July 14, 2013

Hello!

  I really need to start bringing my journal with me here so that I can remember exactly what happened through the week... haha. whoops! (and yes... I have been keeping a daily journal again! woohoo! ) hmm... well the week was actually filled up with member appointments! which was really cool. It feels so good to have opportunities to teach. I really love it. The opportunities here are pretty difficult to find to teach. Hopefully we will be able to find a way to have the members help us to do missionary work. We still haven't seen the video from the first presidency about missionary work and leadership... hmm... I think that the contents of the video would really help us out.

  My study this week has been really good. I have been able to find myself really focusing on the words of the scriptures. I have divided my study time up into three main parts 1) studying 'our heritage' - the story of the early pioneers of the church and the establishment of the church 2) Doctrine and Covenants 3) The Book of Mormon. Our Heritage and D&C are so closely related, it's really cool to see the revelations from D&C being set into the real world situations that were happening at the time described in 'Our Heritage'. The Book of Mormon study has been mainly on the desires of the prophets. I really want to see what makes the prophets happy-what makes them sad, and to see what they want. So far I've seen that a lot of the desires of Nephi or Lehi are expressed in deep prayer to God or in dialogue to family. It's really cool to see how the true desires or real deep questions of the soul are drawn out to those with whom they have a strong relationship (God, and family members).

  So I think I may have been writing a little bit too openly about the investigators that we've been teaching... haha. Our Mission President addressed that in our Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday. He talked about only using first names or maybe doing something else to keep the confidential things confidential... on that note... Mister P from my last area has a baptismal date! woohoo! I just got an email from my last companion talking about how Mister P has accepted the invitation to be baptised in August! It's super awesome. I hope now that I can be transferred over closer to where the baptism will be so that I can see it happen. It feels good to know that I have helped people come closer to Christ :) On the last Sunday there before I left Kassel, he came up to me and I said 'thank you' for everything that he had done for us... and he said 'thank YOU'. I asked him why he would be thanking me and he said 'well, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here'. It was great. I miss that place so much. Kassel is my favorite place so far. I left a part of my heart there...anywayyyyy back to reality! I'm in Forst! woohoo!

  Something that I learned this week is that riding a bike while holding an umbrella is illegal... so I need to get a rain-jacket sometime this week.

  I have been taking tons of photos this transfer. So don't worry about that. I've been filling up that SD card you sent back. I'm still working on finding things to put in this package I have to send to you... it will come eventually. I just need to get some more chocolate... :P

  So my drivers license will be expiring on the 26th... and I still have an Idaho drivers license... can you send grandpa over to the city hall place to see what I need to do?
 

  I'm trying my best to keep myself off of autopilot and to be actively listening to the spirit. It's working most of the time, but I just have to keep myself from going into that all too familiar 'duh' face that has been a trademark of the bub you know and love :)

  We see miracles every day when we open our eyes :) The Lord is there for us when we only ask.

Love,
Elder Braden Thorkelson