Well I am still here in Saarbrücken. Seven weeks to roll. Anyways we met some interesting guys this week.

We have been focusing our finding on the university campus. I guess it's not illegal to contact there, so we just go there and talk to people. Why not. 9/10 they will stop and have a conversation with you. It's amazing. We just go over there and set up a few appointments and they actually come. Just hope they stay solid.

Anyways! Another guy we met was way interesting. This guy from Iraq lives in this student apartment, and we did a little dooring there. My companion just felt like hitting the top floor, so the first door we knocked on was this guy and all we said is. 

Were talking with people about God... 

COME IN I NEED TO TALK TO YOU GUYS!

Sweet. So we came in and yeah... Talked about God. 

This guy though, is the most emotional guy ever. For example. 

Then you guys knocked on my door... SOB😭

And people experience hard things... But that is okay! SOB.😭

I NEVER HAD FRIENDS UNTIL I MET YOU!... SOB😭

I dunno, he looks like a normal guy but hey. Sweet! This guy is cool. Haha. Right after our fifteen minute lesson he just gave us hugs like we have been friends for eternity.Lol. Who knows. 

Then he said he was a member of the Muslim church and this other weird Islamic church that I never heard of, and he simply denied them right there. Cool, lets baptize the guy.

Ameer is still flipping awesome. He is making lots of friends in the ward so I think it will be an easier transition for him to come into the church. One already flat out told him that they will drive him to church because of bad train connections on Sunday. His name is Timo and we just invite Ameer to come with us for dinner and we play games with each other. Really cool. 

And this guy Bohan who just got baptized here is also making lots of friends and he is one of my favorite guys ever. Just your awesome Chinese guy who is super smart and hilarious. I think when I do have to leave this place it will be hard to go, but we are not thinking about that right now. 

We have lots of Christmas appointments and this is awesome. The members here are starting to like us a bit more. That's always nice.

Well guys. I guess I will see my beautiful family once again this Christmas. I love you guys. Excited to see yall again. 

Much love 

Elder Monroe

Here is our pal Ameer and us at church

And I opened one package. Socks smelled amazing ma. Haha smelled like home. (Don't worry I am waiting for Christmas haha. Elder Taylor won't let me open them. He also says thanks haha.) 

Another week flew by and Christmas is totally coming up. Nuts. This week was honestly just fallen out appointments and teaching Ameer. He really makes our week a thousand times better. Haha.

One day of this week was way interesting. We had five appointments set up for one day, and they all fell out. Made me be a lot more Stern with the people I contact to make sure they will be home and if they really have interest. We shall see how this goes later. Other than that we have found a couple more people. Just need to see if they have the potential to actually make progress. 

So far this Saturday is three Baptisms, all self referrals and just miracle stories. I am excited for them. 

This next month we have 3 more Baptisms on the way. One including our buddy Ameer and we are so excited for him. He is now living the word of wisdom, and learned the truthfullness of the word if wisdom, because he said as he lived it he feels so much better and has more energy. Another testament that God's commandments is only for our benefit.

We had another lesson with him and he invited his friend with him this time, so at first we were a little nervous. We weren't prepared and usually another Muslim who is there that we didn't know was sure to Bible bash, but that wasn't the case. He was very friendly and speaks fluent English. Didn't ever interrupt our little lesson and his name is also Ameer, so we will call him Ameer number 2. Haha. Ameer 1 invited Ameer 2 to the three Baptisms of our new members as well as the Christmas dinner this Saturday. Hope all goes well there.

Our district leader will be going home this weekend and it was good serving with him. He sold me his watch for a way good bargain. It's one of those 160 dollar watches that connects to the phone and monitors what I do, has weather features on it, just cool stuff on it for forty bucks. And new batteries and tools were included. Sweetness.

Our mission got iPhones and that was nuts. It's way high tech. Samsung A5 and has so many features and capabilities on it. We connect to people through WhatsApp, hear people on the phone actually, and can set Internet Hotspots with the phone. An entirely different world of missionary work. Also for all you missionaries who read this, haha, I knew we were getting iPhones since last transfer. Love the tech elders.

But this transfer is close to an end. Positive I have at least one more here, but as usual, don't know yet. But president practically confirmed I will be staying one more here in our last interview. This next transfer is seven weeks. So this will probably be the longest moment in our mission, but who knows.

Really all about the week. Enjoyed meeting new people. Cool stuff. 

Much love yall. 

Elder Monroe

Even Miracles can't convince

Truly don't understand how people experience miracles and are held by the hand, literally led to us and find an excuse not to learn more. Ameer is fine, don't worry about him, he is still making wonderful progress, but we met someone else special.

It was a hard day of contacting and no one really wanted to speak with us as well as the streets extremely busy. We weren't in the most effective area at the time it seemed, but I had the chance and stopped a Russian/German woman our age and she was shocked. She was unusually excited and wanted to meet with us at a Cafe. We set up an appointment to meet her personally at a Cafe and introduce ourselves. 

She arrived to the appointment, where we enjoyed hot chocolate and gave her a brief overview of our religion. She really enjoyed what we had to say and she explained to us that her life was horrible. As she grew up she was abused by her father, saying she will never be worth anything, only waiting to marry an abusive husband and a nasty divorce right after.

She also explained that she really believes in Jesus Christ and the atonement, and that she had a dream last night where she saw us. (yes us) and was to see us on the street where we were to meet her. We then invited her to church.

She came, loved it, sang the hymns as well. She felt the spirit so strong and wanted to be a member of this church. After the meeting she pulled us aside and said she invited us to her house where we can meet personally. We knew she lived alone, so we explained our rules that we needed a member with us to teach. She didn't want a member, only us, but rules are rules. We set up an appointment to meet her again at the Cafe.

The next day during dooring, we received a text from her, where she announced that she was upset that she invited us over and that if our rules were in the way of our friendship then she wanted nothing to do with us anymore, but will continue to read the book of Mormon to see if it is the word of God. We did our best to explain, but she apologized and said so long as we follow our rules and disregard her, we cannot meet each other again. Very rough letting her go and a little sour at the same time. The was a rough drop. Even dreams and miracles don't convert, faith and desire is what I sense she was missing.  

On a higher note Ameer is making so much progress. We are at a little bump with him right now. We are doing our best to tell him that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that coffee is bad for our bodies. He believes the book of Mormon, so we explain that through the book of Mormon we can receive a testimony of Joseph Smith, therefore declaring that the word of wisdom is a commandment from a prophet of God. He says it will take time to convert him because he is still learning and it takes time for him to get to where he wants to be. He says for now he believes that Mormon was a prophet, but now we are trying to get to the next step. Elder Taylor showed a wonderful scripture of Ether 12:6, explaining that so long as we live the commandments, we receive a testimony to know if they are true and from God. This moment was powerful and Ameer really felt the spirit, so we convinced him to live the word of wisdom and hopefully from that he will get his testimony of Joseph Smith.

Life is still going so well. Literally on Monday we just set up six appointments with people and taught two lessons, and this is now a normal day. Yesterday was the same as well, except we didn't have time to find because of all our appointments. Working hard and contacting better. Saarbrücken is alive once again and I have had the opportunity to take part in it. Proud to say it and proud to serve here.

Much love 

Elder Monroe

Well Ma. I be broke. We're checking out this Christmas market place in Mannheim. I am buying some necessities for the future. Got a sweet wallet. My other one was in strings so no problem. Probly buy yall some Christmas stuff if you want. Actually already did and something way cool is on the way. Mom will love it. Kinda like a German Nativity, but cooler. Haha. Anyways. This week was just another beautiful week for miracles and people are ready.

Our pal Amie is actually called Ameer. Heard him wrong haha. But we meet him every two days or so, and he calls us to set up appointments. We have done the first three lessons with him so we are now teaching the commandments to him. Something really special about him is his testimony about Jesus Christ and the book of Mormon. Every time we go over he testifies, that he knows this is the right way. When he prays, he prays better than perhaps most members of the church I know. He really prays from the heart and the spirit is always powerful. He has already gotten an answer to his prayers that this church is true. 

Every time we ask him about the book of Mormon is amazing. He just tells us everything that happens in total detail. He literally retells the stories of the book of Mormon to us. And he is one hundred percent spot on. He loves Sam, the brother of Nephi, because he chose to stay true despite his older brothers. He has finished these two first books of Nephi. 

The last lesson we had was also powerful. We brought a member with us called Timo Schumann. His mind was blown as he went with and I am glad he came with. He still has the experience of being a missionary under his belt and knew how to keep things simple and when to bear testimony. So amazing. He bore testimony of why it is important to be baptized and Ameer loved it. He then asked

What should I do now then? What's the next step!? 

Timo just smiled really big at us and we talked about baptism, our first Covenant. We explained to him what it was and now he wants to be baptized. He is planned for January 6th.

Timo told us after the lesson, that this is the most remarkable Muslim he has ever seen. He told us well done and that he had no recommendations for us in teaching. The holy ghost just told us what to say and it went where it was supposed to. He is ready to be baptized. The only problem we face right now is the ward. Even Timo told us we need to have members from the bishopric with us as we teach these lessons to gain their trust. It will not be easy to convince the bishopric about his baptism but for now we have one man backing us up on this one. Germans normally don't accept Muslims Baptisms so well for some reason, so it will come in time. 

A couple of other people just found us as well. The other elders are teaching them, but this guy called Bohan from China just came to church one day and told us his story that he read the Bible when he was seven and he knows it perhaps better than I do. He is going to be baptized the 16th.

Monica is another lady who found us. She loves the book of Mormon and was previously a strong catholic. Not anymore. Literally, in the catholic church it showed a picture catholic version of Jesus christ, and she put the book of Mormon next to it and took a picture of it and sent it to us. So hilarious. And then her nine year old daughter had a dream that Jesus told her she needs to be baptized in this church, so yeah. There is another baptism on the way.

Just stuff started happening all of a sudden here. Saarbrücken was dead, but it just came out of nowhere from the ashes. We didn't even do anything honestly said. God just sent some awesome people our way. Look forward to teaching them. 

Much love 

Elder Monroe