A week of much contacting in Germany

Here is the weekly letter from Germany.  I won't post on the Christmas package. . . you will see my comments in the letter!  It sounds as though his spirits are still up, which I am grateful for.  He is usually an upbeat person so I don't worry too much about him getting down.  Still our Jovial Jaren!

Hallo Mein liebe Familie!

 

Well, this week has been a little interesting to say the least. But first off, thank you mom for the pictures and the info on the package. Like you, I have no clue as to what happened with it! It just sounds crazy to me! The address is right, but if you resend it, it should only take a week and a half or two weeks. (Imagine my surprise when the postmaster asked me as I walked into the post office last Wednesday if I had picked up my mail yet.  I guessed Jaren's Christmas package was in there. . . it was! It seems to be marked on the box that it is an insufficient address.  Grrrr!  I know Cristi mailed hers to the same address.  You gotta love a small town where a.) the postmaster knows you and b.) he knows that your missionary's CHRISTMAS package came back to you and that you would be frustrated!)  We have zone conference next Monday, so it would be six weeks more before I´d see it again. If you send it to the address here, it should make it before next transfere cycle. Hopefully! You´d probably want to send it this week though, if you can.  (Steve is mailing the package AGAIN today with UPS.  We'll see if that helps!  I wonder if grandma's homemade carmels are still good.  They looked good!)

 

But, outside of that little incident, glad to hear things are going well back at home. It is really getting interesting here again because people are talking about Obama again and how excited they are to have him in office. Yeah, can't say anything really, but it is pretty interesting. Then, a couple of days ago, I was contacting on the streets and came across this man, and he flat out told me in English "I hate Americans." Now that isn´t fair, or is it? I said that same thing about Germans ten years ago, so I guess it was pay back. Nonetheless, it put me off just a little bit. The way he said it was just interesting.  (turn about is fair play. . . now Jaren knows how I must have felt while with clenched fists he stomped his foot and yelled "I hate Germans!" in the middle of a crowded street in Dusseldorf.  It was like in the movies when time seems to stop.  I felt like people were staring at us with their mouths wide open.  I was waiting for some German secret service guy to come out from his hiding spot, whisk us away, to never see the USA again!  I tried to tell him you can't say that in someone's home country when you are the visitor.  I suppose it's different when he is the visitor and someone says that collectively about the people of his home country.)

 

I have done sooooo  much contacting this week that I am still very sore. At least two of the five days or so when we donated a huge chunk of our time to contacting, whether it was doors or streets, we walked about 15 miles each of those days, and probably about 8-10 the other days. It was crazy. We didn´t find too many people, but we are meeting with two new people now because of it. One is a man by the name of Stefan Grosser. He is about 45 years old. We met him while doing doors not this last Sunday, but the Sunday before. He is a pretty amazing guy to say the least. In the last few years and months, he has lost his job, been divorced a couple of times it sounds, and has been looking to God for help more than ever. He was born Catholic, but has met with Evangelisch leaders, Protestant leaders, and has even met with the Jehova's Witnesses. He said that the Catholic Church isn´t true because all they want is money, and the Evangelisch and Protestant churches are just breakoffs from them, and the Jehova's Witnesses are just weird. He wants to be a member of a church that makes sense to him. Not that hard for us to do as missionaries. He probably would not be in a state to talk to us though, had he not gone through everything that he has just gone through. It was a very humbling experience for him. We taught the restoration to him yesterday, and boy he loved to talk. It did go well though. More than anything, it was probably nice for him to talk to someone. Afterwards though, he asked us if he could come to church, and when it started. He knows where the church is because he is only a couple of blocks down the street from the church. Perfect! Then, he asked us when we could meet with him again. It was just great. We have high hopes for him and hopefully he will accept the gospel.

 

The second person we are meeting with tonight. His name is William and he is a diakon (deacon?) in the Evangelisch church. We found him on the street as well, (I believe he means through contacting on the street:) and he wanted to meet with us. We will see how well it goes, but we are planning to teach him the Restoration as well.

 

Bassam decided that he didn´t want to be baptized, while at the same time, we found out that because of his circumstances that he doesn´t need to be baptized. He told us though that he thought if he was baptized that his conditions would go away, and we told him that it wouldn´t but if he followed these things, it would help him through these things. He postponed going to the hospital and receiving the therapy he was receiving until we were done with this 4 week calendar we made for him. We told him that it was more important for him to get the therapy than to have us there and that he needs to get a job. He has been looking for a job, but postponed looking for one while he was meeting with us. We then told him that he is always welcome to come to church for as long as he wants to come, and that we could still meet with him, about once a week, so he can focus on more important things for now. Because of his mental illnesses, which are bi-polar and short term memory, he cannot be baptized until he can understand the meaning behind the commandments. He is always willing to keep the commandments and even stopped smoking and drinking when he meet with missionaries before. Yet, he doesn´t know the meaning other than he was told to stop. President told us that he can come to church, but if he feels like he can't be a member until he is baptized and his understanding of the commandments grows, then he can be baptized. I totally agree with him. He has made tons of progress, and the Atonement of Christ covers him, but he says he has a really good feeling when he comes to church, and he still wants to come. Interesting situation to say the least, but still, I believe it is progress for him. He is amazing!

 

Ljube on the other hand still doesn´t understand. We talked to him about church, and what he is missing by not coming. We told him that even though it is hard to come to church because of the way the German people in general have treated him, he just doesn´t want to be around them. It is hard for him. But, he also struggles seeing the big picture too. Every time we go over there, he is always saying the same thing, how the people have treated him, how he needs money, can´t find a job and such. Finally, I couldn´t take it anymore and I looked at him straight in the eye and said "Ljube, what really matters in this life?" Refering to the money and these things that have caused him grief and still cause him grief. I then said, "Absolutely nothing! The only thing that matters is your family, and Eternal Life! Sure the time on this earth is hard. But you have a loving Heavenly Father to look to for help. I imagine that before this life that He sat you down and said Ljube, I am going to send you to earth. You are going to be tried and tested and you are going to have extremely difficult hardships. But even with all these things, this is going to be a test to see how well you will follow my commandments, how much you are willing to follow me, and if you do these things you can have Eternal Life with me. I was actually a little emotional because I could see what he was lacking and he couldn´t see it. The spirit was so strong while I said this that I felt it as I said it. It may not have been the things I would have said to him myself, but it was what I felt impressed to say. Even afterwards, he looked at me and said, "Where and how am I going to get money?" I then said, "Money isn´t what matters Ljube, it is what you are doing with you life right now that matters. Yes, the necessities of life are important, but if your spiritual life is not in order, how can you possibly get your regular life in order?" To say the least, we have given him very bluntly the things that he should do, but Agency is a very powerful gift from God, and it is up to him to make that choice. (Will I ever be able to live up to Jaren's fine example?) We probably won´t be visiting him as often, but just to see how he is doing and how things are going. Both Elder Taylor and I looked at each other afterwards and thought wow, he is really failing to see the big picture, and he doesn´t want to do anything about it. The best thing we can do is help him along the way, but still he is on his own to make the desicion.

 

The lesson I have learned from him though, applies to all of us. Sometimes we get so caught up into the things of this world, that we sometimes fail to see the big picture. Why are we here? Is it the money we have earned, is it our home, is it my big souped-up car that is going to get me anywhere in life? If so, you have lived a lie. That is what Satan wants you to think. But when you stand at the Judgment bar of God, and your "things" are not there, and you have realized you have wasted precious time here on the Earth for "things" that don´t matter, and Eternal life is there but not within reach, it will be a terrible day. So it says in the scriptures it will be both a "Great and Terrible day" for some. It made me think back, how am I now? What matters most to me now? What do I want to become? There is never a bad time to start to change, but don´t let it be "everlastingly too late."

 

I guess I can get off the soap box now, but that is really how I feel. I am so grateful to be here on my mission! I love to see people change, and sometimes it is easy for them and sometimes it is not. We need to have the patience to help them, but let them make there descisions. I love this work, I love the Lord, and I pray that He may bless you continually as I know He already has. Yeah, the work can be tough, but It is so rewarding in the end!!!

 

Gott Segne Euch!

Ihre Sohn,

 

Elder Jaren Smith