Hey guys!
This has been a crazy week (or week and a
half)! As I previously specified, I went up to Frankfurt to pick up my new
trainee, Elder Stacy, who has come fresh out of the Provo MTC. It's been pretty
darn good so far! He comes from Texas and is...well, Texan. Just...I'll try to
explain bits and pieces in the future.
We've continued to work as closely as we can
(without being too close) with our investigators, and so far it seems that
Emmanuel is on track to be baptized on the 25th of February. We went through
the baptismal interview questions with him this past week, and then after he met
the requirements we set his official interview date for this coming Wednesday!
I am praying that he will be able to decide ultimately to be baptized in
accordance to his own testimony. He has been coming to church and says that he
really enjoys the spirit of it each time, and so I have been really glad to see
and hear that.
Bravedo is probably just as promising. He seems
to be taking everything in well, but he says that he is simply nervous about
deciding to be baptized without knowing the full details about the gospel and
church. We are going to try and teach him more and more and make sure that he
is accepting and acknowledging everything, but I really think he can be ready by
the 25th as well!
Zack has been doing really well with just about
everything. He says that he doesn't feel that his testimony is quite strong
enough to get him to come to church, and we are really hoping to develop that
with him. We will have to see how things with him go! It's been hard to get
ahold of Markus and meet with him, and I am hoping that things can start running
more smoothly with him. He is busy because he is moving within our area. And
lastly, I tried calling Favour the other day, but the phone went straight to a
disconnected answer, suggesting that she had blocked our number. So, naturally,
to be sure, I tried calling her on the other phone...and she wasn't too happy
about that.
W H O O P S.
But yeah, she isn't quite fully prepared yet, I
don't think. But I am confident that the missionary who will someday take over
for me here will bump into her sometime and she will say "gee, suddenly I have
memories of that one weird missionary who spammed my phone with things about
baptism and maybe I should hear this surely less weird Elder out." We will see
how it goes. The Ghost of Bayreuth Past will help (pictured below [not painted
by me]).
We had a Zone Training this past Monday (bunch
of missionaries gathering around for four hours to talk about specific topics of
the gospel to better ourselves in our work) and my companion and I were assigned
to give a lesson on the Reformation in context of the Restoration. This time of
the year, for the year 2017 especially, is very important to protestants all
throughout Europe, especially in Germany! This year marks the 500th anniversary
of the hanging of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany. In
case anyone is less familiar with this, these 95 Theses were questions that he
had about the Catholic Church that were not answered through the Bible (one of
the biggest being the sale of indulgences). These Theses caused a ruckus in
Germany and Europe at the time and people decided it was time to change. Martin
Luther is, as a result, widely considered to be the father of the reformation,
also resulting from his efforts to publish the Bible in German while hiding in
perhaps the most conspicuous place ever--a GIGANTIC castle in Coburg Germany.
We also celebrate a host of other reformers during this time, including William
Tyndale and John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible to English (Tyndale dying as
a martyr for it), Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press, and many
more. Nobody can deny that the heads of the Reformation were inspired of God to
do the things they did, regardless of if their lives were at stake or not.
As I studied the Reformation in preparation for
the lesson, I took note of the unique characteristics of the true church of
Christ, the Apostasy, the Reformation, and the Restoration. The Apostasy, we
are taught, was described by the loss of revelation and spiritual guidance to
lead people--resulting from the death of Christ and His apostles. We lost
things crucial to having the true church, including but not limited to:
revelation, scripture, Priesthood authority and ordinances, and overall
prophetic guidance. These attributes, I observed, give the church of Christ
life and light. I picture the Great Apostasy and its effects on Christianity
and the world in general, and it is clear to see that this "life" and "light"
was lost (which is why we refer often to this time as the Dark Ages). Inspired
men like the reformers mentioned before noticed that such a light was lacking.
Martin Luther never claimed revelation. He never claimed that he was a
prophet. But he recognized the need for the Reformation. The situation is
similar with other prominent reformers. Over time, through the spreading of
information concerning religion, new ideas concerning religious freedom, and so
forth, a time was ushered in where people desired to worship as they would
like. This desire, in effect, lead to the birth of our wonderful nation of the
United States of America as more and more people saw the ray of hope it provided
for freedom of worship (not to mention speech, petition, so forth) and fled
there to begin new lives. Thanks to the Reformation, people could worship
according to their hearts and spirits, and religious knowledge became more
accessible. Also, corruptions were at least in some ways noticed and people
attempted to stop that.
But where was the light and life that had been
so present in every dispensation by God since Adam?
That light broke through in the spring of 1820
when God the Father and Jesus Christ came down to Joseph Smith and commissioned
him to RESTORE the truth and gospel, that had been distorted and lost for so
many years before. In the spring ten years later, that church was officially
re-established under the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Every right, every blessing, every privilege, and every essential
ordinance that was previously available to the saints of previous times was
ultimately restored. We see that the church had regained the full LIFE and
LIGHT through this, and we know that this has always been a part of God's plan,
and has been prophesied of for years!
We love the reformers during that influential
time of history preceding the restoration of the gospel. I feel a great
gratitude to them, because of the seeds that they planted and the great steps
they took in preserving sacred records. We know that God had a role for them in
their mortal existence that they fulfilled. As we speak to people in Germany,
most of which in Bayreuth being members of Protestant faiths, we invite all to
add to the good that they already have...not to attempt to take it away from
their lives. We know that you experience such great blessings from such faith,
and we know that there are simply MORE blessings to find in the Restored gospel
of Jesus Christ!
Anyways, it's been a good time! I'll "see you"
next Thursday (by that I mean writing an email)!
Love,
Elder Wallentine
P.S.: We had a cool adventure today and went to
a World War II colosseum and documentation center commemorating the Nuremberg
Trials.
GHOST OF BAYREUTH PAST
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