Man, Mom, I am so happy right now reading everything that's going on, everything that's changed.
Daniel:
Danimal. Bro, I am SO proud of you getting a 4.0 for your freshman year. That's major. That's definitely a biggie. :) Plus I totally know what you're talking about with the Vell-os and the Javelin. I don't know how you did that, but it's sweet. I was more of a Polaris guy myself, but they both have the flower/laser thing, haha. That's great that you gave your trail leader a Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon answers the questions, fills the holes of the soul, and changes lives 360°. That's also a biggie. I love SoCal and Provo too, especially after spending a cray-cray summer there with Kira, and going to college. Something I've been thinking a lot about recently that you would probably understand has to do with a talk from Elder Christofferson, called Reflections on a Consecrated Life. You can google it :). I was trying to figure out what things I actually do enjoy more that video games, because they really are fun, but after wards it doesn't change me. I feel like the desire is like a bug, disease or sickness that keeps coming back, like those bugs from Twilight Princess, and once you get rid of them you get something really good instead. It's like John Bytheway's talk too, What's in your Pack. I figured out that I really love music, specifically piano and ukulele (I got an ukulele here, bytheway, I'm learning the primary songs on it and some days were just going to go play in parks as a creative way to contact people about the church), and I really like swimming and playing soccer, and doing creative stuff with friends and family. If I spend all that time I would playing video games on playing soccer, or piano, I would get way, way good. I love you so much Bro, and I'm am so happy to hear awesome stuff going on this summer. How do you like the vibrams? I want pictures of everybody together who has them! Oh, and the Iron Man??? That's so cool that you won! Did you know Garrett did that too? I went to a different camp where I got an award like that, but it was for blackpowder rifles, and the Nephi award at Camp Cole. About the Ross: I would be so happy if they got a Ross in Crescent City, especially instead of Ray's because I feel like we never really use Ray's except for that one time my kindergarten class went into their huge freezer room in the back. It's kind of like Grocery Outlet, except Grocery Outlet has a rainbow... and it's good for kids who just want to get something really cheap, so it's good. I guess. I'm really excited to see how tall you are when I get back, but right now, there's some important stuff going down. In Germany. In the world. I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you this, but it didn't seem like a secret. All the missionaries here were asked to get all the
Chinese members together and have them join this group on facebook. I don't know if that means this is a support group to help explain diety to those who didn't group up with the concept, or if there's something actually being organized to bring the gospel into China. I don't know what the number is nowadays since I left, but I've kind of had this feeling that once the church hits 100,000 missionaries, that will show the Lord that we want to get His message to all the four corners of the earth, including China. Anyway, you just keep praying for "those who know not God" and that the Lord will "pour out His spirit upon this people". Something that's really helped me from Preach My Gospel is Chapter 11, which I somehow feel like I'd never read before, but is supoer supoer helpful, like exactly what I needed, and also a quote from President Hinckley “Every morning … , missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those they will be teaching. If they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit.” I love PMG. I try to read something in it everyday, basically like it's part of the scriptures. It might as well be because it explains everything so simple and clear. Well, this is getting pretty long. I'd better say something still to Mom. Elder out. P.S. a reminder: Character of Christ. Elder Bednar. You can google that too. :) Love, Elder Standring.
Kira:
Kiwi I love you so much, happy belated birthday. I hope you liked the scarves and all the little goodies. Tell Dad I'll be sending off a package next week for him and Garrett. Plus I hope you like the box, it had a tiger-duck on it. Did you see. I want to to google something, and then look up a scripture. Here you go.
google this exactly. copy and paste.
Ohne dich ist alles doof
okay, you can show daniel that too :)
scripture: Luke 12:7
I love you more than bunnies and sparrows,
Elder Standring
Dear beloved Mother:
Mommy, I have a story for you. It's about inviting the missionaries over.
Yesterday, we had a member appointment where the members fed us. That doesn't only happen once a week, so don't fret yourself :) . We were getting to the appointment very late because we were contacting a potential investigator just before that and we just remembered that we needed to get a joint teach to come with us because the potential was a women. (I don't know if we have the "grandma rule" here) So we were just coming in to the member's house after that and the sister missionaries had already eaten with the family, so we sat down with our join-teacher, Bezmir, to eat what they had saved for us. The sisters were just talking to the family and they were going to share a spiritual thought once we were done. It turns out that the family are traveling next week to visit the wife's family next week and her non-member sister was there too to be traveling with them. She'd been talking with the sister missionaries while we ate and when we were done, the sisters shared a short spiritual message, and afterward the sister's wife said "I don't know what this is, but I feel so happy right now, this is kind of weird and I don't know why I'm telling you all, but it makes me so happy to see you young people like this, talking to people about Christ all day." We hadn't been expecting this at all, but it developed into a full-blown hour-long lesson with four missionaries, the husband and the wife, and one more member-friend, and we all bore testimony to the wife's sister about the simple truths of the principles of the gospel. The wife was crying because her sister had never opened up to anybody outside of family, and she'd never seen her like this before, and she knew it was the spirit that was opening her sister's heart.
I've promised myself that I will invite the missionaries into my home often when I have a family, so that my children and my friends can all feel that spirit. That would be worth buying a few extra groceries and making things nice for guests.
I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to share this week, I forgot my card reader in the apartment. We might likely be getting a new carpet soo though. When the senior missionary couple came to do our cleaning check, the husband said it looked like someone had taken a motorcycle in there and changed the oil. I'd noticed that particular spot, but either it didn't seem that bad to me, or I've never seen a motorcycle's oil changed. haha
The Golden&Trainer Meeting is tomorrow in Frankfurt, so Elder Hawker and I will be traveling down there in an ICE train for two hours, and that will take up most of our day. We're also going to be getting a new Ward Mission Leader, but we haven't found out who yet. The old one got released yesterday and he's having us over for taco salad sometime this week. Maybe it's like a going away present.
I love you so much mom,
thank you for praying for me, and I hope you know that I always pray for you, and the family, every night.
In order to have faith you have to have hope, so have a lot of it.
~Elder Standring
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