ELDER ISAAC PURIRI

CELEBRATE HIM HOME

2011-11-20T22:06:00.002-07:00

November 17, 2011 - We waited and waited and waited for his plane to arrive. It was late...very very late. But he made it and we were excited to see him. The anticipation was almost unnerving. I liken it to a time when our Heavenly Father and Mother await the safe return of each of their children.

I do not know the words to describe the joy within my soul at the safe return of Elder Isaac. A mother's love. Isaac is home, Ammon is alive and all is safely gathered in.

LETTER #104 - GOTHA

2011-11-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hello My Dear family!

Time has taken my tomorrows and turned them into yesterdays! And it just keeps happening ha. The past week past quick as we continued to work in Gotha to share the gospel. I had the opportunity to go back to Nordhausen one more time on tausch. It was a bit strange leaving this time since I do not know when I will be back there. Walking the Nordhausen streets again brought a rush of thoughts and sparked a lot of reflection. Evening time when its dark and cold the streets kind of empty out. So we walked for a while pretty much in silence and it gave me time to think about that area and what I learned there. The inspiration that goes into the areas you serve in and with whom you serve is amazing. Each area and companion has provided me with the opportunities needed to make the growth necessary.

The last week it suddenly got really cold. It had been pleasantly warm up until now. I guess not warm but it definitely was not cold enough to bug me. It was nice that it stayed like that until this week though! I consider it a blessing because I left my big coat in Frankfurt back in May because it was worn and ripped. I have a smaller coat I picked up in another apartment and hoped it would be enough until the end and it was!

Last night as we got back into Gotha from a smaller village a bit outside we decided to go by on that older couple we had doored into a while ago. He was feeling better and the wife was happy to see us and let us right in. I told them I wanted to come say goodbye and all and they were a bit sad but excited to meet another new Elder. It was an interesting appointment. He is 79 and suffers from a stroke he had when he was 33. He said ''I was thinking about today and asked my wife if she knew how long I have been sick. She didn't and I told her about 46 years! 46 years! And everyday I can get up and continue because of the grace of God.'' His faith in Christ is solid. He then started talking to us about death and said ''to be honest I am a bit afraid of dying. I don't have that sure faith like Paul who was not afraid. I do not know what will happen after and how it goes on. That is a bit scary'' As he said that I opened up the Book of Mormon and asked if I could share with him some teachings from it. He gladly listened and you could see each dot connect as we taught about death, spirit world, and resurrection.

That's what we want to do! Inform people of what has been revealed and invite them to find out if it is true or not! The restored Gospel provides us with Knowledge and Integrity. Knowledge simply because of the truth, and what has been and will be revealed. Then it teaches us of what we need to change and do to set our lives in order. The Restored gospel teaches us how to internally conduct ourselves, which creates the outward effect of integrity, being guided by the knowledge obtained through the eternal truths of which the gospel is composed.

In the sharp words of Samuel Johnson ''Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.'' Luckily the gospel gives us both of them. The gospel will develop integrity in him who applies it, and this integrity will curb his pride and properly guide his knowledge. The gospel will help him develop knowledge who studies and applies it, then with his newly attained knowledge he knows how to better put his integrity to use in order to accomplish things of significance. It is all encompassing.

There is so much to learn! I am eternally grateful for this blessing called a mission. We give God a couple years, he sets us on a path leading to eternal treasures of knowledge and joy. Gods giving most definitely outweighs ours. I do not think I fully comprehend the culmination of it all. 2 years, 7 areas, and 15 companions later and I still feel like a brand new elder. I will be reflecting back on this experience forever drawing lessons from it. That blessing alone will never run dry. Who knows what else is tied along with it all. The Gospel is designed to change the individual.

We who go to teach and share it experience most likely the biggest change. God could do this work alone, he is not dependant on Elders and Sisters going to serve. He allows us the opportunity to experience what it is like, he allows us the opportunity to be molded by him. We need to take this opportunity and allow God to open our eyes. As President Monson said ''It is better to look up'', and so it is. The change and experiences available could be called the Miracle of a Mission. Available to all worthy who enlist to serve the Lord, humbly put everything aside, and allow God to change them. I love my mission. It has been the most enlightening experience of my life.

Thank you all for your letters, packages, and prayers during this time. I have felt the sincere care and love of my whole family during this time. Although apart, the bond has been strengthened. I love you all with everything I am.

Thank you for everything.

Elder Isaac Olsen Ahmu Puriri

LETTER #103 - GOTHA

2011-11-07T23:13:00.001-07:00

Hello!

The last week was a good week. We sadly lost a couple investigators, but it gives us the opportunity now to find those who are ready. We helped out some members in the ward with some stuff and spent some time in surrounding villages. The ward is doing a 40 day fast for the missionary work here in the area and its been cool to see the results. We keep meeting really cool people on the streets and have way good conversations. Hopefully we can meet with some of them this coming week.

While we finished dooring out an area we had a couple houses left but thought maybe we should go. As we walked out of the development we decided to go back and finish the last row of houses. Nothing really came from that so we went back to the main road to walk back into Gotha. On our walk back right before a turn in the road there was an older couple walking towards us. We stopped them and talked about building a relationship with God through prayer. The man stared at me for a second then told me that he lost his mom 6 hours ago and that he and his wife were just our for a walk to clear their minds. Then he paused again and said how could God help me right now?

We began to tell him about the Plan of Salvation and how the family can be eternal. We gave him a pamphlet about the plan of salvation. They didn`t want to make any appointment out but we wrote our number on the pamphlet and asked them to read it through, pray about it as the pamphlet instructs, and then to call us. So we will see. It was cool though because had we not gone back to just finish that strip of houses we probably would have missed them. God slowed us down enough to meet them and give them a ray of hope. The next 2 days after that we continually ran into people who told us they had lost a loved one recently, we had the opportunity over and over again to share our testimonies of the Plan of Salvation. You can see as you share that with someone in that situation how holes of doubt and misunderstanding are filled and they gain a more complete view of the picture. Hopefully stuff works out this week so that we can meet with them and help them more!

The knowledge available to us through the Restoration is amazing. I don`t understand why people refuse to except it or discredit it. I guess its because they don`t understand... Either way, God wants us to learn of him. As I have read recently in Alma chapters 40-42 I have been amazed at the detail and the doctrine revealed to us. It answers so many questions and opens up to us so much more understanding. It feels like a connect the dot process forming a picture. As I read and learn I feel like my mind is grasping Substance. I am filling my mind with things of weight that have a magnitude of their own. Grasping them and breaking them apart to understand the finer details and save them in our minds as things of understanding, which we can call upon to teach, comfort, and enlighten others takes work and guidance of the spirit. I feel though like it is the most rewarding work. Joseph Smith said ''The things of God are of deep import, and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out''. We must take the time in order to understand, and we must recognize that the spirit is the catalyst in the whole process.

Sorry this is a bit shorter, we still have other errands to run to prepare for the week. I hope you are all doing well though. Make it a good week! Love you!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #102 - GOTHA

2011-11-01T22:27:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone!

The week just passed by as we were here in Gotha being missionaries! Yes mom I got that package and I am definitely not allowed to wear that tie ha. I wore it in the apartment but can`t wear it out. It works good at lunch over my other tie as like a bib or whatever ha. That letter from the primary is old though like back from june, they are going to wonder why I never wrote back but I didnt get it until basically November. So now I don't think I will write them and I will just talk to them when I get back or something. Also emailing today because yesterday was a holiday in german, it was reformation day. So everything was closed, plus halloween. Which is getting more popular in germany. We weren`t the only ones going door to door last night ha. A couple people thought dressing up like a missionary was a funny costume then we explained we were for real ha, then they weren`t so amused anymore. One lady though was like oh....well how about this. Im not interested but take some candy. Then she handed us her bowl of candy and we each took a piece and continued door to door.

The past week was good though. We sadly were not able to meet with that older couple we doored into a little over a week ago. The husband got sick and the wife called us and said we should wait a week or so. So we will try by this week and see if he is doing any better. We still wanted to somehow keep contact though so I took a picture of Christ out of my scriptures and we went and bought a frame for it and took it to them as a gift. They were excited so that was good. we were able to meet a lot of people last week but sadly appointments didn`t work out too well. We will work on getting back in contact with them and then hopefully be able to teach them this week.

The guy from the bible study group that lives in the house connected to the church called us though last week. He wanted to know if he could take us to a Basketball game from the semi pro team here in gotha. We though probably not but told him we would call him back. So we called President Schwartz and asked him and he said he thought it was cool the guy called us and that it is a good opportunity to build the relationship and try to meet more with him. So we ended up going to the game! It was super weird. He requested we come in normal clothes ha, probably because he didn`t want to be the one bringing the mormon missionaries to a game and have everyone seeing him. So we wore regular clothes and went. It was a weird feeling! Being in that type of atmosphere and all.

It made me think about how it will be in a couple weeks and I got a bit nervous ha. I was a bit worked up the rest of the night just with quick thoughts and what if`s and how will I's and other stuff. I am glad I still have time here to not worry about any of that. Then I remembered though what an Elder told me last winter a week before he went home. He talked to me about how he never wanted to think about going home either and would just face it when he got there. Then in his last interview though Pr. Ninow told him it was important to think about it and that he needed a plan, he told him it was ok to take some time and think about how it will be and what you will do. I just dont want to though because its all so vulnerable to quick changes and whatever else.

So I have been thinking about goals and purposes and lots of other things. As a missionary we have our purpose, which is described in Preach My Gospel pg. 1. According to our purpose we set goals all the time to help us accomplish our purpose. Everything we do should be in relation to and contribute to moving us closer to it. I figure that is what makes things here so clear. I know that at all times whatever I am doing should contribute to my purpose. So when there is down time, I simply run through a list of things I could be doing in my mind, figure out which one would help most or be best at that time then simply do it! Everything is funneled into our purpose as missionaries. And what doesn't fit in the funnel needs to be done away with because it will clog it up or slow things down. We can check all activities and goals with our purpose and see if it fits.

So I figure I need to come up with a purpose for myself. It will take some time but it will make everything else I do more meaningful and will contribute to moving myself and others forwards. I liked the thoughts you had mom from dads lesson about follow since that relates well to that whole thing. Once we have a set purpose, we need to make sure everything we do is contributing towards it. Our activities need a direction and goal, if they do not have that then they are often insignificant and have no positive lasting effect.

We must know the What before we know the How. What we want to do, then we can figure out How-- or how we use our time to accomplish. If we do not know the What then our How has no direction.

We need solidity, eternal solidity. Which comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. ''That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive'' Ephesians 4:14. So I will be considering that and how to ''continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [to not be] moved away from the hope of the gospel.'' col. 1:23.

We need to decide and then decide to commit, for ''the absence of a decision to commit is a decision'' (E. Maxwell). Then regardless of what is going on around us we stay true. Elder Maxwell also said ''...though ours is a time of conflict, quietly caring for 'the life of the soul' is still what matters most. Though events set up the defining moments which can evoke profiles in righteousness, outward commotions cannot excuse any failure of inward resolve, even if some seem to unravel so easily''. So we must set our feet and stand firm.

I hope you all have a good week! Strive lift the burdens of others and improve their day, then you will be lifted in the best way. I love you all!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #101 - GOTHA

2011-10-27T08:36:00.000-06:00

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

LETTER #100 - GOTHA

2011-10-17T22:30:00.000-06:00

Hi!

When we email on Tuesdays we just cut our pday short on Monday then take that time on Tuesday to email. But we are in Erfurt so we wont have to do that today. That also means though I am going to have to make this a bit shorter so that we can get everything done here today.

Dads hair does look pretty crazy ha. My hair is pretty short. I was sick of paying for haircuts so a couple pdays ago in Erfurt I just had one of the other elders shave it ha. He used the longest thing but it was still pretty short. It caught me off guard since i had never done that. It grows back though, and it was free!

We had a good past week though! We were able to work a lot with the members and those who need help right now. On Sunday we had a pretty cool experience. It actually started back in the first week of the transfer. I can't remember if I told you or not but we visited a bible study group in another church. It was pretty cool, the people were way nice. Then this last week we were doing doors out in one of the nicer areas of Gotha. Then we doored into a lady that was at that bible study. We talked for a bit then asked if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon. We were able to introduce it and explain a bit. Then as we gave it to her and were leaving she invited us to their Sunday service. So we decided we could go since it was in the afternoon and it would give us an opportunity to ask her if she had any questions or anything like that. So as we showed up the peopel who recognized us were way friendly. Yea I think I did tell you about this. The guy that lives in the church kind of. His house is just connected I guess. He was way happy to see us and we sat by him.

I was really impressed by the sermon that a young man gave maybe like 27 or so years old. It was solid and full of truth. After I went and thanked him for it and I think he was a bit surprised ha since we were LDS missionaries and all. The guy that lives there though invited us back to the bible study on Thursday and asked us if we would prepare a 15 minute presentation. We are supposed to tell a bit about our faith, where we are from, and how we came to being here. Such a good opportunity! It will be way cool. I've always wanted to do something like this in other churches ha. We are going to look for more here in Gotha and build up relationships.

Präsident Schwartz suggested we start trying things like this since we will find people that are already way faithful there. So we are trying it out. We will go by on the lady we gave the Book of Mormon to and see if she is interested to learn more.

It was really interesting to sit and listen to that guys sermon. He was so sincere and understood the bible really well. Full of truth and a desire to change for God and allow the gospel to change him. He could have been teaching that in our church. I was surprised because I didnt expect anything as solid as that. So many people are full of light and truth and love god. I just wanted the whole time that he would read the Book of Mormon. We in no way want to take away what these people already have. We just want to give them more, add to their blessings. I could feel the whole time how full of light the guy was but at the same time it felt like something he was constrained in some way. If he just heard the restored gospel it would set him free! More truth. Just as Christ said, the truth will set you free. He would be able to make even more changes, and affect others on their way even deeper, and follow God even more sincerely.

As I went up to talk to him after he seemed surprised and a bit hesitant to talk with me. So I just thanked him, asked for his name and a copy of his sermon. Hopefully he is there on Thursday and we can talk a bit more. Its so cool to meet people who sincerely desire to do good and follow God. The restored gospel is a blessing and help for all. Those who already have will be given more. We just have to allow the spirit to touch them and they must open their hearts to recognize that amazing thing being offered to them.

Things are going well in Gotha, we are keeping busy and beginning to work more with the ward to accomplish our goals. Lots to do and under pressure ha. I hope everyone is doing well! I don't know what foot drop is though but that brace thing for ammon sounds pretty cool.

Have a good, productive week! Love you all!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #99 - GOTHA

2011-10-11T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hello!

First sorry this is a day late again. We pretty much can't email on Mondays in Gotha. Well we could but all the places we could are casinos and such and it wouldn't look good for missionaries to go in and out of those places. So we waited until Tuesday so that we could go to the library. We will most likely continue to do that unless we go to Erfurt or something then I can write on Monday.

We had a good week though it being transfer week and all. Monday was a normal day then Tuesday pday and we went to Erfurt with all Elder Rechters luggage so we wouldn't have to make the trip twice. We spent the evening with the Erfurt Elders then up on Wednesday and helped the Elders to the train station. Elder Gardner and Wilkinson and I spent the day working in Erfurt until our companions came. The Erfurt Elders have a car and I was the only one who could drive and since we had appointments far away I was able to drive. So that was nice to drive again. I wasn't so sure how it would be since I haven't driven since like...March 2010 or so. It was good though and nice to be able to do it again. It felt like I was actually an adult ha driving a car instead of walking around all day. We met our companions at Banhof in the afternoon then it was off to Gotha!

Elder Sherman is way cool. On the train back to Gotha the announcer came on to say what stop was coming next. He had a pretty good east germany/thüringen dialect, I had to listen really close to understand everything he was saying. Elder Sherman looked at me with big eyes having not understood anything and said ''I was warned about the dialect''. It was pretty funny, but luckily not everyone speaks with a strong dialect. I actually think its less common then speaking mostly normal ''hoch deutsch''.

While in Erfurt Elder Gardner told us about how he had visited another churches bible study group. I thought that was sweet so when we got back to Gotha I looked up Churches in the phone book and called to ask if they had bible study groups and if we could come. The first Pastor I talked to wasn't too excited about 2 mormon missionaries coming which I guess is understandable...kind of. So he said he would rather meet with us first alone at our church and talk and then we could see where things would go, I was totally ok with that ha. Sadly he hasn't called us back yet so we'll give him a call this week.

The next guy though was pretty excited and invited us to go. So we went last thursday and it was cool. We walked in a couple minutes after it started and the Preacher was a bit shocked to see us since it wasn't him who I talked to and who invited us. But the guy who did hopped right up and came and shook our hands and showed us our seats. It was pretty cool though. They were open and nice. We read something out of Ephesians and the Preacher taught a bit. Something I really liked that he talked about was Gratitude. He said ''If we are not grateful and do not thank God for what he gives us, we are in a way putting ourselves above God. Suggesting that he didn't bless us enough or that he should have done something differently, as if we know better.'' So cool. Being grateful and showing it keeps us humble. Towards our fellowmen and towards God.

We pretty much have no right not to be grateful to God. Mosiah 4:9, we cannot comprehend everything. Gods perspective and vision is much better then ours. He knows what things must happen and how, so that we in the end can receive the greatest blessings, and so he works accordingly. Our impatience or ungratefulness blind us, often causing us to become bitter towards God. If we really think about it though, by acting in such a way we are claiming God didn't do something right...which would mean we know better. And we of course do not know better. Therefore trust in God, ''believe that man doth not comprehend all things which the Lord can comprehend'' and be grateful for everything!

Then after the bible group the guy that I talked to on the phone and then welcomed us so warmly came and offered us a ride home. Turns out the church is connected to his house so him and his wife take care of all of that. So as we were getting ready to go he stopped and asked if we had already had dinner, to which we replied yes (although we hadn't, but we knew what was coming) then he said ok otherwise you would have got dinner from my wife. It was late though and we needed to go so it was alright. He drove us though and we were able to talk a lot. He was way nice. Hopefully something will come of it, we still need to figure out how to best go about keeping contact and all.

The rest of the week we spent mostly planning for the transfer and looking for people who want to hear our message! Sunday we had Stake Conference in Erfurt so that was cool. It was packed so they had us missionaries sit up on the stand so there would be more room for the members. It was cool to see so many members together here. President and Sister Schwartz were both there and also spoke.

Yesterday then as we were out talking to people we talked to a guy in front of a restaurant. He doesn't belong to a church but believes in the bible and is quite faithful. We talked for a while and at the beginning he was very against the Book of Mormon and what our message was. He used a lot of bible stuff to show us we were wrong, to which we simply re-quoted it but in context and correctly and then he would try to find something else. Eventually he was a bit more open to listen and we gave our testimonies of the Book of Mormon again. He said yea but the bible has changed me and I am sticking to it and the Book of Mormon will not change me. We gave testimony again and promised him the Book of Mormon would change his life. He then paused for a bit and asked, really? We gave testimony again then he put out his hand and said, ok give me it. He said he would read and see what happens. It was interesting to watch him change throughout the conversation. He was so attacking at the beginning and closed. By the end he was giving his testimony of God and telling us the Book of Mormon could be true. I was trying really hard the whole time not to just use all the scriptures he was using at us back on him to show he was wrong. I didn't want to argue or ''prove'' anything simply by fact or logic. Sometimes a bit of that is necessary but its always hard to know the limit. We tried very hard to just focus on the spirit and bear testimony, to which he responded in the end. So we will keep in contact and hopefully start to meet with him. Turns out he owns the restaurant or something and invited us to come eat sometime. We will see what happens!

It has been interesting to have so many of those experiences with such closed people. From the beginning of my mission until now, so many people we speak to instantly turn to attack us or ridicule us, then without allowing us to answer will go away. It has always been amusing to me how people behave but at the same time it is so sad. You learn a lot of self control and forgiveness in dealing with those people. Throughout my mission it has been a constant thought on how to best answer them. You feel bad with using simple logic, common reasoning, or fact; but they hardly respond to the most heartfelt testimony you can give in that moment. You have to learn to trust God and pray that even though they walked away after your testimony that your words will stay with them and help them eventually. One of the most common things we get every single day is people just saying ''There is no God, if there was there wouldn't be so much suffering on earth'' or ''If there is a God he is a terrible God for causing and allowing so many bad things to happen''. This thought is so hard for me to hear. I so often want to respond quickly and sharply to such ignorance but that accomplishes nothing. God definitely helps me to bear such things with patience and to respond as lovingly as I can. I have also tried to never just have superficial love because I am supposed to. So in taking their bitter words and swallowing them and then replying as positively, sincerely, and lovingly as possible I have been able to grow a lot. I have learned often the response I would give annoyed with such comments is the same one I give when I try hard to be sincerely loving. The manner however in which I respond is completely different and that is what has the effect. You have to consider their life experiences, their growing up, what their surroundings have been, then you better understand their responses and you can respond with understanding. There is so much involved! Its crazy, but is so good to learn.

Sunday we were doing doors and people we not responding so happily. We were outside apartment buildings ringing on the speaker box talking to people. As Elder Sherman was ringing someone a lady walked by behind us towards her car. I spoke to her and she responded ''Not for me. If there was a God there would not be so much suffering in the world'' then she turned to get in her car. I said ''If the people would listen to God and apply what he has given THEN there wouldn't be so much suffering'' With her back turned and getting into her car she said ''Go tell that to those big people who have influence and are causing the problems. Us little people can't change anything''. Then she drove away. I stood there and thought about that. How mistaken she was! Each individual can change so much! That is what it is all about. It is not about changing the masses, it is about changing the individual, thereby affecting the masses. Each individual person must experience a change of heart worked only by God. Each ''little person'' must do their part and allow this to happen. Once that is accomplished much of the worlds problems will simply pass.

Keith B. McMullin said ''As men and women and boys and girls do their duty to God, they feel impelled to do their duty to one another, to their family, to their church and nation, to all things entrusted to their care. They are duty bound to magnify their talents and to be a law-abiding, good people. They become humble, submissive, and easily entreated. Temperance conquers indulgence; obedience guides their diligence. Peace distills upon them. Citizens become loyal, communities become benevolent, and neighbors become friends. The God of heaven is pleased, the earth is pacified, and this world becomes a better place.''

''Us little people'' have great responsibility. We must recognize this. We cannot simply blame God and not do our part to change anything. "Pray as if it all depends on God, then go work as if it all depends on you." The future state of mankind depends on ''us little people''. What we do, what we allow, what we approve, if we stand for our beliefs, or if we shrink in doubt and fear. The world is in desperate need for individuals who will not tolerate the things of the world that erode the foundation of mankind. It is in need of individuals who will stand up and speak up. Who understand and believe that things can be changed. Each person is a child of God. And deep inside their ''conscience'' pulls at the heart and tells them what is right and wrong. We who are aware of this and have the light given us to see and understand are responsible to act. Each is accountable to their ''conscience'', and each has felt at one point or another the approval or disapproval of ''conscience''. Each is therefore accountable to their true identity as a child of God. Martin Luther said ''I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.'' We must come to this conviction.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said ''In leadership, in standing for principle, there is loneliness. But men and women of integrity must live with their convictions. Unless they do so, they are miserable.... Never in the history of the world has there been a more profound need for leaders of principle to step forward.''

We need to do our part to prepare ourselves to be tools in God's hands in these desperate days. There is a God, and he does love us. He is active in the world today through those who cleanse themselves and allow him to use them.

I hope you are all doing well, looks like ammon is doing pretty well which is way good to see. Make it a good week! I love you all!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #98 - GOTHA

2011-10-04T19:26:00.000-06:00

Hello!

Transfers have come again and now we are done with the five week transfers to align us with whatever it was the church was trying to do. Elder Rechter is being transferred though and I am getting Elder Sherman who is also pretty young on his mission and is from California and thats all I know about him so far. It will be good though, sadly probably quick. Its really hard to comprehend how all the time has come by and now I'm at this point. We'll keep busy this transfer though and do the best we can to help the people here in Gotha come closer to Christ.

Conference was really good. We were able to see all the sessions except Sunday afternoon. Hopefully we can watch that next pday or so. It really is so cool to have a living church. To have prophets and apostles. To have revelation functioning in the church. Watching conference and just listening to it is so apparent that these messages are needed today and exactly what God would have us, his children, know at this time. And considering President Monson is not only the Prophet of our Church but for the whole world, the messages make even more sense.

The principles and messages received and delivered by those who spoke at General Conference are of course for the members of the Church. They are also for everyone else on earth though! Many of the messages delivered are not widely accepted thoughts or principles in the world. Many people simply get annoyed or angry when such things are taught or expected of them. There are many arguments against such teachings saying that they are only there if you want. Which I guess is true. But if you think about the greatest true joys in life, and the greatest joys after this life and you want them, then these principles are not just there if you feel like it, they are there of necessity. And in no other way will you access such joy. According to the eternal laws of truth, it can be done in no other way. Regardless of people trying and claiming to be accomplishing it, they are simply blinded and/or in denial.

It is a free message for all to hear and accept and the invitation is constantly extended. As Elder Christofferson said it should not be like getting a bucket of cold water thrown at you when such a message is extended towards you. It is one of the saddest things to witness so often the bitterness in people towards such saving principles, spiritually as well as physically. It is sad to watch people battle brutally in the other direction trying to get the same goal you have, but in a way in which they simply will not succeed.

Cecil B. Demille said ''It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law" and so it is. Eternal truths will ever be present. They will save us or damn us in the end. It is therefore our responsibility to inform ourselves and act accordingly. The saying ''ignorance is bliss'' is completely wrong, and ''what you don't know won't hurt you'' is right there with it. In the end nothing will hurt you more then what you do not know. That is why we are out here trying to spread this knowledge as quickly as possible. That is why the men and women who spoke this last weekend devote their lives to the church. Because the mission of the church is to spread Truth, help others apply it, and to make it available to those who otherwise could not have accessed it.

Christ taught ''And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free'' (John 8:32). We are not here to condemn people and tell them they are wrong, we are not trying to claim we are better. We believe and know the truth of these things. We have felt in our hearts that these things are true, that they are reality. We desire that others feel this as well, that they also live after the Restored Gospel of Christ so that they in the end may also return back to our Heavenly Father. We do not exclude anyone, for God desires everyone to return back. It is the work of true love for God and our fellow men.

In the process of it all it is essential that we ourselves continually learn, apply, and grow. The message can be brought to our heart by a family member, a friend, a speaker from conference, a child, a captivating scene in nature, a verse of scripture, and many other sources. If we do not do our part to allow that in and to let it work in us as we appropriately nourish it, then we cannot rightfully expect to learn of the truth and have a confirmation from God thereof. We should often ask ourselves if we have really done our part to know, and then answer honestly. Take the chance to allow it in. Trust God that he will work this mighty change in you.

Once you have experienced it, you must work to preserve the hearts mighty change (http://lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/preserving-the-hearts-mighty-change?lang=eng).

I fully believe the Restored Gospel of Christ is true. The things I have felt and experienced throughout my life can be explained in no other way.

I am very grateful for our family and that God has so greatly blessed us. I hope you are all doing well. Listen to, read, and study conference. Do not fight against the feelings telling you to apply something you learn which may require you to step out of your comfortable life and change something about it. Only in this way will you have the peace and joy God wants to give you!

Please do not take it for granted or brush it off as nothing. I know that it will help you. It may be hard or inconvenient to learn and apply such things in the world today, but honestly when was anything worthwhile convenient or easy? I'm pretty sure never. There is always an easier wrong or more convenient no. Push past those and the mediocre rewards of such choices and take your claim on the greater more meaningful things God has for you. You will not regret it.

I hope everything is going well. Make the most of the week and look for opportunities to serve!

I love you all!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #97 - GOTHA

2011-10-01T15:55:00.000-06:00

Hi!

The week felt like it was 2 days long with all the things we had to do. I was able to go back up to Nordhausen though for a quick tausch, then we were in Nürnberg which was cool, then sadly things with Schwester Lind's baptism didnt work out. She had some family problems so we will see where things go from here. It was a good week other then that though!

Since this is the last week of the tranfser we are in erfurt again for pday to play soccer with the other elders so yep this is going to have to be a quicker email, sorry! Transfer calls come this saturday night though. I get nervous thinking about how time is going by.

Monday and tuesday last week were normal days, then that was the end of that. We had a 6 hour tausch or so with the Nordhausen Elders Wednesday. It was up to Nordhausen then back down to erfurt in the same day so we could stay the night in Erfurt. Our train left Erfurt at 5:20 with about a 20 minute walk to the train station and still needing to get tickets meant we would need to go leave the apartment by 4:45 or so. With six elders in the apartment needing to shower still and get ready for the day. That meant the first elder getting up at 2:50, showering and waking the next person up then heading out. Each had about 20 minute turns which gave us enough time. Those who got up first went back to sleep until the last couple were up. So my day started at 3:30 and I didnt get back to sleep! Then the trains ended up all being late and delayed so we were over one hour late to zone conference (our whole erfurt zone ha). Then we didnt get back to Erfurt that night until 10, then we caught our train to gotha and we were home and in bed a bit after 11:30! So it was a long tiring day. A good one though.

Friday then was a quick day which ended with President Schwartz coming to Gotha and teaching Schw. Lind with us and him talking to her. It was pretty cool teaching a lesson with the mission president, I had never experienced that before. Schwester Lind is amazing. She has such a strong testimony of the restored gospel. Her family is sadly not so excited about it. So yea we will continue to pray and wait and see what happens.

Sunday we were at a members for lunch. They live in a village outside Gotha. As we walked to the train station we realized we had to cash or change so we tried to use our cards to buy tickets but the card reader was broken or something. So we were stranded there ha. We called our ward mission leader who came and saved us. He is this pretty old guy in the ward but is so cool. He was a cook on a ship for 25 years and went all over the world. Hes the most funny old guy. We are thinking about just spending pdays with him, it would be more entertaining than most other things. We stopped by his house earlier in the week and he told me he had a tie collection of like 300 ties. I obviously didnt believe him. So he showed me...and he does! I was in awe. He then told us to pick one out after he explained how much he loves ties. So I picked out a pretty cool one and then traded him for the one I was wearing. He is such a cool guy.

General conference is this weekend! I hope you all take the opportunity to listen and learn. In thinking about general conference and how we get the most out of it I think on what Pres. Uchtdorf said in his talk The Love of God in Oct. 2009.

''As you reach out to your Heavenly Father, as you pray to Him in the name of Christ, He will answer you. He speaks to us everywhere. As you read God’s word recorded in the scriptures, listen for His voice.During this general conference and later as you study the words spoken here, listen for His voice. As you visit the temple and attend Church meetings, listen for His voice. Listen for the voice of the Father in the bounties and beauties of nature, in the gentle whisperings of the Spirit.In your daily interactions with others, in the words of a hymn, in the laughter of a child, listen for His voice. If you listen for the voice of the Father, He will lead you on a course that will allow you to experience the pure love of Christ. As we draw near to Heavenly Father, we become more holy. And as we become more holy, we will overcome disbelief and our souls will be filled with His blessed light. As we align our lives with this supernal light, it leads us out of darkness and toward greater light. This greater light leads to the unspeakable ministerings of the Holy Spirit, and the veil between heaven and earth can become thin.''

So I invite you to apply this during general conference and pay close attention to what you feel. Then continue to apply it ever after. Consider questions you have and listen for answers with real intent. Meaning intending to act on what you feel and learn. You will then experience the process described by Pres. Uchtdorf.

I hope you all have a good week. Remember regardless of circumstances to find peace where you can build your relationship with our heavenly, as Christ demonstrates in Mark 1:35.

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."

I love you all and am grateful for all you have done and do for me!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #96 - GOTHA

2011-09-20T06:05:00.001-06:00

Hello hello,

So yea sorry about not emailing yesterday, it didn't quite go as we had planned. We live in a building connected to a hotel and so we go there on pday to email but they only have one computer which is a laptop so we usually just take turns while the other one writes letters or reads or whatever. Yesterday though we went in first thing and the guy said they were using the laptop for book keeping or whatever and that we could come back in 3 hours and use it then. So we did the shopping and other errands we had, had a quick lunch then went back and the lady said they weren't done and that we could come back in one hour. So we did, and then they just said, yea its not going to be done today. Then our pday was basically over so we didn't get to do emails. The only other places to do emails in the city are like small casinos and missionaries going into casinos isn't the best image plus its not always the best environment. So we just avoid going there. Anyway thats why we are doing emails right now! I wasn't too worked up about it since I haven't emailed on monday quite a few times but Elder Rechter was a bit worried about his family and all which I'm sure you can relate to ha. Its ok though we are doing it now.

The last week was good though. Started quickly then ended a bit slower because I got sick for some reason. It honestly is like torture to be sick. As a missionary you think ''I'm sick...if I just push through it God will see I want to work and he will heal me so I can.'' then God is probably thinking ''no you fool, thanks for your desire but take care of your body''. Then you try anyway and for some strange reason it gets worse! ha well at least thats what happened the other couple times I was sick. This time I figured maybe I should just try sleeping and getting rid of it quick. So I did! but it still took a couple days and its still not quite gone. So the only difference between the 2 styles of taking care of it is you are either sick outside struggling to work, or you are sick inside feeling like a bum for being there. choose your poison i guess. A good week is ahead of us though now!

Yea last week we went to the Wartburg, it was a pretty place. Up in the green ''mountains'' (hills) with trees everywhere. I was expecting the main thing to be martin luthers story there but that was like one of the smallest parts of the tour, still the most cool though. The main thing is about a princess from hungary I think that lived there and was very humble and tried to share everything she had and serve the sick and poor. Which didn't go down well with the other royalty in the area who eventually forced her out to Marburg I believe where she established a hospital and died at age 24! Her story was pretty cool too I guess. I was simply more interested in Martin Luther. Martin Luther translated the bible in a small humble room. Pretty sweet. There is a myth around here, maybe in the whole world I guess, that the devil appeared to him and he threw a bottle of ink at him which exploded all over the wall. So people had earlier taken chips out of a wall in memory of him thinking thats where the ink hit. So one wall was just like chipped away, now its chained off though. THe story apparently comes from when Martin Luther got out and people who knew him were so excited he wasn't dead and everyone asked where he had been the last 10 months and he answered ''I was fighting the devil with ink''. pretty sweet. Such a major thing.

Then we had some cool appointments with Schwester Lind, the lady who is being baptized on Saturday. The Book of Mormon changed her life! She was at first so closed to hearing anything the elders had. They inivted her to simply read with an open heart. She acted on it and it has changed her. She shows us her notebook with notes comparing the book of mormon and the bible and all the parts she loves from both. She is a good example for us! We made invitations for her baptism and she is inviting her children and friends. It will be a special day.

Then this week I got to go back to NORDHAUSEN! I went up there on tausch and it was awesome. As we pulled into the train station I was so excited and could not stop smiling, I think it stayed like that until we left the next day. Seeing everything so cool and talking to the people. It was funny seeing the same people around I would see daily a year ago. I was on tausch with Elder Lewis who had a minor surgery on his foot though so he wasn't to mobile. The little time we had to work outside was awesome though. I was hoping to go do and see more people but it wasn't possible. God blessed me though! As we walked out of the apartment to go give a member a blessing who had called and asked, Evelyn Schöpp walked by pushing jonathan in a stroller. I couldn't believe it. As we walked out I saw the familiar green stroller and thought about the Schöpps then as I came to I realized it was her ha. So cool to say hi and talk really quick. I even get to go back up there this week because Elder Lewis needs to come here to do the baptismal interview.

Anyway. I'm doing well, Germany is doing well, the weather is slowly changing and Gotha is doing well. I'd like the weather to stay warm for the next couple months but come october it will probably start to be a bit cooler like last year. The best thing is though General Conference is coming in 2 weeks! Whats even more crazy is that this is the 3rd general conference I will watch in the Efurt chapel! I saw 2 there when I was in Nordhausen, then went to Frankfurt for the next, now I'm in gotha but we go watch them in Erfurt still. So thats pretty strange. It will be a quick end to the transfer with these next 2 weeks. We have zone conference this week in Nürnberg, so that will be sweet going back there. Then Schwester Lind's baptism, then next week with General Conference. This 'bigger' events make time slip away like nothing. I continue to learn how important it is to be in the now. To act and accomplish what you can now.

In preperation for General Conference I've been thinking about how to prepare. Kind of weird yea but it makes sense to me ha. Not only for GC though but for life and everything I guess. How do we best prepare, how or when are we most capable in encountering the future. John 15 has helped me a lot in thinking about all of this and the word ''abide'' gains in meaning. Your state of mind, whether your thoughts are focused continually or not makes the difference in 'abide'. Consciously uniting your heart's and mind's desires and thoughts creates an organized, peaceful, and powerful atmosphere in you. Allowing you to consider and comprehend the more meaningful things. The Spirit can then truly conduct the symphony of impressions, ideas, thoughts continually in you and focus them for your learning benefit. We gain power to choose what we think about more consistently. As we choose the things of Christ and allow them to work in and through us consistently we abide in him. In doing this miracles happen. We don't just sit and dwell on the same thought and go no where. We allow the Spirit to further our thoughts past what we ourselves could have discovered or realized. It opens a new vista to us and our natural comprehension is surpassed. We then feel vibrating peace and power in us to choose, act, and move forward humbly with confidence in Christ.

It is an amazing thing how we are blessed in striving to abide in Christ. I hope to continually be able to abide in him more seriously.

Hope everythings going well back home. I'm sure everyone is busy with there different things. Remember what matters most, and look for opportunities to do good despite how inconvenient it may be for you. I love you all and hope you create and experience a week that brings you closer to God.

Elder Puriri

LETTER #95 - GOTHA

2011-09-14T23:20:00.001-06:00

Family!

Things, like normal, sound like they are pretty busy. Which is good and bad. Its good to be busy but it depends what we are busy with. I'm sure you are all busy with good things though.

This past week was also pretty busy here. The towns in this area where we work are pretty spread out so we had a lot of traveling and things to get to appointments and members and all. We made baptismal invitations for Schwester Lind. She has been investigating for a couple months and will be getting baptized on Sept. 24. Its awesome to see how the gospel is affecting her life. Apparently she was very closed to anything the Elders had at the beginning and was sticking to her beliefs. Then they just invited her to read in the Book of Mormon and she did it. Since then everything has changed. Each time we go she will share with us what she has read and why she liked it so much. She has kept a little notebook from the start that she showed us and she writes why she likes certain things and all that. She says she reads the Book of Mormon and Bible together and writes down her thoughts. Her willingness to just do what she was invited to do has now changed her life and eternity.

I sadly do not have much time right now. A member in the ward wants to take us today to Eisenach to see where Martin Luther translated the bible, I'm pretty sure the place in called the Wartburg. Its a castle/fortress thing where he hid out. And that will take up much of our pday.

Tuesday last week though we headed down to Frankfurt. It was so cool being able to ride the tram to the part of the city where the church is and where I used to live. It felt like going back home as we got closer and then as I walked into the Stake Center. Lots of feelings for Frankfurt and the members and the people rushed back to me. Then we had the opportunity to hear from Elder and Sister Bednar.

Sister Bednar spoke shortly about experiences her sons had had on their missions how a mission is a blessing. Then Elder Bednar stood up and said ''are you ready to get to work?'' He didn't give a traditional talk on a specific subject. He introduced to us what we were going to do. Which was basically discussing two talks he requested we read before he came. He would ask us questions and our thoughts and we would answer. Then the end turned into a Q&A session. It was a cool experience. I really liked how Elder Bednar did it and the point he was trying to get across from us.

The talk that impressed me most that he had us read was about learning with faith. He talks about how we often discuss what it means to teach by faith and with the spirit but how we forget learning must happen the same way. Then he introduced to us his thoughts on Agents and Objects. He said as we teach we must teach people as agents, allowing them to act. We must not teach them as objects, simply acting upon them. As we teach and allow people to act as agents, using their agency, the spirit can teach them and thus they learn by faith. If we simply act upon them as objects we take away their option to use their agency to learn, thereby decreasing their capacity to access the spirit through their own correct decisions to act. When we teach a class for example we often just call on someone specific for a specific answer. We have then treated them as an object and asked them to ''guess whats in my head'' as Elder Bednar said. If we invite them to participate and ask their thoughts or opinions or what they learned, they can choose to speak and share what is in their mind. As they do this the spirit is allowed in and can help guide their thoughts and teach them things they need to learn and know that we, ourselves, could not have taught. It is a really awesome thing. You experience it a lot on a mission as you teach and Preach My Gospel also teaches us a lot of this principles. The scriptures themselves teach us many of these teaching and learning principles. For some reason though we often forget and naturally treat others as objects and ask them to guess whats in our heads. It must be a conscious effort to apply these things and allow the spirit to teach each person exactly what they need.

It continues to amaze me how simple it all is. We unlock spiritual doors as we use our agency correctly. We allow the spirit to work within us, and to change our hearts. Or we don't, and the opposite happens. Everything necessary is given us from God. Then he leaves it to us to decide how we, as agents, will act. I'll forward the talk to you he had us read and invite you as well to read it and apply what you learn.

Sorry this, and the last few emails, have been so rushed. I hope you are all doing well though. Enjoy the week and make the best of it. I pray for each of you daily and love you so much!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #94 - GOTHA

2011-09-05T22:40:00.000-06:00

Hello hello,

The week quickly passed by with transfers. Last couple days in Nürnberg were good. Orginisational days making sure Elder Anderson knew what he needed to take over Nürnberg. Up early Wednesday morning and to the train station then to Frankfurt. It always feels good pulling into that train station. Its a bit surreal each time I go there. I was in the Frankfrut main station in March 2008 on my way back to Hannover from Italy. So thinking back on that now is strange. It doesn't seem like that much time has gone by but it has! So much has happened since then.

Anyway, then up to Erfurt then to Gotha! Yes it does sound like Gotham, if you say it how english speakers would. But in German Gotha is like Go-ta. But yea lots of the Elders that serve there just call it Gotham.

It was weird coming back to Erfurt then to Gotha. I have been to both places many times before. But almost exaclty a year ago I left this area and now Im back. It's weird to get transferred to a city and basically already know your way around. Church was cool though. The branch is small but has solid members. Some of which I already knew which was cool. It will be good working with them the next while.

There are some cool investigators here too, I'm excited to work with them. I feel good about the city. Elder Rechter and I set some good goals and plans. It will be a solid transfer. Elder Rechter is from Melbourne area if thats spelled right. His parents were brought to the church by Benji Hemi from Hamilton, NZ. I thought the name sounded familiar so Dad do we know him? It's cool working with Elder Rechter. He's pretty young on his mission but has really good desires and wants to do his best. I've been able to learn lots from him and am looking forward to the rest of the tranfser here.

Sorry this is going to have to be a bit shorter. The district wanted to go do something in Erfurt so I have to do this so I'm not the one holding everyone up like normal ha. We have an awesome opportunity tomorrow though. Elder Bednar is in Frankfurt and we will have a mission conference there. Im really looking forward to learning from him tomorrow. Plus I get to go back to my old ward building in Frankfurt for it so that will be cool. This transfer has this mission conference then in a few weeks a zone conference plus a couple tausches, it will go by to quick.

Things are going well though. Back in the 'east' of Germany. Its interesting to see the differences in the mindsets and attitudes of the people compared to the west. Just how their history has effected them. I started my mission in it and never really noticed too much but being away for a while now coming back its pretty obvious. We have to adapt our street and door approaches and teaching style. The blessing is though that the gospel is for each individual and we know that. As we are guided by the spirit in speaking with and teaching the people we can best provide them with opportunities to learn and exercise their agency to find out if what we say is true. We can know what they need to experience to feel it in their hearts.

In Pres. Uchtdorf's talk You Are My Hands he talks about how Christ knows perfectly how to minister to others. We being his hands here can also know how to perfectly minister to others. We know this through the spirit. In John 17:3 it speaks of knowing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We get to know them through applying the gospel and receiving the spirit. The better we know them the better we can know how to help others. As we receive the spirit through our efforts it can be revealed to us exactly how to help someone. This is Gods work. He desires to help his children. As we set our eye single to his work we blesses us to know how to accomplish it. We allow this things to work in ourselves. Experiencing continually a change of heart. Then sharing what we have experienced with others and providing them with opportunities to also experience what we have. Its all so cool!

Well I hope everyones doing well. Hope Ammons healing up quick. He's still in many peoples prayers here. I love you all so much! Have a good week!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #93 - NURNBERG

2011-08-29T19:54:00.001-06:00

Hi!

The 5th and strangely last week of the transfer went by quickly. We had another tausch and a couple other things going on. Then the week ended in Transfer calls. Which of course brought changes. I will be transferred to Gotha. A city by Erfurt in the Nordhausen district. So I will have the chance to get up to Nordhausen again on tausch probably which will be way cool. My companion is Elder Rechter from Australia which is about all I know about him. He's pretty young on his mission so it will be cool.

So my new address is

Elder Puriri

Oststr. 51B

99887 Gotha

Germany

Pretty crazy though this will most likely be my last area. I never would have thought I'd end up back in the area of the former Berlin mission. I am excited though to see whats going to come as we continue the work that is moving forward there. Sadly leaving Elder Anderson here in Nürnberg with Elder Jongejan. They are both getting new companions and Elder Wilkinson and I are going. It will be a bit weird going back to just 2 Elders in an apartment. Transfers bring changes and changes bring opportunities to learn and grow.

Last week though we had a pretty cool experience. We found a family from Nigeria while doing doors and said we would come back the next day with an english book of mormon. When we came back the lady who we talked to couldn't come to the door so her sister came. She was at first quite against anything we had to say and didn't really want her sister to have the Book of Mormon. She started asking questions and we began to explain and teach about where the Book of Mormon came from and why its so important. Towards the end she was way open and sharing her testimony of Christ with us and invited us to come back the next day to talk to them more. It was cool to see the complete change.

Then we called Br. Igbinoba in the ward who is also from Nigeria and organized that he come with to teach and bring one of his daughters to play with the girls they have there so that the relationship could be built up well. As we all got there and walked into the apartment building to ring their doorbell Br. Igbinoba was like ''This place looks familiar...'' then the lady opened the door and he just said ''Hi sista how are you today?'' and then she said ''I think I recognize you'' He wasnt sure where from and neither was she so we just went in to sit down and talk. As he came into the living room there were 2 little girls coloring at the table and he goes ''OH! hello!'' and went and said hello to the girls and goes ''I know these girls, this is my sisters house.'' Then he turned to the other lady and went off in some tribal language and she and he talked for a while and laughed. Then we realized that the lady who we were talking with was the real sister of a good friend of Br. Igbinoba. The sisters lived there and Br. Igbinoba had just never really met the one we were meeting with that day. Then the doorbell rang and it was Sister Igbinoba and another one of their daughters. Since they were just out waiting in the car and were in the area she thought she would come visit her friend. Turns out we were there teaching them ha. So that was pretty sweet. It was a cool lesson and Br. Igbinoba ended with the book of Mormon in his hand as he shared his conversion story and testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed his life. As he finished the lady we were teaching took the book out of his hands with a smile and said ''I think this one is for me''. She said ''If it is the grace of God I will be a part of your church''. It was a cool appointment. The family already has such a strong faith in Christ and are looking for the best way to follow him. I am excited for the Elders to continue to work with them.

I really liked that quote thing you from your email though mom. I have actually been thinking about that lately. Related to the gospel and how my testimony has grown throughout my mission. How my conviction has been strengthened. I was thinking about it just because it isn't new stuff I've been teaching or studying. I've heard this stuff my whole life and had it taught to me at least weekly as long as I can remember. In actually thinking about it for myself though and this process described in that thought has been happening. It is the most amazing thing I have experienced and will continue to experience. I have found it hard to describe but this guy did it quite well.

The quote I sent him is from Arthur Schopenhauer's thesis - On Thinking for Oneself. It was this -

"A man may have discovered some portion of truth or wisdom, after spending a great deal of time and trouble in thinking it over for himself and adding thought to thought; and it may sometimes happen that he could have found it all ready to hand in a book and spared himself the trouble. But even so, it is a hundred times more valuable if he has acquired it by thinking it out for himself. For it is only when we gain our knowledge in this way that it enters as an integral part, a living member, into the whole system of our thought; that it stands in complete and firm relation with what we know; that it is understood with all that underlies it and follows from it; that it wears the color, the precise shade, the distinguishing mark, of our own way of thinking; that it comes exactly at the right time, just as we felt the necessity for it; that it stands fast and cannot be forgotten. This is the perfect application, nay, the interpretation, of Goethe’s advice to earn our inheritance for ourselves so that we may really possess it: Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, Erwirb es, um es zo besitzen.

In all situations of our lives there are things to be thought about and to study out in our minds. Thereby accessing the knowledge available for us. One of the coolest things I have experienced is described by Paul in Galations 1:12 ''For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ''. As we go through this process we are literally taught through revelation. We believe in revelation, that God speaks to his children. Collectively and individually. We can receive revelation ourselves. It is not a made up thing or some trick. It honestly comes from God to the true seeker. As you attempt this process, with a sincere heart and real intent, with faith in Jesus Christ, you will feel in your heart that it is of God. And it is seared into your soul. It is a beautiful thing and one of the sweetest experiences of life.

God desires to give us knowledge and understanding. He does not want us to be confused or have vivid ideas of why we are here, what our purpose in life is, where things go afterwards. That makes no sense. He doesn't want people guessing about what to do to have a happy life or how to prepare for whats to come. He is not a God of confusion. He has restored the pure gospel of Christ, the organisation of Christ's church, as well as the authority necessary to act in his name. Providing us with the resources we need to understand the deeper things of life. Through restoring these things there is continuing revelation. God is there for us today. If we allow, he will teach us through the spirit in our experiences. It all depends on each individuals choice to allow God to come closer to them.

In Mosiah 15:27 it talks about redemption. It says ''...neither CAN the Lord redeem such...'' speaking about those who willfully rebel. The point is though that in that sense he can't. He simply cannot. Because his power to save is conditional upon our repentance (Heleman 5:11), or our choice to set our life in order with his teachings. We learn from this that sometimes God simply cannot, because of our own choices. Sometimes the lack of God's influence in our life is simply because we do not allow it. Not always, but sometimes. We should just always be doing our part to allow God to work in our lives whenever he sees necessary. I'm sure there are times where He sees it necessary and would like to do something but because of eternal laws He cannot just step in and take control. That would be overriding our agency at that point and God will not do that. If we would like to experience getting answers from Him and feel his influence through the spirit in our lives. To learn from the spirit about whether or not something is true or to simply increase our knowledge and understanding, we must do something to learn. We must do something to create an atmosphere in our surroundings and in our minds where it is possible for the spirit to speak to us so we can recognize and understand it. To learn something through our own efforts by receiving revelation is literally possible. It is always possible on Gods side. He is eternally capable of giving it. It simply depends on our efforts to receive it. It is however always possible for us to prepare for it and do our part for it. Its possible on our side, its possible on Gods side. Our side is what we control and decide. We must be conscious of that in this process.

I would encourage you all to work more of creating at atmosphere in your surroundings and in your mind where you can learn from God. That you may learn who you are and what you are doing here. That you may learn of Jesus Christ and his teachings. If you learn it in this way it is seared into your soul and becomes an ever influential part of you.

The Gospel is true and it is real. We need to continually experience this, continually be ready. On your toes on the field, on your toes in life. Don't get caught on your heals.

I am glad ammon is back home. Sounds like things are still real busy though, as always. I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all!!! I'm excited for the future. For what I have ahead of me here and for what you all have ahead of you there. Enjoy it and make the best of it!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #92 - NURNBERG

2011-08-22T23:17:00.000-06:00

Family!

We had a pretty interesting last week. There was lots to do and with this transfer only having 5 weeks it makes things feel a bit more crammed in. We had a couple 'normal' days and then a tausch and then a meeting thing here in nürnberg with president Schwartz.

I am way excited for James and his calling though. As I read it last week I was not even surprised for some reason. I read France and it just fit. There is an Elder here in my mission from Holland, Elder Dieduksman. He is way cool and his brother also just got called to the same mission as james. So maybe james will run into an Elder Dieduksman sometime during his mission.

Things sound like they are staying pretty busy. Especially with the boys back in school. I didn't know Mom was also doing school though, thats pretty sweet. Thats cool that you were able to go down to Tempe and that Dan and Corbin were able to go see Ammon as well.

Monday was pday and a quick day that flew by. Tuesday during study the other elders left to go help a member with something. Like 15 minutes after they left Elder Wilkinson called and said Elder Jongejan and him got separated. Elder Jongejan got on a subway that Elder Wilkinson didn't ha. So that took like 45 minutes to figure out but then Elder Jongejan came home and we called Elder Wilkinson and he came home. Then everyone was safe. It was pretty funny though. Wednesday the Elders in Ansbach got bed bugs and had to move to an extra apartment here in Nürnberg so we helped with that. Thursday to Friday we tausched then Friday we had that meeting, Saturday was mostly normal, Sunday we visited a Chinese Christian church. That was basically our week.

We tausched with the elders in Würzburg, thats where Dirk Norwitzki is from or whatever if that interests anyone ha. I went over there though with Elder Collings. He is pretty young on his mission but it doesn't seem like it. I think the calibur of missionaries increases each time new ones come in. Its so cool to work with the younger ones that have progressed so quickly. There is also a new training program from new missionaries that helps them a lot. I often think about how cool it would be to be able to to start over with what I know now and then go from the start again. A mission is an amazing opportunity to learn and develop yourself to serve others. I think during this time you have the blessing of moving forward at a very quick rate as you do your part to serve.

Friday was a meeting with President and the Assistants and all the district leaders in the zone. It was a very spiritually uplifting meeting. Afterwards we did a quick split with the assistants. Elder Dieduksman and I went together. We didn't have a lot of time we just wanted to walk to someone that lived 15 minutes or so from the church and see if they were there. We prayed before we headed out and as we were walking we stopped a chinese girl and talked to her. We talked about God's plan for us. We asked her if she thought God had a plan for her and she said ''Well I think so but I'm not sure and I'm not sure how to know about his plan'' This was a pretty good answer to get and we kept going and talked a bit more about it. Then she said ''Well in the bible times God used to talk to someone and tell them his plan then the people could know about it. How come he doesn't do that anymore?'' As she was saying this I bit my lip to keep from laughing and Elder Dieduksman looked at me with a big smile on his face. We were able to take 15 minutes and sit down on a close bench and summarize the Plan of Salvation. She has sincere questions and wanted to learn. She then invited us to her church on Sunday afternoon. So we went.

It was all in chinese but was translated to german. Then a german guy gave the lesson or whatever sermon I guess. Then that was translated to chinese. It was pretty cool. It was cool to see so many chinese people that believe in God. As it ended the guy that gave the sermon kind of got aggressive and came and attacked us and the Book of Mormon a bit. That tends to happen a lot though so its ok. We just smiled and told him we didn't come to preach in their church or anything. He eventually left then a kid came up and talked to us. He was german, well from Kazakhstan or whatever. But he's been here a while. They all had dinner right after and invited us to stay and eat and talk so we did. Hopefully we can continue to meet with both of them.

In church they talked about the word or wisdom and the law of chastity. They talked about the effects of living those commandments. I find it cool just how living the commandments changes the individual. When you live those 2 commandments you give yourself roots. Simply living those 2 things helps you develop self control. You gain patience and you learn to control your mind. Allowing you to think clearly, reasonably, which effects the rest of your life decisions. Giving you solid roots to make decisions. If everyone lived these things the world would obviously be a total different place. There would be more order and safety. The individual would be changed therefore the whole would be changed. Our efforts to live the gospel is also our contribution to change the world, for the best. like President McKay said ''Every moment of life man is changing, to a degree, the life of the whole world''. As we work on ourselves we eventually put ourselves in a better place to serve and help others change.

I've talked about this before I think but honestly the application of the restored gospel is the solution to the worlds problems. Each individual changing his or herself and then assisting others thereby. Like in an airplane you are told to put on your oxygen mask first then to help those around you. So that you can think clearly and stay alert. Apply the gospel in your own life so that you can think clearly and stay alert, then you can help those around you more diligently. So we need to get our oxygen supply so that we can assist others.

Thanks for everything your all doing. I hope everyone is doing well. I keep you all in my prayers. Have a good week!!

Love you!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #91 - NURNBERG

2011-08-15T22:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

We had a very busy past week! I think back and feel like the things that happened at the beginning of last week were like months ago. We had a day in Frankfurt, then 2 austausches and the week went quick. As we sat down to plan for this week last saturday we didn't know what happened. We had done our weekly planning exactly a week ago but as we sat down to do it again it was like someone had fast forwarded through our week to our next weekly planning. It was a good week with cool things.

Our day in Frankfrut was good. I always love going back there. When I get out of the train there I feel comfortable like at home. Sadly our meetings are usually in Offenbach, smaller city right next to Frankfurt. So we have to catch another train over there. It was a good meeting though. We heard a lot from President Schwartz about what he wants to focus on right now and how we can best move forward. We heard the plans of the other zones right now and all that is going on. Its a good time to take everything then assess how things will go best in your area. At the end there is always a bit of time for people to share their thoughts they had been having or testimonies or experiences. They said ok we now have about 25 or 30 minutes to do that. So that began and ended up taking over an hour. Its always really cool though to just hear the other Elders experiences and testimonies. You learn a lot from their experiences. A few of the Elders are going home at the end of the transfer so its always cool to hear what they have to say. It was a good meeting.

I tausched with Elder Palfreyman from Arizona last week. I think Allison wrote me forever ago and said she was in his ward or something I'm not sure. It was cool though. We then tausched with the Elders in Bamberg. I worked in Bamberg with Elder Liddle. He was trained in Nordhausen by Elder Anderson (my current comp). So it was cool to talk a bit about Nordhausen.

Bamberg has a military base and we went there that day with a member to visit some other members there. It was strange being there it was like a little America. They had like movie theaters and American restaurants and everyone is speaking English. We met some cool people though. We parked the car and got out to go by on a Sister and as we got out a car pulling out of a parking lot stopped and a lady in the passenger seat asked who we were looking for. Before we could answer she asked if we were looking for her. We asked her what her name was and it turns out we were not. So we asked why we would be looking for her and she said ''because I am a member....I just haven't been in a while''. She wasn't even on the ward list but we got her info and she said the Elders could go by another time. She laughed as we walked away and said ''my mother would cry if she knew I was going back to church''. It was pretty cool. A blessing and answer to I'm sure many prayers to run into that sister like that. It was cool to be around the military people though. Most the people walking around in the uniforms and all. I had a big sense of respect for them that they willingly do that. I said thank you to one of them for his service. I think it caught him off guard. Maybe they don't get thanked enough or something.

Elder Anderson and I went by on a kid who used to meet with the Elders. His family friendly welcomed us in. As we sat and talked with him his brother brought in drinks for us and asked if we wanted food. We told them we didn't have much time so that it was ok. Then his Mom came in like 10 minutes later with sandwiches for us. Then 10 minutes later his grandma came in with lots of spaghetti for us. So basically we were eating the whole time and missed our train and had to catch a bus. Then we went back another time and told them we had little time and had to make our train in 40 minutes. In less then 15 minutes they were walking in with big bowels of soup and lots of food. We ate as quick and we could while still trying to teach. Said a quick prayer and as soon as the door closed we sprinted off to catch our train. We turned a good 8 minute walk into a 2 minute sprint and got there as the train pulled up. Needless to say were both dying having just stuffed ourselves as quickly as possible and then sprinting so far. They are way cool though. The kid is 20 and has good questions. At the end of our second appointment the mother came in and closed the door behind her and waited for us to finish our thing then as we looked at her she had a stern expression and let loose with heart felt questions about lifes problems and struggles and expected answers from us right there. We were sadly in a rush and wrote down her questions and said we could talk about them next time. It was interesting though how she just came in with real worries and questions and let it all out. That seems to happen to missionaries a lot that people do that. Even out of the street when you have been talking to a person for 2 mintues. They immediately open up and trust you and tell you all their worries, concerns, and ask how we could help. We naturally cannot do much as 2 young men. But our message however can and will change them if they allow it.

It was a good week. Still giving thought to our familys experience when I have time. Considering what happened, what we have learned so far. Or what I have learned I guess since I'm not sure what you all are learning. From what I read though seems like we are all on similar waves. I read a really cool talk this morning. Elder Scott talks about our potential and the potential of the youth right now. Everyone in the world is experiencing their own hardships and difficulties. Everyone has to decide how they will take them on and go about with them. Many are unsure about how to do it, what will come, and other things. Elder Scott says ''When you push against the boundaries of experience into the twilight of the unknown, the Lord will strengthen you. The beauty of your eternal soul will begin to unfold''. As we move forward we learn much about ourselves and those around us. We learn about our Savior and about our Heavenly father. Grasping better and better our true potential and what must be done to reach it. Like he said, the beauty of our eternal souls begins to unfold to us.

From the looks of things, it seems like Ammon is doing better. Many are praying for him and his recovery. I feel how Ammon has handled it so far has blessed many lives. This experience will bless him and others as we move forward.

Sorry this was a bit rushed. It seems the other Elders wait on me lately for to finish emails. I have a hard time rushing through though.

I love you all though and I hope things continue to improve this week. You are all in my prayers each night.

Elder Puriri

LETTER #90 - NURNBERG

2011-08-08T20:18:00.000-06:00

Hi!

The past week went quickly past. We were busy here with the 4 elders and getting things going. We also had a tausch and other stuff with the ward going on. It was a good week though. Started our Tuesday by heading up to Bamberg for a district meeting then right after that one getting on another train to Schweinfurt for another district meeting. Then we hurried to get our train back to Nürnberg so we could go to our Ward Mission Leaders house to meet with him. We missed our train though. So we figured out the best way to get there next and had to wait a bit.

During this day travelling the whole time at one point we looked at our planners to see what was next and realized we hadn't planned in any time to eat. So as we were going from place to place we just bought a quick bratwurst and a roll and ate that as we walked as fast as we could for like 20 minutes from the train station to the district meeting. It was a busy day. We realized we were most likely going to miss the train from Nürnberg to our GMLs house. oh gml means gemeindemissionsleiter...which means ward mission leader. From Nürnberg main train station we had to catch a subway to another train station and from there get the train to our gmls house. We saw on the plan we would pull into Nürnberg main station at 5:20 and our train left the other train station at 5:27. The subway ride takes 7 minutes. The subway comes from the main station every 4 minutes. So we were hoping we would get to the main station a bit early then we would run to the subway and hopefully by some miracle make it in time. So as soon as the train pulled in and the doors opened we took off running down the stairs, down the tunnel, through the station and down to the subway. It was a quick run. (I always like to think of it from the other peoples view of us. They just see 2 guys in suits and with bags or backpacks running as fast as they can through some busy train station. it has to be pretty funny.) We made the subway quick and then rain to the next train and still missed it ha. So lots of running that didn't really accomplish much. We had to wait 30 minutes for the next train but it was ok. The other Elders made the earlier train then they all had to wait on us. So we had an eventful Tuesday which made the rest of our week fly by.

We tausched with the Regensburg Elders and they are about an hour and a half train ride there, then the same back. So I was thinking of what I should do on the train since it would be early and we would miss study time. I decided I was going to follow Hamiltons example and learn the Articles of Faith, except in german. So I grabbed a small card with them on there and learned them! On the train ride back I told Elder Mayle who I was on tausch with what I was doing. He said he wanted to try too. So I gave him an extra card I grabbed. In the one direction he learned 1-9! I was pretty impressed. I was able to learn all of them before we got back to Nürnberg. I felt pretty good about it since the last time I knew them I was like 11 and still didn't really know them. I'm excited though, now I can use them more often in teaching situations and stuff.

It was fun working with Elder Mayle though. He was trained about a year ago by Elder Anderson (my comp in Frankfurt) so it was cool to be able to talk about him and what we both learned from him. I've been blessed with lots of good companions. Elder Anderson, my comp right now, is way solid. He's pretty young on his mission but I feel like he's farther ahead then I am. Its cool to have the 3 other Elders in the apartment. None of them have been out a year yet, but they are all way good missionaries. I always feel weird though whenever its pointed out how long I've been out. Its so hard to comprehend. I almost starting like hyperventilating the other night when I realized how little time I have left. I sat on my bed before praying and going to sleep and just thought for a bit then realized how quickly it will come and almost couldn't breathe. I had to get rid of that thought really quick because my mind couldn't handle it. I think I'll maybe just live in denial about that for the next while.

I was able to see the pictures on the gmail thing. I was amazed to see ammon doing so much! That is so cool. Thats also awesome that that family in the ward visited Ammon to lift him up a bit. This week I talked to President Schwartz a few times about different things. Each time we talked he would open up the blog and read to me the newest stuff on there. He is an amazing man. I also got a few calls from different people during the week asking about Ammon and telling me they were praying for him. From the senior missionaries in the mission office to President Schwartz's son who lives in a neighboring ward to Nürnberg. The Elders in the apartment continue to mention Ammon and the family in their prayers. I have been filled with a feeling of deep gratitude and love for all of these people. They sincerely care. The love that is surrounding this and the power that comes through prayer is something I have been blessed to feel often this last week. It has been hard to express my gratitude to these people. I am thankful for the family we have within the gospel. Many of our brothers and sisters here are praying for their brother Ammon there. The sincere concern and prayers for Ammon truly will have their effect. Our family is being blessed through this experience. We have the opportunity to learn a lot as a family and Ammon has the opportunity to learn a lot for himself. This event, when taken on correctly, will work for his good. ''And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God...'' Romans 8:28. He will be able to say he is grateful for the experience.

I love you all very much. Things will continue to move forward. When setback comes, it is an opportunity to become stronger. It is an opportunity to smile, be grateful, and handle it with faith. It is on the other hand an opportunity to really be a setback, to slow us down, and pull us down. We choose the effective they have. Pres. Monson said Choose your love and love your choice. When we think about what we truly love, what our spirits love; it is our family, light, warmth. As we choose these things our love for them grows. As we choose and experience them together, our bond to one another is eternally strengthened. Let us especially in this time choose to handle things with a smile, gratitude, and faith. That we all may be drawn closer together. To our Heavenly Father, and inevitably to each other. Have a good week!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #89 - NURNBERG

2011-08-01T21:55:00.001-06:00

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

LETTER #88 - NURNBERG

2011-07-25T18:47:00.001-06:00

Hello Family!

A new transfer begins today! Although this one will be a bit different. Instead of doing one 4 weeks transfer to align things up they are doing two 5 week transfers. So this one and the next will only be 5 weeks so thats strange. Elder Durrant has been transferred to work up in Düsseldorf in the northern part of the mission. I will be staying here and getting 3 elders! ha I get my new companion, Elder Anderson (a different Elder Anderson than my other companion), then 2 more elders are coming to our apartment. So we will have 4 Elders in Nürnberg now. It will be good for the ward and hopefully get things here going a bit quicker. It will be cool. I'll get a picture with all 4 of us so you can see who I'm all with here in Nürnberg. Anyway yea thats what is going on with transfers!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last little while here since I haven't sent any in a long time. A couple are of making the brownies you sent. We made them for the couple that was going home but the icing didn't spread well so Elder Durrant used it the best he could. Then there are some from the Helping Hands thing we did. Then from the FHE we have each monday. We usually play UNO once or twice right after. Then with the Perkins who just went home last week. Then one with 5 of my companions at one of the meetings we had in Frankfurt a couple weeks ago. left to right is Elder Nelson, Elder Durrant, Elder Anderson, me, Elder White, and Elder Gassman.

Anyway the last week was a blur pretty much. I was in Ansbach one day for a tausch then in Würzburg another day for another tausch. It was fun though. Working with all the Elders is a huge blessing. You always learn so much from the others and learn to better appreciate them and it always motivates you to be better. In Würzburg I had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview for a kid thats about 25. It was really cool! He has now known the church for about 3 months. The interview was way cool though. We just went through the questions and talked about the different things and he would bear his testimony to me about all the different points. It was really cool. We knelt down and he offered the closing prayer and there was a very good spirit there. The Elders said his baptism and confirmation were really good.

I'm sorry this is so short and quick about everything. Elder Durrant needs to pack and get some other things organized so I have to finish this up. Well here is at least something I've been thinking about a lot lately. ''The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant we must think in the limitless terms of abundance.''--Thomas Drier. And you can relate that to John 10:10.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

I love you all so much! I hope everythings going well. Enjoy the summer and make the most of your time! Have a good week,

Elder Puriri

LETTER #87 - NURNBERG

2011-07-18T21:16:00.000-06:00

Hello!

So we are kind of in a hurry today. The Elders in Erlangen want to meet up and go to a museum thing here about world war 2 so that should be interesting. I will have to kind of hurry through this though because I'm usually the one who slows things down when there's group activities because I take a little longer doing emails ha. Normally its no problem but when there is something going on I have to hurry a bit faster.

Anyway! This last week was pretty fun. We had quite a lot going on. Tuesday Pres. Schwartz came to Nürnberg to interview the Elders in the zone. Since our zone is pretty big everyone came from all over and just staggered their District meeting throughout the day. We had to be at the church early to open up for President then we had our district meeting and visited all the other district meetings as well. So we were in the church almost all day, it was a long day ha.

That night I went on tausch with Elder Johnson up to Coburg. Elder Johnson is from Mesa Arizona if I remember right but he does not know the Urrys. I don't know how probable it would be for people to know each other there but I always ask everyone when they say they are from that area. Anyway Coburg is beautiful. It was also cool to be able to work with Elder Johnson. Elder Gassman trained him after I left Nordhausen so that was cool to. We were able to share different experiences we had in Nordhausen. I learned so much in my time in Nordhausen. It was definitely one of the greatest times of growth for me. After I left I went to Heidelberg with Elder White, then to Frankfurt. When Elder Gassman was transferred he also went to Heidelberg with Elder White, then to Frankfurt. Then the Elder Anderson, who replaced Elder Gassman in Nordhausen left nordhausen to Heidelberg with Elder White. So everyone thinks Elder Anderson will go to Frankfurt next ha. And yes that shows how long Elder White has been in Heidelberg, almost year! I'm a bit jealous since I only had 6 weeks there. Its alright though, we know we go where we go because thats where we need to be. This weekend is also transfer calls so we'll see what happens with Elder Durrant and me here.

We had the opportunity to do a service project this week with the YSAs in the stake. It was one of those ''Mormon helping hands'' ones where we got those yellow pennys. I thought that was cool ha since you always see the pictures then I got to do one. The bishops wife works at a kindergarden and we went and fixed it up. We waxed the upstairs and re-did the floor downstairs and cleaned up the outside a bit. It was fun and a good opportunity to work with and get to know the YSAs in the stake. We also had a ward grill party. Elder Durrant and I made chocolate chip cookies for it. When we put them out they were gone so fast! We were proud of ourselves for accomplishing that ha. We also made those brownies mom for the missionary couple has been serving in Nürnberg for the last 18 months and are going home this week. We have pictures so I'll send those to you next week so you can believe we baked ha.

As we were in Sunday School yesterday we were talking about the sabbath day. The same new convert who gave the priesthood lesson last week shared a cool thing. He was asked how his sabbath day changed after he became a member. He talked about how it has always been a family day in his family. How they all believe in God and all but it was basically just a family day to go to the park or hike or spend with close friends where they would sometimes discuss about God. He said though that after he got to know the church and became a member his sabbath days became more spiritual. He said something to the effect of ''You can approach the topic of Faith and God from a philosophy point of view or from a spiritual point of view. Although it is the same topic the feelings you get are much different.'' I really like that because we often meet people who approach it only from the philosophy side and we as members or even non-members get caught in doing this. The feelings and experiences are significantly different as we allow our spirits to connect with with our Heavenly Father instead of just approaching the whole thing from a logical or philosophical point of view.

We can discuss and speculate our whole lives, but until we allow our spirits to connect or relate with God we will not benefit in any way. You cannot teach a testimony. As this Brother talked about, when we approach things of God from our spiritual side we will experience things of greater meaning to us. We will truly learn of our Heavenly Father and of Jesus Christ. We will develop a real relationship with them. A real love for them will develop. In this process we feel our responsibilities as we learn of them. And we will desire to fulfill them. I am grateful for the reality of this and know that God loves us. That he has a perfect plan for us and desires with all his love that we learn of it and follow it.

I hope everyone is doing well. Things sound pretty busy back there. Take time to truly nourish your spirit. I love you all!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #86 - NURNBERG

2011-07-11T09:23:00.000-06:00

Dear Family!

Another week gone by. Sounds like you also all had an eventful week. Thats awesome you got to go to that Real game like that and that picture with Asa and Beckerman is pretty sweet! The womens world cup is going on here right now. Its not nearly as crazy as the mens last year and that one wasn't even in Germany. They still love their soccer though but since germany is apparently out its not as exciting for them all. We heard US girls played yesterday but we have no idea how they did. Sometimes we see scores on big info screens at different tram stops. Its cool though, soccers always good. The ward has a sport night every week and we went once last transfer with an investigator of ours who plays soccer and played with them. Now this coming saturday is a ward grill party and some of the members talked about playing soccer. So maybe we will play a bit with the ward that day. Oh and yes I did get that package you sent a couple weeks ago. We were at home having lunch then when we left and started walking down the street the mail van pulled into our street and as he drove down the road towards us he stuck his are out straight and pointed at us. So we walked over to his window and he said I think I have something for you, then got up and walked to the back and came back with my package. He said ''Aren't you Elder?'' I said yes I am ha. We thought it was funny he knew us and stopped us on the street like that. So we had to walk back to the apartment and put the package inside. We still haven't made the cupcakes yet but we will do that this week hopefully.

I read Erics letter and I feel I can relate pretty well to how he is feeling right now. It is strange to be one of the older missionaries out here. Everytime I go on tausch or am with a group of missionaries for some reason I think I'm still one of the young ones. Then someone will say something or I'll just realize I'm one of the older ones in the group, or on tausch with a younger elder. Its a strange thing. I remember looking up to the older Elders and learning from them and all. I can't picture myself being one of them. So I guess I look up to the younger Elders now and learn from them.

It was a quick week though. We had 3 tausches so that made things blend and its hard to remember what happened on what day. One of them I worked with Elder Münzer so that was cool. He was serving in Erfurt with Elder Killpack back when we switched over from the Berlin mission. I had tausched with him twice before back when I was in Nordhausen. So it was cool having the opportunity one more time to work with him before he heads home in 2 weeks. He is training a new Elder and has kept it a secret that he is going home ha so his companion is going to be a bit confused in a couple weeks.

During one of the tausches I was with Elder Dieduksman (from holland) and Elder Durrant was working with Elder Gassman. All 4 of us spent the day in Nürnberg working. Elder Dieduksman and I went by a some people in the afternoon and one guy we went by on wasn't home but his wife answered. We talked to her quick and she said her husband would be back around 6 that night and that we could come back if we wanted. We weren't sure if we would have time but we wrote it down just in case. Then we went on with our day. --Around that same time Elder Gassman and Durrant were at the main train station in Nürnberg checking some train times when some guy yelled ''hey Elders!'' turned out to be some guy from Nigeria who had been researching our church. He came up and said something to them ''Hey Elders can you tell me where your church is here? I've researched a lot about you guys and I find nothing wrong with you. You guys are alright. I read in your book one time, I think it was Moroni or someone but they said When you are in the service of your fellowmen you are only in the service of God. I really like that guys, I find nothing wrong with your church'' They had some time and the church isnt far from there so they went with him to the church and gave him a quick tour and got his information. He said to call him and make out an appointment because he would have to talk to his wife to see when it would be ok.

So around 630 we all 4 met up and Elder Gassman and Dieduksman left and Elder Durrant and I decided to go by on the guy whose wife told us would be home again around this time. We got there and rang the bell then this guy opened up the door. As we opened Elder Durrant got this shocked look and kind of jumped back and the guy did the same thing. Then the guy was like ''Wow were you coming to see me or just being missionaries knocking on doors like you do?'' I, being unaware of what was really going on asked, ''Well are you this guy?'' and pointed to the name on the doorbell. He said yes then I said then yes we were coming to see you. Then Elder Durrant goes ''We didn't know this was you. We were just coming by.'' Then I was confused and thought, we purposely meant to come by on him so what are you talking about? Then the guy just said ''Well I just got home and my wife and kids aren't here. The apartment isn't the cleanest but I guess you can come up with me.'' Then he turned around and we began following him up the stairs to his apartment. Elder Durrant turned around to me and whispered ''THATS THE GUY WE RAN INTO AT THE TRAIN STATION AND SHOWED HIM THE CHURCH!!'' I then connected the story he and Elder Gassman told us when we met back up and the quick visit Elder Dieduksman and I had early that day with his wife and was blown away ha. I had a huge smile on my face as we sat down and started talking a bit more. Then his wife got home and came in. She saw me and was like oh Hi you were here earlier. Then her husband asked what she was talking about. Then Elder Durrant explained how that day there was 4 of us in Nürnberg and 2 of us earlier talked to his wife and the other 2 talked to him at the train station and that we didn't know it was connected and just came back because the wife said he could. The guy was amazed and said ''This is no coincidence, God wanted us to be here''. It was really cool. So we will continue meeting with them and teaching them about the restored gospel of which he already knows surprisingly lots. So that was cool that all four of us were able to work together unknowingly to help the same family that day.

Yesterday in church was also cool. The priesthood lesson was taught by a man who has been a member since about February. He joined the church alone, is married and has 2 kids. The lesson was on Eternal Families. I was amazed during the lesson as he taught about Eternal Families and shared his thoughts with us about it all. You could see how important that is to him and the optimism and hope he has to achieve it. I felt again the responsibility I have to do my part to help our family also achieve that. I felt and learned more things I can do and I also felt a real gratitude to mom and dad for what they do to help us have that. I felt this Brothers desire to have that and can imagine Mom and Dad also have a similar desire for their family to have it. I realized better that in order for Mom and Dad to have this I have to do my part. In order for this blessing to be received I play a deciding role. We all do. I felt that Mom and Dad have this desire as this Brother expressed in his lesson. I imagine it is constantly pulling at their hearts and driving them to do their part. I felt very accountable to them to do my part and realized if I alone do not and everyone else does, the fullness of this blessing and desire would be hindered. So I feel yesterday during that lesson I learned a little better about eternal families and the importance of our family. I learned more about my part in that and felt my responsibility to do my part. So I hope to move forward and fulfill my part in our efforts.

Time is running short, but I'm grateful for all of you! I love you all. Make it and good week and be happy! Thank you all for everything!!

Elder Puriri

also happy birthday this week karamea!! love you!

LETTER #85 - NURNBERG

2011-07-04T15:42:00.000-06:00

Hello!

It has been a quick week! We got a ward mission leader a couple weeks ago so we're starting to integrate him more into the work and its way cool. We had a tausch and a Meet President and Sister Schwartz meeting. The weather was sunny at the start of the week but got surprisingly cold and rainy over the weekend. Today is a bit warmer but still not so much sun. It'll come though.

On Monday last week we got a call with a name and number of a lady that was in our area and wanted a blessing. We called her and organized going to where she was. She is an investigator from Elders in a city by Stuttgart, so not in our mission. She was coming here to a hospital place and had to leave on short notice so she asked the Elders in that city if the Nürnberg Elders could go give her a blessing. and thats us!! It was cool. We went out and talked with her, taught her a bit about the plan of salvation and were able to give her a blessing.

It was just kind of cool like to see the unity in the church. Like we know and here about it all the time. We know all the other missionaries out there are also working to spread the gospel. But to kind of be able to work with the Elders from another mission and help them out was cool. Its the same important message everywhere. We know that of course. As we went though and talked about her she told us about what the Elders had been teaching her and everything and we just basically picked up and taught further from where they left off. Now she'll go back, tell them what she learned and what we taught, and they will continue from there. It is so easy to work in unity when we are working with truth. Its not just opinions or suggestions we are working with but true doctrine. So that was a cool opportunity.

Then I was able to do an austausch with Elder Damstedt which was sweet. I tausched with him when he was still pretty new back when I was in Heidelberg and he was in Darmstadt. Now almost 8 months later we had the opportunity to work together again. Its always a blessing when you have that opportunity.

On Saturday was our meeting here in Nürnberg to meet President and Sister Schwartz. It was pretty cool! They are German so the meet was pretty much all in German. I think its such a cool opportunity to have a German mission President. Many things are going to be in German now and it will give us all a better chance to practice and better our German. They are awesome people though. Full of love and the desire to serve.

After the meeting Elder Durrant and I each had an interview with President Schwartz so he could get to know us a bit and the stuff going on in the zone. Before my interview though I sat down on a couch in the institute center with President Schwartz and we had a bit of time just to talk. So he said Elder I would like to take this time to get to know your family. So I pulled out the photo album I always have with me and showed him the family and told him a bit about us. It was really cool. He then asked me why I believe I am in Germany right now. I thought a bit and told him about my exchange and mission so far and stuff. Then he shared some of his thoughts with me. I learned a lot and got some good thoughts to go a bit deeper on. Then we went up stairs and started the actual interview which ended up being pretty long. I learned a ton though it was cool. Then Elder Durrant had his interview which also lasted longer then planned. So I just kind of cleaned up the church since we were the last ones and all. Then we had 10 minutes to get to an appointment that was a least 30 minutes away so President Schwartz just goes, 'Alright Elders lets go I'll just drive you'. So we got in the car and he drove us over there. It was another chance to just talk a bit it was cool. He is actually from a ward in the Nürnberg stake. So he's mission president of his home mission. He was or is...the stake patriarch so he was in Nürnberg often since thats where the stake center is. Plus he's lived in this area for a really long time. So he knew right where to go when we told him where our appointment was. We talked about the members in the ward and he told us how we can work with them better. It was way cool, especially since he knows them all personally. I'm excited to have the opportunity to serve with him.

I've been amazed with my 3 mission presidents. Each one I learn very important specific things from. Each inspired and called of God for that specific mission at that time. It has been a blessing to serve with all of them. I'm excited for what is still to come in the time thats left.

I am really grateful for our family! As I pulled out the pictures and started to show President Schwartz and talk about all of you I felt a very strong connection and love for each of you. President Schwartz looked at me when I was finished and said how he could feel the love of our family as I showed him. It is a special connection we have. I treasure all the times and memories we have together. This connection we have would not been the same were we not sealed together through the ordinances of the Temple. The Temple binds us together for eternity and gives us the possibility of being together forever if each of us individually lives worthily. It is my hearts desire to achieve this and my motivation to do my best. I am grateful for each of you and for the many things I've learned from you all.

I watched this short video on lds.org, https://lds.org/youth/video/laie-hawaii-temple-youth-cultural-celebration?lang=eng. Which made me think even more of this. Remember our heritage. From Mom's side and Dad's. What was important to our ancestors and what they went through. What they did so that we could have what we have today and be where we are now. Where or in what they took root and began to grow. I feel I owe a great deal to them for the lives they lived. Remember that temples bind us together. Live a life that would be pleasing to them and to our Heavenly Father. As we do, the love and desire to be together that connects us will drive deeper and deeper into our hearts. Like a tree we must have strong roots to hold us. The higher we stretch our branches up the deeper our roots must go to sustain us. Allowing us to stand tall in the world today. We can intertwine our roots with those of our family members, giving us extra strength and support. As we do our part to strengthen our roots and allow them to go deeper our love for each other will also grow.

A strong feeling filled me as I watched that video and thought of our family and the temple. It was a full feeling, I don't know how to better describe it. The gospel and ordinances thereof can complete our family. It is a very real blessing given to us. Thank you all for everything. Make the most of all the time you have together. I hope you have a good week, be happy!

Love you all,

Elder Puriri

LETTER #84 - NURNBERG

2011-06-27T22:07:00.000-06:00

Hi!

This past week was a pretty surreal week. It was a good week just kind of strange. There was a zone conference and also a little meeting in Frankfurt we had as well. Some the Nürnberg and Erfurt zones have zone conference together here so the Nordhausen elders came a day early since its so far. So they came down Tuesday and we tausched with them and went off into Nürnberg. I worked with Elder Lewis who was actually trained in Nürnberg during the winter and who has now been in Nordhausen for a couple weeks. It was fun though, he knew a lot about Nürnberg that he shared with me and I was able to tell him lots about Nordhausen.

Its so weird to think about Nordhausen now. I feel like that place was a dream. Elder Lewis told me though that Daniel and Evelyn are now preparing for the temple and have a goal to go towards the end of this year. I was so happy when we told me that! I would love to go through with them but I'm pretty sure they would go to the Freiberg temple since thats a little closer. That temple is no longer in my mission so I wouldn't be able to go with them. Thats alright though, as long as they go!

The rest of the week went by really quick after that since we had a full day of zoko stuff and then went to Frankfurt the next day and all. It was weird though because it was the Ninow's last one. A year ago we said bye to President Pimentel, now to President Ninow. I remember thinking back then how far away it still was until President Ninow would have to go and we'd get a new mission president. Its happening though this week!

We had a really good, spiritual zone conference. They shared their testimonies and each gave a little lesson as well. I really learned a lot from them in the last year. Zone Conference was sad, we sang God Be with You Till We Meet Again and everyone was having a tough time singing through tears. I was glad to know I was going to see them the next day too though in Frankfurt. During that smaller meeting though half way through Sister Ninow had to leave to go help their kids with something. She finished her spiritual thought after lunch, gave her testimony, gathered her stuff up and left. It was strange everyone just sitting there quietly as she packed her stuff together and walked out the door. Who knows when we'll see her again. Then as she left we all just sat there still with a blank look on our faces and President Ninow just goes ''Alright! so....'' and continued on. It was strange but at that moment I noticed as well how the Lord's church is so organized. She left, and was gone. But we didn't just sit around sad or clueless, President moved forward immediately after. I realized he is going to go to, but there will be no pause or break or sitting clueless or anything. He leaves, President Schwarz comes. Things move forward without ever being interrupted.

It is an amazing thing how this church can continually move forward without total reliance on anyone but God. God leads this church, no man, we therefore will never pause or stop. God is Eternal, never ending. His Church will never stop moving forward either, not for a moment. It was a cool thing to see. As the meeting ended though and we said bye it was just strange. Also on the other hand strange to realize how it doesn't stop or anything. He will go but it will be as if nothing ever happened. We aren't going to all the sudden stop and be confused because President Ninow is gone. President Schwarz will be here and he will be the Lord's tool in leading this mission just as Presidnet Ninow was. The revelation to lead this mission will not stop, simply the mouthpiece through which it comes changes. It builds my testimony to see this and to know that Jesus Christ really does lead this church through worthy, reliable people who have allowed themselves to become tools in his hands. It is an exciting thing, just a bit sad that the Ninow's are now leaving.

I feel I was able to learn and develop myself to be of greater benefit for everyone else in so many ways in this last year. Many of the things I learned and experienced would not have happened had I stayed in the Berlin Mission. I do know that I am here where I am because that is how God wants it to be. I know the mission presidents I have had, have relied on God with deciding where I need to be or go. I am really grateful to them for doing this. I learned many important lessons through the things I've experienced in the last year with President Ninow and will forever think through them to further to learn and progress.

Sorry I don't really have much time today, we had to do a preach my gospel survey when we first got to the computers because President Schwarz would like it filled out so he can better gauge where to go once he gets here this week.

Things here are going well though. I really do love this time. I am really grateful for the spirit and know that we can learn so many amazing things through the spirit. The spirit opens our minds and can lay out the mysteries of God for us line upon line. This happens only as we desire and work to receive the spirit. I love learning through the spirit. It is an experience that I hope to have over and over again. One of the more sweeter experiences in life.

I hope everyone back home is doing well! Its warming up here so its probably pretty warm where your all at. Be happy! Look to help and serve. Think of others and what good you can do for them, then do it. Your worries and struggles with fade, you will receive the spirit and a true peace that comes from nothing else. Your heart will be filled and the spirit will allow you to calmy and correctly navigate through your life.

I love you all!!! Thanks for all you do!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #83 - NURNBERG

2011-06-20T22:28:00.000-06:00

Hello hello,

First happy fathers day dad, sorry we don't get to phone on that day too ha. Sounds like it was a cool day though. I would like to see those pictures of the boys cliff jumping if you could do that somehow?

Our past week was good though. It was the first week of the new transfer. Elder Durrant went to Frankfurt on Wednesday with the group of Elders in the zone getting transferred and came back in the afternoon with the new Elders coming in to the zone. So I spent that day with Elder Wilde here in Nürnberg. Then Wednesday night right after Elder Durrant got back we went straight to a couple appointments then tausched that night with the Elders in Erlangen. So that day went quick and the next day too. I think tausches make weeks go by really quick.

It was fun though I worked on Thursday with Elder Gautreaux from Texas. I was in Frankfurt back in January or so when he first got into the field. Every transfer when new missionaries come in there is a little thing we do downtown Frankfurt in the walking only shopping area. Missionaries from the zone that are close enough would come and then all the new ones and we'd sing and talk to people. It was always fun with the new missionaries their first time talking to people and all. I worked with Elder Gautreaux for a bit though when he first came in, now I was able to work with him for real on tausch. Nows he's been out here like over 5 months I think. Crazy how fast that went by. Its really cool to see the development of the missionaries and how they all progress. So much happens in all that time. Days are packed with different things then those days fill the weeks then those weeks fill those months and things go before you know it.

Elder Durrant knows how to read music and all so he's been showing me how to sing different parts of songs. We've been practicing O My Father, if thats what its called in english, and got it down pretty good. We made a little spiritual thought around it and have been visiting members and investigators and doing it for them. Then one of the members in the bishopric heard we sang from a member and now we are supposed to do a musical number thing in sacrament next week ha. Its cool though I'm pretty sure right now we have about a 90% cry rate. So this transfer we are going to try to learn as many as we can and arrange them cool and sing them for people. I basically leave the arranging and showing me how to Elder Durrant then I just do my part and it seems to work well ha. Music is an awesome way to bring the spirit and share powerful messages with people.

Throughout my mission I have come to realize and understand how true the law of the harvest is. You reap what you sow. Elder Scott talked about it a little in his talk called The Transforming Power of Faith and Character. He talks about the 'axiom' we know, you get what you pay for. He says ''this is also true in spiritual matters as well. You get what you pay for in obedience, in faith in Jesus Christ, in diligent application of the truths you learn.'' Its now is more clear to me and seems like common sense. If you want something you do something for it. In the spiritual sense as well. If you want to have a spiritual experience or learn something from a Sacrament meeting or from General Conference, then you must prepare for it. Put something into it on your part and you will get something out. I do not believe we can rightfully expect to get anything out of it without doing our part first. Elder Bednar also says something related to this. He said in April conference 2010 ''The spiritual understanding you and I have been blessed to receive, and which has been confirmed as true in our hearts, simply cannot be given to our children. The tuition of diligence and of learning by study and also by faith must be paid to obtain and personally ''own'' such knowledge.'' Take your claim on the things God has prepared for you by doing something for them.

Elder N. Eldon Tanner in 1975 said ''Remember also that nature never pays an unearned account and she never fails to pay one that has been earned.'' You could not earn it and perhaps benefit from something for a while, for the things to be permanent however you must earn it. Then you can obtain it and ''own'' it as Elder Bednar says. In Alma 41:15 it says ''...that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored...'' What we pay for and what we earn will rightfully be ours, whether now or later. That is an eternal law. If we sit around and expect to somehow receive a testimony from God it will probably not come. If we are light minded and not focused and enter a Sacrament meeting then expect to be spiritually uplifted and to learn it will not be very likely. If you enter a class having not prepared and are not focused, but expect somehow the teacher to spiritually touch you and teach you; you are expecting a very hard thing from the teacher, for a teacher cannot teach a testimony. They may simplify gospel truths and make things understandable but you alone can plant them in your heart, act on them, and give them the chance to grow.

We cannot go through our lives expecting things to come from nothing. No matter what area of our lives it may be. We must be proactive and take initiative to do our part in order to affect results positively that will come in the future. We will have an affect on what happens. Whether we do something or do not do something will simply determine what we get back. It literally is on you. You determine whether or not you receive the many wonderful blessings your Heavenly Father is holding ready for you. If we do not feel we have felt his influence much in our lives lately or the influence of the spirit, then we would be smart to first see what WE have been doing lately. Not to simply become bitter at God for something of which we are actually the root cause. This will blind and numb us, and continue to blind us and numb us and it will become more dangerous the longer we allow this to continue. It will also become harder and harder to open our eyes and see clearly, to open our hearts humbly and feel clearly. We will begin to rationalize and justify our actions incorrectly because of our fogged perception of what is actually going on. If we would step back out of the fog by humbling ourselves and turning to God for a clear view, we would see what we now can do to fix these things and clear the fog causing us to stumble through life. Making the right decisions and taking the right action will lead us up out of the fog to the peaks of the mountains where we have a beautiful and clear view.

I am grateful God is our Heavenly Father. That he wishes the best for us, and that he understands the eternal goals so much better then we do. So that with his perspective he can guide us through the spirit in our lives. Everyone of us can choose how our relationship to the one with the clear view will be. We will also choose the clarity and amount of guidance that comes into our lives. I hope we will all do our part, pay as much as we can, and thereby receive the blessings of the greatest worth.

I hope you are all doing well. Continue moving forward, serving and loving. enjoy the week and make the most out of your time. love you all,

Elder Puriri

LETTER #82 - NURNBERG

2011-06-15T21:45:00.001-06:00

Hello hello!

Another transfer is gone and Elder Durrant and I will be staying together in Nürnberg! Pretty cool, I haven't stayed 2 transfers with a companion since Elder Gassman last August. Its cool getting lots of new companions but its also cool being able to stay 2 transfers with someone. You already know each other pretty well and you can just head right into the new transfer no worries. We have good plans and goals for the transfer though so its going to be good.

The past week was pretty cool. We taught a new young couple. Probably in their mid 20s or so. They were in America for 3 weeks and were in SLC at temple square and asked to learn more about the Book of Mormon. When they get peoples info there it gets sent to us here by text. So we just got a text with their names and address and that they wanted a Book of Mormon. We got that text a few weeks ago. The week we got it Elder Durrant and I headed out there (its in a small village outside of Nürnberg). As we got off the train and started walking there we realized we would be cutting everything really close if we tried to get to their house and back to the train and to our next appointment. So we decided we would just have to go by on them another time and headed back to Nürnberg. Then when we found time again a couple weeks later we went out there and knocked on their door. The guy opened the door and behind him I could see suitcases and clothes and other things. He got a surprised look on his face and goes ''wo...you are already here? crazy!'' then he called his wife and said ''Hey come look, the gentlemen are already here!'' Then he looked back at us with a big smile and surprised look. They explained they had been in America and hadn't even been home for an hour. They were excited to see us and asked if we could make out an appointment for another time, so we did. We thought that was cool though that we happened to show up like right when they got home. Then we had a good appointment with them, they had lots of cool questions. They are sadly really busy this week and can't meet until next week but we're excited to continue teaching them.

Then on Friday we had another cool experience. During study in the morning a member called us. He is from LA and was in Nürnberg for work and asked if we could meet later that night and give him a blessing. We went by to his hotel that night and were able to do that then he took us out to dinner. He was a really solid guy. Down to earth and had a fiery testimony. He told us of his conversion story 4 years ago and other experiences he has had with God in the last while. As often happens, we were asked to go help him and in the process we were helped a ton. I learned a lot from him and consider it a blessing we were able to meet him and have that experience. That picture is of us all again yesterday. He was heading out to Hamburg and we met him at the train station really quick to talk again and say bye.

It was a good week, now we have a busy one ahead of us with transfers and making sure everything runs smoothly with everyone getting where they need to be. It will be a crazy transfer with President Ninow going and President Schwarz coming in. The organization of the church though is truly inspired and a blessing. Its awesome to me that there are so many solid members all over doing their best to live a righteous life and spread the gospel. It motivates me more to do my part here. I'm excited for whats to come and to move forward in faith.

I hope everyone is doing well back there. Look for opportunities to improve and be better. Make it a good week and be happy!

Love you all!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #81 - NURNBERG

2011-06-06T22:03:00.000-06:00

Hello family,

Yes mother we've heard about this weird breakout and have been advised on how to avoid getting affected. Apparently its called Shigga or something. But we are being careful don't worry. How was the trek for Asa? What are everyones plans for the summer now?

I'll probably do that application thing next week because we dont really have a lot of time right now. We had a deep clean day last week and we didn't finish in our appartment so we took pretty much all of today to finish now we have to rush through the rest of our pday activites. That's alright though because now we have a clean apartment.

Our past week was pretty good. We were supposed to go to Frankfurt last Thursday but that meeting got cancelled. Which gave us another day to work here but I was kind of sad because I was looking forward to going back to Frankfurt for a day. That's alright though I'll be there another time for one reason or another. We got a new bishop last week as well. That hasn't happened in any of the wards I've been in yet on my mission. It's kind of cool though it gives us a chance to kind of start new with the bishopric and working with the members.

The new bishops daughter got baptized last Saturday though. It was really cool. The wife comes from England so there was family there from England and the other side of the family from the Hannover area. So I was able to talk to them about my exchange and stuff. The baptism was really cool though. We were able to have two of our investigators there who really enjoyed it. They had never seen a baptism like that and it was a really spiritual one to be at. I was really glad they could both be there. Hopefully they will both continue to progress towards baptism.

The area presidency has asked the members to do a special fast during June. They have asked them to fast for the missionary work and also asked that every member invite and bring someone with them to church each Sunday throughout the month. They can invite and bring friends or members that may not be so active. But that is the invitation or challenge from the area presidency this month. We obviously think its pretty cool. I dont know if we would have enough time to work with all the different people if each member brought somebody each week this month. We are way excited for this month though. There is always lots to do. It's also strange to think this transfer is almost done and that President Ninow will be leaving soon as well. There will be lots of changes happening in the next little while. It will be exciting though to see how everything is going to work out.

I've been studying and thinking a lot lately about how we learn and teach through the spirit. It is interesting to see that everything we do is to help us have the spirit which enables us to be better in every way. Not just as missionaries but as members of the church. The commandments are there to help us be more receptive to the spirit. Having the spirit improves all aspects of our lives and it enables us to be able to serve others better. If we think about all those things as a help and comprehend this at least a little, keeping the commandments becomes much easier. If we stop looking at things from a negative prospective and stop thinking 'don't do this` 'shouldn't do this' 'not allowed to do this' and think of it like 'do this' or 'should do this' or allowed to do this' so that I can have the spirit, being obedient becomes much easier. All commandments are spiritual, many also affect us physically as well though.

God knows us better then we know us, he knows what will come better then we do. And he knows best how to prepare us for those things. The commandments are given to us to help us set our lives in line with the gospel, so that we may be receptive to the spirit. Being spiritually receptive changes our whole lives. As we receive the spirit, and act according to it, our life will change. Everyone will experience this as they are obedient to the commandments and to the spiritual impressions they receive. I hope we all will experience and continue to experience this as we humble ourselves and follow our perfect example, Jesus Christ.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thank you all for everything, enjoy the week. Look to serve, and be happy.

love you all

Elder Puriri

LETTER #80 - NURNBERG

2011-05-31T20:05:00.002-06:00

Family family,

Sounds like you had a pretty packed week. Life is moving forward quickly. Its cool seeing all those picture mom thanks for doing that. Asa is going on the trek, I think it will be cool. Advice I would have for him...in the words of Elder Wirthlin; come what may, and love it. Have fun, look for people who need help and help them, learn as much as you can from it.

I'm doing well and things in Nürnberg are going well too. The weather has been switching back and forth. Today is clear and sunny though.

We also had a pretty full week. We had a training meeting for 2 days here in Nürnberg which was actually really cool. I learned a lot and recognized some more things I can do to be a better missionary. Then we were busy the rest of the week going around from appointment to appointment. We had a really cool appointment. We wanted to help the guy learn more through the spirit and help him understand he needed to stop trying to use logic of reasoning to understand these things. It was kind of a spontaneous appointment so we hadn't really prepared anything other than that we knew what we wanted to do. He talked a lot at the beginning about a ton of different topics and told some stories. I had my bible open and was just flipping to scriptures that had something to do with what he was talking about as he talked and switched topics. He didn`t stay on a topic long enough though for me to find a good scripture and figure out how to use the scripture to get us back to where we wanted to be. Then all the sudden he stops and says ''Elder Puriri, you had something to say go ahead''. I was a bit caught off guard because I did want to say something but I didnt know what yet. As he said that I thought quickly about what he had just said and a scripture in the bible came to my mind. I opened it and shared it with him. About hope in Romans 8. Then I read the next couple verses about prayer and the spirit. We were able to talk about how we have to rely on the spirit when we do things related to God. We talked for a bit about it and asked him some questions. It totally clicked for him. He sat there and just looked up slightly with this look of trying to figure something out or like an ''ah ha'' moment. He started telling us how important the spirit was and that it made sense to him. It was way cool that it helped him and that he now understands what he needs to do when we meet and continue to teach him. So that was pretty cool.

Then we had a tausch with the Elders in Erlangen. Its a city that is pretty close to nürnberg. It was a good tausch though. I got to work with Elder Hardwick there. They ride bikes in that area. I had used bike like once before that on my mission. That day though all day we were on bikes. I felt like a real missionary ha. And I gained a lot of respect for those two elders because after a while it hurt to sit down on that seat and my legs were getting way tired. It'd be a good work out though if you were doing that everyday.

While I was there in Erlangen we taught a guy that has been taught by the elders for the last little while. He came in to the church and we sat down. He seemed pretty casual about it all but like a cool guy. We wanted to teach a first lesson but mostly focus on Christ's earthly ministry and go on from there. As we explained how Christ established his church here on earth and why it seemed to make sense to him, we asked if he still believed we needed Christ`s church today. He thought about it then answered back no. That kind of caught us both off guard. Before saying anything after that I thought about how I could help him understand this so that it would make sense for him. We re-explained it but in a different way and asked some questions along the way and then he said yea I think we do need Christ's church today. We continued through the lesson but focused a lot of the spirit and on how it would best make sense to him and what he needed to hear or read out of the scripture to learn it. The spirit was heavy in the room. Throughout the lesson you could like see or feel a change happening in the man. At the end of that lesson the scripture D&C 50:22 made way more sense to me.

D&C 50:22Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together.

I felt like as I was thinking about the doctrine we were teaching it was becoming more clear and simple to me. As I was thinking about it I was learning, and as I learned I was speaking and saying what literally felt like was being put into my mind, and he was understanding. It was kind of like pouring water into a bucket with a little spout at the bottom and as its being filled the water is coming out of the spout. I felt like I was having 'understanding' poured into my mind and I was opening my mouth and letting it flow out to the other guy. It was a very real, cool experience. I hadn't ever really had that type of teaching experience. I didn't want it to end. I feel like now if I ever teach differently its the wrong way. I feel like each lesson has to be like that. I want to learn more about this and do all I can on my part to make the lessons we teach like this. The affect it had on me and that man seemed much greater than any other experience. As the man walked out of the church he seemed to understand the reality of what we were teaching. As he left the church you could see he left differently than he came. It was an experience I won't forget.

The reality of the spirit and learning or teaching through the spirit is very real. 1 Corinthians 2 talks a lot about it. It is important that as we approach topics or things of a Godly nature that we lay aside our limited human understanding, logic, and whatever else. That we appraoch it with reverence and open for the spirit to teach us. We learn about God through a godly way not through our own power. And as we learn through this eternal being and power what we learn will be of an eternal nature. Supporting our testimonies eternally. If we learn through our own logic and reason, that is mortal. That is limited and does have an end. And sooner or letter it will no longer stand or support us. I am grateful for the Spirit and the reality of it.

I hope everyones doing well back home. Hope you all have good plans for the summer. Enjoy it and be productive. Love you all, thank you for everything. Your all in my prayers,

Elder Puriri

COMING THIS JULY

2011-05-27T07:50:00.000-06:00

Lehi Karl Schwartz, 59, and Gudrun Bauch Schwartz, four children, Germany Frankfurt Mission; Feucht Ward, Nürnberg Germany Stake. He serves as a missionary in theGermany Berlin Mission and is a patriarch. He is a former counselor in a district presidency, branch president and counselor in a branch presidency. Retired managing director of Radiodiagnostic Business Line, IBA-Group Belgium. Born in Lahm Itzgrund, Germany, to Karol Pfeiffer and Leokadia Grünke Schwartz.

Sister Schwartz serves with her husband as a missionary in the Germany Berlin Mission and is a former stake institute director, stake Relief Society president and counselor, ward Relief Society president and counselor, and Sunday School teacher. Born in Husum, Germany, to Walter and Lissi Friedrichsen Bauch.

LETTER #79 - NURNBERG

2011-05-23T23:09:00.000-06:00

Hello!

Thats way cool that Dixie is in the semi-finals! I think its awesome they have played so well to make it this far the last 2 years. I can't believe Ammon's graduating though. That just seems so weird to me. It kinda makes me feel old. Another school year went by though really quick. But of course the time was packed full of tons of things being done. However we filled up our time. Now its gone by already! But its cool. Everyone is moving forward and making progress.

The last week was a lot of running around everywhere still figuring Nürnberg out. It was a lot of fun though. We did 2 tausches both of which I stayed in Nürnberg with an Elder. So that was pretty eventful. Looking back though it feels like the week just blends together into one big day or something.

We've been trying to involve the members more in our work which has been a lot of fun. There are some really cool people in the ward and they are awesome to take with to teach people. I'm looking forward for working with them more to get the work here moving forward faster.

On Friday to Saturday we tausched with the Elders from Würzburg. I was here in Nürnberg with Elder Chambers. It was a way fun tausch. We were really busy all day and for almost half the time we weren't even together because we met with some members at the church and split with them. He went with one and did home teaching with him and I went with the other and taught a couple of our investigators. It was fun though. Elder Chambers is pretty young on his mission but he's way solid. I learned a lot from him. He also played soccer. He played for 5A state at rio tinto 2010. I was a bit jealous when he told me that ha. It was a good tausch though.

We had an appointment with a less active family. I had never met them before and of course neither had he. Their record hadn't been updated in forever so we had very little information about them. So we planned a little lesson for them but when we got there our plan was destroyed ha. What we had planned was obviously not what they needed. As we sat and talked we both thought to ourselves what we could share or do to help them. I thought of a chapter in the book of Mormon which we read together and talked about it. Then Elder Chambers had a poem in his scriptures he felt would be good to share. At the end there was a good spirit in the house as we left. It didn't go according to plan at all. We weren't sure what to think as we left since we just basically made it all up as we went. But we were hopeful that it helped them. Then at church yesterday I was on the stand since I was giving a talk. As I looked out over everyone in the very back I saw the people Elder Chambers and I visited. I double took and the lady smiled and waved. I was really happy to see them there. I went up to her afterwards and told her that and she said ''You two came at the most needed time and lightened our house and gave me the strength to come back to church today''. It was really cool to see that she applied to her personally how things were and knew what she needed to do.

Then yesterday after church we were going to go to another less active guys house to visit him. We were on the way and realized we were going to be 30 minutes early. We thought about if we should go do something else for 30 minutes or just go early and we decided he wouldn't mind if we were early. So as we walked up to the apartment building a family walked in and the door closed behind them. We didn't think anything of it then just rang the guys bell from bottom and he pushed the button to open the door. A girl from the family that had just walked in pushed the door open for us and then she said ''Hey, missionaries! we are from the church too!" (this was in german though). We were confused and thought maybe they were just from some other church but also believed in God. Then they said they were from some ward in the Stuttgart stake. Tübingen or something like that I'm not sure. They explained the Dad has an apartment there and works here during the week. And that the oldest daughter is also living with him now during the week for the next while working here. They said their father was not a member and gave us his name and asked if we could come by during the week. We told them we'd love to and we were also able to invite the daugther to institute and the other YSA stuff in the ward. It was pretty cool though. Had we not gone right then we would've missed them! The Mom was way happy and kept telling us it wasn't a coincidence that we happened to be there at the same time. Pretty awesome how things like that work out!

When I was on tausch with Elder Chambers he asked me what one of the biggest lessons is I've learned on my mission so far. It was a cool question. I thought about it for a bit. Then talked about how I've learned a lot about doing. I think thats one of the biggest lessons I've learned on my mission. Is to act. There is always so much talk and whatever else but so little who act. It is sadly more rare to find someone who's words and actions are in line with each other. I've learned a lot about how simply acting can make the biggest difference.

Often we wait around with the excuse like I don't feel like it. Or not right now. Sitting, waiting, thinking that maybe since the desire isn't there right now if I just wait it will come. But that almost never is the case! The desire comes in the act. Or we hear lots of people talking about cool things they've experienced or good things that help out in whatever. We think, "I want to experience something like that." I want that to help me too. The thought, ''I'll just wait around and see if that happens to me too'' is the wrong one to have next. We accomplish things in the doing. We wait then eventually decide to go do something. In the end we will have to go do. Which means we just wasted time waiting around. If we act quickly we can use all the time we have! Thats way better. We accomplish more in the gospel and in our temporal issues as well! To act. Do things. Always moving forward.

There is a quote by...I don't know who. I remember hearing it while I was in 5th grade at one of the high school practices with Rakai. Its helped me a lot ever since then. ''If you're not training, somebody else out there is; and when you meet them, they will beat you.'' Always be doing things to help you move forward. In the gospel as well as right now in life. If we are not preparing and we meet temptations or struggles, we will lose. If we are, we will be moving forward consistently. It depends very much on us and our doing things.

I'm grateful for the many things we can learn from the gospel to help us move forward in all we do. Of course we aren't perfect and we will have all have struggles and make mistakes. Through the help we receive through the gospel though we can leave those mistakes and sins behind one by one becoming cleaner and cleaner. More and more like our perfect example, Jesus Christ, and our Father in heaven. It is very possible and everyone can do it!

I hope you all have a good week. Good luck with everything! Have fun and enjoy every moment of the time you are using!

I love you all,

Elder Puriri

LETTER #78 - NURNBERG

2011-05-16T20:48:00.000-06:00

Isaac, Liang, Sam (translator), Elder Nelson

Elder Anderson
Elder Johnson
Elder Puriri
Elder Gassman
Elder Liddle

HI!

So one of the picture is from my last appointment with Liang in Frankfurt with Elder Nelson and Sam who translates for us. The other one is from this last Zone Conference. It is from left to right, Elder Anderson, Elder Johnson, me, Elder Gassman, and Elder Liddle. Elder Anderson and Elder Liddle are currently serving in Nordhausen and Elder Johnson went to Elder Gassman after I left. So thats the line back to Nordhausen since I left back in October! Pretty crazy. It was fun at Zone Conference though all sitting together and talking about Nordhausen and the different experiences we've all had there and how the work there is now going.

Anyway the week was good! We were able to get a lot accomplished. There are a lot of cool people we are teaching right now. We are teaching one who is probably around 50 yrs old or so now. But he used to be a professional soccer player. His name is Andre Doubrowski or something like that. He played in Austria and Germany for a while. I juggled with him for a little bit it was way fun. His touch is still way soft and good, I was impressed ha. We are also helping a guy named Willie prepare for baptism. He is really sincere in his desire and its cool to see how he understands the seriousness of baptism and that he wants to be totally ready. We made up a plan on a calendar for him to help him do all the things he needs to to prepare himself.

We also had a pretty cool experience at church. Right before church started these 2 girls in there early 20s walked in and sat down. We were both passing the sacrament so we couldn't go sit by or talk to them. Afterwards I went and sat a couple rows behind them with another investigator. As soon as sacrament meeting was over and I finished talking to the guy next to me the girls stood up and came over and introduced themselves. They said they were just visiting different religions seeing whats good and all and trying to clear up the rumours they've heard about different religions. So I talked to them for a bit then invited them to the gospel principles class we teach. They came and participated and it was way cool. They even decided to stay and go to Relief Society as well. We invited them to institute on Wednesday and we're hoping that they'll come! It was cool to see them there and that they participated so well in everything the whole time. Our topic in gospel principles was repentance. It was actually a cool topic to teach with them there. And the topic in Sacrament was the Priesthood which was also perfect for them!

The restoration is such a blessing. And another witness that God loves us and is doing all he can so that we have the truth. To do what is described in John 17:3 we need the pure truth. We need continuing revelation. The restoration of the church of Christ with his authority is a necessity. It is also quite logical if we ask the 3 questions that Elder Callister asked in Oct. 2009. ''First, does God love us as much today as He loved the people to whom He spoke in New Testament times? Second, does God have the same power today as He did then? And third, do we need Him as much today as they needed Him anciently? If the answers to those questions are yes and if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as the scriptures so declare, then there is little doubt: God does speak to man today exactly as Joseph Smith testified.''

I am very grateful for the Christ and the restoration of his church. I am grateful for the many blessings that are made available through the restoration of the priesthood. If we ask ourselves how our lives would be without the priesthood on the earth, we recognize what a blessing it really is. The fact that the priesthood is on the earth today and we have it in our lives has a very literal effect on us. It enables us to help others in their journey back to our Eternal Father.

We have a good week ahead of us. We're going to be busy and its going to be tiring and lots of fun. Because thats pretty much how it always is ha. Theres lots of people to help!

I hope you are all doing good. Crazy that the school year is coming to an end already! Be productive in the summer! Use your time to help you grow and others around you.

Hope you have a good week. Be happy!

Love you all,

Elder Puriri

LETTER #77 - NURNBERG

2011-05-15T13:29:00.002-06:00

Isaac arrived in his new area the day before mothers day. He didn't know of a computer where he could skype from so we called him on his cell phone through skype. We looked up his address on google maps and looked at a photograph of his apartment while we talked to him. We talked for 2 hours and then he said he needed to go so he could check on the missionaries in his zone.

This was his letter the day after mothers day...

HI family!

It was cool being able to talk to you all yesterday. Seems like everyone is doing pretty good!

I don't really have a lot to say this morning since we just barely talked...

It is cool being able to talk to you all like that though. Its like a boost. I talked to another Elder after on the phone and he told me the same thing. How he feels way boosted after talking to his family and that he wants to be a lot better and do a lot better. I felt the same way. So remember the effect you have. Thank you all for everything. I'm just going to keep this real short because I really can't think of much else and we kind of have a lot to do today. So enjoy the week and be happy!!

Love you all!

Elder Puriri

Letter #76 - Nurnberg

2011-05-02T17:55:00.000-06:00

Hello hello!

Today begins a new transfer! Transfer calls came on Saturday, they've been doing good on getting them on time. This transfer though I will be spending in Nürnberg! With Elder Durrant. Yes I am leaving Frankfurt. Its always bitter sweet being transferred. I really love the ward here and the people we are working with. I can't even believe I've been here about 6 months. It flew by so quick and now I have to leave. I thanked the ward yesterday for everything and was able to say goodbye to many of them. We didn't have a scheduled eating appointment so as we were leaving the church the bishop's wife grabbed us and asked if we would like to come to lunch. So that was cool being able to be there one last time. I was hoping to stay here for a longer time but Nürnberg will be cool too. I'm excited for whats to come. I hope I was able to learn what I was supposed to learn here and I'm excited to move on and apply the things I've learned in this new area. I've met Elder Durrant once, we talked shortly. I don't really know anything about him though. So I'll tell you about him next week. Nürnberg is in the bayern area though! Its cool serving in all these places I never would have served in had I stayed in Berlin.

So yea because of the transfer though I have no idea how to do phone calls on Sunday. I will email you quick on Thursday with that information. New address:

Elder Puriri

Wittekindstr.17

90431 Nürnberg

Germany

I also did get that first package you sent and the envelope I got today. Thank you all!! I really appreciate the stuff you all do for me.

The past week was a pretty good week. Liang and Kimberly are still doing really good and they are making lots of friends in the ward which is awesome to see. We are blessed to work with lots of people who need to feel the love of God and recognize their relationship with him. Like a couple weeks ago we talked to this guy on the street. He was interested in God but thought everything we were saying and believed was a bit ridiculous. He said he would like our book so he can just see and make thoughts about it. So we met with him last week in the church. As we sat and began to talk he explained a little more about what he believed. Then we began with a prayer and Elder Nelson went right into talking about authority. That was not our plan so I was a bit confused. As he kept going it felt good. So we basically taught a short bit about apostasy and restoration and by the end the guy was very sincere and serious in reading the Book of Mormon. It was what the guy needed to hear apparently and it made him seriously consider what we were saying. He started to ask a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and said. If I am supposed to believe this man I need to know about his life; where he was born, what his childhood was like, what kind of a person he was, what he experienced and those things. I want to learn about this person and then it will be easier to understand and know if it is true. If he continues on with an open heart and mind as he studies these things there will be no doubt left in him that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration.

I am really grateful for the time I have had on my mission so far. I am grateful for the atmosphere and what is possible for us as missionaries and for the time we can fully commit to the Lord. We are here to serve and help others but we are blessed much more than we often realize from this whole thing. I am seeing the gospel from a whole different point of view now and it is changing my life. It is becoming more and more real to me. I hope to allow this to continually affect me and change me and I know it can do the same thing for every individual who will allow it.

This last week at district meeting right before the closing prayer somebody said something about the spiritual thought and used the word spiritual thought. Then it kind of clicked to me. We use the word 'spiritual thought' quite lightly in the church. You give the assignment for somebody to give the ''spiritual thought'' or you receive the assignment to give the ''spiritual thought''. When we think about it more though we realize how important a spiritual thought is.

Spiritual thoughts would come from spiritual minds. To be spiritually minded is life eternal. Life eternal is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ. Spiritual thoughts are steps to being spiritually minded. Which helps us get to know the only true God and Jesus Christ. Which is how we can achieve eternal life. So spiritual thoughts are very important! They should help us to get to know the only true God and Jesus Christ better. They are steps to being spiritually minded. When we are spiritually minded we are focused. We understand better how God and Christ think, thereby getting to know them better. I thought this was really cool. And I thought I would share it with you, so that we remember that spiritual thoughts are more then just a simple assignment or whatever. And that we remember that there are steps to being spiritually minded, and that our spiritual thoughts help us stay focused.

Little steps help us reach the big goal!

I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy the week, be happy! Thank you all for everything.

I love you!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #75 - FRANKFURT

2011-04-28T09:18:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Another week gone by! ...and I'm 21. I don't really know what to think about that, its kind of unbelievable. I don't feel like I'm 21, maybe I do. I don't know what your supposed to feel like when your 21. Its weird though, I feel old!

Last week was a good week though! Then at the end of this week is transfers. Ridiculous time moves too fast. It would be awesome to stay here in this area, and it'd also be cool to keep a companion for a little longer then one transfer. We didn't have any tausches last week so we got to spend all the time in Frankfurt. It was a lot of fun being able to just work here. We worked a lot with the members which is always good. One member, Sam, is helping translate when we teach Liang. It is lots easier to have him be able to speak mandarin and make sure Liang is getting it all. Liang is starting to learn way faster and is understanding things really well. We are looking forward to the next few appointments we have with him and helping him better understand his relationship with God. We are also working with a girl named Kimberly. She's read tons since we've met and each lesson is very spirit guided. Its been cool to teach her.

On that sunday before church started 2 kids in their early 20s walked into church in normals clothes with backpacks. 2 byu students doing a Europe tour for a couple weeks. One served his mission in Germany, the other in New York spanish speaking. Then during preisthood this guy walked in and sat in the back, so I got up and went back there. He is a Nigerian by birth but grew up in Uruguay, and his name is Blessing! I thought that was pretty cool ha. So he could only speak english and spanish since he has been in Germany for 20 days. He said he got here and asked around where the church was but nobody knew and he finally figured out where it was on the internet. He's been a member for about 7 years now. Then the other elders in our ward had 2 investigators who came but mainly only speak spanish. As soon as preisthood ended the byu kid came over and went off in spanish with Blessing and the other 2 people. Then he translated for them during class! It worked out wonderfully. It was funny and cool that all of them showed up on the same day.

Pday yesterday was moved because of Easter. Easter here closes things on Friday before and Monday after. This morning at the beginning of pday we were able to go to the temple. It was a nice break. We also went to the temple last Wednesday with Shahab and did a temple tour. It was really cool to take him there. As we walked onto the temple grounds there was a totally different spirit. Its kind of just right there in the town but as you walk up the sidewalk out of the town and onto temple grounds everything changes. As we finished the tour and were leaving we didn't want to walk of the grounds back into the town because the feeling is totally different. It was a good experience for Shahab though and it was cool to share that with him.

I am grateful for all the things on a mission. I have never felt more humbled before and had to rely more on God. I always liked the scripture Mosiah 4:11, throughout my mission though I continually experience it ha.

And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

Experiencing your own 'nothingness' is usually not your favorite thing. But its been a good thing to experience. Keeps you from getting too reliant on your own skills and whatever else. Plus in the end what can you really accomplish alone? Alone we can't overcome sin or death. If we can't overcome these things we don't come much farther after we die. Then everything we have accomplished in our lives here, has no affect on us. Through Christ ,overcoming these things is possible. Giving us purpose to accomplish things. Helping us along the way through the hard things we encounter. I'm learning to better accept my nothingness. To do my best but to rely on God and recognize that those things that I have done are only because of him. I've experienced too many blessings that have helped me do things to even try to take the credit. Pres. Ninow said a while ago 'There is no limit to the amount of good someone can do when they don't care about who gets the credit''. When we recognize the blessings we have and the things we can accomplish and the help God has given us, burdens are lifted.

Sorry this is kind of short, we still need to get some stuff done before pday is over. I hope everyone is doing good though. Thank you for everything!! Have a good week and be happy!

I love you all

Elder Puriri

LETTER #74 - FRANKFURT

2011-04-18T21:25:00.001-06:00

Hello Family!

We had a pretty cool past week. We had a couple tausches which were good experiences and we were able to work a lot more in our own area. We had a cool girl in her 20s just show up to the YSA fhe on monday. She found us on the internet and wanted to come see. So we were able to teach her 3 times actually last week. We gave her the Book of Mormon on Monday night and met again Tuesday night and she had already read from the title page to 1 Nephi 3. We met again on the weekend and she had almost finished 1 Nephi. Its amazing to see the progess somebody can make when they want to. And how much somebodys personal progess depends upon them. Upon what they decide to do to get something. Or what they decide not to do. She is solid though and it will be cool working with her more.

We had a few cool lessons where it again stuck out to me how dependent we are on the spirit. A few lessons where we were really prepared and everything flowed very well and the spirit was very strong. Other lessons where we thought we were prepared then the person would throw something at us we hadn't expected. Then at that point we had no idea what to say. I took a minute to think and just opened my mouth and began and things just came. Ideas, examples, things to say to help the person better understand. I sat there with no idea how I should answer, Elder Nelson looked like he was in the same situation, the member with us was the same. I thought about the promises we have as ordained teachers, said a quick prayer, and just opened my mouth and started to talk. I began talking not really knowing what I should say, but figured it would come while I was talking. And it did! A couple examples came to my mind that were simple to understand and scriptures to help, it was another cool experience.

I am really grateful that we are not in this work alone. I am also very grateful that God wants to help. He wants his children to receive the gospel. Like in Jacob 5:72, he is laboring with us. When we sit there clueless, his understanding surpasses ours and he knows what to do. If we rely on the spirit it will reveal to us how to minister perfectly to others as Christ does. Sometimes its a little weird to open your mouth and start talking even though you know you have no idea what to say. But its always amazing to see that what to say is given to you. This whole process is very humbling and very real. Without things like this, we wouldn't be able to do this work. God calls and allows 52,000+ young men and women mostly under 25 to go and do this important work. We are not in any way fully qualified teachers who know all the doctrine. Many of us just got out of High School. He qualifies us for the work through the workings of the spirit. We are able to learn and grow as we try to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. It is an amazing experience. I don't know how else to describe it.

I was thinking this week more about how things depend upon us. I found this quote a while ago that Elder Cook used once. ''There is no chance, no fate, no destiny, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.'' We can affect things much greater then we know. Each of you individually has a power in you that can honestly change the world. The principle of free agency is very powerful. You can choose. You set your whole being on something and you do it. Even when somebody tells you no, or to stop, or its not possible. That seriously doesn't matter. Think about it, when you decide you want to do something, somebody tells you its not possible or no. What do you then do? When I was younger I would think that was it. When somebody said no or whatever that was it. But I would always recognize this like fire in me still burning hard. Not wanting to give up and wanting so much more now to prove it, telling me that wasn't it. Then I thought about it and realized my choice is so much more powerful.

We need to be careful about which direction we determine our soul, or check whether its determined in any direction at all. Because if we don't have a firm resolve and direction, we will be influenced and blown around by the winds of the world so much more then we know. Take time and recognize where your resolve is. Realize the power you have in you. This firm resolve of your determined soul. NOTHING can take that away from you. As we set this firm resolve of our determined souls in line with God our possibilities become much greater, our boundaries are done away with. Our confidence grows and we know we can do anything.

You all have this potential! We are all going through different experiences in life, but that doesn't matter. As we develop this firm resolve and a determined soul all things are possible. A quote from Joseph Smith in PMG says that great things depend on your individual exertion. Gain confidence while doing that which is asked of us by our Heavenly Father, develop this firm resolve of a determined soul, move forward and make these great things a reality. Remember YOU are the only thing holding YOU back. Don't let this be the problem. It is a waste of time. Make the decision now, move forward now, make great things a reality now.

I love you all with all my heart, and I know you all can do this. I pray for each of you every night. Be happy and don't ever doubt yourself or God. For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Elder Puriri

LETTER #73 - FRANKFURT

2011-04-11T20:12:00.001-06:00

Hi!

This past week was pretty good. We were busy with zone conference and austausches but it was a ton of fun. We had 3 tausches and zone conference so Elder Nelson and I were only together for zone conference pretty much. It was cool though being able to work with so many different missionaries. It made the week feel like it didn't exist though. We've tausched so much in the last little bit Elder Nelson has been in Frankfurt for like a total of 7 days or something out of like 2 1/2 weeks ha. I feel bad he's always packing and going but thats what happens sometimes when your new in the area. We have lots of time now ahead of us to spend working here in Frankfurt together so I'm excited about that.

We've been working with this chinese kid for the last little while and he's been doing really good. He used to not even believe in God, now he is praying and reading and coming to the youth activities and church. Its been awesome to see the change. His life was filled with stressful problems the last little while. To see how he went to God for help was pretty awesome. He needed a new apartment, he needed a visa renewal, figure stuff out with german class and school, looking for work. Lots of random things that are just frustrating. He lost his public transportation ticket to add to it and his computer wasn't working. Through prayer and diligence in his own efforts he has seen miracles. His computer basically fixed itself, he found his ticket like a few hours after he called us and asked us to look for it in the church. Told us later it has been ''surpising'' how prayer works. Something goes wrong and he can't fix it, so his last resort he goes to prayer. Minutes later he finds his ticket and his computer works. He was hoping for a 3 month visa extension so that he could stay and figure out what he was going to do. He said he prayed the whole time during the discussion with the people and leading up to it and in the end to his total surprise he walked out of there with a year and a half visa extension. He also found a new apartment and moved last weekend. Problems he has been having are slowly being swept out of his way. It has been amazing to see. He has been a great example to me in his faith in prayer and how he applies it in his life. We are excited to continue to work with him and hopefully help him take the next step to come closer to his father in heaven. It has also helped me realize even more how much God cares for each person individually.

Our problems of course are not always simply solved. He does however love each person and cares fully for that individual and their hardships. He will give us the assistance and help we need to make it. He will allow us to struggle. Which hopefully leads us to humility and recognize our reliance on him. Not the other way, to the hardening of our heart, to the doubting that he is there. The bitterness must be avoided.

I read a cool talk again this last week that I read at the beginning of my mission. It is called Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by Elder Pearson from the April 2009 conference. I would like you all to read it and to think about the 6 Destructive Ds. We need to avoid these things! Discouragement is a waste of time!! It just slows you down. Like on the soccer field. Getting discouraged, or having that self pity on the field. Waste of time, slows you down, you end up doing worse and worse. I dont remember when but I do remember while growing up and making mistakes on the field. Someone told me as soon as I make the mistake, recognize what I should have done, then forget it. Don't let it bother me anymore, don't dwell. Then do better next time! Same in life and in the gospel. Making mistakes and dwelling on them or dwelling on the bad things that happen to us drag us down, draw us away from God. I remember as a freshman not playing as much varsity as I wanted and being super nervous all the time because I would get down on myself or think negatively then Mom told me to stop thinking the way I was at practice on the field. I started thinking more positively and not dwelling and made progress quickly!

In the gospel as we have confidence in ourselves being able to make the right decisions and achieve good things, and have confidence in the atonement of Christ, and the love of God, we will move forward quickly. We will better avoid the destructive things of life, and we will come closer and closer to our father in heaven. Getting to know Him and his son Jesus Christ better and better. Reaching eternal life. John 17:3.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Get to know them. Be positive, bring yourself closer to God rather then distancing yourself from him. I have realized, you are the only thing holding you back. I love the things we get from this gospel. I love the knowledge we can receive, I love truth, and I love that I am in control of whatever happens with me.

I hope you are all doing well. Enjoy your week and be happy!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #72 - FRANKFURT

2011-04-04T21:09:00.000-06:00

Family!

Another General Conference! It is such a blessing we have. I can't believe another one has come and now is already done. I am nervous about how fast the next one will come. We were able to see all the sessions this weekend except the Sunday afternoon one. Elder Nelson and I watched it just barely though before we started emails (which means we also don't have a lot of time now for emails sorry!). Elder Holland explained well why we have conference and how we can get what we need out of it.

One of my favorite talks was from Elder Lynn G. Robbins. About being and doing. We will be happiest in being and doing. The gospel of Christ is being and doing. A thought I had during the first session makes me think about this. Peter was asked by Christ 3 times in a row if he loved him. Each time he answered yes. The next thing Christ said to him was an invitation to do. Feed my sheep. Peter was ''being'' in that he loved Christ, but without doing, it was still questionable. Do we prove better in doing then simply answering yes 3 times?? Both sides must be there for it to have its full effect. And as Elder Christofferson mentioned we are judged also by the final effect of out acts and thoughts. For the final effect to be something of God, inspiring others to do good, we must be doing and being. Doing making the impression, being making it last.

I encourage all of you to act on the simple thoughts and feelings you have to do good. As well as the simple thoughts and feelings you have to change something in order for you to come closer to God. Do not question or second guess. Do not hesitate. There is no need to wait. Act now, be, and you will notice the blessings. If we hesitate and wait, then later decide to act, we will have lost a lot of time we could have used much better. It would be sad to think back and say ''look where I am now, what I have been able to help accomplish. I wonder where I would be had I acted earlier''. Make the best of what you have. Do not complicate things in over thinking or second guessing. If it is good, it is of God. Act and see what else he has waiting for you. In this we will move the blessings of the gospel forward much quicker and spread them to many more people.

I am sorry this is so short but we spent 2 hours watching conference just barely. It was of course worth it.

I am grateful for my Savior. He has made everything possible. Applying what he has given us not only improves every aspect of our lives, but also of everyone elses. Approach things with an eternal perspective.

Have a good week and be happy!

I love you!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #71 - FRANKFURT

2011-03-28T12:52:00.000-06:00

Hi!

So on Monday last week while Elder Amandoron and I were in the city President Ninow called. He told me quickly he had decided to change some things with transfers. He then told me that Elder Münzer was now going to Heidelberg to serve with Elder Gassman and that I would be getting Elder Nelson. So my new companion is actually Elder Nelson! Elder Matthew Nelson from St. George, UT who I went to High School with ha. Elder Nelson and I didn't know each other very well but we would see each other around and knew who each other were. It’s pretty funny though now when members or other people ask where we are from. They all think its pretty funny. It was a good week last week though and we are looking forward to the transfer.

Last week was good but super busy, we were all over the place. Wednesday was transfer day, then Thursday we had to move. The Elders that take care of the mission apartments got a 3rd elder and their apartment wasn't big enough for all 3 so we traded them apartments. Still same building and all so still same address. Just a new apartment. But that was Thursday and for some reason took a whole lot longer then we expected. Then Friday we went to Wiesbaden and tausched with the Elders there. I was here in Frankfrut with Elder Vail. It was a fun tausch. We were able to get a lot done and I learned a lot from him. Saturday morning Elder Vail and I went to go help Elder Ence. He was going to help somebody move so we went with him. That also took almost all day. There was a baptism in Wiesbaden that night at 6 so we were a little worried about that. Elder Vail was supposed to be there to give a talk but we were still in Frankfurt helping unload a moving van at 330. We met a cool family though and lots of their friends who were helping as well. So we'll keep in contact and hopefully be able to help them develop a relationship to their Heavenly Father and come closer to him through baptism! We rushed home showered, changed, and hoped on a train up to Wiesbaden. Then hurried through town to the Church and came running into the church right at 6! We just walked right into the chapel breathing heavily from running and sat down then the service began! It was a cool baptism though. The man getting baptized had been referred by his friends 3 weeks earlier! He had never even known the church before. In 3 weeks he changed his life, quit smoking, and was baptized. It was pretty awesome.We talked to a lot of people last week who had interesting views on life. Interesting opinions about the purpose of why we are here and the state of humanity.

I always find it interesting to talk to these people. You can tell pretty quickly about whether or not the person has interest or wants to find out about what you're saying. Sometimes though it’s interesting to hear their arguments or thoughts about something. Often times as you listen you can understand where they are coming from and what they mean. Then you realize their reasoning behind this opinion or thought is a result of the lack of truth in their life. Or I guess the denial of truth in their life.

I fully believe that the acceptance and application of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will solve the problems of the world. There are many quick fixes that will last for a while. Fixing the surface problem. Eventually that quick fix will be stretched or pushed past its effectiveness or depth. Then the problem will be there again. The core is where the changes must happen or where things must be fixed. The core of humanity is the heart of each individual person. The pure gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing with the power to change or fix the heart forever. Everything else will be a quick fix, which will wear away. Then the person will have to look for another quick fix again. The Gospel however is eternal. It will not go away. Denying this or not accepting it will lead to simply more questions, doubts, pain, and a search for instant gratification or worldly joy. Both of which pass with time, meaning another search for another quick fix. Like elder Packer said, denying these things is like denying gravity. You can go ahead and deny and do what you want. But it is still there, it is still true. Someone’s opinion against or denial of eternal truth will not change a thing. It is simply postponing the inevitable. Close your eyes, turn your back to it, do what you will. The Gospel is still there, it is still true. Eventually each person will have to open their eyes and face the truth.

I wish I could explain this to people sometimes. Each person must be open and ready to hear it though. I have tried a few times but it doesn't click with some people. It’s so simple, and so logical. The simple principles of the Gospel alone are obviously the greatest problem solvers of the world. Repentance, forgiveness, love and charity. The principles like these though are not the things that will enable us to return to our Heavenly Father. For

this he has given us authority to act in his name, the Priesthood. With this things can be done on earth which have effect in heaven. Preparing us and making it possible for us to reach our ultimate goal, to live again with our Father in Heaven. The is the purpose of being here.

All the things we go through here are ways for us to learn and grow. We progress hopefully throughout life, helping others along the way. Pride and Selfishness are the most stupid things. There is no point to put others down, to cheat or lie in order to improve your life now. In order to have more money, a better worldly reputation. You are simply slowing yourself down as well as others. It is sad to see that instant gratification causes so many to deny truth. To see people deny who they truly are, to fall short of their potential. All we can do is our personal best. Making the most progress we can as fast as we can, thereby becoming more and more capable to help others. Moving forward with those around you to that which God has prepared for you and them.

I know I have a lot to learn, and lot more to understand. But I do know that this Restored Gospel which God has given back to us through the Prophet, Joseph Smith, is true. That God honestly loves us, and his son Jesus Christ performed the atonement to make everything possible for us. I am very grateful for these things, and I love them with all my heart. I hope to help others understand these things so that they may receive and embrace the things God is holding ready for them.

I love you all and am grateful for all you do and all that I have been able to learn from you. You can't comprehend the effect you each have had on me in my life. Thank you!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #70 - FRANKFURT

2011-03-21T19:35:00.001-06:00

Hello! (Picture from yesterday at the Bishop's house. Bishop and Me!)

Another transfer is gone! Another companion is gone ha. Elder Amandoron leaves on Wednesday and I get a new companion. My new companion will be Elder Münzer. He is from northern Germany. We were in the Berlin mission together, and he also served with Elder Killpack. His mom is from Arizona if I remember right. So his English is basically perfect. It will be fun though. 2 basically Germans back to back. I can continue to get good tips on improving my German.

The transfers just pass by its strange. During them and all the days and weeks all the things you do, then all the sudden it’s the last week. This last transfer was good though. We found a lot of cool new people who we can hopefully continue to teach and work with. We were also able to work more closely with the members, which will hopefully only get better. There is a lot to do!! I'm excited to be here in Frankfurt. Especially since its getting warmer, more people will be out, we won't be so layered up, and everyone’s a bit happier! There is a good feeling here. So many people, definitely many being prepared.

Yesterday after sacrament I was walking around talking to members. Right before we left I went and talked to Br. Amelong I think is how his name is spelled. He is the stake patriarch. Its so cool talking to him, he always just tells me different stories about Matthew Cowley and the miracles he was able to perform in New Zealand because of the great faith of the Maori people. The topic in one of our classes was the life of Jesus Christ, and we talked about the story when he walks on water and Peter walks out to him. The topic of discussion turned into faith. So it was cool talking to Br. Amelong about that afterwards as well.

Faith is an amazing thing. As I read talks about Elder Cowley and the things he experienced. And as I read about Christ walking on the sea and Peter walking towards him I thought a lot about faith. Its cool to picture Christ walking towards their boat, then Peter asking to come to him. I can picture him climbing over the edge of the boat and putting his foot down on the water, then the other foot, then letting go of the boat. I can't imagine what he must have felt like. He was walking on water! His faithwas powerful. As we read though the waves and the winds picked up and he became afraid and began to sink. There are many lessons we can learn from this but keeping it simple is that with faith anything is possible.

Peter being courageous enough and trusting enough in Christ climbed over the edge of the boat and stepped onto water with the full belief that he would be able to stand on it. How cool is that! That seems to me like it would have been the hardest part. To actually put your feet down on the water and let go of the boat. Once you're on the water and walking your set. You are walking on water! In that alone your faith is confirmed and the reality of the power of it. When the winds pick up and the waves as well remember simply that you're walking on water. Have confidence in that and in the one in whom you have set your faith. There is no need to doubt or worry, because you are standing on water! You can continue walking towards your Redeemer with the full trust that these winds and waves will not cause you to sink. Keep your eyes set on Christ as you walk across the water. Looking away at the wind tossing the sea will simply cause worries, as you stare and dwell on the thought that the winds and waves are becoming stronger you will begin to doubt you will really be ok. Why even doubt though, you are standing on water!!! Push doubts aside with the assurance that through your faith in Christ you are walking on water, and that because of that he can help you do anything, withstand anything, and overcome anything. I haven't finished my study on that story yet, maybe tomorrow or so. It’s so cool though. I want to strengthen my faith like my Maori ancestors.

Sorry this is short, Elder Amandoron has got to go run a few more errands.

I love you all though!! Thank you for everything. Enjoy the week and love everyone!!!

FAMILY STAYS CONNECTED DESPITE LAND AND SEA

2011-03-14T10:05:00.002-06:00

While reading through letter #69 it is clear to me that our minds and souls are connected even though we are physically apart. It's spring and that means soccer season in the Puriri household. I think Isaac is feeling a bit of soccer fever as he continues his missionary service and compares the work of a missionary to the work of a soccer player. His words will be a great benefit to his brothers as they work towards a successful season.

Isaac speaks of the power of work. Ammon gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday. His topic was blessings that come through scripture study. Ammon focused on a few character traits that can be learned in the scriptures and then if applied can bring great blessings. One of those scriptures was 2 Nehpi 9:51

Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.

Ammon's focus of this scripture was "do not labor for that which cannot satisfy" and the blessing that comes from "feasting" on work is that "our soul will delight in fatness." Isaac rejoices in the "fatness".

Every Sunday when I send Isaac an email I include a spiritual thought. This week my spiritual thought was on the subject of success being an endless journey (see below). Isaac speaks of this as he explains how once "you obtain possession of the ball you do not stop and say 'I won'. Instead you have created more work for yourself and it is satisfying to delight in that work.

This morning the spirit speaks to my soul that even though we are separated by land and sea the waves of our brain flow on the same current and the beat of our heart pumps at the same speed. One more reassuring factor that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I accept that we are connected to our Heavenly home and that Heavenly Father is very aware of the needs of our family. It is such a blessing to have a son serving a mission in a most diligent and obedient fashion.

It is the whole story of a man's life that must ultimately determine whether or not he is successful, and not any single page or chapter of it. And there are none so young but what their performance has its effect upon the whole of their lives, and none so old as to place them and their actions beyond judgment. A little foolishness may destroy a long-standing reputation for wisdom, and a little brilliance may seem to cover a multitude of sins. But life is not a thing that begins and ends at two definable points. It is an eternal journey, to endless destinations; and the highest reward is for consistency of performance--not merely for occasional flashes of brilliance, or isolated acts of goodness, or brief periods of dependability. It is still true, as it was when it was anciently spoken, that he "that endureth to the end" has the greatest assurance of success and the greatest promise of having the labors of his life pronounced "well done." -Richard L. Evans

LETTER #69 - FRANKFURT

2011-03-14T09:41:00.000-06:00

Hello!
It’s finally getting warmer here! You almost don't even have to wear a coat. I guess it’s warm enough not to but to avoid getting sick randomly I still am. Sun isn't shining but it is warmer, which probably means rain. Weather is how it is though so whatever. The last week was good though!

Lots of the people we are teaching right now were busy last week so we weren't able to meet with many of them, but that gave us time to go find new people! Wednesday night our phone rang, when I answered I couldn't tell who it was. She was saying 'it’s your mother' but in German. So I was confused obviously ha. Then she started laughing and said it was Sister Muhlestein! It was pretty funny, she basically was my mom in Nordhausen. They were in Frankfurt for the night before they left home. They had served their mission and were going home! I couldn't believe it. They were at a restaurant in downtown Frankfurt and asked if we could come by quickly to see them. I was way excited to go see them again and we had time to go down there.

On the way there I talked to this man sitting next to me in the tram. We had an interesting conversation. He was not willing to learn more, but he explained to me he had 2 sons who were also around my age. He said he wishes they also had an anchor to hold them solid like I have. He basically told me a lot about how he finds it so interesting that he sees so many different young missionaries like me. Young men, taking time to go teach others about Jesus Christ. He didn't understand exactly why we do it, but he has a lot of respect for it. I tried to explain why and to bear my testimony, the time was short though and he got out. It’s interesting to see the little effects we have on people. The way what us just being here makes them think. With the over 50 thousands missionaries out there. It’s hard to think all 50 thousand plus of us go out just because we're told to or because we're bored or don't know what else to do. We go and do this because we have a love for our Father in heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And this important message is the only thing that will truly, eternally help anyone.

We got out at the tram stop and hurried quick to the restaurant I was really excited. I was thinking how weird it is that almost a year ago I got to Nordhausen. And that the Muhlesteins had only been out for a little while. Now they are leaving! I thought a lot about all the different things that happened there and the awesome experiences and things I was able to learn. It was so cool to be able to see them once more before they left. We were able to talk shortly, I found out more about how things in Nordhausen are. They are wonderful people! I learned a lot from the Muhlesteins and was very grateful to be able to see them again before they left.

It was almost 9 as we left them so we were half jogging back to the tram stop trying to hurry to get home. Just before we got to the entrance to the underground a man walked by us Elder Amandoron quickly spoke to him. He stopped, and listened. We talked for 15 minutes about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. He was from India and was leaving Germany the next morning. He only gave us his email so we emailed him with a way to contact the church and the website mormon.org. He was really cool and you could see he was sincere in his current search for religion. We had hurried by so many people on the way there but Elder Amandoron said he felt like we needed to talk to him as we almost jogged past him. We did, and even if we can't do much more to help him right now, we feel like we made an impression. Hopefully things will work out for him.

This week we also had 2 tausches where I was able to learn a lot. I was here in Frankfrut with Elder Gunnell for one and the other I was in Usingen with Elder Metcalf. They are both hard working Elders, it’s definitely a blessing to be able to serve with all of them. I am learning more and more to simply love working. It’s a blessing to be able to work. And so many blessings come from work. Obviously we get tired, hungry, or whatever else, but there is something about just pushing through.

I compared it in my mind a lot this week to soccer. When you’re running to a 50/50 ball. Racing your opponent. Often your shoulder to shoulder, he's elbowing you, pulling your shorts or jersey, trying to step in front of you, your legs are beginning to sting and burn. One of my favorite feelings was to be in this 50/50 race. You're both at a sprint. As all this is happening the best feeling was to push harder! Break this barrier. Often I'd think I was already running my fastest, but I was still shoulder to shoulder with the kid. I didn't want to have to deal with him when I got to the ball. So I'd think what if I just pushed a little harder...and a little harder, slowly I'd pull away, gain distance, and get to the ball first. It was such a rewarding feeling to feel myself actually speeding up instead of slowing down; when I already thought I was at my full speed.

The mission is the same!! So often you feel like you're already giving everything, working your hardest. Then you think...what if I pushed it, what if I talked to one more person, what if I pushed through this sting and burn? The coolest thing is the feeling that comes as you are doing that and then afterward. Continually pushing the previous limit. You slowly recognize limits are mental.

As I compared this to soccer I realized once you win that 50/50 it is definitely not done. You don't push your hardest then push some more to get to the ball touch it stop and say ''I won''. You get to the ball then push even harder. Now you have to be moving faster than the kid behind you and so does the ball. You just created more work for yourself. But then you send the perfect pass, take the perfect shot. The work continues and becomes increasingly harder throughout the 90 minutes. It is not over until the whistle is blown. Then can you breathe, then can you rest a little.

It’s the same here. You think ok I'll push it, I'll talk to more people, I'll extend more invitations, I'll work better with the members, I'll help the other missionaries more. Continually pushing yourself, continually creating more work becoming accountable for more and more. But for some reason it becomes more enjoyable, easier to do, you begin organizing better, you’re more focused, the spirit is stronger, you simply having more fun.

Soccer is like a mission ha. You've been working hard all day, it’s almost 9 and you’re heading home. You get in a tram and sit down dead tired and hungry. Your eyes keep shutting and your head dropping in between stops. Then a man gets in and sits down by you. (88 minute, legs are burning, you have cotton mouth, haven't been subbed yet. You just got kneed in the calf and it’s cramping. 50/50 ball sent in the air over your direction. You know you’re not supposed to let it bounce and risk losing it) Your eyes are heavy, you want to just sleep for the next few stops. But you know you should talk to the guy, and you don't know how soon he'll get out. You take a deep breath, push off the thought that he'll get another chance, look up, smile, and begin the conversation. (you take a deep breath, and push away the thought that someone else will get it and take off towards the ball as fast as you can. you push through the pain, don't let down, and you’re the first to the ball.) You continue smiling; fight off the distractions of sleep, food, and whatever else is around. You bring the conversation to the gospel and invite him to learn more. He gives you his contact information and you make out an appointment. You now have an appointment, and you push diligently forward and decide how you're going to handle that now. (You now have the ball and your pushing forward as fast as you can. You now decide what you’re going to do with it.) This is the beginning of the work, the building up to the greater joys.

Of course the ball doesn't have free agency; you can make it do whatever you want. A Soul is most definitely different. But you still do all you can to help them to use their agency correctly. The rewarding feelings come along the way. When you make out an appointment, when someone agrees to keep a commitment, when they keep the commitment, when they are baptized, when they enter the temple, and in many other things. (When you win a ball, send a good pass, give a good assist, score a goal, and other ways). But it is not over until it is over. And we cannot rest until it is over. No matter how tired or warn out we are. You play until the whistle.

There is a quote from Elder Christofferson that basically sums this all up, ''Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires''.

I've experienced this, and am very grateful for this. It’s in the little things where the big differences are made. Keeping all the little rules, having a good study, planning seriously. (Working back, being the 2nd defender, staying ball side/goal side, pushing up or back even when you don't think you're in the play). As he said, many of these things are menial, sometimes unappreciated, but they always improve, order, sustain, lift, minister, and aspire.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work, for the capability to push harder than I thought I could and for the simple joys and truths in hard work.

I love you all, and I hope you are all doing good. Thank you for everything. Have a good week!
Elder Puriri

LETTER #68 - FRANKFURT

2011-03-08T11:57:00.002-07:00

My dear family!
Sorry this is a day late! Random things come up all the time and through out pday so don't worry when you don't hear from me on Mondays. This time it was a German holiday though. President didn't want us to have pday on it and be out with all the people partying during the day so he moved it. Which didn't really matter since the thing basically went since last Thursday and ends tomorrow. So there will still be partying people everyone. Frankfurt was only bad in certain parts of the city though which were easy to avoid.

Anyway! The last week was good and flew by. I was looking back through my planner to find something and looked back like two weeks and couldn't find where I wrote it down. Then I just started flipping closer and closer to today. Then on Wednesdays page last week I found it! So strange I thought it was over 2 weeks ago. Time doesn't exist. It does actually but it’s weird.

The week was good though. We did a few tausches and I was the one who usually went to the other cities last week. It was cool though I was in Wiesbaden with Elder Schwitters. That area is an American Military ward. It was so weird! All the stuff we did was in English. I kept messing up and would switch in to German and realize they had no idea what I was saying. My ability to pray in English is basically gone. I have to go really slow and think really hard. And still I mess up and organize the sentence according to German grammar and when I'm at the end of the sentence I want to say the unconjugated form of the verb and realize that makes no sense in English. So I pause and wait and think ‘how I can somehow make it make sense.’ Usually I don’t know so I just start the sentence over and remember to put the verb where it’s supposed to be.

It was cool to be there though and see the dedicated US Military members. They are really cool. The ward there is also pretty big. At the end of the night we did splits with the Elders quorum. So I went with this one brother to go do some home teaching. We visited this family with a few little kids and all the little kids were running around speaking in English and it was confusing me so bad. I would forget it was an American family and hear all the little kids speaking English so fast and then it would register. I don't think I would do good in a military ward. I don't know how to do gospel in English anymore. Plus the English I've been speaking for the last however many months has been with others who speak German as well. So we use a whole lot of German words in there and German grammar. That’s ok though! Because I'm serving in Germany among German speaking people. So my English doesn't have to be perfect.

Then we had these 2 Elders from Koblenz come down and stay with us for a day because there city turned into party city. They are both German and can speak zero English. Elder Amandoron can understand basically everything and can express himself pretty good in English, we only speak German though. It was funny though being with them for a day. They don't understand any English at all. The funniest was they brought their areabook with them for us to translate. They said ''Look it doesn't work. We want to do areabook work and find people out of it. So we open it up, sit down in front of it. And see words all over that we don’t understand. Everyone writes in English! Imagine you sat down and opened an areabook up and it was written in Arabic. That’s how we feel.'' They're good Elders though and they work hard. Its way cool being able to work with so many different missionaries.

We helped one of the Romanian families move last week. That was also fun. They love having us around and they seem to be accepting everything pretty well. The other Romanian family was too busy to meet with us for a while (the 27 year old father and mother with 5 kids). Then he called us Saturday and asked if we could come that night. We had time so we went out there. As we walked in they already had visitors. All the kids and mothers were in one room talking, and they showed us into the dinner room. Around the table were a few men speaking Romanian with their bibles in front of them. The father stood up and showed us our chairs and said ''finally, finally you are back''. We were able to give them all a Book of Mormon in Romanian and to talk to them about why it is so important. They are all Pentecostal and very strong in their faith. So the 2 other men had tons of questions and were basically trying to prove us wrong while Herr Tinislaf (the father) had his book open to 3rd Nephi 11 and was reading quietly. One of them started to tell us that we were weren't teaching certain things that were very important, then Tinislaf spoke up (with his head still down reading) and pointed at the book and said ''yea but it’s all here'' then he just kept reading. The man looked at him confused and we said ''yea. Let’s open up and all read together''. He is searching and wants to know if it is true, and he will find out. It was a cool appointment.

Today was also cool. We started off our pday with a quick stop at a member’s to help her. She is actually in the International ward in Frankfurt and we had never met her. But the Sisters in the International ward called us last night and asked if we could go help. The sister in the ward had just had an operation and had her hip replaced and she couldn't walk up the stairs to her apartment. So we met her and her son there in the morning.

We decided the easiest way to carry her up would be if she was sitting in a chair. So her son went up to the 4th floor to get a chair from her apartment. As he was gone the Sister took her crutches in one hand, grabbed the railing, and started pressing forward up the stairs. We kept telling her it’s ok and that she could wait but she just went. So we stood at her side until she had made the first flight. Then her son came back with the chair. Her son grabbed her bags and everything. Then we got the chair and sat her in it then Elder Amadoron and I carried her in the chair up to the 4th floor. They invited us in quickly to sit down and talk.

They are from Bolivia but have been in Germany for 40 years. The sister was probably in her 80s and her son in his 50s or 60s. They both just kept saying thank you and explaining how grateful they were. It was just a quick stop along our way in the morning. We didn't really feel like we had done much but the way they were thanking us you'd think we just saved their lives or something. Shows again how amazing service is.

We may not think its much but to the people we are serving it means everything. They made out an appointment with us and would like to have us for lunch next week. Just for a 15 min thing. They were 2 very cool people. The sister was so grateful.

As we sat and talked I thought about other acts of service we do. And what the Savior did, and what he taught about it, and what service really means. It was a humbling experience. While we were sitting there I asked what kind of an operation she had had and she said she had her hip replaced. I was pretty surprised and said 'and you just climbed a flight of stairs!' Then she simply said ''yes...I wanted to do what I could to make your work easier''. In this moment where she needed help she was trying to figure out what she could do to make it easier for us. And she did something that was surely not easy or comfortable for her.

I learned a lot from her this morning. I hope to keep that always in mind, to also do whatever I can to lighten the burden of others. Even when it is not easy or comfortable. Because most the time it is not easy or comfortable. Like Elder Busche said--The pain of sacrifice last only a moment, it is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes us hesitate to act.

I am really grateful for my life. For the life God has given me and the experiences I have had along the way and the people I have met. For the many things I've been able to learn from so many people who don't know the impact they have had. Many of them I will not be able to thank in this life. Many I don't even know, or only knew for a short moment. The only way I can say thank you or repay them right now I think is to live what I learned from them. And to live it the best I can. And become the best I can. And doing that so that I may be more capable to serve others and pass on what I have learned to enrich the lives of others and bring them closer to their father in heaven. The Gospel is the best tool to do that.

I love this work, and I love you all so much! I hope you all have a good week. Look for opportunities to serve.
Elder Puriri

LETTER #67 - FRANKFURT

2011-02-28T08:20:00.001-07:00

Dear Fammmmiilllyyyyyyy
I hope everyone’s doing good and that Ammon is getting better! Being sick is really lame. I experienced that also last transfer. We were at Shahab's house (from Iran, baptized in November) last night and our spiritual thought after dinner turned into what a blessing it is to be healthy. Shahab is such a good guy. I'm really grateful I was able to meet him. The week though was cool! We had Zone conference and did a couple tausches. And found some cool people to teach!

On Tuesday I went to Wetzlar with Elder Hofbauer from Austria. It was a sweet tausch. He also loves soccer so we had a little soccer talk ha. I have no idea about anything now in the soccer world which I'm ok with. But it was weird talking about it again. We'll be playing soccer today again too so that’s sweet, also this might be short because of that. In Wetzlar though we taught the young men’s lesson on Missions and how you prepare and what it’s like, it was cool. Then there was a girl who is studying in Wetzlar from Hildesheim (small city close to Sarstedt where I lived!) and I recognized her. We saw her quick at the church. But I met her the one time I went to church in Hildesheim on my exchange, since the rest of the time I went in Hannover. That was pretty random though. The next day was ZOKO and that was good.

We then tausched with the Elders in Wetterau. I went there with Elder Staley who is from St. Louis, Missouri and has been out about 5 months now. He was really involved in missionary work back home and would go out all the time with the elders. He said one time he was with elders who were teaching Nelly! haha. I laughed so hard but he was serious. They went by and visited him but he wasn't there. Then the guy at the gate said ''Look Jesus boys. You know and we know that Nelly likes you comin by, but he 'aint here right now so you're gonna have to come back later''. I found that pretty funny ha. Nelly was meeting with missionaries. haha Anyway, the tausch was good. Towards the end of the night we were doing doors in a small town and we usually stop around 8 with doors. So we walked back to the car and got in then found a list on contacts on the street that we hadn't seen. We still had a bit of time so we went and tried by but they had no interest. So we walked back to the car, got it, then saw one more we missed. It was pretty late now so we weren't sure if we should try by. We decided to go so we got back out and walked down the street to the house. As we walked I prayed that this person would be home and be open for the Gospel so that we could have some success on that day. I wanted Elder Staley to have a good experience and for this person to be willing. As we rang the bell no one came. So we rang another bell then a lady opened the door and said hello. We introduced ourselves and talked to her about what we were doing. She explained she just moved in 3 weeks ago and doesn't know the people we were looking for. Our conversation continued and we talked about the love of God. She then said ''I would invite you in right now but it’s kind of late can we make out an appointment?'' Of course! So we did and exchanged contact information. Then we drove home! It was sweet. It was a little thing but way cool. Lots of miracles like that, they are always awesome to experience. Prayer is so cool, and that God blesses us with simple little things like that is amazing.

Being here has given me so many opportunities to learn to serve and love people. I am very grateful for that. The gospel is the best tool we have to serve people. There is a cool quote from Pres. Uchtdorf ''It seems only right and proper that we extend to others that which we so earnestly desire for ourselves.'' As we learn more about the gospel and our Savior. As we learn more about what he has done for us and what he has to offer us. Our desire for this grows, and so does our want to allow other people the same opportunity. As we learn in Helaman 5:10-11, Christ's power is conditional upon our actions. Because he knows this he sends people to declare these 'tidings and conditions' so that everyone can know them and act according to them. So that he can then use his saving power to redeem us! He loves us so much and knows we cannot be saved without knowing and acting in accordance with these things. He gives us all the opportunity to learn about them so we can then activate his power in our lives. I am very grateful for this and his mercy. I pray that we can all learn these things and choose to use them properly in our lives. Only in this way can our Savior and Redeemer use his power to save us.

I love you all very much. Thank you for everything you do to be good people and live the gospel. Have a good week,
Elder Puriri

LETTER #66 - FRANKFURT

2011-02-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello hello,

I'm writing again already! How did Ammon’s lesson go?? The dreads looked pretty good ha. How long can he keep them? It’s a good thing p-day isn't always this close together because its weird to be writing again so quick! Between Thursday and today it was a good 4 days! Not everything went good but the goods overcome the bad for sure.

On Friday we had a tausch with the elders in Hanau. I was with Elder Romriell in Frankfurt. He has been out now like 2 weeks! It was a fun tausch though. Our first appointment was this interview thing I had. A week or 2 ago a girl came to the church Monday night for the YSA fhe. She is a student at the University here studying psychology and they are supposed to be practicing interviews and stuff. Her main area is religion. So she found out about that activity and decided she wanted to interview 'mormons' and find out more about them. On the day she was there she was just standing there with her friend and I didn't know them so I went up and introduced myself and then at the end she asked if she could do an interview so we scheduled it for this last Friday. It was interesting though. It started with her asking me just to go through my life basically telling about important things that have happened that have played a part in shaping me into who I am today. So I took the opportunity to talk a lot about my family and the gospel and was able to bear lots of testimony! Then at the end she would go back on certain points and ask more questions about them. She had a little recorder and recorded it all then when it was done and she shut it off she began asking questions about the church and all. It was cool we were able to talk more about what we believe and she said she wanted to keep coming to the activities and to learn more about the church. Towards the end I asked if she had any more questions, then she sat there quietly for a second and said ''so, say somebody wants to convert to your church, but their life style is not the same as your guys's, do you accept them? Is that allowed?'' it was 'hypothetical' but we say through it ha. We talked more about why we are here as missionaries and what we do. Then we made out an appointment for later this week and we'll see! I feel good about it though and she seems like she’s sincere. It will be cool!

Then that night we went by on one of the Romanian families. The other one couldn't meet. The family we met with though was family Stancu. Only the Father was there this time but it was really good. It was weird though because the first time we met him he looked really really familiar to me. It was bugging me the whole time because I couldn't figure out where I knew him from. So during the days between our appointments I tried to think back on it but I couldn't remember. Then during that appointment the whole time I was thinking and couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar. So I gave up trying to remember but I could swear I knew him! So anyway the appointment went good. We taught the first lesson about the restoration and at the end emphasized the Book of Mormon. He said ''I need to first study this book, and the bible. Then I need to make out my thoughts about it, then I can pray about it and see if what I figured out was right, then God will tell me. If I don't study it, it won't work.'' It was sweet we just agreed and said yep you’re right! Usually we teach that but he said it first.

As we ended with a prayer and stood up he looked at me and said ''you know what. For some reason you look very familiar to me... I don't know where but I know we have met before.'' as he said that I was a little surprised and told him I felt the same way and explained to him I was trying to figure that out the whole time! I was thinking maybe I had just talked to him on the street somewhere. Then he said ''No...I know you. You and your companion who you came with last time (elder Amandoron). You have been in my house before, we have met before. We sat together and talked about God.'' I assured him that that wasn't possible and that I've been here since November and Elder Amandoron since....2 weeks. Here was very serious and had a confused look trying to figure out how it was possible. We never came to a conclusion. It is strange though! I could have sworn I had met him.

As we sat and talked during the first appointment I felt like I was having weird flash backs. Like I had some time before sat and looked at him and talked with him. Like I had sat at that same angle from him and seen him just how we were there, but like it was a long time ago. Then during the second appointment I was having the same weird flashbacks. But I wasn't like flashing back to anything; there was nothing solid to flash back to. Just like this pulling in my mind trying to remember when. It is hard to explain. I was very surprised when he said that I looked familiar to him though. I thought I was maybe just confusing him with someone else (which I had already considered and tried to figure out who I was confusing him with). When he said it though I didn't feel as crazy as I thought I was. It’s interesting though. As we left he said you can come back whenever you want. He is a cool guy and has a good family. I'm excited to continue to work with them.

The other Romanian family we weren't able to meet with during the week. The father however, came to church on Sunday by himself. I think just to check it out and all. He seemed to really enjoy it and participated in all the classes answering questions and all. It was good. At the end he also asked us to come again this week whenever we have time. We haven't given him his Book of Mormon in Romanian yet so that’s probably what we'll be doing. He is super advanced in his gospel knowledge though. He's only 27 and knows so much and has lots of good ideas. I am very grateful we were able to find them and that we have the opportunity to work more with them.

Then yesterday in the train on the way to an appointment I was spoken to by some random guy. Happens quite often as a mission but this one was strange. I was standing with a group of people around the doors because it was pretty full. There are big sliding doors on both sides. I was leaning on one side and had a clear view to the doors across from me. Threw the people I could see this man. He had gotten in the train right after me and asked somebody in German where the train was going then said thank you in French when they told him. As far as I could tell his German sounded German then the French ‘merci’ threw me off a little. I didn't think a lot about it though. Then as we were driving I looked up at him and he smiled and said (in perfect English, you could tell it wasn't his native tongue but it was almost without accent) ''Hi elder, what are you doing in Europe?'' It was weird because the train was loud but it was like I could only hear him suddenly. I was confused and said ''...serving a mission.'' Then he said “you’re on a mission saving peoples lives. You know Elder, America was the land where religious freedom was. It’s not a coincidence that it happened there. The only way we can spread this is by taking action. You are taking action. You are doing something.'' Then the train stopped and he said ''I have to get out here. Remember this though, I love you brother!'' Then he got out and disappeared into the crowd. Then all the sudden he was back at the doors and said ''Elder! Remember, there is only one truth in every matter! I love you!' Then he disappeared again. He had only gone one stop. During this time I was in awe for some reason. I think I was just really confused about what was happening. Why I could hear him so well and why he was speaking to me in English and also about the restored gospel. I said nothing during the conversation. It began, it ended, and he was gone. Super weird but it had a strange effect on me.

So many things happen on a mission!! So many things to learn to figure out. I love it all though. Were going to play soccer so I don’t have a lot of time today. The gospel is amazing and it is true. I love you all and pray for you every day! Be happy!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #65 - FRANKFURT

2011-02-17T08:24:00.001-07:00

Hi!
Sorry it’s Thursday and I’m just writing. It has been a pretty eventful week and so was last week! This week we had another 3 day training meeting in Friedrichsdorf at the temple. Instead of staying overnight there though we had to ride a train to and from each day since we live pretty close. It was way cool though. It was basically the same as the last one a while ago but now that I was familiar with the stuff I was able to go into more of the details of it all. There has been so much change in the mission in the last six months that it was necessary to do it again basically the same as the first time. Apparently the training thing is supposed to be taking place a lot more frequently though. Until we learn how to do it all well I guess! It’s cool though it’s helping us develop our teaching skills; mostly in the area of focusing on the individual and their needs and trying to rely more on the spirit while teaching. I like it all though a lot.

There are advantages and disadvantages of living so close to Friedrichsdorf during the training. When you live far away you stay on temple grounds for 3 days and can just focus so easily because of the peace on the grounds so I missed that this time. But being so close we were able to get back to Frankfurt at night for at least an appointment each night. Then we were able to apply right away what we had learned that day and see how it changed the lesson. So that was also cool to see. I think though if I had my choice staying of temple grounds is what I would choose. It was a good 3 days though. I was able to see a lot of the missionaries I've met and worked with one way or another. It was nice hearing how they were doing and how things were going where they are serving. We were also able to do a temple session which just added to the whole feeling of being there. I really liked it, now it’s back out to your city and apply what we've learned.

Last week though was also cool! Elder Anderson and I had a list of a bunch of people who had formerly investigated the church but who hadn't had contact in a while. When we had time we would pick a few off the list and go by and see if they still had interest. Unfortunately we never had a lot of success with it. On Thursday last week after Elder Amandoron got here we chose a couple of the last few we hadn't gone by on yet and went by. At this one building we rang and nobody was home where we wanted, so we decided to try the people in the house. A guy answered and said 'I have no time right now but could you come back on Sunday at 2:00?' We said of course! And so Sunday we went by after church. He wasn't home at the time but his wife said he should be home soon and that we should try back in a bit. So we went back outside and were going to just go do doors on the street but we decided to try the family above them that we were trying to contact in the first place. A lady answered and wasn't interested at all at first and we just continued to say what we were doing and why we were there then she yelled something to someone in the house in some language we didn't understand then she said to us 'Ok we you have time right now can you come in?' (we love hearing this) So we went in and sat down with her and her husband. There were a few people cooking in the kitchen and a little girl was playing on the floor. They were all speaking Romanian as we found out a bit later. They were way cool though! They have a really strong faith in Christ already and were really interested in the Book of Mormon and finding out why it is so important for us. So we made out another appointment to bring back a Book of Mormon in Romanian tomorrow! Then as we left we asked if they knew anyone else who would be interested and they said yea you should try the family below us they also have a lot of questions about God. (Little did they know we actually were going to them anyway!) It was cool though.

We went down the stairs and knocked on the door and the wife opened again and said 'ok he's here now come in'. We went in and sat down with the father at the table and he put his bible on the table and sat down. Then said ok, why are you here. It was sweet. ha We explained a little then asked if we could begin with a prayer which he gladly agreed to. Slowly his children came in one by one and sat on the couch to the side of us and just sat and listened as well as his wife and the grandma. Before they were out playing and being loud so that was cool to see. By the end the whole family was sitting on the couches just looking at us and their dad talking. The dad by the way is 27, his wife around there as well, and they have 5 kids! 4 girls and a boy. It’s so cool! The Dad said ''We all believe in God. There is only one God. But there are so many different beliefs in the world and so many opinions about God. I believe that only one of them is right. I am not saying mine is right, I am not saying yours is right. I am simply saying we need to find the right one somehow so that we can truly follow God.'' You can imagine how we felt after he said that ha. We continued to teach about the Book of Mormon and then he said ''When do you have church? I need to come to your church and see how I feel there. I believe it is very important when thinking about a religion to visit their church services and see how you feel there before you know if it’s good'' So we told him when it was and explained to him how church normally went and that his whole family is welcome. He said that he and his family would try to come to church on the coming Sunday to see how it was. We made an appointment out for later this week to bring by a Book of Mormon in Romanian for him and his family. Then we said goodbye and went home for the night.

It was so cool! It all just went like almost too perfect it was weird, but a blessing! Both families are from Romania but speak good German and have been here for a long time and both had a sincere interest. We are very excited to continue to meet with them. Finding families is such a blessing and good feeling. It seems to be a rare thing here in Germany to find full families to teach so when it happens it’s really really cool. It’s a blessing and good feeling either way though simply finding someone who has a sincere interest in finding out if what we say is true. And if it is true, what that means for them.

It is such a significant thing that we are proclaiming. That God today, out of his love for us, has restored the true and pure church of Jesus Christ to this earth for the purpose of bringing to pass our salvation. Why a restoration was necessary, what it means, and how that affects literally every single individual person. It’s not just some nice thing that happened that can improve our lives or give us a hope to move forward. It is a very literal thing that is very necessary for us to find out if it’s real or not. Then to choose whether or not we will accept it and apply it. He has revealed to us the Plan of Salvation - God's perfect plan for us. When we understand this we understand better why things happen and what we are actually supposed to be doing here. We better grasp the seriousness of our use of our free agency. Almost every choice we make effects our progression or digression, either moving us closer towards God, or further away. There is no gray area. That is something I continue to learn more and more about. Light and dark cannot occupy the same space at the same time. We must realize this, and realize the magnitude of the effects of our choices. When we understand better and consider this more often we think much more about the choices we make.

God loves us very much. For that reason, he has created a plan to help us progress. We understand this better when we learn about the restoration of his church and the functions of the church today. Then as we do that we better understand our purpose and what our part is. How we can use these things God has given us to reach this divine potential we have inherited from our Father in Heaven. I am very grateful for the restored church of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for how much it has blessed my life and our family.

Before my mission I never really noticed how much it helped us. I'm sure I still do not realize what it has done for us, but I become more grateful for it as I learn more. I am also grateful for you, Mom and Dad, for raising us according to the Gospel of Christ. For putting up with us and being patient with us and for loving us no matter what we do. I am grateful for both of your examples in striving to live the Gospel, and I'm grateful for our Grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and that they strive to do the same. That we have had such a powerful influence all around trying to help us be better and do what God expects from us. You have been 'of God' as explained in Moroni 7:13, “But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, everything which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”

Thank you.

I love you all very much!! Thank you all for everything. Have a wonderful rest of the week!
Elder Puriri

LETTER #65 IS MIA

2011-02-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

If you are a mother of a missionary then you know the state of my mind having not heard from Isaac this week. Very frustrating! In an effort to calm my nerves I emailed Sister Muhlstein whom Isaac served with in the Erfurt Zone for a little more than 3 months. Aside from Isaac she is the only contact I have in the Frankfurt Mission.

I think that one day when this blog becomes a book Isaac will appreciate this email correspondence so I copy and paste to this blogpost -

Hello Sister MarJean,

Thank you for including us in your email. I'm sure you are excited to see family and friends again. I will keep you posted on Isaac's return home and maybe if it is convenient you can attend. Speaking of Isaac, I haven't heard from him this week. He said that if we did not see an email on Monday that it would arrive on Tuesday. Today is Tuesday...there is nothing from him...a mother worries.

Do you know how I can check to make sure everything is fine?

Laninina

Dear Sister Puriri,

Thank-you for keeping track of us. We definitely want to know when he has his homecoming address. We will want to be there. I know that there has been a leadership meeting in Frankfurt for all zone leaders this week. I'm sure that is what he is involved with. He is a wonderful leader and we have heard many good reports from other missionaries who have served with him. He leads gently, but directly and encourages everyone to do their best. I'm sure you will hear from him soon. I follow the blog that you are doing for him, and can see in his words that he remains dedicated to the Lord's work here in Germany. Thank-you so much for preparing your son to become a warrior for truth in these latter-days.

When you come to Salt Lake please let us know as well. We will look forward to meeting you in person soon.

With Love to you and your Family,
Sister Muhlestein

LETTER #64 - FRANKFURT

2011-02-07T08:13:00.001-07:00

Hello hello,

So we got transfer calls this morning! A day and a half late as usual but it’s alright. Not really late since I usually expect them Monday morning then it’s like they're on time! But Elder Anderson is being transferred to Dusseldorf! I'm getting another new companion! His name is Elder Amandoron. He was born in the Philippines and lived there for a while but has been in Germany for like 10 years or so. I worked with him once on a tausch in Heidelberg. I'm excited to work with him. It’s his last transfer though so I only get one with him. It’s a good opportunity to rise up a level for his last six week with him and then hold that level and later rise up more. This is my 11 transfer and he will be my 10th companion! That’s a lot ha, and next transfer I'll have another one. It’s cool though being able to get to know all of them and to learn from all of them. I've learned so much on my mission from my companions and am very grateful for each one of them. So yea, that’s transfers! Six new weeks ahead of us now. It’s always a refreshing feeling and I'm excited for this transfer.

The past was pretty cool. We were able to get in contact with a few investigators who we had lost contact with for a while. Now we are teaching them again and they are moving forward. We were able to do a temple tour with a guy named Ruben as well (picture). We live about 30 minutes from the temple here so when we have investigators that would like to go we organize a tour with the sisters there and go. It was cool I hadn't done one before; it was cool to see how the Sisters there did it. Ruben liked it and hopefully he continues forward in his faith!

On Wednesday we got another Elder to our companionship ha. His name is Elder Siebert, from Leer, Germany. He was in the Preston, England MTC and they are off schedule with the Provo MTC. So he came a week early and is with us in Frankfurt for the week since we're right here. Then when the new missionaries from Provo come he'll join all them. It’s been cool though working with him. I had never worked with someone who was brand new before. His German is perfect so there's no worries there, that’s like one of the biggest difficulties to overcome ha.

Last night our plans and appointments fell out so we decided to go to this area that looked pretty nice and do some doors there in the little bit of time we had left. It was sweet though we met a ton of way nice people and made out 3 appointments for this next week with people there. One lady even knew us and had met with missionaries 5 years before or so. It was cool to find people who are so willing and open to listen and also cool for Elder Siebert to experience that.

On Thursday night we had institute in the church. It was a big one where all the YSAs in the stake come to Frankfurt for a fireside thing. We were there early for a quick meeting then tried to figure out who else we could call who could come and would benefit from being there. I decided to call this one kid who is in his early 20s but is pretty shy and doesn't really do anything with the other YSAs in the ward. I had never seen him at an activity at the church before. He answered and said he'd think about coming but he wasn't sure. I told him when it would start and that we were hoping to see him there. The fireside had started and I was sitting on the back row next to a kid in the ward and the rest of the row was basically empty but I couldn't see out the window of the door to see if he had come into the foyer or whatever. I knew he'd be to shy to come in by himself and that he'd either just stand out there the whole time or just leave. I didn't want to get up and go look and have him not be there then come back in and get up and go look later and keep disrupting the meeting. So I said a quick prayer and asked that I could somehow know if he was out there or not so that I could go get him. Right as I said amen and sat up straight the door opened and a kid named William came in and sat down by me. We said hi quickly and quietly then I asked him if anyone else was out there and he said yea Patrick is out there. I shot up and went out and got him and brought him in for the fireside. It was so cool! I had no idea how I was going to know if he was out there or not I just prayed and asked hoping that something would happen and right away William came in and told me! It was a small but cool experience with prayer. Patrick enjoyed the meeting and is planning on coming to some of the other activities this week. Prayer is such a cool thing.

Things lately have been going pretty good. I'm beginning my 3rd transfer in Frankfurt and love the place more and more. The ward has a lot of awesome members and the city has a ton of potential. There’s so much to be done and it seriously feels like there's no time! Just have to keep going forward and giving my best effort. It’s comforting to know that God has a plan and that things will work out one way or another. I've been able to realize more in the last little while how real our relationship with God is. And literal it is that he does know us and love us. There are always tons of questions running through my mind and I'm always thinking about different things trying to figure out why or how. Sometimes it’s so much it seems overwhelming. And sometimes I don't always find the answer to my thoughts, wonders, or questions. I often do though and am very grateful for how real that is.

There are many small experiences and also some big ones where I have honestly felt Gods love for me and have been calmed by these experiences. Even when I still have lots of questions or whatever. I know God is my Heavenly Father and loves me. I know that is true for every individual person. I know with patience and faith I can conquer anything. I know it is not easy and I don't expect it to be. I also recognize at times it all may sound cliche or repetitive. It is however possible and answers are there. Patience plays a huge role. When we want things isn't always when God wants things, if we wait in patience and faith, the end result will be bigger than we ever knew.

I do love this gospel. I continue to recognize and see how much it has blessed me and our family and how it continues to do so. I love my Savior and my Father in heaven. I am honestly very grateful for their patience with me, and I'm grateful for the patience you have all had with me throughout my life. I hope to meet Gods expectations of me and I hope to meet your expectations of me, as well as my expectations of me. However, God’s should cover all of that ha. I love you all very much. I really hope you also strive to recognize and feel Gods love for you. It is always there and manifests itself in the smallest things. Be open and willing to recognize. Thank you all for everything, have a wonderful week. I love you!!

Elder Puriri