"I Didn't Know You Were Going to be Talking about God"

(Editor's note--I felt bad recently that I was so hard on Chase and told him about it)

Mom... You don´t need to apologize. You are the perfect mom for me. God sent me to be with you and dad, because he knew that no one else in the WORLD would be able to give birth to me, raise me, teach me, feed me, and love me like you did. Mom, you are awesome! I was in an interview with bishop before I left and he told me he didn´t think there were other parents in the ward who cared more for their children than you and dad. That´s not a lie! You are awesome, you´ve always been awesome! All of those rules prepared me to serve a mission here, in one of the most obedient missions in the church! That´s what Elder Kearen told us. Not everyone can serve here in the Berlin Mission! It´s tough! But I love it :) You taught me how to work hard, how to keep the rules, how to cook(and my companions have been very grateful for that) and so many other amazing things. Don´t think you need to ever apologize to me. You prepared me for my calling now. You prepared me to be a servant, and a tool in the hands of the Lord, and I am so thankful!

I love you mom. You´re the best.

So, this week was a lot of fun! We had an exchange, and I got to go work in Meissen for a day, the prettiest city on the Elbe. Seriously though, it it so gorgeous there! They have the oldest castle in Germany there, built around 905, and the Elbe river runs right through the city. I went with Elder Drazin, from Orem, Utah. He´s a fun guy, I really like him. He actually really reminds me of John. He looks very similar, is super athletic, and just a great person. We also found out that you can´t delete the photo booth app on our iPad, so... we had a little too much fun on the trains and in our free time. Haha, yea...

Other than that though, this week was pretty normal. We had a lesson with Y****, he´s doing alright, but he told us that he´s pretty sure there´s no God, and he won´t pray or read to find out. It´s really frustrating sometimes. I have this amazing thing here, that can bless this man´s life so much, and he is actively choosing not to have it. Man, super frustrating, but it helps me to understand more about how heavenly father feels about me when he gives me something that he knows will bless my life, like a commandment, and I go against it. Missions are great learning experiences.

We did, however, have one fun experience. We received a referral from Elders in a different city. They had spoken with a man who lives in Oederan, a little village about 15 minutes from Freiberg. They set up an appointment for us, and told us to go and teach this man. Well, we got to Oederan, and we found the street. Easy enough right? WRONG! There were two streets with the same name. In the same city. So we asked about 23 people where this place was, and eventually we found it. We knocked on the door, and a very nice man invited us in. He introduced us to his son and wife, and then took us downstairs to see his "hobby." Honestly, at this point I was a little worried what his "hobby" might be, but I didn´t feel a warning from the spirit, so we went down to see. This man a giant room filled with model trains! It was really cool! He told us all about how he´d spent the last 40 years or so collecting them, and how he just loved the trains. It was really cool to see. Then we went upstairs and they asked us about our message. As soon as we started talking, the son just went off on us! He was telling us all about how religion is just there to suppress free will and take money, and how there´s no God, because a loving God wouldn´t allow all the bad things in the world to happen. They did not want to here anything that we had to say. Finally I just asked them why they invited the missionaries to come, and the man said "Well, I didn´t know you were going to be talking about God, or religion." We left, and then called the elders who gave us the referral, and asked them what they talked about with him. Of course, they asked him about his relationship with God, and If they could come by another time and talk about Jesus Christ. Yea... Really this experience was pretty funny. I felt Kind of like Alma the Younger, when Korihor is going off on him. 

We also made brownies this week, and they´re delicious,

Love you! 

P.S. German companion is good for my German, but bad because... well... He´s German, jk