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