Wunderbar

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We had a miracle this week while we were street contacting. As we were walking a man standing in the doorway of a cafe gave me a weird look, waved us over and asked if we could talk with him for a couple minutes. He went on to explain that he is a member of the church and recently moved back to this part of Germany, he then showed us on his Facebook that the missionary that had baptized him, had just sent him the day before a link to the church website. Then a day later, he sees us walking down the street. He said he knows it was a sign from God and is ready to come back to church.

Thursday was our day of service… and was the sun wonderful. One could tell we got some sun, mostly because E. Anderson was looking like a red hot chili pepper by the end of the day. Pretty much from 10-7 we were pulling weeds, cutting grass, and fighting back the giant spiders in the wood pile we re-stacked. Man, I know those spider don’t have anything on the spiders in South America, but quantity is definitely worse than quality. Breeding like rabbits? Well rabbits can’t lay a trillion eggs in a woodpile.
Anyways one of ladies we did service for has an exchange student from Jordan living with her. I guess she thinks we’re pretty cool or something because she wants to make us some middle eastern food before Ramadan starts so that’ll be neat.

Elder Winkel

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House Hunters International

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Transfers came, transfers went. Elder Headley is off to Görlitz, and I will be receiving an Elder Anderson from Texas, I think it will be super.

This week we will be going apartment hunting with a senior missionary couple, pretty much if our current apartment was in America they would have condemned the whole thing by now, along with every building on the block… “How firm a foundation?” Not very…

Tuesday I went on back to back exchanges with the Spanish Elders. With only one lovely meeting that was completely in Spanish so I wasn’t lost. We had a few fallen out appointments – then we met with their solid 23 year old investigator from Kazakhstan, who’s lived in Germany the last 10 or so years. She was actually found by my companion who saw her reading the bible on a train. She’s quite sincere, but boy she had a big problem with the telestial kingdom!

We had some little cards to represent the plan of salvation and she just stared at the whole thing, covered up the telestial kingdom with her hand and such. (Haha) But we were able to clear it up a little with the bible and because she’s so cool, she let us know how she would go home and pray about it. In the lesson there came a point where we brought it back to Joseph Smith and asked her if she believed he was a prophet, she kept insisting “I’ve got no problem with Joseph Smith! That’s obvious and logical that he was.” Then we explained how important that it is that we not only know it in our mind, but also in our heart.

And OH how important that is.

“When the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

May we all think and ponder in our minds that the spirit may testify to our hearts.

 

Elder Winkel

“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!

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Boat museum

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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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Lauenburg

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The first week in Lauenburg has come and gone… And thank goodness!
I’m not a big fan of adjusting, so it’s been good to get a little
settled in. Having a car is weird, our city is too small for us to
work in so “dorf hopping” we go! We drive around to all the little
villages and knock knock knock.

Also the goodbyes on transfer day to my boys Burns, Perkins, and
Pilling, were not very fun… We’ve been pretty close for the last 3
transfers (our area has only been 15 minutes from each other). On the
good side I heard our Russian investigator was at church yesterday! Oh
I was so happy.

This ward has a lot going for it at the moment, the members are really
willing to help us out. We were actually surprisingly busy this week,
going from appointment to appointment. That has probably been the
biggest adjustment along with the fact I’m in West Germany again.

We made some good contact with some less actives, one of which
wants us over for lunch next week, and has an idea of a friend she
wants to invite over. That appointment started out interesting! She’s
about 90 and can’t hear very well, so at the door when we tried to
tell her who we were but she couldn’t understand us from the second story
window, then she says something like “well I can’t hear a single word
you’re saying…” and then threw the keys to her house down to us. As
we finally got upstairs we got the “OHHH the Elders.” A very sweet old
women. She took care of her husband for years who had dementia, for
quite a while he had no idea who she was, which was definitely a trial
for her. Turns out she’s not completely less active, she just has to get
her nonmember son to drive her the 30 minutes, which isn’t easy. But
she has a wonderful testimony, and is excited to have us over next
week!

We were doing some doors, and a guy told us “you could try my
neighbor, he’s a Jehovah’s Witness” well super, so we took some
guesses of which house was his, and found him pretty quickly… I’ll
be completely honest, I have no idea what this old man’s motives
were… to scare us, agree with us, thank us, or kill us. Who knows? But
for 20 minutes he ranted about everything from WWII to Health care. In the
end he shook our hands and wished us the best of luck. Yep.

On Wednesday we went to Hamburg to watch the broadcast of the
Missionary conference which was great! The last time I was in Hamburg
was about a year ago, so it’s interesting to see it again.
Anyway, I loved what Elder Bednar said, he talked about “conversion is
always a miracle” and it really is, not just because it’s not a common
thing, but because someone is directing their lives in the direction
of Christ, and making those “changes in the natural man” that are
necessary for salvation and exaltation. Which is where pure happiness
is found.

With love,
Elder Winkel

Took the new district out bowling!
BowlingwithnewdistrictBernburgBuddies

Transferred to Lauenburg

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The 6 month adventure in Bernburg has come to an end. We saw some miracles, and success these last 2 weeks.

On Friday we had my first Joint teach in 6 months, with our Russian investigator! She’s such a cool lady, one of the older ladies in the ward came and it worked out perfect. They both talk so fast that they were able to keep up with each other, with questions and answers.

Our lesson in Zone training meeting went well, we got pretty pumped for it, and I hope we fired up some missionaries as well.

A member invited us to dinner, and told us she was also inviting her 90 year old friend and his niece. She told us she wasn’t telling him that we were coming or else he wouldn’t come… All she told us about his story was that in Dresden he survived the bombings from the allied forces because he hid himself in dead bodies. We went to dinner a little intimidated, but as we got to know him we realized how sweet of an old man he is. After the appointment he told our member on the way home that he wasn’t planning on ordering anything because half of his body doesn’t work very well, and it makes eating difficult. But he found us so nice and friendly that he felt comfortable to eat with us. I feel that part of that “friendliness” that came with us was the spirit. As we focus to have it, it will bless us and those around us.

Said some sweet goodbyes to all the old people of the branch, one of my favorites is 92 year old Swester Richter, our last visit with her, she told us all about her favorite place in the world (Utah), her husband in general, and the time she saw Hitler. It was members like her that made my time here in Bernburg great.

My time in Bernburg I have learned a lot. Patience, faith, and hard work were my focus, and I’ve been strengthened in each of those areas. Through Christ, and listening to the Spirit, we will increase, and see ourselves change into something wonderful.

Elder Winkel
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