Feb 17,2014, Hamburg

Hey!

Well I'm all packed up and finished saying goodbye to investigators and members. I love you and I'll see you soon I guess! I have mixed emotions but I'm excited non-the-less, so don't worry, lol. I'm just worried about getting a cold from you guys now, lol. Anyways, safe travels and see you soon!!

Charlene have an awesome mission and enjoy it...it goes so quick!  I'll email you don't worry!

Love you all,

Elder Lüning

Auf Wiedersehen meine Freunde!
Alles Gute!
Tchuss!

February 10, 2014, Hamburg

Dear Family,

   So...down to my last week. Unfortunately the baptisms won't be happening this week. But...we are planning on having 5 investigators on baptismal date by the end of this week! B. will be baptized in 2 weeks, and T. really took time to think about baptism a lot. He didn't meet with us at all this week, but came to church on Sunday to tell us that he came to the decision that he wants to be baptized! So we set a new date for March to ensure that he's ready.

   The others are a German married couple. They are about 50 years old and have heard a lot about the church. They're a referral from a member in a different ward and they are so prepared. They asked what they need to do to be able to be baptized. It's exciting. And the last one is a man from Iran who we taught last week. He's a student who just got a job from Deutsche Bahn. He came to church and I introduced him to a bunch of people and he loved it. We're meeting again on Tuesday. So this last week will be an exciting one.

    I love you all. Sorry I don't have time to write much. I'm going to take the time to enjoy these last 2 P-days before I see you all again. Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Kass, Scott, Jeremy, Charlene!

    Love you and “bis bald”!

     Elder Lüning

February 3, 2014, Hamburg

Dear Family,

We have 2 baptisms planned for the 15th and 16th! We're hoping and praying that they will go through! We're going to do everything we can!

            This weekend was crazy; let me tell you a little about it. Our train left from the train station at 6:28am on Friday to Berlin. We set our clock for 5:15am  and it didn't go off!! We woke up at 6:00am, and threw our clothes on and ran to catch the bus leaving at 6:10! We barely made the bus and it's a 20min ride to the Bahnhof, …and the bus driver was taking his sweet time! We're like, “Come on!” We were praying like crazy that we'd catch that train. Well he made it in 15mins to the Bahnhof and we barely made it with 2 minutes to spare, ha-ha. That was so stressful! We then bought shaving stuff in the Bahnhof and shaved at the church in the bathroom, lol.

On the way home all the trains were canceled and were replaced with a bus. So we bought our ticket and ran to where the bus was leaving from (a completely different train station) and just made it in time. The bus driver looked at our ticket and said...ja,  Deutche Bahn does this a lot!  You can't ride with me with that ticket. We just looked at him in disbelief. He told us to go talk to DB information. So we went all the way back to the main train station and the man luckily gave us our money back for the ticket...but now it was like, 7:30pm -  no trains back to Hamburg. So, we had to stay the night in that AP's apartment lol. Ja...Abendteuer (adventure) :J Oh and we were running around the whole time carrying the sisters boxes of Books of Mormon, lol.

   Thanks for your emails, and I'll do everything I can these last 2 weeks to finish strong! Mom, I haven't spent money yet, but probably will today. Kass, thanks for the email, and I hope things go well with the      P-90X ha-ha! Charlene keep being you, you're awesome! 

I love you all,

Elder Luening

Jan 27, 2014, Hamburg

Mom, Dad,

I love you. You really are amazing parents. I read your emails and think about how selfless and how loving you both are. Dad, you said you changed as a person on your mission, and I don't know how anyone could go on a mission and not change...but I guess, sadly, some manage to do it. My mission President is an amazing man. He's so loving and so direct and helpful with everything.

My week was an exciting one. F., our french speaking investigator came to church yesterday with sad news that he will most likely be getting deported back to Italy on the 6th of Feb. He is appealing the case, but it's not looking very hopeful. He spoke with a member for an hour and they discussed it together. He's obviously off of baptismal date for now, but will be coming to church next week. We hope that we can find out where in Italy he'll be so he can at least continue to get spiritual strength from members and missionaries there.

    B., is now on baptismal date for the 9th of Feb. 2 weeks! J And he brought a friend to church yesterday who also wants to start meeting with us. Then an investigator from December came to church and he will be baptized on the 15th of Feb. We sat and discussed where his testimony was at and asked him if he would like to set it as a goal to be baptized in 3 weeks. He's been to a baptism before and said, “Ja. das hört sich prima an! (Yeah, that sounds prima!) We  explained how he would be interviewed then and read through the baptismal interview questions with him to see where he was at. Then we started from the beginning and taught him the Restoration. It was awesome! He felt the spirit and he wants us to make a reading calendar for him to prep him for his baptism. We're excited for him!

   I'm personally doing really well. Sometimes I get lost in thoughts of what's gonna happen when I'm back?! What's it like to be a normal person again...what do normal people do?? Ha-ha. But yeah, glad that that's still a little while away. I love it out here. I've learned so much, and I'm still learning tons.

I love you all and have a great week,

Elder Lüning

January 20, 2014, Hamburg

Jan 20

Yup, another week come and gone lol. What a blessing we have to be alive! Thanks for your emails Mom and Dad!

 We had an investigator call us, ( B., who hadn't met with us for 2 weeks because of work) telling us that he would be coming to church and that he needs to be baptized. He said,” I already know the church is true and that baptism is essential for my salvation.” He then said, “I've been blessed every day to be alive but anything could happen and I must live with the knowledge that I have be baptized and made a covenant with the Lord.” He's such an awesome man. He's 30yrs old and from Ghana, and has met with missionaries about a year ago in Russia. We need to go through the baptismal questions with him to see where he's at with his testimony and what he needs. We told him because of his crazy work schedule that if we met even for 15 minutes during the week, we could help him get ready. He participated in the class at church and asked how he could do better missionary work with his friends. He's got such a strong love for the Gospel it is amazing.

  Our other Baptismal candidate is Frank and he's doing great too. He's been to Church 3 times now and we've met with him 5 times. Because he speaks French we have a member there at every appointment and he's loving the Gospel. He told us that he started meeting with us because he was impressed that we were young, white, and had a strong love for Christ. It made him curious and respect us a lot. His testimony is growing too and he's very honest! We might have to move his baptismal date to the 15th of February from the 1st, but we'll see how it continues to go. He keeps all his commitments J

  We were also blessed with a new investigator from the Back Seniors. They invited a Chinese girl who's been here for about 10yrs now, over for lunch after church and we taught her the restoration right afterwards. She had met with missionaries for 4 years and stopped meeting with them about 5 years ago. The Lord has blessed her with another chance and she wants to meet with us again and learn more. She definitely felt the spirit during the lesson and asked good questions about prayer and answers to prayer. It was great! Go member missionary work!

 Charlene, great stories and miracles that happened to you! Thanks for sharing them! I was so excited about hearing all those things. It's like President Hinckley said, “if the members would do their missionary work the number of convert baptisms would double”!

  I'm loving the mission, I'm not “trunky” yet, ha-ha. Elder Cannon and I are working hard and we've made a game that helps us talk to people in the Bahns and buses which has been working really well! We're stretching ourselves and talking with more people than ever before! (I took some more modeling pictures but forgot my camera so you'll see them next week J )

Love you all and have a great week!

 

January 13, 2014, Hamburg

 

Dear Family,

Another week come and gone! I'm glad the Lord is protecting you throughout the bad winter weather. We have no snow at all, and last week Monday we ran around without a jacket on because we were too hot! It's cooled down since then but still doesn't get under 5°C. It's also a bit rainy now but hopefully that starts to clear up again soon. We dropped some people with whom we couldn't contact again, and found some new ones. We found a cool family. The wife is German, and the husband was born in India but has been here in Germany already for about 10 years. I gave them a call yesterday to see if they had time to meet and they did, so we'll be meeting on Tuesday. I went on exchanges with a District Leader in Pinneberg. He just got transferred there from Dresden. We worked hard together and did something cool. So, Elder C., (my companion) and I made a plan to talk more with people in the trains and buses by making a game out of it. We have to talk to at least 2 people every day, no matter what, and if we talk to 4 people we get a bonus point. If we talk to 5 we get 2 bonus points. These points can only carry over one day. If you have 2 bonus points you can buy yourself something from the bakery at the end of the day for Abend Brot. If not then “pech”(too bad)! Lol. So I told this Elder from Pinneberg about it and decided to do some Bahn-tacting (train contacting). It was a lot of fun. Since we're not allowed to proselyte in the trains and buses it gets you outside of your comfort zone. I used to do it a lot but got out of the habit about 4 transfers ago. I forgot how fun it is to talk to people about random things and how it always comes freely back to the gospel because you have a big black name tag on that says Church of Jesus Christ, lol.

 

   We also have an investigator on baptismal date for the 2nd of February but will probably have to move it one week back to make sure he understands everything. He's from Ivory Coasts in Africa and speaks French, and basically no German. But we have 4 members who also have their mother language as French so it works really well. We've taught him the three lessons from Preach My Gospel already, and made sure he understood everything during the last meeting. We went through the interview questions with a member to see where he was at and to show him what kind of questions would come up during the interview. He said he needs to find out if Joseph Smith is a prophet and is working on reading and receiving an answer from the Book of Mormon. He's a really solid guy and really sincere. He's been to church twice now and likes it a lot. So we're praying and hoping that he'll receive an answer and continue to build his faith in the restored gospel of Christ!

 

  I love this work, and love the Gospel. I also have awesome missionaries in our apartment. Elder S. has made huge changes in his life and missionary work and is an awesome hard working Elder. Elder S. is now new in the apartment and a lot of fun. He's from Brazil and I was his Zone Leader in Kiel as he served in Rendsburg. He just got here from Cottbus so he told me lots of stories about Forst and caught me up on the members there, lol. Elder Cannon and I are killing it here and having a great time. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Stay safe! Enjoy the SNOW! :)

 

Love Elder Lüning

 

January 6, 2014, Hamburg

 

Dear Family,

Hey, well I'm down to my last transfer. We had transfer calls on Saturday and I received the good news that I will be staying in Hamburg! So it's my last transfer to give it all I have. I appreciate what you said mom about Trail and about the things that I've learned on my mission needing to change me as a person. They have and I agree with you about Trail. I don't want to stay there any longer than 8 months. That's like the max amount of time that I could stay, lol. Germany's so awesome! I also noticed this week how much I have changed this last year on my mission. I think that came with the blessing of being called a Zone Leader so young on my mission and staying one until the end. So nothing has really hit me yet about the idea of coming home so soon, probably because 6 weeks is still a long time. But the one thing that has hit me is how I've been stepping up my game a little bit more each day. I seem to be imperceptibly more intense about doing everything I can before my time is up.

 

   Elder Cannon and I are working hard. We had a lot of appointments fall through this week, but have had good back up plans which have been helping our program. There's nothing we could do about those ones that fell through; we had confirmed them and everything. We also have a big teaching pool, and have our focus on 3 specific people now who we feel can be baptized before the end of the transfer. I hope things work out and that we keep finding new people. The ward here is so cool. We're really trying to involve the members more and more, but it's tough when we're not sure if appointments will go through or not. We decided that we would tell the member beforehand that we have a back-up plan and if they want to do it with us if the appointment does end up falling through. That seems to work a lot better and seems fairer for the member.

 

    Something funny...we got into the bus which was really full and sat down at the back. We watched others get into the bus too and it was getting pretty full. We started driving and Elder Cannon looked at a lady who was sitting beside us and suddenly she YELLED at us 'DON'T LOOK AT ME!!' Elder Cannon jumped - ha-ha and I did too because I wasn't paying attention and it surprised me. This lady cursed at us for the next 3 stops just because we were LDS missionaries. We bit our tongues and didn't say anything at all to her, which I'm thankful for. Some people are just crazy...even in the west, ha-ha!

 

On New Years Eve it got dark at about 4pm so there were fireworks going off everywhere. We tried to go by on a member and got pretty close to his house. It sounded like a war outside, or a battlefield so Elder Cannon and I were having fun and made it seem like we were trying to get to a check point in a battlefield. I told Elder Cannon that I felt weird and that we have the rule to be home by 6pm because of this exact reason. I said to him we probably shouldn't be out here. Well, we came around a corner of a cul-de-sac, and there walking into the middle of the street was a big man, who had tattoos all over him (looked like a drug dealer) with his car door open. He lifted his arm up into the air and all of a sudden we heard five gun shots and saw the ignition from his hand gun in his hand from each fire. We just froze, turned around and walked from where we came from, and decided it was time to go home! We couldn't believe it, but we are thankful that we're always protected. We spent the rest of the evening with the Senior missionary couples and it was a blast!

 

Thanks for the love and support. I love you all so much. 

 

December 30, 2013 Hamburg

Hey!

 

 That was great being able to Skype and see you...or talk to you! J I hope you enjoyed your Christmas and that it was a good one! I don't really have too much to talk about, lol.

 

There were a lot of people that we managed to come in contact with last week after not giving up and continuing to call them every day. A lot of the new people we found made appointments with us and we have the opportunity this week to teach them. There are 2 people that we came in contact last week who are really very cool. One of them is a member and the other one is his friend. They're both from Ghana but met each other in Russia as they were studying there. The non-member was taught by missionaries for quite a while, and yesterday as he was in church he said,  “I hope and expect to be baptized soon.” He's so prepared, and we basically have to go through the lessons with him and then he's ready! They're having a hard time finding a place to live right now. The landlord kicked them out of the place they were staying because the apartment had 5 extra people sleeping there and they got caught. So they slept on the streets and then came to church in the morning. I couldn't believe it! But they just kept saying to us, 'it's no problem, we just pray and the Lord takes care of us. We are meant to 'sweat for our bread'. We all have our trials but we have the hope within us that the better days will come. We don't need to worry because we trust in God and he will help us through our trials.' They're so humble, but made sure they had a place to stay that night ha-ha, and the bishopric is helping them out too. It's such a blessing being part of this church, Christ's church!
 

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the New Years!! J

 

Elder Lüning

 

December 23, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

  Wow, don't you all just love last minute changes and unexpected events that pop up? If you said no, you could've fooled me because it seems to ALWAYS happen to you, ha-ha. Naja, I guess that's just life. What's awesome is that no matter what happens, we have the promise of spiritual peace which is 'not of this world'. What a blessing we have to be able to remember Christ in this Christmas Holiday! J

   I'm super pumped and excited to Skype, ha-ha. My last Skype session on the mission...wow. It's been a while since I've seen all of you and I'm really looking forward to it. We were have a tough time figuring out when and how we were going to Skype, and then suddenly Dane (Anika's husband) came up to us and asked us if we wanted to Skype at their place. They have 2 laptops so Elder Cannon and I could do it at the same time. It's great! So we'll be at their house Skyping at around 6pm our time. Maybe a little after but just be ready at, I guess, around 9am your time. Dane or Anika will probably call you to ask for your Skype account and set everything up and have it ready for us when we come. They are so awesome! I have no idea what I'm going to talk to you about, so if you have any questions just write them down so you don't forget. 1 hour goes really fast!

   Unlike Charlene, I have no idea what's happened this week. I honestly look back and don't remember anything! We are so busy running around, meeting people, teaching people, taking care of our District Leaders and Zones, and yeah, I just lose track of time! But something I do remember is that I. is going to be baptized on the 25th of January. He works so much so it's hard to meet more often as once a week. But he's been keeping all of his commitments and his story is amazing. He went from not believing in God, and wanting to take his life, to a complete turn-around. He now loves God more than anything and has seen BIG miracles in his life in this short amount of time (3 weeks) that has completely changed is perspective and belief. We've taught him things that he never knew before, about Christ, and the Plan of Salvation, and he loves it. Elder McKean and I found him in August, and then lost contact in September. But he contacted us about 4 weeks ago and said he needs our help. Well, we helped him, and he's allowed us and Christ to change his life.

   Now around this Christmas time it's been a bit harder keeping in contact with some of our investigators but we keep finding new people who want to meet with us. It's kind of a weird time of the year. Lots of people are open, but then lots are closed, so there's no real way to say if people are nicer during the Christmas season, lol. It's definitely more stressful for people than any other time of the year. We went Christmas caroling as a district last week by the Rathaus in Hamburg. It was a lot of fun. We handed out DVD's and Christmas pass along cards to people. At the end of the hour of singing our voices were shot! That's how good we sang J!

   I really hope that Jocelynn recovers well! That sounds so painful and I'm so sorry that that accident happened. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. If you can get in on the Skyping Kass that'd be really cool!

   Aunty Kirsten, Uncle Doug, Laurel, Jocelynn and Craig, I hope you have a great Christmas; too bad it didn't work out like planned, but have a wonderful one anyways! Thanks for the updates and I can't wait to see you again. I was really looking forward to it in Skype, but I guess I'll see you soon enough anyways. I really appreciate you guys and I love you!

  Thanks Mom and Dad for all you do for us, unlike Charlene I haven't opened my presents yet ha-ha. I will wait until Christmas J! So I'll probably tell you thank you on Christmas day when we Skype!

  Jeremy, you are such a stud, haha. I love you and hope that you keep having fun this winter. I miss the snow. It's not going to be a white Christmas in Hamburg...it's still like plus 8° outside. I haven't even seen snow yet! But I'll be back in February, so we'll be able to hit up the mountain together.

  Charlene, have an awesome Christmas! I loved Christmas last year with the members. It's so different, but it's still a lot of fun. Keep tearing it up with the missionary work. I'm proud of you! I had lunch with Florian Löhrmann yesterday, who babysat us as were little and he said he thinks it's awesome that you decided to go on a mission. It's true, and you're perfect for it. You've got a bubbly personality for it,ha-ha. Keep it up.

   Kass and Scott, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully we'll be able to do a 3-way Skype. If not, then enjoy the holidays and the SNOW! lol.

Thanks for everything and love you all! Please let the family know I love them and miss them!

Elder Lüning

December 16, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

So this week has really run away on me. Anna is so cool. She met with us again last week and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We had given her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to take home and study before our meeting and she had done it. She said the part in 2 Nephi which talks about the need for an opposition in all things (misery to enjoy happiness) was a huge answer to one of her biggest questions about Adam and Eve. It was so cool how excited she was to tell us about it, ha-ha. She's a lot like you Kassandra. Her parents live in Kiel, so she's home until January now, but will continue to meet with us when she's back. We asked her if she's been praying too, and she said that her prayers have changed. She expresses more gratitude and thankfulness than she did before now that she does it daily. She said before she only prayed when she needed help, but never really expressed her thankfulness. She said it's a lot more personal now and that she really likes it.

Other than that our other investigators are also still doing well. Henry didn't make it to church because of a funeral but called me later in the day and said he missed us and made an appointment out with us. He's such a loving man. The ward impressed me yesterday with an investigator that we invited to church. We met him on the street, last week and then he came to church. He speaks a little German and English but mainly French. We have 3 members who speak French and they translated the meetings for him and explained a lot of things to him about the church the whole time. We barely had to do anything. He felt so welcomed and wants to come again. We also made an appointment with him for this week.

I thought I mentioned how things went with R and A. It was really cool and man I was pretty nervous, lol. I “klingled” the doorbell and Andrea opened up. She didn't recognize me at first until I stepped in and said hi, I'm Christopher, ha-ha, as I gave her a hug. It was super wierd because I only remember her a tiny bit, and yeah, she looks different, lol. Her mom had cooked dinner for us and so we chatted for a bit and then ate together. R is really, really strong Evangelisch. I asked if we could say a prayer before we ate, and she said “ja” and asked me to say it. I said it and then she said her own prayer afterwards, ha-ha. She didn't know I was planning on coming with my companion, and didn't know we always had to stay together. She really didn't know anything about the church except for that we don't drink alcohol. I tried a couple of times to teach a lesson but it didn't work too well until A asked me what the difference was between our church and the other ones. My companion was busy talking to the dad about American Healthcare and I took the opportunity to teach her the first lesson. She was really interested, R listened in a little bit, but more of the interest came from A. She doesn't live at home either. She lives in Barmbek which is 15minutes away from where we live. I see more potential in her than anyone else. They are really settled in their beliefs. We had a great time together though. We talked about kindergarten and the things we remembered lol, and about why I'm on a mission, and what things we do as missionaries. A left at the same time as us to go home, which gave me the opportunity to bear my testimony to her.  I'll try to see her again and see if she'd be open for the lessons or to come to church sometime.

   Thanks so much for the package mom, and I love the advent stuff you sent me. You are so awesome! I don't know where you find the time for that, (individually wrapping every one...thanks so much) and thanks so much for the Christmas CD's!! Everything else is still wrapped till Christmas. I'll let you know next week about skype times. We don't know everything yet, but I'll keep you posted. Thanks guys for your emails, I love you and have a great week. You're in my prayers, Merry Christmas!

Elder Lüning

December 4, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

    Wow, -24 at night and -18 during the day?! O, CANADA! It's been warm here in Hamburg compared to that. It only gets down to about 5°C during the day time. I'm kinda glad it doesn't get that cold, but something I do miss is the snow. We don't have snow on the ground yet! We had a wind storm on Wednesday and then it snowed a little bit, but it was more like hail. So we're hoping for a white Christmas, maybe it'll snow soon J

   Well let me tell you how things have been going here in Hamburg lately. Let’s start with our new converts. H. is amazing. He cooked us African food again, and is now working on reading the sacrament prayer in German so that he can do it one day on Sunday. He's also getting to know the ward more and more and making family connections which are awesome. He's so solid, comes to church every Sunday and loves studying with us and his home teachers every week. We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday and he came, stayed afterwards to clean up, and then ended up cleaning the whole church building with Bishop Back because no one had done it yet. He's seriously the best African, ha-ha. He's so funny. Brother Stephens is also doing really,  really well. We taught him this week about Patriarchal blessings and after the lesson asked him if he would like something like that. He said 'Elder Lüning, I'm over-ready!’ Ha-ha, he told me to talk to the bishop and get him set up with one. It still amazes me every time I see him that he's 73years old. He doesn't seem that old or act like it at all ha-ha. He's super active and the members love him a lot. He bears his testimony to us every time of how grateful he is to have found the Church of Jesus Christ. He's also preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms. Oh, and he's now a home teacher and whenever we visit him he stuffs us with pancakes, lol.  We also met with C. this week and he's starting to change his life around again. He went to church on Sunday in Delingsdorf which was a big step since he hasn't been to church since two weeks after his baptism. He's still living with his girlfriend but also at his mom’s place and said by the end of the month he'll know if they'll break up or not. He said she's keeping him away from the church and that something has to change. He's going to meet more regularly with us again since the hand off to the Delingsdorf Elder's didn't work at all. They didn't visit him regularly when we handed him off to them which was too bad. But his heart is back in it and we'll help him!

   The members in this ward are so awesome! I love them so much, and now that Christmas is around the corner I feel even closer to them than ever. We really have a lot of support from our ward and we're seeing miracles every day. Last week we talked to a student on the street who had interest and then about 4 or 5 days later I made out an appointment with her. She came to the church and we gave her a church tour, told her a little bit about our standards and how the church is organized and how it runs. We then taught her the Restoration and she loved it! She asked questions about the word of wisdom and chastity and eternal marriage, and soaked everything up. We didn't go into too much detail of course but she loved everything we said. She's German, and married to a Muslim from Iran, and really open to learn more about our church and religion so we'll be meeting again this week. She also loved our sense of humour and how we had personal testimonies of what we taught. It was a blessing finding her just from talking with everyone we saw for 20mins of finding time that we had. We also got in contact with an old investigator who wants to change his life around and is very serious now. His names I. We're looking forward to helping him. Then there are a couple more people we're teaching and helping get closer to baptism.

   I'm stuck on Sunday being my absolute favourite day of the week. I feel it’s the most spiritual and happiest day that I have in the week. It's a time to reflect on the week and see how it went and remember where the Lord has helped me and others through me. I feel a lot of weight on myself  in leading the area, and the zone, ha-ha, and helping Elder Cannon learn everything that he needs to do, but I'm still happy all the time, no matter what!  Ha-ha. I always think of Christ calming the storm and think of it as him calming my storms. Whenever I have a ton of stuff going on and it is chaotic, I can call upon Him and there's peace. One of the assistants asked me why I'm so chill or relaxed and happy all the time, and I said it's because I'm Canadian ha-ha. But I think it's really just a gift that I've been blessed with that comes from the Gospel and doing what's right.

    Mom, thanks for the email. Sounds like your busy like always ha-ha. But it's impressive to see how you're rejuvenated with strength through just little spiritual moments of rest. It's a blessing.

   Dad, thanks for your example and for the way you raised me. I was at the Panitsch's for lunch yesterday and they showed me a video of the day that you and Mom drove down to Salt Lake to spend one day with them. They are still so impressed by that act of kindness and have a lot of respect and love for you and Mom.

   Charlene, I'm excited that she was baptized! Keep working hard! I know member work can be a bit slow at the start, but once they love you and trust you it changes everything. Then you can start role playing with them and help them do their own missionary work by going after less actives and friends. J

   Jeremy, I hope you had a great week and I hope you're enjoying the snow! I'm not sure how much it snows in Italy, ha-ha, so enjoy the last year of it! J

   Kass, I hope things are going well with the job, you didn't tell me your mailing address so I guess you won't get the tinsel in time for Christmas since it takes like 3 weeks to get to you. Too bad...but there's always another year I guess. J

   Have a great week everyone and stay healthy and strong!

Love, Elder Lüning

p.s. Oliver Back and his wife but St. Nikolaus in front of our door! They're so awesome! J

November 25, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

Hey Family, so no worries about the small email! Thanks for the uplifting spiritual thoughts and for sharing your experiences.

  We had President interviews last week Thursday which was really awesome. President Kosak is such a good man and his heart is big. We had a really good talk and I'm so grateful have been able to be in this leadership position for so long and be able to get to know him so well from all of our meetings and talks. He's a great man. He seemed pretty troubled about transfers this week though. He said to me, “I don't know if Elder Lüning will be staying in Hamburg. Something’s not right yet. I still need time to figure out what the Lord wants.” Transfer calls for the Zone Leaders were the next day in the evening, so he had about 24 hours to clear everything up. We all prayed for him together as a Zone which I feel helped him a lot. Our zone didn't change much. There were about 4 companionships that changed, including mine. Elder McKean will be going to Berlin, Neuköhln, and I'll be staying in Hamburg for my last 2 transfers training a new Zone Leader! I was really surprised! I'm excited and looking forward to my new companion. I know him already from when I was in Kiel. He was in Flensburg and I was able to go on exchanges with him a couple times! His name is Elder Cannon, and he's from Utah. I'll be picking him up tomorrow!

   We moved all of our stuff out of our apartment on Saturday to get it ready for the renovations, and no members showed up to help because there was another service project where they needed to paint, however, only 5 members showed up to that one. It took us 6 hours to clear the whole apartment and when Bishof found out about it he was pretty upset. He addressed it in the priesthood meeting and pulled out the handbook where it said that the quorum’s first purpose is to serve. Bishof Back rocks. He's a really good leader, and I'm learning quite a bit from him by just watching him and observing what he does and how he addresses things. He reminds me a lot of you, Dad.

   We will be living in Altona until Thursday. Friday we head out to Berlin for a conference, and then Friday night we'll be back in our new renovated apartment! I'm really excited. Elder B. was also transferred who is another missionary in our apartment. The missionary that is replacing him I haven't met yet. So it'll be a bit different but it'll be good still.

   Oh yeah, also Sister H is in this zone in Bergedorf as a Sister Training Leader which is way cool because she was with me in Kiel at the beginning of this year. Elder G and I picked her up from the train station and welcomed her fresh into her first area on her mission. She was in Kiel for 3 transfers and then went to Lübeck. She was then in Berlin, and now she's back in Hamburg zone, ha-ha. It's cool because we get to catch up on our drives to Berlin for our Leadership Councils and talk about times in Kiel. I haven't told you much about her at all but she wanted me to say Hi to the family for me.

   Elder McK. and I were together for 3 transfers so it's too bad we couldn't stay one more together for Christmas. But the decisions come from the Lord and they are for our own good. We're going to check out the Christmas market and look around at things for his last day here in Hamburg.

   Mom, thanks for sending the package! Let me know if there's anything you or the family wants. I love you and you are a good example to me of service.

  Dad, thanks for the spiritual thought. It reminds me of the baptismal covenant in Mosiah 18: to be a witness of Christ in all things, at all times, and in all places! There is so much power that we can receive from the atonement, and just from keeping it in remembrance! I read about the stripling warriors in Alma 58 and was impressed by verse 40. Sometimes we receive wounds through this battle of righteousness but it’s important that we stand firm in the freedom that we have received from giving our lives to Christ. He said whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And we'll stay in this peace and happiness and freedom as long as we keep the commandments and keep the Lord in remembrance. Their example was one of Faith and Trust, and throughout these chapters the lord fulfills his promise at the very moments when it seems impossible. I love it. The Lord will ALWAYS fulfill his promises to His faithful servants.

   Charlene, congrats on being able to go back and see the baptism! Thanks so much for the pictures, they're awesome! I love you and keep up the good work in your new area! I'll try to send some Caro soon! J Just don't drink it without sugar and cream...ha-ha, it's really bad like that! J

Have a good week family! Lots of love,

Elder Lüning

November 18,2013 Hamburg

Dear Family,

   It's so great to hear from you all again! P-day is almost over, but it was a lot of fun. Sister Uhtermöhlen, bless her heart, gave us money to go to the Hagenbeck Tropen Aquarium! It was about €56 for the 4 of us. We didn't want to take the money from her but she insisted that we go visit it, have a good time, and then report to her with pictures about all the fun we had ha-ha. So that's what we did and man, that was a lot of fun. Saw some crocodiles, sharks, sting rays, weird bugs, and a lot of cool look'n fish! Ha-ha. And at the entrance there were lemurs that jump on you and eat carrots and stuff. It only took about 1.5 hours so it as a perfect p-day activity! I'm definitely going to write her a nice thank you note for that.

   It was nice to hear from all of you and to hear about your experiences that you had this last week. When you told me that my release information was emailed to you that made me feel weird. Times going so fast. For Christmas...I thought about it a bit, but you know I'm going to be home like 2 months later so there's no real point in getting me anything. Something that I do want is copies of the Christmas music that you would always play during advent J I'm totally getting into the Christmas spirit with all the German Christmas treats already out in the grocery stores! I've got Lebküchen un Spekulatius, and those Herzlebküchen, and Marzipan and oranges and Caro and fruit tea! I also have some German Christmas music, but I like the CD we have at home the most, lol. There are some songs I haven't found yet like the children one that sings 'eine Maa, eine Moo, eine teteretete'. If I got a copy of the CD I would “freu” myself! J That's about all I can think of. You don't need to send money either. I still have about €200 cash personal money, and I'm sure there's still something on my account. I don't spend money too often lol. BUT let me know if there's anything that you would like me to send home to you for Christmas! I can help stock you up on German stuff again. Just give me a shopping list and I can do it. That goes for all of you. If there's something special that you would like for Christmas let me know. I'll be sending home books and stuff soon to help get rid of some weight for my luggage. I've got a way cool 3 book combination of the Max und Moritz stories.

   So, I wanted to report on the FHE at the member’s house on Monday last week. It was a really nice experience. The wife’s sister showed up with her boyfriend and after dinner we taught them the message of the Restoration. It was really positive. They really liked it and took a Book of Mormon from us to read. After they left we talked about how it went with the husband and wife and they couldn't believe how powerful the message and the lesson was. The husband looked at us both and said 'Es war mir nie wirklich so bewußt, wie sie als missionare tatsäglich vertreter Christi sind. Heute abend habt ihr wirklich Jesus Christus repräsentiert.' (It was never really clear to me how you really are representatives of Christ. Tonight you really represented Jesus Christ.) J They loved it and thanked us for sharing that message. They didn't really expect that one since they told us anything on prayer and Christ ha-ha. We heard that and automatically thought hmm...RESTORATION! Lol. The sister and boyfriend left for holidays and said when they're back they want to have a FHE again and learn more.

   We ate African food with Henry, our convert. He made us some fufu and chicken and fish soup. We looked in the pot and there's a fish head in there and some cut up chicken legs, wings and back ha-ha. He made some fufu to go with it which is close to mashed potatoes but really sticky. You eat it with your hands by taking some fufu, dipping it in the soup and grabbing some meat with it and then shoving it in your mouth. It's so African and way good! Henry's like, eat the back Elder McK., it's very sweet! It was a lot of fun and he's such a great member. We've been visiting him every week since his baptism in August and he's doing so great. He passes the sacrament every Sunday and is now going to be practicing the prayer in German.

   I love the ward here and the city. It's awesome and the members are so nice to everyone. We're doing a missionary fireside on Saturday. We're introducing Mormonism by teaching the first lesson from Preach My Gospel. We've put fliers everywhere at the student housings and hope to see a lot of people come. It should be good and we're hoping to see new investigators from it. Also on Saturday our apartment is being renovated so we'll be in Altona for a week and have to move everything out on the same day...Saturday. It's going to be a busy but fast week.

   Opa bore strong testimony about how much he's loving the Book of Mormon, because he's learning a ton from it. He's read it before, but he's finding things that weren't in there the last time. He told us he's learned a lot so far. He's now in Alma! I love Oma and Opa a lot and their food reminds me of mom’s cooking! It's way good! They’re now on vacation for a month. I'm learning a ton from the scriptures too; it reminded me of how there's no end to learning, until we choose to stop!

   Dad, Thanks for sharing the spiritual thought! Did you find out more about your passport?

   Mom, thanks for the email last week. I printed it off because it was so long and read it throughout the week and liked how much you learned from your scriptures study and how it helped you throughout the day. Thanks for your testimony! 

  Charlene, full proselyting! Sounds exciting and I'm sure you'll love it. We'll find out about transfers on Friday during interviews because next week Tuesday is transfer day. So I'll find out what's happening here in Hamburg! I'm pretty positive that I'll be staying my last 2 transfers here. I'm just curious to see if Elder McK. will stay one more transfer here, making it his 5 transfer in this city, or if he'll leave and I get a new companion. We've been 3 transfers together so far so we'll see. It'll be surprising!

    Kass and Scott, Ich freue mich total dass es schon Schnee bei euch gibt! Ich hoffe dass er bleiben wird bis ich wenegstens zu Hause bin, dammit ich mich auch im Schnee vergnügen kann! Ich vermisse die Winteraktivitäten. Wie Snowshoeing, and snowboarding, and sledding haha. But I'm sure it will, it's Canada after all, lol.

  Jeremy, mom keeps telling us good things about you. Like you helped with moving, I'll be doing that this week too lol. Actually there's like 2 member families who are moving in the next couple weeks so we'll be helping a bit with that too. Good to hear you are ready to serve!

I love you all, and hope you have a good week. I thought I'd send a big email this time, since I couldn't for a while now, but could today!

Love Elder Lüning

November 11, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

   Hey, Mom I agree with Charlene. You do a lot and I'm grateful for your example and for how diligently you strive to serve the Lord. I had a little time today to think about progression as we were walking to the grocery store. It's important to look back sometimes and see how far you've made it and how much closer you are drawing to the Saviour. Some might say, don't look at what's been done, look at what still needs to be done, but it's important. Otherwise you forget the ways that the Lord has helped you already. We've received so many blessings from Him, and when we look at how he's blessed us and changed us, it can fill us with immense joy and thankfulness and motivate us to continue. I think the closer we draw to our Saviour, the more light shines on our imperfections and the more we see that there's still lots to work on. But it's important to never lose sight of how far we've come. Step by step is how He works, and it is how we work too! Thanks for your example and for everything you do for us kids. I really appreciate it!! J

   Things here in Hamburg are good. I like serving here and I really like the Ward. I had the opportunity to see a few members from Kiel yesterday because of their Stake Conference being in the Hamburg Stake Center. It was nice being able to catch up with them and it reminded me of how much I do miss them. Also one of people we gave to the Sisters to teach, moved back into our area. I'm grateful for the opportunity to start meeting with him again and teach him.

    We met on Saturday with Uncle Jan. He agreed to meet with us regularly and start working on his testimony again. He's very excited about it and has the desire. What a blessing being able to help family out here. I'm so grateful for this opportunity! It was always a wish of mine to serve in Hamburg, but I never thought it would happen. Well it's happened, and there's always a bigger picture behind everything!

   There is a young married couple with whom we're working. The wife invited her inactive sister and her sister's boyfriend to dinner with us. They accepted and want to learn about prayer and Christ. The sister doesn't come to church and the boyfriend isn't a member but they are looking forward to meeting us and having dinner with us at the member’s house tonight!

Charlene it sounds like you’re doing great! Keep up the good work. Thanks for always sharing your testimony. You're great!

Jeremy, that a boy. Ha-ha. Way to be a winner J!  Thanks for always being a good example to the youth. I know they look up to you and that you're a big help for them! You're always in my prayers.

Dad, it's good to hear about the youth and to know they're doing well. Also Oma told me you were having troubles with your passport. I hope everything gets sorted out in time for Christmas. Thanks for your example and testimony. I've learned a lot of things from you growing up and have also noticed ways that the gospel has changed you as disciple of Christ.

Kass, thanks for the big update on how you're doing and thanks for the personal email. I'm glad things are going well! I'll be visiting lots when I'm home!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Luening

November 4, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

Thanks for the emails! It was great to hear from all of you. I just had a really good week last week. We were busy with meetings. But they really built and uplifted me and I felt edified by the messages shared. Elder Kearon and Elder Fingerle from the Quorum of the Seventies were at our Zone Conference on Wednesday. They were doing a mission tour. We had 120 missionaries in the Stake Center! 5 out of 11 Zones were there! It was really awesome and a great opportunity to hear the voices of the Lord’s called servants.

   On Friday we had our Leadership Training Meeting in Berlin (for Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders) and Elder Kearon and Elder Fingerle were also there for half of the meeting. I can't really explain in an email the feelings I felt during one of the discussions we had. I felt the spirit so strong, and the love that they had for us as they taught us the importance of faith and overcoming discouragement. It just really hit me like a wall and knew that was something that I needed to hear personally, and also a lot of other missionaries in the Zone, that we can pass it on to.

   This last week was a little disappointing with lessons, because a lot of our appointments fell through, and we couldn't contact the people we had found. But there were also a lot of positive things that happened. Things are still moving forward. We have a couple candidates that we're trying to commit to a baptismal date. Sister Uhtermöhlen loves us and cooks for us every week. Oma and Opa too! They stuffed us with the best Grünkohl (kale) that I've had in Germany so far. I ate so much, it was great! Ha-ha. They are really doing well and I love them a lot! Opa's still working his way through the Book of Mormon and is almost finished with Mosiah. He's a big help for the Sunday School classes too ,because he gives good answers and participates freely J!

  There was a man that we talked to on the street that Sister Uhtermöhlen lives on. He was about 45yrs old and we talked to him about God outside. He said he lost his faith in God but didn't tell us why because it was really personal to him. We bore testimony, shared some experiences with him, and encouraged him that he could find that faith again and that life with Him is better than without. Well he completely opened up and said with tears that he lost a lot of family members at a very young age and that that was the cause of him losing his faith. We thanked him for sharing that with us and then bore testimony to him about love and about how the Gospel brings hope and peace! We asked if we could share our message with him and he said no, and walked away. We walked on, but it hurt, because I knew that what we had could bless him and help him in his life a lot, but he rejected it, even after opening up for us. My heart reaches out to people like that and wishes that I could help them, but I can't unless they want it. We're finding the ones who are prepared, and like Ammon worked with the servants to gather the flocks together and contend with the Lamanites, The Lord is helping us gather his flocks while he contends with the ones who try to weaken us!

   I love you, and hope you have a great week! I know I will! The Lord is with us!

J!

Elder Lüning.

October 28, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

   Thanks so much for the emails. I honestly love being a missionary and the things that I've learned so far in the field. We bought our pumpkins today for carving and it was just another reminder of how quickly the time is moving by. Mom, dad, you two are amazing. You're so diligent in planning and sacrificing time for the church. You two, with your solid testimonies and missionary experiences are a huge help in Cranbrook Stake! I get letters from members telling me how much they appreciate you and all that you do out of your personal lives to help build up the Kingdom of God on earth. You're “Großartige” examples for me. (“great” sounds better in German to me, ha-ha).

   So this week was a week where Elder McK and I learned a lot. Our District Leader asked us to study Ch. 9 from Preach My Gospel this week, and so we did. On Tuesday we started at the beginning and made it to the end of the second page before we ran out of time because it was like instant revelation. We reflected on how we talk to people and approach them on the street, how we plan to use our time as we find people to teach, and how we listen to the spirit. There's a quote which says 'Finding by the spirit is just as important as it is to teach by the spirit.' Also it says that the people we find who are prepared for us will want to listen to our message and meet with us again. We really tried to apply what we learned into the rest of our weekly work and we saw the effectiveness of it. When someone would want to talk with us more, but didn't want to meet or learn from us, instead of continuing in discussion with him we ended the conversation in testimony, gave him a card and moved on as quickly as we could. It helped us tune more into the spirit and discern if this man is ready or not. It's amazing how it works. In doing this we've been able to find people who want to meet with us. We found 20 people with who we have contact information with.

Once we have our planned time of finding, we would stop and talk to each other if this is what we should do or if we should be somewhere else. Sometimes we get sudden promptings that tell us to get out of the bus suddenly, or to walk in a different direction, and sometimes the plan stays the same. But through this tuning in and double checking if this is where we should be, we've been able to find these new people who want to meet again.

   One girl we found last night is called J. She's a German girl probably about 28yrs old and from Hannover originally. Before we went finding we said okay, which way are we going, I looked at the map again while we were in the train, and picked out the way. As we just got out of the train stop Elder McK. said to me, 'This is perfect, I just got revelation, we should walk to “Haupt Bahnhof”', I laughed because that was exactly the way I picked out, but I guess I forgot to tell him, so I said, “I feel the same way”. Well after talking to a few people we found J. who was completely open and said that since she left Hannover, she doesn't really have a ward to go to, so she wants to come see ours and meet with us this week sometime. We got her number and gave her a Book of Moormon and pamphlet and testimony to go with it. It was great!

   Another story is about a man named R. He was walking in front of us and as we were passing him, I talked to him about Christ, and he said, “Yeah I believe but I don't have anything to do with a church. We talked a bit more and then suddenly he said he was from Canada. Bwahh! My first CANADIAN! Right then we started talking in English and I told him where I was from. His whole countenance changed. He told us he'd met missionaries before but didn't understand too much about the Book of Mormon. So we set up an appointment with him and he wants to learn more. Before walking in that direction we were on exchanges, so I asked Elder G. how he felt about the plan and the direction we were going, He paused and said really good. These small pauses to tune in to the spirit, and double check to see if we are doing the right thing is what I learned this week. And it works the same way at home.

   A missionary told me once a long time ago, the things you learn in Preach My Gospel and the White Handbook, are really for MEMBERS with a few extra rules and tips for specifically set-apart missionaries.

   One more thing, Opa gave a great talk the week before. I forgot to tell you that last Monday. It was about the importance of General Conference, and really, really well done! He gave solid testimony and it was really touching. Ha-ha, he said he was really nervous because it was the first time in 20 years that he gave a talk but he didn't show it at all! He's a natural! Oma and Opa are doing great! I love them so much.

   Thanks for everything you guys are doing and for the emails you write me. Charlene, your emails are so long I print them off and read them when I have time ha-ha. And Jeremy thanks for the small email and your testimony about prayer!

Love, Elder Luening

October 21, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family, 

  Thank you so much for all the wonderful e-mails. I really do appreciate all the time you take out of your busy, crazy, stressful lives to write me words of encouragement and to let me know what's been happening in your own personal lives. It helps me feel a part of your life, even when I'm on the other side of the world! So thanks!

     I wish I had time to write you all back individually. It takes me close to an hour to read all your letters, and then I need about 20 minutess to write Pres. and report on how the Zone is doing with its respective Districts. So I usually have only about 40 minutess to write friends and family. I try to reply and wish I could write more than a few lines but it just doesn't work lol. I love you so much and yes...I'm starting to get a bit excited about see you all again, skyping on Christmas! Kass and Scott, I won't be able to see you but I guess it's only like 2 months after Christmas when I'm home again so no big deal lol. I've been a Zone Leader in this mission since January 1st. The Assistent to the President just told me on Monday that I'm the longest serving Zone Leader in the mission. I'm wondering if I'm going to finish my mission here in Hamburg or not. I really hope so, but at the same time I would love to train again before coming home. We'll see what happens. Our Mission President is awesome, and receives revelation from the Lord for each of us.

   I'm really excited that Elder McK. and I are staying 3 transfers together. We get along really well and love working together. We're both hard workers and our Zone is so awesome. We really focus a lot on obedience and striving for exact obedience with everything. Success of a missionary is not based on how many baptisms he gets, but how obedient and faithful he was as a servant of the Lord. It's so important to always have the spirit with you.

   This last week was great. It was the worst week we had number wise because we didn't find a single new investigator and we couln’t meet with the 2 investigators we have. We had a lot of member visits to involve them in the work of salvation, and also a lot of finding time. We're really focusing on using all our time to talk with people wherever we are like Elder Ballard said in General.Conference - that means wherever we are and whatever we're doing. We're risking the awkward and talking with people in the trains and buses! Sometimes they completely reject you and act like they didn't hear what you said to them and then it's really awkward for the next 5-10minutes, ha-ha, but other times you can get some pretty good conversations. Our name tag is a magnet too. We talk to someone about the weather and all of a sudden they're asking us why we're here and why we're wearing a name tag... “Well, let me tell you...” BAM, restoration! We don't see many new inv. from it but the point is to always be engaged in talking. Of course you gotta have a balance. Sometimes you need those train rides or short bus rides to get a chance to cool down and like Kass said, 'Meditate'. But when we're fit we use the time, we as the Zone Leaders, are doing it so that our zone does it too. Lead by example. We also had a man stop us because he saw “Jesu Christi” on our nametag and wanted to know who we were. Don't see that happen too often in Hamburg.

   I have to agree with you Dad, the fall is beautiful. Hamburg is so pretty in the fall, too, because of how many trees there are. Everything green is turning colours. I'll have to take more pictures and send some. M., Brother Stephens son will be able to meet next week. He's finally gets a break from his 200 kids that he teaches French to. We're excited to be meeting him! He's got a desire to learn and be baptized. I think even when we work super hard and don't see the success we want, it’s comforting to know that we're working with the Lord, and that he's always with us.

  Something I've started doing for about 2 weeks now is just taking the last 15minutres of the day (10:15pm) to lie in my bed and read. It really helps me get that quiet time I need so that I never feel I don't have time for me. I can feel the effects from it and I don't burn out so fast.

   Thanks again to all of you for writing me. I'm doing great and so is my companion. I hope you all have a great week, and know that you're always in my prayers.

Elder Luening

October 14, 2013, Hamburg

Dear Family,

So, this week has flown by again. All I remember is that I was extremely tired and exhausted this week. We had a lot of meetings, lol. We had our Zone Training Meeting which was amazing! We taught a lesson about repentance and how we can apply that into our areas and missionary life. It was great, and I love the spirit one can feel at these types of meetings. We also had a Leadership Training Meeting the following day which was also good. One of the lessons given from Sister Kosak (Pres. Kosaks wife), was on stress and stress relief. Well, we all thought a lot about that lesson afterwards and got stressed out just thinking about it! It was a good time though.

We met twice this week with R., the lady who talked to us after General Conference, and invited her to baptism. She said she wants to learn more before she commits to something big like that. But she's aware of why we visit and that baptism is her goal!

     Our Chinese investigator, S., is leaving tomorrow for China. She came to Stake Conference and loved it. She's all set to go home with her Book of Mormon (which she loves), her Bible, and Gospel Principles book. She's really built her faith so much and knows that she has a Heavenly Father looking out for her. She's excited to keep learning and studying the scriptures and doctrines when she returns to China. The closest church to her home is about 10 hours away, so she'll need to keep studying and figure out what she's going to do in the future. She loves the things we've taught her and expressed her gratitude to us after church before she went home. She said she'll never forget meeting us and the things we've taught her. We made her really happy! It was really touching to hear and made us feel really grateful for the work here in Hamburg.  

     We also met a young man about 20 years old on the street and asked him what Christ meant to him. He stopped and pondered for a while and really dug within himself for an answer. He then said, 'I'm actually one of the few who has read the Bible all the way through, and I'm not really sure what Christ means to me. I guess you could say I'm one of those people who are on the search.' We bore our testimonies to him and introduced the Book of Mormon to him. We gave it to him and he was really touched that we would just give him this book for free. He expressed his appreciation to us and took the book and promised he'd read it. It was touching to see how this all impacted him and excited him to continue studying for truth.

   We had transfer calls and Elder McK. and I are staying another transfer together in Hamburg! We've just set some goals and made some plans of what we want to accomplish this transfer and how we'll do it. The Lord is working WITH us in His “Weingarten” (vineyard). (Jacob 5).

Love, Elder Lüning!

October 7, 2013 Hamburg

 Hey family!

     Jeremy I'm proud of you for making the step you did. Guess you'll be home when I get back eh? I'm excited to see you again. Mom, Dad, please let Grandma know I wish her a “Gute Besserung” (Get Well)! That whole accident just sounded really painful. I'm glad she's doing okay.

     This week sped by on by again. On Monday/Tuesday I was able to go on exchange with a District Leader. We stayed in Hamburg and had a really busy day. He was so excited to see how Elder McK. and I talk to people and how we find people, so I made sure we had some time to do just that. It didn't take him to long to realize that he had been doing exactly what we were doing the whole time. Ha-ha!  The only difference was our attitude and how we dealt with those who didn't want to listen. Those that don't want to listen to us, we don't beg them to stay and hear us out. We wish them a good day and moved on to find those elite that God has prepared for us. Elder McK. and I know that they're out there and that Heavenly Father will put them in our paths.

     We've been focusing on the atonement in our mission and it's really helped us with our missionary work. We also had a lesson given to us in Berlin on Friday about Missionary Repentance. We internalized it and brought it into our apartment and introduced it to the other 2 Elders who lived with us. We got a red piece of paper and wrote “HAMBURG UMKEHR” at the top. (Hamburg Repentance) and made a list of things we noticed that we want to change and do better on in the apartment. We have 16 things written down and things have improved a lot already! I've also notice how it's helped us each personally apply the atonement more in our lives because we prayed afterwards for the support to be able to change. It's also unified us more with each other.

     Two miracles happened this week. S. told us that the Book of  Mormon leads her to believe in God. We taught her how to read it and she read from 1 Ne. 3 to 1 Ne. 19 in 3 days. She loves it and said she needs to read it through at least twice. One for the story, and one for her personally where she can apply what she learns into her life.

     Second miracle, is that after the wonderful General Conference on Saturday night (the first Saturday session), on our way home a lady asked us if our church is in English. We told her about General Conference and she said, “Oh I was in Utah and saw the temple!” We invited her to come the next day for General Conference and she came! She saw the Saturday afternoon session and loved it! We will now be meeting with her twice a week and she's coming to church on Sunday again!

     I'm grateful for the atonement in my life and for the power I receive from it daily. These days out here aren't easy. But they're good. From my study of Isaiah this time through the Book of Mormon, I tied what he says together with Nephi. In Lehi's dream he sees people walk away from the tree after partaking of the fruit because they were ashamed of those mocking him. Isaiah talks a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ and about how we should be proud of being his followers. He says that though we might feel as though we're roads for people to walk on, or that we are persecuted beyond what we can handle, Jesus Christ will lift us up and carry us on His shoulders. He will take our burden from us and those that persecute us, He will separate from us. The message that I got from it this time through is be proud of having a Savior who is more powerful than ALL things. Nephi had hard times, but he never lost sight of his Savior, and knew the rewards of obedience and faith. This is one of the reasons why he loved Isaiah so much.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Luening

September 30, 2013, Hamburg

  Dear Family,

   So I'm trying to think about how the week went and again, I have no idea. It's now October which I can't even believe and the time just keeps moving forward. I just bought a new winter jacket for this last winter here in Germany. I found a TK Max where I can use my Master Card and it's a really big store. Success! I am now completely prepped for winter. I'll probably be sending stuff that I don't need any more home soon, so I'm not all stressed about it at the end of my mission.

   The appointments with the five new people that we found last week all fell through. We thought they were part of the “Elite”, but apparently not. So we are back on the road looking for and searching for the ones who are prepared.  We're having a lot of fun with finding, though. The people that we've managed to find and have conversations with are great. When you talk with everyone you see, you get some crazy people, some people who don't even regard you, some people who stop and hear your first line and then leave without saying anything, but no matter what, there are always the ones that listen. You just might have to go through a bunch to get the ones who are ready. I love it!

    Our new members are doing great still. They're super active and haven't missed a single Sunday. S, our Chinese investigator asked about how she can understand the Book of Mormon better when she reads, so we prepped a lesson for her about that. It was awesome. She had read the chapter we left with her and then the first 3 chapters of 1 Nephi. So we read Nephi 4 with her and helped her apply the things she read to her life. She said, “Now I understand how I can learn from this book!” She's like, I was reading it like a novel and didn't even think about paying attention to what I would do if I was in that situation! She's making so much progress and she said after she read Alma 36 she learned why it’s important to keep the commandments! Oh and their Chinese food is so good! The H. Family love us and as we teach S, it's helping Sister H’s testimony so much too!

  That’s all I have to say this week! It's getting colder now. 13° during the day!

  Love you and hope you all have a good week!