Week #17Jesus beholding him loved him

Servus! Wie geht es Ihnen? 

Hi everyone! Wow, what a week. I am going to try to do my best to cover this week so here we go. 

On Wednesday, we had an appointment with a guy named Seedy. He moved here from Gambia a year ago. When we sat down in McDonalds to meet, a guy next to us asked Seedy where he was from. It turns out they both recently moved from Gambia and they actually know relatives of each other. The other guy, his name is Alfonce, sat in on the lesson and they seemed interested. Yeah, it was cool to have another person put in our path in a place such as McDonald's. 

On Thursday, we met with Godwin and discussed what a testimony is. Godwin is such a good kid. He is just shy and nervous about the new things around him. He has a testimony but he has a hard time expressing it. I will talk more about him later. 

Friday, we met with two cool guys: Julian and Mohammad. Julian is the guy who loves the Carolina Panthers. It was fun to talk football with a German. Germans love American football. Some really want the NFL to play here which would be awesome. Mohammad was very interested in the Book of Mormon and after reading two pages, decided he wanted to read the whole book. Sadly, he does not want to meet until he finishes. He says he needs a month. I was disappointed because he is so cool but we will try to stay in contact. 

That is Mohammad

Saturday, we played basketball with our branch. It was fun to be on the court again and play for fun. I got some good shots and my knee felt really good. We also visited Sandra and Christian again that evening. Our ward mission leader and his family drove us to their home. We gave their son Alexander a blessing and then Christian asked me if I could give him a blessing of comfort AUF DEUTSCH. I was really nervous and my German was...not great but the Spirit was there and Christian was really grateful. Our ward mission leader Hao and his wife took us out for Doners afterwards. They are incredible people. They spend their vacation to go to the temple. They do so much for this branch and they love the Savior. They are some of the biggest examples of Christlike service to me. 

Sunday was incredible. We had a good testimony meeting and then we had another lesson with Godwin. We asked Godwin to bear his testimony to us and it was awesome! It was simple but you could feel the Spirit as he spoke. Godwin is a great kid. We hope he can get baptized soon. After church, the members started to show a lot of trust in us. The primary leaders asked me to play the piano for the primary program next week. It could feel like a burden but I am so excited to play again! Thanks Mom and Dad for making piano very important! I am nervous that I only get a week's time but I am so glad I can serve through music. We also were asked to teach Priesthood in two weeks and we got a couple of eating appointments. We also got some offers to help with teaching lessons to investigators. I love this branch! 

Later that day, we met with Markus. He moved from Macedonia two years ago. He has interesting opinions about the world and loves to read. He read a lot in the Book of Mormon this week which was good. We taught him lesson #1 and he admitted that the idea of prophets makes sense. So cool! 

Monday was a day of miracles. We went on a vorbei to a former investigator named Maurice. Cool dude and I had two lessons with him but I had not seen him for two months. He was not home so we went to our next appointment. This is where the miracles start. We ran into a guy from Nigeria who needed directions. We gladly helped him out and now we are talking over Facebook. We are seeing him tomorrow. The conversation was so cool. It took me about one minute to start talking about Jesus. He went off about how he hopes we are Christian and how through Christ all things are possible. It was way cool. Later, when we were waiting for our next appointment, I looked up for one sec and guess who I saw? Maurice! It was crazy. I did not expect to see him. His life is complicated but he wants to meet again and he wants another copy of the Book of Mormon. He actually changed his name to Martin (after Martin Harris which is kind of remarkable). He had to run to his train but we re established contact!

The story continues. Sorry long email. Later, we snuck into H&M for warmth and wifi. It was dishonest and a worker got mad at us but... we ran into another investigator! Our appointment that day fell through but we were able to schedule another one! Yeah, the Lord makes use of our mistakes, right? We then met with Benjamin a few minutes later. He fell in love with the Book of Mormon and how we pray right away. He wanted to get a copy so bad and we will see him again Sunday. On our way home, some members from Goppingem stopped us and bought us dinner! So many miracles that day. It was a sign for me that God was aware of me and the city of Ulm. I said my prayers last night with so much gratitude. 

For a spiritual thought, I wanted to share a favorite talk that I just read. It is titled, "Jesus beholding Him loved him." It is about the rich young man. This line only appears in Mark chapter 10 and right before Jesus asks for a big sacrifice, he sees the potential and has love for this young man. Sometimes I feel like the rich young man. I constantly ask "What do I lack? How can I improve?" And then Jesus puts forward another hard challenge or an unexpected problem to solve. I think Jesus looks at all of us and feels this great, overwhelming love for us. If He has that love, why would he not ask us to sacrifice a little bit more? Christ knows our potential and our capabilities. Even when it is hard to imagine why He asks for so much, it is good to remember that He loves us unconditionally and asks for these sacrifices out of love. 

Hope you guys have a great week. Be a light in someone's life today! Love life and love Christ! 

With love,

Elder Evans