Monday, June 18, 2012

Week of June 18 from Braunschweig

Hey everyone!

Wow, this last week was a long one filled with ups and downs, victories and defeats- just a little bit of everything. Training is hard work, but it´s super fun and my son and I are making lots of great memories together! It´s weird how in the mission field every week has a lifetime´s worth of memories but when you sit down to write about it you just have no idea where to begin...

Well on Tuesday I had to go to a leadership meeting in Hannover with a lot of other good friends in the zone. It´s so weird to look around and see the new leadership in the mission... I remember when some of my good mission friends were training a lot of these guys. The mission is in super good hands though for the transition coming up in the next 2 weeks.  I´m grieved to the depths of my soul to have to say goodbye to president Pimentel, but it´s kind of exciting to get to see a new president come at the same time. Anyways, after that meeting, one of my best friends on the mission came back to Braunschweig with me and we had an awesome exchange together and learned a lot from each other. He lived in the same apartment as me in Berlin for a few months, so it was fun to work with him closely and reflect on good times. Haha can´t say the exchange was as edifying for my golden however.  In Hannover a crazy lady came into the church saying she was possessed by demons, and one of the missionaries tried to cast them out only to have her scream and freak out even more... haha definitely not the best experience for a brand new missionary to have to witness, but he´s doing a lot better now. There´s always a bit of a learning curve you have to get over when you first get to Germany.  The MTC just pumps you up out of your mind, but you realize very quickly that the word "elect few" is very literal here in this mission.  Very very very few people are willing to even give you the time of day, but once you get used to it, you realise that there still are people to be found and it keeps you going. I think the hardest transition for him, I think though, is not ever eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom. I forgot how much we don't eat in the mission sometimes. We haven't had hardly any eating apps lately and when members don't invite us... well then it´s just a bowl of cereal in the morning, noodles for lunch, and no dinner haha and it kills him. I just always tell him though, "Elder, man shall not live by bread alone..." I don't think he´s a big fan of this mentality, haha but he will learn. ;)

Wednesday we met with an old investigator and talked about the Restoration. He absolutely loved the message and we instantly invited him to be baptised. His dad is a pastor and says the scriptures say you can't be baptised again, but after explaining to him what a real baptism is, and reading Acts 19 with him, he understood and accepted so we got a sweet new baptismal date. I really hope it goes through too.  It would just kinda be extra cool because that means I could start my mission with the baptism of a Nigerian and end with one haha, but he´s got a long way to go. Also one of our coolest long time investigators said her first prayer out loud in a lesson! It was beautiful and I don't know if she recognized how beautiful it was and how much it meant to us.  She is really so awesome! The rest of the week though was mostly filled with finding lots of little concerns and trying to settle them with our other investigators... ugh there´s just so many problems in the world and the more people you teach the more you are exposed to it... why can't they see that the gospel answers all problems!!? Oh well, patience and perfect love can do anything with anybody.

On a very bright note though, our first baptism is all set up to go through this Sunday. He is sooooo ready and just one of the coolest people ever! I´m really excited for it, it´s hard when you go a very long time working hard without  baptism and it´s just going to be nice to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. He´s going to be baptised by a member and everything is just set up like a dream! I´m super excited!

Well not much else more that I can think about for this week. It was just spent like most other weeks. Working as if everything depended on you, praying as if everything depended on the Lord and just teaching the good word. We spend a LOT of time just traveling, but I like it though because we have a clear purpose in mind and it helps time pass when you know exactly what you´re doing.  We are super blessed to be teaching so many different people and to be in such a great city! Oh, tomorrow president´s son is going to come up with a train and spend the night with us so I can say goodbye to him.  Man I´m gonna miss him and them so much! Hopefully I'm not too much of an emotional wreck this week! Anyways, hope you all have a great week back home.  Love you all so much!

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