Woche 24

Ayo! 

Diese Woche war wunderbar. Wie immer :) 

This week Elder Clarke and I helped a member in the ward put flooring in his new house for like 5 hours. It was a lot of fun actually, and we got to know his friend who also came to help. Lots of mistakes and having to remeasure everything, but it was all good. It felt way good to do some good old manual labor. And they fed us wannabe American burgers which was thoughtful.

Us with Manic family

The Manic family came to church on Sunday and LOVED it. They are the family from Serbia. Their story is crazy. They came to Germany because their house got burned down by a drunken mob and they were forced to live on the streets or leave the country with their 4 kids. The Father, Mladn, is 23 and the mother, Dzula, is 26. They already have 4 kids and he even got a tattoo at age 11. Serbia is way crazy. It makes me really grateful for what I have and where I came from. 

Us with Manic family

They are so wonderful. They both asked us what they need to do so that they can serve their own missions. They loved church, ask awesome questions, and love to talk about Jesus Christ. They are so excited for their baptism, but we most likely have to push it back a bit because they need to get married and that's a major major bureaucratic pain here in Germany. Even for natives, let alone immigrants. Ahhhhh, they are wonderful, and I hope they get baptized before I leave Langen in a month. We'll see 

We also went on splits with the Zone Leaders again! I stayed here in Langen with Elder Ault, and we had a fantastic split. We found out we are basically the same person. Same video games, we both play music, we have similar majors, both did some college, we like to program, and love to talk about missionary work. We talked a lot about having faith to find new investigators and we set some way good goals, and made great plans to reach said goals. We had a great time klingeling a bit and had some way funny rejections, namely Elder Ault said "Hi I'm Elder Ault!" and held out his hand for a handshake, to which the old lady looked at his hand, and then back at him, then back at his hand for 10 seconds and then said "What do you want?". It was hilarious and we laughed about it after she slammed the door. It was a way way fantastic split.

One of the things Elder Ault and I did on the split was go by on Marius. I talked about him a while ago, but he has since told us our church isn't for him, though he's liked everything we've said, continues to read in the Book of Mormon, and we've answered all his questions. He literally said "Wow you've answered all my questions. I've never felt like this before". So we were way confused when he said he wasn't interested. 

We talked with him about how he can receive an answer about the truth of all that we say. He said he hadn't received an answer from God that our church was true. We read Moroni 10:3-5 with him, which reads:

"3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

"4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

This is one of our primary invitations as missionaries, is to invite people to find out for themselves if the Book of Mormon is true, and if what we say come from God. We use this promise written by Moroni a LOT. But what we talked with Marius about is a key phrase in this recipe for receiving an answer. 

It says we must see with "real intent". 

This, was my personal key to receiving a witness of the truth of the Book of Mormon. I read the Book Of Mormon 7 times without knowing for sure if it was true or not. I kept the Commandments and went to church every week. I had prayed and asked God if it was true, but I didn't feel like I had received an answer. Honestly I didn't know until I had left for my mission. 

There was a point a few days into the MTC where I realized that I was gonna be doing this for 2 years. I also realized, that I was sick of not knowing for certain. If the Book of Mormon wasn't true, then I was wasting my time. But if it was, I needed to know personally or I wouldn't be able to testify with any sort of power of its verity. Let alone try to testify about it for 2 whole years. If the Book was true, I was going to work my absolute hardest to live the principles it teaches and follow Jesus Christ of whom it testifies. THAT was when I got my answer. It was at that point when I finally had "real intent". It meant that I was ready to fully accept and ACT upon whatever God's answer was. And it wasn't a big flash of inspiration. It was more like a realization that I had known it all along. That I HAD a testimony of its truth, but I didn't know that I knew. God confirmed to me what he had already told me piece by piece. And I was then able to develop and strengthen my witness. 

We explained this to Marius. We asked him, "Marius, if God told you that this Church was true, what would you do?". He thought hard about it for about 2 minutes and then said "Honestly, I probably wouldn't do anything". So we told him, that if he wants an answer to his questions, he needs to have real intent. Without this intent to follow up on his answer, God won't give it to him. We left, and now Marius knows exactly what he needs to do if he decides he wants an answer. He was still incredibly nice and invited us back in the future, but I hope one day he decides he wants an answer. 

I know that The Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith really restored Christ's Church. I know that Christ lives and loves each and every one of us. I know that he knows us by name, and supports us in our trials if we let him. Christ is our brother and friend. He is our Savior. I know that He lives. 

I love you all!! I love the Book of Mormon and I love Missions! You are awesome! Don't forget to doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith!! 

Habt eine schöne Woche!! Bis nächstes Mal! 

Elder Harps :) 

Elder Clarke and I literally shouted for joy
when we saw this while shopping today. Hopefully it's good!