How come I have never heard of this book before?

Received September 12, 2011

I can't tell you how many times I've heard that sentence. The Book of Mormon is an amazing book and it really is amazing that so many people have never heard of it. Mostly because a lot of them never open their doors when we come to speak with them. It is further holy scripture and contains the fullness of the gospel. Why wouldn't you read it? This week was kinda crazy. It seems like every day goes by so fast and at the end of the week we look back and think, "What did we do? It's already Sunday again?"

We took the opportunity this week of having quite a few hours of time open for contacting to go and do an area that we have for sure never done before. In our last zone conference we talked a little about the demographic of the people that are getting baptized. Pretty much, they're all "ausländers" (people that are not from German-speaking countries). Nothing racist, everyone is a child of God. However, these people are the ones really looking for the truth and will find us anyway. We need to go out and find the Germans, Austrians, and Swiss. They are out there and usually they don't know that they are looking for something. So, we went out to a really rather rich area of Ingolstadt and started pounding the pavement and ringing doorbells. I will admit that there were a lot of decidedly atheist people, but on a much more amazing note, there were also a few people that were believing enough to say, "Sure, I'll take the pamphlet and read it." We also got phone numbers from people. Sometimes you just need to do a whole neighborhood before someone comes out of the woodwork.

I got to go on an exchange down in Kaufbeuren. This area is very large and they have a car. We saw huge, amazing alps and I was happy to go there if only for that one reason. I got to work with Elder Rosenvall who was in the MTC group that was 6 weeks younger than me. It was really fun and we got to do some good work.

This work always goes forward and no one can stop it. We have a great time in this land. I don't know if people even realize the kind of work that we do here, certainly not the Germans. I hope that I am able to leave my own little footprint in the work here.

Yes, Elder Bednar does speak a little German still. He actually wrote a little intro to his address in German before he came here. He sent it to President Uchtdorf for a little spell check and he wrote back, "Sehr gut, Dieter" He does admit that his "Wortschatz ist klein geworden" and that his "Aussprache ist nicht so gut wie vor siebenunddreisig Jahren." It was wonderful.

As it applies to things that I "need", there aren't really a lot. I pretty much have everything that I need. I could use a new short sleeve shirt because one of them has a weird stain on it right underneath the pocket that I can't get out for some reason, it might be ink. I hope you send me some good pictures in my birthday present.

I hope everybody has a wonderful time wherever they are in the world and that everything is just peachy. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!