Week #70 Another wonderful week serving the Lord

Yeah the subject line was inspired by a visitor on Sunday. We had a few visitors for Veteran's Day. They were all Americans and I was able to translate sacrament meeting for them. We were talking to one of them about how long we have been on the mission. When Elder Gates told him that he had been here for 4 months, the man said, " Just keep going. Don't think this week as a week closer to home. It is one less week serving the Lord!" Very good attitude for this kind of experience.

I am reading this book about member missionary work in German. The author suggested that sometimes the best way to invite friends to come to church or to the Gospel is by asking for their help. We then met a widow this week and she told us her conversion story. She had met the missionaries but she threw them out of her apartment. A friend then asked for her help with a talk a few months later which she gladly did. She came to watch her friend give the talk and she felt something incredible in sacrament meeting. There was more to it than that but it was cool to see a good example of missionary work in the lives of others. 

We took the Ausstellung bike out this week again. It is quite a cool tool and we hope to invite members more often to come join us. We actually had an awesome member appointment yesterday with a young couple who love missionary work. They gave us some great ideas on how to use the Ausstellung a bit more and to invite the members. 

 Picture by the Ausstellung bike

All the different languages we have stored in the Ausstellung bike

We also met with another elderly sister who lives far away from the church. She is sick but she is able to cook us a big meal and she loves the company. She got to know the church 20 years ago through missionaries. It was divinely designed that we met her last week because she has reached out for help with a family emergency. It had been awhile since missionaries had visited her and I think she needed some additional help with this emergency. We will praying for her and her family that things go better this week. 

We met a cool guy named John this week. He shared an experience about how prayer helped him escape danger and how grateful he is for God's help. He took a Book of Mormon and we will see him again this Saturday. 

We also met with a guy from the UK this week. He told us straight out that he was not very religious but he had learned some things in a religious school. He even remembered some stories about Jesus from the Bible. In our lesson together, we talked about prayer and as we were talking, we were able to look up to a picture of Jesus. We were in the church so that was such a blessing. As we talked, I realized how much Jesus loved to pray but he had to be the closest person to God in the whole world. Even then, he still prayed for intent, gratitude, and love. It was a humbling experience to help me strengthen my prayers during the day. 

Yeah it was another quick and good week. I guess I learned more this week that 2 years does sound like a long time at the beginning but as you get older on the mission, you come to appreciate the time you have served and you are excited to enjoy the rest. I only have 2 years to serve my Savior full time and I am going to enjoy it while it lasts :)

Love you all! 

Elder Evans 

 Cooking Dinner...

A weird statue in the old part of town and one night I wasn't feeling so well and fell asleep during during language study.  Elder Gates took a selfie when I fell asleep hehe