This week we had some interesting moments.
We went to a city called Aschersleben, where we have about 7 less actives and
a few other members. It turns out there used to be a branch in this
city but then it was later combined with Bernburg.

We have now met/made contact with everyone on our list. On Saturday we
finally met with the last one, and it was a little tricky. I had been
by this sister in the branch in my second week here or so and she had
told us to get lost and hung up the klingel box. But we decided it was
worth a shot.

Well she answered for sure, and unlocked the apartment door, so we ran
up the stairs… What we met up at the top was an old lady in an
oxygen mask/helmet thing beckoning us to come in… sounding like an
air compressor trying to talk to us. Well Perkins was scared half to
death, but we reluctantly followed her in.

She then spent a couple minutes trying to get this helmet type thing
off and gasping for air. We had a great conversation, pretty much
she’s just been using her health as a reason to not come to church.
But she was very nice, and we talked about prayer and how awesome
Joseph Smith is. And she gave us testimony of both. In the end she
said we could visit her in a lung clinic the next week.

The next day at church a member caught wind that we had made contact
with her, and she told us she has been writing her a letter every
month for quite a while now, but for some reason this month she was
stumped when she tried to write the letter and just couldn’t do it, so
she didn’t send one. She told us it was quite the miracle that we were
able to meet with her.

In all honesty, I have no idea what any of that means. But we’ll
trust in the Lord and I’m sure the meaning will be made known in the
next life, if not this one.

I read a bit this week about covenants, what I learned is that we
shouldn’t forget that a covenant is a two way deal, that we should
always strive to be better, and not forget that blessings will come.

Alles gute! ????

Elder Winkel

This week Elder Perkins and I taught a lesson in ZTM in Leipzig, our
topic was “The Atonement”. Well we were quite pumped to have such a
great topic, but then after 3 days of trying to plan on how to teach
it, it put it back into perspective for me of how big it is. Really
big. Super big.

The Book of Mormon is one of THE BEST tools we have as missionaries!
There are so many examples of the Atonement being used. Enos shows a
great example of applying it, along with many others. And as it comes
together it stands as a testimony of Jesus Christ and that He
lives. Not bad.

The atonement is about love, and I’m happy I’ve got a great mom who’s
showed me love for almost 20 years now.
Jeffery R Holland’s talk hit a walk off last week:
A wonderful young mother recently wrote to me: “How is it that a human
being can love a child so deeply that you willingly give up a major
portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love be so strong that
you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability,
anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same?
What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child,
that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be
divine. There is no other explanation for it. What mothers do is an
essential element of Christ’s work. Knowing that should be enough to
tell us the impact of such love will range between unbearable and
transcendent, over and over again, until with the safety and salvation
of the very last child on earth, we can [then] say with Jesus,
‘[Father!] I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.’
Meine Mama ist ganz wunderbar.

Have a wonderful week,
Elder Winkel

Last week’s BMX P-Day