Schönen guten Tag!
We are doing emails at the Young Single Adult Center today. The district wanted to come together and play some games. Right now they are playing board games and card games, but I am looking more at the ping pong and billiards....we will see. We had a good lunch today with the Ehepaar Anderson :) ja, from Landshut. They drove here this morning to see us and take us to lunch, since they know Elder Horlacher and me from Landshut. It was a lot of fun!
We got to go visit Kai on Saturday, he is currently in his Entgiftung place, getting away from alcohol and hopefully cigarettes. The dumb thing is that we are only allowed to visit on Saturdays and Sundays. And we have to call the place, talk to Kai, and make sure that he tells the people to write our appointment in. It is pretty strict, but that is a good thing, to keep these people safe. But he is doing well, I believe. Hard to have contact with him, because it all has to go through the office. The other Kai we haven't seen for a few weeks, because he cancelled on us twice in a row. We are trying to see if he is ready to take things seriously. Otherwise, we have just been finding a lot of people. Dad asked how the zone was doing finding wise and such, and sadly it isn't too good. We have an awesome zone, but the thing is, it is an incredibly young zone. There are missionaries being trained by missionaries who are only 3 or 4 transfers old. It is cool, the responsibility they step up to, but they also don´t have tons of experience with different situations on the mission. We had Zone Conference this last Friday, which was really great, but we will be following up on lots of things to make sure that people are applying what they learned. Elder Horlacher and I have decided that we want to visit at least one finding day for each of our other 3 districts in the mission, so we can go and just work incredibly hard and help them find and learn how to find and to be excited and believe in and work miracles! I don´t know what else we can do. We have exchanges with district leaders, but besides that, we don't see or work with any other missionaries, except to sit in rooms for meetings. I don´t know, we will see how that goes. We need to be doing a lot more as a zone if we want to reach our goals set for the year.
Dad also was interested to know what kind of goals we talk about at the leadership councils. I don´t really know what to tell you, we talk about lots of different things. President Miles´ biggest thing is really pushing less active and inactive work. His vision is no more planned tracting and finding, no more finding days. What he wants is us to fill the days with appointments, and in between them, going by on members and less active members and working with them. That is his vision for the missionary work here. And we aren´t super close to that yet haha. Lots to do. But the leadership councils are very cool.
This week was spannend, we had two big zone meetings, and in between a couple austausches. We are really working and hoping to improve our work and efficiency in our companionship. We want to be a good example for the zone.
Well, I have another cool miracle story for this week! We received the information of a potential investigator from the Waiblingen Elders, and we found some time to go by on him on Saturday, but it was pretty crazy trying to get out to him. We made it, though. We klingeled, but no answer :( I was writing a note to leave behind, and then he came out! He was very excited! We only had about 15 or 20 minutes till our bus came, aber we talked about the restoration briefly. Then I got his phone number and we promised to see him again soon. As we left, he told us that he had been worried that the other missionaries had just played a joke on him, telling him that other missionaries would come by on him. Wow, a reminder to take this work seriously. I got a text from him a few minutes later, thanking us for coming by, and saying next time he would make breakfast for us. I texted him and said that we were happy to be there, and knew that our message would bring him closer to God. He replied back and said that he really wanted to find his way back to God, because he isn't going the right way now, and he said that maybe God had sent us, as helping angels, to guide him there. (Just like Alma 18: 33-34). So I promised we would be there. And asked if he would come to church. We got a ride for him, and he showed up in slacks and a white shirt, and stayed te whole time! We talked about developing talents in Sunday School, and how we have benefitted from the talents of others. He raised his hand and said that he had been blessed by the talents of the church´s missionaries, because he was here at the church! The members just helped him out the whole time, too. It was awesome. One of the speakers then shared 2 Nephi 31:17-20 in Sacrament Meeting (PERFECT!!!! :) ) and this man, Daniel, only had two questions after the meetings. 1) What is the Book of Mormon compared to the Bible, and 2) what is up with baptism? Perfect questions, right? I am excited for that next appointment.
Miracles happen, and this week, I am ready to call them down, as Elder Holland says. We must hasten the work! Don´t forget the part that you play in that, as members. I love Elder Holland´s quote from PMG, chapter 1, about commitments and stuff. They are the most important path they will ever travel, and YOU are the one who knows it. So be bold, and warn of the consequences of sin, and promise the blessings of happiness in this life and in the world to come. Share your testimony of the Atonement and how it has given you strength in the last few weeks. And then tell me how it went next week! That is my commitment to you. I´ll do it to.
We cannot just touch one single life in our efforts to bring about the Lord´s work. When you drop a stone in the water, there isn't just one ripple! The people who you touch will be inspired to go do the same with others. Don´t be afraid. Here is a good motto: if you are scared, do it. How else will you learn? Do someone a favor, and show them how to be happy, by living what you believe.
I know the Lord has great expectations of you all. Don´t stop short of your potential. Das dürft ihr nicht tun. Onward and upward, everything will be alright in the end.
I love you all, have a great week, fun at school whenever that starts, and be good!
Keep smiling!
Elder Jalen Gibbons
No comments:
Post a Comment