"Elder, I hope you know people probably don't read your emails."

Goed day comrades,

We have had a pretty good week!  We have been able to meet and catch up with people who fell off the face of the earth for a week or two, which was good.  Not only that, but upon meeting with two of those people, we were able to get baptismal invitations accepted!  They are both somewhat loose, and could be changed in the future, but both people seemed to be very sincere and understand what we were asking for when we extended the commitments.  We will see how things end up!  Right now we've got three people lined up to be baptized in August.  We will be working with them and praying our hearts out to get them there safely.  I am simply crossing my fingers that we can see some true conversion taking place.

In other news, the Jungs (yoongs) that I mentioned a while back have struck once again!  My companion and I contacted a lady on the street, and as we were talking my companion heard a deafening "BWAAA" behind him, followed by a pair of hands grabbing him quickly before letting go again.  My companion and I, somewhat startled, turned around to see the leader of the jung gang, laughing and asking if he scared us.  He quickly gave us his greetings, then walked away.  His eyes were completely bloodshot, and so...I actually won't make any assumptions.

We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) this past Friday, which was President Stoddard's final one.  It was a lot of fun to meet up with the other zone leaders and assistants and discuss ways we could improve the mission!  We discussed some things for using time wisely, developing our skills, and overall learning how to be better missionaries.  After, we went on exchanges with the assistants in Frankfurt, and I had the chance to work there for a little bit, which was a LOT of fun!  Many cool people were met and appointments were made.  I feel that every time I have the chance to exchange with the AP's it has been a growing opportunity and I was glad to be able to participate in another one with them.  Frankfurt is also a really cool city.  I would love to go there at some point in my non-missionary future...but, that time is not now.

SO, I was reading in Alma chapter 25, when I noticed something very interesting.  It describes the conversion of many Lamanite people in the country, and their willingness to follow Jesus Christ and keep his commandments.  We read as follows:

"15 Yea, and they did keep the law of Moses; for it was expedient that they should keep the law of Moses as yet, for it was not all fulfilled. But notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ, considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming, and believing that they must keep those outward performances until the time that he should be revealed unto them.

16 Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come."

I found this very interesting, for some reason.  I believe that this stuck out to me, because I have also been reading in Mark and Jesus the Christ lately, both of which have either contained or cited accounts of people criticizing Jesus for "violating" certain aspects of the Oral Law surrounding the Law of Moses, and overall rejection of his coming to replace the law of Moses with the higher law.  It appears that certain Pharisees and Sadducees mistook the purpose of the Law of Moses time and time again, and forgot it as a "type of" Christ's coming.  They got so caught up in the little tiny bits and pieces of the law, that they completely missed the big picture!  Then, when we juxtapose the behavior of these guys with the behavior of those converted Lamanites, we see a clearly more blessed example from the latter's reaction and observation of the law of Moses.  Jesus Christ himself, later in the Book of Mormon, visiting the Nephite civilization, spoke unto them about what it means to accept him as the law and the light, and stated: "9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." (3 Nephi 15).  

Okay, so now I'm getting nervous.  First, I'm writing way too much already for only half the point of my spiritual thought and I have realized that nobody is actually going to read this far into the letter.  Honestly, respect to you guys if you do.  Secondly, you are probably asking yourself: "why is this guy lecturing us on the law of Moses? Last time i checked he wasn't an 80 year old Sunday school teacher".  Well boy, do I have a message for you guys!  I learned, while we do not currently follow the Law of Moses, that there are many things today that we can look at with a better perspective.  Every rite, every ordinance, every ritual done in the law of Moses pointed to Christ and His eventual Atoning Sacrifice.  It is not the fact that people sacrificed animals, or performed any other action alone that would cleanse them before God and prepare them, but rather the overall Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The problem with the Pharisees, I personally see, is that they seemed to look to these rituals and laws as the ends of the law, rather than perhaps the means of performance.  They overlooked many of the prophesies and intents made by prophets of old regarding the law, and put in their own understandings of it, relying more perhaps on them.

Finally, my invitation for all of us is to see the true reason behind everything we do in the church.  It may be an ordinance, such as baptism, or the sacrament.  Or, perhaps it is the following of commandments, such as the Word of Wisdom or Law of Tithing.  You will find that each of these things has a connection to the Atonement and can and will serve to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

WOW.  SORRY FOR THE TEXT.

LOVE YOU GUYS.

Elder Wallentine

~ ~ ~ WAHNSINNIG HEKTISCH ~ ~ ~

Hey Everyone!

This week has been insanely hectic!  Those two words are crazier than I meant to write them down as, but I'm committed to the phrase now that it's already typed.  We have been running around from place to place, trying to teach one appointment to another to another and another.  It's been another busy week in a great part of my mission.  We are continuing to do our best balancing splits and other responsibilities with the state of our area as well.  It's been a whole lot of fun and we're seeing progress.  

Since I've been companions with Elder Crossley, a string of odd events has occurred, more-so than with any other companion.  You know already the tale of the soapbox preaching to the high teenagers, or strictly "jungs" (yooongs) as we call them.  We had an old man walk up to us on the street, do a little jig in front of us, stick his fist out for a fist-bump, and then run away.  We have run into the jungs again, twice, since the incident, and we have also gone into some...dark...parts of town.  One guy let us into his house, who then began laughing loudly and performing magic tricks for us.  He had writing all over his walls--illegibly, mind you--and old children's coloring pages and pictures taped everywhere.  In one room, we caught a glimpse of a large color clown, scribble-drawn on the wall.  We quickly showed the "prince of peace" video, after which he bade us to allow him to watch again.  We left with a prayer, and walked out of the apartment, hearing him laugh as he shut the door.

So yeah, that is that.

In other news, we were able to find some cool new investigators by the end of last week.  Unfortunately, many of our follow-up appointments have fallen out for now, but we are trying regardless.  Hopefully we will be able to meet with some more people.  We are having a bunch of appointments per week though!  We've tripled many of the numbers that I had at the start of my mission, and it's fun to see the progress made both in ourselves as companions and the area in which we serve.  It's a blast and I'm still somehow enjoying helping the zone out.  I have sent out a letter to the zone this past week about using time wisely and have set some goals for the zone to seek to accomplish it.  We will see how it goes.  I know if we all truly work and focus on that we can baptize more and overall be more efficient people.

Today, we visited an old mine/cave located in a place called Homburg ( not Hamburg :( ).  It was pretty fun and we finally saw some rain, which made the hike to and fro better.  

One thing I learn about the Restoration of the Gospel is that God is the same now as he was yesterday, and that he will remain the same forever.  In the Old and New Testaments, we may read stories such as Moses parting the sea, Elijah calling down fire from heaven, Jesus feeding the 5,000, or healing the sick, raising the dead, and causing the blind to see, and think of a common question among people today: "why don't we see this happening more often today?".  The first thing is that miracles do still happen, we just don't notice them.  The second thing is that when we don't notice the miracles in our life, and when we seem to think that God has stopped with His miracles, we may have to do a re-evaluation of our own faith.  In Moroni 7, Moroni answers the question clearly as to if miracles have ceased: 

"37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain."

I hope that we can all look forward with hope and faith for the coming of Jesus Christ.  That time is truly near!  We need to all improve our faith and prepare.  There will be many difficulties that will test all of us in the future, but if we make the arm of the Lord our strength, we will be blessed with miracles.  It is important to remember: miracles come from faith, not faith from miracles.  I know that God is still a God of miracles and he loves and cares for us.  I hope that I will be ready when I meet him again someday.

I love you all!  Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Wallentine 

WIR HABEN EINE AUSGEZEICHNETE ZEIT GEHABT

Hey folks!

This week has been awesome!  We have been able to find a whole lot more new investigators and more and more have started to progress.  One of them continues to progress well towards his baptism on the 15th of July.  We have a few communication difficulties but we are getting by and everything we have taught so far I think has sunk in at this point.  He is becoming more and more repentant and I can see his faith developing.  On the other hand, I think that we can do a bit more still to help his intent grow and even shift to something better.  We've found another new investigator who is a German man.  His name is Sascha and he said that he is looking for happiness in his life--something we talked a lot about originally on the street.  He told us it would bring him great hope to know that there would be a way back from addictions and other problems in his life, and so we have been teaching him with that focus.  We were on a split when he was taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ by my companion, so I wasn't there, but he apparently had a change in countenance between the first and second appointment.  We have also met a really cool man from England named Tenzor (Probably spelled wrong) who has defined himself as a truth seeker, and while having opinions of his own, is extremely open to finds out it those opinions he has are true and if the message we share is from God.  All in all, there are people coming in rapidly and we're excited to work with them and see some good progress.

In other news, we got to plan a lot this week for zone activities.  We had zone conference this past Monday, and the topic was goal-setting and using time wisely.  It was an awesome learning opportunity for me and I have been trying to apply a lot of principles since that point.  And before you tune out and say "oh, he's just talking about some weird missionary thing that doesn't apply to me", JUST WAIT: Did you know that you can triple your income by living strictly according to the principles taught in chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel, "Using Time Wisely"?  That is a promise from a general authority, apparently.  So, I would recommend for you all to take a look in that and try to apply those principles into your lives.  But anywho, the zone conference was great.  We learned a whole lot and I am more inspired to use my time more wisely and become a more organized person, both to help my in my mission and my life afterward someday.

We also got to go on a split with two sets of Elders--both the Heidelberg and Rhein-Pfalz companionships.  There are some very good Elders in the zone and they are working hard to bring the work forward.  I tried to focus the exchanges on chapter 8, and I believe (or hope) that we were both able to learn from it.

This week I was studying about how we can all, collectively, have better lives and avoid sin and transgression.  I studied a little bit in True to the Faith and I came up with an acronym for a sin-resistant life:

C.A.P.S.I.L.:

Center your life on the Savior - Stay true to covenants to always remember Him.  Can you picture your life being classified as one of a disciple of Christ?

Avoid tempting places and situations - Just as a dieting person wouldn't hang out at the Hostess factory, we want to be sure to put ourselves in situations where, if possible, we won't be exposed to things that would make it both easy and available to commit sin.  

Pray morning and night daily, as well as in between - Seems small, but over time will either make or break us spiritually.  Grants us energy and strength to avoid the evil of the world.  You will be filled with Gods love and light and be guided by Him.

Study the Scriptures daily - See above.

Influence others for good - The more we serve other people, the greater resistance we have to do bad or cause other people harm.

Live a life full of goodness - Don't be idle, but rather fill each day with meaningful hours and activities.  If you're too busy with good you shouldn't even have time to consider doing bad! 

I can assure you that living according to these principles will ensure that we are living lives in accordance to the will of God.  It is perhaps easier said than done, but if we do this, we will not be vulnerable to Satan's efforts, and we will never go inactive, and we will never lose our faith.  Finally, we will find joy.  If you find yourself struggling to improve or progress, I would recommend considering each of these points.  Chances are, at least one thing is amiss.

Thanks for the support and love, my friends!  Have a great week and make sure Idaho/anywhere else stays cool!  I'm burning over here!  I would be dead if I was serving in South America (just kidding!).

Love,

Elder Wallentine 

Here I had my last interview with President Stoddard!  He has been a great Mission President and has done a lot for all the missionaries here, including myself!  We will all miss him and I also anticipate the coming of the next one in late June!

ATTACK OF THE TEENAGERS: VOLUME IV

Hey!

It's been a fantastic week! We have been busy continuing to start off the new transfer and preparing for everything that will be happening during it. We've been working hard and the area is expanding at an even higher rate than before. We've been getting blessed with plenty of new investigators, and we are even more mobile now that we have a car, which has sped up certain trips pretty significantly. It's been a blast and a remarkable new experience for me on my mission, and I can tell that we're both fully determined to work for success in the area. We've got lots of stories from this week, and so I will just hop right into it. Buckle your seat belts.

Last Thursday evening, I contacted a 16-ish year old girl on the street. She was with a friend when we initially spoke, and I asked them about what they thought of the purpose of life.  She responded
somewhat aggressively, then got suddenly giggly and jokey and told me to wait for her while she went to Burger King to buy some Chicky. Expecting her not to return, I continued to contact for about five minutes when she suddenly came out again in a rush. She bade me to follow her somewhere to talk with her and her friends, and I grabbed my companion to come with me as we followed. Being lead into a small park area, we see a bunch of young folks in a small congregation, making a decently-sized ruckus.  I looked at my companion, and from his nervous expression I seemed to hear "Dude, we should totally proceed to a soap-box-like preaching performance." After we began with the 'sermon', we were interrupted quite suddenly by multiple shouts from the congregation, including "ALL THAT I CAN THINK ABOUT IS 'STOP TALKING'" and "WE ARE HIGH RIGHT NOW".  They were indeed high. We concluded about three minutes in and then left. I don't know what came over us to cause us to do that, but it was an adventure. Hey, one of those guys will be baptized someday.  But no 2000-people-decide-to-be-baptized-at-once event...yet.

Meanwhile, teenagers on a train were talking about us rather loudly in German. Nothing too bad, but just sort of light fun-poking. I don't think they knew we spoke German, but we jumped into their conversation and asked if they knew anything about us, which caused only laughter and a little bit of embarrassment. They ignored the question and then started poking fun a little harder. As we got off the train, I gave them a card and asked them to contact us if they wanted to learn about the church.  We later got a call and scheduled an appointment at a train station, but I think I heard laughing in the background and I'm not entirely sure how reliable this will be.

We will see.

We also saw two kids raiding a mall pond for money. See picture below.

On a more work-pertinent note, we met with two awesome people this week! They are both studying in Germany's high-school equivalent place: the Gymnasium. They are both good friends and seemed to find some questions answered through our speaking.  It had originally been an appointment with a cool guy we met in the street, but we found out he had also invited a "female-friend" of his to sit in with us. We scheduled return appointments with them and will hopefully be helping them to progress in the next little while.

I am grateful to see the hand of the Lord in our work. I am so grateful that I have the chance to serve right now and I am truly enjoying it. We've really been working hard and I have been noticing the fruits of our labor.  We are also getting along quite well, which is also not bad. I can promise you guys that the Lord follows through on our goals and righteous desires when we turn to Him in prayer and truly TRY to accomplish His purposes. There is also nothing more satisfying than getting to sleep at the end of a well-spent day. I could not do the mission if I was trying to sneak on by with minimal
effort and obedience. The more you try to break out of the missionary mindset by unnecessary distractions, the harder it becomes to do the work overall and get back into the swing of things. Even if you get rejected, even shouted and cursed at, and witness the Savior's message be denied, you will feel fulfilled at the end of each day if you are truly doing the things you should be. There is no greater confidence than that which comes from the Lord Himself when you know you are living according to His will to the best of your ability.

I hit my 11-month mark on Tuesday.  It's crazy to think that I will be at a year in ONE MONTH. Let's see how this goes.  Probably best that I don't count though.

Thanks for the love and support!  Love you guys!

Elder Wallentine,
A.k.a.:
Wallentyne, Walentine, Valentine, Valentina, Wallentina,

It's all over the place. I don't blame people here, but I just find it really funny to see how creative my name can become.

"DON'T BE A TOOL, CLEAN UP THE ZONE"

Hey guys!

This week has been pretty crazy, and eventful!  We've had some good
progress with a few investigators but we still have plenty more
progress to make.  I got an interesting call on Saturday morning
around transfers time and have been called to be a Zone Leader!  I was
pretty surprised, since I only was District Leader for one transfer,
which was a little bit of a bummer.  But I've also really enjoyed my
first week as a Zone Leader and have found planning for the next
little while to be motivating and exciting.  We will see how things go
in the next little while and I hope that I can fulfill this new
responsibility well, and that the Kaiserslautern Zone will survive the
transfer, haha!  They've made Kaiserslautern the Zone Leader area, so
I didn't have to move at all, but I have been joined by Elder
Crossley, the pre-existing leader.

It's funny.  Elder Crossley was my District Leader in Bayreuth for two
transfers, then I was his District Leader for one when he was a Zone
Leader, and now we're both COMPS.  It should be fun and it has been
already!

Lots of pictures coming in below.  These include me saying goodbye to
my companion and trainer, Elder Miller and Elder Warner respectively,
final district pictures, and a fancy church.

To train myself for a future job as a weatherman that I will not be
pursuing, here is the weekly report: We are entering the most
difficult season of the year.  People think of Europe as being
freezing and miserably cold, and while it does get freezing as low as
-20 degrees Celsius during the winter months, I LOVE the cold.  If you
prepare well it is great.  And the heating system is pretty good.  But
unfortunately, they do not have air conditioners in most German
apartments we've seen.  So, when it gets up to summer temperatures,
we've got one fan in our apartment to defend ourselves with.  It's
been a struggle, but luckily it's only gotten super hot on a select
few days this week.  I've been more tired than usual this past week
because I can't sleep too well when the apartment is so hot, but I'm
sure I'll adjust.

We've been working hard this week and it seems that it hasn't been
paying off exactly as easily lately.  People have been particularly
closed off for the last few days, but we are still finding people
regardless of rejection by others.  I've got a great feeling about
this transfer because we've been both pushing each other so far to
work hard and keep going when it's hard.  I have found in my brief
time here that people are, by a considerable amount, the most
effective when there is a mutual resolve to set, work towards, and
accomplish goals carefully and precisely made.  I'm grateful to have
been paired up with so many ambitious companions, this transfer no
less.  I expect to be able to report some great things in my upcoming
updates.

I don't know what else I need to write about.  I contacted an older
man this week who interrupted us when we introduced ourselves by
giving us a fist-bump, then proceeded to smile with a toothy grin and
do a little mini-jig.  I also saw many examples of intoxication among
city-goers that disturbed lessons we had--one of which including a man
sneaking up behind me in a lesson and asking for some beer.  The usual
jazz.

But golly, I'm enjoying my mission right now.  The last little while,
while containing unique moments and times of stress, has also brought
me great peace and joy.  I am grateful to have this chance to be on my
mission and to be serving the Lord with all my time and strength.
I've found that there is danger in focusing too much on our own
happiness and peace as opposed to the peace of others and pleasing the
Lord.  This holds especially true when we begin to change directions
different to the Lord's for our own gratification, namely through
disobedience.  When it comes to the Lord's work, we have to be all-in
if we want to have lasting joy.  The more we try to "break out" of the
missionary lifestyle, the harder it becomes to get back into it, and
the more unhappy we become overall.  I've seen this in many forms.  We
may tell ourselves that breaking certain rules is justified, which
includes the mindset that the overall expectations are "too high",
that we are obedient enough in other categories, that we won't be able
to make it if we don't allow for some disobedience, etcetera etcetera.
We might have similar views about the gospel collectively.  The fact
of the matter is that the purpose of the gospel is not based on the
philosophy that "I COULD be much worse," but rather "In spite of my
imperfections, I will yet do my best to become like Christ, and the
gap will one day be made up through His Atonement if I put in my
part."  While some may doubt this, I know that it is possible to
truly, fully invest us into the Lords work, when we learn to rely on
Him who has called us.  With our calling, there comes qualifying, but
we need to trust in the fact that He can only help us as far as we
allow Him to!

Thanks for the time you spend reading this things!  I'm surprised if
you've read this far already!

Elder Wallentine