Insights and Events in the Life of Elder Harps: Woche 91

Servus Euch!!

It's been a crazy last 2 weeks! It's also been awesome. Life is awesome. Missions are awesome.

A lot has happened! Sorry if this email is all over the place, I'm feeling slightly sick today and my brain has lower focus haha

We split with the Assistants last weekend and I got to be with Elder Heller again! We just had so much fun. We also visited a baptism in Hanau on the split and got to see Tim, a really amazing man I got to interview for baptism a few weeks ago, get baptized! It was just a great time. Tim is amazing, and Elder Heller is the greatest. Great day

Last Monday we also visited the District Council of the Koblenz District and split the the Koblenz Elders. I got to split with Elder Haywood, who has been here in Germany for 3 weeks! It was such a blast. He's just so full of faith and energy and the desire to learn. We had a really cool lesson on the split. We got to teach a German man Elder Koch and I found a few weeks ago. He's a father of 4 and has worked in a lot of Charity programs in his life. He's very intelligent and very religious, but in his own way. His mother had moved in with him the week before and she sat in as well on our lesson. We started by just listening and trying to understand his Mother's religious experiences and find out what she believes in. She was so nice! She really pondered the questions we asked, and gave her most honest answers as to her beliefs in God and life after death. After that we began teaching. The Mann expressed a concern essentially about the punishment of Sin. He didn't really understand why there needed to be one right way because he felt like it was overly harsh of God to say that simply because someone hadn't been baptized he couldn't be saved. At this point the spirit was really strong. I just bore testimony of God's justice and mercy and of Jesus Christ's Atonement for us. I tried my best to explain to him my understanding. That only because Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sins, we can learn and grow, and God can extend mercy. But I also explained that God has high expectations for us and wants to give us all that He has. And so he has to give us expectations and Commandments to show us the way to become like him and help us. I then invited him to read Alma 42 in the Book of Mormon which talks a lot about that. He was really excited to read it and his mother also accepted a Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong.

I really felt the gift of Tongues at work in that appointment. I was probably especially conscious and grateful for it because of Elder Haywood being there. I knew he was understanding a very small amount of what was being said, and I realized just how much the Lord has blessed me in learning this language. I felt the spirit speaking through me in another language and I was really grateful. God is truly a God of miracles.

I had actually also another experience with the Gift of Tongues this week! This weekend was Stake Conference for the Friedrichsdorf Stake and on Sunday for the 2 hour meeting I was asked to translate the meeting from German into English live. I was pretty nervous but on Sunday I sat in the front row with a little microphone piece and tried to translate what everyone was saying into English. It went amazingly well. After a bit of warming up my brain clicked and it started going really great. The lady sitting next to us was the translator for the women speakers and she majored in translation at college. She said I should pursue it after the meeting haha!

I'm sharing this not to say that I did anything well but I'm honestly just so grateful for God and his mercies. He's helped me tremendously in everything. Saturday night I prayed really hard that it would go well. I've done translation before but not for such a large meeting. I had faith that if God needed it to be done he would provide so that my efforts were made enough for the people listening. But knowing that I prayed and told God I was confident he could and would help me, and then asked that I could also feel at peace while doing it. I felt peace after and I'm grateful.

I also got to split with Elder Chapman from Hanau here in Bad Homburg and it was awesome. He's such a great and nice human being. I told him at the end of the split just how much fun I had had, and how comfortable I had felt around him. I never felt judged even in the slightest bit. He is awesome. It's sad that he is going home this transfer. He is a really great missionary.

We had Zone Conference on this last Monday! It was a really good one, albeit sad. The spirit was really strong, and Elder Johnson and I'm training went really well. It was about prayer. But at the end of the conference, there was a testimony meeting where we could go bear testimony and a lot of my friends went up and bore their last testimonies because they all go home this transfer. It was bittersweet but the spirit was really strong.

This last Tuesday I spent a lot of time praying for help and though it took a while I got a lot of answers. I found several answers and comforts that I've been seeking for a very long time, even if I didn't know I was looking for them. Life is so good right now.

Life is awesome. It has its ups and downs like it always does, but God is good and he is always there.

"What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31-32)

Habt die beste Woche eures Lebens!! Ich habe Euch alle lieb!

Elder Harps

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