Germany Week 24

Well, the first exciting thing that comes to mind about this week is
our eating appointment with the same family members of members that we
were with on New Year's Eve. I would like to announce to the world
that I have now officially eaten Zwiebelkuchen. It's good. It's also
pretty much how I imagined it. It's got a texture somewhere between
Quiche and funeral Potatos...

Anyway... The most exciting thing that happened to me this week was
while I was on Tausch with Elder Johnson, who was in Bad Bentheim with
me. Both of our appointments fell out, so we spent the whole time
doing doors and talking to people in the streets. Pretty late in the
evening we came across a woman and started to tell her about the Book
of Mormon. To my surprise, she was actually curious about it. We kept
talking for a little while and she said that she had been
investigating some different churches, but was frustrated with how
many there were and that she felt she had no way of knowing which if
any were right. We excitedly bore testimony that there is in fact a
way to know what is true; that as we pray and ask Heavenly Father if
the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet who
restored the Church of Jesus Christ, The Holy Ghost will confirm to us
that it is. She asked if we had a pamphlet or an internet site, both of
which we gladly gave her. She didn't want to tell us where she lived
or make out an appointment until she'd read what we gave her, but she
knows our number and where our church is. I have no idea if she'll
call us. I have no idea if she'll visit the church. I have no idea if
she'll even read the pamphlet we gave her. But I did feel like she was
sincere. And for the first time in a very long time, I actually felt
good after talking to someone about the gospel. Actually, I felt great
- I even teared up a little bit. It was a little embarassing... I
don't think elder Johnson noticed though, and if he did it's not a big
deal - and I was able to compose myself by the time we got to the next
person. Part of what was so striking about the feeling was realizing
that it had been so foreign to me. That's something I should be
feeling everytime I attempt to share the gospel with someone, no
matter their reaction. And that made me realize that I'm much more
affected by people's reactions of brushing us off and treating us as
nuisances than I thought I was. I mean, I can understand them
perfectly well. If a couple of crazies came up to me and started
talking to me about religion, I would probably do the same thing. It's
so difficult to portray the significance of our message in those first
seconds of approaching someone. It makes me ask myself what I can do
better to help people recognize us for what we are. I guess the most
important thing is to have the spirit and to immediately bear
testimony through what I'm saying. But then the more open I am, the
more personal I am, the more it feels like every stranger who says no
is tearing my heart out. I guess that's part of what I'm so scared of.
I guess that's what it takes.

Another nice thing this week was during our weekly eating appointment
with the S family. The son, E, is 11, and he's super hilarious, and I
love him to death. He's having a rough time with the church though. A
little while ago he told Elder Ririe and I that he doesn't believe in
our stupid church anymore. He likes to heckle with us a lot as we're
giving spiritual thoughts and whatnot, which seems to me to be his
facade for his deeper questions. So we've been trying to answer his
questions and do what we can for him. Now nothing miraculous happened
this week, Elder Weitzel answered some of his questions quite well,
and boldly. He also asked E about preparing to become a deacon. E said
he didn't want to, but I felt like it was a great way to get him
thinking about it. We're going to continue forward with it. I found
myself very grateful to Elder Weitzel for the testimony he bore to E,
because I feel like it really got to him even if he tried not to show
it, and I care a lot about that kid.

Otherwise I've just been kind of chugging along through the week. I
know this church is true. I know that through practicing faith in
Jesus Christ and his atonement, we can be made whole. I pray to be
able to have that faith, and I pray to be able to share it.

Love you!