IM STAYING IN KÖLN FOR THE NEXT TRANSFER! And I am so happy. The work
is finally booming! Is that the word? haha:) we had an incredible
week. Some highlights:

Funny story: I was on a bahn, and the thing is every time they start
going, there's a giant force against you that pushes you to fall over.
I was excited about something, so I forgot to prepare myself so before
I knew it I was falling, so I took a step.... onto a bicycle, and then
just kept trying to keep my balance. I ended up climbing on this man's
bike and then knocking both it and myself over onto the floor.
Needless to say I was embarrassed.

We met with Roberto! He has already read through the first two books
in el Libro de mormón and he accepts it as the word of God. We taught
him on Saturday with Nadine who is this amazing member. She's about
23, and she speaks fluent Spanish because her husband is from
Columbia. It's a super painfully romantic story because he is in
Columbia right now while she's here, and he's working on getting
citizenship. The cutest thing is that she gets up every night at 3 am
to teach him German so he can pass the language test. That's true
love. Roberto is the coolest man ever. He came to church and we hooked
him up with all of the people who served missions Spanish speaking and
we also have a member from Columbia:) I tried to speak Spanish with
him. It was really funny. But when I rehearsed the first vision in
Spanish he was all surprised, haha. It was really cool:). He loved
church and he's thinking through being baptized. He wants to know
enough first, which we understand.

Next, we had a Brief Aktion on Tuesday. Basically, we put letters in
all the mailboxes on a street that we prayed about than said a day and
time we'd come back. It was amazing how effective it was. People were
ready and waiting to tell us no or to invite us in and talk with them.
Turns out it was a street with three pastors😂. Two miracles happened.
We met an old couple from Chile. They were all ready for us to come
in. They had such amazing testimonies of God and the bible. At one
point, when I apologized for my German accent(which doesn't exist) he
bore testimony to me of the work I was doing and that I never have to
say sorry because I was doing the Lord's work. We were plowing through
the first lesson, and then we got to the Book of Mormon. The spirit
left the room. The man began to shove it away and said he would not
read it. I had the craziest prompting to bare testimony that his son
(passed away 20 years ago) had already accepted this gospel and that
he wanted his parents too as well. The man got flustered and then
stood up for us to leave. I was prompted to say a prayer, so I asked
if we could at least close with a prayer. He looked taken aback, and
said of course. We left on a good note, but I am still insanely
confused by what happened. We were both sitting there thinking about
how they would make such amazing members of the quorum of the twelve
apostles because he kept talking about how perfect his wife was and
what a blessing she was, ugh. I'm still confused haha. I walked out
and started crying. Kind of embarrassing because of all the people
right outside, but I felt like I finally understood what Nephi meant
when he said "3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I
esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray
continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night,
because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he
will hear my cry". (2 Nephi 33)

The second miracle is a man named Herr Schiefbahn. He was waiting for
us to tell us that he is a challenge and that we could take him on if
we wanted. We said of course. Later that week, we met with him with
Schwester Nowak (she did our whole apartment and is incredible.). He
is what you would imagine a bitter old German man would be like. We
started to pray and he left the room until we were finished. He and s.
Nowak kind of started what sounded like fighting in German, and it was
fast and I couldn't understand, but I was sure they were fighting.
They weren't, I guess that's just how Germans are. I would just jump
in and bear testimony of simple things, and it was really cool to see
how that shut him up for a second, and then he'd have to take some
time to come up with a rebuddle. At the end, we sorted everything out,
and we're all coming back on Friday to actually teach haha:). At the
end, he asked if we would like some chocolate, but I thought he just
asked if I like chocolate, so I said "immer". He then went and brought
me a chocolate bar. I love him. He's like a grumpy old grandpa:). S.
Nowak is having us over for lunch before so we can "game plan".

Now Pierre. We met with him with Schwester Sahebi. Craziest miracle.
We needed a member for the lesson and it was the morning of and we had
none. We looked at the member list and saw her name, thinking she was
some one else. She said she would teach with us. That day we find out
she's a less active with a lot of health problems, so we were scared.
But she came and was an amazing teacher. She brought Pierre a flower.
It was so cute. We just stressed to him how important it was that he
pray about his answer and doesn't just ponder it. At the end we
brought up the 22nd of October for baptism and he said "well, my
birthday is on the 18th. Can I get baptized then?" YES YOU CAN! It was
really cute. K the miracle with Sahebi is that we have a family from
Syria who only speaks Persian and we had this crazy long chain of
translation in the lessons from German to Russian to Persian. It was
ridiculous. BUT sister Sahebi speaks fluent Persian! She said she
would love to translate for us. They're the sweetest family. They have
a baby boy and they love the gospel. We also met a random man who
served Persian speaking in the Toronto Canada mission who is going to
get us the full Persian Book of Mormon ( it's new! The family only had
the book with portions translated).

Church was ridiculous. Gospel doctorine was given in Persian, German,
English, and Spanish. And there were a lot of American visitors and
two of the elders old investigators randomly showed up. Crazy.

Our schedule this week is insanely busy. We're wondering how we're
going to get our four study hours in each day😝.

Also, we met a man sitting in a carriage listening to old music on an
old radio who told me that everyone is black inside and that
everything stems from black heritage. We're just all lost. It was
really funny. And maybe I really do have an Afro on the inside
(dreams.).

It's amazing to see how lost in the work I have become. I love
everyday here. I really don't remember who I was before my mission,
and I've only been out for three months haha:) I know I am exactly
where God wants me to be helping him do his work. There is so much joy
to be found in this work. In Alma 29:9 it says " I know that which the
Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself,
but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is
my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to
bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." I have a huge
testimony of the joy this work will bring. If you aren't already, get
involved! You will become so much happier, I promise. It's really
simple work too. Talk to your friends, ask the missionaries what you
can do. Missionaries appreciate every small effort. This is not just
missionary's work. This is all of our work because we are blessed
enough to know we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and wants us to
live with him again.

I love you all! You are all wonderful:)!

Sister Johnson