Week #33 Bearing our Burdens with Hope

Hi everyone! We are almost to March! February was a quick month, like all the other months. This week was hard but sometimes we need the hard to make us stronger. On Wednesday, we got to take the sacrament to a widow in a rest home. She felt trapped in the rest home but she likes visitors. She has been sealed to her husband for almost 20 years! She was a convert a long time ago and one of the senior missionaries in our mission was the Elder who found her and baptized her. It was cool to see the long term impact of someone's mission. 

Later that night, we went to Gemeinde Rat or ward council. We had a visitor from north Germany; he is introducing a new program to the wards. Anyway, during the meeting, he told me that I need more determination in speaking German in front of the whole council.  Not exactly what you want to hear when German is a struggle but that is how members can be sometimes. Anyway, it was a rough moment but some of the members told me not to listen to him. We are past it now so we are good. 

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was mostly finding. We did visit a new convert and discussed the temple. We also taught the members' son who is preparing for baptism. It was not very exciting but sometimes those days just happen. 

Sunday we had church of course. During the second hour, we met with Ashock and discussed the importance of the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. It was awesome to see how he was already living them and how he could already see the blessings. He knew it would bless the life of his son so that was very touching.  We also had lunch with our GML. German food is so delicious and members know how to have fun. 

Monday we went to Heilbronn for a tausch or an exchange. We came all the way just to realize we did not have our phone... That was awkward but it worked out. I worked with Elder Larson and I had a great time. We did some finding and visited a less active. The less active family was excited to have us over and when we said we had to go to FHA (FHE), they said they would come with. We did not plan that but it was cool. We went all the way to the church and we found out that FHA was actually cancelled. Elder Larson apologized and said it might be next week. It was about 6:00 and the couple said they would wait until 6:30 to see if anyone would come. We tried to tell them that no one would come but they were not listening. They waited all the way until 6:30 and then they said, "Well no one is coming" and they left. Quite a change of events but again another good learning experience. 

 Heilbronn had a toy sword :) hehe 

My mission president shared with me a cool talk from Elder Bednar titled "Bearing our burdens with hope." A man goes out into the forest to get wood. His truck gets stuck so while he waits to see if someone comes, he gets the wood. He loads the truck full but no one has come. He tries again to drive out and it finally works! Moral of the story: it was the load that got him out of the tricky situation. Bednar said that sometimes we assume happiness is life without a load but a load is part of life. We need our loads to get us "spiritual traction." It was something I never realized but I guess it makes sense. It was losing the 116 pages that made Joseph Smith more dedicated and obedient. It was becoming blind on the road to Damascus that led Paul to see again with more clarity. It was the pain that the Savior had to suffer that made it possible for Him to know how to help us. Our pain may hurt now but who we are in the end is worth the effort. 

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Evans 

"I eat chocolate only on days that end with 'G'. And Wednesdays" Of course in English day ends in y but in german a day is ein Tag. 

Random picture from Hansen last week. I was writing emails