conversation with them. Daniel just doesn't have the desire to be baptized. His mom doesn't encourage him because she is worried he will become less-active like his older brother. We need to really sit down with Daniel and see what is holding him back, why doesn't want this. He doesn't want to meet with us without his mom there and she always works so they said they have no time for us. We can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do, especially baptism. But AT LEAST can we meet with him?? AHHHH. We ate lunch at the Wlokas house and then had our study in the evening.
We are prepped for hopefully a less frustrating week with correct addresses! I am on an exchange with the other missionaries tomorrow in Köthen; I'll be with Elder Glissmeyer—should be a good time. This is the last week of the transfer which means we get transfer calls on Saturday. I have been here in Magdeburg for six months...it might be my time to go. We shall see. I will let y'all know next Monday.
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
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