Sunday, April 15, 2012

Der Post bringt keinen Brief für dich but there's plenty of food

Received April 9, 2012

That's a Schubert song. Sometimes I feel like the man in Winterreise. I hear the beautiful sound of the motor on the mailman's bike and I think, "Today's the day!" Then I find out that all that came is some free newspaper that everyone gets. I'm convinced there's a conspiracy against the missionaries.....I'll find out one of these days.
The "highlight" of this week was a wonderful little adventure that I will call "Zur Dritt unter den alten Frauen". That's right, a whole day of nothing but old ladies. Thursday Elder Smith, being the district leader, had to go all the way to Munich with every district and zone leader in the whole mission for a lovely two day conference. That left me, curiously, with two Elders who are both in their second transfer. One comes from Stuttgart International and the other from Schwenningen. We all went back to Waiblingen and then began our journey. We first visited the top floor apartment of the over 80 years old Schw. Geyer in Bad Cannstatt. There we chatted a little bit andd then got to the real reason for coming: singing. We practiced the song that I sang on Sunday first and then just had some fun with the other music that she had. She loved the fact that I knew some of the old German folk songs like Aennchen von Tharau and Es waren zwei Königskinder. We also sang some Schubert. Ahhhhhh Schubert. It brought warmth to my heart. We then ran off to Schw. Arning who is also well over 80 and lives in a senior living home. She fed us two cakes, first a little round strawberry cake and then a huge cheese cake. The other Elders wimped out after two pieces of the first and one of the second. I ate three of the first and two (or three I can't remember) of the second. We talked about her missionary efforts with the other old ladies in building. She's an awesome member missionary. We left just in time to run for the bus and actually got to the next appointment 5 minutes early with Schw. Töpfer again in Bad Cannstatt. We just read the Book of Mormon with her and her daughter Anna who wants to go on a mission. We ate again there. After that we went to Schw. Libera in Korb. She was really excited that we came since missionaries don't come very often. She gave us some little snacks and Easter eggs. She has also been doing some awesome missionary work. We didn't even want to eat any food when we got home at night. The next day we went to Fichtenberg to visit the Schullers who made the biggest maultaschen I've ever seen. I called them monster-taschen. We had a good time with them too and two of the most recently baptized members of the ward were there.
On Sunday sang Ave verum corpus by Mozart in Sacrament meeting. It went well. I sang it with a german text and the people really liked it. It was well suited for Easter Sunday.
For my weekly Book of Mormon message, I just want to write something that Jesus said to the people of the New World as he taught them, "Behold, I am the law, and the light . Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." Is there a more straight forward statement? Just look to Him and do the things that He has done and you can receive eternal life.
In response to your question mom, I'm not sure that all of the apostles ever really understood what was going to happen until after Jesus was resurrected. I know that specifically Peter, James, and John had a full knowledge of what should happen, but sometimes I think that they still didn't believe it. Thomas didn't believe until after he saw the reurrected Christ and all the other apostles took off after he died on the cross for one reason or another. I do know however, that they did understand after they saw and felt the ressurected Lord.
By way of the heidnische Hase, if he just so happened to send a few red beans and rice packets my way, that sure would be nice. I'd tell you to give him my forewarding address, but this is my last Easter on my mission.
Well, this email is already too long, so I hope everyone has an awesome week. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!

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