Not much new this week besides that we TAUGHT THE FIRST LESSON, yeah we’ve taught it before, but this time it was different. We talked to someone on the street, made an appointment, then we went and the person was actually there… and he was pretty normal. It was I think the first time that I’ve taught the first lesson where it was like how I thought being a missionary would be. We met at his friend’s house who is an atheist, we got to know them, they’re both in about their mid 20’s, and then we taught the restoration, ACTUALLY how we practice every day. I don’t know how to explain it… I felt like I was in an episode of the district or something.

He and his friend found it really interesting because we gave it to them straight at the end, we told them that we are just inviting others to try out what we’re sharing, because we believe it brings joy, and that we can receive an answer that it is true… they were shocked… because we didn’t try to force our beliefs on them (not naming any names). But it went well and the atheist even found it interesting.

Last week on Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Perez in the city of Plauen, we had a lesson fall out then we taught a couple guys from the Middle East. The one guy spoke only Arabic, so we had a Book of Mormon, one in Arabic and one in German side by side, to help him understand… then we worked on teaching him how the alphabet works, baby steps…

Then later the other guy we taught German to speaks pretty good English, and he really wants to learn German, so we taught him German for a while and he taught us Arabic for about 45 minutes! Crazy hard language, but I learned some things.

Things are going better right now, maybe because it is summer right now so people don’t hate us as much… haha, but it’s good, last week we taught 3 lessons! A ton better than the week before when we only had 1, but progress is coming!

On Sunday the ward mission leader let us know that the person who was supposed to give the lesson in church, wasn’t prepared so they threw it to the missionaries! So last minute we planned a lesson on the spot to teach the ward. So we taught the… 1st lesson! (Restoration) we went through every point and asked “Why it is important that investigators understand this concept?” go look up in preach my gospel and ask yourself the same questions! (Chapter 3)

When things get hard “Pray, and then go to work!” – Captain Cronin

Elder Winkel

Monday night we stayed in Merzahn with Elder Glissmeyer and 10 other elders in a tiny apartment in the ghetto of Berlin. A night to not be forgotten! Elder Oliphant was also there!

This zone conference was also our last time with President and Sister Kosak. President’s last testimony was simply about the Restoration, the magnitude of it, and why we are here to share it with all our heart, might, mind, and strength (D&C:4). He also shared his deep and profound love for our Prophet Joseph Smith. I also have this love for Joseph Smith, he had a purpose, and he was well aware of the consequences, but he also had a perspective, an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. With an eternal perspective we have no reason to fear or doubt. Unfortunately that doesn’t make life always easy, but that’s okay because without the bad, we wouldn’t know good, and that wouldn’t be much fun right? (I like to have fun)

I hope that this week we can always remember the Eternal Perspective and remember the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Elder Winkel

Well Tuesday I sent Elder Brimhall off, then I hopped on a train by myself to Chemnitz not knowing that that day and the next would be quite the adventure. For a few hours we helped missionaries get on and off trains at the train station. We got to help a lady from New York that didn’t speak German find her train. Then we went to check our train that would take us to Berlin the next morning. We found out that the trains were all going on strike so we had to find a new way to get there…

So we went and checked out buses and that wasn’t going to work, but then we had an appointment doing service so we went and changed and helped this lady with her yard, went back and changed again, so we could go to teach a guy from India in a park at the university. After, one of Elder Carpenter’s investigators was planning on coming to institute that night at the church. So we went to the church and looked for a way to get to Berlin on the computer there, then their investigator was late and didn’t remember how to get to the church. Some walked to the bus stop to go get him and brought him to the church.

Then I sat in institute with their investigator while Elder Carpenter continued his search finding a ride to Berlin. And there was none… So the APs told us to go take a train to Hohenstein where the sisters there have a car that we could use to drive to Berlin the next morning. But that meant we had to leave right then and run to the train station. So, we left the investigator with the members (after institute they bought him Subway and drove him home, he had a great time) and ran to catch a bus, then ran to the train station just in time to make the train. But as we were waiting they came over the loud speaker and said that our train had just fallen out… Then we got to help a guy find his train.

So we called the sisters and they said they could drive to Chemnitz and pick us up, then drive themselves home, then we could drive the car back to Chemnitz. So we took a bus back to the apartment. On the bus a guy needed help finding a street but he didn’t speak German or English and had no map, but luckily we had ours and pointed him in the right direction and then we got a call from one of their investigators. He told us he had no food and was out of money so we gathered some food from around the apartment and when the sisters picked us up we went and dropped it off at his house. Then the sisters drove us back to Hohenstein, and we took the car back to Chemnitz just in time before 10:30.

Elder Carpenter had the idea that we leave a little bit earlier in the morning so before our meeting we could go see a few of the sights in Berlin. So we woke up early and drove to Berlin. Luckily there’s a lot of cool sights in Berlin that are close to each other so we could just walk around and see them all quick. Then we went to the mission office and picked up our trainees! Elder Burns is my new companion! He’s from American Fork, and he’s really working hard on his German so he’s doing great!

After looking back on Tuesday, we had a lot of fun running around, and I also didn’t realize how many people the Lord put in our path that needed help. It wasn’t coincidence that we happened to be all over the place that day. I’m grateful for the time I can be here as a missionary, and that day was another testimony to me that God really does love ALL of his children.

Moroni 7:33

Have a sweet week!

Elder Winkel

Skype! It was great to see everyone! It was a good day.

This week on Thursday is “Christi Himmelfahrt”(Ascension Day) a Catholic holiday but Germans use it to get really drunk, so we have to be in our apartment by 6 on Thursday…

We taught 5 lessons this week with our 3 old investigators! They went well and Herr S even listened to the Book of Mormon on CD! We asked if he had – but we didn’t really think he had – but then he told us “ya they were in the wilderness and stuff, then that one guy wouldn’t give them that one thing…” really cool, always have faith in people! In the End we almost got 6 lessons to break our record but it was still a good week!

Mother’s Day was great! I’m so very thankful for my mom! A member in our ward I think quoted Gordon B. Hinckley with “Be kind to the women. They constitute half the population and are mothers to the other half.” We have so many women in our lives to be grateful for. My mom does so much for me and always is thinking of ways that she could help me.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Elder Winkel

Well first off we got a referral last week, he’s a refugee from Afghanistan, he’s actually the son of an ambassador there but people wanted to kidnap him so he came here! He’s Islamic and has really good English, he mostly wants friends and people to talk to so I guess we work. But we talked about God with him for about an hour so it was really cool.

Berlin! Well because of the train system strikes in Germany I got to buy another ticket there… so we took a 5 hour bus ride instead of a 3 hour ICE (Inter-City-Express) train ride… but it was okay because we got to hang out with our zone leaders, then we went and got Burger King. Then the office Elders came and picked us up and took us to their apartment, really cool and really big. Then another 6 elders got in late and had to crash with us too.

The next morning a bunch of old couple missionaries came and took us to the church, and I got to see everyone, super sweet.

The meeting was titled “Disciples in the Digital Age” and we’re supposed to get iPad’s in a week or so and we’ll be on facebook. But it was also the last time the entire mission would be together with President Kosak. It was really cool to see and talk to him again. He told us with all the internet and such that we will be using he has our complete trust, and the area seventy that was there added “President Kosak also told me he knows 16 ways to kill a man”. Then President from his seat nodded his head shot us with a pretend gun and blew the smoke from the barrel, all with a smile. I died laughing, really though, I died.  I have so much love/fear of President Kosak, he makes us want to be obedient, which is really important to a mission.

We also had Stake Conference on Saturday and President was also at that, he told the members to trust us with an analogy “when a bird builds a nest, it doesn’t rely on the branch, it relies on its wings” so hopefully more members will start trusting us. The members where I’m from all love him because he grew up in their Stake. Stake Conference was really cool too, because the Stake is so big they held it in a theater in Leipzig.

At the end of our meeting President Kosak said to not forget that we are children of God, I am a son/daughter of God, we’ve heard it all our lives, but do we really realize how important and big that really is? He told us to “remember to know that you know.” I know that what he said is true, we can always remember and rejoice because no matter what happens in the end, in the beginning we are children of God.

Lead kindly Light

Elder Winkel