Dani - Alpine German-Speaking Mission

Hello everyone!!! 

This week has been really great.  We have met some awesome people who are from Africa and they are all bringing their friends to be taught so it was busy. We have one of our investigators set for baptism in November and we are going to set a date with our other one this week.  Hopefully.  I don't know if I have told you about Mary, but she is awesome.  She was in church on Sunday and she gave an awesome testimony about how she knows the church is true.  She attended in Africa before she came here.  She just loves the peace of the church and how she feels when she is there is like she is home.  It is awesome.  We just need to finish teaching her the lessons and get her all set up for baptism.  She really wants to be baptized, but she told us she wants to wait cuz it is a little hard right now.  With her husband trying to find a job and with just moving her to Germany a month ago.  But we just need to tell her that life is never going to be easy and it will always be one thing after another that will keep her from being baptized, so hopefully this week we can set a date.  And then we can also meet with her husband and get him set up as well.  They really are amazing and they have a sister in Nigeria who is a member that they talk to as well, so that helps a ton.  I am so grateful for the blessing of her coming into our lives.  She actually told the elders that she was a member already when they met her on the bus.  It is amazing how people come into our lives.

We also have another investigator from Nigeria who has a date set for November.  We are super excited!  She just came to church on her own with her two sons.  We are really praying for her that she sticks with her commitment to be baptized and that she feels the importance of the BOM.  She is also brand new here in Germany.  

We were reflecting on our week and I realized that we taught almost all of our lessons in English to all black people from Africa.  We are super grateful cuz they are all amazing, but it was funny that we are in Germany teaching people from Africa in English.  Made us smile.  It is super nice cuz they all have their friends that they want to bring with them to church which we love.  This week P brought her friend who lives by her and now we have another person to teach.  We are grateful every day for the Lord preparing his people and sending them to us.  Thank you for your prayers as well.  They help so much

We also met a cute girl from Africa as well, but she speaks really good German.  Which is good, cuz I'm losing some of my practice with all our English lessons.  She is really amazing and she makes me speak.  She just looks at me and asks my thoughts so I really have to make sure I know what is going on.  I can't just sit back and pretend like I understand.  :)

This week we had an interesting experience with one of our investigators.  We showed up to a lesson with her and she had a friend there.  Usually we don't mind, but we walked in and he has this huge cross necklace and all these books set out in front of him and tons of paper work.  We start off with a prayer and ask our investigator if she has any questions.  She said "no, but he does" and she just starts laying into us.  Saying we believe in multiple gods and that we are against the Bible and he wanted to compare our version of the bible with his.  We simply told him that we are not forcing anyone to do anything and that we invite people to pray and get their own answer.  He then said that prayer was not reliable cuz even Satan can be disguised as a spirit and he can convince you to do things.  Then he told us we were a church of the devil and that if an angel came down and spoke to him he wouldn't believe it cuz the bible says that you shouldn't believe any new religion.  I finally just turned to my companion and said "I'm ready when you are.  We don't need to stay here"  I then told our investigator if she had any questions or wanted to meet with us again she could call.  We both walked out of there a little angry and frustrated and wondering what the point was.  After I took a moment to calm down, I realized 1. how funny the experience was, and 2. how sad it is that he thinks this way.  One day maybe his heart will be softened.  But I can look back now and smile at the experience even though I don't fully understand why and I hope one day he will take some time to listen.  He just wanted to argue and said the bible says that we should contend for the truth.  But I didn't want to stay there with him.  It was interesting.  :)  

That was the exciting part of our week.  We have quite a few people to teach and they are doing well.  I am so grateful.  We are constantly trying to find new people to teach and bring to the gospel.  This work is amazing and I am so grateful to be here even though it is hard.  Love and miss you all tons. 

So transfers are next week for me.  We had a 7 week transfer this time which was a little unusual.  They are normally 6 weeks.  So we will transfer next week, or stay.  We find out in 3 days so I will let you know next week. Love and miss you all so much.  Don't know what I would do without you.  I am so blessed.  Thanks for all your support and prayers.  I love Monday's as well.  :)

Sister Poll