Heilbronn: February 18, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

I had such a good week! I just want to say that right now. I swear that everything just went perfectly this week. But before I talk more about that, I want to answer these questions that you, Mother, so persistently ask.

I received the monthly family letters this week, but other than that, nothing. Yes, I got the Valentine Package, and I shared the brownies with my district. They really liked them, and they keep bugging me to make sure I thank her for them, so, Katie, Thank you. I did get your hand-written letter, and it was very nice, thank you for taking the time to write that for me! Also, I just got the Christmas package from Anna last week, it took two months to get here!! I'm wearng the tie she sent me today, and have worn the beanie pretty regularly.

The weather was very German this week, and by that I mean that it was pretty random. It was warm for a day or two, and then it would cool down like 3-4C in just a couple of hours. I always carry my gloves and my beanie with me, to be ready to spite Mother Nature, because she always trys to make me cold, haha.

Ok, enough chit chat, down to the good stuff. Guess who now has a baptisimal candidate? May or may not be us!! Yes, Phillip will be getting baptized!!!! It is so cool! So, here's how it went down: in planning for our lesson we had realized that we were still unsure exactly what he believed about the Church, so we just asked him, and in the course of the conversation he said that he had decided to be baptized sometime this year. And then he said that he would like to be baptized on March 17, because that will be his and his wife's one year anniversary, and he wants to be able to get sealed on the temple next year at that time. You can just imagine our joy. Not only does he want to get baptized, but he is already planning the date for his celestial marriage! But then on church on Sunday, he told us that he actually wants to be baptized on the 10 of March! So we have three appointments with him, and three and a half lessons to teach him. I feel like a South American missionary, it's all happening so fast!

Sven is also doing really well, he should be finding out in the next couple of weeks when he will be going to his therapy program, but he will probably be there for a few months, so that means that I probably won't be here when he is actually baptized. Also, they both came to church yesterday.

This week was a lot better with Elder Buck. We had talked about a lot of things during our last comp inventory, and I think we worked a lot better together this week. It's not that we fight or anything, it's just sometimes frustrating, because I can tell he doesn't like my ideas, or the way I want to work, but he just says ok, and then tries to go on. So I always have to ask for his opinion, and kind of work to find out what he likes to think. But I am really impressed with him, because he goes home in about a month or so (this transfer is only 5 weeks), and I really don't think he is trunky at all, even though he has a girl waiting for him. That just is very impressive, and I hope he can hold out, killing companions is not fun. But I bought a puzzle last week, and Elder Buck and I have been doing that as a comp project, which has been fun, but since I have to call a ton of people every night, I don't really have that much time to do it.

I have really been noticing recently how strong my tesitimony has been becoming. It's not that I used to have doubts or anything, but now I just have such a surer knowledge of things. I understand the gospel so much better, and it is so much easier for me to bear my testimony about it. I've been reading other people's emails, and I was feeling bad that I don't share a lot of the spiritual experiences I have, should I be doing more of that? Sometimes I feel like these emails have nothing of worth in them, so sorry if that's the case...

We have found some really solid potential investigators this week; and have even made out a few appointments for the next couple of weeks. Some of these conversations we had were just great, the spirit really just comes in sometimes and testifies of what we say, it is really a cool feeling. I hope we will be getting some new people into our teaching pool, which has been shrinking recently as we have been dropping a lot of our investigators that haven't been making progress.

I love this area and ward so much! They are all just so great, and we even got a Ward Mission Leader yesterday! It's this 30 something year old Brazilian guy, who doesn't speak German, but is really excited to try and make some changes, he also told us that he was AP on his mission for like a year or something, so we're pretty excited.

I think that is all that happened to us this week...well, everything that I really want to write about anyway. I love you all!

Love,

 

Elder Merkley