Merry Christmas

Well well, Merry Christmas to all! Honestly, there is no place like home for the holidays. But you become more thankful for what you have when you go without. We’re also still dreaming of a white Christmas. Northern Germany normally doesn’t get any snow, so we’ll make the best of what we have… rain.
This week was filled with handing out some more cards for our choir concert, and a lot of walking around in the dark. But that’s okay, we made the apartment as festive as we could which means about 70 feet of lights, and two oversized Christmas trees we found in the road. (squirrel free)
Tuesday we had exchanges with the ZL’s so that means I went to Leipzig for a day. After my two hour train ride to Leipzig we reached the apartment just in time to realize that the ZL that was back in Bernburg with Elder Perkins still had the keys to the apartment, too late to wake up the old couple to let us borrow the spare, we went and crashed with the other Leipzig elders across town. It was nice to be in a big city, we had some appointments and we were able to meet with some cool people.
Toward the end of the day, we went to do some finding on the streets and we talked to this really cool African kid and his Asian friend. They were both about 17 and come to find out they both LOVE basketball and would love to play with some Americans… Luckily the ward has an activity planned for basketball! And SADLY I will be back in Bernburg, so my streak of 14 months without basketball continues… oh well.
The joke I made in ward council of me being Santa for the branch turned into a reality on Saturday, I terrified 3 of the 6 children, and gave all the old people a good laugh with my sorry attempt to be the big man in red. Elder Perkins described it as a half drunk half Chris Farley Santa, so ya. (Interpret that how you want haha)
Our choir concert on Friday was amazing, we only had 3 more places left in the theater we rented out, and a lot of the people were non-members/less actives. It’s probably the biggest activity that the branch has each year, so it was nice to have a good turnout.
The work is still slow, the cool Russian lady we had contact with dropped off the face of the earth, and so we spend most of our time wandering and trying to talk to people.
This last week I went to work in the “what lack I yet” area, I got my answer and it was to really dive into the scriptures, so I will be going in head first.
“Ask and ye shall receive”
I testify that that is true, no matter how painful or painfully simple the change is. It’s for the better, and it’s for our personal progression. Christ made it possible, and there is no better time to make a change than CHRISTmas.
27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12)
Happy Holidays,
Elder Winkel