Hey friends and family!
This week was a little crazy! It's been
awesome, though. We've hit the highest investigator lesson mark that I've had
since I've gotten here, and so I feel that it has been a quite productive week.
Much of those lessons have been with the same investigators, since we're trying
to either solidify those baptismal dates we have, or establish new ones.
One of the investigators we met with was a man
named Kofi. Kofi is a pretty cool guy. He comes from Nigeria, and actually
approached us on the street a few weeks ago while we were talking with another
man (who wasn't interested). He walked up to me and asked "hey brother, would
you like to talk about the Word of God with me?" We accepted after the other
man shoo'd us away, and then we talked with Kofi for about thirty minutes about
his and our beliefs on a bench. We've met with him about three times since
then, but he always unexpectedly cuts us off and has to leave early. He's very
interested in our message, I believe, and a baptismal date is likely. We will
be trying to establish one with him the next time we meet. He's a great
guy.
We focused a ton on meeting with Kingsley this
week, following up in commitments and solidifying our baptismal date for him.
He's been doing rather well with reading the Book of Mormon, and he's enjoying
it quite a bit I believe. Unfortunately, our original baptismal date will
likely have to be pushed back. He wasn't able to meet with us at church this
week, and he will be gone two Sundays from now as well. He's still open to
baptism, but we simply need a little more time to set a firm date.
We also met with Louis again this week! We
taught him about forgiveness and repentance, and that was a really awesome
lesson. We learned a few unfortunate things though. He told us he wasn't going
to be able to come with past Sunday to church, and that at the end of November,
he would be moving back to Cameroon. We've had to push back his baptismal date
because we're having difficulties getting him to church. He, like Kingsley,
still wants to get baptized, though. We're working in that with him, and we're
hoping that we can get him baptized before he leaves. We've located a branch
near his home in Cameroon, and have made a plan with him to see that he
continues to progress in his conversion following his move.
We've spoken more with Maria, from Serbia,
yesterday, as well. She will be moving back to Serbia in a week, actually, and
we will not be able to continue teaching her (naturally).
She says that she really believes the Book of
Mormon to be true, though. Sister Plattner, the sweet old lady in the ward I
mentioned last week, has been a rockstar with helping Maria gain a testimony and
has spent a bunch of time talking with her about the gospel. We've found a
branch near Maria's' home as well, and are coordinating with the missionaries in
Serbia to keep Malaria in touch with the gospel. I hope that the transition
with her goes very smoothly and that she will be baptized!
A few weeks ago, I also contacted a woman named
Joy at the train station. We learned that she lives in Essen, outside of our
area, and we transferred her contact information to our Essen Elders. They got
in contact with her, and her family was super excited to hear about the gospel
and they have ended up with a baptismal date! They sound quite confident about
it from what I have heard, too. Really hoping this works out!
Anywho. It was a busy but great week. It came
to an end on Sunday. We came to church, sat down, and began Sacrament Meeting.
After the Sacrament was administered, I got out my notebook to write down what
the soon to speak speakers would say, to see if I could understand them. The
bishop walks up and says:
"Guten Morgen, lieber Geschwistern. (*Ill just
translate the rest*). Today we will be hearing from a few speakers. We will
start by hearing from ELDER WALLENTINE."
I then hear my heart triple in pace. I try to
rationalize myself out of the situation, first thinking that I certainly WASN'T
asked to give a talk. But wait. I was. I frantically pull out a piece of
paper that they gave me the previous week, and saw the word "Opfer" on it. Good
enough. It means "sacrifice". I stand up from my seat and slowly make my way
to the stand, doing my best to put on a smile through the confusion in my mind.
My companion is nervously laughing on my behalf when I finally face the
congregation.
"......Hallo."
I proceeded to do my absolute best to act like I
totally prepared the talk. I shared D&C 58:1-5 and I think that
people understood at least a bit of what I was saying. I think I got my nervous
trembling under control...although people did tell me I said "um" a bunch and
that is true. I barely survived. Otherwise, church was really great. I think
that it was the first time where I really felt that I understood what was going
on for the majority of the time. Except third hour. Priesthood meeting is
always much harder to understand because people speak a lot more quietly,
quickly, and specifically about whatever the topics may be. But it was overall
a good Sunday.
I've also finished memorizing the list of 2000
German words, which means that I can supposedly understand 80% of words in
regular German conversation. I've begun to memorize an additional set of 2000,
and when I complete that, I should be able to understand about 95-98% of German
conversations. As soon as that is done, which it should be by around
Mid-December at the latest, I'm planning to hit grammar and pronunciation the
hardest.
Anyways...Sometimes my head gets really
numb.
Anyways, I've had a wonderful as well as
chilling Book of Mormon study throughout this week. I've been reading it
alongside the institute manual and there was a part in Mormon that struck me.
It states in Mormon chapter 2 verse 15 that the "day of grace was passed" for
the Nephites. I saw in the manual a detailed elaboration by Elder Holland, who
said:
"It is at this moment in Nephite history--just
under 950 years since it had begun and just over 300 years since they had been
visited by the Son of God himself--that Mormon realized the story was finished.
In perhaps the most chilling line he ever wrote, Mormon asserted simply, ‘I saw
that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually.’
His people had learned that most fateful of all lessons--that the Spirit of God
will not always strive with man; that it is possible, collectively as well as
individually, to have time run out. The day of repentance can pass, and it had
passed for the Nephites. Their numbers were being ‘hewn down in open rebellion
against their God,’ and in a metaphor almost too vivid in its moral commentary,
they were being ‘heaped up as dung upon the face of the land'". Even though
this scripture speaks of the Nephites specifically, it's important to wonder why
this part was added for us, with the knowledge that the Book of Mormon has been
written for us in these days. God is patient with us. He's perfectly patient,
in fact. But we cannot allow ourselves to try and take advantage of that by
prolonging our repentance and strive for good in our lives. I won't write too
much about this though. Elder Holland covered it perfectly.
Anyways. It's been a great week! Thank you for
your prayers and your support! Love you all.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
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