Miracles in Mannheim

This is a voice recording transcribed by mom---Things are pretty good right now. I haven't emailed home in a while but transfers happened Elder Frost is now  a Zone leader in Nuremberg. I got a new companion Elder Hawkins from Idaho Falls. He is a new missionary. We are trying to work hard- just grinding away.

I wrote an email a couple of weeks ago about finding in the rain and it kind of really sucked.  We were finding for like 4 hours and we didn't really find anyone but we did have one really good conversation with a girl. She was like- I want to have a relationship with god but I just don’t know how to do that but we didn’t get her contact information.  Anyway fast forward I got my residency permit and I'm by the government building and this American walks up and says - Hey Americans! What’s up? I'm from Idaho and then he was like yo like we should chill sometime grab a drink i'll buy you like apple juice and i'm like alright.  So we go get our apple juice and we're just chilling with him and his girlfriend walks up. First things girlfriend says is I remember you. I don't know if you remember me and she's like it was pouring rain when you stopped me on a bridge and talked about God. I was like wow! I remember you. It was the same as his girl we  talked to on the bridge. The only person to talked to us the whole day in the pouring rain. We are now meeting with her and her boyfriend just insane! it's just really cool like if nothing else those three hours in the rain we're just for that one girl. That way she could have one more step on her path. So we're going to meet with them and hopefully something turns into that if nothing else this is a nice step on her path closer to God that's been really cool miracle that we saw.  

We are working really hard to get the members to trust us.  Anyway there is a baptism set for Sunday for an 8 yr old little girl (which is awesome because there aren’t a lot of kids in the ward).  Any way we asked her mom if could help with anything and she asked us if we could set up the chairs and table sometime this week. I said we could do it tonight!  We were going to be at the church between 6-7pm and would that work? So we set up all the chairs and tables super quick and she's like that's it you've earned a meal- come eat with us sometime this week.  We're working really hard on doing things so the ward will trust us.

We set some goals this transfer.  Elder Hawkins is new and so we are going to focus on his German.   Training has been really good and it's been a little hard. I was  really stressed since there's a lot of there's a lot of pressure. I guess that didn’t know what  I was doing or I was worried Elder Hawkins would think this was horrible and not like me. But his has been great!  It's still a lot of work but we are planning and things are working out.

One thing I've really focused on this week is Alma 22.  Aaron is teaching Lamoni’s father. And his father says I will give everything i have I'll give i'll even give him my kingdom for God and Aaron is basically like God doesn't want any of your things- he just wants your heart.  If you looked to him and you pray with real intent you can have this. Lamoni’s father says a prayer and its probably the first prayer he has ever said. Basically, God just wants me to give up my sins and give my heart to him.  He doesn’t need our cars or palaces- He just wants our hearts and for us to give up our sins. The more I repent the better person I am becoming. I can really see change. It is a step by step process but it works!

Well, I hope you all have a good week.  Much Love-

Elder Miner

Christopher.miner@missionary.org

Pictures say a thousand words....

What... A Weekly...A Miracle

Hello my lovely friends and family! I know it's literally a miracle I'm writing a weekly home. I hope yall have been enjoying the past few weeks! I'm not gonna make this email Super long because i don't have that much time and yall don't have that much interest. I'll keep it brief.

-the two people we set on baptism date both ghosted us and are now no longer on baptismal date. 

-3 of our investigators also ghosted us

-we went finding the other day for like 6 hours and we found one person but he's moving to Denmark in a month 

-in other news though Andreas (I wrote an email earlier about him) is progressing really well. He prays and reads almost every day. He told us Moroni is his fav prophet. He told elder frost he's sad elder frost will miss his baptism (we can't tell if he was making a joke or if he was serious) we have had super duper spiritual lessons with this man. We are gonna try and set him on date next week, he's coming to church on Sunday for the first time so we will see.

-met a guy named Christopher and we taught him and asked if he would be baptized before we started teaching and he told us he wants to be baptized but he has to learn more and meet with us more but that he is down to get baptized

-this dude named Victor came to church last week and told us he wanted to come every week. Walked up to bishop and said "I want to be part of this family, I will see you next week" so that was cool

-to be honest Christopher and Victor are both refugees so they could be transferred next week with no notice so that could suck.

-transfers are this week and elder frost will probably leave. He's been in Mannheim for 6 months. It's really sad but I know it has to happen. I'm pumped to meet my new companion

-life is good here in Mannheim, I really wanna see Andreas baptized. He's a lot happier now that we have started to teach him. He also told Us he is more sensitive to good things in life. He's a good dude.

-I never shared the story but we have been working with this less active 11 year old and now he's coming to church and he will probably get the priesthood soon. We doubled the young men's from 1 to 2😎🤠✌️but in all seriousness this kid is cool. He was really shy and closed off the first time we met him but now he runs up to us and asks us how we are doing and if we are gonna go to mutual next week it's really fun. I'm thankful for Robert. At first they wouldn't let us in so every time we went by we just left notes. And they always took the notes by the next time we visited so that was cool. One Wednesday the mom came with the son and said he will go to mutual every week. Him and his sister come to church almost every Sunday now. He is gonna get the priesthood. He's a cool kid. 

-mission is hard sometimes, for those of you who are going on a mission read the adjusting to missionary life book thing, it's on gospel library. It's a really good book inspired by God.

-funny story we were trying to make Mac n cheese but all the creams here at our store are in French. And we don't speak French. So instead of heavy cream we accidentally bought sour cream. The Mac n cheese was kinda whack. Word of warning don't make Mac n cheese with Creme freche🤠✌️⚠️

-sorry I don't have time for more but you know how life is.

-for a spiritual thought I really just wanna tell you all that I love you. Maybe some of you just need to hear that right now. But perhaps even more important is that Christ loves you. Nothing you can do can disqualify you for his love. I actually wrote a poem but see I'm not a very good poet but trotzdem I kinda wanna share it. Hope yall enjoy. 

"Often I have pondered

Over the setting of the sun

The fleeting glimpse of brightness

As day becomes undone

With it I have pondered

On the setting suns of life

As darkness overtakes us

With pain, and sin, and strife

How oft we long for morning 

In the darkest hours of sin

Those happy bursts of sunshine 

Have all too long gone dim

Perhaps we feel unhopeful

That the sun will ever rise 

That this darkness will forever linger 

And cover watchful eyes

Yet Just when life seems bleakest

A burst of light shines through

Breaking away the darkness 

And bidding the night adieu 

Like nights before, and nights to come

The darkness truly cannot stay

The light of life, Christ's pure light

Can push the darkness away

There is hope in the darkness

Though hard sometimes to see

With purple robe and thorny crown

He died for you and me

With him we too can rise

Just like a new day sun

And we too can start again

Our past becomes undone

Joy cometh in the morning

The night shaketh off its gloom

Christ's new day is dawning

And with it a new beginning to assume"

I love you all, even when things seem dark, remember that joy cometh in the morning. You can outlast the night. You are loved, you are enough, you are never too far for Christ's grace. Gott segne euch. Ich hab euch lieb. Macht weiter!

Mit Liebe und Hoffnung, 

Elder Miner

Made schnitzel