More Miracles

Hey Everybody!

It looks like you all had a great week! I would have loved seeing my journal that grandma made! I haven't read mine in a while.

We had another great week over here! We have seen so many miracles. On monday evening, we met with a family (a mother and a daughter), and they were so prepared for the gospel. They wanted to know about the book of mormon, so we explained it and bore testimony. When we were done they were just nodding their heads and said "well that makes sense! I like it!" The mother, R-----, was raised in columbia and had an LDS church across the street from her house and she always loved us. The daughter, L-----, is 14 and was raised here and is very very religious. She always loved the Bible and reads everyday. We invited them to be baptized on the 16th of march and they said that they would be baptized if the recieve a testimony by then! I spoke with them yesterday on the phone ( they couldn't come to our stake conference in St. Gallen) and I just asked if they had read in the book of mormon. They said, "we love it and read it everyday!" We will meet with them tonight and we are really excited for them.

We had Stake conference yesterday and on saturday. It was a bit wierd because on sunday, their conference was a broadcast from salt lake. Elder Bednar served in southern Germany so he gave his entire talk in german! It was pretty cool! As we were watching the broadcast, one of the little girls in my ward came up to me and threw a giant bag full of chocolate into my lap. Apparantly, her family is trying to go vegan so we have been getting all of their snacks and other unhealthy things. It is all really tasty but it doesn't help me eat less sugar.

The weather here has been beautiful for the last few days. It feels like an easter morning almost everyday. One of the ladies that I spoke to on a bus said that it won't snow here but will continue to get warmer from now on, which is strange because it still hasn't snowed in Konstanz. I feel pretty blessed that I didn't have to trudge through the snow for the last few months! It got really cold and rainy, but there hasn't been any snow on the ground and that helped us with the work.

President Miles has asked that we read a general conference talk everyday, and i have found it really interesting to read from ancient prophets in the scriptures, and then to read from a modern day prophet. It is great because you see that the prophets today are just as great and powerful as the ones in the scriptures, and that they really do teach the same doctrine with the same authority. I am really glad that we belong to a church with authority from God, and I hope that we all realize what a blessing that is. I don't think I realized it until I spoke with thousands of people that haven't been led by a prophet, and because of that, they are trouble because of the lack of guidance.

Well I hope that you all have a great week again! I love you all and pray for you. I hope that you get feeling well from the cold that is going around.

Love,

Elder Eldredge

Temple Trip and the Mormon Shop

Hello everybody!

It sounds like Bryce canyon was great! It's too bad that there wasn't too much snow this year but you seemed to make the best of it.

We had a really busy week! On Monday we had an eating appointment with our branch president and he has three really cute sons who love to climb all over us. Our branch president is really funny as well. He really loves to laugh and make jokes so it is always fun at their place. On tuesday we went to zurich for our zone conference. It was really great to see all of the missionaries there and to see zurich a little bit. That always takes the whole day though so we got home in time to plan for the next day and go to sleep. We are trying really hard to find out what the best way to travel in our area is because our tickets for Switzerland cost a lot so we don't have any bus tickets in Konstanz. So we are trying to figure out if we can get both. I really hope that we do because if we get bus tickets, our area will see so much progress because we will be able to visit people much easier.

On Saturday we went to the temple! It was a really really pretty day as well. We did the 9 o'clock session and there were some members from our ward there and some missionaries from our district. I even saw some members that were from Salzburg that had visited the Haag ward. It was pretty wierd to see them all the way on the other side of the mission but they recognized me as well so it was cool. Right outside of the temple is a place called the Mormon Shop. It is a lot like a deseret book. They even sell a ton of stuff from america that apparently only mormons eat like A&W and Hot tamales. They also had action figures from the book of Mormon, but the best action figures were the missionaries. That was cool!

We got transfer calls on Saturday as well and Elder Sardoni and I will be staying together for another six weeks. I find that good because I don't want to leave this ward yet. Plus, now I have two companions with whom I have spent more than just six weeks. We are having a lot of fun and we are really excited for the next six weeks.

I will make sure to send photos of the temple in a second E-mail. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Miracles

Hello!

Ya, sorry I didn't write back on thursday! Pres. Miles said I could read them but I didn't know if I could write back or not and I couldn't get a hold of him to ask permission. But I prayed for you all a lot! I am doing well. I am just making sure that we are always busy and that I get lost over here. Experiences like these make you remember how grateful you are for our heavenly Father. The peace and comfort that comes from a knowledge of what happens after this life is one of the most precious gifts that we have.

The work here is going well. We see miracles often, and I know there are more that we don't see. We taught a woman named A---- on Friday and it was one of the best lessons that I have ever had. She didn't want to prove us wrong, or expect us to know everything. She was simply wanting to learn and was open to the spirit. I felt the spirit so strongly through the whole thing and I know that she felt it to. She said that she wants to come to church  and meet again soon. At the end of the lesson she asked a little bit about Joseph Smith. We answered her question and promised her that she could pray and know for herself if he was a prophet. We left that lesson uplifted and excited. The next day she texted us and said thank you for the information but she doesn't want to belong to a religion. But I don't think that will be the last that we hear from her. I am almost certain that she recieved her answer and was a little bit afraid of it. Hopefully she is willing to meet just one more time. Luckily she is very friendly and she likes us a lot so we will see.

The missionaries in Singen called the other day and told us that they met a woman who lives in our area on the train. Her name is R----- and she is from Columbia. She said that there was a mormon church across the street from her house in columbia and she loves the mormons. She then told them about how she couldn't remember being baptized as a child in the Catholic church, and she would like to be baptized in our church. She has apparantly been looking for us for years. We hope to meet with her this wednesday when she has time. she also has a 14 year old daughter who was apparantly also interested. That would be just great for this ward.

Our apartment is fun to be in. Elders Schuhmaier and Stank are pretty funny and Elder Sardoni is a great companion. We will get transfer calls on this saturday so we will see if everybody stays. Also on this saturday, Elder Sardoni are going to the temple with the senior couple in St. Gallen! Their names are the Schwabes, and they are very nice to us. They have only been here for about two months now so hopefully we don't get lost on our way there.

I hope that you are all doing well and that you have a great week! I love you and pray for you!

Love,

Elder Eldredge

Unihockey and a Ukelele???

Hey!

It sounds like you are having a great time in London! All that stuff sounds like tons of fun! I sure wouldn't mind spending some more time there some day.

Everything here in Konstanz is awesome! I really love the ward here. Many of the members feel like family and best friends to me, and when the day comes that I have to leave will probably be one of the saddest days of my mission. I hope that I get to stay at least one more transfer here.

We had a lot of cool experiences on the street this week. We met a woman who, after we began to speak, told us that she already was a member, but she hasn't come to church in a while because she just moved here and couldn't speak german yet. We promised her that if she would begin coming to church, it would help her learn german much faster. We are hoping that she will come this next sunday. We had lost contact with one of our investigators, C------, for the last few weeks and we thought that he dropped us, but as we checked our emails to write to investigators we had a message from him. He said that he was now done with tests at school and that he would like to come to church this week. But he came late to the train station and he didn't know what ticket to buy so he just got lost in switzerland on some random train. It was pretty sad because he was pretty excited.

Once a month we play a game called Unihockey with our ward. It is a lot like floor hockey and it is way fun. I have now gone the last three or four times and it is awesome now that I am getting better at it. The first week was ok but now I can actually play pretty well. C----- came to Unihockey as well and he loved it.

Elder Sardoni and I are still getting along no problem. We have a lot of fun and work really hard. The other two elders in the apartment are getting well trained on how to sound like a cowboy when they speak. They also wrote a song on the guitar that lasts forever and the only lyrics are "Elder Sardoni." So, needless to say, our evenings are very relaxing. Elder Schuhmaier hit his year mark a few days ago so after planning we all wore happy birthday caps and ate popcorn. There was also a concert given by Elder Schuhmaier on the ukelele and elder Sardoni sang. It was actually pretty impressive.

So we had a really great week even though it is getting colder and colder. Luckily there is no snow yet so that is good but i am expecting it in the next week or two. I have a Book of Mormon that I am marking in specific ways. It is really great because one of my goals for this year is to know the scriptures much better. I feel that I am doing really well and I notice the difference that it makes to not only read every day but also to know later exactly what I read and where to find it. Studies on a mission become the best part of the day.

I hope that you all have a great week! Be safe in London and let mom know that I love her even though she couldn't send an email. I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Eldredge

P.S. about the cards, I guess I don't really need the cards that bad but i would like to maybe see some of the photos some time. I actually don't have any photos of our family to show members and investigators which many would like to see. So I don't really need the cards that bad, but some family photos would be sweet.