Baptism

This week was good being healthier! Fever is gone – just respiratory issues but I’ve been dealing with that since last May.

I will be baptizing M***** on Saturday. I’m super excited for him, it’s been cool to see all the changes he’s made in his life and all the blessings that have come. Taking your records out from the church is quite the hassle if you decide to come back.

We went by *K**** and taught him the second lesson and it went well! Also he got moved into a big room that he only has to share with one guy! Because he doesn’t smoke he talked with the head guy and now he doesn’t have to share a small room with six guys! He said in *Eritrea (see below) he smoked and his mother told him that she would not love him anymore if he kept smoking so he quit. He’s seen the blessings of the Word of Wisdom and we haven’t even taught it yet!

He also came to church and brought a friend! We had a member that was able to bring them so they got up early and ran a couple miles to where our member could pick them up and they said they both enjoyed church. We will go visit them again this week.

I gave a talk in church! My theme was the talk President Boyd K. Packer gave at the October 2014 Conference “The Reason for Our Hope.” The Savior and His Atonement are our reason! We need to never forget that the Savior has paid the price for all us.  And that the Atonement can do more than help us with repentance.

We had seven ward members have the flu (it’s all over Germany) so we only had 25 show up with 3 of them being investigators. L**** came too! We are going to try and get her to set a baptismal date.

Elder Winkel

Photo “Desribe my experience in Minden with one bus stop” (the vodka…haha)

*K**** (excerpt from letter January 5^th)

We took a bus about an hour out to a town called Lübbecke, at the bus station from Minden we met a guy named K****. He is from a country on the Red Sea. When he was a teenager he got arrested for fighting the government and spent a year in prison, then 3 months in solitary confinement where he was only fed 1 piece of bread a day… he said when you begged for more food they would come in with rifles and shoot at the ceiling. Then a couple years ago (he’s like 28 now) his mom paid to smuggle him out of the country by boat, the boat capsized and most of his friends died. He was then rescued by the Italian navy, and later made his way to Germany. He told us that God has saved his life for a reason. He’s been in Germany for a year now and is saving money for his family so they can come here eventually. He told us all this on the bus ride to Lübbecke where he lives in immigrant housing. We asked him about his living conditions and he said he doesn’t think about it much because complaining about it won’t help the situation. He said we could meet later in 2 weeks, and he loves to meet with people like us because we give him moral support! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he said when we come that we can bring him a copy! He was a way cool guy!

*Eritrea

Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa. Its capital is Asmara, it is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the South, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea, across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands. Its name Eritrea is based on the Greek name for the Red Sea (Ἐρυθρὰ Θάλασσα Erythra Thalassa), which was first adopted for Italian Eritrea in 1890.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea