6-10-13

I am getting transfered! Surprise! (6-10-13)

I am going to a place called Forst. It is to the right of Cottbus (Cottbus is south,southeast of Berlin, north of Dresden). I'm gonna be right on the Polish border. :P I will also be serving with my favorite Missionary, best Mission friend Elder Thorkleson. I am so very excited. X) (try searching for him on the current mission blog and on the old one, should be able to find pics (old one:http://germanyberlinmission.blogspot.de/)) We are whitewashing in. That means we have both never been there before. We are stoked.

Whitewashing doesn't happen all that often. Forst is really pretty. :) Small and nice, and the ward is really big for Germany, and for how small the town is. I haven't noticed a pollish accent at all, but they have a bit of a Sechsisch accent here. Not too bad though. (About the same as in/as bad as Köthen, but with a bit less influence from the Berlin area.

The ward is wonderful. They are very good to us, good about joint teaches, and all very active, strong members. When they found out that my birthday was coming up, a family approached us and told us that we now had an appointment with them that evening. :P Was funny. Excited for that. And to bake my cake that day. :)

Elder Thorkelson and I are both rather musical, so we are planning on doing some musicl numbers together for the ward and for missionary meetings.

Oh! There is a senior couple in our District that keep a blog: thegorlitzdistrict.blogspot.com.  Görlitz is the name of the city where the couple is serving, and where the District Leader is. We have district meetings at the couple's house. Because the District Leader is in Görlitz, we call the District: District Görlitz. The couple's name is Bauman.

I used to go to bakeries more in Berlin. I love getting the simple jelly-filled doughnuts (often called Berliners) and another pastry that is wide and flat and dense and has crumbs and drizzled glaze on the top. :)

Those really are their staples. Bread, meat, cheese. They don't eat it for every meal, but it is a common thing. And they have enough variety in those categories, that it doesn't get boring. :) It's kinda like how often we eat sandwiches for lunch. They do bread meat and cheese, and eat it for dinner.

 

6-17-13

Michael was not able to write a blog post this week. But he loves you all, and loves the work!
-Andrew Miles

5-27-13

Michael had to be quick this week, but he has a spiritual thought to share real quick,

Firstly - D&C 121:1 / Matt 27:46

Often it feels as though God has forsaken us or forgotten us somehow. Often we feel overwhelmed and as though we somehow have drifted far from God, and know not where to find Him. I think we all know this feeling. But let's look at a couple more scriptures:

1 Ne. 21:14-16 (Isa. 49:14-16) / Matt 10:29-31

God promises us that he has not forgotten us. That He thinks about us. That we are important to Him.

And lastly - D&C 24:8 / Isa 41:10

God is always with us. Sometimes we don't feel it, but we have His ~promise~ that He is there. Just press forward in faith. Fear not. He loves you and will ~never~ forsake you.

6-3-13

Hi everyone! Gotta be quick, but I have some stuff ready. :)

Germany stuff! (brought to you by the clever asking of Danny)

- Lots of bakeries. Just little cafes where you can go in and buy nice breads and pastries and rolls and stuff and they usually have coffee there as well.
- There also is more support from the Government for little stores that specify in one kind of product (big chains with a little of everything, like wal-mart, being discouraged and given less help(there are no wal-marts in Germany that I know of)).
- Fast food is also a lot more expensive here. At Subway for example, they kinda do the 5-dollar foot-long thing, but it's not as wide, like it's only at specific times or for very speicific sandwiches, and they do it in Euros (5 Euro foot-long). If you look, at the exchange rate, it turns out to be a much sadder deal than in the states.
- People eat a big lunch, it being the real big meal, and then usually eat 'Abendbrot' (eveningbread) where they just have rolls and other bread where you take a slice and put on some cheese and meat and eat it. Big full time jobs often give big long lunch breaks so people can go home or go out to eat and have a good big lunch.

Spiritual stuff! I want to share with you an experience that I had with an investigator the other day. :)

Had an awesome appointment the other day! We are meeting with an older gentleman who is a strong Christian (Catholic) who has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now. (1-2 years) He has a strong testimony of Christ and a good knowledge of the scriptures and the Catholic Church. He is very kind and admirably humble. He even says that he probably would have already joined our chruch if it weren't for his strong Catholic roots. Awesome guy. In any case, we had a great joint teach (Br. Glück) who was really open and friendly with him, helped us review the Restoration of the Gospel with us really powerfully and got him thinking, asking him to think about what questions he has in life that we could discuss. We then visited him during the week shortly, shared Amos 3:7 with him "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." and emphasized how the scriptures (the words of God through the Prophets) can truly help him with his questions and concerns. He seemed to really feel the idea and said he would think about his questions. When we met with him yesterday we were really able to talk to him, he opened up and told us about how he has been having troubles since his wife died 15 years ago and doesn't feel like he is getting answers to what he is praying about. Expressed a fear that he had done something horribly wrong, or is doing something horribly wrong for which God is punishing him, or something like that. We were able to tell him very powerfully about how God loves him and cares about him and wants to help him. We promised him that God is listening (he didn't really doubt that God listened, just felt like God wasn't really doing anything about his prayers) and we were able to just perfectly share Alma 7:11-13 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/7?lang=eng) and  Matthew 7:7-11 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/7?lang=eng)

. We told him that Christ wants to help him and is answering his prayers, even if he doesn't see how they are being answered. He looked like he was getting choked up here and there and bore huge grattitude for what we had shared. He said we were freeing him of a burden he had been carrying for 15 years and that he had hope again. It was wonderful and I felt the Spirit very strongly. Even got choked up a bit as I was reading those scriptures to him and testifying to him. :P He also then told me that I was going to make a great therapist one day. :P That was fun. In any case, it was a wonderful appointment. Hope you enjoyed the story. :)

I want to bear testimony that following in the footsteps in Christ, partaking of this wonderful Truth and Joy of the Gospel, and then even more so, the abolute Joy of partaking of it with others is the most wonderful feeling I have ever felt. I have a testimony that it is the most wonderful feeling a man can have. (1 Ne. 8:12/1 Ne. 11:22) (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/8?lang=eng - http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/11?lang=eng) God loves you so much. He listens to you. I testify of these things in the name of the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, amen. :)

Go have an awesome week! Don't forget to smile. :)

- Elder Michael Bright Miles