Woche 34

Grüß euch nochmal!!

This week was another great one. Langen is flipping the best. Sorry again for the long email. I know I've been kinda inconsistent haha. Long then short and long then short. Sorry! :)

Soroush is doing awesome. Like way awesome. I wish awesome people like him could refer themselves like he did all the time. It would make our job way easier haha. He came to church again this week despite the really long ride and crazy train connections on sundays. He loved it again. Elder Sticht and I were on split this week here in Langen, and had one of the coolest lessons of my mission so far with Soroush. He has been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and told us he feels the spirit every time he does. He really wanted to give his friend a copy of the Book of Mormon so he gave him his own copy and then went onto lds.org to keep reading until we could meet with him and give him another one. WHO DOES THAT?? Soroush, that's who. Well he had a lot of really cool questions written down to ask us. We started going through answering them all. He asked us what our doctrine was, and what kind of rules/commandments we follow. We had prepared a lesson on the Plan of Salvation, which explains where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life, and also had prepared to teach him about a few of the commandments. So it was perfect.

He loved it all as we taught him. He was nodding and agreeing and asking questions and writing notes and it was fantastic. When we finally managed to communicate the idea that we experience hardship and trial here in this life so that we may have experience and learn, his face lit up, and he said "Das ist richtig! Das ist richtig!" (That is right! That is right!). We continued teaching and it went really really well. The spirit was very strong.

He said at the end of the lesson "That good feeling? I feel it a lot. I know that what you told me is right. I know it is from God and that you are sent from God". IT WAS SO COOL. HE IS FANTASTIC

Still working on getting the Manics down the seemingly endless road to their baptism. They continue to make good progress and overcome slowly and steadily everything in their path. They are awesome.

K so funny story.

Yesterday Elder Adams and I were walking down the street, and we walked past this shop. After we walked past, we both stopped. We looked at each other, and said "what was THAT?" so we backtracked a few feet and looked in the window. Low and behold we saw the creepiest "police man" statue I have ever seen before haha. We looked at it in stunned horror for a second, then turned to each other and started laughing at how we both had stopped and noticed it haha. It was really funny. Also really creepy. Picture at the end :)

This week's thought is on the importance of work.

As Joseph Smith describes his story of how he was able to receive revelation, I noticed something cool about what he wrote. In verses 11 and 12 of Joseph Smith History it reads:

"11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom,let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again,knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God,I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible."

In his story, Joseph did a few very important things to receive an answer to his question. One is that he read in the scriptures and prayed. These are commonly cited and very important. But what I thought was cool was that he said that he received this first inspiration from the Bible "While I was laboring". It is really important that simply because we have questions or doubts or concerns, we don't stop laboring. Labor is how we show God our faith. He WILL give us answers and comfort, but we cannot stop. Persevere and continue to work at it, and you will receive an answer as Joseph did. 

I know this Church is true! I know that Christ is my Savior and Redeemer! I know that  God loves each of us. He knows and loves you. Now have a great week!

Tschüß!!

Elder Harps