October 27, 2011

LETTER #101 - GOTHA

Hello family!
We had a good past week and it went by quick. We were able to get a lot done and are working better with the ward. I sit here and try to think back on specific things we did and can't get any, everything just blends and it seems like a blur ha. We went to that bible study and were able to get in contact with some previous investigators where things had fallen out.
 
Ammons brace looks way cool, its amazing to see those pictures of him moving like that. Lots of blessings tied into all of this.
 
It was cool to go to that bible study again. It didn't turn out exactly as we had planned but it was still good. I think the guy running it realized it probably wasn't the smartest idea to ask 2 LDS missionaries to come and tell about what they do, what they believe, and how they came to the faith. Well it was a smart idea and would help others, but not a smart idea if he doesn't want to risk people asking questions and us teaching the apostasy and restoration. So instead he tied us into their bible passage which was about our motivation to serve and live the gospel. He asked us to just explain what motivates us to go do this and a bit about what we do. We gave our testimonies as we could. Then they all had a few questions mostly just about organizational parts of missionary work. It was good though, they really like us. We will have to see how we continue to work with that and find people through it.
 
President Schwartz at the last zone conference in Nürnberg gave us time to separate off from everyone and wanted us to think and pray about our areas and set a goal for how many people we would like to help to be baptized by the end of the year. Elder Rechter and I had felt good and set the goal of 6. We talked to the ward about it and at first they were caught a bit off guard but then they started to like it. One of the counselors in the branch presidency was really excited. We explained we would like to help find a couple families and that we could reach our goal best in that way. The decided they wanted to do a 40 day fast starting today. One member will be fasting each day for the next 40 days. Its going to be cool. We will call them before they begin and after. To ask them to pray for specific names we give them during their fast and then afterwards to tell them about the miracle of the day. I`m way excited. Br. Möller gave a solid talk yesterday about missionary work and invited everyone to participate in the fast. He is the first one fasting. 
 
Last night while we went from door to door we finished a part of the area we were in and had planned to go to another part of town then. Before we left the little development we stopped and thought maybe we should just continue here until the end of the night. We felt good about it so we did. We knocked 4 doors and all quick in a row were closed on us. The next one the lady opened, wasn't so excited and was about to close but we explained quick who we were. She said she already belongs to a church and named the one whose bible study we went to. I had never seen her there so I said we had been there a couple times. She then called for somebody in the house and asked her to come see if she knew us. The lady came and got all happy as she recognized us and said ''Yes these are the 2 young men I was telling you about that have visited our bible study!" She looked at us then said, these are my friends! Do you want to come in and talk to them? We of course said yes. The lady didn't look too happy about us coming in. So I said we could come back at a better time and she liked that more. Then a man from another room yelled ''Let them in!'' but she said no it would be better if you came back another day. The man again yelled ''Let them in now, I want to talk to them!''  so she let us in! 
 
The guy was so cool. They are an older couple in their 70s. The guy had a stroke when he was 33 and his right side a been messed up ever since. He is so cool though. He basically shared his testimony for the first 30 minutes about the bible, Paul, and Christ. I read him a story out of the Book of Mormon from where Alma and Amulek were persecuted and imprisoned but God blessed them to come free. He loved it and was like a little kid listening, commenting, muttering under his breath about the bad people then basically cheering as they broke the bands with which they were bound and the prison collapsed. It was way cool. He wants us to come back soon. Their daughter with her kids lives next door and they think they would like us too. So we will go back and hopefully everything works out.
 
It all worked out because the lady from the bible study happened to be there right then. She was about to leave right when we got there, just putting on her coat. Perfect timing.
 
I've thought a lot recently about Truth and being open to hear and accept it. So many people refuse to consider something as true simply because it speaks against what they believe or are doing, maybe even condemns it. But truth is truth, and ever will be truth. Like with gravity. If you do not accept the fact or learn about gravity and how it works, and try to still fly, or launch a rocket ship, it will not work and gravity will be the grounding force restricting you from taking off or staying up. However if you accept it, study it, and learn to work with it, you then know how something must be done in order to fly and stay flying. If we do not accept, study, and apply truth in how we go about life, it will be the ground force holding us down. No matter how much we try to deny or neglect it. However, if we do accept it, study and apply it, then we can live our lives accordingly and fly because we know how.
 
Joseph Smith said ''If we do not treasure up all the good and true principles in the world, we shall not come out true Mormons.'' We are a religion of truth, and can therefore accept and embrace all truth. Nobody else has this liberty. We strive after it, we learn to act accordingly and are able to fly. The truth will make us free. It really is a wonderful thing to hear, learn, and apply truth. We love truth!
 
I hope everyone is doing well with what they are doing. Make it a good week and look to show your love for others!
Love you all so much,
Elder Puriri

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