Week #46 What Hope means to me

Hi! I had a good week here in Wien. The missionary work is really exploding in this city. Last P-Day, we ran into a guy named Tom. He was a former Mormon but he turned to Buddhism. He said it was funny to run into us because he dreams about our church sometimes. Kind of weird but it gets more weird. On the other side of the city the next day, we ran into him again. He thought it was funny of course but we knew better. It was helpful last P-Day that I was wearing proselyting clothes because I do not know if he would have seen us on Tuesday. We pop out a lot when we proselyte. 

We also had zone conference this week! It was great. We discussed more ways to work with members and trying to setting up appointments. I really like President and Sister Brown, they are the best mission president and wife. It was good to see some friends again on the mission and to see how they are doing. I really love zone conference:)

We taught a girl named Federika this week. She was really cool. She was really nice and complimented about how we invite people and not how we force people to believe. She thought the Apostasy and the Restoration made sense. Religion is such an interesting topic with people here but there are people who are open. Federika had a lot of good questions about the Plan of Salvation so we promised to cover it next time and she even took a Book of Mormon. This time it was in Italian. Another language to add the Book of Mormon list;)

Lots of this week was finding. I feel like finding is one of the best ways to show God that we want to do His work and then He blesses us in other ways we did not see. There are blessings in finding but the work opens up in other ways when we are diligent with finding. For example, we are meeting with a kid named Jonathan. His family is less active and he has not been baptized but he had a feeling he should when he went to Primary. This week we discussed the Plan of Salvation and keeping the commandments. The lessons are usually basic but it is cool to see Jonathan learn and grow. He is a really good kid. The plan is for him to be baptized in June so we will see how that goes. 

We also met with this really nice member who treated us to Burgerista. She was so nice and she really wanted to help us in the work. She really had a strong testimony and I felt really inspired after meeting with her. One tender mercy of this week. 

Joseph Haydn- A composer from Austria

To close, I wanted to write about Hope. I got to share a little message about hope in district meeting and I thought it would be good to share it here too. In Preach My Gospel, hope is believing and expecting that the Lord will fulfill His promises. I think we usually believe the Lord can do what He says He will but do we expect it as well? I thought at first that it seems kind of bold to expect that but I'm learning more and more on my mission that I can fully trust the Lord when He promises something. When we are obedient to His commandments, we can expect that He will bless us. Not in the way we might think but God know what can help us. When we are filled with that hope, it is so much easier to follow Him. I know that God lives and He wants us to be happy. It is through His Gospel that it is possible! 

Love you all! You mean the world to me! 

Elder Evans

Pictures below are from a P-day a few weeks ago in Germany!