April 11, 2023: It just gets brighter

 From now on

Pretty wild week this week. I feel like I haven't been able to say that in a while. It can only be described by one word: "squingy"

We had an apartment inspection on Friday! We passed, I think. It wasn't made very clear but we didn't get kicked out so I think we are doing well enough. 

The Church hadn't been cleaned yet and there were 4 baptisms planned on Saturday (2 from missionaries), so we took it upon ourselves as a district to clean the entire building, just the 6 of us. We spent most of the evening doing that, and we almost finished. Elder Evans and I, along with our branch president finished it up early Saturday morning. It was pretty fun to have a district cleaning party though!

We had general conference last weekend!! It was wonderful. I learned about a lot of things I need to work on, and it was just nice to take a break from the grind and listen to the prophets and apostles speak, and feel the spirit that comes with that. We even had a little district watch party!

We got transfer news on Tuesday, and our whole district is staying, except for Sister Connell. I was however released as District leader, and Elder Larsen will now have the opportunity to lead. It's his last transfer and he hasn't had the opportunity to be in leadership yet so I'm really happy he gets that chance! It'll also be a little stress of my shoulders :)

We did exchanges with the American Elders this week as well! Elder Larsen and I bought "foot masks" we found. We put them on and after the prescribed 20 minutes of wearing these plastic foot coverings that were slimy on the inside, we realized that it was just lotion in a foot shaped bag. It was hilarious.

We had a crazy experience on Wednesday that I cannot explain without saying that God is real and faith is powerful. And I love my companion :). We were stranded in a little village with nothing to do except knock doors, so we did just that. The population of this town is about 50/50 American-German. We probably knocked at least 40 doors, and maybe about 3 of those who were American were positive interactions. We were getting a lot of rejection. It was some of the hardest finding I've had to do so far. We even found a dude listening to Radiohead (I'm a big Radiohead fan so I was very excited) who blew us off before we could even say a word. At the end, we knocked a certain house. We said that we are missionaries who share a message about Jesus Christ's restored gospel, and the man answering the door said "no thanks, I got out of that cult a long time ago". I asked him what he meant by that and he explained that he grew up christian, but decided that all religion is just a cult and explained how he actively tells people on the edge to avoid religion and make a more logical and thoughtful decision for their life. He said many other passive aggressive things, and then as we were leaving he said "I'm sorry for you guys, I know you're just born into it and it's hard to pull yourself away and break free" as he closed the door. Everything he said cut from the inside out, and we were just angry after that interaction, more than I've ever been from a contact before. I clenched my fists, walked down the road thinking of all the things i wanted to testify about and tell the man, but it was too late. I decided that I was done knocking doors, and though our bus doesn't come for 30 minutes we were going to walk there and wait, because it was all just too much. I was out of faith. 

But, my companion wasn't. I start walking away as I see him turn to a nearby house and walk up the driveway. I thought to myself "what are you doing! We're done! Why are you still going?" And then he pressed the doorbell. Grudgingly I caught up to him so he wasn't alone, and an American lady opens the door. We told her the same thing we told everyone, there was nothing special about the contact, but to my amazement she said she had interest. We set an appointment right there for Friday evening, and we left. All she knows is that two young dudes showed up, and asked if she wanted to learn about Jesus Christ. We don't even know her name. We walked down the street, flabbergasted, that right after this terrible interaction with this man, the very next door had someone who said yes. All because my Companion had enough faith to not throw in the towel. We said a prayer of thanks for the interaction and went on our way. I later found out that she had a dinosoar decoration in her yard and that's what impressed my companion to try the door 

That was a truly humbling experience. It reminded me of a scripture from the Book of Mormon in Alma 26:27:

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

I can testify that as we bear with our afflictions, the Lord will show his hand when we least expect it. My companion somehow understood that despite anything else that happened that day. And for that I am thankful.

Bis zum nächsten Mal!

Elder Tage Rex

Pics:

My comp with a cat we found while dooring

"Foot masks"

The cat again (but I'm in it)

More pictures next week I promise :)