April 2, 2012, MTC (3:58 PM)

Dear Family,

So, 2 weeks ago, I caught a cold and last Monday I finally got over it. Haha, I forgot to mention it in my last e-mail. I just wanted to say "thanks" for the cold medicine!

This week has been pretty cool. At the start of the week, I was feeling pretty empty and not really motivated, just because I missed all of you and R. Thanks for sending me her mailing information, by the way.  I'm glad you were able to visit with her for a bit and give her the chocolates and book.
.
Brother Swenson, our old investigator is now our 2nd teacher, so we have Brother Swenson and Brother Zebetti as teachers. They are really awesome and good to us! Elder T and I are teaching both of them as investigators every week, in the German language. It's hard but we're learning fast. Elder T was in the choir for General Conference which was pretty cool, but it only showed him once.

 I was able to experience some pretty cool things this week. Sister Bohne, in my district, got the flu and asked me to give her a blessing.. As I gave her a blessing later that night, I just opened my mouth and the spirit was so strong in that room. I just opened my mouth and words came out. I'd stop and wait, then more words just flowed out of my mouth and the spirit was so strong in that room! I've never experienced anything like that before, but it was a huge spiritual boost for everyone there. She thanked me the next day for that blessing and said I blessed her with everything she needed and everything she needed to hear. I love how the Lord can use priesthood holders. I'ts amazing!!

Our companion studies should be getting better this week because Elder T is done choir now and we can spend more time together.

On Friday our district had "Ugly Tie Day".! Haha! So we wore our ugliest ties that we have. I had two ties handed down to me from the old missionaries that transferred out to Germany 2 weeks ago. Then on Saturday, we all wore red ties and called it "Scarlet Saturday"! Our district is really tight!

We met the new Berlin Mission President and his wife.  They are so cool and have a great sense of humor! They found out where I'm from and his wife said that they have to send me to Hamburg!
General Conference was so powerful! I think I took more notes than I ever have before, and it was like Christmas for missionaries to watch it on the weekend!

The Shortridges sent me cinnamon buns, and Jocelyn had the students in her building write to me, Haha!
If you want to send those shorts, mom, that would be cool because the only other ones I have are the white ones I brought.

I love getting letters from you guys, and from Kassandra and Charlene. Hope the P90X is going well, dad! I'm only doing push-ups and pull-ups every night, and then playing volleyball in PE., but I love it!

I hope work slows down for you dad, and I hope Kassandra's wedding doesn't stress you out too much, mom! Haha, it sounds crazy over there! I hope all is well with you, Jeremy, and I can't wait to hear from you guys again. I'll try to send out a letter this week, telling more about how my week is going!

Oh, thanks for the letter from sister Hall, I loved it! Tell her I loved it and appreciated it a lot! Same with the Bishop!

I love you all,
Elder Luening