June 25, 2012 Forst

Hey!

So I haven’t got an email from you guys yet, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll check later today to see if you emailed me or not. (Probably around 5pm and then I'll print off the email and read it later tonight before I go to bed.) But if you don't send an email, don't worry! I won't be mad, haha. I'll just wait till next Monday.

So this week just seemed to fly by. We spent all day on Tuesday just doing finding. We had appointments with 2 investigators but both of them fell out so we basically just walked around and talked with everyone we could until English class at 6. We have decided on the days that we eat lunch at home we're going to go on a pasta and salad diet lol. Also instead of teaching English class, I go and practice a song in the choir, and Elder V teaches English by himself. After English class/choir we have volleyball. This is a lot of fun. Something we always look forward too.

 On Wednesday we had our 'Golden Tausch'. So Elder V went up to Gürlitz with Elder J (our DL), and Elder G (from my golden group) came down to Forst with me. We had the whole day planned out. We went to a member’s house for lunch, and then we had some contacts to check up on. They weren’t home so we did some finding until our appointment at 4. Lukas G (going on his mission next week Thursday) came on a joint teach with us. The investigator’s house didn't exist, or at least he didn’t live there so we were totally bummed out. I told Lukas he was free to go home if he wanted because all we were going to do is do more finding. But he wanted to come with us for an hour. It was way cool, we all took turns talking to people and we did a few doors. The weather sucked, it was rainy, but for some reason more people than usual stopped and talked to us. It was a lot of fun. Lukas is totally going to be a good missionary. He's not afraid to talk to anyone and has already done a few mini missions. He left afterwards, and we headed off to our next appointment. We taught the man the first lesson as best as we could, and it went really well. We sometimes had a hard time understanding him because we still have a lot of vocabulary to learn, but all in all it was a really good lesson. We gave him a Book of Mormon and explained it to him and set up another teaching appointment. We then did some more finding until our weekly appointment with Brother G (our Ward Mission Leader). We then went home and I thought a lot about the day. Elder Gibson said he was pretty nervous to do a "golden tausch"  (exchange) with me and was surprised it went so well. I was mostly just excited to see what it would be like, and even though some appointments fell through, I was able to figure out what to do instead. We understood everyone we talked to, and were able to teach 7 lessons. It was way cool and the Lord definitely blessed us.

On Thursday we switched back but didn't have much time to do anything. We went to choir at 600 PM and then we had a BBQ with a guy that comes to our English class. He's not a member so it was really cool that he invited us to his BBQ. We were trying to figure out how we would teach a lesson with him, his wife, and his brother, and sister in law. Elder V just asked them if they believed in God. They said they've been Baptist’s for 16 yrs. So we talked about our beliefs and everything. We were able to teach a “sick” (awesome) lesson with them before we went home, and they absolutely loved our company. It was way cool.

On Friday we had our last Zone conference with the President and Sister Pimental (Mission President). It was way crazy. We left at 6: 30 AM. Elder V and I didn't have enough money for the Zug, so the sisters had to buy our tickets. I have money now, but just didn’t have it then because my ricostats didn’t get deposited into my bank yet. But we made it there. There were so many new missionaries in the Dresden and Leipzig Zones from the last transfer. Brother and Sister Pimental gave such good “ Themas” (topics). They were really powerful and they're sad to leave. Brother Pimental talked about how you become a good boss. You start with yourself and boss yourself around into the person you want to be. And then every week you report to yourself and see how you did. It was a really spiritual and powerful zone conference and really uplifting. It was a long day and when we finally got home we were wiped out and ready for bed. President and Sister Kosak (new Mission President) will be at the next Zone Conference next week on July 6th. It is gonna be exciting.

Saturday we studied in the morning and then traveled out to Gürlitz for an “Austellung" (street display). It was a lot of fun. Elder O and I paired up and taught 3 “sick” lessons and handed out 2 Books of Mormon to some promising people. These 2 people that we met were actually “normal”! One was a man with a family and he asked a lot of questions. He then said he would like to take a Book of Mormon home. It was cool. The other was a lady who knew a bit about our church but didn't really know anything other than stuff she had heard. She wanted one too and we had a good lesson with her. We got home late and did some weekly planning and then hit our beds. We were so tired of trains, haha, - just because we've been traveling a lot this week. Wednesday to Saturday were all spent all traveling in one way or another.

Yesterday we went to church and a guy from England came to church with President V and his family. They knew each other about 10 years ago. This guy is going on a bicycle tour by himself all over Europe. He's 21 years old and said he's been traveling from England for 2 weeks now. He said that he just finds a field and camps overnight whenever he needs to. Or, he said, he has a lot of friends all over Europe, so he tries to plan his traveling so he can sleep a friend’s house. That is how he ran into the V family, haha. So he came into sacrament meeting, and can’t speak German, so Elder V translated all the meetings for him. He's not a member either so we taught him as we translated. It was way cool. He's such a cool guy and we were able to teach him in the evening while the soccer game was on. It was England verses Italy and he wanted to watch it so we went with him and taught him when we could. It was a really powerful lesson and he said it hit him pretty deep. We gave him a really small Book of Mormon to take with him on his travels and will see him on Tuesday at volleyball. England lost by the way, haha. Sucked for him, but “naja”, it happens. That reminds me, I was wondering if you guys were watching the Euro cup at all. Let me know.

Oh yeah, and it was L's mission farewell party so we went to that too, and visited for a while. He gave a good talk on Sunday about Alma the Younger and how it has helped him apply the atonement in his life. Sister  G., his mom, gave a talk about how impressed she is about young men going on missions. It was really emotional and it brought up a lot of memories about how I felt when I left. It’s definitely a hard choice but I’m so glad I’m out here. The days seem to be so long sometimes and mornings so hard to get out of bed. But I'm taking it a day at a time and definitely learning a lot from it.

I hope you all are doing well and that things are going good! I miss you and don't worry I’m doing well!

Love Elder Lüning!


*** Note:  Go to germanyberlinmission.blogspot.com  to see Elder Luening in the Dresden Zone Conference picture