Well Mom, though you may not know the Celestial Language as well as the people here, I'd say you're a good bit more celestial than a lot of them. I had a similar experience with the Holy Ghost in the mtc. It felt like doors were opening up in my brain that I never knew even existed in regard to the Gospel and the Atonement, things that were always in reach but that I never really put in the effort for. Life is indeed funny, Lisa. After times where I feel stressed out or frustrated, I always end up looking back and just kind of laughing at myself for choosing to feel that way. I think we tend to make life a little more difficult than it needs to be. Andy, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. I suppose I can relate to some extent: I've seen a wild squirrel, walked by a lake (no place close to a volcano), and walked through the streets of Stadthagen. Not so different, eh? Sorry Heidi, I've actually decided you aren't allowed to have the baby till I get back. So you're gonna have to wait a little while. Jo-ey, how come Z don't dance no more? Well to be technical Joey, I've actually sung at both Musikalischenabends. Just amid 10-20 other missionaries, tehee. I have gained some mild interest in singing though. We went often with an investigator to choir practice in Neukölln and the choir director dude told me that I should keep working on it...not positive if that'll happen. That's cool that you found a couple names, Dad. Every Sunday we get 1 hour to do family history work here, though unfortunately I don't really know what to do other than tinker around with records and whatnot. I'll figure it out eventually.
Okie dokie
I'm pretty low on time, so I gotta book it. You know, finding is always just really random. Tuesday through Saturday we've got like 2-4 hours each day to do finding, and when do we find our new investigator? Monday, in the 30 or so minutes we had to go dooring. We had a good conversation with the guy and set up a time to meet on Thursday. Went pretty well; he's a very intellectual type guy, and we ended up going pretty deep into the Restoration. Hard to say if he has interest in finding the truth or if he's just interested for purely intellectual reasons, but I think there's potential.
Had some difficulties with a couple investigators this week. It's been a challenge getting people to grow and act on that seed of faith. The younger couple we meet with likes hearing what we have to say, and they've started reading in the Book of Mormon, but in terms of getting them to pray, you'd think that we were asking them to write a 100 page essay, as opposed to inviting them to have a 20 second conversation with their loving Father in Heaven. But, forward we shall go.
Random story of the week. So there we are Saturday morning, visiting some contacts in a city 10 or so miles away from Stadthagen. After a couple hours we head back to the train station so we can get home, eat lunch and then meet a member at the church, who would drive us to an appointment way down south in our area. Well, not only does our train arrive 20 minutes late, it also just happens to be jam-packed. Like literally. I spent 18 weeks in the biggest city in Germany, taking trains every single day, and it was never so packed as this train was. We walked by every door and there was no way we could enter. Why was it so packed, you may ask? Well, to be quite honest it was due to those wicked and perverse traditions of their fathers: soccer. I'm sure no one was more excited about this soccer game than the local beer companies; it was fairly rare to see someone not holding a good ol' can of beer. Well to make matters worse, some drunk soccer fans shoved their way between a set of train doors so that they could yell repeatedly some sort of cheer, and after repeated efforts of trying to close itself, the door malfunctions and can't be closed anymore. At this point we realize this ain't gonna happen, so we call a member (hooray for awesome members!) and arrange to be picked up. In the half hour we wait for our ride, 2 police cars show up and a helicopter starts circling around the train station. At last we were able to get back to Stadthagen, cram lunch down our faces, and get to the church with negative 7 minutes to spare. So I guess the lesson here is...soccer is evil.
Anywho, in all seriousness, life here is pretty awesome. The Gospel is great and so are the people who try to live it. So keep living it, and have an awesome week :).
Elder Larsen
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