Withdrawal confirmed, Dad. But now that I have a new debit card for mission funds I should be good. Boy Dad, sounds like all it took for you and Mom to gear up with family history was for me to get out of the house. I guess going on a mission didn't just have an effect on my own personal participation in the work of salvation.
I thought it was funny that you mentioned the ward's ability to show up for things, Mom, because that's one of the major problems we have in our ward here haha. I wasn't here at the time, but my companion Elder Castillo and his former companion had a baptism and a total of 2 members showed up for it. Sad, but it does give us something to work on.
Yeah Lisa, Facebook is definitely interesting. Keeping in contact with people from former areas is just one aspect of it, still kind of figuring out what other potential there is in it. It's interesting and I'm sure there are a ton of things we can try out that will be helpful, but I don't think it will ever be an effective replacement for good ol' street contacting and dooring.
Don't die on us, Andy. You better send me some good pictures of your trip to Belize. By the way if you feel you're running out of time for you-know-what, you could move to Berlin and I could hook you up with some YSAs here...since there isn't as much variety some of 'em are quite desperate.
Yeah Joey, I'm sorry. Most embarrassing was accidentally posting a massive smiley face...my facebook skills are pretty weak. Way to take care of them deacons.
I'm writing today because yesterday was a German holiday and all the stores were closed. Which for me wouldn't have been a problem but sadly (or fortunately) I'm not the only human being who dislikes shopping. I admit though it's probably a necessary evil, half of my possessions right now are things I've inherited from past companions (not all of which are of the highest quality) and I suppose it's good to have my own stuff.
We had a pretty cool experience this last week. A guy called us up and explained that he had met with missionaries a few years ago and would like to start meeting with us again. We were able to make an appointment and at the appointment he told us the reason he had wanted to meet with missionaries again. Here at the church in Tiergarten we had a huge poster for #PrinceofPeace hanging on the front of the building. He saw it and noticed that the picture of Jesus Christ happened to be the same picture of Jesus Christ that the missionaries had given to him a few years ago. He took that as more than just a coincidence and decided to give it a chance again (he had stopped the first time due to some anti-mormon junk). But he has some real interest and though he's a little bit hard to get a hold of, hopefully we'll be able to meet with him again in a couple days.
Another cool experience from the week started on Wednesday. We talked to a man on the street who couldn't speak German, English or Spanish (not super uncommon around here) and since he couldn't understand a word we were saying we gave him a card and tried to invite him to church. We still weren't sure if he understood us at all, so we wished him a good day and kept going. I didn't think much of it and had forgotten all about it when Sunday rolled around...and there he was! It might not seem like a big deal but after 18 months in Germany it has not once happened that someone we just gave a card to, even after them committing to come to church, has actually come. It turns out he speaks Bulgarish and we just happen to have a member in the ward that can speak it as well. He's a nice guy and he's excited to come to church again next week. We're trying to see if we can work with the missionaries in Bulgaria, since the member that speaks Bulgarish is almost always out of town and there are no other members in the stake that can speak it.
Life is pretty great and the potential in this area just keeps on building up. Ich habe euch lieb, have a good week!
Elder Larsen
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