LETTER #10 - SCHWARZENBERG/ANNABERG-BUCHHOLZ

Hello Family!!
Hope everybody is doing good. This last week was sweet. Tuesday we went to
Dresden for a Zone Conference. President Pimentel gave a cool talk about instructing
and edifying, I learned a ton. I met all the missionaries in the Dresden Zone, we had
a few workshops then it was back to work in Schwarzenberg. Elder Killpack and I
were a little worried about the week because we were going into Wednesday without
having a lot done in the last two days. It was crazy though the rest of the week was
packed and it was probably the most productive week of the transfer (transfer is 6
weeks. That’s pretty much how missionaries keep track of their time out here. You
don't ask how many months they've been out, you ask how many transfers. You
have 16 transfers out in the field, I get 17 though because I fast tracked through the
mtc. First transfer ends this coming weekend, crazy!).
This next week should be a good week. We have a lot of stuff planned, and its the
last week of the transfer. The transfer flew by its crazy. If I would have spent normal
time in the mtc, I'd be getting to Germany next Monday! Glad I didn't have to do
that. Elder Killpack and I are expecting to remain companions in this area but who
knows what will happen really. Hopefully we get left here, we still feel like there is a
lot to get done. We find out on Saturday if either of us is getting transferred or not.
I'm excited for this week though. Its been snowing a lot lately still but its gotten
slightly warmer. The members keep telling us it’s supposed to be getting warmer so
hopefully they are right.
The work in Schwarzenberg/Annaberg is going good. We got 3 new investigators this
week it was awesome. We also taught of ton of lessons with members. The members
here are so supportive and help us out any time we need, its so cool. I'm still
learning how to teach in German buts it’s getting better. We taught so much this
week I got a lot of practice and I feel a lot better and more comfortable with the
gospel talk. That's where the spirit comes in though, even when I'm stumbling over
words or I'm not organizing the sentence right or whatever, they understand and the
spirit gets to them. Last night we taught a guy for the first time with a member from
the Schwarzenberg ward with us. It was going good but Elder Killpack and Bruder
Ebisch were pretty much leading the whole thing. Then the guy asked a question and
I all the sudden just went off about how you can gain a testimony. I was trying to
help explain stuff and talk as well but that time everything just flowed out of my
mouth. Things like that happen every day its so crazy. My favorite thing that
happened this week happened on Friday during our weekly planning session. We
made a list of all the people we wanted to teach next week and just passed the
phone back and forth and called one by one and made out appointments like crazy.
Then Killpack called this one lady and she said she wasn't doing so good and then
she asked us to pray for her granddaughter, of course he said we would. Then he
asked her to come to church on Sunday and if we could teach her next week. She
said she couldn't make it for church and she would call us back and let us know if we
could come by next week. He got off the phone with her and said she asked us to
pray for her so we were planning on just doing it that night in companionship prayer.
Then we went up to help a member teach an English class to non-members. During
that class our phone rang and elder Killpack went out and answered it. After English
he told me that lady that asked us to pray for her called. She called and was so
happy and said 'remember how I asked you guys to pray for me, well it worked, your
prayer worked! I knew it would! My son just called and said everything is totally fine
with my granddaughter and she is going to be fine. I'll be at church on Sunday and
you guys can come teach me next week.' Elder Killpack said he was just in shock the
whole time on the phone. It was so cool! We hadn't even really prayed for her yet.
God definitely helped her and blessed her. She came to church and was telling
everyone we prayed for her and how happy she was, she was disappointed it wasn't
fast Sunday. She thought she could get up and tell everyone the story; we had to
explain that’s only on fast Sundays. She now has a testimony of prayer. Elder
Killpack and I didn't even do anything; God blessed her and has opened her heart to
us. I know God knows every one of us personally and knows exactly what’s going on
and what we need. He loves us so much I can't even comprehend it. We can see
evidences of his love all around us; we need to do our best to show our love back.
I'm really grateful to be here on a mission, to be able to see miracles like this every
day, and to be able to share this love with everyone I meet.
I hope everybody is doing good. Thanks for the all the letters, love, and prayers. It’s
cool to hear how Eric and Greg are, I'll probably write them today. Keep us all in
your prayers, your in ours. Have a good week and be happy! I love you all!
Elder Puriri