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
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