Week 79 A second weekly in a row- What's going on!?

Yo was geht ab!? On Saturday I hit my 18th-month mark which is so crazy to think about.  Time really does fly when you're having fun. I also found out that I'll be released on the 21st of July, which was a bit earlier than expected but oh well. The plan right now is for me to join my family in Frankfurt since they'll be there for the summer and go home with them on the 28th. So I'll first be available to meet in person near the end of July and early August. I'm also having to look into housing for BYU already. I'm not really sure if I want to stay on campus or off. For those of you who went to BYU or are there right now, what are the pros and cons of both? 

Besides finding out my plans for when I go home, this week has been pretty good. Right now I'm still serving in the city of Hildesheim and I love it here. I've been here for 6 months already, so I'll probably get booted somewhere else next transfer. If I do I hope I go to a big city like Hamburg or Berlin. We receive transfer calls this Saturday, so we'll see what happens. 

Earlier in the week Elder Albrecht was afflicted with a bad cold, so we stayed inside Tuesday and Wednesday, so he could get the rest he needed. With him being out of commission on Tuesday, I was able to find productive activities to keep me busy, such as studying and marking copies of the Book of Mormon and preparing them to hand out to people on the street. Ever since marking my first copy of the Book of Mormon, I love doing so and I take pride in the ones I do. At the beginning of my mission, Sister Leimer talked about the importance of marking a copy before handing it out and that has always stuck with me. If you mark a copy, it will make it look more interesting for the person receiving it. It will also help them find where they should first read. The Book of Mormon is such a big book and one doesn't need to start from the front and read the whole thing before receiving a testimony of it. One only must read it, ponder its message, and pray about it. To help them find somewhere, I include a list of common questions that people have and the scriptures to where they can find the answers. We also did quite a bit of contacting and planning.   

Lately, President has been emphasizing how important it is that we have a finding attitude, rather than have it be an activity on our planner. That we should take advantage of every opportunity we have to talk to people regardless of whether we are on the bus, train, grocery shopping, and so on. As a companionship, we have really been pushing ourselves to do that. As a result, one particular instance came about that reassured me that there is no such thing as coincidence. On Sunday morning, as we were traveling to church, we were waiting for our connecting bus and we used the time to start a conversation with this older lady who was waiting. She was really happy that we asked her how she was doing and told us about what she would be doing later in the day, but then as we were talking with her, this lady from our ward who we usually take the same bus with to church, walked up and said hello interrupting us. The bus then came and the lady we were talking to got on and we weren't able to sit next to her. That was a bit frustrating as we were given such a great opportunity to share the gospel with her. I told myself to forget about it and move on. What's amazing though is that later in the day as we were heading home from an appointment, we sat in the back of the bus we were taking and tried talking to this one girl, but she completely ignored us, so I thought it'd be good to move to the front of the bus and talk to someone else, so we did, and the next person I ended up sitting next to was the same lady that we talked to in the morning. We were able to continue our conversation and offer to teach her more about the Book of Mormon. Sadly she said she was too busy at the moment, but we were able to leave her with a pass-along card, and tell her if she ever needed help with anything she could write us. Even though she didn't want to learn more about the Book of Mormon, I know that the Lord used us to plant a seed. And who knows, maybe one day later down the road she'll have an interest. I heard that every person who joins the church usually has contact with members or missionaries 7 times on average before joining. Remember nothing in life, is a coincidence, God will help guide you to fulfill your full potential if you let him. I know that as I have relied on God in my life I have been much happier and more at peace. I also know that I'm not a special case and that everyone can partake of the blessings. If you want to learn about how God can guide you through life, don't hesitate to write me, I would love to tell you more.    

I'm so very thankful for everything I have learned on my mission so far and am looking forward to what lies ahead of me.

Have a great week!!

- Love Winston