7/15/13
Sehr geehrte Familie.
Haha. I hear that on trains all day long. But it's travelers, not family. Anyway, moving on from a joke that only I get...
Hi!! Oh the second cutting! Being in the countryside means that I get to see the farmers cutting their harvest! But we're way too out to keep track of one specific field, so I'm not really sure if they only have a couple cuts per summer or what. But it's still cool and it reminds me of Vernal. That's weird that July is half over already. We have transfer calls on Saturday! Sister Wilson and I are pretty positive we'll stay together at least one more here. There are not very many missionaries coming in this next transfer, so we think that things won't get moved around too much. But we'll see.
It's been an awesome week. We had a cool zone training, and then we had some really good appointments with the members of the ward. Haha, with this one, we went to visit this little old lady on Saturday, and then we got there and she wanted to cook for us sooo badly, but she was so old and it took her like over an hour to finish everything, even when we tried to help. So long story short, we had taken a bus out there but had missed it going back because the appointment was so long. And so we were in the middle of this little tiny village on a Saturday, which is not good, and we checked and the next bus didn't come for four hours. So we just like started walking. And we just walked and walked and walked like Pioneer children. Then we walked some more, through some forests and then over the Autobahn and then through another little village. And after a couple hours we found another bus station and only had to wait like fifteen more minutes before a bus came. So that was really nice! It just made me grateful that I didn't get sent to South America, haha. And on Sunday we had a really awesome eating appointment with the cutest family ever. Their boys were all so cute and were trying to speak English to us, and it was sooo cute. But they were speaking English because their German was soooo so fast that we could barely understand. But they were so cute. And then we went straight to ANOTHER eating appointment with an investigator. We thought she was just going to make a little cake, but she had made like kebabs and pizza and pepper thingys and more kebabs plus the cake...we wanted to die when we got home.
Mom, you've just pinpointed every missionary's biggest frustration: AGENCY. I love it...but I hate it at the same time. Sometimes I wanna be like Satan and just TAKE IT AWAY because I know the Gospel will make them happy! But...yeah. Agency. Ohhhh agency. Also member missionary work!! It is so important. It's the gathering of Israel, and that's what the Lord meant by Hastening His Work!! So yeah. I'm pretty sure you can get the Missionary Next Door at Gales. I know it's available on DeseretBook.com, but if you don't want to buy it, she pretty much just talks about how important member missionary work is. She gives numbers, and they go something like this:
1/1000 people will be baptized by missionaries randomly knocking on doors
80/1000 people will be baptized when missionaries are sent to someone from someone else (just mentioning a name!)
200/1000 people will be baptized when people are introduced to the missionaries by their member friends
660/1000 people will be baptized when people are taught in a members home by the missionaries
Those aren't so exact, but they really are the figures that the MTC has come out with. Do you see how pointless it is to go knock on doors all day every day?? She also talks about two types of conversions that people have to have before they join the church. There's a social conversion and a spiritual conversion. The members HAVE to do the social converting. They have to befriend the investigator and make them feel welcome, make them feel as if they are wanted and needed in the ward, because they are. The members get to do the fun, easy missionary work! And the missionaries are in charge of the spiritual conversion. We're there to teach the doctrine and answer questions. Basically the point of her talk was, members just have to INVITE their friends, and then the missionaries can ask the awkward questions that the members don't want to ask. Like the missionaries can just say, 'Hey, I haven't seen you before! Are you a member of the ward? You're not? You're Bob's friend? Do you think you'd have interest in learning more about the church?' And if they say no, okay, whatever, it was the missionary who asked, not the friend who is scared to, and it doesn't hurt the friendship. And the missionary is used to people saying no, so everything works out fine! But chances are he's going to say yes, because he's with a friend and he'll give it a second chance instead of just saying no to some random two kids who knocked on his door in the middle of the day when he was trying to enjoy time with his family. Get it?? I can't wait to go home and be a member missionary!! It's the fun, easy part of bringing people into the church!!
Anyway, I'm still at the beginning of my mission, so I have so much to learn. But it's so awesome! The area is really big and awesome. There are a couple little villages/towns that are more run-down, and then there are some that are really nice and little more upper class. The teenagers here are...teenagers. Haha, just like everywhere else. Germans love their education, too.
Haha. I hear that on trains all day long. But it's travelers, not family. Anyway, moving on from a joke that only I get...
Hi!! Oh the second cutting! Being in the countryside means that I get to see the farmers cutting their harvest! But we're way too out to keep track of one specific field, so I'm not really sure if they only have a couple cuts per summer or what. But it's still cool and it reminds me of Vernal. That's weird that July is half over already. We have transfer calls on Saturday! Sister Wilson and I are pretty positive we'll stay together at least one more here. There are not very many missionaries coming in this next transfer, so we think that things won't get moved around too much. But we'll see.
It's been an awesome week. We had a cool zone training, and then we had some really good appointments with the members of the ward. Haha, with this one, we went to visit this little old lady on Saturday, and then we got there and she wanted to cook for us sooo badly, but she was so old and it took her like over an hour to finish everything, even when we tried to help. So long story short, we had taken a bus out there but had missed it going back because the appointment was so long. And so we were in the middle of this little tiny village on a Saturday, which is not good, and we checked and the next bus didn't come for four hours. So we just like started walking. And we just walked and walked and walked like Pioneer children. Then we walked some more, through some forests and then over the Autobahn and then through another little village. And after a couple hours we found another bus station and only had to wait like fifteen more minutes before a bus came. So that was really nice! It just made me grateful that I didn't get sent to South America, haha. And on Sunday we had a really awesome eating appointment with the cutest family ever. Their boys were all so cute and were trying to speak English to us, and it was sooo cute. But they were speaking English because their German was soooo so fast that we could barely understand. But they were so cute. And then we went straight to ANOTHER eating appointment with an investigator. We thought she was just going to make a little cake, but she had made like kebabs and pizza and pepper thingys and more kebabs plus the cake...we wanted to die when we got home.
Mom, you've just pinpointed every missionary's biggest frustration: AGENCY. I love it...but I hate it at the same time. Sometimes I wanna be like Satan and just TAKE IT AWAY because I know the Gospel will make them happy! But...yeah. Agency. Ohhhh agency. Also member missionary work!! It is so important. It's the gathering of Israel, and that's what the Lord meant by Hastening His Work!! So yeah. I'm pretty sure you can get the Missionary Next Door at Gales. I know it's available on DeseretBook.com, but if you don't want to buy it, she pretty much just talks about how important member missionary work is. She gives numbers, and they go something like this:
1/1000 people will be baptized by missionaries randomly knocking on doors
80/1000 people will be baptized when missionaries are sent to someone from someone else (just mentioning a name!)
200/1000 people will be baptized when people are introduced to the missionaries by their member friends
660/1000 people will be baptized when people are taught in a members home by the missionaries
Those aren't so exact, but they really are the figures that the MTC has come out with. Do you see how pointless it is to go knock on doors all day every day?? She also talks about two types of conversions that people have to have before they join the church. There's a social conversion and a spiritual conversion. The members HAVE to do the social converting. They have to befriend the investigator and make them feel welcome, make them feel as if they are wanted and needed in the ward, because they are. The members get to do the fun, easy missionary work! And the missionaries are in charge of the spiritual conversion. We're there to teach the doctrine and answer questions. Basically the point of her talk was, members just have to INVITE their friends, and then the missionaries can ask the awkward questions that the members don't want to ask. Like the missionaries can just say, 'Hey, I haven't seen you before! Are you a member of the ward? You're not? You're Bob's friend? Do you think you'd have interest in learning more about the church?' And if they say no, okay, whatever, it was the missionary who asked, not the friend who is scared to, and it doesn't hurt the friendship. And the missionary is used to people saying no, so everything works out fine! But chances are he's going to say yes, because he's with a friend and he'll give it a second chance instead of just saying no to some random two kids who knocked on his door in the middle of the day when he was trying to enjoy time with his family. Get it?? I can't wait to go home and be a member missionary!! It's the fun, easy part of bringing people into the church!!
Anyway, I'm still at the beginning of my mission, so I have so much to learn. But it's so awesome! The area is really big and awesome. There are a couple little villages/towns that are more run-down, and then there are some that are really nice and little more upper class. The teenagers here are...teenagers. Haha, just like everywhere else. Germans love their education, too.
I don't feel like Germans are very family-oriented...It's actually not the norm to even have kids anymore really. I mean, I think if they have a big family, then yeah, they are, but the average German isn't so family-oriented, which is sad. But there are a lot of Turkish people in this area, and they are VERY family-oriented...They're like Mormons in a lot of ways, haha...Very modest clothes and big families and stuff. :) But it's all good.
We get to go to the Temple as a district tomorrow, so that should be awesome. I LOVE being in the Frankfurt zone and being able to go to the temple so often. It's so awesome. And then it's transfer calls and another transfer is going to start up again.
Also ich habe euch lieb!! Ich habe mich sehr gefreut, diese email zu bekommen!!
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