The One Without a Jacket

Yeah bro, fortunately the chances of any love sign referring to me is
about zero.  Also, I don't suppose any of those sledding fans of yours were
babes, were they? That's pretty awesome that the Provo Temple is up
and ready to go. The Freiberg Temple here in Germany should reopen in
August or so, which will be super nice. Both temples here are
currently under renovation. Funny that you mentioned the suits mom.
You may be interested to hear that one unfortunate day as I was
putting my suit jacket on I heard an unpleasant ripping noise. The
zipper of the pants belonging to the same suit also managed to
break...so I've been surviving with one suit. The next pday that we go
shopping I'll start the search for something new. My respect for ctr
clothing is pretty low...or maybe I really am just a fatty. If that's
the case, then perhaps I'll be able to learn the same lesson you've
learned Joey. Maybe fat people are people after all. That drawing is
pretty jinking awesome. Heidi, you better have put that little girl in
the chokey. Back in my day teachers didn't tolerate such disrespect.
Or pigtails. Don't let Steve work too hard. If I'm lucky dad, I'll be
able to attend the Mormon tabernacle choir thing. Just depends on if I
stay in Berlin. It would be awesome though, cause Marcel bought
tickets and is going with his family.

Another good week, again kind of all over the place. On Wednesday we
had an exchange with the Berlin Spanish Elders. I went with Elder
Fitch into their program, which basically meant (once again) wandering
around Berlin searching for last names on doorbells that look Spanish.
In the evening we had an appointment with a less active that
unfortunately fell out. It would have been cool to practice my
pathetic amount of Spanish. Although, according to duo lingo, I'm 52%
fluent in Spanish (in reality I'm probably about 5% fluent). We then
had a Spanglish. lesson about the restoration with one of their
investigators, which went really well. At the end Elder Fitch asked
him to say the closing prayer and he was like "No, please no." But
after a little pressure he did it. Seems pretty small, but if people
don't make prayer a habit they ain't ever getting a testimony.

After the exchange we had zone conference. The zone has seen a lot of
change since I've been here, a lot of my old buds are off in other
parts of Germany now, including a Elder Racine from the mtc district.
It's always a lot of fun getting together with big groups of
missionaries, but there is also a bit of a high schoolish feeling to
it. Anywho, the focus of the conference was the theme this year,
teaching repentance and baptizing faithful converts (not sure if
that's exactly what the English version of it is, but close enough).
President Fingerle taught us about the importance of helping people
make restitution in the repentance process, which was really good. Not
something I had put a ton of thought into before when teaching about
repentance.

Bus Ride with Schwester Tyx

Also this week, we spent quite a bit of time with a less active old
lady, who's house is something of a wreck. She's about as hilarious as
old ladies come. We went to go help her buy paint, and when we took
the bus she insisted that we all go (keep in mind this is a
hunch-backed old lady who has trouble walking) to the very back of the
bus, so we could all sit together. After getting to our stop we had to
cross the street. So rather than find a crosswalk ol Schwester Tyx
slowly walked right across the busy street, followed by 4 bemused
missionaries. It was quite the adventure. Oh and also, the first time
we met she chastised me for not wearing a jacket. And since then I'm
now "the one without a jacket." "When was the birthday of that one
without a jacket?" "Did the one without a jacket get enough to eat?"
Pretty great, haha.

Other than that, things in Neukölln are pretty normal. This week we'll
finally be able to stay here (no exchanges or conferences) which
should be nice for the work. Life is the bomb, the gospel is true and
God is our loving Heavenly Father. Have an awesome week!

Elder Larsen

Yo

Heidi I think you should consider making a commercial. "I'm squatting
and I can't get up!" I'm glad the international messaging worked out
Lisa. Here's another random connection for you. Elder Nearon (who
trained my bro Elder Racine from my mtc district) is currently in some
sort of email correspondence with the sister of your German friend.
Pretty weird. I like your thought mom, it's like the 4th missionary
talk-thing. If we want change, peace, happiness, or whatever, than we
gotta stop fighting against He who wants to bring us change, peace,
happiness and whatever. That's awesome that you got in contact with an
old companion Dad. Keep up the tips, Joey, I need em. At what point
did you come to that conclusion, that fat people are people too?

So this week was kind of all over the place. Wednesday we went on
exchanges, so me and Elder Vellinga from Tiergarten rocked it up in
Neukölln. The day before a less active member kind of panicked and let
us know that he was planning to leave the church. We met with him and
were able to have a really good discussion. He felt that because of a
mistake he made that there was no hope for him; that because he acted
against what he knows to be true he's going to be punished. We talked
about how naturally sin has its consequences, but we can never go so
low that God won't forgive and help us, and allow us to repent. Jesus
Christ already suffered the punishment, so that we don't have to. He
still has his doubts, but he came to church on Sunday and made out an
appointment with the bishop.

After the exchange, rather than reuniting with Elder Burns, I came
back with Elder Schofield from Marzahn to ward choir practice (our
investigator Eckehart comes every week), while Elder Burns went to do
a baptismal interview with Elder Nearon in Marzahn. After choir we
rushed back to meet with the other Elders and spent the night in
Marzahn. The next morning Elders Burns and Nearon went to a leadership
training meeting while me and Elder Schofield stayed in the apartment.
They've been having problems with their bathroom and kitchen, so we
had to stay there while some worker dudes tried to fix it. We then
went back to Neukölln to do a joint teach with the Sisters, since they
can't meet alone in the church with a male investigator. They ended up
not needing us, because they brought two sisters whose companions were
also at the leadership training meeting (they tried to let us know but
Elder Burns had the phone). So we had a pretty awesome 6 missionaries
vs 1 investigator lesson. The guy took it pretty well, haha. It could
have potentially been a pretty intimidating situation for him. To add
to that, one of the Sisters there was Sister (Jennica) Baird from
Timpview, who apparently got called to this mission like a month after
I left. Soooo flippin crazy. After that we went to Tiergarten to pick
up our companions and FINALLY, Friday night me and Elder Burns were
back in Neukölln together. Just the process of writing all that was
exhausting, let alone experiencing it :).

Other highlight is that we got to teach Marcel, the former
investigator we started meeting with last week. The guy is out of this
world. The Gospel is putting together a puzzle in his mind that he
didn't even know there was a solution to. He believes, and wants to
move forward, but work and a not so supportive family are holding him
back. But God will provide a way.

Hope y'all have an awesome week!

Elder Larsen

Hallo

Well bro, at this rate that's probably the kind of girl I'm gonna
marry. Been out for 4 months and I've already gained 16 pounds.
I'm with you though, bro. The first 12 hard weeks have made
these last couple weeks pretty sweet. Lisa, you should find out a way
to send me that talk. We have a similar talk in our apartment about
consecrated missionaries that's pretty awesome. I'm excited to hear
the true Lisa has finally been unleashed. The world better watch out.
Well, well, well, if it isn't Wouard. Good to hear things are going
well. That's a pretty crazy story, couldn't apply more to missionary
life. So many rules and so many ways to stretch them. But getting on
the wrong path can lead to consequences that can harm your entire
future. Joey, I've had similar feelings this week. One of our
investigators "is working out to be tons of work and very difficult to
work with." But Elder Burns and especially the Lord will be
instrumental in helping me through it (tehee, but really though). I'm
not sure about the 10 commandments thing, though it reminded me of a
finger thing we did in US history for learning the bill of rights.
Also: mortal kombat. Also also: the package would be nice around
Juneish I think. Your perspective is interesting Mom. You saw a
patient and compliant "sweet boy," where I see a lazy, unhelpful,
selfish boy. Things that I hope to be rid of after 2 years. Eventually
you'll have to get that hillbilly selfie Mom. Don't lose the
opportunity! Yeah Dad, typically we go out earlier now. It's actually
quite the refresher. With the extra hour of comp study and then
language study and lunch, it seemed to take ages before we got
outside. Gospel Study is going well. Elder Burns suggested that I
switch my personal study to 100% German, which is taking a little bit
of time to adjust to. Memorizing scriptures is definitely something I
need to start doing better. Every week at district meeting we're going
to start sharing a memorized scripture, which should help a lot.

So we had quite the week this week. Hours of finding and hundreds of
people, with seemingly little success. On the bright side it means we
get a looooot of practice. Either way, God definitely blessed us in
other ways. We started meeting with a former investigator who's
basically one of the the coolest people I've met in Germany so far. He
lives like a member, he believes the Book of Mormon is true, and he
wants to be baptized. He had met with the missionaries a few years
ago, but lost interest because he refused to accept that one church
could have the fullness of truth. Well the Lord has been working with
him, and he seems to be very ready to make progress. Still some
foreseeable obstacles, but this guy has tons of potential.

We also had quite the tender mercy at church yesterday. This guy
randomly came in right before Sunday School and wanted to meet with
us. After a hard past he wants to change his life...well, he came to
the right place! We had a solid lesson with the restoration and we'll
be meeting again this week. Also this week, we spent a nice chunk of
Saturday helping a member move. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I
did find it interesting how back at home helping someone move on a
Saturday was basically the last thing I'd want to do. But on a
mission, nothing could be better! Though it would have been a wee bit
nicer if the lady didn't live on the top floor of her apartment. After
maneuvering down 2 couches, my arms could hardly even handle a few
boxes.

Anywho, keep rockin on y'all. Focus on the good, fight against the
bad, and keep making the world a better place.

Elder Larsen

Kannicheinshaben? (CanIhaveone?)

Yep Lisa, I done the deed. You can tell Sister Clark "Tina hat Sie
auch ganz Lieb." Or you can be boring and tell her that Tina loves her
too. Your experience at church (and with mom) reminds me of a service
project we did last week, helping some members move. A few of us were
going down the stairs, and I started going super slow. I expected them
to tell me to hurry up or something, but when I looked back, their
faces were expressionless. So I'm pretty sure they just think I'm weak
and/or dumb, haha. In terms of Germans being direct and blunt, I've
noticed it a bit, but since it's a different language it doesn't sink
in quite as much. But yeah, especially talking to people on the
street, they say things that, if I think about someone saying it in
English, seem a bit rude. Sounds pretty rough Andy, how are you gonna
make enough time for the babes? I'm not sure about being the star
actor, I don't think I'm good enough at looking at things through "an
artist's perspective." Mom, I think you're even more accurate than you
know. Every day we meet people who say (and countless more who think)
that they don't need God. But that's only because they haven't been
able to recognize God's love for them, just like a child can't
recognize how much he needs his parents. That's definitely something
for me to think about. Unfortunately Joey, I don't think kolln
actually means anything. Neukölln is just named after some place
called Kolln. Haven't had a lot of gross foods, other than a couple
salads, with cheese cubes that tasted like rotten egg jelly beans.
I'll keep the advice in mind, Joey. You'll get to see for yourself
when I marry the biggest babe out there, tehee. The training meeting
was pretty great Dad. Got to hear from Elders Andersen, Bednar and
Oaks. The theme was teaching repentance, so we can baptize converts.
They focused on teaching fundamentals, like testifying of Christ,
giving people commitments, teaching by the Spirit, etc. I really liked
a question that Elder Andersen asked. What do you really believe about
the Atonement? He said if we really understand and believe in it,
we'll have no problem in giving missionary work our all.

So this week was basically awesome. Elder Burns made it here safe and
sound, with only a bit of confusion, haha. At the time when his train
was supposed to arrive, there was no train. We checked the train
schedule, and no train from his area was coming anytime soon. We (the
zone leaders and I) were running around the station wondering where he
was, when my phone started ringing. Of course it was Elder Burns, who
was somehow in Neukölln, rather than the haubtbahnhof (literally:main
train station...pretty creative). In the end it all worked out pretty
smoothly though. He's a pretty awesome guy. From American Fork, Utah
and has been here for about 9 months. He's obedient and hard working,
but also super humble and friendly. I'm really liking the pace and
direction we're setting for the work here.

Since basically all our investigators work until the evening, we've
had some pretty finding-full afternoons. Probably the most interesting
experience was this student who we stopped. He was munching an orange
as I talked to him about the Book of Mormon. Mid-sentence he stops me
and...I'm not even sure how to explain it. It was so fast and hard to
understand, it was like he sneezed out a whole sentence. After asking
like 4 times what he was saying, he slowed down a fraction and said
kannicheinshaben? Which after a few seconds of picking it apart I
finally realized he was asking for a Book of Mormon. I gave it to him,
and before I could say another word he jogged away. Pretty random
stuff. On a more serious note, we were able to have some great
conversations and make out a couple appointments :).

This week I also got to see my first convert baptism. We took our main
man Cristian with us and he liked it quite a bit. The Spirit was
strong and it was even in English, so we didn't have to translate. His
mindset is starting to change from if he's going to get baptized, to
when he's going to get baptized, which is pretty amazing. There's no
doubt that God has a plan for the guy and it's exciting to get to be a
part of it.

One of my favorite phrases in the Book of Mormon has always been being
an "instrument of the Lord." I've always seen it as a goal and a hope,
that one day I can be an instrument in God's hand. What I'm only now
starting to realize is that it's a process, not a destination. You
don't have to be perfect in order for God to work through you. Even
seemingly small or insignificant acts of service or love are means
through which Heavenly Father can use us to change lives. Maybe you
won't accomplish one great deed that brings thousands of people to
repentance, but you can still affect thousands of lives just by taking
small, daily opportunities. Keep being awesome and have a swell week!

Elder Larsen

Training Is Be Done

Andy, since when did a hug and "a few words" get anyone a wife? I'm
not sure if I know who that is. Got any more info? Yeah Mom, your
tooth situation reminds me of that sad day at the cabin, where a guy's
just sitting there enjoying some popcorn when the supposedly permanent
cement stuff cracks right open. Teeth be pretty fun. Life here seems
so different, but it's interesting how similar some of our experiences
are. I also felt like something of a victim, and for a while justified
myself in negative thoughts and emotions. Though I technically didn't
do anything "wrong", it separated me from the Spirit just as surely as
committing sin does. Unfortunately Lisa, I'm not sure where 2 kilo
schnitzel or this pizza place are, though I have had a couple doners
from Lipschitzallee. I'll be sure to tell Tina. Missionary mom seems
accurate, not only in being super friendly with us, but she also does
a bunch of missionary work. Referrals, member lessons, inviting people
to activities...basically everything. And yeah, Sister Bertuleit is
(or at least was) in my zone. Connections are crazy. A bookkeeping
date isn't enough Joey. Gotta go deeper than that, or they'll never
come back. On an unrelated note, when we make a baptismal date, we're
supposed to also set a temple date for 4+ weeks later. Tell the
chillun to keep laughing, sillying and cooing. Don't work yourself to
death Dad, or soon enough you'll be the one needing to receive a
blessing at the hospital.

A Doner

Welp, the Greenie days are finally coming to an end. Elder Anderson is
off to Leer (means empty in German), way off in West Germany. I'll be
staying in Neukölln with a new comp, Elder Burns. Haven't run into any
other missionaries yet who know him, but he should be cool. Elder
Anderson and I have gotten the ball rolling in Neukölln the last
couple weeks, so if we can just keep that going, things'll be great.
We've been working hard on loosening up on old investigators and
focusing our efforts in finding new people to teach. Figure it's more
useful to go out and talk to 100 uninterested people than 1
semi-interested person! We can tell Satan is at work, in how it's
always those people that I think will have no interest, or am tempted
to just pass by, that are actually willing to hear from us. This lady,
upon seeing us, put her head down and veered to the other side of the
sidewalk, yet when we stopped her she totally opened up to us and was
interested in meeting.

Granted, that doesn't mean that they're completely ready. We met this
golden guy who, although he wanted to learn more (and also came to
church even though he lives over an hour away), due to a lack of a
long term visa, we can't continue meeting with him. But, there's
always the hope that one day he and the countless others like him will
eventually be ready to accept the Gospel.

Feels like I haven't written like anything, but I'm just about out of
time. Other updates, our long-time investigator Cristian is making
good progress, our awesome baptismal date dude is gonna be taught by
the Tiergarten Elders (he lives in their area), and we're looking
forward to a worldwide mission training thing. Exciting stuff! Keep
moving forward, be a man with all the strength of a coursing river and
have a jolly old week!

Elder Larsen

Week 11

Andrew Wendell Larsen if I get home to find you still single, or hear any sort of complaining or excuses about the thousands of chances you didn't take, I will personally beat your nalgas. I will not have this. Do I need to come over there with a stick? Cover you with bruises so everyone can see what a disobedient daughter you are? Let's hope not. Anywho, sorry for the scare Mom, we had to switch up our pday schedule due to some appointments on Monday and then splits on Tuesday. I like that story. There are days I wouldn't mind just reading from the scriptures all day, but it's only by going out and serving others that I can actually make a difference. Elder Bednar gave this talk about how the main characteristic of Christ is that he always turned outward, even in times of temptation and suffering. I've discovered a good way around asking people how they're doing, Lisa. At least in terms of public transportation. Rather than asking them how they're doing, I ask them if they think it's weird when someone asks them how they're doing. It's actually been pretty effective so far haha. In Germany you're technically not allowed to proselyte in public transportation but if you can get a good conversation starter and try to relate things to the gospel you can kinda step around it. I was feeling bad for you Joey, about not being able to attend Pauls temple marriage but then I realized that not only was I also unable to attend, I've never attended anyone's temple marriage. That is pretty rough though. Unfortunately dad I was nowhere close to winning the 5k, haha. Us missionaries were (supposed to be) talking to other runners and handing out cards.

So this week was pretty sweet. At the end of a somewhat uneventful companion exchange with the Berlin Spanish elders (we spent the whole time searching apartments for people with Spanish-looking last names to very little success) we came back to end the exchange. We got to our meeting place a little early, so we went out and did 20ish minutes of finding. In doing so we found one new investigator and a couple other guys gave us their phone numbers. May not seem like a ton, but that's more than what typically happens with like 2 hours of street finding. Also this week, one of the members invited this guy to church. He came, and told us that 6 or 7 years ago he had investigated the church, but then had to move somewhere else. We refreshed him on the restoration, and he committed to a baptism date! Nothing beats those unexpected miracles.

We were able to have some interesting conversations while finding this week. It's sad to see the different ways that Satan works to deceive people. One man was of the opinion that there is no God, there are only people who make money, and people who are dumb. Another thought that if there was a God, He wouldn't want to hear or listen to her prayers. A third decided that it was religion that causes wars and contention (guess it's similar to the concept of guns killing people, rather than people killing people). It's sad! So many people have been blinded by lies and darkness. That's the beauty of missionary work, giving people the opportunity to see the truth and light of the world. But it's up to them. One accepted the invitation to learn more, the other 2 didn't. But at least we gave them the chance.

It all comes down to us being willing to sacrifice our pride and give God a chance. Whether you've been in the church your whole life, or never heard of it, it's the same. Are these people willing to let go of their false views and at least give room for an experiment of the truth? Am I willing to let go of my fear/pride/laziness and share the gospel with everyone I meet? I think the key to happiness and progress lies in making the correct choice to questions like those. Let's do it shall we? Let's make these uncomfortable, difficult decisions and allow Heavenly Father to work wonders in our lives, and the lives of others.

Have a great week!

Elder Larsen

Brrrr Diggity

Well Hurro There,

Geez Mom, I'm sure glad that person let you help her! Cause I mean, it's
not like you spend 95% of your time helping people anyway. That
doesn't seem fair that Grandma got to see President Uchtdorf...I'm the
one in Germany. But yeah, several people, upon hearing that I'm from
Provo, asked me the same question about Sister Walker. But nope, never
met her, in or out of the mission. Andy why haven't I heard any news
of you smoochin it up with you know who?  Get on that ship before it
sets sail son. Lisa, I've thought
about that same kind of thing, and I'm not sure if I'll ever fully
grip the concept of miracles. One interesting thing though is that
even when Christ was on the earth it's not like he just healed every
sick person in sight. They had to be faithful and willing to act. I
love the bible video with the blind man. All Christ did was put clay
on his eyes and tell him to wash. Rather than asking why or being
annoyed about a guy telling him what to do, he simply did it. And then
came the miracle. But yeah Lisa, you can go ahead and stop getting
sick. As for our angel friend, I'm not sure, Joey. Elder Anderson said
there's some sort of trick you can use to get in the church. I've yet
to meet any board gamers, at least ones that know anything other than
settlers and ticket to ride. We had the same topic in Sunday School
here, Dad. At least it was supposed to be, we really just talked about
the BoM in general. Good to hear that everything's going Bueno.

Germany still hasn't figured out that there's supposed to be snow in
the Winter, but they've got the cold part right. We didn't have any
appointments  one day so we got to do tons of finding in  the freezing
cold. I think I may just be a wimp though, none of these Germans seem
to even mind the weather haha.

So multiple sources have told me (you were the first Lisa) how it's
weird in Germany for a total stranger to ask someone how they're
doing. Well after 9 weeks, I finally discovered it for myself! So
there we are having family home evening with a part member family. We
had barely started sharing a spiritual thought when one of the sons,
probably about 22 years old (also a member) went on this long tirade
about Elder Anderson asking him how he was doing. It took probably
about 20 minutes to get everything settled down and back to the
lesson. So... I Suppose I'll have to use a little more caution in the
future with that one.

This week we also had the opportunity to teach the daughter of a
witch. Pretty interesting stuff. It's always quite the struggle in
knowing whether or not people are telling the truth. Quite a few
people seem to believe in witchcraft, voodoo, flying people ("It was
on the news, didn't you see it?!"). But that's  why the Book of Mormon
is so awesome. You can actually know that it's true, rather than
having to take someone else's word for it. It was actually a pretty
good lesson though, hopefully this lady can find some peace
(apparently she was cursed by her mom). Whether or not that's true,
she could definitely using the healing power of the Atonement. We also
started teaching a guy that had stopped to listen to our caroling from
a few weeks back. He called and wanted to meet with us, so (never
thought I'd say it) hooray for caroling.

To kick off the New Year everyone in the mission got to run a 5k (I
guess that's a thing in Germany). At the end of it they had a bunch of
booths set up and were giving out free stuff. There was some sort of
drink, which I assumed to be apple cider or something. It wasn't apple
cider, but it tasted alright and was warm, so I didn't really think
much of it. When I walked back to our group, a couple elders came up
to me and asked if I was drinking beer. I basically had a heart
attack. I had no idea what beer tastes, feels or even really smells
like. I started thinking how on earth I'd be able to explain to
President Fingerle that I'd been drinking beer, and what on earth it
would feel like to be drunk. But then I looked around and saw that
basically every other missionary had it as well. It was just cider
after all...phew.

My thought for this week: trust in the Lord! Being a disciple of
Christ doesn't mean that life is just automatically easy, or that all
your troubles are taken away. What prophet is there that didn't have
to go through terribly difficult trials? What it does mean though is
that through the Atonement we can receive the strength to deal with
life's difficulties, and still be happy despite our hardships. In
Nephi's vision he saw the extinction of his entire posterity, and yet
his faith didn't waver. Instead he rejoiced in the glory and mercy of
the Lord. Abinadi, Mormon, Joseph Smith, all stayed faithful to their
dying breaths. Why? Because they knew what mattered, and they knew
where they were going. So yeah...feast on the words of Christ, pray
always, go for the gold (figuratively, not literally). Have a great
week!

Elder Larsen