What an amazing week!

I got so excited to write you all this week that I used my media hour on the computer to write part of this letter! This week was so amazing, I mean I can’t even explain how awesome it was...but I mean I will try!

For Pday we went to this really cool carnival called the Nürnberg Volksfest. It had all sorts of rides and games and prizes and activities, but nobody wanted to do anything! I actually got kind of frustrated haha. Eventually Elder Arts and I went through some science tower thing that we thought looked cool, but in reality was a major let down haha. While we were there, our evening appointment texted us telling us that he got called into work. On our way home we tried calling several people to try and get something useful to do with our time, but either they didn’t answer, or the phone just kept ringing. When we hung up from one of the calls, we saw that we had a voice message. We listened to it and it was Richard, the guy that we met with for like 3 hours! We had gone by the week before and left a note in his mailbox during our dry spell and he called back wanting to meet..that night! 

Needless to say, Elder Andrus and I were quite glad everything else had fallen out, and had made room for the best possibility ever. We went over and we began once again answering questions here and there, and then we directed the conversation to exactly what we wanted to talk about. We began talking about how over time the Bible had lost truths and meaning through the hundreds and hundreds of translations it has been though, and that pieces of the original doctrine were no longer practiced or known for that matter. They couldn’t agree more, and began listing off things that most saints didn’t even do anymore such as fasting and observing the Sabbath day. We showed them 1 Cor. 15 where it talks about baptisms for the dead, and we got into a very deep discussion and began talking about the Plan of Salvation. Richard brought up a point and I wasn’t entirely sure what his question was, but I whipped out a scripture from The Book of Mormon. I read it and asked if it had answered his question, and he said that it had perfectly. 

As the time rolled on, we realized we had better get going, but then he offered to make us food. I’m a missionary, better yet a sucker for free food, so we stayed! We continued going deeper and deeper answering more and more questions, connecting more and more dots, and then we began to bare testimony of the church and Joseph Smith. We then read how he can know the truth in Moroni 10:3-5 and he just paused for a moment, opened the Bible to a certain scripture and read it, and proceeded to tell us of a very special spiritual experience where he learned that the verse (almost the same meaning as the one in the BoM) was true. I won’t share his experience because its his, but when he shared it there was a wonderful feeling in the room. I told Richard that I wanted him to read the Joseph Smith history because he and Joseph had so many similarities in their quests for truth. I lent him my personal canon of scripture, which contains all that we believe minus the old and new testament, telling him it would help him. He was very thankful, and seeing that we were leaving at 10 after another 3 hour visit, he lent me his bike light and Elder Andrus his jacket. Needless to say, we raved about it the rest of the day, and you can clearly see that I still am!!

On Tuesday we went to go to Fichtelberg to do some service for one of the member families here in Bayreuth. We moved a granite table, which had fallen over, and was quite frankly a beast and a back breaker. They then had us cut up a bunch of tree branches that they had because of a tree they had to cut down. We worked really fast because for whatever reason it was fun for me. Before we began we had an awesome lunch that they prepared for us, and after we had finished and cleaned the mess up, they gave us our own heaping bowl of ice cream. Because they live so far out there, the train only comes every now and then, so they took us to this beautiful lake that is brownish red because of all the iron and acidity in the water. It was just stunning, and the pictures I send really won’t do it any justice. 

On Wednesday we had it confirmed to us that we are indeed getting our own facebooks. After an exciting meeting with the group, we went back to our area and visited Bad Berneck, where we visited a member that hasn’t come since he was a boy. His wife gave me the tastiest Nutella filled Crescent I have ever had. We talked for a bit and I don’t think they are interested in our practicing the lessons with them, but we did get onto the topic of religion and we were able to read a scripture, to which the member dug out his old BoM and put a book mark in it which made us feel good. 

Thursday was awesome! We had two really great less active lessons and walked around a park with one of them. We installed the LDS Gospel app on their phone, and they loved it! They told us that they hate reading because their eyes are really bad, so we showed them the feature of the audio book, and they really liked that. Finding ourselves with some extra time, we went by an old investigator that Elder Andrus found in the area book. As I was introducing us, she interrupted saying she knew exactly who we were, and that she was so glad we came by. We had a good 30 minute talk in front of her door and she invited us back again, telling us she still had a lot of interest and even asked about a few members...by name! We told her we had to go so that we could catch the next bus, and so we said goodbye, and set up a time for tomorrow. On the bus ride home, we got contacted by a guy in a wheel chair. He asked us a question and then recognized our accents. We ended up having another 20-30 min discussion and he told us he knew who we were, and that when he got home he would check out the ward that he already knew was in his home area. Cool!! 

Friday was the end of our incredible day streak, but we had a cool experience with AJ and his friend. His friend is way into science, and so I pulled up a video explaining that science and religion go together, and how they are like 2 eyes that see different things, but combine to see one full image. 

Saturday and Sunday was when a lot of our appointments fell out, but we still managed to get some things done. We called Richard to set up an appointment but he didn’t answer, so we called Marco. Instead of us setting something up for Richard, we set something up with Marco, and he told us how Richard had been reading The Pearl of Great Price, which is one of the books that comprises the book I gave him. Rather than read what I gave him (I mean he might have), he began to read the whole book! He was astounded at the knowledge that it contains, and mentioned how it must be further revelation because it contains more detail than what is said about certain things in the Bible. It got us wigging out the whole weekend haha. As for right now we don’t have anything with Richard specifically, but we are hoping for it! 

This week has been fantastic, and if you read all the way to here, then I tip my imaginary hat to you. Know that I know that what I am doing is right. I feel it and I know it. I see blessings and joy come from what I get to do here, and I love it so much! I hope you all had a wonderful week too! 

Kevin