November 30th 2009

To the people

who read 

my entry

about the

'dead

letter

writers'. 

November 30th 2009

Hey, Hello Everyone! How are you all?

Thanks for your email. You have no idea how happy it makes me to receive mail from you all! I really enjoy it :-)

Well, this week I am doing well. The work is doing really well. We had 16 investigators in church!!! There were just to many and we have decided not to do that anymore because it is going towards quantity instead of quality and I decided before my mission that I want to be a quality missionary and not a quantity missionary!!!
We have some problems finding good solid investigators, so if you could pray for that specifically I know it would really help us! 

This week I had a small accident. We were helping a member closing a window that was stuck. So I was standing outside and pulled the window up. Elder White pulled on the inside and pulled a bit to hard, so I didn't have time to get my 4 fingers out and they really got crushed! I really had to restrain myself, in which I succeeded. I just said nothing and put my fingers under the cold water. I didn't say anything for 5 minutes. I got a compliment from the member and from elder White that I controlled myself so good. They both admitted that they would have cursed our shouted and they thought I was very smart to go to the cold tap immediately. I showed my fingers later and elder White was afraid he had broken my fingers. They still hurt and are blue, but are ok. 

The work is mentally and emotionally tough some times. We teach people with financial problems and people who don't understand the language very well. Sometimes we have to go deep into other peoples problems to help them. That is tough, because you feel for them and that is a burden when you feel the stress of them not knowing how to feed their children the next day. Having to sell things to be able to buy food.  We have helped some people through the branch and once bought a bag of food ourselves, but can't keep on helping them, because they shouldn't depend on us. So it is hard to see them suffer and not being able to help. I see how blessed we are with the luxury we have and I am so grateful for dad working so hard. It humbles me and makes me less shallow and worldly in material things. It also motivates me to study hard and work hard after my mission. I do not want my family to ever have to go through this. Luckily dad is a great example to me! :-)

It is interesting that it is such a small world, because in our apartment we found dutch church magazines with the name 'de Bruin' on it. Also someone in our branch knows aunt Miriam. She also knows another dutch sister. 

Today it is zone p-day and we are going to an estate where they filmed Pride and Prejudice. I wonder.....

I feel very blessed at the moment. I am so grateful for everything in my life and for the love I receive from you. 

It is very cold here, so please pray for me that I can stay warm! :-)
Well, I am going to end this e-mail. I hope to be hearing from you and you will be hearing from me! 

Matthias :-)

Leeds Mission Picture

Here is a picture of the England Leeds Mission.

I am in the back in the middle....

November 23rd 2009

Our apartment in

Wath-Upon-Dearne,

Rotherham branch.

Ours is the one in the

upstairs right corner.

Here Adriana

is getting

baptized by

her father

Julius who

was baptized

only 2 weeks

ago!

nov. 20th.

November 23rd 2009

Helloooooooooo everyone:-)

Another letter from the missionfield! How are you all doing? :-)

Thank you all for your sweet mails and letters that I get from you. I feel your love and that makes me happy!

I am doing fairly well at the moment, except that I felt really bad last night. I think I had a light case of foodpoisining and had bad stomachpains and spent some time (from 1.30 until 2.40 am) in the bathroom. I didn't get a lot of sleep and that isn't fun when I'm having my p-day...

Well, except form some bad luck I am doing well. We had a tough week with some things going wrong, but in the end we were still blessed. Yes, we did have an 'excellence' week again. It isn't the excellence that counts, but it is about how I feel about the week personally and I feel I could have done a lot better. Alas we also had some other problems we couldn't influence. Last monday Elder White lost our telephone and that caused some interesting problems. Among other things that the zone leaders were at our house at 23.10 to check if we were in. (they woke us up and I couldn't sleep for a long time after that). Ofcourse they weren't happy! On wednesday we had zone-conference and we received new phones. But they weren't activated yet, so we were without a phone for 2,5 days. I think Steven will know how handicapped you feel without one as a missionary. So that was hard. We had a dinner appointment on thursday evening, but it was cancelled. But because our phone didn't work, they couldn't reach us and we arrived at an empty house that evening...No dinner...

Well, the big positive this week is that Adriana got baptized! By Julius! It was great, but also an absolute challenge. Adriana was golden, after she scheduled herself to be baptized, she quit drinking coffee in 1 day and in 3 days she quit smoking! Everything was going well and Julius received the priesthood last week. It was 2 days before her baptism and suddenly Julius got very sick. He has some galbladder problems, which is really painful and he was so sick he could barely walk. We hoped and prayed that it would all work out. We decided to go by again on thursday and we saw there was no improvement. The baptism was scheduled on friday, so we decided to offer him to receive a blessing. We gave him a blessing and left him to sleep. On friday morning we went by again, and he wasn't a lot better. Luckily we had decided to fast , since we didn't have dinner on thursday evening anyway, so we were fasting for Julius. Slowly he started to feel a bit better and around 3 pm we decided with Julius and Adriana that we would go on with the baptism. That was a miracle. We had also invited 5 other investigators to be present at the baptism!

We arrived at the church around 6. We had arranged everything that the font would be ready and filled. Well, we got at the church and it was closed. After 10 min. The ward mission leader from Sheffield arrived and let us in. And the font was empty! The baptism was planned to start at 6.30!!! AAAHHH! Stress!!! So, we opened the watertap and then the waterboiler for the baptismalfont didn't go on....more stress....Well, all well that ends well. It all worked out and Adriana was baptized and it went well the very first time. Julius had practiced the baptismal prayer in english. To me this really was a miracle and it strengthened my testimony. I really could see the battle between good and evil that day and that Satan was trying to prevent that baptism. Luckily I am a stubborn Dutchman and I won't let him! ;-)

With the help of our Heavenly Father it all worked out!

So we fasted all day and we had decided with the zone to fast on saturday/sunday too! For the mission! Well, 2 full days of fasting in 3 days was really hardcore. I didn't feel very well. And yes mom, you asked if my migraines were bothering me...well, after the second fast I had a splitting headache, but it was all a 'sacrifice for the good cause'.

And now we have to fast again in 2 weeks! I don't know if that is healthy ( I heard that more than twice in one month isn't good), but the Lord will bless us. ;-)

Well, I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Your one and only Matthias (aka Elder Heinrichs (jr.) ).

November 16th 2009

Elder White on

the left and 

I am on the

right. 

Exchanges...

Hey Everyone,

Here I am again, P-day, YAY!. How are you all doing?

Well, alas we didn't have any baptisms last week. Jana has a hard time to quit smoking. We have referred her to an organisation that will help you to quit for free and she will probably start that process this week. 

This coming week Adriana, Julius's daughter will be baptized! Julius received the priesthood yesterday, YAY! :-)
He has to practice the Sacrament prayer in english and how to baptize. It is very exciting and I am looking forward to it! 

This week was a very good week again. We were blessed with 9 investigators in church and that is really great! Ofcourse we were called again by the zone-leaders this morning and because we have reached the standards of excellence again we will probably get a call from pres. Stock later today. It isn't big news anymore. 

We were really successfull this week. 17 lessons with a member present; 13 other lessons, 23 hours of finding, 7 lessons with less actives and 13 new investigators. So, that is a lot of success! We had a 60-hour accountable week which is really good, because the standards of excellence require a 37 hour week. :-P

I am sleeping a lot better now since I got that really warm blanket from that sweet sister! :-D

We already have dinner invitations for Christmas Eve at our branch-mission-leader's house and for Christmas at one of our investigator's houses. 

This week our neighbor will give us some cooking lessons. He will teach us how to make Yorkshire-puddings and chicken-pies. 

Sometimes elder White and I have a lot of fun singing songs together while we are on our way. The only problem is that we have forgotten parts of the lyrics! But it's a lot of fun. 

Mom, this week I received 3 of your letters! That was super cool, I almost felt stalked when the 3rd one arrived on saturday. Haha :-D

A sister in our branch has offered to take in some of my pants, so I am giving her one that I wear most. Those suits that you got me were a good deal mom! Oh, thanks for the cd's mom! They were a nice surprise. We already listened to christmas songs. 

I am starting my last package of chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag); it is a sad day. I will miss that when it's gone, but I'm glad to still have some stuff in stock that Nancy sent me! :-D

It is really nice that I know so many people in Rotherham now. A lot of people approach me in the streets and I can greet a lot of them in slovakian which is really cool ^_^ . I just don't know what it does to my german. Oh well. :-P

Well, that's it for now! I am looking forward to receiving your letters! 

Matthias. 

November 9th 2009

These pictures

were taken

this morning.

Oops! Poor missionaries.

Our refrigerator 

was empty this

morning.

Luckily I still

had a piece of 

that great

Godiva chocolate

that Nancy sent 

me!

November 9th 2009

Hey Everyone :-)

Here is another email from Elder Heinrichs ^_^  Thanks for all your mail. I am doing well. I have been really really tired lately and a couple of members of the branch were worried because I looked pretty bad. I was very cold at night and woke up in the morning with musclepain. I maybe get to sleep 4 to 6 hours each night. During the day I go "full power" because I don't want to be a slacker. 

Yesterday I got a warm woolen blanket from the wife of our branch-mission-leader and that helped so that I could sleep last night. Hopefully I will be able to catch up on some sleep the coming weeks. 

This last week was really great! We made the standards of excellence again. We reach that almost every week. It is almost getting boring. Every time we reach the standards of excellence we get a phonecall from Pres. Stock to congratulate that, so I expect a phonecall from him this afternoon again. 

This morning we got a call from our zone-leader who congratulated us and thanked us for the hard work. Again he told us that we are 'carrying' the zone at the moment. We had 7 investigators in sacrament meeting this sunday and 4 children we couldn't count. 

We are being blessed! Last sunday we had 7 investigators. But also a girl that had been less-active came for the 3rd time in a row. She is not less active anymore and got a calling as a Young Adult representative. So she is active again!  We also had a less active brother come to church for the second time in a row. This time in slacks, shirt and tie! :-D  He asked for leaflets to share with his neighbors! Really great!! :-D
We also had a less active sister come to church. I have known her since I got here 12 weeks ago. She promised back then to come to church and now she was there! YAY! So last week was absolutely great!

We found a new slovakian family and are in the process of teaching them. I am learning a lot of slovakian and that is a lot of fun.  'Ahoi, akku so mas?' that means: Hello, how are you? Or: Jak savo las? That is: What is your name? My talent for languages is a blessing to me. Last week I had to use my german again. This time at another slovakian family where hardly anyone spoke english, but one of the girls spoke german so I could communicate with her in german! :-) Yay!:-) 

I don't have any requests except mail. I do love mail and I love hearing from you. I am really happy with the work that I can do. 

We could do with your prayers. One of our investigators that wants to be baptized really needs help to quit smoking. So you could say a prayer for her. 

Your Matthias. AKA Elder Heinrichs

Letters....

Matthias sent this to me and asked me to put it on his blog. It is funny, but also has a request....

It clearly shows the importance of mail to missionaries.

Miriam.

The First Epistle of the Elders to the Dead Letter Writers.

Chapter 1

1. In the beginning was the mailbox and the mail was void of letters.

2. And the missionary said, Let the box be filled and the box was not filled.

3. And the missionary beheld the continuing void and was not pleased.

4. And lo, it was the first day of the week and there was no mail delivered but that was good.

5. But on the second day mail was delivered, yet the box remained empty.

6. Yea, even from the second day until the seventh day was the mail delivered.

7. Even so, the box retained its void.

8. And yea, great mists of darkness spread forth from the void and enshrouded the Missionaries. Yes and did bring much sadness to their otherwise cheery day.

9. Even the long hours of fruitless tracting, being chased by fowls of the air, and being pursued by the beasts of the field were not as disheartening as the lack of sacred objects known as letters.

10. Yet they persisted.

Chapter 2.

1. And lo, on the second day of the second week the mist still encircled the sacred mailbox.

2. And on the third day from within depths of the void was a single postcard.

3. And this postcard put forth a single ray of light which pierced the darkness and did overcome the mist.

4. And the Missionaries were well pleased and there was much rejoicing.

5. But alas, their joy was not to last, for the mailbeast and made a mistake and the postcard was for someone else.

6. But if their joy was exceedingly great over someone else's mail, how great would be their joy at partaking of their own mail?

Chapter 3.

1. And we give unto you the parable of the two dead Letter Writers.

2. At the hour of noon a certain scribe sat down to write a letter.

3. And the scribe did think of roam; things to write, but lo, he spent so much time thinking that he did not write.

4. Nevertheless he felt good because he had great intentions.

5. At the same time a publican sat down and wrote a few words as he ate.

6. Yet he felt guilty at not writing enough.

7. And lo, the 24 months passed and the missionary returned home and passed by the scribes home.

8. Yea, he went even unto the house of the publican.

9. Verily a letter is like a price in a Cheerios box the which if a man knows it is there he selleth all that he hath that he might buy a box of Cheerios that he might obtain it.

Chapter 4.

1. Even more blessed then a Missionary receiving mail is a friend or relative writing letters.

2. And if you should spend 5 minutes writing one letter to a Missionary how greater shall be your joy.

3. And if your joy be great with one letter how great shall it be with many letters in the mailbox of a Missionary.

4. Else why do they buildeth Post Offices if letters are written not at all, why then do they build Post Offices?

5. Yea, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and write not letters, I am nothing.

6. Letters never faileth. But if there be good thoughts they shall fail.

7. When I was a child I thought as a child. I played like a child and I behaved like a child, but when I became a Missionary I put away my childish things.

8. Even as I have put away my childish things. Ye must replace them with unchildish mail.

9. And now abideth in thoughts intentions and mail these three. But the greatest of these is mail.

10. Yea, if thou lovest me, write me letters.

Chapter 5.

1. But thou will say a letter. A letter. We have already written a letter. We have no need to write any more letters.

2. Know ye not that there are more days than one? And more events than one in a day? Why think ye that these events need not be reported?

3. Yea and ye need not worry that your letters will go unanswered.

4. But ye should say. I will go and write the letter that a Missionary requests. For I know that he giveth no requests except that he be prepared to respond.

5. And we give unto you the parable of the self-addressed envelopes.

6. When the Missionary departed into the far off land he gave a certain number of stamped addressed envelopes to his friends.

7. Unto one he gave five, unto another he gave two. Unto a third he gave one.

8. And while he was gone he that was given the five envelopes wrote five letters then in his zeal wrote five letters more.

9. The same with him that had two envelopes, he wrote two letters, and then two letters more.

10. But he that was given the one self-addressed envelope became slothful and careless. And he lost the envelope even that he was given.

11. And when the Missionary came home he went into his friends. And lie that had written ten letters was warmly greeted.

12. The same with him that had written four.

13. But the that had written none at all was given nothing more than a fishy-wimp-like handshake.

Chapter 6.

1. And it has been said. Blessed are the letter writers for they shall receive mail in return.

2. Blessed are they that keep in touch with a Missionary for they shall know all that happens to him.

3. Ye and your letters are the light of a Missionaries day.

4. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

5. Neither do men write letter and put them in a desk but in an envelope that it given light unto all that are around the Missionary.

6. Let your letters so be read by Missionaries that they may see your good works and show an increase of love to you.

7. And we give unto you the parable of the Prodigal Letter writer.

8. A Missionary had two friends while labouring in the field.

9. One was faithful and wrote every week unto the Missionary.

10. Meanwhile the other friend spent his stamp money on riotous living and wrote no letters.

11. But after 23 1/2 months he felt deep sorrow and did write a letter unto the Missionary.

12. Who when he received it did go and kill the fatted Macaroni and Cheese box and did feast and was merry.

13. For it was meet that he should make merry for the letter write which was lost was now found.

Chapter 7.

1. Unto you is given some stationary and some paper and some envelopes and some pens and pencils.

2. For the writing of letters, for the cheering up of the Missionary, for the improving of your English skills.

3. If the Missionary returns home. Until we all come to be together again in the bond of friendship.

4. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose.

5. A time to contemplate writing and a time to write.

6. A time to putime to the letter in the envelopes and a time to stamp the envelopes.

7. A time to pmail the letters and a time to start the process all over again.

8. Now we beseech you brethren concerning the coming home of our Missionary and our gathering together to meet him.

9. That ye be not soon shaken in mind or troubled neither by word not by any letters from us as that the returned Missionary is at hand.

10. Let no one deceive you by any means for that day shall not come unless there first be an abundance of letters and that man of mail be revealed a true friend.

Chapter 8.

1. And the Missionary said unto his friend: Lovest thou me?

2. and the friend said:"Ofcourse I love thee".

3. He saith a second time. "Friend lovest thous me"? And the friend said, "Thou knowest that I love thee." He said. "Feed my mailbox".

4. He then spake a third time saying. "Lovest thou me?" And the friend said: "Thou knowest that I love thee."

5. Then the Missionary said:"Stuffeth my mailbox."

6. And the vision is become unto all as the words of a letter which is sealed in the envelope that men deliver to one who is not serving a mission saying: Read this, I pray thee; and he saith I cannot not for it is not mine.

7. And the letter is delivered to him that is serving a mission saying: Read this I pray thee. And he saith, Why sure!

8. Therefore you should proceed to do a marvelous work among a Missionary even a marvelous work and a wonder by writing a letter.

Chapter 9.

1. And the word of the Missionary came unto his friend saying.

2. Moreover, thou friend of mine, take thee one piece of paper and write upon it for a Missionary and for the house of the Mission, his companions.

3. And join them one to another into a letter and they shall become as one in the hands of a mailman.

4. For what does it profiteth a man if he says he hath thoughts but writes not a letter? Can thoughts save him?

5. What brother or a sister have a birthday.

6. And you say unto him. Happy Birthday, notwithstanding you have given them not a cake with candles upon it, what doth it profit?

7. Even so. Thoughts without letters are dead, being alone.

8. But if we say we have no thoughts we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9. Therefore since ye have thoughts write ye letters.

Chapter 10.

1. And now we wish to tell you the story of the anti-letter writer.

2. And there dwelt in the land at the time a certain Anti-Letter-Writer who went about complaining to the people that there was no need to write letters.

3. Indeed so persuasive were his arguments that many people did cease to write letters to Missionaries.

4. Then a returned Missionary did confront the Anti-Letter-Writer and didst dispute his arguments.

5. Then it came to pass that the Anti-Letter-Writer did ask for a sign that letter should be sent, then would he believe.

6. Then the returned Missionary said: "Just as assuredly as letters are to be sent, so wilt thou be struck down."

7. And at that moment the Anti-Letter-Writer was run over by a mail truck and was dragged even unto the Post Office where he was subsequently mailed to Zimbabwe.

8. Now when the general public saw this they were pricked in their hearts and said: "Men and brethren what shall we do?"

9. The the returned Missionary said: "Repent every one of you and write 10 letters unto each Missionary that he may forgive thee of thy thoughtlessness."

10. So now we leave you. Be of good cheer.

11. For I saw the dead, great and small. Stand before the judgement bar, and another book was opened which was the book of letters: and the dead were judged by the letters (or lack thereof) that they had written to Missionaries.

12. So now we ask. What manner of men ought ye to be? Ye ought to be LETTER_WRITERS.

The End.

November 3rd 2009

Hi everybody!

Here is another mail from me again :-) . I have a lot to tell, but not that much, ha-ha. 

This week was great! We have done a lot. Last week was Julius Rusnak's baptism and it all went smoothly. I was honored to baptize him and I will send the pictures too. After this miracle, another miracle happened last thursday. We were at his home to discuss the last details about his baptism and to prepare when suddenly his 22 year old daughter Adriana told us that she and her 6 year old daughter wanted to be baptized too! What a miracle! 

She was present at all the lessons, but never wanted to talk about being baptized. And now she asked! We told her that we would love to teach her and that she could be baptized in a couple of weeks, but that it wasn't necessary for her daughter to be baptized yet. We are working towards Julius baptizing his own daughter and for him to get the priesthood soon. That is my goal. We are truly being blessed here!

So I am staying in Rotherham this transfer. I am glad to be staying with Elder White. We did have to get used to eachother and it didn't always go smoothly, but last sunday we had a good talk and decided to do what pres. Hinckley did on his mission: 'forget yourself and get to work'. We decided to accept eachothers differences and just continue in the work. I have noticed that that has changed a lot between is and we have a lot more fun together!

Last wednesday we had our Harrogate p-day and that was really cool! Together with the Huddersfield zone we went to the american airbase in Harrogate and we bowled and played soccer and ate pizza :D. It was a lot of fun and I bought some A&W Rootbeer and some other soda's. In short: it was just a lot of fun and I'm doing great! 

I really have to figure out a solution for my suits. I have noticed that I dropped at least 1 size! So I have to figure out how to solve that! 

The work is going well. The last couple of weeks we reached the standards of excellence and that is good. We have been very blessed. During the Harrogate p-day I talked to pres. Stock. He wanted to know how I was doing and dealing with the home situation. He told me that he saw my potential and expected great things of me in Rotherham, so I knew I was going to stay. I think I might leave before Chrismas or 'kill' Elder White and send him home and then get someone else. We will see.

Halloween wasn't that interesting. We just had to work as usual. The branch here is old and small and we didn't have a party. I don't expect anything special at bonfire night (Guy Fawkes), but I am on my mission after all and it's not all about the fun. The work is about saving sould ;-) And that is going well. At this moment we have 4 people with a baptism date. 3 on november 13th and 1 on november 20th. Let's wait and pray that it will all go well. 

I am really happy here and know that building Zion is my calling. I know that when I return home I will be a different man and I hope to grow a lot more! I have been reading 'Our heritage' last week and started in: 'Our search for happiness'. I am also reading in Doctrine and Covenants and in Alma. I hope to finish it all before the end of the year. Then I will start over again with the Book of Mormon and later the New Testament. At night in bed I am reading in my german Book of Mormon to keep up with my german. ;-)

Well, that's about it for this week! I will try to answer personal mail as good as possible. I am looking forward to hearing from you all! 

Matthias. 

Oktober 26th 2009

Hi everyone!
First I would like to let you all know how grateful I am for Heavenly Father and how strongly I can testify to all of you that He answers prayers! That Christ lives and is our brother and loves us, all of you! The Lord blesses me in my challenges and when we take his yoke upon us, He will lighten our load.

This was a very good week again. We have been blessed in the work. We made the standards of excellence again and it is going well.
Julius had his interview last saturday. He is from Slovakia and he is very enthusiastic and keeps all his promises. I am so grateful! We took him to a baptism last saturday and after that he had his interview. He will be baptized this friday! WOOT!!!!(don't know if it will be me, I don't want to be selfish, and it doesn't matter, we will leave it up to him).
Hopefully we will have 3 more baptisms from one Slovakian family in 2 weeks, so please pray for them.

Last week they took some x-rays from my leg. Remember how I bumped my leg really hard before my mission? That was 3 months ago and there is a big bump on my leg and it is painful. This week I have to go back.

By the way, next week is transfer week!!! So it is safer to write to the missionhome in case I get transferred. This also means that I won't have my p-day on monday, but on tuesday, so that is when you'll hear from me again.

I really need to go look for new belts or suits. They have become ridiculously big. I lost so much weight!

Oh, the branch here really likes me and they would love to keep me for Christmas. That was good to hear. I really love my time here in Rotherham. It is except for one the poorest part of the country I have heard, but I love it here.

I love you and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Elder Matthias Heinrichs

October 19th.

It is zone p-day today. We are going to Sheffield and will play ping-pong and soda-pong. I don't know what that is , but will find out, I'm sure...
This last week was hard emotionally. I felt sorry for grandma (just found out she has cancer) and for dad (his mother passed away unexpectedly) and I had to learn to deal with that. The work was going well and we made the standards of excellence again, but still I felt we didn't give it all.
This morning I got a call from the zoneleaders to congratulate us with the great work and they said: "You guys in Rotherham are keeping the Zone alive!" Dat was good news ofcourse. So although it is hard sometimes I keep remembering that quote: Work, work, work and all will be well. The most important is to concentrate on the Lord and if I do that, my life will be blessed and will go the way it is supposed to go.
So Pres. Stock went on splits with us last tuesday. It was fun. It was going well. I could talk to someone in german in the streets. He was from Lithuania and didn't speak english. I vaguely heard something german in his speach, so I started talking german to him. He could speak that a little bit, so I could communicate with him. He invited us over at his home. That was really cool. I feel so blessed by Heavenly Father with the talents He gave me!
1/8 of my mission has gone by already. I know that when I focus on the work the time is flying by fast!
I am going to work hard. I really hope that we will have some baptisms by the end of the month!

October 12th

How are you all doing?
It was a shock to hear about grandma. (grandma Heinrichs passed away unexpectedly). I prayed for you dad! I can deal with it, but I am glad that I said my goodbyes before I left on my mission and had a good talk with her. I am focusing on the work and when I do that I don't have to worry about my family or loved ones. Only when I'm writing you it hurts and I miss you. I love you!
The work is going well. We were blessed this week. We had zone-conference. And we had 7 people in church yesterday, which was really great! We have 4 investigators with a baptism date! I enjoy the work and time is flying by.
Tomorrow Pres. Stock is going on a joint teach with us for 2 hours. I am very nervous! He will see how I teach and work and that is scary to me. For 2 hours!

We had a special experience this week. We had about 50 minutes before we had to take the bus to another village for a dinner appointment. We were walking around randomly. I was leading the way to a backward street in a not so good neighborhood. Left here, right there, left here and at the back of the street we'll start knocking...I don't know why but we started knocking. First door nothing. Second door opened up and 2 girls, one of them deaf, invited their brother to come because his english was better. We were invited in. We could share something of the General Conference with them in Czech on their laptop. That was cool. And so we got 3 new investigators. It is really cool how the Spirit works and how we are blessed.
I am very tired, but that is part of being a missionary. The weather here is good for octover. We have a lot of sun although it has cooled down quite a bit.
I am looking forward to hearing from you and receiving letters!

Oktober 5th

How are you all doing? I see that everybody has their ups and downs. I notice more and more that this is part of life and that Heavenly Father is there during the ups and downs to support us. I learn a lot about patience, love and the Spirit. 

This week was General Conference and I learned a lot. As always I loved the Priesthood Meeting best. I felt the Spirit. I have decided to try and do things in my life rightaway. I love the Prophet and the apostles. I learn that it is important not to just say amen after the talks, but to go and DO! Elder Bednar said: "We are not Latter Day Talkers, but Latter Day Doers!" So I invite you all to pick a subject from conference and apply it in your lives. I know that you will feel the influence of the Spirit en Heavenly Father more in your lives and that you will be blessed and happier. 

This week we were called Jehova's Witnesses. I answered rightaway, asking them why they thought we were. I explained we weren't and we got to talk with a whole group in the street. We gave them part of the first discussion and gave them a Book of Mormon. We had a prayer and got 3 new investigators. We had more similar experiences this week. It is very special to see how people are negative at first and how the Spirit can change it into something positive. 

The work is going well. We found another family from Zimbabwe, a mother and 2 daughters, that we teach now and they are really good. Our prayers were answered. 

The results from our zone this period weren't this good. We did do good though. From 12 couples of missionaries we had 54 new investigators and 14 were ours. From 54 visits to less actives 11 were ours. I am very happy that we are blessed. 

September 28th

Baptism of Mongie and Norma

With elder White. 

With Elder Black,

my trainer.

Hey Everybody,

I had a great week, very busy, but good, I notice that I keep getting less and less time for me and that I have to work more. Even in the time we are at home in the morning and evening. I hardly get to write letters and I'm very tired. 

I have a new companion. Pres. Stock has a great sense of humor. From Elder Black (I only had him as my companion and trainer for 6 weeks), I went to Elder White for my new companion. 

I did sleep a little better finally. Elder White doesn't snore and doesn't talk in his sleep. A blessing. 

Last friday I had my first baptism on my mission. Mongie and Norma have been baptized and were confirmed in the church yesterday. It was a very special and beautiful experience. Mongie felt the Spirit strongly. 

I chose the closing hymn. There is sunshine in the soul. Mongie had to cry when we sang and whispered to elder White how she loved that hymn. I was grateful for the Spirit to help me choose that hymn, so it could bring so much joy. Every day there are miracles. 
The baptism went fine. 

Often we sacrifice our time off and also our p-day, but I see that we get blessed. The last week was very successfull and we were blessed with 13 new investigators. I was afraid that I would have problems taking over this area, but the Lord has given me strength and it is all going well. We had 4 investigators in church on sunday. 

I notice that when I don't put trust in myself, but in the Lord, that everything goes a lot better. I hope I can learn a lot more in the time with Elder White. He is a good guy and I love him. He is from Alpine, Utah. He is surprised my english is this good, but makes fun of my colorblindness.(oh well, I'll survive).  We have a lot of fun together too. We also work hard together. I enjoy the work!