auch ganz Lieb." Or you can be boring and tell her that Tina loves her
too. Your experience at church (and with mom) reminds me of a service
project we did last week, helping some members move. A few of us were
going down the stairs, and I started going super slow. I expected them
to tell me to hurry up or something, but when I looked back, their
faces were expressionless. So I'm pretty sure they just think I'm weak
and/or dumb, haha. In terms of Germans being direct and blunt, I've
noticed it a bit, but since it's a different language it doesn't sink
in quite as much. But yeah, especially talking to people on the
street, they say things that, if I think about someone saying it in
English, seem a bit rude. Sounds pretty rough Andy, how are you gonna
make enough time for the babes? I'm not sure about being the star
actor, I don't think I'm good enough at looking at things through "an
artist's perspective." Mom, I think you're even more accurate than you
know. Every day we meet people who say (and countless more who think)
that they don't need God. But that's only because they haven't been
able to recognize God's love for them, just like a child can't
recognize how much he needs his parents. That's definitely something
for me to think about. Unfortunately Joey, I don't think kolln
actually means anything. Neukölln is just named after some place
called Kolln. Haven't had a lot of gross foods, other than a couple
salads, with cheese cubes that tasted like rotten egg jelly beans.
I'll keep the advice in mind, Joey. You'll get to see for yourself
when I marry the biggest babe out there, tehee. The training meeting
was pretty great Dad. Got to hear from Elders Andersen, Bednar and
Oaks. The theme was teaching repentance, so we can baptize converts.
They focused on teaching fundamentals, like testifying of Christ,
giving people commitments, teaching by the Spirit, etc. I really liked
a question that Elder Andersen asked. What do you really believe about
the Atonement? He said if we really understand and believe in it,
we'll have no problem in giving missionary work our all.
So this week was basically awesome. Elder Burns made it here safe and
sound, with only a bit of confusion, haha. At the time when his train
was supposed to arrive, there was no train. We checked the train
schedule, and no train from his area was coming anytime soon. We (the
zone leaders and I) were running around the station wondering where he
was, when my phone started ringing. Of course it was Elder Burns, who
was somehow in Neukölln, rather than the haubtbahnhof (literally:main
train station...pretty creative). In the end it all worked out pretty
smoothly though. He's a pretty awesome guy. From American Fork, Utah
and has been here for about 9 months. He's obedient and hard working,
but also super humble and friendly. I'm really liking the pace and
direction we're setting for the work here.
Since basically all our investigators work until the evening, we've
had some pretty finding-full afternoons. Probably the most interesting
experience was this student who we stopped. He was munching an orange
as I talked to him about the Book of Mormon. Mid-sentence he stops me
and...I'm not even sure how to explain it. It was so fast and hard to
understand, it was like he sneezed out a whole sentence. After asking
like 4 times what he was saying, he slowed down a fraction and said
kannicheinshaben? Which after a few seconds of picking it apart I
finally realized he was asking for a Book of Mormon. I gave it to him,
and before I could say another word he jogged away. Pretty random
stuff. On a more serious note, we were able to have some great
conversations and make out a couple appointments :).
This week I also got to see my first convert baptism. We took our main
man Cristian with us and he liked it quite a bit. The Spirit was
strong and it was even in English, so we didn't have to translate. His
mindset is starting to change from if he's going to get baptized, to
when he's going to get baptized, which is pretty amazing. There's no
doubt that God has a plan for the guy and it's exciting to get to be a
part of it.
One of my favorite phrases in the Book of Mormon has always been being
an "instrument of the Lord." I've always seen it as a goal and a hope,
that one day I can be an instrument in God's hand. What I'm only now
starting to realize is that it's a process, not a destination. You
don't have to be perfect in order for God to work through you. Even
seemingly small or insignificant acts of service or love are means
through which Heavenly Father can use us to change lives. Maybe you
won't accomplish one great deed that brings thousands of people to
repentance, but you can still affect thousands of lives just by taking
small, daily opportunities. Keep being awesome and have a swell week!
Elder Larsen
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