So this week was pretty tough actually. Two thirds of our appointments fell out. Most were really solid too. To add to that it got freezing! Last week I was wearing short sleeves and sweating and this week I had to wear like 6 layers and then it still rained on us all week. Hail one day. On bikes. Outside all day. Crazy! Needless to say I've put off buying my winter coat too long but the weather was so nice so I can't blame myself for this insane change in weather. On top of that, our two progressing investigators were unreachable all week. We tried either going by or calling or both everyday and we talked to C once and then she missed our appointment and we finally got a hold of D yesterday and turns out she randomly went to poland all week. Meine gute (my goodness). Our other investiagtors aren't doing too well either. Dropped two of our longer term ones last week, our eternal investigators aren't making much progress, and all of our new apps from last week fell out. Tough.
The good news is that we finally have contact with our baptisimal candidates and neither of them are going to make their dates but we still think they will make it. Hopefully by the end of the month. Also things are looking up because we know exactly where we need to concentrate with our eternal investigators, thanks to an awesome weekly planning session and asking the right questions and digging for the real problems. And we know the Lord uses hard times to help refine us so I just gotta be glad to be refined I guess. We saw an amazing example of that this week too......
Wednesday we ran into our favorite asian friend. I've mentioned him a couple times. God keeps putting him in our path and he even said himself it's prolly a sign from God that we keep seeing each other. We have made out a couple apps with him but he couldn't come cause of work stuff. Anyway we have really developed a friendship with this guy. We see him like once every one or two weeks and he is hilarious and he brightens our day and we brighten his too, which is kinda strange cause he is a really negative guy haha. Anyway Wednesday we saw him. Usually we see him and we smile and he starts to laugh but this time it was like a half smile. We asked him how things are going and he said not so good actually. He got fired just barely and was heading home from his work. We talked about what brings us comfort in hard times, prayer and the scriptures especially. I told him that hard times can separate us from God and make us bitter or we can come closer to Him, ask Him for help, and recieve comfort and strength. Usually when we turn the conversation gospelly he sort of listens but doesn't quite accept it. This time he was so humbled and ready, he listened intently and we committed him to pray. And he asked us to pray for him too. It was a sweet spirit. But that's not all. The next day we were headed to an appointment and we ran into him in the exact same spot! He said he was on his way to meet someone but it turns out he was going the wrong way. He was actually lost and God lead us to him and him to us. We pulled a President Monson and decided he was more important at the time and walked with him. He said it was his last day in the city and that he leaves for Stuttgart in the morning. We talked further about tons of stuff. from his background, to his future plans, to prayer, to Joseph Smith, to the importance of proving the BOM. We walked around the city with him for like 2 and a half hours cause he wanted to see the city for the last time. He walked with us to go by contacts and things and kept asking, "where are you going?" and we would tell him and he said, "I'll follow you." We soon realized we were prolly his only friends in the entire city. He wanted to spend his last time in the city with us. When we finally had to leave for a solid appoinment he had us sign his BOM and promised to read it. This man is such a cool example of the Lord changing a heart. The first time we talked to him he argued with us for like 30 mins trying to disprove prophets, but as we became friends his heart slowly softened and as he lost his job he was humbled enough finally to accept what we wanted to give him. Refining process. Soooo sweet. I felt so blessed for the frendship of this man and the opportunity to see so closely a big change of heart. Honestly one of the coolest things of my mission. Shame we can't teach him further but I have faith things will work out for good.
So I'm out of time now. Until next week!
Elder Clayton
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