May 31, 2015

Dear Family:

We had a pretty eventfull week last week.

On tuesday we had Distriktsversammlung at the Wades house and that was basically just a normal distrikt meeting but it was fun haha. After that Elder Bolt and I decided to go by on some old investigators. We went to a lady's house and knocked on the door. She opened it and we asked her if she wanted to meet with missionaries again and come closer to Christ and she said yes. Its was way cool. Her name is L. and she is from Nigeria. We set up an appointment for saturday. As we were walking out of her apartment building we ran into J. J. is from Afgahnistan and he played in a soccer tournament last February. We stopped and talked to him. I didnt feel like it was right to invite him to meet with us just because of were he is from and ja... muslim stuff but he is way cool and I invited him to come to English course and he got way excited so we will see if he comes this week.

On wednesday i had on of those defining moments on my mission. It was the kind of day that you use as an example for the youth to help them decide to go on a mission. We had a lesson with Bruder P.. He didnt come to church last week so I asked him why because I was almost positive that he would come. He said that he was fighting with his wife and he said that was the reason why he didn't come. (Just an excuse I think but whatever). We told him that it was important to come to church but we really wanted to focus on love during this lesson. We told him that we loved him and that his heavenly father loves him. We then shared a talk that Brad Wilcox gave in 2011 in a devtional called ''Seine Gnade ist Ausreichend'' (His grace is sufficient). We read that and at the end of the talk Bruder P. was in tears and the spirit was way strong. I pointed out a point where it says that we dont just have 2 options: Being perfect or giving up. I told him as long as we were making progress that it was enough and it comes Schritt für Schritt. We invited him to church again and he said that he would be there.

The next day we met with William at the church and taught about the restoration. He is a deep rooted Catholic actually. I wasnt really expecting that but oh well. He has a really firm belief in Christ and he wants to be as close to him as possible. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would start reading it. He also said that he would come to church again.

Saturday came and we werent able to confirm our appointment with L. so we told our Joint teach not to come. We needed another man to come with us but I was almost positive that it was going to fall out so we told him not to come. We walked over to her house so we could possibly move the appointment later that day but when she answered she said that we wouldnt be able to meet that day. She found out that she was getting tossed out of her apartment and she had a lot of stress. I asked her if there was anything we could do to help her and she just said ''I dont know...'' three times and it sounded like complete dispair and devestation. I told her that we could give her a blessing if she came to church the next day and she said that she would come. 

Sunday came but W.and L. both didn't show up. I was really disappointed that W. didn't come because I had called him the day before and he said that he had started the Book of Mormon and he had questions about it and he said that we could talk about it at church but he never came. I called and texted him but he never got back to me. Just pray for him. Sacrement meeting started and Bruder Pöcher still wasnt there. I passed the sacrament and Elder Bolt was the back door Usher. When I went to go sit down but Elder Bolt mouthed to me ''He is here'' so I went out to the hallway and he was there! It was probably the first time in 15 years that he had been in the church. He was crying a little bit earlier it looked like. He came and listened to the talks and really liked them. The ward totally embraced him too. It was way cool to see. He even stayed an hour after church because he was just talking to people and someone asked him if he was going to be there the next week and he said JA. It was hands down the coolest sunday on my mission.

I love you guys a lot and have fun with that new wood splitter haha

-Elder Carr