Heilbronn: January 14, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

Greetings from Heilbronn! Winter has started to enter its worst phase, and should only be getting colder for the next few weeks, which is not always as much fun as you would think. Nobody is on the street when it is so cold, nobody that is, except for the two crazy missionaries who don't have anything better to do! Yeah, I complain, but it was really only about 28 degrees or so, so that wasn't that bad. I hear it should get to around 10 or so in the next week, so yeah, time to man up!

But yeah, for realsies this week was actually pretty great! We found one new investigator, actually through Ralph Jäger who we found a week or two ago. When we went over this week for our second appointment, he said that two more people would be coming, and we were pretty surprised. I mean, we had expected one extra person, Bruno, but not a second. And so yeah, that was pretty great. And then they asked us if we would be willing to come speak to their circle of friends, and to do a little presentation about our church. We were lik, '...uhhh, Yes!' So that will be our next appointment, but it isn't for a few weeks, so don't expect any updates on that for a little while.

I really felt the Lord leading us this week though. There were three specific incidences that I can think of where I know the Lord put us in the right place at the right time. 1. During our finding day in Heilbronn this week, Elder Thompson and I were doing an exchange, and dooring in an area Elder Buck and I had picked out the night before. As we were dooring, this one guy came to the door, and I thought he looked a little familar, but I talk to so many people now, I wasn't even sure. And then he just said, 'No no no, we have our appointment for tomorrow! I don't have time right now!' And I just stuttered out, 'Oh yeah, that's right'. It was Bruno! Our investigator who we met through Herr Jäger! The Lord just helped us to find where he lived I guess. It was also great, because we hadn't confirmed the appointment, and then, boom, confirmed. These stories are kind of long. The other two were just really similar, running into potential investigators. I just really felt that right when we push ourself the hardest, the Lord will bless us with a cool experience.

We also just made out a ton of appointments for next week. I know I have said that a lot, and a lot of the time a lot of them just fall out, but I mean, we have around 8 or 9 already made out. That is more than I have had in a long time. So that is really exciting.  Also...we had two investigators come to church yesterday!!! But before I talk about that, I will answer your questions, because I think in the course of answering these questions I will talk about these two investigators.

1. So Nadine cancelled our appointment...So we didn't get to teach her about the Restoration. She also said that we could call in like 2 months to try and make out another appointment with her...so yeah, haha, not much progress on that front.

2. Sven did come to church this week! With his two daughters too! He told us during our lesson today that he really enjoys Church. Also, he has given up coffee! He still has other problems, but he is making promise. I don't know if I told you, but he actually only gave up coffee because I made a deal with him. I don't drink any more caffeine, so Dr Pepper, Coke, anything, and he will give up coffee. He drank the rest that he had, and now he's done with it! It was so cool!

3. I got a  couple letters today. One from Alicia Myers, and one from Sister Miller, I haven't even read them yet, but I am pretty excited to!

Anyway, so the other investigator who came to church was Bashir. He is from Pakistan. We had lost contact with him for about a month, after he had tried to drop us, but now we are meeting again. This was the second time he said he would come, and so to be honest, I was really surprised that he did come. But he said that he liked it, even though he can't speak German. So guess who ended up translating for him? Yep, this kid. I think I was a little liberal with the translation. I would think, 'No, that's a little crazy, he doesn't need to know that', and I would just change it a little to fit his level of understanding of the gospel. I hope that's not that bad. I just liked being able to screen some of the crazy things members sometimes say. But yeah, he really asked some good questions, and really showed his desire to learn and make correct decidions. I'm pretty excited for him. Yeah, so he is now a progressing investigator too!

Wow, this email was ridiculously long! I love you all, you should do missionary work too, because the missionaries can't do everything. Of that I have a very strong testimony!

Love,
Elder Andy Merkley