Week #37 Immer da=Always there
Hi guys! Hope you all had a wonderful week! I cannot believe that General Conference is this week! So much has happened since October and it went by slow and quick but I am still grateful for all of those experiences.
Anyways, we started another transfer here in Waiblingen. I am with Elder Hine. He is from Boise (be careful how you pronounce it) and he wants to be a neurosurgeon when he goes to work. He has good German which is way helpful and this week went by quick.
Wednesday was transfer day. I said good bye to Elder Hansen. I had been with him for over 3 months. Kind of cool to say that you spent time with a Dane on the mission. Elder Hine arrived around 4 and we did some finding after he unpacked.
Elder Evans and Elder Hine
Transfers at the train station
Thursday we did some finding and had a member appointment. Not much to share for that day. I started reading "Believing Christ" by Stephen Robinson. It is a cool three chapters about understanding the Atonement. We got it from our mission president to prepare for zone conference. It was pretty cool for me to read because Stephen Robinson will be Landon's mission president in July (Correct me if I am wrong, Landon). Anyway, the message was basically that we need to believe that Christ can make us what he says he can: clean and Celestial. Until then, we have accepted the message but not the messenger. (I will attach it for the family to read. It is pretty cool).
Friday I went on a finding exchange with Elder Peterson. He is an incredible missionary. He is really positive and good at finding. He has helped me a lot since he got to this zone in November and we got a lot of work done that day. That night, Elder Hine and I met with Piers. Piers does a spiritual discussion every week but sadly, there are few people there. We had a discussion with just the 3 of us about the unity of mankind. We have to look past our differences and serve to connect to people. Not really a missionary lesson but I felt the Spirit.
Saturday we went to a baptism in Stuttgart. It was cool to hear the girl's story and how she had been investigating the church on her own for awhile. One day, she prayed for a sign and the Stuttgart international sisters stopped her on the street! That was pretty cool. The rest of the day was finding and practicing piano for Sunday.
Sunday I played for sacrament meeting for the last time this month. I switch off with a sister every month and April is her month. I either play again in May or maybe not again if I get transferred. That is still far away but we will see what happens. It has been a privilege to play for them and it has been helpful when members express gratitude for it.
Cool finding miracle I had on Sunday.We left a member appointment and the weather was so nice. It had not been warm for such a long time. With the weather being good, I thought it was good if we did some finding. We went to Konigstrasse and started to talk to people. We went for about an hour and I had an impression to stop this young man walking in my direction. To be honest, it was not the biggest impression from the Spirit nor did he look very special. He just looked like a really nice guy. I stopped him and he straightaway looked at my badge. He started to say,"Kirche...Jesu..." and my first thought was panic. I thought he would be another guy who would get scared by a badge and just walk away. After he finishes reading "Christi", he says, "Hey! I have been looking for you guys! I have been looking for a Bishop to tell me about Christianity." I was shocked but I talked to him and he has been interested in Christianity for a long time. He asked if I could tell him more about Christ's ministry and this led to questions about differences between Churches, who Mormons are, and what we do. He really wanted to come to church and we exchanged numbers. He asked a lot of questions but his last question was his favorite. "Out of all people, why did you stop me?" I told him what I thought: he looked like a nice guy and I wanted to talk to him. I guess I never considered what it must feel like to be stopped and actually find truth you were looking for. It meant so much to him that we talked about his interests and we took the time to answer his questions. It was a great experience to motivate me to do more finding because it reminded me that there are people that want to be found.We just have to start somewhere and keep going.
Monday was district meeting and a lesson with a guy named Clemens. He wants to be a teacher in his church but has read in the Book of Mormon a bit. He had a lot of questions but his main one was how the Book of Mormon could mean something to him because at the moment, he could not believe what he was reading. I pointed out to him that everyone needs time to read the Bible and to build a testimony. You can't skim and all of the sudden have an answer. You need to study and be patient for the Lord to answer. He does answer but He needs us to spend time studying and thinking about His gospel.
With Easter this week, I shared two videos on Facebook, one in English and the other German, titled, "Always there." It is the Easter campaign for the Church in Europe. The video's message is that Christ has been there in our challenges and He always will be. A recording that I love to listen to is from the Savior of the World. It is a Christmas play done by the Church. Peter is teaching Thomas how we can "see" the Savior. He points out that many people saw Christ with their eyes and still rejected him. He also tells how Mary Magdalene thought he was the Gardener. The disciples on the way to Emmasus thought he was a Rabbi. They did not know who He was until they felt Him in their hearts. Even though we cannot see the Savior walking with us, we can feel Him in our hearts and know He is always there.
Videos:
(German)http://www.kirche-jesu-christi.org/eine-botschaft-zu-ostern-jesus-christus-ist-immer-fur-dich-da?lang=deu-de
Sorry for the long email. Hope you have a fantastic General Conference weekend! Remember what this Easter season is all about! Love you guys!
Elder Evans
The biggest Piggy Bank in the world. It is in Ludwigsburg and has a slide.
How the bottom of my black shoes are doing. This was taken last week so since then it has gotten worse. No worries though, it is part of the mission I guess.
Elder Hansen's American Socks (I loved it when he wore them)
Spiderman
Selfie for the week
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