3 Weeks Left!

Hallo alles!

 

I have Mom and Dad's letter with the questions highlighted so I can do my best to remember them and try to answer haha. So here goes: I have not heard anything from Matt since I left BYU really :/ But I pray for him every night. I hope he is doing what he needs to to get in here soon! And I have talked to Elder Ewert a couple times! I see him pretty often. Chris I haven't seen as much, but last Tuesday after devotional Tyson and Chris and I took a picture on Chris' camera (I forgot mine :/ sorry). You can ask the Halls probably. Christlike attributes I am in need of? I took the quiz thing at the end of chapter 6 in PMG, but the number of questions weren't even for all the attributes, so I don't really know haha. I would say that I am really working on faith and patience (and I am always working on charity too). Elder Botcherby shared a scripture, Ether 6:7, and highlighted the part that says "buried in the deep." Sometimes with all the things going on in life, that is how we feel. And if we have faith, and trust in our Heavenly Father, we can pray for help and He will bring us out of the water again. I feel like that will be a processed repeated for an entire lifetime. Patience is also a good one when trying to learn a new language and also when dealing with people that you are with for every hour of the day (I don't have problems, but I have to interact with the people that do have problems with things.) So it's good practice. I have thought about it a lot, saying goodbye to Tyson. I think it will be harder than anything we have done before. He will have to see me off now, since he gets to stay here a little longer. We shall see when the time comes. The language is coming well, but I know for a fact that what I have learned and what I have been able to use is not my own doing. I go into lessons and feel nervous about having a hard time saying what I want to say, but I pray often and I get in there and things just go!

 

Oh, real quick, for the package: I have so much food still, and honestly I never have time to eat much, because we are rarely home and we are given food til we are stuffed 3 times a day. However, I guess drinks would be nice. Would you mind buying each elder in my room a Sobe? haha. If so, Elder Robins and Janis would both like Pina Colada, and Elder Botcherby would like Strawberry banana. I am just trying to serve others, you know? ;)  But yeah, I don't really know what I need in the package, drinks would be nice and a couple snacks don't hurt. Just surprise me I suppose. I don't think I have anything that I need really. (But I will remember something later today most likely).

 

Our last lesson with Andreas was awesome! We literally had no time to prepare the day before, so we got 15 minutes to get our thoughts together on the 1st Lesson. We are teaching Andreas the lessons and then he teaches his wife. Oh, and his wife came to church the Sunday before last Sunday, just for an hour. But Andreas said he will teach his wife what we teach him. So we went in with 15 minutes prep and taught the entire lesson! We have never made it all the way through a lesson before. And we just said short meaningful things, and gave Andreas a Verkündet Mein Evangelium (PMG) to use. It was the coolest thing ever! The Lord will help you out in any situation if you turn to Him. Paul is also doing well! He came to church and last night we planned to teach him about the Atonement. But, when talking about church and the importance of going to church, and the sacrament, we got to baptism instead. So we invited him to be baptized, and he is going to pray about it. We just went with it, even though we planned something else. You can trust the Spirit more than anything else, for sure!

 

So we still haven't had an Apostle talk, even though they are all here! And guess what? Both our teachers have told us about how President Uchtdorf loves to drop in on the German elders' classrooms!!!!! We have been so exctied to maybe see him, but it hasn't happened yet. But we are all hoping. Bruder Evans actually talked to him a couple years ago, when he was just starting as a teacher. So he really does come! I will let you know of course. We should definitely have an Apostle speaking at the Devotional tonight though. Can't wait!

 

I can't remember if I have shared something that Bruder Evans said already, but here goes. When talking about hard times in life, we talked about the story of the Jaredites crossing the sea. They wind with which God blew them was a furious wind, and Bruder Evans asked why it had to be so furious? Of course, it's because God had greater blessings for them. Then Bruder Evans said, "No matter what wind God is blowing on you with, it is always in the right direction." That was cool, and it goes along perfectly with what Elder Botcherby shared with me yesterday.

 

I feel like I had something else cool that happened, but I can't remember. We can't wait to be hosts and maybe find our new German Elders! Then we have more people who may play soccer with us! We have a lot of people who play already, new people, but sometimes it is just too much. It is still fun nevertheless.

 

Oh, so the last letter I sent Kacy had a pretty sketchy stamp on it. The corner kept coming off, and I had to keep pressing it down. So Mom, could you text her and see if the letter made it or not? I have been worring about that for a while haha. Then you could just tell me in a Dear Elder. Danke schon!

Hope Sydney had a good birthday! I will be writing just a couple letters today, which is a nice break from the usual number. I am glad Sister Eagley enjoyed her letter! I was very grateful for her card from her class. Well, I am out of time and also incapable of thinking about what happened in the course of the last week. So, if I come up with anything more, I will write it in my letters.

 

Oh, last thing, I have been reminded of how much I love the Primary songs, and songs from the childrens hymnbook haha. I listen to the music from conference in the computer labs, since we can't use our ipods. My favorite, that has really touched me this whole week, is "I Feel My Savior's Love." Listen to it haha.

 

I look forward to hearing from you again!  I love you all! Stay safe and always smile, even when you feel like you can't.

 

Elder Jalen L Gibbons