Week 8-31-15 BAPTISM OF FOSTER

Hey Family,

So I heard that some missionaries count the number of weeks that they are on their mission.  To be honest, I have no idea how many weeks it has been. Maybe mom knows and has it on the wall somewhere in the house, but I really dont want to know.  I think that would be weird.  So it is week # I have no idea this week.  But this week has been a crazy week.

 

Our friend named Foster made the decision to be bapitzed!  That was such a great baptismal service.  We have been teaching him for almost 4 weeks now and it was such a great blessing to able to be along for the ride.  He was such a prepared man and ready for baptism.  For the baptismal service, he even brought a really good friend who has been to this church a long time ago.  He is a funny guy.  He just keep screaming, "Foster, you are going to be born again!  No drinking! No smoking! No women!"  It was hilarious.

 

Foster did not pay much too attention to him.  And the baptism part came and that was really cool.  Afterwards as we were changing and I think the best part was we were changing in the bathroom and everyone outside started to play prelude music and so the first song they played was Isreal God is Calling and Foster stops for a second, he looked up, and smiled, and turned to me and said, "Elder Bretzing, this is my absolute favorite song.  Whenever I am riding around on my bike, I love to sing this song."  He just loved it.  At the very end of the Baptismal Service we even invited his friend to be baptized!  He kept saying he would think about it and I kept telling him well if you meet with us and pray about it then we are on for a good start.  Things are looking up good for his friend.  We should start to be working with him soon. Even Foster pulled us to the side at the end and said that we had to baptize his friend!  Already doing Member Missionary Work!

 

 

 We also had the opportunity to have first interviews with President Fingerle.  That was for sure something new. For starters, my whole interview was in German!  That was crazy!  But I am pretty proud that I was able to have the whole thing in German.  And we had to stay the whole day to help him with all the missionaries that were coming from the west part of the mission, so we basically stayed in the same room for about 14 hours.  I do not know if you know, but I have restless leg syndrome and it got to the point where I was pacing from wall to wall.  But nonetheless, it was great and I am glad that we had a good start to our relationship.

I was also able to go on an exchange this week with a great missionary named Elder Smith.  He is brand new on the mission and is just a ball of fun.  He has so much energy I do not even know where it came from.  But the reason why I bring him up is because he is from Orem, Utah and he said that he knows Bretzings in Utah so that was interesting.  

 

Well this week was really fun and there is some pictures and some videos of us on our pday going to a really cool museum here in Hamburg called the Meritime Musuem.  It was cool and it is all about boats and maybe that is what I will do for the rest of my life.  I think my new life goal is to grow out my beard and hair and then sail the seas.  I could work on a boat for the summer when I get back.  That sounds like fun. O well, it is all up in the air. Gotta get back to Hamburg!

 

I love you all and I hope everyone is doing great at home and having fun and what not!  
Love, Elder Bretzing

 

P.S. ok it is my turn to follow up on you.  

Mother, how is the work going with the family names and pictures?  Has there been any success there?  When you find out, please let us know! Thanks!