Getting a new companion

Hey gang!

I'm sending my love from East Berlin! How cool does that sound?  We
had a really cool week in which many good things happened.  Here are 
some images from the old East Berlin:

  

Tuesday was just a good day. For one reason or another our plans got
switched around so we ended up finding in a different area than what
we had planned the night before. It was no coincidence. We ended up
talking to a woman from South Africa who's best friend is a Mormon.
She stood and talked to us for 40 minutes about faith. It was such a
good conversation and I really felt like we were speaking with the
Spirit but unfortunately she turned down and invitation to learn more. 
She said she was very thankful for the discussion, that it was no coincidence, 

but that she had vowed that she would not get involved in organized religion again.
She did, though, accept a Book of Mormon so I hope she'll read that
and accept the Spirit then. We went to a lesson with the man we took
to the temple after that. It was a super lesson--worlds different than
any other lesson we've had with him. Not once did he talk about his
objections. We simply exchanged our feelings and experiences about and
with the temple. The temple trip really was good for him. He says he
understands so much more and sees things from a different perspective.
He also watch this news report a Munich TV station did on a Mormon
family (not the best thing in the world but not totally bad) and was
amazed by how supported the family is in the church--temples,
genealogy, activities, seminary, etc. We also met with him again on
Friday and felt like we should ask him if he had any fear about being
baptized. That actually brought up a concern about not making it every
Sunday because of bike races. We touched on sacrifice, obedience, and
blessing.

Knowing about that news report really came in handy on Wednesday
afternoon. I was on a companion exchange with Elder Allen after district meeting
on Wednesday and when we went finding someone asked us about it. She
said she found the baptisms for the dead thing interesting. She said
she wasn't sure if she was religious so we offered to her that we help
people develop faith, "would that be something you'd like to do?" Her
response, "actually yes." And we also found a family that
afternoon who was in our area book. Our ward mission leader said
missionaries in the past just lost contact with her but that she had
super potential--sweet!

Thursday night we went out with members. I visited a less-active
member and Elder Williams went to see the German girl. He took the elders
quorum president who is an awesome guy with a crazy good conversion
story. It was really powerful for her--she really felt the Spirit.

We had a couple lessons Saturday--one with a man from Cameroon,
another with a new convert. Sunday we got a man to come to church that
hasn't been there for a year. We picked him up which was kind of crazy
because we were out the door for a 0650 train and we got to church
right on time at 0900.

Elder Williams is being transferred to Schwarzenberg tomorrow and I am
getting a new comp who has been here 4-5 months I think. I've heard
good things about him.

Best wishes,

Elder Tanner Germann