August 5, 2013, Hamburg

05/08

Hey Family,

                Just a small email this week! Wow, you sure know how to write a lot, ha-ha. I'm very grateful that the Lord is taking care of all of you.

               Things in Hamburg are great! We are having a tough time finding people, but naja, story of the mission, J! 

               S is basically a member already. He came to church for his third time in 3 weeks  and loves the members. He fits right in and has such enthusiasm and excitement for finding the church and this new family. He believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and loves the things that he's learning in the Book of Mormon in his personal study. He's on fire, and feels the spirit every time he meets with us. He shared with us last week that the time when he felt he should leave the church he was attending he opened up his Bible and read Ezekiel 12:1-8. He said it was like God speaking clearly to him and instructing him. He's really excited for his baptism! On Aug 18th, 3 of our investigators will be baptized. It's very exciting! Elder M and I are doing great with teaching together.

Oma and Opa are doing great too. They've both been to church these past 2 weeks, and we are now meeting with them weekly for Mittagessen and for a lesson. They've also befriended S, which is great! We're bringing him with us this week to their home for lunch and a lesson.

               We're working on getting the ward excited for missionary work. We have a ward activity this week which a couple members are already planning on bringing people to. We also have a church tour planned and will be teaching the first lesson throughout the tour J!

I love you guys. Thanks for the emails and letting me know how you're doing!

Elder Lüning

July 29,2013, Hamburg

Dear Family, 

               So crazy that I'm in Hamburg! I'd be walking down the street and just thinking, wow, I'm in Hamburg, wow I'm in Hamburg, WOW I'M IN HAMBURG, ha-ha. Okay not so dramatic, but ja, crazy. My companion Elder Mckean is an awesome missionary. He works hard. He's been out for a year and really loves the people in this city. We are doing a lot of good work together.

We've seen miracles so far since I've been here. We have 5 investigators who want to be baptized - four of them on the 18th of August and one on the 15th of September. S is an amazing investigator. He's from the Bronx in New York, black, 70 years old, but looks like he's 50, plays the blues on the piano, and was a Methodist and church organist for 20 years here in a German church. He one day decided he didn't belong in that church and that it wasn't true. He had the strong feeling and impression to go to our church on Sunday and he followed it. The members greeted him right away and he loved it! We gave him a church tour and taught him the lesson of the restoration and he loved it and said that Joseph Smith’s story was like his story. The spirit was just as strong in our next lesson on Friday, and he knows that this church is true and wants to be a part of it. During the “Plan of Salvation” lesson, we taught him about where we want to end up and he's like, 'I'm gonna be there! I'm gonna be there with y'all and we're gonna have a good time!' It was so cool. We taught him about temples, too, and he says it all makes sense to him. It's so amazing how receptive he is, and he also came to church yesterday. He's excited for his baptism and we're helping him get ready.

We've also had really good lessons on the street with people and Elder Mckean and I are killing it here. We've set goals in our companionship and district and zone of what we want to see happen and want to accomplish. We want to work a lot with the ward and it looks like it'll be successful. We also have 2 small families that we found this week and will be teaching. We're focusing on true conversion. We need the amount of faith in the church like the pioneers had - willing to sacrifice and do what is right in building up His Kingdom.

                 The ward was very welcoming and we've got an meal appointment at Oma and Opa's every Thursday, where we will be teaching them the lessons and helping them strengthen their testimony. They're really excited to have me here.

 Wow your trip sounds amazing, Mom and Dad. Thanks so much for the money. That was a lot of money you gave me. Please pass my thanks on to Bishop Redekop and Grandma and Grandpa at home! I really loved their letters and am so thankful for the money.

 I'm stoked that you got to see Br. Bentke! He sent me some pictures, ha-ha! I'm really glad you enjoyed your trip.

Thanks for the referrals in that letter. The sad thing is that Rahlstedt isn't in our zone. It's in Neumünster zone, so I'm trying to figure out how to handle it. I want to see the family and will probably do that on P-day next week because I'm helping someone move today in an hour so. There’s no time for anything.

I love you! Hope you have a great week!

 Elder Lüning

July 22, 3013 Kiel

Dear Family,

               Hey, so this was kind of a tough week for me. Tough because of all the emotional highs and lows of being a missionary, I guess. But one thing that I'm so thankful for is my ability to shut my brain off when I go to bed, or whenever I need some peace! Such a good gift and blessing from the Lord J! 

V started drinking on Monday again. He called me on Tuesday to cancel our appointment and then he told me why. That hurt and shook me pretty good. I was on an exchange in Kiel at that time. I decided we would go by on him anyway, with the purpose of uplifting him and motivating him to stop again. Well, he's still drinking. He's back to the same state of how he was when I first came to Kiel. He stayed strong for 5 months, and then fell back into the addiction. We visited him 3 times last week and each time he said he would stop the next day, but he can't. Alcohol is such a terrible addiction. He's a completely different person when he's drunk. (18-24 beers/day). It's bad and it's been tough to cope with because I do love him, and I've built a strong friendship with him. I hope it's just a phase and that he'll snap out of it again like he did the last time.

I found it pretty tough to keep a clear mind and keep going on with the work after visiting him on Tuesday on the exchange. I had the feeling we should go and visit a young member couple, V and K.       V  just got out of the hospital because he had surgery on the caves of his nose, so we hadn't seen him for a while. They were happy to see us. We told them what happened and how we felt pretty down. We asked them if we could serve them in anyway and K laughed and said, 'Not unless you want to wash our dishes'. DONE! I replied, “You bet we do!”  They had a lot of dishes stacked up because V can't do much except for lying around and taking it really easy in case his nose opens up and bleeds. K has been pretty busy and tired doing things and taking care of V. We were so glad to wash all the dishes for them and they were so thankful. It was such a small act of service but uplifted us a lot knowing we helped them out. Definitely a blessing because I needed something like that.

On another note I'm really excited that I am now transferred to Hamburg! I know it's going to be a great experience, and hope that we'll get a lot of support from the Ward. This is a huge blessing from the Lord, and I have the responsibility to do my best. I'm glad He trusts me and that Pres. Kosak trusts me enough to assign me to work in this area.

               Mom, Dad, thanks for your love and support. I'm glad you’re having fun up here in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Deutschland is beautiful, and you’re lucky to be here during this “voll krass” (super) weather! J Enjoy the rest of your time here!

Love you,

Elder Christopher Lüning

July 15, 2013, Kiel

Dear Family,

Hey so let me catch you up on some of the things that have been happening this week. Last week on Monday, after we finished emailing, we headed out to G W's place to give him a blessing. He had called us and asked us if we would give him one because he was sick and wasn't feeling too well. We were happy to do it...It's not very often that you get this kind of opportunity to serve others on a P-day, so that in itself was a blessing not only for us but also for G. His girlfriend T, was also there and was able to see servants of God using proper priesthood authority for the first time in her life. He's doing better now! It's funny, they had told us that Anika is getting married and asked me if I knew her, but from the name I had no idea who she was. Of course I remember her! That was such an awesome hike up Red Mountain when she visited us! Wow, you should give G a call sometime, I'm sure he would love to meet up with you while you're here in Germany.

 After that we were able to give Sister M (senior couple) a blessing with Elder M. It was a good day of service. We play Fußball (soccer) every week and had those American members come and play on Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun, and it reminded me of how different Americans are from Germans - or Europeans in general – ha-ha. Someone asked me this week what my favorite part of Germany is, and I said, “The people!”, lol! I love them! We've also been blessed with super nice weather. I love it here when it's sunny, but there's something about living by the ocean...it doesn't stay sunny for too long, lol.

   Our investigators are doing well. We had good lessons with C, E, V, and T. They are getting a bit closer to baptism, but still seem so far away. E leaves tomorrow for china. V is having a tough time getting the desire to pray about the Book of Mormon. But T is doing great! A lot of members are on vacation now, so it's tough organizing joint teaches, but we're doing well finding new and open people. We did some more finding in the area we were told to, and called a member to pray for us before we started. We spent a whole hour in one building. We taught 2 people in the building for at least 25 minutes each. They were really interested and want us to come back again this week. So we're going to bring a member with us, J It's going to be sick!

 I went on an exchange in Heide and spent a long time doing doors. We had some pretty cool conversations with people, but then found one lady from Switzerland who was something special. She had been inside the Swiss Temple before it was dedicated, moved to Germany, and hadn't heard of the church since. She took a Book of Mormon from us and said we could visit her again. Her husband had passed away and we taught her about temple sealings. She was really touched.

   Oh, funny experience. We were in the train going to Heide, and we heard a young couple speaking English, so we stopped speaking German, and started speaking English to to see if they would talk to us. The stopped talking and just listened to us. Then the boy said, 'Hey excuse me, are you guys speaking English? I'm from America!', -  ha-ha it was so funny! We invited them to sit with us. The girl was German, but had been an exchange student in Michigan where she met him. He came up to visit for 2 weeks. He's like, 'I'm so glad to be able to talk to someone. I can't speak or understand German at all!' It was really cool. We were able to talk about the church and why we were on missions. Good opportunity to talk about Christ J!

Hey, I hope you have a good time in Germany. I would love to see you Mom and Dad, but let’s wait until I'm home J.  Ha-ha. I mean, I really only have a little bit of time left, and these emails are good enough for me! I love you and hope you stay safe and continue loving the time here in Germany.

Oh, schöne Grüße (greetings) from Volker in Pinneberg. Oh, and tell Oma and Opa that I love them and that I have permission to visit them sometime on a P-day whenever they want! We'll also be in Hamburg this week in the Wartenau Gemeinde (Wartenau, Hamburg Stake Center) for a Leadership Training Meeting lol. Crazy knowing we're so close to each other! Ha-ha. I'll be in Hauptbahnhoff (Hamburg Train Station) at around 9:00 AM and at 5:30 PM...just in case you accidentally want to run into me, (since you are in Hamburg now, anyway), ha-ha!

Love you, 

Have a great week!

Elder Christopher Luening

July 8, 2013, Kiel

Dear Family,

One of the big things in Kiel is that the members LOVE us, ha-ha. I've been here since January 1st and I'm way tight with the members. We spoke to the Bishop and asked him where we would find people who would become strong members. He prayed and told us an area. We have a family that we prayed about and talked to and told that we want to do more missionary work with them, and asked them to pray for a street in this area where we could start our finding. They gave us a street and a referral for that street and now we are teaching them! It's so sick. We've only had one lesson with them so far but it was at the member’s house that actually lives in the area we're working in, so it was perfect. It's all inspired work,J.

Something way funny happened yesterday too. We went to check up on a contact but they weren't home. They lived in a building that we Elder R and Elder L tracted while we were on exchanges. So the people weren't home but we heard talking in the door next to them and I asked if we should try it. Elder R couldn't remember if they answered or not but we decided it would be way awkward if they had. So we laughed and decided that I would do it myself and he would go upstairs and we'd see what happens. I talked to that guy for 15 minutes, and then his wife gave me a freshly baked banana pancake! Ha-ha! She's just like, “Here you go!”  Man, it was delicious J. The man said that he had a Book of Mormon, that he's Buddhist, but will read the introduction again and think about the importance of the book. Blessings of risking the awkward, lol.!

Our investigators are struggling. C, our 3 week investigator seems to be the only strong one. E is leaving for China in a week, and won't hit his baptismal date. He'll be gone for a whole month, so he'll have time again to really ponder and consider until  he comes back. We're going to challenge him to be baptized on September 1st. - 3 weeks after he's back from China. V is staying idle. He's not progressing, and he's not changing. We fasted to find out how to help him and we're still waiting for some kind of answer. We know it'll come, but we're frustrated with how he won't take it seriously--- wake up, and find out if the Book of Mormon is true. He won't pray about it. He needs to be told by someone else that it's important. Other than that the work is moving forward. Gordian and Tina are still awesome.

I had no idea that you were leaving this week to visit Oma and Opa. I hope you got in contact with Brother Bentke in Forst. I hope you have a safe trip. Thanks for everything. You guys rock, and I wish I could write more but I'm out of time! Have a good holiday!

Love Elder Luening

July 1, 2013, Kiel

Dear Family,

I need to start by saying that this week has gone by really fast!

We're working a lot with the members in the ward and we've been seeing a lot of success from it. We asked the Bishop to pray for an area in the city where we should find people who would become new members of the church. He then reported back to us a week later and then we asked a family that we are working really closely with, to pray for a street where they feel we should start doing doors. We now have 5 potential investigators from doing one hour of doors. We're really excited.

Also when we went there, we were given a referral from the family. When we tried to contact him but he wasn't home. Then the family talked to us at church yesterday and invited us to come over to meet the people at their house! It's a German man and women who aren't married but have a baby. They don't live in the same apartment, they live across the hall from each other, and they’re about 40 years old. We had an awesome lesson with them and answered a lot of their questions. We then told them that our job is to teach people the Gospel lessons and if they'd like ,we could teach them the lessons so that they can find out for themselves if it is true or not. They accepted and are really excited to start meeting with us! We're really excited to start teaching them!

 We also talked with E., and asked him about the baptismal date that he picked. He said he picked the 21st of July, but might want to do it sooner depending on when his math exam is. He talked to his professor who said he could take an easier exam, and wait until October to write it. He's really happy about that and we're going to meet with him this week and talk about his date and preparations for the Taufe! (baptism).

We contacted someone that we gave a Book of Mormon too, and they are going on holidays for 2 weeks but want to meet with us when they are back.

There was a baptism in Neumünster that we were able to attend. The lady is about 55 years old and super solid. Her date was actually supposed to be in 3 or 4 weeks, but the missionaries challenged her to just do it this week because she was ready. She took the leap of faith and agreed. Similar story to what happened in the Trail Ward (with Sharon), eh? Makes you think about how the spirit works with investigators and can move them to do what is right!

Love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Elder Luening

June 24, 2013, Kiel

Love Elder Luening

Dear Family,

   Mom and Dad, I really love you and appreciate everything you've done for me. This last year is going so quick and I'm super excited to see what is going to keep happening in this life of mine and in the lives of others. I'm really impressed at how great of parents you both are. I'm always amazed at how you raised us. I know it wasn't easy, but you made sure we had the Principles of the Gospel planted within us. Thanks for everything that you've done for me and what you continue to do. I know that I still have a lot to learn, but I have a new perspective on things that is continuing to change each day and through each experience.

   We aren't affected by the high water here in Kiel. The cities that got hit were the ones on the Elbe.

    It's been really tough bringing our investigators to baptism. We have 2 that are completely ready but won't commit to a date because they’re scared. E. is such a great investigator. He's reading, praying, coming to church, coming to institute and coming to Family Home Evenings at 3 young married couple’s homes each week. His tests are almost done, and then he says that he's going to quit smoking and be baptized. He's such great guy, and he participates and socializes freely.

     We're having trouble finding more people to teach. But I know the Lords looking out for us and that he's going to continue to help us as we're prepared. “Kieler Woche” is this week. We're going to go check it out today. There are a ton of people here from all over the world. IT's really cool! I love you, and I'm sorry it's not a long email this week, but I'm trying to reach out to others through email too which is limiting my time to write you.

   My mission is the “best, most enriching experience” – better than anything else I could do instead. I always imagine what would have happened if I didn't come out here into the mission. I would have never ate from this fruit (the love of God) that was available. It's true. All of it is true, and I'm so thankful for the Gospel in my life, and for the prayers of all you guys because I believe I couldn't have done it without you. 

    Love you and have a great week. Do something fun with all the free time you now have and with the house being empty, lol. Don't get bored!

Love Elder Luening