Hi!
It has been a pretty sweet week! I'm doing good Mom! And no I don't think I need anything right now. But yea lots of cool experiences mixed with weird ones this week but it was all fun and it’s been good. Elder Loynes and I spent our last days together at the beginning of last week. It was lots of fun working with him and I learned a ton.
Tuesday night we went to Erfurt to spend the night since he had to catch a train from Erfurt at 7:25 which would have meant getting up at 3:30 in Nordhausen to get to erfurt at 7. That didn't really sound like such a fun thing. So Loynes had his big duffle bag and I was carrying his other luggage and we caught the tram down into town and walked over to Banhof. Everyone saw the missionaries with luggage heading to the train station. It was pretty funny. People starting to yell over at us waving, saying "have a good trip home!!" They were laughing and joking, thinking the missionaries were leaving for good. Little did they know the next day I would be back with another Elder and his luggage ha. As we were waiting at the Erfurt Banhof for the Elders to come get us we were sitting on this bench and 2 guys a little down from us were starring at us. So Elder Loynes began to talk to them and we picked up our stuff and went down closer to them. They were funny guys, they assumed we were all from rich American families since we walk around in suits and stuff ha. We cleared all that up though and ended up having a cool conversation, gave them the Erfurt Elders numbers and invited them to church. Not quite sure what happened with them but it’s just cool how everywhere we go we can just talk to people about the Gospel so easily. I never would have imagined it to be like that.
Elder Killpack and I took our companions to the train station in the morning and said our goodbyes. Then I was in a drit...3 of us for the day until we picked up our comps. Elder Gassman and I grabbed his stuff, hoped on the train and headed back up to Nordhausen to the disappointment of many people haha.
We've been working with Hr. Tämmerich a lot and helping him on his way towards baptism. He is such a simple man but so cool. We weren't quite so sure how much he was getting or understood. So we went by and were planning on just reviewing and seeing what he really got out of our lessons. He's been getting more then we thought! We asked tons of questions and his answers are always short but you could feel his sincerity. It wasn't like his answers were different then other lessons but that time Elder Gassman and I both felt how sincere he was and that his wish to be baptized his as strong as ever. Such a good guy. We also were able to meet with Karsten again! Last time I saw him was with Elder Kearl back in May. First things first of course, we sat down talked, and then he handed me one of his guitars and said 'I know you want to play a little'. Ha so I played for a bit and realized I've basically forgotten everything. But that doesn't matter right now obviously. It was fun though.
During the lesson he opened up so much. We read in 2 Nephi 26:24-28...i think that’s right. I asked him if he still had his Book of Mormon and he said of course, reached on the shelf behind him and pulled it out. He asked where we were reading and I told him the page number, then as he flipped to it it just popped open and he had a book mark in there. He looked at it funny and said 'Well something on this page touched me that’s why I put these bookmarks in. We told him where we wanted to begin and he read verse 24 and then looked up and said 'That’s why I put his here, that’s exactly why.' It was so cool! He got more excited about it and continued reading the rest. He kept saying how 'fantastic' it would be if he found out for sure that everything in the Book of Mormon is true, and that he hopes that one day his faith will get to the point where he says 'I want to join your church'. He is a really down to earth and sincere guy. We'll definitely be meeting with him a lot more the next little while.
During companionship study that morning though we weren't sure what to plan for Karsten. Then we both thought reading those verses in 2 Nephi 26 would be good and then to talk about how faith and the atonement is for everyone. It was exactly what Karsten needed. It’s the coolest thing to be guided in doing the Lords work. Its funny it’s always little things, feeling, thoughts or whatever, and you don't think it’s that big of a deal when you act on them. But then such amazing things come from them! Like in so many aspects of life the little things are the most important. I think its Alma 37:6-7 where it talks about that. It’s so true.
Elder Gassman is sweet. It will be a good transfer. We have goals set and things we want to do and I feel really good about it. I'm excited about it. Elder Gassman is from Orem. Graduated '09. He was started out in Duisburg which is about 500,000 people, ha now he is in Nordhausen. About 45,000 people. Pretty big change but he likes it. Everything is going pretty good. Pretty hungry though so we’re gonna head home eat and use the little p-day time left to rest. I hope everyone back home is healthy and happy. If not then work on that! Have a good 2nd week of the transfer ha! I love you all so much. be happy be happy.
Elder Puriri
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