Week 5 - For Pops'

Hey Pops,

Tell Uncle Mark that I love him.  I hope that he is comfortable and all is going ok with him.  I know that he will be happy to be with Paula again.  And I hope his kids will be comforted during this time.  He will definitely stay in my prayers.

My week has been ok.  Not the greatest when it comes to investigators and what not, but we still push forward and keep going.  That old little polish lady is never home when we stop by, or she at least does not answer the door.  We decided to leave her a little card in her mailbox with our number and if she feels like talking to us again, hopefully she will contact us with that.  She lives in a very weird dwarf.  When we get to that little town, they all give us weird looks and its always an uneasy feeling.  However, I feel like there is a reason we keep going back there.  We first started off going there for a contact, then we found the old polish lady.  And whenever we go back to contact her, we meet other people and as soon as we think we are not coming back, we find people that might contact us or might want to speak to us.  So to me, it feels like there is a reason we keep going back to that small little dwarf, and Heavenly Father is really trying to tell us.  So we might go back next week and see if she is home.  Steffi is doing really well.  She has struggles, being an orphan, and she does not have good ties when it comes to family.  So we really have been stressing the importance of the ward is her family and so I hope that they accept her as one of their own.  But she has a really strong testimony and she is keeping herself busy.  It is really weird because in Germany, their schools end at 16, so she is only 16 and has a internship at a job place in Dresden.  No one yet is ready for baptism.  Our investigators are interesting.  A lot of them see the blessings of the gospel or the truthfulness when they speak to us, but its like they always find an excuse to not commit to anything.  And we do not want to lose in contact with some of these people, because they are truly good people, some of the best I have met in Germany, but I just haven't figured it out yet how to help them with the really big steps.  And the weather is always crazy.  you can never tell how it is going to be.  I will probably walk out right now and it will be sunny and it was all cloudy and misty when I walked in.  But its something I just have to get used to.  The language seems to be coming good.  I am getting used to listening to German Language.  It is really funny, because now I have gotten to the point that when I hear someone speak fluent English, I am trying to translate that in my head, and then I realize oh yeah, I already speak that language.  I ran into someone from Austria and for the first two mins I thought she was speaking really weird German that I have never heard before, turns out it was just her speaking English.  So I do not know if that is a good sign or a bad sign that I am losing my English as well.  But I know that I would not be at the point where I am without the Spirit.  I meet some people who have been living in Germany for about 4 or 5 years, and maybe even went to some schooling while they are here and I can understand more and speak a little more than them.  But its not my strength.  It is the Lord.  its like that scripture that I do not boast in my strength but the strength of my God.  He has truly helped me so much and I know that there is a reason that I am here.

I hope everything is going great back at home.  I love you and I will keep you up to speed with how everything is going on here in Germany.

Love ya,

Elder Bretzing