How are you guys doing? Can you believe that it is already April 16th? I have been gone for 10 months! Can you believe it? Where does the time go? It's a little ridiculous how fast things are. And it will only go faster.
After we did our e-mails we did a bit of contacting. We have been spending quite a bit of time trying to go by on former investigators or potential investigators trying to find anyone who will want to meet with us, and as of now it still hasn't brought us too much. We came to the (awful) realization that we just needed to be doing even more dooring. Which is of course what every missionary loves to do. Haha! But it actually wasn't that bad. Many times while contacting, I have never really felt that comfortable with doing things, I am not sure why. I mean, it's not like it's an uncomfortable situation or anything.... Haha! But Elder M and I get along really well and so we both are able to help each other a lot more than I have with previous companions. We just work really well together, and it makes things a lot of fun.
Really, we have just done a lot of dooring this week. We have been out all day contacting and we just come back exhausted, and I know that if this had happened before on my mission I would have been really upset and probably complained a lot. But strange as it sounds, I am starting to love dooring. It's always so funny, and people are so ridiculous sometimes, that I sometimes can't help but laugh. As soon as they slam the door on us, or yell something terrible or something. They never see me laughing. That would be unprofessional.
We have been doing some service for an older lady last week named Sister L, which is always nice. Last week, because she is a single sister, we needed a joint teach to come with us. It was in the middle of the holiday week and nobody was going to be able to help us because many members were at the temple, others were at work, and so we were a little panicked. We ended up having to go through the ward list and phoning the members that we knew. We were out of options except for Brother B. We phoned him, and it turns out that he lived about 2 minutes away from the lady and would happy to help. We talked to him and got to know him a little better since we didn't know too much about him. He is a really great guy. He has been in Germany about 10 months, and came here so that he could get an education and have a better life for his children. His wife and three of their children came here about 5 months ago. They are all trying to speak German, and the father and the oldest son who is 13 speak pretty good. The mom and the son M understand really well, and the youngest son who is only five doesn't understand so well and just comes to us and says funny phrases that he has heard from the TV or something. But he is really funny. Anyways, we looked on our ward list and saw that M, who is 10, is not yet baptized. We talked to them on Sunday at church and asked if we could come over and share a film with them, and they said yes. They told us how they would always try really hard to get the Elders to come over and would feed them and how much they just loved the missionaries. We went there, and the spirit was so strong. We walked in and you could tell that this was a family who is truly converted to the gospel and who lives it. We watched the movie with them and we all felt the spirit so strong. We asked the parents to tell their children what their favourite parts were and what it meant to them, and then asked the boys as well. M, who is 10 years old, in broken German said ''I know that this is true. That the church is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet''. We then talked about baptism and how M wasn't baptized and talked to the parents about that, and then made a plan to have him baptized on the 5th of May. They were all so excited. We talked a little bit about the temple and how this will help them to get to the temple and how they will be sealed as a family forever. The spirit was so strong. Strangely, even though we don't speak any Spanish I felt like I understood a lot of what they were talking about. I know it's not because of me, but because the spirit was there and doesn't only speak one language, but really speaks to the heart. Just seeing how happy they were was so worth it. They are so awesome.
Hopefully this week, we will find some more people who will want to hear of the gospel from us. I have seen so clearly how the gospel has made me happy, and how it can make others happy. What an amazing thing.
I love you guys so much. I hope you are being safe and good. I know that the Lord is here with us, and that he will help us. Even though at times it is tough. We, as missionaries have not been left alone.
Sincerely,
Elder Connor J. Thompson
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