Week #43 My Week in Lahr!

May 09, 2018

Week #43 My Week in Lahr!

Hi everyone! I am in Lahr currently so I have not made it to Austria yet but I will get there. It might be this week but we are not sure yet. We have seen some good miracles in Lahr and the Lord's Hand has been in our work this week. It was one of those weeks I loved being a missionary.

Wednesday was transfer day. I got to Zurich in order to get to Lahr so zi went into Switzerland. My district leader, the Irish Elder Parker took me out of Bahnhof for some finding and wow, Swiss Deutsch is weird. I won't hear it for awhile though. Anyway, I left Waiblingen at 9 in the morning and I did not get to Lahr until 9 at night. It was a long day but I made it!

Leaving Stuttgart

Some of the Stuttgart Zone

Thursday we met with Sascha. He was a former investigator who got back in contact with us and he loves Jesus Christ. He found the church from Mormon.org, lost interest for awhile, but he's back. He told us that he wants to be baptized and the lesson was going well so we set a baptismal date for June 2nd! We see him again on Thursday so hopefully we can make good progress.

Friday we met with 3 people. The first guy was with Joker. He was nice to buy us hot chocolate but he was not very open to anything we had to give. Apparently he has been this way for awhile but he still wants to meet. Another guy we met is called Sharq. He was super nice and had good questions. We focused on prayer and Book of Mormon the whole time. The more I am on the mission, the more I see how important those two things are. They are small but they make such a difference. If you pray and study God's word, it is so much easier to understand God's plan for us and obey the commandments. The last person was Amira. She is a member who is super sick and needed help cleaning her hamster cages. It was an interesting service project but she was super sweet and thoughtful.

Saturday we met with Tanu and Akram. Akram is studying to be a dentist and he is getting an interest in religion. Our topic was just prayer and it was a great discussion. All we are doing is trying to invite people to build a relationship with God and it can make such a big impact! Tanu was interesting. We gave him a French Book of Mormon but he was not really excited. He was more excited to play table tennis later. Sometimes it happens:)

Sunday I got to meet the branch here in Lahr. It gave me a lot of flashbacks to Ulm because it is a one floor church. The members here are so cool; they are really nice to their missionaries. A member even brought a friend to church. Her name is Luisa. We sat down with Luisa and were starting to explain the Restoration when our joint teach member got excited and started going off about John the Baptist, anti-nephi-lehi's, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. We thought Luisa was confused so we set up an appointment meet at a park the next day and clarify a lot. The rest of the day was lunch with members, finding, and studies.

An evening in Lahr

Monday we had district meeting in Freiburg and then an appointment with Luisa. We sat down in a park and basically reviewed the 1st lesson. Luisa has been through some hard things in life and her belief in Christ has really helped her. She loved Alma 7:11-13 and said yes to a commitment to reading the Book of Mormon. I did not know her for long but she is one of the reasons I am glad that I got to come to Lahr. It is an odd situation but God is making use of the time I have here and I am loving what He is teaching me.

Luisa and myself

For a spiriutal thought, I wanted to share something cool I noticed from the Book of Mormon. In Helaman 5, we learn about Nephi and Lehi being thrown in prison. They receive a vision while the Lamanitess are in darkness. To find a way out, the Lamanites asked a Nephite named Aminadab for help. Aminadab was a Nephite by birth but had dissented from the church.In answer to their request, Aminadab said,

"You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom."

I studied the dates and this was 52 years since those 3 men had met in Ammonihah. After all this time, the one thing that a dissenting Nephite remembered about these three men was that they taught faith in Christ. Remember that Alma, Amulek, and Zeezrom were not always on the covenant path so to say but that is not what matters or what should be remembered. It should be remembered that they let Christ change their lives, they shared that light with others, and their futures were altered. I love their story because it shows much Christ really can change us. He is making us into high-quality people, not just the standard or the normal way. The key is that we have to let Him change us.

For P day today, we went to the Rhein and looked across the way to France. It was an odd feeling to think that I am actually in Europe. We walked to the middle of the bridge to get to close as France as we could. We did not cross all the way but I like France from far away.