January 26th Email

Dear Family and Friends,

The Lord is amazing and has blessed me so much! I am loving my new area. The work is moving along well here and I know it is because of the ward. I am afraid that some of the people here will be translated. They love this gospel so much that they are willing to share it with everyone they meet! The bishop is really good. He is a very humble man. He is so caring and his testimony shines through his whole body.

I have also been blessed with an amazing companion. Her life and mine have a lot in common. She has two older brothers and one younger that is on a mission. Her dad went on a mission to Denmark! She is a really good missionary and tries to follow all the rules. We are both really excited to serve together and feel blessed to be in this area at this time.

The first day I was here we had a wonderful Zone meeting. We talked about how the power is in each of us to succeed. Our district leader made an acronym for power. P is for personality. He told us to always be ourselves because everyone else is taken. O is for originality. W is for wisdom. E is for emphasis. What do you want to emphasize in your life? R is for radiance. We all have the light of Christ and we need to let that light shine bright!!!

We taught a man and his wife later that afternoon. The husband is not a member, but is going to get baptized in February. We were about 15 minutes into the lesson and the husband asked if I knew sign language. I said I knew a little. He then told me that his wife is deaf. I was amazed because she had kept up with the whole lesson. She is a master lip reader. I hope that I can practice my limited signing skills.

The husband said that years ago he was in a store shopping. Two people walked up to him while he was looking at something on the shelf. He recognized them as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They asked him if he knew what would happen to him if he died right know. He said in a straight face “ I would hit my head on this shelf and I would land on the floor.” The JW didn’t like that answer and walked away. I laughed so hard when I heard this. What a good, peaceable way to deal with something that could have been contentious.

On Friday night we went and visited a little family. The woman is a member but her boyfriend is not. They live together and have two children. They are both from Mexico. As soon as we set down, the woman’s dad came out and made us food. My companion says that they always feed us even if we just show up. The dad made the most wonderful beef with onions and tomato’s. It was really good. The boyfriend doesn’t know much about the gospel but we are teaching him. We taught him how to pray this week. He has never prayed before. He was so excited to talk to God.

Saturday we had a movie night with the lady that is deaf and her husband. We made Carmel popcorn and watched the Testaments. The husband and wife were so happy together. The spirit was really strong and both were crying by the end. It is really neat to see how the gospel has changed this family’s life. They both have a desire to go to the temple and are willing to do what ever it takes to get sealed to their little boy. I love this family so much!!!

Sunday was amazing. The ward here is amazing. There is a lady in the ward that was living in Wurzburg, Germany in 1987. She was in our branch there in Germany. What a small world it is! The ward is so wonderful and I don’t think I have ever been in a ward that was more loving and caring than this. There is a lady that is dying but she still comes ever week in her wheelchair. She has a thing in her thought because of all the years she smoked. She was having a really hard time yesterday. The lady that was sitting next to her rubbed her arm during all of Relief Society. She rubbed her back as well. The lady that was giving this service didn’t even know the name of the lady in the wheelchair. What a Christlike example that was? I was so touched!!

There is so much more to write but I am running out of time! I love you all and am so thankful for my blessings!! I know that the Lord loves us and is very mindful of each one of us!

Love
Sister Comte