Woche 13

Servus meine Freunden! 

This week was flipping awesome. Lots of new things learned, lots of people talked to, lots of rain, and lots of miracles! 

This week so much fun. Lots happened. 

We met with a few former investigators that let us in and then proceeded to argue and rant about the church for an hour and a half, so that was fun. And by fun I mean awkward and not fun haha. 

We also moved someone again into our ward this time, and fortunately a bunch of people showed up so it only took a half an hour. 

Paul, the awesome new convert in Darmstadt

We also got to attend the baptism of Paul, a new convert in Darmstadt! He's so awesome. He's always smiling and really gets the gospel. What a stud. And his baptism was really sweet and awesome. 

We also went on splits again with the zone leaders and it was way fun. I spent the day in in Frankfurt with Elder Domingues. We had a street display in the rain for three and a half hours. It was a lot of fun talking to what few people were out and about. It was super super cold though. Also right next to us was a "Save the children" street display. And right next to them was a "save the animals" street display so the poor pedestrians got so sick of being talked to by the time they got to us haha. Really cool, really cold, good work :) 

Me pretending to enjoy the rain

I realized something this week as I started off the week feeling a little overwhelmed. I have thought, for whatever reason, and not consciously, that for my mission I was going to have a beginning part where I learn how to be a good missionary and then after I would really start to be able to work and do God's will. But that's not at all how it works. I don't know why that was in my head. 

God didn't send me here to BE a good missionary, he sent me here to BECOME one. My mission is going to be hard the entire time and I don't want it any other way. If life is easy I'm not growing. I'm going to be learning and improving my whole mission and my whole life and that's awesome.
It helped me overcome my feelings of inadequacy realizing this. Because I realized that God doesn't sit there and criticize us. He doesn't sit up there and think "Well, at least he tried, but he needs to be a lot better". Not at all. He rejoices with us every step we take. I am EXACTLY where God wants me to be. I'm not perfect, but that's okay! I'm making progress, I'm living with the spirit, I'm Obedient, I'm trying to simply lift where I stand. To contribute where possible and I've been better able to trust in the Lord. I know that as long as I don't let opportunities to improve slip by, I'm doing the will of God. That's doing my best. I don't need to be perfect. I just need to lift where I can. 

And I also realized that that's how life is. Sometimes we think, "I'm not good enough. I don't know the scriptures good enough, I'm not good at talking to people, I don't keep all the Commandments perfectly, sometimes I'm not patient, I need to love people more. Eventually I'll be good enough". But it's not true. There's a difference between weaknesses and faults. Just because aren't good at something doesn't mean we aren't good enough. We just gotta help when we see an opportunity to. And it will be enough. 

The Afghanistanian people we ate with last week

You all are awesome. God loves you. 

Life is good

Elder Harps