Half Way Mark

Wow...3 days and a year will have gone by...I don´t even know what to think right now. Haha to be honest, I am a little bit scared. Everyone says that the second half just flies by...and I really don´t want it to. There are definitely some days where one does, but I really have come to love it here in Germany. Yesterday we had an appointment with one of our member families, the Friedrich´s. They are really such a great family. We somehow got onto the topic of Christmas and my chances of staying in the area, when they figured out I would probably be going little Basti gave me the biggest hug and was just like "Nooooo!! You can´t leave!! I am going to hold you here and you are going to stay." Haha I couldn´t help but laugh, Brother Friedrich than had to try and make things all emotional and tell me how much the family was going to miss me when I go. I really do love this area. I really just want to pray so badly to stay, but according to mission lingo, when you want to stay...that´s usually when you go :P So now I am stuck between a rock and a hard place lol. I also was able to give one of our investigators a blessing this week after Church. The opportunity to have the Lord´s Priesthood Authority back on the earth really is such a blessing. Sometimes I feel like these experiences help me more than they help the recipient. I am truly grateful for this opportunity I have had to serve out here and I really am so pumped for the next year and to see what miracles the Lord has in store. One of those being three new investigators for our area this week. We´re been praying to have more success with finding and as we really have dedicated ourselves and our time we have seen the Lord´s reply. I guess at times like these you just have to take a minute and look back on everything that has happened. All I can really think at this time is how grateful I am for all that I have received. This mission really has just been spectacular. There have been plenty of Up´s and Down´s but somehow, every single time, I have been comforted and helped to become better than I had been before. Definitely worth it. 100 percent. Also, really quick, I also wanted to share my thoughts on a video that I recently saw. It´s on the lds homepage but it´s the Bible Video of Peter walking on water with the Lord. I really love this video. I think it was really incredibly well done for a couple of reasons. 1. When Peter calls out to the Lord asking him if it really is him. I find myself doing that so often when I feel like I receive revelation from the Lord. The Lord seems to always strengthen me in the process and as I step into that "water" There is a realization that comes with it, that the things that I have received are truly from God. 2. As Peter is walking towards the Lord the water is not calm whatsoever...but still bearable. Which brings me to the next part of Peter pausing before he has reached Christ. His movement forward has stopped. He still is facing the Lord, but he isn´t moving towards him. I like to relate this to doing the work of the Lord. We may have received an answer that this Church is true and we may still go to church on Sunday and take the sacrament worthily. We may do all of these things but going through the motions doesn´t bring progression. That´s a major point of this Church, it helps us progress. You cannot progress by just going through the motions. That is why sincere prayer, faith, pondering, and filling yourself with the word of God are so important. This brings me to my third point. As Peter stands in the water doubt immediately begins to fill his mind. His progression has stopped and therefor Satan has a chance to come in, and he comes in hard. The thunder crashing in the background is no small thing in my mind. Just like he did with Moses, he will rant and rave until he brings you down into the depths of Hell. It is at the point of realization that he is sinking, and sinking fast, that Peter cries out to the Lord, begging, "Save me!" Have we not all reached this point sometime in our lives? The lord comes. He reaches out his hand and grasps Peter´s, pulling him up out of the water. His Atonement is that saving grace. It is what pulls us out of the water. We had Zone Training this week and I had the opportunity to gain a new perspective on the Atonement. One of the Elders, Elder King, a good friend of mine was called into the middle of a circle of missionaries. Our Zone Leader had a box of doughnuts and he asked the first Elder in the circle...actually ended up being our mission president, if he would like a doughnut. He said yes, so Elder Brown (ZL) asked Elder King to do 15 push-ups so that President Stoddard could have a doughnut. He then went around the circle and Elder King did push-ups for every single person. (Ended up being over 250 I think.) And we all watched him struggle. Some of us thought that if we didn´t take the doughnut, he wouldn´t suffer. We were wrong. For those who didn´t take he still did the push-ups anyways. As I watched him doing the push-ups for me I had an aching in my heart at the realization that my friend was being put through this so that I could partake. And that is when it hit me. Before we came to this earth, before this earth was, we were in heaven. With him. Our Brother. We loved one another and we took care of one another. Picture someone really close to you. Now picture them suffering for you. What does it change when you think of Christ. Imagine this person nailed to a cross. Imagine them suffering in the garden for all of your sins. Changes things a little bit huh? I invite you all to remember him this week, and everything that he has done for you. Just like Peter, progression is key. Just facing him isn´t enough anymore, to be honest, I don´t think it ever really was. We have to do something. As you remember him you´ll feel a need to go and do something. I felt it after this training and the more I learn the more I feel this pulling in me to do what I know to be true. Remember him, and have a wonderful week. I love you all.
Tschüss,
Elder Lee

More Bible Bashing...

Well, a part of me wants to applaud my companionship this week the other wants to smack myself for having done it. If you can´t tell from the title we had a pretty solid Bible Bash with one of our investigators this week. He hasn´t really been progressing at all and so we thought we´d address his questions as best as we could....Somehow in the middle of it all things went crazy and Elder Sollis and Erick just went at it. Erick was pumped about the fact that Elder Sollis was speaking so much in German but I guess the fact that Elder Sollis was calling him out on just about everything hit a little bit of a nerve. Seeing as we are a companionship I decided to join in. Since I am able to understand a lot more and have been memorizing a ton of scripture we basically proved Erick wrong in every single thing he said. At the time I was really pleased with it and I thought that we were being really successful, but then I realized something very wrong about the whole situation. There was a point when I realized a very specific thing that was missing in the entire thing and it actually shut my mouth pretty quickly when I did. The lack of the spirit was a lot more palpable than it ever has been, and then the Lord showed me something quite miraculous. Something really quite small, but so huge to me. I heard the tiniest sound in the background, the window was open and so it allowed us to hear what was going on outside. Someone was playing on their recorder. It was the Christmas song that is always played when you see Baby Jesus in the cradle. I then realized something very important, I wasn´t inviting Erick to come unto Christ, I was bashing with him about his faith in him. Even if I found it False, what a blessing it is to know that at least he was there. It didn´t help me with the lesson at all really. I think it just helped me remember why I was there. Something I have forgotten every once in a while. You get into the grind of things and stuff just becomes, well, normal. I think I really needed that reminder. As we returned home I was able to read a little bit from something M. Russel Ballard had written and it really affected me on how my relationship with Christ was becoming. You see so many amazing and crazy things and then somehow you look back and just feel like you´re going through the motions. We have become a little busier and I was forgetting to take time out to continue to develop my relationship with Christ. I found it super interesting. I have dedicated two years to learning more about him and also to teach others about him and still, somehow I got a little bit off track. I can´t imagine that it is any easier back home. I really want to stress how important it is for each and every one of us to remember him each and every day of our lives. Somehow the miracle that he brought about can be forgotten so quickly if we don´t remind ourselves of it always. The people in the Book of Mormon are perfect examples of just that same principle. They say incredible miracles over and over and over again and somehow they forgot those truths that they once held so dear. Halloween is over, sadly. (We thought we would dress up as Jehovah´s Witnesses...but somehow everyone mistakes us for them anyways so we just went out in our normal clothes. haha) Christmas is coming closer and so is Thanksgiving. I think that both holidays play a huge role in giving us an opportunity to be better people than we normally are. They also give us an opportunity to think on Christ and all that he has done for us. I would invite all of you to think about Christ more than you ever have before during this season. You can´t imagine the kind of change it will bring about when you do. I  can promise that. I have seen it as I have refocused on the important things in life. Thanks for all that you guys do and for all the help and the support that you have given me. I love you all and I hope that things only get better as we go along. I am excited for these next couple of months!! A time where everyone can focus a little bit more on others and not themselves. Gott sei mit euch bis aufwiedersehn. 

Elder Lee

Sonstiges

Shucks, I have been having some serious troubles trying to get members to our investigator appointments. It is definitely my fault on this one but man, there is nothing like reading in PMG and having them tell you over and over again how important it is to have members with your investigators and then failing at it...haha well, always room to improve. I guess I should start with our first "other" lesson that we had this week. We ended up meeting with a certain woman who, in our area book, was named as an Anti-Christ. She seemed really nice on the phone when we talked to her though, so we assumed that everything would be good. We show up to her house and her son and another man are there, we sit down, she gives us water and then she turns on some very familiar music...The Mormon Tabernacle Choir...If you´re thinking what I am thinking, either there are some really confused missionaries or we were about to be heading on the ride of our lives...we ended up taking the latter. After the exchange of some pleasantries Sabine began almost nonchalantly to explain some of our "beliefs". She pulled out a big Atlas and looked at me, then pointed to a certain spot on the world map. You guessed it, the Bering Straight. We then went through the next hour going over some of the craziest Anti-Mormon Material I have ever heard. Normally, she says, she doesn´t tell missionaries this stuff, but she felt "impressed" that she should blast us with it. Luckily, Elder Sollis couldn´t understand half of it, at the same time I was begging for some back-up hahaha but I could distinctly feel the Spirit with me so I stayed calm...and listened. When she had finally finished with some statements she then asked if I had any questions for her. I was grateful that I had the spirit with me, we were able to ask her some very simple questions that helped me get a better idea of the situation and what her thoughts were, etc. She had previously stated that she was unbiased in the situation but that facts were facts. She then stated that she had found plenty of very credible authors on the internet and referred us to an anti-Mormon website...I was able to turn things around a little bit and focus on prayer and the importance of going to the source of all truth. (Relate to Elder Christofferson´s talk from this past conference) I was open and honest with her and I didn´t "Bible bash" with her either...it was pretty interesting actually haha She ended up giving me a much different answer than I had expected. She talked about speaking with certain Spirits and that they help her reach a new point of enlightenment. She said they were making her wright a book and even though there were many times she didn´t want to write it she knew that she had to. (I was praying for the Spirit to stay with me very intensely by this point.) We were somehow able to get out of there by the end. We did close with a prayer though, I was actually really happy about that. Later the next day we received some texts from Sabine thanking us for our kindness. She said some more things and I kindly, but sternly, rejected the offers. After this whole experience I really have realized how wonderful it is to have the spirit with us, but I also realized something else. I´ve probably spoken on this before but I really was so impressed with the one thought "how firm a foundation" I was amazed, and I think Sabine was too, that every single thing she threw at me had absolutely no effect whatsoever. There have been times, and experiences, that have caused me to worry if I really could withstand the intensity of the atttacks that Satan throws at us. From this, over and over again that thought has run through my mind. "How firm a Foundation." My testimony of the savior will always continue to grow so long as I nourish it. There is a wonderful simplicity about the gospel that I really have come to admire. There is genuine peace when the Spirit arrives. I strive for that feeling, I yearn for it. It kills me to see and hear of people who lose it. All that is required is to exercise just a particle of faith. One particle is quite tiny in the vastness of the universe. What an invitation! The lord will never force us, we can choose to come to him. But we have to try and we have to want it. It will always be easier to not do it, to not try, but at the end of the day we´ll regret not having tried. Build yourselves on a firm foundation. There are going to be a lot of bad things coming and if you can´t hold to the simple truths that you now have you´re not going to have them after everything is done. I love you all, I wish I could share more but this thing is to long already. Have a wonderful week! Keep your chins up and always smile!...And never forget to build upon Christ!!

Elder Lee

Transfers

Well, I am going to be in Karlsruhe for the rest of my mission. There is no way out of Narnia. They burned the wardrobe...luckily it´s Narnia. I love it here!! Things have been going really well! We ended up going to the grave ceremony for a man who passed away recently...ended up just being Catholic Mass....interesting to say the least. Ah well, I can now say that I went to mass in Germany. I don´t want to be the bearer of bad news or anything but the things they do make absolutely no sense. I have been reading in the Bible and I would say easily half of the things that were done in there were against exactly what is stated in the Bible. They did have a good message about helping other Christians though, I was very happy about that. Each and every one of the missionaries came out of that room with a different feeling XD I was just struck by how many people there are out there who really do believe on something. I sometimes forget that when I walk on the streets of Germany and see the things that go on. At the same time between the other Elders you had one wanting to call everyone to repentance....another who didn´t understand anything that was being said at all, and then the last wanting to just leave the place. I really wish that I had taken some courses or studied more about other religions in the world. I still need to learn everything about my own. There are so many cool little things in the scriptures, that when you piece it together your whole outlook on the Book itself changes. I feel my testimony changing so often. There are some key principles that will always remain the same, but there are other things that can´t help but change as I learn more about my savior and what he did for me. Hahaha it´s kindof brutal realizing how little I know every time I come out of a new situation that I have been in. I have got a long ways to go...for that I am grateful though. I really have come to enjoy learning. I love seeing things from a different perspective. I still need to work on seeing things that way when I am dealing with others but I hope that one day I can be good enough about it that I can help people a lot more. Ah well, this week has been great! The stitches should be coming out in a couple of days and I will probably have a pretty gnarly scar. I hope not, but it is very possible. Meh, I´m just about bald anyways it´s not like the hair would have been growing there in a couple of months XD I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Tschüss!

Elder Lee

Stitches

Well mom, if you understand what my leading entry is about than I can let you know that all is well and that I am not dead...completely. This week has led to more and more exciting things. I now know what the inside of a German Hospital looks like...not as exciting as I thought it would be but ah well. In other news we ended up getting to visit an Anti-Christ. It was great...probably because we didn´t meet her...but her son was there and he was a recently returned exchange student with Mormon friends in America...we will be returning this week. Let us hope that there is plenty of success in store. He plays tennis so maybe I can shape up my game a little bit and use it to contact some more people haha We also ended up getting a new investigator this week. He actually was an old investigator in our area book from 2009...well done missionaries from back in the day.

We ended up meeting with him and he thought I was German...he then asked from what area I was from and I said America. He just about lost it when I told him I had only been here since January. Made my day. He´s an older Gent though, so I am pretty sure he is partially deaf. Good thing he can look at Elder Sollis´s and my pretty face. They have some serious converting power...lol This wonderful man started off with telling us that he was going to be Catholic no matter what we did....psh, we played the Holy Ghost card and now he´s going to be reading in the Book of Mormon with us. I put him as being baptized within the next year. Also, Elder Sollis has been really sick the last two weeks. I feel pretty bad for him, keep him in your prayers if you can. I got to read a little bit in the Old Testament this week...some seriously weird situations going down in those days.

I then watched a Mormon Message where they interview people about the story of Lot and his wife. Great video. I am grateful every day for the power to choose. I hope that you all choose to continue forward in the faith and to not look back. Or else I will be using you to make a sweet marinade for my steaks...lol Have a wonderful week!

Tschüss!

Elder Lee

P.S. If you didn´t like my joke...don´t look back. 

Here are some cool pics that I was able to get...and my head...sorry mom, I´ll be more careful next time hahaha

Well..

This week was a bit of a bust and I won´t even have that much time to write this letter out...soooo Elder Sollis and I both ended up coming down with the flu this week so I will give you a quick rundown of what happened...
Monday: P-Day...feeling a little sick, do some contacting, plan, go to bed.
Tuesday: Bed
Wednesday: Bed
Thursday: Two Appointments...bad idea, Bed
Friday: Bed
Saturday: More Bed...level of sanity almost down to the level of 0
Sunday: Church, Appointment, Bed
Today: Feeling much better, ending recovery
All in all I would say it was a solid week folks. I love you all, I miss you. I miss mom giving me soup when I am sick and I miss feeling healthy hahaha I got to read a ton of scripture though, can´t beat that!! Have a great week everyone!!
Tschüss!
Elder Lee

With an Eye Single to the Glory of God

Wow, what an epic week it has been. Can I just say that conference was just incredible! I seriously have never enjoyed conference so much!! It just gets better and better every single time. Just so many things that I can learn and apply. Gee, it´s just great! I´m hoping that everyone had a chance to see conference this time around and if not, you should. They gave such good advice and some really needed council for many members of this church. It is a weird feeling being in the position of a missionary at this time. I really loved the talk that President Uchtdorf gave about asking the question "Father, is it I?" It really was much needed council for me because very often I have been focusing all of my efforts on everybody else. I do find it very important though, that even when we are focusing on others it is good to perform a "self check" It is definitely important that we have a testimony of the things that we are preaching about every single day. I really found that self-evaluation is paramount in these times. Are we really on the right path? Do we really believe in the things that we do? I can testify that things really do change drastically when you understand the meanings behind them. The search of my mission has been to really get to know Christ and to understand his Atonement. The more I think about it the more I realize that it is a lifetime pursuit, but what a great thing to strive for!! I was so impressed with the council that was given. I really can´t wait for the next issue of the Liahona to come so that I can read through the talks over and over again in my free time. There really is nothing quite like diving into the gospel and just swimming around in it all the time haha. I really hope that each and every one of you reads over those talks again there is always more truth in those words than we originally have received. Just like the prophets of old in the Book of Mormon those who speak today speak the inspired words of Christ. They truly are the revealed word of God. I really feel that the focus on building a proper foundation and building it now is reason for me to think that in the next little while the persecution that will come will increase, and it will increase a lot. Build yourself on the rock of our redeemer. Christ. There is no doubt as to why those who spoke focused so much on these things. Stay on the right paths. Learn to recognize Heavenly Father´s voice. It is no coincidence. Those who stray from the path will fall. That is the destiny that lies therein. Like I have previously stated in past letters "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve" You all have the council of those who are not only incredibly smart, but are wise. They are led by God, and as President Packer stated, "The Lord is no stranger to his servant." He leads and directs his church. And he does it through the prophets, just like it says in Amos 3:7. The Lord sticks to his guns. You can be sure that he will be on the other side waiting for us and we can choose to be ashamed or we can choose to be the type of servants that he needs, move forward in faith, endure to the end, and then live with him again. Decide now and never look back. We already know the kind of reward we will receive if we do. (Relate to Lot´s wife if you are having trouble thinking of a proper example haha) Sometimes we may not think that it is going to be easy but just like it talks about in Alma 32 faith is that seed that we plant, but first we must plant that seed. You must put in a little bit of work to get that seed in there, and then that seed will grow inside of you "until the perfect day". The words of the prophets are incredible. Study them daily. It really has changed my life being out here and doing that. Those who have forgotten their testimonies should watch this conference. You have been given a sure way to obtaining that testimony again. If you want it, he´s there, and he can help you with it. No matter what other people think, no matter what other people have done, no matter what you may or may not understand, don´t give up the opportunity of a lifetime, don´t waste this chance to really know God. There is no if in the statement previous because there is no if when it comes to God. He is there. He does love us. He is the Father of our Spirits. He has called his Prophets in these latter days and He leads this Church. The faults and lies of men will not, and can not, taint that truth. He is all powerful and never ending. Satan will lose. We already know that. So let´s quit giving him the time of day when he wants it. I know I am preaching to the choir but maybe someone will stumble upon this somehow and read it. Hopefully it will help them and you understand where I stand. I´m cheering you all on, thank you for the help I received when I needed a little bit of cheering for myself. I am more grateful every single day for what I have chosen. The things I have felt and seen have confirmed to me more than once of the divinity of Christ, his mission, and his role in saving the sons and daughters of man. Now is not the time to doubt. As a missionary called of God I can promise you that when you follow the council of his servants, when you read their words and pray upon them you will receive that "Spiritual Answer" That Elder Anderson talks about. You will not find answers in that category unless you go to the source. No matter how many times you talk to Judas about Christ you will still never experience the wonder of speaking with him personally. (The same with Joseph smith. You´ll never know the truth until you go to the source)  It is an exciting time, I´m so grateful that I can be a part of this wonderful work. There is nothing quite like seeing the light in someone´s eyes who has come to know at least a piece of the truth. My mission became worth it when I saw it in my own. Make it a mission of your own to see it in yourself. I love you all, have a wonderful week!! 

Tshcüss!

Elder Lee