Love

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My time here in Zwickau could be coming to a close. Saturday is transfer calls, so we’ll see what happens. But I’ve thought a lot about what I have learned during my time here in Zwickau. First I thought about what I learned when my journey began… Minden. I learned a lot there, but one thing that stuck out to me was that I found myself, I saw myself in a new perspective, I saw what I wanted to become, and that’s when I started to go for it!

Zwickau, I learned to love the German people, because boy I had to learn to love them because there was no chance they were going to love me! My first transfer we taught 6 lessons in 6 weeks, and a couple of those lessons we taught, the investigator may or may not have been intoxicated 😉  We were confused… we both had experience, a great companionship, but we kept asking ourselves why can’t WE do this? The WE was the problem, of course we couldn’t do it! But the Lord could do it! And we needed two things to receive that help.

  1. Humility, this was a time where I think the Lord really wanted us to learn something, not so much as a punishment, but as a learning period. Because we really were trying to do the Lord’s work.
  1. Love, I can in honestly say, we didn’t really love the people. “Love your enemies” yeah… We didn’t really do that. It was more at the point of “the feeling is mutual” haha, so we changed that.

The second transfer we taught 26 lessons, because Elder Brimhall and I worked on these things.

Elder James E. Talmage talks about the great commandment to love our Father, and to love our fellow man. He commented that these two commandents “are so closely related as to be virtually one: … ‘Thou shalt love.’ He who abideth one of the two will abide both; for without love for our fellows, it is impossible to please God.”

We are all learning! I’m grateful for the time to be learning here in Germany in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can you love this week?  Have a good one.

 

Elder Winkel

zwickaucountrysidehorsesselfiestormtrooperpizza

 

Laborers

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This week we had a few interesting moments, Wednesday we went back to the city of Hartenstein to visit the investigator we found, but she wasn’t home… A bus didn’t come for a while, so we decided to do some doors, which we were reluctant to do because finding investigators that live far away can be hard to teach, and almost impossible to get to church. (No car, bus, member that can pick them up) anyways while dooring we saw this giant dog in the driveway… I’m pretty sure it was a cross between a Saint Bernard and a Bär (bear)!  And boy did he have a bark! He was tied up so we walked to the edge of his “ring of death” I let him sniff my hand, next thing you know he’s our best friend! Then we talked to his owner, nice guy, but no interest, so we talked about how cool his dog was.

On our way back to the bus stop we were about to talk to a guy, but then he asked us “Mormone ja?” So we told him yeah, he told us he gotten one of our books a while back and was wondering if we had any pamphlets with us he could have to read, which we actually didn’t. But then he asked if we had time today, so I told him “well how about right now?” So we walked to his house. His son passed away 6 years ago, it was a pretty hard thing for him he actually pulled out a beer to talk about it….  We asked if he believes that the family is eternal? He said “I don’t believe. But I know with my whole heart that it is.” It was wonderful to see his faith, I love to see that.  He has a strong belief in the bible so we talked about how the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and that it goes hand in hand with the bible. He said he believed it’s true but asked about why we don’t baptize children, Moroni 8 cleared that right up, and said he never thought about it that way. We had to leave but the next step is that Joseph smith is a prophet, it interesting to see that people will accept the Book of Mormon, but not that Joseph’s a prophet. It can be hard often but you can see the real desire in their heart to find out the truth.

Today we were walking down the street in the city, and some 16 year old girl stopped us… Usually this is when a weird moment happens. But in perfect English she said “missionaries!” then she told us that she’s been to America twice as an exchange student, once in Utah with a Mormon family, then in Texas was another Mormon family. She’d learned all about our church and found it interesting, but didn’t really have interest. But it was cool to talk to her, she’s from West Germany but is going around East Germany with a bunch of teenagers collecting funds for a humanitarian trip for her summer break. Super cool.

This week I studied in Mathew, right now in chapter 20, about ‘the parable of the laborers’ this has become one of my favorite parables, it can apply in so many ways to our life, Jeffery R. Holland gave a great talk in the 2012 ensign about it as well…

This parable–like all parables–is not really about laborers or wages any more than the others are about sheep and goats. This is a story about God’s goodness, His patience and forgiveness, and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a story about generosity and compassion. It is a story about grace. It underscores the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it. 

The Laborers in the Vineyard http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/05/the-laborers-in-the-vineyard?lang=eng

No matter what part of the race we finish, the reward is always there as long as we finish. Never give up hope on yourself or anyone else. The reward of salvation is always there.

Elder Winkel

Promise he was bigger in person!

Ipromisehewasbiggerinperson

Bamboozled

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So we got bamboozled this week… we had a guy call us and he told us he had met with the missionaries before and now wanted to be baptized. Well I’m always skeptical of these moments so we did some investigating. We found him in the area book and he lives about 45 minutes by car, and at a place for people with mental disabilities. But the missionaries wrote down that he was all there, and that the guy in charge didn’t like us coming so they stopped.

Luckily WE got to find out the real story. We took a member of the bishopric with us who is from Stuttgart, he served in the Berlin mission and his last area was Zwickau, which was only about a year ago. Two weeks after he got home from his mission, he was accepted to college in Zwickau, he went right back and was called into the bishopric. And next month he with be married in the salt lake temple to a sister that also served in Zwickau.

Anyways… We drove 45 minutes out in the German boonies to a compound of mentally disabled people. We met the guy and he really did seem completely normal… until he told us how he was studying about the CIA on the Internet, then they came after him, and then he came across our churches website which is how he got our number. In the end he just wanted to talk about philosophy and needed someone to discuss it with, and I guess he figured that if he told us he wanted to be baptized, we would come… well he was right… Haha

On the way home the member told us about his mission. He told us not to worry about if you’re teaching pool is full with crazy people, eternal investigators, and alcoholics. Because that’s how his mission was, and that you will find the random normal people, and gain the trust of the members, through working diligently. Which was nice to hear, especially from a German.

Now for a better story… Last Sunday we had an eating appointment with one of my favorite members, he’s 25, he’s going to school, playing a lot of sports, and looking for a wife. So right now things are going pretty well for him, He also is the one that organizes soccer with the orphans. Our appointment was awesome as usual, but then I remembered we forgot to plan a spiritual thought, so in my mind I pretty much asked the Lord to give us something that could help him. So on the spot, we talked about personal study, and asked him how his personal study was. He said it was going good, that he studies when he prepares his lessons for seminary. That it was good, and that life was good. Well that was “good” to hear! It was a great appointment and I thought that was the end of it. Nah…

Then yesterday in priesthood he taught the lesson. To begin he had us and the old men read part of the introduction together, then emphasized how the scriptures were made for US! In the very time in which we live! He then shared our question that we asked when we came over, and told everyone the answer that he gave us that “it’s good!”. This is the scripture he THEN shared:

21 And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well–and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. (2 Nephi 28:20)

Are we doing all we can? Or are we doing “good”?

This week we met our new pres. President Fingerle, he talked about the British bike team that made a plan to win the Tour de France. They planned to win it in 5 years. To accomplish this goal they would increase their performance in every area by 1%.  Testing to find the best pillows, mattresses, and traveling with them. Removing the seams from their jerseys, all these little things to make them better. It only took them 3 years to win the race.

1’s add up, and as a mission we will all be increasing. President Koask would quote “Live a life in Crescendo!” Always increasing!  We can always be better! Always do a little more. The Savior Jesus Christ is the way.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:27)

Elder Winkel

Copilot.

My döner man.He’s going on holiday for the next 7 weeks so we helped him clean his
shop before he left.

copilotdonerman

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

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This week was a bit of a ride… it was an interesting one. Tuesday we decided to go somewhere new, so we took a bus an hour out to a place called Hartenstein! It had the closest thing to a mountain that I’ve seen since Provo. We had a less active that lived there but when we went by, the lady’s mom told us to get lost, so then we had some more time to do some finding. We hiked up the “hills” a little bit and ran into an old castle, bombed out, but it was really cool, the gates were locked but we peeked over the wall and took some pics.

Then we went to do some doors… never my favorite but the Lord knows that and after the 3rd one, a lady in her garden asked if we wanted something to drink! We ended up sharing the 2 minute restoration video with her, and it turns out she’s already read the Book of Mormon. However she said all she needs is the Bible but we could always come and talk more another time (so we will). Then I realized what time it was… we had 10 minutes to make it back to the city center before our bus left (the only one for the day) so we full on sprinted, even ran through some newly paved black top, with the unhappy looks from construction workers we made it just before it left!

Thursday we went by some less actives and one of the members that we always go by is never home, but her neighbor was walking into the building so we asked her if she knew her, and BOY she gave it to us! (Understanding German has its downsides.) She started to get in my face about it and about started poking my chest. I decided I could be a little sassy about it or just be nice. Well I chose to be nice, but then I had to hold back from laughing because of how rude she was being so I ended up smiling at her. Then my understanding of German went away for a moment I guess – because the next thing I knew we had talked for 10 minutes about her grandkids, faith, GDR, WWII, and how terrible guns are (everyday topic.)  In the end she wished us to hold strong to our beliefs and good health! A little bit of a Christlike attitude can go a long way!

For the 4th we met with our eternal investigator in the morning, the date he chose to quit smoking, also turns out to be the date that he married his ex-wife… so now he wants to change it. He also asked us for a Book of Mormon that he can give to his daughter. He has a testimony of it. It’s kind of weird, we asked him how long he’s really been meeting with the missionaries and he first had contact in 1996. It can be quite hard to know what to teach because he knows it all. He’s a great guy and came to church the next day.

Afterwards we went to the city, we couldn’t find anyone to talk to, and we thought it was because it was 100 degrees, but it turns out there was just a giant Red Bull event for old mopeds in the city square! It was super rad. That night we roasted S’mores and made Hamburgers, with English muffin buns… haha but it was great.

Sunday we only had 2 hours of church because it was too hot, with no a/c.

I am grateful that I come from the Promise Land. America will always be the best, as a district we sent quotes from famous presidents the entire day, one elder even texted us the ENTIRE declaration of independence. The night ended with a district call singing the national anthem.

 

God Bless the USA!

Elder Winkel

LaparoundpondRedBullEvent3