Monday, July 15, 2013

Guten Tag miteinand!

 
 

 
Grrrrrrrrrüüüßßßßßß euch! Hey :) you´re awesome.
 
I am happy. It is a good feeling, ge? We can all be happy, if we just choose so. And live and love the commandments of God. It is so simple! And true. Do you know what my scripture of the week is this week? Mormon 9:21. That promise is for ME. And YOU! And my cousin´s girlfriend´s aunt. You get the point. We can do ANYTHING if we just acknowledge the faith that we have, and give it to the Lord. Show your faith to Him, and He will always come through. Try it out :) It gives an incredible sense of confidence. 
 
Anyway, let me attend to some business. Last week I withdrew some money already, to reimburse the Bensons, and then have some for me. We will probably shop a bit today. I just need shoes, mostly... Dazu, you keep worrying about where to send my stuff, and the answer is to send it to Stuttgart! I will be here for awhile, because ZLs stay at least four transfers. Crazy, knowing where I will be for the next 5 months or so. July is halfway over. Holy Krapfen. (Krapfen: a delightful pastry, much like the famous Berliner, filled with fruit jelly and powdered with fine sugar). So yeah, I sent Justin my address already. Tell Tyson sorry that they mixed up our wiring. But I can´t complain when all the "bad" things go his way. I am happy ;) haha jk, he can be happy to, I submit that he is, because he is on a mission! Can´t go wrong with that. Tell Sister Allen thank you so much, too! She is so nice. And tell Becky I am still waiting for her wedding announcement!
 
Let´s see, what else muss ich besprechen... Dad asked why I didn´t recognize Sister Jencks, and that was because she was towards the front of the class, and I didn´t see her. Just made the story better a year later, ge? And Dad, Elder Davies says thanks for the advice :) haha. Hey, I hope you all know how awesome Elder Davies is. He is one of the greatest men on the planet! Just in case you didn't know. 
Oh, that´s right. My release date is May 9th. Crazy, eh? When is Tyson´s? He better not get longer than I have! I miss out on a whole week! And Logan had like 3 extra weeks! Lucky duck. Hey, Hajo Logan! :) du bist schön! genieß dein Leben! Danke für deine Email, ich schreib dir später, ist in Ordnung? So yeah, beach house trip sounds awesome! But that can come when it comes. Stuttgart is the coolest place on earth, remember!
 
All these connections with Tyson are ridiculous! I think it is so cool. If I understood correctly, Tyson said that Derek helped convert part of Elder Fullmer´s family? Derek is the man! He emailed me today :) I am so happy. He gets back to Austria on August 5th! I am going to have to ask him for another jersey :/ he said that if I was close to Villach we could get together... but I am pretty much as far away as possible haha. I told him to visit me in Stuttgart! Hopefully he calls me when he gets back to Austria :) The work is true, my friends! 
 
HEYYY!!! Elder Allan told me today that S_____ AND BE_____ ARE BEING BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!!!! Man, I am so excited. I have no idea if I can go :( cuz it starts right after church at 12. I would definitely have to miss my own ward, but the thing is, if Elder Davies is transfered, this Sunday will be his last. BUT, if Elder Davies stays (oh yeah, transfer calls are on Friday) then we are going, auf JEDEN FALL! I told Elder Allan that I probably can´t come, but if we do, it will be the coolest surprise ever! Schau ma moi. That is way cool.
 
Also, randomly, Mom, I was able to see those pictures on your email. Cool uniforms, ge? 
 
The zone pday was way fun last week! I played fußball South American style, without shoes. I left them in Munich on accident haha. They are just old beat up shoes from Elder Hansen. Today I will try to find some other good shoes. Tell Dad not to kill me! I am not buying cleats or anything. But I just have no athletic clothing of my own, and I don´t want to keep bothering Elder Davies haha.
 
Oh my goodness, guess what I saw this week? Wait, I already told you that.... about the Ferrari, right? Holy krapfen, that was so long ago. What in the world? Okay, but I did see another Ferrari yesterday (yeah, I know Chris sees those everyday, or did in Orange County, but it is still special to me), but I saw a sweet Aston Martin too, bright orange. Anyway...
 
Things are well here in Stuttgart! We have found lots of potentials and given out lots of Books of Mormon as well, we actually are out of books right now. We are just really trying to make them into investigators, and bring them the blessings of the gospel. Dad asked about the zone as a whole, and I think it is the same. Some areas do great finding, some not, but the major things are just new investigators and people coming to church. There are churches on every corner, but no one visits them anyway, so we are still trying to break that culture. I don´t mean everyone, of course, because the elect will do anything they can to receive the blessings of the gospel. We are working on it :) so, this last week, we never heard from K_____ until Friday, and he said he would call us today. So we have had a bigger pause than wanted... but we are going to push meeting with him at least 2 times a week, because we all need it. We are going to do that with all our investgators. We haven´t met any of the people from the Wells family yet, but soon! We pray for them to know how to invite them. And we go every Tuesday. This week we are having an American breakfast for dinner! We almost melted at the prospect. The other option was chicken enchiladas, also a mouth-watering idea. I miss good Mexican food. I miss Chipotle. But I love Germany :)
 
We had a good appointment with E_____ as well, he wants to follow the Word of Wisdom! So we will do that stop-smoking program with him next time. We did find a new investigator this last week, an Albanian man we found a little while ago. He has a family. We had a couple austausches this week, I did one with Elder Hemsley, the AP, who is awesome. A finding machine. And way funny :) Then I tausched with Elder Tauche, from the Military ward. He is also way cool. We met with a less active member from Thailand yesterday, who intoduced himself in Priesthood and said that he was less active and wanted to become active. So we met with him at a member's house, and he is way cool. We will meet regularly. We taught Priesthood gestern, and I think it went pretty well. As we were preparing, we were literally like jumping out of our seats with excitement about the things we were talking about. We talked about faith, with God all things are possible. Chapter 14 in the Lorenzo Snow manual. We were supposed to do chapter 13, but didn't quite know how to pull it off (it basically is a chapter praising the Relief Society and their charity and awesomeness). We love our mothers, but I don´t have a wife, and therefore no daughters in Relief Society either, so we moved to the next one. Haha. We can do anything :) It went well with my scripture for the week. 
 
I was thinking this morning about families, because I read Alma 24, and in verse 14 it talks about how God loves and will bless His people, and bless their children. And I just thought about a new approach to talking to people on the street or on doors about the family and God´s plan. My thought process was  something like this: God loves all of His children. He loves you. He really does want you to have these blessings, blessings that come only through His authority and through His ordinances performed through said authority. God wants you to return to Him, and by you choosing to follow Him, God knows that the chances for your future children and descendants to return to Him will be increased as well. Essentially I thought, who are you to deny your future family these blessings, or at least prolong their waiting before they can enter into their own covenant with the Lord? Anyway, I have no idea how I would say that to someone, it was just a cool thought (also much better in my brain than written out) that strengthened my testimony of the family. He sees not just now, but how things could be for the spirits He will send to earth in the future. So, join the church and have children in the covenant, and help God out in His cause, described very well in Moses 1:39. It is all worth it. :)
 
I hope you have a great week, Nathan should have lots of fun at the Jamboree. And Kate, have fun mowing lawns ;) Stay happy and safe and keep smiling!
 
I love you all!
 
Elder Jalen Gibbons 
 
PS Check out this awesome sticker I found! :) Then this was on the way to an appointment. Then waiting for the bus :) I am working on different faces haha.

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