Heya folks!
This has been a pretty good week! Actually,
logistically, it's been luke-warm. But I feel great! I'll elaborate on both
throughout this letter. Also, I just finished my first transfer, and will be
staying for another as I'm getting trained in Oberhausen and Mülheim!
The week was off to an interesting start by us
going to Köln on preparation day. That was certainly one of the coolest things
I've seen since I've gotten here. Beautiful city! We stayed there for several
hours before heading back to Oberhausen. Then, we got a call from a couple of
the brothers in our ward. An older man, who wasn't a member, had been sent to
the hospital, and they said that his life was in critical condition and we were
asked to give him a blessing by one family member who happened to be a member.
We did, and then we waited in the room for a while. For about ten minutes we
stood in silence, then my companion got a prompting to have everyone sing a
song. We sang "I am a Child of God" and "Come Come Ye Saints." The spirit
filled the room. The family members in the room who weren't members seemed to
be very distraught when we came in, and tears rolled down some of their faces
through the songs, but I believe that the prompting came because the songs would
help to comfort the family. It felt that it did.
The majority of the week was a little slow
though. We had most of our investigator appointments fall through and ended up
with only two investigator lessons by the end of the week...both of which
happened in the same night...in the same house, actually. We met with our
investigator Louis to teach him Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. He accepted
the commitment to follow both, and he's closer to being ready for baptism on the
12th of November! He will be able to start attending church this Sunday...which
means the first time he comes will be GENERAL CONFERENCE. I really hope that
gets him pumped about the gospel. But anyways, we had a good lesson there and
closed it, then when we did, his sister's boyfriend who was in the other room
came out and told us that he liked what we had to say about chastity and
abstaining from alcohol/tobacco, but he wanted us to explain where in the Bible
it states not to drink coffee or tea. At that point, we started the Restoration
discussion with him, and he was pretty on board. But then we tried explaining
the apostasy, and that's where we hit a roadblock. That, and modern prophets,
seemed to disagree with his views a bit and our lesson progress halted. He told
us he was interested in talking more. We'll return to him, and do our best to
open the door to him about the reality of modern day prophets. So that was
cool, but I don't know if he'll be very open for the time being. We have a good
lineup this week for lessons provided they don't all fall through again. Hoping
to improve on what we had last week.
The week really turned around on Saturday. The
sisters in our district got a baptism with a Middle-Eastern man. He'd actually
been waiting for about six months, but had to wait to be baptized until he got a
long term Visa (Middle Eastern immigrants are required to have long term
residency authorizations prior to baptism because if they join the church, then
have to get sent back to their home countries, it could threaten their lives.).
I've known him for a few weeks, and it was just very cool to see his desire be
fulfilled. He was one of the happiest people I've seen in a while. The spirit
was there so strongly, and he was crying tears of joy the whole time.
On Sunday the next day, I talked to a man in our
ward who was baptized in July. His name is Steven. I wasn't there when the
missionaries met him, but I've heard from him and the missionaries about how
broken he felt in his life before finding the gospel. The only Steven I have
known is a very happy, and goofy, guy who is satisfied with everything, even if
things go wrong, but I hear that his life was much darker before. It's really
great to have gotten to know him.
So these are a few of the experiences I've had
this week, and I've managed to piece them all together. The baptism on Saturday
and my talks with Steven on Sunday have made me realize further what a blessing
the gospel truly can be for people. These guys are some of the happiest people
I know. My heart swelled so much for both of them when I began to comprehend a
bit more of what they have felt, and are currently feeling. And I've thought
about what the gospel could do for the members of the family to the man
afflicted in the hospital...I knew that the gospel made me happy, and others,
before my mission, but this week increased my desire to share it perhaps more
than anything has up to this point. I'm so happy to be serving a mission now to
bring this message, and this pure, eternal joy, to people. I wish
I had realized this earlier, and that I had made more of an effort to try and
share this message throughout stages such as high school. I did my best to help
others be happy--not being close to perfect at it--but often did I fail to
remember that the gospel is the greatest source of any lasting happiness.
Which brings me to one of my favorite mission-related scriptures from
the Book of Mormon, in Alma 26:30:
"And we have suffered all manner of afflictions,
and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we
supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving
some."
And that is really what I'm here to do.
Love you guys. Hold down the fort for me in
Idaho and Utah.
Elder Wallentine
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