Hiiii wonderful family
I hope everyone had a good week! It's been aight up here in Northern
Deutschland.
So not much got done Monday and Tuesday besides Elder Spangenberg
packing and saying goodbye to people. Poor kid, he really did not
want to leave. Went from one of the best wards in the mission, to a 12
man branch on the border of Poland.. .Quite the change..
Wednesday we headed to Hamburg, pretty much the main hub where all the
missionaries go through if your leaving or coming to the North. Saw so
many old homies that I hadn't seen for a while it was so cool. Waited
for a while till my new comp arrived and then we headed back to
Neumünster and he unpacked.
Well here's a little bit about my new comp Elder Morrison.. He
definitely brings a new vibe to the apartment in many ways (; He
is from Grand pass Oregon and is in his 3rd transfer. He is huge into
anime and video games. He has a sketch book full of his drawings and
they are cool! He actually carries it everywhere, even when we go
finding.. He talks with a southern German accent which drives me
absolutely nuts. He was trained up here in the north so that
doesn't even make sense, but whateves…. I better get used to it. I try
to carry on the conversations as far as I can but anime/Pokemon isn't
exactly my area of expertise.... Can only go so far until I'm just
nodding my head acting like I know what he's saying. All in all the
only thing that matters is he has a good heart and he is willing and
ready to work hard. So I'm excited.
On Thursday we rode to Elmshorn and met up with Bridge and Glissmeyer
to help new sisters there move into their apartment. We were suppose
to head up to Kiel to do a Street Display afterwards but all the
trains fell out and were delayed a few hours so we didn't end up
making it.
Friday we walked about 10 miles between finding, appointments, and
going by contacts. Here's the thing, Elder Morrison had a car in his
last area, so they walked nowhere. At the end of the day he looks at
me and says "I am so sore that's why I'm walking weird.” Poor kid!
Saturday we were in the church and the doorbell rings. There was a man
and a lady standing out there and the man said he was an inactive
member but he saw the church and wanted to stop by and say hello. We
talked for a while and the lady was his wife and she is not a member.
I asked if we could exchange numbers and get/stay in contact and he
said of course. So we're about to reactivate this guy and then tauf (baptize)
his wife:)
This week honestly felt like an eternity. It's going to be a long and
tough transfer. We haven't really got anyone to teach consistently and
we have been unable to find anyone on the street in a while. I take
that as mostly my fault and wonder what I can do better. Constantly
it's "oh I could have talked to that one more person" or "I could have
knocked on that one more door." I have "if I had done that maybe we
could be teaching?"going on in my head. I read a talk this week that
really hit me. I think we as people in life in general and sometimes as
missionaries in this case, feel so inadequate. We forget it's not at all about
how much we earn and physically have to show for what we have done,
but rather just how much we plain and simply give. Are we ready to give
everything to God and follow his commandments? Are we ready to give two
years of our lives to give others life and bring them closer to Him and his
son? And are we ready to completely forget ourselves and simply give to
those in need? Sometimes the answer is no. Most of the time it's not
intentional, but we come up short of these goals.
And that's okay because that is the entire point of the atonement.
We are not perfect. It talked about the final judgment and
how many of us picture it now as us standing before God and Jesus
Christ with clipboards in their hands saying "shoot you missed
it by two points." And we are begging for them to re-look their
clipboard over. But that's not how it is at all. Jesus will be begging
us to come live with him, and either we will grab his hand and use his
atonement, become perfect, and feel worthy to live in his presence or
we won't. It's completely up to us. God wants all of his children
back, regardless of what has happened in their lives. All that he asks
is that we give our best, and he will take care of the rest. That is
it. Our best. We should never feel inadequacy towards him. Never. He's
always listening. And he's always there to help us through whatever it
is that we are going through and whatever it is that we have done.
I love you guys
