We set a baptismal date :) Sister Behrndt left :(

Hallo liebe Familie und Freunde!

I apologize in advance if this e-mail is a bit loopy. Sister Behrndt got her visa in the mail on Saturday. We then thought she would be leaving on Tuesday or Wednesday, but President Miles called us yesterday and said she had a flight for this morning! So yesterday we had to scramble to get her packed and then take her to the airport this morning. I am a little tired. We were really sad to see her go, but we know she'll do great things in Salt Lake. She will be in the Provo Missionary Training Center for about a month and then she will be on Temple Square! So if anyone is in Salt Lake, look for her and tell her hi from me :)

This week we have been mostly focused on one person: M. We hadn't heard from him in a while, so we planned to call him on Wednesday to see how he was doing. But he called us before we had a chance and accused us of forgetting about him! We assured him we had not forgotten about him and set up an appointment for Thursday. We went over and taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end). At multiple points in the lesson, we would ask him questions and he would explain things with perfect understanding. Then he said "Oh, and I quit smoking. Since I've been meeting with you I’ve decided to put God first in my life. I prayed and asked him to help me. Since then every time I want to smoke I feel sick to my stomach. And I think next week I will give up drinking." We hadn't even gotten to teaching him about the word of wisdom (D&C 89) yet! I just cannot believe how prepared M is for the gospel. He also told us that normally he doesn't listen to people who want to talk to him about religion, but for some reason he decided he should meet with us. We just keep seeing miracle after miracle with him.

At the end of the lesson I asked him "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" After we explained a little more about baptism, he said "When and where?" We told him the service would be at the church and then invited him to be baptized on June 2nd. And he accepted! There are four Sundays before that date, and in order to be baptized he has to come to church at least three times, so he can only miss once!

The problem is that he has no legal job, hence he does a lot of odd jobs to make money and he doesn't have enough money to buy the ticket he needs to get to church (church is in central Munich and he lives on the outskirts, it takes about an hour to get from his village to church with the S-Bahn). Since he speaks English and will be going to the international ward, we called the Elders from that ward to help us. The solution they came up with was that they would go out to where M lives and then take him to church with them on their ticket. When we called M on Saturday night to confirm he was still at work and said we wouldn't be home until late and he said "That is very early for me, but I will try." I don't think I've ever been as stressed as I was Saturday night and Sunday morning worrying about whether the Elders were able to meet M, whether M decided to come to church, whether everything went all right.... It was very unpleasant not to really know what was going on!

Luckily on Sunday afternoon we talked to the Elders and M and everything worked out! M said church was "marvelous." Now we just have to get him ready to be baptized!

Other than that we gave out a lot of Books of Mormon this week and talked to a lot of people. Many of our appointments cancelled on us which is always unfortunate, but this week is a new week!

Random notes-
-Like Sister Caramella, I think I am also getting a Mary Jane tan on my feet
-I wish all my skirts had pockets. I have two skirts and a dress with pockets, but it is very annoying not always having jacket pockets to put things in now that the weather is warmer
-W, our Chinese investigator, had us over for dinner and I got to eat with chopsticks. It made me very happy :)
-H, our Moroccan investigator, found a used Deuter backpack (the same brand I have) for 2 Euro. Can I take her shopping with me?

There are so many other things that happened this week, but I cannot get my brain to put them into words.

Ich weiß, dass Himmlische Vater all seine Kinder könnt. Ich hoffe, Ich can ein Werkzeug in seine Hände sein, um seine Kinder zu segnen.

(I know that Heavenly Father knows all of his children. I hope that I can be a tool in his hands to bless his children.)

Ich wünsche euch alles gute!
(I wish you all the best!)

-Sister Stewart