Ariel On A Mission!: Hello!

Sounds like everyone had a busy week! Dad, I really liked that quote you sent from Elder Hallstrom too. We actually played his talk for a family home evening spiritual thought. There were a few members that really stood out to me that this talk would be good for them to hear. I think activity in the church is something we tend to have more often than activity in the gospel. Sometimes I feel people are converted to the church and over time to the gospel. Our job is to help them do both.

So XXXX is 16 and the son of Thomas who was baptized a year ago in June I think. They have an interesting relationship. The father doesn't want to push his son to do anything because he says his son can choose for himself, which is true. But it is important for a parent to show their children what is important to them so that it can be important to their kids. The father was raised in an orphanage and so has no experience being raised by parents. The son, XXXX, was supposed to come to church yesterday but didn't because he was tired and wanted to keep sleeping. We were supposed to have 9 investigators to church yesterday. All were 100% committed and one by one they all cancelled or just didn't show up. My heart was very broken yesterday. It is the saddest thing for people not to keep their commitments.

Frau XXXX is wonderful. I tried buying her flowers before our lesson on Saturday. But all the shops shut at 12pm. How was I supposed to know? And why do they all shut at noon? So on our way there I picked two tulips, making sure no one was watching, and then continued to her apartment. When we got there we asked her how she was doing. She said," How is a person supposed to be doing when they're blind?" I told her wonderful because I brought her flowers. Then her attitude completely changed and she was much happier. We read with her 1Nephi 15-20. Almost done with 1 Nephi. She loves the Book of Mormon. We invited her to church and she said she was not ready. That's fine. We want her to feel very comfortable. She used to be able to see and it seems something happened and now she is blind. I'm afraid someone may have attacked her. She has a lot of scars and scar tissue on her face. She is a lovely woman and always says ''thank your for the flowers'' when we give her a complement so that was another reason we wanted to give her flowers.

Mum, So I took your idea about blowing bubbles with that talk from conference and we bought our FHE group bubbles and did it as well. It was a hit and so fun to watch all these older members remembering what it was like to have fun as a kid. I'll attach some pictures from it. When we went grocery shopping last Monday, I found the ''Spirit of Georgia'' in Germany. It was funny :) We have an investigator XXX, who said I was Amish because I wear a black coat. Ha! Bruder Schwabe explained to us that in the DDR a pair of pants cost 200 marks and a coat was 400. So you only bought a new pair of pants every 15 years or so. Thats just crazy! It's interesting to learn about everyones life under the DDR. Schwester Munke said she didn't get a telephone until 1990.

Oh! Transfer calls were this week and I am staying in Halberstadt with Sister Openshaw until at least June now. This next transfer ends June 3rd. We are both so very excited and so is the ward! I'm hoping I can stay maybe two more transfers so that I'll get to see two of our investigators be baptized. The work in Halberstadt is booming! This next week is just full of appointments. A lot of them are new ones too! We're really excited to see what happens :)

I love you all and am grateful everyday for the support you offer me

-Ariel Nell