Hey family it was great hearing your voices for christmas. What a great present. So i am sitting here and i am charging the gps and emailing you. Fun stuff. Anyhow the week has gone great. Actually it was super hard. We didnt see a whole ton of success because three days were taken up with lots of not proselyting. but we got to visit many members of the ward. Elder Ensign and I took pictures of us in our lederhosen and we made many christmas cards to take around to the members in the ward. the cards were all self made. I spent many of our lunch breaks and dinner breaks from the past week cutting out pieces of red and green paper for christmas cards. It was cool though. Cool thing though is that we have found two new investigators last week. One his name is Christian Stöckl. He is twenty five years old and he is absolutly stoked about coming to young single adult activities and to church. The other his name is Peter Pfeiffinger. His family is super catholic. But the lessons that we have with him are always so spiritual. We had one just last night. And he read in the book of mormon and he prayed about it. So that was super cool. The coolest thing however is that during the lesson we gave him a scripture to read that went along with the plan of salvation and what Gods purpose with this plan was and as he read it he slowed down and you could see that he felt the spirit. He talked slower. He recognized truth in the scripture that we read with him out of the book of mormon. It was so awesome. Wow i love being a missionary!
As for downsides of being a missionary... the other day we had an appointment with a less active member who has an alcohol problem. He always bakes us cakes and gives us tea and stuff like that. But he is usually pretty good at keeping the word of wisdom stuff out of our food. However as for this time he gave us something that we think had a little bit of alcohol in it. because as we came back home to plan we were feeling a little bit buzzed. I think it is funny that the only times that i have "broken" ( i use that term loosely because it was an unintentional breaking of the word of wisdom) the word of wisdom is while i have been on my mission. So other than that the work is going forward very well. I love working here and serving my Savior!!!!!!
So i talked to elder Ensign and he said that he would like a blue and black colored scarf. I told him that i have the most amazing mom in the world and he debated it but i know that i am right. thank you for the burts and the nutcracker lotion. I love you mom. :)
ok as for the money thing.... so you told me that i had money from grandpa in there and you also said that i had money from grandma in there and that the total therof was around 220. i can add. that is american dollars though. so i converted it into euros and withdrew 150 euros last week so that i could have the cash in my pocket just in case i found a jacket. i didnt buy anything. i repeat i have not bought anything for 215.70. i hardly ever swipe my card because since i am in a different country and it adds five dollars to the fee. i believe that is true or so i have been told. So it should not have gone over. 215.70 is less than 220. you said that you put that in my account. Right? Not my fault on that one. but ok. i deal in cash. so today i will be going shopping at all the christmas sales to find a jacket that will help put your mind at ease.
As for new years i have no idea what we are going to do. All that we know is that we are supposed to be in before 4 o clock. Because that is when all the people are properly drunk and when the real partying starts. So ya we are probably goint to spend the night inside cleaning the apartment and the area book and calling people to set up appointments. So the work goes on. not much to say this week other than that the holiday season was great. And i am thankful for all your love prayers and support. have a good week and know that i love you very very much!!!!!!
tschüß Elder ADams!!!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
December 21, 2009
Guten Morgen,
Wow what a wonderful day!!!! I wake up today and there is 6 inches of snow on the ground! Yesterday was the cold before the storm however. Well I guess i will start at the beginning of the week. So we were still on bikes. It was just colder than a demon as we were going around. We were able to make it to appointments on time however. But on tuesday we had district meeting and then directly afterwards we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I got the opportunity to go to the flachgau ward where the zone leaders serve and they have a car in that area so that was nice because it got extremely cold. We drove from a small township called neumarkt to a city called Braunau (the birth city of Adolf Hitler) and Elder Field and i parked the car got out into the -13 degree celsius weather (dont know what it is in Fahrenheit) and just started contacting the crazy out of that town. We probably talked to 50 or so people, 8 of which stopped and on the street we taught them about the Restored gospel and then got their information. I tell you what, you seem to not feel the cold when you are having amazing success. So the exchanges went well this week. I learned a lot from Elder Feild. But as soon as we switched back we went to get on our bikes on weddnesday and it had been snowing in the morning and so we were riding to an appointment and that was a disaster. Slipping. Sliding. Death. well not quite death but we ended up taking a corner way to fast on our bikes... and lets just say that tokyo drift does not work with two wheels. we ate it hard and that kinda hurt. so we bought a bus pass. now we are underway with the bus system and that is fun. it is fun to figure out all the times when the busses are leaving and when you need to be at the stop and which bus line you need to take. I love a challenge and figuring out how these steel boxes of doom work is awesome. It has been a hard week though. getting used to the switch between bikes and busses is tough and we have seen an affect in our numbers. We are pushing through though.
What else happened this week that is awesome. Hmmm. Well oh ya i got the package. Didnt have to pay customs. Thank you for the nativity scene. I am teaching a family home evening lesson tonight by a less active members house and i believe i am going to use it in the lesson. o that is another thing too. Elder ensign and i are doing a split today. Its the first split of my mission. We were double booked with appointments tonight after our p day and so we have to do a split. Cool Right!!!! So i will be going and teaching this family home evening with another member from the ward his name is Peter. He is super cool. So this will be fun. I will probably feel funny being away from my companion. Which by the way me and him are doing good together. We are getting along well and we are bringing the work forward. Man i love Elder Ensign. we work good together.
What else is new. Oh where did the t shirt come from. The UVU Heroes Tshirt? That was a suprise i think that college just misses me and how awesome i was and they want me to come and give them money. Hmmm conspiracy theory. ok anyhow.
Ok cool story of me being bold outta my mind. So we were riding on a bus to an appointment and a group of drunk kids around mission age all hopped on the bus and they were making crude jokes and laughing ect. One of them paused for a second to look at my nametag, and i took this as the opportunity that i was praying for to find a way to talk to them about the gospel and so i stood up and then just started to talk to them. "oh i noticed that you saw my nametag,...., here is a book called the book of mormon,...., it was translated by a prophet of God,...., he recieved revelation that we should not drink alchohol." So on and so forth. They were quieter after that and then they were interested that i had never drank alcohol in my entire life and then they were like "respect to you, that is a good thing to do." So that was cool hopefully something will come of that and this group of six young men can one day become missionaries like me! I still think that that is the coolest thing. I am a misionary. I talked to our ward mission leader on the phone the other day and he wanted to have a heart to heart discussion with me. He said that i was such a good example of what a missionary should be adn that he thought i was the best misisonary he knew, and that i need to come back to salzburg before i go home after my mission because he wants to throw a party for me. I told him i have a lot of improving to do not to mention i still have quite a bit of time left on my mission and that he can stop getting all trunky. Ha but it was cool. Elischa Grünauer is a way cool guy too. that is an understatement though.
Well we had an appoinntment out in Wals yesterday adn the busses dont ride out there on sundays or holidays (both of which were yesterday, it was the fourth advent) and so we asked members if they could help us and give us a ride out there and guess what. Every single member that we asked just gave us excuses. The member work here is going hard. So we ended up riding our bikes the 10 kilometers out there in the snow and freezing cold. The ward here is not excited. But we are working on it. I mean it goes forward without them but it is slower and more painful. My toes were so cold yesterday. but my hands were super warm thanks for the Handwarmers! I love you mom. Well i gotta go email president. oh almost forgot. so as for calling 10 o clock your time 18 o clock my time. we call from the mission cell phones and what elder ensign said that we do for calling is that we buy a calling card here with a certain amount of minutes and then we just call. Also i heard that it is cheaper if we call from a land line so i will try and get that worked out but i have no idea. We are not even sure if the cell phones can connect out of the country so ya.... it will all work out, but if we cant connect to you elder ensign told me to tell you that if i cant call then you are supposed to call me. here is our number 004369918300408
wow a million numbers. that is the full number. so if i dont call by 10:30 your time you can just give me a little ring a ling. well have a wonderful day. Schönen tag noch. Fröhe Fest. Feliz Navidad. Merry Christmas. I love you all and to all a good night!
Wow what a wonderful day!!!! I wake up today and there is 6 inches of snow on the ground! Yesterday was the cold before the storm however. Well I guess i will start at the beginning of the week. So we were still on bikes. It was just colder than a demon as we were going around. We were able to make it to appointments on time however. But on tuesday we had district meeting and then directly afterwards we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I got the opportunity to go to the flachgau ward where the zone leaders serve and they have a car in that area so that was nice because it got extremely cold. We drove from a small township called neumarkt to a city called Braunau (the birth city of Adolf Hitler) and Elder Field and i parked the car got out into the -13 degree celsius weather (dont know what it is in Fahrenheit) and just started contacting the crazy out of that town. We probably talked to 50 or so people, 8 of which stopped and on the street we taught them about the Restored gospel and then got their information. I tell you what, you seem to not feel the cold when you are having amazing success. So the exchanges went well this week. I learned a lot from Elder Feild. But as soon as we switched back we went to get on our bikes on weddnesday and it had been snowing in the morning and so we were riding to an appointment and that was a disaster. Slipping. Sliding. Death. well not quite death but we ended up taking a corner way to fast on our bikes... and lets just say that tokyo drift does not work with two wheels. we ate it hard and that kinda hurt. so we bought a bus pass. now we are underway with the bus system and that is fun. it is fun to figure out all the times when the busses are leaving and when you need to be at the stop and which bus line you need to take. I love a challenge and figuring out how these steel boxes of doom work is awesome. It has been a hard week though. getting used to the switch between bikes and busses is tough and we have seen an affect in our numbers. We are pushing through though.
What else happened this week that is awesome. Hmmm. Well oh ya i got the package. Didnt have to pay customs. Thank you for the nativity scene. I am teaching a family home evening lesson tonight by a less active members house and i believe i am going to use it in the lesson. o that is another thing too. Elder ensign and i are doing a split today. Its the first split of my mission. We were double booked with appointments tonight after our p day and so we have to do a split. Cool Right!!!! So i will be going and teaching this family home evening with another member from the ward his name is Peter. He is super cool. So this will be fun. I will probably feel funny being away from my companion. Which by the way me and him are doing good together. We are getting along well and we are bringing the work forward. Man i love Elder Ensign. we work good together.
What else is new. Oh where did the t shirt come from. The UVU Heroes Tshirt? That was a suprise i think that college just misses me and how awesome i was and they want me to come and give them money. Hmmm conspiracy theory. ok anyhow.
Ok cool story of me being bold outta my mind. So we were riding on a bus to an appointment and a group of drunk kids around mission age all hopped on the bus and they were making crude jokes and laughing ect. One of them paused for a second to look at my nametag, and i took this as the opportunity that i was praying for to find a way to talk to them about the gospel and so i stood up and then just started to talk to them. "oh i noticed that you saw my nametag,...., here is a book called the book of mormon,...., it was translated by a prophet of God,...., he recieved revelation that we should not drink alchohol." So on and so forth. They were quieter after that and then they were interested that i had never drank alcohol in my entire life and then they were like "respect to you, that is a good thing to do." So that was cool hopefully something will come of that and this group of six young men can one day become missionaries like me! I still think that that is the coolest thing. I am a misionary. I talked to our ward mission leader on the phone the other day and he wanted to have a heart to heart discussion with me. He said that i was such a good example of what a missionary should be adn that he thought i was the best misisonary he knew, and that i need to come back to salzburg before i go home after my mission because he wants to throw a party for me. I told him i have a lot of improving to do not to mention i still have quite a bit of time left on my mission and that he can stop getting all trunky. Ha but it was cool. Elischa Grünauer is a way cool guy too. that is an understatement though.
Well we had an appoinntment out in Wals yesterday adn the busses dont ride out there on sundays or holidays (both of which were yesterday, it was the fourth advent) and so we asked members if they could help us and give us a ride out there and guess what. Every single member that we asked just gave us excuses. The member work here is going hard. So we ended up riding our bikes the 10 kilometers out there in the snow and freezing cold. The ward here is not excited. But we are working on it. I mean it goes forward without them but it is slower and more painful. My toes were so cold yesterday. but my hands were super warm thanks for the Handwarmers! I love you mom. Well i gotta go email president. oh almost forgot. so as for calling 10 o clock your time 18 o clock my time. we call from the mission cell phones and what elder ensign said that we do for calling is that we buy a calling card here with a certain amount of minutes and then we just call. Also i heard that it is cheaper if we call from a land line so i will try and get that worked out but i have no idea. We are not even sure if the cell phones can connect out of the country so ya.... it will all work out, but if we cant connect to you elder ensign told me to tell you that if i cant call then you are supposed to call me. here is our number 004369918300408
wow a million numbers. that is the full number. so if i dont call by 10:30 your time you can just give me a little ring a ling. well have a wonderful day. Schönen tag noch. Fröhe Fest. Feliz Navidad. Merry Christmas. I love you all and to all a good night!
Monday, December 14, 2009
December 14, 2009
Hello,
As for the baptism that is on the 19th of dezember, we had to cancel it. We had been teaching Lutz and he was making super progress and then after we had taught him the word of wisdom he stopped meeting with us. he has either blocked us from his phone or his phone is super broken. I guess he wasn't ready to give up coffee. This was pretty hard. But oh well we will find more. It just is really hard to give someone up when you care so much for them. and you know that they can find joy and more happiness than they have ever imagined when they follow the words of the prophets, but they dont trust enough in the blessings that are promised. It hurts. I have developed such a love for the people here. I want to help them. I want to help them to recognize and find their savior and redeemer but their hearts are too hardened to let the love and the word of the Lord and the Blessings in. But life goes forward its in the past. It doesnt matter. that is what rafiki says on the lion king when he smacks simba on the head. its a pretty good motto.
The christmas devotional was awesome. I loved the music. Motab is awesome. We listened to it in german. we didnt have the option of english like during general konference. but it was cool i understood everything, its just not the same when you hear president Eyerings or Monsons or prophetic powerful voices. but its ok president Uchtdorf translates his own talks. Speaking of the music. If you are still working on my i pod. you could put conference talks on there in englisch or german and also mo tab would be cool.
Hey cool we had planned to do calls at exactly that same time that you chose. Coolness. So six o clock my time and ten o clock your time on the 25th of december in the year of our lord 2009. well good im stoked. Tell me when you get your package as well. package sending is expensive. i vote no more for a long time. ha ha. oh i dont know if she can come or not, but well it is really your decision, but you could tell chelsea that she is invited for when i call. but she will probably have family stuff going on. but just to let you know my wishes that she is invited.
So this week in the way of the work!!!! It has been absolutely amayzing. So elder Ensign has lost his gloves that he has and it has been death cold outside (we are going to buy a new pair today) but it has been super cold outside. So i still have my gloves though and because of some trying times as of late we have had a lot of finding time. Going door to door and just talking to poeple on the street. But i created a little game where we share my gloves that i have on the terms of whomever speaks to a person gets the gloves. I call the game "Whoever speaks to a person gets the gloves" Its pretty good incentive. to speak to the next person. We are still being transported by our bikes and the two wonderful legs that God has given us. Despite the cold we manage to make it around pretty good. We found a new investigator this week. Her name is Frau Rosenauer. It was cool. we had prayed about a street that we wanted to work on and then we went there and worked. It was almost time to go and move on with our next plans for the day and we almost went but i had a small feeling to go to this blue building that i saw out of the corner of my eye. I followed the feeling. and we went there and started ringing on the klingle box outside. There were two cats outside (they might have been possessed with demons) and they were fighting and hissing pretty intensely, but we persevered. We made it through all the people that aren't the elect that God has chosen. Until we made it to the second to last person on the klingle. We got let in and elder ensign started teaching about the restoration, but i had the feeling to switch it to the plan of salvation, so i threw in a really cool switch and then we taught an amazing lesson. We have a return apointment for this wednesday. I have a good feeling about this one. we are still working as dilligently as possible. Elder Ensign and i are really finding joy in this work. I am absolutely loving life as a missionary and i am thankful for this opportunity i have to be here serving my Savior. I Love you all and i am so grateful for the support that you give me. know that you are all in my prayers and that i Love each and Every one of you!!!
Elder Adams
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As for the baptism that is on the 19th of dezember, we had to cancel it. We had been teaching Lutz and he was making super progress and then after we had taught him the word of wisdom he stopped meeting with us. he has either blocked us from his phone or his phone is super broken. I guess he wasn't ready to give up coffee. This was pretty hard. But oh well we will find more. It just is really hard to give someone up when you care so much for them. and you know that they can find joy and more happiness than they have ever imagined when they follow the words of the prophets, but they dont trust enough in the blessings that are promised. It hurts. I have developed such a love for the people here. I want to help them. I want to help them to recognize and find their savior and redeemer but their hearts are too hardened to let the love and the word of the Lord and the Blessings in. But life goes forward its in the past. It doesnt matter. that is what rafiki says on the lion king when he smacks simba on the head. its a pretty good motto.
The christmas devotional was awesome. I loved the music. Motab is awesome. We listened to it in german. we didnt have the option of english like during general konference. but it was cool i understood everything, its just not the same when you hear president Eyerings or Monsons or prophetic powerful voices. but its ok president Uchtdorf translates his own talks. Speaking of the music. If you are still working on my i pod. you could put conference talks on there in englisch or german and also mo tab would be cool.
Hey cool we had planned to do calls at exactly that same time that you chose. Coolness. So six o clock my time and ten o clock your time on the 25th of december in the year of our lord 2009. well good im stoked. Tell me when you get your package as well. package sending is expensive. i vote no more for a long time. ha ha. oh i dont know if she can come or not, but well it is really your decision, but you could tell chelsea that she is invited for when i call. but she will probably have family stuff going on. but just to let you know my wishes that she is invited.
So this week in the way of the work!!!! It has been absolutely amayzing. So elder Ensign has lost his gloves that he has and it has been death cold outside (we are going to buy a new pair today) but it has been super cold outside. So i still have my gloves though and because of some trying times as of late we have had a lot of finding time. Going door to door and just talking to poeple on the street. But i created a little game where we share my gloves that i have on the terms of whomever speaks to a person gets the gloves. I call the game "Whoever speaks to a person gets the gloves" Its pretty good incentive. to speak to the next person. We are still being transported by our bikes and the two wonderful legs that God has given us. Despite the cold we manage to make it around pretty good. We found a new investigator this week. Her name is Frau Rosenauer. It was cool. we had prayed about a street that we wanted to work on and then we went there and worked. It was almost time to go and move on with our next plans for the day and we almost went but i had a small feeling to go to this blue building that i saw out of the corner of my eye. I followed the feeling. and we went there and started ringing on the klingle box outside. There were two cats outside (they might have been possessed with demons) and they were fighting and hissing pretty intensely, but we persevered. We made it through all the people that aren't the elect that God has chosen. Until we made it to the second to last person on the klingle. We got let in and elder ensign started teaching about the restoration, but i had the feeling to switch it to the plan of salvation, so i threw in a really cool switch and then we taught an amazing lesson. We have a return apointment for this wednesday. I have a good feeling about this one. we are still working as dilligently as possible. Elder Ensign and i are really finding joy in this work. I am absolutely loving life as a missionary and i am thankful for this opportunity i have to be here serving my Savior. I Love you all and i am so grateful for the support that you give me. know that you are all in my prayers and that i Love each and Every one of you!!!
Elder Adams
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December 14, 2009
Whoa!!!!! Coool! Papa gonna be joinin the ol fogies! ha ha just kidding. But that is really cool. High priests. No thoughts on who should ordian you, but that is ok. you should just make it a matter of prayer. When you don't know what to do just ask Him who knows all. I have found that to be a great help as i have been on my mission. Lots of hard decisions and challenging situations where i have had to wholly rely on the guidance of the Lord. He is there for you, I know it and you know it, test it out and watch as he proves our faith.
AS for the cold weather.......... ya. it is cold. 20 degrees my eye. it feels like it is colder than the klondike that one year when the eggs froze. plus we are still out and about on our bikes and when you are exposed for that long it starts to get a little old. But how can we know the sweet without the sour. how can we learn to recognize the sweet warmness of getting let into a house when you haven't been outside to experience the cold. Well i know that it is worth it and the work goes forward. ALLES GUTE! I love you DAD!
Elder Adams
AS for the cold weather.......... ya. it is cold. 20 degrees my eye. it feels like it is colder than the klondike that one year when the eggs froze. plus we are still out and about on our bikes and when you are exposed for that long it starts to get a little old. But how can we know the sweet without the sour. how can we learn to recognize the sweet warmness of getting let into a house when you haven't been outside to experience the cold. Well i know that it is worth it and the work goes forward. ALLES GUTE! I love you DAD!
Elder Adams
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
December 9, 2009
Dear Sister Adams,
Please forgive me for my dilatory response to your inquiry about a GPS system for Elder Adams. That would be a delightful gift for him, but because of the cost, he may have to pay customs fees when he receives it. That makes it even more expensive.
We have GPS systems already for most of our automobiles, and the walking or biking missionaries generally learn how to read a map very quickly.
Thank you for sending us a great missionary. We love him very much and always enjoy being with him. He’s doing a great work in Salzburg.
With kind regards,
Robert G. Condie
Germany Munich/Austria Mission
Lommelstrasse 7
81479 Munich
Germany
Office: +49 (0)89 724 48 60
Fax: +49 (0)89 723 87 18
Home: +49 (0)89 798 34 0
Mobile: +49 (0)171 361 92 58
Email: robert.condie@ldschurch.org
Monday, December 7, 2009
December 7, 2009
Dear Sisters and Elders,
At last evening’s First Presidency Devotional, President Thomas S. Monson presented the following suggestion for focusing our efforts during this Christmas season:
“Finding the real joy of the season comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done or in the purchasing of obligatory gifts. Real joy comes as we show the love and compassion inspired by the Savior of the World, who said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these...ye have done it unto me'" (Matthew 25:40).
That we will so serve that we will feel the Savior’s love as we love our Father’s children is my prayer for you and all you will influence this month.
With love,
Robert G. Condie
Germany Munich/Austria Mission
Lommelstrasse 7
81479 Munich
Germany
Office: +49 (0)89 724 48 60
Fax: +49 (0)89 723 87 18
Home: +49 (0)89 798 34 0
Mobile: +49 (0)171 361 92 58
Email: robert.condie@ldschurch.org
Hello lovely family,
WEll this week has been amazing. We have worked our tails off. It has been freezing cold. one day it was raining and we were out on our bikes and then the temperature dropped below freezing and the water that was on my hands and on my suit turned into ice. Oh we have always had that rule. WE are asked to wear our suits anytime that we want to wear another jacket. we are asked to wear our suit jackets in underneath them. so i am always in my suits. I think it is about time to clean them at the dry cleaner. I have been out for a while and i have not yet had the chance to clean them.
Kürze frage. Short question. When is a time that would work best for you to do the calls on the 25 of december.
Anyhow we have done some good this week. As I stated before, we have worked our tails off. So this week we found (well we didn't really find him he found us, he is the one who called us last week and asked to meet with us) a man whose name is heinz stix. He had met with the missionaries before and he stopped meeting with them because they talked about the snake and how it tempted adam and eve to eat the fruit and he didnt really want to talk about the evil things in life. Plus he said that he was already on too many life paths (he was also associated with the hare krishna chanting group, catholic baptized, and a bunch of other religions as well) and that he didn't know if he could take on another life path (the committment of baptizm). So he called us up last week because he was at a really low point of his life and he said that he saw the book of mormon that the missionaries had given him earlier. He picked the book up and said that he started to read in it. And as he read in the book he told us that he felt such a peace as that he had never before felt in his life. That is when he said that he knew that the book was true and that he wanted to meet again with us. He called the church headquarters in Frankfurt, and told them that he wanted our number. So they gave him our number and he called us and wanted to meet. We have since then met with him twice and he has told us that he wants to keep meeting. So we have been teaching him and we have set a baptizmal date for the 26th of december. He said that that is a beautiful day and that he wants to prepare himself to be baptized on the 26th. Woot. that is soooo coool. we have been working so hard this week. We have another progressing investigator his name is Geff, he is from brazil, he speaks portuguese as well and he wants to meet with us regularly. We have met with him three times and this week we also set a baptizmal date with him. He wants to be baptized on the 23rd of january! Wow! He said something pretty amazing the last time we were with him. He said, that he has nightmares and he feels not very good when he is just at home with his wife or at work, but as we come there it is such a happy and good feeling. we took this opportunity to explain to him that that is the holy ghost and we showed him the scripture in galations chapter 5:22-23 about the fruits of the spirit and he said that that was exactly how he felt as we were around. We told him that he could always have these feelings with him as he followed the commandments and got baptized and konfirmed with the holy ghost. And when he keeps the commandments he is promised to have the spirit to with him always he was excited about this and so that is why he wants to change his life that he has right now and begin a new one with the baptizm. But i feel we are going to have a lot of work to do with him, because in our first appointment with him he said to us, "weißt du, gestern habe ich zu viel drogen genommen, ich bin auf dem boden gelegen" (translation: did you know, yesterday i took too many drugs, i layed on the ground.) WE also gave out a baptismal committment to a foreign exchange student that was here from california. the setting was classic. So we were in a mcdonalds in the kids section. That was the only place that he could meet because he is heading back to america soon because his semester abroad is coming to an end. But ya music was playing in the background (by the way that is the first time i have been in a mcdonalds here, they are way nicer here than in the states) music, everything from CCR to BEyonce to Johnny cash and LIl' John. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ as we sat at this loudly colored table that had Mcdonalds graffitti all over it in neon colors. The cool thing though was that among all the distractions we still had an opening and closing prayer and the spirit was so strong there. So we gave out a baptizmal committment in the middle of mickey D's and people were checking out what was going down with the two mormons in black suits in the kids section. It kinda reminded me of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants section one verse 24 then verse 30. We are here to bring the church out of darkness and obscurity. I actually dont know what it says in english, i have it memorized in german however. ha ha so ya we are givin out the baptizmal commitments like crazy letting people know our purpose here, but trust me i wont be just baptizing people to baptize them. they need to be ready. that would be a total shame if they all just fell away.
There was just so much that went on this week we, also had zone conference. we ate tofu at a members house (not going to become a vegetarian anytime soon), we got water thrown at us from a 3 story building out of a bucket. just to many things to even say as we are running out of time. well i will be sending your packages today now that i have money thank you mother for clearing that up. I love you. Well tschuss!!!
oh a donner is a thing kinda like a flat bread pita then it has meat inside that has been shaven off of a giant rotissere meat stick thing. It is a turkish food. But they are super good. you will see a pic of one sometime. On christmas you tell me when it would be best to call. love you!!!!!
At last evening’s First Presidency Devotional, President Thomas S. Monson presented the following suggestion for focusing our efforts during this Christmas season:
“Finding the real joy of the season comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done or in the purchasing of obligatory gifts. Real joy comes as we show the love and compassion inspired by the Savior of the World, who said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these...ye have done it unto me'" (Matthew 25:40).
That we will so serve that we will feel the Savior’s love as we love our Father’s children is my prayer for you and all you will influence this month.
With love,
Robert G. Condie
Germany Munich/Austria Mission
Lommelstrasse 7
81479 Munich
Germany
Office: +49 (0)89 724 48 60
Fax: +49 (0)89 723 87 18
Home: +49 (0)89 798 34 0
Mobile: +49 (0)171 361 92 58
Email: robert.condie@ldschurch.org
Hello lovely family,
WEll this week has been amazing. We have worked our tails off. It has been freezing cold. one day it was raining and we were out on our bikes and then the temperature dropped below freezing and the water that was on my hands and on my suit turned into ice. Oh we have always had that rule. WE are asked to wear our suits anytime that we want to wear another jacket. we are asked to wear our suit jackets in underneath them. so i am always in my suits. I think it is about time to clean them at the dry cleaner. I have been out for a while and i have not yet had the chance to clean them.
Kürze frage. Short question. When is a time that would work best for you to do the calls on the 25 of december.
Anyhow we have done some good this week. As I stated before, we have worked our tails off. So this week we found (well we didn't really find him he found us, he is the one who called us last week and asked to meet with us) a man whose name is heinz stix. He had met with the missionaries before and he stopped meeting with them because they talked about the snake and how it tempted adam and eve to eat the fruit and he didnt really want to talk about the evil things in life. Plus he said that he was already on too many life paths (he was also associated with the hare krishna chanting group, catholic baptized, and a bunch of other religions as well) and that he didn't know if he could take on another life path (the committment of baptizm). So he called us up last week because he was at a really low point of his life and he said that he saw the book of mormon that the missionaries had given him earlier. He picked the book up and said that he started to read in it. And as he read in the book he told us that he felt such a peace as that he had never before felt in his life. That is when he said that he knew that the book was true and that he wanted to meet again with us. He called the church headquarters in Frankfurt, and told them that he wanted our number. So they gave him our number and he called us and wanted to meet. We have since then met with him twice and he has told us that he wants to keep meeting. So we have been teaching him and we have set a baptizmal date for the 26th of december. He said that that is a beautiful day and that he wants to prepare himself to be baptized on the 26th. Woot. that is soooo coool. we have been working so hard this week. We have another progressing investigator his name is Geff, he is from brazil, he speaks portuguese as well and he wants to meet with us regularly. We have met with him three times and this week we also set a baptizmal date with him. He wants to be baptized on the 23rd of january! Wow! He said something pretty amazing the last time we were with him. He said, that he has nightmares and he feels not very good when he is just at home with his wife or at work, but as we come there it is such a happy and good feeling. we took this opportunity to explain to him that that is the holy ghost and we showed him the scripture in galations chapter 5:22-23 about the fruits of the spirit and he said that that was exactly how he felt as we were around. We told him that he could always have these feelings with him as he followed the commandments and got baptized and konfirmed with the holy ghost. And when he keeps the commandments he is promised to have the spirit to with him always he was excited about this and so that is why he wants to change his life that he has right now and begin a new one with the baptizm. But i feel we are going to have a lot of work to do with him, because in our first appointment with him he said to us, "weißt du, gestern habe ich zu viel drogen genommen, ich bin auf dem boden gelegen" (translation: did you know, yesterday i took too many drugs, i layed on the ground.) WE also gave out a baptismal committment to a foreign exchange student that was here from california. the setting was classic. So we were in a mcdonalds in the kids section. That was the only place that he could meet because he is heading back to america soon because his semester abroad is coming to an end. But ya music was playing in the background (by the way that is the first time i have been in a mcdonalds here, they are way nicer here than in the states) music, everything from CCR to BEyonce to Johnny cash and LIl' John. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ as we sat at this loudly colored table that had Mcdonalds graffitti all over it in neon colors. The cool thing though was that among all the distractions we still had an opening and closing prayer and the spirit was so strong there. So we gave out a baptizmal committment in the middle of mickey D's and people were checking out what was going down with the two mormons in black suits in the kids section. It kinda reminded me of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants section one verse 24 then verse 30. We are here to bring the church out of darkness and obscurity. I actually dont know what it says in english, i have it memorized in german however. ha ha so ya we are givin out the baptizmal commitments like crazy letting people know our purpose here, but trust me i wont be just baptizing people to baptize them. they need to be ready. that would be a total shame if they all just fell away.
There was just so much that went on this week we, also had zone conference. we ate tofu at a members house (not going to become a vegetarian anytime soon), we got water thrown at us from a 3 story building out of a bucket. just to many things to even say as we are running out of time. well i will be sending your packages today now that i have money thank you mother for clearing that up. I love you. Well tschuss!!!
oh a donner is a thing kinda like a flat bread pita then it has meat inside that has been shaven off of a giant rotissere meat stick thing. It is a turkish food. But they are super good. you will see a pic of one sometime. On christmas you tell me when it would be best to call. love you!!!!!
Monday, November 30, 2009
November 30, 2009
Dear Family friends acquaintences,
Well I am just so thankful that I have the opportunity to be serving the Lord. I wake up everyday excited to be a missionary. This week has been absolutely wonderful. We have been definitely working hard to get done what needs to be done. We worked hard trying to get to some less active members this week and that was good. There was a referral in hallein (a city about 20 miles south of Salzburg) that we have been trying to contact, his name is Amin Paulin. We spent a little bit of time on trains this week, in going down there to contact him and to teach a contact I had made on the train. I want to say WE, but I don’t know what to do. You told me to stay excited about the mission work and I have been, but I don’t think Elder Ensign has even a drive to do this work anymore. Maybe it is a problem with me. Any insights on this one would be great. So when we are on trains I contact and he just sits there, so if you have any ideas how we could better develop a spirit of urgency or spirit of excitement here that would be helpful. Anyhow I can still see that the Lord wants us to succeed here in Salzburg and triumph over the enemy. There was a cool story. We were in Bad Reichenhal trying to visit Lutz Halmanseder, (our investigator with a baptismal date, who we haven’t had contact with for the week), well we were up there trying to visit him and then all of a sudden the phone rings and so I answer it. The man on the other end of the line asks me If I am from America and if I am talking about a blue book about Jesus Christ. I answered in the affirmative. He then began to unfold a great and marvelous story about how he had met at earlier times with the missionaries and how he was even invited to be baptized. He said he had turned the invitation down because he didn’t know how many life Paths he could follow at the same time, because he was also involved in the Krishna chanting religion, and he was a baptized Christian. But he called us up and said that None of that matters to him anymore. He said that he has been reading the book of mormon and he knows that it is true. He said that he wanted to give us his number and his address. So that we could meet with him. He also said that he wanted to come to church but that he had a doctors appointment in munich on Sunday but that he said he would come next Sunday if that was ok with us. We of course said yes and we made an appointment out on the phone for this Tuesday. It looks like we will probably be setting another baptismal date as soon as we find out how much he has been taught. But I have the faith and the trust in the Lord that he has prepared this man for usit is just so amazing to see the miracles that helps us make it through the times when it is the hardest. We have still got to work with the members better because finding on our own time is pretty tough. Hopefully we can get the excitement going in our ward so that we can start winning and doing what we are called to do. Teach.
Mom question, can you put more money in my account? You see i bought all the christmas gifts last week and this week i would like to send them but i dont have any money in there to do that. I only have pdays to do this kind of stuff that is not related to misisonary work so it would be helpful if you could help me out in that respect.
You already got my christmas gift? hmmm i wonder what it is? well i found what i really want for christmas. Could you send some burts bees chapstick. I am almost out of it and the winter weather makes my lips crack. another thing that you or dad could maybe work on and send me later is my ipod with my ihome, no headphones. Work on deleting all of the old bad music and see if you can go on to the church website and download all the hymns in mp3 form. then see if you can get some classical music from grandma. the reason why i ask is because our investigator ney invited us to his concert this week and we had to get approval from president first. president said yes and that we could always llisten to classical musik so. we went there and got to enjoy an evening of Brahms symphonie number 2 In the salzburg mozart concert hall. It was so beautiful. So if you could send some of that mozart brahms beethoven other of the older century classical music and other gospel music that would be cool. well not a lot of time. I love you all and this is my wish for you, to have a happy and wonderful week!
Elder Adams
Well I am just so thankful that I have the opportunity to be serving the Lord. I wake up everyday excited to be a missionary. This week has been absolutely wonderful. We have been definitely working hard to get done what needs to be done. We worked hard trying to get to some less active members this week and that was good. There was a referral in hallein (a city about 20 miles south of Salzburg) that we have been trying to contact, his name is Amin Paulin. We spent a little bit of time on trains this week, in going down there to contact him and to teach a contact I had made on the train. I want to say WE, but I don’t know what to do. You told me to stay excited about the mission work and I have been, but I don’t think Elder Ensign has even a drive to do this work anymore. Maybe it is a problem with me. Any insights on this one would be great. So when we are on trains I contact and he just sits there, so if you have any ideas how we could better develop a spirit of urgency or spirit of excitement here that would be helpful. Anyhow I can still see that the Lord wants us to succeed here in Salzburg and triumph over the enemy. There was a cool story. We were in Bad Reichenhal trying to visit Lutz Halmanseder, (our investigator with a baptismal date, who we haven’t had contact with for the week), well we were up there trying to visit him and then all of a sudden the phone rings and so I answer it. The man on the other end of the line asks me If I am from America and if I am talking about a blue book about Jesus Christ. I answered in the affirmative. He then began to unfold a great and marvelous story about how he had met at earlier times with the missionaries and how he was even invited to be baptized. He said he had turned the invitation down because he didn’t know how many life Paths he could follow at the same time, because he was also involved in the Krishna chanting religion, and he was a baptized Christian. But he called us up and said that None of that matters to him anymore. He said that he has been reading the book of mormon and he knows that it is true. He said that he wanted to give us his number and his address. So that we could meet with him. He also said that he wanted to come to church but that he had a doctors appointment in munich on Sunday but that he said he would come next Sunday if that was ok with us. We of course said yes and we made an appointment out on the phone for this Tuesday. It looks like we will probably be setting another baptismal date as soon as we find out how much he has been taught. But I have the faith and the trust in the Lord that he has prepared this man for usit is just so amazing to see the miracles that helps us make it through the times when it is the hardest. We have still got to work with the members better because finding on our own time is pretty tough. Hopefully we can get the excitement going in our ward so that we can start winning and doing what we are called to do. Teach.
Mom question, can you put more money in my account? You see i bought all the christmas gifts last week and this week i would like to send them but i dont have any money in there to do that. I only have pdays to do this kind of stuff that is not related to misisonary work so it would be helpful if you could help me out in that respect.
You already got my christmas gift? hmmm i wonder what it is? well i found what i really want for christmas. Could you send some burts bees chapstick. I am almost out of it and the winter weather makes my lips crack. another thing that you or dad could maybe work on and send me later is my ipod with my ihome, no headphones. Work on deleting all of the old bad music and see if you can go on to the church website and download all the hymns in mp3 form. then see if you can get some classical music from grandma. the reason why i ask is because our investigator ney invited us to his concert this week and we had to get approval from president first. president said yes and that we could always llisten to classical musik so. we went there and got to enjoy an evening of Brahms symphonie number 2 In the salzburg mozart concert hall. It was so beautiful. So if you could send some of that mozart brahms beethoven other of the older century classical music and other gospel music that would be cool. well not a lot of time. I love you all and this is my wish for you, to have a happy and wonderful week!
Elder Adams
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
November 24, 2009
Dear Sister Adams,
We apologize for the delay in responding to your email. You are welcome to send Elder Adams a GPS if you would like, but you should know that it might be subject to customs fees and delays. We have not yet been able to determine a pattern as to what is held up in customs or how much the fees might be, but sometimes the delays are long and the fees can be as high as 50 euros. You just need to be aware of that. Another alternative, if you don't want to run that risk, would be to have him buy one here.
As to whether he needs it or not, that would probably best be decided between you and him. We do not have many car areas, so most of our missionaries use public transportation or bikes and seem to be very proficient.
Again, we apologize for the delay in responding. Elder Adams is a wonderful elder--we are so impressed with and grateful for him. Thank you for sending him to us so well-prepared and for supporting him as he serves. You might also have heard that your other son served in our daughter's ward in Evanston, Illinois for about nine months--a happy coincidence!
We hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas.
President and Sister Condie
Monday, November 23, 2009
November 23, 2009
So, this week has been pretty good so far. Let me tell you about it. I know that i have to have hard times in the mission because then it will make me savor the good times better. you cant know the sweet without the sour. So last week was tough. Elder Ensign (from Chugiak Alaska) and i had some troubles. We had to work through some obedience issues. But now I think that we are all good. We have returned to a state of homeostasis. All is well. But last week i was wishing that at transfer time we would get separated. Which by the way this week was transfer calls.... (drumroll).... elder adams is staying here in salzburg for christmas!!!!!! We are needed in this area. Elder ensign and i, we got everything worked out and thank goodness we did because as we taugtht lutz this week we needed the spirit with us. We were teaching him and during the lesson i had the strongest feeling to committ him to baptism. He is accepting everything so well and holding all of his committments. I acted upon the feeling and invited lutz to be baptised. He said he wants to change his life and expereince the joy related to the gospel message and the spirit that we share. So Lutz Helmanseder will be baptised on the 19th of December 2009. In another lesson we taught him der wort der weissheit.... um i think it is called the word of wisdom in english, anyhow he wants to stop drinking coffee. He has held it so far. I am so proud of him. He is preparing for this baptism and we are super Excited. I think that that is the reason that we are staying. We need to help lutz learn more about the gospel untill that day when he closes the covenant of baptism and then we can help him gain his own testimony so that we can have strong members and new leaders of the church here in salzburg.
Elder Ensign had his birthday on the nineteenth of november. We didnt do anything special. we bought a dönner for dinner and we worked hard through the day.
We also had a musical fireside that the ward mission team (we call ourselves team salzburg) here organised for the purpose of finding and teaching new investigators of the church. We invited so many people and also told members that they should invite their nonmember friends. it was so spiritual. It was themed about the family. We had members give special musical parts where they played the cello and the piano. I also had the opportunity to sing in this musical fireside. I sang i am a child of God (auf deutsch ich bin ein kind von Gott) we would read a paragraph from each section of the Family a Proklamation to the World and in between each paragraph we would sing songs or songs would be played. It was so powerful. But the members here weren't so excited about missionary work or inviting people so not too many non members came. But it still worked out. I loved it. The spirit really was so strong. Music just has that power to invite the spirit.
As for thanksgiving here... it doesnt exist. I'm pretty sure the history behind thanksgiving is that the pilgrims landed in the UNITED STATES OF AMAZINGNESS!! and not Austria. So we dont celebrate that here. However we do celebrate christmas (also known as weihnachten) and we celebrate it for three days here. Well not us as missionaries but people here in austria do. so i assume that we will be getting some pretty angry people at us as we go knocking doors and as we go working on christmas.
Oh so i took some money out for christmas gifts. it might have been too much so if you could transfer some that would be cool. But that is amazing. I get to stay in salzburg for another transfer! thats during christmas time. People dream about being here in salzburg for christmas. Im living it. I am so blessed. The work is going so amazing, Slow, but we are seeing the blessings each and every step of the way.
by the way translation of what dad said to me, "dry your hair with a towell. Cut your hair like usual." Might i ask where this came from? Kommische leute. ha ha
Question about my companions. I think i answered earlier in this email but elder ensign is from Chugiak, Alaska Elder Wright is from bountiful, utah (by the way my trainer who became ap is now going home and now elder wright is the new ap) Elder Williams is from ogden Utah. Everybody says that i was trained by the greatest and that it shows and that soon i will be also taking positions of authority. I vote no. I just want to work it out here in salzburg the whole time and find people. well i gotta go write president. All is well here and I love you all. Have a wonderful week.
Elder Adams
Elder Ensign had his birthday on the nineteenth of november. We didnt do anything special. we bought a dönner for dinner and we worked hard through the day.
We also had a musical fireside that the ward mission team (we call ourselves team salzburg) here organised for the purpose of finding and teaching new investigators of the church. We invited so many people and also told members that they should invite their nonmember friends. it was so spiritual. It was themed about the family. We had members give special musical parts where they played the cello and the piano. I also had the opportunity to sing in this musical fireside. I sang i am a child of God (auf deutsch ich bin ein kind von Gott) we would read a paragraph from each section of the Family a Proklamation to the World and in between each paragraph we would sing songs or songs would be played. It was so powerful. But the members here weren't so excited about missionary work or inviting people so not too many non members came. But it still worked out. I loved it. The spirit really was so strong. Music just has that power to invite the spirit.
As for thanksgiving here... it doesnt exist. I'm pretty sure the history behind thanksgiving is that the pilgrims landed in the UNITED STATES OF AMAZINGNESS!! and not Austria. So we dont celebrate that here. However we do celebrate christmas (also known as weihnachten) and we celebrate it for three days here. Well not us as missionaries but people here in austria do. so i assume that we will be getting some pretty angry people at us as we go knocking doors and as we go working on christmas.
Oh so i took some money out for christmas gifts. it might have been too much so if you could transfer some that would be cool. But that is amazing. I get to stay in salzburg for another transfer! thats during christmas time. People dream about being here in salzburg for christmas. Im living it. I am so blessed. The work is going so amazing, Slow, but we are seeing the blessings each and every step of the way.
by the way translation of what dad said to me, "dry your hair with a towell. Cut your hair like usual." Might i ask where this came from? Kommische leute. ha ha
Question about my companions. I think i answered earlier in this email but elder ensign is from Chugiak, Alaska Elder Wright is from bountiful, utah (by the way my trainer who became ap is now going home and now elder wright is the new ap) Elder Williams is from ogden Utah. Everybody says that i was trained by the greatest and that it shows and that soon i will be also taking positions of authority. I vote no. I just want to work it out here in salzburg the whole time and find people. well i gotta go write president. All is well here and I love you all. Have a wonderful week.
Elder Adams
Monday, November 16, 2009
November 16, 2009
Hey papos,
How are you doing? I wanted to tell you how grateful i am to you for all that you have taught me. You really are a good example to me and i just wanted to let you know that. For example my last two companions elder Wright and Elder ensign both had no idea what to do when they got a flat tire or a piece on their bike broke. or also for example what to do when the plug on the vacuum is shorted out after shooting fire across and sparks accross the room. Thanks to you and the time we spent together working on repairing stuff and working on my car and bikes i knew how to repair the vacuum and how to fix the flat on the tire and the kugellager (or bearing storage in english) for the pedal crank on the bike. Thanks for being the best and teaching me how to get it done. A lot of stuff has gone wrong this week and it has been a hard one with Elder Ensign but thanks to the ability that i learned from you of how to fix a bike i was able to serve my companion and make things better between us. I never thank you enough. Or tell you enough that i love you, but i am telling you now. I love you and i hope that all is well with you and the fam. and by the way congratulations on the award! :)With love Elder Adams
November 16, 2009
hello,
thank you for the emails. Thank you for everything. this week was hard. Not gonna lie. It has been super tough. We could tell that we are doing something right because satan has been throwing everything at us. One of the families that we have been teaching just told us the other day that they dont want to meet with us anymore. that was hard. I was so excited to be helping this family come closer to the gospel. but ok. We had some struggles as a companionship. Elder Ensign and I were doing some doors because one of our appointments fell out, and a man answered. i initiated the conversation with the man and started to talk to him about the book of mormon. He had a few questions and i tried to answer them as best as i could, and with them i gave as powerful testimony that i could. However elder ensign just stood there. He didnt back up my testimony. I confronted him about it and asked why he didn't help me and i told him that i felt alone on the door as the man talked to us, and immediately Elder ensign just got super defensive and said it was because i was trying to bash the man. I just gave my testimony i dont know what was wrong with that. Oh well we are working through it. I heard my trainer say one day as i was with him that as long as i serve my companion as much as possible then everything will be better. So i have been working at it. Doing as much for him as i possibly can.
We had companion exchanges this week and I got to work with elder Gabbot. He is a really cool missionary. It turns out that he is my brother (they have a whole missionary relation thing). So he is my brother in the sense that he was trained by my trainer (my father) . Cool right? On this exchange we went to an investigators of ours and we had a member with us on this teaching appointment and I wanted to make it good so that the members would start coming with us more on joint teaches. So this was a way super spiritual lesson. we taught about the plan of salvation. He was loving it. He said it all made sense now why adam and eve fell. It was going so good in the lesson that as we started coming to the end i had the strongest feeling to commit him to baptism. so at the end i reviewed all that what we had talked about and then i committed him to baptism. He said that that is something that he would want. He acceppted!! So hopefully we can keep helping him come closer. He actually came to church on sunday and he loved it. It was the primary program and that was really good. Not gonna lie these little austrian kids are good at singing. but our Investigator Lutz Helmanseder, i don't know if i have said his name before, said that he loved it. I introduced him to like the entire ward. and he was absolutely stoked to be there. So hopefully soon :) We found a new investigator this week and his name is Jeff. He is also from brasil. He can also speak portuguese. We have only taught him once so far but we already have appointments set out with him next week.
But ya that was my week. it was tough. i wanted to break down and cry at some points but all will be well. i am really learning how to pray and rely on the Lord. I know that he can take my burdens from me and help me through these struggling times.
Elder adams
thank you for the emails. Thank you for everything. this week was hard. Not gonna lie. It has been super tough. We could tell that we are doing something right because satan has been throwing everything at us. One of the families that we have been teaching just told us the other day that they dont want to meet with us anymore. that was hard. I was so excited to be helping this family come closer to the gospel. but ok. We had some struggles as a companionship. Elder Ensign and I were doing some doors because one of our appointments fell out, and a man answered. i initiated the conversation with the man and started to talk to him about the book of mormon. He had a few questions and i tried to answer them as best as i could, and with them i gave as powerful testimony that i could. However elder ensign just stood there. He didnt back up my testimony. I confronted him about it and asked why he didn't help me and i told him that i felt alone on the door as the man talked to us, and immediately Elder ensign just got super defensive and said it was because i was trying to bash the man. I just gave my testimony i dont know what was wrong with that. Oh well we are working through it. I heard my trainer say one day as i was with him that as long as i serve my companion as much as possible then everything will be better. So i have been working at it. Doing as much for him as i possibly can.
We had companion exchanges this week and I got to work with elder Gabbot. He is a really cool missionary. It turns out that he is my brother (they have a whole missionary relation thing). So he is my brother in the sense that he was trained by my trainer (my father) . Cool right? On this exchange we went to an investigators of ours and we had a member with us on this teaching appointment and I wanted to make it good so that the members would start coming with us more on joint teaches. So this was a way super spiritual lesson. we taught about the plan of salvation. He was loving it. He said it all made sense now why adam and eve fell. It was going so good in the lesson that as we started coming to the end i had the strongest feeling to commit him to baptism. so at the end i reviewed all that what we had talked about and then i committed him to baptism. He said that that is something that he would want. He acceppted!! So hopefully we can keep helping him come closer. He actually came to church on sunday and he loved it. It was the primary program and that was really good. Not gonna lie these little austrian kids are good at singing. but our Investigator Lutz Helmanseder, i don't know if i have said his name before, said that he loved it. I introduced him to like the entire ward. and he was absolutely stoked to be there. So hopefully soon :) We found a new investigator this week and his name is Jeff. He is also from brasil. He can also speak portuguese. We have only taught him once so far but we already have appointments set out with him next week.
But ya that was my week. it was tough. i wanted to break down and cry at some points but all will be well. i am really learning how to pray and rely on the Lord. I know that he can take my burdens from me and help me through these struggling times.
Elder adams
Monday, November 9, 2009
November 9, 2009
Well HELLOOOOOO,
Guten morgen liebe famile, freunde, bekannte und verwandte! Ich habe etwas besonderes heute mitzuteilen! Wir habe so viele erfolg diese woche gesehen! Und ich kann einfach sagen dass ich liebe die missions arbeit!!!! oh whoops i forgot that german is not the same as english. I get confused sometimes. One time we were doing some doors this week and a lady answered the door in english and i answered back in german because they both sound the same to me. the level of understanding is the same. so as to what i said at the beginning. Good morning beloved familie, friends, acquaintences and relatives! I have something special to share with you today! We have seen so much success this week! and I can simply say that i love mission work!!!!! WE have found 5 new investigators this week and i can just copy and paste what i wrote to president condie to you!!
-Präsident Condie,
Wow! Everything is going so great here in Salzburg. I cant believe the success we have seen this week. We have been comparing our numbers and where we are at during the week, to our goals and what we want to accomplish and it has really given us a drive to do better. We have realized that there is always room for improvement, and we are exercising the faith and the effort we put towards it in making this improvement. So in the comparison we have found that this week was our most successful week so far in the transfer. I am amazed at how many new investigators we found this week and I know that it is because of the new things we have learned from you and from the spirit.
To start it off I would like to talk a little bit about Elder Ensign. Wow! What an amazing missionary. He is really awesome and he really knows his stuff, why he is out here and, how he is going to get the job done. Thank you again for letting me be out here and working with such amazing examples. I talked to him about begeisterung and what his views on it were. We had a really good conversation about it and I could see a change in him afterwards. He has been putting more effort forth to be more excited and stoked about the work. Thank you once again for the advice that you gave me in interviews.
I think a direct result of this begeisterung and more motivation for the work is the amount of new investigators we have found and the overall complete success that we have seen this week. That coupled with faith led us to a new family. Their name is the Family Meilinger. We had contacted them forever ago and had tried to make out appointments with them but they always fell through. We finally made contact with them again and we taught them a lesson. The father, even though he was not used to church practices such as praying, said the prayer at the end of a very spiritual lesson, and also promised us that he would read in the Book of Mormon and pray with his family about it that evening. We also found a man named henry that we had also met a long time before and we had such a spiritual lesson. He said that he doesn’t really have a religion and is in the search for one right now. We also had a wonderful experience where it was late in the evening and we had the choice to go home and make a ton of phone calls that we didn’t get that chance to make before because we were so busy, or to stay out and work till the last second. We chose to stay outside because we had the feeling that we should stay in the area and work some doors. We had two wonderful people who answered the doors a man who is really excited to meet with us but did not have time to right then because it was so late in the evening. So we made an appointment out with him. The next lady that answered the klingel, her name is Frau Schernhammer, was excited as well to meet with us. She invited us right in and we had an amazing lesson and discussion. She had met with the missionaries before and only lost contact because she was busy raising a family and she didn’t know what she wanted to do with religion at that point. But now her kids are grown and she has felt the need to start finding what she wants religiously at this point in her life and she is ready to make decisions and take time to find that out. My mouth is hanging open this week at the blessings the Merciful Lord has been pouring out upon us here in Salzburg. We also reestablished contackt with a younger man named Sebastian and he would also like to investigate the church. We recommitted Ney to the baptism but he also believes that his church has an authority to baptize. This is getting hard with him. But I am happy at this time as the work progresses. We are extremely busy all the time and we are finding it hard to find time to accomplish all that is in front of us. It is a big task but we will come off the conquerer. I have gained a testimony of potential investigators. That is how we have found all of our investigators this week. And all that I can say is that it is a lot better than going door to door. But I love the work!!!! I love the Lord!!!!! President Condie I love you!!!! Thank you for all that you do for us. Your guidance and help and example is the fuel that keeps us missionaries going!!! Thanks a million!
Sadly ney does not as of yet want to get baptised. he still loves coming to church with us and he is meeting new people. I am so amazed at how many people here that we are finding speak portuguese that can help him in converting to the church. We were looking through the church records during our lunch break and we found two less active members who also come from brazil and can speak portugese. we are now working on reactivating them and converting ney. It is such hard work with trying to balance everthing else upon that. Appointments and lessons, meetings and study time. i have found that time is an enemy to us out here. I wish i could just battle it and force it into the submission of my will. but that will not likely happen.
Ummmm dont worry about contact solution. it is ok we have found a place that sells it for cheap and we usually have enough money so that i can buy it. Plus i think it is illegeal (is that how you spell that?) i think it is illegal to send liquids through the mail.
My goodness, Of course it is ok to send my emails to chelsea. I asked you to do that a long time ago because i was not able to always write her. i get really busy here. P-days are some of my busiest days because we have to get everything worldly done so that during the week we can only focus on the work. Please send my emails to her family as well. Just send them to everyone :) that would be coool. Everyone needs to know just how awesome the mission is and how the church is true!!!!
Wow that is really not good with sydneys mom. I hope that everything will be allright. I will pray super hard for their health and safety.
So yesterday, sunday, we had a couple hundred appointments. we are so busy not gonna lie. But for one of the appointments we had a joint teach who came with us. His name is Br. Malzl. So we knocked on the door of this american student home where our investigator lives and nobody answered but we could see them in the kitchen and so bruder Malzl just says to us, "have you tried the door already?" At this point he take the door knob in his hand and turns it and just walks right in to these peoples home walks into the kitchen and asks if brian is there. oh man we were so scared that someone was going to get shot. WE were like Br. malzl these are AMERICANS! they have guns. Its not like germany. Ha ha but we had a good laugh about it. and then he talked to us afterward on the way home and he has his own business called pro shlaf. which means pro sleep. and he is beginning to expand his business to the chiropractic field in america and stuff and so i told him that is what i wanted to do after my mission and then he said that i can have a job working for him as i study to be a chiropractor after my mission. Which is cool because he is one of the weathiest members in our ward. Cool. well i dont have a lot of time to write more. Its going good. Christmas Ideas from everybody would be wonderful. I dont have time to think about what i can buy you so if you do the thinking then i can just do the buying cool!!!! ok love you Alll with meinem ganzem herzen! (with my whole heart) Tschüß!!!!!! Aufwiedersehen!
Elder Adams
Guten morgen liebe famile, freunde, bekannte und verwandte! Ich habe etwas besonderes heute mitzuteilen! Wir habe so viele erfolg diese woche gesehen! Und ich kann einfach sagen dass ich liebe die missions arbeit!!!! oh whoops i forgot that german is not the same as english. I get confused sometimes. One time we were doing some doors this week and a lady answered the door in english and i answered back in german because they both sound the same to me. the level of understanding is the same. so as to what i said at the beginning. Good morning beloved familie, friends, acquaintences and relatives! I have something special to share with you today! We have seen so much success this week! and I can simply say that i love mission work!!!!! WE have found 5 new investigators this week and i can just copy and paste what i wrote to president condie to you!!
-Präsident Condie,
Wow! Everything is going so great here in Salzburg. I cant believe the success we have seen this week. We have been comparing our numbers and where we are at during the week, to our goals and what we want to accomplish and it has really given us a drive to do better. We have realized that there is always room for improvement, and we are exercising the faith and the effort we put towards it in making this improvement. So in the comparison we have found that this week was our most successful week so far in the transfer. I am amazed at how many new investigators we found this week and I know that it is because of the new things we have learned from you and from the spirit.
To start it off I would like to talk a little bit about Elder Ensign. Wow! What an amazing missionary. He is really awesome and he really knows his stuff, why he is out here and, how he is going to get the job done. Thank you again for letting me be out here and working with such amazing examples. I talked to him about begeisterung and what his views on it were. We had a really good conversation about it and I could see a change in him afterwards. He has been putting more effort forth to be more excited and stoked about the work. Thank you once again for the advice that you gave me in interviews.
I think a direct result of this begeisterung and more motivation for the work is the amount of new investigators we have found and the overall complete success that we have seen this week. That coupled with faith led us to a new family. Their name is the Family Meilinger. We had contacted them forever ago and had tried to make out appointments with them but they always fell through. We finally made contact with them again and we taught them a lesson. The father, even though he was not used to church practices such as praying, said the prayer at the end of a very spiritual lesson, and also promised us that he would read in the Book of Mormon and pray with his family about it that evening. We also found a man named henry that we had also met a long time before and we had such a spiritual lesson. He said that he doesn’t really have a religion and is in the search for one right now. We also had a wonderful experience where it was late in the evening and we had the choice to go home and make a ton of phone calls that we didn’t get that chance to make before because we were so busy, or to stay out and work till the last second. We chose to stay outside because we had the feeling that we should stay in the area and work some doors. We had two wonderful people who answered the doors a man who is really excited to meet with us but did not have time to right then because it was so late in the evening. So we made an appointment out with him. The next lady that answered the klingel, her name is Frau Schernhammer, was excited as well to meet with us. She invited us right in and we had an amazing lesson and discussion. She had met with the missionaries before and only lost contact because she was busy raising a family and she didn’t know what she wanted to do with religion at that point. But now her kids are grown and she has felt the need to start finding what she wants religiously at this point in her life and she is ready to make decisions and take time to find that out. My mouth is hanging open this week at the blessings the Merciful Lord has been pouring out upon us here in Salzburg. We also reestablished contackt with a younger man named Sebastian and he would also like to investigate the church. We recommitted Ney to the baptism but he also believes that his church has an authority to baptize. This is getting hard with him. But I am happy at this time as the work progresses. We are extremely busy all the time and we are finding it hard to find time to accomplish all that is in front of us. It is a big task but we will come off the conquerer. I have gained a testimony of potential investigators. That is how we have found all of our investigators this week. And all that I can say is that it is a lot better than going door to door. But I love the work!!!! I love the Lord!!!!! President Condie I love you!!!! Thank you for all that you do for us. Your guidance and help and example is the fuel that keeps us missionaries going!!! Thanks a million!
Sadly ney does not as of yet want to get baptised. he still loves coming to church with us and he is meeting new people. I am so amazed at how many people here that we are finding speak portuguese that can help him in converting to the church. We were looking through the church records during our lunch break and we found two less active members who also come from brazil and can speak portugese. we are now working on reactivating them and converting ney. It is such hard work with trying to balance everthing else upon that. Appointments and lessons, meetings and study time. i have found that time is an enemy to us out here. I wish i could just battle it and force it into the submission of my will. but that will not likely happen.
Ummmm dont worry about contact solution. it is ok we have found a place that sells it for cheap and we usually have enough money so that i can buy it. Plus i think it is illegeal (is that how you spell that?) i think it is illegal to send liquids through the mail.
My goodness, Of course it is ok to send my emails to chelsea. I asked you to do that a long time ago because i was not able to always write her. i get really busy here. P-days are some of my busiest days because we have to get everything worldly done so that during the week we can only focus on the work. Please send my emails to her family as well. Just send them to everyone :) that would be coool. Everyone needs to know just how awesome the mission is and how the church is true!!!!
Wow that is really not good with sydneys mom. I hope that everything will be allright. I will pray super hard for their health and safety.
So yesterday, sunday, we had a couple hundred appointments. we are so busy not gonna lie. But for one of the appointments we had a joint teach who came with us. His name is Br. Malzl. So we knocked on the door of this american student home where our investigator lives and nobody answered but we could see them in the kitchen and so bruder Malzl just says to us, "have you tried the door already?" At this point he take the door knob in his hand and turns it and just walks right in to these peoples home walks into the kitchen and asks if brian is there. oh man we were so scared that someone was going to get shot. WE were like Br. malzl these are AMERICANS! they have guns. Its not like germany. Ha ha but we had a good laugh about it. and then he talked to us afterward on the way home and he has his own business called pro shlaf. which means pro sleep. and he is beginning to expand his business to the chiropractic field in america and stuff and so i told him that is what i wanted to do after my mission and then he said that i can have a job working for him as i study to be a chiropractor after my mission. Which is cool because he is one of the weathiest members in our ward. Cool. well i dont have a lot of time to write more. Its going good. Christmas Ideas from everybody would be wonderful. I dont have time to think about what i can buy you so if you do the thinking then i can just do the buying cool!!!! ok love you Alll with meinem ganzem herzen! (with my whole heart) Tschüß!!!!!! Aufwiedersehen!
Elder Adams
Monday, November 2, 2009
November 2, 2009
hey well that is a cool thing about that little kid. we have an investigator that is the exact same way. he is not a little kid but he is a black man his name is peter and he loves to explain all the bible stories to us. It is really funny because he explains them in such a way that even a child can understand them. But hey guess what awesome news! We committed our investigator ney to baptism! Tell spencer that is the guy who was in the picture with me in last weeks email to him. It is really cool. He already has a testimony he says that he knows that all that we have taught him is true. Im way excited about it!!!!!! Anyhow we just gotta keep praying and hope that he follows through.
On other terms. I did happen to get your package. If you could call it a package. The post office destroyed it. The contact solution was gone. there was only one candy piece in there and it was smashed. I got the card that was inside. Thank you very much for that mom. You really are the best for sending that to me. the post office however had destroyed the package. it was all torn and smashed so they put a plastic bag around the remains and said "sorry that your package was damaged, we try to prevent instances like this as often as possible to ensure the satisfaction of our customers -sincerely yours United States Postal Service" So i guess i will go and buy some contact solution. we found a place where you can get it way cheaper its only like 12 euro for a bottle. so i will go and do that.
Judging by the subject on your email you wanted to ask something about daylight savings, but you didnt write anything so i will try to answer as best as i can. Yes we do have daylight savings time here. We got to sleep an extra hour so that was nice.
This week we had something called mission tour. It is where the area general authorities come and teach us how to be more awesome than we already are. It was so spiritual. that was a really cool experience. Elder Cumargo of the Second quorum of the seventy came and taught with his wife for the first half. and then Elder Tischera (don't know if that is spelled right) of the first quorum of the seventy came and talked to us for the second half. It was like six hours long of training and awesomeness. they taught us about faith and taking our faith to the next level. As we have started to apply what we have learned we are starting to see more success. it is awesome we have found two new investigators in the past two days. We are giving out copies of the book of mormon like it is nobodies business and i am loving it. this work is really amazing. I am amazed each and everyday as i wake up and think about what im going to experience today.
That is soo cool!!! Mitchell got his call. Im excited for him!!!! He's gonna love it! Wow! Mexico! tell him congrats!
As a matter of fact they do celebrate halloween in austria. that was a cool experience. I had totally forgot on the 31st that it was halloween. Untill night time when we had a little bit of time in between appointments to go out and do some doors. We went out and there were little children dressed up as bats and witches and ghosts running around as if they were hopped up on crack and candy going door to door as well. It worked out. Lots of people thought we were knocking doors to get candy but when we told them that we wanted to give them something it was a bit of a shock. All that i can say is that several appointments were made and several of Gods elect were found. They give better candy here too. German chocolate is just way better. :)
Next topic on the agenda. Europe is weird i think i have been scarred for life. I dont know how many people have answered their doors in speedos. really really starting to get creeped out. plus there is a man who just moved into the flat behind us and he likes to walk around his apartment stark naked with the windows open. We have resorted to buying blinds since our apartment has not had them before and ya.
next topic...... well i dont know what else to write about. maybe i will get back on in a second. Im gonna go write president. tschüß!!! :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!
Hey i gots a little more time hope all is well with the family. here is a cool scripture that i found while studying this morning. phillipians 4:13
I really do love you all and i am thankfull that you all do so much for me. Have a wonderful week and know that you are all in my prayers. :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!
Danke shön für die email!!!! Hey it is good to keep hearing from you. How is it going with the car? We see a lot of those roaming around the streets here in germany. Wanna know what else we see here? Ferrarris. thats right. Well you have fun now. Run along and be safe and play nice. Love you tons little spency!
On other terms. I did happen to get your package. If you could call it a package. The post office destroyed it. The contact solution was gone. there was only one candy piece in there and it was smashed. I got the card that was inside. Thank you very much for that mom. You really are the best for sending that to me. the post office however had destroyed the package. it was all torn and smashed so they put a plastic bag around the remains and said "sorry that your package was damaged, we try to prevent instances like this as often as possible to ensure the satisfaction of our customers -sincerely yours United States Postal Service" So i guess i will go and buy some contact solution. we found a place where you can get it way cheaper its only like 12 euro for a bottle. so i will go and do that.
Judging by the subject on your email you wanted to ask something about daylight savings, but you didnt write anything so i will try to answer as best as i can. Yes we do have daylight savings time here. We got to sleep an extra hour so that was nice.
This week we had something called mission tour. It is where the area general authorities come and teach us how to be more awesome than we already are. It was so spiritual. that was a really cool experience. Elder Cumargo of the Second quorum of the seventy came and taught with his wife for the first half. and then Elder Tischera (don't know if that is spelled right) of the first quorum of the seventy came and talked to us for the second half. It was like six hours long of training and awesomeness. they taught us about faith and taking our faith to the next level. As we have started to apply what we have learned we are starting to see more success. it is awesome we have found two new investigators in the past two days. We are giving out copies of the book of mormon like it is nobodies business and i am loving it. this work is really amazing. I am amazed each and everyday as i wake up and think about what im going to experience today.
That is soo cool!!! Mitchell got his call. Im excited for him!!!! He's gonna love it! Wow! Mexico! tell him congrats!
As a matter of fact they do celebrate halloween in austria. that was a cool experience. I had totally forgot on the 31st that it was halloween. Untill night time when we had a little bit of time in between appointments to go out and do some doors. We went out and there were little children dressed up as bats and witches and ghosts running around as if they were hopped up on crack and candy going door to door as well. It worked out. Lots of people thought we were knocking doors to get candy but when we told them that we wanted to give them something it was a bit of a shock. All that i can say is that several appointments were made and several of Gods elect were found. They give better candy here too. German chocolate is just way better. :)
Next topic on the agenda. Europe is weird i think i have been scarred for life. I dont know how many people have answered their doors in speedos. really really starting to get creeped out. plus there is a man who just moved into the flat behind us and he likes to walk around his apartment stark naked with the windows open. We have resorted to buying blinds since our apartment has not had them before and ya.
next topic...... well i dont know what else to write about. maybe i will get back on in a second. Im gonna go write president. tschüß!!! :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!
Hey i gots a little more time hope all is well with the family. here is a cool scripture that i found while studying this morning. phillipians 4:13
I really do love you all and i am thankfull that you all do so much for me. Have a wonderful week and know that you are all in my prayers. :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!
Danke shön für die email!!!! Hey it is good to keep hearing from you. How is it going with the car? We see a lot of those roaming around the streets here in germany. Wanna know what else we see here? Ferrarris. thats right. Well you have fun now. Run along and be safe and play nice. Love you tons little spency!
Monday, October 26, 2009
October 26, 2009
hey man you got to share the pictures when you when you get the pictures. ok man. Hey dont worry about state cup. I know you gave your best and now you can be gratefull that you had such an awesome learning experience. Thanks for your support little bro. I hope you know that I hold you in my eyes with utmost respect. you're a good kid and all will be well :) remember share the pictures.As for answers to questions that you posed to me in your latest email....
1.color to lederhosen- negative. no meaning other than to just to be awesome
2. Castle- i dont know what you are talking about. But it is probably the festung.
3. Negative- i have not bought a coat because a member in our ward, her name is Connie Sattler, She gave me a down coat that her son doesnt wear anymore. I am definately not going to freeze. It has been getting a little colder lately.
4. Money per month- 170 euro. Missionwork- priceless
5. Yes it is enough money per month
6. Dinner Appointments- earlier no, now yes. we are working on building the excitement in the ward and the members are beginning to love us. And the dinner appointments are coming with that. For example yesterday we got invited to the Grünauers and they had bought food for a party with all of their freinds but it got cancelled for some reason so they invited us over to come and eat it all. It was rackelet. ya know the thing where you have the tiny pans and you cook meat and cheese and potatos and make omelets and stuff. Ya it was delicious and i think i gained like three kilos.
7. Swine Flu- Keine ahnung (no idea) I am a missionary and i have the faith that God will protect me, so Im not going to worry to much about it.
As for the week it was excellent. We have been working super hard with members to get the excitement about mission work going because it is just really hard to find investigators on your own. We have made the grand and glorious discovery (through what we were taught in Zone Konferenz) that it is easier to have the members just give you the people that they have found and then we can just teach them, instead of spending several hours a day standing in the freezing cold knocking on doors. Cool story about that by the way! A member had talked to a man on a train a while back, His name is Lutz Helmanseder. She had spiked the interest in him to want to recieve a book of mormon. We have tried to contact him for the past like three months or so and have always had no luck. He lives north of us in Bad Reichenhal so we cant just go peddaling up there on our bikes whenever we want to. but we called him on saturday evening to confirm the appointment that we had made out with him the previous week. He was totally excited that we were coming. So in church we got a member to come with us. Br. Schubert. he is soo cool. Any how we taught about the restoration and where the book of mormon comes from and why it can help him in his life, he really to the the lesson and showed extreme interest. When we asked if we could meet with him another time to start to expain about the plan of salvation and the other things that the book of mormon contains there wasn't even a pause and he said Ja Freilich! (that is a big form of saying yes). So we, through the hand of the Lord and the members here in this part of the Lords vineyard, have a new investigator that we are teaching that is going to be coming to church next sunday!!!!! Zone Konferenz this week was way amazing. I love that so so much. Its the spiritual boost you need in the transfer.
The concert of our investigator Ney went way awesome. He played awesome and he gave me a CD of his band from back home in Brasil. We cant listen to it but im pretty sure it is good.
Im doing well. Elder Ensign and I work so awesome together. I love it as we are teaching and we both bear testimony and the teaching is just so spiritual. I can't describe the feeling of unity as you find joy in the work with your companion. We have a good time too. At night time as we write in our journals we recover the days events and there is always something that we find funny to laugh about till we are on the ground rolling and drooling..... ya we laugh pretty hard. well i think that that is all for me. The work goes forward here in salzburg. Im givin it the best i got and although sometimes it doesn't all work out the way as planned, I know that the Lord has His hand in the midst of it all and that we will be richly blessed for the work we are doing here and that the fruits of our labors will soon show forth.
LOVE YOU FAM
LOVE YOU MOMMY!!!!
ps SCARF= good idea. i use the one you gave me in the mtc and it is so amazing. they keep you so warm. if i get to choose a color can i have a brown mixed with black scarf for christmas. If i dont get to choose then i will still love you with all my heart and i will be grateful for what you send me! :) oh and i have not as of yet recieved the package but i will be on the prowl and on the look out for it.
Monday, October 19, 2009
October 19, 2009
The first accident was a while ago on the bike path next to the salzach river. That was during my first transfer. A biker tried to turn and go accross a bridge. I was bookin it down the path because we were late for an appointment and as this man tried to cross my path he stopped in the middle and so i pulled my brakes but it was too late his handle bar went into my hip. That one wasnt bad. But ya all is well. I dont need to go to the hospital it is just a really massive bruise on my arm that i got from his mirror. ha ha it looks like i am playing lacrosse again. Ahhh good times. Any how....NO. mom please no. I understand that it is your money and that i wont be in salzburg forever (although i wish i would be) but still you can just send me peanut butter and i will be super happy. Also if you want, although i think it is illegal, you could send contact solution. it is like 17 euro which is like 23 american dollars to buy a single small bottle of contact solution. But check it out first. I think it is illegal to send liquids through the mail. That would be a perfect christmas for me.
As for this week it has been amazing. We got a refferral from another elder in our mission here. Somehow he found out that his friend from back home was coming here to salzburg for a study abroad trip. He sent us to go find him and teach him. Well we found him. He lives on the top of Mönchsberg. It is like a bike ride and a half to get up there. By the time we get to the top i feel like my legs are jelly. but it is cool. I am changing the Adams inherited chicken legs into massive muscly mountainbike pistons of doom. But any how his name is Brian. He is so so so golden. We just had the most spiritual lesson of my life with him last night. We taught him about the plan of salvation and how we can find eternal joy through this plan that heavenly father has provided for us. He said after the lesson that it makes sense and that he can believe on something like this. He read in the book of mormon and he said he prayed about it and he wants to continue to meet with us. I am so stoked outta my mind. He is so going to get baptised here on his study abroad trip. Elder Ensign said that it was the most spiritual lesson that he has ever had on his mission. By the way Elder ensign is amazing. We are pretty tight already. He is kinda quiet, but he has such a strong spirit with him. I like him already. He is from alaska, and he is super funny. We are going to get along really well and we are going to see a ton of success together. I can see it already. Another investigator of ours, his name is Ney, he is from brasil. He loves playing soccer and he is also a violin master. He is here studying with one of the most world renouned violin teachers in an academy of Mozart. He is actually playing in a concert this wednesday with the Salzburg philharmonic orchestra, and he gave us two free tickets to it!!!! He also gave us a cd of his violin music!!!!! But that is not even the best part!! He has come with us to church the last two sundays, yesterday was stake conference and he really enjoyed that because they had portuguese translation at it just for him. He is so ready he loves coming to church and it just so happens that we found a lady in our ward that can also speak portuguese. She is a less active member, so it is like two birds with one stone/book of mormon. We are going to reactivate her and then baptise Ney! I am so pumped everyday to wake up and be a missionary. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Its Awesome!!! Well... Im gonna email president and report about the amazing week we had i will get back in a short bit LUV YOU BUNCHES!!!!
As for this week it has been amazing. We got a refferral from another elder in our mission here. Somehow he found out that his friend from back home was coming here to salzburg for a study abroad trip. He sent us to go find him and teach him. Well we found him. He lives on the top of Mönchsberg. It is like a bike ride and a half to get up there. By the time we get to the top i feel like my legs are jelly. but it is cool. I am changing the Adams inherited chicken legs into massive muscly mountainbike pistons of doom. But any how his name is Brian. He is so so so golden. We just had the most spiritual lesson of my life with him last night. We taught him about the plan of salvation and how we can find eternal joy through this plan that heavenly father has provided for us. He said after the lesson that it makes sense and that he can believe on something like this. He read in the book of mormon and he said he prayed about it and he wants to continue to meet with us. I am so stoked outta my mind. He is so going to get baptised here on his study abroad trip. Elder Ensign said that it was the most spiritual lesson that he has ever had on his mission. By the way Elder ensign is amazing. We are pretty tight already. He is kinda quiet, but he has such a strong spirit with him. I like him already. He is from alaska, and he is super funny. We are going to get along really well and we are going to see a ton of success together. I can see it already. Another investigator of ours, his name is Ney, he is from brasil. He loves playing soccer and he is also a violin master. He is here studying with one of the most world renouned violin teachers in an academy of Mozart. He is actually playing in a concert this wednesday with the Salzburg philharmonic orchestra, and he gave us two free tickets to it!!!! He also gave us a cd of his violin music!!!!! But that is not even the best part!! He has come with us to church the last two sundays, yesterday was stake conference and he really enjoyed that because they had portuguese translation at it just for him. He is so ready he loves coming to church and it just so happens that we found a lady in our ward that can also speak portuguese. She is a less active member, so it is like two birds with one stone/book of mormon. We are going to reactivate her and then baptise Ney! I am so pumped everyday to wake up and be a missionary. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Its Awesome!!! Well... Im gonna email president and report about the amazing week we had i will get back in a short bit LUV YOU BUNCHES!!!!
Monday, October 12, 2009
October 12, 2009
HelloI love you little man. cept you probably aint so little now. Here are a couple pics share with the fam read my email that i sent to mom. Cant write long but know that i love you and i pray for you. :) Peace!
So wow i will answer your questions first. Mom no! Do not, I repeat do not buy me a GPS. That is way too expensive. We have really decent maps here and i am really good at using them. And actually i as for transfers i am staying here in SALZBURG! Elder Wright is going away to München and he is going to be the Zone Leader there. So I am going to be getting a new companion. His name is Elder Ensign. Yes like the magazine. But i really know my way around all of salzburg so please dont buy me a GPS. that is way too expensive and I have already bought a bike and lederhosen. I need to be frugal with money. That is something i am learning on my mission. Cool huh? Elder Adams is learning how to budget money. I do it with the money i get everymonth. Set it all aside and make sure i leave enough for everything i need to buy. I am becoming a big boy out here. Gettin' all growned up. That is way cool about Dallan. Tell him congrats!
As for the translation. Yes that is what we do. One of the missionaries will have a separate mike in his hand. He is still in the same room however and he just does a live translation of the meeting as it goes down. I have only done it once. But ya last sunday there was a whole ward of people here and we had to work our butts off to find batteries and headsets for all of them. Cool stuff though. Mission Work is awesome!!!!!!
I already recieved grandmas letter. That is so cool. I heard Wien is a really cool place. The elders here calsl it the black hole because if you ever get transferred there you end up staying for a long time.
Tell the ward thank you soo much for the donations and the help that we are recieving. Mom that has been one of my biggest worries. That it would be super hard for all of us financially with two missionaries on a mission. We are so blessed. Speaking of blessings. So Sister condie said i need to be careful of how i tell you this story so as to not worry you. But this week i had another bike accident. Dont worry all is fine. But I now realize how protected we are as missionaries. So there is this tunnel in salzburg that is on a downhill incline. It was the end of the night and we had like five minutes to get back to the apartment so we needed to keep up a quick pace. We were booking it through this tunnel and i am not gonna lie i was probably going at least 60 or so kilometers per hour. as we came out of the tunnel i was coasting and pedalling towards home and when all of a sudden a car pulled out a side street and it was directly in my path. I pulled my brakes but one thing that most people dont know is that when you are going that fast, brakes dont work. So within a matter of milliseconds i pushed the handlebars as hard as i could to the side and took the force of the contact into the car with my shoulder. I heard something crack an the girl sitting in the passenger seat screamed. I then bounced over the hood and then landed on the ground with my helmet saving my life. I was out for a bit but elder Wright came from following behind and shook my shoulder and woke me up. The paramedics had to come and the police had to fill out a report for the man who was driving. But all went well. At the crash a Doctor showed up first before the paramedics on her vespa scooter and she started speaking in perfect english. she checked me out made sure i was ok and then just left. I think it was an angel sent from Heaven to make sure i was ok. The only place i was bleeding was from my finger from a tiny scratch. My shirt was completely ripped on the sleeve from where i destroyed the guys mirror. But the cool thing was that it was ripped just under my garment line. Later that night i took off my shirt to see what was wrong with my arm and it was just really really bruised but the crazy thing is that the bruise and the road rash goes up from my elbow and then just stops like a tan line right where my garments are. All that i can say is that i am protected. That is the promise being fullfilled from living right. It was a really cool experience and i will promise to be more careful. Mom i promise you i really am ok. Love you.
I have not bought a coat yet. But there is snow in the mountains. The Hills Are Alive With Snow!! I tell you what you can send me for christmas. Peanut butter. They have it here but it costs more than gold. And its not real peanut butter it is like tooth paste.
Diese woche war ganz gut! Ich kann es nicht glauben wie schön es ist ein missionar zu sein! I am going to write in english now because that is much easier. So this week we found 4 new investigators. I am so excited. Elder Wright and I last night were using Teach to find like profies and we got like four new appointments for the coming week already set out, In addition to the appointments we already have with our progressing investigators. The work is exploding here in Salzburg. Our ward mission leader is starting to get the ward fired up about the work as well. We are really going to busy ourselves with finding people and teaching and converting, because that is what we are called to do, and when the members see that, as they already have, we will start to get more and more refferals from them and then we will be so busy teaching their friends and the people that we have found that we won’t have any more time to do any more doors. Sad thought i know but that is how it should be. The members should do the finding and we are the ones who have been called to teach. However, yesterday, we had an investigator of ours in church. His name is Ney he is from Brazil and he speaks absolutely no german and about two or three words of englisch. But we are still able to communicate with him and get our point accross. We showed him the introduction to the church video in portuguese and he loves our church. He wants to keep coming to church adn to keep meeting with us. Oh and another little miracle to add to this weeks amazingness, there is actually a member in our ward who speaks portuguese!! Who would have thought? We totalled up our zusätslichesonstige lektionen and we had a total of 104! this transfer! Wow that is so many. Elder Wright says that is more than he has ever had on his whole mission. It just goes to show that What we have learned in Zone Konferenz is really helping us progress this work. Austausch this week was amazing! I learned so much from elder Feild. He is a really good missionary. So is Elder Wright and all the other elders I have been able to meet and work with. I just hope that i can keep improving and one day be the best missionary that i can be. Not only for myself but for my Savior and Reedeemer who leads us along in this work.
Monday, October 5, 2009
October 5, 2009
General Conference was so amazing!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh! Can you even believe it!???!!!! We have Prophets! Apostles! Men called of God to lead us in these days! Men just like adam noah moses. We are so blessed. I learned so much from this general conference. I Loved the talk by elder Ballard about fathers and sons. In the priesthood session. Dad I love you. Thank you for being the good example that you have been to me. I wanna grow up to be just like you! I took like ten some odd pages of notes and I cant wait for the liahona to come out. THat magazine has all of the general conference talks in it and i hold that as scripture. So ya the schedule for us was that we watched a session saturday night at six o clock then at eleven o clock sunday morning was priesthood then a small break then one at 2 o clock then a small little break then another one at 6 o clock. Sunday. Six hours of pure amazingness!!! one of our investigators came during one of the sessions so elder wright went into the german translation room to sit by him then a little later another two of our investigators that we invited came and wanted to watch it as well so i went into the german translation room as well to sit by them and to answer any questions they had. It was sooooo cool. I can understand german. It really is weird I cant tell the difference between german and english. Remember how i used to talk in my sleep when i was in the room right across the hallway from you? Yup I still do except now i do it in german. Elder right says its getting kind of old. I keep waking him up in the night because i am either teaching about the plan of salvation or contacting people on the streets in my sleep in german. I assume it would be a funny experience to hear what i say. I am glad people that visit here say i am doing a good work. It helps sometimes to get approval from somebody. I try my hardest everyday. Skip said i look sharp? I am not gonna lie i do look sharp. It feels good everyday to get up and put on a classy european tie and a fresh pressed white shirt. What can i say? Im representing the Lord I gotta act the part. Sorry that is a little bit stolz. I mean proud. You have no idea how many times i have had to delete german words and retype in english. You should buy a german dictionary and just translate just in case i mess up. I owned your octoberfest quiz. it was good though. hey i will try and email you back but we are going to the salt mines today in hallein where we can slide down the mine shafts where the miners were. I will try and send pics next week the computer i am on right now wont send pics so i am also sorry about the pics from last week as well. i gotta send a progress record to president condie. Tschüß!!!!!!
oh mensch!!!!!! General conference was amazing!!! Elder Eyering was my favorite with the story at the beginning with the consecrated Oil. He is such a powerful speaker. Elder Uchtdorf is awesome too. I realized a lot of the talks were about love. I think that is something that i am going to study a lot about now. Charity. Nächstenliebe. If we can develop that love for our investigators for our companion for all of Gods children we meet on the street then i know i can become a more effective missionary. The words came from the mouth of the prophets.
so all was good in conference for us untill frau martina showed up. She (i dont know if i have told you about her before but she travels around the mission and follows the missionaries) but she is basically a stalker and she wants to marry a missionary. so pretty much she followed us around the church and she took pictures of me and the other elder adams. i took my nametag off so that she wouldn't know who i am. But she knows where we live because earlier this week she was waiting outside of our apartment. We couldn't go home and eat. So we went to the Mangums. and we just chilled for a little bit. That is something i have noticed lately. Elder wright and i have been working so hard and so diligently we hardly ever take a dinner break. That is bad i know. I know. But we are just so busy with appointments and contacting and wanting to do this amazing work that we end up just taking a snack with us and eating it on our bikes inbetween appointments. But ya now frau martina (a toothless 50 year old, smelly missionary stalker is following me). Kinda scared. A little bit creeped out. i will have to tell you the full story when i have more time. any how I have managed to somehow gain 2 kilos in the past little while. it was probably all the food the members gave us yesterday at general conference. I was pretty super stuffed. Transfers are next week!!!!! What!!!! the time went by faster in this transfer than the last. WE must have been working hard. I hope i stay though. I love salzburg. Everybody says im going to be training soon or at least a zone leader. I dont think im responsible enough. But they say i am a hard worker and that i should get ready. anyhow. alles gute hier in österreich. tschüß!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
oh mensch!!!!!! General conference was amazing!!! Elder Eyering was my favorite with the story at the beginning with the consecrated Oil. He is such a powerful speaker. Elder Uchtdorf is awesome too. I realized a lot of the talks were about love. I think that is something that i am going to study a lot about now. Charity. Nächstenliebe. If we can develop that love for our investigators for our companion for all of Gods children we meet on the street then i know i can become a more effective missionary. The words came from the mouth of the prophets.
so all was good in conference for us untill frau martina showed up. She (i dont know if i have told you about her before but she travels around the mission and follows the missionaries) but she is basically a stalker and she wants to marry a missionary. so pretty much she followed us around the church and she took pictures of me and the other elder adams. i took my nametag off so that she wouldn't know who i am. But she knows where we live because earlier this week she was waiting outside of our apartment. We couldn't go home and eat. So we went to the Mangums. and we just chilled for a little bit. That is something i have noticed lately. Elder wright and i have been working so hard and so diligently we hardly ever take a dinner break. That is bad i know. I know. But we are just so busy with appointments and contacting and wanting to do this amazing work that we end up just taking a snack with us and eating it on our bikes inbetween appointments. But ya now frau martina (a toothless 50 year old, smelly missionary stalker is following me). Kinda scared. A little bit creeped out. i will have to tell you the full story when i have more time. any how I have managed to somehow gain 2 kilos in the past little while. it was probably all the food the members gave us yesterday at general conference. I was pretty super stuffed. Transfers are next week!!!!! What!!!! the time went by faster in this transfer than the last. WE must have been working hard. I hope i stay though. I love salzburg. Everybody says im going to be training soon or at least a zone leader. I dont think im responsible enough. But they say i am a hard worker and that i should get ready. anyhow. alles gute hier in österreich. tschüß!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
Monday, September 28, 2009
September 28, 2009
The cake that i took a picture of is called (in a direct translation) bee sting. It is so good. it has creme filling in the middle and the softest dough on the outsides with sliced almonds covering the sides and a thin glaze covering everything. A new member made it for us. We visit him every week because he still has a problem with drinking so we are helping him. But he is a professional konditorei, or pastry maker. He makes us a different cake everytime and gives us peppermint tea to drink with it.
I love the work!!!! It is soo cool to see the correlation between us two. I love how you always compare this amazing glorious work to battle. Because it is true. we are fighting a fight. there is actually a scripture that i read this morning in second timothy. I think it is 2 timothy 4:7-8? check it out it starts with 'i have fought a good fight..." That is what i want to say when my time is up. Also read enos 1 the last verse. That is the reward when we have given it all that we've got. Viel glück in der arbeit. Gib deine bestes jeden tag in der kampf gegen der Satan! Du wirdst die segnungen und die erfolg sehen. Wir werden siegreich sein! (translation: Good luck in the work. Give your best everyday in the battle against Satan! You will see the blessings and the success. We will be victorious!!) this is so tight i can speak a totally different language. it hit me the otherday. I cant tell the differnence when i am speaking english or german and i cant tell the difference when i hear it as well. its creepy wierd. Tschüss!!!!
Ja Voll! ich habe die packet bekommen! indeed i have recieved your package! Thank you mom that was much needed. The socks are nice for in the morning our apartment is pretty cold in the morning. So i wear them around during study time till about 10 when the sun hits our apartment. As for the charge on my card, as a matter of fact it was lederhosen that i bought. Es tut mir leid. Im sorry. I will tell you the story behind it. So this week is like the party week of the year for salzburg. They are celebrating about a saint or something like that. I havent had too much time to find out what it was. It could be that oktoberfest is starting soon. all i know is that we have to stay away from the innercity for a week or so. But everybody goes around the city in their tratitional dress, lederhosen, dirndels, trachten jackets, all looking super slick in their hats with feathers and stockings on their feet. So last p-day it was starting and this one store had a sale on lederhosen. they were 119 euro. when normally they cost like 200 so it was a deal for this week and i wasn't going to buy them. but then i tried them on and you have no idea how good lederhosen fell. Wow! A peice of austrian alp cowhide wrapped tightly around your buttocks is fantastic! so i ended up buying them. i will send pics.
What an amazing story. Wow! when you just talk to people you can find out so many things. Thank you for sharing that story with me mom.
As for general conference. it is a bit different here. It doesn't get broadcasted to houses like in america So the cool thing is that the whole ward comes together to watch it in the churchbuilding. They are supposedly going to be bringing food and i am way excited for that. But the coolest thing is that we have just been using that to contact people. we simply walk up to people on the streets and say would you like to hear the voice of a prophet'? We have invited all of our investigators and we have also invited countless numbers of people off the streets who said they are going to come. Im excited to hear the prophets voice! Are You! Think of how amazing that is. People here have no idea that there is a living prophet here on the earth just like Adam or Moses or Noah and we have the opportunity to listen to him! We are planning to do a strassenaustellung (street display) where we will invite people to come to general conference in the church. We are planning to actuall sing the song (in german) come listen to a prophets voice, because not gonna lie, our districkt is really talented with singing. we sound good. so that ought to be a lot of fun.
Oh i forgot to tell you not yesterday sunday but the sunday before, i gave a talk in our ward. the Bishop called me up and said how would you like to give a talk in church. I, being a missionary, took the mission given me and was scared outta my mind. Talk topic: baptism for the dead, and temple work, and how we can become saviours on Mount Zion. Yup, i think i did ok. A lot of members congratulated me afterwards. I dont think the bischop knew however that this is only my second transfer. But Elder wright said i did really good. I cant remember. Its one of those many moments where you realize the hand of the Lord in all that you do. Gifts of tongues. it was like christmas with the gift of tongues that was with me right then.
Thank you so so so much mom. I am ever so grateful that you support me here even though I am 8,000 some odd miles away. I love you with all my heart!!
I love the work!!!! It is soo cool to see the correlation between us two. I love how you always compare this amazing glorious work to battle. Because it is true. we are fighting a fight. there is actually a scripture that i read this morning in second timothy. I think it is 2 timothy 4:7-8? check it out it starts with 'i have fought a good fight..." That is what i want to say when my time is up. Also read enos 1 the last verse. That is the reward when we have given it all that we've got. Viel glück in der arbeit. Gib deine bestes jeden tag in der kampf gegen der Satan! Du wirdst die segnungen und die erfolg sehen. Wir werden siegreich sein! (translation: Good luck in the work. Give your best everyday in the battle against Satan! You will see the blessings and the success. We will be victorious!!) this is so tight i can speak a totally different language. it hit me the otherday. I cant tell the differnence when i am speaking english or german and i cant tell the difference when i hear it as well. its creepy wierd. Tschüss!!!!
Ja Voll! ich habe die packet bekommen! indeed i have recieved your package! Thank you mom that was much needed. The socks are nice for in the morning our apartment is pretty cold in the morning. So i wear them around during study time till about 10 when the sun hits our apartment. As for the charge on my card, as a matter of fact it was lederhosen that i bought. Es tut mir leid. Im sorry. I will tell you the story behind it. So this week is like the party week of the year for salzburg. They are celebrating about a saint or something like that. I havent had too much time to find out what it was. It could be that oktoberfest is starting soon. all i know is that we have to stay away from the innercity for a week or so. But everybody goes around the city in their tratitional dress, lederhosen, dirndels, trachten jackets, all looking super slick in their hats with feathers and stockings on their feet. So last p-day it was starting and this one store had a sale on lederhosen. they were 119 euro. when normally they cost like 200 so it was a deal for this week and i wasn't going to buy them. but then i tried them on and you have no idea how good lederhosen fell. Wow! A peice of austrian alp cowhide wrapped tightly around your buttocks is fantastic! so i ended up buying them. i will send pics.
What an amazing story. Wow! when you just talk to people you can find out so many things. Thank you for sharing that story with me mom.
As for general conference. it is a bit different here. It doesn't get broadcasted to houses like in america So the cool thing is that the whole ward comes together to watch it in the churchbuilding. They are supposedly going to be bringing food and i am way excited for that. But the coolest thing is that we have just been using that to contact people. we simply walk up to people on the streets and say would you like to hear the voice of a prophet'? We have invited all of our investigators and we have also invited countless numbers of people off the streets who said they are going to come. Im excited to hear the prophets voice! Are You! Think of how amazing that is. People here have no idea that there is a living prophet here on the earth just like Adam or Moses or Noah and we have the opportunity to listen to him! We are planning to do a strassenaustellung (street display) where we will invite people to come to general conference in the church. We are planning to actuall sing the song (in german) come listen to a prophets voice, because not gonna lie, our districkt is really talented with singing. we sound good. so that ought to be a lot of fun.
Oh i forgot to tell you not yesterday sunday but the sunday before, i gave a talk in our ward. the Bishop called me up and said how would you like to give a talk in church. I, being a missionary, took the mission given me and was scared outta my mind. Talk topic: baptism for the dead, and temple work, and how we can become saviours on Mount Zion. Yup, i think i did ok. A lot of members congratulated me afterwards. I dont think the bischop knew however that this is only my second transfer. But Elder wright said i did really good. I cant remember. Its one of those many moments where you realize the hand of the Lord in all that you do. Gifts of tongues. it was like christmas with the gift of tongues that was with me right then.
Thank you so so so much mom. I am ever so grateful that you support me here even though I am 8,000 some odd miles away. I love you with all my heart!!
Monday, September 21, 2009
September 21, 2009
Hey little buddy! Thanks for the testimony again. that is so wonderful that you bear your testimony. Cool you are getting your permit! I am glad I am in europe. cars cant go over water. so i am safe. Hey just kidding i think you will be good just use your head and be safe. no dofer things. Dont worry about what other people say. You are on a soccer TEAM. that is the important word. a team has to work together and no one can take the blame or the fame. work hard toghether and a good saying that I use every day here in the mission field is "Geben sie ihre bestes jeden tag" give your best every day. if you do that then you can be satisfyed with yourself and when everybody on the team does the same then you will see the success. It is the same out here in the field. Work hard and you will see the success. I love you spencer and i am thankful for your testimony. It is good to know that there are other people just like you and me across the entire world that have the same knowledge. That Jesus Christ restored his church to benefit and bless us in this trying and challenging world. Always be aware of the infinite love that our heavenly father has for his children and strive always to be able to one day return to him. that is what He wants. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
So this week has been awesome! but i will try to answer your questions before i go on. Teach to find is so cool. It is the "proven" method by missionaries here to get an instant appointment. I testify of its effectiveness and i am so glad that we have this knowledge to help us bring this gospel to everone!!!! so teach to find is a pattern where one approaches someone with a question (prefferably related to the gospel but you can ask the name of their dog as well) thus attaining the soon to be investigators interest. When you have their interest then you teach a short gospel truth related to the question you stated, then testify of this gospel truth with all your soul. After you have testified your companion then gives a second witness of what you have taught, then he asks the person a question, teaches about another gospel truth and then bears testimony. The idea is to come to the restoration of the gospel as quickly as possible, and then when the spirit is strongest you give them a choice between two times you have free when you can explain mor about our message. now I know that this sounds incredibly simple but it really is awesome and we have made out so many appointments doing this in the past week.
I have not yet recieved your package. but im sure it will be coming soon. About the coat. I will look but im not going to make to much worry about it. Br. Grünauer said I will be fine. It doesnt really start to get cold here till november or so and so i am pretty sure i will be fine. But i will look around in second hand shops or something. or ask members. By the way Br. Grünauer (our ward mission leader) is so awesome he wants to make t-shirts for us because we are team salzburg. we are really seeing a lot of success here in this work and i am diggin on it!
So last week we bought a new washing machine on p-day after i emailed you. It was such a cool scene. we had a red four wheeled dolly like the ones dad has at his work for the stacks of paper. It had plastic wheels and we had to roll our washing machine home through the cobble stoned streets. you have no idea how loud that was as it echoed up through the apartment buildings. it was a scene that i wish we could have taken a picture of. Two mormons rolling a washing machine down the road and everybody within a two block radius looking at us. oh i laughed so hard. and then as we hefted the thing into our building i smashed my thumb on the side of our door and then as we set it down i smashed my thumb again. so now i will lose my thumbnail it looks pretty narly. my comp and i are getting along very well.
i will get back on in a second i gotta email pres. condie. Love you!
love you so so so so much hope you all have a wonder full week and know you are in my prayers!!
So this week has been awesome! but i will try to answer your questions before i go on. Teach to find is so cool. It is the "proven" method by missionaries here to get an instant appointment. I testify of its effectiveness and i am so glad that we have this knowledge to help us bring this gospel to everone!!!! so teach to find is a pattern where one approaches someone with a question (prefferably related to the gospel but you can ask the name of their dog as well) thus attaining the soon to be investigators interest. When you have their interest then you teach a short gospel truth related to the question you stated, then testify of this gospel truth with all your soul. After you have testified your companion then gives a second witness of what you have taught, then he asks the person a question, teaches about another gospel truth and then bears testimony. The idea is to come to the restoration of the gospel as quickly as possible, and then when the spirit is strongest you give them a choice between two times you have free when you can explain mor about our message. now I know that this sounds incredibly simple but it really is awesome and we have made out so many appointments doing this in the past week.
I have not yet recieved your package. but im sure it will be coming soon. About the coat. I will look but im not going to make to much worry about it. Br. Grünauer said I will be fine. It doesnt really start to get cold here till november or so and so i am pretty sure i will be fine. But i will look around in second hand shops or something. or ask members. By the way Br. Grünauer (our ward mission leader) is so awesome he wants to make t-shirts for us because we are team salzburg. we are really seeing a lot of success here in this work and i am diggin on it!
So last week we bought a new washing machine on p-day after i emailed you. It was such a cool scene. we had a red four wheeled dolly like the ones dad has at his work for the stacks of paper. It had plastic wheels and we had to roll our washing machine home through the cobble stoned streets. you have no idea how loud that was as it echoed up through the apartment buildings. it was a scene that i wish we could have taken a picture of. Two mormons rolling a washing machine down the road and everybody within a two block radius looking at us. oh i laughed so hard. and then as we hefted the thing into our building i smashed my thumb on the side of our door and then as we set it down i smashed my thumb again. so now i will lose my thumbnail it looks pretty narly. my comp and i are getting along very well.
i will get back on in a second i gotta email pres. condie. Love you!
love you so so so so much hope you all have a wonder full week and know you are in my prayers!!
Monday, September 14, 2009
September 14, 2009
My back pack is called the Gallery Air 30+5 it is made by the company VAUDE.
Dog?!!?!??? I amn't no dog. just kidding little pency poo. THat is good to hear that you are doing well with soccer. I am proud of you. are you putting the hurt on 'em? Keep on going with school. It does get harder but that is how we grow. and you are a smart kid. Ich wiess das du es schaffen kannst. I know that you can do it :) Thank you for your testimony. THat is good to see that you share your testimony. Nothing is stronger than a pure testimony. always work on making your faith and your testimony stronger by studying in the scriptures and being the example that your Father in heaven would want you to be. S
Alles Gute zum geburtstag!!!! Happy bday Mutti!!! I love you so so oh so very much!!!! I will definately keep an eye out for the package. The mail system here is not very good. I think they have lost a couple of my letters but all is well. Cool my car is sold. thanks for all the work you do mom and dad to get that done. Dad be safe on my motorcycle.
I haven't yet sent you a pic of my new bike. I havent even taken one yet. but the pic that i sent of the destroyed bikes both of them were mine. the one closest to the bunks was a bike that we got from the sisters in our area and the upside down one was mine. the axle broke in half on the upside down one and the rims were total kaputt (broken) from the one from the sisters because they filled it with too much air two times in a row and blew the tubes out. Sisters. psssh. typical. just kidding. but any how ya. Mensch!
the time is going by so fast. I am blinking and i am so scared! its almost been four months and it only seems like two days. wow. Elder wright says its because we have been working hard. I think so too. I come home so so so ever so tired every night. It takes it out of you bearing testimony all day and teaching. riding bikes in the freezing cold pouring rain. I could start looking for a new coat but they are really expensive. Elder Adams ( the zone leader) said that after christmas they become super cheap so i think i can make it till then with my Gore tex and ninja suit and sherpa shell and sweater. hey im gonna write my email to prasident condie. we should be on every week now at about 11:30 or so. so email me back if you can and i will get back on after im done emailing president. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh i forgot to tell you i digested fish bones. We had an eating appointment where we ate fish i ate my two fish too fast cuz we had to leave and get back to work so i ate quite a bit of bones. that was a painful experience.
We had zone conference this week that was so awesome. we had to demonstrat to the whole zone how somone uses teach to find it is a really cool method to always set up appointments. and at the end president condie gave us all a priesthood blessing over the pulpit. that was powerful.
question? did you ever develop the film from on those rolls that i took before my mission i totally forgot till now.
we get a new washing machine today!!!!!
Dog?!!?!??? I amn't no dog. just kidding little pency poo. THat is good to hear that you are doing well with soccer. I am proud of you. are you putting the hurt on 'em? Keep on going with school. It does get harder but that is how we grow. and you are a smart kid. Ich wiess das du es schaffen kannst. I know that you can do it :) Thank you for your testimony. THat is good to see that you share your testimony. Nothing is stronger than a pure testimony. always work on making your faith and your testimony stronger by studying in the scriptures and being the example that your Father in heaven would want you to be. S
Alles Gute zum geburtstag!!!! Happy bday Mutti!!! I love you so so oh so very much!!!! I will definately keep an eye out for the package. The mail system here is not very good. I think they have lost a couple of my letters but all is well. Cool my car is sold. thanks for all the work you do mom and dad to get that done. Dad be safe on my motorcycle.
I haven't yet sent you a pic of my new bike. I havent even taken one yet. but the pic that i sent of the destroyed bikes both of them were mine. the one closest to the bunks was a bike that we got from the sisters in our area and the upside down one was mine. the axle broke in half on the upside down one and the rims were total kaputt (broken) from the one from the sisters because they filled it with too much air two times in a row and blew the tubes out. Sisters. psssh. typical. just kidding. but any how ya. Mensch!
the time is going by so fast. I am blinking and i am so scared! its almost been four months and it only seems like two days. wow. Elder wright says its because we have been working hard. I think so too. I come home so so so ever so tired every night. It takes it out of you bearing testimony all day and teaching. riding bikes in the freezing cold pouring rain. I could start looking for a new coat but they are really expensive. Elder Adams ( the zone leader) said that after christmas they become super cheap so i think i can make it till then with my Gore tex and ninja suit and sherpa shell and sweater. hey im gonna write my email to prasident condie. we should be on every week now at about 11:30 or so. so email me back if you can and i will get back on after im done emailing president. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh i forgot to tell you i digested fish bones. We had an eating appointment where we ate fish i ate my two fish too fast cuz we had to leave and get back to work so i ate quite a bit of bones. that was a painful experience.
We had zone conference this week that was so awesome. we had to demonstrat to the whole zone how somone uses teach to find it is a really cool method to always set up appointments. and at the end president condie gave us all a priesthood blessing over the pulpit. that was powerful.
question? did you ever develop the film from on those rolls that i took before my mission i totally forgot till now.
we get a new washing machine today!!!!!
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