Monday, August 26, 2013

Das rote Haus...

Hey everyone, our house is red! :) I like it a lot. Nice color choice, Mom, Dad, and Kate! (Sorry Nathan, heard es war dir egal). My denglish is really bad. But we still speak only German to each other, Elder Horlacher and I! That is almost a whole transfer in our mission language! We are proud of our efforts. But we still aren't pros, so don't worry about us going through the pride cycle. Moroni warned us about that. 
 
That castle was pretty cool, eh? Ludwigsburg is about 15 minutes from Stuttgart with the S-bahn. We´ll have to go back someday. It was way fun. And Sister Kleiner was the one with dark hair and no nametag in the picture. Her name is Elke, but I told her that I would probably always call her Sis. Kleiner haha. I still don't know what I am going to do at home when I see all my mission friends, the Elders and Sisters. Probably just call them Elder/Sister whatever. 
 
Wow, guess what? Transfer calls are this Friday! I have been in Stuttgart for two transfers now, almost. That means I only have two more! Crazy. We are expecting lots of success in the coming weeks, we have a new baptismal date this week! He is Victor, he comes from Nigeria, and he is so cool! His date is the 28 of September. And we still have Kai on date, but we just haven't heard anything from him, because this treatment place is so streng. We pray for him and wish the best for him. Thanks for your prayers. We have 4 new investigators this last week (gefunden--sorry, that English sentence just didn't seem to end right without a verb at the end...). Okay, I will write that one again. We found 4 new investigators last week! Now we have so many! And it is really hard to find the times we can meet with them, because everyone has a different schedule! And this week we are headed back to Munich again, so that takes away two whole days. We are trying to squeeze appointments in wherever we can. Because we want these friends of ours to make progress and learn more!
 
Hey, Logan would be proud of me, I figured out the Arabic numeral system. We have a man who speaks simple German and has an Arabic BoM, so now I can find scriptures easier. I think it is pretty cool. Never thought I would have so much experience with other languages. I love it. 
 
This week we were off and on with the weather, some days hot, the others, like yesterday, were wet and cold. I am totally not prepared for winter, I just realized. I will get my package on Wednesday in Munich, so then I will need to be talking to you about my winter shopping, ja? So, till next week on that. 
 
We got some surprise referrals from members and from a new investigator this last week! We met a woman from India who is Baptist, and we talked with her about Christ. She says it as "coming to the Christ" with an Indian accent haha. So cool. AND, she has a friend from Egypt who wants to become Christian, and she told him, on the same day we met her, that she had met two men (us!) who talk with people about Christ, and they (we) could surely help him better than she could herself. Well, that´s what we do, oder? :) Then, with Mila, the girl from Ukraine, we started a sudden English class, which was actually a member family´s idea. The members are a couple who want to go on a mission soon. And the husband is so great (well they both are), but he was the one who ordered the PMG and promised to give us some work in the future. And he gave us a referral already! Members make it SO MUCH EASIER!!! We hope to start an English class now, with the members helping it will go better than if we tried on our own. But yeah, Anwat, the less active member from Thailand, is friends with Mila, so he helps us out when he can, joint teach and stuff. What better for a less active member than coming on joint teaches? :) We hope to meet with Mila today and talk more about the BoM. 
 
I had an exchange with Elder Jerman in Heilbronn this last week. It was so awesome. I went to a place I had never been before, and was just so full of love and excited to meet people. I was way happy! Maybe because I hadn't walked the streets and had any rude contacts before, I just had a better attitude. I want to do that everyday. Elder Jerman is awesome, I want to be more like him. He is humble, ready to work, ready to learn, and a great example to me. He is a good friend of Elder Allan, since they were in elementary school! They came out in the same group. Wish someone would come with me to this mission.... haha. I´m not bitter. They can just all be jealous ;) 
 
We were invited over by the Bishop tonight! It should be way awesome. They are a great family. Our bishop is so awesome and is perfect for the ward. The Lord knows what he is doing. Every leader that you raise your hand to sustain is there for a reason, so, like Elder Holland said, don´t get all upset at people´s imperfections. "All God has to work with is imperfect human beings-us!" What good happens when we complain about how other people handle their responsibilities? Nothing good, as far as I can tell. WE are there to strengthen one another, and it is scary how easily Satan can get us to gossip and to talk about others. We are the people of God, we don´t need any of that! If these people are anything like me, then I am perfectly aware of my weaknesses, thank you very much. Don´t need more than myself and the spirit to work on that. 
 
Well, I don´t know where that all just came from, but I hope it helps a little, just to realize that we are always at war with the adversary, and that he has many many ways to sneak into cracks and break us apart from the inside. But we can´t afford that. Be better. Be more loving. Be more like the Savior, that is our goal anyway! Study PMG chapter 6. That is scripture just like the Bible and the Book of Mormon. And God will speak to us through His words! 
 
I love you all, I hope you have a good week. Enjoy school, sports, whatever you do. Be safe. Don´t breathe in too much smoke. :) Keep smiling!
 
Elder Jalen Gibbons

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