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General Konferenz was great! The rest of the
week was alright…

Our cool friend from China decided to move to Berlin, and he said he wouldn’t commit to anything and that he mostly just wanted to know what we believe. But he made us some crazy good Chinese food, and boy was it spicy!

The Syrian family decided that they don’t have interest, so that kind of killed our lesson plan, so we improvised and shared a message about the family, and it turned out very well. I don’t think it’s the end, the wife would like to come to our English class to meet more people, and I think she could make some friends in the branch.

Overall it was quite the depressing week, finding was rough, but as I wrote this letter I realized that we made a couple new friends! The husband of the Syrian family had his wife translate “my friends!” for him. And now I have some connections in China. Not bad. I think I often forget the blessings I see.

For Konferenz we took a train to Kothen, because they have satellite hooked up there. Saturday night we watched the Saturday morning session live. Then we rode our bikes through a Forrest (big park) to the Kothen elder’s apartment to spend the night with my boy Elder Burns (my awesome trainee). Then the next morning, we watched the priesthood session, and then the others. We’ll watch the Sunday afternoon for sacrament next week. Many things stuck out to me, but something that really hit me was when one of the apostles spoke of Elder Packer, and even though his health was poor, he was determined as long as he was able to bear his humble witness to the world, that Christ lives. Sounds simple but it strengthened my love and gratitude for the apostles, what a blessing it is to have them, witnesses, and living representatives of Christ.

Before my mission I took many things for granted. Now I can see so many things, big and small.
My heart continues to fill with gratitude.

Elder Winkel