Simply put I am nothing but thankful for my mission. It has been such a rewarding experience. I was given a chance to grow in the best way possible, by being stretched.

I have seen the dark, but more importantly I have seen the light. The light that the gospel can bring us. I recently read a talk which mentioned the story of how the song “Lead Kindly Light” came to be. A young preacher from England attempted to make the journey from Italy back to England while being sick. His ship was stuck in thick fog for about a week, without being able to continue its course. In that moment of despair he wrote the words to that song. That song along with many others from the hymn book has helped me to see the light when everything was dark, to see the Savior, and to look to him for hope.

I’m so grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith, The Book Mormon, it contains a power that is nothing short of God given, it has a power to heal, and it makes it known that we “are not cast off forever.”

I’m thankful for a Heavenly Father who continues to raise my perspective. Higher and higher to the right one, an eternal one.

I love my family, I learned very quickly that I took them for granted, I am ecstatic to be with them again. I have felt so much love while being here, family, friends, leaders. I’m thankful for my Mission Presidents, – I truly was their “most important investigator”.

So much more I could say, but ’til then.

Thank you, thank you.

Elder Winkel

Germany Berlin Mission

This week went well, we kept ourselves busy enough.

Saturday night we went and took our dinner hour to play some basketball at the park, we played with a couple guys (safe to say we won;)) Afterward taking a drink break, I talked to one of the guys we played with about the NBA. I mentioned I liked the Utah Jazz and we got into the conversation why no big names ever want to stay there, a couple of his reasons (which are partially true) were that Utah is in the middle of nowhere, and it’s full of Mormons… The conversation moves on to what in the world as an American am I doing in Halle? So I looked at him with a grin… ” weil ich ein Mormone Missionare bin!…” (Cause I’m a Mormon missionary) haha! We both died laughing, great guy, gave him a good chance to see that we’re just normal guys.

I got a nice little slap in the nose from the spirit, we were on our way to a member appointment, and as we got off the street car in the corner of my eye I noticed a rough looking couple, nothing out of the normal, so we just went and got off as normal. As we took a moment to check our map, I heard this guy call out to me, (this is normally the “ah great here we go…” Moment). Well this guy starts asking me in broken English about my US bag and the USA and Deutschland pins I have on it. He thought they were cool, and then asked us if we needed any help finding an address…

It was a nice little wake up, I’m grateful that our Savior looks at us with the perspective of what we can become, not what we are.

“Sow a thought, and you reap an act; sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”

Elder Winkel

This week we had round 2 of our German class. We went at it hard again with flyers and with all the effort we put in we were blessed by having the class double! We ended up splitting the class into two, beginners and advanced. Right now we’ve got about 8 guys coming, and I think we can definitely increase that number.

Because we’ve handed out so many flyers around town we’re becoming a little more well known in the “refugee community” so when we see big groups of guys sitting in the park or something we straight up ask “You coming to German tomorrow!?” It’s a blast.

This week we are giving a lesson in zone training meeting, with the missionary topic of “teach people not lessons”. I’ve enjoyed preparing for it. What we are planning is to talk about how teachers have everlasting effects on our lives. Whether it was the faithful missionaries who taught my great great grandfather in Holland or the diligent priesthood leader who helped me clearly understand a principal of the gospel.

Every teaching experience leaves its impact. When we strive to always have the spirit with us, the Holy Ghost will be the real teacher.

And “miracles will be wrought among you.”

Elder Winkel

Well well, happy 4th.

I’ve been transferred to the city of Halle! There I will spend my last 6 weeks of sleeping on an old ikea bed! I think it will be really good, something new to keep me going.

This week had some good service, we helped a family move into a giant old farm house… The grandma already lived there but the house has probably about 25 rooms so they’ll have plenty of space! I also got to mow their lawn… I was so happy.

This last week I read in 2 Nephi, where Nephi is all frustrated with how much he has seen, heard and felt. And yet he still has all of his imperfections, he recommits himself to the Lord and gets back to it.

30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

Today for the 4th we got a bunch of elders together and went to the Hard Rock Cafe! It was awesome, and crazy expensive…

Simply said, I’m thankful for my dad. He’s a cool guy.

It was a hard week but we had some good things happen, we had a zone training meeting in Hamburg, and right after exchanges with the zone leaders. As good as always with those guys, I was with Elder Germann. We did some finding and talked to some nice people, and surprisingly with a lot of people who have friends that are members of the church. Then later that night we had friendly wrestling (forearm to the throat from Elder Adams ALWAYS gets me) then I woke up the next morning and made some pancakes.

We had a couple lessons this week. One was with our family from Syria, they speak really good English and a bit of German, but we skyped in an Arabic speaker in our mission so they could understand things clearer. And they loved it! They said they are open-minded Muslims and visit Christian churches once in a while and we were able to answer a lot of their questions, and I’ll say it was weird having someone excited about the gospel and telling us they wanted to hear more – so so special.

While we were teaching I realized again how wonderful the gospel is and how much it makes sense. The first point “God is our loving Heavenly Father” really shows when talking about the restoration and the plan of salvation.

I thought a lot this week about the light that comes from God and Jesus Christ. How awesome light really is. If one is in a completely dark room and nothing can be seen, and suddenly a light appears no matter how small that light is, even if it’s just a pin point, your focus turns to the light. The closer you move to the light, the bigger it becomes. Jesus Christ is that light. He is that “son” that shines his light upon our lives. I have seen so much grey and black on my mission. But the people that have color, are the ones who strive to come closer to Christ. (Moroni 7)

I think one of my favorite things about my dad is that he knows me, and has always been interested in my well-being. I imagine it’s hard to know the impact fathers have on their children, but it’s a big one.

Elder Winkel

· My cool dad

· Exchanges

· So this with last week at the stadium, this is a very special cup. I have no idea why or who won it, but they told me I could hold it. So I did.

· Exchanges w/ Germann

· Ice