Happy Neujahr!

Well Andy, looks like the day is coming a lot faster than we thought it would. By the time I get back I'll be the ripped sports king, and you'll be a wee 90 pound lad, reading all day. Tehee, but yeah I'd
be up to going to Peru. It's too bad I can't hear your vast wisdom face to face anymore Lisa, but I do enjoy reading it. It reminded me of a quote from President Monson, "Always be happy, never be satisfied." It's easy to be happy and easy to be unsatisfied, but to be both together takes some work. Ja Joey, manchmal esse ich viel. Are you gonna be on son #5 by the time I get back? I suppose assuming you guys would magically know that it would be a Skype call was a poor move, but at least it ended up working alright. We technically have up to 40 minutes, we just had a member appointment to run to. I'm glad you've been having some fun tooth adventures mom, if it makes you feel any better, my implant still feels weird in my mouth. Did you at least take a hillbilly picture before the implant was put in?  Good to know y'all are doing well.

It was definitely a unique Christmas. As opposed to the
typical opening presents and spending time with family,
 I: met the Angel Gabriel, destroyed my mouth (and later my bowels) with Serbian food and ate lunch with a Muslim, an atheist and a Christian.

So there we are at the church, finishing our studies and about to do our skype calls, when this guy (also, the door was locked) walks in. He walks over to us, hugs me and gives Elder Anderson a kiss on the cheek, tells us that he is the Angel Gabriel, looks at a restoration pamphlet for 30 seconds, says something to us in Arabic, says "I love you" in English and then leaves. Off spreading the good word I suppose...also smoking. Didn't know that angels reeked of cigarette smoke.

So the member appointment for Christmas dinner was with a family originally from Serbia. We had this soup stuff, and off to the side were 2 bowls of spices, one "spicy" and the other "very spicy." Well after a few months of eating with Germans, who probably find ketchup to be spicy, I figured I could handle whatever came my way. So I dump in 2 big spoonfuls of the spicy and a spoonful of the very spicy. By the end my mouth, face and eyeballs were basically on fire and when I took a seat on the toilet the next morning, I had quite the burning in my bosom...and not the good kind. Anywho, I now have the nickname Chili Elder. The third story isn't actually very exciting, we just ate lunch with a member and 2 of her friends. One was atheist one was Muslim...yep. Also it happened first, so it probably should have been the first story. Anyway, that was Christmas.

We had a couple other awesome member appointments during the week, met with some investigators and (drum roll).....our bishop came to church! After weeks of being sick (since before I even got here) he finally made it. Also at church, this old couple randomly walked in for Sunday school and Sacrament. They enjoyed it and made an appointment with the sisters to learn more. Wonderful stuff!

 But yeah...the Gospel is awesome. In 3 Nephi Jesus Christ quotes Isaiah, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires." Fair colors and sapphires...enduring and trusting in God through hard times not only helps us to grow, it beautifies us. It definitely takes time and effort and maybe a bit
of pain, but it's always worth it. Have a great week and happy New Year!

Elder Larsen

Woooooow!

Merry Weihnachten!

Very true Joey. So you're spending Christmas in Arizona. Does that mean you aint even gonna be a part of my skype call? Also, I love you as much as Garen loves to spin. Yeesh Lisa, how many years ago was Pizza Factory? It really does feel like ages ago, since then I've met so many people, experienced so many new things and learned so much. Paul is getting married in just a couple weeks??? Looks like I'm missing out on all the excitement. Quite the story Mom! I feel like I can relate to it pretty well. Don't worry too much, I'll be rejoining you in your tooth adventures in a couple years. My attempts to jam my bottom retainer on in the MTC just ended up breaking it, tehee. And yep, got the Christmas package. Pops, my Sunday schedule is: Ward mission council, church, lunch appointment, then back to normal work. Finding, appointments, studies (for the 12 week training thing). P-day: Excercise, go shopping, do studies, clean, eat lunch, write emails and then do whatever (visit cool stuff, sleep, eat food) until 6. If we're invited by a member to FHE, we do that, otherwise just normal work. Our heating and air conditioning is good, showers are a bit chilly. Training meetings we typically learn more about teaching, finding, the Holy Ghost, etc. Also, my call is probably going to come around 9:00 AM.

President Fingerle sends us a miracle of the week in his weekly email, and this week a guy referred himself (he googled "what is the point of life?" and found the church website) and now has a baptismal date with Aaron Peatross and his companion.

Quite the week this week, 4 of our investigators that we were just about to give up on decided to finally come back to life! We were in our weekly planning, and like 10 minutes after making the decision to give this guy a break (we'd been trying to call him for a few weeks) he gave us a call and set up an appointment. Crazy stuff. And then that evening  we got back in contact with 2 others. The fourth one finished up with school and we'll finally be able to start meeting him more often. It takes some time, but once we put in our little bit of effort, God really starts to work with people. Not only those we come in contact with, but ourselves too. There's a quote (I think from Elder Christofferson) that says how the best way to find ourselves is by helping others. The actual quote is a lot better, but I can't remember it completely.

So we've been teaching this guy (for the sake of privacy I'll name him John). He's smart and has a lot of faith, but he also has a whole lot of weird, fantastical stories. Ghosts, magic, imaginary houses, doppelgangers, slow-motion knife fights, you name it. All things that he has apparently experienced. Somehow he's always able to connect it back to our lesson, but not before saying (several times) "and I thought to myself: wooooooooow" every few seconds as he tells his story. Pretty entertaining...I've tried unsuccessfully to mimic the level of excitement and wonder that he manages to express each time he says wow. He's pretty awesome, I'm excited for the day, whether in this life or afterwards, that I'll know whether or not any of his stories are actually true, haha.

Aside from that, we had another caroling party (this time as a whole zone) by a winter market in Berlin. We sang some songs, shared tons of cards, and even attracted a few drunk dudes who joined in singing with us. I'm excited to see what'll come from it all. Granted, some people just took a card for the packet of gummy bears attached to it, some took them so we wouldn't keep bothering them, some probably took them out of curiosity...but either way it's an opportunity for Heavenly Father to start/continue working in their lives.

I can't believe Christmas is this week. We've got a solid Christmas tree (Car's wrapping paper cut into triangles), lots of quality member time, last second Christmas-card sharing and lessons with returned investigators. Above all else, a week centered on Jesus Christ, what could be better? The Gospel is awesome. God and Jesus Christ love and understand us perfectly, and are with us every step of the way. Merry Christmas!

Elder Larsen

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like . . . Still Fall

Lisa, is that the first time that the subject of your email was
something other hi/hey? I agree, we're all children of the same
Heavenly Father, how different can we all really be? I hope you have a
good Christmore as well Joey. Yeah Andy, you've definitely had it
worse but I find myself similarly frustrated at times. The last few
days in the BoM I've noticed a ton of references about just being
patient. I think about how ticked Alma and Amulek may have been after
days of being spat upon, slapped, naked, underfed and all kinds of
nonsense. But they endured, waited till the trial was over and moved
forward. They also caused the prison to crush those that had abused
them, not sure if that one will happen for you or not. Anywho, I could
definitely use that kind of patience. Mom, I can't wait till you're
100 years old and you're going to spend hours a day making sure that
the home of each great grand child is completely unpacked and
organized, haha. My call will be sometime in the morning there, around
7:30 pm here. Dad, my exercise is basically just a cycle of sit ups,
crunches, push ups, curls and squats. Not gonna lie, them abs aren't
looking too bad.

But really, aside from a random snow storm in the middle of November,
it's basically just been leaves, dirt and dead trees. Of course that
ain't stopping them Germans from putting up tons of Christmas
decorations! They even have a weird Frozen-themed artificial sledding
hill thing.

Berlin Cathedral

Not the most exciting week in the world, but still good. Lots of area
book work, (attempted) less active visits and lazy investigators. My
notable conversations this week were: French guy who speaks little
German tells me that I should learn French in order to obtain a
girlfriend (it's already gotten him 2). Awkward conversation with man
who speaks basically no English OR German. And a conversation with a
Muslim who wanted to convert me. They were all entertaining, but
unfortunately not terribly successful. But this next week is smelling
like a good one.

So yesterday during studies and before going to bed I was feeling some
creative juices and whipped out this baby.

Analogy time. I want a car. I go to my dad, asking, pleading and
begging for him to give me a car. He thinks about it for a few
seconds.
"Do you promise that you'll obey the rules? Follow the speed limit,
wear a seatbelt, stay sober...everything?"
"Of course, dad!"
So my dad buys me a car, a very nice car. Before giving me the keys he
once again reminds me of my commitment to be obedient. I nod soberly,
snatch the keys and run out the door.
After a few weeks I start to notice that many drivers basically ignore
the speed limit. No one seems to be getting in trouble for it, so I
decide to crank the speed up a bit.
A month or so later, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. It's easy
to tell that I'm a much better driver than most people. What do I need
a seat belt for? Sure, some people get in accidents, but I've been
driving for almost 2 months now and haven't had anything close to an
accident.
Another month goes by, and some dudes invite me to a party. My dad's
warnings enter into my mind, but I manage to push them away. I've been
doing just fine on my own so far, right? I go to the party. Of course
there's alcohol, and everyone's drinking it. I have no interest in
being the one fool that refuses to drink, so I jump right in. Well
after a couple hours the party comes to an end. Something feels wrong,
but what am I gonna do, sit there all night until I feel better? What
would my friends think? So I start driving home.
Things are going ok, but after those couple hours of partying I've
never felt more tired. I still have a nagging feeling in my stomach,
but whatever. A few minutes later my eyes start to droop. The road
becomes a blur. A bright light flashes in front of me, the honking of
a car drills itself into my head. I swerve off the road. I hit a tree.
I wake up, battered, bruised and broken. My car is totaled, I can
hardly imagine how I'm still alive. After a few moments of taking in
the situation, I start to wish that I wasn't. Not only am I in
terrible pain, my precious car totaled. I have to return to my father,
battered and bruised, show him the totaled car, the car that he freely
gave me, and tell him straight to his face that I knowingly acted in
opposition to his conditions. For a time (minutes, hours, days?) I lie
in agony, wishing that I hadn't survived the accident.
After an eternity my head starts to clear and I remember something my
older brother told me shortly before I drove off.
"I'll always be there for you."
These words which I had previously disregarded flood into my mind. I
grasp onto it and pull out my cellphone, which is miraculously still
intact. At the first ring he answers his phone, almost as though he
was expecting a call. In response to his voice all I manage is a
strangled cry,
"I'm sorry."
He listens patiently and quietly as I explain to him what happened,
occasionally offering words of comfort and support. There is no anger,
exasperation or condemnation. As I finish explaining my story, he
simply says:
"Everything will be alright. I'm on my way."
I forget my pains, my fear and my guilt. Everything would be alright.
I hear the squeal of brakes, the opening and closing of a car door. My
brother wrenches the door open and pulls me out. I'm too stunned to
say anything as he kneels down in the dirt and starts addressing my
wounds. Finally I find my voice.
"Don't worry about me, take a look at my car!"
"I'll take care of that too, but I'll need your help. Can't very well
help me in a condition like this, can you?"
As he finishes, he helps me to my feet. He makes a deal with me.
"Together we're going to repair your car. It will take some effort on
your part, but I'll help you every step of the way. Once the car is
fixed and you're back on the road I want you to call me every day and
tell me how you're doing."
"Every day? Aren't you busy?"
"Never too busy for you, bro."
It takes some time, but a few weeks later, my body and car are as good
as new. Before driving back home he once again gives me those
reassuring words.
"I'll always be there for you."
And ever since then, things have been going great. Sure every once and
a while the temptation comes to stretch the rules a bit, but after
looking back on all that happened, it's not hard to push the thought
out of my mind. And if it comes back, my brother is just a call away.
Now I'm devoted to helping others understand, so they don't have to go
through what I did. Sometimes they believe me, sometimes they don't.
Every day my brother offers me encouragement, and lovingly offers me
ways to improve. There's nothing I want more than to one day be like
him.

Yeah, a little bit out of the blue, 'twas inspired by Alma 36. Anywho,
I love you guys. It'll be good to see yalls faces at Christmas,
especially in comparison with the interesting phone call we had a few
weeks ago. Have a good week!

Elder Larsen

Du Bist in Dunkelheit!

Guten Morgen!

That seems pretty accurate Lisa, especially when we've been born and raised in Provo, it's 

sometimes easy to take the gospel for granted. It's quite the change coming into an area 

where the number of members is only slightly more than 0%. It's a mixture of refreshing, 

exciting and overwhelming. But on the other hand, wherever you go people are people. I 

forgot to answer you mom, we use our iPads basically for gospel library, maps and notes. 

Maybe one day we'll have Facebook, who knows. You guys should stop dying...Joey's head 

trying to explode, Mom getting her tooth pulled, Lisa and the chillun getting sick, Andy 

getting wasted at basketball. Keep workin on that German Joey. Once I have German down 

President Fingerle said I can work on my Spanish again. Then we can both have a solid 3 

languages.

Another busy (in other words, great) week! The rundown is basically caroling, an interesting 

Muslim dude, a trip to the temple and a trainer/trainee conference. So: caroling. In an effort to

use tons of Christmas pass along cards, we got some of our zone together to sing some jolly ol 

songs. I hoped I'd be able to hide from it, but there was no escape...I was one of the 2 card passers. 

It was one of the few times in my life that I've wished to have better singing skills. In all honesty, 

it wasn't bad at all! Most people rejected my efforts to shove a card in their face, but in the end, 

along with giving away quite a few cards, I was also able to have some pretty nice conversations. 

I talked to a couple students, and it was basically the first time I've ever been entirely alone in a conversation with non-member Germans. Granted, I'll probably never see them again, but it was 

still pretty cool. After 2 days of caroling (45ish minutes each day) we got a solid 250 or so cards passed out. Awesome stuff!

So there we are going to visit a less active, when a very Muslim man came up to me and started rambling about our religion being false and was convinced that if we came to his house and watched this video that we'd want to change. Of course after politely listening to him for a solid few minutes, he refused to listen to anything we had to say, and just started calling out, "du bist in Dunkelheit!" (You are in darkness). Lots of interesting people.

Temple trip! Our ward mission leader drove us and one of our German investigators as well as 

two other elders and one of their investigators to the Freiberg temple, which is unfortunately under construction. But there are 2 sister missionaries that have a little presentation thingy where they 

talk about the temple and it actually went really well. The investigators were pretty emotional 

afterwards. President Fingerle has a big focus on the temple, so it'll be great when the temple is finally open again.

At Trainer/Trainee Conference

Training conference was great, got to see how my ol mtc buds are doing. Elder Green still gets his letters of eternal love from his girlfriend every week, Elder Racine already has a baptism under his

belt and Elder Bennett is still Elder Bennett. My main takeaway from it all is that mission work (and life in general) is really all about love. In terms of a language, someone from the 70 said that learning a language and having the gift of tongues isn't an event, but a journey of loving the people. Someone pointed out how the description of God and the description of charity have a lot of similarities. Loving others more than ourselves is maybe the best way for us to become more like God. His work and his glory is for other people to be happy!

So love people! God loves us perfectly, and naturally when we share that knowledge with others, God will bless us. Have a great week!

Elder Larsen

PS Also fun fact, if all the inactives started coming again, the size of the ward would be more than doubled. Imagine that happening in Provo...

Already Christmas Time?

Hurro,

You're sure right about having a proper perspective mom, and that's something I definitely need to work on. Being a trainee is somewhat frustrating and sometimes it feels like it'll take forever, but if I can just keep the proper perspective and be grateful for this time I have to stretch, learn and be corrected, everything will work out for the best. I think for the moment I'm good on recipes, another Elder sent me an entire cookbook, haha. Thanks for sending that story Joey, pretty awesome stuff. We actually read the prayer that President Monson said for Germany, but it's cool to see all the context of it. Im glad you got your blue poop thing removed. Unfortunately Lisa, these Germans don't believe in giving thanks! But I've heard they've got Christmas figured out pretty well here, and that's all that's really important. Well Andy, there I was, a while before zone conference is about to start and I hear a few elders talking about smash. But then the first thing I hear is some comment about fox being super cheap in the n64 version...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, there are only very few in the world as champion sauce as us. There are also a few League nerds in my ward and also other missionaries. I'm yet to find any fellow ultimate frisbee players though, quite the shame.

Where has the time gone by? It still felt like summer in the mtc, and now I can't go anywhere without seeing Christmas decorations! At zone conference this week President Fingerle announced the beginning of the "Christmas Initiative." There's a new Christmas video (A Savior is Born, watch it!) that we're to incorporate into basically every part of our work. We've been given 750 Christmas pass along cards to share with members, investigators, and basically everyone we meet. It's nice to have something to concentrate all our efforts on, and the members here are more than willing to do their part. President Fingerle also gave an interesting breakdown of the word assume, which I'm not sure that I should share the details of.

Berlin Zone (Matt is second from the left on the front row)

This week we also had a "musical evening" stake activity thingamajig. It was actually pretty awesome. A solid 500 or so people came, many of whom were nonmembers. It was basically a video that taught the restoration, with little musical performance intervals throughout. The spirit was strong and just about everyone enjoyed it. At the end the audience clapped for an awkwardly long time, but it was very touching! We're already starting to see some positive results from it.

In terms of teaching, once again our less actives are making awesome progress, but our investigators are struggling. One less active Felix is just about to the point of being fully active, which is especially exciting since he's the first person I taught a lesson to here in Germany. He's pretty awesome. With our investigators, our most solid ones, Housan, Cristian and Antony seem to be falling off the face of the earth. The first 2 haven't answered any calls and Antony is no longer in Berlin. It's rough going, but things should pick up with some of our new contacts from the musical evening! We just have to keep working hard and trust in the Lord's timing.

Aside from that, German is coming along and things like the area book, bus schedules and subways are no longer totally unfamiliar and weird. A few weeks ago I was on an exchange with another trainee elder, and it was a miracle that we didn't end up in France by the end of the day. Now I've got a better grip on it all, haha.

 Life is good, the Gospel is great! Have a good week!

Elder Larsen

Sin is a Slippery Slope

Before I forget, my ward mission leader wants to hang up pictures of missionaries' families, so if y'all could email some pics, that'd be real swell.  I wouldn't be opposed to a chili recipe and basically anything you want to surprise me with. You can just email pictures of recipes and I can just have them on my iPad. Also: If there's anything that I've actually learned on my mission so far, it's that you don't have to suffer through hard times on your own. You're probably right about students being good dad, we've got a few student contacts we could go visit. Unfortunately Joey, we're lucky to just have 1 or 2 appointments during that time. That's just when it gets dark, so it's the ideal time for it.

Realistically we end up spending a lot of time visiting contacts and doing area book work.

Probably the most noteworthy event of this week was on Wednesday. We did some street finding, and it went so poorly (only 1 person showed even polite interest) that we decided to go visit some contacts instead. We rung this guy's doorbell, knowing nothing about him other than that his name was George. All it said on his record is that in August 2013 he wanted to stop drinking. A loud, very drunk voice called out to us, in a language that was probably supposed to be English. Right as it seemed like he had no intention of letting us in, he opened the door, and despite remembering nothing about the missionaries who first met him, he welcomed us in like we were the best of chums. He's an older African man who's seen his fair share of the world. He's really nice, but it's easy to tell that unhealthy habits have caused a lot of physical, mental and spiritual pain. And it's probably safe to say that in order to ease this pain, he immerses himself even deeper in these habits. Sin is a slippery slope. Even though it was hard to tell how much we got through to him with the first lesson, we got another appointment set up. But buckle up, cause this long-winded story isn't over yet! After our lesson, George's son came in, who just recently became interested in Christianity. He said he'd like to meet with us. I'm pretty sure he has no intention of being baptized, but I think we can change that. He's a really cool guy who basically turned his life around and is now devoting his efforts to providing Ghana (which is where his family is originally from) with things like roads, electricity, water, etc. Despite his busy schedule he's really interested in meeting with us and I think the Gospel has the potential of making his efforts and his perspective even more meaningful. Not to mention the billions of other blessings he'd be able to enjoy and be a part of. So I guess the moral of the story is, if something is going terribly poorly, then God probably wants you to be doing something else. Also be wary when accepting drinks from drunk people. 

At Brandenburg Gate

Aside from that, we're making pretty good progress with the less actives we've been working with. Due to several fallen out appointments we didn't make a ton of progress in terms of existing investigators. But the work moves on, and this next week is looking like it'll be a good one.

Also, while it's nice to look back on the days with high numbers, obvious miracles and noticeable progress, the true joy comes from days when I can look back and sincerely say that I pushed myself, tried hard and trusted in God, regardless of the circumstances.

The Gospel is true. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He loves us and won't give up on us, even when we give up on him. Y'all keep being awesome!

Elder Larsen

Elder Ballard and Elder Peatross

In answer your questions. So our typical lunch are these Maggi things, which are basically some weird combination of real food and something like ramen. They started off ok, but I think I'm gonna have to find an alternative pretty fast. They try so hard to make the stuff taste like real food with the little flavor package that it ends up just leaving a nasty taste in my mouth and a sick feeling in my stomach. I sure wouldn't be opposed to some recipes! I guess my advice for you Andy is, if you're gonna foul out, at least make more than 1 of them count for something. Take a couple of their players down with you. Dad: Our transport consists of walking, subways, and buses, our typical day is: 6:30-12:00 is preparation, study, and lunch, 12:00-3 or 4ish we do street contacting, visit contacts, make calls etc, then from there till 8 we have appointments and dinner, and then language study, planning, and then sleeping. The chapel is just a 10 minute walk away. Doners and Schnitzel are delicious and every Tuesday we have district meeting with the 6 others in my district.

So this week certainly took a turn for the exciting! Yesterday the whole mission had the opportunity to hear from Elder Ballard. We all crammed into the Berlin stake center, and in the hour before Elder Ballard arrived, I finally ran into Elder Peatross! Actually he ran into me, quite literally. There's certainly something weird about seeing such a familiar face in a Country across the ocean and thousands of miles away from home. It was also nice to see some of my old mtc district chums. We then were all able to shake Elder Ballard's hand, which was pretty awesome. When he talked to us I was reminded of how uncomplicated the Gospel, or more specifically, a mission, really is. You learn chapter three of Preach My Gospel, you talk to everyone, you teach them, you baptize them. And as that process is repeated for 2 years, you're bound to get better and better, and you're going to make a difference in the world. There's no doubt that man is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He's also quite the funny guy. The room was boiling, so we opened up all of the windows. A few minutes later when Elder Ballard stood up, he said "If any of you close to the windows get too cold, just come up here to the front and sit by the President's daughters. They'll warm you right up." That got quite the laugh.

So 3 of the new investigators we found in the last couple weeks just happen to be named Housam, Hassan and Ahassan. One is from Russia, one is from the Middle-East and one is from Africa, and they were all found on different days in different places. Housam is pretty awesome (he's the only one of them we've had a full lesson with so far). He's very open and very willing to make a change in his life. I gotta say, it's one thing to read a tragedy, it's another to have one sitting in front of you, eager to forget the things he's lived through and desperate for a better life. The guy has been through some crazy hard stuff. Of the people I've taught so far, he's the most eager to be baptized. The rough part is, if he has any plans or legal obligations that will take him back to Syria, we can't teach him. I really hope everything turns out alright with the guy.

This week we did an exchange with the Zone leaders, and I spent the day with Elder Kreuz, who's been out for a little over a year now. I learned a lot from him, not the least of which is that salad doesn't actually have to be nasty. I won't go into details, but he actually made some pretty tasty salads (disclaimer:95% of food is still better). The Sunday before, 2 ladies came into church and basically asked Elder Kreuz and his companion Elder Friebe if they could be baptized. I guess several years earlier they had had some contact with missionaries but weren't very interested. After a while things got really hard for them and they remembered the missionaries. They went to lds.org, watched a ton of videos, decided everything was true and are now going to be baptized in a few weeks. Miracles certainly happen.

The ward here is really great, we've got 50-60 or so active members. A lot of our success actually has been working with less actives in the area. One, Gükhan, just has to help pass the sacrament, and he'll have reached all the standards to be considered active. Another, Felix, was baptized almost 30 years ago, but became inactive so he could "live free." Well that led to a lot of problems, physically, mentally and spiritually. But recently he saw his neighbor being taught by a couple Jehovah Witnesses, and decided that it was time he refound his faith. He sought after the missionaries and they (Elder Anderson and his old companion, Elder Clemens) started teaching him. He's made a ton of progress, and after a few more lessons and active commandment-keeping, he should be able to become a pretty solid member.

The Gospel is true and it continues to change lives every day. Missionary-work is hard but there's absolutely nothing better I could be a part of right now. Have a good week!

Elder Larsen

How Long Has It Been?

Hopefully at some point I'll see those pictures mom, because I pictured my smile being some ghastly grimace and my face being ghost white.

With President and Sister Fingerle

Joey, tell Martee I love him too...and Jehk, Ziek, Ahbee and Sevanuh. I believe that scripture was said by Paul (which I only know because Lisa also shared that quote). Not bad, quitting Hearthstone, I seemed to have as much trouble getting into that game as you did getting out. You're definitely right about listening to promptings, it's probably something I could work on more, not only tuning things down to listen to the Spirit, but also to act on whatever it tells you to do. Elder Anderson took German before his mission, but he is also just some kind of genius. He's from Texas. Dad: We're the only ones in our apartment, there's just one ward in our area and so far I haven't really experienced anything unique in terms of food. It's all been pretty good. Our 2 most promising investigators are Cristian and Silas. They both are from Africa and speak English. Cristian is pretty awesome, if we allowed him, he could probably tell stories about when he was in Africa for a solid 24 hours. He's had a lot of miraculous experiences and he knows that God is real, he just wants to know for sure that our church is the right one. We're trying to pound in the fact that in order to know, he's got to read the Book of Mormon. Silas is pretty close to being baptism ready, it's just hard to get a meeting with him. Other than those 2, most of our efforts have been focused on finding and working with less actives. Well Andy, It's nice to know that the media always has something to cry about.

In Front of the Freiberg Temple

So I've discovered that I'm not a particularly patient person. Sometimes I just expect everything to be like a light switch. If I just find out the magic word, I'll be able to instantly learn German, become perfect at finding and teaching, be filled with charity, etc. Eventually I'll accept the reality that these things will take time. Rather than constantly worrying about the things that I'm struggling with, it's nice to look back and see how much God has helped me to learn and change in just a couple months.

I sure never would have said this back in MTC days, but it would be great to actually teach more than (at most) a couple lessons a day. This last week we spent hours doing street contacting, and the longest conversation we ended up having was with a drunk man who claimed to believe in Satan. Something good did come out of it though. He asked me a couple questions that I couldn't understand, and Elder Anderson explained that I was brand new in Germany and couldn't understand everything. The man in response asked, if you don't know German, why are you here? It was a sobering question (can drunk men ask sobering questions?). It allowed me to remember that I was here because an inspired Prophet of God sent me here. It's a good thing to remember. Anywho, we did have some success finding, but I'm definitely open to any tips or advice in that regard.

German is an interesting language. I remember jokingly thinking at the MTC that 70% of what I said in German was grammatically incorrect, and then upon arriving here I discovered that 70% may have been too generous. It's gradually starting to make sense though. There are quite a few situations though, even if I'm familiar with most of the vocab, that due to the weirdness of sentence structure, accent and how fast they speak I end up not really understanding. Add another element, like talking on a phone or having a conversation when there's a lot of background noise, and I basically have no chance. I look forward to the day that the enormous puzzle that is German finally comes together.

Life is good and Germany is awesome. I look forward to 2 years of being a witness of how much  the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. Enjoy the mountains back home for me (I'm discovering that the big city isn't the place for me, haha). Have a good week!

-Elder Larsen

Life in Deutschland

So in answer to your questions about my motion sickness, as I stepped outside the car on my first finding attempt, I lost the small amount of chili I had had for lunch. All in all, Tuesday and Wednesday weren't the most enjoyable days ever. I suppose it only made sense that if I was already feeling sick after the train, 12 hours in an airplane probably wouldn't go so well. My search for some sort of medication was in vain, they only had pills for children at the airport, but I was certainly blessed in that each time I misplaced a meal, it was in a toilet, a bag or on the floor (as opposed to someone's lap or something).

Aber jetzt, es geht mir gut! (But now, I'm doing fine!) I made it here safe and sound, and after spending a couple days with President Fingerle and my old district by the Freiberg Temple (which unfortunately is under construction), I was shipped off to the Berlin zone. Our district is in a city called Neukölln. The apartment is nice, and just a short walk away there's a nice booze joint, so if we ever need a few cold ones, we know where to go. My trainer is Elder Anderson, who has actually been here for only 12 weeks (so he literally just finished his own training), but he has a pretty solid grip on everything. He's also the district leader. He's a pretty impressive dude.

Unfortunately people aren't exactly lining up to get baptized, but we have a decent amount of people to work with though (and some of them speak english!). Not surprisingly, the Africans are a whole lot more open to the message. Before getting here I thought I understood what Elder Holland meant when he said that on a mission your first convert has to be yourself, but it's taken on more meaning than I ever would have expected. There is quite the difference between here and Provo, and needless to say, one's faith is tested when he's no longer in a place where everyone you meet is mormon. But the Gospel is just as true and important here as it is in Provo. If I just give it my best, God will add to my efforts.

The members here are great and should be a huge help to us (as long as we try to take advantage of it). I'm slowly getting a grip on the language. Typically I can understand a fair amount of what people say, but it wears my brain out enough that I don't typically say much in response. And then there are times where I have no idea what someone is saying and just kind of nod my head. I've gotten a few weird looks in those situations. It's easy to get a little discouraged, but then I remember that I've been at work for like 3 and a half days (even though it feels like a lot longer than that).

All in all, life is good and it's only getting better. I actually haven't had a single bratwurst yet. Döners are pretty big here, they're like wraps at the MTC except toasted and filled with fresh, delicious meat. You hear more English music here than German, and some clothing has english stuff written on it. I was interested to see a little girl with a shirt that had like a full sentence of english written on it, that I'm sure neither she nor her friends could read.

I'm excited to be part of this work and have the opportunity each day to bring others (and myself) closer to Christ.

Con much Liebe,

-Elder Larsen

Die Letze Woche (The Last Week)

Hallo,

I leave next Tuesday at 3:30 AM, so I probably won't be able to check my email again till I'm in Germany. I'm pretty sure all I need you guys to send me is Zeke. Tell Savannah happy birthday for me, I can't believe she's already 2! (She's actually 6.) Give those other rascals a nice spanking for me. Tehee. Your German isn't too different from mine Joey, what you said is understandable but some of it is grammatically wrong. Quite the fun language.

It's hard to believe that I'll actually be leaving the MTC. It kind of felt like I'd be here forever (which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing). It's crazy how after the first couple weeks time just started to fly. Due to receiving a pretty stylin haircut today, I don't have as much time for emails this week, so I'll end with this:

There's no aspect of life that can't be improved by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is never a time that we don't need His sacrifice and there's never a time that we can't improve. There's never a time we don't need to pray or read from the Scriptures. It doesn't matter how good, how bad or how average your life is. It doesn't matter if you're struggling with something major or something seemingly unimportant. If there is anything that brings shame, unhappiness, envy, hurt or anger into you're life, you can do something about it. Humble yourself, be willing to change, ask for forgiveness and everything can be made right. There is nothing you (or anyone around you) can do to change Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for you. So (and I'm talking to myself more than anyone else), get over yourself and allow your will to become aligned with the Lord's.

I'll get off my soap box now. Ich liebe Sie!

Elder Larsen

Ehzikeahl

Did I spell Ziggy's name right?

In answer to Joey's questions, es geht mir gut, heute ich habe basketball gespielt und ich werde zu der Tempel gehen. Ich esse in der Kafeteria. German's coming along and I'm pretty sure that a German would understand most of what I'm saying, but I'm also pretty sure that in terms of grammar and sentence structure 80% of what I say is incorrect. It is a pretty fun language though, and as long as I can at least semi-coherently voice my thoughts that's probably all that matters in terms of a language. It'll be sad to miss the Dirty Devil, is Joey going this year with Marty Jake and Ziggy? Ziggy's a cute one (and the more I think about it the more I think Zeke sounds better). I think I've spent some time as both of those missionaries Mom, sometimes it's hard to stop myself from spouting out random movie quotes.

I never thought that I'd be leaving the MTC, but it's actually getting pretty close. Honestly it's a pretty great place; my district is starting to complain about the food, but compared to the mediocre meals I'll probably be making for myself in Germany, this is great! Everything's going pretty well, doors are opening in my mind in regard to language and gospel topics that I didn't even know existed. The thought of moving on and going to Germany is a pretty big mixing pot of excitement and anxiety, but it will be refreshing to start teaching and helping actual investigators rather than teacher-investigators.

A topic we've heard a few times here in the MTC is that of turning outward. Obviously the biggest example of this is Jesus Christ, who never thought about his own welfare (aside from arguably during that one time, you know, right before he suffered for the pains of billions of people). It's something that everyone can improve on and something that I really hope I can get better with; it sure isn't something I did much before coming on a mission. Am I thinking more about my own needs and desires or the needs and desires of other people? It's definitely not an easy one for me, but it's probably the one that will bring the most happiness, success and fulfillment both in and after this life.

Nothing too exciting going on this week, the time is going by and I've still got a lot to learn. But I know I'm not alone and I know that I've been called by God to do this work.

Ich liebe sie!

Elder Larsen

Little Tanoe Root Beer

Hallo,

I don't think I'll ever be opposed to peanut butter bars Mom, nor could I be convinced not to eat them, no matter how obese I could get. I think I need to at least try the retainers, lest my teeth go crooked beyond repair, I also could use another t-shirt/pair of basketball shorts, send whatever or maybe have Andy pick them. Thanks for them pictures, those will definitely be nice to have. I'll have to send you the many (0) pictures I've taken so far. Haha, Elder Bennett will send me some group pictures we've taken and I'll try to send those next week. Tell Paul and Sarah that I appreciated the note/cookies that Sarah sent me. It was a very welcome surprise. Andy, do you know Jacob Brogdon? He graduated the same year as you and he's one of my German teachers. Also, how's your girlfriend/truck/guitar/booze/horse doing? 

I think my favorite quote in General Conference (I keep forgetting who said it) was something along the lines of, "We only fail if we refuse to try to take another step forward," and he related it to a baby trying to walk to his parents. I hate to sound like a broken record but the best times I've had here so far have been the times (or at least the times directly following) when I've made mistakes. It's that time that I can dedicate myself to improving whatever I messed up with and there's no better inspiration for being obedient, praying and trusting in the Lord than when you've been humbled after making a mistake, and it was during one of these times that I felt the Holy Ghost stronger than I've ever felt it before.

Every week I see more of Heavenly Father's hand in putting me in my specific companionship, district and mission. Now I just have to try to do my best in living up to his expectations. It's hard sometimes, it seems like there's way too much to do in way too little time, but I've made tons of progress since when I first got here and I know that every day God gives me the strength I need. If He didn't then I guarantee you I wouldn't be here right now. Each day my testimony is strengthened and each day is an opportunity to improve myself and uplift others.

Random funny story of the week, at dinner one evening an Elder mentioned how in Europe they don't sell much root beer. Elder Bennett confirmed it, saying "They sell little-to-no root beer in Europe. My companion Elder Fritz thought that he was talking about some brand of root beer that they sell in Europe called "Little Tanoe root beer" and asked "Is it good?" The first Elder responded, thinking that the question was "Is it good that they don't sell root beer?" with "It's only good if you don't like it." Following that was quite a bit of confusion until Elder Fritz figured out what Elder Bennett had actually said. It was one of the funnier things I've heard in my life, hopefully in my poorly typed out version of the story you can understand/appreciate it.

Anywho, life is good. Elder Green in my district basically got a wedding proposal from his girlfriend, something along the lines of "I keep telling myself I can give you up for these 2 years, because I'll be able to have you for eternity." So I've had a good time harassing him about that. Life is good here and I hope things are going alright in the outside world.

Viel Lieben

Elder Larsen

Boxes EVERYWHERE!!!!

Happy burfday Mom! Andy can give you a hug for me. I believe I'd like my mission scripture to be Luke 9:23-24. I guess I'd like to have the retainers, if I still have the ability to cram them into my mouth. There was also a paper that told me some scriptures and stuff I should memorize in German, if you can find it, that I'd like to have. Also, could you remind me what the web address is for my blog? The food at the MTC is quite good, when I weighed myself last week I had gained 4 pounds, so at this rate I'll be rather obese by the time I get back. My daily schedule right now is basically 6 hours of instruction, 1 hour of teaching and 5 hours of study, then 4ish hours of meals, breaks, gym time, getting ready for bed, etc. And to Joey: that scripture from last week I believe is Doctrine and Covenants 11:21, also I'll probably be calling Ezequiel Ziggy.

Everyone here says that days are like weeks and weeks are like days, which I guess means I've either been here for 2 days or 98 days. I think I'm more inclined toward 98, it's crazy how in two weeks the MTC has become my home and my life 100%. Last week during some of our winding down time we (the 5 of us in our district) chose some different movies and assigned each other characters from them. I was given Gandalf, Yoda, Vision (Avengers 2), Professor X and...Spongebob. I honestly don't really understand any of their choices for me other than Spongebob. In regards to the subject of this email, me and Elder Fritz failed our room inspection because we had "Boxes everywhere." I've received 0 boxes and Elder Fritz had 2 on his desk. Everyone in our zone says that our room is easily the cleanest and they received perfect scores...so that was interesting.

Anywho, I'm learning so much here in the MTC. I always kinda pictured the MTC as this brief training Montage that I'd hurry through before going to Germany, but I feel like I've grown so much just in these last 2 weeks. I think the lesson I'm starting to really learn and that I wish I had learned sooner is that it's ok to make mistakes. For example when I was teaching one of my investigators yesterday and I told her that we were from Utah, she said that she had heard there are a lot of mountains in Utah. However the word for mountain sounds somewhat similar to the word for bear, so I thought she had said there were a lot of bears in Utah, so in response I said "I haven't seen any bears in Utah." A more humbling one was when my teacher told me that I need to have a stronger testimony that reading the Book of Mormon will answer any questions that investigators (or ourselves) have. It all comes down to me using these experiences to improve and turn to Heavenly Father rather than becoming discouraged that I'm not some perfect all-knowing missionary. I frequently remind myself that God called me to learn German and to teach the German people for a reason, and I can see his hand so much in the companionship and district that he has put me in. Not to sound sappy but they honestly are incredible and have become 4 of my closest friends. We all have our issues but we've got each others backs, not to mention that if we do our best and rely on Them, we also have Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost on our side, and boy do we need Them. It's surprised me how even in the MTC, we still have our agency and it's entirely up to us how seriously we take our time here and how obedient we decide to be. Elder Costa from the presidency of the seventy emphasized that one of the most important things for us to have is a burning desire to bring souls unto Christ. So one thing I'd like to start asking myself everyday  is, "How have I proved to myself and to God today that I have this burning desire?" The MTC is amazing, and so far this has been a refiner's fire that I'm in desperate need of. I love you all and I feel and appreciate the faithful prayers you say in my behalf.

Love, 

Elder Larsen

Ich Bin Soooooo Begeistert

Herrrooo,

 

It's crazy how every day brings new opportunities and new challenges here. I am finally getting used to the schedule here, so the only really difficult thing here now is teaching investigators. Also we can't play ultimate frisbee...which seems like some kind of sick joke. You can toss a frisbee around, you can play soccer and basketball, but you can't play ultimate frisbee. So traurig. Yesterday I had the most miraculous experience that I've had so far in the MTC. So we were planning our fourth lesson for our "investigator" Carola, and our first three lessons with her were basically just us teaching some basic doctrine about prayer, the Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon or Jesus Christ, and bearing simple testimony. This lesson, however, we were going to teach her about the great apostasy, the Restoration/Joseph Smith, more about Christ's ministry and at the end invite her to be baptized for the first time, all in German of course. To help prepare we did a roleplay with our teacher...I totally bombed it; floundered the whole time. To make matters worse the rest of my district returned to the classroom from their lesson with Carola with mixed expressions of sadness and irritation. They told us "good luck" in the way that actually means "you're hosed" and sat down. So off we went. It was easily the best and most rewarding lesson we've had. We were able to slow things down and focus on the investigator, and the Spirit led the conversation so that rather than spouting out random facts and sentences, we were able to answer her questions, make her feel what she needed to feel all while teaching her the doctrine that we had planned. What I was sure would be a humiliating and discouraging experience turned into a humbling and encouraging experience as me and Elder Fritz focused on the investigator and allowed the Holy Ghost to direct us. In response to our invitation to be baptized she said she would pray to know if what we taught was true, and if she received an answer, she would accept our invitation. The Spirit is readily available to those who get over themselves, turn outward and rely on Heavenly Father.

 

Anyway...I've got a great district and a great companion. I'll admit, I'm not super into going to choir, or playing soccer, but those are basically my only complaints. If I was in any other district I probably wouldn't be able to survive the hours of study/class time that we have every day. Elder Fritz is from South Weber, Utah and the other three elders, Elder Green, Elder Bennett and Elder Recine are from American Fork and Boise. We're all pretty different but they're all solid dudes with solid testimonies. Also the other Elders aren't terribly athletic which makes me feel like I'm actually good at basketball. Anywho, off to play some soccer...yippee.

 

With love und begeisturung,

 

Elder Larsen

Das Third Dia

Hallo!

Guten Tag!

Wie gehen Sie?

Anyway, this has probably been the craziest couple days of my life, possibly second to the first trip to Coyote Gulch, which didn't last 6 weeks. On orientation day one of the slides they showed us said something along the lines of "Growth only comes when you're outside your comfort zone," and it very accurately showed a picture of someone playing video games. It's not easy, but it sure is true. My time here so far has been great, the most trouble I've had so far was at an activity where we sat down and watched a couple videos (in the dark) and I very nearly fell asleep about every five minutes. Don't think I've ever felt that tired in my life, probably didn't help that for lunch I had crammed my stomach full of greasy bratwursts. 

My companion's name is Elder Fritz and he's a pretty solid dude. In a lot of ways we're pretty similar, but when it comes to interests, as opposed to the beauty of ultimate frisbee, basketball, and backpacking he enjoys singing, playing the piano and most wicked of all, running. In all seriousness he's pretty great though and we have an amazing district of five. German is coming back to some small extent and hopefully with the help of the Spirit I'll be able to start making some progress. Anyway, I'm basically out of time, my prep day is Wednesday so I'll have more time then. Good luck, Ich liebe Sie.

Aufwiedersehen (in 2 years)

-Elder Larsen