It's all about love (and email address change)

This letter wasn't there this morning when I came to check for it first thing and it wasn't there when I checked again at 9:30 just before I left for a meeting. It's not very often that happens, so I thought maybe zone conference and p-day were being combined this week.  I guess Jaren and Elder White were just enjoying their p-day!  Sounds like all is well in Deutchsland!

Dear Family,

Sorry that this letter is off so late. Elder White and I just got finished visiting Homburg for our P-Day activity and had fun and met a few people on the way. Nothing much came of it, but it was still fun to talk to people nonetheless. We actually went to go see these castle ruins. This old castle is right on top of one of the largest hills around, so the view from the top is excellent and you can see almost all of Saarland! It was pretty cool. Then, right below that is Europe´s largest man made cave with a nuclear bunker attached to it from the cold war. We learned that this cave was used to harvest Quartz for glass making, then, in WWII, it was used to house more than 5,000 people as a bunker during the air-raids. I promise that I will send you pictures soon! It really has been a long time, but hey, you will be able to see what one of these bunkers looks like!

On another note, this week has been great. We haven´t really had as much contact with Stefan as of late, and I don´t know why, but, the lessons were absolutly amazing! The spirit was so strong, and I have learned so much from him! It is amazing to me how many people you come to know on the mission, and what you can learn from it. zum Beispiel, (for example) yesterday was Zone Konferenz. It was absolutely amazing. Präsident Ninow's son, David, just returned from Taiwan, and their next oldest son just got his mission call while we were at Zone Konferenz! He is going to the Columbus Ohio mission. But their son David actually spoke to us and it was really cool to hear his perspective as a just returned missionary of less than one week, speaking to missionaries in a Zone Konferenz! As a missionary, you know what another missionary is talking about when they return, but for those who haven´t served a mission yet, they are great stories, but you have to experience it for yourselves. It was a completely different perspective for me. To hear David speak about his mission experiences was a time for me to reflect on similar experiences that I have had so far. Then, after he spoke, a special guest, a member from our Stake Presidency in Heidleberg, spoke to us on how we as missionaries are the first ones to help recharge the efforts and excitement for missionary work in our wards. He encouraged us to meet with the members, but most importantly to make good friendships and to use the members to come along for lessons. Then, President Ninow spoke and encouraged us more by saying that we should rarely if ever have a lesson just by ourselves. No one is going to become a member of this church without a friendship. The missionaries can always be a friend and a first contact to the investigator, but without much contact at all, it doesn´t take long for the investigator to either become discouraged, frustrated, or embarassed and not return. But, the main focus of his theme was Love. His main scriptures were 1 Corinthians 13, and Moroni 7:45. It was on charity. "Charity is the pure love of Christ," he said, "and without it you are nothing! You can go through your entire mission, not really learn to love, to forget the things of the world for two years and come home with baptisms, knowing that it was good to have the baptisms, but without much success on your end." He then told us to take the challenge that Moroni gave at the end, "if you feel that you don´t have much charity or love for this people or a complete love for the Lord then you need to do what Moroni said, ´pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.´" Then he said we need to learn here to put off the natural man, and to Love God with all our might, mind and strength that we may stand blameless before him at the last day. It was a very powerful meeting, and I came out with some really great impressions.

1. I have loved the people, but not as much as I should. I can love them more, give my complete all and everything to the Lord. 

2. That the members have their responsibility as well in this work. President Ninow said that this church is a three fold church, and that it revoloves around three groups of people, the members, the missionaries, and the investigators. The missionaries can meet with the investigators and baptize them, but without member involvement, it avails them nothing. Then President Ninow said another interesting thing, "when you are the ones meeting with the investigator, and you don´t bring a member with you, you are robbing the member of great and powerful blessings in their lives." He told us that he would go down the list of every single member in his ward until someone could come to a lesson, and if not, then that is okay, but the at least he did everything he could. I now want to have a member to every single lesson possible. I felt that this is the only way that this ward will get excited about the work. None of the former missionaries have done this. Few missionaries in the mission do member present lessons. But, I feel that that is the only way this ward can progress and gain the trust of the missionaries ba seeing for themselves our investigators and helping them progress. 

3. Love the people! President Ninow said, "If you Love the people with your whole heart, might, mind and strength, then the people you teach and meet with will see that love through you."

I have had so many great experiences lately, you know because I have shared them with you all. We still haven´t come in contact with Jörg by phone yet, but we did meet him on the bus a few days ago and said hi, and told us he really wants to come to church with us! Just need to figure out how to get ahold of him! I think that he is between 25 and 30 years old.

Schwester Schmitt is still doing very well. In fact, we just had one of the most incredible lessons with her so far! She was struggling, and almost wanted to stop reading the Book of Mormon. She told us that she didn´t understand it. She came to a baptism two weeks ago for a kid in a branch just north of here, and she actually had a few questions afterward about baptism and the Priesthood. Well, we prepared a very detailed lesson for her, and told her that we would answer her questions if she let us. Now, Schwester Schmitt is mainly Jehovahs Witness, and so, everytime we say something that she doesn´t agree with she brings in something about Jehovah or the 144,000. We told her that we needed to stay on the topic, and have a question and answer period at the end. The problem with those of the Jehovahs Witnesses is that they memorize huge portions of the bible, of their own version of the bible, and recite them not knowing the spiritual meaning, and love to contend, thus taking the spirit from the room. Well, we presented everything to her, mainly with the Bible but also the Book of Mormon, starting with Priesthood authority, then that led into baptism, and then into the laying on of hands, and then to the apostasy and then to the restoration of the gospel. After we had tried our best to answer her question thoroughly and explain it with the spcriptures, we asked her some questions. She thought long and hard, and then said, so this authority was lost? Yes, we replied, and that is why Joseph Smith is so important! We then rechallenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, which she agreed to do. It was almost as if she was reluctant to admit that their was a problem, that the priesthood was lost, and then need to be restored as promised. But once that problem was presented to her, it changed her, and she actually thought about it! She is an honest seeker of the truth, and told us that that is the reason that she has been a member of so many different religions her whole life, because she wants to find the right one. We are bringing the ward Relief Society President to our next appointment with her on Friday to reteach the Plan of Salvation just the way we did with this last lesson. She continues to make good progress.

Vali, is 51. We are actually meeting with him tomorrow, and we are talking about the Plan of Salvation with him as well. He is absolutly amazing! He actually told me by phone that he was trying to find out more about our church on the web and ran into some anti-Mormon material. He told me that he doesn´t really believe in it (the literature?), and that from what he has seen from us it is pretty good. He told me that he was trying to figure out more about our history and the culture of the church today. I then told him about the church website. We are going to try to bring a member to go to that lesson as well with him tomorrow. He says too that his family is struggling and he wants to know how he can strengthen his family. Hopefully we can convince him to meet with his family! It would be awesome!

Now, here is the biggest surprise of all, Charity Roth, Williams sister, who come from Ghana, asked if she could be baptized! This was last week, and she told us that she had a dream where she was looking for the right church that would baptize her. Without saying anything she explained that she saw two people in white shirts and was told to listen to them because they have a message that she needed to hear. Now, she told us right after this that she wanted to be baptized within the week! She wanted to have a date set right then and there! We told her, okay, wait a minute, we need to tell you a few things first. We have to go through some more lessons, we need to get you to church for a few weeks, and to meet with some of the members. We asked her if she was willing to do those things, as well as to continue reading in the Book of Mormon, and to pray together. She said yes! So far she has been doing pretty well. She is also working on the Word of Wisdom at the moment too, but we are pretty confident that all will go well because she is the one who commited herself to it. (this paragraph brought tears to my eyes!)

Well, I think that is about enough, I need to answer your questions!

Q.  How old is Stefan, Jorg, and Vali?

A. So Stefan is 47, Jorg is about 25 or 30, and Vali is 51. All are pretty amazing men, and I see some great potential in all of them! (President Ninow or maybe some other church leader challenged the missionaries to find possible Priesthood holders. Maybe that's why Jaren has "found" mostly men to teach as of late!)

Q.  Everyone is curious as to what the title of the song is, "Grosser Gott Wir Loben Dich?"  My interpretation is "Great God that we Love (or praise)"  How close was I?

A. Pretty close! Literally it means "Great God We Praise Thee" It is a great song. Like I said, it is a favorite of mine! (Finally, the mystery has been solved!)

Q.  When are transfers?  The middle of May?  Will they be around Mother's Day? Just trying to plan ahead as far as who to send something for when I send your birthday package.  I wanted to make them something with their name on it, but don't know how to do that.

A.  Yeah, the next transfer happens in the middle of May, one week after Mother´s Day. The Next Zone Conference is the first week of June.

Q.  Do they celebrate Mother's Day there?  I can't remember.

A.  Nope. Doesn´t exist, which is really kind of sad because mothers need that day to relax and feel special. They just don´t get that here in Germany. (awww, what a great son!)

Q.  How come you always meet Stefan in the park twice a week in the middle of the day?  Does he work or go to school?  Have you ever been to his house?  Does he have a family?

A.  I think Stefan just likes it, but I like it too. If the weather is bad then we can meet him at his house. We have his phone number and address. But I think it is just easy for him. He like ride his bike everywhere, and there are thousands of miles of bike paths here in Saarland, so you can literally ride a bike anywhere.

Q.  Your letter addressed to dad came today.  Is is for him or for the family?  I am dying to open it but won't if I shouldn't.  He doesn't get back until the end of the day tomorrow.

A.  I´m sorry to get all your hopes up, but it was sent to dad because it is my reimbursment from that package that you sent to me in December from UPS. FINALLY! Got it just last Wednesday! I can´t cash it here, so that is why I sent it to you. If you can't cash it there maybe dad has some ideas. It was given to me in Euros, so hopefully it works okay. 

Q.  Do you have any more photos ready to send to us?  I am missing seeing your happy smiling face!  I can only live vicariously through you for so long without seeing photos!

A.  Fine, I guess I can send some photos to you. It is a good time I guess. Only about 1/4 of the mission. I think I have about 350 new pictures for you all!

Oh, one more thing, this is the last time I can send to you via gmail. All of the email addresses have changed in the mission to the churches email site, so that means I can only use myldsmail from now on. My new email address is:

jaren.smith@myldsmail.net

Well, have a great week! Thanks for all your support and prayers! They have definitely helped, and I have seen the Lord's hand help us in ways that I really didn´t think were possible!

By the way, how do the bees live in a bag? How long does it take till you have your first batch of honey? Can you send me some? I just can´t picture dad in a bee suit, is he the one that will do everything or do you have someone else come up? I am really pretty curious now, and so are some other missionary friends!

Love,
Your Son/Brother
Elder Smith

Okay, the  bees aren't actually in a bag.  I'm not sure how he got that impression.  They are actually in "cages" that are about 15" long, 8" high, and 6" wide with boards on 15" and 8" sides and screen netting or material on the other two sides.  The queen bee is in a can inside the the cage, hanging from the center and all the bees are huddled (?) together around that can. We have been furiously making sugar water to feed the bees until pollen is available. We have to spray them with the sugar water three times a day and kind of shake the cage to knock the bees down so that others get a chance to be on the inside of the huddle. I would imagine the bees on the outside get kind of cold. They are in the shop, so not so cold, but still cold for something so small!  We have made 18 gallons of sugar water to put in containers in their hives when Steve gets home tonight.  He has been gone since Sunday and we got the bees on Saturday. . . thanks Hon :) so they will be going in their hives tonight. Yeah, no more sugar water puddles on my floor (one of the containers had a crack in the bottom of it that we didn't notice until it was time to move the FULL container to the garage. mmmhmmm :(  guess who got to clean it up?)

You can imagine what these bees look like after being sprayed 9 times so far with sugar water! Little crystalized bees!  And I wonder why quite a few have died since we brought them home?!? Hopefully they survive us while we go through our learning curve! 

I have learned a lot about bees so far and now understand why the church has chosen a beehive for its symbol. Maybe I will write a post about it as I learn more. They are amazing!