Sunday, October 9, 2011

Can It Really Rain Almost Everyday?????

Received August 8, 2011

Can it really rain almost everyday. Yeah....it can. We have been having a lot of rain, but it is never really a ton of rain. Usually it is in the morning or evening sometime and then the rest of the day is warmer. One interesting thing is that the rain in the evening almost always causes a rainbow as the sun sets and it is almost always in the same place. We decided to start going to some places in the past week that probably haven't heard the gospel in a while. We went off to Gundelsheim which has a really awesome castle, but that wasn't the point. We were actually way on the south end of the city far away from the castle when we doored into a lady that really had some interest in finding out about what we believed. She is the kind of person that really wants proof if she is going to believe in something. She said that it was hard for her to believe in God, but we showed her the Book of Mormon and how it was another evidence that God is there and that he loves his children and wants them to know that he is there and that he lives. She was very interested in all the things that separate us from the other churches that everyone knows in Germany. It is always great to testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the restored priesthood of God to act in his name and that our church is the same one that Jesus Christ founded, not as the Jehovah's Witnesses say which implies that it just simply has existed since the beginning of time, but that the Church was restored by Jesus Christ (Jehovah) himself and his messengers by calling a prophet to restore all the things that went wrong because of the ignorance of man. We met an older couple the other day who believe in Kabbalah. As great of an idea as it seems, it pretty much makes you God and just assumes that everyone is right about everything and there is no eternal law that holds everything together and points out right and wrong. When I told them that I thought that it was interesting, they asked me how old I was. Upon my response that I am 19, they said that no one could possibly begin to understand it until they are at least 40 years old. What kind spirituality excludes people that are younger from understanding the world and why we are here? We are the only ones holding ourselves back from knowing what is and what is not. The true gospel of Jesus Christ is something that everyone including little children can understand. We learn by making mistakes and then we have the opportunity to repent and make up for what we did and when we do that we can become stronger than we were before.

I have come to the realization that most of the time, we are mistaken for some kind of religious radicals. In reality, that is most of the churches that do proselyting in Germany. I am also so horribly disappointed in the churches of Germany that have made so many people absolutely Godless. Most conversations with people go something like this: "Do you believe in God?" (Shrug of shoulders followed by a grunt that means something like "I don't know") "What does that mean?" "I'm not sure if I believe in God." "Because?" "I was born Catholic (or Protestant Evangelical) and eventually I decided that it wasn't for me." "How did you come to that decision?" Then follow the varied responses that really just kill me: "When our son died we didn't get any sympathy or help from our church." "I was just constantly disappointed with God's servants." "I won't pay tax anymore for an institution that is like the Catholic church." (Or the worst) "I really don't want to talk about it." What kind of responses are those? There is a God and it doesn't matter who is representing Him, he has never changed. The people just expect that whatever church they grew up in had to be the only church that could have been right and then when they get disappointed in the leaders of that church, they don't go in search of a church that doesn't disappoint them, they just close off their life from all religion whatsoever and say that everyone is the same. As missionaries, we are out here to explain to people that there is a true church and that God calls people by revelation (not by how good of a preacher they might be) to lead his church. The principles of the gospel are still the same even if the leaders let you down in one way or another, because in all honesty they are humans too with all the same failings you have. Usually the people who have problems with the way something is going should look at themselves first and see what they could change first before being critical of God and his servants and if you don't know if your church is the right one, then pray about it and study the scriptures and you will know which church is right.

God is there. Anyone that is looking for direction, or even if they think that they are found, should look into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you really ask God in prayer which church is correct, He will lead you to discover the Church because it is (despite anything that anyone may spread about the church in articles, internet, or books) quite literally the ONLY church that can be true. I ask someone to find me a reason why the church isn't true, because if it isn't then I don't want to spend one more minute of my time on something that isn't from God. However, I know that no one can tell me that this church isn't true. There is no reasonable argument against it. It is just awesome knowing that and I wish that I could tell everyone that in the 3 minutes or so that I have to talk to them (and in German). I'll keep working on that.

As regarding things that I need my mother to know, everything is fine. You should probably wait until after transfer calls which should be at the end of this week. If I leave, I will be leaving next Wednesday. We'll see. I hope you have a good week and that everything is great with your new job. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!

No comments:

Post a Comment