EAT CHOCOLATE!!!

Hey All, Hope it was a good week for you as it was for me.

This last week we called our friend we met at Dunkin Donuts and he has been reading in the Book of Mormon without us asking and wants to meet with us this week! Sweet! This week Elder Arts and I started a 40 day fast of sorts. The idea is to get rid of any old bad habits from home and maybe things that we are still holding on to. Just little things that might be distracting! 

This week I also got my Visa! I must say, it feels nice not worrying about being an illegal alien! Not that I was yet, but it was getting close! 

We were supposed to have had a baptism with Daniel Rippel, but his mom wanted him to put it off so she could come. Naturally we did that, and ended up meeting Daniel and his mom last night and discussed it with the new Bishop. This week we also met with Daniel and his cousin, Alexandro. Alexandro is 15 and also wants to be baptized! I explained to him that after Daniel is baptized he can baptize Alexandro. Right after I finished he was like, yeah no I want you to do it. Well ok, I won't argue with that!! I mean I am a cool guy, what can I say! Haha just kidding. Daniel and I get along really well too. The language barrier isn't even a barrier anymore. We just understand each other and he gets that my German sucks. Just yesterday we developed our own inside joke! That kid is so great, and just loves meeting with us. He's such a cool friend and we have so much in common! It makes teaching him feel so natural and so much more like a friend teaching a friend than a teacher teaching a student. 

Just a few other small things. This week we ran into a guy from Orem Utah, so it was way fun hearing someone speaking English. We also got stuck in the rain and ran to our appointment-soaking wet, which was not only refreshing but also really fun! It's weird because I'm not kidding; it's always something we laugh about when we are running. We also got stuck on our Bahn from that appointment back to Cologne and it broke down for about 75 minutes. It was fun, but let me just say that I would love to shake the hand of the genius that invented sweat pants. I went home and changed into those babies so fast! 

So last week I mentioned that I left out a story since I didn’t have time, and that I believe less and less in coincidences. Well today I have time! We were riding home for the night thinking we would get home early. I looked over and saw a guy wearing a USA jersey, which isn't uncommon at all. People wear the American flag more everyday than most people in America do in a week. It's weird. Anyway I thought nothing of it and went on with my thoughts as we went home. Well the next stop he came over and said "Hey Elders!" Now either you're a member or you are making fun of us for both having the first name. Sure enough, he was a member! He was from Uruguay originally but works right now for the American Government. He was in the city trying to find his hostel for the night and came across us. We had time, so we helped him find his hostel only to find that it was booked because of the huge marathon the next day. We ended up helping him out around Cologne and found him a good place to stay. I say I don't believe in coincidences because in the 4th largest city in Germany with over 2 million people, we happened to be on the same train with some member of the church who just so happened to run into the only elders in the city. For me that is no coincidence at all, to me that is a miracle quite honestly. 

Well I am off to go get a hair cut and go to a skate shop, and maybe some other places. I hope everyone has a great week and finds some time to eat some chocolate. That always does me good! Have a good week and enjoy your chocolate!