How great shall be your joy!

D&C 18:15. That's about how I've been feeling the last two and a half days.

And actually, kind of a difficult week. Satan knew there was a baptism, and he tried to pull us down so many times.  But there's no getting to Sister Winters and Sister Arnold. NO WAY. :)

Liebe Mutter und Vater,

OH, my goodness, there's so much to tell. This week. My mind is blown. R GOT BAPTIZED. I wanted to cry. Oh, my goodness, it was SO HAPPY. But then his confirmation yesterday..........was even more powerful. SO powerful. Brother F both baptized and confirmed R. And so it was all in Italian. (P.S. I NEED to learn Italian, French, and Thai when I get home. Just FYI.) During his confirmation, there were a number of things that I understood, and the Spirit was SO POWERFUL. 

I'll come back to it in a minute. Let me go through the rest of the week and then get more into the baptism.

Monday, we went to Stadtbibliothek. It was crazy cool. I loved it. Oh my goodness. I love really fun libraries. But it was also interesting because it made me see how much this library has, but also how much it doesn't have. (Having worked in the HBLL, I would have an idea of how much the BYU library has.....) So fascinating. Convert the HBLL into the modern style of the Stuttgart city library, and that would be my dream. Hmmm.

Tuesday, we met with Sr. B, as well as this referral, Familie G. They're a bit older. (The man is 88.) And they wanted us to help them do family history, which we did. :) 

Wednesday, we had district meeting, then went and got Döners with E, which was good, and not great at the same time. Hard thing with Erin is that she just wants to hang out. But as missionaries, we can't just hang out. That's not our purpose. Sigh. Gemeinderat was really good, though. 

Thursday was really good. We visited D with Schwester G, then went to the Hs for a few minutes, then met with R and just read in the Book of Mormon with him. He's so cool. Oh, man. 

Friday was essentially baking and planning. We went to the Ms that night, and Sister Arnold got sick. She never gets sick. In her life. Satan was just really trying hard to stop us. Again, it's not working. :) We also met with E and K right before the M because E was having a really difficult time. She might go home in about a month (instead of staying until October-November-ish). :( 

On Saturday, we went to the baptism!.......The Zone Leaders told us R showed up really early and didn't have anything to do, so apparently he was a joint teach for them with one of their investigators. :D And he shaved! I don't think anyone told him to do that. But he looks so different and SO full of light. Oh my goodness. Ah, ah, ah, it was so good. The baptism was so good. Sister Arnold didn't throw up at the pulpit (really good) and I was so proud of her. She gave a talk on the Holy Ghost but she did SO well and when she was bearing her testimony, it was so powerful.

We gave him his scriptures and a German Conference Liahona, and he LOVED them. We both wrote our testimonies inside. Sister Arnold got a blessing. Shana was there. It was SO GOOD. Oh, my goodness.

Then Satan came along and tried to pull us down again. We were walking home and these two girls tried to convince us that they knew that we were a sect and other things because they'd read about it on Wikipedia. Their entire purpose was to antagonize---and it really hurt. I haven't had a ton of moments like that on my mission (for which I'm very grateful). But then R sent us this AWESOME text and we talked about all the things we're grateful for. Ah. So good.

Sunday.......was awesome. R was confirmed. We went to the international ward first, but S didn't come. :( So during Relief Society hour, we found a piano and practiced our song---because we had the musical number during Sacrament Meeting. AH. I was SO NERVOUS. 

Church was funny---none of our investigators came to church, even though X said she would. And we told lots of people we were singing, but no one came. Anyways. I was at the point of hyperventilation.  Then church started, and R was confirmed. And when F confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost," the Spirit was more powerful than I can ever remember. SO POWERFUL. I remember him blessing R that he would be able to go to the temple and be able to be with his family forever. THAT was incredible. Oh, my goodness. It was so special, and he was just glowing. And then after that, we did the song. And I was the least nervous I've been singing a solo in front of a large group of people. A little bit, schon, but really, really calm. And it just flowed. And people could hear and understand me. :)

And to top it off, DEUTSCHLAND WON! And there was a huge rainstorm this morning on our way to the church. :)

I love you so much. Life is so good. I have an incredible companion. Heavenly Father is taking care of us. He LOVES R and Sister Arnold and me and the people around me and each of you. And I love you so much. :)

Love,

Sister Beth Winters