Another week of "up and down" adventures

Hy Mom! I have received your package and I loved it so much. I loved all the stuff that I got in the mail. I  wear my slippers everyday when I get home from walking all over Germany. Elder Helbig and I are still enjoying the koolaid and we ate the mac and cheese the first night we got the package. We ate it with some pretzel and it was so good. It was one of the best meals of the week. Yes, the cheese was a very nice surprise, the only problem was finding just plain crackers, but we eventually did and I don't think cheddar has ever tasted so good. Thank you mom so much and for all that you sent me. I loved all of it.

 

Like I said in the heading of my email today, it has been a week of ups and downs. I will start with the downs. This week our investigator was not baptized. Problems came up and we have not been able to get in contact with him this whole week. We do not know if he does not want to talk to us or what but as far as today we have not met with him at all this week. For Elder Helbig and I, that was very hard to bare this week. He was so close and we had been working with him for so long and we just do not know what happened. We will not give up on him and we will keep trying to get ahold of him but all we can do is try to call him and always keep him in our prayers.

 

This has been a week of ups as well. Last Sunday we had a member bring a friend to church and we were able to talk to him and have a lesson with him this week as well. He is from Nigeria. He is one of the coolest people I have yet to meet on my mission. He is young, only about 21 or 22 and so Elder Helbig and I became friends with him in an instant we are meeting with him again.

 

Also, on Monday we got a call from a member in our ward about a man that called and said he wanted to be baptized. We called him and set up an appointment for Tuesday. We met with him and as he walked in the door of the church we noticed he was also carring a bag with him. We started to have our lesson and we found out that he had brought with him "baptismal clothes" which was a bathing suit and a towel. We had to explain to him that he could not be baptized that day and that there were several things that we needed to do before he could be baptized. It was a very interesting lesson for us. We were not able to set a baptismal date but we will meet with him again tomorrow and I am sure that we can do it.

 

Like I said, my week is a week of ups and downs. Sometimes it's hard and I have just enough faith to put one foot in front of the other. Others times I feel like I could baptize the whole city of Augsburg. The times of hardship are when I grow and when I put the most faith in the Lord and his timing. Like I said this week was hard not being able to baptize our investigator. But I know that I could not have worked any harder than I did with him. That did make loosing him all the more harder. But I know that it was not because of me, my friend is using his agency and there is nothing that we can do to change that. All we can do, like I said before, is to pray for him.

 

I am sorry that I am not able to attach any pictures because I left my camera at home. I will bring it next week and send you some pictures.To answer your question, I have been to alot of places in my area. We go to Munich regularly because of meetings and other things, but we also travel to Lauingen, Höchstädt, Dillingan almost every week. We have investigators there and we meet with them every week.

 

Well mom I do have to end this email for this week, but I hope that you have a great week and that you can stay safe and continue to do well. I love you so much! Give dad a big hug from me and tell him that I love him and all that he does for me. You walk with me always. The words that are going to describe this week: Adventures.

 

Till next week, your son, Elder Martinez