Claudius and Timothy

Hey!

This week has been great! First things first, we only got three investigators at church, as opposed to the planned 10.. haha, a lot of people randomly fell through. We will get them next week though! I hope to see that happen soon!

Tony did come, though, and enjoyed it a lot. He even explained repentance after baptism through the sacrament to another investigator who had a question about that! He's starting to act more like a member and less like an investigator, and he continues to progress phenomenally.

In other news, we got to go on a split with the Offenbach Elders, which includes Elder Stacy, my former Bayreuth companion that I trained way back when. It was a great split and we got good work done!

Our apartment is more infested with insects than my others have ever been before. One reason may be that we are on the bottom floor and live next to a marshy area. I wake up with bites on my arms and legs sometimes, so we've been purging the apartment of all its six and eight-legged sinfulness. As part of the process, we've actually adopted two spiders to help oversee the process. Their names are Claudius and Timothy, the former being the more senior adoptee, and officially named trainer of Timothy. They're contained together but they seem to be having a hard time adjusting. It actually seems that Timothy's skills and strength exceed that of his superior's, but his wisdom lacks in the most important departments. 

They're helping to keep mosquitoes out. Well, or scared at least. 

I'm pumped to talk with my family next week! It's also going to feel somewhat minor considering my return in 3 1/2 to 4 weeks. But hey, I'm taking whatever chance there is to Skype home.

Lastly, I'm been studying Mormon 5 and 6, partly because it was asked of us to teach a seminary class about the two chapters. While studying, I thought about, as well as asked myself, if we read the Book of Mormon with the best goal in mind. You see, we may get caught up in the intricacies of the cultural clues, historical background, realistic war descriptions, or whatever of the book, all of which are interesting and can further develop our understanding of even testimony of the book. But all of those are merely incidental to the book's main purpose--which is to testify of Jesus Christ. 

Mormon said he didn't want to harrow up our minds more than necessary with the vision of the destruction of the Nephites. Rather, he made it a point to direct us throughout his historical record to its overarching purpose of providing the knowledge to our souls that Christ is living and true. 

As we read the Book of Mormon for this purpose, we receive greater assurance of its validity along with an increasingly impenetrable testimony of God and Christ.

Thank you everyone!

Love,

Elder Wallentine