LETTER #38 - NORDHAUSEN

Hello hello!

Park city tournament looks like it was fun. Makes me almost want to be back playing. A mission is pretty amazing though. Maybe I'll try to play things down a bit so you guys don't get so jealous reading my letters and stuff?? haha. Thanks for sending pics with the emails though mom its fun to see everyone. I also got that package on Saturday, thank you!!! I can't believe it’s already time for alpine days. It’s just like last year, park city tournament and then Alpine days. Except I was there for that, that seems like it was yesterday though. 

I was talking to Elder Gassman the other night about when we got our calls and stuff and I realized I got my call over a year ago! Crazy. I know you don't like when I say this mom but time goes too fast!! I really do get nervous thinking about it ha. Just have to really get the most out of every moment.

Yes mom 2 hours of soccer in pouring rain. It was fun!! No I didn't take pictures sorry. I hardly ever get to play and when I do I don’t want to run out real quick and take pictures. I want to play as much as possible, those minutes it would take to get my camera out and all are precious ha. I'll do better though and try to remember to take more pictures.

We had some pretty cool experiences this week though!

Yesterday started out a sunny day. Then as we were doing doors later that night it started to rain. Neither of us had an umbrella because it was so nice earlier. Then it really started to rain ha. It started raining so hard we had to almost yell to hear each other speaking. We'd like yell at people as they opened there doors ha it was probably scary. Open the door to soaking wet guys with white shirt and tie and they all the sudden start yelling at you about God. One lady looked at us like we were and insane then got mad at us because we didn't have an umbrella. She said ''don’t you know its raining!?'' I thought hmm well that’s a dumb question ha I'm standing here soaking wet, I think I noticed its raining( probably not the most missionary thoughts I know). So I said ''Uhh...yea?'' then she said ''Well don't you have an umbrella??'' also a weird question I thought. If I had an umbrella I would probably be using it. So I said ''no'' ha. She just looked at us like we were dumb and closed the door like she was so disappointed in us ha. So I started laughing and we ran to the next house! We were under some balcony thing at this door but the lady just opened started laughing probably because how we looked. Then she said I don’t have any interest but you can stand here until it calms down, then she shut the door. Ha I thought well we’re already soaked lets just keep going. So we ran back to the street and saw that lady who got mad at us for not having an umbrella standing in her door waving an umbrella in the air. So I ran over and she yelled ''you’re gonna get sick!!'' I took the umbrella said thank you and told her we'd bring it back later. She just shook her head like we were crazy and shut the door. It was pretty funny! It probably looked even more weird to people after that since we had an umbrella over us but for some reason we were still completely soaked. It was a fun night though. We're going to take her umbrella back today and give her a book of Mormon anyway and some brownies we made for her ha.

Another really cool thing that happened this week. So on Tuesday Gassman and I tausched with Elder Killpack and Malyon. I was with Elder Malyon here in Nordhausen. During lunch we got a text from Salt Lake again with that one of the same referrals we had already gotten from them. The first time we got it though and went out to this town we didn't catch the guy at home. We had already planned the day out and stuff so this guy wasn't planned in for the day since he lives in another town. Then I thought well maybe we got the text again for a reason? So I asked Elder Malyon what he thought and we talked about it for a bit but ended up going on with our normal plans. Then as we were out I asked him again about it and we decided to pray about it. So we went into this park area and found a bench, sat down, and we prayed about it. At the end we both decided to go out and try contacting this referral. So we went to Banhof, bought the train ticket and headed 35 minutes to Sangerhausen. We walked from the train station to this guy’s house and rang his bell on the klingel box. I don’t know what to call a klingel box in English. It’s the thing by the door with everyone’s doorbells that lives in that building with a speaker and mic so you can talk to them and stuff. Anyway we waited and waited and nobody came. As you can imagine we were both a little disappointed and confused since we both felt like we were supposed to go out there. Then this guy came around the corner with his dog and I started to talk to him and he just said ''wait a minute, hold on'' and walked inside. First thought was 'dangit he's gone' then I thought well maybe he's just putting his dog inside and he'll come back! Gotta be positive right?? Then he came back out! And said 'so what do you want?' and we began doing what we do and started telling him about the gospel. We talked for a bit and told him we wanted to introduce the book of Mormon to him and give it to him. He said ''Ok there is a bench right there we can sit down and do it now!' So we did. We sat down talked to him about the book of Mormon, said a prayer together at the end and asked if we could come back. He said of course. We asked which name he was on the klingel box and he said ''I don’t have a klingel. I removed mine'' then we asked if we could somehow get a hold of him before next time we meet. He said ''Well give me your number and I'll call you then you'll have mine'' Our thought was ''great, how many times have I heard this before. He won't call us'' then the positive side kicked in again and we thought, nah he was way cool he'll definitely call. So we said goodbye, he went inside and called us right away!! haha. Then I looked at my watch and saw that the train came in 3 minutes and we were on the wrong side of town. So we debated whether or not to run for it and decided we should. So we took off running through this town ha. Running right down the main street towards the train station. Had lots of people laughing and yelling at us and even some that were cheering us on saying we could still make it. We ran in and up to our...gleis...english word?? And the train was pulling away. Not a cool thing to see after sprinting through a town. We started joking saying ah we had no faith in the beginning and that we shouldn’t have doubted. So now we had 1 more hour in the town. Decided to just go walk around and talk to people. We walked out of Banhof, started talking to this lady and she started telling us miracles stories about her faith! We started telling her about the book of Mormon and she said ''there is a bench right here we can sit down and you can tell me about it now!' For a second I couldn't believe it ha. We sat down, said prayer and began to tell her about the book of Mormon and the restoration. She was so sincere and cool. We gave her the book of Mormon too, prayed at the end and made out another appointment. By that time we had to go catch our train! So we turned around and walked back into the train station ha. We got on the train and sat down across from this lady and just started a regular conversation with her since we're not allowed to proselyte or whatever on trains. Then she started asking questions about us. We told her who we were, what we do, and would tell her about something we believe then just ask her what she thought about that. All her answers were so cool. We didn't have any more books of Mormon to give so we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and some other stuff we had. She sadly lives in another city but she was so cool! We said bye to her and got off the train in Nordhausen in a daze. It was trip to Sangerhausen full of miracles. If we hadn't of gone at that exact time we wouldn't have met any of those 3 people. It’s also a good thing we didn't run faster to get our train ha. The guy we met first didn't even have a klingel, there was no other way we could have met him except for right then how it went.

It really is amazing how God directs and guides his servants in his work. When we focus on the spirit and rely on prayer to help us, we will always be guided. The gospel is so powerful it never ceases to amaze me. I love being out here and being able to take the gospel to people so that it can bless them as well. Hope everyone back home is good. I love you all so much! be happy!!

Elder Puriri