December 3, 2012 Hannover

Hallo Familie Lüning.

 Ich freue mich dass es euch gut geht. Wow, Jeremy, du hast mich wirklich überrascht!! Was für eine wunderbares Erlebnis bevor deinen Mission, es ist, eine von deinen Freunden auf eine Taufdatum zu bringen!! Dass finde ich echt  Klasse!

Wow, okay, I'll start off by saying GOOD JOB Jeremy!! That made me so happy to hear that your friend wants to be baptized, and that she's seriously preparing herself for that date! Way to go! I find it amazing how people get fascinated by the Restoration and how once they pass it along it spreads from person to person. The Grant family that we're teaching in Bad Fallingbostal, did the same thing. The 2 boys that we're teaching gave a couple of their friends the Book of Mormon, and they are interested in meeting with us too, and hearing more about the Restoration! It always reminds me of 1 Nephi 13, where Nephi prophecies about the coming forth of the restoration, and it being spread to all the world. This work will never stop, and I'm so happy that I'm allowed to be a part of it!

 Oh, yeah, to answer your question, jeremy, yes, you can use my snowboard - but just to let you know, one of the binding straps has a bolt on it that you need to tighten before you start your day. Or else it'll fall off and then, good luck getting down the mountain, haha. Oh, and to answer Sister Wolf's question, yes, I have a lot of dreams auf Deutsch!. It's a lot of fun, haha, I love the German language!
   
   Okay, before I say anymore, I gotta come out with the bad news, well bad news for me. I'm getting transferred a week before Christmas! :( There are a lot of elder's who are going home 3 weeks early so that they can spend Christmas with their families, so President Kosak has to switch up the cities. And it looks like I got one of the short sticks and will be leaving Hannover and going somewhere else. I thought for sure that I would be staying, but I leave Hannover on the 17th/18th. I don't know where I'm going yet. I tried to find out but President just simply told me to wait. It was a bummer hearing this news, but I slept on it, and feel like where ever I'll be is where I'm supposed to be. Wenn der Herr etwas will, dann passiert es. (When the Lord wants something, then it happens.)I have another 2 weeks at least and I'm glad to have them. 

Zone Conference was really fun. Yes I was able to visit Oma and Opa for about 30mins before our meeting! All 4 of us went over to their home and they were so happy! They asked me to give both of them blessings for their trip, and that was so nice to be able to do! Oma and Opa are hilarious, I'm so glad I was able to visit them! At this big Zone Conference there were about 100 missionaries (half the mission!). It was really powerful and very uplifting. The topic was on self-conversion and then teaching others how to experience their own conversion! It was nice to see some of the missionaries from the MTC and to see how their doing on their missions. Everyone seems to be doing well and loving it just as much as I am.

   Our investigators are doing well. We basically invited all of them to baptism, and every one of them said that they weren't ready to pick a date. They all want to keep learning more before the make it real! So we're working on that, but at least they have baptism in mind! B, is so cool! She's 27yrs old and a member’s friend, and she is just soaking everything in. She loves meeting with us and we had a really humorous and spiritually powerful lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It was fun. We taught her at the Church and Elder B drew the Plan out on the blackboard, which made some comic relief cause his drawings were really funny. But then we laid down  explanations, scriptures and heavy testimonies which drove the spirit throughout the lesson really well. And R (the R.M -served on temple square), she was a huge help too. Joint teaches rock! We're starting to meet with Bettina twice a week and I'm excited about it. 

We had a really good lesson with our in-active member, O. He's so awesome. He bought us bread again, and gave us cake and hot chocolate when we visited him. He wants us to eat dinner with him and his brother this week, so hopefully everything goes through. His brother also served a mission in Peru, just like he did.

We taught R (14yr old Grant boy) the Word of Wisdom. It was a really good lesson. His mother or brother weren't home, but we said we'd be back on Tuesday to meet with them all together.

Yesterday was First Advent and I got to open up a couple presents from the advent calendar you sent me, mom! The first one was granola bars and apple cider, good choice! Haha! And then yesterdays was cough drops?? haha  - useful for when I'll need them, haha! Thanks so much for making me that calendar. It”s so awesome! 

I'm glad that you guys are doing well. I love hearing from you, and appreciate the time you take to write me! I know it’s not easy sometimes and that it takes time and effort to do, but I do really appreciate it. I also can't believe that in a couple more months it'll be a year since I've seen you all last. (besides skyping). I'm really excited for Christmas and being able to skype with you! I hope that I won't be as nervous as last time, but probably will be, haha. I'm really looking forward to it and still remember how awesome it was on Mothers day to talk to you all!

Anyways, I love you guys. And I'm really happy for all of you. Keep of the hard work and I know the blessings will continue to come! Bis naechste Woche,

Elder Luening

Translation 1st paragraph:

I am glad that you are all doing well Wow, Jeremy, you have really surprised me. what a wonderful experience it is to have a baptismal date for a friend before your mission. I think that is great!