Do not any of the Destructive Ds get to you!

Hey!

Sorry that I have been unable to write so often.  There is much to be done.  Sometimes I forget to write!  This last week was pretty interesting.  We had so many appointments fall out this last week.  It was not exactly ideal.  We spent a few days on the streets doing our best to teach those who are ready.  It was a tough week for sure.  On Friday, we had a special Zone Conference.  Our mission president has finished his mission, and this coming Friday we will get a new one.  During our special Zone Conference, we were able to say goodbye to our current president.  We had a wonderful spiritual time together, and we learned a little bit about our new mission president.  The conference also took place in Dresden.  It was fun to go visit that city.  I had heard lots about it! 

Despite all the let-downs, we try to stay positive.  It is important that we do not let anything like discouragement take over us.  Even when the times are hard, we can see success.  Just like it says in the wonderful book called Preach My Gospel, no effort is wasted.  One night, we were having no luck.  We spent the entire day on the street talking with people and going door to door.  Nobody would even talk with us!  We did not ever get more than a couple words in, and never more than a couple words in return.  We were pretty upset when we arrived home at 9:30pm.  We sat outside our house-door, and we did not feel complete.  We followed the Spirit which told us to go back to the market place and talk with people.  We headed out again, and first talked with a totally drunk man wearing all white.  He held us up for twenty minutes or so, and then we continued further.  We then saw a little old lady.  We talked with her, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "You stand before me like angels!"  She had just come out of a Bible class and could not believe that young people such as us would be interested in religion.  She wanted to meet with us and we set out an appointment. After the appointment, she said she even wants to visit church sometimes and learn more about what we believe.  The miracles we see are sometimes unbelievable.  Definitely worth not getting home until 10pm (which is quite late for a missionary!).

So, when everything feels like it is going down the tubes, just remember that it will all work out!

Welcome!

Hey!

So, I had a good week!  I am now with only one companion, Elder Carter, and we have been working hard.  The last week was pretty interesting!  We did a lot of stuff and saw many miracles.  We have been able to see the Lords hand in our work.  One example was a couple days ago.

A couple days ago, we had been looking for somebody that we could teach and bring closer to Christ.  It was getting late, and it was about time to go home.  We sent out a text to our district asking them to pray for us that we can accomplish our goal.  About five minutes after, Elder Carter talked with a lady.  The lady started to say that she can only speak French and Spanish.  He looked at me, and I looked at him.  I decided to just go for it.  I gave my best Spanish, and asked this lady what she believed about Christ.  I also told her that we wanted to give her the Book of Mormon.  She had patience with my broken Spanish, and we even made out an appointment later in the week.  It was amazing.  The Lord is there to help us.  He helped me with my Spanish that day, and he answered our prayers.  When we strive to do what is right, the Lord will provide a way.  (See 1 Nephi 3:7).

Have a great week guys!  Work hard, have fun, and do well!

Woopsie!

Why Hello!

So, the last week was pretty crazy.  Elder Bangerter, Elder Carter, and I are all companions, and I was made into the district leader.  We worked together as a companionship of three for a week.  Then, we were surprised by a phone call on Saturday.  Elder Bangerter got blitzed out to Minden!  He is leaving us to fill in a spot that was vacated due to an injury.  What a surprise!  That is something that we did not expect so quickly, but here it is.  Now, Elder Carter and I are together.  This city, Halle, was a city with four Elders, which went to three, and now is only two!  I expect that the city will become four Elders again at the end of the transfer.

Other than that, it has been a pretty normal week.  Just working hard as a missionary, and working hard!

Enjoy your week!

Such a Wonderful Work

Hello out there!

We started out the last week by going to Lutherstadt-Wittenberg.  That is the place where Martin Luther posted the 95 these on the church.  I have a few pictures of the adventure.  A far away view of the church, a picture of the door (the old wooden doors have seen been replaced due to a fire in the church), and a backside view of the church.  It was a really cool experience, and the city is really neat.

The week continued quite well.  We started working with an investigator who explained to us that he is having a hard time in his life right now.  We taught him about the gospel, and he has total faith in God.  He is open and ready to listen to us.  We met with him three times last week.  We had the fortunate opportunity to promis him the blessings of God.  God has promised these blessings to everyone, and now he has the chance to take part of it.  It was a great week.

We also had a zone conference in Leipzig last Friday.  As a guest, we saw one of our mission president's old missionary companions.  As it turns out, this guy was in charge of the world cup when it came to the United States in 1994.  He told us many other crazy stories of their adventures, and he told us how we can use it to better our missionary work.  We must dream big!  We can always dream big and shoot for the stars!  It was great.

This week is the last week of the transfer already!  I cannot believe that the time is going by so quickly.  Transfer calls are on Saturday! 

Have a great week!  Work hard, Study hard, Accomplish much!

A Week of Excitement

Hey!

This last week was pretty exciting.  I was able to live a lot, and see many miracles.  People came to us and asked to hear more about the gospel.  We helped others understand the importance of God in their lives.  We experienced unity as a district as we all worked together to find more people ready for the gospel, and we got to visit the temple.

What a great week right?  On Thursday, our district of Elders came together in a small city called Eilenburg, and we all worked hard to try and build up the work in that area.  We wanted to help each other out, so that we can help those people find the gospel that didn't already have it.

The next day, Friday, we took an awesome trip down to the city of Freiberg.  While there, we visited the temple.  That was a special experience, and I got to see one of the two temples in Germany. 

On Sunday, we were invited to go talk with some people about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon.  We didn't have an address, and the only directions we had were signs posted on some trees in the middle of nowhere.  After at least an hour of walking, we found this little camp where we were to meet.  It was pretty cool.  It ended up being a sort of Hippie Camp where they wanted to be to come closer to God.  We talked to them about the Book of Mormon, and taught about the restoration of the church.  A couple of them agreed to come to church, and we left.  Just like a normal lesson, only out in the wilderness!  It was great.

It was a great week, and this week will be another great week!  Remember to work hard, and never give up!

Before and Afer

Hey!

I had the chance to do a service project in somebody's garden.  I have just enough time to post the pictures of before and after!  You can accomplish a lot in one our!

Week 2, City 5

Hey!

How are you doing?! 

It has been a great week for me!  I do not know if there were any super cool highlights, but I do know that I feel great.  I have had a wonderful week and have been working hard.  My new companion and I in the city of Halle have been seeing lots of success.  It has been a good first couple weeks in the city.  We are convinced that this city is beginning to see the fruits of the beginning of a new time.  A time where the people are ready to hear the gospel and join the ranks of God.  We are excited.

Other than being in a new city, having a new companion, and having 5 baptisms last week, there is nothing new with me.  I am living it up, trying to enjoy the hot sun, and pushing hard to do my best.  Enjoy your week.  Do not let anything bring you down! 

I will talk with you again next week!

P.S.  I would have sent a picture or two, but the computer I am using has no accessible USB ports! 

Phew! Whataweek!

Moin Moin!!!

That will probably be the last time I can say that greeting because I am being transferred!  I am going to a place called Halle!  It lies in Eastern Germany, and I hear it is a good sized university city (200,000 people or so)!  It sounds like a great experience!  I can't wait! 

Sorry to all who expected emails last week.  I just didn't have time to send emails.  I didn't even get to email my mission president!  So, don't feel like you aren't important!

The last week was definitely good!  My companion and I worked so hard!  In our mission we have a standard of getting 20 lessons in a week.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Germany missions, that is a high number!  My companion and I wanted to reach it though.  We worked very very hard.  We did not quite get there, but we had 18!  That is soo close!  If all our appointments had gone through, than we would have achieved the goal (plus more).  It was a busy busy week, and very exciting!

Last weekend we did the coolest thing!  We had a Missionary Weekend in the Stake!  That means that many young men and the missionaries got together and they did a day-long mini-mission.  I got split up from my companion and went out with Calvin all day.  It was soo cool.  He was a stud and really did well!  We ran into a Jehovah's Witness, and he had no problem preaching the gospel to him.  I was super impressed.  Plus!  I got to be with a native speaking German all day.  That was so cool.  It was great!  I loved speaking German the whole day, and really feeling like I knew what I was doing, haha!

Today we are going to have a huge zone Pday activity because so many missionaries in our zone are going home.  It should be cool.  I will be leaving this zone and moving accross the country, so I am glad I get to take part! haha.

Well have a wonderful week!  Can't wait to hear more from you!

--Included are a picture of me and Calvin, and a picture of the beautiful houses on the Elbe River that I will miss so much when I am in Halle--

Building up the Kingdom of God

Hey!

So this last week my companion and I have really been focusing on teaching more people.  I must say, our efforts have been fruitful.  We were able to teach quite a few people.  We have decided to continue with our goals, so that we can keep seeing such great success.  I am really excited!

So, this last week, we had the chance to go to an ex-concentration camp.  Let me tell you, that was quite the experience.  The pictures are the pictures of the concentration camp, and of some of the missionaries that came with.  I had to use the wonderful features of my camera to make it look a little more like it was back in the day.  This particular camp was not an extermination camp.  It was a place where the prisoners were forced to make bricks for building buildings.  I never imagined I would have such an opportunity.  It felt kind of eerie there at the camp.  I want to go back because I didn't get to see everything though. 

My easter went well!  I went to church.  I had a talk too!  I felt like the talk went well.  I got to talk about how we can share our experiences of Easter with our friends and family.  I love Christ, and celebrating the ressurrection.  I am glad that we all will be ressurrected as a gift from Him.  I know that he lives.  2 Nephi 25:26 talks about how we talk of Christ and rejoice of Christ.  Let us do that continually, regardless of who we are!

Can't wait to hear from you all next week!  Have a great week!

Whataweek.

Moin!

So, I must say it has been a crazy week.  It started out pretty good.  I was excited about the things going on.   However, it was followed by an interesting experience.  I want to report on that experience today.  Hopefully others can learn from it as much as I did.

We had just had an excellent appointment.  It seemed like everything was going perfect.  We were in the train heading home after the good appointment when a man began talking with us.  He started out being a pretty normal guy who doesn't like us, but then it escalated to the point where there was obviously a huge opposition there.  I could quite literally feel the presence of the devil.  It was a feeling of hopelessness and darkness.  I could not believe what was going on--all in the presence of our investigator!  The man stayed on the train as we got off despite his threatenings, and we headed to the bus station.  While waiting for the bus, the evil spirit seemed to move into the body of a nearby lady.  She immediately took on a form of negativity.  The people around us definitely noticed the difference in mood as well.  We got on this bus, and the opposition was still there.  I feel like I was stuck in thick fog that blocked all form of proper thinking.  I then felt this small quiet light in my heart, the Spirit.  It told me to get off the bus at a certain bus stop.  The moment I listened to the Spirit and got off the bus, this evil, thick fog and opposition had no more power.  It was a testimony to me that Satan is there to work against us, and when we follow God we can be freed from his chains.  It was a very, very crazy experience, and I hope to not experience it again.  I guess these are the kinds of stories you expect to hear from missionaries though, haha.

Well, needless to say, it ended up being a strange week.  It seems like things are back to normal, and I am working hard!  I am looking forward to a great week and watching General Conference this coming weekend.  I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that blessings are sent your direction.  I know that God lives, and I know he wants the best for each one of us, his children!

Germany is still as great as ever!  I am enjoying it the best I can!