Woche 38

Mahl Zeit! Apparently that's a way to greet people here!

This week was crazy. Let's see if I remember what happened.

     First off we are getting Facebook to use here in this mission and I will be using my account from back home so if you see me on Facebook I swear I'm not breaking rules. That'll start in the next few days. Not sure how it works at all.

     We had a street display in Darmstadt and it was a blast. We got flipping slaughtered in the best way possible. We worked our hearts out and talked to a bajillion people, and while a lot said no, we found a solid amount of yesses and a few people we are excited about. Sadly they all go to Darmstadt (not my area) It was so much fun.

     The Manics came to church!! We are so happy because we almost had to drop them but they came and plan to keep coming! Soroush also came to church even though he had only 1 hour of sleep! He's a stud! He's just waiting on an answer that baptism is for him.

     Lots more happened and we are working with a few other cool people, but I'm short on time and I'll explain more about them next time! :)

     This week I read through a talk from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf given in the Women's Session of this past General Conference. It was titled "Three Sisters", and if you've listened to it or read it already, you know how powerful it a talk it was. There were a few really powerful principles and quotes I wanted to share. 

     In it, he tells the story of three sisters: one sad, one mad, and one glad. 

     The Sad sister always feels picked on by those around her and that no matter what she did, it was never quite good enough.

     The Mad sister felt that she was never quite first at anything, no matter how hard she tried. There was always someone who was better than her at whatever it was. This made her angry and irritable. She felt that life was unfair.

     The Glad sister loved to sing and didn't let anything stop her. Even if she sang out of tune or too loud, she didn't let the opinions of anyone around her so her from singing.

     We all have times when we are sad, times when we are mad, and times when we are glad.

     We are sad when we allow the opinions of others to determine our sense of value and worth. We are victims. We are not active agents, rather objects waiting to be acted upon. We allow the world around us to determine our happiness.

"why should you surrender your happiness to someone, or a group of someones, who cares very little about you or your happiness?"

     We cannot give control of our happiness to those around us! We are children of our heavenly father. He loves us and watches out for us every day. He is thrilled at our every step forward, and is always standing by ready to reach out and guide us. When we truly understand this, all our other cares fall away. Our fears and worries and concerns vanish and fade as we understand that God loves us and has a plan for us. It doesn't matter what happens around us, or what others say or think about us, or even how competent we feel. The cacophony and noise and clutter of the world and us worries drain out around us into peace and joy.

     We are mad when we blame others or circumstance for our behavior. When another person is rude, or stupid, or insensitive, and we allow it to make us angry, upset, or judgmental, we are like the mad sister. Others are imperfect. But usually they are good intentioned. We all are children of God learning to walk after Christ back home to our Father. We are all on the same path, trying to improve ourselves and figure out how to be happy.

The Savior taught us to love our enemies, but all too often, we say "'I would be willing to love my enemies—if only they were willing to do the same.' 

"But that doesn’t really matter, does it? We are responsible for our own discipleship, and it has little—if anything—to do with the way others treat us."

     We are responsible for ourselves. Why would we let the imperfections of others, one of the only guaranteed things in life, define our own happiness and discipleship? We can give our best to be Christ-like, no matter what happens around us. It doesn't matter at all how much someone loves, hates, ignores, or cares about you. You can still choose to love them and serve them.

      When we blame others or justify our own negative feelings and thoughts, we are being mad.

      We can also be glad. We don't have to have a care in the world as to what others around us are doing. You don't have to care about them at all! And what I mean by that is not that we ignore others or are not kind to them, but that our actions and choices do not have to be defined by the actions and choices and opinions of anyone around us. We are responsible for only ourselves. Who you are and what you stand for are independent of anyone else. The only person you can control in life is yourself. So choose for yourself to be happy. Choose to be glad. Choose to sing the song of Christ's redeeming love and don't care or worry about the world and its clutter. Choose to fulfill your divine destiny.

      "There may be many things about life that are beyond your control. But in the end, you have the power to choose both your destination and many of your experiences along the way. It is not so much your abilities but your choices that make the difference in life.

"You cannot allow circumstances to make you sad.

"You cannot allow them to make you mad.

"You can rejoice that you are a [child] of God. You can find joy and happiness in the grace of God and in the love of Jesus Christ.

"You can be glad."

So be Glad this week. Write it on a paper and stick it somewhere you can see. Choose to be joyful. Watch for when you see yourself getting sad or mad, and make a conscious choice to be glad.

I love you all! You all are children of God! He loves you!

Habt die beste Woche! Nicht weil es euch gut geht, sondern weil ihr sie gut macht :)

Auf Wiedersehen!! (Auf Wiederschreiben!)

Elder Harps

Woche 37

Hallo noch einmal! Ich kann es nicht glauben, dass schon eine Woche vorbeigegangen ist!!

This week was really up and down! But overall good.

On Sunday we hosted 2 other companionships from the Nürnberg Zone overnight because early Monday morning we had a mission conference with Elder M. Russell Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! He visited our mission and talked to us for 2 hours. It was so flipping fantastic. Also there was the entire Europe Area Presidency, and Elder Clayton, who is the Presiding President of the Presidency of the Seventy (which is like the coolest title ever). Elder Ballard was super funny and had a lot of really good ideas and goals for us to apply. It was incredible and we also were all able to shake his hand. It was so so cool.

Also at this conference and especially at the pizza lunch after was all 180 missionaries of the Germany Frankfurt Mission! It was so much fun. I got to see my trainer, Elder Mortensen again which was awesome. Also got to see a bunch of MTC buddies and it was just way way fun to be with everyone again, now 7 months in the field. I can't believe how time is flying.

So Tuesday was Elder Adam's birthday! He's 19! Also the day really stunk! (ha.ha.) It started off by getting dropped by two of our favorite investigators. One dropped us because her boyfriend doesn't like us, and the other dropped us because she would rather study with the Jehovah's Witnesses. So we were pretty dang bummed. We also on Sunday had to drop the Manic Family until they start keeping important basic commitments, such as coming to church. I hope they do so, I love them a lot. Also Soroush is doing well with everything except understanding why we need to be baptized, and man basically our entire pool of investigators took a major hit this week. But it's all okay, because that means we just have to find more! And we've been out finding a good bit and it's been really fun. Still really stinks, but it's okay.

Yesterday we had a finding activity in Erbach, which is in Michelstadt's area. It was so pretty. We did a mini split and Elder McClellan and I had a blast klingeling a bunch of doors and contacting anyone that was on the sparsely populated street. We had someone actually accept our offer to help with working in their garden, but they apparently had said it as a joke because we were in nice clothes. We told them we really were willing to help, but they politely turned us down. We were disappointed.

Yeah other than that that's basically all of what happened this week. It was pretty interesting.  We'll see how next week goes!

Don't have much of a spiritual thought this week, but I'll make sure to get a good one next time. I love you all! God loves you! Have a great week!!

Elder Harps

6 Missionaries in one apartment. Chaos

Trainer, Trainee turned Trainer, trainee

Woche 36

Yo! Servus euch!

This week was awesome. 

No pictures were sent this week so
here is a picture to represent how happy he is. 

You know you say your week went awesome too much when your tablet's keyboard predicts the whole sentence hahaha. But this week was really good.

Long email again! Love you all! 

Last week for Pday we went to Frankenstein castle! For my 3rd time! It was cool to take all the new missionaries to their first castle for their first Pday, which was funny because that was also what I did for MY first Pday! It was very sentimental. Just kidding. 

Other than that not a whole lot happened!

We got back in contact with William, but it's really hard to stay in contact. He's pretty busy and usually hungover. But when we asked him if he'd read he said yes! We asked him how he felt while reading and he said "I don't really know how to describe it. It feels just really right. Like it's all true" to which we said "that's because it is". He's a stud I hope we can keep working with him.

Soroush is doing well. Trying to figure out a date to get him baptized because we can't meet very often with him. He's progressing really well though, and wants to be baptized.

So! Now that I've had a bit of time to read through some of the talks given at this last General Conference, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on my favorite talk(s).

My absolute personal favorite was Elder David F. Evans' talk titled "The Truth of All Things". In it he shares a story, his story, in which he had a lot of questions and concerns about the church and its veracity. The advice his mother gave him as he searched for the answers to his questions, was this, "David, that is a good question. While you are searching and reading and praying for the answer, why don’t you do the things you know you should and not do the things you know you should not?”. This, is exactly how I received my testimony personally. My absolute favorite scripture is John 7:17, which reads "17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." What this means to me is that simply because we have questions, or lack confidence, or are unsure, we cannot give up what we already know to be true and right. This is a promise, that anybody who is not resounding in confidence in their testimony can be. That testimonies grow, and simply because you don't feel strong now, does NOT mean that you are destined to stay that way. I was unsure for 19 years. But I trusted in this promise. That if I continued to do what I knew to be right, and to not do what I knew to be wrong, God would help me "know of the doctrine". 

In the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon, he teaches about faith in a famous parable where he compares faith to a seed. And he says something really in interesting. Alma 32:28 reads,

"28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

The phrase I think is really important is where it says" if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief". Every time I heard this I instantly thought about all the people who decide to reject the gospel or belief in God that they are intentionally choosing to reject the truth. But while that's true, they aren't the only people who do that! I did that for 19 years! I felt the spirit over and over at church, at EFY, at home, from the scriptures, and so forth. I was expecting a flash of inspiration that would compel me to believe. I was expecting to suddenly be able to say with resounding confidence that I had unshakable faith! That's not how it works. I was ignoring all these small witnesses telling me of the truth because none of them alone were big enough to build great faith. I was basically asking God to plant my seed of faith, and then as soon as it would get watered by the spirit I would smash it and say "yeah, sure I feel the spirit. But I'm not SURE". That's so dumb! I was asking for an answer and then smashing the ones I got because they were small!

I feel like there is a concept that is often misunderstood. It is this: There is a time in between when this seed is planted and when the seed becomes a hearty tree. There is a period of growth and tenderness, where faith begins to grow, but is not yet certain or confident. Where you can feel "these swelling motions". Testimony is not a night and day flip of the switch. You cannot put yourself down because your testimony is still growing and you don't feel confident. Confidence does not equal testimony. You can and do 'have a testimony' before you feel confident in it. Before it is a strong tree.

It was when I finally grasped this concept that my testimony finally started to grow. When I realized, "You know, I don't know everything. But I believe this is right, and I DO have a testimony, small and shaky as it may be. I will work on this". That was when I finally stopped "casting it out by my unbelief". I accepted it as small as it was and stopped beating it up because it wasn't a tree.

This is what I think President Dieter F. Uchtdorf meant when he said "Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith". Stop ignoring what you DO know to be true for what you do not know to be true. Stop searching for cracks and instead recognize the evidence already there. There IS evidence. A lot of it. Faith is not something where you try to convince yourself of something not real. Faith is believing despite not being able to see. It means you see the signs and act accordingly.

For instance, The Book of Mormon. What stronger evidence is there than this divine book? Tad R Callister said "The Book of Mormon is not only the keystone of our religion, but it can also become the keystone of our testimonies". This is exactly what happened with me, once again. Critics are bent on destroying the credibility of this book. There is so much information out there that will try to disprove and discredit it. But we often times take this book for granted and don't even look for the evidence FOR it. How could a 23 year old farm boy with a third grade education produce a 500+ page book in the span of 65 writing days? How could he have written the history of a people with complex names, war strategies, and doctrine? How, if not by the power of God. I'm not going to go further into this, because Brother Callister's talk nailed it on the head. There is so much evidence FOR this book and this church! Once I stopped focusing so hard on whether or not the Book itself was true, and actually thought about what it meant if the Book was true, I got my answer that I already knew it to be true. It teaches Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Confirmation, and the need to keep the Commandments for the rest of our lives. It teaches about faith, about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and about the Fall of Adam and Eve. I thought about these doctrines and the path I am on an realized that I wholeheartedly agree we everything in the Book. There is nothing that can bring me so much joy, peace, and clarity that comes from anywhere but from God. I know this book is true. Because of that, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that this church truly is true and from God. I love this gospel and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know he lives and loves me too.

I love you all! Christ loves you! Have a great week!

Elder Harps

Woche 35

Castle from last week!
 In Aschaffenburg

This week was transfer calls! Big surprise but Elder Adams and I are staying to complete his training! That's pretty much exactly what we expected. But both companionships in Darmstadt also just got called to train, so we gonna have a training party here in this district! It's awesome! 

This week was General Konferenz! It was fantastic! Also I can now understand it in German mostly! Which is really nice, but we tried to watch it in English as much as possible. It. Was. Fantastic. What a powerful conference.

This week's thought is on the power of testimony!

So yesterday we went by on an old potential Investigator. As we started talking, it went very quickly downhill. She was very attacking and aggressive and there was also a thick language barrier and so there was a lot of misunderstanding on both sides and she was pretty clashy. It went on for a bit as we tried to answer her questions, but to no real avail. Finally, I just started bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me in my life. Elder Adams jumped right in and bore his testimony as well. She immediately softened. We talked a bit further, and we were able to actually answer all her questions and concerns. She changed from trying to give us the book back to not only keeping it, but agreeing to meet further to discuss what it means for her. It was way cool! It was such a testimony building experience of bearing testimony! If that makes sense haha. But really. Testifying of truth is am instant way too bring the spirit, and while we aren't here to convince anyone or argue, the spirit is the most powerful witness of truth. He can change hearts.

This week was awesome! Sorry the email is short! Didn't have a lot of time cuz we went to a castle this week with all the new missionaries!

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

Elder Harps

Another Doppelregenbogen!

We built a fort

Sunset

Last district picture!