June 25, 2012

June 25, 2012

Dear you,

                Sorry about the technical difficulties that you faced last week. Man, it is ridiculous that Taylor and Jordan are already home. The time goes by so fast, especially this last week. I feel like last Monday was like yesterday. Anyways, this last week was really good.... but I can`t remember why.... hahaha jk just let me tell you about it.

                Well as I mentioned once upon a time like 6 or 7 months ago, our mission had the goal of 300 baptisms this year, and to be honest, we are a little bit behind. Okay, really behind :(  we have 60 baptisms right now. But we are on the brink of the miracles. Elder Sanderson and I met with the district leaders, and we have set a goal for 30 baptisms in our zone by the end of the next transfer, August 26. We have full faith that we will reach this goal. But it is not about the numbers, it is about the people, the souls that need to be saved. There are so many people here who need the gospel, and we need to work with a little more urgency, and a lot more desire! So please pray for us. We need the prayers, and we need the help of angels! Anyways, if you are asking what in the world that has to do with this week, we were busy this week visiting other district meetings and discussing this with them.

                Also we are still meeting with I_______. She is doing great. She works in a hotel so she has to work on Sundays, but she is changing jobs and she has already told her boss that she wants Sunday to be her day off. She is really awesome, and we are way pumped for her baptism in 3 weeks! Also her cousin A___, came to church this week, and really loved it. Hopefully we will be able to continue to meet with her, and then she will be baptized as well! Man, I am sorry, but I really can not remember what else we did. I am sorry :( but it was a great week!

                I will try to remember some good stories for next week. I hope that you have a great week :) I Love YOU

Liebe

Elder Terry

June 18, 2012

            Anyways, this week was interesting. We had a lot of fallen out appointments, which has been a humbling experience for us, well more exactly, for me. But it has helped remind me that regardless of how much experience I gain or how much knowledge I have, I don`t know everything. This is the Lord`s work, and He knows how he wants it to be done. If He decides that we need to be on streets or knocking doors instead of meeting with people, that I have no right to complain. Luckily we were able to meet twice this week with I_________. She is making TONS of progress. She says she has read all of 1st and 2nd Nephi, which is way awesome, and we had a joint teach with the bishop, which was also really great because he speaks Spanish. So she is doing really great.

            Anyways, today we went into the mountains to visit Sonam, our old investigator who was transferred away. It was really cool to see him, and we went on a cool hike that was really beautiful. Switzerland is such an awesome country. I will include some pictures. Oh and while we are talking about pictures, I had an accident while I was cutting my hair, so now I have really, really short hair. It is kinda funny because I haven`t had such short hair since I was 10 when dad used to buzz my head. But I am enjoying it :)   

            Well I hope that you have another great week, and don`t forget that I love you!

Liebe

Elder Terry

Elder Terry with his hair

Elder Terry on his hike with Sonam

Elder Terry with no hair :(

June 11, 2012

Dear Mommy,

                It is good to know that you made it safely up to Snowbird. That road is super scary for Utah standards ( it has NOTHING on roads in Europe) so its good to know that you survived. I hope you guys have a lot of fun up there.
                Anyways this week has really been a week of pure awesomeness. So last week we had 8 baptismal dates, and this as of today we have 21 baptismal dates, which is a pretty solid jump! We are super pumped. But first let me tell you about what happened.

                So as we were planning for this last week Elder Sanderson and I both felt like we needed to just invite all of our investigators to be baptized, and not just that, but that we needed to really make that a focus for our teaching. Then on Tuesday we had an austausch with the Elders in Biel, and Elder Schulzke and I worked here in Bern, and Elder Sanderson worked with Elder McKee in Biel. All of our appointments fell out except for one, with a lady named A_____ from the Dominican Republic. We taught about the Restoration and then we invited her to be baptized, and she said yes. Meanwhile Elder Sanderson and Elder McKee invited someone to be baptized who said yes as well, and it just continued for the entire week. We now have 6 people who have committed to be baptized on a specific date. So we are super excited. It is truly amazing how the Lord has blessed us. On Friday and Saturday of this week we went to Munich for zone leader council, and that was really good. I learned a lot. 

                Unfortunately yesterday there was a woman’s running race ( probably for breast cancer awareness or something) and it disrupted the buses and trams that go to the church, and we forgot about it until we got to the bus stop. So some of our investigators got lost, and some just gave up and went home, which was our fault since we forgot to tell them about it, but it’s all good. We did have a really great lesson with a lady named I________ after church. She is the cousin from A____, and we found them on the streets last week, and yesterday we watched the restoration with her, and she is just very receptive to the spirit, and is SUPER excited to be baptized in July. It will be awesome. Anyways, other cool things, we were walking on the streets a few weeks ago and a lady yelled "hey elders!" and started to talk to us. She is from Jamaica, and went to church with her grandma when she was little. We finally had an appointment with her yesterday, and it went really well. 

                Anyways, all I can say is thanks for all of your faith and prayers. You are the best! The church is most definitely true.  And Switzerland is the best!  LOVE YOU

Liebe

Elder Terry 

The Standard of Truth

Dear Mom, (and those whose who get this letter forwarded to them. Most of you probably just glance over this to make sure that I am still alive, but that is okay, I still love you all :) )

                Well this week was stupendously superb. As with all successful missionary weeks, it all starts with church. 

                So this week we pretty much just invited everyone we knew to meet with us at Bern Bahnhof at 8:30 so that we could go to church together. But due to adverse conditions which will be described later, we had some "technical difficulties". Regardless we were SUPER excited to bring 4 people with us to church. Now that might not seem like a lot, but I am pretty sure it is like the record for the past 10 years here in Bern. Sad I know, but let’s focus on the positives here. So let me explain the people who came.

                First we have I________. She is from the Dominican Republic, and Elder Sonne and I (austausch) talked to her and her cousin on Tuesday on the street. She flipped out when we told her that we would give her a Book of Mormon in Spanish. Then on Thursday Elder Schiling and I (another austausch) met with her, and man she is really ready. She told us about some crazy experiences and trials in her life, but she has a lot of faith and is really sensitive for the spirit. She came to church and one of the members is from Ecudaor and he bore his testimony in Spanish, and man the spirit was strong. It was cool. 

  Second is S________. He is from Eretria, so he speaks Tiagranish, but luckily he speaks really good English as well. He is married and has a 1 year old daughter. He is cool but has some difficulties with baptism. Mainly he doesn`t believe that priesthood is necessary and that baptism should be done when we are babies. Funny side note, when he said that I asked him why Jesus was baptized when he was 30, and his answer was because Adam was 30 when he was cast out of the garten (Garden). Hahaha he definitely won creativity points, but not so doctrinally base. But he really enjoyed church as well.

                Then we had H______. He is also from Eretria, but speaks a little German, and not so much English. He came to church, but had a harder time understanding.

                Last but not least, we had K_______. He is from Sri Lanka, speaks Tamil, and English. And is friends with H_______. (We asked them how they communicate, and they said English/German mix. Hahaha just goes to show that friendships are more then words). He also had a harder time understanding at church. But hopefully they will come again next week :)

                Now about the technical difficulties. So last Sunday Elder Sanderson left his cell phone in a street car, and we were really hoping that it would turn up, but no luck. So Thursday we called the office so that they could turn off the service to the phone, and guess what? They turned off the service to the wrong phone. So on Friday we woke up and had transfer calls (we are both staying here for at least one more transfer by the way) and then at 10 o’clock am our phone stopped working. So we went to the church to use the phone there, and got a hold of the senior missionary couple responsible for the institute center in Bern, and they had a pre paid phone that they let us borrow. But until Wednesday we will have to use this prepaid phone, and it is super funny because we don`t want to use up the minutes so we call people and hang up before they can answer and hope that they call us back, because then it doesn`t charge us anything. Funny huh? But so far it has worked.

                Anyways, that was our week. Oh and on Thursday we had zone conference. That was stressful, but it worked out okay. Anyways, we had a great week, and I hope that you have a great week with your only child Sidney this week :)  The church is true, and the work here is about to EXPLODE!

Liebe

Elder Terry