Right State of Mind

Dear Fam,

First I'll relay the great news of the week. Yesterday was transfer calls and none of us got any. That means all four of us in the Erlangen district will be staying here for another transfer! We're all pretty stoked about that. Its very rare that you have a district where everyone gets along with one another so well. Man this transfer is gonna be epic!
Unfortunately, for the first time on my mission, I was sick this past week and had to stay in the apartment for almost three days. Despite this obnoxious hindrance, however, The week turned out to be pretty successful. We were finally able to meet with Andreas Jud, an young guy in our neighborhood who Elder Gneiting and I taught once. We watched the Restoration DVD with him and, although he said otherwise, I could tell it really touched him. He agreed to meeting with us twice a week, which is a hard thing to get the German's to agree to, and I'm absolutely positive that he'll quickly make progress. He's had some bad experiences with religion in the past, but says that it would be really great to find his faith again. I look forward to watching his progress over the next six weeks.
We had an appointment with Walter scheduled for this week, but unfortunately he canceled on us. We rescheduled for this Wednesday so if all goes to plan we'll be able to really resolve his concerns and once again invite him to really think about baptism. Thank you for your prayers on his behalf. Its been, and will continue to be, a tough road with him, but your prayers have worked and he continues to slowly but surely accept the restored gospel.
Last night we met with Herr Sahiti. He lives in our apartment building and we've built a really strong friendship with him. He's Muslim, but is really interested in all scripture, and really understands the concept that God's words never cease. We gave him a triple combination in Albanian with the hopes that we would be able to finally set up something in which we could regularly meet with him and finally make progress with him. Unfortunately, he declined our invitation, and we had to drop him as an official investigator, which normally is really disappointing, but with Herr Sahiti nothing has changed. We're still friends with him, and will still see him around the building and answer his questions whenever he has them. Its really frustrating as a Missionary to meet someone like Herr Sahiti, who is so close to the truths and already understands so clearly the most important principles of the gospel, but just isn't ready or willing to take the time to learn and accept the fullness of the gospel. But last night, as I thought about Herr Sahiti's situation and talked about it with Elder Jensen, I felt more and more at peace and had a very important principle of missionary work taught to me through the spirit. There are people in this world who, for whatever reason, will not be in the right state of mind to recognize the truth and accept it at the time its offered to them, or perhaps for their entire duration on this earth. I refuse to believe, however, that this is their only chance. Our Heavenly Father loves us too much to condemn us for initially rejecting something we don't understand. I am absolutely positive that there are so many great people in this world, who live great lives, who will have multiple chances in this life, and in the spirit world, to accept the Gospel at a time when they are in the right state of mind to recognized the truth, especially when the chance was given to them when they weren't. I guess my real point is, It's almost unfathomable just how much our Heavenly Father loves all of us, and, with his perfect understanding of the human condition, how merciful he is to his children.
Hope that all made sense. My writing skills are really struggling these days and it's really frustrating me. Oh well. guess I just have much more important things to worry about.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Your beloved son, brother, and friend,

-Andy