Hope the holiday season has been treatin' ya well. Christmas is really a beautiful time in Germany. We had a ward Christmas party last night at the church and watched the first presidencies Christmas Devotional at the end. When the tabernacle choir sang "For Unto Us a Child is Born" I was brought to tears. The spirit always seems to speak to me very strongly through that song. And as I listened to it sung beautifully by the tabernacle choir last night it reminded me again of what the Christmas season really is about. "For unto us a son is born, unto us a son is given." What a wonderful thing it is to have this time to celebrate the birth of our savior, to celebrate and give thanks that our heavenly father sent his son to this earth to redeem all of us. "...and his name shall be called, Wonderful Councilor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Christmas is after all, more than just a celebration of Christ's birth. It is a celebration of his life and his atonement. It’s no coincidence that we all associate Christmas so closely with the family when the family is the center of God's plan, which is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I feel very close to my savior this Christmas season, and, even though I'm here and you're there, closer than ever to my family.
As far as the past week goes, I guess I can put it simply by saying it's been a great one! We've set a baptismal date with Surin's son, David, whose testimony is blossoming before our eyes, and will hopefully set one with Surin this week. We have a great new investigator who we found because Elder Hansen is so good at talking to everyone. His name is Tomas and he's from Africa ( I think). We had an appointment with another investigator on Tuesday night that fell out and while we were waiting outside Elder Hansen started talking to this guy walking passed us. Tomas was instantly very open and made an appointment out with us for the next day. Within the next two days we met with him twice and were able to set up a two times a week appointment schedule with him. We've been taught by our leaders to be very upfront with our investigators, to let them know that our end goal is to baptize them. This is what we did with Tomas and it was great to see him accept it so well. Its great to see that when we have faith in the authority that God has given us as missionaries, and let the people know who we are and what our goal really is, they recognize the truth and accept it far better than when we beat around the bush.
We've got another busy week ahead of us, but I'm grateful that the Lord has blessed us with so many prepared people that we don't even know what to do with ourselves. I must admit, I've been a little down this week because, maybe due to the Christmas season, I've been missing my family quite severely, but I've pressed on and tried my best to lose myself in the work, and have seen the fruits of that. It gives me a great feeling of comfort to hear from you every week and to know that you're all doing well. You mean everything to me and I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas! Have a great week and enjoy the holiday season!
Alles Gute!
-Andy
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