Wednesday 30 May 2012

May 21, 2012, Forst

May 21, 2012 Forst (3:41 AM)

Wow! I can't believe Kassandra  you are already married, Kassandra! That's so crazy! thanks for the e-mail, dad and for letting me hear all about the wedding and about how the week went. You all must be pretty exhausted. That's a lot of travel and excitement for one week-end! I am really excited to see some pictures!

Also, Jeremy, congrats on giving such a powerful talk and for finishing your Duty to God! I am so proud of you and know that you are on your way to being a good missionary. don't ever forget the kind of missionary you want to be, even when you get out into the field. No matter what other missionaries or people are doing, remember the type of missionary you want to be, and then be it! I'm so proud of you and so happy that you are working hard!
Charlene I miss you and I hope that you are doing well!
This week went really fast, but was definitely a tough week. I learned a lot about myself and a lot abut how you feel when you give your best and when you don't. Our P-day last week was really cool! we wrote our e-mails in Cottbus and then after we had a district BBQ and played a bunch of games (soccer, football, frisby, card games) and just relaxed, talked and stuff. It was a lot of fun! After that we got back to Forst and went to Young Single Adult (YSA) Family Home Evening. We learned the positives about things we want to change about ourselves and, man did I learn a lot of new German vocabulary words, haha!
For our District Meeting this week (every Wednesday), Elder V and I were assigned to teach about "Teaching and Repentance", so we studied together and made a plan the night before. Then in our meeting, we shared it. We shared the who, what, where,when, why, and hows of teaching, and then how to teach repentance. afterwards, the rest of our day seemed weird. We got home and studied and didn't do much.Then we went out and did some quick shopping,Then at 4:00 PM., we went to meet an investigator at a park. We sat for 5 minutes and didn't think he would show up, but we kept waiting! Then all of a sudden we saw him coming and we got ready to teach him! He didn't have much time, but we were able to teach him about prophets for 15 minutes and made another appointment to teach him on Saturday! Then afterwards, we did some tracting and checked up on old contacts, but no one would open the door because they were all out buying liquor or were all drunk! It was tough and I feel like we could have been more diligent that day! I got home not feeling very great and knew that we had had an off day!
So, then on Thursday morning, Christihimmelfahrt (Christ's Ascension Day), we knew that we wouldn't have much success. The Branch President told us not to bother going out because everyone would be drinking all day. Instead, we did spring cleaning in our apartment. It felt great cleaning the whole apartment and making it look nice! We then had a good weekly planning session and companionship inventory. We set a bunch of goals on how we can improve and strength our weaknesses. It was a really good planning session and we were able to tell each other our weaknesses and strengths. We were both open with each other and that played a big part in planning well. We then went to a Ward Garden Party at President V's ( Branch President) house and conversed a lot with the members. It was great talking with the youth and socializing with them.
We left at &;30PM and tracted before we went home. We found a lady who was just going through her gate on the way home and we talked to her a bit. She was a Lutherin and we talked about what we believe.
We talked to her for about 35 minutes and found out a lot about what she believed and how confusing it is. She believed in God, but didn't believe in life after death. She believed that God lived in us and not in "heaven", and that He doesn't help us, but leaves it all up to us to do it all alone. we tried to leave her with a card, but she was really stubborn and said, No, thank you!". Then, we asked her to read Ephesians 4 and she gladly said that she would! we couldn't help her much, but we tried our best and maybe we got her thinking a lot about life and about Jesus Christ.
We then went to check up on E, who we haven't seen for about 11/2  weeks. We knocked on her door and surprisingly, she opened it. i asked id she had time to meet with us ans he said that the baby was sleeping, but maybe another time, than closed the door! We were, like, " what the heck!" We couldn't do much, so we left the house! It is sad because E was making a lot of progress and now we don't even see her anymore. We decided to stop going over and give her a break. We will go back in a week or so!
Friday was awesome! We did our exercises, studied, and prepped a lesson for an investigator, Frau, S on the Plan of Salvation. we then went to her house, but she wasn't home. We did tracting, and contacts instead. We talked to everyone we could and it felt really great - even though most people didn't listen, we did our best! We had lunch at a member's house and gave a spiritual thought about missionary work and trusting in Christ (Mormon 9:21, 36). after lunch, we went back to Frau S and taught her. Even though she didn't have much time for us, the lesson went really well. we set up another appointment and then went to see our African investigator, B. We approached to everyone we met on our way there , but were unsuccessful.  Then B let us come in and we shared a spiritual thought about weaknesses and how the through the Lord, they are made strong. The spirit was so strong!. Then we had another dinner appointment. Elder V and I felt great today, because the time flew by and we knew that we had done everything we could to be 100% obedient. we have been keeping it up ever since Thursday!
On Saturday, we had an Austellung (street display) in Cottbus. Elder Gibson and I (both of us are "Goldens" - new missionaries) teamed up and tries finding people by ourselves. We were able to teach three lessons and bring a young couple to our table of pamphlets and our display! then the sisters took over! It was fun and way cool to be able to do the finding by ourselves! We understood a lot of what the people were saying, but there was also a lot we didn't understand! it was hard, but it was cool that we had the courage to do it! Eld4r J and I taught 2 20 year old girls who had us sit with them when they found out that we were from America and Canada! It was quite amusing! Elder J shared his conversion story and they said they would come to church! We were back in Forst at 5:30PM and went to the park to meet Herr P, but he didn't show up. We had planned to show him the first Vision video and give him a tour of the Church! We went to Ben's for half-time during the soccer game on TV and brought him chicken wings!We taught him a lesson. He is a humble and loving guy! He is 23 years old and I hope that he gets baptized!
Sunday, was sooo cool! I was listening to the talks and everything and I could understand so much more than the week before. My ears are starting to catch a lot of words that I learned throughout the weak and I can pretty much understand everything people are saying. during the first talk, a young man came up to me, and told me there was an investigator outside. I went out and shook his hand. He greeted me in English and I  thought that that was weird! He then said that  he was a member from Spain! He is working with a bunch of people on the solar panels fields and will be staying here for 3 months. He then shared his story. he said. "he had washed his garments and was taking a shower, then when he went back to check on them they were gone. He called his Bishop and was told to go to the church and talk to the Bishop there so that he could get new ones.They both didn't know where the building was located.He prayed really hard Saturday night.Then, Sunday morning, he prayed really hard again and asked the Lord to direct him to where the church was.He left his house and started walking. Every time he came to a crossroad, he prayed and felt the spirit prompt his which direction he should go! He did this for 3 hours because he lives quite a ways from Forst! Then he saw the building! He found it completely by following the spirit!" After Sacrament meeting, the Branch President helped sort out his problems and made arrangements to help him. He doesn't speak German and can only remember a little English from when he served a Spanish speaking mission in St. George, Utah! He just broke down and cried because he was so grateful for the members and grateful to the Lord for helping his when he was in need. The Young Men's President said that he Aaronic Priesthood would administer the Sacrament to him and have him share his story with them.He works with 300 men and is the only member. He said that there is no other place he wants to be than at church on Sundays. It was such a cool experience being able to help this man and see the Lord and spirit work through him!
This week, I have learned so much and learned that when you apply what you have learned, you grow to love it! We are trying our best and seeing the Lord bless us through happiness and through success. We are able to dwell on the people we might have helped a bit instead of worrying about the ones that rejected us. It has been an amazing week and it went really fast.
I hope that you guys will have a good week and I wish you all the best! I love you all!
Bis Montag,
Elder Luening

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