June 25, 2012 Forst

Hey!

So I haven’t got an email from you guys yet, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll check later today to see if you emailed me or not. (Probably around 5pm and then I'll print off the email and read it later tonight before I go to bed.) But if you don't send an email, don't worry! I won't be mad, haha. I'll just wait till next Monday.

So this week just seemed to fly by. We spent all day on Tuesday just doing finding. We had appointments with 2 investigators but both of them fell out so we basically just walked around and talked with everyone we could until English class at 6. We have decided on the days that we eat lunch at home we're going to go on a pasta and salad diet lol. Also instead of teaching English class, I go and practice a song in the choir, and Elder V teaches English by himself. After English class/choir we have volleyball. This is a lot of fun. Something we always look forward too.

 On Wednesday we had our 'Golden Tausch'. So Elder V went up to Gürlitz with Elder J (our DL), and Elder G (from my golden group) came down to Forst with me. We had the whole day planned out. We went to a member’s house for lunch, and then we had some contacts to check up on. They weren’t home so we did some finding until our appointment at 4. Lukas G (going on his mission next week Thursday) came on a joint teach with us. The investigator’s house didn't exist, or at least he didn’t live there so we were totally bummed out. I told Lukas he was free to go home if he wanted because all we were going to do is do more finding. But he wanted to come with us for an hour. It was way cool, we all took turns talking to people and we did a few doors. The weather sucked, it was rainy, but for some reason more people than usual stopped and talked to us. It was a lot of fun. Lukas is totally going to be a good missionary. He's not afraid to talk to anyone and has already done a few mini missions. He left afterwards, and we headed off to our next appointment. We taught the man the first lesson as best as we could, and it went really well. We sometimes had a hard time understanding him because we still have a lot of vocabulary to learn, but all in all it was a really good lesson. We gave him a Book of Mormon and explained it to him and set up another teaching appointment. We then did some more finding until our weekly appointment with Brother G (our Ward Mission Leader). We then went home and I thought a lot about the day. Elder Gibson said he was pretty nervous to do a "golden tausch"  (exchange) with me and was surprised it went so well. I was mostly just excited to see what it would be like, and even though some appointments fell through, I was able to figure out what to do instead. We understood everyone we talked to, and were able to teach 7 lessons. It was way cool and the Lord definitely blessed us.

On Thursday we switched back but didn't have much time to do anything. We went to choir at 600 PM and then we had a BBQ with a guy that comes to our English class. He's not a member so it was really cool that he invited us to his BBQ. We were trying to figure out how we would teach a lesson with him, his wife, and his brother, and sister in law. Elder V just asked them if they believed in God. They said they've been Baptist’s for 16 yrs. So we talked about our beliefs and everything. We were able to teach a “sick” (awesome) lesson with them before we went home, and they absolutely loved our company. It was way cool.

On Friday we had our last Zone conference with the President and Sister Pimental (Mission President). It was way crazy. We left at 6: 30 AM. Elder V and I didn't have enough money for the Zug, so the sisters had to buy our tickets. I have money now, but just didn’t have it then because my ricostats didn’t get deposited into my bank yet. But we made it there. There were so many new missionaries in the Dresden and Leipzig Zones from the last transfer. Brother and Sister Pimental gave such good “ Themas” (topics). They were really powerful and they're sad to leave. Brother Pimental talked about how you become a good boss. You start with yourself and boss yourself around into the person you want to be. And then every week you report to yourself and see how you did. It was a really spiritual and powerful zone conference and really uplifting. It was a long day and when we finally got home we were wiped out and ready for bed. President and Sister Kosak (new Mission President) will be at the next Zone Conference next week on July 6th. It is gonna be exciting.

Saturday we studied in the morning and then traveled out to Gürlitz for an “Austellung" (street display). It was a lot of fun. Elder O and I paired up and taught 3 “sick” lessons and handed out 2 Books of Mormon to some promising people. These 2 people that we met were actually “normal”! One was a man with a family and he asked a lot of questions. He then said he would like to take a Book of Mormon home. It was cool. The other was a lady who knew a bit about our church but didn't really know anything other than stuff she had heard. She wanted one too and we had a good lesson with her. We got home late and did some weekly planning and then hit our beds. We were so tired of trains, haha, - just because we've been traveling a lot this week. Wednesday to Saturday were all spent all traveling in one way or another.

Yesterday we went to church and a guy from England came to church with President V and his family. They knew each other about 10 years ago. This guy is going on a bicycle tour by himself all over Europe. He's 21 years old and said he's been traveling from England for 2 weeks now. He said that he just finds a field and camps overnight whenever he needs to. Or, he said, he has a lot of friends all over Europe, so he tries to plan his traveling so he can sleep a friend’s house. That is how he ran into the V family, haha. So he came into sacrament meeting, and can’t speak German, so Elder V translated all the meetings for him. He's not a member either so we taught him as we translated. It was way cool. He's such a cool guy and we were able to teach him in the evening while the soccer game was on. It was England verses Italy and he wanted to watch it so we went with him and taught him when we could. It was a really powerful lesson and he said it hit him pretty deep. We gave him a really small Book of Mormon to take with him on his travels and will see him on Tuesday at volleyball. England lost by the way, haha. Sucked for him, but “naja”, it happens. That reminds me, I was wondering if you guys were watching the Euro cup at all. Let me know.

Oh yeah, and it was L's mission farewell party so we went to that too, and visited for a while. He gave a good talk on Sunday about Alma the Younger and how it has helped him apply the atonement in his life. Sister  G., his mom, gave a talk about how impressed she is about young men going on missions. It was really emotional and it brought up a lot of memories about how I felt when I left. It’s definitely a hard choice but I’m so glad I’m out here. The days seem to be so long sometimes and mornings so hard to get out of bed. But I'm taking it a day at a time and definitely learning a lot from it.

I hope you all are doing well and that things are going good! I miss you and don't worry I’m doing well!

Love Elder Lüning!


*** Note:  Go to germanyberlinmission.blogspot.com  to see Elder Luening in the Dresden Zone Conference picture

June18,2012, Forst

"The field is white and ready to harvest...!"

Dear Family!

I was so happy that Brother B offered to call you guys, haha. I told him that it was my brother's birthday and also that it was Father’s Day. He asked if I was allowed to call home for Father’s Day and I told him I wasn't. He's, like, “Well your parents can speak German so why don’t I call them after we eat”. I thought he was joking but he was serious! Brother B isn't the Ward Mission Leader, our Ward Mission Leader is Brother G.

This week has definitely been tough. I'm not gonna lie, I’ve been exhausted every day this week because Elder V and I are really trying to get things going. We've been spending almost our whole days finding. We've been blessed to find at least one new person to teach every other day. We talk to everyone with the idea that we're going to teach them. So that if they don't have any interest, then at least they know something that we believe, and that will at least get them thinking about God and Jesus Christ a little more, and about the meaning of life. It is tough hearing almost the same thing from everyone we talk to. That there is no God because if there was he wouldn't let all these horrible things happen to people. What is he supposed to do? Come down and fix everything just so people can fall back into how they were before? There's a reason it doesn't work like that, and we see it in the Book of Mormon over and over again. Everyone we talk to, we find out what their dilemma about God is, and then try teach them something that we've figured out in our own life and then testify to them.

We've been getting out of Forst and did some finding in Döbern on Tuesday, which was a failure. And then on Thursday, we did finding in Güben for 6 hours, and managed to make 2 new appointments. People generally stop and listen to us in Güben because they haven't had an LDS church there for 45 years, so they have no idea who we are. It gives us reason to keep going back, and teach people there. So we go at least once a week, but I think we'll start going twice a week. We seem to see our miracles of finding people usually, right when we start our finding, or right before we go home. Seems like a blessing of leaving on time and staying out until we're done, even when we don't feel up to it.

Church yesterday got us a little 'trunky.' The whole topic today was about Eternal Families, but everyone that gave a talk, talked about Eternal Marriage. Elder V and I looked at each other and kept shaking our heads because all we could think of were the girls that we left at home. Elder V has 6 months of his mission left starting today. And I’m still kind of fresh on my mission so we were both lost in thoughts during the sacrament meeting. He was thinking about C, and I was thinking about R. We talked about it afterwards and decided that it was a good topic to hear, but also a bit bad to hear.

I'm learning a lot from this mission so far. How to cope with the days when we don't see much success and how to deal with the people who don't even say anything and keep walking when we approach them. We had a guy try to tell us that we were 'dumbkopfs' because we believed in God and were trying to teach people. It was so sad. We talked to him for about 10 minutes and then just left because it was a waste of time. Forst is tough to work in because its small, but we still seem to reach all of our weekly goals, and if we don't reach them we're getting awfully close. Transfer is halfway over, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be here for the next one. Elder V will probably move on to a different place, and I’ll be here for another 6 weeks...so 9 more weeks in total. Wow, that seems like a long time in this little place. But I'm excited for this week and excited for the people we will be teaching this week.

 I miss you guys at home. When Brother B was talking to dad on the phone, I was so thankful and so happy that he did that for me. It was funny how excited he was to talk to dad, haha. His son, J, goes on a mission next month.

I'm in the choir to sing a song for his farewell. Brother  G's son (ward mission leader), L, is also going on his mission in 2 weeks. Both of them are going to serve in England, but in different missions. They're so excited to go, and L is coming on a joint teach with me this week on Wednesday. Elder G, (from my golden group in the MTC) and I are going to go on 'Golden Taush' this week. We've both only been in Germany for 8 weeks and will be spending the whole day in Forst. We've got at least 3 appointments set up for lessons, so we'll see how well we do haha. It's a bit scary, cause we don't understand everything people say, but it’s exciting to see how well we'll do.

The members here are awesome. They are so nice all the time, and feed us as often as they can. Sometimes I get down and a bit discouraged, and miss everyone I left behind, but I guess that’s something that will always be there until I get home. I'm definitely learning to deal with things a lot better, and really relying on the savior. 'Angels speak through the power of the Holy Ghost.' 2 Nephi 32: 3. We've definitely got angels looking after us, and giving us the strength to do our best and keep each other going.

 I'm glad you had a good weekend and that the weather held out for you guys. The weather has been really random here in Frost. It'll be really sunny and then all of a sudden rainy. But,” naja”, we work in all kinds of weather, as all missionaries do! I'm glad that your graduation weekend was a success Jeremy, and that all you guys had a good time! I Love you all, and maybe one thing you could do for me is give R's mom a call and see how she's doing. I'm sure she'd appreciate it. They had a crazy month with moving into their new house, and also with traveling to Vancouver to have R's back examined. Maybe just chat with her mom for a bit and let them know that you guys and i are thinking of them.

 I miss you guys so much and thanks for everything. Don't worry too much about me, haha, I'm doing well

 
Love you guys always and praying for you every day!

Bis naechste Woche!  Elder Lüning

June 10, 2012, Forst

On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Christopher Luening

Wow! What a week. This week has definitely been a tough one for me and my companion. We did 3 hrs of tracting on Montag, 3 hrs on Dienstag in Dübern (30min bus ride away), 3 hrs on Mittwoch, 6 hrs in Güben on Donnerstag, 2 hrs on Freitag, and 5 1/2hrs in Forst on Samstag, and 3hrs Gestern (yesterday). So all together we did at least 25 hrs of finding. Walking around on foot, ha-ha. Elder V and I were completely focused this week and 'Locked In'. My body hurts and I’m so glad its P-day, hahaha!

So yeah, Tuesday Elder V and I went to Döbern, to check it out and see if there were people that we could find. It's about 30mins away by bus. So we got there and started talking to everyone that passed by us. We had an old contact that we wanted to go check on, so we picked that neighborhood to do some tracting. We met an old man on the way and taught him about the Book of Mormon. He said that he would like to read it so we set up a new appointment with him, and decided every Tuesday we're going be teaching there and doing finding. We checked up on the contact but his wife said he was out of town for a while. We spent a total of 3 hrs finding and didn't see any more success other than that first guy we talked to. I had a lot of time to think about what I read in 1 Nephi 17. If you get a chance to read it this week, do it, it’s really inspiring.
  On Wednesday, we had our District Meeting. It’s funny because the e-mail you just sent me dad was what our theme was on. Alma was so upset because he was trying his best and wasn’t seeing any success. But the Lord cared about him so much that he sent an angel to minister unto him. The Lord definitely blesses us with the people around us and with the spirit to keep on going hard throughout the day. Elder C and Elder O gave the theme. It was sweet. We take the train to Gürlitz with the Sister missionaries every Wednesday, because it’s cheaper for the church when we all travel together. So we got to know Sister N a little bit better. She's from Switzerland, so she's a bit nervous to speak in English still, but she and Sister M are getting along fine. We're gonna miss sister K though who left our District and is now serving in Dresden. We spent about 3 hrs doing finding and Elder V was locked in like crazy. We talked to everyone we saw and felt good the whole time even though we didn't see any success from it. It just felt good to know we did our best. We also checked up on Herr P. We set a day to meet with him and talk to him about baptism. He said he had a lot of questions about it and wants to prepare for the end of July when his date is. Definitely sweet to see that he wants to learn and that he's still reading in the Book of Mormon when he has time.
  On Thursday, we went to Guben at 7:30 AM. We walked around and talked to everyone we saw before our appointment with the young couple and their baby at the gas station. Well 9:30 AM came and they weren’t there. We waited around again for another 10 min and then Elder V asked “Is that them?”. We saw them walking with their stroller, crossing the street and walking towards us. We both looked at each other and said, “No way!” Haha! It was way cool. We gave them a brief explanation about the Book of Mormon and shared our testimony of it. They were excited to start reading it, but said that they didn’t want to give us their number or house address because they've had bad experiences doing so. They said that they would call us next Thursday and tell us if they have time to meet since the man works shift work and his schedule is always different. We were happy they showed up but a little bummed that we couldn’t set a firm return date. But we're praying for them. We did more tracting until 12:00 noon, and then stopped at another man’s house to deliver a Book of Mormon to him. He wasn’t home so we took a lunch break and then went back. He was there, and we were able to give him an explanation of the Book and bear our testimonies to him.  He wants us to come back. We then trecked around for a bit more and left at 3:30 PM. We met with Herr P but he wasn’t feeling well, so we set a new appointment with him. We then went home to do our morning studies that we didn’t have a chance to do. It was a long day and we were pretty exhausted, lol. But I read and studied 1 Nephi 18-20 and man, Nephi is a hero! I set a few goals, too. I want to get my 'basic missionary level' challenge, in my Golden Packet, signed off by my district leader by the end of this transfer. I think I can do it, but it’s going to take quite some work. I'm pretty motivated to get it done, though.
  On Friday, we did service at the Tafel, and had a good time with the people that work there. They definitely love it that we're back to help them now, since we haven’t been there for 3 weeks. We also had lunch with Brother and Sister G (Horst). They showed us their property and it’s so big. They are so nice and they love having us over. After we went tracting, and then went to our appointment on the bench across from the church. Herr P didn't show up but we found out that he got the time mixed up and waited for us for an hour. So we set an appointment for Saturday. We then had weekly planning, and hit the streets again for 3 hrs. We've been feeling so good and the Lord has been blessing us with motivation and with people to talk to. We often see people who even cross the street to avoid running into us, but we cross to meet them on the other side and talk with them anyways, haha. We're just ready to spend this whole transfer on finding so we can get some steady appointments and baptisms in Forst. My studies are going really well, too. German is coming along. Better every day.
 On Saturday, we left our residence and went to the park where there are 2 soccer fields. The Wards in Germany had their annual soccer tournament. Almost everyone there were members. We had permission to watch a bit but we weren't allowed to play in case we got injured. We talked with the new mission president and their wife, Brother and Sister K. We had a good talk and they remembered me from the MTC. We left to do some finding and then came back to have our lunch break. Then at 2:00 PM, we went to do more finding. We checked on all our contacts, but no luck. But we did meet up with Herr P and had a powerful lesson on Authority and Baptism. We invited him to come to church and he said he would only be able to make it from 9:30 AM to 11:30AM. We were stoked that he said he'd be there. We continued with our finding and ran into a man in his 50's riding a bike. We stopped him and talked to him about the purpose of life. We found out he has cancer and he’s wanting to hear about what we're teaching people. We set an appointment with him and are excited to teach him next week. We got home exhausted from the week. We did our studies and listened to the MTC address talk, given by Elder Holland - the same one that the missionaries in the Trail ward gave to me. At the end of his talk he says that he's always wondered why things are often so hard. Why in missionary work, when we do our absolute best and work the hardest we can, we often don't see any success. He said it’s because it’s supposed to be hard. We taste only a teaspoon of what the Savior did for us. And that Salvation was never meant to be easy, and that the Savior is living proof of that. I thought a lot about Nephi -  when his bow broke and how shocked he was when he found that his whole family was murmuring to the Lord.. Elder Holland said, How dare we complain about how tough we have it sometimes. They both seem to understand how much the Savior has paid for our salvation. Elder V and I really thought about that and looked at the week. We worked our absolute hardest this week and definitely saw success. Sometimes we think that we should have seen more, but we felt good about what we did accomplish.
  Sunday we went to church and had a powerful Sacrament Meeting. Three investigators showed up for church. A member invited one of them to listen to her talk. The spirit hit her like a wall and she broke down and cried from the first talk until the end of the meeting. She felt the spirit so strong. Herr P showed up and we were able to show him the Restoration film. We taught him about the restoration and we bore strong testimony to him. J was asked to bare his testimony in Spanish because there was a German man there that could translate from Spanish to German because he had served a Spanish speaking mission. He hung out with J the whole time at church and J was so grateful that he could speak in his own language for once and that he could understand everything that was going on at church. It was a big spiritual boost for him, something that he needed to get through the week of work. We had an eating appointment at Sister B’s. She is the lady that we ate 6 Klöse's with and almost died. This time we had to eat so much that afterwards we went home and rested because we were so sick, haha. It was bad. But "Missionare müssen alles aufessen". So once we recovered, we hit the streets for 3 hrs. We talked to quite a few people and when it was dead we did door to door tracting. I crossed the street we were on and talked to a guy in his 20's. He was chilling on his window sill listening to music, drinking a bit and smoking. He turned his music off and talked with us. He wanted a Book of Mormon, so we went back to our place grabbed one and came back. We told him what it was about. He then said, 'You guys will need to come back next week once I’ve read a bit and explain what I’ve read to me'. So we set an appointment next week and we're way excited to teach him. We taught 20 lessons this week and are excited for this week coming up. It was a tough week for me at the beginning to keep up my motivation. But something just clicked in Elder V and I and we were on fire this whole week. We're going to work hard until we leave, and know the Lord will bless us with success! The scriptures have been opening up to me more and more every time I read them. I'm able to liken them to my situations more and more, and things I didn’t understand before are made clear to me.

Yeah, the weather here has been pretty rainy too, lately. But we've only got soaked a few times, haha. It’s starting to warm up now, I think. Good to hear that you got your Firefighting training completed Jeremy! That'll definitely be a good experience, I'm excited for you. Happy Graduation next weekend by the way! Oh yeah, Jeremy I got a mission for you. I need you to get R's new mailing address for me. She just moved and she doesn’t have her internet hooked up yet and hasn't had time to get it to me. So when you can, maybe call her mom for it or talk to her at school, if you see her. That'ld be sweet cause I got a letter I need to send her mom.. Danke Shön  Also, I’m praying for you guys all the time and hope the Lord is blessing you. Thanks for keeping me updated about Sister S I'll definitely remember to pray for her. I Love you all and talk to you next week!
  
 Love Elder Lüning

p.s. I got my camera in the mail on Thursday! Thanks a bunch!! :)

June 4. 2012, Forst

Dear family!
    So, another week done and over with. It was good to hear from you and thanks for your e-mails. I've had an up and down week and it was a crazy hard week too.
On Monday we went to a few appointments that we had during the day and then at 5:30PM we went home and did our spring cleaning. We cleaned the whole apartment till about 10:00PM. It looks so good now but seemed to take forever.
   On Tuesday we traveled towards Gürlitz to do a District Austellung (street display). It was a lot of fun and we talked to a lot of people. We were able to make out a bunch of appointments and it was fun being able to do finding with other missionaries in our district. Oh yeah, another funny thing was that there were Jehovah Witnesses right beside us. Haha, Elder Js (our DL) thought it would be hilarious to put up our display right beside the Jehovah Witnesses and so that's what he did. He tried talking to them for a little bit but they didn't want to so we took off together and talked to everyone we could. Also, Elder G and I (the 2 goldens in the District) took off together and tried to place a Book of Mormon. It didn't work but we did talk to everyone we could using and understanding as much German as we could. It was a little nerve racking but definitely boosted our confidence when we realized we could listen and communicate with people without having our trainers beside us. It was pretty fun and got us excited for our finding day on Wednesday. We went home and J (Spanish member) came to volleyball and had a lot of fun playing with us. He said work has been crazy and that it's tough working around a lot of the workers. He said a guy threw his lunch on the ground today and J punched him. He said that the guy he hit got sent home and he was able to go back to work which he saw as a huge blessing. He called his workplace a 'Jungle'. Every single night everyone parties and drinks. He says its tough but he is thankful to be able to come to church activities that distract him a bit.
    On Wednesday Elder V and I prayed a lot and got really excited to find people. We had our District meeting in the morning and talked about the scripture in Alma where Alma was visited by and angel who told him to cheer up and be joyful. It was a really good Thema (theme). We then went home to a dinner appointment with Brother Dieter G. We had some soup and a really nice visit. I've never eaten at their place before and had a good time. We then went to an investigator's house with a member. We were able to teach her a lot about Jesus Christ and really get to know her. She is way cool and definitely a golden investigator. She recognized the spirit during our lesson and having a sister there from the ward was a huge help, too. Only sad thing is that her daughter is coming home to visit for 5 weeks and she said she won't meet with us again until her daughter leaves. We invited her to church but again she says she'll come if her daughter wants to. It was sad to hear, but we're excited to teach her again. We'll call her and check up on her once in a while. We then cancelled our evening appointment with our ward mission leader and used the 3hrs we had left to do our finding. We seriously spent 2hours "klingeling" (ringing)on apartment doors and 1hr tracting. All day we had been talking to everyone we saw as we went to appointments and now we were still doing it. At the apartments we were ringing on, I would keep ringing and talk to the people that answered and Elder V would talk to the people walking by. We literally talked to everyone we could and didn't set a single appointment. We didn't even manage to talk to anyone for more than 15seconds. It was painful. We got chewed out by some people from India. We got home that night and just looked at each other in disbelief. We just laughed because there was nothing else we could do. Elder V said 'Don't worry, we found Gold in ourselves, haha. Maybe we were the ones that were supposed to be taught by the Lord. It was disappointing but we did all that we could and felt good at least that we did everything we could.
     On Thursday we were pretty excited because we were going to a place called Güben (30min bus ride), a place that we had been to already and where everyone talked to us because they don't know us. We looked outside and saw some pretty dark and thick clouds and hoped it wouldn't rain on us, haha. We went to meet up with B (the other Kenyan) who was moving to Berlin today. Him and 3 women from Kenya invited us to eat some African food with them. We had a really good visit and shared a spiritual thought about Jesus Christ and the enabling power we can receive from the atonement. It was a really spiritual time that we shared with them and we then ran to make our bus on time. I prayed as we raced our bikes to the bus station that we woudn't miss our bus. We got there a minute before it left! We were so thankful. We picked a street in Güben to do some doors. Every house we knocked on people listened to us and thanked us for talking to them. We met a young family walking down the street and made an appointment with them. They are a young couple (prob 25yrs old) with a 7month old baby girl. We talked to them about families and they were really nice. We also talked to an old man riding his bike who stopped and listened to us. He said he wanted to meet with us again and for us to bring him a Book of Mormon so he could read it. It was sweet. We stayed in Güben talking to people from 3:30 to 7:30 PM. We got home and Edler V told me it was my turn to plan the day for tomorrow. We didn't have any appointments or anything so the day was all mine haha. We planned and then went to bed.
     On Friday we checked on all of our investigators and on some contacts. We were able to teach a lesson with Herr L who said he would come to church on Sunday but never showed up. Everyone else we checked on said it was a bad time to visit or didn't answer the door. We again talked to everyone we saw on the streets but no one had time. We still needed to get one more lesson before we went home early and did our weekly planning session. So we decided to stop at the church to see if anyone was there in hopes that we could share a lesson with a member. We got there and the youth were having their youth activity. It was called Maihnachten...Weihnachten (Christmas) in May. haha! But they messed up because it was June 1st. It was funny but they had the Christmas tree set up, and the Young Men's Leader was giving them a spiritual thought about the birth and mission of Christ. They were all sitting around a big table with candles and the Christmas treats that we always have for advent! They were excited to see us and wanted us to come and sit with them. So we did and we were able to share a lesson with them. The Weihnachtsman (St.Nick) came and gave a present to everyone that could recite an Article of Faith or show some sort of talent that they had. Elder V recited D&C 4 out of memory, and I was asked to sing a song. So I sang 'O du Fröliche'. We listened to music and had some laughs and then had to head home. It was way cool.
  On Saturday, we got up at 5:30 to head to the Freiberg temple! We stopped in Dresdon to listen to 'transfer calls'. Our District is staying the same for this next transfer except for Sister K who  is leaving to go serve in Dresdon and the sister from Dresdon is coming to serve with sister M. So we'll have a new sister in our District. Other than that we have another 6 weeks with the same Elders in our District which is way cool. The Freiberg temple was so nice! It was cool going through the sessions in the German language. I got a translating headset for English but listened to most of the session in German because I basically understood it all. The Freiberg temple is as small as the Spokane temple is. Only one session at a time. It was really nice. We also had a lot of fun on the train ride back to Dresdon. We ate at an all you can eat Chinese buffet and it was way good. We had some sushi and socialized a lot. We then made the journey home with the Sisters to Cottbus (2hrs), and then from Cottbus went to Forst (20mins) by ourselves. It was a good day and we were able to relax for an hour when we got home.
  On Sunday we met up with J at church again. He said he had a tough week and broke down twice during sacrament meeting. He told us he wanted to go back to Spain but at the same time has nothing to go home to. He's 36 and him and his wife are divorced. She has custody of their son while he goes around looking for work. He said 2 people at work tried to fight him on Saturday. He says he's really thinking about trying to find work somewhere else. We had a good lesson with him and read in the Book of Mormon with him. By the time church was over he said he was feeling a lot better and said he got the spiritual boost he was looking for. He's so thankful that we're there for him and help him come to activities and spend time in a different class with him. Elder V translated all the testimonies from members and also translated the Priesthood lesson for him. He said hes really thankful for us. We had and awesome lunch at a members house. It was with Brother and Sister V. We had a really good time with them and when we left, we had an hour to do some finding. It was pouring rain and we were trying to figure out what we would do. We pulled out the map and picked a street to do doors on. We were able to teach 2 lessons and set 2 appointments and managed to reach all of our goals for the week! It was awesome. We got completely soaked in our suits but we had a good time because people listened to our message and were really nice to us.
    Even though this week seemed really rough I'm definitely thankful for all the fun and the blessings we did receive. I've been reading a lot in the book Our Heritage and am amazed at the amount of faith the members had back then to serve missions. Its been a great example to me of how to just keep pressing forward when you don't see any success, and just keep your head up and look for the blessings you receive. Don't focus on the big ones that your expecting but focus on the ones that you are receiving everyday. Time seems to just keep moving forward. Thanks so much for your letters this week. Thanks, dad, for your testimony and mom for your letter! I don't think I'll be able to e-mail you back and forth because I just have enough time to write you this letter, lol. And it's probably like 3:00AM where you are when I send i,t haha. I'm glad you are all doing really good, I'm praying for you all the time and hope that the Lord is blessing you. I'm doing well and am loving the mission. Some days are tough but I just press through them. I love you and can't wait to see some pictures of this wedding!! You guys are awesome and don't worry about relaxing a little bit, haha. You deserve it!
 Bis naechste Woche,

 Love Elder Luening

May 28, 2012, Forst

Wow! This week has been pretty intense! It is hard for me to remember what happened because it went by slow and fast at the same time! I still can't believe how Kassandra is married already, and how Jeremy is graduating from school. It is unbelievable hoe the time keeps moving forward!
This week seems like it has changed me a lot. I'm not sure in what ways, but I am just starting to feel different! I feel like I am starting to adjust and am able to be myself in the German language! I feel the spirit more as I speak and as I listen! My rate of understanding what people are saying has sped up again! I was at Church yesterday, and I could hear and understand what people were saying without having to think about it. It seemed to just come to me when I am not worrying about it so much. Every Sacrament meeting, I write down words that I don,t know and have a young man preparing for a mission in England to translate them. He keeps asking me why I have him translate instead of Elder V, but I just laugh and say that it is going to help him for his English speaking mission!
Na ya, this week has been interesting! On Monday, once our P-day was over, we had 3 hours of tracting ahead of us. We walked around and found about 20 people to talk to. Not a single one of them had more than 5 seconds for us! It was rough, but we were able to talk to each other and keep our spirits up! I am so glad that we are companions because we get along so well, and are able to share experiences that boost each other!
On Tuesday, I cut my hair. I accidentally cut it way too short! What can you do!  I went on an Austausch ( exchanges) with our district Leader, Elder J in Guuerlitz. We enjoyed it, although our 3 appointment fell through. We had a lot of time to talk to the students at the Studentenheims (student housing) and set up a few new appointments.We talked quite a bit and it was interesting to serve with Elder J because I saw how he talked to people and how he was himself! He's hilarious and he is so humble! We were able to have this really good appointment with a man who has been seeing the missionaries for 10 years. We felt the spirit so strongly in this discussion and were able to help him see how much the Lord has blessed him ever since he's met with the missionaries. It was really powerful and I realized that my German is good enough to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in Germany! Once  we got back, we went running in the rain to get some snacks for watching "The District". We got back to the apartment a bit wet, but watched "The Mountain of the Lord" and Together Forever". It was nice and it was good to have something boost our spirits when times were getting tough.
Wednesday was our district Meeting and Elder V and I switched back together again.We headed back to Forst and had a lunch appointment with B. Because he doesn't have much money, we bought the food and he cooked it with us. He made this really spicy soup with chicken and something else that we ate.  Apparently it is African food and you eat it with your fingers. It was so hot in his room. We were sweating like crazy in his hot, sweaty room, trying to eat this hot spicy food. It was awful, but we had a good time and were able to leave a message about prophets. we then went ot a few appointments that fell through do we went tracting for an hour before our Abendbrot (evening meal) appointment / Branch Mission Leader Meeting. we were able to teach 2 lessons on the street and we pleasantly surprised that people listened to us today! All in all, it was a long, but good day! Sister G made us amazing bread to eat along with the Broetchen (buns). Oh, yeah, I tried Teewurst for the first time. It was sooo good!
Thursday morning, we got up and got ready for a service project. Most of the houses in Germany are made of bricks. We had to take out a wall inside one of the houses that a member is renovating, so we spent about 3 hours bringing down a wall and removing the dirt and bricks from the house. It was a lot of work, but definitely fun! The member gave us 40 Euros which he said we could take because it was not for the work, but because he liked us!We headed to the bus station to take the bus to Gueben to tract for the day, but arrived just as the bus had left.We had no Idea what to do, so we decided to stop by some contacts. We saw Herr P sitting on the bench that he is always on, and taught him a lesson.He said he wants to be baptized and set a baptismal date!we still have a lot to teach him but are really excited that he wants a new life and feels that the Lord and us can he4lp him with that! We then went to teach B and an old contact next door. We were able to give him a powerful lesson on how faith is like a seed, and how it is hard but in the end it is worth it.We compared it to hiking a mountain.You could tell they could feel the spirit - it was so strong!We knew it was something they needed to hear and that they were appreciative of us stopping by and sharing a message with them. We were feeling so good when we went home and knew that we were doing what the Lord wanted us to be doing. Even though we didn't make it to Gueben as we had planned, the Lord used us in other ways. We got home and found out that our oven kicks the breaker so we can't use ot anymore. We had no hot water, but were able to light the hot water heater again. We have no idea what is happening with our oven! Oh, and apparently when I was on exchanges in Guerlitz, Elder V woke up to a flooded kitchen because our kitchen tap was broken. We had a new kitchen tap installed on Saturday! Crazy, but it's all good! On Friday, we had our Zone Conference in Leipzig- it was awesome! It was the Dresdon and Leipzig zones together. It was way cool! We had good lessons about how we can feel the love of God and Jesus Christ for us more in our lives. we were also made aware that all of Germany is going to be fasting and praying for finding, It is called "Esprit de Corps like never before!". We are all fasting from last night to today and praying that we will be able to Find "Golden investigators" to teach and bring to Christ! We feel that the Lord will pour out his blessings to all the missionaries when he sees us all fasting together and praying on the same day and working hard to find 100 golden investigators. People who are ready to receive the gospel. we are going to be expecting miracles. At zone confernce Iwas able to share my "golden" testimony and the missionaries who were "dieing" (going home this transfer) gave their departing testimonies as well. The spirit was strong and I absolutely loved it there!
On Saturday, we did some service at a sister's house. We mowed her lawn and did some garden work. She gave us a meal and we headed home to change. We went to a member's little birthday party.Their baby just turned ! year old and they wanted us to reflect our message on Mickey Mouse. We compared the Church to the Mickey Mouse house and how he is always happy because he invites his friends to his house to have fun with him! We shared it before, but there were more members here this time and they all loved it! We then checked on a few investigators to confirm whether they still planned on coming to Church. They said that they were. we shared a message with B and A again. this time it was on Mosiah 24 and how the Lord strengthens us enough so that our burdens seem like they are not there anymore, and that through His grace and our faith, He will always look after us and ease our burdens. They loved it and I know they felt the spirit. We felt good being able to influence their lives and bring the spirit into their homes whenever we visit them. After  that we were able to talk to 3 people while tracting and one person took a card from us. we still needed to make an appointment to reach our goal for the day, so Elder V called a person we have never met before and he said he would love to meet with us on Sunday! We were pretty happy about our day and i have just been feeling more and more like a missionary every day! I have been reading the book "Our Heritage", and learning how much faith the prophet and the saints had in their lives. It's been really inspiring and I feel like I have been applying things that I learn in my own life and seeing ways that the Lord is blessing my life personally every day!
On Sunday, we went to Church and Elder V was translating all the talks during all the meetings into English for the Spanish Member, J. I gave him an English and a Spanish Book of Mormon. He is so happy to be able to have them and read whenever he wants to. He told us that work is so hot on the solar fields. Also he is the boss there so he sits around and makes sure that everything is in order, but is also really busy all of the time. It is inspiring to see how much he loves coming to church. He said his coworkers party almost every night and he is just glad to have a break on Sunday when he can get away from all of that and feel the spirit! After church we went to Familie G's for dinner. His wife made us Rouladen , Kloesse (dumplings), and Rotkohl (pickled red cabbage).It was so good and we had a really good visit with her. Once again all of our appointments were "ausgefallen" (fell through), so we decided to stop by some more contacts and talk to everyone we met in the street.Then we ran into j, the man we called the day before. We walked to his house with him and had a lesson with him. His heart was completely closed and it wasn't reaching him. But we felt the spirit so strongly as we testified of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. we left feeling really inspired from the spirit and so good about how we were directed by the spirit in that lesson. Even though his heart was closed and we don't think we helped him at all, we felt really good because we testifies. We then went to do some more tracting and stopped by B's place again. A was there too, and we talked to them both a bit to see how they were doing. Both of them are from Kenya and fled to Germany to escape things that were happening there.They left their families and are just waiting to get their papers so they can go back. they have been in Germany for about 4 years now and are Christians.We left a message about hope, faith and charity, and how these three things can create miracles. We have seen them.We told them that we loved them and that we always were impressed with how patient they were while waiting around and working in Germany. We knew that they felt the spirit and left with such a happy feeling.
I am really starting to feel myself change and I love the Lord more each day. I'm not sure how to describe it but I just feel like I am more useful each day! The days seem long sometimes and I feel like I am going to be away from home forever, but time keeps moving forward and I am feeling the Lord push us forward to do whatever He wants us to do! I'm so glad the Lord is taking care of all of you and that He is helping you get through your trials and hardships! You are in my prayers everyday and I am proud of all of you. I can't wait to see pictures of what the wedding was like. I am proud of all of you for making righteous decisions and moving forward in the gospel.
I'm doing well!
Bis Montag,
Elder Luening

May 21, 2012, Forst

May 21, 2012 Forst (3:41 AM)

Wow! I can't believe Kassandra  you are already married, Kassandra! That's so crazy! thanks for the e-mail, dad and for letting me hear all about the wedding and about how the week went. You all must be pretty exhausted. That's a lot of travel and excitement for one week-end! I am really excited to see some pictures!

Also, Jeremy, congrats on giving such a powerful talk and for finishing your Duty to God! I am so proud of you and know that you are on your way to being a good missionary. don't ever forget the kind of missionary you want to be, even when you get out into the field. No matter what other missionaries or people are doing, remember the type of missionary you want to be, and then be it! I'm so proud of you and so happy that you are working hard!
Charlene I miss you and I hope that you are doing well!
This week went really fast, but was definitely a tough week. I learned a lot about myself and a lot abut how you feel when you give your best and when you don't. Our P-day last week was really cool! we wrote our e-mails in Cottbus and then after we had a district BBQ and played a bunch of games (soccer, football, frisby, card games) and just relaxed, talked and stuff. It was a lot of fun! After that we got back to Forst and went to Young Single Adult (YSA) Family Home Evening. We learned the positives about things we want to change about ourselves and, man did I learn a lot of new German vocabulary words, haha!
For our District Meeting this week (every Wednesday), Elder V and I were assigned to teach about "Teaching and Repentance", so we studied together and made a plan the night before. Then in our meeting, we shared it. We shared the who, what, where,when, why, and hows of teaching, and then how to teach repentance. afterwards, the rest of our day seemed weird. We got home and studied and didn't do much.Then we went out and did some quick shopping,Then at 4:00 PM., we went to meet an investigator at a park. We sat for 5 minutes and didn't think he would show up, but we kept waiting! Then all of a sudden we saw him coming and we got ready to teach him! He didn't have much time, but we were able to teach him about prophets for 15 minutes and made another appointment to teach him on Saturday! Then afterwards, we did some tracting and checked up on old contacts, but no one would open the door because they were all out buying liquor or were all drunk! It was tough and I feel like we could have been more diligent that day! I got home not feeling very great and knew that we had had an off day!
So, then on Thursday morning, Christihimmelfahrt (Christ's Ascension Day), we knew that we wouldn't have much success. The Branch President told us not to bother going out because everyone would be drinking all day. Instead, we did spring cleaning in our apartment. It felt great cleaning the whole apartment and making it look nice! We then had a good weekly planning session and companionship inventory. We set a bunch of goals on how we can improve and strength our weaknesses. It was a really good planning session and we were able to tell each other our weaknesses and strengths. We were both open with each other and that played a big part in planning well. We then went to a Ward Garden Party at President V's ( Branch President) house and conversed a lot with the members. It was great talking with the youth and socializing with them.
We left at &;30PM and tracted before we went home. We found a lady who was just going through her gate on the way home and we talked to her a bit. She was a Lutherin and we talked about what we believe.
We talked to her for about 35 minutes and found out a lot about what she believed and how confusing it is. She believed in God, but didn't believe in life after death. She believed that God lived in us and not in "heaven", and that He doesn't help us, but leaves it all up to us to do it all alone. we tried to leave her with a card, but she was really stubborn and said, No, thank you!". Then, we asked her to read Ephesians 4 and she gladly said that she would! we couldn't help her much, but we tried our best and maybe we got her thinking a lot about life and about Jesus Christ.
We then went to check up on E, who we haven't seen for about 11/2  weeks. We knocked on her door and surprisingly, she opened it. i asked id she had time to meet with us ans he said that the baby was sleeping, but maybe another time, than closed the door! We were, like, " what the heck!" We couldn't do much, so we left the house! It is sad because E was making a lot of progress and now we don't even see her anymore. We decided to stop going over and give her a break. We will go back in a week or so!
Friday was awesome! We did our exercises, studied, and prepped a lesson for an investigator, Frau, S on the Plan of Salvation. we then went to her house, but she wasn't home. We did tracting, and contacts instead. We talked to everyone we could and it felt really great - even though most people didn't listen, we did our best! We had lunch at a member's house and gave a spiritual thought about missionary work and trusting in Christ (Mormon 9:21, 36). after lunch, we went back to Frau S and taught her. Even though she didn't have much time for us, the lesson went really well. we set up another appointment and then went to see our African investigator, B. We approached to everyone we met on our way there , but were unsuccessful.  Then B let us come in and we shared a spiritual thought about weaknesses and how the through the Lord, they are made strong. The spirit was so strong!. Then we had another dinner appointment. Elder V and I felt great today, because the time flew by and we knew that we had done everything we could to be 100% obedient. we have been keeping it up ever since Thursday!
On Saturday, we had an Austellung (street display) in Cottbus. Elder Gibson and I (both of us are "Goldens" - new missionaries) teamed up and tries finding people by ourselves. We were able to teach three lessons and bring a young couple to our table of pamphlets and our display! then the sisters took over! It was fun and way cool to be able to do the finding by ourselves! We understood a lot of what the people were saying, but there was also a lot we didn't understand! it was hard, but it was cool that we had the courage to do it! Eld4r J and I taught 2 20 year old girls who had us sit with them when they found out that we were from America and Canada! It was quite amusing! Elder J shared his conversion story and they said they would come to church! We were back in Forst at 5:30PM and went to the park to meet Herr P, but he didn't show up. We had planned to show him the first Vision video and give him a tour of the Church! We went to Ben's for half-time during the soccer game on TV and brought him chicken wings!We taught him a lesson. He is a humble and loving guy! He is 23 years old and I hope that he gets baptized!
Sunday, was sooo cool! I was listening to the talks and everything and I could understand so much more than the week before. My ears are starting to catch a lot of words that I learned throughout the weak and I can pretty much understand everything people are saying. during the first talk, a young man came up to me, and told me there was an investigator outside. I went out and shook his hand. He greeted me in English and I  thought that that was weird! He then said that  he was a member from Spain! He is working with a bunch of people on the solar panels fields and will be staying here for 3 months. He then shared his story. he said. "he had washed his garments and was taking a shower, then when he went back to check on them they were gone. He called his Bishop and was told to go to the church and talk to the Bishop there so that he could get new ones.They both didn't know where the building was located.He prayed really hard Saturday night.Then, Sunday morning, he prayed really hard again and asked the Lord to direct him to where the church was.He left his house and started walking. Every time he came to a crossroad, he prayed and felt the spirit prompt his which direction he should go! He did this for 3 hours because he lives quite a ways from Forst! Then he saw the building! He found it completely by following the spirit!" After Sacrament meeting, the Branch President helped sort out his problems and made arrangements to help him. He doesn't speak German and can only remember a little English from when he served a Spanish speaking mission in St. George, Utah! He just broke down and cried because he was so grateful for the members and grateful to the Lord for helping his when he was in need. The Young Men's President said that he Aaronic Priesthood would administer the Sacrament to him and have him share his story with them.He works with 300 men and is the only member. He said that there is no other place he wants to be than at church on Sundays. It was such a cool experience being able to help this man and see the Lord and spirit work through him!
This week, I have learned so much and learned that when you apply what you have learned, you grow to love it! We are trying our best and seeing the Lord bless us through happiness and through success. We are able to dwell on the people we might have helped a bit instead of worrying about the ones that rejected us. It has been an amazing week and it went really fast.
I hope that you guys will have a good week and I wish you all the best! I love you all!
Bis Montag,
Elder Luening

May 14, 2012, Forst (11:00AM)

LIVE, LEARN, FIGHT

 Dear Luening Family!

So,  I was able to Skype with you guys yesterday and didn’t actually realize how much I missed you all until I saw you and said good bye! It’s crazy. I told you a little about the week I had,  but I’ll tell you a bit more.

So, on Monday I went to Cottbus (20mins away) and emailed you, and then went back to Forst with our District and enjoyed a District P-day. We played some Football and then had an awesome BBQ at the B.'s!
It was really cool and man, were we stuffed! The members are totally loving us and it was really awesome being able to have our whole district enjoys our time with some members in our ward.

On Tuesday, we had interviews with the Mission President in Dresden. So, we traveled for 3 hours and then had a Zone meeting and our interviews at about 1:00 PM. It was crazy!
Our train was leaving at 7:35 AM and we got there at 7:27 AM. We then realized we forgot the area book, and raced back to our apartment, and then back to the train station on our bikes! We just made it. probably 30 seconds before the Zug (train) left!! It was pretty crazy!
The Zone conference was really great! The spirit was really strong and it was very motivating. My interview with President Pimental was awesome! He was real quick, and just wanted to know if I had any concerns about anything.

At 4 PM,  we left for Forst and got back at about 7:20 PM. We hit the streets for 40 minutes talking to everyone we saw and were able to teach one person and set one new appointment!

Wednesday, we wanted to teach Frau E. (she has a baptismal date and came to church) but when we were going to her apartment, she was heading to the train station because she was going to meet a friend.
So we then went to meet our other investigator with a baptismal date, Herr M. He said he was sick again and that he doesn’t have time.

Since we had a lot of free time all of a sudden, we decided to go and do tracting in Guben (30min bus ride).
We taught 3 lessons on the street and there was honestly not one person that didn't talk to us for at least 45 seconds. Everyone was really friendly and we were able to set two appointments. Also, we had two students (age 21) walk up to us and talk to us about how they know who we are, and that they've met with missionaries before. It was really cool and they said they want to start meeting with us again.
So Guben was successful! Half the city of Guben is in Poland, so we went across a bridge and stood in Poland for about 2 minutes and then ran back to the bus station to catch our bus. It was way cool!

Thursday we met Frau E. at 11:00 AM and said we would come back to teach her at 4:00 PM. She said ok. So we called Bro.C. (a member, age 28) to joint teach with us at 4:00 PM. We had a dinner appointment with a member at noon and then mowed her lawn for her as a little service project.
We then went back at 4:00 PM to Frau E’s place and she wasn’t home. It was the worst feeling ever. So we talked to Bro. C. for a bit and then went on trying to find people.
OYM's (open your mouth). We ran into an African Christian who had met the missionaries before and hated them because they tried to change his belief. We were able to sit down and talk with him and hear his concerns about everything he was taught. We straightened a lot of things out and he realized that our faith is centered on Jesus Christ like his was. We shared a lot of scriptures with him and he shared his favorite ones with us. It was a really cool lesson and he said that he would come to church sometime to see what it is like. We then talked to a man on the street and he just said "nee" (no), then pulled out 2 beers out of his bag and said "I know what you guys do, and how hard it must be, here is something to drink while you’re walking around looking for people." Ha-ha it was really funny! We took it, not knowing it was beer and put it in our backpack.
We then talked to a Lady and had a really good lesson and conversation with her. We gave her a card, and in return she gave us a bookmark to remember her with,since she lives in West Germany somewhere. Then we went to do some quick shopping and we met a guy that works at a bank (25yrs old). He approached us, and we started telling him who we were and what we are doing on a mission. He's from Cottbus. We gave him a card and told him the Sister missionaries’ telephone number. The Lord was totally blessing us that day and giving us a boost to fulfill His work because we were really disappointed that all our appointments fell through. But we kept going and looking for people to talk to, and the Lord blessed us big time.

Friday we had our service project. Usually the people we work with at the "Tafel". (This is a place where people can buy donated food items that stores have discarded very cheaply.) Ususally the people don’t talk too much with us, but this time everyone was opening up and really wanted to get to know us and what Canada and America were like. It was really cool. Our service was for 3 hours so we got to talk about a lot of things!. Then, before we left, we handed each of them a card and told them we have volleyball on Tuesdays and that they were more than welcome to come to church and play volleyball if they wanted to. There are about 6 people that work there. It was really cool.

We went to check up on Frau E. three times but even though her shoes were there and we heard music playing she didn’t answer the door.
We then went, and taught an investigator in the same building, He is only home for about 3 days / month because of work. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and the spirit was really strong. His name is Herr B. and he's from Kenya.
We went to do some tracting after that, and it was just pouring rain! We got completely soaked and nobody would talk to us. Actually, one did but he wouldn’t take a card!  So we kept walking around, and then passed a group of kids 18-24 sitting in 2 cars and standing outside a store in a parking lot. The guys in the car honked their horn at us as we walked right in front of them. I'm like; "Elder we should go talk to them." He's like,"No! We won’t get anywhere with that." Then about 5 minutes later we hadn't seen anyone so we had to go back the same way we came from. The guys were just laughing because of what they had done earlier. I was about to go talk to them when some other guys beckoned us to come talk to them in the parking lot. We were able to talk to 3 guys (20-22 yrs. old) and tell them who we were and what we were doing. Their whole countenance changed and we were able to have a really good time talking with them. They were drinking and smoking but they were pumped that we were from America and Canada and about what our purpose as missionaries were and that were doing it out of our own money. The Lord blessed us again!

Saturday we went to all the less active or non-active members and dropped of the Ward newsletters. We buzzed on every door but the ones that did answer said, "No, we don’t want to talk to you." So that was sucky.
We then had lunch and went to a few appointments. On the way to one, I felt prompted to talk to an old man sitting on a bench. We were able to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and have a really good lesson with him. We set a time for our next appointment and learned that he lives right across from the Church.
We then taught Frau S. She's an investigator that we have only taught once and had left a Book of Mormon with. We taught her the first lesson and afterwards she asked us what we believe happens when we die. She said she has big fear of dying and wants to know what happens after death. She said that the next time we meet that’s what we have to teach her. We were so excited and happy. So we set an appointment and are excited to teach her. We then checked up on Frau E. and Herr M. and we had no luck. Frau E. still didn’t answer the door and Herr M. said he has no time. So we went and tried to have a lesson with Herr B. again (Kenyan) and he made us dinner and we taught him a lesson and got to know him a bit more. It was cool.

So pretty much, the work is hard and sometimes really sad, but the Lord is blessing us as we remain faithful and do the things we are supposed to do. Find, Teach, Baptize, Keep!

Good Luck on the wedding and I hope that everything is going really good for you all! I Loved being able to talk to you guys yesterday and can’t wait to talk to you again! I miss you all and love you, and don’t worry I’m loving my mission!

Love Elder Luening

President & Sister Pimental with Elder Luening & Companion

Eldaer Luening & Companion on the go!

Rain shower in Forst

Goerlitz District