Woche 82

Liebe Grüße und einen guten Tag an euch!

It's been another wonderful week here in Friedrichsdorf! I'm loving this area and we've just been slaying it.

Transfers came and went and Elder Koch and I are staying together another one! We are super relieved because we have been working really well together and also have a really good momentum in our area and with the Zone. Our Zone though got major thrown around and a few big wrenches were thrown into our plans for the next transfer, but we will survive! 

Elder Koch and I are beyond excited for this coming transfer. We both have grown a ton together this last transfer and we are ready to pump fire and faith into the Zone and take it where it's never been before. I know all things are possible with the Lord.

We decided to revive a lot of the practices I saw success in Dortmund with, including the game we ran a few transfers ago but this time with some tweaks and improvements. We are excited.

We had some really good lessons and experiences this week. We got to host Elder Apel (a German missionary who just finished his mission today) for his last day on the mission! We had a really good time. We got to go finding together and also had a really good lesson with one of our investigators who has been struggling to progress. It really built my testimony of the power of testimony. We have tried thing after thing to help this man answer his questions and nothing has worked. But during the lesson after getting a little frustrated I just expressed to him that there was nothing we as people could do to answer his questions. I just told him that the reason we keep telling him to read in the Book of Mormon and pray with real intent is because that is the only way I know to get answers from God, and there is really nothing else we have to offer. He got quiet and just said that that was true then he was going to read in the Book of Mormon every day and pray every day. It was a really cool breakthrough.

We also had another really wonderful lesson with a former Investigator last night. We talked briefly and asked him questions like why he originally met with missionaries and so forth. Then we watched "The Restoration" film with him and talked afterward. The spirit was really strong after watching the video of the First Vision and we just had a really strong heart to heart. This man is searching for peace and has felt the spirit and sense of belonging when he came to church. He's had a crazy last few months but we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and told him he could have that feeling to be with him every time he reads. He asked for another book at the end because he lost his old one and said he would be reading every day. It was really cool and the spirit was very strong.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown a lot recently. I have recently started it over again from the beginning and I'm loving it. The simple truths taught in its pages are so clear and so helpful. I have tried to use it more and more in my teaching and I know that people (myself included) can find answers to their questions of the soul by reading and praying. I know that God answers prayers. I know that He wants us to succeed, I know he wants us to improve, I know he is Itching to support us and fulfill our every righteous desire. I know him and I love him. I'm so grateful for all I'm able to learn and experience every day. 

To anyone who has not yet asked God if the Book of Mormon is true, I strongly encourage you to do so. As we ask, God pours out answers. "Ask and ye shall receive". He waits for us to ask for answers and blessings so that our faith can grow. The point of life isn't for us to know the answers, it's for us to grow. We can learn in the eternities, and so that means that God isn't going to just pour all knowledge into our hearts on a whim. He waits for our asking and gives answers line upon line so that even the very process of learning and becoming is a process of building up faith and restoring peace to our hearts. 

Ask for blessings. Ask for answers. Have the faith, courage, and patience to ask. The act of asking will build faith and show God you seek his will.

I love you all! I wish you all the best and I pray for you. Thank you for all you do!

Macht's gut!

Elder Harps

Pics:

District Pic at Marburg last Week

Sunset

Marburg

Mini Split in Wetterau

District Pic in Marburg again

Woche 81

Guten guten Tag meine Freunde!

Sorry for the spottiness of my emails lately. I'm doing well and we've just been doing lots of stuff on our Pday! 

These last 2 weeks have been super good. Like really good.

We got to split with the Usingen, Kassel, Hanau, and Koblenz. It was really awesome. Love those Elders and got some way cool pictures.

We went to a Castle today for Pday and it has been really cool. It's called Marburg up in an area called Wetzlar. We went as a Distrikt because it's Sister Fried's last Pday of the mission!

It's been crazy how fast this transfer has flown by. Definitely doesn't feel like I've been here for 6 weeks. But I'm excited for next transfer. Transfer calls are on Saturday and hopefully we all stay! 

I finally feel like I've got a grip on the dynamic of this new Zone and I'm excited to start really kicking the work into the next gear next transfer. We've got some cool ideas of stuff we want do to help the Missionaries and the members kick it up a notch or two.

This transfer has been a major learning experience. The goals Elder Koch and I talked about with following the spirit in all things this transfer have been a major success. We have grown unbelievable amounts. Following the spirit and subjecting my will to the will of the Lord has brought so many blessings. I have such a greater sense of purpose, power, and peace. I've tried not to let a single prompting go by unacted upon. In everything we do, we have tried to make sure its what the lord wants. We wanted to make every decision in accordance with the Lord's will, or at the very least our absolute best at it.

God is so good. I've seen his hand pour miracles out on us. 

I know that these changes are only possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that because of his sacrifice, we can truly change ourselves. I've prayed really hard that God would change my heart and desires and it's worked. I have changed and grown by the grace of God. I love him and know he answers prayers, especially ones asking for increased strength and change of heart. There is nothing he would rather give us than that "mighty change of heart" that Alma teaches of. 

I invite you all to pray and ask God sincerely to help change you to be more like his Son. The blessings are oh so worth it. 

I love you all! Thank you for your love and prayers! Habt die beste Woche eures Lebens!!

Liebe Grüße, 

Elder Harps

Pics:

Split in Hanau with the Legendary Elder King featuring a statue that looks a lot like the Prophet Joseph Smith 

Elder Newton and I after getting trapped under an overpass in a Rainstorm and the following rainbow 

Castle Marburg

Road trip back from Koblenz!

Woche 80

Guten Morgen liebe Freunde!!

I'm sorry I've been so bad at writing! No time today! But here's a ton of pictures!

I'm doing well! Life is good! 

Habt eine schöne Woche! 

Woche 78

Grüße an euch!!

Hey so first off sorry I missed the last 2 weeks! The first week I was lazy and then last week all was well and we still had 30 minutes to write it and then our Investigator showed up 30 minutes early to his appointment and our Pday was cut suddenly short haha. But that just means I've got lots of pictures :)

Well it's been a crazy 3 weeks or whatever. The transfer is already more than halfway over which is dumb, but so is it. Elder Koch and I are doing awesome. We've not only been getting along really well, but we are growing and improving more than I have in a very long time. I'll get to that more later :)

We went on tons of splits. We split with: Wiesbaden Elders, Usingen Elders, Wetzlar Elders, the Assistants, and the Wetterau Elders. Tomorrow we are splitting in Koblenz with the Elders there. It's been so much fun! We have a goal for this transfer to split with all the Elders in our Zone and it's going awesome. 

When I was in Wiesbaden we had a dinner appointment with an American family who is serving on the Military Base here. I made a weird connection haha. The Colonel over the Wiesbaden Base is LDS and his son was one of my good friends at college. The next time I'm in Wiesbaden I'm going to see if the Elders can set up an appointment with that family haha

I got to go on split with Elder Heller in Frankfurt last weekend, and it was one of the best splits of my mission. All of our appointments fell out and we prayed really hard about what we should do and we felt really inspired that we were going to find someone to prepare for baptism that day. So we looked at the map and just picked out where we felt inspired to find. We went out and talked to everyone (and almost got murdered by this huge guy who wanted to kill us. Literally not figuratively. The spirit protected us haha). We worked and took water breaks in the brutal heat and just had so much fun. And in the last 15 minutes of the day, we found a dude named Daniel :)

He's really cool and open and I'm excited to see where he goes!

What Elder Koch and I noticed after MLC last week is that we've been in ruts of sorts. We thought back to our favorite days and times on the mission and both of us said that it was at the beginning in our first areas. We miss the simplicity of trying to figure out EVERYTHING and the just raw trust and faith we had to have in God in order to do anything at all. We are now decently experienced missionaries and we have lots of skills we've developed, but that raw joy and excitement of the work is sometimes lacking.

We decided to try something really interesting. We basically have been trying to treat everything we do the way we would have when we were training. We don't want to forget the wonderful skills and strengths that God has given us, but we want our attitude to be one of learning, trust, and humility. As we've begun to Reread Preach My Gospel, we are trying to read as if it's all brand new, that everything is new to be learned. We want to be learning and not reciting.

It's brought a mighty change in our work so far. The faith and energy is returning a lot faster than I even expected. We have tried to make every decision in harmony with God's will and are trying to try and listen to the spirit in all we do. We don't want to be commanded in all things, but we want to make sure we are trying to listen to that still small voice at all times.

It's been really wonderful. The work has become so much more rewarding. I know that this work is God's work and that he leads and guides it. We are just trying to be instruments :)

Life is good, Germany is amazing, the work here is getting ready to explode again, Missionary Work is the greatest :)

Ich habe euch alle Lieb! Ihr seid Kinder Gottes! Vergesst das nicht!

Liebe Grüße 

Elder Harps 

Pics:

Street Display in Bad Nauheim with the Wetterau Distrikt!

District Pday in Frankfurt

Split with Elder Lichtenberg (He's one of the last missionaries in my group I needed to split with!)

Distrikt Council in Wetterau

Mini Dortmund Missionary Reunion at MLC

MLC

Split with Elder Felix

Distrikt Council in Wiesbaden