Here is Jaren's letter for the week.
Well, thanks again fort he wonderful letter. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with everything you are doing! At least it seems that way when I just hear from you once a week and I can vaguely remember the last email that you wrote from the previous week! Anyway, at least it sounds like you all are having a ton of fun.
The work has been incredible the last three weeks now! We have now found several new investigators and have several more that could become such in the next week. Some of course have not gone through, but the majority of those we find have been what mom calls “golden”. The story of the Klein Family was really cool, but when we went back they really didn´t have interest, but I know that they felt something, and perhaps at a later time they will embrace the gospel. However, on the other side, Daniel, one of the first ones that we found about two weeks ago has been incredible! He is only 18 years old, a lot younger than I thought! He referred us to his friend Obid as well, and he is just 20 years old. Both are amazing and are pretty involved in their religious faiths respectively. Daniel is Catholic and Obid is Evangelisch (don´t know how it is called in English anymore). But both are excited to read in the Book of Mormon. Obid has turned out to be a lot more than I first expected. Immediately after our second visit, he took us to his church and wanted us to introduce the Book of Mormon to them. Great experience! They weren´t as interested in it as Obid was, yet Obid kept asking us questions or wanted us to repeat some of the things that we taught him. He seems to be very amazed at how similar we are in many aspects of his religion as well. One girl in the youth group asked him privately if we were Jehovas Witnesses, and what bible we used, so Obid came over and asked us what Bible we used and what makes us different from the Jehovas Witnesses. When we told him we used the King James Version he was even more shocked and amazed, and went back and told the girl who asked and said to her “really, they are very similar to what we believe and more!” Well, we have a lot of faith in the two right now, and really we are trying to build trust and answer their questions as much as possible as we teach to help them out more. I don´t know if I told you this, but Obid is the youth group leader in his church. He loves youth and really wants to help them. He is also the top of his class right now, has been in Germany since he was 16 and has lived alone for the past 2-3 years as he has gone to school. He doesn´t smoke or drink, and has high morals from what he has told us. So the two pretty much are as “Golden” as can be, and even better yet they are close friends! It is a perfect situation as of yet.
We also have been teaching a man by the name of Herr Schmitz, and he really didn´t have interest in what we had to say at first, but we are now meeting with him for a third time this week. He was also someone that we met about two weeks ago.
Also Frau Schmitt is doing well, and we are still working with her. Her health as of lately though hasn´t been too good, but we continue to meet with her.
I really can´t name them all right now! But we have several others that we have given books of Mormon to and given first lessons too. Last night we found a younger lady who has seen or met with the missionaries before, but had some former presumptions about us and wasn´t too willing to meet with us. We talked a little bit about ourselves answered some of her questions and then asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon. She replied that she had not. We asked her if she would like one, and she agreed to that. So tomorrow we are going by on her and giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon. The Lord has indeed blessed us in our work, but we have also tried giving it our all, and even then we can do more. Once that is going, the people start to pour in, and it is at that point that we need to just keep going rather than to be satisfied with what we have and then lose it all.
So anyway, I guess I can answer some of your questions now:
Q. Were you able to get back to see all the "goldens" you discovered?
A. Well, like I said, for the most part we have kept all but just one or two, so that in itself has been miraculous as well. These people all have the same potential to progress, but they all start at different points. Often it seems like the ones who seem to go through don´t, and the ones that seem iffy in the beginning do. That seems to be what has happened. It is just one of those lessons on “don´t judge a book by its cover.” Everyone is a child of God, and each one can progress, but at different times and speeds.
Q. Did you have interviews with President N. last week?
A. I know exactly where you are going with this one!!! I got that surprise package from the family! I was very surprised actually, and then president Ninow looks at me and says “Oh, by the way, this is from your family, supposedly your Mom knows my sister in law, and our boys were in town, so they just gave it to her.” I was a little confussed, but I think the only reason the boys and Sister Ninow were in town could be that Adam, their second oldest, was going to the MTC. I´m not too sure on that one, but I do know that he got his mission call about 3 months ago and that would make sense. (I really wasn't going anywhere with this when I asked the question. When I dropped off the package at Sister N.'s sisters place, I was told that President was having interviews last week, so I just figured Jaren wouldn't see the package until the next zone conference, in about a month. . . I truly was just asking!)
Q. Has Sister N. been in the states recently?
A. Like I said, I have no Idea?!
Well, I hope that you all have a fabulous week, and tell Holly good luck! I think that she will do just fine down there at UVU. By the way, her bio was pretty cool, not too many women her age can say that they do or enjoy a lot of the things she does, especially camping, and fly-fishing! And, for those living in a small town, having someone who has lived around the world has got to sound a little different than the norm.
Anyway, have fun y´all with camping and such and just being 3000 places at once!
Gott Segne Euch!
Ihre Sohn/Bruder
Elder Smith
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