LETTER #89 - NURNBERG

Hi family,

Another week has gone by and its been filled with many things. It started with last visits to people with Elder Durrant, picking up the 3 new Elders at the train station, getting them set in the city here. Organizing how we are all going to work here, going around to different people introducing the new elders, organizing and planning stuff for the transfer for the zone, then the news about Ammon.

Lots of different things going on. Oh I also got to see Killpack and Mason 2 of my old companions on Sunday. They were with a study abroad group from BYU and came through Nürnberg and went to church, so that was pretty cool to see them. Killpack came with us Sunday night to visit a member and stuff. It was strange being with him again and hearing him speak German and all I felt like I just started my mission again. But yea pictures of me and Killpack and me and Mason then a picture of the 4 Elders here now. Elder Jongejan who is 6 ft. 8 in. like 220 and sleeps on the rickety bunk above me for some reason, then Elder Wilkinson from England, Elder Anderson from SLC (my comp) then me. Elder Jongejan would stand on my bed to hop up to his but on one particular night that failed ha. I was in the other room but when I came in the 3 other Elders were trying not to laugh and were waiting for me to lay down or something but they couldn't hold it in and just started laughing. Apparently when Elder Jongejan went to jump off my bed up on to his he didnt go up, the bed just went down. the support things all slipped out from my bed and he fell through. They thought he broke it but I lifted up the mattress and was able to just put all the things back into place. It was pretty funny though.

Having the 4 Elders is pretty cool. They are all super solid, its going to be good working all here. After I talked to Mom on Friday they knew something was wrong and as soon as I explained they asked if we could all kneel and pray for him. They are all keeping Ammon in their prayers as well as other missionaries here. When President Schwartz found out I guess he called some of the Elders I'm closer to and asked them to pray for ammon as well. Whenever I talk to President Schwartz he asks if I have heard anything else about Ammon and how he is doing. Its hard for me to explain everything medically that is going on in German but I guess I'm expanding my vocabulary that way.

It was a weird phone call though when mom called. I was on the phone with a member of the Bishopric about something and said someone else was calling but it didn't show who. It was also the beginning of study. So I finished with him and then said hello and heard moms voice. I had a quick rush of feelings and did not want to be hearing moms voice right then. (sorry mom but when that happens you immediately know something bad happened). 

I was a bit confused with calling Ammon the first time. I think because it was still Thursday night for mom and Friday morning for me. So when mom told me to call 'tomorrow' at 6:30am Ammons time I thought Saturday since that was my tomorrow. But mom's 'tomorrow' was Friday still. So that was my bad when I didn't call. I'm glad you all figured it out though and called me. I was really glad to talk to Ammon. Reading the stuff thats going on from the blog and hearing from you all the miracles that are accompanying this thing are pretty amazing. Yes it is a new challenge to face but there are many blessings assisting us in this. It seemed to me that Ammon was still be as much himself as he could. With his uplifting personality affecting all those around him still. That in itself is a huge blessing.

I've been thinking a lot about the atonement with all this happening. The atonement has so much to it. There is a talk from last conference in the Saturday morning session where the Elder talks about the atonement and pain. Something I find interesting is the differences he talks about. The physical pain and the spiritual pain. There are 2 parts to us as beings. Our physical and our spiritual. We learn and know that we existed spiritually first. That at this time our physical is frail and mortal. Our spiritual however is eternal. Our true identity being spiritual sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We cannot always control what happens to our physical and will sometimes suffer because of it. Our spiritual however is different. We do control fully whether or not we suffer spiritually. When we are confronted with physical challenges we must be ready to support ourselves with our solid spiritual. This requires us working on our spiritual continually because we do not know when our physical will be confronted. If we are not prepared and our physical is hit we will have a very hard time supporting ourselves. We also need to be aware though how we are solidifying our spiritual.

When you relate it to your physical its easier to understand. When you are tired and need to get some food before you go play a soccer game or something you need sustaining food. You can eat quick sweets like donuts or whatever else. This gives you a quick rush and you feel ok to go. When you start going though and your into your game you feel it hit you and what you thought was ''sustanance'' has now failed you miserably. If you would have eaten a more solid meal it would have carried you through the whole game. As with our spiritual we must take care to use sustaining things. Truth is eternal, and therefore a good sustenance. As we strive to learn, accept, and fit our lives to the truths we learn our spiritual will have something of real sustenance. We are then solid when our physical is hit. And through the strength of our spiritual we pull our physical to the best condition we can.

Yes our spiritual is sometimes hit. Like hearing of Ammons news. But this is not necessarily spiritual pain. It comes in and hits us, and with the solid truths we have sustained ourselves with we wrap up the event and are able to find peace. Had we not been prepared to when it hit us the effect could have been much worse on him and us. We never know when things may negatively confront the physical, which increases the necessity to always be sustaining our spiritual with eternal truths that ultimately solidify us and allow us to overcome anything. In doing this we develop the ability to say ''Come what may, and love it''.

Thank you all for everything. I am eternally grateful for our family. I love you all and hope you have a truly uplifting week.

Elder Puriri