Guten Morgen!
Vielen Vielen Dank für die wunderbar Briefe, die ihr mir geschickt habt. [Many, many thanks for the wonderful letters that you've sent.] Thanks for the wonderful letters. I enjoyed them. Sounds like everyone is hanging in and doing okay. It's interesting to hear about the challenges and concerns, and joys that you all have. I'm proud of you all. I love you very much. I'm glad to hear from you. I'll write some letters today hopefully. I pray for you always because you are the best, you are my eternal family.
This week we had some pretty awesome experiences and one of the miracles happened because of the family proclamation. It's awesome. So here they are:
Since a couple transfers ago, Präsident Schwartz asked us to strive for an hour of consecrated finding time per day. (that means talking with everyone, new people, on the street etc.) We've been doing that and this week it rained a lot! We still got out and did our best to talk with everyone. So we did that and on a really hard rainy day we ran into a man named [S______]. (He's half American/German) He said he'd been praying for an english speaking church to go to, and perfect because we have church in English and German. His iPod also went right to a gospel song called "The Word of God" as we talked with him. I almost walked right past, but that little feeling came and I realized I should talk with him. I'm so glad we did. We set up an appointment for Saturday night, and that night we had such a spiritual lesson that we both knew we would set a baptismal date. We taught the first lesson and he was saying Amen to practically everything. (He's a southern baptist type guy from Tennesee). Elder Sheppard invited him to be baptized and I have never heard someone say yes so quickly in response. We set the date for the 12th of November. He came to church yesterday and had a great time. He's a miracle from heaven. I love [S______]. He's so awesome!
The next miracle was a couple weeks ago, we found a super golden investigator that was going through a tough time. He realizes how much he needs Jesus Christ. He committed and was excited for Baptism. Then his parents were really against it because baptism scared them. We saw him one night after losing contact because of the parents and he said he was still interested and wanted to be baptized, his parents were going to kick him out though to go to Erlangen to get away from us. We gave him a family proclamation to give to his mom and dad, but he wasn't sure how well that would go. Well, there is an even bigger Ward in Erlangen. We were happy for him, but sad to lose him. We sent the teaching record and the new address to the Elders in Erlangen, and they tried to contact him a few times. We found out Saturday night that they tried, but had made no contact (almost a week without contact). The thought came that maybe he's still in Bamberg. Sunday lunchtime Elder Sheppard was cooking and I wanted to just relax and be lazy for a few minutes. I felt that I should make calls though. I really didn't want to, but I prayed and knew it was right. I did it, and eventually called [H______]. At first it sounded like he was just finished with us, and had no more interest. What happened though is that it doesn't work out to go back to Erlangen. He gave the proclamation to his mom, and she was no longer against it. He still wanted to get baptized and so I explained he needed to come to church at least 3 times before his baptism, and he said he would do anything. We could meet everyday if we need to. He is willing to do whatever it takes. He already read 1 Nephi in a week, and he's on fire. We set the date yesterday on the phone for the 12th of November. I was so excited after that phone call. It was more exciting than Christmas! We had set 2 baptismal dates 2 days in a row. I'm so glad Elder Bednar invited us to memorize the family proclamation when he came to our mission because without that we wouldn't be so focused on that, and [H______] would be probably halted from progressing without it. It's so cool to see how the Lord's work rolls forward.
I talked with Elder Anderson (my current Zone Leader, and trainer) about it. He said it was like Abraham's sacrifice. You had to show willingness to sacrifice Isaac, or [H______], because it's the right thing to do. We then lifted up the knife, but then the angel appeared and said we didn't actually have to give him up. I laughed at that. It's true though. This week we have worked hard, and we are continuing trying new things like doing smoking workshops and using the giant whiteboard to find those interested. The whole mission actually knows about whiteboarding now, and some other Elders are going to try it out. It works pretty well. We really need to get the members doing the finding though. We hope they can bring friends to activities like a smoking workshop, etc. In Coburg, we did something cool this week and gave out hundreds of balloons to people. The balloons say "Ich bin ein Kind Gottes" ["I am a child of God"] and www.kirche-jesu-christi.org. We had rolled up family proclamations to each one, and the church in Coburg's address. The poeple were really happy, and I know if the people read those proclamations, they will be affected. Great things are happening out here in the Lord's vineyard.
I love you all, and thank you all for your prayers in my behalf. I know that this Church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I need his help everyday, and receive it when I ask in Faith. God loves all of his children. Miracles are happening everywhere especially if we show faith. It's always hard right before something really great can happen. Just like Joseph Smith faced Satan before the First Vision, just like this week fighting off discouragement miracles happened. This is the Lord's work. Have an awesome week, let us keep fighting the good fight so that we can be more than conquerors through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Love,
Elder Matthew J Liddle
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