Monday, June 8, 2015

Phone call from the Past Area and Believing Blood!

Hello Everybody,

This week we had a cool lesson with a new investigator. She is from Hungary but her English is really good.    She doesn't have much interest in joining the church because she isn't that committed at the moment.  She did ask us if she could give us money or food, so that was funny.  She asked, "What would happen if I was to give you 100 Euros?"   I do believe in the future she will open up and be taught again.

We also had another good lesson with our investigator named Andre.  He has some questions about our church, and he has even read in the Book of Mormon.  This week we are meeting him at our church for a lesson!

Wednesday, we had Zone Conference in Hamburg.  Elder and Sister Adler from the 70s were there.  It was also President Kosak's last Zone Conference, which was sad.  At the end we sang, "God be with you till we meet again".  Lots of people were crying.
I went on an exchange and stayed in Delingsdorf and was with a missionary from Lubeck.  We had 2 amazing appointments with members.  The first one was especially great.  It turns out the Mom went on an exchange to Bountiful, UT when she was a teenager, and the father liked swimming when he was younger.  In fact, breaststoke was his favorite stroke!  It was so cool, I got to know them really well and we had a good spiritual thought. The Ipads are gold!!  They make you think so much about the content in them.

Now for the best news of all!  Elder Morton called me yesterday.  At first, I was like what the heck, why is Spandau calling me, what have I done??  But he sounded all happy when I talked to him.  He called to tell me that Herr Marankovich got baptized yesterday!  That was the investigator that I found in Spandau. ( I found him on the street and had a prompting to go back and talk to him.)  He also said that his wife also wants to be baptized and his extended family is now taking lessons from missionaries in another area in Berlin!  The feeling that I felt on that phone call was indescribable, I just felt so good, knowing that I helped someone find the Gospel and now his whole family wants the blessings from it.  I also got to talk to Herr Merankovich on the phone and he sounded so happy!  It was just amazing, literally a once in a lifetime experience.

I know that Jesus and God loves us.  I know Jesus Christ suffered for all of our sins, faults, troubles, and also for the hurt we feel from others.  I know of the power of the Atonement, I have seen that in my life, and especially on my mission.  I know I am not perfect, but I try my best and I know Jesus will make up for the rest.  I love you all!

Elder Spangenberg

Mom's note: One year ago Grant was just opening his call to serve his mission in Germany.  I asked him how his mission is different than what he thought it would be.  His response:  "I didn't think a mission would be hard at all."
I asked him how "he" is different than a year ago.  His response: "Well I feel like I have changed a ton.  I didn't really prepare that well to serve a mission and I kind of regret that.  I wasn't that good about reading my scriptures and praying, so it's hard to figure out how I had a testimony before I came, but I figured that out as I read my Patriarchal Blessing.  It says that I have been blessed with believing blood!  So I never doubted the church was true, I always knew that.  I always had a huge testimony of Joseph Smith, but other things like the Atonement, I developed a testimony for on my mission, and it's still growing."
He concludes by saying,"Mom, thanks for always pushing me to do my best and never settling for anything less."

No comments:

Post a Comment