This veek is interestant been! Ve haben recently many suksess had, und das
has delighted me! Not so much appoentment are this veek have faljing out, und
some of them vere much avesome, that very good is. Ik habe alsoe a newe
Moetivation had, German to learn, and I this last veek have practiced
much...yes, yes, very much.
Alright, that is satisfying to me. I'm done typing in Flemish. Hahahaha,
just kidding--you'll need a lot more "j's" and "oe's" for that. Did you know
that if you know German and English, you can basically read Dutch? It's
essentially child between the two languages, who tried being bilingual but in
the end combined both. This is why you do not "Denglisch".
The Word of the Week is a good one. It is "Gehtnichtmehr", or the
collective Phrase "bis zum Gehtnichtmehr" (Roughly, the direct translation means
"until it's not kosher anymore"). The two translations I found for it were "ad
nauseam" and "'Til one's blue in the face". If you wanted to describe
something as "gross to the max", you would say "ekelhaft bis zum Gehtnichtmehr."
Oh, right, time to talk about actually important things now. My bad. We
were able to meet with some cool new people this week, many of which have great
potential. We were actually able to set a date with an investigator we met on
the street from Syria (Not IN Syria, although that would be an interesting
adventure). I will refer to him here on out as "Neutron". He expressed
interest in becoming Christian and so we taught him the first lesson, and
extended a baptismal invite for July 15th. He accepted, and so we will be
meeting with him hopefully multiple times each week in preparation--Lots of
things to teach and you need to be careful about how to teach it due to language
barriers. But I'm excited. I hope things go through with him, but you can't
always tell with first and second appointment baptismal dates--as we have
learned from past experiences. Notwithstanding, I still think it's my favorite
way to set dates if possible, just because you end up with less investigators
getting into 8th and 9th lessons and still thinking that the only reason you're
meeting is to have uplifting spiritual discussion--while that is great, I like
people to have their sights set with ours: DIE TAUFE.
Some interesting folks on the street have been found this week. One man
stopped me as we were walking into the grocery store if I had a copy of the
"Watchtower Magazine" for him. I told him we weren't Jehova's Witnesses. He
laughed. We asked him, in spite of a 87% chance of him being intoxicated,
if he would have interest in hearing about what we believe, and he, being the
shrewd bargainer he is, told us that if we bought him a pack of beer he would
investigate the church. We were skeptical. We didn't do it. Sorry,
folks.
We met an Arabic man on the street and asked him to hear a special message
from God and he 'expressed' to us, while saying as many irrelevant German words
as he knew repeatedly, that he did not speak German. We told him we actually
have translators and BOOKS in Arabic (sadly, no skills [yet]), and one thing led
to another and he told us to come up in his apartment to meet his friends. I
looked at my companion, and we decided in a split-second silent conversation to
go. They offered us coffee, at which point we had to spent seven minutes
explaining poorly, yet still politely--mind you, through google translate: "we
are having not of the allowance that we perhaps coffee drinking able to". We
stuck to water and set an appointment to bring back some Arabic Book of
Mormons...he wasn't there.
It's my favorite to see how enthusiastic people get in telling us they
don't have time. The vision of old German men leaning close to our faces with
wide eyes as though they're about to pop out saying "KEINE ZEIT" is burnt in my
head. I don't know. It's hard because people just do not understand what we're
trying to do or share, and so part of me can't blame them for (some)
rejections--out of thinking we're salesmen, tithing collectors, trying to start
our own church, English-speaking tourists who are dressed extraordinarily well,
aliens, etc etc etc. We get it all. Which is why a big point of our emphasis
lately has been focusing on the two verbs mentioned for us to do in the
Missionary Purpose: Invite, and Help. We invite people in about every contact
we do, or do our absolute best to. The problem is that people don't understand
the invitation or the message, and so we need to also seek to know why it's
specifically important for them. You got to be quick on your feet too, because
many people speed up when you speak to them and if you're not careful, they
either get away before you say anything, or you say something rushed and sound
offended or angry, which is also not good even if you're feeling fine. Usually
shouting after rejection is connected by others with anger or something else, I
would imagine. A N Y W A Y S . OFF THE SOAPBOX I GO. I wonder some days
what it must have been like to be a soapbox missionary long ago.
Oh shoot. Back on the soapbox I go. It's been a while since I've shared a
decent spiritual thought with you guys, hasn't it? I've been studying Doctrines
of the Gospel Student, from the Institute manual collection, because I've
decided it would be best to return to the basics and deepen my knowledge and
testimony of the important, structural points of the gospel rather than trying
to...grow faster than I have roots, if you will (Jacob 5:47-48 reference). I've
been studying God, the Eternal Father. As I've studied Him, I've come to
realize a little greater how magnificent it is that He has prepared such a deep,
powerful, great plan for us to become just as He is, and receive the kingdom He
has. People think and ask us why God would even care, but I believe there are
many reasons that He would care so deeply. First off, perhaps most clearly, we
hold the belief that we are the literal spiritual children of Him, with
potential to grow up to a spiritual, perfect stature as He has. Would most
fathers not love their children greater than they understand most of the time?
How is that less with an actual perfect Father who has an eternal, abiding love
for all His creations? It's not, but rather greater than we can ever
comprehend. Second of all, any glory we receive and attain in the existence to
come will be added upon His glory. It is His work and His glory to bring to
pass the immortality and eternal life of His children (Moses 1:39), that we as
an eternal family can eternally grow in joy and happiness.
Read this quote by Joseph Smith:
"What did Jesus do? Why; I do the things I saw my Father do when worlds
came rolling into existence. My Father worked out his kingdom with fear and
trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it
to my Father, so that he may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt him
in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and
thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the tracks of his Father,
and inherits what God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the
salvation and exaltation of all his children” (Smith, Teachings, 347–48)."
I see absolutely no reason why the Doctrine and reality of the principle
that we can someday attain God's current glory is sacrilegious or vain in any
way. The fact that we believe in our individual potential to become gods does
not mean that we try to or in reality take away the glory or place of God. We
will always look to Him and as our Father and will worship Him as our principle
object of worship. And our glory, as we just read, only adds to His.
Happy Father's Day! Germany has theirs today, which I find
interesting.
Thanks for the support! Love you guys!
Elder Wallentine
