Woche 46

FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!!! ️️️️!!! 

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIMEEE! 

I'm so excited for Christmas! I just love this season and also I'm way excited to Skype my family haha. 

This week was really really awesome. The Lord has been pouring out blessings. 

We've been finding a lot of really cool people, who have been kind enough to hear us out and test the Book of Mormon for themselves. It's been cool to hear their experiences. 

One girl from this week, Laila, is trying to figure out which religion is right, and she said as she's been reading in the Book of Mormon, she feels peace and calm. She's been reading a ton and she's doing well. 

We were blessed this week and had a lot of appointments go through and we had a lot of cool experiences. On Saturday we had 4 appointments in a row go through and taught really cool lessons for each of them. 

So Johny is doing amazing. He has a new light about him. He stands up straighter and smiles and you can see Christ lifting his burdens. It is wonderful. He has quit smoking entirely and is reading in the Book of Mormon every day, especially through audio book haha. He said "I just love listening to the Word of God as I do things". He said he believes it's all true, and he's excited to be baptized. 

The only problem is that he suddenly had to leave to Italy to get a working permit, so that he can get a job here in Germany. He's there now and we still have regular contact with him, but as soon as we get an address we will probably send the Italian Elders to him so they can continue to teach him. He should be back within a month, but until then, he needs to continue to be taught. 

Missions are awesome. I wish I could better put into words how much I love it out here. 

This week's thought comes from a scripture my grandma shared with me last week!

She shared the scripture from Alma when the king says he "will give all [his] sins to know [God]" (Alma 22:16).

Right with that same story, I love that when Ammon disarms (figuratively, not literally) King Lamoni's father on the road to Middoni, it says 

"23 Now the king, fearing he should lose his life, said: If thou wilt spare me I will grant unto thee whatsoever thou wilt ask, even to half of the kingdom." (Alma 20:23). 

But when Aaron is preaching the gospel to him, right before he says he would give up all his sins, Alma 22:15 says 

"15 And it came to pass that after Aaron had expounded these things unto him, the king said: What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day? Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy."

I just think it's so cool that his mortal life, to him, is worth half his Kingdom. If Ammon had asked for more, he would rather die. But his soul and the blessings of the gospel are worth the world to him. He's willing to give up all that he has, even his whole kingdom. He will give all his sins to know his God. 

That is so beautiful to me. It reminds me of the Rich young ruler in the new Testament who wasn't willing to sell all he had and follow Christ. We So often think that we would never do that, but we actually do that every day, if you're anything like me. We often times know exactly what we could do better, but we ask God what we should do anyway, hoping he'll tell us something else. We need to give up all our vices. Not just the easy ones.

I love you all! Give a gift to Christ this week in celebration of his birth! Serve someone around you, brighten someones day, be a little more patient or open, tell someone you love them, and have a very merry Christmas :) 

Frohe Weihnachten!!! 

Elder Harps 

Pictures:

My family is awesome. This Advent Calendar is amazing. This was the best advent's calendar thing from this week 

Us at the Dortmund Weihnachtsmarkt with a creepy Santa statue

Elder Oakeson has a gift for being able to fall asleep in any position, at any time, in under 30 seconds no joke. Out and snoring in 30 seconds hahaha

Woche 45

Guten Tag Leute!

Sorry about the lack of email last week! I thought I had written it cuz I partially wrote one but then forgot and it didn't get done / noticed until too late! But I am alive :) 

These last two weeks were good! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Sorry if I didn't get to respond last week! 

My birthday was weird. Like, even at home you get those "man it doesn't even feel like my birthday" kinda stuff, well this one literally had nothing birthday about it haha. We ate at a burger place but otherwise it was another hectic day here in Essen :) 

This last week was awesome and we saw a lot of miracles. We've been really trying to up our game and get into the full swing of things, talking to everyone and finding at all times. We've been focusing on our teaching skills this transfer as a mission, which is what we talked about at Zone Conference this last week. We also talked about obedience and Diligence and there were some cool thoughts I'd like to share at the end. 

Also this weekend is transfer calls so we'll see what happens. Probably nothing. But we'll find out on Saturday! 

Well Johnny came to church on Sunday and loved it. He speaks no German because he moved here from Ghana just 3 months ago, but he said afterwords "You know there is something special about being in the house of the Lord. Even though I can't understand what is being said, I can feel the spirit. And it feels good". He's awesome! We moved up his baptismal date to the 30th of December. We are way excited about him. 

So the spiritual thought this week is kinda a funny one, but it's something I really liked from zone conference. It wasn't something said, but something that struck me. 

I put a new quote on my wall, and it comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail haha. 

"What, is your quest?" 

I laugh every time I see it, but it comes from another quote. (not verbatim) 

"when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, we will be endowed with power from on high" 

We talked about the fact that especially as missionaries, but also as members of the church, our as disciples of Christ, we signed up for this. The missionary white handbook, the higher law as taught by Christ, we chose this. And this is what I want. This is what we wanted, or we wouldn't have signed up. 

Anyone that knew me at school, or at all frankly, knew that I was always just doing barely enough work to get by. I was / still partially a major procrastinator. I was pretty good at just riding the line for minimum effort required to get whatever it was I was shooting for. 

But what is different about obedience is that cutting corners and riding the line doesn't work. Then you are just partially in. Almost making it to the miracles, but not quite. It's like running the football down the field and then dropping it on the 1 yard line because we think he are done. 

We need to not see how much we can get away with, but rather see how we can actively be Obedient. Don't look for exceptions, look for opportunities to KEEP the rules. The Commandments are NOT there as a burden. They are there to bless us! We need to be all in and run touchdowns!

So I ask myself every day now, "What is your quest?" 

It reminds me that I want this. I love my Savior and want to follow him. I want to contact, I want to be better, I want to have charity and be Obedient to the Commandments. God is good and he helps me every day! 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Harps

PS Also it snowed a TON this week but also rained a ton so it's all gone