Dead body and miracles!

Hey everyone! I hope its getting warmer for you all, because this week we had to switch to short sleeve shirts. Its about 58 degrees right now, and I’m feeling great! 

Because things have warmed up so quickly, everyone has been out on their motorcycle this week! It was killing me hearing them every few seconds. To make it worse I saw a kid unloading his just bought motorcycle with his parents there with him. I saw him take his first ride too and I thought to myself "I want that bike too!”

This week as well as last week we went to the gym with our friend AJ and let me just say that I feel like my body partially died.  We got permission from president to keep going and AJ has already gone to all of the gyms to get us trial memberships so we can keep going with him haha. I hope that’s not what we do EVERY Pday. I don’t know that I want to be sore more than half the week! 

This week we had a complete miracle happen! We always go by this one guy and he is honestly never home. We no longer had a good number for him and so it was impossible to reach him by phone. After a rough day, I decided we should go by, and then after we rang his doorbell I heard a voice coming from the other end of the box!! He let us in and was super happy to see us! He invited us over the next day and we met him and his girlfriend who has known members and the missionaries since the 80s. It was awesome! They want to learn more and invited us again for this Wednesday and also invited us to their church. We went yesterday and I must say it was interesting. A lot different than what I am used to, but at least I know how the people I invite to church feel.

We also made contact last week with another old investigator who actually is quite, well, old. In fact he invited us to come back but said he had to talk with his daughter about meeting with us since he can’t really make his own decisions on his own anymore. Sad! We went by when he told us, but he wasn’t home. I hope he didn’t just forget...but with him I think that’s a real excuse and what actually happened!! 

On Wednesday at our district meeting we learned a lot. One of the things I liked was that, if we want to change, we have to change our nature, and not just our behavior, otherwise we are just the same person. We discussed how if we just change our behavior our whole mission we go home the same person really. I also learned how in order to become better we can do this. 1. Desire the change or action 2. Seek for answers 3. Ask God and act 4. Receive blessings. We were showed how that is exactly what happens in most cases in the Book of Mormon stories, and so I thought that was pretty neat. 

On Friday we finally met Frau Brown at her house. We had stopped by a few times, but were never allowed in because we needed another guy. We found out she was a member but is now either less active or just had the church delete her records. Really a bummer but she loves us and knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She just has a hard time because some people weren’t very good to her as a very new member of the church. She’s so funny though! And possibly one of my favorite people I have met on my mission. She trained her dog to give high fives whenever she says, "Blackie (the dog), heil Hitler!". Its so dang funny. We are going by this week to watch the Prophet of the Restoration with her.  She also taught me my new favorite phrase in German, although its something I’ll say after my mission. Its not a curse word, but I wont be saying to members, "What are you stupid?". Not very missionary like haha. Good thing I’ll have mission buds afterwards!

On Saturday we met AJs mom. Man is she a saint! She gave up drinking and smoking in the 80s to follow God. Deeply religious. Very wonderful woman. On Sunday we had over 40 people crammed into our small little branch. We had ward conference, which only happens once. It was awesome! And a lot of the people came from English speaking areas, so it was fun just messing around. That day we also had our first member appointment in Bayreuth. Kind of messed up haha. We have been over a few other times, but we were never able to share anything with anyone. 

The last event is kind of funny. I was riding my bike and the kickstand kept rubbing against my rear tire. Quite annoyed I tried to move it and bend it away but it ended up just snapping off. I chucked the piece in the garbage and was just glad I could continue riding. Well, now the wheel has warped to the point of rubbing against the frame. Guess it wasn’t the kickstand!! Oh well. 

I hope all of you have great weeks, and that it starts warming up! The first flowers are already all over the place here. Take care!

Kevin