Working with Tony

This week was a good one here in Rosenheim. We've been working hard and discovering new parts of our area. It's been exciting to meet lots of new people and to have cooler weather. 

Tuesday, we went out to München for district meeting but the S-bahn wasn't working so it took us a while to get there. We watched the last session of conference which was amazing! Now I finally know what ponderize is and why everyone was talking about it. :) Then we came home and finished our studies and met with Tony. Lately his roommate has been around and so it feels like we've been teaching him and started all over. Then Tony gets confused about what we're saying and it is just so hard to keep him on track. 

Wednesday we were going to meet with Teddy during the day but we were called last weekend and he told us that his girlfriend in München convinced him to stay Evangelisch so he doesn't ever want to see us again. We were confused because we had only met with him a few times and he talks so much that we didn't really teach him a lesson but he would always say that he would listen to what we have to say then he would make a decision himself. But then his girlfriend convinced him not to listen. Oh well. We'll get someone else. So that day we ended up going to this tiny little town out in the middle of nowhere or wo sich Hasse und Fuchs gute Nacht sagen... to contact a less active member. It was a pain to get out there and to say the least she didn't live there anymore. On our long walk back to the nearest town with a bus stop it started raining so hard and we got soaked. My rain jacket got drenched and we were completely wet. I thought we had just gotten out of a swimming pool. So we were wet and freezing cold and we came home. Got into some dry clothes and tried to warm up before we had to go back out. That evening we went to visit Tony again. We had a good lesson and thought that we had addressed his concerns about Joseph Smith and the restoration. 

Then on Thursday we met with Tony again and he is just so confusing. I don't know why Africans have such a hard time with authority. He believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet and a man of God and he likes him because he preaches Jesus. He believes that the church was restored. But he also believes that anyone can baptize anyone, and that if you have faith in Christ then you have the authority to perform saving ordinances. So we had a really hard time trying to teach him about the priesthood and authority. It was a really good lesson and he said that he would pray about it. 

Here comes Friday and Tony hasn't prayed and he didn't know what he should pray about. This is where my favorite lesson comes in. We listened to Tony talk and talk and go on and on. I listened patiently until the spirit told me what his concern was. As soon as I finally found that out I was able to address it with love and with the power of the Holy Ghost. He got really quiet and said he knows what he has to do. Sure enough he didn't: I had to tell him exactly what to pray for and why he needs to pray. It was a good lesson and we decided to let him have some time to himself so we haven't met with him for a few days. We also met with this guy named Werner. He's been meeting with the missionaries forever but unfortunately he's met quite a few of bad missionaries so he has no idea what the church is really like. But he really likes us even though we explained that we aren't like the other missionaries. We won't drink alcohol with him or watch pornography with him. We said that there are rules to being a missionary and we follow them. He was really interested and is now listening to our message. I hope that we can show him what the church really believes. It will be hard though because he's met so many unworthy missionaries.

Saturday was weekly planning so nothing too exciting happened there, but earlier in the day we met with a potential that was found last year. She was really nice. Her name is Jenny and she's from Ethiopia. She has a Nigerian boyfriend. They were really nice but I don't know if they'll progress. My oh my, I didn't think that I was called to the Alpine English Speaking mission. I meet with more foreigners than I do with actual Germans. It's so crazy.

Sunday was good. Tony brought his friend Samuel again and they really enjoyed church. We had great meetings and it was a good day, until I got a migraine after church. So we weren't really able to accomplish much that day. 

The work here is amazing and I love being a missionary. I know that the lord is watching out for us. He is our light and he will guide our path. I know that this is true. I hope that you all have a great week and strive to feel the spirit in your lives. 

noch eine schöne Woche

Alles Gute, 

Elder Johnson