Turkce Bilmiyorum

Merhaba,

Yeah Mom, I had talked to Elder Johnson and he said that most people in the military would either be in the city where he had served or in the all-american military branch. That's crazy that they'll be moving here to Germany though, small world. Yep, my companion be from Murica Lisa. New Joyzee, to be precise.  Yeah, trying too hard is something I've thought about a lot as well. Especially in a mission like Germany where our efforts aren't always immediately met with obvious success, there's the potential of getting discouraged or cynical. But if you just don't stress too much about it, put in the effort while being patient and faithful in the Lord's timing, things go a lot better. Don't worry Andy, I'll be back to take you down in ultimate soon enough. I gotta say though, during the one time so far that I've been able to play ultimate, despite us winning pretty solidly I wasn't quite feeling that competitive fire. But I'll get it back eventually. Thanks for the birthday wishes Steve! Things are going a bit slow with the Turks, but we're gradually pressing forward. You know Joey, sometimes I look back and wish that I had heard some of these stories before my mission, haha. I discovered pretty quick in the field that my expectations of a mission weren't incredibly accurate. Somehow I pictured the main difficulties being eating nasty food or missing video games or being chased by dogs or some nonsense like that. It's a whole lot more complex and meaningful than I had first thought. Sounds like a good week, Dad. So with all the stuff at the stake park, did you not spend as much time at the cabin this year at the hall reunion?

This week started off pretty solid. On p-day we went as a district to this sweet castle in our area, where we did some exploring and took some nice pictures. Afterwards that evening in our finding efforts I ended up getting us on the wrong bus, taking us to the opposite side of the city as where we wanted to work at. But we saw that there was a less active member in the area, so we decided to visit her. She opened the door and said she was busy right then but that she'd like to make out an appointment with us. A couple days later we had a little meeting with our Branch President where we mentioned that we had visited this lady, and he said that after years of trying to send members and missionaries to visit her, they hadn't been able to get an appointment. So I'd say that was something of a miracle. Funny how God can even take the things we see as mistakes and use them to fulfill his purposes.

In regards to our efforts in finding Turks, we seem to be running into some difficulties. Apparently Hildesheim has one of the biggest concentrations of Isis-sympathizers in the country, and in the last 4 weeks they've had 2 confrontations with the police. So not exactly the safest time to be proselyting around high populations of Muslims. Right now we're just talking mostly to Germans and trying to see if we can possibly spend some time during the week in Hannover, the area next to us, because there are also a lot of Turks there and it's also the ward with the only Turkish member in the stake. In the end though I think it'll just come down to being patient and waiting to see what the Lord has in store for us here.

Think that's about all I've got, I hope you guys have an awesome week! Love you!

Elder Larsen

Turkish is a Delight

Yeah Mom, I'm pretty much famous. If only the people in Hildesheim were aware of it. Where did Brian and Stasia live in Turkey? I'll bet there's some Turkish missionary around these parts that knows them. Yikes, it doesn't even seem like that long ago that Tessa left on her mission. Now I'm almost to my year mark. Scary stuff. Well theoretically Lisa, I'd like to develop the gift of tongues to the point that we can talk to each other in German and Turkish and understand each other...but at the moment for the most part we speak in English. Yeah I've discovered that in the mission, where there are those missionaries who take pride in being disobedient, especially when despite their lack of obedience they see lots of success. Your comment seems pretty spot on having to trust in the Savior. Sometimes we need patience and faith to see the blessings that come from being obedient, even when they don't always appear immediately or when we want them to. Don't get my hopes up too much, Andy, because now I'm definitely expecting a juicy email for next week. I think the last real juicy email I got from you was your encounter with a certain returned sister missionary. Boy Heidi before you mentioned my birthday it hadn't really occurred to me that it's coming up in 10 days. I don't really feel like I'm ready to accept the age of 19, so I'll probably just stay 18 this year. Gotta say Joey, I've complained a bit about the cold summer here in Germany, but in comparison to the hottest summer in 100 years in Spain I think I'll stick with the cold side. Keep up the temple work Dad, sounds like pretty awesome stuff.

Well this week was kind of all over the place. On Wednesday we spent most of the day in Hamburg at a Zone Conference, where we were taught by Elder Charles of the Seventy. Lots of cool stuff there. A big thing that stuck out to me was trying harder to reach heavenward in finding situations; sometimes I get in the zone of just walking along, using the same approach and same questions, watching the minutes go by, rather than really focusing on loving the people and trying to see them as God sees them. I also got to see my bros from the mtc, Elders Fritz and Green, not to mention the one and only Elder Peatross!  So that was pretty solid. Then on Saturday we went to Berlin where we had a language training meeting, since now I'm apparently learning Turkish...and I thought German was a difficult language. Anywho, there we learned some ways that we can work together as a companionship despite not being able to speak the same language during lessons.

We had had a couple appointments earlier in the week which ended up being me teaching the lesson and afterwards telling Elder Johnson what happened. Certainly wasn't the best strategy. Hopefully we'll be able to take what we've learned and change things up so we can actually help each other in lessons. We were able to find a Turkish lady who had been an investigator, who was born in Germany but learned Turkish from her parents. At this point that's kind of all we have right now in terms of Turkish investigators. We're just gonna have to be patient and try whatever we can to find those being prepared by the Lord. It's definitely a unique and stretching experience, neither of us know entirely what we're doing, haha. I have no experience talking to/finding Turks, and Elder Johnson has no experience with openly proselyting. Good thing the Lord is patient with us, with His help I think we'll eventually figure this stuff out :).

That's about all I've got for this week, keep on keeping on! Love you!

Elder Larsen

Week 4 in Bremerhaven....Psych!

Yeah Mom, missionary work is certainly a roller coaster. You're so flippin awesome Mom, keep it up! Lisa, I gotta say I'm confused with these pictures. You seem to have sent me an old picture of Jake and a picture of some boy wearing Jake's superhero suit. Where's Zeke? Boy...I haven't even been out a year and I don't recognize my own nieces and nephews anymore. Hmm, you'll have to ask Joseph what inspired him to give that strange looking creature the name Jax. Andy I do hope you still remember your promise that if I get home and you have no wife or even a girlfriend that you'll split the cost with me to buy a 4 wheeler. I as well had a few Brats for din din this weekend. Unfortunately they don't seem to have them good ol' breakfast sausages here in Germany. Heidi, you mean you blew your opportunity at having a pet mouse? Wouard, you need to have Savvy and Abby send messages to ol' Jacob Zundel like "you're stinky" for me. Well Joey, I'd probably be mocking you too if I saw you talking to your phone. Good to hear that Marty Jake NZ are great. Al Vida zein!

So...funny story. Monday afternoon I get a random phone call from President Fingerle, who says he wants to see me in the Mission home in Berlin Wednesday morning with all my suitcases packed. As I start thinking of what I could possibly have done that would lead me to being sent home, he reassured me that I had done nothing wrong and that I would be receiving a "special assignment." When I asked for more information, he said that I'd learn more Wednesday morning. Well to make a long story short, over the course of Tuesday I had to pack everything up, say goodbye to members, investigators and good ol' Elder Rogers, then take a train to Berlin to overnight there...still having no idea who my new companion would be, where I'd be going or what the reason for this craziness was. Well Wednesday morning in the mission home, everything was finally revealed to me. So apparently a coup took place in Turkey, which after failing put the Country into a state of emergency. In order to escape potential danger and persecution and under the direction of the First Presidency, the 15 "volunteers" (they weren't allowed to call themselves missionaries in Turkey) left the country and came to the Berlin, Germany mission, as it has the largest concentration of Turkish people outside of Turkey. So I was assigned a new companion, Elder Johnson, who had served in Turkey for about 4 months and were then sent off to the Hildesheim area, which is in the same stake as Stadthagen, where I was just a month ago. Lots of crazy stuff.

Before leaving the mission home in Berlin, President Finglerle gave us some instructions and told us that the Turkish missionaries should focus on maintaining and improving their Turkish, and that our focus in our new areas was to find and teach Turkish people. Well, unfortunately a couple days after arriving in Hildesheim we ran into a couple obstacles. We had a meeting with the Bishop here, Bishop Jensen, who expressed quite clearly his disappointment and frustration at having a companionship that would be focused on the Turkish population, rather than Germans. His frustration was shared, in some degree, with the rest of the ward, including our ward mission leader. It's not like the ward is bad or mean or anything, but they've had a rough history with missionaries and just want things to go back to normal. Another obstacle we ran into was sickness. On Friday I started feeling a bit weird and on Saturday it developed into a fever which took me out for most of the day. Sunday it started getting better and today I'm shaking off what will hopefully be the last of it. This week we'll be able to put those things behind us and put our trust fully in the Lord. There's a reason he sent us here and there are people being prepared here to accept the Gospel, even, or perhaps especially, Turkish people.

Life is pretty crazy right now, but pretty great as well. I know that God's hand is in everything that happens, and that he has amazing things in store for each of us. I'm excited to see what miracles we'll experience; a German-speaking missionary together with a Turkish-speaking missionary, walking through the streets of a city in Germany looking for Turkish people...funny stuff. Hope you guys have a week as exciting as this one will be for me!

Love,
Elder Larsen

"Are You Guys Mormons?"

Wow Mom, that's stinking awesome. Keep it up Mom, I'm praying for you. Lisa I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by "I watched Joseph and Olivia pooch Jax this week." For one thing I'm not sure what pooch as a verb means and the only Jax I can think of is the one in League of Legends. Gotta watch out for those 1 year olds; you may be interested to hear that even kids in Germany recognize that they can beat me up. This little boy in sacrament meeting one week came up and started attacking me and afterwards went to his parents and was like "I beat that guy up!" to which they laughed. Shocking (tehee). That's cool that Devin be staying for a few months Broseph. How's that chap doing? Smooching any babes? Yeah I'm not sure that I understand the whole grace/works thing either...all I can think to take out of it is to have the attitude of knowing that we are entirely dependent on Christ and His Atonement. I get it Wouard, sleeping in an extra half hour is more important than celebrating the pioneers, eh? Haha, nur Spaß. That's sweet that Allison got her baby blessing. Looks like Savvy is off to a good start if she's already lost 4 teeth. Maybe she won't have to get 12 baby teeth pulled out like me. Yeah Joey, I'll definitely have to work on my Engrish. How emburrising. In terms of struggling to find the the will and motivation to work hard consistently...it's probably no surprise to you that I can also relate to that. The desire to go out in the heat and have the things most important to me be mocked and rejected isn't always terribly large. But it's always nice to take a step back and look at the reasons that I'm here and to see those whose lives have been changed by the message we share. I imagine it's the same concept as your work; looking at the reasons that you do what you do. Dad, you better give Grandma a thank you from me! That's cool that you were able to find some stories about our pioneer ancestors. We sure have some awesome ancestors.

Well this week was pretty normal, up until Saturday evening. There we be, waiting for the bus to come to take us home, when randomly this guy pulls up at the bus stop in his car and calls out "are you guys Mormons?" and we be like "Yeah..." and he be like "Where do you guys want to go?" We were naturally pretty surprised at this point, as it's not every day that random people offer us rides. Anywho, he told us he had met the missionaries a few years ago in a city east of Bremerhaven and that he has a lot of respect for the church and the missionaries. So he gave us a ride and we got to know him a bit. To make a long story short, we were able to invite him to church and set up an appointment for Sunday evening. Well, he came to church and after a few minutes into our conversation with him we finally learn...he's already been baptized. However his Mom died a couple years ago, and since then he's found it hard to believe in God. Well unfortunately he wasn't able to stay afterwards, but we still had our appointment for that evening. We had the idea to also bring along another less active member; we thought it would be good if the two became friends: the two of them are around the age of twenty and the closest active member in terms of age to that is a girl in her 30s. Well that ended up not being the greatest idea, as their skepticism and issues kind of built upon each other, though in terms of becoming friends it worked out pretty well. But that's pretty much going to be the main goal of the next few weeks, is getting the two of them active. The branch here desperately needs active, young members.

Time is running short, so I guess I'll wrap things up. I know that the Lord blesses us when we have the courage to choose the right, even in the face of mockery, rejection or embarrasment. I know that when we stand by the Savior, He will stand by us; and we will not fall. God will reward us for our righteous behavior with happiness and peace in this life and eternal joy in the world to come. Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Larsen

Gotta Run

Well I be having like no time, but thanks for the emails and for being
awesome. Love y'all!

Cray Cray

Well Mom, you're right...and you're also right. You're right in that my suit crisis has come to an end, and you're also right in that the pants I was wearing in that picture were just a pair of my dress pants. That hardly seems fair mom, you were all able to get 46x as many baptisms as me in a single day! And no, I most certainly did not hear that Joseph and Olivia are expecting a baby. Yet another Joseph, eh? Maybe I'll have to name one of my kids Joseph as well, just to keep the trend going. Weecha, I'll admit that a watermelon made out of rice crispies is cool, though this week at a less active members house he took out a watermelon, cut a hole out of it and stuck a mixer in. Totally made a watermelon into a drink...pretty awesome. Funny that you bring up people that are "stuck in your life for the moment and you have to keep dealing with them frequently," as that's pretty much what companions are on missions, haha. Fortunately I've been blessed with pretty awesome companions. Wouard, your own mother participated in the water balloon fights and you didn't? Hope ol' Swavvy gets better soon. Golfing, Andy? Are you going to turn into some posh golf player or something? I suppose there are probably some girls that are into that. Nope, no fat companion Joey. In fact I've never had anything more than a skinny companion so far. I'm happy you recognize my repentance Joey, though I'm afraid I haven't really gotten past the confession part. Unless going back to baptize someone in the ward counts as making things right again. Happy Birthday Pops! If I remember right President Fingerle's daughter is getting married in the Netherlands temple. Pretty awesome that you got to do endowments in the new temple for the first time.

Leaving Stadthagen

Week one in Bremerhaven! Kind of a cray cray week. Tuesday we spent pretty much the entire day packing, saying goodbye to members, setting up appointments and getting things ready for the sisters. Wednesday good ol Elder Barboza and I parted ways; me to Bremerhaven and the now "Andrew" Barboza back to Texas. Anywho, things were going pretty normal. I made it to Bremerhaven, met the new companion, Elder Rogers, started unpacking. He told me that that evening we'd be teaching two men from America...with a homosexual relationship. Which at the time didn't seem that strange: there are plenty of stranger things in Germany. So that evening we go to their house, I get to know them and everything. Then without warning Elder Rogers plunges into the law of chastity, pulling out scriptures that condemn homosexuality and pretty much telling them they're going to be thrust down to China. Well after a few minutes of bewilderment they all burst out laughing...it was all just a prank. But uhh, based on that...I think it's safe to say I'm in for an interesting transfer. Needless to say I've since then discovered that Elder Rogers is a very sarcastic, jokey person. It's gonna be quite the ride.

Well aside from that craziness, Saturday we were able to drive to Stadthagen for the baptism of Frau Heumann! Everything went super well: the Spirit was strong, the members were there to support and Frau Heumann was super happy. Perhaps the only flaw was that the water level was a little low, and with Frau Heumann being a tad bit large, it was kind of a challenge getting her all the way under, haha. But it was awesome to have the opportunity to go back and help her make the important step of baptism. There's still lots for her to learn and to do, but she's on the right path, and that's amazing to see.

Well I'm about out of time. I'm pretty curious to see what the city of Bremerhaven has in store for me, but I know that with God's help we can overcome all the trials and struggles that life throws at us. Thanks for your prayers and for your awesomeness, have an aweome week!

Elder Larsen

Transferred to Bremerhaven

Mom, you're welcome to come over and help us organize everything, I wouldn't be opposed. Haha, I'm sure there wouldn't be nearly as much drama over a potential baptism in most missions, but in good old stubborn Germany, baptisms aren't terribly commonplace. Well Lisa, it appears as though you've fallen into the evil trap of google translate. Schön dich zu sehen, wäre richtig gewesen. You aren't allowed to use formal "Sie" when talking to your own brother =P. We're playing volleyball and grilling some meat as a zone today to celebrate the 4th, and I'm also wearing my Captain America shirt, though I doubt I'll go so far as to sing The Star Spangled Banner. I'm impressed by that picture Heidi, her nose is surprisingly booger-free. That sounds boring that you slept in Steve's mom's house. Wouldn't it have been more exciting to sleep in a tent? Sounds like it was a fun reunion. Andy I think you need to start looking at things in a missionary perspective. Is it an effective use of time to go camping when you don't bring any babes along? I think you've gotta dedicate more time to good old fashioned finding. Thanks for your prayers Dad, we're really hoping everything works out with Frau Heumann's baptism this weekend.

In my email last week I compared the week to a rollercoaster. Well this week said rollercoaster pretty much exploded (I may be exaggerating just a little). So there we are on Saturday evening, working on making invitations to Frau Heumann's baptism. Earlier in the day we had met with her, taught her the rest of the last lesson (during which she asked me if I would baptize her) and afterwards she had an interview with our district leader, who found her ready to be baptized. Well this Saturday evening just happened to also be the day that we would be receiving our transfer call, to see who would go and who would stay. But we didn't really put a lot of thought into it: Elder Barboza is going home which would typically mean that I would stay in Stadthagen and get a new companion, since it's pretty rare that both missionaries get taken out of an area at the same time. And having it happen the week before a baptism is pretty much unheard of. So we get the call, and the Assistant to the President says "Elder Larsen, you're being transferred to Bremerhaven." Elder Barboza and I chuckled a bit and asked him, "so what's happening, really?" Well it was no joke. It was pretty hard to swallow, mostly because I had been 100% sure that I'd be staying at least 6 more weeks in Stadthagen and was looking forward to it. Stadthagen has such an awesome ward and the future here is looking pretty positive, so it wasn't terribly easy to accept. But after the initial shock and surprise and after finding out the reasons behind it things started to settle down. Elder Barboza's group is quite large; 23 Elders are going home and only a fraction of that number are coming in. But (no idea how), there are 18 Sisters coming in this transfer. So our area and a few others are being shut down and replaced by sisters. Crazy stuff. But I've heard a lot of good things about Bremerhaven, and I'll still be able to come back to Stadthagen this weekend for Frau Heumann's baptism. So life is good :).

Aside from that this week I attended my first and quite possibly last German wedding. President Fingerle's daughter got married, and because the groom has a lot of relatives in Stadthagen, and since President Fingerle can't leave mission boundaries (otherwise it would have been in southern Germany), they got married in Stadthagen. In Germany the government doesn't recognize marriage in the Temple as official, so members have to get married first in the City Hall--that's the part President Fingerle invited us to--and then in the Temple. Couldn't compare at all to the feelings of the Temple, but it was a pretty cool experience. The main weird thing about it was a somewhat scantily-clad statue of some viking woman hanging from the ceiling. Wasn't really sure what that had to do with marriage.

Anywho, I'm excited to see how things go in the new area. It was sad having to say goodbye to people here, but there are always new people to meet and new things to experience. The Lord wants me in Bremerhaven. It's funny, the city there is 10x as big as Stadthagen, but the ward is about 5x smaller. It'll be fun to be in a bigger city again, where we don't talk to the same people every day :).

I know the Gospel is true and I know Christ is my Savior. I know that He loves us and gave his own life so that we could return to our Father in Heaven. I know that through his Atonement we can overcome all the obstacles of this life and be forgiven for our sins, as well as learn from them. The Gospel is true and it is wonderful. Love you all and hope you have a jolly good week.

Elder Larsen