Monday 14 May 2012

May 14, 2012, Forst (11:00AM)

LIVE, LEARN, FIGHT


 Dear Luening Family!

So,  I was able to Skype with you guys yesterday and didn’t actually realize how much I missed you all until I saw you and said good bye! It’s crazy. I told you a little about the week I had,  but I’ll tell you a bit more.

So, on Monday I went to Cottbus (20mins away) and emailed you, and then went back to Forst with our District and enjoyed a District P-day. We played some Football and then had an awesome BBQ at the B.'s!
It was really cool and man, were we stuffed! The members are totally loving us and it was really awesome being able to have our whole district enjoys our time with some members in our ward.
On Tuesday, we had interviews with the Mission President in Dresden. So, we traveled for 3 hours and then had a Zone meeting and our interviews at about 1:00 PM. It was crazy!
Our train was leaving at 7:35 AM and we got there at 7:27 AM. We then realized we forgot the area book, and raced back to our apartment, and then back to the train station on our bikes! We just made it. probably 30 seconds before the Zug (train) left!! It was pretty crazy!
The Zone conference was really great! The spirit was really strong and it was very motivating. My interview with President Pimental was awesome! He was real quick, and just wanted to know if I had any concerns about anything.

At 4 PM,  we left for Forst and got back at about 7:20 PM. We hit the streets for 40 minutes talking to everyone we saw and were able to teach one person and set one new appointment!
Wednesday, we wanted to teach Frau E. (she has a baptismal date and came to church) but when we were going to her apartment, she was heading to the train station because she was going to meet a friend.
So we then went to meet our other investigator with a baptismal date, Herr M. He said he was sick again and that he doesn’t have time.

Since we had a lot of free time all of a sudden, we decided to go and do tracting in Guben (30min bus ride).
We taught 3 lessons on the street and there was honestly not one person that didn't talk to us for at least 45 seconds. Everyone was really friendly and we were able to set two appointments. Also, we had two students (age 21) walk up to us and talk to us about how they know who we are, and that they've met with missionaries before. It was really cool and they said they want to start meeting with us again.
So Guben was successful! Half the city of Guben is in Poland, so we went across a bridge and stood in Poland for about 2 minutes and then ran back to the bus station to catch our bus. It was way cool!
Thursday we met Frau E. at 11:00 AM and said we would come back to teach her at 4:00 PM. She said ok. So we called Bro.C. (a member, age 28) to joint teach with us at 4:00 PM. We had a dinner appointment with a member at noon and then mowed her lawn for her as a little service project.
We then went back at 4:00 PM to Frau E’s place and she wasn’t home. It was the worst feeling ever. So we talked to Bro. C. for a bit and then went on trying to find people.
OYM's (open your mouth). We ran into an African Christian who had met the missionaries before and hated them because they tried to change his belief. We were able to sit down and talk with him and hear his concerns about everything he was taught. We straightened a lot of things out and he realized that our faith is centered on Jesus Christ like his was. We shared a lot of scriptures with him and he shared his favorite ones with us. It was a really cool lesson and he said that he would come to church sometime to see what it is like. We then talked to a man on the street and he just said "nee" (no), then pulled out 2 beers out of his bag and said "I know what you guys do, and how hard it must be, here is something to drink while you’re walking around looking for people." Ha-ha it was really funny! We took it, not knowing it was beer and put it in our backpack.
We then talked to a Lady and had a really good lesson and conversation with her. We gave her a card, and in return she gave us a bookmark to remember her with,since she lives in West Germany somewhere. Then we went to do some quick shopping and we met a guy that works at a bank (25yrs old). He approached us, and we started telling him who we were and what we are doing on a mission. He's from Cottbus. We gave him a card and told him the Sister missionaries’ telephone number. The Lord was totally blessing us that day and giving us a boost to fulfill His work because we were really disappointed that all our appointments fell through. But we kept going and looking for people to talk to, and the Lord blessed us big time.
Friday we had our service project. Usually the people we work with at the "Tafel". (This is a place where people can buy donated food items that stores have discarded very cheaply.) Ususally the people don’t talk too much with us, but this time everyone was opening up and really wanted to get to know us and what Canada and America were like. It was really cool. Our service was for 3 hours so we got to talk about a lot of things!. Then, before we left, we handed each of them a card and told them we have volleyball on Tuesdays and that they were more than welcome to come to church and play volleyball if they wanted to. There are about 6 people that work there. It was really cool.

We went to check up on Frau E. three times but even though her shoes were there and we heard music playing she didn’t answer the door.
We then went, and taught an investigator in the same building, He is only home for about 3 days / month because of work. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and the spirit was really strong. His name is Herr B. and he's from Kenya.
We went to do some tracting after that, and it was just pouring rain! We got completely soaked and nobody would talk to us. Actually, one did but he wouldn’t take a card!  So we kept walking around, and then passed a group of kids 18-24 sitting in 2 cars and standing outside a store in a parking lot. The guys in the car honked their horn at us as we walked right in front of them. I'm like; "Elder we should go talk to them." He's like,"No! We won’t get anywhere with that." Then about 5 minutes later we hadn't seen anyone so we had to go back the same way we came from. The guys were just laughing because of what they had done earlier. I was about to go talk to them when some other guys beckoned us to come talk to them in the parking lot. We were able to talk to 3 guys (20-22 yrs. old) and tell them who we were and what we were doing. Their whole countenance changed and we were able to have a really good time talking with them. They were drinking and smoking but they were pumped that we were from America and Canada and about what our purpose as missionaries were and that were doing it out of our own money. The Lord blessed us again!
Saturday we went to all the less active or non-active members and dropped of the Ward newsletters. We buzzed on every door but the ones that did answer said, "No, we don’t want to talk to you." So that was sucky.
We then had lunch and went to a few appointments. On the way to one, I felt prompted to talk to an old man sitting on a bench. We were able to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and have a really good lesson with him. We set a time for our next appointment and learned that he lives right across from the Church.
We then taught Frau S. She's an investigator that we have only taught once and had left a Book of Mormon with. We taught her the first lesson and afterwards she asked us what we believe happens when we die. She said she has big fear of dying and wants to know what happens after death. She said that the next time we meet that’s what we have to teach her. We were so excited and happy. So we set an appointment and are excited to teach her. We then checked up on Frau E. and Herr M. and we had no luck. Frau E. still didn’t answer the door and Herr M. said he has no time. So we went and tried to have a lesson with Herr B. again (Kenyan) and he made us dinner and we taught him a lesson and got to know him a bit more. It was cool.
So pretty much, the work is hard and sometimes really sad, but the Lord is blessing us as we remain faithful and do the things we are supposed to do. Find, Teach, Baptize, Keep!

Good Luck on the wedding and I hope that everything is going really good for you all! I Loved being able to talk to you guys yesterday and can’t wait to talk to you again! I miss you all and love you, and don’t worry I’m loving my mission!

Love Elder Luening

President & Sister Pimental with Elder Luening & Companion
Eldaer Luening & Companion on the go!

Rain shower in Forst
Goerlitz District

No comments:

Post a Comment