Week #13 Be Thou an Example of the Believers

October 10, 2017

Week #13 Be Thou an Example of the Believers

Guten Tag! Hallo wieder von Deutschland!

Hope all of you had a great week. It is fun to hear about your experiences at home and I am glad I get to share some of mine.

First things first. I have a new companion! His name is Elder Walton. Funny guy and he is a hard worker. He is from Highland and he went to BYU before coming out here. He is fun to work with and I am glad I get to work with him.

Me and Elder Walton

Saying good bye to Elder Kaufusi was kind of weird. We get to Stuttgart to drop him off and in five minutes, he is on another train. It was sad to see him go. I loved his hard working spirit and how much fun we had together.

There are a couple of cool things that happened this week. I got my German driving license! It is so cool! It has a race car on the front. I had to give my Utah one to the government though. It is okay. I did not really like my picture on my Utah license anyway.

My German Driver's License.

We got two new investigators this week, Ali and Ronald. Ali used to live in Syria but moved here to Germany three years ago. He is going to school and is curious about our church. We got him an Arabic Book of Mormon (which took forever to find by the way) and he is committed to read it. Ronald is another student here in Ulm. He is doing software engineering. It is so easy to talk to him. He is just a friendly, fun guy. He also committed to read the Book of Mormon. It was so cool to get to know them. I really hope it works out.

One disappointment this week was with Bernie. Bernie is a wonderful guy. He works hard but life is hard for him. He asked if we could take a break until December 6th. Why he was so specific, I am not sure. I tried to tell him that he needs God in order to endure life. Without God, it gets hard. I do not think he understood. We honored his request and went our seperate ways. He said we can stay in contact with texting. I do not know how much I will see him but I still love that guy!

Me and Bernie. I love this guy!

Another cool thing is that we are preparing for online proselyting. I am not sure how it will work out with rules and how we will actually use it but the training videos make it look great. Missionaries have had lessons over Messenger and can post things to encourage those who are friends with them. Plus, it will make finding potentials so much more productive. We can finally ask if they have Facebook! I have heard it has increased numbers in other missions. I pray it works well for us.

Cool story during finding. Elder Walton and I did split finding so I am talking to people on my own. Kind of scary and it can be kind of awkward. At one point, finding was not going well until a younger man gestured to me to sit by him. He spoke English and asked why I was here. I said I am a missionary for my church and I am here to spread the love. He asked questions like how old are you and how long will you be here. When I told him I am 18 and I am here for two years, he was really impressed. The same experience happened with another guy. Missionaries really stand out and other churches (who will not be named) try to copy us with their clothes and what they do but they cannot copy what the spirit brings. In the scriptures, we read a direction the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy:

Let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity...for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee (1 Timothy 4:12, 16)

To be honest, I have felt inexperienced when I try to help people understand the gospel and answer their questions. However, I have come to learn that our youth means nothing when we have the Spirit. The Spirit testifies of who we are as missionaries and even if many people reject what we have, it is still true and it is still prospering.

Love all of you so much! Have fun in school and all other parts of life. We will talk again soon.

Elder Mason Evans