November 7, 2024: I tried to write it down but I could never find the pen

 Guten morgen!

This week hasn't been super eventful, but it's been good! The weather has been getting colder and colder recently, and that makes finding in public a little harder. When we have extended periods of time outside we usually go in a McDonald's and grab a nice warm fry for a couple minutes, and then go out all warmed up. 

We had an exchange this week and I went to Friedrichsdorf, where the Temple is. Its always nice to see it! We found some cool people and I got to pull out some Persian on a bunch of people so that's fun. 

Some of our friends got sick and we had the opportunity to give them priesthood blessings. That was a cool experience! I've had the opportunity to give a few members blessings but haven't till now to friends.

Had a little miracle yesterday. We texted an inactive member named Claristo who we wanted to visit but we'd never met before. He said "we will see if I have time" which as a missionary 99% of the time is just a "no". We were contacting in public for about 30 minutes at the train station, where we saw two dripped out young people probably from Africa, so we knew we had to talk to them. We asked them if they want to come to church and they said "no, but our friend over there probably would" pointing at a dude in the distance. We said "sure, why not" and went over to him. We invited him to church and he said "Are you the Elders in Gießen?" We replied "yes" and he was like "I'm Claristo I just wrote you this morning".  By some course of events we just bumped into him! We had a small conversation and then said bye. After another 10 minutes we get on a bus and then he proceeds to get on with us. We then both get out at the same stop, and walk the same direction for 10 minutes. He lives like right next to us as well! We has an awesome conversation and now he knows we're cool and sent us a text later saying he'd love to see us again and wants to come back to church. How awesome is that?

Transfer week is next week! Elder Oswald and I are both hoping to stay in Gießen but we will see. There's going to be a lot of change, and within the next 2 transfers there will be about 36 new missionaries, which is the most newbies we've ever had. Exciting stuff! We get news on Saturday.

Mormon 9:6

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."

This scripture brought me comfort the other day, to know that our efforts are never in vain. We talk to hundreds of people almost every day and it's easy to get lost in the rejection (most of the Germans arent always our #1 fans). I know that God sees our efforts, and despite the reaction of the world, he will bless each of us when we chose to use our agency righteously.

Hasta luego!

Elder Tage Rex