Leise rieselt der Schnee...

Grüß oink!! That is apparently what the Südtiroler people say, so down where Elder Orchard was before he came here (northern tip of Italy, part of their mission). That is "grüß euch" in their major dialect haha. And yes, that is prononced like a Schwein. Anyway, how are you all? I am doing fantastically, except...the snow has returned!! Unexpectedly, at least for us, since we have no weather reports or anything. So we ran to seminary this morning in about 3-5 cm of snow, with the snow still falling! And it is still going as I type, and we still have to get home... haha. We have both never done anything like that, running to church in the snow, wearing shorts and light jackets. (I brought warmer clothes in my backpack with me, no worries.) So once again, Österreich is beautiful and white! Cool that you had snow at home, but how ridiculous is it that they didn't cancel school??!! I hope no one was injured in the travel to school. Mensch, even the Base gave people the day off? Well, nothing stopped us from getting to seminary this morning!!!! It was a lot of fun, I have seen how our relations with the youth have grown, in that I hardly ever talked with them when I first got here, mostly because I would have no idea what they were saying (although the girls speak English very well), and it was also something that Elder Eaker and I just never did. But as with yesterday at church, we could spend a whole day talking to any single member of the ward, they are all so cool and I love them all. It is great to have an excited Elder Orchard there who asks lots of good questions, which has allowed me to learn even more about the members! Our desire to become more a part of the ward is taking off! Yesterday the Bishop´s wife, Alice, asked if we would come to dinner at their place after church, even though we ate there last week haha. :) I am glad they like us enough! But we had already been invited to the Suppersbergers, so we just have another eating appointment with the Kaisers :) I love that family! And every family here in the ward! We also wrote little notes to give to some members that we chose the day before, and they liked that a lot, we just said what we appreciated about them and thanked them for their example. We gave a note to the oldest lady in the ward gestern, she is 91! And she loved it so much! It´s the kind of stuff I like to do, to take the opportunity to thank people for what they do, let them know people do notice their hard work and efforts, and Elder Orchard is right there with me. It is a blast.

 

Anyway, thank you Mom and Dad for always sharing what you have learned, either through the week or in preparation for something. But how cool is it that we can just spend so much time (well, as much time as it takes to write an email once a week haha) to just talk about how the gospel applies in our lives. It is everywhere, in everything we do, we can see how blessings come to us, we can try and put together the big puzzle of how things work out the way they do, and in the end, we just sit back and are amazed at how many "coincidences" there are in our lives. Like that story about Elder (Chris) Hall´s end of the year baptism? That was so cool! And I have some cool things to share with you from this last week as well. When you take time to look and think about how the Lord is slowly putting things together, you can´t do anything but wonder at His power. Ist das nicht herrlich?

 

So, last week, as I have mentioned, was fanastic! We spent Pday, a part of it, in the city, where we printed off pictures of some things, and bought our companionship ties, and we even bought suspenders :) Haha I have never worn suspenders, but they are a lot of fun! ;) So we went to Graz the next day for district meeting, met the new Sister who Sister Homestead is training, and then did about 2 hours of finding there. And we wore our new ties and suspenders haha. But travel to Graz and back was our day. Not much else accomplished, no time. But Wednesday! Wow, that day was so awesome! We have set some pretty high goals for how many people we wanted to find, and also Books of Mormon to give away, and also lessons taught. We also called a LOT of people, trying to set things up and whatnot. But we started the day by studying, then cut that a bit short because we had to go get Elder Orchard anmelded in Klagenfurt (sorry, don't know the English word for anmelden--I'm guessing something like "registered") and after that we contacted around downtown for a little while, and we stopped at the DM store because Elder Orchard didn't know where his SD card for his camera was!! He thought he may have left it at the store on Monday when we printed off pictures. So we stopped by, and Heavenly Father answered our prayers that we could find it, they had it in a drawer for him! Wonderful. Then Regina Schaunig took us out to lunch, which was wonderful, and we escorted her back to her car in the mall parking lot because she told us that it has had a lot of problems starting and such. So we prayed that her car would start, and first attempt, nothing. But then we prayed extra hard and the next time it started! So prayer number 2 answered :) After that we talked with lots more people, and tried to go by on a referral from Wien, who has a falsch address, so we couldn't give him his Arabic BoM. :/ BUT, later that night we met a man and talked with him, and we asked if he knew the BoM, and he said that German wasn't very good for him, and we asked what would be good? And guess what he said? Arabic! So I pulled one out of my backpack and gave it to him :) (Crazy how the Lord could have been "pulling the strings" so to say in having a man contacted in Wien want a BoM, but not being able to find him, sadly, but then that same day meet a man who actually did need it!). So that was really cool :) Then, we were walking towards the church and Elder Orchard said, man we are a little behind on our goal to find so many people, and we didn't have much time. And within five minutes we talked to two people who gave us their information and said they would like to meet with us. Sadly, of course, there are some people who give fake numbers and stuff, not everyone we find is totally honest, but we have had some good appointments with people we have found in the last two weeks! Like on Thursday, we had a couple appointments with people we met contacting, and that was good (we also had some Wednesday, apointments I mean) and we just had a great couple days, we were very blessed and happy. Then all of our apointments fell out the next two days haha. So ist es manchmal. No worries. We have seen what can happen when we just do all we can.

 

So, update on investigators, which is kinda the same as last week. I think all of the lessons we had this week were with people we had just barely met, so it was a "get-to-know-you-here-is-what-our-expectations-are" kinda lesson most of the time. M___ cancelled on us twice!!! He is so cool, but if he can't find time for us, and if we don't make progress next time we actually meet, then we can't keep going with him calling an hour before and saying it won't work. It is driving us crazy, because we want to set a baptismal date with him next time! So yes, we can see how hard the adversary is working to prevent a son of God from fulfilling his potential. So we won't drop him right away because he has potential, but we need to see how willing he is to keep commitments next time. D____ we are meeting with today, so we shall see how things are! Frau K___ also dropped our appointment because her daughter was sick (so a good enough reason) but she only ever has time like once a week! Es ist schade. But, we have lots to do, we are always busy with something, which is totally different than my last 5 months. I am still a day behind in my journal, have been since Elder Orchard got here, we are just always busy! I can't believe how much time I had before, to write in my journal at night. Crazy. But I like this better.

 

So it was a good week, Wednesday being very cool, and we also baked some cookies this week! They were a chocolate chip cookie recipe and we used a chopped up Oreo Milka bar for the chocolate, and gave cookies to some families and people we met with. We spent Saturday, the whole day, doing service and such, painting for Bishop´s sister, and moving a heavy iron oven for Br. Sander. That was nice. But back to the cookies, they were so good! And in making the cookie dough, we realized how unhealthy they really are. You notice such things as a missionary, when you can't go play sports all day like you would at home. Haha.

 

Oh, I got the emails you sent me--Christina is going on a mission??!!! That is SO COOL!!!!!! I am so excited for her, she will do great and it is the greatest experience of your life!

 

I love all the time we have to study on the mission! It is really a special time where you can just dig everything out of the scriptures that you can find! I spent a whole study time last week studying in the Book of Mormon, and I only got from 1 Nephi 8:1 to verse 12! 12 verses in a study session haha. But I would like to share some things I learned from that, because it was great. First, just something cool that only works in German in verse 5 or something, where Lehi says that when he followed the man who told him to follow, he beheld himself that he was in a big field; in German, I like one phrase in there, namely, "Als ich ihm folgte, wurde ich gewahr". As far as I can translate that, it would be, as I followed Him (Jesus Christus), I became aware. Aware of where we are, aware of the surroundings, aware of our potential in life, or aware of our lack of obedience even. That is up to us. But I liked that a lot. If that isn't exactly what that really translates to, at least I learned that haha. But what I want to share is when Lehi talks about partaking of the fruit, and that they were sweeter than ANYTHING he had ever had. That sweetness, he said, was a joy that filled his soul, like he says in verse 12, and the cool thing is what happend after anyone experiences this love and joy, indeed, that one who has experienced such wants others to have it; Lehi looked immediately for his family. A cool, natural reaction, eh? So I thought about that, about where I am in that process, and of course I am finding others with whom I can share the joy I have, the joy that has brought my family so close together and blessed our lives tremendously. And I asked myself what we could do to always rememeber that joy, what to do to remember the first time we knew that the Savior was there for us, and I found Alma 5:6 to go along with that question. And Elder Orchard gave me the best, most obvious answer when I posed him the question. he said that we just had to keep eating!! Keep eating the fruit, it is a love that we can experience everyday if we just take the time to do the right things. Duh, Elder Gibbons! Haha I was thinking way too hard. So my advice for this week, and the rest of your lives, is to keep eating! Do what you need to to be reminded of how much the Savior loves you. And it will come.

 

And to finish, a cool quote I heard yesterday at church. Roughly translated ( it was much cooler in German, but still really cool): "Many small things add up to perfection. But perfection is no small thing."

 

I know that this church is true and that following the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to return and live with our Father in Heaven, and with our brother Jesus Christ. We have been shown the way, and we have the chance to be examples for others along this path. With God, nothing is impossible. I liked the quote Dad shared with me, from Julie B. Beck, about the ability to receive and act on revelation. Without it, we cannot succeed. But we know what we must do, and we know it won't be easy all the time. But it is worth it.

 

Have a great week, keep on smiling (sounds like the cold can just freeze it on there for you ;) ) Remember whose children you are. :)

 

Elder Jalen Gibbons

Hallo! :)

Happy New Year! Hope it has gone well so far. :)

 

So, mensch, we had the COOLEST New Years ever, in my entire life so far! We went to the Familie Korak in Köttmansdorf and we ate and talked and we also watched the film called "Errand of Angels," about a Sister missionary in the Vienna Austria Mission, written by the same guy who did "Silent Night." It was really good, and it was eerie to me with how real it was. It was stuff I have done so many times already! You should watch it.

 

Anyway, we went to the place where Bruder Korak grew up and launched off fireworks (not the Elders of course, we just watched :) ) and they were so cool! Basically all their fireworks are the ones that are illegal in Idaho. Plus, I don't think we have ever really done fireworks on New Years, just like sparklers and confetti poppers. But, the best part was the last part. We drove up the side of a mountain a little before midnight, and we parked up there by a Gasthaus and we had a view of the whole valley (we didn't see the ones on Wörthersee, we didn't know if they actually had any for sure). But this valley has the Drau river that flows through, and it was covered in fog (the river was) and then there are just tons of tiny dorfs. Well, the Gasthaus about 30 feet below us lit off a bunch of fireworks that exploded really just right above us, like 5 to 10 meters. That was so cool. Then, the fireworks all through the valley started, and it was so cool!!! Everwhere you looked, there were flashes of light. And some of them didn't clear the fog, so the fog lit up, otherwise they would be a blurry streak and then break the fog and burst. So the whole valley was foggy, but where we were you could see every star in the sky, which I haven't done for a long time! And the moon was so bright! I took a short video of the fireworks, and it really just looks like a war zone. It was the greatest thing I had ever seen, definitely unique. I am grateful the Koraks took us up there--they had never even done that themselves, they just thought it could be cool! So we had a great time with them.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent saying goodbye to the district and then members of the ward. We had two eating appointments on Wednesday, before we went to pick up Elder Orchard on Thursday. We ate so much! The Bishop made schnitzel, and then Sis. Suppersberger always cooks so well and so much! After eating with the Suppersbergers we sang songs while Sis. Hall played the flute. I have sung a lot here, I have a lot of fun :)

 

Thursday we rode to Salzburg, then to Innsbruck, where I picked up Elder Orchard! I didn't get to see Elder Robins though, and now I may never be able to :/ except we may be able to go back for a baptism soon, because Elder Orchard served in Innsbruck first, then went to Brixen. Then I could see Elder Robins :) we´ll see. So, I welcomed Elder Orchard to the craziest district in the mission, said goodbye to everyone and we headed home.

 

Elder Orchard is just always excited, I don't know how he does it! And he is always smiling! It is a wonderful example for me. We talked about our stories the entire trip home, for 4 hours, and then we got settled in, and for his first day in Klagenfurt!... we did weekly planning haha. We set up a few appointments for next week, like Frau Kofler and such (yay!) and then we had a lesson with a less active woman from Mongolia, they just can't come to church because of work. I had never met her before, until Elder Eaker and I went by and set up the appointment. So that was good, the Halls came with us. And, the lady would like us to come back and visit her every Friday! Sweet :) the Halls have been trying that forever, but no luck till now :) Plus, the lady´s sister isn't a member, so maybe we can get things going. After that, the Halls took us out to eat, and we ate at a Mongolian BBQ thing (much better than the American ones though :) ). It was basically the same idea as the ones we know in the states, but this is a sampling of the meat I ate: a real steak!!!, venison, shark, Elder Orchard and I split a muscle (maybe he means mussell?), lamb, rabbit (which was weird...), AND kangaroo! Which was pretty darn good! If my kangaroo leather cleats were meat, they would be quite tasty ;) Haha, I can't believe I made a cleat joke on myself. So that was our welcome for Elder Orchard to Klagenfurt, and then we went walking through a ghost town downtown. There was hardly anyone out! BUT, Elder Orchard rocks and we found two awesome potentials :) Obviously we worked together, but he knows how to street contact!! He found 108 potentials in Brixen while he was there. I have only ever filled one potentials list (in the back of the planner) once! And I mean just one page, so like 19! Crazy. And because Elder Orchard is so excited and just genuinely cares about people, they talk to us and we´ve set up so many appointments for next week. We have 7 planned appointments with people, and then lots of stuff that we can do for the ward as well, moving stuff and whatnot. He is so good at just talking to people that I have even learned more about the ward, just because he asked them. All I ever knew was from when I talked with them and what Elder Eaker told me. I am hoping that I can learn a lot from him, and I know I have already. Plus, he plays guitar, so it makes our hymn singing for study so much cooler. And, he loves Nickelcreek! So we have listened to our little minidisc player thing like 6 times already. My favorite song is "When you come back down." It´s been stuck in my heard. Good stuff.

 

We had dinner with the Bishop again last night after church, spezle and goulash, one of my favorites! Got to play with the kids. Good way to get to know the new missionary. I told Alice (the Bishop´s wife) that they filmed High School Musical at Elder Orchard´s house and she thought that was so cool! Then I learned that Elder Orchard had always tried to hide a picture of himself in the set haha but they always found it!! That would have been hilarious hahaha. And he told them about Zac Efron and his girlfriend always kising on the couch in front of everyone, and I learned the German word for making out haha. But don´t worry, I will never use it, promise! Just a funny word.

 

Now, I will answer your questions before I forget...sorry that I miss them sometimes. The weather has been really warm the last few days. Gestern was beautiful! I don't understand it. January is supposed to be the coldest, but I think the weather is waiting to trick us and then hit us hard. That´s my theory. Also, thank you Familie Draper for your Christmas package, all the candy and the card! Ganz lieb von euch :) And... oh yeah, Feredyoun is a member, he was baptized about 13-15 years ago. but his is a sad story, I may have mentioned before, but he can't go home to Iran because he is a Chrstian now. The Elders weren´t really supposed to baptize him, and now he hasn't seen his family in 15 years. But he is such a cool guy, and we always talk more now, which I enjoy :) If he talks to you, then he feels comfortable around you, and I would certainly hope so after the last 5 months :) Is that all? Keine Anung...

 

I am glad Nathan´s birthday went well, although it´s too bad they cancelled the stake dance at home. Not that I would have cared, I never had a thing for dances anyway... haha some people could attest to that! :) And poor Kate, what a trip down to New Mexico, eh? That sounds rough haha (Kate spent a week in New Mexico visiting some family friends, but everyone got sick at different times.). I'm glad she had fun anyway.  I hope you still have some good memories about it, I am sure you will laugh at the thought later on :) those are sometimes the best memories!

 

Hey, just got the picture of Alex! Thanks for sending that, looks like he is doing well!

 

Well, Elder Orchard and I are super excited to get things going in Klagenfurt, to become more a part of the ward, be there for as much as possible, so we aren't just the elders they see on Sunday and at meetings. We want to be more a part of the lives of the youth as well, so like we did this morning, we want to run to church and be at seminary at least once a week. Also we are gonna try to organize some activities to do, we thought it would be so fun to go bowling with the youth, or with the elders quorum haha. It´s totally an American thing. We are going to make lots of chocolate chip cookies for people, leave notes and stuff, and just do fun little things like that to show that we appreciate the ward members and what they do. That is the stuff I really like to do. :) So it should be lots of fun. Maybe Elder Orchard will teach me some guitar basics, so that I can at least play along to most songs when I get home (with much practice, of course) but that will make our Christmas songs that I have so much better :) I want to get a few recipes from some members too, for some food. I am bringing the culture home with me, at least foodwise and entertainmentwise. I will probably skip the whole skinny jeans and summer scarfs, if that is alright with you. (I know that's fine with you, Dad ;) ) haha.

 

So, I would like to leave with a quote. I heard it yesterday, and it says. "Fortschritt ist das Werk der Unzufriedenen." Pretty cool huh? Haha just kidding, it means roughly that progress is the work of those who are not satisfied. We talked a lot about goals, specifically a goal of getting the ward to give us a referral every single week. Of doing missionary work and making the ward grow and become excited about it. It was fantatsic, Br. Mauch did it :) He is the coolest GML ever! (Ward mission leader.) You can interpret the quote different ways, but what we talked about was if we were satisfied with the numbers we had at church, we calculated it and figured out that we Preisthood holders of the ward make up 0.08% of the population of Kärnten. That is not much, not at all. Are we okay with that, with these our brothers and sisters from our Heavenly Father not knowing what the purpose of life is, not knowing to where they are going and from where they came! So, we must do something NOW, not tomorrow, to reach these people, to be missionaries, and to bring these people the greatest gift of all, eternal life. That was the subject from priesthood class gestern. It was super.

 

And also, a cool thought I had, building off something that Elder Orchard mentioned in study. He talked about 1 Nephi 2:9, where Lehi wishes that Laman were as a river flowing unto all righteousness. And my companion said that a river only goes one way. It can´t decide to reverse the flow spontaneously. Not possible. Therefore, we must choose which direction we will go, whether to Christ or not. And then I thought, well, what if someone jumps into your life, enters your current, so to say? They are going to be brought along, eh? Therefore, your example and your good works, your love and service DO have an effect. Maybe we can't see it ourselves, and I have had struggles myself to see if my work was doing anything really (and that is not a good feeling), BUT if the laws of heaven have limits and rules just like the physics of this world, then people will be carried closer to salvation just by being in our presence (if we're living as we should), taking part of our lives. Mensch, every time I try and write my spiritual thought I always learn something for myself. I thought about the people being brought along, but just now as I was typing I thought about the whole physical laws and spiritual laws. Wow, that is something that should help me a lot, if I keep my focus right. Thanks to you all for helping me teach myself!

 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy school and work and the normal stuff after the holidays end. But remember, the spirit of Christ should be with us all year long. Work hard, be obedient, don´t ever give up on anybody, on something, whatever it is. Without faith that men can change, then how can we change ourselves.? Men can change, you can change, I have changed, and no one can deny that. If you have been touched by the Lord, then ask yourself what that love meant to you, and accept that you never will, and that you never should, be the same. Men´s hearts may fail, but the Lord is on our side.

 

I love you all, wish you all the best! Keep smiling and doing your best to change for the better that part of the world you can--namely, you!

 

Elder Jalen Gibbons

 

PS--Hey, I forgot to mention how the investogators are doing! So we met with D___ again on Wednesday, and it was the first time we had seen them for a month! We were kinda worried, but he is doing really good! He has totally given up coffee! Which is great because he used to just do that before every game. And we spent most of the time just catching up, seeing how things were going. Our next big focus is going to be getting him focused back on baptism! We still have no idea when B___´s parents are coming, but we heard now that B___´s dad doesn't want to come, and we are just thinking "What? You are supposed to be baptizing your son-in-law so he can take your daughter to the temple!" So hopefully they can come. M___ we finally met with, and had a good time. But he hadn't read or prayed yet, and he still won't come to church, says he wants to go step by step, but then of course he has to actually do the reading and praying. We are meeting with him tonight again. Other than that, we talked with the other M___, the older one, last night, and we have an apointment this weekend. Plus we just found so many new people this weekend that we can potentially have a lot more investigators. We have been so stretched for time that I am still a day behind on my journal :/ but that is okay. We have fun. That is all I had to say :)

 

Tschüß! Ich hab euch lieb--Elder Gibbons

Ein gutes schönes Neujahr!

Ach so, wie ich euch lieb habe! :)

 

Happy birthday Nathan :) (Hope you liked your song that I sang on skype!)

 

So the big news eh?!!! Elder Eaker is going to Munich, serving in the 3rd ward, as Zone Leader! Haha let me just say this, that if I had a baptism for every time that Elder Eaker talked about never wanting to be a Zone Leader, then Klagenfurt would be its own mission :) He will do great there, no doubt, but he is so sad to leave Austria haha. He doesn't know Deutsch, he says, only Österriechisch, so he will have lots of fun in Bayern :) He has been here in Klagenfurt for so long, since May, 5 transfers, and the ward loves him. ANNND... I will also be here for 5 transfers, because I am staying :) Yay!!! Let me intoduce my new companion...

 

It was afternoon on a typical spring day, I was laying on the couch at home (Mountain Home home, I mean ;) ) and amid my many just-got-my-wisdom-teeth-removed-and-now-I-am-on-painkillers dreams, I received many text messages from various people, saying, "Hey, they just mentioned someone going to your mission in the General Conference talk!" So yeah, my companion, fresh out of the Italian area of the mission, is Elder Orchard, who was in the MTC with me!!! I am so excited!!!!! So we are going on Thursday to Innsbruck to pick him up, and Elder Eaker will continue on to Munich, and I have the chance to see Elder Robins too, if he is in Innsbruck when I get there! (I hope he is, I miss him haha). But yeah, Elder Robins is going to be serving in Innsbruck, in my Zone, but I may never see him, because interviews this transfer are in Wien for we Klagenfurters. :( welcome to the craziest district in the mission! Haha. It was a long, good time working with Elder Eaker, and I will miss him. But the work goes on, and to spend time with someone as old as I am, that should be fun :)

 

By the way, I have not yet received the Draper´s package yet, but there is a good chance that it may come today, and if not, because of holidays maybe, then sometime this week. But that is okay, because we received SO MANY cookies for Christmas from the members! We will never finish them! Dad asked if I had eaten all of my candy, and there is no way I have haha. It will last me a while, I believe. No worries there.

 

As for New Years, I have no idea what they do haha. Nothing different, I don't think. We are going to the Familie Korak´s today, and if the weather isn't too bad they said we are going to watch the fireworks on the Wörthersee. That would be so beautiful! But it is always so foggy here, so only time will tell tonight. Also, tell Easton that Elder Eaker and I have thoroughly enjoyed the table soccer that he gave me :) I am amazed that it is possible to put spin on the ball when flicking it (obviously it is physically possible, but I didn't think it would do as much as it did). So that was great. Plus the Tootsie Pops! Best Christmas ever, eh? :) Each year gets better haha.

 

So I can't for the life of me think of what it was that I said that you thought was so funny. You said I spoke like Jack, but I can't remember what it was. And the plaid/plaayed, what did I say there? I just speak and have no idea what happens or how I sound, not in English anymore. Haha it is fun.

 

I can't believe Dad busted out his patella! He has played Fußball with us for so long and never got that seriously wounded. Hopefully it decides to stay in place, but be careful, Father! haha.

 

So, this week was so great, so much time with the members, and then the weekend was just the opposite, out on the street, doing some doors, for HOURS! Talking to the few people on the street, walking the whole day. Good stuff, since we were fed so much the first three days haha. So Monday you know, we went to the Kaisers', the Bishop's family, and we had a good time there, and like I may have mentioned, they gave us pancake mix and real syrup!! It was so great! Back to the Future was also fun, we watched it in English, sorry Mom. That was our first late night, today will be the second. Tuesday we went to the Bishop´s parents´ house, (the bishop was there again, haha) and had a wonderful dinner. I love the Kaiser Family :) and then we went to the Halls' and watched Silent Night, which was great! And she made (Sis. Hall) chocolate chip cookies!!!! It has been so long!

 

Wednesday we were invited to a single adult activity, where we ate and sang and had fun. We ate at the Mauchs' gestern, Elder Eaker´s goodbye, and we had a long discussion about missionary work, which was very cool. And actually, before we came here today to do emails, we were at F___´s house for lunch, the man from Iran. He is so nice, and I don't ever think I have talked so much or heard him talk that much with anyone except a few members. But apparently we were nice enough, and he made us lunch and we had a nice discussion :) I love this place. I will probably only be here one more transfer, but we´ll see.

 

Sadly we didn't meet with anyone this week. M___ dropped both of our appointments :( so we have no idea how things are going. He just calls and says that something came up, and then we don't know anything else. Frusutrating. So sorry, no news there.

 

Oh yeah, guess what? When we went to the Halls' Tuesday, they were skyping with Sis. Hall´s daughter´s family, and Sis. Hall introduced us to them. And she said "here is Elder Gibbons" and they said, "hey wait, we have already had an Elder Gibbons come through here. Have you served in Albuquerque?" HOLY COW! They are the Merrill family from the ward where Tyson served before going to Argentina! Tyson knows my Senior Couple´s child´s family! Crazy how small the world is, there is a connection between our missions. Wow.

 

I enjoyed the Skyping a lot, glad I could entertain unknowingly, and it was great to see everyone. I hope you have a great new year, and have fun when the schedule gets up and running again. :)

 

But let me conclude with a thought, actually, it is someting that struck me from the testimony of the man who spoke last at church yesterday. He said, "I do not want to live ONE SECOND without having the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world." (Auf Deutsch, natürlich). He said the same thing about the gospel, didn't want to live one second without the gospel. I have thought it already in my life, as I am sure many have, where would I be and what would I be doing if I were not a member? What if I didn't know the Book of Mormon is true? Have you thought that ever? I have, but then it always comes back to "Hey Elder Gibbons, you know the Book of Mormon is true. What more do you need? You wouldn't be here without that, don´t worry about what-if´s." And indeed, you know exactly why you are a member, why you live the way you do, why you do the things you do right now. But sometimes we all need help remembering. Somthing that Br. Mauch said in class yesterday was a quote from Lion King, from the baboon (sorry, don't remember his name...). He told Simba (Symba, however you spell it), "It is time to remember." And how true that is! Remember who you are, where you come from, and where you are going. If you have already remembered, great. If you need to remember something, then I hope you do. If you get nothing out of this, then at least I did. It´s time for me to remember. Remember how much the Lord loves you. Remember when you first knew what the Holy Ghost felt like, remember when you first felt clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Remember that you are never alone.

 

I love you all, and wish you the best. Remember to smile. :)

 

Elder Jalen Gibbons

Schönen Guten Tag!

 

Well, what a weird feeling typing this email, since we will be talking on skype in about...4 hour´s time. So weird :) I thought about the day occasionally throughout the summer, and since that day in the middle of May (haha, rhymed :) ) but never really thought it would come. So, I am bringing all of my presents over to the Kaiser´s so that it feels a little bit more like a normal Christmas surrounded by family (haha, a family is a family, oder?). I haven't opened anything yet :) I´ve behaved. haha.

 

Um, I have no idea what to type really. I am just very happy :) and excited! Thanks so much by the way for sending the letter to Eshjaia (wow it was hard to spell her name without Germanizing it with the "sch" haha). Uh... well, last week was interesting, as are most weeks, therefore they all just blend together now. I can't even think of anything we did. So while I think, I will just go back and look at questions you posted and answer them! Yeah, I can do that.... wait, Dad got an iPhone? Is it the iPhone 5, because that one is cool! I knew he would get one eventually! Those pictures in Salt Lake were great as well, thanks. My first thought when I saw Nathan though was "what in the world, he reminds me of me!" Idk if it was just that picture, but it was weird. But I can't believe that he got his braces off already!! But I would love some pictures of him in his mouthguard ;) you are welcome Nathan!

 

Also, the Müller family (by the way, to type an umlaut letter, with the two dots, it just literally means the vowel followed by an "e", so you could type Mueller") was a family that was visiting around General Conference time, I thought I may have mentioned them to you, because their son is the one I talked about last week. They don't live in our mission, they are up by Hamburg in Deutschland, and were vacationing in Klagenfurt for a little bit. So yeah, that is them... they are so nice!!

 

By the way Nathan, it was NOT my fault that I knew how to brake the Segwey and that you and Tyson didn't! Thank you very much :)

 

Oh, yeah, transfer calls are this week! What in the world? I don't even know what to think, or what is going to happen, although Elder Eaker is very certain that he will be leaving Klagenfurt this transfer. We´ll let you know!

 

So, last week, we had district meeting in Graz, followed by the finding day, which went well. Then Wednesday we met with H. M___ and had steak and fries. The problem is just that we don't ever get to really talk about anything! Except this time, he brought up some things that he had read, mostly about Africans getting the Priesthood and the classic plural marriage, stuff like that. First of all, we were a little miffed that he was definitely reading things that were put out by people NOT friendly to the church. Second, after he said all of these things, he said he just wanted to see what we had to say about them. Call it what you will, his motives I mean, but I was just relieved to not have to try and answer all those things in the 1 minute time frame he allows us before interrupting haha. Anyway, we are grateful for his hospitality, but we do not accomplish our purpose as missionaries there, and we are going to tell him that. Thankfully we have a busy celebration this week and have some time to think about how to go about doing so tactfully.

 

Also, we had our lesson with M___ this last Saturday, and it went great! He dropped our appointment on Wednesday, we set it up for Thursday, that fell out too, and so we had to do it Saturday, otherwise we would have just been pretty down. We watched the Restoration film and then talked about the 3 things he needs to do to find an answer about the truth: read the Book of Mormon everyday, pray everyday, and go to church. We committed him to do those things, and so we will see how he does! The great thing was that after we watched the film, we asked what he thought about it, and he said he felt something good, and felt that there was truth in it. Well, we will take that anyday :) so we told him it was the Holy Ghost, and that the Holy Ghost would continue to touch his heart and feelings as he did those 3 things, and then he would have the opportunity to have the Holy Ghost by him always after he was baptized. We mentioned baptism to him, and he understood it pretty well, but the only thing we would do, and what we will do next time for sure, is get a baptismal date. It just didn't come up on Saturday, so we will focus on it next time. So that was great, he is so cool and ready to learn and recognize truth.

 

We had two eating appointments this week, Thursday with the Bishop and then the next day with the Bishop´s parents :) I love the Kaisers. We went caroling with the ward choir in Villach on friday, and that was fun! Our last song we sang was Silent Night. I know you watched the film about that, but I don't know if it talked about how seriously they take that song here! Lisa, the granddaughter of the Kaisers' (Sr.), was so scared to sing it, she was freaking out, because she thought everyone would get mad at us, since you ONLY sing it on the 24th, Heiligabend. (Which is funny, because in church we sang it, and we have sung it already before too.) But apparently it´s a serious business!

 

Otherwise, we walked around A LOT! through an almost-dead city, the only people are in the Weihnachtsmarkt, and no one talks to you when they are shopping. We still found a few potentials, so things are always going.

 

We ate at the Suppersbergers last night, which was a lot of fun. We google earthed Mountain Home and I showed them my car in the backyard :) How is the Nissan doing by the way? I miss it.

 

Anyway, I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and many good memories with loved ones!

 

Family, I will see you tonight :) Till then, though, stay safe, work hard, be obedient and loving, and always smile. :)

 

Bis später :)

 

Elder Jalen L. Gibbons

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Ja, hallo! Wie geht´s euch?

 

So, first off. We are going to Bishop Kaiser´s house and we plan on skyping at 7 pm here, which I would say is 11 am there. That is our plan! Thank you also for all the packages and letters and such that I got at Zone Conference! I got a letter from Sis. Eagley (actually I got two!), from Adriana Garcia, from the Halls and from Chris Hall, from Mom, from the Burgesses, and so on. And I am writing Sis. Eagley back today, so she can expect that sometime :) It makes my day to get notes from the ward, and mail in general! Today will probably be devoted to writing a ton of letters, because I have fallen behind. All of my presents are sitting on our table surrounding a little nativity scene that we have, I have some pictures of them :) My first missionary Christmas, it should be lots of fun!

 

Well, all of your Christmas activities sound exciting and exhausting! I am glad to hear that the ward party went well! Ours did too! :) Michael and Herr Marschnig came, and we just sang lots of songs, had musical numbers from the kids, had the Weihnachtsmann show up and give the kids goodies, and watched a film about the ward´s 2005 Christmas Party. Then afterward, Br. Mauch came over to us and we sang some Austrian Christmas songs, and we got to practice our Salzburgerisch accents, which was tough, but so much fun! That will always be such a fun memory, two American Elders trying to sound like they are from Salzburg, singing along with members of the ward, but all in the spirit of Christmas. And it was even better because Br. Mauch was playing the guitar along with us! I want to be able to play guitar :/ It would be so fun to sing those songs when I get home, because I kept the packet of songs! :) Prepare yourselves for Christmas 2014 ;) so that was a great time, and Herr Marschnig told us that he had lots of great impressions from his first time spent with the ward. Michael also enjoyed it as far as I know. The cool thing was that Michael introduced himself and said he was studying with us :) So he knows what the purpose of meeting with us is then! We can't wait to keep meeting with him and help him understand how much God loves him and to understand what God wants for him. Sadly, neither of the two came to church yesterday :( we just need them to come to church and then things will be that much better! It´s one of the hardest things for us, getting them to come. But luckily Michael lives like 5 minutes away from the church! We will get him next week. Herr Marschnig was able to come to the party because Br. Mauch is awesome and picked him up :) I love br. Mauch :) Yesterday we ate with his family after church and he and I were kicking a soccer ball back and forth, quick, precise, one-touch passes. He is amazed that I am American and can do that haha. Too bad he can't play because of his knee :/ Oh, we sang some more with him last night too, after dinner :) great times!

 

So, this last week.... on pday we walked around the shopping area of the city, and I was looking for stuff that I wanted for christmas, for the money you have allowed me :) thanks for that by the way. Thing is, I have NO IDEA what I want! We looked at so many stores and I have no idea. Elder Orchard told me to get Lederhosen at Zone conference, and that is something I have been pondering, but I don't know a good place for that in Klagengurt. So I have no idea.

 

Tuesday was a lot of fun, we went to Sis. Schaunig´s house and painted for her :) She fed us VERY well too, it was so good! That was our day Tuesday, a big service project. Then English class. Wednesday was spent passing out invitations to the ward party for Saturday, and then we traveled to Salzburg. And guess what????!!! I got to walk around the Altestadt, and I finally found where we were two years ago!!!! :) Mozartplatz, where we rented the segways, and then we walked along the river to the apartment later, and I found the spot where Nathan and Tyson crashed :) it was so cool seeing it again. I have pictures! But it was dark, so they aren't great. We spent Wednesday evening to Friday evening in Salzburg, because we did exchanges there. Zone Conference was very good, and I love seeing all the other missionaries, and President Miles. I learned a lot from it, but the biggest thing was a reminder to me about maintaining my freindship with the Savior. We played the chimes too, the pipe/bell things mom has, as a pause for conference. That was fun :) Plus, I have a place to stay when we come back to Europe whenever :) Rememebr the Müller family I told you about, who gave me their card and invited me to have Thanksgiving with them sometime, or just to stay with them? Well their son is in Brixen (italy) with Elder Orchard right now, and he is so cool! We had a lot of fun together, I think maybe because I told him I had seen his family ;) and he said he hadn't for awhile haha. So, he wants me to come hang out with him after the mission.

 

I also saw during my Salzburg adventures, a lake that apparently is filmed in The Sound of Music :) got pictures of that too. It was very pretty, it had snowed a lot. But now, like here in Kalgenfurt, it is way warm for no reason :( so ridiculous. Sorry the weather isn't fantastic there either. But just think of Tyson frying in Argentina and then it is better. Sorry brother! :)

 

I am glad Nathan and Kate are enjoying all the stuff they are doing. I don't know why other schools are so dang good at their sports, but welcome to Mountain Home, where you get a lot of experience playing against such schools. I am still proud of it, no matter what success or lack thereof I saw. Keep playing hard Nathan, and Kate, just keep enjoying what is left of dance. Do well in school! That is very important.

 

Anyway, I have had a good week, a week full of experiences that have made me excited to go and just work, despite the tough situations and rough experiences with people who aren't ready to change yet. The people are there, for sure. What is it, when the going gets tough, the tough get going? I'm trying to be like that haha. Heck, I am trying to be like Jesus, nothing was ever all bright and dandy for Him. but He knew His purpose, and He knew that He loved us, and He gave His life for you and for me. There is no better time to feel that than now. A cool quote I heard in church yesterday, from Johann von Göethe: "Das, was du tief im Herzen hast, kann niemals verloren gehen." If you have the Savior and His love in your heart, deep enough that it cannot be removed, then ponder what you can do to help others receive that. Remember how His love came to be there, how you felt that first time you KNEW that He was there and He calmed your troubled heart. Don't ever forget that feeling. Think on it often, because "oh how quick to forget are the children of men." Don't let anything so precious be taken from you, or better put, don't let yourself give such stuff away, or treat it lightly. Because we all make our own choices.

 

 

I know that Christ loves each and every one of you, and if you can't feel that, or if maybe you never have, kneel down now and ask to feel it. It will come if you do so faithfully and sincerely. I, too, love you all, and if you can't feel my love, than you will just have to write me and tell me what to do better, eh? ;) I´ll be here.

 

Say Käse and smile :)

Elder Jalen Lawrence Gibbons

Let´s talk about snow...

What walking all over everyday does to shoes

 

 

Hallo :)

 

Well, Dad seems to be pretty accurate with my weather, because it has been very cold! Don't worry, I have been decently warm, and on Monday I bought a hat and some gloves, and also a dictionary! If you are wondering how the dictionary keeps me warm, then you are trying too hard--it doesn't haha. Sorry for the bad sentence structure. Yeah, it was -8 this week, and hung out around there, but on Tuesday it snowed!! A bunch! Well, it was a couple inches, but it was our first real snow. Elder Eaker has never seen so much snow in his life, and he was super excited haha. We got to shovel the Halls driveway for them, and we did her neighbors too as well. I´ve missed shoveling snow, it's good work. Forgive my lack of possesive apostrophes, bitte. But then that snow semi-melted, and most of it turned to hard packed ice/slush. Kinda like home. But it snowed again on Saturday, and much of it is still here. It is so pretty! On Saturday we rode the bus to a little dorf and ended up walking through big fields covered in snow, and hardly any traffic. It was really a Silent Night, that's what I thought of. Still, dark, cold, very peaceful. Figured that I would look back on my experiences later in life and appreciate that walk through such pretty scenery. It´s the classic idea of what I would be doing as a missionary over here across the pond.

 

So yeah, I love my trenchcoat! It keeps me very warm, and I have no complaints. We have also been taking more advantage of the wonderful bakeries around here, and it makes me sad that I didn't go buy more huge oatmeal cookies from Mom´s Meals on Wheels friend's place. And I also decided that every week we are each going to try out a new kind of chocolate, because we have been sticking with Rittersport and Milka (cool picture by the way, Mom, from Elder Janis´ blog). I had a limited edition 100 years rittersport this last week (I taped the package into my journal). I have finished two whole journals now! Aren´t you proud of me? Not a single day without something written. I need to start looking for more. A lot of their notebook things are like grid paper, and I don't like writing on that, so I have to look harder.

 

Back to snow, I must ask something: What is your standing on me buying boots? I will send an email with some pictures, including a picture of my Men´s Warehouse shoes, which are ridiculous. But yeah, my shoes aren't exactly grippy, both of the bottoms are relatively flat, so I had a really good time walking around everywhere in the uneven snow. I even fell once, and yesterday my left knee was a little swollen and my lower leg hurt in general. We have been to the Ecco store here in Klagenfurt, and they have some goretex boots for about € 160, but I don't know how much insulation they have. We also saw some boots in another shop downtown that have insulation and are also goretex, and only € 149. That is what we have seen, and for me the biggest thing is keeping my feet warm, dry, and having traction. You will have to tell me what you think.

 

Anyway, last week was lots of fun! With the snow and stuff of course, but on Monday we met with D___ and B___. Dad wondered how a pro athlete could have WoW problems, and I thought that was funny. He doesn't have any problems with smoking for sure, but we asked him to try going without black teas and coffee and such. He is doing great too! We finished the Plan of Salvation with him on Monday. But now we have no idea if their parents are coming over here or not :( so that is still the same.

 

We met with Herr M___ as well, the one who is in the wheelchair who Elder Stapleton and I found. He had a surprise for us, he had told us, and we got there and it was two whole pork roasts! That is expensive here, we heard haha. He really loves meeting with us. It is still difficult to actually teach anything, but we do our normal thing, answer questions and bear testimony, and now he wants to come visit the church! We are shooting for this week! He is great, and such a nice guy. He also told us that everytime we come over, he is going to have something for us to eat that is even better than the time before will have been. So, we shall see where it goes. It was funny, he complimented my teeth, saying that my dad must be a dentist, not an eye doctor. So Elder Eaker and I laughed and then looked at each other and Elder Eaker told me to tell him ;) So, I told him about my nice fake teeth :) and he said many compliments to the Doctor! Thanks Dr. Vogl! haha.

 

We did an Ausstellung on Thursday, and I can't think of the word in English. like display or stand or something... Anyway, we do it in the middle of downtown, where everyone is shopping and NO ONE wants to talk to you haha. It´s almost like anti-missionary work! Not really, I had a good time, but everything I had heard about ausstellungs beforehand was pretty negative. I got to walk around a lot, and talked to some cool people! It was also freezing then. And after that we went to Frau K___´s with Sis. Schaunig and Daniele Casella, and had a very good time. We gave her handicapped daughter a blessing, because R___ asked her to let us, and it was a good experience. Olive Kaiser, the bishop's son, got baptized on Saturday, and that was a fun time. Too many sweets to try at all of these European potlucks... I felt kinda sick afterwards.

 

Oh, I saw lots of pictures from the Temple Rededication, with Joey and Jared and Christian and Malcolm, Tyler, Solomon, Justin, Aubree, Willow, Austin, the Crockett girls, and all sorts of people I know from the stake! That was pretty cool. Tell Malcolm I laughed at his haircut ;) he looks like his dad!

 

I had the opportunity to speak yesterday on how I discover and renew the spirit of Christmas. I think it went well enough, it was better to have things written down, then I don't screw up German as much. I love being here and being able to spend this time with these people I love, in the ward and with investigators. There is always a special spirit at this time, and even though I am so far away, it is the same feeling. I hope you are enjoying it too, and most importantly thinking about what Christ means to you in your lives.

 

Sorry if this is somewhat shorter, but I have mentioned the highlights. I have all sorts of stuff in my journals, so you´ll have to wait for all the good stuff. ;) Oh, I forgot to mention that we finally met with the young M___ guy we found at the end of November last night, and it was really good! We are going to meet him Saturday and then go to the ward Christmas party. Should be good. I will keep you updated. He is very nice and open and had many good questions.

 

I know that Christ was born to free us from sin and from death. He did it because He loves each of us. He is the greatest gift of all, for each of us, and what can we do in return? Follow Him, live like Him, love like Him, learn of Him. Seine Geburt feiern wir, sein Leben ehren wir, und seinem Beispiel für uns bleiben wir immer treu. He is the reason we have hope and joy, faith in a life after death. And He lives today, to continue to love and bless us. What can you give in return for such a gift? You´ll have to reason that out within yourself.

 

Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, and he was called of them to establish this church. Because of God´s love for His children, we can live together in families, we can learn and grow on our journey to become as He is. The Book of Mormon can prove that to anyone who is seeking sincerely. And NOTHING can stop the Lord´s work from moving forward.

 

Be happy, and rejoice in this season of celebration, and don´t stop smiling. :)

I love you all!

 

Elder Jalen Gibbons

Liebe Grüß!

Hallo liebe Freunde und Familie!

 

Well, I am sorry to hear that Great-Grandma passed away. President called me on Saturday night to tell me that you had emailed him, and like he said, we had a good conversation. He asked me about her, and then he asked if Great-Grandpa had already passed away. When I told him he had, then President said, "Oh, can you imagine that wonderful reunion?" I appreciated the love he expressed, and the testimony he bore about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose here. It wasn´t unexpected news, but I was grateful to have him tell it to me personally (as personal as over the phone is, I suppose). He told me to just think about the knowledge that we have that night as I contemplated the meaning of Grandma passing on, and I did. It was a very interesting experience. I was lying in bed thinking about it, and somehow my thoughts turned to my remaining family and all of my friends, and I thought back on great memories with so many people. And in this situation, as usual (speaking of her death), one can get a little sad, and those emotions started creeping into my wandering thoughts, and I started to just feel sad about the fact that so many memories are just that--namely, memories-- and I also had glimpses of opportunities gone by and mistakes made. What was interesting was that my natural instinct in the midst of these emotions was to just bask in the sorrow, like some people so readily do. And honestly, I tried for a second. But I couldn't. Instead, a hope for the future, memories to be made, opportunities to take, faith in the reality that we can live forever with our loved ones, came into my mind instead. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have, and the opportunity to share it with others. I am grateful for the comfort that night, the reassurance that things will be okay. That there is a plan for us. But most importantly, that when we give up everything, give it to the Savior, then it is really impossible to let yourself be drowned in sorrow or regret. It´s funny to say, but the best way to describe my experience was that the Savior DID NOT let me be sad. Haha He forbid it! And so are the workings of the Atonement in our lives. Each of our lives. That was my impression from Saturday night, and I am grateful for such a wonderful Mission President. He is truly an inspired man, and he is exactly what this mission needs, just what these missionaries need. And all you can summarize from that is that God speaks through living prophets, and Jesus Christ really guides His church today.

 

Well, I shall report on the rest of the week, eh? Moment, ich muß zuerst etwas erledigen. So, thanks for the addresses from Tyson and Chris, and now I have more favors to ask: can I get addresses for Ossie and Logan Olaso and Stephen Bush, if possible? That would be super. And yeah, I don't know how much it would cost to send Tyson something. I can figure out. I also want to give you the address from Sch. Schaunig, who took us to lunch a couple weeks ago and who has basically just been treating us as her sons. She is so nice! Anyway, that's all the address stuff I believe!

 

Also, it was funny in Dad´s email, because he was talking to me, but then occasionally you mix us up, and in this case Dad talked about his study in the NT and said he had thought of "you and jalen." haha i always just laugh :) no worries. Sorry that there are two of us.

 

Also, I have some information on the package stuff. So a package has to be less than 1 kilogram (just the cheapest one, from what I have heard) and that is still € 20!!! Wow, it´s pretty ridiculous. So I don't exactly know what I am sending yet (don't worry I am going to Villach today to shop and get haircuts and such, so I will look around for Nathan and Kate and Will), but it may be rather expensive. Plus, the Post only takes cash, so I am thinking that I will convert the $100 I have from the bike fund and use that for the packages. Otherwise, you would have to put money into my debit account and I would have to withdraw it. Only cash, so annoying! But yeah, that´s some news on that.

 

Also Mom, I am going to send a letter home today, but it will be a letter for Will, something for just the family, but then a letter to a friend as well. And I am going to just write the Buchteln recipe in there. And actually, no need to worrry about conversions, I have it all already, that is how Sis. Kaiser gave it to me, thankfully :) so, ich freute mich!

 

Plus, you talked about singing in the choir about Christ, and I had a similar experience in the MTC, where we were singing "I Believe in Christ" in a meeting, and the whole meaning hit me. Actually, everytime we sang that, it did so. My favorite version of that is MoTab, and my favorite lines are in the last verse, where it says "And while I strive through grief and pain His voice is heard,´Ýe shall obtain!´" and then, "I believe in Christ, so come what may." These have really struck me as a missionary, and I know how you felt when you told me about that. It is incomprehensible joy, there is no other description. And I find it much easier to feel such love in this Christmas season. Dad asked if people were more open to us, and I don't know if I can say that many more people are, but I can say that we have been blessed to find those people who are willing to talk to us. We found lots of potentials this last week, and we did A LOT of dooring! Haha one klingel that we hit DIDN'T STOP!!! And it just kept buzzing and we pressed other buttons and then banged on the door and then we just looked at each other and said, "And it is time to walk away..." which we promptly did :o that was fun. Also, it is really cold now, it SNOWED GESTERN!! But the sun is out today and it is melting. But it was beautiful!

 

Well, I got to walk around the whole market that Dad told me he saw online, and that was cool. It´s because Sis. Schaunig invited us spontaneously to lunch, and so we wanted to go talk with her and see how things were going since she is having a rough time. I was really glad we went, because we figured out that that day was probably her toughest yet, in terms of her situation, and so we got to comfort her, since we are basically her sons! When we said goodbye she hugged us again!! Haha and then she said, "you aren't supposed to do that, huh?" and we said, nope, not really haha. But she just said that she imagined her sons on missions and knew how much she wished that someone would be motherly to them. So, that's why I want you to send her a Christmas card, if possible. She is so nice.

 

Also, I figured I should be better on investigator reports! Sorry for my lacking, but nothing much was happening I guess. Anyway, D___ has been trying out the Word of Wisdom this last week or so, and we just told him to pray and see if it was right. And, gestern, B___ texted us and said "Guess who got a hat trick tonight? :)" plus they won their game 11-2. So we told her that he better be thanking Heavenly Father and that he better recongnize the blessings of the WoW. So, we are meeting with them today, like I said :) Um, V___ isn't doing anything, and he cancels appointments, so we had to drop him, and then besides that we have the man that I found a few weeks ago in the wheelchair, who made the appointment without us having to ask. He loves us haha. We basically just go and listen to his ideas, many of which are true, and when we can we just answer his questions and bear testimony. We just let him talk and try to be there for him. We count him as an investigator just on principle. But yeah, that´s how things are going. I will do better on updating you.

 

Well, as always, I get up to bear my testimony on Fast Sundays, and as soon as I stand up, no matter how much I have formulated things in my head, it all goes away, and I feel like my German is just terrible and all I can hope is that the Spirit talks through me. I guess it is my monthly "be thou humble" experience haha. So, I am going to do what I do better, and write out what I tried to say yesterday. And sorry, it is in German, but I heard that Bro. Sell must have liked translating it :) Hi Brother Sell! And everyone else.

 

So, fange ich jetzt an. ein paar Tage vor habe ich eine Ansprache vom Elder Holland gehört. Er hat darin eine Geschichte über den Vater des Präsident David O. Mckays erzählt. Der Vater hat ihm ihm (David) gesagt, als er auf Mission ging, daß er sich mit allen Lehren des Evangeliums beschäftigen wird, mit allen Heiligen Handlungen, mit den Heiligen Schriften. Aber wenn er vor Menschen steht, er wird finden daß sein Sinn ganz leer wird. In diesem Moment, sagte der Vater, er soll sein Zeugnis über den Propheten Joseph Smith und das, was Joseph Smith sah, ablegen. Dann hat der Elder Holland über die Wiederherstellung der Kirche Jesu Christi durch Joseph Smith gesprochen. Er sagte, daß diese Kirche nichts wäre, sie wäre wie jede andere Kirche, wenn sie die Wiederherstellung und die Erste Vision nicht hätte. Und ich (elder Gibbons) hatte mich gewünscht, daß ich wie Elder Holland sprechen könnte, daß ich Zeugnis von der Wiederherstellung mit solcher Macht wie er ablegen könnte. Doch kann der Geist so sprechen. Ich weiß, daß der Prophet Joseph Smith Jesus Christus und Himmlishen Vater gesehen hat. ich weiß, daß diese Kirche die wahre Kirche Christi auf der Erde ist. Durch Joseph smith war das Priestertum Gottes wieder dem Menschen gegeben, zum Segen der Mitglieder der Kirche, und zum Segen der Kinder Gottes. Dank Jesus Christus, können wir zusammen mit unseren Familien für immer und ewigkeit leben. Und was bringt uns größer Freude als dies?

 

I hope you all have a great week! Nathan, good luck with basketball, keep playing tough and keep your head high. Good luck in school and with everything else. Also, a happy birthday today to Eshjaia Gervais! Don´t know if she will ever see this, but just in case.

 

I love you all :) Choose to be happy, smile! :) It´s contagious.

 

bis nächste Woche!

 

Elder Jalen L Gibbons