Smile Elder

Dear Everybody,

 

I hope that everyone is doing well. I heard that it snowed in Utah. That is nice. It has not snowed here yet, but it is so unbelieveably cold. That is what happens when you have humidity. It is cold. Fortunately, I have a very warm and fashion forward German coat. And a sweater, thermal underwear, suit jacket, and so forth. I intend to buy a scarf today. Everyone in Germany wears scarfs. Should be fun.

 

We had an amazing opportunity this Thursday. We had our missionary tour. Half of the mission was assembled in order to be instructed by two General Authorities on how we could be better missionaries. We had President Kearon of the Europe area presidency, and then Elder Fingeler. We heard the Queen's English and a German accent that I have never encountered. I should have asked him where he was from. We learned a lot of new things that my companion and I have begun trying to incorporate in our work here in Leest. There are still a lot more things that we have not had the opportunity to try. I am very excited.

 

And I do not have pictures again. I have not been able to go to Media Markt because last P-day was spent looking for new shoes for Elder Davis. President Kosak did not approve of the one pair that he has and told him that he had to buy new ones. We found some, but it took up our day. Today we are going to Alexander Platz for a real shopping experience, so I will probably be able to get one. (For those of you who do not know, Alexander Platz is either the largest or second largest shopping center in all of Europe. It is in Berlin. Cool, right?) And my camera broke, so we took it to our GML, or ward mission leader. He touched it. Now it works. It took a total of twenty seconds. He is amazing.

 

We have a lot of work lined up this week. We are still trying to make out appointments with everyone that we want to visit. There are so many people in Germany. It is weird. There is a lot of open space and land, the people are just crammed together. And we have a responsibility for all of them. It can seem overwhelming at times. But we are getting our bikes repaired/replaced, so we should soon be more mobile again.

 

We also had a wonderful fast Sunday this week. One of our investigators went up to speak. He talked about how thankful he was to have gotten to know our faith. He said he had never seen people who had as much faith, but also practiced it. It was a very spiritual meeting. Our branch is wonderful. Since we do a lot of work in the student apartments, (I almost could not remember that word.) we meet a lot of young women who are interested. This means that we have to have a member with us. We rely on them to help us a lot and they always come through. They are still giving us vegetables too. This greatly reduces our grocery bill. This is a problem because then we buy chocolate instead. Actually, the members give us chocolate, so we do not buy it much.

 

I would like to share a spiritual thought that I had this week. As I was studying second Nephi, particularly the Isaiah chapters (because that is 90 percent of second Nephi), I recognized that the prophecies of the house of Israel are about the members of the church. We are the adopted or literal, as the case may be, house of Israel. The admonition of the Lord is simple. He say that those who rely on Him will be delivered from bondage and from the enemies. What particularly stood out to me, is the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah where the Savior says that He has relied upon the Lord. He always relied upon His Heavenly Father. He received heaven sent strength. How much more do we need that exact same strength? Rely on the Lord and He will make you free.

 

Do not miss out on the joy. That is what our mission president likes to say. We can choose to be happy, especially when we keep the commandments, and when we know about the Plan of Happiness. "Smile Elder ____. It won't kill you." May we all smile.

 

best wishes,

Elder Perez (I have to go back and fix that every single time. Y and z key are switched.

 

October 2013 District Meeting Potsdam