A million no's and one yes.

From August 8, 2017

 

Hey MOMO!

I'm doing great actually!! This week has been crazy busy. :) We had Zone Conference and an Exchange with the Zone Leaders, and a few days without appointments (Which means lot's of street time) ;) 

 

Zone Conference was great. President Brown is definitely inspired to lead this Mission, and gave us some amazing counsel on how the work should move forward in this Mission. The Mission focus has turned to working through people we know to find new people. Stats show that 1 in 1000 people we meet on the street will be baptized (Theoretically) and 1 in 3 people who meet missionaries through their member friends gets baptized. Huge difference right there. So the Mission focus has changed quite a bit, and some big changes will be happening to Missionary work in the near future. 

 

Our Russian friend Jeny and our Chinese friend Benny. A great, hilarious combo.  Jeny is in our ward, and Benny is trying to understand the concept of God.

 My area is great, and I feel pretty at home here, now. I've had enough time to settle in. I know the train and tram times and generally know where I am in the city. :) This week we had some pretty good experiences! We had two days in a row without a single appointment, and spent about 3-4 hours each day on the street at one time. That was brutal. Obviously fulfilling, and we found lot's of cool people we'll hopefully meet with, but definitely brutal. My social tank doesn't always last so Long, you know me. ;) 

 

The youth in our ward, and Lucy!

 

But on the beginning of the second day doing this, we were having about 0 luck for the first hour, and Elder Lukas and I took a break to get an ice cream. During the break he looked to me and said: You know what Elder Larson? I have a feeling today is going to be about a million "no's" and one big "yes." I didn't know what he really had in mind, but sure enough after the last hour on the street, the last person we talked to was a big huge yes. Her Name is Ildiko, from Hungary. She's met with missionaries before in Hungary about 20 years ago, and was actually praying in the moment we talked to her. We Kind of interupted her prayer, but she was ok with that, seeing that we were from the church. We had a good conversation and asked her if she had a little time. She agreed and we sat down and talked about the restoration. This woman was so faithful to Christ, but also very humble and open to our message. She agreed to take a Book of Mormon in Hungarian, which we will give to her tomorrow. The coolest part about this was that we promised God we would wait and keep talking the people the whole day, and he kept his promise to send one person to us. I know God hears and answers our prayers. I was having a pretty crummy time until she showed up, and my confidence level on the street that day was pretty low. But miracles happen when we believe, I know that with all my heart. :) 

Members in Salzburg.

 

Other than that we also had a party for Lucy, a returned missionary from Berlin! She is awesome, and essentially founded the church's program for German Sign Language, while she was on her mission. She's hard of hearing, and learned sign language as a child. We got to watch a presentation about her mission, and the church gave her the charge to translate ALL Gospel Terms into German Sign Language. Stuff like: The first Vision, or: The Atonement. She did all that for the church. The coolest Thing with that is that she opened German sign language learning for missionaries in the Berlin and Frankfurt missions, and now they're teaching People with it! It's amazing. 

She told us a Story of a missionary in her Mission who had a really lazy companion who didn't want to work, and he asked the Lord what he should do and his answer was to learn a new language. So he prayed to know which language he needed to learn, and had back to back dreams of teaching in sign language. Most of the missionaries told him it wouldn't be possible, but the day he decided he might give up was the day Lucy entered the mission. Now tons of missionaries in the Berlin Mission are learning and teaching in sign language. It's an amazing miracle story. I know the Lord puts us where we are needed.

Bishop from Richterswil Gemeinde.

But yeah, it sounds like you have had a crazy week, Mom!! Getting attacked by roosters and breathing in smoke all day doesn't really sound too fun. I'll pray that Maverick calms down and that the forest fires go away. Everyone is staying busy and having a good time. :) Haha thanks for being so concerned about my bagel Situation! I don't know If I'll ever have time for that... But I found one package of Bagels in Freiburg! They weren't too good though :( They don't know how to make them right here.) Hey you'll do great in your Tennis tournament! I know you haven't played in a long time, but you're still an amazing Player! I'm planning on getting back into it when I get home, and maybe playing a little competetively. I think that would be lot's of fun. Although I might be too relaxed nowadays. My Level of competitivity has gone down a lot on my mission. I guess that's a good thing though. :)

On exchange with Elder McLean.

Well Mom I gotta scoot. We got more to do today. But thanks for writing me so early, so I could respond to you! I love you and miss you. I think of you guys everyday. Sometimes I imagine what it'll be like to show you the Mission. Btw, do you know if you guys will be able to come pick me up? I'm going to ask President Brown about my release date again to see if anything has changed. I really hope you can. It would be amazing to show you at least some places I got to serve in.

sleeping.

I wish you a wonderful week, Mom! Thanks for the updates and pics. :)

Your only begotten son,

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