2 more baptisms

Guten Tag! I hope all is well for everyone this week! Things for me aregoing pretty freaking amazing! So many good things from this week have happenedand I can’t wait to spill the details :).
I am so so so happy to report 2 more baptisms coming up for us in Dresden!! Thefirst is Cuong. I have been teaching him for a while. He is from Vietnam and isin Germany getting his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He has a wife and a sonthat are living back in Vietnam. When I first got in Dresden Cuong was having alittle bit of a rocky road. We have worked really hard with him and on Mondaynight he agreed to be baptized on June 17....yes this coming Sunday! It was soamazing to see him accept this step. Monday night was such a powerful night. Hesaid he knew he needed to be baptized but he was just scared to go back toVietnam with a new faith. I had the feeling to read in Alma 32. He read it andstarted crying looked up and said, "I am ready. I want to show God I havefaith in him. I want to be baptized." It was a very special moment to be apart of.
Next up is Aros. I met with Aros my very first week here but it was only forabout 10 minutes. I thought he was great but for some reason we just never hadtime to meet with him. I had talked to him over the phone a few times andreally felt like we needed to make him a priority. Well last week I got to doall  the planning because my first companion got transferred. The firstperson I called was Aros. Aros is a student from Nepal. I went and picked up mynew companion and it was straight to Aros' after that. We watched Finding Faithin Christ and the spirit was so strong. I asked him if he wanted to be baptizedand he said yes! We have A LOT to teach him since that was his first realappointment with us, but I know we can get him ready. His date as of right nowis June 30th, I don’t know if we can make it happen by then but we are going totry! If it does happen that will be 4 baptisms in the month of June.....MIRACLE.My new trainer was quite shocked by my boldness with Aros. She just like mylast trainer has only had one baptism on her mission. She has served nearly 18months and is walking into 3 baptisms :).....so cool.
Melanie was also supposed to get baptized this week. She is the 18 year oldthat is so incredible. However, she hasn’t told her family yet that she wantsto be baptized and she said she needs more time :\.  It’s important thatshe tells her family everything that is going on in her life. She is so readyin every other way. She needs prayers! Hopefully we can get her back on datesooner rather than later.
Okay, that is it for the investigators with baptismal dates! Now let’s get tochatting about my new companion! Oh what a change, a fantastic change! Her nameis Sister Kläy  (Kla-eye). She just barely extended one more transfer butshe is almost at her 18 month mark. She went to high school in Utah, but rightafter moved to Switzerland. Her Dad is Swiss and her mom is American. Eventhough she is not full American, can I just say it is SO nice having an Americancompanion! Nothing against the European companions, but not having a languagebarrier is SO nice! We have a lot of fun together which is something I reallyneeded after my last companion. We complement each other really well. I amexcited to be able to have the next few weeks with her here in Dresden.
With transfers, my district changed a ton. There are 10 missionaries in mydistrict and only 3 remained in Dresden which is very rare. My new District isa blast though! We all get a lot really well and we have some fun P-daysplanned already :). Another cool change that happened is we got 2 more sistersin my District! The city of Meissen got changed from an Elders city to aSisters city. That means party every Wednesday and Monday when we get to seethe Meissen sisters, yay! haha. We are the only District in the mission thathas 4 sisters. The other two sisters are Sister Niebergal and Sister Curtis.Sister Curtis and me hit it off from the first time we met and we always enjoytalking. I am really excited for the transfer ahead of me, being surrounded bythese great people!
Other quick updates; Igor is doing amazing. I think we can get him on baptismaldate next month :). The food is starting to taste.....good. I said it. It isactually growing on me. I was able to eat sauerkraut without wanting to diethis week! Such a big improvement. My prayers are being answered haha.     My companion full on ate itthe other day at the train station and we made a nice big American scene....so funny.She supermaned it right in front of everyone as she was yelling, "Igoooooottttt iiiiiitttttt." Well she didn’t have it. We were laughing sohard, thank goodness she wasn’t hurt. Elina is doing fantastic post baptism! Shehas said some funny things that I am going to pass on. The first was she wastelling me a story: "I was lying in bed and it hit me.....Oh my gosh.....Iam a Mormon. I mean I knew I was a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter Day Saints, but I am a freaking Mormon!" Just the tone she told thestory in made me laugh so hard. The second one happened yesterday in Church.They were sustaining all of the new callings in the ward, and she leans andbasically yells down the row, "Sister Linford! I get to vote now!!!"She is too cute :).
Well that is it for the week, We are busy here in Dresden! We have a lot oftime this week to go out and find new investigators. We have done a bit of a clean-upjob this past week and we are ready to re-build our investigator pool. I amtruly loving every day here in Germany. It still is so crazy to me that this ismy life, but I am so thankful for it. I am grateful for all the amazing friendsand family I have supporting me! Keep the letters coming; they make life betterover here :).
Keep the faith, Sister Linford.

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Wiesen Strasse 8
01277 Dresden
Germany