LETTER #41 - NORDHAUSEN

Meine Familie!

Hi! It’s Thursday night and I’m emailing you. Kind of weird. But it was a crazy week, but so amazing!! So many things happen every day that I can't like remember and differentiate between days ha. They just all happen and I try to learn and grow and do what I can and yea. Days mix together and time flies by. But yea I guess I just forgot to tell you that? I don’t know I just never thought about it I guess.

Anyway! So Sunday night we got a call at about 6pm from the elders in Erfurt and they were telling us about the train times for Monday morning since we were going to Frankfurt. They said "yea so the train leaves at 5:18am" I just started laughing playing it out in my mind me and Elder Gassman trying to make the train at 5:18 in the morning when we would have to get up and all. Then he goes "oh 5:18 from Erfurt" then it wasn’t so funny anymore ha because its about 1 hour and 20 min train from Nordhausen to Erfurt. Then it was ok though because they said we could come down that night and then just get up and go from Erfurt. So that’s what we did! Elder Gassman went with Elder Conrad to Gera and I went with Elder Conrads comp and the zls in Erfurt to Frankfurt in the morning. We walked from the Elders apartment in Erfurt to the banhof at like 445am ha. 4 guys in suits with backpacks on carrying duffelbags walking through the middle of this silent dark city at that time. We figured we probably could have done doors right then and had a good chance at catching everyone at home, but we figured we probably wouldn’t catch them in the best mood so we decided against that. 

Train ride to Frankfurt though then we changed trains and caught a smaller one to a smaller part outside of Frankfurt called Friedrichsdorf where the temple is! The church building is on temple grounds and they have like dorms on grounds for people to stay in who come from far away. So about 30 of us missionaries were staying in those. It was such a cool 3 days. Kind of like the MTC again but a bit more intense/advanced I guess. It was a very spiritual few days.

We spent all day everyday on temple grounds and when you're there you basically can't see off temple ground because of the hills or buildings.  So we had beautiful temple grounds surrounding us and the temple right there and the whole atmosphere the whole time was so cool.  It just felt good.   

We got taught a lot from Pres. Ninow and we did a whole ton of roll playing and practicing the stuff we were learning. It was so good. Learned a ton and realized how much more I need to learn. It always works like that I swear. There was one other elder there from the Berlin mission but other then that it was mostly Frankfurt elders with a few from Munich mission and Hamburg. It was cool though being able to meet all of them and learn from everyone. Lots of very cool spiritual learning experinces. Apparently we are having this meeting every other month for at least the next year. I may not go to every one but I hope just because it was amazing. Such a cool learning experience.

Today we had a district meeting and it was so good. Everyone is just excited about the new stuff. And like its not really knew its just stuff we never really thought about that we could be doing to improve our teaching.

Sorry if this email doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’m basically still overwhelmed with lots of ideas and new things and haven't had a chance yet to sit down and just figure it all out. Maybe I think Saturday morning I have study and can do that. Tomorrow it’s back to Erfurt for a meeting thing. But just for the morning. It’s crazy we haven’t been in Nordhausen all week! Today we were but this morning we were in Erfurt, tomorrow morning we’re in Erfurt.

I feel like a new missionary kind of. Like when we got back last night we had one hour to go out. As we prayed and left our apartment I just felt new like refreshed kind of. Today was also good. We even caught Xiang again at home! He went back to China in the middle of June I think it was and today we went by and he was there! Awesome guy and we made an appointment out with him for later. Things feel really good right now. I've also been learning a ton about the importance of the spirit. How much a literal and real role he plays in our lives. I've been focusing more on the spirit and been praying to better recognize and understand the Holy Ghost. It’s amazing how much of a difference I’ve noticed. It makes me excited to improve it more and for the things that could come from that.

Yea this email is kind of confusing probably. Saturday I have study and can hopefully organize my thoughts then my email on Monday won’t be so all over the place! I’m gonna send some more after this email from a p-day we spent with the Muhlesteins visiting a denkmal...memorial probably I think. Its pretty huge and cool though.

The spirit is amazing though. Study up about it and pray for it and learn to recognize and better that ability. It is a life long process and requires a constant effort. We talked about Captain Moroni and that verse that says what would happen if every man were like him and Pres Ninow simply said "you get there by every little decision". I've been thinking about that lots. Anyway before I confuse you anymore I’m gonna end this and go home ha. I love you all so much!! Find the good in everything and be happy!

Elder Puriri

WHILE WE WAIT

More correspondence from Sister Muhlstein while we wait to hear from Isaac.  We have not received anything from Isaac's new mission president so I asked her if she could send me a picture and the correct address.  

Sister Puriri

Of course you may ask anything of me that you need. I'm surprised he did not tell you that he was a District Leader, although maybe I'm not, he is not prideful, and would not want this calling to come across as being proud. He is doing a marvelous work as our leader. He gives wonderful inspirational encouragement to us each week. There are 10 of us in the district, 8 Elders and the two of us. One week he gave an example by telling us how unselfish you were in always driving your boys around to their soccer games and practices, and putting in full days of work, and then helping them without complaining. He likened this to the love of the Savior for each of us, and that he gave His life in our service. He told us that he wanted us to emulate the love of the Savior by being constantly aware of what we can do for others. Also he said that a mother's love is so much like the Savior's and is so willingly given, and we should work to have this charity in our lives, and serve others with this love. He always gives us good examples, and stories that help us all want to work harder. He is a great leader. Oh yes, he is also my husbands first counselor in our branch presidency, and they give talks every month to the branch, as well as other branch responsibilities along with his missionary duties. Busy Man, but know that he is very happy.

Here is the infomation you need:

This is the Mission Office Information

Deutschland Frankfurt Mission

Corneliusstrasse 18

60325 Frankfurt am Main

Germany

069 97064310 (phone)

I have attached a Mission Map that I hope is helpful to you. There is not a blogsite, which we miss in this mission too. Coming from the Berlin Mission to this mission, has truly been a change for us, however this President and his wife are very busy with their family. They still have children here in school, as well as some in the States going to school. She told us she needed to use a lot of her time helping them, and would not be doing a blog. I have a blogsite that you are welcome to view: www.gowithfaith.blogspot.com As long as Elder Puriri is here in Nordhausen you will catch glimpses of this wonderful town.

Our Blessings are with You,

Sister Muhlestein

A photo from The Muhlstein's blog






Isaac serving the children

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

My usual Monday morning anticipation will be postponed until Friday.  This will be a very long week.  Sigh... 

Dear Sister Puriri,

Elder Puriri is serving with us here in Nordhausen, and we have talked with you over Skype on Mother's Day as well. We were just having our weekly planning meeting, and he mentioned he could not do e-mails on this coming Monday due to the fact he will be in Frankfurt with all of the other District Leaders and Zone Leaders. They are training for the many changes that are coming to the mission on how to improve upon our teaching methods. As our District Leader he will bring this information back to us and then train all of the other Elders here in our District. He did say he will be able e-mail you on Thursday afternoon.

I told him I would write this e-mail to you and let you know so that you would not worry about him. He is a marvelous missionary, and has brought a wonderful spirit of love and devotion to the Nordhausen Branch. The Saints here love him and are so grateful for his service. May you be blessed for sending your son out to do the Lord's work in these the Latter-Days. We admire him and have seen him work deligently in the service of others.

Our Very Best To You,

Sister Muhlestein

LETTER #40 - NORDHAUSEN

Dear family!

So transfer news first, I'm staying in Nordhausen with Elder Gassman. So no changes here. I'm excited to have another transfer here with him it will be fun and we'll hopefully be able to get a lot done. I was pretty surprised to be staying but it will be good! Also Ammons 18 now. happy late birthday! It’s weird your 18 now. And a senior. Life goes on and time goes too fast.

Yesterday church was so cool! We went down to church and met with Elder Muhlestein in his office before sacrament like every week. We new the District president and his counselors would be attending our meeting that day. Then there was a knock on the door and Pres. Schumann (dist. Pres.) and one of his counselors came in wearing a white shirt and tie then motorcycle pants and boots ha. Apparently they were on a week trip through the Harz Mountains area and that’s why they were coming to Nordhausen for church since they were in the area. It wasn't just them though. As I walked back out into the Chapel every seat was full! Now there are only about 40 seats or so but they were full!! It was so crazy to see and so cool. There was a group of about 24 bikers traveling together, most members of the church. I walked out front and there were bikes parked everywhere on the street. It was so cool! There were even 2 members from Annaberg so I got to talk to them. There were people from Switzerland and all over Germany. Just a big group of friends and they do this for a week each year I guess. So sacrament was packed for a little chapel.

Elder Gassman and I gave our testimonies after sacrament because we didn't know who or if either of us was being transfered. Then we turned the time over to Pres. Schumann and he ran the rest of the meeting. It was cool a brother from Switzerland gave a talk, a sister with them from Leipzig, and then they all did a musical number for us. Everyone standing up in the front with their shirt and tie or blouse or whatever then mortorcycle pants and boots or just socks ha it was funny but it was cool. Then the branch pres. from Gotha spoke then Pres. Schumann talked. It went a little over but it was one of the coolest sacraments I've ever been to. The spirit was so strong and there were so many good people there with there good spirits it was so nice. Hopefully one day the chapel can be that full with people from Nordhausen! That would be so

amazing. We're working on it. It was a good church meeting.

A very good way to end the week. We spent a lot of the weeking going through the lists of old contacts and stuff trying to organize it and going by on them and stuff. Had lots of finding time and lots of doors. It’s always an adventure doing doors ha. You always run into someone who isn't exactly happy that you're there. We try to calmly talk to them but usually it doesn't work and we have to sadly leave that street before things get out of hand. The unfinished streets will one day be finished though and those people will also have the opportunity to hear the gospel.

On Tuesday we were able to meet with Hr. Becker who we had lost contact with for a while. He just called us randomly and said hey come Tuesday night at 7. So we did! He explained he had an accident at work and was in the hospital for 2 weeks but he snuck a phone call into us while he was there and made out the appointment for Tuesday. Apparently you’re not allowed to use the phone in the hospital or something. But we were grateful he did. That was only the 3rd time we had met with him so were still getting to know him a bit but he has a desire to find God and to know if he can really be with his wife again. It is really a blessing that we have the gospel and are blessed to know the answer to these questions.

The gospel is a source of light filling the dark places with light. Like in D&C 123:13 ''Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven''. We are blessed to have the light and as we so often read in the scriptures we should hold it up and let it shine forth so that

others may see.

Elder Gassman and I are trying to focus on letting our light shine so that others may notice. We try to literally radiate light ha sounds a bit odd but it’s cool! When we are filled with the spirit, when we have love and light in us, we should try to let it shine out from us. Then other people will really see something different and will want to have that as well. I've noticed it throughout my life though as well. There are some people where it seems like they really radiate light and love. This should be one of our goals. As we try to always remember Christ we will be focused on love and his light, it will be our mindset, and it will be what radiates from us. I'm excited to work more on this and to brighten my light.

Sorry this is a bit short. We're real hungry and want to go eat ha. I hope everything is going good! I love you all so much. Have a good week and be happy!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #39 - NORDHAUSEN

Hi Family!

It’s pretty crazy that school has already started. It seems just barely that they started the '09-'10 school year when I was still there. It’s even crazier that Ammon’s a senior this year. It’s so weird to think that. And Asa is in 9th grade. They can both play for Dixie this year. That will be way cool. Things back home sound like they're going pretty good.

On Friday last week we had a mini zone conference thing. We were introduced to a new thing the church is doing with missionaries now. They are kind of coming out with a new way to train missionaries and a new way to teach and stuff. It’s a ton of new things and there are going to be a lot of workshops and things we'll be doing to get used to it all. I'm way excited for it though it sounds really good. I'm also glad I've been here for a bit already so I still know the old style so I can take both and use the good stuff from that as well. It was pretty cool though in this presentation from the church they said Preach My Gospel contains everything a missionary should know, but now these are just new ways to apply it all. So I apparently need to be studying preach my gospel a bit more ha. It was pretty interesting though.

Also Friday was the last time I'll see Elder Killpack for a while. He goes home tomorrow, it’s so weird! Feels like not long ago at all we were back in Schwarzenberg together and now he's headed home. It was weird but we'll stay in touch. All of my companions so far will be home within a week except Elder Gassman. Elder Loynes also goes in a week and everyone else is already home. I'm very glad I still have so much time ha. The thought of post mission life is scary. Oh transfer calls are also this coming weekend, that'll be interesting to see what happens.

So this past week was a big patience week. I've been learning a lot. We spent a lot of time doing doors and finding. It was a good week with lots of learning experiences. As we were walking across the market place in front of the rathaus...town hall? I saw a group of kind of punk kids that we see quite often walking around. This time one started walking over to us. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, he'd said stuff to us before but just little comments as we were passing by. So he came up to us and sarcastically said "Have you guys thought about God already today?" And that started our conversation ha. It was really interesting just seeing his perspective on life and God. He doesn't believe at all and was explaining to us why. I honestly felt bad for him and wanted to help him but he wouldn't take it. He was telling us how we only believe and are here because our parents threw us right into the faith as soon as they could and he thought that was a bad thing. He kept saying "Look if you didn't have your parents to show you that way and introduce you to the faith and you were all alone, would you have found it yourself? Would have believed as willingly and followed it?" I thought about it and told him I honestly don't know and that that was a scary thought. I tried to explain how grateful I am that I was able to have the gospel in my life and my family but he would confuse it for some sort of brainwashed answer or something. It really does pain me to meet people like him who are so deceived in life. He believes he is more free and happy then we are and that because we live after the gospel that we are missing out on the joys of life. I believe that is completely opposite from the truth. The gospel, commandments, teachings of Christ, and the plan of God set us free. I was trying to see how he could think he is more happy than us but I couldn't figure it out. I basically let him do most of the talking which was mostly him venting and telling us how it makes no sense to believe on God. As he spoke I just wished I could like throw the Book of Mormon at him or something ha. Not literally but just have him read it and seriously take it all in. The changes that that Book could bring in to his life would be so amazing. The changes that book can bring in to OUR lives are amazing. We have to give it the chance though. Please don't take the Book of Mormon for granted. The gospel isn't some ridiculous brainwashing scheme or some big barrier holding us back from things in life. It is honestly the only way to have REAL happiness. A joy and peace that will never fade. I know with all of my heart that God is there, that he is our Heavenly Father and that he really does love us. He has an amazing plan for us and Jesus Christ has made it all possible. And now we have a living Prophet to whom we can look for guidance in these confusing times. And if we use the Book of Mormon and the other tools we have we will never be led astray and we will always have real peace. Because we will have a knowledge of these things. It is not blind obedience in which we follow the gospel. It is in faithful obedience. Through all these things we will be blessed and our faith will be strengthened.

I can't tell you how grateful I am for the gospel in our family. For those who didn't have that, they can still develop the faith and be blessed as much as any of us. Gods love and plan is for everyone. I hope everybody has a good week. I love you all!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #38 - NORDHAUSEN

Hello hello!

Park city tournament looks like it was fun. Makes me almost want to be back playing. A mission is pretty amazing though. Maybe I'll try to play things down a bit so you guys don't get so jealous reading my letters and stuff?? haha. Thanks for sending pics with the emails though mom its fun to see everyone. I also got that package on Saturday, thank you!!! I can't believe it’s already time for alpine days. It’s just like last year, park city tournament and then Alpine days. Except I was there for that, that seems like it was yesterday though. 

I was talking to Elder Gassman the other night about when we got our calls and stuff and I realized I got my call over a year ago! Crazy. I know you don't like when I say this mom but time goes too fast!! I really do get nervous thinking about it ha. Just have to really get the most out of every moment.

Yes mom 2 hours of soccer in pouring rain. It was fun!! No I didn't take pictures sorry. I hardly ever get to play and when I do I don’t want to run out real quick and take pictures. I want to play as much as possible, those minutes it would take to get my camera out and all are precious ha. I'll do better though and try to remember to take more pictures.

We had some pretty cool experiences this week though!

Yesterday started out a sunny day. Then as we were doing doors later that night it started to rain. Neither of us had an umbrella because it was so nice earlier. Then it really started to rain ha. It started raining so hard we had to almost yell to hear each other speaking. We'd like yell at people as they opened there doors ha it was probably scary. Open the door to soaking wet guys with white shirt and tie and they all the sudden start yelling at you about God. One lady looked at us like we were and insane then got mad at us because we didn't have an umbrella. She said ''don’t you know its raining!?'' I thought hmm well that’s a dumb question ha I'm standing here soaking wet, I think I noticed its raining( probably not the most missionary thoughts I know). So I said ''Uhh...yea?'' then she said ''Well don't you have an umbrella??'' also a weird question I thought. If I had an umbrella I would probably be using it. So I said ''no'' ha. She just looked at us like we were dumb and closed the door like she was so disappointed in us ha. So I started laughing and we ran to the next house! We were under some balcony thing at this door but the lady just opened started laughing probably because how we looked. Then she said I don’t have any interest but you can stand here until it calms down, then she shut the door. Ha I thought well we’re already soaked lets just keep going. So we ran back to the street and saw that lady who got mad at us for not having an umbrella standing in her door waving an umbrella in the air. So I ran over and she yelled ''you’re gonna get sick!!'' I took the umbrella said thank you and told her we'd bring it back later. She just shook her head like we were crazy and shut the door. It was pretty funny! It probably looked even more weird to people after that since we had an umbrella over us but for some reason we were still completely soaked. It was a fun night though. We're going to take her umbrella back today and give her a book of Mormon anyway and some brownies we made for her ha.

Another really cool thing that happened this week. So on Tuesday Gassman and I tausched with Elder Killpack and Malyon. I was with Elder Malyon here in Nordhausen. During lunch we got a text from Salt Lake again with that one of the same referrals we had already gotten from them. The first time we got it though and went out to this town we didn't catch the guy at home. We had already planned the day out and stuff so this guy wasn't planned in for the day since he lives in another town. Then I thought well maybe we got the text again for a reason? So I asked Elder Malyon what he thought and we talked about it for a bit but ended up going on with our normal plans. Then as we were out I asked him again about it and we decided to pray about it. So we went into this park area and found a bench, sat down, and we prayed about it. At the end we both decided to go out and try contacting this referral. So we went to Banhof, bought the train ticket and headed 35 minutes to Sangerhausen. We walked from the train station to this guy’s house and rang his bell on the klingel box. I don’t know what to call a klingel box in English. It’s the thing by the door with everyone’s doorbells that lives in that building with a speaker and mic so you can talk to them and stuff. Anyway we waited and waited and nobody came. As you can imagine we were both a little disappointed and confused since we both felt like we were supposed to go out there. Then this guy came around the corner with his dog and I started to talk to him and he just said ''wait a minute, hold on'' and walked inside. First thought was 'dangit he's gone' then I thought well maybe he's just putting his dog inside and he'll come back! Gotta be positive right?? Then he came back out! And said 'so what do you want?' and we began doing what we do and started telling him about the gospel. We talked for a bit and told him we wanted to introduce the book of Mormon to him and give it to him. He said ''Ok there is a bench right there we can sit down and do it now!' So we did. We sat down talked to him about the book of Mormon, said a prayer together at the end and asked if we could come back. He said of course. We asked which name he was on the klingel box and he said ''I don’t have a klingel. I removed mine'' then we asked if we could somehow get a hold of him before next time we meet. He said ''Well give me your number and I'll call you then you'll have mine'' Our thought was ''great, how many times have I heard this before. He won't call us'' then the positive side kicked in again and we thought, nah he was way cool he'll definitely call. So we said goodbye, he went inside and called us right away!! haha. Then I looked at my watch and saw that the train came in 3 minutes and we were on the wrong side of town. So we debated whether or not to run for it and decided we should. So we took off running through this town ha. Running right down the main street towards the train station. Had lots of people laughing and yelling at us and even some that were cheering us on saying we could still make it. We ran in and up to our...gleis...english word?? And the train was pulling away. Not a cool thing to see after sprinting through a town. We started joking saying ah we had no faith in the beginning and that we shouldn’t have doubted. So now we had 1 more hour in the town. Decided to just go walk around and talk to people. We walked out of Banhof, started talking to this lady and she started telling us miracles stories about her faith! We started telling her about the book of Mormon and she said ''there is a bench right here we can sit down and you can tell me about it now!' For a second I couldn't believe it ha. We sat down, said prayer and began to tell her about the book of Mormon and the restoration. She was so sincere and cool. We gave her the book of Mormon too, prayed at the end and made out another appointment. By that time we had to go catch our train! So we turned around and walked back into the train station ha. We got on the train and sat down across from this lady and just started a regular conversation with her since we're not allowed to proselyte or whatever on trains. Then she started asking questions about us. We told her who we were, what we do, and would tell her about something we believe then just ask her what she thought about that. All her answers were so cool. We didn't have any more books of Mormon to give so we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and some other stuff we had. She sadly lives in another city but she was so cool! We said bye to her and got off the train in Nordhausen in a daze. It was trip to Sangerhausen full of miracles. If we hadn't of gone at that exact time we wouldn't have met any of those 3 people. It’s also a good thing we didn't run faster to get our train ha. The guy we met first didn't even have a klingel, there was no other way we could have met him except for right then how it went.

It really is amazing how God directs and guides his servants in his work. When we focus on the spirit and rely on prayer to help us, we will always be guided. The gospel is so powerful it never ceases to amaze me. I love being out here and being able to take the gospel to people so that it can bless them as well. Hope everyone back home is good. I love you all so much! be happy!!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #37 - NORDHAUSEN

Hi!

Thats so cool Trey was baptized by Dylan! Man that was so cool to read that. The pictures are pretty sweet. Ammon though ha. You're at a baptism, can't you like at least tuck your shirt in or something? Throwing a tie on isn't too hard either ha. Your hair looks pretty sweet though. Annnyyyway. It was a pretty cool week. We had some cool experiences, but I'll tell you about them in a little.

First. We had Zoco this week down in Nürnberg! I started my mission in Berlin then 8 months later I end up in Nürnberg for a zone conference ha. Pretty ridiculous. Nürnberg used to be part of the Munich mission, so not even frankfurt. So now I've bee town to Munich as well! It was pretty cool. We rode down with the Muhlesteins on wednesday morning and worked with the Elder in Nürnberg for the day then went to zoco with them in the morning. Pretty funny thing happened though. I called the Nürnberg Elders to organize everything and the Elder goes 'So whats your name again' and I said Elder Puriri. And the said 'Elder Pu...what?? WAIT! I know you! Do you know Mike and Colin and Hata??' and then I was kind of confused and said yea those are my uncles. Turns out he's from alpine and played rugby for them. I can't remember his first name but his name is Elder Stilson...first name might be Chase but I'm not sure. It was fun working with them though. He talked a lot about Uncle Mike and Colin and Hata. I showed him the pictures I had of them it was cool. Zoco was also pretty good. I'm definitely learning lots. We had a combined zoco with the Nürnberg zone and all those missionaries are from the Munich mission. There has been transfers since so there were also Frankfurt missionaries mixed in. So

we had missionaries from 3 different missions together which was cool. Talked a lot about taking the best from all 3 missions and making like an 'Ultimate' mission ha. Its pretty cool though! Then we had a long drive home after that, it was about 3 1/2-4 hours or so. Zoco was good though.

So on Monday after emails Elder Gassman and I went and got a döner for lunch and then went over to this futsal court to see if anyone was playing soccer. As we got there it started to dump rain. It was really raining so hard it almost hurt. There were kids playing though! So we put our bags in a windowsill (<---not sure if that's right, my first guess was window seal but I figured that was wrong) then we hopped on and played for 2 hours! We were soaked but it was so much fun. Our clothes got so heavy they got stretched out. It was fun though. Then we saw one of the kids we played with later in the week and figured he wouldn't recognize us since we were in missionaries but he came up and said hi and stuff it was cool. Then Monday night we were doing doors because an appointment had fallen out. We usually stop doors around 8:00 because people get made its so late. So by this time it was about 7:50. Elder Gassman and I really wanted to find a new person this night though and had already prayed about it. So we went and did this one section of an apartment building really quick for the last 10 minutes. And the 3 guy we knocked Elder Gassman talked to him about the Book of Mormon and asked if the guy had 10 or 15 minutes so we could talk to him. He just turned around and walked away but left the door open so we were kinda of both confused. Then all the sudden then guy yelled back 'are you coming in or what??' So we walked in! It was pretty cool. Talked to him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one then asked him to read a chapter we had picked out before we come back. He said 'well I read the book through and we said yea if you could just read that chapter before next Monday that'd be good, but he said yea yea I'll just read the book. Ha so we'll see how much he read tonight when we go by. It was cool though, our prayers were answered. 

Then! On Thursday night we got back pretty late and were way tired so we didn't plan for the next day and just went straight to bed. In the morning I was looking at our schedule for the day and we had a big gap of nothing to do. I was kind of bugged and couldn't figure out how we should use that time. As my comp was in the shower I prayed really quick and asked for help so that we could find something to do during that time. 20 minutes later I was getting some food out of the kitchen and Elder Chidsey (we were on tausch) said ''Uh you just got a text from an '801' number''. As you can imagine we were both confused. So I picked up the phone and read the text and it was a text from Temple Square with 3 referrals!! It was a direct answer to my prayer. I was pretty overwhelmed and in amazement from this. 20 minutes earlier I had prayed and then we get 3 referrals texted to us from temple square in salt lake. It was really cool. So that’s how we used that time in the middle of the day, to go out to this small city and try to find these people. We found one but the other 2 weren't home so we are going to go back. It is so amazing how our prayers are answered!!

I don't know if I told you this story yet, if I have I'm going to again because I just thought of it. A few months ago another time when I was on tausch with Elder Chidsey, we went out to this little village to go by on a lady we met earlier in the week. The village was small that a bus only came and left every 1 1/2 hours. We got there and went to the lady's house and she didn't have any time right then. So we still had an hour in this tiny village far away from Nordhausen! We didn't know what to do, there was nobody on the streets and doors didn't feel like the right thing to do way out there. Eariler in that week an Elder had told me about an experience he had had with prayer and finding people, so I thought about that and wanted to try it too. We found a bench, sat down and prayed for help and guidance for the next hour in this village. 50 minutes had gone by and we hadn't found anyone. We were walking back to the bus stop and feeling a bit disappointed. Then way off to our right there was a woman with her kid. So I thought why not and we walked way over to her and started talking to her. She was so happy and had a bunch of questions about what we were doing and stuff. We made out an appointment for the next week and told her we would bring her a Book of Mormon. She was so cool. We then walked back to the bus and got beaming ha. I was so grateful for that experience and that Heavenly father had helped us to find this woman.

The power of prayer and faith is so amazing. I've been reading our heritage and there are so many cool stories about people’s faith and miracles that occurred because they had prayed with faith. It is also quite humbling to realize what a blessing prayer is. It makes so much sense though as well. God is perfect, and he is our Father. So he is a perfect father. A perfect Father wouldn't send his children away without a way for them to communicate with him, and a way for him to communicate with them. He loves us so much we can't even comprehend it, and he has given us a way to be able to speak with him whenever. no matter what. Prayer has become so much more meaningful to me. We need to use it!! God gives us so many things but we need to use them! I really am grateful for the love he has for all of us. He wants to guide and us and help us along the way, but we need to humble ourselves and allow him to do so. I've seen his love for his children here. With this man we met last Monday. We were sitting on his couch talking to him and as I looked as him asked him about his beliefs about God, he told me about how his wife had passed away and that since then he hasn't believed in God. As Elder Gassman and I began to talk to him about how God is our heavenly father and how he loves us I was filled with a love for this man that sat in front of me. It was kind of weird as I was looking at him I had this real desire to help him come to the knowledge that God loves him. Well not weird but I had only known the man for 5 minutes and my love and desire for him to have the gospel was so real. I am grateful God let me feel that and experience that.

There are so many cool stories and things we experience. I could sit and tell you about so many miracles we've been blessed to see but...everyone’s hungry and we want to go eat and play soccer ha. Plus there will be time for that later! Miracles are real though. I know that without a doubt. Prayer is powerful!! And God honestly does love us so much. I hope you all know that. Thank you for everything! I love you all! Have a good week and be happy!

Elder Puriri

LETTER #36 - NORDHAUSEN

 Family family,

Things here in Nordhausen are going pretty good! Pine valley looks like it was pretty fun. I don't remember the last time I saw Ammon reading though, must be a good book ha. This week went by pretty fast. And I'm afraid this coming week is going to go by even quicker. Just have to enjoy it though and use the time as good as I can.

Tuesday we did an exchange (we just say tausch, so I'm gonna say that because exchange sounds weird) with the Weimar Elders. I stayed here in Nordhausen with Elder Devonas. It was a good day and a fun tausch. Wednesday we went to Erfurt for our district meeting and when that finished we did a tausch with the Erfurt Elders. I stayed in Erfurt for that one with Elder Killpack. It was fun working with him again. Probably our last time working together on the mission since he goes home in a few weeks. Its pretty crazy thinking back to when we were together in Schwarzenberg. So Thursday morning we had a couple appointments in Erfurt then we were going to drive up to Nordhausen and tausch back. As we headed out of Erfurt though we realized we needed to get gas. (I have to explain this first. With the mission change and us becoming a part of Frankfurt they gave the people with cars Gas Cards that they use to get gas, but they can only be used at Shell gas stations. In Berlin we just paid for it then sent in the receipt and they reimbursed us. Usually E. Killpack is with Elder Malyon who has been a Frankfurt missionary his whole mission. So he always reminds him. On this day though I was with Elder Killpack, both of us former Berlin Missionaries and not used to the Gas Card system) So Elder Killpack and I pulled into some random gas station, got gas, and he went in to pay. As he came out and got in the car he just looked at me and said ''uh...we have a problem.'' ha its funny now but right then it wasn't. He explained to me about the gas card and how we weren't at a shell gas station ha. So he asked if I happened to have 55€ on me. I didn't. I had 4€ ha. He only had 20. The rest of my money was back home and so was his. And both of our cards were empty. So we called the mission office and asked if they could just wire money onto our accounts or something and if we could just pay with our normal card. They said ''This isn't Western credit union. Call a member or something.'' So we were on our own ha. So we parked the car and went in and told the people the story and that we would call someone and they'd come help us. We called a member but he was too far away, he texted us 3 other members numbers though. None of them answered. We were getting kind of nervous by this point. Then elder Killpack found a members number and said 'this guy will come no doubt!' He called him and he said yea no problem I'll be there in 20 minutes. We had been at the gas station for 1 hour now so that was nice to hear. Long story short, we waited, and waited, and called him over and over again, and then 2 hours later he made it!! Poor guy kept getting lost and couldn't find it. When he got there he himself had to fill up ha. The lady in the gas station was just laughing at us pretty much the whole time. So Thursday we spent 3 hours as prisoners of a gas station in a small village called Gebesee haha.

So Sunday we had planned to have quite a few investigators at church but during the week things didn't work out so when we got there Sunday we were kinda disappointed and didn't think anyone would be able to make it. Then during the opening song Hr. Stoye walked in! Came in grabbed a hymn book and joined everyone in the congregation. It was my turn to conduct the meeting, which I still think is weird ha but its cool at the same time. I just never thought I'd be conducting a sacrament meeting as a 20 yr. old. During the second hour of church Elder Gassman and I went with Hr. Stoye into a different room and taught him separately. We read in 2 Nephi 31, talked about baptism, and set a date with him for August 21st. It was so cool. The first time I met him was back with Elder Kearl one Sunday he just showed up to church! Now we've been able to meet with him more and now he has set a goal to be baptized. He's a good guy though. He was answering everything so cool and telling us how good he feels when he comes to church. It was a good way to end out our week.

Things have been going good! I've been studying and trying to learn more about prayer and the Holy Ghost. And mom like in that thing you sent today, the more I learn the more I feel like I know less ha. I've seen the power of pray so realistically though here. It is so cool that we can just start to speak with our Heavenly Father whenever and where ever. And with the help and guidance of the spirit we can understand what to pray for like it says in Romans 8, and we can receive our answers and know what to do through the Holy Ghost as well. Like Julie B. Beck said in her conference talk in April. "The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life." And in that video thing I told you guys about forever ago from F. Enzio Busche he says how important it is to be under the complete influence of the Holy Ghost. Revelation and the spirit and the gospel in general is so...fascinating. It’s like in Mosiah 4:9 we can't comprehend all things but we can begin to progress towards that. Learn as much as we can and never stop progressing in the gospel. Becoming closer to the spirit, recognizing and understanding the promptings we receive. 

It’s like soccer season ha. I want to get better and better and progress and I get excited about that. Excited to be getting better and improving. I'm developing that same excitement for progressing in the gospel. 

I'm not trying to brag or whatever ha, like Ammon says in Alma 26, I'm grateful for this and that God has helped me make this progress. We are forever in debt to him for all that he does for us. We never have any excuse to stop serving God; we can never pay him back. Which is also fascinating...lots to learn and study ha.

Well were going to go see if we can find kids to play soccer with. I love you all so much! Thank you for your letters and prayers and love. Have a good week.

Elder Puriri

LETTER #35 - NORDHAUSEN

Hi!

It has been a pretty sweet week! I'm doing good Mom! And no I don't think I need anything right now. But yea lots of cool experiences mixed with weird ones this week but it was all fun and it’s been good. Elder Loynes and I spent our last days together at the beginning of last week. It was lots of fun working with him and I learned a ton.

Tuesday night we went to Erfurt to spend the night since he had to catch a train from Erfurt at 7:25 which would have meant getting up at 3:30 in Nordhausen to get to erfurt at 7. That didn't really sound like such a fun thing. So Loynes had his big duffle bag and I was carrying his other luggage and we caught the tram down into town and walked over to Banhof. Everyone saw the missionaries with luggage heading to the train station. It was pretty funny. People starting to yell over at us waving, saying "have a good trip home!!" They were laughing and joking, thinking the missionaries were leaving for good. Little did they know the next day I would be back with another Elder and his luggage ha. As we were waiting at the Erfurt Banhof for the Elders to come get us we were sitting on this bench and 2 guys a little down from us were starring at us. So Elder Loynes began to talk to them and we picked up our stuff and went down closer to them. They were funny guys, they assumed we were all from rich American families since we walk around in suits and stuff ha. We cleared all that up though and ended up having a cool conversation, gave them the Erfurt Elders numbers and invited them to church. Not quite sure what happened with them but it’s just cool how everywhere we go we can just talk to people about the Gospel so easily. I never would have imagined it to be like that. 

Elder Killpack and I took our companions to the train station in the morning and said our goodbyes. Then I was in a drit...3 of us for the day until we picked up our comps. Elder Gassman and I grabbed his stuff, hoped on the train and headed back up to Nordhausen to the disappointment of many people haha. 

We've been working with Hr. Tämmerich a lot and helping him on his way towards baptism. He is such a simple man but so cool. We weren't quite so sure how much he was getting or understood. So we went by and were planning on just reviewing and seeing what he really got out of our lessons. He's been getting more then we thought! We asked tons of questions and his answers are always short but you could feel his sincerity. It wasn't like his answers were different then other lessons but that time Elder Gassman and I both felt how sincere he was and that his wish to be baptized his as strong as ever. Such a good guy. We also were able to meet with Karsten again! Last time I saw him was with Elder Kearl back in May. First things first of course, we sat down talked, and then he handed me one of his guitars and said 'I know you want to play a little'. Ha so I played for a bit and realized I've basically forgotten everything. But that doesn't matter right now obviously. It was fun though. 

During the lesson he opened up so much. We read in 2 Nephi 26:24-28...i think that’s right. I asked him if he still had his Book of Mormon and he said of course, reached on the shelf behind him and pulled it out. He asked where we were reading and I told him the page number, then as he flipped to it it just popped open and he had a book mark in there. He looked at it funny and said 'Well something on this page touched me that’s why I put these bookmarks in. We told him where we wanted to begin and he read verse 24 and then looked up and said 'That’s why I put his here, that’s exactly why.' It was so cool! He got more excited about it and continued reading the rest. He kept saying how 'fantastic' it would be if he found out for sure that everything in the Book of Mormon is true, and that he hopes that one day his faith will get to the point where he says 'I want to join your church'. He is a really down to earth and sincere guy. We'll definitely be meeting with him a lot more the next little while.

During companionship study that morning though we weren't sure what to plan for Karsten. Then we both thought reading those verses in 2 Nephi 26 would be good and then to talk about how faith and the atonement is for everyone. It was exactly what Karsten needed. It’s the coolest thing to be guided in doing the Lords work. Its funny it’s always little things, feeling, thoughts or whatever, and you don't think it’s that big of a deal when you act on them. But then such amazing things come from them! Like in so many aspects of life the little things are the most important. I think its Alma 37:6-7 where it talks about that. It’s so true.

Elder Gassman is sweet. It will be a good transfer. We have goals set and things we want to do and I feel really good about it. I'm excited about it. Elder Gassman is from Orem. Graduated '09. He was started out in Duisburg which is about 500,000 people, ha now he is in Nordhausen. About 45,000 people. Pretty big change but he likes it. Everything is going pretty good. Pretty hungry though so we’re gonna head home eat and use the little p-day time left to rest. I hope everyone back home is healthy and happy. If not then work on that! Have a good 2nd week of the transfer ha! I love you all so much. be happy be happy.

Elder Puriri