Thumbs Up!

Hey Family!! 

Life just keeps moving on! So crazy to hear about this last week with sending Kayleigh off and now only having 3 kids at home and a new school year starting up. Life brings lots of changes, but life is good. Life is good over here as well. We are moving right along, Elder Howarth and I are getting along great, we are different in person with different interest but its neat to still find similarities and work in unity in this great work. We are learning lots and are grateful for to be here making progress in the vineyard of the Lord. We have seem some pretty neat progress this last week and I have learned lots from it. I have learned about the importance of keeping the commandments. Its so simple but so true, as we keep the commandments we grow our faith in Jesus Christ and then from that grow our desire to follow him. Its all connected with each other and I have seen that in myself as well as others. 

Yesterday after church we were talking with Yisel and she has made great progress in this last week. She was a quite skeptical earlier this week about the Restoration and Joseph Smith but as we talked yesterday she explained to us how she was thinking during the class that if God called prophets back in the day than why wouldnt he still today, why couldnt Joseph Smith be called as his prophet! Ah it was so neat to hear from her, it wasnt anything we had done, we had simply bore testimony and through her own experiences has she gained/strengthened her faith by obedience. We are grateful for her desire to follow His will and see the blessings that God has given her and her family. 

The blessings are also there for a less active we have been working with, Sister Schade who has really turned her life around and you can just see the happiness in her eyes as she lives according to the commandments, she even told us she paid her tithing again for the first time in a while and things are going really well for her. How much love God truly has as he promises to bless us as we promise to follow His commandments. I have seen it and I know its true. 

A fun story this week was on Thursday we were doing a service project finishing up painting at a members house in the middle of no where, with only bus to and from. I think I told you about them last week, well we finished up the job this week and knew what time the bus was coming and we were just finishing up getting the last odds and ends and we really had to go so that we could make it back for our next appointment. We get out to the bus right as it has left and the next one wasnt coming for another half hour and we had to get back to make it to our next appointment. I wasnt going to waste anytime so the thumb went up. Thats right we hitch-hiked back into town and it worked! With the Lord anything is possible when you are on a mission and he knows you have a job to do! So grateful to be out here serving God and his wonderful children. Hope you have a great week and I love you all so very much! 

Much love,
Elder Jerman

Today, in a flower garden in the middle of Vienna