Fun Little Miracles

Probably one of the highlights of my entire week was hanging out with
elder Sommer at our zone training! It was so good to see the kid, and
see how much he has grown since I left him about 2 transfers ago. I
got him our companionship fruit as a snack for our district leader
council afterwards. Every companionship has their own thing, ours just
so happened to be a fruit haha. I don't know if anyone has ever heard
of a palmelo, but it's this fruit from China that is bigger than a
grapefruit, but you peel it like an orange...it's weird but super
tasty, and only recently did they bring them over to Germany. Are they
over in the states yet??

Things are beginning to wrap up over here for elder Rogers, it's kind
of weird. He just had his leavers interview with president, and he
will probably start packing next week. It's eerie!

I went on two splits this week, and on one of them I was able to give
a woman a blessing. We were visiting her son, and she walked in, said
hello, and told us how she has been wanting to come to church lately
and get a blessing from the members, but things just hadn't worked
out. She's going through a very challenging health issue right now, so
she was a little tense. I didn't know why, but the spirit told me to
suggest one then and there as opposed to her waiting until Sunday. She
agreed, I gave her a blessing, and she was so much calmer afterwards.
It's truly amazing what God can allow us to do in His name. It truly
is a miracle that we can give and receive blessings of comfort or for
sickness.

Anytime I see a cool or weird car, I just have to stop and stare and
check it out! There was a guy that pulled onto the side of the street
with a Chrysler crossfire that had police stickers all over it. Don't
get me wrong, they looked cool, but they weren't meant for that car!
We talked to the guy for a good while about his car and then we
started talking about missionary work and why we are here. We are
having an event on the 20th to watch meet the Mormons at the church,
and we invited him. He said he'd like to come, so I hope we see him on
Saturday, and he took down our number.

That same day we went by on a potential we found at our street
display, and he invited us in to tell him more about the Book of
Mormon! What! It was crazy and he he committed to start reading it. It
would be super fun if they came to church because he has a small
family, and our ward could really use that. He's actually from
Romania, and a pretty cool guy. He invited us back, so I hope we can
start working with him regularly.

I don't know if any of you remember me talking a while back about
contacting a guy at a kiosk, but anyways we found him again. We kept
pushing to meet with him, but since he doesn't have an apartment it
makes it kind of hard. He was so much happier by the end of our
conversation, and he asked, "why do you want to help me? Why does your
church want people like me? I'm a junkie." Maybe you have experienced
this before, but I just have so much love and hope for this guy I have
barely met. I wonder sometimes if I once knew some of the people I
encounter here, it's hard to describe!

Saturday's street display was probably one of the hardest and most
taxing street displays I have ever had. Nobody would stop and talk,
nobody was being friendly, and it was kind of disheartening because
normally those things pick me up! Luckily the Lord sent me something
to keep me going that day. We were on our way to visit a member that
lives way out there, and in the train we heard some English right
behind us. When we talked to them they instantly recognized us as the
Mormons and told us how they have an American friend that "opened
their eyes" to Mormons haha. Well, he's the exchange student in our
ward! These two were from Romania and Belgium, and we think the books
we just gave this member were for them. How cool!

Things are getting really weird over here with my companion going
home, but we are being shown some pretty fun miracles over here right
before he leaves.

Thanks for your love and care, love you all!

Kevin

And thank you aunt Mari for the awesome Christmas box, I just got it!

Dreams of a new car???

Special picture sent home to mom from a missionary couple

Pictures at the coal mine

WOW what a week!

Lots to write this week! Lots of fun and miracles happening in Gelsenkirchen.

Elder Rogers and I have been really trying to do a better job of
finding underway, and when we hear stories from others, a lot of the
stories take place underway. So to make an effort, I contacted two guys
from Africa on the train. It didn't really lead to much, but a woman
waiting for her stop came over and approached me in English which took
me completely by surprise. She didn't stay long because she got off,
but I got to tell her what I do and why. Blessings!

We began teaching a woman whose husband just died, and its very hard
because she can have a really hard time in a moments notice. Poor
thing, I hope I never have to lose a spouse at that young of an age.
Anyways, we taught her the restoration and we watched the 20 minute
video which she really liked. We now have a standing appointment with
her every week, and her mom is a member and is there every week.

On a split with Elder Heiner from Herne, we got a new investigator!
Elder Rogers and I had gone by on him and his family, but they couldn't
meet, so we made out an appointment but it ended up falling out. So
this time we met, and he and his wife want to meet and learn more
again after taking a 3 or 4 year break.

Later on our split, we met with a super member in our ward. This woman
helps us with everything! We had a lesson scheduled out, but the guy
that was supposed to come with bailed. So, last minute we asked if her
son could be there. He accepted, on the terms that we could talk and
eat but not have a lesson. So we went, and we got there and just
clicked with him really well! I was told that not long ago he didn't
even want to be in the same room as Elders, so he has been making
major improvement. I was a little worried about how the appointment
went, so I talked to the woman on sunday, and she assured me that she
was happy that it went as well as it did.

Saturday was payday! We had wanted to have a street display every week
this transfer, but neither us or the Herne Elders or sisters had put
one together, so we decided to go apply for one for saturday. There
was actually a good chance we wouldn't get the permission in the mail
with such short notice only a few days before, but the woman said she
would email it to us, but she didn't. So as we were going over to steal
a members wifi and check, we saw the postman throw the letter in our
box right as we opened our door! After a major struggle of carrying
all the books and a super heavy table across town, we finally made it
to our street location.

We ended up getting a few new potential investigators, and we are
going to go by on all of this week. One girl just came up, and after
hearing what we were doing went and got her sister! We are going to
try and meet on Thursday. Another woman I talked to for 15 minutes,
and referred her to meet with the Dortmund Elders. I was so happy with
all the books we gave out, not only because of how many, but because
how much lighter the trip back was going to be! Good thing the other
elders showed up!

Upon closing up, we were approached by a Ukrainian woman who thought
she heard us speaking english. She was just curious about what we were
doing; the whole stand was already gone. A member and I talked to her
and she was very interested, although we weren't able to get any
contact information.

Last story, I promise! On our way home in the train, Elder Rogers and
I were so burnt out but so excited. A little boy about 3 or 4 years
old sat next to me and his parents stood behind us. I asked how old he
was and they just told me they were from Poland, so they didn't
understand what I was saying. A station or two later the husband took
the open spot next to Elder Rogers, and I kept getting the thought to
give him a polish book. I had this kind of inner fight because I knew
just handing him a book might be kind of weird, and I didn't even know
where in our little trolly our polish book would be. I finally made a
deal in my mind that if it was on top I would do it. Well, it was the
second book! He looked at it and smiled, and then showed his little
boy and said, "Look, Jesus Christ!" It got me so excited even though I
couldn't further communicate with him, but I motioned that it was for
him.

This work is true! This work is awesome! Last week was so rewarding to
be out here, and I know that there isn't anything better that I could
be doing with my time. Thanks to everyone for the love and prayers,
you are awesome and I miss you all. Love you guys!

I'd rather be a missionary than a coal miner!

Are things as warm over in America as it is here? There are plants
with matured leaves and some trees are starting to bud! It's quite
strange, but I like not needing to wear a heavy coat.

This ones going to be relatively short, but I hope it is still good.

Today we had our PDay because we wanted to go to a German coal mine!
It was super cool and I got to use a drill, or rather I got to hold it
and activate it, but not drill anything out of the tunnel wall. Pretty
tiring stuff! Our tour guide was pretty funny, but I had the hardest
time understanding half of that tour. Boy, I felt like I was a brand
new missionary again. The vocabulary is nothing like what I hear in
every day spoken German, so it was kind of a bummer. But, after our
tour we ran into a cool college group from Delaware, and that was one
of the best parts of the day. It's so funny how when you're in a
different country you just click with other people from your own
country. They thought what we were doing was pretty interesting. We
just had to laugh because they asked us question after question when
normally Germans keep to themselves...it's pretty different over here
I guess. I guess I've just forgotten how it is back home!

We had the opportunity to go to a German funeral and burial this week,
and it was so sad even though I didn't know the guy. A woman that left
the church had invited us to her husbands funeral, and she is so
determined to rejoin and do everything she can to get active again.
She has already planned to go to the temple and do all of his work so
they can be together in the next life. It's just such a beautiful
thing that the gospel offers! And, it's just so refreshing seeing
someone who has such a desire to join the church.

On our way there, our bus had problems going further because somebody
had a medical emergency, so we couldn't go any further with the bus.
Or any bus for that matter. We both looked at each other and decided
to take a taxi, and once we set foot outside the bus we saw an elderly
woman trying to get to the funeral as well. So that was a fun little
miracle of the week, and we got to take our first taxi ride on our
missions!

Well that's all time allows me today. Love you all! Pictures of the
museum hopefully next week!

It's warm in Germany!!

It is unusually warm here! As of right now it is in the low fifties,
and the rest of the week should be around the higher forties. No
complaints here! Some bushes and trees have long since bloomed, and I
haven't really had to wear my heavy winter coat this winter.

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to two of our members in our
district this last week, one of them went home, and the other got sent
down to Bamberg. So, the one getting transferred was in our district
so to celebrate a good time together we went to a chinese buffet and
mongolian grill that was amazing! I tried croc meat and kangaroo as
well. Kangaroo was weird, it didn't taste very good. But, it was a lot
of fun, and a good way to say goodbye.

Tuesday we picked up Elder Thaxton about an hour and a half later than
we were supposed to...oops! But, what had happened was that he wasn't
able to get off his train and overshot our station by only a few
minutes, so after he finally found someone nice enough to lend him
their phone, we went and picked him up.

Later that night we had a fantastic lesson with Frau Lange, and she
asked all of the right questions and told us she had read 17 chapters
in the Book of Mormon. Wow! She came to church a second time this week
and loved it. I pulled her aside since she had been really quiet and I
asked if everything was ok. She smiled and she started telling me how
great and welcome she felt, and the more she interacts with the church
the more she feels that it is right. Its such a wonderful thing to
see, I just hope she doesn't leave like so many others have. She's so
great, and we have a great bond too. She heard I was on the hunt for
an old luther bible and so she found one and gave it to me. Its really
not that old, but what is so cool and so special about it, is that in
the front pages it said it was made just around the corner from where
I live.

One night when everything fell out, we went finding and I contacted
the coolest guy ever! He is a total American hidden in a German shell,
and he buys classic muscle cars in the states and fixes them and sells
them over here. We stopped him while he was closing his gate to his
shop, and he talked to us for a good 20 or so minutes all the while
his chevy truck was idling, but he wanted to talk to us. It really
made our nights, and before we could even ask, he invited us to come
back! So I cant wait to see his firebird or whatever he has hidden
away.

Gotta go though, thanks for the love and prayers, I miss you guys!