Kaiserslautern

I wish this boy would give more details than he does. Don't get me wrong, his letters are detailed. . . about the work. I want to know about LIFE in Germany. Give me information about companions, what they do in a day, etc.

Dear Familie,

Wow, this week has definitely been a change for me! I am not used to this English contacting and everything. From the members it sounds like the most missionaries come here for their last few months, and they jokingly add "so that the missionaries can get acclamated again with home!" Uugh. But, this ward is amazing. It has challenges that most wards don´t have, such as a high turnover rate. The ward will be all new every three years because people are usually stationed here for three years at a time. Some, I should say few, are stationed here longer. It is hard for the members to really give much to the ward because they consider it a temporary fix for their families. But aside from these different and interesting challenges, I am very excited to work here! Our Bishop is a great guy, and I found out from one of the members that he is now Bishop for the second time now. I have already met many great people and families. The ward loves the missionaries. On another note, we have a waffle iron at home, and for the past few mornings I have had waffles with peanut butter and syrup, a commodity that I haven´t seen for almost two years now! I am completely spoiled, and I ask myself why in the world I have been sent here! I think President just wanted to have fun and see if I would survive! I really don´t think that by the way, I actually feel great here, and Elder Christensen and I are doing very well together. We have several great ideas to help the ward out, so we will hope and pray and see how well they go. Oh, and Dad, our apartment is right under the flight path to the base, and we are about 10 km from the runway, so they are pretty low and loud when they go over, and we sit on the top floor of our apartment on the fifth floor. It´s pretty cool to watch sometimes. I also hate it too because it can be soo distracting, but I can manage. It just seems like fantasy land to me, and sureal.

Sunday was also wierd. It was the first time I had heard church meetings in English since I left! Even when I was not totally watching up front at the speaker, I understood and comprhended every word with ease, and without thinking. I have had to give my complete attention in the German wards so that I can understand everything that they are saying. It is weird. Learning another language helps with comprehension in my own, a lot! I am trying to do everything I can to keep my German up, but I have very little interaction with Germans as it is because we are in a car area, and we see members and investigators all the time. I can´t pray in English though. It is drilled into my head to pray in German, so whenever I start to say a prayer in English, I end up saying it in German anyway. And if I start in German, there is no way that I will switch over to English! I also continue to read my scriptures in German, and I actually find the German Bible much better than the English version. Old English is so confusing, and when I read a passage in German and then look at it in English, I understand it so much better!

As far as Investigators go, we recieved a referral from a member family (The Numbers) and Br. Numbers said that he had his friend there. His friends name is Fred. He is a great guy, about 45 ish. He told us that he grew up non religious, then got married, and considers himself Cathloic yet told us that he really doesn´t attend church that often, nor does he really understand the beliefs too deeply. He acknowledged that God exists, that he has definately watched over and protected him on many occasions, and had given him a great family. He asked us on several occasions why he had been blessed with so much when he felt he really didn´t deserve what he had. He is a very humble man. He also asked us "What is my purpose in being here, why do I have what I have in life?" We replied that we couldn´t really answer that for him personally in the sense that I have no idea as to why he has what he has. We did say to him, "Well, we can answer the first question. We would like to tell you more the next time we come by. What we have to share has to deal with the questions `Why am I here? Where did I come from? and Where am I going?` He was very excited. We taught him the first lesson, the Restoration, and at the end, he asked "Well, that was very enlightening, do you have anything that I can read, I really would like to hear more?," before we got to the Book of Mormon! He is amazing, and the Numbers family did a very good job in preparing their friend, at least to the point that he agreed to come to a meal and meet with us. We are meeting him again tonight, and will be sharing the second lesson, the Plan of Salvation with him. We do have more investigators, but I haven´t met with them yet, so I will let you know after this week how those went.

I must say, I love the area. We are surrounded by lot of little dorfs (villages) everywhere! We are in a semi-mountainous area with many large hills and farmland. This area borders the area I served in when I was in Saarbrücken, so, it is pretty familiar to me. We would always come to Kaiserslautern for Zone Conferences anyway, so I have been here several times before actually serving here. I´ll try to send pictures, but like I said, I have no way of sending them via email, and I really don´t want to send them through the mail since they aren´t backed up anywhere.

Anyway, I wish you all the best! I hope that you all have a great week. I love you all!

Ihre Bruder und Sohn,

Elder Smith