Heilbronn: April 22, 2013

This is Andy with Sven and Elder Jerman.

Dearest Fam-bam,

Per request, I am writing this letter first, I normally would write it somewhere in the middle of my time... But yeah, the last two Pdays have just been crazy busy, but today I have a little more time, so I can try to write a better email. Sheesh Mom, you sounded really paranoid in this email, asking, in all caps, if I write other people before you. Don't worry so much, Mom!

Anyway, this week was pretty good, although slightly disappointing in other ways. We had made out a ton of appointments last week, and during the start of this week too. We should have been able to find another four of five new investigators, but almost every single one of our appointments fell out this week, which was not the best. Our appointment with Dennis and Tisha fell out, even though we called to confirm it like an hour before... Our appointment with Onur fell out too, and yeah, there were just a lot of appointments that didn't happen.

You can always find some little gems though, because there was this one guy who made one of those days and fallen out appointments a little easier to take. We talked to him last Sunday on the street, and I was pretty sure that he was pretty drunk, just the way he smelled, the slurred speech, all the signs were just pointing to intoxicated. He wasn't super interested, but then I said something, and then he got a little upset, and was like 'No! I'm open for everything! We can meet and talk more!' He was really insistent that he was open for other things, and so we made out an appointment. Then I called him on Tuesday to confirm the appointment, and he just straight up said that he had had too much to drink, and he had no idea who I was, and he couldn't even remember the conversation that we had had. I thought it was hilarious! So needless to say, that appointment didn't happen, which I actually wasn't that torn up about, haha.

Elder Jerman is making great progress with his German. Still not where I think he would like to have it, but his sentences are starting to have a little bit of German grammer, which is really great. A couple of the members were complimenting him on Sunday, which was great for his confidence. The kid is a great missionary, super humble, and super pure. You know how I just get annoyed sometimes, and that hasn't really changed so far on my mission, probably it takes longer, and I am better at controlling it, but it still happens, anyway, but he has never really become annoyed. He is a really good companion because he is always willing to try new things, never gets discouraged, and is just very Christlike. Like I said, he's just a good missionary.

This week I have been trying to get better on following the promptings of the Spirit. So far I still feel that I am just terrible at that. People would always say that they had received a prompting to go do something, and I really have just had no idea what that should feel like. But this week I have just been trying to listen to my feelings more and I hope that as the Lord works through them that my ability to recognize these prompting will increase.

Anywho, I'm going to answer some questions now:

1) No idea what kind of holidays are coming. I have heard some rumors about May day, but I actually have no idea what happens. I'll put my ear to the ground though. (That's a saying, right? Or did I just make that up right now?)

2) I would definitely prefer to do some sort of conference skype again. When is Mother's Day? I don't really hear these kind of things anymore. I can try to start working it out with the ward when and where we can skype, but I'm not actually sure if I'll even be in this area then. Transfer calls come on Friday morning, and I hope that I will stay, because I love this ward so much. I would love to stay a sixth transfer here, and be able to try and find some more people for these great members, who have really become like family for me.

3) Philipp is doing great, he wasn't at church last week, and when I talked to him this week, he was saying that he really noticed how he had had the feeling that something was missing. He is jsut really a cool guy. They invited us over on Sunday, and I just love being with them. They're just a lot of fun.

5) Well, I guess Xenia, one of Sven's daughters, kind of became an investigator this week. We taught her during the second hour of church. She wants to be baptized when her dad comes back from rehab, which has definitely not happened. Maybe I didn't explain this well, but he is going to be there for like the next 16 weeks... Anyway, we will be trying to teach her the lessons and help her prepare herself for baptism.

Yup yup, so I'm going to try and send some pictures this week, hopefully they work, one is of Sven's baptism, and one is just of some cool grafittig that I saw while we were walking around.

Anywho, love you all! Thanks for the emails!

Love,

Elder Merkley

Here's that graffiti that he was talking about.