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
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