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