Monday, October 3, 2016

Hey everyone!

This week was another good week!  We got to meet with a few investigators on Tuesday, and that was pretty awesome!  The first investigator we met with was the daughter of a woman from Serbia. I believe I mentioned her mother in one of my previous letters.  If or if not, they're the Falatovis'.  Unfortunately, the mother, Maria, is moving back to Serbia quite soon, but her daughter seemed very interested through the first lesson.  We'll very likely be meeting with her again this week, and I have high hopes for her!  Secondly for that day, we met with a very strong Lutheran man, named Volker.  He is a former investigator.  He expressed to us that he was Lutheran because his family has been it for about four generations.  We had a good first discussion, but I don't know if that touched close to his heart.  He was still very polite and invited us back.  We're hoping that we will be able to see a miracle in him!

We met with Louis again.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to come to general conference, but he finally got a new job that will no longer be forcing him to work on Sundays!  He has promised to come to church this upcoming Sunday, and if that happens, we will propose bumping his baptismal date to be earlier, perhaps on the 29th.  He's making great progress, and I am very excited to see the happiness that will continue to come to him as he continues on the path he's taking! 

Oh, and also, we met a younger man last Monday whose name is Akmal.  He said that he was raised in a Muslim home, but that he has not practiced it for many years.  He expressed desire to meet with us, and has actually called us multiple times since then to see when we can meet.  We can tell that he is excited to learn the truth, and I have high expectations for him as well!  Very exciting!

GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME.  This has been an awesome conference this October, and I haven't even been able to watch the last session yet (due to the time difference).  I really enjoyed many of the talks that were given, and enjoyed what President Monson had to say in the time he had to speak.  I also thoroughly enjoyed President Nelson's wonderful talk.  I loved the emphasis he placed on relying on the Atonement and obedience to God's commandments to achieve happiness.  We encounter a lot of people who see our commandments, and obedience thereof, as barriers to happiness and "freedom".  But when we learn to follow each commandment given with, hopefully, ever-increasing diligence, we gain a testimony of the blessings that come from obedience!  We learn that it is obedience to God's commandments that brings true joy and freedom, and certainly not Satan's temptations that bring guilt and spiritual captivity.  In addition, when we fail at being perfect in any commandment(s), we can use the Atonement to restore our happiness, and to improve ourselves and our willingness to obey God.  I loved these principles that were so well portrayed by President Nelson, and I hope we can all apply them in our lives, that we may receive pure joy.  All the other talks were fantastic as well!

Anyways, that's all I got.  I think I managed to shrink this letter a bit!

I love you all.  Thanks for your prayers and support!

Love,
Elder Wallentine


P.S.  The German word of the week is "Pulver", which means "Dust". ((Pulverize.))  Isn't German cool?)

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