Unfortunately my fatness is also increasing my foot size, so I don't
think the old ones would work out to great. Next week we're going to
Hannover so I'll just go on a shopping spree there. I sure do love
shopping...yessiree. Still getting everyone sick, eh Yhetti? At least
this can put a rest to any sort of false accusations that I ever got
anyone sick, tehee. Interesting stuff, Lisa. I've gotta say though,
aside from the day a brown treat came uncontrollably out of my bum, I
don't remember being particularly nervous or uncomfortable in
kindergarten. Yesterday we had an appointment with a certain Mueller
family. Turns out, one of their daughters was trained on her mission
by Mariah Wheatley, and one time the family came to Utah and stayed
with the Wheatley's. They were pretty excited to hear that Brother
Wheatley was my German teacher and that Brianna was in the same grade
as me. Just another random connection. I'll go ahead and take your
word on that one Andy, about the temple construction preventing you
from finding a mate. I expect to hear some results in the near future.
I also had some solid basketball experiences bro, for the first time
since the mtc. You're doing great with the quotes Joey, your Queen
would be proud.
So this week was kind of all over the place. Tuesday we got a visit
from an Austrian member, who had served part of his mission in
Stadthagen and wanted to visit some old friends. He ended up teaching
one of our new investigators with us, which went really well aside
from his phone going off...twice. Once in the middle of the lesson
(ended up having a 10 minute conversation with a co-worker) and then
again at the end in the middle of giving him a blessing. Kinda
awkward, but luckily our investigator was chill about it. Then we had
to rush off to a lesson with a couple that a member referred to us.
They were really cool and nice, but they didn't seem super interested.
We have another appointment tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.
It was a bumpy week with our steady investigators. The one from
Afghanistan, waiting for a visa, ran into some opposition from his
parents. At first they were fine with him being baptized, but
apparently they had a change of heart...and not for the better. And
with the mission policies on teaching people from dangerous countries,
they can't be baptized without the parents consent. Later this evening
we're meeting with them to see what we can do. Our other progressing
investigator Mrs. Heumann is having some slight difficulty with the
word of wisdom, namely with tea and coffee, though considering that
we're in Germany, it's a miracle that that's her only problem with the
word of wisdom.
Other than that, lots of finding. We had quite the conversation with
some born again Christians. It was very friendly up to the point that
we mentioned the Book of Mormon, after which one of them said that he
had read it and received an answer from the Holy Ghost that it was a
devilish book. Elder Barboza handled it pretty solidly. Just bore
testimony of the Book of Mormon and living prophets, and then off we
went. Aside from that our finding efforts led to a lot of solid
conversations, but no real interest. One lady we ended up talking to
for a solid 15 or so minutes on her doorstep, and despite us saying
just about everything we could, and her listening intently, she still
had no desire to do anything other than take a card. In the end, God
is in control, and sometimes there's not much more we can do than hope
that one day these people will realize how much they need the Gospel.
Last thought before I run out of time. I realized this week how easy
it is, even as a missionary, to lose focus on Christ's Atonement. The
restoration, baptism, priesthood and commandments are all super
important, but in the end they mean nothing without the Atonement.
Hopefully this week I can work a little harder at remembering what's
most important and stay a little more true to my promise of always
remembering him.
That's all I've got this week. Keep things real :)
Elder Larsen
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