August 20.2012, Hannover

Hello Family!!! 

I was happy to hear from everyone! Unfortunately I don't have too much time to write you this week but I’ll tell you what has been happening.

So Elder H and Elder S have 2 people getting baptized this week on Sunday. A mom in her 30's and her 9 year old daughter! It's super exciting and they are all really excited about it! On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference and we were able to have an open testimony meeting at the end of it. It was so powerful and so spiritual as all the missionaries who wanted to bear their testimonies got up and bore them! I went up too and the whole meeting was in English. It was so powerful and such a huge boost. 

Thursday we had a lesson with J. He's from Africa and he's experimented with all sorts of different religions and he's stuck to finding his own belief from the Bible. He says he's Christian, but he believes in the trinity still. He's got some interesting beliefs. He's 29 years old and he does street fighting and MMA, too, haha. I have permission to wrestle or do some jujitsu with him, from President Kosak.

 We learned a lot from President Kosak the last time we met with him. It has caused us to study our scriptures a lot and gain a better understanding of the gospel so that we can answer questions. As I've studied for investigators and wrote down questions they've asked, I've been gaining so much personal revelation this week. It’s been so cool, and I find myself sometimes just getting lost in them. 

We taught a lady named G, and brought a joint teach with us. It was a really good lesson. We taught her about faith. We had a lesson plan prepared, and the spirit was really strong throughout the lesson. I learned a lot personally throughout that lesson too; that the strongest increase in faith occurs when you gain knowledge of keeping a principal you find from the scriptures - like having a testimony of prayer. You experiment, and then when you receive an answer you know it works. But you need to have faith to believe that it will always work- like flicking a light switch. You know the light will turn on, and when you do it you have faith it will turn on. The light bulb might be burnt out and the light won't turn on. But none the less you know the principle works, and you do it with faith so it will work, regardless if the light turns on or not. I don't know if that made sense at all but that's what I thought of and it makes sense in my head, lol. 

We skipped rugby this week because I was feeling a bit sick. We went to an Auslander Heim and met 3 more people from Africa. We taught 4 people from Fiji on Saturday in Bad Ballingbostal. There is a military base there and 4 Fijians were sitting outside and they invited us to sit with them. We taught all of them the first lesson and gave one of them a Book of Mormon in Fijian. It was really cool! 

A lot of our investigators have been wondering about the pre-mortal life. I did a lot of searching and study on that subject and I’ve found so many answers to personal questions and to answers for investigators. I love it when you write down a question, search the scriptures until you find an answer, and the spirit helps everything make sense! One of my questions was:  If Lucifer was part of God's plan, then why did He make that plan in the first place. God loves all of His children, and if He knew that Satan would rebel because of the plan, why would he present it and 'sacrifice losing Lucifer?  The answers I found to this were way cool. I thought about it a lot, and the spirit helped me understand it a lot too. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now than here in Hannover. I love it.

As for what I want in my package?? Maybe dill pickle Spitz, my mouth guard (since I’m allowed to wrestle and play rugby...I don't want to lose my teeth!), umm Cheeto's and definitely popcorn (Germans are not big on popcorn, and when they have it...it’s expensive!) maybe some ties?? or money. My bank card doesn't work. I don't think I told you that...but my Master Card debit doesn't work. So I’ll either have to call the bank and get it activated or reactivated, or you'll just have to send me money by mail once in a while.

Anyways, I love you guys, and my letter will be more exciting next week! I didn't have time this week to write lots. 

Love Elder Luening

PS. We're going to ask a couple investigators to set baptismal dates this week...pray for us!!

Vocabulary

Auslander: immigrant