Woche 19

Hallo von Langen!! 

Diese Woche war ganz wunderbar!! This week was awesome!! 

Elder Harps and Simone 

SIMONE GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was awesome! Elder Clarke and I were planning on being there 45 minutes early but then we missed our train. And then the next train got a surprise 20 minute delay. So I was major stressing out. But we got there (10 minutes late) but we made it. Simone was super excited and the service was small, but he loved it. Afterward, he said "Ich bin glücklich!" (Im happy!) in is very simplified German. He's wonderful!! 

Elder Harps, Simone, and Elder Clarke

Another miracle with regards to Simone. On Sunday he was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Also on Sunday an Italian man moved into our ward straight from Italy. He can speak virtually no German. But he worked as a ward missionary for 3 years in Italy. So now Simone has a friend who can 1) speak Italian and 2) knows and understands the gospel. And Simone can speak German and help the man with German and so forth. They are literally perfect for each other and are already good friends.

Elder Clarke and I happy and dry,
approximately five minutes before
getting absolutely destroyed by
that storm cloud behind us

Elder Clarke and I
 soaked biking

We got our bikes in working order, and had some adventures this week. Some involving rainstorms (pictures below). We got to use them a whole 6 days before Elder Clarke totally broke his yesterday so bike adventures will resume next week. When it's out of the shop haha. 

So this week's thought is just a scripture from the very end of the Book of Mormon. The last 3 verses actually. Moroni 10:32-34 reads:

"32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen."

I just really love these verses. When we try and love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength, we can be saved. We do what he asks to the best of our ability and we can access the redeeming grace of Christ's Atonement. Grace is only possible because of Jesus Christ. Everything is made possible through Jesus Christ. I know he lives. Come unto Him, and be perfected in Him. 

I love you all! Have a great week! I hope you are doing awesome!!! Feel free to send me an email! 

Habt eine schöne Woche!! 

Elder Harps

The Elders in our District at Castle Frankenstein today

Our Zone at Zonenkonferenz

Me being majestic or something

Woche 18

This week was crazy. It was awesome. Also slightly stressful as I continued the work of taking over Langen and being a grown up missionary. Also sorry if I didn't respond to your email last week, I had virtually no time! I still love you!

This week we went on split with our Zone Leaders. I headed up to Offenbach with Elder Allan. He's a really really cool missionary. I look up to him a lot. Also he likes Twenty One Pilots. Big plus haha. But we seriously had a lot of fun and a good split. Had a few appointments where we spent the entire time trying not to argue with a man who wanted nothing but to argue about the divinity of Christ. That was a whirlwind.

We also had Zone Conference and I learned a LOT about using our time more effectively as missionaries. Learned a lot about goal setting and planning that I'm super excited to apply and take my missionarying to the next level. Super stoked. It was awesome. Our leaders are awesome.

So Simone is doing fantastic. He had a baptismal interview this Monday with the Zone Leaders and passed with flying colors. He is absolutely amazing and is right on track for his baptism this Saturday. He is so excited. He's been counting down the days. We have all the plans for the 

Baptismal service planned. All is on track. I'm super excited for him. Will definitely take lots of pictures. He's so ready. Ahhhh!!!

K so time for the really long spiritual thought:

I have learned a lot about weaknesses out here in my mission. A LOT. I have never been more painfully, clearly aware of my personal shortcomings and inadequacies. I've been pushed to my limits and forced out of my comfort zone. I have struggled. And I have grown. There are a lot of things I've learned while serving my mission, but one of the greatest things I've come to understand is my relationship with my weaknesses. 

I've learned that weaknesses are not to be ashamed of. 
I am weak. You are weak. Every single human being is weak. We all have shortcomings. We all fail, we all struggle. We get tired, cranky, and angry. We battle addictions, pride, and laziness. 

"27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." - Ether 12:27 

But unlike sin, weaknesses are not necessarily bad things. Sin draws us away from God and requires Repentance to overcome. But this scripture says that God GIVES us weaknesses. Weaknesses can be gifts. And we don't repent from weaknesses. We cannot simply tell God we are sorry and expect him to take them away. Weaknesses are not sins, and so we cannot repent of them. When we sin, and repent, God grants us forgiveness to overcome it. But with weaknesses, he doesn't offer us forgiveness, but Grace. He offers us strength. 
God doesn't just take away our weaknesses when we ask him to. Sometimes he may, but what I've found is that the vast majority of the time, he does not. He offers us grace, which enables us to do things we normally would not be able to maintain or do on our own. (See Bible Dictionary Grace). 
We need not be ashamed of or weakness. It comes from God. He EXPECTS us to be weak because he made us that way. 
I wish I had understood this concept sooner, and it would have saved me a lot of pain. I spent a lot of time feeling really bad about myself because of my weaknesses. I didn't like talking to people, but I knew I should be better. I felt like I needed to be more focused, but I struggled. I needed to love people, and I knew it, but I didn't feel like I was progressing, no matter how much I prayed and tried. I knew I could be better. I knew I SHOULD better. But I couldn't do it, and I felt like I was letting God down. I felt like I wasn't good enough. I felt really inadequate. 
But I was confusing my weakness for sin. There is nothing wrong with being awful at talking to people. Or with being afraid or awkward. There is no commandment that says "thou shalt not be awkward". I wasn't sinning, I was just weak. But I was beating myself up for it. But it's okay to be weak. Now I don't feel bad about being imperfect. I simply do what I can. 

But I've also learned that we cannot wait for our weaknesses to become strengths to act. 
Towards the end of the second book of Nephi, at the end of his life, Nephi writes:
"ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness." 
Nephi still considers writing as a weakness of his. I know I've shared this previously but it's really important to me. Nephi still, at the end of his life, believes he is weak. But he is NOT a poor writer. He is one of my favorite writers ever. But he can't see it. But he also trusts the Lord enough to write anyway. Maybe he spent a lot of time thinking and rephrasing as he wrote. Maybe it wasn't easy for him. But he did it anyway. He did something that he thinks he sucks at and simply trusted God that it would be good enough. He trusted him to make his weakness into a strength whether or not he could see his strength. 
We cannot wait for our weaknesses to become strengths before we act. We must trust. We must do what we can. Set small goals. Baby steps. Trust the Lord enough to do something you are bad at and expect him to help it work out. Have faith. 

Don't be ashamed of who you are. You are a child of God. You are also human. God knows this. Jesus Christ knows this. He sent us here to learn and improve. We could not learn nor improve if we were already perfect. He understands we will fail. That we aren't good at things. That we have weakness. That we are human. 
And he loves us nonetheless. 
God won't shame you for your weakness. He doesn't tell you you are worth less because you have flaws. Heck, he even GIVES you flaws so that you can rely on him more. Trust him more. Have faith in him. 
So if Jesus Christ doesn't think any less of you because of your weaknesses, you certainly shouldn't think less of yourself. Christ suffered all our pains. All our weaknesses. He knows. He understands. He loves you. Don't beat yourself up for being human. Just do what you can. Don't avoid your weaknesses, work on them! Make progress! Take it one step at a time. Lift where you can and don't be ashamed of it. You don't have to contribute everything to contribute something. Recognize your strengths. God doesn't want a better you, he wants you as you are. He loves you exactly how you are, weaknesses and all.

Me in a not so functional chair in our apartment

I love you! You are awesome! Keep it up!

Ich habe euch sehr Lieb! Habt die beste Woche eures Lebens!!!

Tschüß!!

Elder Harps

Woche 17

Ayo! Hallo von Langen!! 

Elder Mortensen and I
just before parting

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME. ALSO A WHOLE LOT WENT DOWN

This is the abbreviated version of my week. 

So first off, my trainer, Elder Mortensen, to nobody's surprise, got transferred to Würzburg :(

That was sad to see him go, and a little stressful to take over Langen, but my new companion came down from Essen, and his name is Elder Clarke! He's really cool. He's from Ogden, Utah and we get along really well. He got here on Tuesday, and we have already had a lot of fun, and a few very, VERY stressful "adventures". Mostly involving an only partially sane sweaty old woman in our ward. And an angry Spanish guy. And a few paramedics. 

Elder Clark and I
at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof

Anyhow, Elder Clarke is really cool.  

I also had a lady try to Bible bash me into becoming a vegan at a street display in Darmstadt. That was really funny. I was trying really hard not to laugh. Also had a lady who was basically Luna Lovegood flip me off for saying I was from California. Darmstadt is awesome haha

Okay, so Simone. 

Basically our entire week was spent with Simone. We have met with him every single day since last Tuesday for over an hour. Sometimes over two. In all seriousness, if we could speak Italian, he could have been baptized last Saturday. I've been learning a bunch of random Italian words as we teach him in hybrid Italian/German (thank you Google translate!). He's progressing unbelievably fast, and really really well. He has now received all of the lessons. In one week. He is super excited for his baptism next Saturday on the 10th of June. He has read through the first two books of Nephi already. He's quit smoking. He's coming to church every week. He's absolutely wonderful. He was really sad to say goodbye to Elder Mortensen. He told us we are his best friends. He's just wonderful. I literally could talk about Simone for so long. He is racing towards his baptism at full speed. God has prepared him so well

Us and Simone

Simone and Us eating at a members house

For this week's thought, I wanted to share a scripture that stood out to me this week. It comes from Alma 48:17

"17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

Moroni is a stud. He rallies the Nephite people to defend their religion and their freedom. He leads them to victory time and time again. He is inspired of God, and he inspires his men and his people as well. There aren't a whole lot of people of whom it can be said that "the very powers of hell would be shaken forever". There is nobody who can dispute that Moroni was a great man. 

But then verse 19 says:

"19 Now behold, Helaman and his brethren were no less serviceable unto the people than was Moroni; for they did preach the word of God, and they did baptize unto repentance all men whosoever would hearken unto their words."

Helaman however, is often overlooked I feel. At the very least nobody would hold him to the same level as Moroni. Helaman was a prophet, but Moroni was a war hero. But the scriptures say that Helaman was "no less serviceable". So long as we are doing the will of God, bringing people to Jesus Christ, we are just as serviceable as any act of heroism. We may not be recognized, but we are all just as serviceable. We too, can shake the powers of hell forever.

This week was awesome. You all are awesome. Thank you for your prayers!! God loves you! 

Tschüß!! 

Elder Harps

Really cool cathedral. Apparently the wife of Tsar Nicholas II was from Darmstadt

Random guy who handed me a pamphlet on Islam

Us doing handstands