Wednesday 30 January 2013

January 27, 2012, Kiel



Dear Family,

   I'm glad that everyone is still safe and okay. Mom, you sound like you’re always crazy busy. I thought about something as I read your email, and wanted to ask you if you are busier now that we (all your children) are basically all gone...or now that you are R.S. President and have 70 or so more children to take care of?? Ha-ha. But on the other hand I'm impressed by your willingness to fulfill all of your responsibilities. It's a blessing that you have been called to be R.S. President. There are always special blessings that you can receive for every calling in the Church. And it's a blessing itself to have the opportunity to receive these from the Lord! I had a thought cross my mind this morning to as I was listening to a song called, `Here am I`. It made me think about the many prophets in the scriptures who stepped up to their callings and had the humble response of 'I'll do it..'

   Zum Beispiel, (for example)1. Jesus Christ offering to do the will of the Father (Moses 4:2), 2. Adam accepting the commandment to build an altar and pray to God (Moses 4:6), 3. Isaiah acting as the Lord`s Prophet (2 Ne 16:8), 4. Nephi saying I will go and do (1 Ne 3:7), 5. Jacob fulfilling his responsibilities (Jacob 2:8), 6. Enos declaring the gospel in all his days (Enos 1:26), and so on and so on. These are rough examples that I just had off the top of my head from this morning, but it made me think that I need to develop this attitude more. That I should also be the one to say 'I'll do it...'! I know that there are challenges that will come with responsibilities that we take upon us, but the blessings will outweigh them by far. Plus, we're never alone. His strength is always with us as we work righteously. Little spiritual thought, I guess. Thanks for yours about prophets, Mom. I really liked it.

   In response to the questions, on P-day: we basically study, clean the apartment, write emails, have lunch, go shopping for groceries, and look for things that we need to buy, or things that we want to buy. By then we're usually exhausted, and either have a little power nap or hang out in the institute center and play piano or relax, and talk about plans or ideas for our 'Zone'. I also try to write letters to members and investigators from cities where I've served. Somehow P-day just seems to always fly by. I was also supposed to say ``Schoene Grueße`` from Brother P in Hannover. I should have told you that in December but I forgot. He made me promise to tell you, so there you have it, J just a bit late. He's the older member that came on Joint teaches with us a couple times and that I thought for sure was an Angel because of his ``Ausstrahl`` (countenance).

   That's good to know about the Thank-you cards. I'll make a list of all the people who have written me and send the cards. I would love to use the Christmas money more J...but the problem is that since it is in my bank account, I can only use it in places that accept Master Cards. I don't know the pin number to be able to withdraw money. But it's not a big problem.

   This week went really well. I thought of some new goals that I want to accomplish every day. I wrote them out on a checklist that I can review at the end of each day, and see where I failed and then make new goals to be able to accomplish the next day. It's been working great. There are about 12 things on this list, to help me be better.

   Our investigators are doing well. We have 2 Chinese investigators, L and E. E is now back in China for 2 months. We had a really good lesson with him before he left, and he really knows that he wants to be a follower of Christ. He's going to talk to his parents about baptism before he comes back! As for L, we've been meeting with him about 3 times a week and he understands everything. We invited him to baptism, and he said that he's not ready yet. This is fine, because he's not,J ha-ha. But he really wants to learn more. He's about 22 years old and way awesome. He's also coming to all the YSA activities so that’s good! V is still making progress. He's cutting down on smoking and hasn't drunk alcohol since he's quit. He set it as a goal to come to church next week. He said he needed one more week to physically look better. He loves meeting with us. He's so sincere and so humble. We had another couple good member lessons to help motivate the members to do missionary work. We have a Family Home Evening planned with a family and will bring an investigator to it. The problem is that they're way busy and only had time for it in March...so na ja, at least we have an appointment in March now J. Lots of time to prepare!

  We also talked to a lady on the street who said ``Keine Zeit``, (no time!) but took a card and walked away -  and then turned around and yelled at us to stop and ran back to us. She said she didn't realize we were Mormons and wanted to know where the church was. She didn't end up coming to church but, at least now she knows where it is. I wish we would have got more contact information from her, but she was in a big hurry so we couldn't. It was a witness though that there are people searching for us, and when we open our mouths, they'll find us, and we'll find them.
   
   Anyways, the week was good. I haven't sent pictures lately because I haven't really taken any new ones. I’ll have to start taking more again. Charlene don't get too down about the doctor sheet, same thing happened to me, ha-ha. You'll get them in! Thanks for the e-mail! Time keeps moving forward...what matters is what we do with it, I guess.

   Dad I'm curious to know what your mission journal looks like, ha-ha. You didn't tell us too many stories about experiences on your mission. It'll be nice to get home and share stories with one another and also the things we've learned through our experiences. Jeremy, keep doing what you’re doing! Same to you Kass and Scott, keep being awesome! I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Elder Luening

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