Because He Lives

/0 Comments/in /by

Special week this week, we found another new investigator! And I also learned something about love.

We had about an hour where we were in a weird part of town with no map… so I decided to just wander and see if we could find a contact that we had been to before. After wandering a little while Elder Brimhall turned his head and saw a man waving at us through his window to come in, little weird because that never happens. But we went and he let us in. The man looks exactly like the old man in “Meet the Robinsons” no teeth or anything. We just talked to him, he lives alone and I think he’s been alone for a while but he asked us if we could just come visit him every week and also on his birthday:) We told him we would and got his info. Elder Brimhall and I learned a lot. The Lord really does love this man, I don’t think we understood the impact of just talking to him, and what that did for him. I also learned something from him, he was nice and friendly to us even though we are missionaries (sounds weird but true).

We didn’t realize it at the time but it was the Spirit that was guiding us to him. The Lord knew that he needed a friend, someone to talk to, and he guided us to him. The Lord is aware and loves all his children.

On Saturday after street contacting for a long time, the best conversation we had was with a drunk atheist that had just gotten out of jail, he was nice and pleasant, ANYONE can be a friend.

On Thursday we went to Braunschweig! We had a mission conference through the phone and listened to President Kosak talk about “Because He Lives”. It was a little hard because we were on a train but still great. Braunschweig is a giant city! It was nice to see and hear so many people that speak the German I learned!  Elder Brimhall is getting the rod removed from his arm next week, so on Monday night we will have to spend the night with the Braunschweig elders because the operation is early the next morning.

Wednesday we will be in Chemnitz for Zone Training Meeting so that will be fun. And for P-day today our ward mission leader is taking us to the golfing range!

Because He lives, WE have an example, and a friend. I hope that this week we all can look to reach out and just be a friend at the store or on the streets. We can be a friend anywhere.

Mit liebe

Elder Winkel

Dad asked about the language – German is okay, I would not say fluent but I get by well (with the Spirit).

Brimhall&Winkel

Patience

/0 Comments/in /by

We found an investigator! He’s a way old dude but we taught him the first lesson and he told us to come back! We honestly weren’t too excited afterward, so l asked “why are we not excited?” Elder Brimhall said “I think it’s because we’re too scared of God humbling us again….” haha I think he’s right. It’s been a long 4 weeks but I’ve learned a lot about patience! The Lord really does work in his own time!

We’re having tons of fun every day! I’ve been studying about Christlike attributes and patience is one I know I can always improve on!

We talked to an Indian guy this week, he brought us into his friend’s cell phone store. A bunch of super Muslim guys sat down with us and they were way cool until the weird questions started coming… They started asking about our papers here, if we can get on US military bases with our passport, then they asked to see our passports because “we’ve never seen one before”. Then we found out a couple we’re from Pakistan, the questions turned into ISIS stuff so we decided to get up and leave… weird stuff.

We’re going to Braunschweig this week, my comps getting his arm checked out cause he broke it last year, so a day back in the WEST! Can’t wait!

We went on austausch (exchanges) this week! I went to Plauen for the day with Elder Headly! He’s been on his mission for 4 weeks so that was interesting! He’s 23 and joined the church last year. He’s from Canada! We took a short cut on a map and walked through a forest! We found a lake and doored a dorf (village) – fun day!

I couldn’t spell “shoe” in English class… so I think that means my German’s getting better! Zwickau is way cool, I love the ward!

Elder Winkel

ElderHeadlydorf

Uchtdorf

/0 Comments/in /by

This week was funny! And super hard, but good. We tried to meet with this contact who is an anti-Christ, and pretty much worships the devil, but even he last moment canceled on us.

This week we decided to put all the Uchtdorf myths about Zwickau to rest, so we asked a member and they had a picture book from Deseret Book that talks about his conversion! The book is called “Sister Eternal” (schwester ewig) and the paintings in the book were based off the real places in Zwickau! Super Cool, then we went through the records of where church was held in Zwickau and the church that Uchtdorf went to with his family for the first time was 3 doors up from our apartment! He was baptized because a lady decided to invite his family to church! Member work is important. EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY

We got yelled at a lot this week but that’s pretty normal for us. We also had a lot of good moments in the streets with no new investigators yet, but they will come!

We made french toast with a loaf and a half worth of bread, wayyy good.

Because of the hard moments this week I decided to make a list of things I’m grateful for, the list ranged from Family and Friends to Star Wars and Basketball. It helped me realize how many things have brought me joy in life, and how grateful I am for them.

This week was cold but I heard this week is supposed to be warmer. Last week we had a couple nice days!

No matter how many people yell at us, the gospel is still true! All the people that are yelling have had hard lives and don’t really know what happiness is. It’s our job to help them to find it!

Mit liebe

Elder Winkel

SisterEternal

SisterEternal2SisterEternal2building

Zwickau is super cool!

/0 Comments/in /by

Zwickau is super cool! Ghetto but cool! Detroit is 2 times nicer than Zwickau…

Well I*** showed up at English class again… super drunk and he tried getting in a fight with the bishop because he didn’t speak Persian… so that was fun.

Also we managed to get all 0’s on our numbers this week. It was 7 o’clock on Sunday night and we had all 0’s for the week. So we prayed and tried our hardest just to get a number (numbers aren’t what’s important but still). So we called a recent convert that has never answered and he did! We taught him about the priesthood and walked around a park for a couple hours. The Lord will always answer prayers, and sometimes it’s right when you need it!

This week was pretty hard, we got schussed by 1 investigator and our other is supposed to wake up from emergency heart surgery later this week…. quite a ride here!

We talked to a drunk guy he told us he’s half Mormon and his drunk friend in the back said, “I’m, I’m a Catholic” so we told him its okay if he’s not Mormon, and the drunk guy said “Mormons are better than Catholic” with a dead stare at him, then his drunk friend was just speechless, it was pretty funny in the moment.

The work is great! Slow, but great and true.

I’m having tons of fun working with Elder Brimhall! We have fun pretty much all day!

mit liebe

Elder Winkel

pizza

Zwickau

/0 Comments/in /by

Well Zwickau… it’s super ghetto. Really though. I’m about as deep in the old DDR as you can get, my area borders Czech, and the Frankfurt Mission.

My first night in Zwickau we went and played soccer with orphans, which I guess we do every 2 weeks! I accidently kicked an orphan in the head… really hard with the ball. He was playing goalie… but he was alright…. And I promise I don’t hate all the orphans in the whole world…haha.

On Thursday we street contacted a bunch and randomly ran into this guy from Iran, he invited us to his house, it was really weird. When we got into his house he had tons of every Mormon book and pamphlet. Then he showed us a photo album he had with him and the Elders from like 3 years ago, and him at the church and stuff. His English was really bad and so was his German so it was hard to communicate. He then asked us if we could help him with his mold problem.  He took us to his back room and it was just straight mold. The entire room was molded over… I thought we were going to die! We decided we would go check him out in the area book, so we gave him our number and got his and left. It turns out he was on a baptismal date but he failed the Muslim test that we have to give people to be baptized. He goes and visits Iran all the time so that kind of counts as a hostile country to Christians. So unless he plans on never going back he can’t be baptized. But we invited him to English class, he showed up and it went pretty well.

On Friday we and the sisters invited our investigators to a game night with foosball and ping pong. A couple guys from Syria showed up and I challenged them to ping pong. And the guy was pretty good, but LET IT BE KNOWN I beat W***** (from Syria) at ping pong. Our church is way cool – the attic is huge so they finished it and have a band room and ping pong tables. The ward has an actual band that jams every Monday to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

Saturday we went on some faith to go visit this less active super far away. There was no map for the city but we showed up looking for the street. After walking for 3 hours asking everyone, a lady told us where it was. We got there and she wasn’t home… so we left a note saying we came by. The next day at church our friend in the ward told us that she came to sacrament meeting! Because we’re new we don’t recognize anyone but he said it was the first time he’s seen her at church in years!

A member had us over for dinner on Sunday. He showed us all his old family pictures… his grandpa was a Nazi… then he showed us a picture that his grandfather had taken of an airplane that was shot down by the Nazis. The flag had a small US logo on it, and I whispered to Elder Brimhall “is that one of ours…?” and all he said was “yeah”. Then the member drove us to the huge bridge made of bricks. It was sweet.

Elder Brimhall is way cool, he lived in Hawaii before his mission, and also Arizona, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and South Korea… his dad is in the military. The ward is pretty big.  Around eighty people at church. President Uchtdorf was baptized in this ward too!

This is honestly a terrible place, but the ward is great and it’s the people that I’m here for.

Elder Winkel

Member Photos Brick BridgeGrey Day