Latino People Are the Bomb

Vale.

Well I don't believe there was anything too life changing from this past
week. The most exciting news is probably that despite our very
imperfect Spanish skills things are going fairly well on the Spanish
front. Our boy Marcos from Madrid is currently making the most
progress from the people we're teaching and we meet with the Spanish
members here considerably more often than the German ones. That being
said there are still many Spanish conversations where half the things
people say go right over my head...it's a blast, Latino people are the
bomb.

We also met with a dude from Peru this week and he took us to a
Colombian fiesta thing which was pretty sweet. Interesting to see how
different Latino culture is from German culture.

Things are going a little bit slower on the German side of things.
David's become super hard to get in contact with and Silvio is of the
opinion that the church is too restrictive and is starting to distance
himself. On the bright side we were able to meet with our friend
Dimitri who disappeared for 3 weeks. He's under a lot of stress right
now and is in a rough situation but he still has it as a goal to be
baptized.

This week was also a good reminder of the power of escaping the
comfort zone. We did a street display with other missionaries and
while most of the others sang hymns one other missionary and I were
talking to the people walking by. I've always preferred normal street
contacting to having a street display since it's harder for people to
just breeze by when we try to talk to them, but this time I was
determined to at least get firmly rejected before letting anyone walk
by (because the worst is when people just totally ignore you or give a
really lame excuse). And it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable
and successful street displays I've experienced, which has convinced
me that a better attitude and some determination can make all the
difference in the world.

That's all I've got, rock on dudettes.

Elder Larsen

Pretty Solid Week

Well Mom it's good to hear that after 22 months my plaque is done. I'm
sad to hear that Grandma is still having a rough time, really hope she
gets better. Crazy that Robert is leaving on his mission, last time I
checked I'm pretty sure he was like a freshman in high school or
something.

Yeah Lisa, Ol' Elder Peatross is back on the other side of the veil.
But like John Taylor wrote in section 135 of Doctrine and Covenants,
in the mission we were not divided, and back at home we will not be
separated...or something like that. Based on my poor ability to
determine how long it takes to get anywhere in Berlin, I would suspect
that Marty's math skills are better than mine.

I see, Andy. Your plan now is to become a filthy rich bachelor with
your own company so that the girls will flock to you? That is pretty
sad to hear though that Jackson is a giant, if he's already taller
than you there's not much hope for me.

If you like the journaling idea Heidi you might like an idea that
President Fingerle has talked about a lot; a while ago Elder Bednar
gave him the suggestion of writing a question at the front of a new
copy of the Book of Mormon and then reading through, focused on the
one question and marking passages and writing notes that relate to it.
To be honest I've struggled with it, since my mind usually wanders
from one question to another, but Elder Bednar said the goal is to
have a whole bookshelf full of Books of Mormon, each providing an
answer to a different question.

I don't know Joey, a friend in need is a friend indeed. I'd say the
wards in Germany and probably everywhere in the world could use a few
Joey Larsens to help the church grow.

I like the Sunday School topic Dad, we had that last week as well. I'm
jealous of the amount that you guys get to go to the Temple.

If I'm not mistaken I'm entering the 10 week countdown of my mission,
which is kind of terrifying. At any rate this week was pretty solid.
We meet pretty regularly with a family in the ward here, the wife is
from Bolivia, the husband is German and got baptized a few months ago
and they have a 8 year old son. This week we visited them and the
wife's nephew was there, a 12 year old named Marcos from Madrid. He's
a legit kid and the wife wants him to get baptized; his mom is a
member, but inactive so he doesn't really know much about the church.
But he's open to learning and teaching him so far has been a pretty
fun experience.

On Monday we met with our friend David again and afterwards went to
Family Home Evening for the young single adults. Sadly David doesn't
fit in super well with the members his age here and got a little
frustrated towards the end of FHE, but our lesson went pretty well. We
set up an appointment for Thursday, but he didn't come and we couldn't
get ahold of him. He also either blocked us on Facebook or deleted his
account...still not totally sure what the deal is, but hopefully
things will work out with him.

We also have a couple non-members we're currently teaching who are
doing some pretty rocking missionary work. Our friend Silvio has given
out around 10 Books of Mormon to friends and family and our friend
Arjuun has invited 4 of his Turkish friends to learn about the gospel.
2 of them met with the turkish speaking Elders here in Berlin and are
now being taught by them, and the other 2 came to church yesterday.
Pretty cool stuff.

Other than that on Saturday there was a gay parade...fun fun. In the
afternoon it started pouring and as we were in the subway we talked to
a dude from Texas who said the rain was a sign of displeasure from God
toward the parade. Might not be too far from the truth. Apparently the
parade had gone past the church, because on Sunday morning when we
went there were tons of beer bottles and cigarrete cases spread across
the lawn and rainbow stickers on the front gate, which had fortunately
been locked. There's always something exciting going on in Berlin.

But all in all we had a really good week. Love you guys, have a good one!

Elder Larsen

Members

My mind is hitting a brick wall in terms of what even happened this
week, so I'll keep this email short.

One thing that has really hit me during my time in Tiergarten is just
how important members are in regards to missionary work. Effectively
finding and teaching investigators, helping them feel well at church,
progress toward baptism and remain active relies very heavily on us
working well together with the members. I've noticed that because the
main reason that every less active member here has given for not
coming to church is that they don't feel welcome in the ward. Sadly
that's happened with a couple investigators as well and it was kind of
sad at institute when we brought a new investigator there and the only
one that really talked to him was the other investigator that we
invited. That being said it's not like the responsibility belongs to
the members to take care of everything, it's just occurred to me that
it's essentially impossible to be an effective missionary without
involving the members, because even then if we do baptize someone the
chances are quite high of them going inactive. Also in terms of
post-mission life I really hope to remember the influence I still can
have as a missionary even if I'm not doing it full-time. Anywho, that
rant is basically all I've got for you this week 😊

Love you, have a great week!

Elder Larsen

Melchisedec, King of Salem

Merhaba. (Turkish for Hello there)

Almost from the beginning of my time in Tiergarten we've been looking
for an opportunity to meet someone who one of our investigators
believes to be the Old Testament prophet Melchisedec. After many
debates of if he actually existed, what his nationality would be and
what kind of things he would talk about, we finally met him. The
opportunity presented itself on Thursday. Silvio had requested a
French Book of Mormon to give to a friend and he told us we could
bring it to McDonalds during his meeting with Melchisedec. So we came
by and I was very disappointed to learn that this would-be King of
Salem was just a skinny, white, German dude. As we came in he told us
to sit on the armrests of the chair across from him, so that our
energies could be aligned and we could enter a state of being that
allows conversation between us and a Heavenly being like him. After
that he basically just rambled without pause for half an hour about
nonsense ranging from Norse Gods (Thor, Odin, Freya, etc.) being real
to McDonald joints being special connections between heaven and earth.
We haven't quite reached a conclusion as to whether he's just crazy, a
manipulator, a drugee or all of the above. At any rate I can now add
Melchisedec to the list of people from the Bible who I've met.

Despite the ridiculousness of our Old Testament friend, our investigator Silvio is still at a crossroads of deciding whether to continue meeting with us or if he wants to keep going to Melchisedec, which normally wouldn't seem to be a difficult decision but Silvio is rather attached to Melchisedec because in a time where Silvio was having a really rough time with his family and needed help he ran into Melchisedec, who offered to be his "spiritual leader." At any rate we'll just have to be patient and supportive of Silvio and do whatever we can to help him make the right decision.

Aside from that we met with someone else whose name we've been hearing
for a long time, a guy named David. Our first encounter with him was
as we got Facebook, he sent us a friend request and he constantly
posted LDS stuff on Facebook. We set up an appointment for Thursday
before Institute, and on Thursday morning he started posting things
about how mormons are racist and he blocked us on Facebook. We tried
going by his house once, tried messaging him a few times and after no
success we pretty much gave up. Well a few weeks later a member in the
ward called us and asked about him so we decided to try one more time.
He answered, agreed to meet that day and we actually had a pretty
solid lesson. He knows a ton about the church and he told us he's
gotten over his objections and wants to start preparing himself for
baptism. He then proceeded to go to a fireside on Saturday (he just
saw it on Facebook, we didn't even invite him ourselves), he came to
church on Sunday, he's coming to family home evening today and we have
an appointment tomorrow...so things are looking pretty good so far 🙂.

Last big news of the week is we got transfer calls yesterday, Elder
Mehr and I are staying in Tiergarten, which was a relief. I wasn't
feeling ready to leave Berlin quite yet, and as long as I don't get
emergency transferred (it's happened to me twice already, you never
know) I'll have spent more time in Tiergarten than any other area on
my mission.

My time's up, hope you all have a great week and avoid being
manipulated by Old Testament prophets 😊

Elder Larsen

Crazy Rains

Well Mom, the only problem is how terrible we look in that video.
Wearing white shirts was definitely a mistake...and it's too hard to
pretend to be happy while singing so we all look just bored or
miserable. The wickedness of singing. Elder Mehr has a dentist
appointment tomorrow, hopefully it won't be as exciting as yours was.

Seems like you be getting sick a lot these days Andy. I'm trying to
connect that to you needing to find a woman, but I'm not really sure
on that one.

Heidi, I feel somewhat dumb for being surprised that you've been to
Tonga before, but I legitimately don't remember you being here before.
Allie sounds like a champ.

Sorry Joey, I guess I just misunderstood your email from last week.
That's funny though, we're also working with investigators right now
who tend to skip the end part and just say "Amen." Z isn't too far
behind.

Yeah Dad, we're pretty excited about the new bishopric. Funny how with
the Provo temple being closed there's still a Temple available in
Provo. In Germany if one temple closes down then there's just one
other in the whole country, which is still more than a lot of other
countries have.

Another week has flown by. This Saturday we get out transfer call, I
hope I'll stay in Tiergarten but anything could happen. Today we
grilled up some burgers and Bratwurst and did our best to celebrate
the 4th of July with American music and games. Sadly it's still no
match for the 4th of July celebrations in 'Merica.

Berlin and Neubrandenburg Zones

On Tuesday we had exchange with the Neukölln Elders, so I was able to
see some old friends from that area. It was weird to think how it's
been almost 2 years since I've seen a lot of them. It's nice being
able to actually understand all the things they say to me now 🙂.

On Thursday we met with a lady from Columbia and were able to teach
her in Spanish. Definitely a challenge, but we had a member from
Mexico here helping us and we were able to get everything across that
we wanted. She came to church on Sunday and hopefully we'll meet again
this week. We also met with our friend Silvio. He accepted a baptismal
date which is awesome, there are just a couple obstacles we still need
to deal with, for example he believes that Melchisedec of the Old
Testament is on the earth today and is his "spiritual guide." Kinda
interesting, but hopefully we'll be able to confront this Melchisedec
chap this week.

 On Friday we had Zone Conference and I got to see a few old mission
buds, like my former companion Elder Christoffersen. Also on Thursday
and Friday crazy rains attacked Berlin. We met Silvio at the church
and upon reaching the bus stop by the church we had to wade through
knee-deep water. A lot of the subways got flooded and we were pretty
lucky to be able to make it home on time Thursday night. Apparently it
hasn't rained like that in Berlin since 60 years ago, so that was
pretty exciting.

I think that's all I've got for this week. Rock on, dudettes!

Elder Larsen