Making Progress

Here is our weekly letter from Jaren. It wasn't there this morning when I went to look, but it was there after I got the kids off to school. When I mentioned to Steve that we hadn't received it yet, he said, "Well, did he wish you a happy birthday on Sunday, because maybe he won't write this week since we just spoke to him." Well, he didn't wish me a happy birthday in today's letter, either, but with my birthday so close to Mother's Day, it always throws my family off! I'm sure it was covered in Sunday's phone call. I'm especially happy for Jaren that Elder Taylor has contacted him and is excited to know what's going on in his old area.

Dear Familie!

Well, it was very exciting to be able to talk to all of you on the phone the other day! It really caught me off guard though. It wasn´t like the Christmas phone call. Not much goes on on that day. We are with families and such through the day, and then comes the time to talk to you, but the Mother´s day phone call is just during a normal work day, so it just felt weird to call on such a day! But I loved it, and I loved being able to talk to all of you!

Not much has happened in the mean time, so the last few days.  I did get an email from Elder Taylor today, and I have now filled him in with the things that have happened over the past couple of months since he left. Hopefully he is excited about that! He really wanted to know what has been going on, so I wrote him an email explaining a lot about William and Charity, and the progress with Schwester Schmitt.

It sounds like a pretty cool thing to be back in contact with Monique and Maiya.  I am actually going to ask the Niesen´s about Thomas Gulla and see if they have any contact with him, or the ward there in Düsseldorf.  It is cool that Maiya and Thomas  Job are still living here in Germany. That is 11 more years than us. Her German has got to be pretty perfect now! Living here for that long should do the trick.

I don´t know if I told you all this, but we are also teaching William and Charity German. Hopefully it helps them to understand the language a little bit better, and specifically in Church. It has been a wonderful experience being able to teach them. Last time we taught them about the Temple, and watched a film about the Temple and covenants and talked a little more about baptism. The video is called ´An Introduction to the Church.´ It has a lot of simple information and explanations for investigators to understand.  It gives a couple of pictures of the temple and some inside pictures of the temple. At the end of the video, we asked them questions, and asked what would make you want to go there? William and Charity both answered, we liked it because it is clean. The Lord doesn´t want to come to a place that is dirty! They liked how all the temples are white inside and out. We then reviewed the Plan of Salvation with them, and told them that without the Temple, this plan wouldn´t work. We also taught them that Baptism is the first great commitment, but afterwards, they should look forward to the day that they can go to the Temple.  They loved the lesson and the spirit was very strong there.  It helped them to understand how important the baptism is, and also to let them know that the baptism isn´t the first and last thing to do.  They both understand that once they are baptized, they become members of our church, they told us that, and that they both know that the church is true. Charity loves the Joseph Smith story, and watches the Restoration film all the time. William also loves it, but his favorite film is the Finding Faith in Christ Video, and he also watches that all the time!

Great progress is being made with the two of them, and I can´t wait for the two of them to be baptized.  At first I thought, great, they want to be baptized, but do they really know what that means? As we continue to talk with them, they continue to bear their testimony with me and with Elder White! They tell us that they want to talk to everyone that they know about what they have learned from us, and through the church.  They will make amazing members!

I am sorry that this email is a little shorter als normal, but I did talk to you all on Sontag. It was a great time for me!
I hope that all is well with you at home, well, I can´t imagine it not seeing how I just talked to you all Sunday. Have fun, work hard, and pray hard! I love that line MOM!

Have a great week!

Your Son/Brother
Elder Smith