Lord's Hand in this Work

This past week was, to put it simply a weird one. Full of experiences that makes one realize how much the Lords hand is in this work.
Among the many good experiences I had this week, there was also a pretty brutal one. One I will never forget. We went by this young Russian Lady who accepted a Book of Mormon from us and seemed very interested. Unfortunately, when we went by this week she wasn't home and her husband answered the door. He proceeded to yell at us and chew us out in a way that I haven't yet experienced on the mission. We tried to explain to him that we were sorry and that we were only there because his wife had invited us to come back, but he wouldn't listen. He was too busy yelling at us about how he's sick of seeing us in the area and threatening us with the police. What made matters much worse was the fact that this guy is only two doors down from the Gypsy family, and one of them happened to be outside watching the whole thing. Not only that, a group of kids gathered around us so we had an entire audience watching us get verbally abused by this guy. But the worst part of it all was the fact that this man had taken away his wife's opportunity to hear the gospel. There is nothing more heart-wrenching than seeing someone loose the chance to learn the gospel because of the actions of another, especially when it's someone that close to them. At the end of the day when I thought back on this experience, however, some peace came to my heart when I realized that God will not punish this woman for her foolish husband's actions. There will be a time when she will have the chance to receive the gospel again.
We had a lot of really weird and great coincidences this week. We met some people, that one only meets through strange "coincidences", that really aren't coincidences at all. On Thursday, for instance, we were doing some very unfruitful street contacting, it was a German holiday, and on German holidays, everything is dead. So there we were in Stadtcentrum walking around with next to nobody on the streets. We had a few good conversations with a few people but to no avail. Just as we were heading back to our bikes, through this tiny old street, we ran into some guy watering his plants. We approached him and soon realized that he spoke English. We proceeded to chat with him for quite awhile and he told us about why he was in Germany, how he got here, all this crazy stuff that you only hear on a mission. Turns out he's from Serbia and is married to an American social worker or something of that nature for the military. He invited us into his house and showed us these sweet custom speakers and amplifiers that he had made. Olin and Karl, you would have died, the sound of these things was amazing! Anyway, we talked with him for about two hours and he invited us back to tell him about the Book of Mormon. He was seriously the friendliest person I think I've met so far on the mission and I'm way psyched to meet with him again. His name is Vladmir but he usually goes by "Komi", which is the Russian translation of "Skeeter" I guess.
On Friday, another weird thing happened. Something that seriously never happens, but did and it was crazy! We teach this guy from Costa Rica, named Luis, English class on Friday evenings and as we were walking to the church a guy came and approached us. He asked us if we were Mormon. We told him yes and he asked if we had a card or something we could give him. We were distraught because it was the one time neither of us had our cards on us. We offered him a Book of Mormon, and he said "No thanks, I already have one, I'm a member." Needless to say we were shocked. So we invited him to church on Sunday. We found out yesterday while talking to him at church that he was baptized a couple years ago but immediately fell away. He's not the friendliest guy in the world but he says he wants to get a testimony again and wants to meet with us more. Just goes to show you how led around we are, and how much the Lord is invested in this work.
We also had an institute party on Friday (Elder and Sister Koralewski teach institute to a couple of the young single adults and we always come along) and we watched this movie version of the book of Acts that was made by an Evangelical denomination. It was freakin' sweet because Dean Jones (ya know, from the love bug and Blackbeard's Ghost and all those old Disney movies) played Luke and narrated the whole thing, and James Brolin played Peter! When it was over I said "Man James Brolin was good, but I think he's way to attractive to be an Apostle."
Speaking of Movies, Elder Erekson told me that last Christmas he was allowed to watch It's a Wonderful Life! Now that I know that, I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure I get to watch it this Christmas!
Anyway, you are all in my prayers always and to answer your question Mom, yes! I do feel your arms around me and your comfort all the time! Love you all and take care!

Alles Gute!

-Andy