Week 7- Danglish

Hey so since I can call home and talk w/ my parents and stuff I probably won't do a weekly email but just send these kind of emails when I feel inspired to share, that way I don't end up in your spam folder when I have nothing cool to share and that way you don't feel bad when you don't read my emails ;) ANYWAY I love mannheim!! It's what the germans call multikulti (multi cultural) which is the nice way of saying theres tons of immigrants. There's this section of the innenstadt that my comp told me is nicknamed turktown cause all the signs are in Turkish and some places there they won't speak German only Turkish, but boy have we found some good dönner so far. We can't really do a ton of proselyting with them cause they don't speak German and we don't speak Turkish, plus I've come to find while muslims are some of the nicest people here they also have no interest in us besides telling us how we need to read the Quran then we'd know our book is not right, but like in a nice way.

All the germans just won't talk to us. My comp and I can teach with power and with the holy ghost its just we can't teach cause we can't get in the door. We go tür zu tür (door to door) sometimes but a lot of it ends up with they see our name tags  and say keine intresse (no thank you) and shut the door. Good thing I got used to rejection in high school-haha or this work would be harder. I want to be more bold and just when someone opens a door just be like "do you know that God loves you" or "who is God to you personally" but I dunno its hard but I think I will try it. 

My trainer is a stud like man I'm so glad he's my trainer he is so chill and fun he feels like an older brother and a best friend. We have the raddest gospel discussions and he has so much faith in me its amazing. The very first day he said alright I'm gonna talk to this person here you go talk to that person there and see if you can talk about the gospel. Split contacting is super scary but also cool. He believes I can do or understand even when I don't think I can. 

OKAY Super dope story time (tbh u don't wanna miss this one) 

Early in the day the other day during studies my comp and I were super excited for the day, we pretty much didn't have anything but finding and we had a few inactive members we were gonna go visit. I looked at elder frost and said do you have faith, he responded of course, do you? And I replied yes. Then I said we will see a miracle today. I grabbed three books of mormon, one English one Arabic one German, and headed out the door with him. We did street contacting with no real luck besides handing out my English and Arabic book of mormon (not the German one of course lmao). No one wanted to talk sadly. We decided to visit some of the inactives on the list and no one was home or this family looked at us before we could get a word out said keine intresse and told us to leave. We decided to switch it up and go tür zu tür and got nothing but slammed doors and get outs. We went back to street contacting and we got some cool conversations but none that led to anything. It was getting late and my comp and I were gonna head home and just call it a night. Elder frost looked at me and told me theres still one more name on the list. His name was asamoah kwayie. He was a 20 minute bahn ride out and tbh I just wanted to get home sleep and forget about our wasted day. Elder Frost looked at me and said let's try and talk to him. So we get on the straßenbahn and ride the 20 minutes and walk to the address. The front was under construction so we huddled down a covered passageway until we found the entrance. Elder frost hit the klingel and through the intercom thing the man said in a thick accent who is that who is there, elder frost responded we are rhe missionaries we want to talk to you and check up on you. He said I don't have time sorry. Elder frost gave me the look that said I didn't just ride 20 minutes on a crowded train to get told no. So he said we have a present for you from the bishop. Asamoah said okay fine come up. We got up to his room and we were greeted by a shorter round Ghanaian who smiled and said hello missionaries come in come in sit down. So we did and he was super nice with us. We asked why he hadn't been at church and that we missed him. He looked a little sad. He said he hasn't been to church in a long long time, he had been with the jehovahs witnesses. We asked him what questions he had that made him leave the church. He said well the jehovahs witnesses talked to me one day and told me to go to their church so I did and it was nice they are really convinced they're right. With amazing foresight elder frost asked him with a tone of love in his voice, "what to you think about Joseph smith" immediately the countenance of this man changed. His happy smiley facade was replaced with a serious concerned look. He said I know that Joseph Smith had to be a prophet. Because how could he translate rhe word of God if he wasn't. This really surprised us. He stood up and got down off the shelf next to all his marked bibles a little copy of the book of mormon, with a little dust but he held it with reverence. I still have this book you know, this book from Joseph Smith. Elder frost and I started to teach and testify of Joseph Smith and the book of mormon. The spirit was so strong. I bore witness of the book of mormon and the divinity of the church of jesus christ. Elder frost did likewise. This happy ghanaian man smiled once more, and in his raspy voice he said you know I wasnt going to let you in, but then I felt something telling me to let you in, now I know it was God sending me his messengers. We set up another meeting for Sunday and he said we could teach his two kids as well. We thanked him and left. I felt the spirit tell me almost as if it was a voice, "that was the miracle, to him you were a miracle" 

I know with all my heart that this Gospel is true. I know that Joseph Smith really did see God the father and Jesus christ. I know the book of mormon is the word of God, but most importantly I know my savior can take away all my shortcomings regrets and mistakes. He loves us and he cares about us. You are loved beyond belief. You are important beyond comprehension. The most important man to walk the earth spilled drops of his precious blood so that you wouldn't have to face this life alone. Don't worry, he is there. 1 nephi 11:17 "and I said unto him: I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things" he loves you and cares for you. We wont know everything but if we know that we have enough to take the next step. God strengthen and support you

Give my love to all

Elder Miner