Week 7- Danglish

Hey so since I can call home and talk w/ my parents and stuff I probably won't do a weekly email but just send these kind of emails when I feel inspired to share, that way I don't end up in your spam folder when I have nothing cool to share and that way you don't feel bad when you don't read my emails ;) ANYWAY I love mannheim!! It's what the germans call multikulti (multi cultural) which is the nice way of saying theres tons of immigrants. There's this section of the innenstadt that my comp told me is nicknamed turktown cause all the signs are in Turkish and some places there they won't speak German only Turkish, but boy have we found some good dönner so far. We can't really do a ton of proselyting with them cause they don't speak German and we don't speak Turkish, plus I've come to find while muslims are some of the nicest people here they also have no interest in us besides telling us how we need to read the Quran then we'd know our book is not right, but like in a nice way.

All the germans just won't talk to us. My comp and I can teach with power and with the holy ghost its just we can't teach cause we can't get in the door. We go tür zu tür (door to door) sometimes but a lot of it ends up with they see our name tags  and say keine intresse (no thank you) and shut the door. Good thing I got used to rejection in high school-haha or this work would be harder. I want to be more bold and just when someone opens a door just be like "do you know that God loves you" or "who is God to you personally" but I dunno its hard but I think I will try it. 

My trainer is a stud like man I'm so glad he's my trainer he is so chill and fun he feels like an older brother and a best friend. We have the raddest gospel discussions and he has so much faith in me its amazing. The very first day he said alright I'm gonna talk to this person here you go talk to that person there and see if you can talk about the gospel. Split contacting is super scary but also cool. He believes I can do or understand even when I don't think I can. 

OKAY Super dope story time (tbh u don't wanna miss this one) 

Early in the day the other day during studies my comp and I were super excited for the day, we pretty much didn't have anything but finding and we had a few inactive members we were gonna go visit. I looked at elder frost and said do you have faith, he responded of course, do you? And I replied yes. Then I said we will see a miracle today. I grabbed three books of mormon, one English one Arabic one German, and headed out the door with him. We did street contacting with no real luck besides handing out my English and Arabic book of mormon (not the German one of course lmao). No one wanted to talk sadly. We decided to visit some of the inactives on the list and no one was home or this family looked at us before we could get a word out said keine intresse and told us to leave. We decided to switch it up and go tür zu tür and got nothing but slammed doors and get outs. We went back to street contacting and we got some cool conversations but none that led to anything. It was getting late and my comp and I were gonna head home and just call it a night. Elder frost looked at me and told me theres still one more name on the list. His name was asamoah kwayie. He was a 20 minute bahn ride out and tbh I just wanted to get home sleep and forget about our wasted day. Elder Frost looked at me and said let's try and talk to him. So we get on the straßenbahn and ride the 20 minutes and walk to the address. The front was under construction so we huddled down a covered passageway until we found the entrance. Elder frost hit the klingel and through the intercom thing the man said in a thick accent who is that who is there, elder frost responded we are rhe missionaries we want to talk to you and check up on you. He said I don't have time sorry. Elder frost gave me the look that said I didn't just ride 20 minutes on a crowded train to get told no. So he said we have a present for you from the bishop. Asamoah said okay fine come up. We got up to his room and we were greeted by a shorter round Ghanaian who smiled and said hello missionaries come in come in sit down. So we did and he was super nice with us. We asked why he hadn't been at church and that we missed him. He looked a little sad. He said he hasn't been to church in a long long time, he had been with the jehovahs witnesses. We asked him what questions he had that made him leave the church. He said well the jehovahs witnesses talked to me one day and told me to go to their church so I did and it was nice they are really convinced they're right. With amazing foresight elder frost asked him with a tone of love in his voice, "what to you think about Joseph smith" immediately the countenance of this man changed. His happy smiley facade was replaced with a serious concerned look. He said I know that Joseph Smith had to be a prophet. Because how could he translate rhe word of God if he wasn't. This really surprised us. He stood up and got down off the shelf next to all his marked bibles a little copy of the book of mormon, with a little dust but he held it with reverence. I still have this book you know, this book from Joseph Smith. Elder frost and I started to teach and testify of Joseph Smith and the book of mormon. The spirit was so strong. I bore witness of the book of mormon and the divinity of the church of jesus christ. Elder frost did likewise. This happy ghanaian man smiled once more, and in his raspy voice he said you know I wasnt going to let you in, but then I felt something telling me to let you in, now I know it was God sending me his messengers. We set up another meeting for Sunday and he said we could teach his two kids as well. We thanked him and left. I felt the spirit tell me almost as if it was a voice, "that was the miracle, to him you were a miracle" 

I know with all my heart that this Gospel is true. I know that Joseph Smith really did see God the father and Jesus christ. I know the book of mormon is the word of God, but most importantly I know my savior can take away all my shortcomings regrets and mistakes. He loves us and he cares about us. You are loved beyond belief. You are important beyond comprehension. The most important man to walk the earth spilled drops of his precious blood so that you wouldn't have to face this life alone. Don't worry, he is there. 1 nephi 11:17 "and I said unto him: I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things" he loves you and cares for you. We wont know everything but if we know that we have enough to take the next step. God strengthen and support you

Give my love to all

Elder Miner

Week 6- Sieg Für Heimat

So I flew to Germany this week and am in my first area. This city called Mannheim. The place is super beautiful yall should look up pictures. The work here is kinda dead but we got some new referalls so we are hoping things will pick up. Everyone here is really busy so it's hard to talk to people. 

I love my trainer Elder Frost. He is 6'8" so he's a foot taller than me that's kinda crazy. Some girl looked at him yesterday and said to me that she felt like a dwarf, I surprisingly knew the word for dwarf in German. There is this sweet Portuguese less active family we visited, the mom knows hardly any German so it is hard but I bore my testimony in Portuguese and they both seemed really happy, the two kids are 2 and 4 I love them we hope they get more active. 

We did a lot of street contacting and found some people so that's nice. The work here is dope and I can't wait to see if we can get some appointments.  Elder Frost is convinced we can  have some baptisms in the next two transfers so that's exciting. 

The food here is rad, you can eat a lot cause we walk everywhere and it's actually a legit workout. Currywurst is good and so is pide. If yall have questions email me, my pday is Thursday here.

Give my love to All,

Elder miner 

Cousins😊

New Missionaries in Frankfurt

President and Sister Boyer and Elder Miner

New Missionaries

New companionship- Elder Frost and Elder Miner

On their way to Mannhiem 

Castle

Week 5- Last time I'll be in the US for two years

I leave for germany on monday.

That is crazy just to even type.

My german is going so so so so well, I can understand almost all conversations.

Im "teaching" a person named Ahmed who is muslim rn and tbh it is really fun but really hard, there are a lot of basic similarities but a lot of differences.

I get to skype germans now and teach germans in germany. That is pretty rad. 

This week has really been picking up. We are supposed to only speak in german now in classes, we cant even ask how do you say this, you have to just look it up. Really fun, but a struggle when talking about more complicated gospel stuff.

This week has definitely had its challenges, I really just cant wait to get into the field and start teaching.

My mission president sent me an email telling me that on the first day I get to germany we are going to do street contacting (where we talk to people on the street about the gospel) I am a little scared because I feel like my german will not be good enough for that. But the Gift of Tongues is real!! I know that I can have faith then all will be okay. I just need to trust in him. 

Story time (skip if ur in a rush)

SO my companion had a teaching lesson thing at 5 with one of our teachers and we looked at our time after class and it was 4:35 and we realized we needed to eat dinner, check the mail, get mail, and get back to our class room in 25 minutes. So probably in the quickest walking pace of my life we bolted to the other side of the mtc, ate dinner, went to the mail room, got mail slips, then picked up mail, then went all the way back to T-4 (our class building) and then to the fourth floor and made it there exactly at 5. Oh by the way this was all through snow. Crazy weather recently. itll flurry a little, then Hammer us with snow, then clear up and the snow melts, then hammer some more, then melt, all in one day. Kinda insane.

My spiritual thought for the week isnt a scripture but the words to the first verse of one of my fav hymns, Lead Kindly Light.

 " Lead, kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom;

Lead thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home;

Lead thou me on!

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene--one step enough for me."

To be honest, Sometimes our lives feel like theyre pretty dark or dreary, and we can even feel like we're encircled about by gloom. And i really relate to the far from home part. But we are all far from home, far from heaven and from the presence of God. In our mortal condition we are all subject to the darkness of this telestial night. Yet the next line, keep thou my feet. Christ will guide our feet and our paths. I do not ask to see the distant scene-- one step enough for me. IF we ask, THEN christ will give us our next step. We cant expect to see the whole picture, but he will give us the next step. as my german teacher says "Schritt für Schritt." If your path feels dark, if you feel as though you are lost and far from home, turn to Christ, He will lead you on. He will give you your next step. He will carry you home. I love you all. I love my savior Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon and the prophet on the earth Russel M. Nelson. May God illuminate your path and may you find your way home.

Give my love to all,

Elder Miner