“Get Thee Hence”

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Hey friends and family!

Last Friday was pretty good, we had a couple cool moments. We were meeting with a member, helping him make an “I’m a Mormon” profile, and we got a phone call from one of our less active members letting us know he wants help coming back to church. And because his mother language is English (he’s from England) he wants to work through us. It really makes me happy to see someone want to make the change themselves but I really hope he’s serious about it.

Also we received a media referral from the church… in November… and no one has been able to make contact with the guy. But since we don’t get those very often we’ve tried to go by every chance we get. We thought the man was dead, but by some miracle he answered and let us know he had received the bible he requested that we stuck in front of his door. Then HE asked US for a copy of the Book of Mormon that I then gladly gave him a copy of. He said he had read about it online and wanted to learn more and made another appointment with us. COOL.

Also service in the woods this week was super sweet, we chopped trees and gathered wood for a few hours, and every once in a while you would see some old German man, dressed all up in his traditional hunting outfit, just walking around with his dog. I felt like I was in Germany or something. (Haha)

I read a talk this week about the adversary, from James E. Faust. He quotes C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” which gives a very good insight to how the adversary tries to work on us.

“In a fictional letter, the master devil, Screwtape, instructs the apprentice devil Wormwood, who is in training to become a more experienced devil:”

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. … It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. … Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (The Screwtape Letters)”

All the adversary wants to do is to take us a little off the straight and narrow, just a look. He knows it might not fully consume us, but it hinders our progression with that slight time we took away from the straight and narrow path, what would we have learned? If I don’t make the scriptures a priority and I skip a day, I will probably not go to hell, but what special insight to my day would have been revealed to me by the spirit? On my mission I’ve been blessed to see the difference it can make, because as a missionary that insight it a vital one.

Elder Winkel

Taking one of the future missionaries from our ward out on the town!

Woods

Boat museum

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Allstar Weekend

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A couple highlights from this week – we found a guy in the area book, went by and he talked to us about how he read the Book of Mormon and how he thought it was good, and how humans are just slaves to aliens and that’s where the pyramids come from. Yeah, it took a quick 180°… but we made another appointment out with him not knowing what to expect. Turns out he’s a pretty interesting guy, he bounces a lot from topic to topic. I think he’s read everything that has come in his path. He believes very strongly that the Catholic Church isn’t true. He made it clear quite a few times… “Ja und der Krezzug…”(the crusades… luckily I learned the vocabulary thanks to Indiana Jones) well we figured out that we could throw the topic around and he wouldn’t notice either, “yeah the Holy Grail, if the Book of Mormon is true that means Christ visited the Americas…” We have another appointment, not really sure how much interest he has but we will see.

We visited a really cool member family this week, the wife cooked us some dang good lamb, and the husband invited us next week to go with him into the woods to chop trees, so it should be a good week. This week I thought a lot about personal progression, and what I found is that it really is amazing that we can progress and improve, seeing our progression is only half of our struggle, I believe those around can often see it better than we can. When we look to compliment others and move forward in faith, we can all come closer to reaching our goal of eternal life. Together.

Elder Winkel

Our area gets split by what use to be East and West.
Also a member tried to kiss me this week, luckily she was only 7…
We drove to Kiel on Tuesday for a zone conference.

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Hamburg

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It was a fun week, the downside was I was sick for most of it, but it
still was a lot of fun.

On Tuesday we traveled to Hamburg for my nice little 6 hour meeting, and
it was actually pretty good, we read from the scriptures, did role
plays, talked about the Savior – so pretty much all that a good meeting
should have. After the meeting I had an exchange with Elder Winter
from American Fork, and after the busy day, we picked up some Burger
King.

The next day Elder Winter and I went and visited a less active member
that we heard was pretty cool. Turns out he’s now an atheist that’s in a
heavy metal band. At first we didn’t know what to expect because he’s
this pretty big guy all covered in tattoos. But he was just a lovable
nice guy! He had a really nice apartment and we talked for a long
time. He said he wasn’t going to come back to church, but he said if
he did, it would be back “to the Mormons.” Haha
I was again reminded to never judge somebody right off the bat, because
you never know what you are going to get, it’s like a box of
chocolates or something…

At the end of our day we hit the streets going by contacts. We decided
to talk to this guy, turns out he’s from the Netherlands, has a
Book of Mormon, and had looked into our religion before. Elder Winter
and I didn’t do anything special, just bore simple testimony like we
always do. It was a cool moment to give someone Pure testimony about
the restoration, because when brought to the hearts of the elect it is
the key to conversion.

I’m grateful for all my friends and family. It’s really nice to know
that I always have some love being sent from home. 😉

Elder Winkel??

Hamburg
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Wooh

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Right now I’m on a train back from Hamburg, we met up with some missionaries and visited a church, and wandered all around.

This week we met with as many members as we could, and it paid off well. Monday night we went over to a member’s house for FHE. We taught a small lesson out of preach my gospel, and it went quite well. But what was cool was afterward I got to talk with their son, he’s 20 and getting ready to go on a mission and he’s such a cool kid. I told him how fun a mission is, and all the cool people you meet. He’s already excited so it was awesome to tell him more about it!

Saturday we met with a lady we found last week doing doors. She’s from the Philippines and she met with the missionaries there when she was 17 but didn’t remember anything that they talked about. Now she just wants to follow God, and to raise her kids with the same belief.

As she reads in the bible she tries to follow everything it says. She told us she doesn’t know why her church (not naming any names…) has statues of Jesus inside if the bible talks about not worshiping idols. She said “I don’t think you need a carved piece of wood to pray.” So we looked at her and said “yeah! You’re completely right”.

She believes so strongly in personal revelation, I think she’s ready to put the Book of Mormon to the test! 😉

Right now we’re trying to get as many of the members as pumped about the Book of Mormon as we are! So we’re trying to get them all reading every day! My number one goal right now for when I am home is that I will read in that wonderful book every day! It opens your mind, it warms the soul. If you don’t think it does… then try it out! I know it’s brightened my life.

Elder Winkel

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