Changes in the Tiergarten

Yeah Mom, I have also become more grateful for our home ward, a well functioning ward isn't something you can take for granted. That dentist appointment sure sounds like it was a lot of fun, Mom. Oh Mom, I forgot to respond to your question. No, I actually didn't end up buying anything. Elder Mehr needed some stuff and I just wandered around looking at clothes that I had no interest in. If I can get away with it I'd like to make it through the rest of my mission without having to buy more clothes.

I feel you, Andy. I had to wing a 20 minute topic(or whatever on earth you call those in English) in district meeting because I had forgotten that I was assigned one. I was able to make it through, but it wasn't terribly well thought out.

Well you see Joey, that particular Elder just gets special privileges because he's a Turkish speaking Elder. No, but it is pretty cool, he and his companion in their mission call got assigned to the Berlin Mission to preach the Gospel in the Turkish language. Yeah it's crazy how smart kids be, there's a 7 year old chap in the ward here who was born in America but has lived almost his whole life in Germany and he pretty much speaks better German AND English than me.

Yep, President Monson's talks were pretty bomb, Dad. Perfect for sharing with friends of the church since they're short, sweet and powerful.

Pretty much the biggest change of this week happened yesterday at ward conference, where we got a new bishopric. We had a solid bishopric before, but the Bishop just never seemed to have the time to meet with us or discuss missionary work. The new Bishop on the other hand wants to meet together with us, the ward mission leader and the senior couple missionaries to discuss how we can work together to preach the Gospel. Also the member who was called as first councilor is the member that has been most active in working with us, so I'm pretty pumped.

District Street Display

We're still stuck in a juggling bout with our investigators and we've sadly literally--in a metaphorical sense, so not really literally :) ...--dropped the ball a couple times. In other words we've lost contact with a couple of them and things are still in the air with the others but we're trying to do all we can. The main problem right now is just a lack of time, though I also read this week a scripture about how time is a thing of men and not of God, so in God's work not having enough time probably isn't a good excuse. However our loyal and true friend Nezhdet from Bulgaria continues to come to church every week despite the fact that he doesn't speak English or German. We've had to get creative in finding people to translate for him, but it's been working out fairly well.

With the Hamburg Spanish Speaking Elders

We had exchanges this week with the Hamburg Spanish Elders, so I was able to work with the one and only Elder Castillo again. Ironically ever since he left we've started getting calls from other missionaries in Berlin asking for our help with Spanish appointments, which is exciting but also super challenging. The nice thing is that it brings me back to the start of my mission, where you just really have to rely on help from above to understand what on earth these people are talking about. We also fortunately have members who are willing to help us out. We're definitely going to try to invest more into meeting with Spanish speakers; there's a lot of untapped potential in that department. We've got a couple Spanish appointments lined up for this week...pray for us, haha.




A topic that has been pretty important for my whole mission that I've thought a lot about this week is the idea of conversion, or experiencing a change of heart. I thought about what it is that causes conversion, and it was interesting how in the scriptures that every single example I can think of has to do with listening to the word of God, usually through His prophets. The Nephites were converted after listening to King Benjamin's address. When King Lamoni was converted after hearing the words of Ammon, he talked to his people "and as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord. But there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way." (Alma 19:31-32). At the day of Pentecost in the New Testament the people who listened to Peter were pricked in their hearts and wanted to know what they should do. There are plenty of other examples but I was surprised how clear the answer was and how it isn't any different in our day. We have Prophets and Apostles, local leaders, teachers and the scriptures, all things that can speak to us and help us change if we open up to them and listen with a willing heart. Which obviously isn't always easy, but it's always worth it.

The church is true 😀. Love you guys, have an awesome week!

Elder Larsen

Wir Singen Rot

Yes, once again I apologize for the lack of emailage last week. In my defense it wasn't for any selfish "fun" endeavor, rather it was a few hours of shopping, which after many months of avoiding worldly entertainment is just as boring as ever. Speaking of red eyes, Mom, we went to the zoo today and something there destroyed my face in terms of allergies. Elder Mehr had a dentist appointment this week and it renewed my gratitude for the break that I've had so far with trips to the dentist...which I'm guessing will end as soon as I get back home.

After Losing a Friendly Wager
Elder Mehr Had to Buy a Pikachu Suit

Well Lisa I can only imagine what it will feel like for me being by myself after two years of being 24/7 with other people who are, to some extent, total strangers. There's a talk I found a few days ago from President Monson in October 1999 called Becoming our Best Selves that I haven't gotten to reading yet, but that could possibly pass well to your thought.

I think we both know basketball isn't the only reason for getting a gym membership Andy. And I'll have you know that despite my pathetic amount of NBA knowledge I've defended the Spurs/Tim Duncan multiple times against other missionaries.

I don't see the problem Heidi, I'm around people every day who drink too much booze.

Well Joey I suppose there could be worse reasons for not writing me an email. It is indeed hard to believe that I will one day be a dad. But I'd say you deserve more praise, current dad. Tell Marty I lave him too.

Pops I wish you as well a Happy Father's Day, to be honest I didn't realize it even was Father's Day, either it isn't celebrated in Germany or it's celebrated on a different day.

Delicious Burritos that We Made
Credit to Elder Castillo For Teaching Me the Ways of the Burrito

'Twas a solid week. On Tuesday we did a street display in our area with a few other missionaries which went pretty well. I ended up having a really long conversation with a guy from Texas who moved here about a week ago. He knew quite a bit about our church but he's convinced that the only scripture worth reading is the New Testament. It was interesting though because he kept on trying to argue points that we both agree on (for example that we are saved by grace and not by works) and the scriptures he used to try to prove things against the church ended up kind of backfiring on him, he wanted to prove that only faith is necessary and it isn't possible to become like God, but the scripture he used to prove the first point contradicted the second by saying that we through faith become the Sons of God. Sadly he didn't have much interest in learning more, but it was a testimony booster that God doesn't let us be confounded by His own word.

District Photo From Last Transfer

I'm running out of time, but aside from that we played ultimate frisbee with the young men and women which was awesome. Pretty sure that was my first real ultimate frisbee since last year. Elder Mehr had a dentist appointment in Annaberg this week to finish a filling process that had started before he got transferred here. On the way there a drunk mom and her son were singing loudly the whole time, mostly songs about the Chemnitz soccer team. The most repeated one went to the tune of "When The Saints Come Marching In." Wir singen rot! Wir singen weiß! Wir singen rot, weiß, F-C-U! And so forth.

Time's up, have a great week!

Elder Larsen

Sorry :)

No time to write today, I'll repent and write next week

Elder Larsen

Blessings in Disguise

Yeah it was funny, Mom. Before the sacrament meeting started I talked to Elder Anderson's parents, not knowing beforehand they were his parents but when they said they were from Houston, Texas it dawned on me it must be them. Weird to see my trainer go home. What are you doing in California?
Them be some mighty fine words of wisdom, Lisa. There was a cool quote from John Bytheway I heard a few months ago, something like "faith isn't something we use to force our desires into reality." Sometimes I feel like if I had just a bit more "faith", things would turn out the way I want them to, but that isn't really how faith works. It's only faith in Jesus Christ that brings true power and blessings. I don't know Andy, I was kind of thinking a light brown PT Cruiser would be pretty swell. Though I suppose if you're offering a real swell deal I'd be down...though I'm not really made of money. Don't you worry about Zeke, I'll be the favorite uncle soon enough.
Heidi, yeah it seems with most of those plays the movie is typically better.
Spanish master may be a bit strong, Joey. It's pretty funny though, it's kind of like going back to my first few weeks in Germany when it comes to understanding Spanish speakers. Yeah, it'll be exciting to discover the thousands of new board games you've probably gotten while I've been gone. Thanks by the way for the 6 Nimmt game, we've had a few opportunities to play it.
The little family vacation sounds like quite the party, Dad. For some reason it only just occurred to me that there are more grandkids than kids in the family now. Crazy.

Life here be going pretty well. Sadly contact with our friend Dimitri has been rough this week, we had 2 appointments fall through and he didn't make it to church. The cool thing was that on the day of our first appointment, while we were waiting in the church with the member we brought along, a random guy walked in and was like, "I saw the visitors welcome sign, is there anyone here that I can talk to about God with?" and of course we were happy to help. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with him again soon. And on the day where the second appointment fell through, we were waiting with a different member and although Dimitri didn't come, we were able to have a really good conversation of things we can do to help the ward and work better together with the members. So that all turned out pretty well, but we really hope we can get back in contact with Dimitri.

I'm not sure if there's anything else too exciting from this week. We found a new investigator from Turkey who speaks better English than I do (he uses words like disseminate, concede, deceased, etc.). This week in sacrament meeting there were like 30 BYU students that walked in to the chapel single file which was kind of exciting to watch, they were here as part of a history class. I think that's basically all I've got so....

Have a great week!!!

Elder Larsen

Letter from the Parents of Matt's Trainer

Dear Larsen family:

We were visiting the Tiergarten Ward on Sunday.  We have always loved receiving pictures of our sons while serving from others.  We decided to do the same for the missionaries here.  Our son is serving in the Germany Berlin mission as well. He will be released on June 1st so we are here to pick him up and do some of our own sight seeing beforehand.  After talking to your son we learned that our son was your son's trainer.  Small world.  We sent a picture of us with your son to him.  He had this to say in response in today's email:  

"Elder Larsen was my first trainee, I trained him in Neukölln at the
beginning of my mission, he was a really good self starter, worked
really hard on the language and stuff, really funny guy. His German
got good enough that he has begun learning spanish now, which is why
he is in Tiergarten. He will be done in two transfers. One of my
favorite companions I had."

Matt with Elder Castillo

We thought you would appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Glen and Sonja Anderson

Tiergarten Transfer 3

Wow Mom, 90 adults? That would be a hard number to achieve even with the whole stake of Berlin. I'm curious to see what it will be like being in giant Provo wards again. I'm embarrassed to say that it took me a good few seconds to figure out who the "one very special person" is that won't be going to Bryce Canyon with the rest of the family. That quote about joy is pretty awesome.
Yeah Andy, Scott wrote back and said anything more than 250cc is good and that he "highly recommends" Honda. I hope the dating rant won't inspire you to action too quickly, I'm looking forward to my 4 wheeler.
Boy Heidi, it feels like just a few months ago that you moved into that one house. If you were in Germany people would think you're crazy for moving again so fast. That's cool that the missionaries were there to help, we were also helping someone move on Saturday.
I hear you Joey, planning ahead is killer. The mission has certainly helped a little bit with that though. Way to do that missionary work Bro.
It appears I've underestimated your sarcasm skills, Dad, yikes. Looks like I'll have to repent.

The biggest news of the week is that we got our transfer calls yesterday, and I'll be staying for a third in Tiergarten. Sadly Elder Castillo is getting shipped off to Hamburg, which puts the weight of the Berlin Spanish program on my very weak and feeble shoulders. My new companion will be Elder Mehr, who despite the German name is from South Jordan, Utah and he also started learning Spanish a few weeks ago. So we'll definitely have to work hard together to learn Spanish...our first Spanish appointment together will be on Thursday with a new investigator...scary stuff.

Our friend Dimitri, who wants to get baptized is doing pretty well. Sadly we'll have to push his baptismal date a couple weeks back because of some problems we need to work on together, but he's making progress. Understandably sometimes it takes more than a couple weeks for someone to change their entire life around.

We also had a couple skype lessons this week for our friends who don't speak German as their mother tongue, Karim and Nezhdet. Karim speaks good German but doesn't understand a lot of the gospel lingo vocab stuff. We had a really good lesson with him and were able to get a bit more input from his side; he told us about the warm, good feelings he gets when he reads in the Book of Mormon. He's a really solid guy, we just need to move forward a little slowly because he's from a country that's dangerous for Christians. For Nezhdet we had missionaries from Bulgaria teach him, that also went well, religion in general is still just a little bit foreign to him. But he's been loyally coming to church for the last 5 weeks and even sang in the ward choir...he's awesome.

One of the coolest parts of serving in Berlin is just that there's so much diversity. We've talked to people here from so many different countries and everyone that we teach has a totally different background from the others. It's awesome being able to experience so many different perspectives and see how the Gospel can be applied to each individual no matter what their circumstances are.

Life is da bomb! Love y'all, have a great week!

Elder Larsen

Taufgarten

Sounds like I missed out on a lot of partying, Mom. You may be
interested to know, in a talk I gave yesterday in church I mentioned
you as one of the greatest examples I know of selfless service. You da
bomb (I'm not sure if that's an appropriate thing to call one's
mother, but yeah).
I'm not convinced of the German accent thing, Lisa, though I will
admit my English skills have definitely gone down in the last several
months. Thanks for the pictures, crazy how Marty has turned into a
miniature Joey.
I hope you're on the search for a nice 4-wheeler Andy. Too bad that
didn't work with skype, but I suppose it won't be too long before I'm
back in town, ready to do some ultimate frisbee domination. Ben Dahl
from the ward wrote me and told me Timpview frisbee got 1st place in
the regionals tournament, taking down Lone Peak A twice...in case that
means anything to anyone other than me, tehee.
Ah, that's too bad, Michelle. I suppose I won't take too much offense
that you missed my skype call for Isaac's. Them be some nice
pictures...Marty looks super old in that first one...isn't he like 2
years old?
Boy Dad, that sounds like a pretty intense dirt biking trip. Way to be
prepared! It was awesome being able to skype you guys...weird to think
that the next time we see each other will be when I get home...yikes.

The highlight of this week is probably our friend Dimitri, who wants
to be baptized on the third of June. He's the guy that called us after
seeing the massive #PrinceOfPeace poster on the wall of the stake
center in Berlin. He has lots of questions and a great desire to learn
and do what's right. The main thing right now is helping him to come
to church. He's pretty dang cool.

Nezhdet and Karim, who we found (well, Karim kind of found us) and who
have been coming to church the last couple weeks are also doing really
well. Communication is hard with both of them, but a member in
Bulgaria has helped us to teach Nezhdet and tomorrow we'll be able to
have a farcy translator for Karim with skype. Both of them have stayed
for 3 hours of church each time they've come even though they don't
understand everything. Both of them are awesome.

That's most of what our teaching pool consists of at the moment, but
there's still lots of numbers, addresses and even facebook information
of people who may be interested. Busy busy busy. I think that's all
I've got for this week so...love you, Ciao!

Elder Larsen