Servus!It snowed while I was on tausch up in Koblenz! That’s a picture from it ha, the first snow of the year. Frankfurt didn't actually get snow that day but up in Koblenz we did. Then on the train a few days later I asked a couple ladies sitting next to me when they thought it was going to snow and they were like definitely not this week! Then it snowed the next day. They were wrong, but that’s ok. It’s been snowing since like last Friday or so now. Today stopped a little. Those ladies were funny though I told them where I'm from we don't ever get snow so they were telling me where I could go to so that I could see snow and stuff. They were excited thinking I had never seen snow, I had to explain I had seen and touched snow but that I was just wondering when it would snow here in Frankfurt. Train, bahn, bus conversations are usually pretty funny like that since you are the one asking some random or weird question to start a conversation ha. It’s fun though. Yea and that other picture is just a picture driving down a road here in frankfurt. There’s better places to get the skyline but that’s the only one I have right now.
Anyway the last week was good. We took pday today so that we could go to the temple because temple is closed on Mondays. The temple is so awesome! In the session we went to the area presidency was also in there so that was pretty cool. It was kind of a surprise turning around in the hall and running into Elder Teixeira. Yea that was cool though. So that’s why pday is today not yesterday. The last week was super good though. A man named Shahab Khodaverdi, from Iran, got baptized on Saturday! He had a baptismal date when I got here and I had the opportunity to help him the last little bit of the way. It was such a good baptism. I will get pictures and send them next week. But during the baptismal service the church chamber choir (I don’t know what that means), Vocalis, was practicing for a concert and we asked if they would come in and do a musical number and they did! It was awesome. Shahab was beaming the whole time.
We are also teaching a couple ladies from China. There is a member family from China and it’s their friends. They basically translate the whole time otherwise it would be super hard to teach them. But they both want to get baptized so we are going to work with them and help them prepare themselves for that. There is also a couple other people who we are teaching who want to get baptized. It’s such a blessing to be able to work with such prepared people. We are working our best to help them all prepare to make the step of baptism. Frankfurt is a cool place. So many people just waiting. Germany is a cool place. It feels like lots of cool things are about to happen here.
The Frankfurt mission (which I am now a part of) set a goal at the beginning of the year to have 200 baptisms this year. Right now we are a little over 140 which is double what they had this time last year. So in that aspect it’s a huge step forward, but not quite our goal. So the mission is working hard and everyone is exercising their faith so that we can reach our goal and help these people. There isn’t a lot of time left so miracles are definitely needed, as always. But especially now. It’s a really cool feeling though. Everyone is excited and it’s definitely so possible. I guess there are like 68 companionship's in the mission so if everyone had one baptism the goal would be exceeded. So that'd be pretty cool.
As we talked about this goal and what we can do to still reach it last week in the meeting on Monday there was a way cool feeling. President Ninow pointed it out and asked us if we noticed it. He then asked if we were noticing things changing. Things like, people attitudes, our attitudes, our faith, members’ attitudes, lots of things. But that’s what the feeling is kind of like, like some huge change is happening.
It reminds me of the pool sand hollow or however it was. There was that water bucket up high that would rock back and forth filling up slowly then it'd rock slower and slower as it got more full. You'd just stand under and wait and start holding your breath waiting for it to tip the whole time. It was like suspense building thing! Half the time you didn't even notice you were holding your breath until after when you took a huge gasp for air and this sense of like relief hit you as the bucket tipped and the water poured out. That’s what it feels like. The bucket is rocking back and forth really slow filling up the last little bit. And our suspense is built up and we're holding our breath waiting for it to tip. The thing is though we have to dump that last little bit of water into it before it tips. We get to be the ones to fill it up the rest of the way and then watch it tip. We get to experience this where it tips and the blessings just come pouring. I'm way excited.
We talked a lot about what we have to do and we have to change our complete mindset towards missionary work. Get out of our old habits of how we do it and change to a new a better way where things will get accomplished lots better. We're going to be trying to work lots more with the members.
When President Uchtdorf consecrated the land back in February almost all, if not all, of the blessings that were promised were to members, not the missionaries. If we want access to those we have to go through members. We have to figure out what we can do to help them reap this blessings that are promised, that are being held there in that bucket just waiting to tip. Sometimes the water splashes us and a little comes falling down but we want it all to fall. This is probably a really weird comparison or example to you all but it’s what I've been comparing it to in my mind. Also this whole rant about all this is probably really weird to you. But I'm excited about it. We don't just want to hurry up and get our goal, if we do it right we can change missionary work in Germany forever!
Something president said was funny. He was talking about our old habits and mindsets of missionary work. Then he was like ''Look, you can either go knock 2000 doors or you can go baptize.'' Because it’s so true ha. Sometimes you get blessed huge and find someone on your own. But the best finding goes through members. So meeting with them and working with them throughout the winter and then after sounds better than spending time in the freezing cold knocking door after door. We must work smarter, not harder. Because working harder and harder in the wrong way isn't going to profit you like you think. It’s like the whole saying 'practice makes perfect'. If you practice continually with bad form or something like that, your performance won't profit you like you want and perfect definitely won’t come from it. Perfect practice makes perfect. Anyway yea that’s basically what’s going on. Currently in the process of changing my mindset towards missionary work. I'm way excited, it’s not way easy, but definitely good.
Well anyway! It was thanksgiving. We got invited by a family to dinner. It was awesome. They lived in America and did thanksgiving way good. There are so many things to be thankful for. I am so thankful for my mission, for my family, for the gospel, for Christ and God's love for me. So many more things. I am thankful. Be thankful, notice things. We need to go shop! I love you all. I hope everything’s going good. Be happy!!
Elder Puriri
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