Hallo Meine Liebe Familie!
This week has been great! Hildesheim is beautiful and is an awesome city. My new comp, Roberts is awesome too and we get along great. We are already tight, like unto a dish. Hildesheim is bigger than Meißen. Meißen had about 20,000 people and Hildesheim has about 100,000, which I personally like better. It is fun too because we have Sisters here. Sisters Stuart and McBride. They are epic! They made us cake last night:) I haven't met all of the Branch here because yesterday was Stake Conference in Hannover. I have met a couple of them and they are all cool so far haha. I feel really good about this area and I can tell it's going to be awesome.
This week has been kinda funny interesting though. My first day here we we had a lesson with a man named Jürgen and then unpacked a little bit. Then on Wednesday we had Brother Seidel come to our apartment. He is basically the handyman for the mission. Our apartment is really old and there is a lot of work to be done. We spent most of the day helping them repaint the apartment. We had a meeting with the Branch President in the late afternoon but that was pretty much it. On Thursday we hard District Meeting, which we do in Hannover. My comp is District Leader and we had a good meeting. Our District is us here in Hildesheim, the Elders in Celle, and the Zone Lords in Hannover. After the meeting we came back and met with Jürgen again.
Jürgen is really legit. He was a hardcore biker, Motorcycles that is. He first had contact with the missionaries in 1992 and has investigated on and off since then. He knows pretty much everything. He has a triple combination and a Gospel Principles. We know he has a testimony and he wants to be baptized. The only problem is he smokes. He has been trying to stop for a while. I can't quite explain to you everything that this man has been through but he is such an awesome man. Last year he had a baptismal date and was trying really hard to stop smoking. He couldn't quite do it and it hit him pretty hard. He actually went into a mild depression because he felt like he had failed. He and the missionaries did multiple fasts and he just couldn't seem to overcome it. He said he felt alone in his fight and felt like God didn't make it easier and he is still trying to find the motivation to want to try again. I experienced a change within myself the second time we met with him. I felt a surge of faith within me and something told me that this man can and will stop smoking and be baptised. It was truly incredible and even now I just know within me that it will happen. I don't think that I have felt this level of faith ever in my entire life. I can't explain it more than that haha. I felt a true change within me and for the first time I think I understand and feel the pure love of Christ for another person. Here was this man, that I in all honesty, did not know, but I instantly felt a love for him. It didn't matter who he was or how scary he looked, I just...loved him. We will be giving him a blessing this week and we will be fasting with him and for him along with some members in the ward on Fast Sunday. I can't ask you to fast for him but can you all please keep him in your prayers. We want him to feel supported this time. We want to be able to tell him that he has too many people praying for him to give up. He wants to stop but isn't quite sure if he has the motivation to do it. Please pray that he will have the motivation and the strength to stop. Jürgen will get baptized. I know it!
Yesterday we met with a man named Mr. Thunert. He is an old Catholic man and is really open and awesome. We taught him the story about Nephi getting the plates from Laban. He is a little confused with why God would ask a man to kill another. We explained it to him and he understood but is still unsure. He is a totally honest investigator and he really wants to understand the BoM and our teachings. We told him that we can try to learn more and help him get a better understanding but we also told him to pray and ask God to help him understand better. He told us '' Oh of course I will ask God. I have to always ask God for help in everything. This is far to important as well. If I don't ask God about this I won't be able to sleep tonight!'' He is just such an awesome, nice old man.
We had stake conference as well yesterday. It was cool because I got to see a couple of people I haven't seen for a while. Sister Katalin for example was there. We got to talk about Halle a little bit so it was pretty cool to see some friends. The stake conference was pretty cool because it was an area broadcast from Salt Lake for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The first guy that spoke was the Area President for Europe. The second was the First Councilor in the Relief Society Presidency. Then Elder Bednar spoke. This part was so cool because he gave his talk in German! All the other people had a translator but he gave his own talk in German! It was pretty cool. Then Elder Hales spoke.
Overall it was a good week. I am running out of time and I am sorry that I didn't have as much time to write a bunch of personal letters. Don't think that I forgot your birthdays either Emily and Brennan! I have remembered them and I just haven't had time to send you cards but I hope to get some today and send to you. Sorry they are late but you will get them eventually:) I love you guys! I like seeing the pictures of the house! I hope you all have an awesome week! Tschußi!
Liebe Grüße,
Elder Trevor Bone
P.S sorry! I haven't taken any pictures since I got to Hildesheim so I will make sure to take a bunch this week!
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