Week #73 Der Welt Ein Licht

Hey family and friends!

Der Welt Ein Licht. You would know this as Light the World. We tried a new finding approach yesterday with the video. We asked if they could watch the video for two minutes and then we would ask them what they thought. It was the Week 1 video and it was awesome! Quite a few people stopped and watched. We got one solid potential out of it. Overall, it just let a great feeling at the end being able to share the message of Christ in a special way.

This week was very spiritual. We had an awesome conference in Munich with Elder Sabin. He shared something called "Celestial Steps." It is what we need in order to return to heaven. Things like true doctrine, true identity, the Atonement, Ordinances,etc. It was cool to see that the Gospel is very simple and Heavenly Father has provided a wonderful plan to help us come home. One cool thought that he shared is that we had to fall from heaven in order to choose for ourselves to come back. I do not why but that meant a lot to me. I guess I have met a lot of people who look at the Fall very negatively and yeah, it might not have been the best of stories but there was no other way for us to choose for ourselves. There was a lot of other great thoughts but sadly time does not permit... 

President and Sister Brown with Elder and Sister Sabin

 MTC group reunited! 

We met this nice lady this week who is a returning member. Something new announced in our mission conference was that the Europe Area will have two more key indicators, Returning Members contacted and Returning members at church. Elder Sabin pointed out that a baptism and a returning member taking the sacrament worthily is not really all that different. Anyway, that is going to be more of an emphasis for us these next few transfers is to focus on returning members. This lady was really nice but she has been gone for awhile and her testimony has sadly become weaker. She still thinks though that being at church was one of the most beautiful times in life. People come at their own paces and at their own times. We plan on bringing her another Book of Mormon soon so hopefully that will spark more interest. 

We also got to help set up for Christmas at the church this week. Doing it the second time around was weird. This year has just been so quick...

Decorating the church for Christmas! 

We met with a guy named Markus who has been interested in all kinds of religions. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and read Moroni's promise with him. He started to have some kind of the chills as we started to read. He said he normally gets something like that when he finds something that is true. I thought that was pretty cool. Now the challenge will be for him to decide what is the most true religion. We will work on that the next time we meet.  

Lights on the street nearby our house

Lots of finding this week but that is part of what we do :) I learned a lot this week that with obedience, I am not just doing what I am told to do. I am trying to do what I want to do and that is to be a missionary the best way I can. Part of that is being diligent and just enjoying talking to people about this wonderful Gospel. 

I wanted to close this weekly with my testimony. Ich mache es auf Deutsch :) Ich weiß, dass mein Vater im Himmel lebt. He liebt mich und er hat einen Plan für mich. Er hat seinen Sohn Jesus Christus zur Erde gesandt und durch Jesus Christ, können wir errettet werden. Ich weiß, dass er unser Erretter, Erlöser, und bester Freund ist. Ich weiß, dass das Buch Mormon wahr ist und wenn wir es lesen, können wir die Wahrheit herausfinden. Ich bin dankbar für diese Kirche, für meine Mission, und für das Evangelium. Ich bin dankbar für die Barmherzigkeit Gottes und für jede zweite Chance, die ich bekomme. Ich liebe meinen Erretter und ich schreibe dieses Zeugnis in seinem heligen Namen, Jesus Christus, Amen. 

Tschüß!

Elder Evans 

 Picture above and below are my backyard (so to speak) of our apartment. Pretty breathtaking

 My Adventscalendsr this year