Off to Schwarzenberg

Yeah Mom, I suppose 11 months early is one way to look at it. Though that certainly doesn't mean that I'll be getting nothing for this Christmas, tehee. A couple weeks ago we were also unable to go to the temple due to too much snow, though sadly walking to Freiberg wasn't necessarily an option. Well Lisa I'll avoid saying anything too offensive and not say which one of those two cakes looks more appealing. Though I must admit that baby (the wedding cake) is pretty stinkin impressive. I had similar thoughts as yours in regards to the Atonement, as two days ago we tried to offer help to a family that was moving and just got verbal abuse in response haha. Our joy isn't dependent on the actions of others. Andy I hope you're not getting too comfortable over there. I may not currently be in the greatest position to harass you about finding a woman, but the day will come soon enough. Well Heidi, thanks for giving me another reason to be grateful...I've yet to experience an "oozing diaper rash" on my mission. Sounds like you all had fun times with the cars this week. Joey you may be disappointed to hear that I haven't yet become a true missionary. I suppose I still have some time though. And yes, on preparation day we can play card games. Also thanks Michelle for the awesome picture :). Cool to hear that you had some pretty awesome success with college-age people, Dad. Hopefully in my new area there will be a university somewhere.

District Werdau

Well, the sad news came Saturday evening. I'll be leaving Werdau and hopping a bit further south-east to Schwarzenberg. Even more sad is that the Werdau Elders program is getting closed down, so no one will be coming to replace me and Elder Hunt, who is going to Hof. It was certainly a shock, as things were just starting to pick up again. The part member family we've been working with has been coming to church again consistently as well as our investigator Klaus, and Frau Putschli (our investigator who had a baptismal date but then had to go into the hospital) is finally healthy again. We have the Sisters in Gera who also serve in the area, but neither of them have a driver's license so hopping between Gera and Werdau won't be very easy. But all complaining aside, I'm really grateful for the time I was able to spend in Werdau and I'm excited to see what awaits me in Schwarzenberg.

Werdau Ward Munchkins

My new companion will be Elder Christofferson, which is funny because he was in my district for twelve weeks while he was in Zwickau. As we were on exchanges we had actually joked about how it would be if we were companions...and now here we are haha.

Werdau Missionary Crew

But getting transferred wasn't the only life-changing news this week. There was a world-wide missionary devotional and it was announced that there would be changes in the missionary schedule. Pretty much we as missionaries now have a bit more freedom in when we do what. For example we can plan for the day either in the morning or the evening and do our companionship study any time during the day. Nothing super huge, but as a missionary who has been living the same schedule every day for the last 500ish days, it's a bit weird.

So in the Leipzig stake a volunteer committee was recently formed by the stake presidency of a group of members who are interested in taking a more active role in missionary work. On Friday we were there with a bunch of other missionaries for the first meeting of this group. It was cool but we couldn't really figure out what the purpose of the meeting was...afterwards Elder Hunt and I noticed that in the 2 hours or so of teaching and discussing, Jesus Christ was referred to perhaps once or twice. It was a good reminder that if we don't put in the effort to involve the Lord in our missionary work there isn't really much purpose in what we do.

Well I'm out of time, but I hope you guys have a solid week :)

Elder Larsen

Leipzig South Zone

We're Not Aliens

Well Mom you may be happy to hear that I got the Christmas package! I'm quite impressed, yall included everything necessary for an adventure. Beef jerky, pringles and of course cosmic brownies. Awesomeness. Heidi if things ever get too busy with the kids you're welcome to send one of them my way. Too bad Allie isn't really a vampire, I'm not sure if I ever did end up seeing her Halloween picture. Yeah Lisa, it's certainly interesting. Somehow a mission is all about you and nothing about you at the same time. Recently I read the talk you sent me again, the fourth missionary. Seems to be a similar concept. I appreciate the weekly pictures and videos :). Andy maybe you need to take a more 'missionary' perspective. It's not good enough that your boss "appreciates" you, you gotta get those referrals. Does he have a daughter, a niece, a sister? Glad to hear you're seeing the blessings Joey. Just the idea of being able to go to the temple twice in one day seems pretty crazy 'round these parts. Yeah Dad, in the last couple months we've also been talking about believing Christ. There was a general authority who talked about the difference between just believing in Christ, and believing Him and His promises and His power to help you. Cool stuff.

So this week was pretty solid. On Tuesday we had a conference in Freiberg with 70 or so missionaries. Most of it was in English, including most of what President Fingerle said, which made our goal of speaking 24/7 German somewhat difficult. But for the most part the meeting was super good. We talked a lot about ideas for finding people to teach, aside from the typical street contacting and dooring. There's a huge focus on finding college-age people, which isn't too easy since there's no university in our area. But we've started to put a lot of effort into thinking up new ideas of how we can reach the people and show them that we're not aliens.

Anywho, our investigators are finally starting to emerge from their sick beds! Woohoo! With one we've been having a bit of a stand-still. He was born and raised atheist and new concepts such as the pre-earth life, fall and atonement are causing something of an inner conflict with him. He reads the Book of Mormon every day, prays and comes to church but he still feels like his faith is too weak and refuses to talk about baptism. Patience is a virtue, but we are trying to do whatever we can to help him make the right decision. We're also working right now with a part member family, they're still a little bit sick but we were able to make out an appointment for this evening. They're super cool but some negative experiences with the ward have scared them off a little bit. It's not too simple but it's great as a missionary to have to rely on inspiration from God to help people overcome their concerns and follow Jesus Christ.

Well my time is pretty much up, but it's great to hear from you guys. I love you and hope you have a great week!

High Expectations

Don't worry Mom, it's also truthful and factual that you're far more awesome than the average person, no doubt about that. You may find it interesting that in my 4ish months in Werdau I've given 2 talks in sacrament meeting, which I believe is the total I gave at home after 18 years. Boy Lisa, if you think it's hard for you to believe that all the munchkins are growing up, come on over to Germany for a couple years where it seems like every single week a niece or nephew celebrates a birthday, haha. Well Andy I think I have you to thank for any sport domination I've done. It's a good thing you didn't give up with your pushing and pestering, otherwise life would probably be pretty stinkin different right now. Yeah Joey, I do think we're getting to the point of having to pull out some Zion's camp Priesthood action. That's pretty crazy Dad, that in the time between your mission and mine church membership is over 5x as big. The work is definitely moving forward.

Well things are moving slowly forward here in Werdau. One of our investigators is healthy again, but the others are battling against things worse than a common cold. We met with a few former investigators this week, but most seem more interested in chatting than learning about the Gospel. In the last few months we've talked about having high love and high expectations for investigators and it's easy to see the difference with investigators who have been shown perhaps high love but low expectations. It's hard because even lots of members think that conversion is a slow process and that it's more important to develop friendships and just be patient, but that isn't really what we as missionaries are called to do. I'm glad that it has been a theme in our mission conferences; it played a big role in our new convert Beate's conversion, who this week got her first calling as Relief Society secretary :). It's been so cool to see the progress she's made and her excitement for the Gospel.

Well I gotta run, still need to get a few things done for pday, but I love you guys!

Elder Larsen

The Werdau Plague

Well Mom if it makes you feel any better, after having talked to thousands of people in dozens of cities, I'm not sure if there's a single person on this planet who is "normal." Though I guess it just depends on what normal means. In the same chapter of Mosiah is one of my favorite phrases, "if you believe all these things see that ye do them." Yeah Lisa, I think there are many people in this world who could use a good diaper change. I suppose that's one way to look at missionary work. Yeah Bro, I guess priorities are important. I hope you get a good job offer too so you can better afford my four wheeler when I get back. Heidi I'm not sure if I understand why other peoples' laziness sticks a "loser" sign to your forehead, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Good to know you're still alive Joey, though I'm sorry to hear that your true love smooch had no effect. I think we got 4 inches or so of snow Pops. Driving wasn't too bad, most of the streets had been cleared. It's cool to hear about your own missionary efforts half a world away.

Well things aren't going back to normal quite as quickly as hoped; as of this morning at about 10:30 our entire teaching pool is officially sick and/or in the hospital. Which means we'll definitely have a lot of time to search for new people to teach. We're working on getting a bit more creative in our finding efforts--in Werdau we've yet to find an investigator through typical street contacting and dooring, they've all been from service, our English class or from members.

So for the first time in my life (as far as I can remember) church was canceled for the week. I guess enough members called the bishop saying they didn't feel safe driving through the snow that they simply decided to cancel church. So we ended up driving to Zwickau and attending church there instead, which was good; the concept of not going to church as a missionary felt really weird. In the Zwickau ward the Stake President was there and we got a little sneak peek into the Church's (specifically in Germany) plan for the coming years. President Hengst said that essentially every promise that was given in President Monson's dedicational prayer for Germany has been fulfilled except for the number of members/stakes. Hopefully I'll be able to also play a role in the fulfillment of that prophecy.

It seems like every week in the last few weeks God has reached out to me to teach me some new lesson that I didn't really understand all that great before. So at the start of this week I was feeling somewhat discouraged--despite feeling like I was trying harder than ever before in my life to do what's right, we seemed to be having little success and nothing seemed to be going as we had hoped. I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and came across the scripture in Ether 12 that talks about weaknesses and noticed something I had never noticed before. Right at the beginning it says "and if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness." Before I had felt like coming unto God and feeling weak were two opposite experiences when in reality they lead to each other and are both necessary in order to receive Godly help and salvation. If we received all the strength we desired the moment we started seeking God, we would never be able to develop our faith, practice repentance or feel the need to make covenants with Him. It's so basic and simple and yet mind-blowing to me. Only by recognizing our own weakness and relying on the Savior can we make the growth and progress that we seek after. God's plan is pretty dang awesome :).

Hope you all have an awesome week, peace digs!

Elder Larsen

Werdau's First Snow

I hate to say it Mom, but I may be on Uncle John's side on this one. Even after 16 months of having hardly any form of worldly entertainment, puzzles sound a bit boring. I'm not totally sure how to translate the phrase "getting back to normal," though I suppose I've only been alive for less than half of your lifetime, so perhaps there was a time that you were normal...I do hope I'm not crossing any lines with that comment :). Disrespectful children these days. That video was quite beautiful Lisa, I can't wait for the sequel. I wasn't aware you were entering the cake business. Your skills could be used in Germany; sadly German cakes aren't particularly impressive in taste or appearance. Well Andy, Elder Hunt says you may have a problem with your first and third goals for 2017. You can probably get one, but you might not be able to get both. I'm not sure what to think about the once proud and mighty Andy being addicted to listening to books, though I don't blame you. Yeah Dad, we didn't wait for the new year either. Though at midnight we couldn't really sleep due to the onslaught of fireworks outside our apartment. Glad to hear that things are going well.

Werdau Main Market

Honestly said, for the first and probably for the last time in my life, I've actually been somewhat antsy for the holidays to be over with, so that missionary work can finally get back to normal. Christmas time was awesome and brought with it a lot of opportunities to do good and to meet new people, but in terms of meeting with investigators, setting up appointments and going door to door it's been a bit of a struggle. Lots of people have told us to get in contact with them after New Years, and I'm excited to see what potential we'll have to work with in the coming weeks. There's a really legit part-member family who we'll be visiting tonight for Family Home Evening and hopefully we can make that a weekly thing. The son, Leon, came in contact with the missionaries about two years ago through our English Class; he was baptized and now we're hoping that we can help the Dad as well to develop faith in Jesus Christ.

Nothing too exciting to talk about from this last week, but the concept of letting go of pride has been on my mind a bit. So what today is known as the Werdau ward was once three separate branches. The branches came together about two years ago and since then there's been constant complaining and bitterness between some of the members of each branch. Everyone thinks their opinion of how a ward should be run is the correct one and that everyone else needs to conform according to their perspective. However, while everyone is willing to talk about these things within their own families and former branch members (and the missionaries), no one brings it up in Ward Council. All the members that we've met are amazing people, yet there's this slight breeze of contention that has a negative effect not only on a strictly member basis but also missionary work. Looking back I can see how often I have also had problems with this concept, being convinced that my way of thinking is correct and putting no deep consideration into opposing opinions. And now often I wish that I had listened while I had the chance, where I could have changed things that likely would have had a positive effect on my entire mission, rather than finally recognizing my mistake a year later. Sorry for the rant, I guess the moral of the story is be humble and try to see from the perspectives of others rather than your own limited perspective; or better yet, try to catch a glance of what God's perspective is.

I love you guys and hope we all have an awesome start to 2017 :).

Elder Larsen