Dortmund!! what more can I say?

FAMILY!!

Time is flying by! I can't believe it's Monday again... and this week is Mother's Day! It seems like yesterday we were talking at Christmas time. This last week has been go go go, and it feels like we are on the top of the world here! So many great things going on! One crazy experience was this last weekend. The Stake had a Music Day planned and somehow word got out that I can play music, specifically percussion... I love having a cousin up here! One of the workshops fell out so the woman in charge of it asked me to do a body percussion workshop for a half hour. Elder Walker and I had a lot of fun getting it read. With the group we did the rain storm with our hands and feet and then did dad's Arabian Caravan... with the camels and all! It was so fun! And then the Stake YM President came up to us and wants us to do something similar for the young men in a few weeks. It was a lot of fun! But it doesn't stop there... so BYU Wind Symphony is on tour here in Europe.. and they came to Dortmund this weekend! They played a concert and came to institute, but we weren't able to make it to either. I wondered if I would have known anyone that was in the symphony. On Saturday morning we came to the church for the Music Day and all the BYU students were there waiting for their buses! It was the strangest mixing of the worlds... There were people from the percussion department there, Chelsea from my BYU ward, others that called out "Nate Garlick!" when I walked by and we were in the same classes at BYU... it was so bizarre! They asked how long I have been out, and I really haven't realized how long ago it was when I was at BYU... And Br. Peterson says hi to mom and dad :-) He remembers the American Fork Band days well! So yeah, it was a really fun and exciting Saturday with the music and people and all that jazz... ha, get it... music... jazz... mercy. 

But the real highlight of the week was meeting with Kathir! He came to church last week and loved it, especially the people. Tuesday was a holiday so we were able to meet together. We gave him a church tour in combination with teaching the restoration and showing him pictures of Christ ans Joseph Smith and others. He is from India and was semi-Hindi. I say "semi" because he was raised as it in his family, but noticed several things that just didn't sit well with him and felt weren't correct. After teaching him about the restoration, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he got way excited! He loved it! We came to a picture of Christ being baptized by John the Baptist and invited him to follow Christ's example. He said "Oh yes, I would like that very very much!" He read much in the Book of Mormon this week, loved it, came to church, and is on his way to making his first covenants to return home. 

I have never experienced this before, but we spent a little bit of time on the streets talking with people... nearly everyone we spoke to either wanted to learn more, gave us their phone numbers, or had a real good discussion with desire to learn more. I don't know what it was, but we love it! I am so grateful that the Lord has led these people to us, and us to them. And if they don't go any farther than listening to us on the street and having that interaction, then good. At least they felt the spirit and heard testimony of eternal truths. And they definitely went away happier and better people, smiling. That's success. Nothing that we did or could do, but the power of the spirit touching the lives of God's children. We have so many new people to work with, and they all happen to be in the 20-30 age group- just what Elder Perry has prophesied as the future of the church in Europe. We have been given some pretty grand prophecies for Germany and Europe recently... and they are all coming true! It is an exciting time to be on a mission, especially in Germany and Europe and everywhere! 

Love you all, see you Sunday!

Elder Nathan D. Garlick
German Frankfurt Mission
"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" D&C 128:22