December 3, 2012

Hi everyone,

This week was really good. Really busy and up and down and here and there and just crazy but good. 

Tuesday we had an awesome zone conference. Half of the mission was there and I got to see a lot of my favorite missionaries. The aps, president, and his wife spoke and they were great. There is a real focus on our new standards of excellence that focus less on the check boxes a missionary can check and more on the conversion of indiviuals so that was really great. The best was the testimony meeting at the end. Prolly half of the missionaries bore testimony and they were all really short and powerful. Such a huge spiritual power was in that room. I kept thinking, if any investigator attended this meeting they would without a doubt be convinced of the truthfulness of this gospel. It was seriously like Christmas for a missionary. So fun and spiritual. 

Wednesday  I went on exchange with a brand new missionary. He is from Brigham City and that was fun. He had to drive the whole day, his first time in Germany, and that was an adventure. He is full of excitement and diligence. Way cool to work with him. Reminded me of my first few days with my son. New missionaries are so powerful! 

Friday was the Thanksgiving feast at the branch president's home. His wife is american and cooked such delicious amercian specialties! Turkey, stuffing, and pumkin pie were amazing!! You forget how delicious that is when you haven't had it in a while. Plus the best ever..... EGG NOG!!! I love egg nog. Like the best. So yummy. Anyways that was wayy fun. I got to know a lof of the members better and they are hilarious and cool. I already love this branch ahhaa. 

The rest of the week was spent mainly finding and tracking down less actives. That was rather fun at times and less exciting at others but overall pretty successful. We found one cool family from Cameroon on Saturday. The mother is super religious and asked the best questions ever as we taught the plan of salvation. You don't often find families in Germany so that was a real treat to bear testimony of eternal families to a family. They are very open and promising! 

My reading of the Book of Mormon has been so interesting the last couple of days. I've gone from the end of 3 Nephi to Mormon this week. It was crazy to go from the wonderful joyful rejoicing from the time of Christ's visit, to 300 years or so of peace and Zion, to awful wicknedness in just a few pages. Kinda depressing at first but it sure makes you appreciate the Savior, His gopsel, and the joy of righteous living. All I can say is my respect and love for Mormon is growing a ton. To live through what he lived through with all that responsiblity, knowledge, and testimony. What a man. I hope to meet him one day. I wonder if you can see the pain in his eyes of what he lived through. Anyways if you want to feel a sobering spirit read Mormon. I'm so grateful for him, for the book he made for us all! 

Anyways I got to go now but that is everything for this week. Love you all!

Elder Clayton

November 26, 2012

Hi everyone!!

So the goodbyes with the elders and investigators and members in Marzahn went well. Kinda strange but always good and well wishes are always great. New beginnings help you reevaluate. 

So my journey to Oldenburg went well. I caught all my connections well despite my giant, heavy luggage. 

We got right to work of course. 

We spend most of the day going by contacts, but we have a car! Everything here is much more spaced out and the car is way helpful with that. It is strange because this city is full of houses! I have never been in a city with so many houses in Germany. It is almost like the states sometimes. But we had a lot of success tracking down some new investigators doing that. 

We had a great joint teach Wednesday with an investigator. He is super willing to learn about our message. We taught about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and he understood it all really well. He knew exactly what he needed to do to find out if it is true and he is willing to do it. Excited for next week with him. 

We work a lot with a new convert here. He was baptized 3 weeks ago. He is great. We have been reviewing the lessons with him and it has been great.

Thursday we had a cool appointment with another investigator and our branch president.  Our investigator grew up in east Germany and never even heard of God till he was ten years old. It is hard for him to imagine God so we are working with him right now on God's nature and his relationship with God. Our branch president is super cool! His gospel knowlegde is incredible and he is very kind and good with the members and investigators. His wife is from Arizona. We are having Thanksgiving with them on Friday.

Friday we met with a man from Zimbabwe. We taught him the restoration. He has a strong desire to come closer to Christ and understood the gravity of our message. That there are prophets again and that if that is true, the true church is what can help him the best come closer to Christ. Wayy cool. Excited for that.

Saturday we visited a less active rather new convert. She was sooo happy to see us and we talked about sharing the gospel with others. We had a really good discussion and then at the end she prayed that we would be able to find someone that night. and we did!  He is from Bulgaria and speaks very little german and less english. The elders had an appointment with him before that didn't work out but we saw him in town, then ran home super fast to get a Book of Mormon in his language and luckily caught him again! He told us in broken german of his love for Christ. Everyone where he lives is muslim and he and his family are some of the only christians. He told us of his conversion and it was really special. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, which he is soo excited to read and invited him to church. God answers prayers!

Sunday was crazy! We ran all over the town going by contacts all day after church. We had a lot of success. 4 walk ins! One sweet new investigator who just wants to know who Christ is for us mormons, where he came from, and where he is going. He literally asked us these questions. We also taught this family. We rang the bell and the husband answered. He said they have visitors but to come by another time, then the wife asked who it was. He said the nice men from the chruch of Jesus Christ. She said to let them in, we are interested in what they had to say. It was his wife and family friends, 5 people, and we basically had a QandA about mormons and then taught them all about Joseph Smith.  Such cool people, normal people, and they listened! The spirit was there very strong and I know they felt it. They invited us to come back another time and talk about the plan of salvation, and the family friends really enjoyed us too. That was a cooool experience that neither of us were expecting.

Sunday at church I taught the english sunday school about commandments and obedience. It was really fun and well really well. I love teaching the gospel. Especially when the people want to hear and participate!

Basically there are a million things to say but that is the short version. I'm stoked to serve the zone and these people here. My comp is great too. Hard worker and capable. Big things to come!

Til next week!

Elder Clayton