Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things

Family :) this has been a crazy weekend, all is safe and well :) thankfully all of those scary things you've read about have been across the country. All is well and happy in Köln :)  Today is quite busy, so I hope y'all are okay with a single email to everyone :) I love you guys!! So so so much! Germany is great, "so schön und groß" (so nice and big) 

We lost all our investigators last week, so we worked with the Members :) 

This week we worked A TON with the members! There's a bit of a rift
between the Members and the Investigators/new converts. GERMANS DONT
LIKE HEARTACHE,  so they would rather not make friends than make
friends and see them walk away. So they are very cautious about making
friends. This obviously doesn't help missionary work :p so we met and
are meeting with members as often as we can to build that friendship
and trust. We are aiming to have 50% of our lessons with a member
present. It feels to good to be part of this work! Just this last week
I reached the point of "I don't want to go home, I want to stay here
as long as I can and do this work." So that's my plan haha just to
work the grit out of this country till it shines :) Of course, as long
as that's Gods will too :)

Also my comp lost his wallet... Big problem, he had the money for our groceries this week... His travel card is in there (It costss 60€ to ride without a card) 

But!!! The Lord shows his blessings! I went to pull out just €20 from my Personal (which until now, I believed was totally empty) and so attempting to draw money was a test of faith. Lo and behold, €20 came out, just enough for Meals this week. And then we searched our apartment for mutzgeld (coins) because they have things like €2 coins here... A joke of a monetary system ;) jk, but we found €26 more! In pockets and jars and what not. We have enough to buy a good weeks worth of groceries!!! I was so thankful, but not totally surprised, I knew the lord would give us some way to deal with the trial, He always does. I'll just have to buy my comp travel tickets until he gets a new one this week, and then we're in the clear.

€26 IN LARGE COINS

The equivalent of a jar of pennies

In other news :)

Our favorite member Sister Nowak shared a scripture with us this last week that hit me really close, so I took it and turned it into my own spiritual thought. D&C 59:5-20 says:

"5 Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind,
and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him.
6 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Thou shalt not steal;
neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it.
7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.
8 Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness,
even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
9 And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the
world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy
sacraments upon my holy day;
10 For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your
labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
11 Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all
days and at all times;
12 But remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine
oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins
unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
13 And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food
be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect,
or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
14 Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.
15 And inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful
hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is sin, but
with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance--
16 Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fullness of the earth
is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that
which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;
17 Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth,
whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for
orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are
made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to
gladden the heart;
19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to
strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.
20 And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man;
for unto this end were they made to be used"

He has created EVERYTHING for US! Everything you see, feel, touch, smell,
taste... It's for you. And, even better, he loves when we use it (in
German it says Er freut sich which means he excites himself haha) he
loves to see us enjoy his creation! But that's not all, he created a
way through it all too, a way to come and enjoy EVERYTHING HE HAS MADE
FOR US and make it back to him more perfect then we were before we
left. More clean. More wise. More happy.
The Atonement.
He sent his only Begotten Son to be bared upon the cross... To suffer
all our sins, "to know better how to succor his people" us. And
through him, Even Jesus Christ. We can make it back you our father
together.
Now what can we do to repay him? Nothing, except Thank him. Thank him
with every ounce of life we have and show him we really appreciate all
that he has done for us. So I challenge you, once a day

Say a prayer and do nothing but count your blessings. Thank him for everything.

And then, listen. Listen for your father's voice. Wait for his arms
around you. And receive it.

I love you all so much, I really do feel your prayers and love how I'm blessed here. Thank you for your support! <3 

Still in Koln

Mission update: (du du duuuaaahhhhhhh)

Chapter One: Transfers

I'm still in Köln, but my trainer left for home! He's home!

Talking to girls! Right now! It's weird... And I'm here, finally a full fledged missionary, taking over the Largest Area in the Whole Mission.

Thankfully they sent me a really top notch missionary.

Chapter two: the Van Dam

Elders and Sisters, Köln is being invaded by THE Elder Van Dam! This guy is fast, he's clever, he knows his German and there ain't anything that's gonna stop him from finding 3 Potentials a day!!! Honestly, this (about a year old) Elder is Fire! He hails from the distant land of South Dakota and has been known to play the Trumpet and French Horn on Statewide levels. He can cook some sweet schnitzel and loves... Let me explain, LOVES Les Miserables! Haha he's got the whole play memorized... In German!

He's coming from Offenbach where he honed his Street Contacts to a fine Point. It's super fun to go around with this guy and I'm sure that this will be a great Transfer! We've found 7 potential investigators in the last 3 days and have a goal of finding 3 a day.

And the Lord has really supported us in our efforts. Today we have a meeting with Vincent, an atheist we met while we were walking the Park for Uni Investigators. He's really interested in our doctrine. I can tell he feels the spirit a little so we'll just have to bring the big guns to our meeting over Coffee tonight. (Don't worry, we usually get cokes or something)

Chapter 3: Gemeinde Köln.

So we have two goals this transfer. 10 baptisms, as a zone, and 50% of our lessons to have Members with us. But this is putting pressure on us to invite Members. The thing about Germans is that they aren't so... Open? They have their time and they want to use it. And Germans take a lot longer to form friendships than Americans do, so we need to condition the ward a little to be more welcoming to New Members and to be excited about missionary work. One of the ideas that we had was to trade help with their Home teaching for help with our lessons. That way they are serving in both opportunities AND they get to see what Missionary work is like and feel the spirit of helping others find and recognize Christ! So we need to work more closely with the members which I'm really excited for.

Chapter 4: ... I'm pretty sure I should have more than 3 chapters...

Yeah haha so... Here are some miscellaneous things then :) Köln started testing their Air Raid sirens a few days ago, that was a really spooky thing. Being in Europe and hearing Air Raid Sirens. It's a little humbling. And then seeing the Dom, the building the allied troops used to orient themselves to strike the city. It was interesting to imagine it all... We heard that Putin is putting different restrictions on Missionaries which is causing the Russians to come here to be baptized, the Sisters are teaching a woman and her daughter who fled. There are wars in Syria and Iran, pushing the Christians to flee here for safety. The warring Tribes in several African Countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Etc.) are pushing those people out of their homes. The U.K. left the UN which is putting strains on the relationships between the countries. Other countries are thinking of seceding and so there's a lot of talk about the stability of the UN.

It's really interesting over here, lots of things going on around us.

(Note from Mom-I've stopped editing his emails so much.  The odd thing that is developing in his writing, is the German rule of capitalizing all nouns.  That, and the occasional German word that I'm not sure he realizes he has used mid sentence.  I find it all endearing.  Elder Fisher has been out 135 days, not that we are counting,)  

Riding the Bahn

Three accordion street band

Inside the top of the Dom (this is the huge church in the center of town that he refers to when talking about the Air Raids.

Elders Fisher and Van Dam with Sisters McCrary and Catherall

The field is already white, ready to harvest

Hello AMERICA!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I'm super happy to be able to feel the freedom all the way across the sea! Man I miss the United States of America! 

Free bathrooms

English

Gun rights

Hunting and fishing rights

Great big round Rolling plots of land

Patriotism

The ability to own a dog without a permit

A limited bureaucracy

And of course Ice in my Tall glass of Freedom.

But that's just a handful of beauties that you are all celebrating this week :)

Let me explain how it has been in Europe,

This week has been super good!!! :D  We had 2 Splits!!! I got to go to Duisburg  with My Zone Leader! 

So quick background on Duisberg, the part of Germany I'm in (Nordrhein Westfallen) is known for being the Ruhrpot (melting pot/cooking pot) or basically the factory central of Germany. It's pretty dirty in its own right. My City, Köln (Cologne), is pretty modern, and by that I mean 50's architecture. But Duisburg!!! Woweee! Haha it was so dirty. Trash, graffiti, red brick factories all over haha it made Köln look like a Gem!! It was really just a great time though and the People there were Great! I also met a Satanist on the street haha needless to say she didn't take our card. I think it was because it had Jesus on it ;)

Then! The second Split was a Power Split in the Best City Ever!!! Good old Köln. The Wuppertal Elders came to spend the day with us! We had a great day of finding (6 potentials) but nothing too note worthy. We then came back to our apartment and enjoyed a super good Pasta dinner. 

We Tchüss'd(said good-bye to) Elijah this week. He is a Nigerian refugee. A new rule came that we aren't allowed to teach those in refugee homes so we said goodbye. It was sad. We just need to remember, "the field is already white, ready to harvest." We are here to "harvest". 

Miracle: so we were meeting with this woman from Ghana, Joyce, and she was really enjoying the restoration but I noticed that another woman was staring at us. Granted we were teaching in a park AND Germans don't find staring rude. But it still felt weird. Towards the end I acknowledged her with a "Hallo" and she then asked what we were doing, we explained we were missionaries and she asked if we could meet with her! :D Germans do NOT ask to talk about religion haha it's really just a tradition here which is sad. But it was super cool to get her number.

It was sad to see my trainer say bye to the two member families we love to visit. Those are the Glaesners and the Markaj family. The picture of the couple with the baby are Sandra and Besmir Markaj (pronounced Mar-Kai)  Elder Robinett is going home and so he shared the "feed my sheep" story and explained that they had served the Lord through everything they had done for him. It was really sweet.

For P-Day we're riding... Sort of summer Bob-sleds haha ICH BIN SO BEGEISTERT!!! Ah!!! Haha it's gonna be super super cool!!! 

With my Trainer leaving to go to the land of Endless P-Days, I'm getting a new Comp!!! His name is Elder Van Dam.  He's got a little less than a year under his belt and is coming from Offenbach which is nicknamed Little Turkey. I'm excited to meet him on Tuesday, I'm hopeful this will be a good transfer :)

Here are some cool pictures from the past couple days :)

€40 suit *wink* (left to right) Bishop Wegand, his wife, Elder Robinett, me, Sister McCrary and Sister Young. Both Elder Robinett and Sister Young are going Home.

Our washing machine has been broken for like... 3 weeks now, so I've learned to wash my clothes in the bathtub haha.... I've also became good friends with Elder Hanson (the Tech Elder in charge of getting me a new one).

The last district meeting with the Leavers. The three in front, Elder Roberts,Sister Young and Robinett, go home tomorrow  Solingen Elders on our shoulders haha Elder Vorimo (my shoulders) is the best!

The Kölner Dom... It took 700 years to build and is the geographical center of the City. (This is one of the 2 spires that stand at the front.

This was an open-air museum in Kommern (one hour away from Cologne) a summer toboggan run nearby and the moated castle Satzvey.

 

Überträgt aus der NRW