Hi!

Hi!

10 WEEKS AKA 70 DAYS AKA 10% REMAINING.

ACTUALLY THAT STILL SEEMS LIKE A WHILE.

OH N---I'm kidding!

We saw an old man walk in front of a street car, and when the street car tried to pull forward, that man rose his fist in great majesty, exclaiming:

"BWAH."

The driver, stunned, watched helplessly as the man speedily evaded the iron menace.

It's been a legendary week. We've set three baptismal dates with people! They're all awesome! They're also all Persians! One will be with a certain Tony in April, and the other two with an awesome couple in May.  These will be some of the final shots I have before I get home to really grow the church, so I'm trying to give them all I have! They all really want it for now, and so if you could please pray that they make it, that would be great!

We also had five investigators at church this week! We have set a goal for six next week. I want to hit 10 by the time I go home, so we will see!

Lastly, we've set a zone goal to get 30 at church as a zone as soon as we can. We're basing a lot of our trainings off of this goal and we think we will be able to reach it, because the goals the zone has been setting are almost always between 35 and 40.

It's nice to see the hard work paying off (again)!

I would say one change I have felt for myself, or have hopefully experienced, on my mission is the importance of sustained positivity despite difficulties. I think it would do us all well to develop our ability to laugh and smile through situations that do not go as planned. I was honestly really bad at this back home! I think about how many times I would lose my marbles over things that would not have had any long-term impact on me. I think I have gotten better at chuckling in difficult times or in times of misfortune, and I have noticed a difference in my mood and demeanour in such times!

For example, we and some sister training leaders from Heidelberg were on our way to Missionary Leadership Council yesterday, when we realised that the train drivers were, conveniently I might say, on strike. The trains were shut down that we needed to take to reach our destination. We began searching for alternatives, and found a bus-only route that combined 4 different bus routes to get us there-- much more tedious than the normal single train ride it would take to arrive. Then, the first bus in the line was late, so we missed the next one, and botched the plan.  But we miraculously arrived, and were only about ten minutes late. The entire time, every time a new complication arrived, we joked and laughed about it, with a "Haha, wow, this just keeps getting better!" attitude. What could have stressed us all out and caused us to be frustrated was turned into a comical development, and it was far more enjoyable. Either way, we couldn't have controlled the situation by that point in terms of the strike happening, busses being late, and ultimately us being late as a result of everything else, and so we made the choice to joke about it rather than be frustrated.

That being said, it also depends on who you are with. Making light of stressful situations may be an additional burden if done to excess or at all. It is usually good for situations that are both trivial and out of your control. If we cause another person inconvenience or trouble, sincere apologies may come better first, and then lightening up after if people seem to still tolerate you. On the other hand, if somebody causes us a minor inconvenience, it is significantly better for both if we respond with lightheartedness and a "dont worry about it!" attitude. With certain types, it simply might be better just not to be risky at all! Just judge based on the spirit of things. 

Just some things I've thought about. If it's appropriate to laugh and smile in annoying or hard times, let's do so! We might see our lives last a few years longer if we do!

Love you all!

Elder Wallentine

“How do you find peace in life?”

Walking up to an old man this week:

“How do you find peace in life?”

“Finding quiet time away from you.”

OLD MAN: 1

ELDER WALLENTINE: 0

IT HAS BEEN GOOD WEEK. LET ME TELL YOU WHY.

Last week we found nine new investigators, and that was great. We also had three at church. Two of the people who came really are progressing great. They’re from Iran, and as I have told you earlier about Iranians, they’re some of the most collectively humble people you can meet out here. They’ve been extremely receptive to the message, and are definitely on track to being baptized at some point in the next two months. Unfortunately, we can only meet once per week if that, because they’re super busy with a pretty demanding German course they’re taking. But, we will get ‘em sooner or later folks!

We were contacting yesterday and IT WAS HILARIOUS. We had bought ourselves lunch earlier that day, and we had a bunch of leftover bread. As we were contacting, we entered a park with a many, many ducks, and I began throwing whole slices of bread into the feathery hoard. The feathered demons began to play football with the bread, flying over each other as they desperately tried to secure the succulent meal for themselves, yet being continually pummeled to and fro from their hungry competitors.

As I’ve continued through the last few months, I’ve also been trying to improve my drawing skills, or have actually just been drawing as a form of stress-relief and have improved my skills by doing so! I’ll attach some pictures of what I’ve been doing. And I know you aren’t thinking this, but I have to say it anyways so I can have it on the books: No, no proselyting time was used for this. Don’t you worry, Elder Wallentine is working hard until he drops to the floor at the Boise Airport at 11 PM on June 7th, 2018.

Oh, right, I got my flight plans this week. See you soon lol.

It’s a new transfer, but Elder Winsborrow and I are staying together. He is a good guy and I don’t give him enough shoutouts in these emails. It’s been a blast serving with him. This next transfer will be only 4 weeks in contrast to the usual 6, so we may just have a split second more before splitting ways. We’ve got some good goals set for our Zone for the transfer and we intend on reaching them! The zone had three baptisms last month, which is pretty good! We are trying to keep that accelerating. 

Simply enough said, I am deeply grateful for the knowledge of God’s plan for us. When we only have an earthly perspective, life is cruel, unfair, full of mischief, and influenced heavily by evil. When we are able to look through these issues into our life with the lens of eternity, we realize that all has its place, and all that seems unfair about life shall one day be totally rectified. All of our losses, may it be losing loved ones at death’s call, being cheated or abused, mental and physical disorders that plague us and our families, or anything else, shall be made up if we are but faithful until the end. So let us therefore be faithful!

Love you folks,

Elder Wallentine

12 WEEKS TO DO SOMETHING GREAT

Я не могу говорить по-русски!

The week has been great! We had three investigators at church this past week. It was a great feeling to see the work pay off it that regard. Again, we never seem to have great difficulties to find new investigators, but committing them has been the point to improve on.

I set a record for how quickly we could get kicked out of a student dormitory. We were spotted by a group of three guys when we knocked the first two doors (They later earned the title 'Jungs'), who then reported us to the front desk. The woman escorted us outside LOL. We had planned to find some people there, and we would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.

We taught a group of three men yesterday. They seem to be Muslim by title but not super-strict followers of it. The lesson was on the Plan of Salvation and it went well. They pointed out to me, though, how much I say the word "cool (Germans say it too!) and I became self-conscious of it and kept saying it more and more. Now whenever we communicate, we say "cool" about every sentence. 

Coooooool. 

Oh and WOW I HAVE TWELVE WEEKS LEFT HAHAHAHA. That's crazy. Time feels like it has flown by, but I also feel that it's been so long since I have seen any of you. It depends on how I think about it. Rest assured, I accept the fate that I have become less like a person and more like an abstract idea or concept to most of you. 

What is an Elder Wallentine?

We visited some members who were having a very difficult time this week. They are both older and nearing the end of their lives, and it seemed that they were really suffering. We hear about personal and collective difficulties often throughout the world today--that's also what fuels the media, so we are bound to hear it--and some of us may feel like their joy or hope in life is dimming or already gone. If we ourselves aren't struggling with a life-threatening illness, surely we would notice the increasingly degenerate tide of wickedness that is engulfing so much of the world today.

For these reasons, I couldn't help but feel that the remaining chapters of the Book of Mormon were written for our sakes. I felt these words as though they were speaking to the world. Mormon wrote his son, Moroni, the following:

"My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."

Whether or not we say we know, do we truly know and feel why we are on the earth? Perhaps the reason bad things happen is so that we can learn to follow God and rely on his strength. As tribulations greater than we are come, we must rely on God if we are to endure as gracefully and as well as possible. After all, we see today in in history that the peaks of nations' economic growth lead so often to forgetting God because we, pridefully, move away from God because we feel self-sufficient.

Regardless of your spiritual and temporal statuses for the time being, I second Mormon's words of exhortation to his son: May Christ's grace and mercy rest upon your hearts, that you may find peace in Him. The invitation is for all. And may you also remember the great words of Christ prior to His death, which read:

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Love you guys!

Elder Wallentine

The Two-Way Stumblingstone

HELLO MY FELLOW HUMANS. WHAT HUMAN THINGS HAVE I DONE THIS WEEK? HA. HA.

Sorry about that.

Unfortunately, nobody came to church this past week. But man, I feel we invited them like crazy. We will see about next time. We're finding like machines out here and working with members, it's just that the potential investigators we are teaching are going through the sifting machine and showing that the interest isn't really there.

So, we will keep rolling. There's no brakes on the Darmstadt train.

We had an awesome zone conference about the Book of Mormon. I've tried to recount the times I've read it on my mission. I have read it enough that I can't count the number on my two hands. I'm happy to say that doing so has caused it to become the keystone of my testimony.

Two old foreigners were chasing each other around the town center the other day. I think one of them wanted money from the other. I contacted them and they're not interested, just so you know.

We visited a member named David this week. He's from Nigeria. I found out throughout the course of the appointment (which leads us 9 times out of 10 to eat wonderful spicy beans) that Africa is my land. Africa is my land.

Seriously, though, David is on YouTube. Look his videos up! He's awesome! I've attached a picture below.

I saw an automated pepper-grinder at a family's house this week. That blew my mind.

I saw a man punch a wall in the train yesterday. And, of course, that changed my life.

We also had a lesson with a man this past week who has a very strong faith in the Bible. He invited us in, gave us his pizza (that's how you know he's good), and listened to the first half of the first lesson. However, he had extreme difficulties in the second half once we began sharing the newer things of the Gospel, such as the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He said that if there were new things, or truths that have been restored, they would surely have been mentioned by Christ or other people in Biblical times.

The prophets have described Christ as "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word". I've come to the conclusion that Christ is a two-way stumbling block. I will explain what I mean. 

He, in one direction, proved to be tremendously difficult for the Jews to accept as new truth. His new doctrine was rejected by many because of the hardness of the law and the hearts of the Jews existing before His time. 

Going the other direction, however, we see a second application to the nickname. We today sometimes seem to use Christ and His doctrine as found in the Bible as a barrier between new truths and ourselves. People stumble when they assume that their current knowledge is sufficient and lose drive to search for any additional wisdom (a spiritual and temporal truth, I'd say). Just as He proved then to be a stumbling block to those who had not believed in Him earlier, so is His name used to neglect additional teachings that, ironically enough, come from Him today (Although, at first glance at least, people don't realize that these are His teachings). 

Jesus has taught: For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. I personally accept this to apply to learning--that if we seek to learn, we shall increase, but our increase is stopped and we may even forget that which we already know if we take it for granted and become complacent in searching.

What's the point of me writing this? That's a good question. Actually, I had go remind myself just now! The point is that we always have something to learn. I don't care who you are, whether you're President Nelson or Pope Francis, a Mormon or a Baptist, a Muslim or a Jew, we all have some truth already and we need to learn more! We need to be willing and excited to continue in that great path of education in all things, that we may receive the blessings that most surely come therewith. Learn something(s) new this week!

ALSO, THIS IS CRAZY.  

In Germany, at least in Hessen, they have school programs called "Waldkindergarten". It's school for young children, but they host it in a forest instead of in a building. The kids bundle up very well so they can adjust to colder and wetter weather, and they spend the entire day outside going from camp to camp to learn.

It may be harder for parents because their kids come home covered in dirt, but I think that's still a really cool aspect of German culture. Gets kids outside.

Love you guys!

Elder Wallentine

TRY

Hey!

I found out that I officially am within the final 100 days of my mission. Weird, eh?

This week has been great! We have found several new investigators, including a really awesome man from China named Yan. He doesn't believe in much, but he seems to have the desire and has said that he will try to find an answer. We also had two fellowshippers, who bore awesome testimonies. The spirit was definitely there in the lesson!

We have been blessed to find multiple new people this week. The people we are finding are also somewhat promising, which is a blessing as well!

I studied a little bit about obedience this week, as well as the general theme of purification and dedication to God. In so doing, I was lead to 1 Thessalonians 2, which has a particularly powerful bunch of verses. It says:

3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness:

6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

11 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

I guess it would be possible for me to go throughout my entire mission and not end up baptizing anyone. I could also possibly be shut down by every person I talk to for the rest of my time here. People could revile me, cast me out, reject me and the message, and ignore me. I could be screamed at, clawed at, attacked by eggs, whatever it may be, and generally cast away. Regardless of whether or not these things happen, there is one thing that I want abundantly clear at the end of my mission and life at large:

That I tried. 

I have said it before and I will say it again: I have no control over the reactions of other people, but I do have control over how I answer to their reactions. Do I give up, lose my temper, become discouraged, and give up trying to live according to the standards set? No. I will not be asked how many people listened to me, nor will I be asked how many people I baptized. I am not to be held accountable for the decisions of others. Rather, I will probably be asked how I magnified my own efforts to help. I think the absolute greatest thing that I could be able to say was that I did what I could by being obedient, working hard, inviting everyone possible, and building my faith along the way. This has been engraved upon me for quite some time and I am will continue therewith!

And, as I have given my best, God has been abundantly merciful in blessing me with success. Both on a day to day basis and with the occasional "great" miracles, I cannot say that I have missed out. I am so grateful for that and I know we will keep seeing miracles as we press onward with steadfastness and faith! I have a testimony of that and experience to prove its truthfulness to me.

Thanks everyone! You're great and I love you all!

Elder Wallentine