July 13th - Letter

So last week flew by really fast for me also.  Once it was Saturday, it felt like a Tuesday. Super weird.

Tuesday, last week, was pretty fun!  Our District was in charge of making the sweets and desserts for a Zone Training that was going to happen on Thursday.  We made cookies and cakes and cinnamon rolls. The companionship who made the cinnamon rolls had tons of dough. They used an entire table to roll out the dough. They did this about two and a half times. It was ridiculous! Over 100 rolls were made. Elder Niebergall and I made about 50 no-bake cookies.  There were just a ton of sweets in general.  I ate a little too much dough while I was there and I started to get burps that tasted like yeast. Bleh.

The next day we did lots of contacting and go-bys. We had an appointment with a less active member but it fell out sadly.  We decided to go by a potential investigator named Birigt.  She is a super nice lady. She wants to meet but can't really find the time she says.  We went by and we talked a lot at her doorstep for about 30 minutes.  Later that evening, we went to the other Elder's place to go and make a cake for the next day, the Zone Conference.  They already made one, but the second one was for us so that we could taste it and see if it was any good.  Elder Kay and I ended up cooking it but we messed up. We didn't have any measuring cups because we left them at the Dusseldorf church the day before so we just guessed. We didn't use enough flour.  As we look in the oven, it's about half cooked.  The other half is just bubbling and boiling.  We end up taking it out.  Not really sure how to fix it, we scraped it all out into a bowl and turned it into bread pudding with fruit and whipped cream.  It actually turned out really good! I was surprised.  We then decided that the actual cake would taste good because it was exactly the same, the only difference being that it was more solidified.

Elder Niebergall and I

Zone Training was really good!  I enjoyed it a lot!  There were lots of good lessons given on various different topics.  There was something cool that someone said there.  They said that you can measure one's testimony based on how he follows rules/commandments.  It is true if you think about it.  I heard it and thought that this was really neat.  They also talked about member work.  This is an important topic because if the members don't like you or don't trust you, why would they invite their friends to learn more about the gospel?  We talked about how to gain the trust of the members.  Some examples given were to speak their language, teach them the missionary lessons so that they can see that you know what you are doing, pay attention to what you say and do, and so on and so forth.  It was really good because that is exactly what Krefeld needs. There seems to be a gap between the members here in Krefeld and the missionaries.  I do not know why.  I hope that by living the principles that I learned, I will be able to gain the trust of the members here.

Sunday, in sacrament meeting, was really neat.  A member was telling a story of a man who was found by missionaries and lived well but made some mistakes later in life and was excommunicated.  He later came back and was reminded of the experience of being baptized.  He was reminded of the feeling of the Holy Ghost and he loved it.   I am pretty sure that this was a personal story because it was powerful.  At the end, he invited the entire ward to fast this next Fast Sunday for a man-in-the-ward's wife that her heart might be softened and let this man be baptized so that he can enjoy the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost.  He was really neat.  I really hope that the ward here does that.  This man has been coming to church for the past 17-18 years.  He is super great!  I really hope he will be baptized soon.

So yeah! That was my week! It was pretty good and it just flew by. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love you guys!

Elder Grow

P.S. - We are now using iPad on our mission.  Here's a photo while having fun with the camera.