Hallo vom MTC!

   This place is amazing. I cant believe we have only been here 7 days. In all honesty, I feel like every single day I have woken up as a new, better person. I feel like I am being hit with epiphany after epiphany and the Spirit of God is omnipresent here. There are 13 missionaries in our zone (11 elders and 2 sisters, all going to Frankfurt Germany in 5 more weeks). My companion here in the MTC is named Elder Gilbert, who hails from St. Louis, MO. He and I get along really well.

   I am honestly a completely different person than when I arrived here. 

Elder Harps, his companion, senior missionaries,
and his first investigator. 

   We have been teaching an investigator here, who speaks not a lick of English; only German. And on the first lesson we completely flopped. Our german was so bad and awful. We spent 25+ minutes trying to explain that God is our father and He loves us. It was really humbling. I realized that I had been trying to speak German to her instead of preaching the Gospel. And I also realized that my German is awful, and that there is no way I can learn German in 6 weeks on my own. But I can through Christ and the Spirit. The gospel clicked for me though. I realized why I am here. I realized why I am going to Germany to be on a mission for two years. Jesus Christ enables us, through His Atonement, to do and become anything; ANYTHING. We can overcome any trial, and adversity, any crisis of faith or hardship, by using His atonement. We are not expected to be perfect. We CANNOT be perfect, or frankly improve ourselves at all. If I try to trudge through this life on my own, I will make no progress. I must pray for help, want His help, and then work my tail off at improving and anything is possible. The gospel isn't about doing things, it is about becoming things. It is about drawing closer to Christ and letting Him lift you up. This gospel is a wonderful message of hope. We can have hope, peace, and happiness when we take advantage of Christs atonement. I want everyone in Germany to have this same hope, happiness, and peace. When I got here, I felt like I was here to learn German. I am not. I am here to learn to preach the Gospel, and I now see German as a barrier keeping me from that. My german is improving rapidly now that I am focusing on the reason why I am here instead of speaking the language. 

   I've been thinking about humility a lot this week. The only way we can effectively use the Atonement is if we acknowledge that we are nothing next to God. That we need his help. I don't mean that we are worthless, but that we cannot reach our potential without reaching out to Him for help. Humility is so powerful because when we are prideful, and I often am, we can stand only as high as ourselves. In our minds, we know best, we can do best, and we are the greatest. And so we can only stand as high as ourselves. The power of humility comes from this. When we acknowledge God as the most powerful, and strive to do His will instead of our own, we stand for something greater. The greatest in fact. We cannot stand higher than if we stand for God and let him lift us to heights we never dreamed of. When we stand in humility, nothing can topple us, for God stands with and strengthens us. When we are humble, we are willing to recognize that we are not perfect, but that God can help us improve.

   There are two passages of scripture that really struck me this week. The first was all of 2 Nephi 31, and the second was Moroni 7:40-48. Whether or not you are a member of this church, click the link and read them. It will probably take you 5 minutes.

   Ahhhh guys I cant write enough in this tiny amount of time. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week.

Auf wiedersehen!

Elder Harps