Smart Phone

Ach Nöööööö,

So life in Jena is pretty legit. Great members, cool people to teach and a solid companion. Also one of the big advantages of the technology we have is being able to stay in contact with people we've
taught in other areas, so even now that I'm not in Berlin I can still help people there and if everything works out I should also be able to Skype in for Marcos' baptism this Saturday.

Maybe the one downside of Jena so far is that since it's a university city, a lot of our members and the people we teach are currently on vacation and out of town. Fall semester starts about when I leave, so there are a lot of people I'm not even going to really meet in my time here. However the people I've met so far are amazing. The members (and also some of those currently learning about the church) are dedicated in their efforts to do missionary work and willing to help us out whenever we need anything. We've got lots of activities and lots to do, so it's looking like it'll be a good last 6 weeks.

We had a couple cool experiences is last week. Thursday we had an appointment fall through with a new investigator named Rob and thought we wouldn't be able to meet until next week. Then on Friday we were doing our studies and he just randomly walked in, ready to be taught. He said he saw the door was open and wanted to see if we happened to be there. So that was quite the nice coincidence. And then on Saturday we were on the way to the nearby city of Erfurt for our district
meeting and in the train we sat across from a man and his daughter. They were speaking Chinese and Elder Openshaw, who is learning Chinese (his companion before me was Elder Hsu, a missionary from Taiwan) leaped into a conversation with the man. It turns out he's just in Germany every Summer but lives in Taiwan and is actually already investigating the church there. So that was pretty cool.

Another random thing about Jena, we're one of a 10 companionship pilot group with a smart phone, so it's been weird walking around with a smart phone in my pocket again. The biggest advantage with it is the WhatsApp app, which I don't know if it's big in America but here in Germany basically everyone has it, and it's been great for keeping in daily contact with the people we're working with. Funny how fast changes are being made in how missionary work is done, sadly I won't stay long enough to make it past this kind of awkward transition phase of not really knowing what to do with all this new stuff, but it's been cool to see the changes that have happened since the beginning of my mission.

Anywho, things are going well, I'm excited to see what we're able to accomplish this transfer. Love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Larsen