Happy Reformation Day!

Yeah, you caught me Mom. I just couldn't handle the shame of you outdoing me in baptisms. Though I too have found some names on family search and hopefully this month when we go to the Temple with Peter and Beate, I'll be able to do some work for them. Well you see Lisa, I couldn't think of a different name for the subject, so I tried to think of a long random German word that I could use. Fahrvergnügend, as far as I know, had nothing to do with the events of he week. Boy, it sounds like baby Jake is a slightly more grown up baby nowadays, tehee. The new calling sounds like a party Broseph. I imagine it was similar for you as well on the mission, that more things seem to happen and more progress is made when you have more responsibility. I'm still looking to the day that the frisbee bros are back, to humble the foos who think they can take us. Sheesh Joey, having a baby, buying a house, what else are you going to do while I'm gone, become president? Yeah Dad, I still need to figure out what exactly I want to do, and obviously don't want to dedicate too much thought into it, but living in an apartment seems like it could be fun, plus it will help me get married before Andy (just kidding, though the social aspect is certainly an advantage).

Well while you all were celebrating the boring holiday of Halloween yesterday, we were partying it up in a city called Jena, celebrating the one and only...Reformation Day! I guess it's been 500ish years since the day that Martin Luther started the reformation of Christianity. Our partying consisted of walking around for 4 hours talking to people and...yeah that was about it. It was actually a lot of fun though and we talked to a lot of cool people. Jena is a university city, so there are a lot more people who are open to new ideas. We were up there for pretty much the whole day, which is why I'm writing emails today.

The highlight of this week was probably one of our appointments with our investigator Frau Putschli. We had lost contact with her for about a week because she lost her phone and our appointments fell out, but we were able to get back in contact and meet on Monday and Friday. For the appointment on Friday we brought her over to Peter and Beate's house, the recently new converts, who live just a few minutes away from her. Once again I was amazed at the progress that Beate has made. Beate, who was baptized only 3 weeks ago and who had actually accepted a baptismal date after Frau Putschli had accepted hers, gave awesome testimony about faith and how faith leads to works; and said quite outright that Frau Putschli, through her works, was not showing that she had the faith she needs to be baptized. It was very direct but very necessary, and I just sat there amazed. 6 weeks ago I could never have imagined Beate saying things like that. Frau Putschli was obviously taken aback, but afterwards Beate also showed an outpouring of love, saying to Frau Putschli that she was part of their family now, and if she ever needed anything, they'd be there to help. It was stinking awesome.

Aside from that, we found a couple new investigators this week and were able to make a couple appointments out with some old ones; it's looking like we'll be having a very busy week, which is always nice. I know that God loves us, that he stays true to his word and that he is our Heavenly Father. Without this knowledge I can say 100% that I wouldn't be here in a little German town right now, having some of the coolest experiences of my life, haha.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Larsen